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ncr
25-04-05, 11:33 AM
Spotted on MCOT/TNA:

Tuk-tuk tourism to beat rain in Trang

TRANG, Apr 24, (TNA) – If it’s raining, forget umbrellas or bus shelters – a tuk-tuk is the place to be! Or so say tourism officials in the southern province of Trang, who hope to stimulate tourism during the rainy season by encouraging tourists to go on city tours in the comfort of their own motorized rickshaws.

Mr. Wichai Ratmanee, president of the Trang Tourism Promotion Association, unveiled the tuk-tuk tourism programme today by noting that visitor numbers tended to plummet each year in mid-May as the monsoon rains hit the province.

As a result, the association has decided to team up with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Trang municipal authorities and the local tuk-tuk drivers’ association to organize city tours for visitors.

Under the programme, tourists will be able to determine their own routes and fares for the rides in the specially decorated tuk-tuks.

"We expect a high level of interest, as it’s the first time that tuk-tuks have been decorated with stickers depicting dugongs", Mr. Wichai said, adding that the drivers would receive training in manners before embarking on the programme proper at the beginning of next month.

A pilot project with 30 tuk-tuks will run from June until August, after which the programme will be expanded to include 200 vehicles. (TNA)-E006

Comment: No doubt it will be an instant hit. In earnest, how couldn't it be a success if they have dugongs on the vehicles? Why nobody ever came up with that idea before to improve the reputation of tuk-tuks in Bangkok.....?!

:eek: :rolleyes: :confused:

But let me propose a small improvement to the plan: Hire an astrologist to apply the stickers at a particularly auspicious date and time.

GWR
26-04-05, 12:52 AM
When all the Dugongs are dead, they will live on as Tuk-Tuk stickers. Just like Che Guevara lives on, on the side of trucks; symbolic of some past spark of idealism that has been completely wiped out by too much speed.

The only Dugong I ever saw was dead, and being kept in a coldstore for folks to ogle at.

Talking of 'Bizarre Trang' (also Home of the Underwater Mass Wedding), maybe it's time to get some images of its bizarre 'Oceanliner Hotel'. None of this quite seems to fit in with folk who like to vote for 'ever-so 'umble Khun Chuan'. :rolleyes:

Here it is. The 'Buttfuck Ugly Concrete Oceanliner Hotel'. Haven't seen it for a while, but behind it used to be perhaps the ugliest golf-driving range I have ever seen:-
http://www.geocities.com/swanchee/index_files/image031.jpg

Yappofloyd
30-04-05, 05:19 AM
The 'Buttfuck Ugly Concrete Oceanliner Hotel'. [/URL]

Khun GWR, I am wondering how your title translates into Thai?
I am thinking that you could probably suggest to the owners that they post new signage with your title as it would probably attract the foreign tourists.It would certainly make a great entry in the Lonely Planet and put Trang on the map for other reasons that the Dugong driving Tuk-Tuks!

GWR
22-08-05, 12:33 PM
On the day after Hunter S. Thompson's ashes were blasted into the ether over Aspen, Colorado (by a massive fireworks display canon built atop a large 'gonzo fist'; paid for by Johnny Depp), I think it is apt to inform you that if I were to picture the Las Vegas Hotel which inspired 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas' and Thompson's eventual reclusivity, it would look something very similar to Trang's BUCO Hotel. And by some accounts, the BUCOH's proprietor is also capable of emulating a Ralph Steadman vision of hell if you don't grayngjai in quite the appropriate manner.

The subconscious trigger for my naming this monstrosity as BUCOH probably owes a lot to Henry Miller and his vivid descriptions of working for the 'Cosmococcic Telegraph Company' (AKA Western Union).

ncr
22-04-06, 05:07 AM
An amusing (though 1 year old) item from the Travel Daily News (http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=22347&subcategory_id=98):

Thailand: Stickers ban free sex on tourist island
Monday, May 02, 2005

Tourists arriving on Thailand's southern resort island of Pha-ngan are to be issued with stickers stating the island`s ban on 'free sex', following government concern over visitors having sexual intercourse in public places.

The decision follows pleas by Khon Kaen Senator Rabiabrat Pongpanit to prevent tourists on the island having sex in public after the island's notorious Full Moon parties. [well, we got rid of her in the latest elections, as incumbents are not eligible for the new senate]

Today Mr. Pramoth Supyen, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)'s Southern Office Region 5, warned that although it would be difficult to ban the parties, which were an important source of revenue for the island, the police would put a halt to them if they were alerted to tourists having sex in public places.

Noting that tourists should be aware that Thailand is not a place to have public sexual intercourse, he warned that tourists having free sex could be arrested. [ts, ts, ts]

The TAT will inform tourists that public sex is banned under the Thai law by issuing stickers and leaflets to residents of the island's hotels and guesthouses outlining the legal position.

Vicky Karantzavelou - Monday, May 02, 2005

:eek: :rolleyes: ;) :p