catweazle

I am at awe, every day anew, at reading how great Thai people are in ruining their own and their country's reputation.

Shame on that Uzbek guy and the Thais involved - may they face maximum penalty with their faces and full names out in the open for everyone to see and be excluded from the possibility of parole and pardon.

I believe that a vital info was given in this topic by a member (evildrsomkid). Thus I humbly ask to repost this info in my message a bit more detailed: Seems there is a new scam going on all over Thailand involving ATMs - an ATM card will be lying on the floor in front of an ATM, with a PIN written on the back. If you try to use this card, police or people dressed as police will approach and take you into custody to squeeze money out of you or your family for alleged ATM fraud. What have we learned today? NEVER pick up any ATM card found near an ATM, however tempting it might be - leave that card on the ground and walk away!!!!!!

Again - one of those days where I just ask myself why I love this country so much and am still here... On the other hand - stuff like this happens all over the world. Just that Thailand does not really need any more bad publicity these days - we have had our fair share already....

Ummm can feel the need sometimes as a teacher here but have 2 hold back , Monday i started my first lesson of the day 1 student i was standing near called teacher teacher ,then proceeded to make facial jest of as if blow j-- and right arm raised up and asked in Thai ham yai (c--- big) in front of the whole class i walked out got my senior head English teacher and explained she looked at me with a smug smile said i must have miss understood him .0hhhhhhhhh yeah teacher teacher get my attention forgot iam just a stupid farang but wrong shoes that a bit strong students here in Thailand are ment to have total respect for teachers

<deleted>????? Please tell me you are not working as an English teacher at a school in Thailand! I'm in shock reg. your writing skills; not the bj story...

Really stupid and insensitive to include that photo in a news story. This is no joke. Whoever is posting news and editing here at ThaiVisa should wise up. No contrived photo necessary.

Hail to that!

"Some of the problems are probably my fault,"

There you have it!

Only that "some" should be replaced by "most".

For me everything was perfectly clear when I read that your first destination was the hotel of "Hangover 2" - I can imagine what kind of expectations were behind your "planning"... Also, expectation is the shortest road to disappointment.

Instead of planning and relying on forums and tips of the so-called "Thailand experts", you should have just booked the ticket, grabbed your backpack and "let Thailand happen", just like I did when I arrived here over 22 years ago. With your planning and by chosing the worst places to go (congrats on picking Koh Lanta, where I lived and worked for about a year and named it "Koh Chuck Wao" - can't write here what it means in English as otherwise I might get scolded again by TVs moderators, but sure you will find out).

Like Krabi, the local population of Koh Lanta has an over 60% muslim percentage, making it a no-fun place. Beaches full of dead coral and rock, making it unable for the visitor to swim during low tide, adds to the disappointment... But I personally know a few expats who live happily there and love the place - after all it is your very own perspective on Thailand and live in general what makes your stay, vacation and even your whole life success or failure.

Don't blame Thailand, look in the mirror my friend and check out some of the places off the beaten path like Khao Sok (Chao Lan Lake), Khao Lak, Umphang, Pai, etc. throw your 5-star expectations into the bin and experience the real Thailand.

Let's celebrate! The annual "let's show all foreigners, that we want their money, but not their physical presence here" scare joker has been pulled again... Always one of the most popular announcement cards for wannabe future PMs to gain thailand-wide recognition. I am getting sick and tired of it to say the least.

When will the day come, where we (non-Thais) will stop to copy the Thai way, i.e. smiling and discussing the biggest existing threat and problem here in LOS for us foreigners away, and call them straight out what a good 95% of them are... ahemmm.... "racists"?

Thais should be treated equally in western countries worldwide so they get a first hand experience of how it feels to be regarded to as a 2nd or 3rd class citizens in a foreign country with an R.T.P. = the right to pay.

Looks like these "passionately discussed over homeless foreigners" can learn a lot from this little boy...

I worked my @$$ off in Thailand during the past 22 years to be where I am right now, and still am here and have a good life and a family despite having been down to ZERO three times (Tsunami included), never whined about anything, but got my $#it together and stood up and fought again and again.

Don't care how any specific foreigner got to the point to ending up homeless here. And I say: The ones who can't hack it should go home! Respectively be deported to their home countries on self cost (i.e. - their embassy advances the ticket money and they have to WORK back home to pay back for the ticket). If Thailand does not want to go down the filthy road, that so many western countries do due to lax immigration policies and laws that punish the hard working countrymen while giving freebies to the non-working and the non-willing to integrate, Thailand better goes down hard on homeless immigrants.

Pick em up, give em a shower, hand them a toothbrush, a hot meal, and some fresh clothes (2nd hand, donations) and send them back to where they came from.

Where is all this money coming from???

