Beetlejuice

Wait.

There's more!

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/pro-palestinian-ads-misrepresent-apartheid/Content?oid=2339168

Pro-Palestinian ads misrepresent apartheid

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I was deeply disturbed to learn about the posters in The City accusing Israel of apartheid. As a black South African who lived under apartheid, this system was implemented in South Africa to subjugate people of color and deny them a variety of their rights. In my view, Israel cannot be compared to apartheid in South Africa. Those who make the accusation expose their ignorance of what apartheid really is.

So what does this have to do with the theme of this thread?

This is about relations between Thailand and Israel and has nothing to do with South African apartheid and events that are happening in the middle east.

Why do you always bring race and politics into these issues, especially those that are totally irrelevant to events that are happening in present day Thailand?

.......terrified, and the police 'rushed' to the scene. OMG

I would not describe this as a case of human trafficking.

The said massage parlour was acting as a base for agents to send women abroad who were willing candidates for working as masseuses in South Korea. These women only claim human trafficking and slave labour if the job doesn`t work out and are usually fully aware of what they are getting into and the risks involved.

Coincidence? Be careful Thailand. Very fishy connection here.

After the big brother loosing control, the youngest wants to get into the scene.

When China and the US are courting Burma....and Muslims have a big eye in South Thailand.

Muslim are creating big social problems in Europe, also in Italy. Thailand do not need to be in that mess....but..may be..with the wrong "help".

Thailand is already in that mess.

Firstly the deep south is practically a war zone with radical terrorist Muslins trying to take over the territory that is probably backed by Malaysia a country that is rumoured to be rapidly heading towards fanatical sharia law.

Thailand is afraid to go into the deep south with all guns blazing due to concerns that this would stir up hostilities with Malaysia. Considering the situation I think Thailand is well advised to consider having military cooperation with Israel.

Silly I know, but usually when I get sick I go to visit a doctor rather than asking for medical advice on non medical themed forums.

Not good news.

If the Thais manage to colonise Mars that would mean having apply for a visa to live there and having to visit Martian Immigration every three months to submit my 90 day report.

*i have to wonder of the previous posters.

more british people commit suicide in britain in a month then thailand in a year. your press will not allow suicides reporting, same, same, canada..what other , besides thailand what other countries in the world report suicides????????

.......

this poor dude, with a equally poor family wish to report him as overstay??????????

wow, lots of family support there!!!!!!!!!

he is suicidal and his g/f for 2 years seeks help, witnessed by security in a *luxurious condo* cannot stop him and he is dead,

RIP, brother, with the compassion here, no wonder u chose the ez way out.

bet your *british family must feel proud*

You are absolutely right.

Reading the US and UK online newspapers every day it appears not to take much to make people commit suicide these days, especially the younger people it seems.

Kids hanging themselves or jumping under trains or off high buildings because they are having problems at school, a break up with boyfriends or girlfriends, or someone abuses them online. Adults killing themselves and even their whole families because they have a bit of debt or a marriage breakup. According to what I have read in the media it seems suicides have become an epidemic.

My wife blames most of this on the social media where it depicts life as being cheap and not something of value worth preserving. I think she`s right.

Cheap massage oil can be extremely dangerous to the health.

Get too much exposure from the sun after the massage and you could end up deep fried by the time you arrive home.

Beetlejuice, you really should come and check it out for yourself rather than simply speculating and listening to people who haven't been thru the process recently. Yes, Immigration is constantly working to improve this early morning process. Every time I go there it's different, which is why you need to seek advice from someone who has gone in the past month or even more recently.

There are four pre-queue lines, designated by small signs describing the service desired by the people in that queue. People obtain plastic chairs from behind the building and form a queue with the chairs, either sitting in the chairs or, in some cases, putting a personal item like a sweater in the chair and returning to their vehicle for a nap. They don't seem to fall victim to queue jumpers, perhaps because enough people remain in the chair to stop someone from taking over a chair that isn't theirs.

At first light, around 6:45 am the morning I was there, the Immigration officials came out to hand out the plastic pre-queue numbers. At that point, everyone arose from their chairs, picked them up and started to walk forward to create a more compact (but still straight)line. This caught some people by surprise and there were momentary gaps in the queue. A few people who had just arrived rushed in, only to be told to get in the back by those already in the queue.

Overall it's a much more orderly process than it used to be. There are still problems. The signs explaining the four queues need to be larger, lighted and make more sense. More light-weight plastic chairs are needed. They need a guard to close off the parking lot once it's full, so that cars don't continue to enter and circle the lot fruitlessly. The coffee shop needs to open earlier so we can get caffeine.

