SiangDeeMahk

They don't need a large number of protesters, they just need to block intersections.

Sent from my phone ...

Maybe so but that hasnt been the plan or the claim remember its been millions half a million 20 locations now 7 and now its going mobile during the day .. they think , they cant shut down the intersections and march on this or that building as well without the numbers it will just look too pathetic, I expect them to abandon a few of these locations as time goes on.

what they need to do is enter talks, there is nothing to lose by doing so

If you enter talks with people that lie, then there's a LOT to lose. Remember, they're in the streets NOW, specifically because after enough bad experiences (floods, rice, etc), they just don't TRUST this little 'family govermentship'.

Wow.. Did Taskin's mouthpiece just paint Suthep to be Adolph Hitler?

Hello Pot? This is Kettle, calling!

This thread is a joke, right?

Alrighty.. as luck (may or may not) have it, I'm actually in Bangkok this week, so I'm planning to come by the party on Fri.
The girlfriend may try to come too, if she can get out of work.. so figure me for two people, please.

#thisoughttobeinteresting

So, this person wants your friend to accept a parcel full of 'goodies' with something hidden away in the battery compartment? The English style of writing reads, to me, as if it's been written by a Nigerian person.

What exactly is your friends relationship with this person?

This has got 'scam' or 'smuggling' written all over it!

Her sister forwarded her e-mail to me as they were surprised with the action of this William Phillip. I personally know the girl but she didn't come to me before her sister. Both of 'em have quite poor English so she wanted to find out why he had to send her many valuable things plus some Pounds even though they have never seen each other. Then i try to get many ideas from this forum to back up my decision. She is in love with this guy. Full of hope !!!... This breaks her heart though. They are not poor and not wealthy somehow they have proper jobs and earn enough to look after themselves. They might be dreaming of luxurious lives somewhere. I dunno. Thank you all for your time making comments. I will tell her to keep away from this guy. I will try.

This is not a very tricky one but as some forum fellows said some girls had actually lost money from this sort of scam. they were temporarily blind then. poor thing!!!! this Ni------n guy is still fishing......... (Thai) Humm.....

Temporarily blinded huh? You mean that thing that happens to so many unfortunate western ("hansum") men, the first time they get a look at a way-to-young Thai hottie, fresh from Isaan, who acts (while naked, and bouncing up and down on their pale/hairy body) as if she really likes them, resulting in the immediate release of ridiculous amounts of cash? THAT kind of temporary blindness?? ,

In terms of the fairness of Thai girls getting scammed by men (considering what kind of Thai usually uses the dating sites), I'd say it's all pretty much a wash.

I didnt know it was April fools day ............ oh but this is 1st July ...things are different here apparently ...

Yeah.. same-same, but 'different'.

Never really felt the need to use visual associations when learning the Thai or Lanna scripts. In my mind it would just add unnecessary complexity and clutter. Just looking at your visual associations for for บาท, surely the man peeing could be mistaken for ท? I would disagree that บ looks anything like a boat, and to further confuse things it seems that your visual association here is a snake looking out from a submarine. I find it hard to believe that you could come up with visual associations that are meaningfully related to every consonant and vowel, without at some point resorting to clutching at straws. You state that you teach people how to read "without memorization", but surely you have to commit the visual associations to memory?

I made flashcards to help me learn the scripts. 30 mins a day over a week or two is all it took. I guess everyone learns differently though, and I'm sure your method is useful to those whom it is suited, both pedagogically and financially.

I do agree though that reading Thai is ultimately beneficial to the learning process, and opens up a whole new world of language opportunities.

โชคดี!

Now.. you sir, get 10 gold stars. You 'get' it. Because, of COURSE you have to commit the associations to memory! If you didn't, you'd just be standing there looking at Thai script, with no reference to what you were supposed to do with it.

This learning "technique" that's supposed to minimize that which you have to learn, actually requires you to learn TWO alphabets; the real Thai one, and this cartoony one consisting of pissing guys and who-knows-what-else. As far as I can see, that doubles the workload, not reduces it. And he still doesnt directly address how snakes and pissing help you to understand the phonetic rules that shape the tones in particular words.

