spectrumisgreen

Well, we learn something totally new here every day! Now it's that the 3 month monkhood merit-making, apparently enough to set you up for the rest of your life, turns out actually to be Harry Potter training for the nation's future law enforcers!!!

Investigators got paid by his family i reckon, to do that, the court trial will be void then he will be set free, money buys anything only in Thailand.

'.. money buys anything ONLY in Thailand.'??? F* me!! Now that has to be the most naive thing I've heard for a long while!! Nice one, Billy!!!

You can tell that Phillip Mprris has the public welfare uppermost in their minds.

Yup! Basically, the people who smoke won't be deterred and so his concern is that potential NEW smokers, which obviously includes kids, MIGHT be!!.. lovely guy!!!

Makes absolutely no difference to me, food for worms or the vultures or add to the air pollution, I'm not around anymore.

Just hope those I leave behind will be OK, have to hang in a bit longer to ensure that. . .

ask me when it happens if I'm happy about when, where, and how I came to pass... any lack of statement should be taken as agreement to get shut of what's left as simply and easily and unceremoniously as possible... byeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Why was the Belgian guy in Pattaya?

If he had holiday in Europe nothing had happened.

It's almost illegal to publish such stories and let shine out that Thailand would be a dangerous country.

Printing such stories brings the good ties between Thailand and Belgium in danger.

555555555555555

RIP the Belgian guy

Don't be so naive!! 'Nothing would have happened if he'd been in Europe'?!!! If you think this then you have ABSOLUTELY ZERO awareness of how fragile life and death are and certainly no understanding of how people anywhere can be capable of such terrible acts!!! It's just the world we live in, moreover sadly, too many of the people in it!! Never heard of a 'crime of passion'??? Only thing is it's generally assumed to be the 'accuser' who's likely to lose control and do the dirty deed, but to think such a thing could only happen in Thailand is ridiculously dumb.. just read the papers (or even look here on TV more!).. so, no its not even ALMOST illegal for such stories to be published either!.. doh!!! ... what a cosy, blinkered world you must wander around in, when in Europe anyway!!... ('Thais are bad, m'kay'???!)... don't make me laugh...

Agree on one thing.. RIP the guy...

I think the scams, tuk tuks, corruption etc does more damage to Phukets image than exposing a crime against someone.

No money to be made out of this pesky farang so it's his fault.

And the single, beer-swilling, girl chasing, farang guys who flock to these places (notably Phuket and Pattaya) don't exactly help give them a great reputation amongst anybody but like-seeking farang guys, either!! All becomes a vicious circle, really, Thais not trusting or liking the farangs so are quite happy to rip them off when they can.. and too many farangs distrusting anybody Thai they come into contact with.. no respect all round!!! A lovely state of affairs...

It is common knowledge, even in Third World countries, that mosquitoes will only spawn in still clear, clean water.

49,000 infected and only now the Public Health Minister issues this statement?

It appears that not only justice and police move slowly in Thailand..

Where did you get these facts from? It is not "common knowledge" that the breed in clear water (mosquitos do not "spawn").

Also they have NOT "just released" this statement. Y ou just need to read the news more.

There has still not been any speaker warnings on SSCC Pattaya yet about them coming around to spray but I imagine this will happen any day now (I hope).

Has anyone in other areas experienced them driving around spraying yet?

This is truely something to be concerned about AGAIN.

Been round our way, Tambon Tasala, just south of Chiang Mai main/ old town a few times in recent months.. most recently last Monday... (can't come often enough, really, as long as we're not out walking round the village at the time!)...

Great headline guys whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty.

Please remember where you are, or at least the source of the news.

SUSPECTED, is, I assume, the missing word?

The headline is 100% accurate. It is a warrant for his arrest because there is sufficient evidence, not a statement that he is quilty. English is a tricky langauge.

100% accurate crap!!! It says 'Arrest warrant to be issued.. for American man WHO attacked, paralyzed, maid'!! No mention of any possibilty of NOT being guilty or of arrest warrant being due to sufficient evidence to charge!!! Of course, it is just the 'headline' but lets not write like no-one else can understand EXACTLY what's being said in it...

