By Thai News on 10/4/2009 6:21 PM

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By Thai News on 10/3/2009 9:49 AM

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By Thai News on 9/26/2009 7:15 AM

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By Thai News on 8/18/2009 7:13 PM

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By Thai News on 8/7/2009 6:44 PM

I mean one of the last "elected" Thai Health Minister, from 2002 to 2005, not the present one , not yet anyway.

Sudarat Keyuraphan is treated at the Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok with Tamiflu after tests confirmed she has the H1N1 virus.

She, of course, thinks that the present government does not do enough for containing the spread of the virus, which anyway she was probably also saying before being infected.

And it makes me wonder how so many Thai people get infected in the first place, I mean adult Thai people. We are told in Europe to not kiss the friends we meet, not even shake hands with them in order to limit the spread...

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By Thai News on 7/30/2009 9:50 PM

I have been trying to be zen about it up to now. People are paranoid about this new flu, I'm not, I know better, this is a mild flu that kills very few people. I'm from Europe, I'm used to it, nothing special, silly Thai people.

But well, now, if officially there about 9000 cases of people infected by the flu and 65 dead, half-officially, according to the Thai Health Authorities, more than 500,000 could have contracted the H1N1 virus in Thailand. Not that it surprises me that much, 90% of the people infected probably do not go to hospital, nor are they tested for the H1N1 virus (so maybe the number of people infected is far more than 500,000...).

...

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By Thai News on 7/25/2009 2:10 PM

The Thai Prime Minister, Khun Abhisit, has been on twitter for quite some time twitter.com/PM_Abhisit

As of today he has 1,933 followers and he follows 13 people.

I have news for him, an old "friend" of him is now on twitter also, i.e. Khun Thaksin twitter.com/thaksinlive

He still does not follow anybody but has 1,277 followers. I suggest Khun Abhisit as the first one to add to his list of people to follow.

And may I suggest...

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By Thai News on 7/11/2009 12:26 PM

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By Thai News on 6/28/2009 6:50 PM

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By Thai News on 6/25/2009 6:41 PM

So, this is now official, there are more than 1000 cases of swine flu in Thailand. And probably many more since not too many people in Thailand will go to the the hospital when they get a fever. And get tested for the H1N1 virus.

I actually never heard about Thai people getting the flu before. For good reasons, I think, isn't the flu virus a virus that likes winter and low temperatures?

But this flu virus is different, it was born in an hot country and started affecting people when temperatures were on the high side.

So when we are told a vaccine for this swine flu virus has to be developped before the flu season, i.e. before...

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By Thai News on 6/15/2009 7:21 PM

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By Thai News on 6/13/2009 11:58 AM

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By Thai News on 6/3/2009 6:08 PM

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By Thai News on 5/26/2009 7:39 PM

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By Thai News on 5/24/2009 11:41 AM

The Thai government, as any other government in the world, needs mre revenues in this time of crisis. More revenues to feed the US$ 41 stimulus package they just approved.

And one way to get more revenues is to raise the taxes on alcoholic beverages and this is exactly what they did 2 weeks ago.

For beer, excise tax went from baht 55 to baht 60 per litre, from baht 110 to baht 120 for white liquor, and from baht 280 to baht 300 for blended liquor.

So how much more are you going to pay?

Let's take the example of the beer. Beer is usually sold in 66 cl bottles in Thailand, so an increase of baht 5 per liter means you're...

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By Thai News on 5/23/2009 1:48 PM

Plastic surgeons in Thailand are well known for a procedure that, here, is considered as standard, gender re-assignment surgery.  And they are also extremely skilled at re-attaching male private parts that would have been "accidentally" removed.

I'm going to elaborate a bit on these two points since the second one has been in the news lately.

Transsexuals, called Katoeys, or ladyboys, are generally more accepted in Thailand than in the western world. You can see quite an important number of them working in shops, restaurants, beauty salons or in the entertainment industry, as singers, dancers and well, prostitutes.

