Bangel72

Its highly unlikely to happen but some sort of code of conduct for both bars, their staff and security could be beneficial for tourism.

I was on 6 recently with a crowd of ten bar hopping, no problems at all. Difference potentially was just a heads up for the new guys, keep an eye on your bills, ask how much everything costs, clear your bills regularly, if you feel your being scammed, remain calm, pay your bill and move on. Most issues tend to be communication ones.  They should put that guide on big signs on soi 6 in my view.

Drunk people are idiots at times and some are downright unstable, bars know this their staff and security should to and be trained in how to guide these customers accordingly. 

Some bars and staff may choose to see this idiot element as cannon fodder then get in their face and aggressive when misunderstandings happen like its an actual surprise when its clear that's exactly what's going to happen.

 In no way am I defending the customer but the bars, their staff and the security are supposed to be the professionals and perhaps harsher punishment of all three could make a difference before someone does get killed. 

There are many bars on that soi that do seem to get this and are safe fun places to go, would be good if the others could all get on board but its a shame that punishment may be the only incentive.

2 hours ago, connda said:

Me too - I hope tobacco and then alcohol get the axe as well, in that order. 

Lets get those coffee addicts too, hate the smell and you can see that mental impact when they dont get their morning fix.  Then sugar, fizzy drinks, meat, fatty food, sweets and cake, damn cake get that too.

The reality is all of which likely worse than cannabis when used by your normal average user and almost none have the potential health benefits.

With the exception of coffee I like all the others, I'm aware of the potential harm of each and try not to overdo them and I teach my kid the same and the potential impact of each.

I agree with added steps to protect children and the vulnerable that may not have had the opportunity for good parenting and reasonable judgement but to start banning all of those on the basis they can all be harmful seems fairly harsh.

Work to help society, to give people opportunities and education and support to leverage good judgement and find life in moderation is surely a more reasonable approach. Banning is tried tested and failed way of dealing with things.

Is a three month deposit not illegal in the first place?

I though the laws changed a while back so it was one month max?

Cannot advise on the scammed part.

I did PR about 15 years ago, I used a friendly lawyer.

Quite a bit of paperwork gathering particularly tax returns and three or four visits to CW.

He invested a reasonable amount of time with me but mostly it was for the meetings and the fact the it was spread over a number of years then as they had stalled the acceptance part.

Not sure what going rate would be for paperwork coordination we had two prep sessions and say 3 meetings at CW - those could easily be half days but I likely well underpaid, maybe 20k plus a couple of small envelopes to speed things up as was the norm then, note I finalised it on my own as I had lost touch with lawyer 4 years later.

Coincidently the cost of the PR if you are not married was around 200k.

Note there are long periods that they cannot do anything at all, the application process which is really just submitting the application has a small window Nov/Dec each year I think then its a case of sit and wait till they get back to you. This may be a factor in the sense that its not progressing.

It may be the same now, when my application 7.5k I think was received I immediately received a visa, this was a PR pending visa that I needed to renew every 6 months for free, that bit was straight forward did not need lawyer. In my case it meant I had a 7.5k visa for around 4 years till they finally approved and gave me PR. They are much quicker now but it was an odd backdoor to a visa whilst your application is processed even if you end up being rejected

Lets pretend for a moment this is a serious question.

On one side there is an argument, he's a grown adult and he's action rationally and just needs a family chat to make sure he's okay, happy and put some of the family concerns to rest once you understand its part of his self exploration cycle.

The other side is that it is something that verges into the realms of addiction, like drugs or gambling where he has changed his view of the world that there's nothing wrong, everything is good yet at the same time become blind and vulnerable to potential downsides.

Addictions come in all forms, I'm a strong advocate for example that gambling addiction should be given the same warnings and treatment as crack addicts. The impact on their life, there finances and the families can be just as devastating.

Putting those two together in same risk category is hard for many people particularly fun gamblers who may not have the preposition at all of becoming the addict that others become, alongside this its legal for most countries so support groups are voluntary and in some countries no support exists, the reality is when it is an addiction the impacts and risks are the same and should be treated accordingly.

If some struggle to put those two in the same category its going to be a massive jump for many to put Thailand visits into the same category for the same reasons. 

Addicts though are often the same no matter what. 

When I had a family member go on a gambling addiction run due to trauma, it was acceptance of harm they could potentially do to people they loved alongside the transfer of all finances to control of the matriarch that got them back. Each case will be different but transfer of finance control away from someone if they are believed to be caught in the throws of an addiction is key and something to consider.

Lets hope though in this case its on the one side rather than the other. 

Really good question. 

