Category Archives: Thailand tourism

Thais need educating that foreigners visiting Thailand are not targets – Thailand Foreign Minister

Posted on by
Editorial – Thailand current events

Editorial Thailand’s high-value tourism industry has taken a battering courtesy of the country’s foreign minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who said a campaign is needed to educate Thai people that foreigners visiting Thailand are worth a lot of money and are not targets. The comments, published in The Bangkok Post’s Ministry in tourist safety drive, along with a proposal to install more closed circuit television cameras (CCTC) in 10 provincial cities and asking police to increase patrols along beaches and at other tourist spots, follows a brain-storming session at Thailand’s foreign ministry in response to the increasing number of complaints received by its embassies regarding the safety of foreigners visiting Thailand. Thailand Foreign Minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul, said the meeting discussed several measures … Continue reading →

Drug resistant malaria on Thailand-Burma border grows by 3,335%

Posted on by
Field microscopy along the Thailand-Burma border. Photo: Courtesy SMRU

Two recent studies of malaria along the Thailand-Burma border show that drug-resistant malaria in the region is increasing at an alarming rate, with one study showing a 3,335 percent increase in the last 10 years. The reports, Emergence of artemisinin-resistant malaria on the western border of Thailand: a longitudinal study published in The Lancet and A Major Genome Region Underlying Artemisinin Resistance in Malaria, published in the journal Science, show drug-resistant malaria is rapidly moving into new areas Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the US National Institutes of Health, the two research projects included scientists from Bangkok’s Mahidol University, the Centre for Tropical Medicine at Britain’s Oxford University, and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in the USA, found that … Continue reading →

Betrayal in the land of smiles – the death of Gareth Paul Davies

Posted on by
Editorial – Thailand current events

Editorial The death of Leicestershire English teacher Gareth Davies is one of the most needless deaths to have occurred in Thailand in several years and in the final analysis amounts to nothing more than a betrayal in the land of smiles, as Thailand so often likes to refer to itself. With the 2015 Asean Community rapidly approaching, Thailand is in desperate need to ramp up it’s English language skills if it is not going be part of the flotsam, left in the wake of countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India and even Indonesia and Vietnam. The current Thailand Government recognises the urgency needed to improve the English language skills of the Thai people and the county’s Ministry of Education, the … Continue reading →

Leicestershire English teacher abandoned by Kasem Bundit University, Bangkok

Posted on by
47-year-old Leicester English teacher Gareth Davies languishes in a Thailand hospital

A Leicestershire English teacher’s commitment to his Thai students may cost him his life after falling ill in Bangkok, Thailand and then finding his employer, a private Bangkok university, hadn’t made the obligatory contributions it had been deducting from his salary to the country’s Social Welfare Fund, which guarantees medical cover for all legally employed staff. After five years teaching at Apex Works in Leicestershire, Gareth Davies from the village of Glennfield, set off to pursue his desire of teaching English as a second language in Thailand. About nine months ago the Leicestershire English teacher accepted an appointment to the department of English language for communications at Kasem Bundit University, one of Thailand’s numerous private universities, to teach English major … Continue reading →

Bangkok terrorism alert a face-losing embarrassment by Thai government (updated Jan 20, 2012)

Posted on by
Screen shot 2012-01-19 at 2.19.26 AM

This story was updated at 15:15 Jan 20, 2012 Edited text in blue type This story was updated at 09:30 Jan 19, 2012. Edited text in green type A Bangkok terrorism alert issued by the American embassy in Bangkok and at least 14 other nations which has been continually downplayed and criticized by Thailand officials is gaining credibility day-by-day, while proving to be an increasingly face-losing embarrassment for the country and its political leaders. A report today by the highly respected award-winning intelligence and security news service Debkafile adds additional credibility to the Bangkok terrorism alert, claiming Hezbollah planned to explode a bomb at Bet Habad Bangkok, mimicking al Qaeda’s 2008 attack in Mumbai which killed 8 Israelis, while up … Continue reading →

Chiang Mai tourist death probe finds no common link – PR campaign launched to protect tourism industry

Posted on by
Final report into the deaths of five foreign tourists and one Thai tourist guide in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

Improper handling of pathology samples and limited cooperation by relatives are blamed by Thailand authorities for scientists on four continents being unable to determine a causative agent or a common factor linking the deaths of five tourists and a Thai tourist guide in the Northern City of Chiang Mai earlier this year. After five months of investigation and thousands of laboratory tests the investigative panel formed to probe the Chiang Mai tourist death cluster yesterday handed down a report that raises more questions than it answers, while at the same time announcing a raft of new initiatives to protect the region and country’s precious tourism industry from dangers that it says weren’t responsible for the deaths of tourists in Chiang Mai … Continue reading →

War of words over Chiang Mai tourist deaths report

Posted on by
60 Minutes New Zealand report on the Chiang Mai tourist deaths

When New Zealand 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Hall wrapped her arms around a tearful Emma Carter in the final seconds of its To die for episode on the death of her daughter Sarah Carter while staying at the Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai, Thailand earlier this year, few people could be forgiven for thinking that the evidence was overwhelming that chlorpyrifos poisoning was to blame, and Chiang Mai authorities were guilty of a sinister cover-up. However, while 60 Minutes was careful to use the word “theory” twice in the programme, statements by its expert, scientist Dr Ron McDowall, in the final minutes of the programme that the symptoms exhibited by Ms Carter prior to her death “perfectly” fitted with chlorpyrifos … Continue reading →