Gsxrnz

OP, are you sure they won't accept certification from a Thai Notary Public?

Some restaurants around Jomtien are now calling Kai-Dow Mai-Suk "Kai-Dow Falang".

With most of the family I don't mind the visits, they are usually short and most of the wife's friends and her brother bring their own booze/food and are very courteous. They all work, no bums. Even when the wife's oldest brother, now dead, would get off his meds (schizophrenic) and they would send him to me to get him back on I didn't mind, he did his best to help out around the house even if legally blind. It is only when the mother-in-law shows up that I hit the ceiling. It is always, always unannounced, she knows she isn't welcome, the wife knows her mother isn't welcome here. Even the kids don't like being around her. She has made my wife cry with her unreasonable demands (more money for her from the farang-the family isn't poor, not rich but certainly not poor) and I gave her 5 minutes to get out. She is nuttier than a fruitcake. She insists that she is extremely ill, has to be 'waited on', has spent unknown money (not mine) on doctor/hospital visits and as one American trained/educated (John Hopkins Hospital/University) semi-retired doctor told me, the only thing wrong with her is her brain. The family all knows (as does the ville) but still tolerate, barely. She has to be the center of attention-she doesn't get from me. I've run her off more than once and will do it again, even if it my truck that has to take her back to the ville. She knows I can't stand the smell of the 'bar too' (spelling?) fish and put in microwave once. When I opened to finish off cooking my breakfast the smell was so bad I ran through the house gagging and threw up in MY bedroom toilet, yea she thought it funny. That does NOT happen anymore. The rest of the family has gotten so tired of her antics they won't provide transportation anymore and after the last time I 'explained' to my wife that MY truck was not a dam_n family taxi and this is MY house not a hospital wait station. Last time she showed up for a doctor visit in Udon I told the wife to either get her out or I was out, she left. Need I add she walks around talking to the air and reading/chanting Buddha stuff (her sister came over and told her to shut up). That was the "get out" last time. But the rest of the family is really ok, nice and pleasant to be around and I enjoy when grand-papa actually comes (very, very seldom). He was born in 1921 and is a walking history book. Perhaps the only surviving real veteran of the Japanese occupation in Udon province-fought the guerrilla war (I guess that would make him a terrorist these days). Nobody, but nobody touches my computers. The only way to deal with family/people you don't want around is to tell/make them get out. Sometimes like the proverbial bad penny they still turn up again. Get out works, just not always permanently...lol.

Sounds like you've got it sussed out pretty well. The ML sounds like a it of a problem though, good luck with that.

You're correct though, you have to give them lessons in life or they don't appreciate what they are doing. On one occasion we had 2 cousins and a brother here, all in their late 20's. Day one they had food, sat back to watch TV - I told them to take all the plates our to the kitchen and wash them, then they can watch TV. They did, and carried on doing it automatically for the 4 days they were there.

Next morning as I'm leaving for golf early in the morning I nearly broke my neck falling over their shoes at the back door. And this after I'd been very quiet not to disturb their sleep, even went without a cup of coffee. So I threw all the shoes, including mine and the wife's (which are always on a shoe rack at the door) into the back of the truck and buggered off for golf. Got back late afternoon and they'd had no shoes all day and couldn't go anywhere. I told them what happened - shoes were always tidily stacked after that.

Somchai the brother took a liking to laying on my couch and watching TV. First time, I told him to get up and give me the remote - laid down and changed channel. After that when I walked into the room, he automatically stands up and hands me the remote. I might lay down and change channel, or I might not - up to me. But he knows that's what I expected from then on.

Lots of stuff like this. They soon realise that you don't take fools gladly and are more than happy to comply with your rules if they know what they are, and they even begin outguessing you. They soon learn that if they think something might piss me off, they don't do it. And they understand that if I pass the comment that my truck is dirty, guarantee they're team cleaning it pretty quick smart.

Edit: And here's some essential Thai that can be used in a multitude of situations with family or vendors etc. It essentially means "not in this lifetime/when hell freezes over". Chaat naa dtaawn saai saai Tones are falling,falling,middle, rising,rising.

OP - sorry Mate, but you're basically screwed. You allow them to turn up according to their timeline, do what they want, make you miserable, probably eat you out of house and home, stay as long as they want.

My inlaws have been told to ask my permission to come. I allow them (no more than 3 at a time) to come occasionally, sometimes I say no just because I can. I want dates and times of arrival and departure, and they WILL be adhered to. If I am in a room, I'm the boss of the room - they will talk quietly, I own the remote, I dictate what happens. If they want to eat durian they know to bugger off outside.

My beer is MY beer - if you want one, ask.