I tried to find out before but generally found it needed to be voluntary going to hospital to see someone.

I had assumed the thai family would know a better route but none of them did unless it was a police report option which they did not want to do.

Addicts helplines may offer some sort of guide as that's the common case where they need an evaluation.

Interesting use of renounce.

If you do tax returns in UK its likely simply based on time spent elsewhere rather than UK, decided by the tax man.

If you were in Thailand during covid and spent a whole 12 months here I am guessing they could say you also renounced UK residency.

Okay so this was a bit too public and probably a fair fine

I suspect though a lot of us have had a harmless midnight skinny dip on quiet beach at some point though, would be a shame if the camera happy people ruined some more harmless adventure.

They could have a field day at full moon parties, I make no apologies for the in the raw pun that may eclipse some funny bones.

43 minutes ago, kevozman1 said:

If you're living in any country you should learn the local language. It's a respect thing and also has pragmatic benefits. No excuses really. 

Cultural appropriation perhaps, some may even find it disrespectful.

Sounds bizarre I know but that's the thing about respect, its individual.

Lets put it in the same group as "No excuses really for not wearing elephant pants", I hear ya. 

Translation apps are coming along nicely, a few years and we'll be all star trekked up if we need to communicate.

I suspect a lot of people will still turn it off though,  a lot of conversations are just ramblings or the difference in logic just triggers people so the feeling is probably best not to understand.

If people feel the need they will no doubt learn, a business need perhaps, a friendship need. For a lot of people though languages can be tough and that's a factor.

In most case you do not need a lot of the language to get by, being polite and being respectful likely trump language barriers anyway.

Consider sign language, have you learned that, if so how many variations do you know? 

If not, why not?, its likely similar reasons for any spoken language as well.

My life is pretty limited in that I don't do that many things and friendships are often about doing the things you enjoy and have in common.

I've had good thai friends through work, we had pool, beer and work in common and even when we moved to different companies we would meet up for said things or if I needed help with something I could normally rely on them. Since covid though that drifted apart, guess I should organise a meet up.

The good group of friends I have do tend to remain farang and male, whether its football, pool, catching up over beers or sometimes fishing its still around those things in common and often very importantly a shared level of banter, we laugh when we are together, we are ourselves and we like who each of us are. It was the same when I was back home. 

If you have a hobby, a sport or interest that you do regularly with the same crowd of people you are more likely to make friends regardless of other differences but without the regular commonality the backgrounds are very different so less likely.

When you can often end up with only 4 or 5 good friends its not something I'd worry about a certain group not being a friend.

On the other hand having a lot of acquaintances who you enjoy a laugh with and are sort of friends when you happen to bump into each other, its fairly normal for this to be a much broader group unless your own prejudices are getting in the way.

Yes.

People though have a right to condemn pretty much anything, if they care about be hypocritical, being an idiot or the likes its worth doing some actual research and having an informed voice on the topic even if they have not partaken.

The challenge with marijuana is that there appears to have been a lot of political motivations for false propaganda that has been actively indoctrinated into society over many many decades, often using fallacies and sometimes straight forward lies to create fear.

There needs to be more education on the topic particularly amongst those with voices that influence in addition to potential users.

There are arguments both for an against that use comparisons, sugar and caffeine being more harmful to society for example that does hold a certain amount of water and more basic ones like alcohol comparisons which are pretty much no brainers when talking about harm and value. Then there are pharmacy drug comparisons. All of these have large lobbies and influence so its in their best interest to put likely less harmful idea down.

A lot of the arguments need balanced educated discussion, yes there will be certain risks to some groups of people and maybe even to so called society norms in some ways but lets have educated, balanced and consistent discussions without the politics.

A balance of freedom of choice and potential harm to others, right now a lot of the thinking just does not make sense.

Might need broken down to find some common ground.

Like the idea that everyone can grow their own medicine given the cost of manufactured alternatives on its own seems like a good idea for all of society, yes it could be abuse but at a fundamental level it seems like a worthy cause, affordable medicine for everyone.

I'm thinking about starting, not gym or anything like that but upping my walking, swimming and cycling a bit more to counter the age and continued lifestyle impact, not as naturally fit and healthy as I used to be.

FYI only.

my UK car driving licence includes category A which is pretty much any motorbike I think, I have never ridden one ever.

Depending on age the licence may have started at AM light scooters then A1 - 125cc restriction so above that could be the issue if insurance covers for a match against UK driving licence.

I can only assume I have A because years of having a driving licence regardless of whether you have driven a bike or not seems to up the classification from AM, to A1, A2  to A so on renewal after 10 years perhaps it went to A automatically.

