Pattaya & Thailand LATEST NEWS from Fabulous 103fm (13 March 2023)
– Chiang Mai smog ranks worst in the world
With China’s capital seeing a massive spike in smog levels Friday, reducing slowly over the night, so its Chiang Mai that takes the sad title of the region with world’s worst air pollution on earth, according to the IQ Air website. CM beat the usual winners, mainly Indian, hands down and it’s an accolade that the city is unhappy with but there doesn’t seem to be much they can do about it, as the smog is across the whole region of Asia, and Chiang Mai itself neighbours several countries with high pollution whilst the city itself has always had a problem due to the fact that it is effectively in a bowl, surrounded by hills, sees little in the way of air movement. Summer storms are predicted for much of the country today through to Wednesday and will, hopefully, wash the filth down, onto your car and home, but leave the air clear for a while. This morning the BKK to Pattaya region saw rain showers before dawn.
– Political parties warned to back up promises
The Election Commission has stepped in to remind all parties that promising the earth to voters isn’t allowed. With some offering to raise wages, others promising farmers triple their current income, more saying school days could be reduced and a whole barrage of “vote for me and we will give yous”, the commission has explained that for a party to make such promises, they MUST also outline where budgets would be funded. If they don’t, well they face fines of up to half a million baht. Wiser Thais are used to the guarantees that often fall by the wayside after voting day but for younger voters it’s a serious issue, as is the alleged practice of voters being offered remuneration for their votes.. an issue likely to be raised in the coming weeks too.
– Hunger strikers give up after 52 days
Two women who went on hunger strike to promote their political wish list have started eating again, 52 days later. Warned that they faced the shut down of organs and death, the two finally agreed to chow down but only, they say, so that they can promote their wish list more vigorously. Currently, under the care of a university hospital, the 21 and 23 year olds are said to still need medical support.
– E-cig raid nets 80 million bahts worth of goods
Mega e-cigarette importers in Nakhon pathom got a knock at the door they weren’t expecting. Cyber crime police along with local authorities raided 3 buildings, seizing e cigs and liquids worth an estimated 80 mill baht on the streets. Three were arrested during the raids.
– Two tourists rescued from sinking canoe
Sunday on Phuket saw police thanking the crew of a sailing ship who rescued 2 tourists close to drowning 2 days before. Seems the duo, of unknown nationality, took a plastic canoe out in the ocean to explore islands but, at some point their canoe took in water, forcing them eventually to enter the waters and use the kayak as a buoyancy aid. Alarm was raised only and as they failed to return, emergency services and boat owners were asked to help in the search that found them, after dusk.. mostly by luck. The canoe was large enough to show on radar which helped. As the search was called off, the less than dynamic duo left the scene as quickly as possible with faces slightly reddened.
– Thai banking apps to demand facial scanning for transfers
Bank Apps, cause of huge concern to the public following hacking issues that have seen millions stolen from account holders, are to be made more secure, according to the Bank of Thailand governor who has confirmed that soon, any transfer by phone app over 50K baht will require biometric confirmation, that’s either a face photo or a fingerprint. Banks will also have to develop programming that picks up on any odd sequence of transfer, such as multiple transfer and b meanwhile account holders, that’s you and me, are advised to reduce the maximum daily transfer amount, which you can do easily, to a minimum figure, changing it only when we have a large transaction to make and then returning it to the low figure.
– Larger ladies battle for ‘Miss Daughter of an Elephant’ title
In any Western country, women would be up in arms at a beauty competition with a difference, but here a so-called beauty contest between Jumbo sized women, alongside an elephant, has trended and is catching eyes. Miss Jumbo Queen 2023 is said to celebrate the alternative beauty of larger females and sees 6 rounds in various cities before the final in Korat. It’s open to all females, and members of the third gender but they have to weigh in at over 80 KG to qualify. The winner will be titled Miss Daughter of an Elephant, a title which would be less than welcome elsewhere perhaps, but with the prize 300K baht, and no sign, so far, of protests by the woke brigade.. it’s full on.
– Thai school uniforms become fashion trend
There is a new fad in fashion, certainly for Chinese but other nations follow. That is the wearing of Thai school uniforms. As pupils wrangle with a few protests that it’s UNFAIR that they have to wear the attire, which is standard across all learning institutions in Thailand, so the latest trend seems to be for women to wear the cheap uniforms. Without school names embroidered it’s certainly not illegal but, as some point it, it’s slightly weird. Nevertheless, for some, the blue and white outfit is likely to become a must have for their closets.
– Navy clampdown on illegally built resort
Meanwhile at home and in our own province, down in Sattahip the Navy has ordered a resort to suspend its operations as they claim that the land on which it is built, belongs to the nation. They had had a request to rent the plot 3 yrs ago but it was never approved, the resort operator claims to have bought an effective lease from an unnamed local bigwig but that’s not enough to stop the cease and desist order. The venue only opened this year and there is no word on licensing as it was advertised for a whacking 15K a night for groups or families of 4.
Jomtien was the successful venue for the weekend music festival which was well attended and the city was busy across the whole area at the weekend. Next weekend sees the festival return to Pattaya beach and will also see that road partially closed too, this as second road is narrowed to single file traffic due to the usual road works and 3rd road too is seeing some lane closures too.
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