You will address me as Kuhn (name).

I tell the wife the daily spending limit to feed them, and no, they can walk or ride the pushbikes, they're not nicking off with my scooter. Piss me off and you will be told about it, and I know enough Thai to pickup on the conversation so talk about me when I'm not there.

Essentially, my home is my castle and my "guests" will respect my authority or naff off. I do all of this with reasonable decorum and respect, but my house is a little piece of NZ, and I make up the rules.

They don't ask to come and visit too often - I can never figure out why.

Haha - thanks for that - made me really chuckle, especially the durian bit - well, ALL of it actually : Could be me talking; hey, you sure you're not my long-lost brother ? ;-)

Cheers! Not sure about the relationship, was your Dad a Milkman by any chance?

Yeah I hear horror stories like the OP's all the time and I just do not understand it. I mean, if you have a dog that shits in the corner of your lounge once, then sort it out. If you let him shit in the corner again, guess what, that's what he'll do forever.

OP - make the rules, and enforce them. You'll be a lot happier.

R.I.P.....According to PW he cut his throat and bled out into a bucket to keep it all clean..not an easy task to cut ones own throat, but if as he said he was very ill, the depression can allow ones mind to do things outside the norm.

Now enter the ''conspiracy theorists from TV's finest sleuths...off you go ...

The same blog posted a partial pic of the deceased, which i find is in very poor taste and sensationalism at best.

I asked the blog master twice why he felt this neccessary, but as he has the ultimate power over what is said and done to his advantage..my request has not been published at this time and probably will not be, because it is very hard to justify IMO.

I

Me personally as a serving cop would put this down as a murder investigation, no if no buts. The thing that most hits me in the face is that he allegedly commits suicide on the day he was to receive the medical report as to why he was sick.

Was he sick prior to meeting this woman? Did he actually say everyday he wanted to kill himself? (her word alone) Why did she leave him alone on this day if he was suicidal? He was about to get the toxicogy / medical reports that day as why he was sick. These are a couple of questions I would put to her but not in the 1st hour of interview. I would be psyching her out 1st then hit her with the hard questions.

The fact that the media, ambos, and so called recue squads have trampled all over the scene and moved and posed with evidence and exhibits and totally contaminated any evidence is extremely disturbing.

I have worked with the BIB as part of an exchange program and I shutter.

I'm sorry, but that level of proficiency does not exist in Thailand and it is delusional to expect any form of professionalism from the police or ambulance services.

It's much more important for the police or rescue services to get their pictures taken so they can update their facebook page.

However, I do note that two of them are wearing rubber gloves, so may be able to get prints or evidence off the knives etc. But chances are that the chap not wearing the gloves handled the evidence.

I like the European volunteers "no knee" jeans - real class.

PDRC co-leader Thaworn Senneam also said;

"Now we have someone [a candidate to be the next PM] who is sincere and not corrupt. [if] we cannot find someone who is [totally] innocent [in life], we can choose the most innocent."[/indent]

Interesting. Several years ago, when I had been in Thailand a few years, I mentioned to one of the senior members of the Dem's that they are the clean party. He corrected me saying nobody is clean in Thailand, but that they were the relatively most clean party in Thailand.

If the PDRC can come up with the relatively most innocent person (regardless of affiliation), then that is a huge step in the right direction.

So the implication is that amongst their ranks they cannot find an "innocent" person, nor a "non corrupt" person, so they'll gladly accept the most innocent (translation - least guilty), and least corrupt person.

That speaks volumes about Thailand, Thai politicians, and virtually the entire administrative, legal, judicial and military in the country. Not that any political party could claim to do any better I guess.

In 35 years or so, a Mandela type activist will eventually rise to power in Thailand. Somebody who grew up in the rice fields, educated himself, has kept his nose clean and his fingers out of the cookie jar, and actually possess morals, ethics, and charisma. Someone like that has a chance of dragging the place into the real world.

So until that happens, all this stuff at the moment is just "half time". The players will change ends and the game continues. The people involved might change, but absolutely nothing else will. Anybody who believes otherwise is naïve to the extreme.

Go here.

https://www.gov.uk/non-gb-driving-licence

The Thai Car licence is not specific to manual or automatic.

The one year Thai licence does have the words "temporary" on it, so the UK authorities may not consider this to be a full licence. Maybe somebody who has actually tried it might have more info.

And that's what eating Som-tam will do to you if you're not careful!

How can a doctor pass you for your licence? Yes, you do need a medical, but you still have to do the colour blindness test when you sit for your licence. AFAIK it's mandatory to do the test at the Transport Office, along with a reaction test and a periphery vision test.