I must admit that today I saw three Chinese tourists walking side by side walking down a fairly main street forcing all the cars going in their direction to go around them. The problem was when a bunch of cars came from the opposite direction they continued on their merry way and seemed oblivious to a bunch of cars stuck behind them.

But not simply a 'Chinese' thing is it? It may well be all Asians, but certainly in Thailand, Thais themselves wander along oblivious to all sounds of traffic especially on smaller, narrower roads.. as a teacher here it both amazes me and screws my head up the way kids seem totally unaware of approaching cars or motorcycles WITHIN schools unless you actually 'BEEP!!!' right behind them or throttle up or whatever... even then its seen more of a joke.. all 'hee-hees' as they jostle each other playfully out the way.. even seen bunches of teenage girls do this out on the main road, such as when big truck going too fast anyway came past, nearly clipped me on my little Honda and and the f* total imbecile driver then nearly waylaid the girls without a second glance.. still they went 'Oooh!' and laughed and carried on regardless ('We were nearly killed, tee-hee!'???).. any lessons absolutely NOT learned to be f* careful and always aware on these roads or you may actually just die in a f* blink!!! Not much different to adults when it comes to traffic awareness, in my six years experience, though I think it's commonly and largely a noise-desensitised issue, not just traffic/ danger awareness, with all the speakers possible blasting everything from when to be respectful (fair enough!) to who's given how much to the temple(s) or other local fund (to make the 'lesser' donors feel bad and do better next time?) and.. mostly.. advertising (including musical plug-ins!) on a Philip K. Dick futureworld scale...

... ps: I do not say these things to 'slag off' Thailand.. I long ago realigned my 'wish to live here' allegiance to this country, the UK and even my own small-town being/ feeling far too serious, nowadays, with too many there seemingly half-content to play out their lives in what seems a continuously unhappy living soap-opera!!.. they tell me how bad it is themselves! (+ I was back for 5 months last year, when my dad was seriously ill).. but awareness of ALL issues, here, ie in a country where life can be too easily lost and bad things can quickly happen in a million different ways is a MUST just NOT an option for ANY of us... as for the Chinese, specifically, most of the ones I know are quite young, also teachers or student-teachers and often quickly trying to integrate into the 'Thai-way', and I can well imagine their similarly thoughtless (non-)attitude to the roads and traffic, even the older ones.. after all, probably as in Thailand, an older person will 'assume' their maturity based on the physical fact they are not kids and so couldn't possibly be acting like one on the roads or anywhere else!!.. In truth, when it comes to tourists and traffic, we even used to get this in England where I lived by the sea, every summer when the holiday-makers and day-trippers (from UK cities, so mostly Brits!) would overwhelm the town and wander aimlessly in front of cars, sometimes mothers or fathers even pushing their babes in prams in front to MAKE vehicles stop for them... (so , yes, I'd say mad and/ or thoughtless people - of all denominations - make it a mad and/ or thoughtless world, sometimes, but it'll have to do for now, I reckon!)...

I must admit that today I saw three Chinese tourists walking side by side walking down a fairly main street forcing all the cars going in their direction to go around them. The problem was when a bunch of cars came from the opposite direction they continued on their merry way and seemed oblivious to a bunch of cars stuck behind them.

But not simply a 'Chinese' thing is it? It may well be all Asians, but certainly in Thailand, Thais themselves wander along oblivious to all sounds of traffic especially on smaller, narrower roads.. as a teacher here it both amazes me and screws my head up the way kids seem totally unaware of approaching cars or motorcycles WITHIN schools unless you actually 'BEEP!!!' right behind them or throttle up or whatever... even then its seen more of a joke.. all 'hee-hees' as they jostle each other playfully out the way.. even seen bunches of teenage girls do this out on the main road, such as when big truck going too fast anyway came past, nearly clipped me on my little Honda and and the f* total imbecile driver then nearly waylaid the girls without a second glance.. still they went 'Oooh!' and laughed and carried on regardless ('We were nearly killed, tee-hee!'???).. any lessons absolutely NOT learned to be f* careful and always aware on these roads or you may actually just die in a f* blink!!! Not much different to adults when it comes to traffic awareness, in my six years experience, though I think it's commonly and largely a noise-desensitised issue, not just traffic/ danger awareness, with all the speakers possible blasting everything from when to be respectful (fair enough!) to who's given how much to the temple(s) or other local fund (to make the 'lesser' donors feel bad and do better next time?) and.. mostly.. advertising (including musical plug-ins!) on a Philip K. Dick futureworld scale...

