When I first came to Thailand fifteen years ago there wasn't really that much in the way of English media. All we had at the time were two national newspapers in English and a few programmes on television if we tuned in to a certain radio station to get the English soundtrack. Also, if I travelled into Bangkok I could watch the latest Hollywood movies with the original soundtrack. Things have certainly changed. Some of the national television stations now broadcast both Thai and English audio channels. This is great for watching movies. Even the evening news has an English voiceover if you want. Then there are a growing number of Thai programmes that have English subtitles. More DJ's on the radio are speaking English and playing the latest songs from Europe and America. We now, of course, have satellite stations from people like True Visions (formerly known as UBC). This means we can get the latest news from CNN and BBC and also Hollywood movies from HBO and Star Movies. However, this comes at a high price. But, the biggest innovation for us expats in Thailand was the dawn of the Internet. This suddenly gave us access to a lot of media from back home.

The first gadget that I bought to stream media from the Internet was an Internet Radio box that I bought a couple of years ago in the UK. At that time they didn't have them in Thailand and really, even now, they are hard to come across. I never really listened to Internet Radio on my computer before. But the Internet Radio that I bought works independently from your computer. It looks a bit like an old-fashioned radio. However, it is very modern as it picks up the Internet wirelessly. This means I can plug it in anywhere around the house and I can listen to thousands of radio stations from around the world. Some of my pre-set channels include BBC Radio and a few local channels. I have it on all the time in the office which is my link with the home country. I like the Internet Radio so much that when I went back to the UK the next time I bought two more in the sales! Now I have one in the living room and one in the bedroom. One good thing that I like is that it has an "on demand" menu for some of the stations. So, if there is a particular radio programme that I would like to listen to, I can just choose to listen to when I like.

I was never really into downloading movies and t.v. programmes from the Internet. I just didn't fancy watching these on my computer. However, after True Visions dropped the BBC Entertainment channel I was forced to look elsewhere for British programmes. That is when I discovered two things. The first was the ease of downloading with torrents and the second were the new DVD players that have a USB port. So, all you had to do is download a programme in say .avi format, copy this across to a USB thumbdrive, plug this into your DVD player and then you could watch it on your television. So, when True Vision suddenly cancelled the BBC channel when I was halfway through several seasons, I was now able to finish watching these programmes. Then of course, I discovered new shows and some old favourites from years ago. I started to get hooked to downloading. However, it was still a little inconvenient. After I had downloaded the programmes, I had to copy across to the USB drive and then physically take it to the DVD player in the other room. But, now this has all changed for me.

The latest gadget that I bought to help me get in touch with programmes back home is this media player called PlayOn!HD. Media Players have been around for a few years now but they were never readily available in Thailand. The first ones that came out weren't really that good. Now we have two or three alternatives that have transferred my leisure time. The main two features of this media player is that it is a HD version so I can use a HDMI cable to plug it into my big LCD t.v. Secondly it can be plugged into the network. This means that from my t.v. I can browse files on my computer and then stream any that I like. Even .MKV files which my DVD player couldn't play. When I bought the PlayOn!HD I also bought a hard disk as well. This has two advantages. Firstly, I can store all the files on the hard disk which allows me to turn off the computer. More importantly, I can download torrents directly from the Internet onto the media player. As it uses less power than leaving my computer on to download programmes, I can just leave the media player on all night and then the next day sit down to watch my favourite programmes from the UK.

If you want to know more about where to buy media players in Thailand then visit the Paknam Web Forums where I have opened a thread on this subject.

It is that time of year again when we do a quick review of the past year. Today I am going to look back at some of the more popular news photos from Thailand on our sister blog www.thaiphotoblogs.com. One of the most popular pictures of the year is this ladyboy who won the title Miss Tiffany 2009.

January: The year started off on the wrong foot with the tragic night club fire in Bangkok that killed so many people. A year has passed and no-one has been brought to justice. Australian Harry Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in prison for insulting the monarchy in a little read book. He was later pardoned. Thailand is accused of leaving boat people to die in the Similan Islands.

