raybal5

Stay away from Thai Government buildings and any large crowds with signs.

I have stayed at Baan Saleadang and was very happy. Close to Silom BTS and a short way from the embassies

From what you have written, if Thai's could be blonde - she would be one.

I would definitely have stopped and assisted her. Even if I was in a car I would have blocked the traffic so no one else could run over her and checked her out. If her injuries were too serious I would call for help and wait for the ambulance to arrive, or at least the Police so I could give a witness account of what happened to her. I would also have got the registration number of the bus and given that to the police. The poor woman could then claim expenses etc from the bus company who could afford it more than her even if they didn't have their bus insured.

You are right to feel guilty. Just because other locals were ignoring here you could have given them a lesson in common decency.

are you full American as your written english is very poor?

Maybe he's been used to Tinglish for so long that it's natural for him to miss the odd word here and there. No big deal.

I can't say I've stopped drinking. I'm still occasionally drinking alcohol if there is a good reason for it. But I'm "HELL NO" driving even a tricycle after having any alcoholic beverage to drink.

If anyone tells you that: "Yeah, but many people drive drunk in Thailand, even the Thais, just pay a fine and drive home", then tell them my story.

If you injure anyone while driving under the influence the sentence could be anywhere between 6 month, or 3 years in prison. If you kill anyone while driving under the influence the sentence is 5 years in prison. If you got a lot of money, you might get a chance to pay yourself out of it.

I don't blame you, though it was likely the punching of the cop that was the real kicker.

All the best.

Yes I agree. Hitting a police officer is never a good idea in any country. This is the issue that disturbed me about the OP's story. If he punches a cop as soon as he wakes up I am guessing he is a belligerent type of person. I dare say that he was probably mouthing off and being disrespectful as well which would go a long way to explaining why he got locked up for so long.

I know he says he has changed and I hope he has learned from his experience which sounds traumatic and very life-changing.

His lawyer had argued that he suffered from depression and advanced prostate cancer

So what? It really annoys the hell out of me when people plead all sorts of unrelated shit to mitigate their culpability and punishment

Hey Costa, You say you’ve asked her, if she knows, why greeting with a kiss, is against, Thai culture. So I ask you, Why do Greeks kiss everyone including strangers?

I found these articles of more practical use than the original post.

http://www.samuiforsale.com/family-law/forms-of-wills-under-thai-law.html

http://www.thailandlawonline.com/thai-family-and-marriage-law/legal-aspects-of-a-last-will-and-testament-in-thailand

If a taxi doesn't want to bring me where I want or wants a fixed price, I leave the back door open and walk away to the next taxi

Works well, especially in rain cos they get soaked hehe

I have never understood why US Americans say 'bring' when they mean 'take'

'I want the taxi to take me where I want' is more grammatically correct in English

The company is stupid. Shorts are far more presentable than a man in a skirt or kilt.

I have done this trip a few times. Never booked in advance. I purchased the tickets a few hours before departure at the station. So if you booked 2 weeks in advance you will have no problems at all.

They prey on people who don't know and even then I am surprised that they are not charging them even more then the 30 THB they are asking!

30 baht is $1. Sure it's more than 33 cents but are you really that hard up that you can't afford $1 ?????

I have three rules which have kept me out of somuch traoble.

1. Never take a tuk tuk anywhere ever.

2. Never take a tuk tuk anywhere ever.

3. Never take a tuk tuk anywhere ever.

any questions?

If you had to list 4 reasons what would number 4 be ?

Always use a meter taxi or a songtow

What gets me, and this happens about once a month and continually astonishes me, is that you can be going somewhere on say "highway 3". First, I realize Thais seem to ignore those numbers for the most part, but they are there! Second.... there is going to be a highway 3 necessarily going 2 ways, right? Maybe one east, one west. But if you put that information in, eg "3 West" that is just a total stumper, like not even close. The "3 West, then left on the 241"..... completely unintelligible. I don't get it, never will.