See, it seems a very roundabout way to learn how to read Thai, especially when there's already a perfectly good "visually oriented" learning guide available. It's called THE THAI ALPHABET, and it handily represents and indicates (per word), ALL of the tone rules you'll need; it's one set of letters, it only has to be memorized once, and it's stadardized nemonics are known country-wide, and used often, when spelling a word (which you will find yourself and other people doing, more often than you think). Trust me.. you dont want to try telling a Thai official how to spell something by making references to urination, or submarines. It wont go over well. Trust me.

Another poster mentioned that he'd gotten on pretty well, in 2nd grade, reading sentences phonetically, before he knew the meanings of the words. I'm assuming he meant English. Well, Thai is NOT like English.

Please read the sentence below:

"Iwouldliketoseeyoufindmeasecondgraderanywhereintheworldthatcouldreadasentenceorevenproperlysoundoutthewordsinitthatwaswritteninthethaistyleofwritingwithnospacesbetweenthewords."

Now, although there are no spaces between the words, most English-speakers can muddle through reading that sentence (and some of us can actually rip right through it, at full speed), because we have the vocabulary to so so. We (almost instantly) are able to recognize the words that we already know.

But what if I broke it up into not-easy-to-recognize parts (which is how confusing it would look to someone without the vocabulary, like a second-grader):

"Iwo uldli ketose eyouf indme asec ondgrad eranywher einth eworl dthatco uldre adasent enceorev enpro perlyso undoutt hewor dsinit thatwa swrit teninth etha isty leofwri ting wit hnos pace sbet weenth ew ords."

Ok.. same sentence, same letters, but now? Absolute nonsensical sounds, right? So basically, this is you (or anyone without the needed vocalulary), "reading Thai" phonetically, from memorized cartoons. And remember, as badly as I was able to scramble this up in English, it would be even more so, with Thai, and it's associated tones added into the equation.

The sentence is RUBBISH. So is learning to read Thai in 16 hours. And anyone who tries to take money from you (especially 14KBt) and tell you that you'll sound any better than this, from learning Thai for 16 hours, is SCAMMING you. Period.

You want a good idea for something that will help you to learn (some) Thai in 16 hours? Thai schoolchildren are taught a song, with the nationally known alphabet nemonics built into it. Get a hold of this song (even transliterated, if need be) and a big glossy poster of the Thai Alphabet with all it's nemonics shown, and learn to sing the song. Even if you dont know what the sounds mean, learn it phonetically (as you associate the sounds with the letters and their nemonics) and it will lay the groundwork for memorizing the Thai letters. But sorry, no.. you wont be able to waste 14,000 baht on this excercise, even if you flew all the way to Phuket to listen to the song.

I know that not every TV reader's first language is English, so just to be fair, I'll just write the sentence one more time, properly, so you can follow it without your head exploding:

"I would like to see you find me a second grader anywhere in the world, that could read a sentence (or even properly sound out the words in it) that was written in the thai style of writing, with no spaces between the words."

By the way, anyone who is curious (and would enjoy a laugh), may try copying and pasting the hacked up version of the sentence into this rather excellent online "text-to-speech" converter, to get a better idea of just how important vocabulary is, when reading Thai Language: http://www2.research...eb/tts/demo.php

Enjoy!

And to imagine that some people told me that they didn't believe there was any more snakeoil in the world. Humph.

Lookit, folks: No one can learn Thai (especially to read it) in 4 days. This is not just an utter Thai Language Scam, but the most outragous one I've seen on TV.com, so far. (and yes, I've seen a few).

I mean, really, does anyone here think they're going to be able to correctly recall 44(+32) cartoonesque proprietary nemonics that no Thai person, or Thai-speaking foreigner will ever understand, recognize, or be able to help you with (remember now, you're not going to be seeing those nemonics while you're looking at Thai script, you'll have to recall them from memory, and also recall what sound they make), and then corralate how the Thai letters they represent affect each other in terms of pronounciation (and tones), after only studying the nemonics for 16 hours??