CM Immigration is to be congratulated for really trying to make the process safer, better. For having employees come to work very early to distribute pre-queue numbers and patiently look over documents and answer questions in the early morning hours. For opening the doors of their waiting room an hour early. This current process is much less stressful than previous processes. I've actually enjoying talking with people sitting in the chairs around me in the parking lot the last few times I've done this. With everyone sitting still and not moving around, much of the stress of the previous waiting has been eliminated.

Thank you for this very informative post. But are you not splitting hairs with me for the sake of, considering I have more or less said exactly the same as you have mentioned in your post?

I can only describe this so-called system as more like a child's game of musical chairs. Think you should at least agree with me on that one?

Each time I have travelled by in-land flights in Thailand, I have always without fail been asked to show my passport.

My advice to the OP is; make inquiries with the airline, explain why he is unable to produce his passport and see if they can come up with some solution to the problem.

I have always and always will create my posts first in MS Word and then copy and paste the text into Thai visa compose, the same applies to emails.

By first creating a preliminary version of a post in MS Word and keeping the copy until your TV post is published reserves your text if in the event things get messed up somewhere in the publishing procedures, plus easy to conduct spelling and punctuation checks, hence a flawless post. This is why all my posts are pure perfection.

If using MS Word and after copying the text into Thai visa you find the format or fonts is incorrect, just copy and paste the text from MS Word into Wordpad or Notepad and then publish onto Thai visa.

4 am is a good time to come. Even 5 am. As mentioned, there are chairs around back. By 5 am the queues will have started to form.

You'll see little tiny signs on the side of the building explaining which queue you should join.

You may want to go out in advance during daylight hours and look at the signs to see which queue you should join. Or just play it safe and join the longest queue -- that's the first one they start to process and if you're in the wrong line they'll tell you where to go.

The Immigration officers start to pass out the big laminated pre-queue numbers as soon as there is enough light to see. It was around 6:45 am last week. When they hand out the pre-queue numbers, you'll briefly tell them why you're there.

Then you go into the waiting room, take a seat and they start to call the pre-queue numbers. Then they go thru your paperwork more carefully and determine exactly why you are there and give you your real paper queue slip.

For some tasks, like doing 90 day reports, you don't get a plastic pre-queue number -- they hand out the real paper queue numbers in the predawn light on the steps outside the waiting room (and probably shake their heads about why anyone would get in line at 5 am to do a 90 day report when they can report by mail)

What I have been told is that the officers do not hand out pre-queue tickets until the doors open about 8.00am. But I guess the so-called system can change on a day to day basis? It`s the luck of the draw.

For example, if arriving there at 4.00am or 5.00am; how is it possible to stop morons jumping the queues? Arriving there at such extreme early times means having to be on constant alert, visually and mentally noting everyone that walks in counting their place in the queues. That must be intensely stressful, could not afford to relax even for a moment. Does anyone issue pre pre queue tickets? Otherwise this option is just not viable.

The biggest problem with arriving at Immigration early to get a place in the queue is those who will insist on pushing in the queue, especially some of the old farangs who try to act oblivious, walk straight to the front of the line hoping no one will notice and hand their papers over to the officer. In many cases the officers don`t care and will process their paperwork without question. I have nearly come to blows in their with queue jumpers on several occasions.

Last month a friend arrived at 6.00am, was second place to join the queue outside Immigration. She said that when the doors opened at 8.00am it was like being on the Titanic sinking, every person for themselves. It resulted with her being 21st in the queue for her retirement visa and had to hang about all day not being seen until 2.15 in the afternoon.

All I can suggest is; that those who arrive there early is to guard their place in the queue as if their lives depended on it, otherwise they`ll cheat you out of a place.

Buy a car cam and have it installed on your motorbike.

This way you don't have to worry about batteries

They are easy to take of after you park your bike so don't forget to do that yourself or someone else will do that for you.

Good luck.

Have you ever seen a weather / water proof one ??

I use my go pro copy as a car cam and it comes with a waterproof cover included.

Interesting. Thanks.

^ Yes, it makes no sense at all. Girls abandoning their own bike?? A bike costs a lot more than being dinged for DUI. And then, for this to be 'a scam perpetrated by', there would need to be money floating around that can make its way back to the girls. Yet he went to court and got processed and fined.. So nothing in it for the girls.

MAYBE I can imagine a similar scenario where the bike was stolen (and/or the girls in the country illegally) and they therefore took off, but even in that case it would still not qualify as a scam on the guy. It WOULD qualify as "dodgy girls found at Spicy" --> News at 11.

