pogal

Not complaining but I just don't get why this https://www.facebook.com/412544468923896/videos/529085830603092/ is used to promote a car.
Now if it was condoms I could understand...

The fact he had left notes to his wife and sister (in Estonian language) kind of seals the deal it was suicide.

It "Should" also be on video. In the Pattaya shooting range they have/had video surveillance (from memory 10 years ago). We walked in and given our choice of weapon with little advice/training and just went for it. People pointing guns all over the place (unknowingly), I never went back because it was so worrying.

While I agree that foreigners should have compulsory travel insurance, a million baht is a drop in the ocean to them. The government should allow retirees to acquire Government Health insurance which has no conditions or limits (although the service can be slow, and not nearly as good as private) it would at least offer those on tight budgets to participate in a legal and financial way.

BUT what has not been reported are things like the government not paying their bills on time for social insurance. A few hospitals have opted out of the Social Insurance schemes because of very late payments by the government costing them millions of baht! The most recent is Camillian Hospital in Tong-Lor which now does not accept BAKAN SANDKOM (Government insurance) because of this very fact of late payments by the government (reimbursement).
It's quite a concern since possibly more hospitals may soon opt out leaving the cheap government health insurance disarray.
Report that!

Been living in Bangkok for close to 30 years, I have not been asked for my passport even once other than during night club raids, same goes for my friends who we use to go drinking and clubbing back in the day. Although back in the day, night club raids were very common to check for drugs, its uncommon nowadays. My group of friends are pretty diverse, americans / europeans / russions / indians / thais etc

I would say police have a good eye at picking on whoever looks and acts suspicious. That is not to say there are innocent folks who gets checked on the streets.

I've had to show my passport to the Russian police during my holiday there once while walking on the streets. Didn't think too much about it and was just a quick check.

RIGHT!.................. I've been living in Bangkok for 163 years now, living in shoe box in middle of road, every morning I 'ave to wake up and lick road clean wid tongue! and when our dad gets 'ome, he slices us in two with bread knife! ...............and I've never been asked for my passport!

Lower the bar and everyone wins.

My daughter just took some sort of government tests this weekend. She is fluent in English, but she says most of the questions in the English part of the test made no sense. She is the only one in the class that speaks any English at all so I wonder what kind of results the other kids got.

Have you ever sat the "Teachers" exam? LOL

Incomprehensible..... Anything to do with the MOE in Thailand is a joke :/

Ramkhamhaeng university just broke off contact with them regarding teachers licences. All teachers are now consultants so they don't have to deal with their arrogance and ignorance anymore. This is actually newsworthy but hasn't been picked up as yet :/

I had a nice professional experience from Lazada. Quick response to a mistake I made (a phone call from India I think?) and delivery was arranged by the driver (in Thai) and arrived exactly when he said. lifted it all the way to my room and I was so happy with everything from start to finish I gave him a tip.
Ordered again recently (supposedly from overseas? I'm not sure how in works but a week later it arrived and moments later an email to tell me it had arrived. The quality of both goods was as expected, or even a little better

I have also developed sinusitis in the last 5 years or more here.
I finally found that it was stomach related after receiving treatment for GERD which I am now almost able to control without drugs, my sinuses have gotten better with the occasional flareup, (normal in conjunction with a stomach flareup).
There are so many reasons for sinus problems and so it is near impossible to pinpoint many of them. Clean air can also contain lots of pollen if you're living in the countryside so it's really all hit and miss.
Saline rinses with a neti-pot or extra large syringe (what I use) give a lot of relief and also "help" with clearing up any infections. (also add drops of iodine to it).
Studies have shown that people can clear their sinuses without antibiotics (80% in the same amount of time as with antibiotics), which I have stopped using for the last 3 years (after the first 2 years of constant antibiotic use, prescribed by "doctors" here).
Apparently if your infection looks like clearing after 5 days then returns with a vengeance, it is time to use antibiotics. I have not taken antibiotics for up to 10 days, even with this recommendation.
For stomach related sinuses (which apparently are the biggest cause of sinuses) simple diet changes (not too drastic), eating on time, etc, can make a huge difference. I also use Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda ("seems" to help). Keep away from other antacids if possible to control gastric re-flux.

But in the end everyone is different and you will have to take careful note of your body and habits whenever sinus problems occur to find out what is best for you. I really pity sinus suffers after suffering myself for a few years. I feel lucky I can now control them (just!).

When you believe in reincarnation, suicide is an easy option.

I think many Thai's do not really believe or care much about Buddhist laws anymore, much like Farang's don't about Christianity.

They go to temples/churches to show everyone how religious they are and then spend the rest of the week being a**holes.

'The Buddha states, "Suicide is a serious sin that equals to murdering the immortal and the one who commits to this sin would not reincarnate for nine generations." It is concluded that suicide is an evil behavior against the Buddhism, the human being, society.'

...and if you have ever been to one of the Thai 'Buddhist Hell' temples you would NOT want to spend 9 generations there ("IF" you really believed in Buddhism).

You could argue that over-riding feelings or emotions contribute to this effect. An insanely jealous boyfriend can murder his girlfriend without thought to the consequences but I rather think it's a non-belief issue since many of the Buddhist laws such as greed, stealing, etc are well thought out plans with little emotion involved, which leads one to believe that they are not at all concerned with punishment in the after life.