There...

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By Thai News on 5/22/2009 8:23 PM

Since the little Thai boy, Keigo Seito, found back his father thanks to his story being published on the front page of the newspapers ( Keigo ), 2 more children came to the newspapers, asking for help to find their Japanese father.

An 18 years old girl, Narumi Hamada, from Chiang Mai, and a stateless boy, also from Chiang Mai, who was left with a neighbour after his mother died and his father, Masato Niimura, went back to Japan.

I guess we will see plenty more in the coming...

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By Thai News on 5/20/2009 9:53 AM

They said yesterday the German tourist tested positive for the H1N1 virus and were waiting for further confirmation.

They say today she never tested positive for the H1N1 virus and died of pneunomia .

We know she died of pneumonia, it was said the first day. But it was also said that, maybe, she died of pneumonia because of complications coming from the flu virus. And that some tests came back positive.

But I do not think Thailand wants to scare the tourists more than they already are. So, we don't talk about it anymore. She died of pneumonia, no need to wait for further tests.

Well, I think she died faster than the...

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By Thai News on 5/19/2009 5:36 PM

If confirmed, this would be the first dead in Thailand from swine flu.

The German woman, Mrs Barbel Wilhelmine, came to Thailand with her husband and child to stay in a resort in Prachuab Khiri Khan, not far from Hua Hin

After one week, she had chest pain and difficulty breathing and went to a Hua Hin hospital. But she was in a critical condition and they sent her to Samitivej hospital in Bangkok.

She never made it, she died on the way to Bangkok.

We are now waiting for the results of the analyses that would confirm, or not, that she indeed died of swine flu.

That could reinforce the warning by the WHO that...

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By Thai News on 5/16/2009 3:05 PM

I would guess it was not too difficult to find him. After all, he was married to the mother of Keigo and had to give quite a few documents in the process.

And besides, HM the Queen of Thailand wants to get a progress about this case, this helps speeding things quite a lot.

But well, how do you react when you've been trying to forget you've got a son in Thailand for the last 9 years and suddenly get reminded?

You're shy, and you sure have a lot of reasons to be.

So the latest is, the father wants to talk to his son by phone but does not really want to be seen.

Well, I don't really see how he'll be able to avoid...

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By Thai News on 5/14/2009 5:53 PM

In Phichit there is a temple, Wat Tha Luang. It is a nice wat regularly visited by tourists. And if you go there, you'll see a litlle boy, a 9 years old little boy. He will show you a picture of a Japanese man, his dad, and will ask you if you know where he is, which I guess only a 9 years boy can hope he will get a positive reply.



By why is here there? Where is his mother? His mother died after having been infected with a disease she contracted while selling her body...

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By Thai News on 5/11/2009 7:26 PM

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By Thai News on 5/8/2009 1:17 PM

Today is a public holiday in Thailand in order to celebrate one of the most important day in Buddhism, Visakha Bucha Day.

Buddha was born, reached enlightment and passed away on the same month and day, i.e. on the full moon day of the 6th lunar month, which is usually in May and is this year the 8th of May.

Buddhists in Thailand and all over the world will pray, go to temple and make offrands to Buddha.

In Thailand, it also means that alcohol is not on sale today, in bars, pubs, hotels, restaurants, shops, in brief everywhere.

By Thai News on 5/4/2009 3:49 PM

No major news to comment about, so I'm going to comment on the name of this website, farangrakthai. When Thaksin, quite a few years back, decided to go into politics and to set up a party, he chose to go for a name that would appeal to most Thais, a name that reflects (or reflected) what most Thais agree with, i.e. Thai Rak Thai.

What does it mean? Thais Love Thais and sure love Thailand. But since it was at the time of the Asian crisis in 1997-1998, it also had undertones that were not that nice, i.e. Thais love Thais but do not really like foreigners. Foreigners are a problem, or could be a problem. Like the IMF, for example, at that time. A very appealing concept indeed, for Thais. And most probably the main reason Thaksin chose this name, an appeal to the strong nationalistic feelings of the Thais in time of crisis.

