timmyp

The thing the Thai's have going for them are the portions. You know guys, we have to eat at least 2 dishes at a restaurant to be somewhat satisfied. Yes, they have some healthy choices too but their downfall are the condiments. I'd say they consume more sodium than westerners, easily. And with the easy accessibility of food and the amount of sugary and alcohol that is consumed it is at the beginning of the alarming stages.

Yes, the Thai's are getting big and my observation is that there's a big need for real nutritional supplements and not the snake oil stuff that is available.

I agree with you that portions are not large here, but I have also seen many Thai people therefore order extra portions. Usually not a plate of what would be considered a main dish (like many westerners ordering two plates of main dishes), but lots of smaller side dishes. Overeating is most definitely a problem here. I have seen many Thai people order so much and eat themselves so full that they don't want to finish what was ordered.

The Moken are fascinating group of people. Fascinating in that they are such a small group with a history distinct from those around them.

Seems like a serious disservice to refer to them just as "sea gypsies" rather than a proper name.

The world is shrinking and it's inevitable that many smaller groups will be swallowed into larger, dominant groups. It's nice to hear that something is being done to maintain cultural identity.

Like so many others, this is just "in my experience".

I often talk with people about nutrition and dieting.

I notice that most people in Thailand just skip meals to diet. I have talked to people who fast, but I have never met someone who is fasting other than doing the equivalent of a 3 or 4 day detox (which is also common for weightloss).

I hear many people talk about low-carb diets, but I have never met anyone actually doing one (I'm sure there are people doing it). I hear people in Thailand saying that carbs should be avoided, but I have never seen anyone refuse a plate of rice or noodles, and then eat something else. It seems to me that people in Thailand just skip meals.

Food in Thailand is very social (like almost everywhere, of course). Because people are often snacking when they socialize, dieting is tough because it makes socializing very awkward. I have never heard anyone complain about this, but because I often diet myself, it is a challenge I often face when I am meeting people and their is a plate of snacks presented to me. Understandably, people get pissy when someone rejects the food being offered, and claiming you're on a diet doesn't reduce the pressure. I notice that if I claim I have diabetes or some type of strong food allergy, people stop saying, "Oh, just a bite won't hurt!" My point in saying this is that it's socially tough to diet in Thailand.

On a side note, I wonder if this constant snacking promotes bad eating habits. I've seen many Thai people who are always munching on something (particularly women). Of course it's not a problem if it's kept under control, but always feeling the urge to snack in combination with cheap processed food paves the way to metabolism-related problems.

I am from the U.S., the world center of fat people and unhealthy, gluttonous eating habits. What surprises me when I visit the U.S. is not how many people I see who require "Wide Load" signs, but how many people are incredibly fit and very diet conscious. There is such a wide range of healthy foods available in the U.S., despite the U.S.'s well-earned reputation for unhealthy eating. In Thailand and Japan (where I lived for about 15 years), I find little awareness of nutrition and beyond some simple pop-culture facts, and hardly anyone who gives priority diet and nutrition when making food selections.

Your post is an interesting read but no cigar. Not even close. The issue with this person is not about perception, or society's attitude about being black, yellow, red, white or any other skin color. It is about her deceit, her incessant lying, for instance born in a tepee, her filing law suits under false pretense claiming racial discrimination to name just a few and when caught in her deceit, her lies continue. The woman undeniably has a psychiatric disorder and needs professional help.

Pimay1, you're talking about why the story is newsworthy (or not newsworthy)

I'm talking about why it has been made into news. Not the same thing.

I find it interesting why people think it's newsworthy.

If everyone saw it only as somebody who was being deceitful, then it wouldn't be getting all the coverage it is.

Yeah, of course this woman is a complete nutbag, I don't think anyone is disputing that.

i don't understand why a country with a lot of believers of the bible: you shall not kill

needs that many guns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL8JEEt2RxI

Its a good thing you got it on video. By the time the police arrived the story would change and it would be all your fault and he would have his g/f as a witness.

