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The following appears in the BANGKOK POST: _____ Airport Seizure: Never Again "We regret the incident and will not allow it to happen again," the newly elected prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Thai tourism industry representatives. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (BangkokPost.com) - Newly elected Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday he was sorry for the damage done to the country by the week-long occupation of Bangkok's two airports. He spoke just hours before he received a royal proclamation which officially appointed him as the 27th Thai prime minister. The Tourism Council of Thailand said Wednesday that 3 million tourists will skip the country this winter, costing 109 billion baht and thousands of jobs. Council president Kongkrit Hiranyakit directly blamed seizure of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports, which stranded 350,000 foreign tourists in the country. "We regret the incident and will not allow it to happen again," the newly elected prime minister Mr Abhisit told Thai tourism industry representatives on Wednesday. During the airport closures Mr Abhisit stayed silent and did not condemn the action by the People's Alliance for Democracy. One of the PAD leaders is a member of his Democracy party, which now controls a majority in parliament. On Wednesday he defended the military for not intervening to clear the airport because the army had been put in a "difficult position". He did not elaborate. Mr Abhisit personally gave tacit support to the PAD when he showed up at the funeral of a PAD supporter killed during clashes with police outside parliament on Oct 7. He also visited injured PAD protesters. Tourism accounts for an estimated six per cent of the country's gross domestic product, and industry experts have warned that tourist numbers could fall by half next year - roughly seven million visitors - because of the damaging airport closures. "I am fully aware that the tourism sector was hit hard and it had an unreasonable loss of revenue," said Mr Abhisit. But he stopped short of promising government aid. Because of the severe damage to tourism, "Therefore I will create national unity and national reconciliation," he added. Hotel occupancy has already plummeted after tourists cancelled Thai trips, scared off by television images of trapped travellers sleeping on baggage trolleys and PAD guards with wooden stakes stationed at the airports. There was some help for the industry at hand, though. Southeast Asia's leading budget airline said on Tuesday it will give away 100,000 plane tickets as part of a regional marketing campaign to woo tourists to Thailand after that nation's political turmoil. AirAsia said it was working with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to send the message "it is now safe to travel back to the Land of Smiles." The airline said the free tickets would be good for travel to Bangkok from Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China as well as for flights within Thailand. AirAsia was also offering another 400,000 sites to other destinations at its website, including free tickets out of Thailand to nearby tourist centres such as Bali and the airline's home country of Malaysia. Tickets can only be obtained at the AirAsia web site through Friday. They will be good for travel between Jan 6 and next March 31.

That's why they don't have any. They killed them all. Next week they start burning the books.

That's not true at all. Nothing personal, but I really get annoyed when people accuse me of being some sort of a control freak when the only time I ever control anything is when people come here and start posting in violation of the rules or when a thread starts getting out of hand, which as a moderator is exactly what I'm supposed to do. I already posted on this thread that nothing from our end prevents him from posting, did I not? He can post as often as he wishes and he knows it. I made a suggestion. It's his choice whether or not to go by that suggestion. I've never told him he can't post as many times as he wants or set any kind of limitation at all. What I did tell him was that the number of posts was annoying people, and it was. I received numerous complaints about it and I advised him, not demanded, that he cut down on the number of posts, which he did. I think four posts about it would do the trick. It would be enough so that people will know, but not so many that people would have room to complain. If you have a better suggestion, make it. If he prefers to follow your advice, fine with me.

If you send money, then to be certain I would suggest looking at their quote and then finding out how much your recipient actually received. Hopefully, the amounts will be the same.

Wednesday, December 17 OPENING RATES: US Dollar: 34.43 Euro: 48.34 British Pound: 53.605 Australian Dollar: 23.7425 Canadian Dollar: 28.4425 _____ OPENING RATES: US Dollar: 34.32 Euro: 48.265 British Pound: 52.98 Australian Dollar: 23.66 Canadian Dollar: 28.26

If you want a "magic number" then I would suggest four. One announcement on the same day you make your initial announcement on all the web sites. Two reminders along the way. One more announcement about a week before the production.

