Many of the shop owners were upset that the owners gave them a sudden increase in rent yesterday and they had protest signs letting people know of the issue. The police were called in to bring calm to the situation. It is sad that many of these guys have waited for high season to be able to pull in a profit and just when they thought they would be able to make some money, rents were suddenly increased.

many of these guys have waited for high season to be able to pull in a profit and just when they thought they would be able to make some money, rents were suddenly increased.

And that is how capitalism works if you did not notice before.

1 Normally people have contracts with reasonable notice terms for such increases. That is fair.

 

2 If you want to see the alternative to capitalism, compare North & South Korea, or East & West Germany. Give me capitalism and low taxes any day.

I thought there was only one united Germany now.

Deutschland is indeed reunited since over 20 years now. I very well remember also going into the former DDR and what it looked like.

The current Germany, nor in fact any of EU-member states, is known for particularly low taxing.

But bach to the subject; I just have seen/heard too many of these venodrs protests. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. There are clearly FAR too many of them, all without any imaginative fresh new stock, all try to gauge and overcharge, vendors spend up to 50% of their precious time (well-time is not very precious in Thailand-thats an US-idea) in protecting their turf from competition and preceived infringements. They block the sideways, litter after leaving and seem to think that paying off the BiBs is like ''renting'' their patch with any right to chase off anyone.

Turn modern, shop in AC-comfort with clear 9and lower) prices-go to the big bioys ike BigC, TescoLotus etc. If you see the 100.000s of Thai also shopping there (and the empty stalls etc.) then this should be clear.

Also vendors are like ''fish-wifes'' as we call them in our language: they also know all the tricks to heartbreak unknowing farang by making it look like they only loose out (if they did-why would they run that shop so long??)-these protests are just to be expected and only meant to lower the pricehike.

One might feel a little sympathy for the owners of Tukcom building if they showed any interest in maintaining the facilities in the building.

 

Some of the escalators have had parts not working (such as moving handrails) for months. And as the missing teeth on the floor grids of these escalators - is it any wonder that kids get their feet trapped?

 

The lifts haven't been maintained for many a long month - and remember it was fatal lift crash that brought about the demise of the first iteration of Tukcom.

 

In places like Hong Kong lifts have to display certificates of inspection of "travel worthiness", and have to be inspected annually. Not so in Thailand, where there is a legal requirement for a lift to be inspected on installation but never again thereafter!

 

And as for the fire escapes - they just serve as storage areas and smoking areas.

 

A building in this state would be shut by western health and safety execs.

Does anyone know... if your lift goes into free fall and nothing stops it, how many floors up do you have to be to be injured and how many floors up will kill you? Is it any different from falling out of a window from a certain number of levels up?

 

Just curious. The dodgy lift thing in Thailand scares me a little.

My understanding is that lifts have automatic stoppers so that in theory they can not go into free fall. They just judder to a halt if something happens to the cables. I was not aware of the earlier lift crash mentioned by gwm4asian, but I remember a fairly recent case of a lift in a hotel in Jomtien (I think it was Jomtien) when the stoppers seemed not to work until the lift had dropped a few floors. If I recall correctly, no-one was injured.

 

I assume a lift would drop at at least the same speed as someone jumping out of a window. There would, I suspect, be more chance that once you get to the bottom, you'd end up on your feet. On the other hand, the sudden deceleration would no doubt break your legs or your back. Also, the lift would surely collapse. So if you survived the free fall, you'd be killed by having your skull broken or some other similar problem. Fancy taking the stairs next time?

My understanding is that lifts have automatic stoppers so that in theory they can not go into free fall. They just judder to a halt if something happens to the cables.

Yeah, that's what I've been told before but there ARE fatal lift dropping accidents (I suppose the other way to go is if the lift moves as you're getting out) so I'm wondering how these lift crash/fall accidents occur and what the dynamics (other than gravity) are.

 

Fancy taking the stairs next time?

Too lazy and waaaay too many flights of stairs to the office.

My understanding is that lifts have automatic stoppers so that in theory they can not go into free fall.

 

 

Well, the lifts should have automatic stoppers; but if the lift was installed 5, 6, 7 or 8 years ago and maybe the initial inspection was a cursory brown envelope job, how do you know the stoppers are still working by the time the cable finally breaks. With all the gunk and gunge in those shafts they could easily become jammed.

Ah, the way someone explained it to me sounded as if it was physically impossible for these stoppers/brakes to fail and leave the lift in free fall but it seems this is not true. So it's simply a case of the lift going into free fall and the poorly maintained stoppers failing to stop it.

 

I was recently in a lift, which went into freefall, though only for a brief moment before a massive jolt brought it to a halt. Freaky... It was 2.5 floors up. I wonder if I would've survived.