Utter rubbish...!!! At ANY price. It can't be done... ไม่ได้สำหรับสองบาทหรือหนึ่งหมื่นสี่พันบาทหรือหนึ่งล้านบาท (lets not even get into the problem of how you would know where one word ended, and another began, without a substantial vocabulary to identify the words from)

Even the poster's assertion of "no memorization!" is rubbish. They cleverly wrote the word "recognize", but as we all know, the only way to recognize something is to be able to recall it from a previous time that you saw (and then memorized) it... so "no memorization", my ตูด!! For instance: would you be able to "recognize" someone who you had no "memory" of meeting before? Right.

It's pretty shameless to tout something so completely bogus. Simply shameless. Even more shameless, at the massive price they're asking for. I dont care if they ARE a sponser; They posted in a public forum (not an ad panel), so I'm gonna call it like I see it. In fact, if it weren't a sponser, I'd have instantly thought "Troll" and just moved on.

Just hit hte "back" button on your browser, and find something else to look at, people.. Seriously.

.

"What if income is not pension income but investment income? To be treated the same way?"

Yes! -- Basing income on a "pension" is clearly a simple-minded ancient outdated concept -- What about dividend income from investments paid quarterly or yearly to a foreign account? -- how about annuity income or distribution from an IRA? -- A retiree drawing on savings?

Some immigration agent with a 6th grade education and an IQ of 70 is supposed to understand and judge a retiree based on all of those possible variables?

Hopefully, this ridiculous edict will go the way of the photo-copy of both sides of a credit card that was required a couple of years ago and lasted only a few weeks until someone woke up and realized how ridiculous it was.

.

Here's the problem with the "waking up from rediculousness" in Thailand. The problem will only ever be addressed/corrected, if the discoverer is SO high up the totem pole, that there's virtually no one above them who's face will be lost by a turn-around of policy. You can imagine the precious few times the stars will align properly for such an event to occour.

This, in essence, is the single most ginormous failure of a "face-based" (historically fuedal) system; there's virtually no way to make improvments, or correct errors.

I know aeration is needed for fish and to keep water from getting stagnant. But how on earth do they think pumping air into the water will help take care of the sugar that has desolved in the water.

Because the aerobic bacteria in the water will digest the sugar which is organic. It is the same principle we use in designing sewage plants to treat sewage, and the same principle used in aeration lagoons. The aerobic bacteria will digest the sugar rapidly.

Mmmm.. and what is the natural byproduct of billions of bacteria as they eat the sugar in a solution? For the right kind of bacteria, it's gonna be alcohol (or, it could be Carbon Dioxide, too). Won't THAT be a great addition to the river's chemistry.

Ok, these people can turn a boatload of sucrose into a toxic disater, so who's ready to build (and then hand over the ignition keys to) a Nuclear power plant in Thailand.? Anyone? Anyone?

Unless the people coming to her for Karmacorrection are children, then I don't think she did anything wrong at all. Her spiritual advice or opinions are between her and anyone who chooses to listen. It's not like some Christian priest molesting a little boy or girl.

Sounds like concentual actions between adults too me.

The youngest there's about 8 to 11 years old. Watch it 3:19 and 6:02. There are also more underaged in the room.

Oh yes.. the kids wandering around the area where this improper display of money for sex between unlikely partners (sanctioned, no.. instigated by a Nun) is going on, is kind of a nice homey touch, no? Really sets the scene for the utter lunacy that goes on in typical Thai life. I find myself wondering how far from Bangkok this little scene took place...? It smacks of small-village idiocy, but that doesnt mean it didnt happen in the middle of Bangkok. TIT, after all.

I will admit though, that barring a full translation of the conversation (I'm not savy enough yet to catch all the Thai words), I cant be sure if this is "money for sex", or just a cute gratuity for a hug and a peck on the cheek.. (which would still be strange if initiated by a Nun, but could be construed as "just a bit of innocent fun". If its actually a set up for sex between older women and younger men (taking place in a roomfull of people, including children), then that's just messed up. REALLY messed up.

No one has to translate the whole thing, but just give us a bullet list of the gist of what's being said.. It would be helpfull..

That lady consulting the nun was told that she has to have sex(dek dek) with a young man for two times in order to pay for her sins. This lady was accused of having opened the doors for Burmese invasion in her past life. First reaction was that the lady was asking if she(the nun) was joking.

She also has to pay the man 100 Baht a time and the nun demonstrated how to hold the bank notes The act must be carried out in private then.