I don't doubt that happens quite a bit, but I got in a bang-up about 3 years ago, and the cops were clearly on my side. The other guy who was at fault was a huge tool, and accused me of wrong doing. The cops just asked me what I wanted to do, i.e., if I wanted to pursue it. Damage was minimal, I didn't see any point in dragging this out, so I didn't do anything. My bike was damaged, I was hurt but not seriously. The other vehicle had no damage. Perhaps it would have been different had there been damage to his motorbike.

no its only news because she,s been outed as a proven liar...shes white end of..utterly stupid lady..

If a black person posed as white to get a job, no one would care.

It's interesting how this topic always draws full condemnation from westerners but from my dealings with Burmese, I haven't met a single individual who had anything good to say about the Rohingyas/Bengalis. The Burmese (especially the Buddhist ones) don't want them in their country and most certainly don't see them as Burmese.

My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation. Their country, their rules.

Similarly, the sentiment in Thailand is few Thais want them either (as refugees). I have read some pretty strong anti-Rohingya comments (in Thai, on Thai social media) about NOT wanting to take them in.

It's a very sad situation but doesn't have an easy solution.

But what is very clear is that these people have much more in common culturally, physically, ethnically, and in terms of religion with Bangladesh than with Myanmar. These people are of South Asian ethnic origin, not East Asian. Whether they ultimately belong to Myanmar even if they have settled on that land for generations is up to the Myanmar government to determine. I'm not sure if the general anti-Rohingya sentiment is more of a religious than an ethnic one, my feeling is it's more of a religious one and maybe to a minor extent ethnic one. But generally speaking the Burmese are pretty accepting of people of Indian origin these days, as long as they're Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Buddhist.

I'm impressed that they gave him a ticket! At least there is this "show" that powerful folks are subject to the law as well.

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

I am not sure if it will help or not, but to be clear, they are Bengali. Same language, same religion, genetics etc..

They may have come 1-2-3-10 generations ago but they are Bengali in origin. I may have been born in Singapore

but because neither of my parents had citizenship I have no claim on citizenship. Of course they should have a

path to citizenship. Not sure what it should be. Language is probably one requirement. I have not heard what the

Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I am not an expert on the differences between these people. Wikipedia ranks their language as not being mutually intelligible with Bengali.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people#Language

I can't help but think that you are lumping people together that are really different groups, like saying referring to all Turks as a single group. There are many groups of Turkic people, with different languages and cultures. The word could mean someone from Turkey, it could mean people from other areas in Central Asia.

I don't know at what point we say that a group of people has been in a region for x number of generations, so therefore they deserve citizenship. At what point does it become the majority unfairly kicking out a minority based on xenophobia? The Dominican Republic is currently trying to kick out over 100,000 Haitians who were born there who speak only Spanish and not Creole, Kenya is trying to send back thousands of Somalis who were born in Kenya there. Lots of this going on...

Of course, in the case of Rohnigya, there is the added dimension of violence from the Buddhists. They certainly deserve protection from that.

> I have not heard what the

>Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I think we can be pretty sure that it's to kick them out of the country. If they register as Bengali (which you say they are), rest assured the gov won't be creating a path to citizenship for Bengalis.

Dude, are they gonna like, COLLIDE???

Treating your question with much more seriousness than was probably intended, no. At their closest they are 670,000,000 km apart.

TOTAL COLLISION!!

I hope it's a cool explosion like when the terrorists blew up Alderaan!

..and most certainly, our Thai hypocrites have seen these commercials and after expressed public outrage here too???

I enjoyed watching those and like the point the collection of videos is making, but I don't get how that point is really related? Those commercials aren't satirizing part of Thai society, they are good examples of common attitudes about skin color in Thailand.

Dude, are they gonna like, COLLIDE???

Great ! Thais using the Swastika and Hitler images everywhere is OK, but oh my if somebody make a joke about the Thai monks, with their Louis Vuitton hand bags and private jets ....

I think it's not really the same, because the Koreans know who Thai monks are, they are actually basing their parody on something (as opposed to simply using a Thai Buddhist symbol or image of a Thai Buddhist without knowing what it is)

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

Incidentally, I usually use clear ear plugs, so that people can tell that I'm using them.

