w11guy

I do live here and I do have a standard/fixed income in that I'm retired and my "salary" is derived from pensions and investments, the sum total of which varies only slightly over the course of a year, over the past nine years here the impact of inflation on that income has been significant.

I agree that five massages per day is a sensible average albeit we have friends who work in massage and they frequently do six and seven as a matter of course. I can also agree that a reasonable level of inflation is a sign of a sound and growing economy. Where we diverge in our views is that tourists often come here thinking that the standards that apply back home should apply here also, particularly finacial ones. I've been with tourist friends over the years when they have tried to tip a taxi driver 100 baht for a fifty baht ride, tip a waitress fifty percent of a one thousand baht food bill and pay vastly inflated prices for goods simply because they were tourists and they thought the sums involved paltry. Just because the prices are what they are "back home" and just because someone feels sorry for local person X Y or Z, are not sound reasons to uprate the price of goods and services here.

Eat/shop in local places instead of tourist places. It's the same in tourist places all over the world, even in London.

Minimum wage is 300 baht a day, female laborers on construction sites earn the same. 100 baht an hour for a massage potentially earns the masseuse 1,000 baht a day, no reason to pay more if that's what the market says the price is. As for being hard work, which is harder, massage or construction work!

Part of the problem here is individual westerners driving up local prices because they think it's appropriate to pay more and/or because it costs more back home, bad decision I say because the rest of us who live here have live with the damage after you've left, aka increased pricing.

If you pay 100 baht per hours the masseuse may only get half of that or less. And there is no way you can do massage for 10 hours a day. For a start there just aren't enough clients. I know a few people that work in massage places and they get 2-4 clients per day. So they may only earn 200-600 per day. Most of the time is spent sitting around.

I'm not driving prices up, but cheapskates like the OP are trying to drive them down. If the prices increase then that's your problem not mine. If I pay more that's also the market at work, so no use complaining to me.

Come to Thailand and spend your time in Irish pubs with Irish people. May as well have stayed at home.

The current price seems to assume that the huge potential has already been met. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Things change so quickly theses days that facebook could be over with a few years.

Men pay almost double? Pathetic.

Too true. I love the chaos here.

Just checked and I don't have it. LOL.

http://www.doihavebirdflu.org/

You're asking for financial advice in this forum? What are you trying to do, get yourself wiped out?

"He said these diseases cause immense losses - 41 million people will die from them in the next three years."

He's saying that 60% of the population of Thailand will die in the next 3 years? Where do these clowns come from?

Don't be so stupid. That's the figure for the whole world. The figure for Thailand was 60,000 in 2009. Why do people who aren't able to read and comprehend an article bother commenting on it. Go back to school.

Good post, but like others already said most people don't like reading them. But the reason they don't like reading them isn't because they are boring. The real reason is that it makes some of the guys on here feel really stupid because they ended up with a prostitute for a gf/wife and you didn't. Many on here just can't accept that the majority of That women aren't prostitutes. Also they'd never get a non-prostitute here, so makes them feel twice as bad to read success stories like yours. Sounds like you have a good relationship but why do you fight? That doesn't sound so good.

Also, why do you need access to her email and facebook account? That is super creepy. I would never ask or expect access to my gf's accounts and neither would she ask for access to mine. Nothing to hide; those things are private and people's privacy should be respected. Don't you trust each other? Do you check up on each other every day. I've never known any relationship where that happens.

I rarely drink so am usually in with my gf, who rarely drinks either. Usually eating, having sex ( ), watching TV, reading, doing internet stuff. But I remember when I was single I always used to go out on weekends. Seemed very strange when I didn't. But now I get the very occasional night to myself and love the peace an quiet.

congrats on your new job. How long have you lived in Thailand? Or are you somewhere else?

I don't think this relationship has any long-term prospects. If you wanted to get married I doubt she'd be allowed to live in the US with you or ever visit it again. You can't get married in the US because she's an illegal immigrant. When she leaves the US they will see that she's overstayed, so why should they ever let he back again. They will know she's been working and might even assume she's a prostitute.

I don't know any girls that are in relationships that talk dirty to 40 other guys online.

Does she own a house? Most women I know in Bangkok that earn even half that money have bought their own house/condo. Either themselves or with their bf/husband. And it's a question that's usually asked at a job interview.That is a fantastic salary for Thailand so why give it up to waitress in the US?

If she really earned that much money in Thailand, then why did her parents have to borrow money for her to go to the US? US immigration and very strict indeed with Thai people and wouldn't give her a tourist visa if she had minimal money and didn't own a property, car, etc. This just doesn't add up. How long was her initial visa for? Did you ask her if it was her original plan to stay in the US illegally? Why did she want to give up a great job in Thailand to become and illegal immigrant working as a waitress. I don't know any Thai women that would do that.

Has she ever worked in the sex trade? Difficult to tell without knowing her, but none of this adds up. Does she have any Thai friends that have US husbands. It may be just that she has a friend who married a yank and ended up doing quite well financially. Perhaps she just wants that security. Almost impossible to tell without knowing her.

What's the age difference between you?