Before that the nun asked her if she had family or if she is in a relationship the lady said no and saif that she doesn't want a relationship (man)) so the nun decided to lure her.

Roughly explained ...

As far as I know the temple is located in Bkk.

Ok then; that is OFFICIALLY messed up. I know that Bhudism has fewer (or no) sexual hangups (as compared to Chistianity), but this is just socially repugnant. I wonder, do Monks offer the same Karmetic fixes to their desciples? I'll have to ask some more Thai friends how "normal and accepted" this sex-promoting Nun's habit is.. (Nun's Habit.. get it??!! haha)

Thanx for the translation.

"Opened the doors to Burmese invasion". And the fix for that is, the lady has to open her OWN doors for her own invasion, specifically by a younger man And PAY for it.. As if Thais really need any more excuses to be more sexually active than they already are. (hot climate, skimpy skirts, gorgeous people, the nationwide persuit of "sanook", no religious guilt, low education, an infidelity-tolerant mindset in the women, etc, etc). Simply AMAZING Thailand.

And with that kind of pervasive sexuality lodged in the culture, they want to blame the WESTERNER for the sexual climate that Thailand is so famous for? :::rolls his eyes, shakes his head, and walks out of the room:::

Unless the people coming to her for Karmacorrection are children, then I don't think she did anything wrong at all. Her spiritual advice or opinions are between her and anyone who chooses to listen. It's not like some Christian priest molesting a little boy or girl.

Sounds like concentual actions between adults too me.

The youngest there's about 8 to 11 years old. Watch it 3:19 and 6:02. There are also more underaged in the room.

Oh yes.. the kids wandering around the area where this improper display of money for sex between unlikely partners (sanctioned, no.. instigated by a Nun) is going on, is kind of a nice homey touch, no? Really sets the scene for the utter lunacy that goes on in typical Thai life. I find myself wondering how far from Bangkok this little scene took place...? It smacks of small-village idiocy, but that doesnt mean it didnt happen in the middle of Bangkok. TIT, after all.

I will admit though, that barring a full translation of the conversation (I'm not savy enough yet to catch all the Thai words), I cant be sure if this is "money for sex", or just a cute gratuity for a hug and a peck on the cheek.. (which would still be strange if initiated by a Nun, but could be construed as "just a bit of innocent fun". If its actually a set up for sex between older women and younger men (taking place in a roomfull of people, including children), then that's just messed up. REALLY messed up.

No one has to translate the whole thing, but just give us a bullet list of the gist of what's being said.. It would be helpfull..

Sounds like the old Mamasan at Annies!

this was also posted on another Thai English news outlet. It's open for the public and rather shocking to watch and listen to this. She really enjoys herself.

OMG.. what was THAT? I feel like I've just watched Jabba The Hut broker a sex tryst between two of his (her?) hapless followers. Lots of laughing, but, did anyone else squirm as much as I did, while watching this?? Just, WOW.

My TGF actually goes to be a nun for a few days, once in a while; I'll have to show her this clip, and see what her reaction is...

No law to punish the person who violates the rights of others, but laws to punish anyone who makes the information public. Insanity.

Perfectly sane, in a land where Face outweighs Fact.

And anyway, this isnt a story about how "many Thai people" said that they dont respect (or didn't like) farang, it's how the PM of a entire country (of 55+ Million people) outrageously said it, in public.

I thought Suthep was Deputy-PM, and Abhisit PM, or did something change ? Agree that it was a silly thing to say.

FIY

Thai population is 67.764 Million People in 09. Now 2011 it should be close to 68-69 MP

Personally, He ain't an idiot abusin' Farangs by saying. "I don't respect Farangs". I wanna hear the original record......

For YOUR information: When you see "55+ Million", the plus sign indicates "OR MORE". If there are now exactly 55 million, or 55,000,001 (or any number greater than 55 million) people in Thailand, then "55+" properly addresses such census figures.