You are speaking in a code that they do not use. In Australia we don't talk like that (which looks to me like an American way of speaking). Remember that you are not in your home country where most people use your shortcut coded language. Australians giving the same directions would say Go along highway 3 heading west towards xxxxx. Then turn left onto highway 241 heading (south) towards yyyyy. Just a few words different but take away the shortcut coded language and it becomes clearer.

You need to use the local words and terminology. An example of this - believe it or not we do sort of have dialects within Australia. When travelling around Japan by rail we met a Sydney couple who complained that they had terrible trouble finding out which track the train they needed would leave from. We are from Melbourne and when we asked which platform a train was leaving from, the Japanese always told us the correct one. But for the poor NSW couple, them asking what track a train was leaving from created confusion. Just one word made all the difference.

I find it amusing that they even asked you to draw a map...very, very few Thais could complete that task. Thais are for the most part useless with maps...it's just not a concept they can get their heads around. A friend of mine wrote a whole PhD dissertation (which he later published as a book) on how the very concept of maps had to be introduced to Thais by foreigners (and it still hasn't caught on/sunk in)...and he's Thai, haha! Though he was educated overseas (which is ALWAYS the key to Thais thinking critically/seeing the big picture!).

My bf freaks out if I ever ask him to look at a map. He can't use one very effectively.

From Norway is he?

What sort of stupid comment is this? If you don't believe he is Norwegian you should be stating what you believe and WHY

All well and good,wanting health insurance.

Many people can not acquire such policies, due to pre existing conditions.

Life's a bitch - and then you die!

Religion has never been one of my priorities so can anyone tell where Buddhism stands on homosexuality ?

I don't think Buddha ever got into it specifically but am sure since then some have put there own spin on it.

http://www.religionfacts.com/homosexuality/buddhism.htm

Reminds me of the fish memory story. Fish sees a worm on a hook and thinks "Hmmm.....that looks tasty", takes a bite, hook hurts like hell but the fish escapes and thinks "Bugger, won't do that again!" Three seconds later the fish sees the same worm on the same hook and thinks "Hmmm....that looks tasty.............etc etc".

Your friend needs some serious therapy of some sort, in the same way that a kleptomaniac needs therapy. He is obviously hooked on whatever sort of "high" he is getting from his actions and from what you have said he cannot see the wood for the trees. In fact it's worse, he's denying there is any wood or any trees at all.

In a strange way he is even starting to try and act like a Thai, calling non Thai people farang when he is one himself.

giving himself a Thai nickname amongst other things.

Is the nickname he's chosen "Kwai"?

Ting tong kwai

Excuse me Mistaahh Henlee. Maybe after 5 years you should be able to speak a few sentences in Thai. You not too lazy to learn are you darkling?

It's a bug-repellent soap, right? Why are they calling this anti-malaria soap... seems a little misleading?

Not really. The term "antimalarial" is generally used for medications that prevent or cure malaria. If a soap is medicated with ingredients to prevent mosquitos landing on skin and biting the human, then it can still be considered to be antimalarial as it will assist in preventing a person developing malaria. Medicines don't all have to be swallowed and don't have to cure. There are many preventative medicines and many that mitigate issues rather than cure a disease.

What will you do if you leave? Take the house with you? In practical rather than legal terms, whomever owns the land is most likley to end up owning the building.

You might think that eating a bit of lizard to cure asthma, diabetes or AIDS, or even a bit of tiger to put some lead in your pencil, is pretty stupid. But I remember some years back when UK supermarkets refused to stock kangaroo meat because they were being hunted to extinction (kangaroos, not supermarkets).

Did anyone in the UK supermarket realise that kangaroos are a long long way from becoming extinct? In many areas they are in plague numbers.

In 2011 there were estimated to be a minimum of 34 million http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/wildlife-trade/wild-harvest/kangaroo/population.html compared to an estimated 23 million sheep and 29 million beef cattle.

Just because the kangaroo is on our national coat of arms and many think it looks cute is no reason not to utilise it as a source of food. Talking about kangaroos for food is far removed from using lizards and other wildlife for questionable medicinal purposes.

This thread reminds me of this:

I think number 7 should be explored further. I have seen plenty of priests wearing spectacles serving bread and wine in church services. This seems to be against the bibles teachings.