February: The Americans take part in army exercises in Thailand called Cobra Gold. The Red shirts rally again in Bangkok.

March: Miss Chutima Durongdej was crowned Miss Thailand Universe. Abhisit goes to Britain and meets Gordon Brown. Rod Stewart puts on a concert in Bangkok. Two British tourists are attacked by "pirates" and one is brutally murdered. Red Shirts camp out at Government House.

April: Red Shirts force the premature closure of the ASEAN summit in Pattaya. Thai soldiers and red shirts clash in Bangkok making it a Bloody Songkran. Abhisit's car is attacked by protesters. An attempt on the life of Sondhi Limthongkul is made and he ends up in hospital. Tension on the Thai-Cambodian border builds up. Thailand starts preparing for Swine Flu.

Deadly Club Fire in Bangkok

May: Sorawee Nattee wins Miss Tiffany 2009 contest. The panda in Chiang Mai Zoo gives birth after watching panda porn to get her in the mood. Little Keigo is put in the public eye with his search for his long lost Japanese father. An Australian woman almost causes a diplomatic incident when she steals a bar mat. Governor of Phuket personally apologizes to her and even pays her court fines. The Sky Train extension to Wong Wian Yai is finally opened after years of delay. Two tourists mysteriously die on Phi Phi island. Cause of death is still not known.

June: David Carradine died in his hotel room in Bangkok. Police photos of the crime scene are leaked to the Thai Rath newspaper and the whole world use google to try and see them. American actress Brittany Daniel gets a tattoo by famous Thai tattoo artist Ajarn Nu in Pathum. Gunmen kill 11 people at a mosque in Southern Thailand. Thais are told to wear masks. Train workers go on strike. The yellow shirts form their own party. The panda is now one month old and Thai people go panda crazy. Thai elephants feel left out and decide to dress up as pandas.

July: The red shirts return to Bangkok for more protests. A Thai elephant is born in Australia. Liverpool football club comes to Thailand followed the next day by Hillary Clinton. Bangkok schools close after flu outbreak. Noppawan wins at Wimbledon.

August: A plane crashes on Sumi killing the pilot. Miss Thailand Wins Miss Photogenic at the Miss Universe 2009 competition. Thaksin continues his tour of the world in order to gain publicity. This month he meets the King of Swaziland. Thailand refuses to extradite Viktor Bout to America but they haven't yet released him. The panda is given a name of Lin Ping after a national competition.

Deadly Clashes in Bangkok during Songkran

September: H.M. The King is admitted to Siriraj Hospital. JJ the jet ski scammer is arrested after he was seen on British television extorting money from a tourist. It was later found out that the programme was edited in such a way to make him look bad. The film-makers fled Thailand. A 74 years old man in Sisaket Province was found to be living in a hole for the past 30 years. A Thai-Burmese boy catches the public attention in his plight to get a passport to take part in a paper plane competition in Japan. Foreigners are caught robbing a gold shop in Bangkok. Bryan Robson comes to Thailand for talks to be the next coach of the Thai football team.

October: Rakesh Rakesh returns to Thailand after the Supreme Court of Canada rejected his latest appeal against extradition. The winner of Miss Thailand 2009 was Miss Ornvipa Kanoknateesawad. A passenger is killed in a train crash. Miss Poland comes to Thailand. A billboard in Pattaya proclaims Hitler is not dead. Keigo finally meets his Japanese father. Red shirts continue their protests in Bangkok. Prince Andrew comes to Thailand.

November: Provinces around Thailand each take turns to sing the national anthem live on national television. H.M. the King celebrates Loy Kathong at the hospital. Jimmy Carter comes to Thailand to build houses. Thaksin goes to Cambodia and causes a diplomatic spat. Ex-Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej dies of cancer. Thais are arrested for translating and re-posting foreign news reports about the King's health.