And, I'll stop short of saying he's an idiot, and instead say that it's idiotic for ANY high-ranking political or legal representative of a country, especially when that country has longtime ties to numerous western countries (including the (still) most powerful country on the face of the earth), to SAY that they don't respect an entire RACE of people. Imagine a standing POTUS saying that he didn't respect Mexicans, or Canadians, or Greeks, or Jews, or poor Haitians, or rich Arabs? There would be instant (and warranted) worldwide outrage and condemnation. Why should one of the leaders of Thailand not be held to the same standard of decency, and diplomatically considerate speech? I think anyone (even world leaders) is entitled to not respect people(s) based on the (locally unpopular) religious, social, or political choices those people make (although they should probably keep that opinion to themselves), but to be a leader and then to not respect someone based on their ethnicity (something they didn't choose, but instead, were BORN with), is utterly reprehensible in this modern, globalized world.. Then again, culturally elitist xenophobes would have a hard time NOT saying that.

Well you cant blame thai people for not liking farangs. Alot of creepy old horny men coming to thailand for sex.

Wow.. you are like, SO off the mark.

You Do realize that a huge percentage of the girls that have sex in Thailand, are having that sex with creepy old horny THAI men (way, WAY more than they're having it with foreign men), yes??

Maybe you better read this:

http://en.wikipedia....ion_in_Thailand

And anyway, this isnt a story about how "many Thai people" said that they dont respect (or didn't like) farang, it's how the PM of a entire country (of 55+ Million people) outrageously said it, in public. While surrounded by other Asian countries that didn't say it, don't say it, and treat foriegner better than Thailand does. And at a time when precious foriegn dollars are getting harder and harder to come by, and they more and more frequently are going to other, more friendly, less scamfilled, more stable, less corrupted, better exchange rated nearby countries, instead of Thailand.

Out interest I have just had a quick look at the link provided above to Pollution Control Department....their criteria...Max 115dB and over 24 hour period continuous not to exceed 70dB

To have a legitimate complaint under Thai standards, would need to prove either business concerned pumps out music over 115dB or alternatively been subjected to 70dB continuously for 24 hours......I am guessing neither is the case in terms of the bar concerned....

Is that correct, 115dB? Jeez, from my college days I know that is getting close to the threshold of pain.

I'm not an audiologist, as well this is all relative anyways but how loud is 115db? My car stereo back overseas cranked out 122db (exactly, as measured by a sound pressure meter) and a Vuvuzela at 1m is 3 times more powerful than 115db. So is 115db really hard to achieve? I think if the OP were to have the BMA measure the sound pressure level it's quite possible that the music exceeds the legal level.

Wow.. you REALLY need to learn a little more about the db scale, before you try to teach someone else about it.

It's a logarithmic scale.. (exponantialy increasing). To be exact, "A decibel is defined as 10 times the logarithm of the power ratio (power ratio is the ratio of the intensity of the sound to the intensity of an arbitrary standard point.)". The threshhold of pain is actually 130db (which, in a logorithmic scale, is EXPONATIALLY louder than something at 115db).

So, a soundwave at a db measurment of 3 times 115db (or 345db) would probably be able to turn the entire Hoover dam into dust in 5 seconds (or something equally unfathomable). It's an IMPOSSIBLE number.

Why do I say this? Well, a look at the db levels of some common things will put it into perspective:

10db: Threshold of good hearing

30db: Recording studio, quiet conversation

60db: Conversational speech

80db: Noisy office, electric shaver, alarm clock, police whistle

90db: Noisy factory, truck without muffler (Decibels at or above 90 regularly cause ear damage)

100db: Passing truck, home lawn mower, car horn @ 5 meters, wood saw, boiler factory

110db: Punch press, close to a train, ball mill

120db: Riveter, chipper, thunder, diesel engine room, fireworks display

130db: Hydraulic press, pneumatic rock drill (Threshold of pain, decibels at or above 130 cause immediate ear damage)

140db: Artillery fire

150db: Turbo jet

160db: Ram jet

180db: Aircraft at take-off

195db: Saturn rocket

225db: 12" Cannon @ 12' in front and below

There was an enormous flash of lightning near by and the power went off. When it came back the VGA wasn't working so I guess something got fried. Everything else on the Acer seems to be working fine.

Enormous flash, affecting the power, you say?

It's fried.

Just a thought. Is there any way I can extend the display to a TV monitor without using the VGA port?

There are things like USB external VGA units (http://2002.iogear.c...oduct/GUC2015V/) that can augment (or replace) a computer's or laptop's VGA outputs.

