pdogg
-
Posts
5,362 -
Joined
-
Days Won
19
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by pdogg
-
-
There's a new Sheriff in town. He's telling the posse to stop taking bribes and instead round up the Coconut Bar ladyboys.
New Pattaya police chief, Pol. Col. Sukthat Pumpunmuang told officers to stop taking bribes and focus on snatching thefts and tourist druggings to clean up the city’s image.
In a meeting with officers at Pattaya City Hall Jan. 22, the new superintendent - the brother of national police chief Gen. Somyos Pumpunmuang - said snatchings of jewelry and handbags occur 30-50 times a month in Pattaya with the perpetrators getting young, now often in the 15-16 age range.
The second most-reported crime is the drugging and robbery of tourists, usually by transvestites and female prostitutes on Pattaya Beach, he said.
Sukthat said if those two types of crimes could be controlled, the city’s crime problem would greatly be diminished.
He also warned officers - particularly traffic cops - to stop taking bribes. With cameras in every phone and social media so prevalent there are “eyes and ears” everywhere, he said. Officers caught taking bribes would damage the image of Pattaya.
He made special mention of traffic police and said there have been many complaints about the large number of checkpoints, which people see as bribe-taking centers. He said officers must justify the need for checkpoints and clarify if they are to prevent crime or control traffic.
The meeting wrapped with a greeting by Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, who assured officers that city hall had no intention of taking over some of the jurisdiction of police and said the city wants to support the police department either through food, drinks or allowances.
http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/new-pattaya-police-chief-tells-officers-to-stop-taking-bribes-44586 -
Is the TT rate the same as the Visa Interbank rate?
Or does the TT rate vary from bank to bank?
I'm pretty good with math but the international banking fees are intentionally opaque making it difficult to compare alternatives,
-
ok with the increase in charge was thinking of bringing some $500 Amex cheques, but since I have only used $100 and $50 in the past not sure if I will have any issues trying to cash them, anyone had any experiences positive or negative using $500 cheques
My info is VERY old but I have cashed 500USD Amex checks at the exchange nooths of major Thai banks. A passport is required. Assumingyou can get the checks for free in Canada, using one 500 TC instead of five 100 checks will save you 612 baht if the fee is 153 per check (or 732 if the fee is 183 per check), a significant difference.
-
Was that the ass whipping night?
-
Pattaya Police are currently searching for a Middle-Eastern man, woman and child, who are suspected of being involved in the theft of US Dollars from a Russian Tourist outside of a 24 hour convenience store in Naklua early on Wednesday Morning.
Mr. Rinat Safin aged 26 and his partner, made their way to Pattaya Police Station just before 3am on Wednesday to report the incident which occurred in Soi 23 off the Naklua Road.
Mr. Safin told Police that he was about to enter the store when he was approached by a Man, woman and child, who appeared to be of middle-eastern origin. The man asked if he could see some Russian Rubles as he was curious as to how the bank notes looked.
Mr. Safin produced some Rubles but the man asked if he could see the US Dollar Bills which were also inside his wallet.
At one point Mr. Safin handed over his wallet to the man who then returned the wallet before leaving with the woman and child. Mr. Safin entered the store but realized that US Dollars were missing from his wallet, when he came to pay for items at the counter. He ran outside but the middle-easterners were gone.
Mr. Safin claimed that he lost 1,700 US Dollars which was detailed on a Police Report which will be used for an insurance claim when Mr. Safin returns to Russia. For now Police are examining security cameras in the area as they attempt to track-down the suspected thief.
-
From Time Magazine
The Land of Smiles? How about the Land of Shakedowns?
Mastercard’s 2014 Global Destination Cities Index recently ranked Bangkok as the second most visited destination in the world after London. Spend a few days this hedonistic metropolis and you’ll soon understand why, for it offers an almost unbeatable mix of culture, edgy nightlife, cheap shopping, comfortable hotels, warm weather and — who can say no? — Thai cuisine.