December: Some activities for H.M. The King's birthday are cancelled but he makes a brief birthday speech. Thailand marks five years since the Tsunami. A speedboat in Pattaya kills two tourists. Thai spy in Cambodia is sentenced to 7 years but is later pardoned by the king. An arms cargo plane is detained in Bangkok carrying tons of war weaponry. Thai army forcibly deport 4,000 Hmong back to Lao.

David Carradine dies in a Bangkok hotel room

Top 10 Thai Photos 2009:

1. David Carradine Dead in Bangkok
2. Miss Thailand Universe 2009
3. Brittany Daniel's Thai Tattoo
4. Thailand at Miss Universe 2009
5. Bangkok International Motor Show 2009
6. Club Fire Kills 60 in Bangkok
7. David Beckham's House in Thailand
8. Thai Costume at Miss Universe 2009
9. Thai soldiers, anti-government protesters clash
10. Miss Tifffany 2009

Thailand is in big trouble again. Its tourism industry was already facing disaster last year with the prolonged airport closure. Things looked like it was starting to get better but the situation has just been going from bad to worse. This year Thailand has received a lot of negative press from the international media. Everything seems to be going wrong from unexplained tourist deaths to scams and corrupt officials. The British Home Office amongst other countries issued a travel warning about using shops at the airport as you could be accused of stealing if you crossed over an invisible boundary. Tourists have been telling their local newspapers that they were threatened and forced to pay large bribes to keep them out of prisons.

Now comes another nail in the coffin for the tourism industry. A British production company has just started a series of programmes called "Big Trouble in Thailand". Part one aired on television a few days ago in the UK and there has already been major repercussions. One of the stories in the first episode centers around the "jet ski scam" which has been going on in Thailand for many years. Basically, you rent a jet ski for thirty minutes and when you come back they say that you have damaged it and that you have to pay large sums of money in compensation. The tourists are often threatened with knives and guns and they are surrounded by big thugs. Many people said that the police were no help to them.

The film crew managed to film this scam taking place against a marine. The jet ski operator even brought out his gun. He is probably regretting it now as there has been such an outcry over this scene that the police were forced to act. The governor of Phuket saw to it that he was arrested today and that he was also denied bail. The police also showed the first episode to the media today during a press conference. The local newspaper is reporting that a previous governor had promised to have a crackdown on the jet ski operators and reduce their numbers. Apart from the scams, they are also very dangerous as they have killed swimmers in the past. However, instead of the numbers going down, they have actually increased. No wonder if there is so much money to be made from these scams. Some people have also alleged that the police receive a cut.

I am not sure why they are making such a fuss now. We have all known about this for many years. Over at www.BangkokScams.com we receive reports of this scam nearly every day. Each time it is practically the same. It happens in Pattaya, Koh Samui and Phuket and just about any place that they rent jet skis. Here is one typical report that was sent to us this week:

"When me and my friends got a jet ski out in Pattaya on our last two days there, our nightmare began. We gave the jet ski's back in after initially agreeing a price of 700 THB for 30 minutes each. What followed was a bill of 115,000 THB for "damage" we caused to the carbon fibre on the jet ski's, etc. We said no, and that's when things turned violent. Soon we were held captive at the beech and they started pulling knives out on us. They threatened to kill us at the beach if we did not pay. Eventually they let me go, it took 3 separate visits to the police station before an American volunteer came down to the beach, approximately 5 hours after the incident with my two friends held captive by around 12-15 angry Thai's.

We went to the police station and were threatened to be killed. Eventually we came to an agreement of 50,000 THB in fear for our lives. These guys continued with the death threats, hands in the pockets, etc. It was a horrible experience and it doesn't surprise me about these stories. We spent all our remaining money and took extra overdrafts out of the bank to pay these crooks. 10 hours later and finally we escaped Pattaya. They had been waiting outside our hotel after initially paying 33,000 THB with the agreement to pay 17,000 THB the day later. We paid the money three hours later after coming to an agreement with the bank, at 3 a.m. in the police station. We got back to the hotel, fled in a taxi to Bangkok (they had even bribed our receptionist with 1,000 THB to tell him if we left). I'm sure these guys are now very satisfied having pulled this scam off."

