By Barry Kenyon

[Gaybutton]

Where are the detailed route plans for this line ? Google doesn't seem to find any.

Maybe those decisions haven't been made yet.

For Pattaya, I don't see how the train station could be any closer to the city than the current station already is.

I think the success of high speed rail links will depend on how often the trains will run, whether the trains will run 24 hours, and of course the price. I doubt many people will want to arrive on a long haul flight only to have to wait 2 or 3 hours for the train. Also, I hope the airport stops will be conveniently within the airports.

[Jun]

For Pattaya, I don't see how the train station could be any closer to the city than the current station already is.

1 The station is further away from town than the current one.

2. Many of these high speed train lines use partially or entirely elevated tracks. In which case, they could run it above the existing line or even above Sukhumvit, which therefore allows a station closer to town. And potentially right next to a tram line, if designed properly.

Of course, in practice someone will have their eyes on a construction contract for a ridiculously oversized station. So perhaps that needs to be out of town where they have the space to build another white elephant ?

I think the success of high speed rail links will depend on how often the trains will run, whether the trains will run 24 hours, and of course the price.

Agreed.
For any experienced tourist, the price that matters includes the price of getting to and from the station.
At today's prices, the taxi fare from the high speed rail link to Jomtien would be higher than the bus fare from Suvarnabhumi to Jomtien.

[Gaybutton]

if designed properly.

That could easily qualify for being included in the list of "Top 10 Ifs" ever posted . . .

[Jun]

That could easily qualify for being included in the list of "Top 10 Ifs" ever posted . . .

Based on evidence from Bangkok, there's almost no chance of it being designed properly, ie with the high speed rail link RIGHT NEXT to the tram station.
Almost every connecting station has a 300m+ walk. The Suvarnabhumi rail station is a notable exception.

[Gaybutton]

Thai general election not a simple left-right divide

By Barry Kenyon

March 20, 2023

Now that a royal proclamation has now formally dissolved Thailand’s parliament, the stage is set for a May general election. The Pheu Thai party, the favored opposition party in all recent polls, is pitted against the Bangkok-based “establishment”, spearheaded by the military. Yet the ideologies in play are far more complex than populist left-wing radicals versus the conservative royalists.

The current prime minister, general Prayut Chan-o-cha, masterminded the 2014 coup and subsequently led a military-backed coalition which has now been dismantled. Yet his unpopular administration has been surprisingly liberal in aspects of social policy, for example decriminalizing cannabis as a narcotic and introducing legislation to allow abortion for the first time. Plans to decriminalize prostitution and to introduce gay marriage are still at committee stage but were approved at Cabinet level. Governments anywhere spawned by military putsches are not famous for such policies.

Meanwhile the opposition Pheu Thai, led by Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter Paetongtarn, is hardly the embodiment of leftism. The party opposes the liberal cannabis policy and has threatened to recriminalize it on taking office. It also opposes the sister opposition Move Forward Party’s wishes to abandon the lese-majeste laws and to liberalize further pot smoking for leisure. In other words, the so-called alliances against the military-backed parties are by no means a united front which, perhaps, could yet create surprises on election day.

All political parties in Thailand are populist. Each one promises to raise the minimum wage, though by differing amounts, to extend banking services and credit to the general population and to help the hard-pressed farmers of Thailand’s northern provinces. Really radical notions such as passing legislation to ban all future coup attempts or formally abolish the death penalty are not endorsed by any mainstream party, but only by fringe politicians leading factions.

What will determine the composition of the next parliament is maths. The Thai parliament is unique in having 500 seats, divided between single constituencies and party lists, with the added complication that the 250 unelected members of the Upper House or Senate (all appointed by the post-coup junta) can vote individually for a choice of prime minister. If Pheu Thai and its allies can win 376 seats in the parliamentary elections – more than 50 percent of the750 votes available in total – then they can become the government with their own choice of prime minister. The further away they are from that total and the more complex the bargaining will become. The fat lady may not sing immediately.

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/ ... ide-427252

[Jun]

Really radical notions such as passing legislation to ban all future coup attempts

Are coups legal ? For anyone, or just the army ?

What's the point in banning them, if the next junta immediately reverses the legislation? And who enforces it ?

[Gaybutton]

What's the point in banning them, if the next junta immediately reverses the legislation? And who enforces it ?

I hope Thailand won't have to find out the answers the hard way.

[Gaybutton]

April Fool Day jokes in Thailand again under surveillance

By Barry Kenyon

March 26, 2023

Police from the Technology Crime Suppression Division worry that the English love of annual fun on April 1 has been adopted by Thais on social media in the last few years. So they are again reminding everyone this week that the (vague) computer crimes act lays down penalties ranging from 100,000 baht fine to five years in jail for false data which is likely to damage the country’s security, or might cause a panic, or could simply damage other people. To date, no actual prosecutions have ever occurred arising from the first of April’s “speak play” or “poot len”, howbeit with a couple of near misses.

The advent of coronavirus in early 2020 led to a spate of longlasting Fool jokes about protecting yourself by drinking cow urine or sleeping with a sliced onion, but police expect this year to see a switch to politics with a general election due in mid May. For example, the current prime minister general Prayut Chan-o-cha was first parodied as Times magazine’s “man of the year” in 2017 in a falsehood which has appeared regularly in Thai social media ever since. And Thai political humor can be a great deal nastier than that.

