RickThai

I guess I can see why Thais in general wouldn't be very happy about seeing so many beautiful and young (relatively anyway) Thai women being married to old, overweight "falongs".

I doubt most foreigners would be too happy about their sisters, daughters, and ex-wives being caught up in the same situation in their own home countries.

It's bound to create some resentment.

Also, in any country there is always some resentment between the "haves" and the "have nots". In Thailand, most "falongs" are financially better off than the average Thai.

Still, I find many Thais very gracious and polite, provided you are aware of their traditions and customs and respect them.

And lastly, I think the attitude of the "falongs" toward Thais and Thailand is very dependent upon why they are living in Thailand.

If they are just sex-patriates, or on-the-run from justice in their own country, then perhaps they deserve to be treated badly by most Thais.

If they have close connections with Thais (both family and friends), respect the traditions, and religions of the Thai people, and are generally law-abiding citizens, then I would think their overall attitude might be better.

Believe it or not, the average Thai citizen does not necessarily like the corruption of Thai officials, but they accept it and pay their bribes just like the "falongs"

Maybe someday this will change. Let's hope so.

RickThai

My wife and I were discussing a well-known transexual (Chasity Bono), and I asked her if she thought of Bono as a he or a she.

At first she said she thought of Bono as a man. I questioned her if she would feel comfortable with Bono using a public Ladies Bathroom and she said "Sure" Why not?"

I then asked her if she felt comfortable with other "men" using the ladies bathroom and she replied, "Of course not, men should use their own bathroom".

Seemed rather contradictory to me but I knew enough (smile) not to mention the contradiction.

So my question to the ladies of TV is:

Do you think of a Transexual (female-to-male) as a real male or something between a male and female, or still a female?

My own thoughts are that I could whack off my weiner and I'd still be a man (albiet a mutilated one).

To be clear, I am not trolling for either condemnations or support for sex-changes, just what you really feel about the gender of a person who undergoes surgically-assisted sex change.

Just curious.

RickThai

When you give something to someone or something, and you have the right state of mind, you actually benefit more from the giving then the recipient of your charity.

So to put it another way, why should anyone feel grateful for receiving something that is of greater benefit to the person doing the giving, than to you the receiver?

It all makes perfect sense, when looked at with right thought.

Respect to all,

RickThai

you should always carry a nasty cat in your bicycle basket and set it loose on these hellhounds when necessary, dogs are terrified of those kittyclaws....or you could get fake fingernails and try hissing....please report back with results....

:D5555!! My cat fought a nasty snake off my house once. She doesn't like to be on a bike though..

I once had two dogs (a German Shorthair Pointer and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever) that made a habit of catching, killing, and eating cats.

The Chessie (her name was Chessie) would run down the cat (our neigbor had dozens) at night without making a sound. She would then take it back to the kennel where she and the other dog (a large male over 100lbs) lived and the two of them would eat it.

I once saw the two of them attack a cat that foolishly wandered into our yard. The cat would jump up on a fence, the big GSP would jump and grab the cat in his mouth. He would then dash the cat on the ground with a quick shake of his head. The CBR would then grab the cat and the two of them would start playing tug-of-war.

I yelled "heel' and both dogs dropped the cat and came back to my side. The cat died a while later from its injuries.

So I'd be careful about setting a cat down in the midst of a pack of dogs (or even one vicious dog). When dogs play with cats, cats can be very aggressive, but a serious dog, or a dog that becomes used to killing cats, is a very different beast indeed.

RickThai

"Any short sharp word uttered with an inference of command will work in most situations.

No language, you could shout 'Cabbage' and as long as your demeanour/body language is right it will work with most dogs, but not all. When you are unfortunate enough, which is rare, to meet a dog that doesn't respond, you had better be able to handle yourself or run for shelter very quickly."

I agree that tone and body language is just as important as the actual words, but the closer the word is to what they are acustommed to, the more likely they are to respond correctly.

I just remembered something that worked for me as a teenager. There was an alley where someone kept a husky. This dog was very vicious and had bitten more than one person. Me and my friends got to where we started avoiding the alley (the original intent of the dog's owner, I suspect).