Like many other people who have experienced this scam, these people will now think twice about returning to Thailand. It is also doubtful that any of their friends will come too as they would have been told about this scam. Just visit BangkokScams.com and you will see all the reports that have ben sent to us about the jet ski scam. We are also discussing this over at the ThailandQA Forums. It is time the authorities woke up and paid attention to all reports of scams that are being spread around the Internet. Everything from the two price system to the Thai gem scam. They need to act now before it is too late and people start going to other holiday destinations that are cheaper and have less corruption and fewer scams.

If you are still planning on coming to Thailand on holiday then I give you this one piece of good advice. DO NOT RENT A JET SKI!

UPDATE: Click here to see pictures of JJ being arrested by the police.

UPDATE (Sunday): The film-makers have now put the raw footage up on youtube in order to show that the jet ski scene was not staged.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BigTroubleInThailand

Today is an auspicious day in Thailand for all Thai people. Today is the ninth day of the ninth month of the ninth year in the 21st Century which translates as 09 09 09. The number nine in Thai is "gao" which sounds similar to another word which means to "move forward". Tata Young has chosen today to launch her new album. A new Thai horror movie will also be released today. Some Thai companies will launch new projects today, couples will get married and pregnant women in hospital will be trying to have their baby delivered today.

The number 9 has always been a lucky number for Thai people with some people spending a lot of money to get lottery tickets with the number 9 or even number plates with a 9. Nine monks are often invited to important ceremonies. It is also an auspicious time to do things or start a new enterprise. Many ceremonies start at 9.09 a.m. or 9.29 a.m. just to get the number nine in the time.

In honour of H.M. The King, all Thai people across the kingdom, came together today at exactly 9:09 a.m. to sing the Royal Anthem and other songs dedicated to H.M. The King. At Sriwittayapaknam School, all classes were suspended in the morning for the students to go down to the playground. There they lined up in rows to wave the yellow royal flag and to sing songs to praise his name. If you missed it this morning then I guess you get a second chance tonight at 9.09 p.m.

The only thing that I don't really understand is why the whole country had to come to a standstill today when it is not really 2009 in Thailand. This is the Christian calendar and in Thailand they use the Buddhist calendar. It is actually 2552 which is widely used by everyone in Thailand. You rarely see "2009" being used apart from when naming the "Big Flu of 2009". Not long ago, this wasn't even the ninth month of the year as the Thai government only declared January to be the first month in 1941. But that doesn't seem to worry them.

Another chapter in the life of Panrit "Gor" Daoruang" has come to an end with his release from prison after serving his full three years for dug possession. Gor shot to international fame during his teenage years for his stories about life growing up in Thailand. He is regarded as Thailand first blogger as he started writing about his life when he was only 12 years old. This was back in 1997 and he is now 24 years old. His website www.ThailandLife.com still remains popular with people from around the world as a way to understand the culture of Thailand. People respected the way that Gor was honest about the ups and downs of his life including his fall into drug addiction when he was only 15 years old. He had just graduated from Junior High and it was the summer holidays. High School didn't last long for him and he was soon kicked out and ended up living on the street for a while. Things picked up later that year when he became the youngest columnist at the Bangkok Post at the age of 16. However, although he was still working hard on his websites, including the popular www.learningthai.com website helping foreigners learn Thai for free, he struggled with staying clean from drugs. He ordained as a monk for a while but a month after leaving the temple he was arrested by police for drug possession. Gor was originally sentenced to six years in prison but the judge halved this sentence after he changed his plea to guilty.

