Word: bangkok
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...Complaint: Bob Wolfe and his wife were flying from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport to Panama. At the counter, Wolfe was told that his four bags were each about 2 kg or 3 kg over the 32 kg limit, and that he'd have to pay a penalty. (See 50 essential travel tips...
Less than two years after reaching the zenith of his political career, Samak Sundaravej, a former Thai Prime Minister known for his acid tongue, ultra-right-wing views and weekly gourmet cooking show, died of cancer at a Bangkok hospital on Tuesday morning...
...military coup that deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006. Samak freely admitted he had been chosen to lead the victorious People Power Party by Thaksin, who was living in exile but retained enormous popularity with Thailand's poor and rural electorate. Samak, whose base was in Bangkok, appealed to the rural majority by proudly proclaiming he was Thaksin's "proxy...
...former television-quiz-show contestant and law student, Samak entered politics in the 1970s, winning a seat in parliament from Bangkok's military-populated Dusit district. He eventually held several Cabinet posts, including deputy premier. Samak's long-stated ambition was to become Prime Minister, but his time at the top was brief. He was disqualified from holding the premiership by the Constitutional Court after just nine months because he had violated the office's prohibition on holding a second job - his popular television cooking show, which he spiced and flavored with pungent political commentary...
...Nonetheless, his no-holds-barred polemics made him popular with Bangkok's poor and lower-middle-class voters, who elected him governor in 2001 with over 1 million votes, the largest number in the city's history. "He's a lower-middle-class hero," says historian Chris Baker, author of Thailand, Economy and Politics. "He appeals to street vendors, small shopkeepers, minor officials and people working in the informal sector. They like him because he sounds off; he speaks his mind. He's a source of entertainment, but he's also a ranter and a thug...