Alexx

I cannot comment on hotels, but from hanging out last night (well, evening, before the curfew started), I got the impression that the number of people that are out and about is much lower than usual. I went to a place in the Lower Sukhumvit area that usually gets very crowded on a Saturday night, and I saw fewer people there than even on a typical weekday night. Also, the BTS felt much less crowded when heading back home. All things considered, it looks like overall tourist numbers aren't down by a lot (from what I've read, by 10% to 20% here in Bangkok), but maybe those who do visit now focus more on daytime activities like shopping and sightseeing, so hotels might not suffer as much as restaurants and bars.

You're making an excellent point there, and you should consider yourself blessed for thinking that through before your trip. I was faced with the same dilemma when I came to Bangkok the first time - the more guys I chatted with, the more I wanted to meet. With so many enthusiastic and hot candidates, it was anything but easy to make a choice. In all honesty, I screwed it up, I met my "Number One" candidate on my first day and spent the entire time with him. While it felt great at the time, it would have been better to meet several of them to be able to compare and put things into perspective. I missed that chance and had to make up for that later.

Not knowing the deceased personally, I think I'm getting a good picture, thanks to ALL (!) the replies here, and therefor I think it's good that both his friends and his foes are given the opportunity to comment on his passing. Hopefully, that will then be it, may he rest in peace and the others move on. He was apparently a controversial figure and made both friends and enemies with passion. That's not unusual with passionate people, I might add.

Just for completeness' sake, let's add that the other two places besides Pattaya where the curfew has been lifted are Phuket and Koh Samui. No change anywhere else in Thailand yet, curfew still between midnight and 4am.

That's certainly true, and judging by your history, they can count on you! And we can look forward to your reports, hopefully you'll have a great trip again.

I didn't have a tour guide and I needed 3 visits to finally get to see the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and some other important sights. With a tour guide I'd probably have focused more on sight-seeing, most first-time visitors probably get to see a lot in just a couple of days. Just if it was a bad thing that I didn't, I'm not sure. All these landmarks were still there when I came for my third visit.

Finally lifting the curfew in Pattaya makes sense.

As with any other complex case similar to Snowden's, it will be history that will ultimately judge him, not us contemporaries or a court of law. It's impossible to judge Snowden without knowing just how good or bad the NSA really is. As of now, I'm pretty open-minded as far as that's concerned. They might be a criminal outfit that uses the terrorist hunt as window dressing for any other agenda they're actually pursuing. Or they might be the good guys that attempt to protect America and need to be intrusive to a certain point in order to be successful. There's also a lot of gray space in between these extremes, they might have good intentions but misguidedly do bad things and so on... Accordingly, that Snowden broke his oath was either justified or not. His personal agenda at this point remains just as murky - because like Bob wrote, he went way beyond warning fellow Americans.

Indeed. The 2006 coup was also bloodless, but that cannot be said about some of the confrontations that followed (years later).

I hope he will (be allowed to) run for president.

Maybe that's the idea, a fundraising campaign for their project. Instead of just parting with the money, you get a nice photo in return. That doesn't necessarily sound bad, I think.

Some prefer the diet variety and others the regular/classic one. I think we can all agree that they're all bad for your health, if maybe in different ways.

What I don't get is this: He claims that a malevolent CBP officer can twist your words around ("claims you lied to him") and have you charged with making a false statement, no matter what you say. This far I can follow. But I'm not sure that the conclusion that it's best not to say anything at all is that brilliant. I'm wondering, couldn't a malevolent CBP officer just a easily claim you've said something incriminating when in fact you've remained silent? If he truly is malevolent, why would he stop at twisting your words around if you actually say something. You cannot prove that you've remained silent, so like in the other scenario, it's your word against his.

You probably have a split personality as well, referring to yourself as "pom" and "chan" in the same post.

Just to be clear, as a tourist and with no important things to do, I currently wouldn't travel to Thailand either. I said as much late last year already (limited to Bangkok back then), when the current round of trouble started. Now many would object that a lot of fun could be had during these last few months, and I cannot really argue that point - I'm probably just more risk-averse than they are.

Venezuela, Turkey, Brazil (in no particular order)

Wow, I learn something new every day. There are really people who like Diet Coke. Not that many, apparently, but I'm all for having the choice.