Gor is now enjoying his new found freedom with his daughter Nong Grace and the rest of his family. He said it will take him time to adjust to life on the outside and also to catch up on things. He plans to go back to writing and making websites next month. He wishes to thank everyone that has shown him support over the last three years and he promises that he won't let them down. I have posted some pictures of Gor taken during his first day of freedom over at the "Gor's World Forums". You can read more background information about his drug addiction and subsequent conviction and life in prison over at www.ThaiPrisonLife.com. Gor kept a diary while in prison so look out for some more updates in the coming months. These will be the only stories about life in a Thai prison written by a Thai person in English. If you didn't know already, Gor's autobiography, "Gor's Thailand Life" was published while he was in prison and is available in all good book stores in Thailand and on the Internet at BuyThaiBooks.com.

Is it time to start panicking yet? The number of deaths in Thailand for the swine flu (called The Great Flu of 2009 by the Thai media) has reached at least 66. We don't know exactly any more as they are only updating us with information once a week. Plus, unless they do tests for the flu on everyone that dies, we will never know the full number. Then, last Friday I discovered that at my school we have already had at least a dozen confirmed cases of the flu. This again could be much greater because not everyone goes to the hospital to get tested. I thought this process would at be free or at least a minimal cost. But, apparently it will set you back 3,000 baht. Some parents have reported that it cost them as much as 6,000 baht for a test. So, there could be a lot more out there that don't really know as they cannot afford to get a test done. Then, when I went into school this morning, there were several hundred students all of whom were coming down to assembly wearing face masks. It looked like we had gone beyond wearing face masks if we had a cold to a situation that people were wearing masks in order to protect themselves from other people.

I would say people are not going out so much these days. I had to go to the shopping mall last weekend and found it very easy to park the car. Cinemas and concert organizers are also reporting fewer numbers at the moment. On tv the other day I saw a live broadcast of a boxing match and many people in the stadium were wearing face masks. Are people starting to get paranoid? Am I getting paranoid? Well, I am not wearing a mask yet, but I do wash my hands at least a dozen times a day. I also open the door with my elbow and push lift buttons with my wrist. I have stopped going to the cinema and I now avoid shopping malls or confined areas with large amounts of people. At school I guess I should be extra careful. I teach kindergarten and they are always touching my arms or wanting to shake my hands. Other teachers are luckier as greetings are done by placing your hands together in a prayer like gesture and there is no contact. However, outside of school I shouldn't be so paranoid. After all, we probably have another year of this to go if not longer. And anyway, the number of deaths so far are relatively few.

I found out later today that the reason that so many students were wearing face masks as these had been distributed to every student in Samut Prakan by the local health authority. They also gave to each student a free tube of anti-bacteria gel that uses alcohol to disinfect your hands. We of course had to tell the students that they must rub their hands until it dries and that if they try to light a cigarette while their hands are still wet then they might cause a fire! Another new measure at our school is that all students have to wash their hands before entering the computer rooms. We are also cleaning the mouse and keyboards more often as these are a possible source of infection. In the classrooms, the students have to do a more thorough job of cleaning the room. And the school cleaners have to spend more time cleaning handrails and door handles. Even local government offices have their own strict measures. On Friday I had to go the local Social Security office. Not only did they tell me to wash my hands before I could enter, they also took my temperature. I guess if I had a high temperature then I wouldn't be allowed to go inside. How much longer do they reckon we need to keep this up? Two or three years? I am not sure if I can last without becoming a kind of "wacko jacko". But at least it is teaching us more about personal cleanliness.

The largest network of English language websites about Thailand is our very own Paknam Web Network. We have been making websites since 1997 and twelve years later we are still going strong. What amazes many people is that we are still very much family friendly. We don't talk about the bar scene nor do we show semi nude pictures. Our mandate since the beginning has been to promote the real Thailand to the world. As well as tourists planning holidays, our websites are popular with students who have to do projects about Thailand.