I did the 'reaction test and a periphery vision test' ... but didn't have to redo the colour blindness test ... this was maybe 4 or 5 months ago, so fairly recent. Samut Prakan.

That said, there could have been a note on my Medical Clearance that the Dr had preformed it already?

I would say that is an exception.

Fairly standard practice is that you do have to take the colour blindness test as well.

Do you know what ... I'm wrong ... (I don't think I've ever used that one before!)

Remembering back, Gsxnrz posted something about LED's and Traffic lights and I do remember doing that at the testing centre.

Please ignore what I posted this time ... geeze, I'm way to young to even call that a 'Senior Moment'.

I'm off to check my medication ...

.

Don't put the Glock to your head too soon David!!! They used the wall chart until about 6 or 9 months ago or thereabouts.

And even then, it wasn't a true colour blindness check. The chart had a lot of different sized circles all of varying shades of red, yellow and Green and she simply pointed a stick at a particular circle and you had to say what it was. I confused the woman when I got my first licence because I added the shade to my answers, as in light green, dark red, dark orange etc. She took about 6 answers and then said loudly "Only 3 colour. Red, yellow, green. No light. Up to you."

I passed, but I was laughing inside so much I'm sure I got a couple wrong. Often wondered if she wasn't a tad colour blind herself.

OP - where are you based?

In Pattaya at the Chonburi Drivers License Issuing centre they do an LED light test. There are three lights and they show the colours independently from different light. So if you can see a red, green, or yellow LED light by itself, you would be OK there.

When I got my medical certificate, the doctor asked me if I had anything wrong with me that would prevent me from holding a drivers' licence. I obviously answered "no" and got the certificate.

He didn't even make eye contact, so he missed the frothing of the mouth, eyepatch on one eye, and the other one so bloodshot that even soi dogs run away from me in terror.

The editorial from The Nation is rubbish.

I think it finally gets to the point in the last sentence, but it does a terrible job of making the argument all the way through.

I agree that when you strip away all the other noise, most Thai's want a clean and accountable democracy. It is unfortunate that very few have any idea what that actually means or how to accomplish it.

This conflict IS about rich vs. poor. It IS about the elite vs. the peasantry. It IS about the educated vs. the non educated.

But more significantly, it IS about CLASS WARFARE that is designed to maintain the status quo for those in power.

Anybody who says differently is either ignoring the facts or deliberately trying to deceive you. In most cases, this obfuscation is accomplished by the monotonous political bickering about who was MORE corrupt than the other...

I have no love or interest for either side, beyond the prudent concern about the stability of the country I live in. I also acknowledge my own bias that I believe in equal opportunity and that everyone should abide by the same rules.

The fact is that the elite in this country (whether you call them yellow shirts, democrats, elite, rich, or whatever) have systematically ensured that the game is slanted in their favor for hundreds of years. They accept, support, condone and encourage the high level of corruption inherent in this patronage system because it allows them to achieve their goals of raping and pillaging whatever they want. The scale of the corruption varies depending upon the means of the player, but it all leads to a system where the poor are excluded and suppressed.

For many decades, the ruling elite have failed to deliver a functioning education system in the country, opting to educate their own children in International schools or abroad, in order to stunt the development of those less fortunate. This practice is so entrenched in the country that most of the population has an education that would not qualify them for ENTRY into high school in a developed country.

These same "elite" have failed to create the political environment, infrastructure improvements, and legal and regulatory environment, to encourage foreign investment that would create jobs and stimulate economic growth in the country that could help lift the poor out of poverty. They are more interested in the personal gain from kickbacks, tea money, and official scams and corruption than in developing the economy for the good of the country and the people.

The exact cost of the corruption will never be known. It has been estimated that it is billions of baht that get siphoned off of every business deal, every transaction, and every project, that goes into the hands of corrupt business men, government officials, police, and military. This money is shared up the chain with the patrons of the elite who stand by blindly and enable this theft from the future of Thailand.

So, with that backdrop... along comes Thaksin... He is as rich and corrupt as any of them... But he is smarter. He brands himself as the "champion of the downtrodden" and he gains their support. If we are honest, there are probably a couple of programs that he supported that were needed and seriously beneficial to the poor, but most of it was pork barrel, populist policies and vote buying.

Thaksin harnessed the discontent of the poor who had been excluded for so long and successfully positioned himself as the leader to solve their problems. Meanwhile, he filled his pockets as fast as he could like all the rest. However, what he DID accomplish was to unite the rural people behind a cause. Even if that cause was largely a sham... This fact shifted the balance of power between the rural poor and the urban elite and led to the situation we have today... where both of sides will do whatever is necessary in order to remove the other side from power without respect for the constitution or parliamentary rules... by demonstrations and protest, by legal action, or by military coup.