Theft, ripping off naive tourists, borrowing or stealing money from their family members, prostitution, money laundering and human trafficking - pick your favourite!

RIP to the victims, conolences to their family and friends.

Sad news also for the Thai bashers, because this disaster happened in the Philippines.

This is a joke, right?

Looking at "Travis", and reading that he verbally abused the people he asked to help him to an extend that made officials sending police after him, even a blind, deaf and comatose person should see that his daughter is probably off a thousand times better staying with her mom.

In addition I am quite certain that his ex-wife had good reasons for leaving him. My gut feeling tells me things I can't discuss here. Just hope for the girl and her mother that "Tantrum Travis" will be send to Australia with a red stamp in his passport to never return.

No sympathy for him from my side at all.

RIP to the victim and her unborn child. Hope her murderer will be found (looks like they already have him) and sentenced accordingly.

Even more shocking than the actual crime was the TV footage, showing the victim and her most private parts in full color, unobscured (not pixelated like usually any gun, cigarette, butt or private parts would be in any footage shown on TV or film in Thailand). Felt very sorry for the victim to be disgraced in public, on the internet, and on national TV by such insensitive morons...

I mentioned this hypocrisy in regards to what Thais decide to censor and what not in several previous posts, thus don't want to repeat myself. It however shocks me anew each time, even after 22 years. When it comes to portraying crime, accidents or other gruesome display, the locals seem to lose it completely, all the time! To me it appears like a good 90% of the Thai population is into Gore for whatever sick reason. Thinking back to that posted question of what frightens us expats here in Thailand, I by now can say, that the above actually does not frighten me, but honestly - it makes me feel uneasy.

What a dick... literally

I wonder if this uses the same technology as the "bomb sniffer" used by Thai police?

Yupp! It sniffs for traces of urine, vomit, and Nutella

Do they also have an elder-hating version on offer? In any case, if this thingy is as annoying as those stupid Furbys, caretakers and nurses in homes for the elderly should braise for the soon to come riots...

Oh, come on - this got to be a joke...

Will version 3.0 feature redesigned trash bins?

Knowing how young testosterone-driven "Wai Lun" Thai hooligans "handle" their girlfriends (and ex-girlfriends "Think you were mine? You still ARE mine!"), I fear for the worst while wishing for Khun Thong that she will get her daughter back alive and unharmed.

Why Khaek's face is obscured in the article is also a huge mystery to me as it does not really help to find her... Thailaeeeeenn!!!

What the hell was he doing on a motorbike on a beach?

Driving.

Sweet! The huge "ears" provide ample space to attach a fair amount of crib sheets.

This gives a completely new meaning to the idiom "waiting until the cows come home"...

Fee, fi, fo, fum, I smell... the fingerprints of scum!

(Ace Ventura - When nature calls)

why buy a condo? they cost a lot more than houses, and even though you are the owner (unlike those who "buy" houses), selling it, if that becomes necessary, will probably be a big pain in the derriere.

anyone over the age of about 65 should be renting, whether housing or condo. Depending on your personal circumstances, of course.

Obviously, if you abandon permanently your country of birth, it may be wise to buy, but not necessarily.

If you are 65 and live to 85, you could rent a condo for 20 years. (Say 20,000 pm x 12 x 20 = 4,800,000. It probably would cost 6 million to buy that condo.) Case closed?

So a condo or house costing 6 mill baht and some one who bought it lives there for twenty years with no rent to pay saves 4.8 mill baht on rental at the figures you used as an example which leaves 1.2 mill baht outstanding and owner then sells on and gets back the 6 mill baht paid so if this was the case he or she would have saved 4.8 mill baht buy buying a property and having no rent to pay, me personally would use the buy a property route, paying rent is DEAD money.....

Case re-opened your honour....?....

There are other small considerations - like the interest from keeping your 6 million baht in the bank for 20 years at 3 per cent or better, and the saving by not converting it into Thai baht in the first place, plus the service charge, community fees or whatever that may not be passed on in a rental agreement, plus at age 85 you may not have the time or the mental health or the family to sell it or bequeath it, in which case it is possible that someone you wouldn't approve of will get it for nothing.

I'd still go down a buy route rather than a rental route and make sure I had a will in place and someone to bequeath to, I still say renting is dead money even though I could end up being dead before reaching 85....

MB is right - rental payments are money down the toilet. Blazes forgot in his "accounting" that by buying a condo you acquire an asset that can be sold (most likely with profit) at a later stage. The only positive point about rental that I can think of is that you are more flexible and independent since you are free leave at any time without obligations (depending on the contract length). Property and construction is my bread and butter, thus I know what I am talking about.

BTW: Money in the bank will be worth nothing in a very short time from now.