Many of the Paknam Web sites do well on Google searches. For many popular keywords you will find our sites on the front page of the search results. In fact, these days you, you will often find that half of the sites listed for a search term are in the Paknam Web Network. Just do a search for "thai blogs" and you will find at least eight of our sites on page one of the search results (click here). I think one of the main reasons that we do so well is that many of these websites have been around a long time. Plus we have a lot of people linking to us.

Some jealous webmasters complain that the only reason that we have so many websites is that we are greedy to bring more money in. But, the fact is that only about 7% of our websites have any advertising at all! Most are commercial free. Go and take a look at our popular local website at www.paknam.com. You won't find one single advert despite the fact that we spend hundreds of hours on that site. Then there is www.ThailandVoice.com where we promote blogs about Thailand on the Internet. Again, you won't find a single advert there. Some visitors even complain when we have adverts as they say that we are only interested in making money. This may be true for some people, but for others like ourselves it is the only way to survive. We spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month on server bills alone. As we are a registered company we also have to pay wages and tax.

I think when people are surfing on the Internet they don't always know that they are reading one of our websites. That is a problem that we need to address and do better with the branding. So, I thought today I would introduce to you some of our more popular sites. And then over the following weeks I will introduce some of the other less-known sites.

TOP 10 PAKNAM WEB WEBSITES:

(1) www.eThaiMusic.com - Sing along to streaming Thai music with karaoke English and also translations
(2) www.ThailandQA.com - our popular forums that are one of the few that still remain family friendly
(3) www.LearningThai.com - the grand-daddy of websites for learning Thai and still the biggest free resource center
(4) www.Top10Thaimusic.com - weekly charts of the most popular Thai songs
(5) www.Thai-Blogs.com - one of the longest running blogs about Thai life, culture and travel - still family friendly
(6) www.ThaiPhotoBlogs.com - daily news and travel photos from Thailand
(7) www.ThailandLife.com - it hasn't been updated for three years but still brings in thousands of visitors every day
(8) www.BangkokScams.com - forewarned is forearmed, tips on how to be street smart in Thailand
(9) www.ThailandGuidebook.com - a free online guidebook to all 76 provinces in Thailand
(10) www.Paknam.com - the online magazine for our local area

Starting this weekend, I will give you a brief review of one of our websites in the Paknam Web Network. Then we will continue like that once a week.

When I see images like this I usually think of Japanese kids who often wear masks when they are ill or when they are concerned about catching a contagious disease. However, I took this picture this afternoon here in Thailand. The number of cases of people infected with the A/H1N1 virus has gone from a trickle to almost a flood overnight. In one discotheque alone in Pattaya, a staggering 17 workers have been found to been infected. Since then, a hundred or so new cases are being reported every day. At least half a dozen schools are being closed. Other work places are being told to inform public health officials if more than three people in one place become infected. The government are now moving into high gear. The Ministry of Public Health will now be holding a press conference every day. The Bangkok administration ordered a "Big Cleaning Day" on Monday. Leaflets were distributed and the public was told on how to avoid an infection. Should we now be panicking?

At this moment in time, the flu virus in Thailand and much of the world is not that serious. We presently have 310 confirmed cases which is much lower than some other countries. No-one has died either. The Thai government has been doing a good job of containing the situation. Thermal scanners were installed at the international airports. Their educational programme also seems to be working. People are certainly listening. The instructions passed down to our school include wearing masks if ill, visiting a doctor for any flu-like symptoms and thoroughly washing hands and face often during the day. We also took part in the "Big Cleaning Day" and the students and teachers took an hour off from studies to give the school a good scrub down. It is undoubtedly going to get worse before it gets better. However, at this moment in time, there is no reason to panic or be concerned. The strain presently in Thailand is curable. There is no reason to cancel holiday plans if you are about to fly to Thailand. We are still open for business.

For all the latest news about the A/H1N1 virus in Thailand visit the Paknam Web ThailandQA Forums.