I think you meant to write "can't tell". Mine are bright day-glo orange. I want people to know when they're being loud to the point of obnoxiousness. Hopefully my bright orange earplugs make the statement.

Yes, you are totally right, I meant "so that people canN'T tell that I'm wearing them." I caught that later, but the "Edit" option was no longer available.

I understand you're approach. So far my comments to my band-mates and others that "loud is good, but it doesn't have to be SO loud, can't we just take it down a notch or two?" are just met with mockery. It seems to me there is something about living in Thailand that really brings out the teenager in alot of expats.

So I take the secret non-confrontational approach and wear my secret clear earplugs.

I have had tinnitus since I was a kid. I just ignore it. Because I am thinking about it now, I am very conscious of how loud it is, and that is unpleasant. It is several different frequencies in both ears. But in 10 minutes I will be able ignore it again. I dislike silence, because I become very aware of my tinnitus. I prefer at least some white noise in the background, such as a fan or children screaming.

I'm totally kidding about the children screaming. But white noise is good.

Protect your ears. I should really do a better job of this... Thailand is ridiculous about loud music at shows and events. I think they will get more sensible as appeal of the unbalanced subwoofer and volume for the sake of volume fades.

Wear earplugs. People will think you are being silly, but you really need to protect yourself, just like insisting on a helmet when taking a ride on a motorcycle taxi. Everyone will think you're paranoid, just let them think that. Incidentally, all serious drummers and sound engineers I know in the U.S. use earplugs, usually custom-made in-ear filters or monitors. In Japan, I only met a handful of engineers and drummers who protect their ears, and I lived there playing music for about 15 years. I've never met a single sound engineer or musician in Thailand who uses some kind of ear protection (I'm sure there are some, I'm not that social with musicians here).

Like everyone is saying, high frequency hearing loss is inevitable with age. In a hearing test I took, I got rated as being 50-55 when I was 40. Not so horrible, but worse than it should be. I probably listen to music too loud when exercising, and I should do a better job of protecting my ears at shows I attend.

Incidentally, I usually use clear ear plugs, so that people can tell that I'm using them. This is insecure and silly of me, but I avoid having to defend my choice to protect my ears.

I agree with all the advice above, but you should really study Thai, too. People will be very receptive to you speaking because 1) it's how they prefer to communicate, 2) you look like you can speak. People will engage with you in Thai, and that is so important when learning a language.

I don't know what your level is, but if you don't have basics of all the sounds down, review that with a teacher or online. Getting the basics is so important. If you've got the basics, then start learning vocabulary and interacting with people.

Learning a language is a bit of a pain in the ass, but there is tremendous reward if you put the time in. It's not rocket science, lots of dumb folks learn to speak quite well. You just gotta put in the time.

Those buses can be really awful. I live near Rangnam, and because King Power is must-stop for many Chinese tourists, Rangnam is just a traffic jam with those towering buses, even impressive by Bangkok standards. Rangnam is not a wide road...

Tourists from China will start to branch off on their own over time. They will become increasingly dissatisfied with the tour companies.

My answer would be "no". Every time I have had to buy a bike or car or change a name or remove a name you need:

1. A copy of the falang's passport with a signature, which actually shouldn't be too difficult with scanners and email.

2. The difficult part is getting the "resident certificate" which requires the falang to go to immigration and get it and this certificate is only good for one month. I've never heard that anything other than a "resident certificate" will do the job and I've never been given an alternative.

The OP said 'sell' not buy..

Usually the cert of residence isnt needed for sellers (did one 2 weeks ago) but sometimes if they are being awkward it is..

No, LivingLOS, you are absolutely wrong. If you read my post it doesn't matter if you are selling, buying or changing, adding or removing a name. If there is a falang involved it requires the falang to do the same thing no matter what side of the equation the falang is on. I have done them all and every single time I have had to get a "Resident Certificate" and give them a signed copy of my passport.

You got lucky...that's all I can say.

you dont need a certificate of residence if you selling, i just sold 1 bike and we make the transfer in Chiang Mai, you only need copy of passport, copy of visa page (permit of stay) and transfer paper, nothing else from seller.

only foreign buyer need certificate of residence or work permit

You're right, I read the posting too quickly and thought it was the buyer he was asking about.