... ps: I do not say these things to 'slag off' Thailand.. I long ago realigned my 'wish to live here' allegiance to this country, the UK and even my own small-town being/ feeling far too serious, nowadays, with too many there seemingly half-content to play out their lives in what seems a continuously unhappy living soap-opera!!.. they tell me how bad it is themselves! (+ I was back for 5 months last year, when my dad was seriously ill).. but awareness of ALL issues, here, ie in a country where life can be too easily lost and bad things can quickly happen in a million different ways is a MUST just NOT an option for ANY of us... as for the Chinese, specifically, most of the ones I know are quite young, also teachers or student-teachers and often quickly trying to integrate into the 'Thai-way', and I can well imagine their similarly thoughtless (non-)attitude to the roads and traffic, even the older ones.. after all, probably as in Thailand, an older person will 'assume' their maturity based on the physical fact they are not kids and so couldn't possibly be acting like one on the roads or anywhere else!!.. In truth, when it comes to tourists and traffic, we even used to get this in England where I lived by the sea, every summer when the holiday-makers and day-trippers (from UK cities, so mostly Brits!) would overwhelm the town and wander aimlessly in front of cars, sometimes mothers or fathers even pushing their babes in prams in front to MAKE vehicles stop for them... (so , yes, I'd say mad people - of all denominations - make it a mad world, sometimes, but it'll have to do for now, I reckon!)...

I have images of an old farmer letting his buffalo on to the track to take a dump at the first hairpin. Also, an old lady pushing her somtam/gai yang cart across the back straight.

Clearly money-wagon/ baht signs in greedy eyes time!.. what costs, logistics, infrastructure, and organisation?!!! Have to ask, though.. Will the F1 drivers be held responsible for run over chickens and wayward cattle? There'll be lynchings, for sure!!.. What's Thai/ Isaan for "We Isaan farming folks don't take too kindly to strangers running over our livestock in their weird, new-fangled motor-racing vehicles "???

Just as a matter of interest, how many dairy herds are there in Thailand. Nearest fresh milk, which I assume the article is about, is about 30kn from our home.

Not sure, but the emaciated cows that I've seen in most of the country would probably not produce much milk anyway in comparison to a proper dairy herd. Maybe it's time to start a dairy farm with some recognised breeds. The increased consumption the government is decreeing is huge and I'm sure they have not done the math on how big the dairy industry has to grow to meet that consumption level.

Or maybe someone HAS been doing some maths on it.. maybe someone with some shares and interests in farming, dairy herds and the like, say... the Government, Health Ministry, talking folk into buying and drinking huge quantities more milk would hardly be an unwelcome turn of events for such a 'prospector' would it?

My sympathies for his family, he was only trying to do a job

BUT.

The fact is he was in a dangerous live fire zone during an exchange of gunfire between armed protesters and armed soldiers.

Some places call that collateral damage? What do you call it?

Murder

Whoever pulled the trigger, that's pretty much the only label you could put on it!! 'Collateral damage'? Is that how you'd see it if it were someone close to YOU lying dead in the street???

"During the inquest, experts testified that the victim died of a wound from a high velocity bullet like those used by security forces and there was no evidence of any other group in the area," according to a criminal court judge.

He was shot on May 19 2010 near Lumpini Park. Where there was footage caught by BBC of gunmen shooting at soldiers, and where reporters and soldiers were injured by grenades thrown by "protesters".

What evidence do they need to show that another group was in the area?

So a court acting under a Red Shirt government passes a 'twas them' verdict on soldiers acting under a Yellow Shirt government during (sometimes) violent protests led by Red Shirts.. go figure...