Last year, ThaiVietjet was threatened with prosecution after staff without permission posted an April 1 hoax message about a new air route to Germany which, some said, insulted the revered monarchy. In 2021, a Thai citizen was ordered to take down a Facebook account which claimed without evidence that there were earthworms instead of meat in a popular burger. Several people ended up in hospital after reading about what they had just eaten. One even tried to sue the social media platform.

Fortunately, most Thai April Fool jokes haven’t attracted official attention. There have been “fun” reports in the past that tuk tuk rides in Bangkok would be free for one day, that the latest ice cream flavor was pork chunks and that shrimp cocktail was now a popular choice in the Kit Kat chocolate selection. Foreigners have also joined in over the years to claim variously that Thailand was changing from driving on the left to the right, that the last survivor of the Titanic had died on Jomtien beach and that the 90 day address report for expats had been abolished.

According to Martin Wainwright, author of The Guardian Book of April Fools Day, one sour note is that genuine news coming out on April 1 may not be believed. In 2004 Google launched its email service with huge 1-gigabyte inboxes which many thought was a joke and technologically impossible at the time. Google later abandoned all April Fool jokes because of the confusion they can create. You got that one right Big Brother.

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/ ... nce-427654

[Gaybutton]

Ok, since the police seem to want to crack down on April Fool's jokes, please don't post any on this board. If you do, I'm going to delete the post. I don't need the police knocking at my door because they didn't appreciate someone's idea of humor.
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Thailand Law Enforcement Warns Against April Fool’s Jokes Online

By Adam Judd

27 March, 2023

Thai law enforcement, specifically the Technology Crime Suppression Division, or TCSD, has warned the public that April Fool’s jokes on April First online could lead to stiff fines and many years in jail.

This warning has been a regular occurrence since 2020 when the TCSD first issued the stern warning in response to fear that people would make April Fool’s jokes about Covid-19 and cause a panic.

The warnings continued throughout the pandemic in 2021 and 2022 but now with Thai general elections less than two months away, scheduled for May 14th, concern seems to have moved away from Covid and to concerns people may use April Fool’s to mislead the public or make jokes about the upcoming election.

According to the TCSD, under the Computer Crimes Act, one could be charged up to 100,000 baht or face up to five years in jail for any information that caused a panic, damages security, was misinformation, or defames an individual or business.

As a result, the TCSD is asking people to refrain from April Fool’s jokes online and have also said in prior years that the holiday and tradition of practical jokes and pranks is, according to them, not part of Thai culture or etiquette.

TPN media notes that Thailand has extremely strict computer crimes, libel, defamation, and slander laws and these do not have exclusions for satire or parody like many western countries, both of which are as a result very rare in Thai media and major publications.

https://thepattayanews.com/2023/03/27/t ... es-online/

[Gaybutton]

Pattaya still waiting for Chinese zero-dollar tours to restart

By Barry Kenyon

April 1, 2023

Although around 500,000 Chinese have already visited Thailand this year, there is little sign that the much-debated zero-sum holidays have yet returned. They were especially popular in Pattaya prior to the pandemic. They are essentially all-in tours, paid for in China prior to flying, which essentially benefit Thai-Chinese companies and nominee businesses which host the vacationers by pre-arranging flights, accommodation and entertainment. Once in Thailand, pressure is often put on the visitors to spend at nominated outlets such as jewelry and artifact stores, or even malls.

The Association of Thai Travel Agents said there was not much evidence of zero-sum options actually happening yet, though they were certainly being marketed in cities such as Xian which has direct flights to U-tapao airport near Pattaya. With return flights now averaging 22,000 baht (US$650) plus other inflationary pressures, zero-sum holidays have become around 30 percent more expensive than in the pre-covid era. The now-expanded U-tapao also receives daily around eight international flights, mostly from the Middle East and provincial Russian cities.

Other factors delaying the return of discounted vacations are Chinese delays in the issuing of passports, many of which expired during the covid pandemic when travel from China was virtually impossible. Most Chinese have never owned a passport, but increasing numbers certainly want one as revealed by long queues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in major Chinese cities. Another problem is the lack of Chinese-speaking tour guides in Thailand – a highly sensitive issue as this profession is reserved for Thais under the alien labour legislation. China has agreed to collaborate with Thai authorities in cracking down on Chinese nationals acting as unofficial translators, though how energetically is disputed.

However, there is limited evidence that zero-sum holidays from China are beginning in Pattaya. For example, The 79 Adult Show on the resort’s Thepprasit Road recently reopened after the covid hiatus and regularly has 20 or so tour buses full of Chinese in the expanded car park in the early evenings. Although some patrons had travelled from the home country independently, many confirmed they were on pre-arranged Chinese packages of one sort or another.

The 79 Adult Show, renamed from the suggestive 69 Adult Show pre-covid, is described as “bold” cabaret with luscious ladies and actors “without embarrassment” using artificial snakes, ropes and drums. The taking of photographs or videos inside is strictly banned with offenders warned they will be dealt with by in-house security personnel. Admission prices vary according to nationality from 1,000 baht (US$30) to double that for non-Asians. The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects up to 7 million Chinese visitors overall in 2023 with 250,000 expected at Thai resorts in April. That ambitious target will be dependent on how quickly zero-sum vacations get back on track.

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/ ... art-428227