Actually it was not the manager of the shop who called the fire brigade as he was not even there, the place was all locked up! it was a fireman/rescue worker and his friends that first called the fire brigade! They were parked next to the building and saw the initial small flames coming out. They used the fire rescue radio to alert fire-responders and they themselves were first on scene to help the only open shop evacuate and save supplies from it. The manager turned up 30 minutes to an hour later to open the shop roller doors and let the woman out. She is lucky she did not succumb to the smoke.

went to a call a week ago with an elderly lady who had just had eye surgery in a very small clinic and then for some reason went into cardiac arrest, 1 doctor and 2 nurses stood there and did nothing until rescue workers arrived to start CPR! How and why she went into cardiac arrest will remain a mystery I guess and nothing will happen about it either way. :/

I went to a job where a Korean (a giant of a man) had punched to death another Korean man at a Korean Karaoke bar in Sukhumvit. It was not a "hit" but more of a compulsive anger problem I think but the purp was calm as ice and even in cuff's was asking for whiskey to be poured down his throat. The policeman there told me that the Korean mafia is well known in Bangkok but don't "seem" to get up to much there.
My Japanese friend also has friends in the Japanese Yakuza here in Bangkok but they are also all businessmen now, they are smart and know the right people to pay off and business is good for them, so yes I do believe it could have been done by Korean mafia.

I wonder how many countries adopt the policy of making their visitors pay for protection? Furthermore on paying this extra fee, how can webe assured we are getting value for money?

North Korea does you need a "minder" with you at ALL times outside of your hotel.

As with almost every problem in Thailand in comes back to policing.
As some members have said and know that most taxi drivers have weapons in their vehicle. Simple policing pf weapons (for ALL vehicles, including Mercedes) should be carried out but particularly with taxi drivers who deal with the public all day long.
I have been to several incidents were taxi drivers have assaulted passengers and have found out later they are already known to police!? How can this be if they are vetted first, so obviously this is not happening.
So yes there are criminal elements driving taxis at all times and one should be weary when using them. I have also had a knife pulled on me by a taxi driver high on yaba, I complained about his erratic driving and he went ballistic, he was arrested but I never heard the end of the story, whether he actually went to jail or not, or the police took a "fine" from him and let him go, that was in my newbie days.
Drug use is very common with taxi drivers too since many use this as a second job for extra income.
I avoid taxi's at all costs. Ueber and other services seem to be better.

The likes of Saudi and the UAE should follow this as well. Some of the poor maids there are treated like dirt ! And worse. I don't have to write here some of the stuff that goes on as I'm pretty sure you can guess.

They possibly would if their names ended in ling, ching, wing, chew etc, not actually local kind of names, or you would not hear a lot about it.

Malaysia is a racially divided country, with the majority Malays treating the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian populations very badly. Racially motivated attacks on Chinese or Indan shops is not uncommon, and is often met with half-hearted response by the police. This attitiude may have no bearing on the sentencing in this case, where the crime was despicable, but it would be interesting to compare the results from similar trials involving Malay defendants

Was my first thought too. If it was a Muslim family it may not have ended this way. I used to live there and saw the immense racial divide between Chinese and Malays. Not pleasant.

They deserved to be punished but I just feel there is more to the punishment than the crime itself.

How can children and young adults change in education when the politicians cant accept change themselves. Sought of hypocritical really. the same message week in and year after year but no change. Yes get rid of multiple choice questions, instill academic riquor, eliminate cheating as an acceptable way to achieve and then you have a start in the right direction for change. I am not holding my breath.

What do you mean!? They have eliminated cheating!

https://frigginloon.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/anti-cheating.gif

When I went to the Ancient City in Samut Prakan, the ticket lady noticed I was speaking Thai and asked me if I lived/worked here and I said yes, she said I could have Thai price! I was impressed at her pro-activeness in this situation, I hadn't even thought of asking, No proof was required either, my parents paid farang price though, which I didn't mind paying since they were tourists.

I guess I have gotten used to dual pricing.

I was also very surprised recently when another TV Member informed everyone about other countries dual pricing including my own, NZ, which absolutely shocked me to think that NZ has dual pricing. I had to track down the information and I found he was correct. I was so disappointed that NZ had done that :/ Although extremely rare in NZ (perhaps even the ONLY place in NZ) it is still a disappointment and makes me feel I cannot say anything about Thai dual pricing now or else label myself (my country) hypocritical :/

It's parents must have had really wild sex!

This serves as a warning to keep away from Lao-Kao

Don't the Colombians use submarines for trafficking?......

Good luck with that - its gonna be like watching an Orangutang work as a dentist ...

They can just see the ip-numbers who all came at the same time, they are logged.

Ask the internetproviders who used the ip-numbers and there are the names....

Even an orangutang can do it.....

Not if they are all using TOR

https://images.washingtonpost.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.washingtonpost.com%2Fblogs%2Fwonkblog%2Ffiles%2F2015%2F08%2F7hAJ4qG1.gif&op=noop

Love this representation of "traffic"

On the same page in the news: "Brace for floods"...... "Rain making operations to be stepped up".... LOL

Bangkok too, Ramkhamhaeng, first time in 15 years for me!
But no problem, they're just doing their job and were polite to me and even shook my hand goodbye with a smile.

I have a PCX and had to change the tires immediately because it would slide if it touched any wet surface. Many other people told me the same thing. Michelin tires seem to fix the problem. Seat is terrible too. Otherwise it is a nice ride.

I have a few Thai male friends that volunteer together, we are so close we call each other brothers. My best friend/brother and his wife and I go on holidays together sometimes. His wife will hug me when we meet and we are all very close. I didn't really think about it before but I guess I am quite lucky to have Thai friends as close as this. I do understand why many people don't though, generally speaking I have little time for Thai males (and females) because of the way they act, it is too far removed from my own way.

My friends don't drink and always volunteer to help others. They are all so different too, from a motorcy taxi driver to company owner in the USA/Thai, a flight controller, delivery driver, event organizer, and a teacher. They are really nice people and I love them all. My Thai girlfriend also gets along well with all of them. I have a wonderful life here, mostly because of them.

I also have a few close friends who are Japanese and foreign.