Videos available at: http://cbs4.com/local/Adam.Walsh.Abduction.2.888349.html _________ Fla. Police Close Books on '81 Walsh Killing AP- HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday. The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children. "Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over." Walsh's wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium. Police named Ottis Toole, saying he was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him to the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and did not note any DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Walsh long contended. "Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect," said Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner, who launched a fresh review of the case after taking over the department last year. "Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect." Toole had twice confessed to killing the child, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam. Wagner acknowledged numerous missteps in the investigation and apologized to the Walshes. "I have no doubt," John Walsh said. "I've never had any doubt." Many names have been mentioned in connection to the case in the years since the killing, including serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but Toole's has persistently nagged detectives. John Walsh has long said he believed the drifter was responsible, saying investigators found at Toole's home in Jacksonville a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing. Toole died in prison of cirrhosis in 1996 at the age of 49. He was serving five life sentences for murders unrelated to Adam's death. The Walshes, who appeared Tuesday flanked by their other children, long ago derided the investigation as botched. Still, John Walsh praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case. "This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest," he said. Adam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. The rest of his body was never found. Authorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole's car — preventing DNA testing — and the car itself. It was a week after the boy's disappearance before the FBI got involved. "So many mistakes were made," John Walsh said in 1997, upon the release of his book "Tears of Rage," which harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department's work on the case. "It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking." For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children hold of the world. Adam's death, and his father's activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department. "In 1981, when a child disappeared, you couldn't enter information about a child into the FBI database. You could enter information about stolen cars, stolen guns but not stolen children," said Ernie Allen, president of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, co-founded by John Walsh. "Those things have all changed." The case also prompted national legislation to create a national database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of "America's Most Wanted," which brought those cases into millions of homes. What it also did, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, is make children and adults alike exponentially more afraid. "He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Moran said.

You also have to factor in the exchange rate Western Union gives on the receiving Thai end. It's usually two to three baht lower than the bank rates.

It's a little more expensive to fly from U-Tapao, but the convenience of it and its proximity to Pattaya makes seeking flights to and from that airport my first choice. When you factor in the inconvenience of getting to either of the Bangkok airports, along with the higher cost if you use taxis rather than a bus, I think it's worth the price. Yes, it's more expensive for flights at U-Tapao, but not that much more. If there is a silver lining on the airport siege cloud, the fact that so many more people are now aware of the existence of U-Tapao might result in a few more airlines deciding to use that facility and more flights to popular destinations.

The following appears in THE NATION: _____ Red Shirts Being Mobilised for Siege By The Nation Published on December 17, 2008 Right from day one, the Democrat-led government faces a major obstacle to running the country, with thousands of pro-Thaksin "red-shirt" protesters being mobilised from 11 provinces in the North. Supporters of Pheu Thai are en route to Bangkok to lay siege to Parliament in a bid to stop the Abhisit government from announcing its policies - the same ordeal that the Somchai government went through with the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in October. Petcharawat Wattapong-sirikul, chairman of the Rak Chiang Mai 51, the red-shirt group that supports ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, decided to send protesters to Bangkok on a daily basis to rally against the Democrats' government. Some reportedly left their homes yesterday to join the rally in Sanam Luang.Meanwhile, the red-shirt group in Ubon Ratchathani has called for an "uprising" of Isaan people against MPs who betrayed Thaksin to rally against the new government. Theerapat Watcharapol, a radio anchorman led 500 protesters to rally on the streets of Ubon yesterday, damning the MPs who defected from Pheu Thai to the Democrats coalition as traitors. They accused the MPs of being selfish and betraying poor people who voted for them. The protesters gathered outside the house of Withoon Nambutr in Muang district and burnt an effigy of the MP. Ubon Ratchathani governor Chuan Sirinanporn urged people not to join Theerapat's movement, saying the country stood to loose if the people were divided. Former government spokesman Nattawut Saikua, a leader of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, said the group would join red shirts across the country to protest against the new government but his group would resort to peaceful and legal ways to do it. "We will not lay siege to Parliament to prevent the House meeting," he said. He defended the red shirts who blocked MPs from leaving Parliament yesterday, and destroyed cars and injured some politicians after voting for the new PM, saying no leaders ordered the mob to behave that way but they were angry. Charan Distaapicha, a leader of the DAAD, said the group would organise rallies at Sanam Luang to protest against the change of government, which he said had been done unfairly with outside influence. The group would pressure the new government to amend the Constitution and take legal action against the PAD for its illegal occupation of Government House and closing the country's two main airports. He said the DAAD would not resort to violence in it protests, claiming violence occurred on Monday because the red-shirts did not have leaders to control them. He believed Prime Minister-elect Abhisit Vejjajiva would not survive the political storm and his government would be short-lived because he faced political pressure from both the PAD and the DAAD. He said the PAD made 13 demands the new government must meet and the DAAD had two. "This will show that the change of political camps will not solve the crisis facing the country," he said.

Not according to their president. They don't have any homosexuals there, remember?

I'll let the posters speak for themselves:

For that you'll need a forklift, six bellboys, and a truss . . .

Within the next few days I'm going to go over to the Ambiance and Le Café Royale and see for myself.

That is true, but a visit to the family doesn't mean you have to suddenly become their benefactor. If you do visit, then you will be expected to cover costs of taking the family to eat or cover whatever you do with them. Sometimes a visit to a boy's home can be the highlight of the trip. Under your circumstances, I would give the boy whatever amount of money you choose (I think 1000 or 2000 baht would be plenty) and ask him to buy some gifts for the family in your behalf. He will know what they would like to have. It may come as a surprise to find out what that might be. One time I visited a family and the gifts the boy wanted to give were laundry detergent and fish sauce! And mama was genuinely happy to get it. I would tell the boy that you are willing to pay for whatever you do with the family provided he clears it with you first, in private, so you don't end up being put on the spot. I would make sure he understands that's as far as "take care family" will go. If that is acceptable to both him and you, then if it were me I'd go for the trip.

