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A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
No Bro. The pics are great thinking of the Christmas holidays. I think it should be a nice, hopefully relaxing holiday with the family.:p
Hope you are enjoying Pattaya. Looks nice form the pics. Thanks for sharing.:biggrin:

It is a really nice hotel and the breakfast was great. Quiet and away from all the noises of the other beaches. It may be inconvenient if you don't drive however there is a ride by the hotel vehicle and I guess you just need to organize the timing with them but then its due to this reason that make a hotel like this quiet and exclusive. The hotel has a Steak Grill restaurant which I think is not bad, the wine list is not long but the selection is great and prices very reasibale. If you wish to book through say agoda and could not get you could call directly to book as they may still have rooms.
 

Grago

Alfrescian
Loyal
It is a really nice hotel and the breakfast was great. Quiet and away from all the noises of the other beaches. It may be inconvenient if you don't drive however there is a ride by the hotel vehicle and I guess you just need to organize the timing with them but then its due to this reason that make a hotel like this quiet and exclusive. The hotel has a Steak Grill restaurant which I think is not bad, the wine list is not long but the selection is great and prices very reasibale. If you wish to book through say agoda and could not get you could call directly to book as they may still have rooms.
Thank you for the Infor.
 

yinyang

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Slice of thai mango today. Sikh terrorist still at large (after jail break) in Thailand:p

PM plays down reports Jagtar hiding out here
Bangkok Post Published: 29/10/2014 at 06:00 AM

Police confirmed Tuesday that Interpol had issued a warning to Thailand that the Sikh terrorist who broke out of a high-security jail in India a decade ago was en route to Southeast Asia.

This 2004 graphic from The Telegraph, Calcutta, showed how three Sikh separatists staged "an audacious jailbreak" by tunneling their way out of the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh, where they were being held during their terrorism trial. Jagtar Singh Tara (centre) is the subject of a Thailand-based manhunt.

jailbreak.png701235.jpg



Citing the Interpol information, police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri said Jagtar Singh Tara was believed to have fled to the region. He may have used Thailand to aid his escape, the spokesman said.

The Immigration Bureau believes the Indian terrorist is currently somewhere in Thailand. Investigation and Interrogation Division commander Warawut Thaweechaikarn said intelligence agencies should know where Jagtar is hiding.

This computer-generated photo shows what Singh might look like if he tries to shave, cut his hair and remove his turban. Photos and alerts were distributed to border authorities in the South on Monday.

Security authorities have been put on high alert following reports Jagtar fled to Thailand and may be trying to cross the southern border to Malaysia before heading onward to Pakistan to become involved in further terrorist activity.

"He is expected to still be in Thailand," the commander said Tuesday.

Jagtar had been convicted for his involvement in a 1995 bombing that killed 18 people in India's Punjab state, including the then-chief minister of Punjab, Beant Singh.
He was found to have supplied the car used in the suicide car bomb attack.

Jagtar, believed to be the leader of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), one of the Khalistan terrorist groups operating in India and Pakistan, was later arrested along with a number of other people involved in the bomb attack. They were jailed in the high-security Burail jail in Chandigarh.

Three of them, including Jagtar, escaped from the prison through a long underground tunnel in 2004. However, the prime minister, policy makers and the military played down the reports that the Indian terrorist is hiding out in Thailand.

"There are still no reports to indicate whether the man is in the country. Police are following up on the issue," Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said. Thailand will agree to extradite Jagtar to India if he is captured by Thai officers here, the premier said.

He said he has been informed about the details of the matter and he is keeping a close eye on the situation. Meanwhile, Police Regions 8 and 9, overseeing the southernmost provinces, have been ordered to remain vigilant, Gen Prayut said.

Pol Lt Gen Sakda Chuenpakdi, acting Immigration Bureau chief, said he had ordered officers along the southern border to be cautious and beef up their checks.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon conceded that Indian authorities had contacted Thai officials about Jagtar.

Indian officials have also sent photographs and personal information about the Sikh fugitive to their Thai counterparts, he said. He said he does not believe the convicted terrorist is in Thailand.

Army chief Udomdej Sitabutr on Tuesday echoed Gen Prawit's view, saying an investigation showed that Jagtar did not enter Thailand and was not involved in the southern violence. However, security sources believe Jagtar entered Thailand in September on a fake passport and he is still in the country.

