Shock

Question: I have to go to immigration for a visa extension on Monday - does anyone know if this process will be affected by the current situation?

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He's a "Belgian"? Then why does he look - dare I say it? - Thai? Something doesn't add up here, Dr. Watson.

No, you shouldn't say it.

Another irrelevant and stupid remark about a person with a certain nationality not looking like an ignorant poster's view of what everyone of that nationality should look like, then compounding the stupidity of the remark by getting a sly dig in at Thais

I thought it was quite obvious from the post. He's Thai, married to a Belgium woman, thus naturalized. His name is Tcheo Joel Tcharada - which seems like a legitimate Thai name and surname while his wife's name is Paschale Daelen - which seems like a legitimate Belgium name.

Or maybe I'm interpreting it wrong?

I get a bit fed up of being discussed like a clever dog doing tricks.

Yes he can eat spicy seems to come up often.

Ah I love the spicy food test!

When meeting a whole table-full of new Thais who instantly plop a bowl of Tom Yum in front of me and then start watching expectantly, I have found this one to be a winner:

Take a big spoonful of soup and swallow it down. Start clutching your throat in panic and make gagging sounds. Move it up a notch by clutching your heart/chest and making choking sounds. Add further credibility by falling off the chair or slumping forward onto the table.

Watch them panic as they start wondering if they've just killed you.

Then start laughing, assure them you're okay and just joking, and order another bottle of SangSom - priceless!

you really dont know do you i have dutch man friend who can speak better thai than them,he told me one day i wish i never learn it because i hear what thai people think of farang,he said it digust him because he has thai lady and he supports her, which 99% of thai men cant do she has better life with him.

Yup have some fluent friends with exactly the same sentiments!

Thais have very little social skills - as we from the west would view it.

Case and point: I was invited along to my Thai-Swedish friends' aunt's house for the Chinese "ancestor honoring day" (20 Aug). Luckily for me, unluckily for them, the focus was not so much on the strange farang that was hanging around (me ) but on the two "luek-krueng" family members.

The aunt made sure that every single visitor that day was well informed as to her niece and nephew's heritage and she would loudly explain it in Thai to such an over-exaggerated degree that even I could understand (with my extremely limited Thai).

From what I could comprehend of the aunt's speech she would loudly insist to every visitor that the two were not Thai, but luek-kruengs - pretty pathetic I think when your own family discriminates against you based on your heritage.

Needless to say I felt extremely sorry for my friends, whom I could see were made very uncomfortable by their aunt's descriptions of them.

For this reason my two friends avoid their aunt's house like the plague but Thai culture and respect forces them to have to go there from time to time for certain rituals/honorings and each time they come back they're utterly miserable.

So I was just glad that this time I was on hand to give some moral support

Original story here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/621866-2-turks-drugged-and-robbed-from-their-north-pattaya-hotel-rooms/

And amazingly, a follow-up: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/622156-turkish-drugging-and-robbery-case-prompts-pattaya-beach-clean-up-by-police/

Doesn't sound like they had much to go on, except the Turks' description, so it's kinda unreal that they've actually found and arrested them... in Bangkok!

"Austin from USA described his feeling on the last day before heading to his placement job in Lopburi: “Scarry, exiting, yet fun."

Yup, you seem to be well on your way English Master...

Xplore Asia, you forgot to mention that it is a legal requirement to have a degree to teach in Thailand.

I hope you point this out to your candidates before they invest in the course.

I presume you also arrange work permits for them as well.

No they don't on both points, as my 20-year old cousin found out to his dismay. They're also not so hot with the job placement and visa support apparently - not my words but the opinions of some post-course peeps that I happen to know...

fitne is not a diet drink per se, it is a laxative drink, so I guess your body just doesn't absorb any nutrition

Is it possible for something to go in one end & come out the other without your body absorbing what was nutritious in it?

I do think it is possible that we do carry too much waste in our intestines due to constant intakes.

I once fasted for 15 days & yet had a bowel movement everyday. I know a woman who fasted much longer & had the same results.

That does make me wonder. about our systems ability to rid waste in a timely fashion.

That article I linked said this about the active ingredient,

The back of the bag says that each 2.65 gramme tea bag contains 1500mg of Senna leaves, 500 mg of Senna pods, green tea leaves, and 150 mg of Garcinia Atroviridis. Garcinia Atroviridis is a hydroxy citric acid, which is a natural substance that is extracted from the rind of the fruit of the Garcinia Cambogia tree. It is apparently non-toxic and has been used for generations for appetite suppressing and weight loss.

I was curious as my wife drinks this so I also looked it up & found this article interesting. Although it is just an experimental test on animals..

http://thescipub.com...ptsp.2010.65.70

Personally I have never used it & prefer drinking some form of psyllium husk fiber at bedtime.