One day I got mad and got a heavy wrench and, holding the wrench behind my back, I slowly started walking down the alley. The dog charged and I literally bounced the dog's head off of the pavement from the force of the blow to the top of his head.

From then on, every time that dog saw me, it ran whimpering into its doghouse. That sovled that problem.

I don't think I would want to try with a Thai's dog though. It might get you shot or stabbed.

Regards to all,

RickThai

:jap:

Jet lag is highly-dependent upon the individual. Staying hydrated is a good way to help with the problem.

I follow a Special Forces trick, of immediately setting my watch to the destination time, and then staying awake through the local night time, and then taking some sleeping pills when it is "night time" according to my destination.

No matter where in the world I am traveling, this seems to cut down my jet lag, from a week to only a day or two.

Good luck.

RickThai

Also learn the Thai (or local) expression of 'out' or 'down', whatever locals use to tell a dog to back off and shout it at them.

You may find this surprising, dogs don't speak Thai, neither do they speak English.

If the dog in question has not been raised and trained by you the only word that it will usually recognise is its name, most times you won't know that.

Any short sharp word uttered with an inference of command will work in most situations.

For the bike rider...... when the dog came at you, did you just carry on peddling, or did you flail at it with one leg? (I'm guessing the latter)

If you just carry on going out of it's territory most dogs are just noise makers, offering one a tasty limb is usually a sure fire way of getting bitten. (please take note of the use of the words most and usually, the alternative word in all other situations being unlucky)

Actually dogs can speak Thai or English (at least they respond to the certain commands). I used to train dogs and I learned a couple of things about dogs.

1) Dogs are individuals; some act and respond normally, and some are psychotic or neurotic. What works with a normal dog often will not work with a psychotic dog. I once yelled "Bad Dog" to a large Great Dane as it charged me. The dog immediately stopped his attack and slunk back to his dog house. He responded almost automatically to the command even though he had never met me in my life. I was lucky in that was a command its owner used.

I tried the same thing with a neighbor's lab (generally easy-going dogs. That dog didn't slow down one bit. I managed to get inside the house before it could get me. I looked into its eyes and all I saw was insanity. A couple of days later the dog viciously attacked the owner's 7-year old daughter. The owner had to kill the dog. The little girl was scarred for life.

2) Most dogs learn by Association, Repetition, and Consistency (ARC). They associate a command or an action with something (pain or reward). The more this association is repeated the better they become at responding appropriately. The more consistent the application of the association, the more ingrained the response becomes.

So, using a stick or a rock (like many Thais do), to stop a dog attack is more likely to get the desired response (i.e. stop the attack), then trying some unknown action like saying in English, "Nice doggy".

Fear and running away will trigger the chase/attack response.

Once, when attacked by a German Shepard (I was in Italy), I was able to thrust a gym bag into the dog's face as he leaped at me. The dog clamped down on the bag, and I shook the bag back and forth, keeping the dog occupied with the bag, until its owner was able to pull the dog off. This was an attack-trained dog. If I had dropped the bag and took off, the dog would have probably dropped the bag and went after me.

I always carry a big stick when I go for a walk in Thailand. The stick needs to be big enough and strong enough to actually hurt the dog(s), not just scare them.

Just my thoughts.

Good for New Zealand!

I wish more countries would follow their lead. As more international pressure has been put on the Thai government, pedaphiles have started going to Cambodia and Vietnam for their sick delights.

Hopefull, the government's of the world can put a stop to pedaphilia in those countries as well.

Hopefully Thailand will follow the lead of Taiwan and clean up its liberal policy towards prostitution (adults and children). Although prosititution exists in nearly every country in the world, once Thai officials start arresting prostitutes and their customers, Thailand will stop attracting "sex-tourists" and "sex-patriates".

The "falongs" who visit Thailand and those who chose to live there, will enjoy Thailand for its people and culture, vs. "cheap sex".

I think this would benefit everyone.

Just my thoughts.

Hello to All,

This is a short story that I hope some will find as an interesting 'real life' benefit of Buddhist living.