It was earlier believed that he was hiding in a hotel in Pattaya and in Lat Krabang in Bangkok before reportedly heading down to the southern border. He then supposedly planned to either travel to Malaysia through the three southernmost provinces or to Cambodia.

In Sa Kaeo, the border province opposite Cambodia, provincial immigration office chief, Pol Col Teerachai Dedkad, said a combined force from Immigration, the Burapha Force and Khlong Luek police had set up a checkpoint in front of the Aranyaprathet border crossing to look for the wanted man. Photos of Jagtar were handed out to officers to help them hunt down the fugitive.

However, the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) said Thai authorities received a warning about Jagtar when he fled jail in 2004. Thai officials will continue to search for Jagtar and try to locate the man through all border channels, Isoc spokesman Col Banpot Pulpian said. It is still unknown where he has fled to, he said.
He said Jagtar's information has been in the intelligence database for a period of time and he did not know how the information about the convict was leaked.

Col Banpot said that Jagtar had no knowledge of assembling explosive devices. He was not found to have any links to the violence in the deep South, the spokesman said.
Concerns over Jagtar's whereabouts recently surfaced after Indian media reported that radical groups, backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), held a secret meeting and jointly resolved to revive terror strikes in the Punjab region.

Reports say the radical groups have started recruiting young men to join the extremists. The move has been closely monitored by the Indian government following intelligence reports that Sikh militant groups plan to launch the attacks in Punjab and other locations in India.

A paramilitary insurgency, including terrorist units, has operated for many years, demanding secession from India for a Sikh homeland. (Khalistan Tiger Force photo via Flickr)
 

Chocolate

Alfrescian
Loyal
Lovely pics. I have a relative considering buying a holiday home in Pattaya for own use ( as retirement home in the future) and possibly rental. I would appreciate advice from anyone who has made such an investment. Is now a good time to go in and does Pattaya have potential for yield as well as capital gain?
 

yinyang

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Soft sell or peddling LOS attractiveness with tax breaks?

Business
Pridiyathorn woos regional firms with tax breaks
Bangkok Post Published: 31/10/2014 at 06:00 AM

SINGAPORE: The government launched a charm offensive targeting 300 top regional business leaders here on Wednesday saying tax incentives that would make Thailand an attractive location for a regional headquarters will be announced within a month.

Pridiyathorn Devakula, deputy prime minister and economy tsar in the military's government, took his theme of "digital economy" to regional business leaders in Singapore on Thursday, but added that he will introduce new tax incentives before December that will make it most economically attractive of all to establish their regional headquarters in Thailand.

The region's business elite were also told the Prayut Chan-o-cha government was racing against time to reform the country politically and economically within its promised time frame by setting integrity and efficiency as goals for future civilian governments to follow.

Deputy Prime Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula, who oversees economic affairs, said his two priorities were to boost Thailand's competitiveness on the global stage and help Thai firms invest overseas. He reiterated his policy to encourage trading companies to establish their regional headquarters in Thailand.

MR Pridiyathorn was speaking at the Forbes Global CEO Conference on Wednesday night. Participants included Charoen Pokphand boss Dhanin Chearavanont, Nepal's only billionaire Binod Chaudhary and Indorama Ventures' Indian-born and Jakarta-based plastics king Sri Prakash Lohia.

Elections will be held next year as planned while the National Reform Council and the charter writers will try to forge a new constitution that will guard against corruption and penalise wrongdoers quickly, he said.

"It would be in bad taste if the junta comes out after a year and a half and says 'we have to wait because I am scared the reds will win', " MR Pridiyathorn said.
"They are Thais. Let them go through elections. I am not scared of elections, but make sure that we have laws in place to prevent corruption and penalise those who are corrupt," he said.

MR Pridiyathorn was responding to a question from Thai-Australian businessman Michael Ma who urged the government to delay an election because if the government kept to its timetable, supporters of ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose popularity endures, would win.

"You can't hold off the election for too long. Three to four months from now people may start getting fed up with the performance of this government. We should stick to the existing timetable and do everything as fast as possible," MR Pridiyathorn said. He said six months of political turmoil before the coup froze economic activity, new investment and hurt everyone economically, especially the poor.