Having done so for some 30 years now I feel it has benefits

Aaargh! I tried this once, just once, one cup only, and I shat my lungs out for 2 days straight till I could hardly sit anymore.

My body severely dislikes Senna - too bad I didn't read the ingredients list before I drank a cup

Update: The condo won't allow new cabling, but the current cabling is owned by 3BB. Went to Central today and they can hook me up to the same line, 10MB connection (so 2X the speed), Skype and torrents allowed, for Thb90 more a month. I will now just have my own router in my room.

Sounds like the WirelessBKK is a third party provider on the 3BB connection line - so hopefully everything will be sorted within the next 7 working days.

I own a I.T business myself so i feel ya pain. You need to get a DSL or fibre connection installed. 3G cards same as the wifi you mentioned both cant run torrents or any of what you need.

Not sure if I can install anything, got a Thai friend coming on Wednesday to talk to the building management and confirm installation options.

Are you sure about the 3G card? I used one from my home country with a Thai SIM about 3 years ago and it worked for all my requirements except it only had a 2GB cap and not 5GB like the slimy salesman guaranteed.

I have had the TOT WiNet for over a year now here in Phuket and find it excellent. I have the lowest package @ 5MB down and it is generally very close to the mark; think it is about 500 baht/month. The equipment would be suitable because it is WiFi with a very small (4" x 6") flat white antenna mounted outside connected by ethernet cable to modem inside; I have the output from that modem bridged to a Cisco E3000 router. Suggest a visit to TOT office to see if that would work in your neighborhood.

What's your monthly cap like?

Rent a desk at a co-working spot like Hubba or another. Most 3G plans are capped here, past say 5 gig speed drops to EDGE and it gets pretty expensive to keep boosting it.

Thanks but not really a financially viable option for me - would have to up my service rates and then my client base would drop...

If you used a VPN it would;

1. Secure your traffic.

2. Allow Skype to work.

3. Bypass their torrent blocking crap.

It would be cheap to try, about 150 baht. Google 'VPN provider.'

Hi Bud,

Yeah I've already tried this as mentioned in my OP - didn't work.

Thanks anyway.

Hi, need some advice here.

I have just moved into a new apartment in Lad Prao (close to Union Mall and Central) and it has 5MB Wi-Fi available at Thb500.

The provider is WirelessBKK and the system works on login tokens, valid for 30 days, that you purchase at reception. The login token then provides you with a username and password that allows you access to the internet.

Browsing speed is okay, not great, but I have found huge problems with the following:

1. The connection is unsecured,

2. It inhibits Skype connection, and

3. It does not allow .torrent programs to connect and is incredibly slow on dropbox and gdrive upload/download speeds.

As my main business is web design and development I:

1. Need a secure connection to access my webservers for daily maintenance,

2. I need a stable Skype to communicate with my clients,

3. I have to upload/download files and databases to/from my clients/their webservers and some prefer that this is done via a .torrent upload, others prefer FTP transfers, dropbox or gdrive drops - each client is different.

This current internet option has failed miserably as a viable solution to my online needs. I have also tried to use ExpressVPN to secure my browsing, but that didn't work on this setup at all.

Another catch is that apparently I am not allowed to install any other wi-fi service, have cabling done, etc. in this apartment building - could this be?

So, now I'm looking at any other viable options that I can use just for my work purposes - the WirelessBKK will be fine for normal day-to-day browsing, but I need something else for work.

So I am considering 3G Aircard modem options, but would prefer to remain on a prepaid package instead of a 12 month contract - does anyone use something like this/have information on how it works/if it works?

Can I go buy my own aircard modem at Fortune Mall (price?) or must I use one provided by a service provider?

My laptop does pick up an AIS 3G Pocket wi-fi signal, but it is very weak. Could I boost this somehow and then subscribe/use that instead?

I'm a web designer, not a network specialist, so all of this is way above my head, but I urgently need some sort of solution and any help/advice would be sincerely appreciated.

"the rent that was demanded by the shop owners/ leasers was ranging between 13000 to 27000 the per month." hmm My guess is that some vested interests rent the shops for that low ball figure, with no intention of opening a shop, then sublease at those much greater prices. How about raising the rents, but REQUIRING those who rent the spaces actually have a shop there? Fat chance that is going to happen. Net effect would be actual vendors paying less, cutting our speculators, RR getting more pay. Everybody happy except the sub leasors who no doubt have good connections....so it won't happen.