I had been wanting to buy some technical books at a local thrift store. The books were only around 3 to 5 USDs each.

This particular thrift store had 50% off days, that allowed half off prices for objects with certain color-coded price tags. The colors that were on sale, changed on a daily basis.

The books I wanted had a pink color tag.

So every day for an entire week, I went to the store and checked which colors were on sale.

Finally, after about 6 days, the pink-tagged items were 50% off.

Unfortunately, one of the books, I had wanted had already been sold. Nevertheless, I was happy to find two other books, which I did buy.

After I got home, I discovered that I had lost a $5 bill. Thinking back, I realized that I must have lost it in the parking lot of the thrift store where I had purchased the books.

I felt bad that I had lost all the money that I had saved, by frugally waiting and checking the store for 6 days running.

I knew that feeling bad about the loss of the money (and the savings I had tried so hard to acquire) was not consistent with Budhist thoughts. So then I thought about how happy the individual who would eventually find the $5.00 would feel.

Instantly all my negative feelings evaporated, and I felt a deep, but quiet sense of contenment that someone had had a "lucky day" and experienced happiness upon finding the money.

Its as if, the entire experience had been designed solely to provide me with some insight into attachmenst and letting go of desire.

Thank you for letting me share this with you, the sangha.

Rick

Tommckay,

Sheryl is speaking the truth when it comes to the pain of dying from live disease.

I had your mentality once upon a time, but once I entered End-stage liver disease, all thoughts of toughing it out until the end disappearted.

Your entire life will become focussed upon dealing with the pain.

More than once, I would have taken my own life, except for my love of my wife, and her intervention.

It took me 8 months and two million USD in medical care (liver transplant) for me to whip the disease.

The pain I endured was enough to make me quit alcohol forever and I have absolutely no desire to ever drink again.

If you continue to drink you will live to regret it.

If you feel your life is not worth living, than perhaps you need to assess why you feel this way, and start taking steps to change your life. You, and only you, can do this.

I found trusting your inner voice and taking the actions you know as "right" is the best way to live a good, clean life.

As an example, I have a neighbor who leaves her bedroom window, partially open every night. If I wanted to, I could easily peer into her bedroom and see things that would be, quite frankly, titilating.

However, I don't do that, because deep inside, I know that it is wrong (at least for me). Subsequently, whenever I see my neighbor (who is quite good looking) we can have a pleasant conversation because I can be open with her.

Try implementing things like this in your own life (every aspect of your life), and maybe you can experience what I now experience, the joy and happiness of being a truly open and warm individual without any habits or actions that I would be ashamed to share with anyone.

Good luck.

RickThai

How soon before we get rid of paper passports and just have iris scanners the world over?

My guess is that we will have mandatory RFID chips sugically implanted that will take out all the hassle of immigration and passport control.

You just walk past the vicinity scanners and they automatically read all the relevant information and store entry and departure.

All that would be left are the detaining cells where all the travelers who set off flags would be held while awaiting processing.

The desired travelers would be totally un-hindered as they go about their business.

I'm still alive but not feeling so good, the "Essentiale" I was taking not helping anymore.....need something new....any fresh ideas???

See a doctor that specializes in liver diseases (Hepatologist), stop drinking NOW!

Even if you are a troll, just jerking everyone's chain, my advice is still good if you are a longtime, heavy drinker.

Rick

For me, it depends upon my instant impression of the "falong". If he has a nice haircut, clean clothes, and is sober, I might say hi to him if he looked like he was a friendly type or a family type.

If he is missing a lot of teeth, wearing old clothes, or is drunk, or otherwise looks like a homeless person, I generally ignore them.

Just like I would anywhere in the world (including my home country of the USA).

There are many male "falongs" in Thailand that are either sex tourists, or sex-patriates, neither of which I would want to become BFF (best friends forever).

Although some of these 'falongs' might be pretty good people deep inside, it is hard for me to accept people who choose that kind of a lifestyle.

However, to each his own.

Although I gave up drinking 4 years ago (a Liver Transplant will take some of the fun out of drinking), I still remember how much I loved Newcastle Brown Ale. Sigh.

