dukkha

Many thanks for the useful information, much appreciated

Tekno Luddite of Melbourne

Any tips on best deal

I have an iPhone 5 and will need to buy a prepaid nano sim

I want to use if for social media as well as usual msm and phone calls

Many thanks....Will be in Chiangmai for three weeks...

I arrived in Chiengmai in 2000 and left in 20005

I am returning after a two and a half absence to Thailand

A three week holiday in my Sprititual Home

October 28th

Ajarn Lloyd

I would imagine Green Lantern speaks for quite some number of thais....

Ghandi, like many males from the sub continent and other parts of asia are more flexible and fluid about sexuality, there was never the word 'gay' in the thai language and probably still is not, corrrect me if I am wrong..

A few years back we were staying at a resort on Koh Chang....my friend showered and was thrown on the ground....we called for manager and no body came for ages...when we were checking out there was a couple, and she too was thrown in the shower by the electricity not being earthed, and taken to hospital for an ECG...my friend pestered them by email from australia and they offered a free holiday at the same resort....No way Jose..

Also, in Bangkok, there are little "portacabins" set up at intervals along Charoenrad Road (between Rama 3 and Sathorn Road) which are little community libraries. One is always closed but the other seems to have a group of local ladies doing aerobics or having a chat outside it early in the morning and it seems to be open every day.

And, I even saw a mobile library van parked on the beachfront in Songhkla once. Clearly marked as such in English and Thai. I was so amazed. I couldn't see if it was open, otherwise I'd have taken a closer look. Never seen it since or anywhere else in Thailand.

Lumpini park actually has a small library. And in Rajavithi Rd, not far from Victory, there is a new library. From my observation, though, both are heavily equipped with glorification of a certain family.

I walked past that Library so many times, I was also a volunteer at Neilson Hayes Library in Suriwonf for several year....the average thai reads one A3 page a year...I may be wrong but remember that stat...

@ Nevo....can only empahthise and offer support....ten years in thailand, and 5 of them with my partner...I had to return to Australia, colon cancer, rushed on a plane leaving him behind, a nightmare of one month in hospital...we had come to Australia together in 2007 and both returned, fortunately he got a tourist visa and after three months was here and is living with me waiting on a Spouse/Partner Visa..those three months were terrible although have a grop of dear friends here, but now I am doing ok and we are confident he will be granted said Visa...stay strong and hope that your partner recoverers speedily, my thoughts are with you.....Dukkha

Side effects include: Dizziness, headaches, loss of appetite, hair loss, loose stools, excessive urination, enlarged heart, enlarged spleen, night sweats, difficulty concentrating, night blindness, sensitivity to bright light, jaundice, increased risk for colon cancer, and difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection.

Interesting, had dengue in Chiangmai 8 years ago and last year colon cancer....also discovered in thailand so back home in australia these days after the 10 most interesting and enjoyable years of my life...doin ok..

Mmmm no thanks I will just ride the Dengue out

Jokes aside, great development - well done.

Being heterosexual and admittedly being repulsed by the idea of male homosexuality for much of my life, I just can't imaging being in any situation where I could perform a gay act with anyone for any amount of money, so the opinions that were offered insisting that once anybody has consented to a gay encounter for money, they are (in essence) a gay person is understandable.

In truth, nobody knows what they'd do if their situation was dire enough. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If the OP is correct in telling us that straight people sometimes work servicing homosexuals for money, I feel very sorry for them. To be in such a horrible situation that they'd defy their own sexuality and go the other way must be extremely damaging to their inner spirit.

Thais do not suffer from Victorian sexual guilt...it is an activity like probably Rugby or Cricket is for you......there is no repulsion...this again is a western construct in the discourse......because I had sex with many wimmin in my early years it did not damage my inner spirit in fact I always enjoyed it, but there came a time when I felt I was being untruthful with wimmin and ceased this behaviour/activity...westerners by and large just dont get the fluidity of thai sexuality, they always seem to be bound up with guilt and repulsion...

In my 10 years in the Kingdom I found it a far healthier environment sexually than in Australia where gays are still being murdered for their sexual preference....if you want a greater understanding of thai male sexuality I suggest you read Professor Peter Jackson's book, Letters To Uncle Goh, it may be dated by now but he writes with insight and from his own experience....maybe it might repulse you if so I suggest you get on with being heterosexual and give this kind of discussion a miss.....or is your curiosity somewhat important to understand thai men.......remember you as a westerner will never get into the head of a thai, male or female, just as a white person will never get into the skin of a black person....get on with enjoying the other wonderful things that Thailand has to offer.....there is life after sex, and I am a living example of it...cheers!

I wouldn’t even use the energy to press the remote to watchit as all wasted on me personally; just a bit kinky mostly normal. Can anyoneexplain why Gay gets so much attention? Only 5% of all folks are supposed to begay so how come they get so much publicity? Bothers me that there maybe aconversion attempt in the process especially towards younger ones.