. so what I understand from the info that I've been able to gather so far is that only 10 percent of them , I mean the actual lessors run their own shop apart from them everyone have re rented it at a much higher price. honestly what the sort is demanding is not more than 4000 baht and I would like some one to assist me to get a shop for twice the price, I'm willing to pay 8000 baht but I know won't find a place 8 * 8 in that figure, it's all about earning money, they just don't want to give a share of the extra income earned to srt,

You do realise the cost of space there don't you? A 2 x 2 shop sells for nearly 2 million baht - so your 8 x 8 is 4 shops by 4 shops - that's 16 shops, so probably around the 24 to 30 million baht figure... a 3 bedroom house at 3 million baht to buy will end up being a bank mortgage rate of somewhere around 20,000 a month...

Yes I believe the current +/- 30,000 per month price is for sub-leased spaces - a Thai friend was paying around that figure for her fashion shop.

But I will miss Chatuchak - especially the artist section where I always enjoy seeing new talent at work

They might want to rethink their pricing. 500 baht for a 30 minute show seems a bit OTT. When I was back in the west for a holiday, I went to a huge Imax 360 screen and caught a movie about the international space station with narration by Leonardo DiCaprio and it didn't cost as much.

That having been said, I'm sure if they promote it right they will generate some decent revenue and hopefully educate some kids.

I agree - our planetarium back home charges the equivalent of 150 baht - it's a very affordable and entertaining way to kill a spare hour.

Isn't a planetarium supposed to have a telescope?

You're thinking of an observatory - two very different things; one's for research, one's for education and entertainment.

I am not defending the pocile but I have to say that the usual bla bla bla police didn't get their cut is so blazay.

I wouldn't defend the pocile either! It's way too blazay...

... The farang teacher's future is in the hands of fellow Thai teachers who often have problems with farang teachers and are jealous of their higher paid positions. How many of you teachers out there have problems with the Thai staff and bosses at your school?

Farang teacher's ideas on how to try and improve the (English language) education system are almost never heeded.

Clashes in culture and language always result in the farang teacher lucking out...

In my experience friction between foreign teachers and Thai staff is usually due to misunderstandings due to massive difference in cultures, expectations and behaviour and nothing to do with money.

All ideas have to be suitable for a Thai context, and if those ideas are unsolicited and presented in a way that bypasses respect for the hierarchy of the school, they will be ignored.

I don't think farangs 'luck out'. They just don't understand how things work and they often make little attempt to show respect for how Thais do things.

There is often an arrogance that surrounds farangs and their comments in Thailand IME.

I have constant problems with the Thai school administration as well as my fellow teachers.

They take great pleasure at 'spying' on the farang's classes - hanging around outside the glass door like bats, observing everything we do in class just so they can report it to the Assistant Director.

I have even gone outside the classroom and asked them to leave as their presence was causing a distraction for my students.

A fellow teacher just got hauled over the coals for an insignificant matter after the Thai teachers went to the director and 'told' on him.

It's not a question of respect - I and my fellow teachers adhere to school rules and Thai culture and show the necessary respect. But unfortunately some Thai teachers act more immature than my Mattayom students and we've been told in no uncertain terms by our Thai head teacher that it's because of jealousy over our pay grade.

Being from sub-saharan Africa where HIV and child pregnancies are also a major problem, I can contest that targeted education really does have a positive impact.

Making condom and safe-sex ads (printed/tv/radio) "cool", "hip" and socially acceptable has gone a long way toward changing the teens' actions and they also welcome open discussion about these topics as it can be a mostly taboo subject at home.

Well that would certainly stop me in my tracks as a queue jumper. A raving nutter somehow biting his own nose off screaming " I'm first Sombat! "

Please explain 'sombat'? I am very puzzled by this term.

Nice to see police officials doing something positive. Useless Factoid: Pangolins are actually mammals.

That was my first thought. Headline say reptiles and they show a picture of mammals. Typically Thai.

Mmmm yes. Well cannot expect much else from people who also firmly believe that whales and dolphins are fish.

Little info from wiki - In July 2010, Customs officers in Guangdong, China, seized more than 7.8 tonnes of frozen pangolins and 1,800 kg of pangolin scales from a fishing vessel after it was stopped for inspection. 2090 Pangolins in total were killed.

Seems pangolins are a popular food source and used for many medicinal purposes too - shame!

Condolences and sympathies for those affected, but still...

there goes my holiday plans...

Anyone got any ideas?

Does anyone have any stats on women being mutilated because of suspected infidelity?

I guess the discomfort level of this story is better processed by humor, but the fact is that men are just SO much more obsessed with their 'member' - you don't often see women fondling (you know, that quick check to make sure it's still there) their breasts or genitals in public do you?

Either way, glad to hear the guy didn't die, it could have been a lot more serious.