The coup has brought stability and let the government jump-start the economy with short-term measures to quickly disburse public spending through more than 10,000 small infrastructure construction projects nationwide. People should start reaping the benefits from December, MR Pridiyathorn said.
The government's long-term economic plan is to enable Thailand to become a competitive trading nation like Singapore and Japan, he said. "It is not a dream for us to just aspire to be a regional trading nation."

MR Pridiyathorn said he has instructed the Board of Investment to establish a new department to help Thai firms expand overseas, find new markets and increase their competitiveness. He is also working on a new package to lure international corporations from Singapore to set up their regional headquarters in Thailand. This would include eliminating all tax barriers.

Going into more detail about Thailand's political transition, MR Pridiyathorn said the National Reform Council and the constitution writers will design a charter that will target corruption and abuse of power by the executive and legislative branches.

"On the political front, what I see quite clearly is that many people will try to separate administrative and legislative power. Every constitution we've had allowed these two powers to come from the same party. But in future, we need legislative and administrative powers separated so we have a balance of power. That will be good for Thailand," he said.

For example, he said it could be that cabinet ministers can only be parliamentarians from the party list while elected constituency MPs can only be lawmakers.

Wouldn't it be lovely? The junta promises that within a month it will unveil new policies to make Thailand "an attractive centre for regional headquarters" of every company.
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Been like bloody 3 months, glad to be back to Wine I Love You restaurant

Started with a fine Barolo


with some salad


and foie gras


of course some Vietnamese spring roll


finishing off with a nice Amarone, have to say it's a deadly combination with Barolo however just got to do it
 

yinyang

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Today's juicy slice of thai mango :p

'Pretty' says cop forced her to run naked
Bangkok Post Published: 4/11/2014 at 02:31 PM

A female university student working part-time as a product presenter or "pretty" has asked police to take action against her police officer boyfriend for assaulting her and forcing her to run naked through a community in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district.

A university student shows photos of wounds on her neck and legs. She claims that her police officer boyfriend assaulted her.
The 22-year-old freshman at a private university, whose name was withheld, was escorted by Pavena Hongsakula, chairwoman of the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women, on Monday afternoon to file a complaint with Rom Klao police against Pol Lt Padung Lohnin, media reported on Tuesday.

The woman told the police she had known Pol Lt Padung, an investigator at the Min Buri police station, for about one year after filing a complaint with him in a theft case. Since then, their relationships developed and they became couple.

However, their romance turned sour on Nov 1 after her policeman boyfriend picked her up from Kaset-Nawamin Road at about 4 am to his house at Rom Klao housing estate. After arriving at his house, she became exhausted and fell asleep, with her smartphone dropping nearby.

She was later awakened by Pol Lt Padung, who strongly pulled her out of bed by the hair. He then used a pair of scissors to strip her naked.
Pol Lt Padung then gave her violent bites on her body, saying he wanted to give her a lesson for having romantic chats with her male junior student on the Line chat application.

She claimed the officer initially wanted to sexually assault her, but changed his mind. He then put a foot on her face and used his mobile phone to take a photo, threatening to put it online and ruin her sideline job if she told others, said the woman.

The woman claimed the officer dragged her out of his house by the hair and forced her to run naked from his house. She managed to grab a shirt to cover the upper part of her body and ran out until she met a taxi. The driver helped her by taking her to her room inside her university without charging any fare. Her friends immediately rushed her to Lat Krabang Hospital for medical treatment.

After recovering from the pains, she initially wanted to file a complaint with police in the area where the incident occurred, but dropped her plan as Pol Lt Padung works there. She opted to seek help from Ms Pavena instead. Ms Pavena said traces of the physical assault remained on the woman’s body though the assault took place two days ago.

As the attacker was a law enforcer, he must face double punishment, said the foundation chairwoman, adding she decided to take the victim to lodge the complaint with police at Rom Klao police station.

Pol Col Wichian Sawangchaeng, investigation officer at Rom Klao police station, said the case drew more public attention as it involved a law enforcer.
He has initially pressed three counts of charges — physical assault, causing malicious damage to property, and embarrassing the victim — against the accused officer.
Pol Lt Padung will soon be summonsed to hear the charges, said Pol Col Wichian.

Meanwhile, Pol Lt Padung on Tuesday admitted to assaulting the female student as alleged, but denied forcing her to run naked.
The Min Buri police officer said he had a heated quarrel with her over romantic messages she got in a chat with a male student in the Line chat application.
Pol Lt Padung claimed he got angry after learning about it. He pushed her to bed and had sex with her. He gave her bites on her neck to embarrass her and cut her clothes with a pair of scissors in a fit of anger. He also claimed he bought her the outfit and it was expensive.
He then told his girlfriend to leave after venting out his anger. She put on a shirt and left.