But since the May 22 coup d’état that saw the ouster of a democratically elected government and martial law declared across the country, many tourists and expatriates in Bangkok have fallen prey to a criminal practice. The victims have little recourse when reporting incidents to the police, because the perpetrators are police officers.“If you go to Sukhumvit Road, you can see the police looking for tourists who are smoking or drop a cigarette butt, then they ask them for their passport and make them pay 2,000 baht [just over $60]. I see this happening all the time,” says anticorruption politician Chuwit Kamolvisit.
“[And] when the tourists come out of Soi Cowboy [a notorious red-light area], the police ask them if they’ve had drugs and then make them do a pee test on the side of the road. If they don’t want to do the pee test, they have to pay 20,000 baht [about $610].”
Being a former brothel owner, Chuwit’s word isn’t exactly gospel in Thailand. But his claims are apparently corroborated by dozens if not hundreds of first-person reports in the form of local newspaper articles, complaints to embassies, blogs and social-media postings. Some believe that the coup, by disrupting traditional avenues for corruption, has forced aberrant police officers to look for new targets.
On Dec. 10, British Ambassador Mark Kent tweeted, “Met Tourism Minister this morning. Covered range of issues, including reports of stop and search in Bangkok.”
The Twitter feed of Joe Cummings, the former Lonely Planet author who practically put Thailand on the backpacker map, is riddled with stories detailing police harassment and extortion. “Random police searches of foreigners in BKK is getting bad,” reads a typical entry dated Dec. 6. “Many reports of innocent tourists forced to pay bribes.”
Then there’s this scathing letter to the editor by tourist Reese Walker published Nov. 29 in the Bangkok Post: “Stopped, frisked and searched. When we asked what reason was for the search, police simply laughed at us. The police even asked my fiance to perform a urine test on the side of the road … [We] won’t be recommending other people to visit Thailand based on two frightening incidents of what we believe to be racial profiling.”
Walker’s letter gives me a real sense of déjà vu because when I was assignment in Bangkok last month, I too became the victim of a police shakedown.
It was Christmas Eve and I was at the upstairs area of a terrace bar in the Silom Road area having a late-night drink. At around 2 a.m. I called it a night and descended to the ground floor. There I saw half a dozen police officers searching the premises and interrogating the bartender, who was handcuffed on a chair. An officer detained me straight away. “What’s going on?” I asked, identifying myself as a journalist.
He made a menacing fist at me, which convinced me to pipe down.
About 15 minutes later, another police officer produced a bag of white powder, shook it near my face and accused me of buying it. I emphatically denied the claim. Meanwhile, other police officers began helping themselves to drinks from the bar. When the bartender protested, they kicked him in the shins.
Eventually, a police officer took me outside where a Thai woman told me if I paid the equivalent of $15,200, I would be released. I told her I hadn’t done anything and would not pay a cent. I was taken back inside, where officers had now detained another four Westerners present at the bar. They then took all five of us in taxis to a nearby police station without a word of explanation.
Over the next four hours we were individually forced to undergo urine tests for drugs, during which a policeman standing guard in the lavatory taunted me by saying, “You cocaine.” Images from popular books and a TV series on the notorious Bangkwang Central Prison penitentiary, the so-called Bangkok Hilton, flashed through my mind.
Next we were taken to a media room with powerful fluorescent lights. Exhausted and disheveled, having not slept the entire night, and with our urine samples lined in front of us, we were photographed in a setting that made us look guilty as sin.
Some time after dawn we were presented with a typed document — in Thai — and told to sign it. At this, I drew a line and demanded to speak with the Australian embassy. Only then did our tormentors back down, casually informing us we’d all passed our drug tests and would be released — if only we signed on the dotted line. I did so, but I also scribbled, “This is not my signature” on the document before walking back onto the steamy streets of Bangkok at 8 a.m. on Christmas Day, traumatized but elated to be free.
