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  • News & article

    300 baht minimum daily wage

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 03/02/2012

    » 300 baht minimum daily wage policy starts on April 1st & with up to 40% wage increases many companies worry. Last ditch legal effort to stop policy.

  • News & article

    Floods: Losses to Thailand's economy?

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 04/11/2011

    » Ongoing threats with damage still preventable far greater than damage already done in this survey of flood economic impact by economists at TMB Bank.

  • News & article

    Floods: Foreign investment in Thailand

    Jon Fernquest, Published on 26/12/2011

    » Before the floods Thailand regained its position among the top 20 foreign investment destinations. Dealing with investor flood concerns, now key to the future.

  • News & article

    Brace yourselves (updated Sunday)

    Terry Fredrickson, Published on 09/10/2011

    » The economic damage caused by the flood crisis worsened yesterday as Ayutthaya factories were flooded. In Bangkok, residents now fear the worst as flood waters approach the city.

  • News & article

    Traffic safety the big New Year’s concern

    Terry Fredrickson, Published on 29/12/2010

    » This year, concern over traffic safety has been heightened by a horrendous fatal accident on the Don Muang elevated tollway.

  • News & article

    Online outrage

    Terry Fredrickson, Published on 30/12/2010

    » Although it is not yet clear exactly what happened on the Don Muang tollway Monday night, tens of thousands of angry people in the local online community have things figured out.

    • Forum

    Honda PCX 2015 White, less than a year old with bonus access

    By Beau2014, Created on: 26/04/2016, Last updated on: 23/05/2016

    » [size=150:10o74t7a][b:10o74t7a]Honda PCX 2015 White, less than a year old with bonus accessories[/b:10o74t7a][/size:10o74t7a] [b:10o74t7a]Bought from the factory less than a year ago Shows 8,000KM on the odometer and the engine has been serviced already The motorbike comes with a three year warranty...

    • 1 replies, 1,593 views

    Forum

    The Value of a Tourist.

    By Sean Moran, Created on: 18/01/2009, Last updated on: 15/12/2010

    » What are some of the most common positive and negative results of foreign tourists from overseas visiting Thailand? Thai opinions welcome, kap.

    • tmvolunteer commented : Tourist = Money. When Thais see a tourist spending more money in one evening than a Thai make in a month it is obvious they think that all farang are filthy rich. When I tell my Thai friends that it takes my brother one year to save up enough money to come and visit me here in Thailand for three weeks, they don't believe me. When I tell them that more than 90% of my friends back home cannot afford to drive around in a huge three liter pick-up truck, they don't believe me. I have a fourteen year old Honda Dream and sometimes I get the question why I don't have a car, I tell them that I cannot afford to buy one, they laugh and it is obvious... they don't believe me. So what are the Thais to think about us farang when they see tourists throwing money around like there is no tomorrow? What when they watch Hollywood movies? They know that all the best superheroes in the world are American, even if aliens should come from outer space they would land in America, and the Americans will save us all! There are so many movies showing that the good always wins over the bad, but in everyday life in Thailand it is the opposite, the one with the most money or the highest position rules. It is not easy to convince a Thai that the movies are just fiction, most of them actually think that this is the way it is in the western world. The point is that Thai people know nothing about western culture and how can they know? They hardly know their own history. The education system in Thailand has gone from bad to worse in the last couple of years, with political turmoil and students and parents only worry about their immediate financial situation. For politicians and the rich, the education system is way back in the line of improvement. The politicians are too busy defending themselves from accusations from the opposition, and the rich are not interested in educating people, they would probably lose their gardener, driver, house maids and so on, if the Thai people were to be properly educated. Tourism is not the highest income source for Thailand but most tourists think that it is, and it often shows in their behavior towards Thailand and its people. Often I see tourists behaving in a manner that makes me think "would they behave like this back home?" and I know that they wouldn't. Where has the respect for each other disappeared to? Wherever it is, I hope that it comes back to us soon. Maybe respect has become a filthy rich tourist too. The true value of today's tourist = $$$. Send a genuine smile to 10 people today and tomorrow will be a happier day.

    • 85 replies, 111,416 views

    Forum

    About Face.

    By Sean Moran, Created on: 14/10/2008, Last updated on: 13/04/2014

    » One olde axiom that comes to mind is, '[i:3b539sim]If you can't say something nice, then keep your mouth s.h.u.t.[/i:3b539sim]' Just a thread that pertains to one of the cultural differences one might notice in venturing from a typical 'westernised' society of the assertive kind to the shores of...

    • Sean Moran commented : I just had a thought, but don't worry because I've just opened my first beer for the day and that should help overcome the pain in another hour or so, providing I don't think anything else before becoming properly anhebriated. This comparison of the concepts of face with that of integrity is an absolute gem. Yet I wonder also if the white-lies that go with it might be related to the preservation of somebody else's integrity, which carries with it a good degree of social harmony along with the possibility of corruption if taken advantage of, perhaps? I'm not familiar enough with Thai culture to really know how that might work, but I agree that there is a good deal of corruption in Thailand, and that can make for good deals or bad deals IMHO. I've always been lucky with the traffic cops on my old Suzuki, although I did get done out of 400 baht once on the Honda on my way down to Rayong from Nonthaburi a couple of years back. The bike was fully loaded with rucksacks and stuff, so I wasn't gonna leave my bike on the side of the road to go to the cop shop to fight it. The tea-money cop even gave me back 100 baht change because I didn't have any small notes on me. That's corruption but it was done in such a decent way that it was almost worth the money, although not a good thing to have happen everyday on a tourist-visa teachers' salary. On the other hand, I remember the best traffic cop I ever encountered on the road back from Khorat to Nonthaburi. Somewhere in central Saraburi from memory. Hot day, mid-morning, bike loaded with rucksacks once again, and after confirming that I had the right papers and all, he handed me a fresh water bottle to get a well-needed drink. "Wow!" I thought, and gratefully took a swig and went to pass it back. "No no!" he said. "You." He wanted me to keep the whole bottle of water on the ride back. Another example of saving face, but his gift was intended to save mine, although the fact that I still remember that gesture three years later might add a bit to his too, in some karmic way or other? Perhaps one of the reasons I enjoy the corruption in Thailand is that I can see it straight out, clear as mud. Here in Australia it's done so cleverly that I often don't even know the joke until after the punch-line is over and the fat lady has sung, and it's never very harmonic.

    • 61 replies, 76,687 views

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