Kasikorn bank response to this is unacceptable!

Banking in Thailand is a JOKE.

He should sue the bank, but he wont be able since he has only 125K baht left.

edit: I can already see it coming the "good luck suing in thailand" replies. LOL

125 BAHT left!!! NOT 125K BAHT!!! Hence the '... the thieves had drained his account to the dregs.' tag-line!! You think the thieves would not have taken another 1000K baht plus if it was there??? (personally, I always eye every ATM machine I ever use suspiciously, whether outside a bank or stand-alone.. 'looks new?.. funny little add-on plastic bit (housing a scanner/ camera?) at the top?.. check.. check.. check.. never used a machine I didn't scrutinise first!.. paranoia?.. does help sometimes! - never been skimmed!!!')...

'The police coordinated with the rescue officers of Sawangboribul Pattaya foundation to perform first aid on the victim...'.. isn't FIRST AID meant to be a quick-fast, in this case also life-saving, response to such a medical emergency?.. by the time they'd finished 'co-ordinating', poor chap might have been dead!!! Also, looks like it's his midriff strapped up, blood apparently coming through from his abdomen, not upper ribcage...

What is 'living illegally' ? Was he a squatter ?

From my point of view he did not anything wrong, just a guy who does not live conform some manmade rules.

It seems he lived in a house that was not occupied by someone else.

He stayed on a piece on earth that should be free to use for all of us.

He loved herbes that were made by God, with the reason to use them to free our minds.

This is not a criminal.

Look, each to their own, but let's not get all HIGH (as a kite!) and ALMIGHTY(!!) about this!!!.. Yes, he was living illegally.. like overstaying your 2 weeks - that's TWO WEEKS!! - 'granted' TOURIST VISA by a couple of YEARS.. yes, TWO YEARS.. not two weeks, or even two months!!! He just loves herbs made by God? Nahh, he just wanted to get off his face on SOMETHING!!.. look at him for God's sake!!!.. ok, enough already.. leave that stuff alone, your mind seems to be 'free' enough as it is!!!!!!!

Absolute rubbish to even suggest that BOTH pilots left the cockpit to take a nap. Overcrowding a cockpit by cabin crew does happen, and not just at Air India . I don't believe a word of this.

I tend to agree and why would cabin crew enter the vacant cockpit (or was the navigator still present), even locate the autopilot button and then shut it off. Or was this payback as a sense of being pissed off at sleeping pilots. Too many questions at this point to believe the stupidity of the act. Similarly why suspend the cabin crew? They 'appear' to have got the pilots back in the chair.

Remember Goldie Hawn doing this to her husband at the start of 'Private Benjamin'!!..sh***ed him to death!!!

Don't think this poor chaps spouse/ girlfriend will be running off to join the army, though, once she gets any bahts he happens to have left behind!!

Remember Goldie Hawn doing this to her husband at the start of 'Private Benjamin'!!..sh***ed him to death!!!

Don't think this poor chaps spouse/ girlfriend will be running off to join the army, though, once she gets any bahts he happens to have left behind!!

I thought I was so clever......need to provide a map to my home for my request for extension of temporary stay.

Got all the other arsenal of paperwork ready......so I spent today using my navigational and slightly artistic skills to draw a freehand map so the immigration people can find my home. (Note: I live out in the sticks and no google map even knows where I am).

I even used Thai writing, not that I can read it yet.....but the cruncher was.....a gate.

To find my place one needs to turn left off a paved road onto a dirt road which is not very easy to see (especially for someone who has never been there before) lots of trees and bush.

About 100 metres before our dirt road, there is a gate on the opposite side of the road, it stands out all by itself.....easy to see. So I show this gate on my map, indicating that 100 metres later is the turnoff for the dirt road.

Proud as punch, when my wife comes home I show her the results of my blood sweat and tears......"what's this?"

"It's that gate on the other side of the road just before we turn into the dirt road."

"But there is no gate on our road"

"I know...it's on the other side of the road before our road"

"Too confusing"

"Why"

"You show gate on road and that is not our road"

"No.....I have shown that it is on the opposite side of the road and is 100 metres before our road"

"Thai people not understand....you make too confusing"

"<deleted>!"......it is a stand alone gate that opens for a large property where the residence is some 300 metres from the road.