It is a heterosexual world.....we get a mention because we are still perceived as freaks, rememer it was only in the mid 70's that homosexuality was removed from the psychiatric register in USA...one is BORN gay, it aint a choice.....but in the words of Sir Ian McKellen, " I have always found heterosexuality quite fascinating...

The word normalcy is an acceptable synonym for normality in American speech.

And my mate Norman is coming to visit next month.

That'll swell the numbers.

I have just watched SBS television news here in Melbourne, it was a piece on the training camps the redshirts are organising in the NE of Thailand...what degree of normalcy does this represent...interested on anyones spin...

My advice? In order:

1) Money

2) Money

3) Money

Guaranteed to bring a smile to that special Thai Boy.!

1) BAHT

2) DOLLARS

3) EUROS

It's absolutely correct that Thais are hardly Buddhists at all - it's self evident.

Like the Phillipines, it is nominally Catholic, Thailand is nominally buddhist but the practise seems limited to some voodoo animist cults.......weddings funerals and other ceremonies, oooops cremations, get an audience but doubt whether it comes from any deep religious conviction to treading the Middle Path...

Reading those posts brought back so many happy memories.

Eventually in 2006 we sadly had to leave our wonderful Anantisila penthouse and moved to Bangkok.

We had no difficulty in finding a two bedroom apartment, 18 000 baht a month at Sribumpen Condo Home in soi Sribumphen.

The manage then offered us another 2 bedroom on a much higher floor for 16 000 baht, it too was comfortable. By 2009 16 000 baht was becoming out of our range and so we went on a waiting list at Pitak Court. In August we rented a one bedroom apartment in this well known building for 10 000 baht a month with no signed lease. Sadly by early December I was on a plane home to Melbourne Australia with cancer. I believe Satorn Soi 1 was a dangerous place during the recent crisis. I miss it terribly but Thailand does not provide free medical care for ex pats and the insurance premiums would have been astonomical and any claim would most likely be seen as a pre existing illness...ho hum, for a one bedroom shoe box in the inner city here we pay 260 AUD a month, it is now wonder so many ex pats on pensions find life in Bangkok, more so in Chiangmai, less financially stressful....impermanence!

English needs a lot of editing....

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s2910366.htm

A farang and his thai bf run a restaurant in Satorn, even frequented by Swedish Royalty...my partner worked there for one month, 7 days a week, from 1 pm till 5 pm, one hour break, then from 6pm till 11 pm....average daily tip, split among staff, 60 baht, salary 5000 baht....I know it is not unusual and the majority of the staff were Burmese....you can work out how much an hour he was getting, I said NO NO NO....enough is enough....he was a waiter with little english but worked hard...

The Trickle Down Effect......I am here in Melbourne Australia with my thai partner of 5 years. He is from Roi Et. His family is dirt poor, subsistence rice farmers. We received a phone call from his aunt who told him that she had an accident, yes they have a car, not the parents, the aunt, and that they needed money for repairs. My partner asked to send some money to them. It was a small amount of savings of his own. I explained that money is his. He replied, 'What will happen to me when you die?' 'I have nothing, who will look after me then?" An intelligent reply. I am a pensioner and we live on my pension. He said that in the past these same relatives looked after him when he had no money. He began as factory fodder in Bangkok at the age of 14 with only a primary school education and until I met him at age 27. He worked for a thai chinese company that paid him a pittance. He worked 6 days a week and through the night as a machinist. His overtime rate was around 7 baht an hour. His story is the same as thousands of Isaan unskilled labourers. He is a red shirt supporter openly. A deep dislike of Abhisit and a level of acclamation for Toxin whose populist policies we are all aware of. The aunt and her husband still work for the same company, have a small house rent free in the compound of the Thai Chinese factory owner. Both she and her husband have more than primary education and in my meetings with them they appeared comfortablly off. I became suspicous of the phone call. Why cant they ask the owner of the factory to help out with car repairs. The husband also owns a taxi. They are not stereotypical Isaan poor. I ask myself, was it a genuine request from the nephew who has a tourisf visa in my country and told them he had a few dollars. I understand his vulnerablility about his future. As a same sex couple he will not receive any benefits from my superannuation pension at my death. He will have to return to Thailand. I too would be feeling somewhat anxious about my future. I may have a few years left but there will be no bequest for him. He will be alone again like he was when we met and took him from his only meagre employment. I have cared for him, built a modest house in his village, assisted his parents with some financial hardship and other handouts. They have always been respectful and civil towards me. I cant help but think that there may have been no motor accident. The farang in far off Australia is supporting our nephew maybe he is good for some financial assistance. As to whether they were involved in the BKK crisis I will never know. My partner rang his father who said. 'Do not send money" A wise man. We went to the bank to transfer 100 AUD but could not as we had insufficient banking details. My partner settled down and now seems calm about the situation. I only tell the story as a probable example of the results of the crisis. Of course some of you may say you put your partner in this situation by removing him from a job of nearly 14 years. I am too old to be concerned what people think. It just seemed surreal to receive a phone call from Isaan at this time asking for money. It blew me away and of course the mind and the imagination reel, are these people in trouble due to the crisis. I tend to think "Yes"!

http://www.alternet.org/world/146933/are_t...sham_revolution

Every single Thai I know supports this man - I hope in the weeks and months ahead, he shows everyone a path towards peace, reconciliation and unity.