My thoughts exactly.

This story doesn`t make sense and therefore I am calling it nonsense.

How do I check if the corpse is underage or not?

If it smells a bit ripe, you know the corpse is passed it`s sell by date.

If the police decided to arrest every guy that had sex with girls under the age of 15, than 80% of the men in our local community would be jailed.

One of my neighbor`s 13 year old daughter is already living with her 29 year old boyfriend in her parents house with the blessing of her parents. One 12 year old child and 3 13 year old girls are already pregnant that we know of, last year a 14 year old girl had a wedding ceremony, unofficially married to her 18 year old boyfriend and she was pregnant at the time, to mention just a few.

In many of the rural areas it is still the tradition for men to take on so-called child brides, girls as young as 12 years old. Although this may seem a terrible state of affairs to us, in some aspects of Thai culture this practice is still acceptable and has been going on for probably thousands of years.

If the Thai authorities are trying to stamp out this practice of sexual relationships between men and legally underage girls or the child bride syndromes, they are going to have a difficult task changing the habits that have gone on for generations.

Depends.

Some airlines are touchy about passengers bringing certain electrical goods on flights.

My advice is; contact the airline company directly and inquire about their rules and regulations pertaining to what you want to bring over.

Me, too, though double your tenure. Folk are making it out worse than it is (likely doddery old geezers that can't pull a bird the old fashioned way ), though London might be different. I was pleasantly surprised recently how friendly people were, with genuine smiles. The supermarkets will blow your hair back, as will the smooth roads, orderly traffic, cheap cars, customer service, one price for all, comprehension in general, real pubs, real beer and tall totty. Rent and eating out is the killer but not an issue if you're earning an appropriate wage. Have a look at British Expats (site) for pointers from those that have gone before you.

Don't forget: help vote the Tories out.

I too miss many of the things you mention, especially being in a country where everyone can understand me and I can understand them.

But having lived up here in quaint old Chiang Mai for many years with all it`s imperfections, I have not yet found any no go areas, had reasons to fear for my family`s and I safety if going out or returning home after dark, or had to secure my home like Fort Knox, rarely experienced any prejudices against me because of my race or religion except for the restrictions imposed by the laws, no local authorities dictating the colours I can paint my house, or how big and where I can build a shed in our garden, no need to go into hibernation for most of the year when it becomes too cold and rainy to want to venture outside and the list goes on.

This is what the OP can expect, where in my opinion the cons outweigh the pros and again is relevant to this thread as to what the OP should put on his checklist to be prepared for once he returns to the UK.

This is why for many years in all my threads and posts I have always defended Thailand up to the hilt and hate Thai bashers, because when rating the situation between the pros and cons of living in my home countries and Thailand I realise how very very lucky I am to be in this country.

I sincerely wish the OP happiness and contentment back in the UK, but like the majority of ex-pats that leave Thailand will eventually realise what he is missing and be longing to return.

Body Armor,

A growing number of people using m/cs are wearing body armor.

In my time in CM,

I've come off a m/c twice, 1 dog, 1 wet speed bump.

I've come off a bicycle once, m/c strike from the rear.

I've fallen off on mountain trails numerous times.

A camera wouldn't have helped me any of those times, but body armor would have saved my skin every time.

SkoyCo knee/leg and elbow/arm armor 900bht for a set, SoiBiker armored gloves 300bht from the helmet shop near Gekko Garden.

Body armor also available as well as armored boots. Not to forget a full face helmet, you only get one jaw and set of teeth.

If you're worried about accidents, protection is much better than assigning blame after.

You should seriously consider it.

I agree that video would not be much use for physical protection if in the event of being involved in a motorbike accident, but I still believe that video could save a lot of legal stress later on in an accident situation.

My wife`s nephew once ordered some motorbike body protection clothing from the States and remember it was very expensive. The main problem he found was that he became uncomfortably hot during longish journeys and during the hottest periods in April he said it felt like being trapped in a personal body sauna and after a few trips out wearing this stuff he gave it up.

very much appreciate all your information. I intend to go out and spend a day to check these cameras and thanks to you all, at least I know where to start and armed with what to look for.

I think that these devices are a must, especially claiming for road accident regarding insurances purposes and if ever accused of being the driver at fault by another party or the police.

Not trying to be smart but perhaps full body armor would be a better investment.

So what`s your point in coming on to the this thread and trolling the topic?

If this is how the thread is going to progress, creeps with the sole aim of turning this into a farce and off the subject that usually sets off all the other idiots jumping on the bandwagon, than please could the mods close this down if the thread continues on along this path.