They arent particularly good for highend graphics (ie: gaming, or blu-ray/HD playback), but if you just need standard display of text or still images, they seem to work pretty well (about $75 US).

If you need real graphics power, then you'll have to go with something like the ViDock (http://www.villagein...php?page=ViDock). This solution will only work for laptops that feature an ExpressCard slot, unfortunatly. (up to $279US for the enclosure, and then the additional cost of whatever PCI Express Graphics Card you end up buying to suit your needs {$50-$400US})

Definitely fried, kaput!

I also heard about USB external VGA units today. I use the Tv monitor for standard PC use, web browsing etc, and I also use it to watch downloaded music video clips. I wonder if the quality would be good enough and if they are available in Thailand? I am not necessarily expecting HD quality.

In the meantime I have successfully connected the Acer to my TV monitor using an HDMI cable and the HDMI slots and it works just fine, including sound. The picture is clearer than the VGA cabled screen.

However, I do occasionally have a need to connect to more than one screen at a time to watch my music videos. I wonder if there is such a thing as an HDMI 'junction box' similar to my VGA junction box, where I have one input and four outputs for for 4 screens?

Any ideas anyone?

(And thanks for all the constructive replies...)

Of course it's clearer; it's digital!

Pantip definitely sells HDMI splitters/multipliers. In the audio/video business, we call them D.A.s (for "Distribution Amplifiers")

There was an enormous flash of lightning near by and the power went off. When it came back the VGA wasn't working so I guess something got fried. Everything else on the Acer seems to be working fine.

Enormous flash, affecting the power, you say?

It's fried.

Just a thought. Is there any way I can extend the display to a TV monitor without using the VGA port?

There are things like USB external VGA units (http://2002.iogear.c...oduct/GUC2015V/) that can augment (or replace) a computer's or laptop's VGA outputs.

They arent particularly good for highend graphics (ie: gaming, or blu-ray/HD playback), but if you just need standard display of text or still images, they seem to work pretty well (about $75 US).

If you need real graphics power, then you'll have to go with something like the ViDock (http://www.villagein...php?page=ViDock). This solution will only work for laptops that feature an ExpressCard slot, unfortunatly. (up to $279US for the enclosure, and then the additional cost of whatever PCI Express Graphics Card you end up buying to suit your needs {$50-$400US})

This really sounds like a EMI spike-related hardware issue, but it's not impossible that it's a bizarre driver issue (possible, as a part of your inability to do a system restore).

In any case, it's usually easier to try to reinstall your graphics-card drivers, than start troubleshooting a graphic card in a laptop.

Also, after reinstalling your drivers, you really should try to connect the laptop to a different VGA monitor, before having someone tear the thing open to start swapping VGA cards.

As to if it can be fixed:

Cheap laptops ususally have Intergrated Graphics, and as they're built into/onto the motherboard, there's usually nothing that you can do to fix problems with them (without replacing the entire motherboard). On more advanced (workstation, professional, or custom) laptops, the graphics card is often a seperate added on board, and therefore can be exchanged, upgraded, etc, allowing easier repair.

Whilst agreeing with all of the above, the easy acquisition of doxycycline and norfloxacin from street chemists has saved many an unsuspecting male from the more serious consequences of STDs after a careless, drunken night. I refer mainly to Gon and Syph.

The girls use them as well, to the good of all, but would find the cost of the doctor/prescription route prohibitive on occasions.

But... the indication of an antibiotic course for those diseases is correct..

http://www.ncbi.nlm....sease.treatment

No one's complaining about the correct usage of antibiotics (even when sold by pharmacists). The issue isnt that it's available in drugstores without the need for a doctor's perscription. The problem that's being discussed is the mis-use or over-use of them, making superbugs advance more rapidly here than in other locals.

True Siang ... but the easy acquisition of these medications from chemists whilst leading to misuse, also has some enormous benefits. with regards to the on-going problem of STDs. I will add chlamydia to my list.

Again, your point is already being made by the fact that no one is saying chemists shouldn't have antibiotics (to be made easily available for the properly indicated treatment of actual bacterial infections). If there was a "crackdown" on the over-dispensing of antibiotics for NON-INDICATED use (such as viral infections, or other non-bacterial maladies), that wouldn't make them any less {easily} available to be properly dispensed for treatment of bacterial VD.