Every Thai I know hate this man. He can not do anything, becouse he is a marionette of persons, who order to kill Thai protesters.

Three posts, you obviously have a broad church of thai friends!.......I lived in the country for 9 years up till Dec last, I did not experience your rather narrow view of thai people and I am referring to my Isaan Famiy in Roi Et, my 'elite' friends in academia in the Buddhist University in Chiangmai where I taught for 4 years, thai street vendors in my soi, teachers, doctors and nurses at BNH, and I speak fluent thai which I would say is not very common amongst arm chair warriors in their condos and houses. Having said that, there are fundamental problems that needs be addressed by the current government, but like Atticus in To Kill A Mocking Bird, farangs will never get inside the skin of the thai people, we will always be outsiders. Give peace and reconciliation a chance, but maybe your kicks come from disunity and violence, sadly. Dukkha

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The fat lady is going through her voice exercises just offstage. Maybe she will really go onstage this time - and sing?

People who want to blame Abhisit will find ways to do so. Fact remains, this dispersal needed to happen. A diseased kidney does not get excised with toothpicks.

"Where's my song sheet?"

I like your sense of humour and buddha knows how necessary it is to have one, a day without laughter is a day lost, not to lessen the tragic circumstances of all that is happening in Thailand...

"Eyewitness accounts and video recordings show clearly that the military is firing live rounds at unarmed people who pose no threat whatsoever to the soldiers or to others," said Amnesty's Thailand specialist Benjamin Zawacki.

Less wacki tobacki for Mr. Zawacki :

You make my hero Gerald Manley Hopkins, British Poet who was big on onomatopeia, look tame you cheekee wordsmith.

I have been seeing this coming a LONG time.

It was never

'will Thaksin go for revenge big time?'

but was always

'WHEN will Thaksin go for broke with revenge or a power grab big time.'

Ever since his badly done attempt to keep his Temp PM chair in mid 2006,

with a ginned up S.O.E. or Martial Law stemming from that very badly done

'attempted assassination' I realized the guy has no limits or scruples.

I wasn't surprised he was removed from the scene, and only a little at the soft reaction to it,

but that always brought the worry about how and when he would seek to avenge his lost face.

When people post it's not about Thaksin, I can only surmise:

a ) they are on his payroll, spreading the PR message.

Thailand/Logic....oxymoronic!

b ) they really don't understand the situation well.

c ) they are so lost in their ideological world that LOGIC and observation

are swamped out by philosophical desire.

He did build a huge patronage network in the old school style over 20 years or so,

and then used it for more modern style rapacious greed. But also developed the

untapped potential of Issan, by using a modern business organizational model

coupled with old school Communist cadre indoctrination techniques.

Machiavelli would be proud; well actually Ceaser Borgia, whom Machiavelli was commenting on.

Thaksin took policy corruption to levels never seen, even in Thailand.

And then a step too far with Temasek.

Money = Power = Face and this all feeds a severely damaged ego.

His whole life was nouveau-riche striving for Hi So acceptance. Power

with money was the sole route there... problem was he completely forgot

that "having class" is more important than being accepted in first class.

He married up, way up, and was always pushed to fit into a world that

he was not prepared to enter, and that rejected him no matter how much cash he had.

After his return from self imposed exile, but before the 2nd self imposed exile,

he went to Anupong's mother's funeral, uninvited, and faced off with Prem and Anupong.

The pictures made clear they though he was in exceedingly poor taste to go there.

and made no efforts to hide this, a very un-thai action, but Thaksin did a very un-thai act

to try and reinstall himself at 'Prems level' at Anupong's time of mourning.

To this day Prem has pictures of the incident on his website... quite tellingly.

So rather than the public forgiveness he sought Thaksin got dissed big time.

Som nom na. Except this fed kerosene onto Thaksin's inflamed damaged ego.

Most people deal with others as if they are typically rational, not sometimes or often

slightly ting tong. Mental stability is not solely judged whether you are incoherent when speaking.

This guy is damaged goods, and shows instability under stress, letting him regain control

of the country through proxies is a non-starter, no matter what it takes to get that dirty job done.