Ah, the good old service charge and tip discussion is back in town. Has anyone of you ever come across a 5% service charge in Thailand? A sports bar on Sukhumvit I visit every now and then is charging that funny percentage, but to the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen it anywhere else (what I mean is, it's usually either 10% or 0%, and then there might be VAT at 7%). That makes it a bit challenging to tip there. I guess I'm more inconsistent a tipper there than anywhere else for that reason. The girls seem to like me though, so I might still be overdoing it.

Yes, to clarify my earlier post, they've already announced that they'll vacate Lumphini Park, but this will happen after tonight's final speech. So I'm not surprised that Michael still saw plenty of protesters there. I didn't go anywhere near during the weekend, but I'll be nearby again tomorrow. http://bangkokpost.com/news/politics/409225/pdrc-ends-lumpini-stronghold

The protesters are currently in the process of moving to the Government House area, it looks like they're vacating Lumphini Park. Peace and quiet might be restored there, let's see.

Just being curious, what insight is that opinion of yours based on? Here is mine, for what it's worth: In all the time I've lived in Thailand, I have yet to see a "good" PM. Good in the sense that they move the country forward and have the people's interests at heart above everything else. Each and every PM I've seen come and go has failed this very simplistic "test of goodness". Of course there's also the question how much power the PM really has. In Yingluck's and Abhisit's case, it seems pretty obvious that they didn't really have any and were just likable poster girls & boys for their respective faction, despite having the title and wearing the fancy uniform. As far as your analysis of the state of democracy (or the lack thereof) in the US is concerned, however, I'm with you.

You can buy traveler's checks in Thailand, so that would work. But I don't think it's cheap, you have to pay a fee to get them issued and probably another fee back in the US to have them deposited into your account. Worth checking out though. Regarding K-Bank's "no" verdict, it can be tricky to communicate it to the bank. She'd need the papers to show it's a case of "salary repatriation" (as I've mentioned before) and that still doesn't guarantee that each and every bank clerk gets it. So she might have to be more persistent and take a Thai friend along who can translate for her (from my own but limited experience, K-Bank's staff speak much less English than Bangkok Bank's staff). If she's got no luck at her local branch, she could try K-Bank's call center, they might be able to assist.

Exactly, there's nothing wrong with an offer of "authentic" Thai food that also shows some effort in the selection of the best quality of ingredients money can buy, a skillful preparation and a nice presentation of the food in a nicely designed restaurant. It's still "authentic" all the same, but without the potential downsides. While most would probably agree that Thai food can be both delicious and healthful, the way it's often prepared and eaten the "authentic" way, with sub-standard oil, heaps of MSG, etc. etc., often casts doubt on the truth of these attributes.

I'm a bit baffled reading some of the comments regarding human trafficking. It's a fact that Thailand has a HUGE human trafficking problem, in various industries ranging from fishing to construction site and factory labor. That also includes the sex industry, certainly, but with a focus on Laotian, Khmer and Burmese girls working in border town brothels (and being sent to the bigger cities all over Thailand), not really Soi Twilight and similar venues catering to Western visitors. Sure, foreign boys from neighboring countries can be found in Soi Twilight as well, but them being there usually isn't the result of human trafficking. Living in Bangkok, I agree that human trafficking is not at all in your face. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, even the English-language media in Thailand run stories about its victims very frequently. That's why I think it's quite reasonable to expect that an educated visitor or expat knows about the problem at large. All that said, I agree with the OP that this kind of spot check looks like a pointless exercise (not surprising, considering it's the incompetent and bloated "Department of Homeland Security" we're talking about!). There's little farang involvement in the worst cases of human trafficking in Thailand, and even when Thai workers are trafficked to work abroad - for example on a farm in the States, there have been various cases that have been tried in US courts - checking OUTbound US travelers doesn't look like an effective measure to me.

I think Thai banks charge 100 baht when using their ATM cards abroad, and the exchange rate might be the usual 2-3% worse. For smallish amounts, that's probably okay, but for larger transfers, I'm using SWIFT (international wire transfers). Assuming that she's got a legit job in Thailand (having a work permit and salary slips to show to the bank), it's no problem whatsoever to transfer parts of her salary back to her home country. For large amounts, that's the cheapest and safest option from my experience.