...

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By Thai News on 4/19/2009 12:16 PM

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By Thai News on 4/16/2009 7:35 PM

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By Thai News on 4/8/2009 2:55 PM

I wrote quite some time ago that I was thinking Thaksin's influence was fading away in Thailand and that the Red Shirt protests would not last long, by lack of motivation or just lack of money.

Obviously I was wrong, they're back in the streets of Bangkok and not in small numbers. It seems today 40 to 50,000 of them are gathering aroung government house in the afternoon and many more are expected to come from the North and North East provinces in the evening.

What do they want? The dissolution of the Thai parliament and new elections, which they're convinced will put back in power a party associated to Thaksin. And they're probably...

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By Thai News on 4/3/2009 8:07 PM

The Preah Vihear temple conflict has been out of the Thai news for quite some time. The Thai soldiers stepped up on a mine from the Khmer Rouge era from time to time, losing a leg in the process, but it did not really make front page news.

Up to today, when exchange of machine gun and mortar fire resulted in the death of 2 Thai soldiers and of 7 wounded.

Of course, as usual, the Thai side accused the Cambodian side of starting it and the Cambodian side says the reverse.

All of that becasue the UNESCO declares the temple world heritage although Thailand and Cambodia do not agree on which side of the border part of the temple...

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By Thai News on 3/30/2009 7:17 PM

The Thai New Year, known as Songkran, is coming soon, from 13 to 15 of April this year. This is supposed to be the end of the hot and dry season and is celebrated all over Thailand by the Thais throwing of water on everything and well, everybody.

For sunrise to sunset, for a few days, whatever street in Thailand you happen to be on, if you're not protected by the body of a car, with doors and windows closed, you're going to get wet, very wet.

Wet with sometimes water only, water at ambient temperature, but more often with icy water, water that has been cooled down to freezing temperature with lot of ice. Did you ever experience being...

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By Thai News on 3/29/2009 2:40 PM

I guess we keep forgetting from one year to another how hot Bangkok can be in March and April. Bangkok is hot all the time but these 2 months, it is so hot that you do not feel like being able to do anything.

And you won't be able to do anything anyway if you do not have an aircon working overtime (so much for earth hour...).

The human body needs to keep its temperature at 36 to 37 at all time but how do you do that when the outside temperature is at 36 to 37?

- You do not move at all and drink a lot of cold water, not really practical, you'll end up weighing a ton in no time

- You spend the day in a swimming pool. Well, how many of us have a swimming pool handy?

...

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By Thai News on 3/28/2009 8:33 AM

Well, if you're not Thai, you did not, the handout is only for the Thais registered with the Social Security Fund, i.e. mainly the public servants and the lucky few working for private companies big enough to declare them. For the majority of Thais working in the country side as farmers or not working at all, no help is on the way. Overall the government estimation is 8 million people will receive the checks for a population in Thailand of about 64 million people.

What's the goal of the Thai gouvernment? Trying to pump up a bit an economy that is now in free fall. The car industry, Toyota, Honda, General Motors has big factories in Thailand...

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By Thai News on 3/24/2009 6:24 PM

The hottest months are back. They're back every year actually but from one year to the next one, I think we kind of forget how hot Bangkok can be. It is now 6.30 p.m. and you can read this on the Thailand page of farangrakthai.

Bangkok, Thailand



35°C Feels like 37°C

And how does 37 C feel like? Well hot...

But what was better yesterday is the level of pollution in Bangkok or should I say, the level of no-pollution. Usually, you can't see far in this city, fumes from exhaust pipes make the Bangkok smog worse than any English fog.  But yesterday, nothing, no pollution. I even took a picture with my mobile phone to prove it (through a window, so the quality is so so...)

...