I did not need proof of residency from the seller when I bought two motorbikes in Bangkok, but I needed it for myself as the buyer. Sorry for getting that mixed up.

There must be some research into how the Thai lettering system affects reading ages....... my gut feeling is that in general Thai people although "literate" by and large are not very good readers and the flow of information from the outside world is slowed by this system too.

It's got nothing to do with the lettering system. Japanese has a way higher learning curve than Thai, and they aren't suffering from delayed literacy .

Don't the Japanese have some way of learning the alphabet or reading musically which makes it very fast?

(Hope it's not maths and I'm making a chump of myself)

There are some songs, but nothing any different from the kaw kay khaw khay song Thai kids learn (no comments on the transliteration please, I'd have written it in Thai if I were permitted to).

Learning to read and write in Japanese is just alot of practice. Some other guy made a comment about there being two alphabets, which technically there are, but it's pretty much the same as saying English has two alphabets, the CAPITAL LETTER alphabet and small letter alphabet. It's interesting that we categorize that as a single alphabet with two ways of writing a sound, and Japanese counts theirs as two different alphabets, but whatever.

The rough part of learning Japanese is the kanji, i..e, the Chinese characters. To learn it, kids just gotta put in the time. It's not as hard as it seems to most people, but it takes a while. It has its advantages in the end, such as technical vocabulary getting much easier to read. To compare this to English, it would be like having a mastery of Latin and Greek roots, and then studying medicine. The terms would be much easier.

The point in mentioning this is that the writing system in Japanese is alot of work, but the education system demands that the kids do it. They have some cute songs and activities to help kids along the way, but it's still alot of work. And there isn't a literacy problem in Japan (there are illiterate people there, I've met some, but the writing system isn't holding the country back). The same goes for Thailand.

Only people who don't read Thai are blaming the Thai script. They might as well blame spicy food. "The food is too spicy for me, so clearly it keeps education levels low."

There must be some research into how the Thai lettering system affects reading ages....... my gut feeling is that in general Thai people although "literate" by and large are not very good readers and the flow of information from the outside world is slowed by this system too.

It's got nothing to do with the lettering system. Japanese has a way higher learning curve than Thai, and they aren't suffering from delayed literacy (i.e., not affecting reading ages). It continues to boggle my mind how some farangs' inability to learn Thai leads them to blame the language for being too hard, then think there are further implications about the society because of it.

The education system and cultural attitude towards education is the problem in Thailand, not the all those squiggly letters you find so hard to read that represent mysterious sounds you can't make.

actually japan has had huge problems with their writing system - especially when it comes to IT - and have addressed it by insisting on English is certain fields. in fact Japanese has 3 scripts and none are suitable for things such as IT.

The next problem is thet Thai script is a "single invention" rather than a system that has evolved - it also has evolved without good punctuation or paragraphing - that has been introduced from western script........the reading problems of Thai are not the same as those in Japanese - they are completely different systems. so the problems of Thai script are particular to Thai scritp ( and it's relatives) but not comparable with Japanese.

[Funny how some farang just think all squiggly "foreign writing" is inherently the same?]

Wow are you talking out of your a$$

I have an M.A. in linguistics specializing in Japanese phonetics, I am a certified Japanese interpreter, and I work as a Japanese translator.

PM me if you want my credentials, but you really made a retarded assumption.

I don't even know where to address your ignorance about Japanese and Thai, but thanks for demonstrating how little you know.

There is no problem inherent in the Thai script, the problem is the education system. I used Japanese as a comparison. Thanks for the incredibly insightful comment that they are two different scripts.

About Japanese and IT:

Not suitable for IT? Not a clue where you get that from. My operating system and all software is in Japanese, and the IT translation that I do has no problem handling the Japanese script. There were some compatibility problems up until the late 90s, but that has been worked out.

>[Funny how some farang just think all squiggly "foreign writing" is inherently the same?]

Yup, sad that they're squiggles to you, and you decide that other people must be living in your same box of ignorance