He asked police to examine the footage of closed circuit cameras in the area which would reveal the truth whether she was naked.
He claimed the woman threatened to kick him out of the police force.

704255.jpg
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Today's juicy slice of thai mango :p

'Pretty' says cop forced her to run naked
Bangkok Post Published: 4/11/2014 at 02:31 PM


Pol Lt Padung then gave her violent bites on her body, saying he wanted to give her a lesson for having romantic chats with her male junior student on the
Line chat application.

attachment.php

Why didn't she lock her phone? Sigh.
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Lunch here today

[video=youtube;unHV5TgVbR8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unHV5TgVbR8[/video]
 

yinyang

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Rice scheme loss 'may reach B1tn'
TDRI chief calls for ceiling on state debt

Bangkok Post Published: 6/11/2014 at 06:00 AM

The loss incurred from the rice-pledging scheme could reach almost 1 trillion baht if it takes 10 years to sell 18 million tonnes of milled rice in stockpiles, says the head of an economic think tank.

Warehouse audits were already under way early this year, but the military took a high-profile role in assessing contents of warehouses nationwide after the army chief seized power in a coup on May 22.

Nipon Poapongsakorn, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), recommends fixing the government's debt at no more than 20% of the annual budget to avoid a repeat of the big loss. Mr Nipon is also heading a TDRI study of alleged corruption in the rice scheme introduced by the former Yingluck Shinawatra government.

A nationwide rice audit led by ML Panadda Diskul, permanent secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, found only 10% of the 18 million tonnes of rice in state stocks was of good quality. The report said 70% of rice was tainted with a yellow colour and the rest in bad condition and inedible.

Assuming a price of 7,500 baht a tonne for rice stored in warehouses, the loss now amounts to 660 billion baht — half the loss from the Financial Institutions Development Fund's bailout of financial institutions during the 1997 financial crisis, Mr Nipon said.

His estimated loss is far greater than Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula's forecast of nearly 500 billion baht.
The now-defunct rice scheme, which ran from 2011 to this year, emerged as the country's largest rice intervention scheme, with 985 billion baht spent to buy 54.4 million tonnes of paddy.

The subsidy scheme, which set pledging prices at 40-50% above market prices and bought every single grain, backfired badly on the former government.
It cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of baht and left millions of tonnes of rice in warehouses, while the rice price has sunk after the subsidy was terminated.

Moreover, the scheme was alleged to be riddled with corruption. The TDRI's study estimated that fraud in the scheme amounted to 94-109 billion baht, with 75 billion incurred from rice sales, 32 billion from replacing pledged grains with low-quality rice and 1.9 billion from missing rice.
Mr Nipon said the rice scheme cost 585 billion baht in economic rent — any payment to a factor of production in excess of the cost needed to bring that factor into production.

"I believe a third round of damage from such a subsidy will happen if there is an elected government," he said.

The first heavy damage from subsidising rice production emerged in Thaksin Shinawatra's government.
Apart from setting a debt limit for the government, parliamentary approval is a must for spending on any populist policies to prevent massive losses, Mr Nipon said.

Economist Ammar Siamwalla, an adviser to the study on the rice scheme's fraud, said the government should not pledge perishable exported products, as these goods must compete with those of other countries. It is foolish of politicians and reflects something wrong in Thai politics if they are still unaware of damage from the rice scheme after it turned out to be a disaster, he said.

Methee Krongkaew, a former member of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), said fraud prevention for government policies must be improved. For instance, the anti-graft body should be able to file legal action immediately against those involved in any projects warned earlier by the NACC without having to launch an inquiry after damage has been incurred.
 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
Went to Bogor (Indonesia) today passed by this big town Sentul and had lunch there. Its known as Pasar Ahpung

[video=youtube;Ljb6jjE08f0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljb6jjE08f0[/video]

 

Froggy

Alfrescian (InfP) + Mod
Moderator
Generous Asset
The lunch

[video=youtube;BMY0D-aYldk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMY0D-aYldk[/video]​

Nasi Langgi


Gado gado


Soto Mei


Soto Ayam


Chendol
 
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