The story is here, and begins:
Plans for the U.S. government to expand its use of a Thai military airbase have created a stir in Thailand, with domestic politics likely playing a significant role in the controversy, according to a Thailand security expert.
Bloomberg reports today:
For all the bickering among Thai political parties, they agree on one thing: Now isn’t the time to amend a law last changed in 1976 that has been used to shield the royal family from criticism.
Worth a read.
Embedded above and on YouTube here is a creative anti-smoking PSA that appears to be from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
You can find more details here.
(Via @jonrussell)
The story is here, and begins:
Runway repairs at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport are causing flight delays, and a global airline association says carriers and passengers could be significantly affected in the weeks ahead.
I have a Wall Street Journal House of the Day piece online today. The headline is “Room for the Helipad in Thailand.”
It begins:
This Thai villa has two guest houses, an outdoor pavilion that can be converted into a helipad and comes with a lifetime membership to a Jack Nicklaus golf course.
Click through for all the details and images.
To follow up on my earlier post: I have a story today at the WSJ‘s Southeast Asia Real Time blog that sums up the situation.
The UEFA Euro 2012 football tournament in Poland and Ukraine kicked off Friday. In the run-up to the kickoff, though, the discussion among many fans in soccer-mad Thailand had nothing to do with who might win the competition, regarded by many as the world’s most important football tournament after the World Cup.
Rather, much of the chatter online was about whether subscribers to Thailand’s biggest cable TV provider, TrueVisions, would even be able to watch the matches at home.
(Image: via.)
From a photo I Tweeted and posted to Facebook earlier today. Couldn’t resist sharing.
At last, I came face to face with “someone” who’s larger than me — and certainly sticks out more than I do — here in Thailand.
Big folks who sometimes feel out of place in Asia or elsewhere may well sympathize.
Thanks to A for snapping the pic.
The Bangkok Post reports today:
Cable television operator TrueVisions has failed to resolve its dispute with Euro 2012 Football Championship broadcast rights holder GMM Grammy.
About 2 million True subscribers saw Euro 2012 broadcasts from Channel 3, Channel 5 and Modernine TV cancelled last night during the tournament’s opening match between Poland and Greece at 11pm, and again for Russia versus the Czech Republic at 1:45am this morning.
The matches could be seen on terrestrial television but True blocked those stations’ broadcasts through its cable and satellite platforms. True showed alternative programmes instead.
We’re TrueVisions subscribers but got the GMM Grammy satellite box up and running prior to kickoff, thankfully. As I Tweeted on Thurs.:
1. #Euro2012 fans in Thailand: Can confirm GMM Grammy box works w/ True. Swap out box, coax, AV cables, HDMI. Box is ~THB 1500 at 7-11.
— Newley Purnell (@newley) June 7, 2012
2. Technical assistance by @Anasuya. Still unclear if will have HD and English commentary, but we have lift off for pics and sound.
— Newley Purnell (@newley) June 7, 2012
Richard Barrow also has a tutorial, if you’d like to implement a similar setup.
Indeed, it turns out there’s no English language commentary or HD service. But the picture is decent, for standard definition.
More soon on this topic.
As if there weren’t enough happening here in Thailand at the moment…
Here’s an announcement that will be welcome news to travelers:
The AOT says it’s expanding Suvarnabhumi international airport by one third.
Reuters reports:
Airports of Thailand Pcl is to spend about $1.9 billion over the next five years to expand capacity at Bangkok’s overcrowded Suvarnabhumi airport by a third, its president said on Wednesday.
AOT AOT.BK, which runs the country’s six main airports, aims to boost capacity at Suvarnabhumi by 15 million to serve up to 60 million passengers in 2017, Anirut Thanomkulbutra told reporters.
The $4 billion airport, which opened in September 2006 on what was once flooded marshland known as “cobra swamp”, is expected to serve about 51 million passengers in AOT’s fiscal year ending in September 2012, up from 48 million a year earlier and above annual capacity put at 45 million now, Anirut said.
Construction is due to begin in 2015.
The Nation has more details.
For what it’s worth: I understand that Suvarnabhumi’s immigration system has been streamlined recently, and that lines are much shorter now.
(Image: Wikipedia.)
There’s lots on tap here in Thailand over the next few days:
Stay tuned…
(Image: Reuters.)