Keep up the good work
Well, I’m back! At immigration I actually got a smile but it might have been due to the fashionable Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts I was wearing.
Things must have got better since my last visit as I read in the Bangkok Post that your government had an even higher approval rating than North Korea’s Dear Leader. The prime minister must have been doing something right with the polls.
The Pattaya police seem to be doing a wonderful job promoting tourism and keeping us safe in these difficult times. No less than 200 of them visited the go-go bars in Walking Street the other night to see if we were OK. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that I was breaking the law by going out without my passport and, like me, a lot of us tourists were detained for a while for this crime.
But it was worth all the valuable police time because I heard just one of us was still here spending his money after his visa stay date had expired and he was carted off to the pokey to be deported.
I wanted to have some Christmas turkey but my hotel said it is banned because "America turkey no good na krap" whatever that means. I settled for some of your delicious street food but unfortunately had the runs for a few days. I put it down to some pre-Christmas turkey I had eaten back home; no wonder it is banned here and thank goodness Thailand has such strict hygiene rules when it comes to food.
It was OK being confined to my hotel for a while as there were no deckchairs on the beach when I went there. Let’s face it, we don’t come all this way to lie in the sun, as most of us are here for the temples and suchlike.
As my host said the other night: Melly Clitmas everyone.
Ima Lyer, Utopia, USA
Lame blame game
Re: "Migrants pay the price", (PostBag, Dec 25).
Many people in Thailand regard the Shinawatras as the font of all evil, but Vint Chavala’s attempt to establish a link, via the increase in the minimum wage, between them and human trafficking, slave labour and the abuse and death of Rohingya is not only offensive, but serves to absolve the real culprits of their crimes.
We are all aware of the gross inequalities in wealth and incomes in Thailand. A recent and very well researched article in the Bangkok Post, “Reform under this regime is an uphill task”, (Dec 23) set out the facts in graphic detail.
The introduction of the 300-baht minimum wage was a very modest attempt to ensure a better standard of living for those at the lowest end of the pay scale. For too long some sectors of the Thai economy have been defined by low productivity, compensated for by cheap labour. If any criticism can be directed at the decision to raise the minimum wage, it is that only one of these problems was addressed.
Those actually responsible for human trafficking, the abuse and murder of Rohingya and for slave labour conditions are organised criminal gangs and unscrupulous employers whose greed and moral bankruptcy have prompted them to break employment laws and exploit vulnerable migrant labourers. They are the real targets to which Vint Chavala’s anger should be directed.
Robin Grant
Soaring ripoffs
Can somebody please explain why several airlines are still insisting on adding a fuel surcharge to their costs when fuel prices have been reduced substantially and have been low for some time, so airlines cannot now be using old stocks.
They seem to be getting away with it as travellers seem to only see the final fare and don’t check how it’s made up. More passengers need to complain about this unfair charge which raises air fares substantially.
Stephen (Wand)
A rude welcoming
My daughter just arrived from Paris this morning. She went to exchange money, at SCB, right before immigration at the international airport. She was in the line after an elegant, perhaps Indian, man. He was being assisted by a lady who said something rude to him while he exchanged money.
The man said: “I have just arrived in Thailand, and you are the first person in the country to speak to me, you should be more polite to me”.
After a few words the girl said “f*** you” to him. Both the man and my daughter were shocked. My daughter apologised to the man on behalf of Thailand.
The customer took pictures of the SCB employee because she would not give her name, nor would the other two girls working with her.
Attitudes like this should not be welcome in the Land of Smiles.
Cyro Sa
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