During my detention, I identified myself as a journalist many times and asked for an explanation. None was given to me. After my release, I wrote to the official email address of the Thai police, but it bounced back. I copied half a dozen other government agencies, including the Australian embassy in Bangkok, which is supposed to have a police-liaison unit, but the only reply I got was from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which said the following:
“The Royal Thai Government and the Royal Thai Police have no such policy to detain, harass, abduct, threaten and drug test Western tourists in Thailand. On the contrary, the Royal Thai Government recognizes the huge importance of tourism and safety for all foreign tourists is an on-going priority for the country.”
One would think that would be the case. Tourism receipts and indirect tourism activity account for 15% of Thailand’s GDP — making it the largest sector in the economy. So why would police be allowed to make omelets from Thailand’s golden eggs?
The most popular theory is that low-ranking street cops, some of whom earn as little as $1 an hour, are seeking out new sources of income, because the military-led government has begun cracking down on the street vendors who were the former targets of police shakedowns. Foreigners make convenient prey because they can be intimidated and, compared with the local population, are relatively wealthy.
“This explanation says the takeover has placed the police, traditionally at odds with the military, in some sort of frenzy amidst proposed restructuring that is likely to deeply disrupt the way the police have operated — both formally and informally,” says Thai political analyst Saksith Saiyasombut.
But Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai political scholar based in Japan who has had his passport revoked for criticizing the military-led government, thinks the practice has, paradoxically, a social-order element to it. Demanding random drug tests from some tourists, or asking for cash for a dropped cigarette butt, the thinking goes, shows other tourists that Thailand’s new rulers want to shed some of the seedier aspects of the country’s image abroad.
“The coup makers came with a mission. And that mission is to rebuild an orderly and clean society,” Pavin says. “They believe that by appearing to be serious about cleaning up society and creating an orderly atmosphere, it will attract more tourists. They even bizarrely announced a new campaign, Tourism and Martial Law, to promote the idea that society under martial law is pleasant.”
He adds: “It will not work, because they don’t understand either the logic of tourists or indeed the economy of tourism.”
Bangkok may have had 16.42 million visitors last year. But that number is down nearly 2 million compared with the previous year, with the drop attributed to the declining ruble and corresponding fall in the number of Russian tourists. Increased fear of flying in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines tragedies has been proffered as another reason, as has general uncertainty about the coup. If action isn’t taken to rein in the Thai police, tourist numbers may fall further still.
-
Another from Lita Bar
-
She looks awesome to me!
-
I watch my stuff in VLC media player.
I also use VLC to watch my stuff. Friends have given me lots of movies and TV shows by external hard drive.
I think the people who got in trouble in the States are those who were "uploading" stuff. But I guess when you are leeching you are also seeding at the same time?
-
OK, so let's say I have Kickass and Vuze.
Then what do I do?
So to download and watch movies I need two different thingies?
-
Now I am not a fan of our current mayor. In fact I think he is an utter clown but he doesnt deserve any criticism. It was razor close and just luck that the city didnt get hammered. Only 40 miles east they did, indeed, get two feet of snow! Imagine if he did nothing and the city got hammered????
There are people in Queens who still haven't forgiven Mayor Lindsay for his slow response to a big snowstorm that left some Queens sois unplowed for days.
How the hell did Arch get to the loading dock?
According to Jimmy Breslin, the only reason he got re-elected was his visibility in the Met's locker room when they won the '69 World Series.
-
Central Park got 5.5 inches
Most Thai Ladyboys have more than 5.5 inches!
-
Lou Reed, Take a walk on the wild side
Correctomundo
-
Ok, here's an easy on that should go quickly:
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
-
Welcome to the Forum Tel.
Two votes for Peggy being a super sweetie!
-
"Lovely Rita"........
Yes, Lovely Rita!
Was that the Ladyboy with massive girth from Casanova?