Their ends justify their means and they will do anything and say anything to hold onto power. Meanwhile, the people are being used like pawns in the game listening to all the Red vs. Yellow propaganda... They just can't see that both parties are the same... And sadly, many on this forum can't see it either.

There are only two way's forward...

One is to respect the rules of the constitution to address various problems... Whether that is corruption of officials, having the fugitive Ex PM involved in the government policies, or anything else. It should be dealt with according to the rules defined in the constitution and should apply evenly to both sides. When parties / officials say "We don't recognize the ruling of the constitutional court" there is clearly a problem...

THE ONLY way forward that does not involve more bloodshed is to ignore the rhetoric on both sides and RESPECT THE RULE OF LAW.

I think you already know what the other way would be...

Your editorial is worth publishing. Well written, unbiased, and gets to the core of the matter that anybody (Thai or European) waving any coloured flag fails to see or acknowledge.

BBC was very dishonest when they keep telling the world that more than 100,000 people were on the street yesterday. A better estimates is millions. BBC no longer put Thailand in the headlines yesterday, only briefly mention in the news broadcaster after the news from Ukraine & Central Africa.

Are Western Media in China All a Bunch of Wusses?

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/379089-are-western-media-in-china-all-a-bunch-of-wusses/

We can conclude that some Western Media are also a bunch of Wusses in Thailand...

Wang Qinglei, producer of the TV program “Twenty-Four Hours” at China Central Television (CCTV) was forced to resign, wrote - “China needs truth. People ought to have the right to criticize the government and the authorities. They should have the right to criticize social injustice, systemic inadequacies, and interest groups.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/388022-cctv-producer-forced-to-resign-for-blog-criticizing-censorship/

Don't such Western correspondents feel ashamed when they are compared to honest Chinese reporters in Communist China?

Even CAPO estimated 98,650 people exactly. Jonathan Head was just seemingly parroting government propaganda like a puppet. Can't the BBC pay enough to get someone decent in Southeast Asia? If not, don't bother to cover Thailand at all. You won't be missed.

Yes.

I would have to agree that there must have been 1 million +

It is probably the largest ever street protest on earth and the western media missed the chance to highlight that fact in favour of kissing asses of (let's face it) a tin pot regime.

Not that I have any interest in the politics, but I would like to know what methodology you used in your crowd size estimation.

Either open a thai itunes account and use a thai card or open a aus itunes account and use the card you have

Thanks, 2008bangkok.

My only real address is in Thailand. My two only real credit cards are from Australia. I have here two pocket cards (Bangkok Bank and SCB) but neither of them is suitable for iTunes, as they aren't credit cards.

Does this mean that my Billing address will be phony? Wouldn't bother me, but ??? why ??? would iTunes care where I live if my Visa and e-mail address are both legit?

It seems to me their major concern should be only with (1) getting paid and (2) getting in touch with me on my e-mail. My residential address could be at the North Pole with Father Christmas...

Anyway, I'll try your advice and give those SOBs some phony address in Aus.

If the billing address you give them doesn't have what the bank/card issuer has as your billing address (as recorded on your credit card statement), it will be rejected as a mismatch.

Another alternative is to use paypal if that's a payment option on iTunes. Paypal accepts multiple billing addresses.

If I did my extension 30 days earlier than the expiry date, is the 800k requirement date 3 months prior to expiry date, or 3 months prior to the day you apply for the extension?

Since gambling is illegal in Thailand, I would definitely say yes it is.

Not totally illegal I was at horse racing on Sunday and I could gamble there and that is in Bangkok

The two forms of legal gambling in Thailand are the National Lottery and on-course betting at the gee gee races.

Re the chips - I have a set and take them to various mates' places for a regular game of Texas Hold 'em. Always worried that if I get stopped at a checkpoint the BIB will nick my set plus squeeze me for a bribe. Hasn't happened yet.

What sort of set do you have OP, and how much do you want for them - I might consider buying a spare set.

Congrats on the 5,000. And even bigger congrats on your little editorial critique - well said.

Not sure if it's the poor sound quality on his 6pm speech tonight, but does he sound like a slightly laid back Herr Hitler or what?

I love the ones with spelling mistakes, or that use idiotic grammar. These are usually on dresses as opposed to T-shirts.

A few I can recall are "Praty Girl", "Preety Lady".

The all time classic was the "dance like nobody's watching" but it was spelt something like "dacne like nodobys wacting". I blamed too many JD's at first but after a closer inspection I confirmed it was a total balls up.

What's the point of reporting it - you'll never see it again.