So, I'm not really sure what your "we should be glad that it's available for VD treatment" statement really means.. It's seems to sound as if you think it could be in danger of not being available (at all), if doctors and chemists weren't over-prescribing it?

That's confusing, sir.

Whilst agreeing with all of the above, the easy acquisition of doxycycline and norfloxacin from street chemists has saved many an unsuspecting male from the more serious consequences of STDs after a careless, drunken night. I refer mainly to Gon and Syph.

The girls use them as well, to the good of all, but would find the cost of the doctor/prescription route prohibitive on occasions.

But... the indication of an antibiotic course for those diseases is correct..

http://www.ncbi.nlm....sease.treatment

No one's complaining about the correct usage of antibiotics (even when sold by pharmacists). The issue isnt that it's available in drugstores without the need for a doctor's perscription. The problem that's being discussed is the mis-use or over-use of them, making superbugs advance more rapidly here than in other locals.

I too frequently see a huge abuse of oral (and even injected) antibiotics in Thailand.

It's prescribed for the most trivial illness, everything from a slight sniffle (common cold) to a sore muscle to a minor abrasion. Or even as a treatment for simple diarrhea (and not every bout of upset stomach is the result of a bacterial infection). Often, it's prescribed by pharmacists, without even a basic examination, but simply handed over to the customer after a 20 second conversation over the glass counter. No background (existing condition) check, no drug allergy or interaction check for multiple medications,and certainly no instructions as to how important it is to finish the full course.

The fact that the pharmacists don't give implicit instructions may not matter; because it also doesn't seem to matter how imperatively I explain why a full course of antibiotics has to be followed to it's conclusion; the Thais in my life simply don't pay any attention. They seem to treat it as some kind of painkiller. They stupidly believe that if "it doesn't hurt anymore", they don't need to continue to take the medication, coupled with a foolish goal of intentionally only using half the prescription (so as to still have a remaining dosage for some future day when they have a slight fever or a stuffy nose). They keep it around the house (for extensive periods), occasionally dipping into it when they're a bit under the weather, treating it like it's aspirin. (I force my GF not to take it unless it's really indicated, or to finish the course fully, if it is, but the others in the family? no way). I've found that doctors/pharmacists really lose their minds in terms of over-prescribing oral antibiotics for babies, who just have a simple cold or a cough (often exacerbated by being forced to sleep in a constant chilling blast from a fan, set up in their face by a clueless Thai grandparent that somehow "feels" that the baby หายใจไม่ออก {can't breath}... but don't get me started on that!).

Proper health care (even the most basic tenants of it, like refrigerated raw foods, hot foods being kept hot, washing hands with soap often {especially before eating}, not sharing saliva-soaked silverware, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, not discarding bacteria-filled soft contact lenses for years on end, only using potable water, proper disposal of infectious or toxic refuse, etc, etc), seems to be an inscrutable mystery to 80%+ of the rural Thais that I know (and still a good chunk of the urban ones). But the overuse of antibiotics is just off the chart.

It's no wonder the super-bugs are on a fasttrack to overwhelming even the most powerful antibiotics here.

I think the middle part might be written correctly, with "don" being " โดน"

(if you) don't believe me, you're going to get smacked. understand?

Possibly.. but it's "โดนตบ".. (dohn dtohp).. which is past tense..

If it doesn't have a "จะ" (ja) or a "เดี๋ยว" (diaao) coming before the "โดนตบ" (dohn dtohp) to make it future tense, then it's meaning is past tense.

Of course, if there's an implied "if you" at the beginning, then perhaps the writer meant to imply a "ja" before the "dohn dtohp", as well?

Even if it's actually "โดนตบหน้า" (did slap face), there's still a confusing grammar/tense problem with the sentence.

Anyway, this is still a very good example of how badly things can get confused with Karaoke Thai & Tinglish mashups.. JUST SAY NO! 5555

I suspect it means

"Don't believe me na, don't answer (dtorb or tob) na, understand?

yes.. that's more likely the correct meaning.. (as per the TGF)

Sorry, she was a little slow on the draw (converting "tob" to "dtorb" in her head)..