To me, it seems your wife has better sense than you. I hope she sticks by her guns!

Good luck with your trolling.

parallaxtech,

Maybe you were trying to be clever or funny with your analogy, but as many posters have pointed out, referring to women (Thai or otherwise) as fruit just waiting to be picked, is at best, insensitive, and at worst, miscogynistic.

Aso, if women your age are "black fruit", what does that make you? "Black falong"??

No wonder so many women are turning to other women for affection and long-term relationships.

Another consideration in this case might be religion. As many of you know, Koh Samui has a sizeable population of Muslims.

Thais who are Buddhists are taught to be very tolerant. I think this is well represented in Thailand as a whole.

However, Thais who are Muslims may not be as likely to be so tolerant (especially when it comes to female relatives).

Lastly, everything I've posted (and most other posts as well) on this topic do consist of generalizations (rubin), but the very topic itself is a generalization, and so, by definition, any attempts to reasonably answer the topic will contain generalizations.

Rubin,

I apologize if I have offended you or anyone else (as I've already stated this in another post), but for the record, my comment was about people of certain Nationalities (i.e. cultural differences) not about race.

Russians, Eastern Europeans, and Mid-eastern peoples for instance comprise several different races.

As for the Brits (I am a US Citizen), I've found them to be mostly standup guys and a lot of fun to drink with (back when I drank), but I'm sure they, like most nationalities, including the US, display some pecularities that others might think odd (warm beer, for chrissakes, maybe they really are ALL alcoholics?).

So have at them, doesn't bother me in the least .

And yes, I agree with grumpyoldman, that a lot of Americans do come across as "loud and fat". Just visit a Club Med and compare the French with the Americans.

I also agree that the "culture differences" discussion is off topic!.

Best to all,

RickThai

If I were you, I'd ask myself this question?

What do I want to accomplish during the remainder of my life?

If your goal is just to be a self-indulgent, sex-patriate, then I would think, "the sooner the better".

However, if you desire a fuller, richer life, with more meaning, then I would think about other options before selling everything off and heading to Thailand.

Only you can answer that question.

Chok dee (Good luck),

RickThai

RickThai, may I suggest you just leave Thailand and go back to your country of origin, if you are such a racist.

Not sure what you are going on about.

My comment about Eastern European and Asian tourists was based upon my observations.

Last November, while on a fishing/snorkleing trip, my wife and I spent some time talking to the Captain of the ship (a Thai). Most of the tourists were Russian and they were, for the most part, very pushy and agressive. I mentioned this to the Captain and he replied that he didn't care for Russian tourists because they were too demanding and never tipped anyone. He also said he was seeing more and more of them than in the past. According to the Captain, the only people who tipped him during this particular trip, were my wife and me, and two people from South Africa.

That is just one observation of course, but I think it was relevant to the topic, about if (and subsequently) why Thais may or may not be becoming more agressive with foreigners. The changing demographics of the tourists can have a big impact on the locals in terms of finances and attitudes.

As for being a racist, I have been married to a Thai for 36 years. I have lived in sereral countries (Thailand, Italy, Taiwan) and have visited about 40 more countries.

I have enjoyed and made friends with people in every country I have visited, but I do believe that, in general ways, cultural upbringing influences the behavior of some nationalities.

I can usually tell a German from an Italian from the way the carry themselves and interact with others. Is that racist? Or just being observant? Cultural clues are there, you just have to look for them.

Regards,

RickThai

I agree with both comments. Maybe "must" is a better word than "need" or "can".

It is amazing how much happiness you can find in life, once you stop drinking alcohol entirely.

It's almost like being a child again (remember how simple and happy life was before drink?).

Best wishes to all,

Rick

With AIDS, herpes, hepatitus etc and widespread non usage of condoms in the sex industry, and also reading a most enlightening thread on another forum regarding western men who boast on "bagging" western women, I would seriously think long and hard about having sex with foreign men you may not know that well.

Yes, yes surely there must be one or two guys who are not here for cheap, easy sex, but really- is it worth the risk?