-
Does this ring any bells gents:
"making love in the green grass behind the stadium..."
Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
-
Lovely Rita
Correctomunod.
Lovely Rita Meter Maid
-
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man
Rocky Racoon is not correct. The song is not on the White Album.
-
Fook, we are going to hit with, and I quote "as much as 6cm"
Is that length or girth?
Seems like your worst blizzard was in 1947
Anyone who lived through the blizzard of 1947 will always have it ingrained in their memory. The harsh conditions and the scarcity of fuel and food made life difficult for both man and beast.
The extreme weather began at the end of February 1947 and continued well into the month of March. The snow and wind were quite severe on the last Friday in February.
The snow fell intermittently until the Monday, when a blizzard set in with strong cold winds and harsh daytime snows – this continued for twenty-four hours nonstop. The blizzard was driven by a fierce east wind and swept the country on the Tuesday.
It paralyzed road and rail services and brought all traffic to a standstill. Huge snow-drifts, some up to fifteen feet high, were common in many areas.
The cold weather began around the middle of February and lasted through March. Up to 600 people are said to have died.
-
Good idea for a thread GT!
And while we're waiting for an answer to your original lyric, here's one that the Heefoo team got right at Quiz Night tonight:
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man
The title is still up for grabs.
Hefe got the band, The Beatles.
-
Juno's on the way.
Could be the worst blizzard in New York City History.
If you don't have to get to work or shovel snow it's great! Wish I was there.
Here are some of the worst blizzards in NYC history.
A historic blizzard is on track to hit southern New England and the northern mid-Atlantic — including Boston, New York City and possibly Philadelphia — early this week. A storm system will develop off the East Coast during the day Monday and throw back moisture into cold air Monday evening and into Tuesday. Snow may fall at a rate of 2 inches to 4 inches per hour in some spots.
But just how historic will the storm be? It could easily make the all-time top 10 in terms of snowfall in all three cities, and it may claim the No. 1 spot in Boston and New York.
New York City is under a blizzard warning for 20 to 30 inches of snow. The biggest snowstorm to ever hit New York dropped 26.9 inches of snow on Feb. 12 and 13, 2006, according to data going back to 1869. The snowy wallop was caused by mesoscale bands that pivoted over the city in the overnight hours.
Here are New York’s top 10 snowstorms:
- Feb. 11-12, 2006 — 26.9 inches
- Dec. 26-27, 1947 — 26.4 inches
- March 12-14, 1888 — 21.0 inches
- Feb. 25-26, 2010 — 20.9 inches
- Jan. 7-8, 1996 — 20.2 inches
- Dec. 26-27, 2010 — 20.0 inches
- Feb. 16-17, 2003 — 19.8 inches
- Jan. 26-27, 2011 — 19.0 inches
- March 7-8, 1941 — 18.1 inches
- Dec. 26, 1872 — 18.0 inches
New York’s top 10 includes the “Blizzard of 1888″ (No. 3), the “Blizzard of 1996″ (No. 5) and, most recently, the “Snowicane” of 2010 (No. 4). The Blizzard of 1888 was responsible for many deaths and was one impetus for the construction of the city’s underground subway system, while the historic Blizzard of 1996 dumped snow from Washington, D.C., to southern New England. Both featured heavy winds.
If the National Weather Service is dead-on accurate (not a sure thing), the coming blizzard will make it into New York’s top six at a minimum. As long as a foot and a half of snow falls, this storm will be tied for the 10th spot with an 1872 storm none of us was alive to see.
-
how about this one to start off with
"oh Alexander I see you beneath the archway of aerodynamics"
Still Unanswered.
-
Polythene Pam by the Fab 4 for Quiz Night?
That's a very good guess and you got the band right Hefe.
But that's not the right song.
150 baht fee for cashing travelers checks
in Money
Posted
The Yellow Bank will spit out 30 notes. But some guys may have a limit such as 500 USD or 500 CAD imposed by their home bank.