"Police checkpoints in the provinces have been instructed to stop proPAD, or antiPheu Thai caravans of supporters from entering Bangkok."

On what basis? Is it illegal to hold a point of view? Or travel to the capital to express that point of view? Has a SoE been declared?

This also happens in the UK. Demonstrators are often prevented from travelling. And the police in the UK have been given powers to enter homes and take down political posters near the Olympics. So even in the UK you're not allowed to have a political point of view even in your own home.

The Kingdom is on auto-pilot. Corruption, protectionism, and nationalism have completely obscured the public's realization of the fact (presented today on the BBC, in the context of discussion of the WEF) that Thailand is fundamentally noncompetitive. Twenty-five years ago, Thailand would have continued to attract the majority of investment in Southeast Asia, as it was the West's only ally against communism and it was not a despotic country. Today, there is still much about Thailand to fawn over, but that is changing very fast. Indonesia's population nearly guarantees a massive increase in the country's regional significance. The future of ASEAN will be decided by Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Thailand will slowly and very gradually fall into an isolated status that guarantees future political and social strife, as Bangkok will make progress while the rest of Thailand looks more like Laos. The proposals to create high-speed rail links to Chiang Mai are fairly comical, considering that few outside Bangkok could contemplate ticket-prices for such infrastructure; they are a rough microcosm of the larger problems of general ignorance and over-extended pride in Thailand. The Yingluck administration and Thaksin's sublime arrogance guarantee further ripples in a system that has extraordinary future "challenges" (deaths) to overcome.

If the rail line is from Bangkok to Chiang Mai what difference does it make if most people outside Bangkok can't afford it. The UK has an extensive rail network but the majority of people can't afford to use it. I'm sure it's being built for the people that can afford it not those that can't. I think it's a superb idea. But you probably prefer Thailand to stay stuck in the past.

Daiso is quite a good 60 baht shop, There's a fairly big store in Siam Square. Can remember the soil but from the BTS side it's a few shops in on the left. Maybe Soi 3, but not sure.

A good reminder to all that the laws on defamation of character and slander in Thailand are NOT the same as in Austrailia.

This is Thailand and you can not pubicaly say certain things as perhaps you could in Austrailia.

I don't know the details of this particular case....but just remember....the laws in Thailand are different.

So don't open your month and stick you're foot in it.

Too late for that. Just have a read of the many post of thaivisa. I bet that many could be considered libelous. One day we'll have a thaivisa member facing such charges.

Be prepared for her watching you watching the thai girls, and giving you hell if your eyes dwell too long.

my first thai gf, 15 years ago she is a really lovely, caring, well-educated person, also the one you can trust for 100% and very punctual with appointments, so not typical thai. but in public she was always controlling my eye movements, with every girl i looked at, she asked me with a funny face 'you want talk with her mai ?' 'she more beautiful then me mai, hihihi'... a kind of strange, repeating jokes like she loved teasing me, but i learned it was a dam_n serious matter for her and I became totally bored of it because it never, never stopped. together with the daily trainloads of 'up to you's' the end was nigh. her self-fulfilling prophecy was a great fear for loosing me one day. now we are closest friends, she's like a sister.

Your fault for picking a jealous gf.

If you're looking to keep your money safe then please don't take financial advice from people on this forum. You will probably lose the whole lot.

Airline tickets arent going to get any cheaper in the future. Tell your girlfriend to pay for her own ticket.

Youve just solved the problem. Your ticket bill just halved.

If she says she doesnt have any money she is either lying (they have money they just wont tell you) or being truthful in any case dump her.

Ill never understand why the British are so kind and generous. Doesn't get them anywhere. Like a mouse on a spinning wheel around and around he goes.

You sound like a bundle of laughs. Us Brits are generous because we have money and we want to spend it. I suppose you don't have any, which may explain why you're so bitter and jealous. I think I'll give my girlfriend 50,000 baht just to piss you off. LOL.

A crime against public transport? What the hell kind of a law is that? They are shooting guns, which is a crime normally, they shot someone, that is a crime normally. What will this crime against public transport cover other than all the other laws on the books. If I am shot sitting in a private car, does this make the crime less or more than on a public bus?

Looking at the state of the bus, it probably is a crime against the paying customers to call it a bus anyway.

They have such laws in the UK and even the British Transport Police, who are a somewhat separate division of the police.

No, it's not a lesser crime to be shot in car than a bus, but if there is lots of crime on public transport then they need to bring in extra laws and clamp down on it before it escalates completely out of control.

Shoot somebody dead and be booked on carrying a firearm and drugs...????... only in Thailand....is this a BiB tactic ?...ie book them on the lessor charge until they figure out if the culprit concerned is "connected"

He was probably initially caught with the gun and drugs, and suspected of being the shooter, but they had to get more evidence before charging him with that.

Sent from my shoe phone

Ok but why are they asking the court to charge him with murder.....surely this is a job for the police..

"Police would ask the Min Buri Court to charge Somsak with murder"

Police just gather evidence, even in the west they donot charge, chargeing someone is up to the courts.

In the UK it's not up to the court to charge someone. The court is separate and just tries the person for the alleged crime. In the UK the police charge people, but the Crown Prosecution Service also get involved.