There is also a huge shift in Lady boy interest. This is rampant and is really not well known So if they aren't doing the female prostitutes....

Actually this goes for current partners, too. Not just new dating friends.

You know it's actually a good thing to be getting older and not so interested ( or interesting.. ) in all that. Must be terrible for young women today.

From conversations with Thai men, it's not just "falongs" that participate in the sex industry. Almost every Thai town of any size has brothels that offer just about anything imaginable to their Thai clientele. This includes ladyboys, children, etc. Apparently, this had long been a part of the Thai culture.

Thai men (married or single) are just as likely to have unprotected sex with professionals as "falongs". It's just that the Thai sex-tourist/patriates get all the publicity.

Also, in regards to "Must be terrible for young women today", ever heard of the phrase, "Just say No!"

Anyone, male or female, married or single who participates in "one night stands" incurs increased risk from STDs. Regardless of racial preferences/beliefs.

So that handsome Thai man, you go home with, might just be the boyfriend (or husband) of the diseased bargirl that "falong" whoremonger just slept with!

That's life in the big city.

RickThai

Aussietrooper

I find it strange on a forum titled "I drink too much" where most people come to want help to get off the evil brew, you come on to the forum wanting to change the title to "I want to drink too much". I need to understand your rationale. I am not being critical of you at all, but scanning this forum does bring home to me how devastating excess alcohol can be in every aspect of life. Having read the threads on this forum, why do you want to continue to drink more, indeed searching for a drug or herb that facilitates you to drink more. Drinking more under the idea that Milk Thistle, will save you cannot be true, at best it will just slow down a little the inevitable. Just sayin!

GentlemanJim,

Your response shows that you are indeed a gentleman!

To any and all, who take supplements and continue to drink, I pose the following questions:

Do you get your liver tested regularly?

If so, how high is your ALT and AST?

I stopped drinking 4 years ago, and after a liver transplant and clearing the Hepatitis C virus, my ALT and AST (which are tested almost monthly) run steady in the high teens (16-22).

Normal for a male is below 50.

So if these supplements are really negating the adverse effects of alcohol, I would imagine yours would be lower than 50 or so.

Seeing real numbers, might help convince people that the supplements really do some good.

Otherwise, maybe you are only fooling yourselves and using the supplements as an excuse to go on drinking and destroying your liver.

It would certainly be interesting to see some proof.

RickThai

"A rose by anyother name . . .".

The important thing (to me anyway), is that if you are drinking enough to destroy your liver, you need to stop now or otherwise, you will come to a horribly painful end, that you will regret in your final days.

RickThai (been there, done that)

I guess I am getting old, but I remember when I lived in Italy back in the mid-70s, that the fastest way to make friends with Itialians was to smile and act friendly to their children. Instantly you would become just like part of the family.

Now-a-days, thanks to the pedophiles (and funny uncles), even if you smile at a child, you get cold stares. Makes you wonder what has happened to the human race. Even Cape Hunting dogs instinctively protect the young of their own species.

Although in my earlier post, I kind of generalized about the cheapness and lack of respect of Eastern Europeans (specifically Russians) and people from the mid-East (Arabic) seem to exhibit, I admit that was based only upon my limited observations. I'm sure there are many dirtbags from Europe, Australia, and the USA that are just as aggressive and insensitive.

My apologies if I have offended anyone.

I still think that the OP got a raw deal. Having a rod pushed up against your throat for having a casual conversation with a shop girl (I assume she was in the store working at the time), seems kind of extreme for even the most protective parent.

If it were me, I probably would have executed some kind of defensive move that would result in me breaking the rod over the guy's head. Then I would have a real expensive problem to deal with. I applaud his sense of mind.

Perhaps, he was mistaken for someone else. It is possible that all falongs look alike to some Thais.

I was thinking about spending a year or two on Koh Samui, but as I've followed this forum and others, it does seem that Thailand's people are becoming less tolerant of "falongs".

That would be such a shame, as the country and people of Thailand have much too offer foreigners, besides nightlife and cheap sex.

RickThai

A quiet blessing for one who gave so much to the world as he begins a new journey.

RickThai