I have never needed this nor asked for it so was a bit surprised, it also gives me a licence to drive a tractor automatically.

Seems to be a significant push to the mobile app which tends to get very cluttered and not great for old dudes like me.

On web the missing "Item did not arrive" option leads to regular fun, given no other options you select return the item as it clearly does not meet spec, you take a pic of an empty box in order to complete the process, they then send out a driver to pick up the item that did not arrive, then the real fun starts. After multiple rounds of discussion they tell you to install the app and click the item did not arrive button and cancel the return as they cannot cancel a return on their end.

What's odd, is that civil lawyers are not looking to leverage from this precedent.

Take the arguments, the medical criteria from this case and visit a number of jails, fairly sure there are a lot of prisoners with similar medical criteria that would be better off in a police hospital with their own room and care.

I'm struggling to find any pro's in getting married never mind pro's on location of getting married.

Don't own and iron or an ironing board, nor a washing machine for that matter.

I outsource once a month for about 800 baht.

Tend to think these days a maid once a month is a far better option than a wife or husband, when I've balanced up what they brought to the table some good, some bad, some other and the costs, the costs its seems a logical evolution.

Even when I did have a partner though, if they were not lazy and were working and contributing expecting them to also pick up the housework is absurd, you end up with a tired grumpy partner and that's no fun at all, outsource for happier life and relationship. Now lazy, drunk, whining, spending all your money and not working partner would ironing and housework save the relationship, perhaps but still maid option sounds better in long run.

I'd hope tinder has a section for those looking for a different type of relationship, will need a nanny who irons for the school holidays, the last one was about 80 and was awesome, much better than his mum ever was.

I suspect a lot of people myself included developed unwarranted prejudices over the years, when we look at them rationally the prejudices don't really make sense.

Dwarfs for example I find very unnerving, no rationality behind it apart from being able to hide not only in a closet but under your bed or a big shoebox.

Some tv shows will give the impression there are wee folk on every corner, its not really representative of particularly when dwarfs are not real they are mythical creatures which makes it even more unnerving and irrational to fear them.

Gay is normal, nae bother to me anyone else preferences, my dwarf phobia not so much yet there is still an element of should tv reflect real world in terms of the broad make up of communities that the production is set in, its a long shot but we could consider if some elements are more representative of the wonderful tv and film community themselves and not so much reality.

For me the UCEP rules seem quite confusing, it seems to infer all life threatening cases had to be covered for 72 hours for free regardless of hospital.

Whether that applies to tourists seems greyer however given the putting life first mandate it makes sense for international agreements on this front. 

This is a google translation. Under the regulations, patients who are admitted to a hospital will receive emergency care for 72 hours, free of charge. After 72 hours of care, a patient who needs further treatment will have to be referred to a hospital where he or she has registered. A patient who prefers receiving ongoing treatment at a hospital that provides them with emergency care must pay for the remaining treatment costs.

How it gets assessed as to whether its life threatening is likely key.

For me the Tourist fee they have talked about makes sense to include some level of insurance, 500 baht including government hospital insurance and I doubt there would be so many arguments over it.

Seemed to be case last week where someone was refused at a hospital and it did not go well but search is now turning up a 404 currently, but might have been a good example to follow for clarity.

Hope he gets well soon either way.

1 hour ago, NextG said:

Scottish women I met were nice enough. 
When a bit younger, I asked one to buy me a guitar is she liked me enough. She agreed. 
Another I met on holiday and we kept in touch for many years. 
It’s really just those past their best or who just don’t have any social skills that complain. 

Aye, there are a few nice ones and their banter and humour is often spot on, scots invented most of the things on the planet, tv, telephone, train, flushing toilet, the fridge, golf, ice hockey, cycling etc, we even invented a functioning tractor beam, they even invented time UST ffs.

Also know for a bit of exploration which likely leads to Thailand so a wee bit of R&R is deserved for both the scottish guys and gals and no harm in mixing it up a bit with someone less likely to be your 3rd cousin and at the same time it makes the lovely scottish lasses available for the rest of the world.

Guess when it comes down to it, its just an act of kindness.

I'm not sure they do. Thailand as a whole offers a different way of life, often more relaxed, warm weather, sun all your round, its not as dour as scotland, though Scotland does have its beauty in parts at times of the year.

So when your pretty dour and the people you are trying to hook up with are also pretty dour and yet your are still not having much success even before the constant hassle and nagging about you going for a beer and watching football, those things in Thailand seem well like a wee bit nice.

Nothing wrong with wanting some nice things in life now and again, I wouldn't judge or overthink it more than that.