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By Thai News on 3/22/2009 2:01 PM

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By Thai News on 3/22/2009 12:36 PM

It is always risky to do something illegal, in any country, as the saying goes "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time".

But if the crime can be the same in any country, the time is not, i.e. the time you'll get to pay for your crime can be vastly different from country to country and the less developped is the country where you'll end up in jail, the slower you'll feel the time is.

Case in point is Thailand, where sentencing can be very, very tough, and life in prison is beyong tough, making the time crawling to an halt. But it seems these 2 guys did not mind, father and son, British by nationality if not by names.



...

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By Thai News on 3/21/2009 11:57 AM

The new airbus A380 has been coming in and out of Singapore for quite some time but we still did not see it in Thailand.

This will change soon, from the 1st of June, the Airbus A380 will be landing in Bangkok regularly thanks to Emirates Airlines. One of their A380 plane operating in between Dubai and New York will be redeployed to the Dubai-Bangkok route due to weak traffic demand on the American route.

What it means is that you will be able to fly Bangkok-London in the A380 providing you like Emirates Airlines, which by the way is one of the world best airline, and you do not mind making one stop in Dubai.

And here it is

...

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By Thai News on 3/6/2009 4:22 PM

So, he finally got it. Abhisit was elected by the Thai Parliament Prime Minister of Thailand. It took the removal of a few PMs as well as a lot of MPs by the Thai judiciary for him to be elected but well, does not change the fact that he is the new PM.

And if there is a change that you can notice these days is how involved he gets at promoting Thailand, you can see him on CNBC, CNN, ... The message, Thailand is now back to normal and we welcome everybody, please come, if you never came, and come back if you left.

And indeed Thailand is back to normal, no more yellow shirts people battling red shirts, occupying airports, occupying...

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By Thai News on 12/13/2008 3:39 PM

Khun Somchai was, as expected, kicked out, not really because he did anything wrong but because some of the people in his party as well as the other parties in the government did. They bought votes at the last elections.

So on Monday we'll have the election of the new PM by the MPs from parliement and unfortunately it is quite difficult for a majority to agree about whom to elect so far, so every vote will count and a lot of deals are made in the background.

But the leader of the Democrat party, Khun Abhisit, is quite convinced it is now his turn to be PM, not because the population wants him to be PM, or he would have been elected...

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By Thai News on 11/28/2008 6:07 PM

The PAD people are making the airport their new home, bringing blankets for sleeping, blocking the highway with a firetruck and trolleys, in short preparing themselves to stay there for as long as they can.

So what should you do if you are a foreigner in Bangkok and wants to leave Bangkok?

There are a few options available:

- You can try to get a flight at Utapao airport, the military airport next to Pattaya (150 kms south of Bangkok), they said some Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Malaysian airlines flights will be landing there. The few seats available will sure be in high demand, so you'll need to be patient if you choose...

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By Thai News on 11/27/2008 7:18 PM

The airport is still closed and more and more people are now stuck in Thailand, some without much money left by the way. The situation is getting really out of control and there are more and more calls for the army to intervene. To intervene for removing the PAD people from the airport and re-open it. But well, the army won't do that, if they intervene, it will be to remove Somchai's governement and take the control of the country once again. And this is exactly what the rumor in Bangkok is this afternoon, there will be a Coup d'Etat this evening. And the next PM would be:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anand_Panyarachun...

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By Thai News on 11/26/2008 6:31 PM

I went for a day trip to Vietnam yesterday and came back in the evening, 10.20, Thai Airways flight from Ho Chi Minh CityAs usual, I rushed through the customs (no queue, took less than 5 minutes) and went out through the gate 7 in order to wait for the car supposed to come to pick me up.First impression, why is there so much noise outside, music, hands clapping, shouting, impossible to hear what the driver was trying to tell me, just two words, "wait, traffic".I hanged up the phone but is that guy out of his mind? What traffic is he talking about? I did not even ONE car for the 5 minutes I've been waiting. But why is nobody waiting, only me,...

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