Well, don't look upon it with contumely.

Up and down at Ambiance Guests of the Boyz Town hotel Ambiance will now no longer have to walk up and down the stairs as the newly-installed elevator is now up and running. The elevator, which is at the rear of the reception area, goes to all five floors of the hotel and is part of a five million Baht investment at Ambiance. As part of this investment all the rooms have been refurbished with new drapes, bedspreads, sofas etc. "The elevator will be a great advantage for our guests, especially those in the Penthouse suites on the fifth floor," added Jim. Over the road at Le Café Royale installation work of an elevator is underway and is due to be completed by April 2009.

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST: _____ Thaksin's Redpassport Voided THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL The Foreign Ministry has quietly revoked the diplomatic passport held by convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The ministry said on its website yesterday that Thaksin's red passport was cancelled on Friday after he decided not to appeal his case. The statement did not go into detail but it is understood it referred to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions verdict on Oct 21 sentencing him to jail for two years in absentia for abusing his authority in the purchase of land in the Ratchadphisek area from a government agency by his wife at the time, Khunying Potjaman. The ministry said it had consulted the government before making the decision and sent confirmation to Thaksin's address in Thailand. A ministry source said foreign affairs permanent secretary Virasakdi Futrakul had approved the decision as there was no cabinet minister in charge of the ministry. Former foreign minister Sompong Amornvivat was forced to step down following the Constitution Court's ruling on Dec 2 disqualifying the People Power Party and its executive members for election fraud.

Tuesday, December 16 OPENING RATES: US Dollar: 34.60 Euro: 47.29 British Pound: 52.82 Australian Dollar: 22.96 Canadian Dollar: 27.9325 _____ CLOSING RATES: US Dollar: 34.56 Euro: 47.125 British Pound: 52.59 Australian Dollar: 23.0475 Canadian Dollar: 27.84

I received a link to the following. I found it quite interesting: http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2008/12/12/...-thai-coup-blog

I agree. Anyone ought to realize that if you're not getting customers the thing to do is offer incentives to get people to come in. Somehow, a price increase isn't going to be an incentive that works to get me to come in. The same logic, or lack of it, applies to many Thai mom-and-pop businesses. A Thai friend of mine used to set up a nightly sidewalk shop along the Wat Chai market. He sold clothing. But there were dozens of others doing the same thing. I suggested to him that he needs to do something to get people to shop at his stall in favor of the others. I told him he could do simple things, such as at least putting up a sign with the name of his shop and then handing out business cards that would attract local shoppers. "Bring this card and get 10% off." Put up a "Buy 4, get one free" sign. Do something that sets your shop apart from the others to make your shop the place people will seek out. Of course, he never did a thing. RichLB posted a set of suggestions that Thai boys could do to make a lot of money without having to invest very much. I know at least half a dozen Thai boys who I spoke with, some of whom I took to see RichLB. We sat with them and explained all the details of what they could do and how they could do it. We even offered to help them get started. Not one of them ever even tried. ( see: http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2057 ) Just the other day, one of my friends told me about a woman he knows who runs a neighborhood bar. She is offering incentives, but still isn't attracting more customers. She couldn't understand why. My friend pointed out that she needs to advertise her incentives. Nobody knows about them. "But I put sign in window," was her response as she pointed to a sign not much bigger than a standard size sheet of paper.

There is an excellent article in the BANGKOK POST that I found to be fascinating. If you've ever had a question about motorcycle taxis, this article probably addresses it. http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigat...ing-in-thailand

I have none to back it up. That's why I said it's what I believe. I have no basis in fact. I have only my personal opinion.

On any of these routes the standard fare is 10 baht for farang, no matter whether you ride just a block or two or the entire route. Now I understand the Thais are also paying 10 baht, but I haven't checked that out. In any case, as long as you simply hop on a baht bus and ride the standard route, then 10 baht is the fare. The price only goes up if you negotiate with the driver to take you somewhere other than his standard route.

The following appears in PATTAYA ONE: _____ New British Honorary Consulate Opens in Pattaya His Excellency Quentin Quayle, the British Ambassador to Thailand, officially opened a permanent office for the Honorary Consul on Monday morning in a brief ceremony in Soi 5 Jomtien. Mr. Barry Kenyon, who has acted as the honorary consul in Pattaya for a number of years, said the demand for consular services has increased dramatically in recent times and the British government decided to allocate funds for a permanent presence in the city. Previously, Barry Kenyon and his Thai assistants could be found conducting their business from a table in a coffee shop near the Immigration offices. Mr Kenyon said he is not expecting to suffer much in the way of caffeine withdrawal as the coffee shop does takeaways. The honorary consulate is situated next to the Pattaya Immigration Offices and will be open from 9:00am until 11:30am from Monday to Friday, except public holidays.