So I reach for another beer.

Sigh!

Many years ago I knew a German guy who was married to a Thai lady he decided to take her home so she could see her family who lived in the back of beyond after many hours of driving from Phuket they got near her house.

When they got back to Phuket I saw him in the bar I asked him how they got on a did he meet the family he told me when they got there she couldn't remember how to get to the house so they came back.

This was before everybody had a mobile phone.

They moved to Germany

Seems many on this site got just as confused as your wife, spouting phrases like 'over complicating' etc.. maybe not surprising the way too many regularly miss each other's points on these forums and get ignorantly self-righteous at the drop of a hat!!.. get a grip fellers and use your loafs!!.. a map's a map and doesn't just show only the exact place you are going, but how to get there! I've experienced plenty of Thai 'logic' here myself, and generally very much like the people but do appreciate that thinking outside the box often ain't a strong point.. nor, apparently, even finding the box going by the 'weird concepts' applied in, say, a (considered) 'farang' map which likely not only marks the box's spot with an 'X' but shows through which door the box lies and what the box is actually next to!! Sure, in the future let your wife do the ordinance if it saves time and gets the job done quicker, but let's not lose sight of how things might well better be done with a bit of 'overview' applied.. ps: don't think the sun helps, for those brought up here.. what's your excuse, chaps?

How could they tell they were ladyboys?

I lived with one post op for over a year and did not know, When I found her/him having sex on cam on the net with foreigners from around the world and approaced her about it she thru me out. She lost face, she also lost $500 a month in income support plus.

Lost a bit more than face, I reckon! But you didn't know, right? And when you did find out, via finding sex vids with foreigners you steamed in to 'approach' 'her' about it! I mean each to their own, your personal choices and all that, but you tell this version often, or just mainly to yourself?

What's the white stuff on the katoys' faces. In some cultures (Thailand also?) white skin is associated with ghosts. Oh well, to each his own.

The white stuff is just face powder as so many Thais for some reason think the way to be is with pale skin.. of course paste gets smeared on everyone's faces during Songkran, too, but its a fact that there's whitener is in many cosmetics over here and often even in such things as deodorants.. they even laugh when you tell them that a lot of we westerners actually come to sunny climes to get a 'tan'!! We think the cosmetic and 'how you SHOULD look' culture has become ridiculous in our own countries but you only have to see the teens (and many MUCH older folks!) preening themselves in the mirrors of motorcycles and such to see these things.. as you say each to their own, and I'm sure at certain more traditional cultural events, white faces ARE supposed to denote spirits and the like, but lady-boys with what is essentially talc on their faces is far more likely to be just OTT 'Look at me I've got beautiful white skin'!

We all know, that a fair amount of those money, are going to end up in

the wrong pockets. Which most to us is not acceptable, simply due to the

big amounts we are talking about.

it is none of our (expats) business to judge what is acceptable/charming or not

in our "host" country. moreover, no bitching will change the situation.

Erm.. corruption isn't 'charming' or 'acceptable' pretty much by definition of it being.. you know.. 'corruption'!! Not about it being 'not our business to judge', something is what it is.. and isn't what it isn't! Just facts really! No, 'bitching' will not change the situation but it doesn't mean you have to pretend its okay or that you don't understand what it is or even that you must accept it if it happens to you.. wherever you are...

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As opposed to those that plant their butt on a sidewalk barstool in the morning and that's where you see them into the afternoon, the evening, and late into the night, taking a break only to pee and then home to sleep a few hours before planting themselves in the exact same 2 square meters the next morning?

I'd love to take a train trip like that if time allowed. Sadly, work always seems to get in the way.

Exactly. Really don't know why so many on ThaiVisa even came here in the first place or now bother to stay in Thailand! Whinge about everybody and everything, and as you say probably while bar-stooling their lives away!! Each to their own and all the best with it if it as long as its not to anyone else's detriment. Sadly, I can't be of help myself with this journey though I too would like to give it a go sometime...