Gsxrnz

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.

Thailand politicians of all colours are running around fighting over who should have the right to rearrange the deckchairs or decide what song the orchestra should play, oblivious to the fact that the iceberg is well astern and the ship is taking on water.

Population 65,000?

Save the 6.4% bottle - it will be a collector's Item in about um..........................1,200 years.

A dashcam recording may absolve you of any technical blame but it doesn't stop accidents.

Being alert to local conditions/situations is far more effective.

In Thai eyes the OP didn't help the motorcyclist. No matter how stupid the manoevre.

Thankfully the incident was pretty inoccuous.

Be a lert. Thailand needs lerts.

Jerry

Lert in Thai is blood... I don't wanna be Lert thanks

Bloods "Luad" round here .

I was trying to link it to the post I was replying to...

It's a hard one to pronounce but think you may be being a touch picky

Afraid he's right.

"Lert" means awesome/wonderful.

Didn't the fruit cart have some sort of pricing cards displayed?

I see the anti-racist racists are out in force today.

On topic - when paying for anything at a market stall in any country including your own, show the money being tendered but do not hand it over, allow the stallholder to gather change from their bag/pocket, exchange your money for the change.

I thought this was on page 1 of Lonely Planet?

Corner of Pattaya Klang and Beach road, southern side.

Not sure what it's called, but it specialises in educational and technical books in multi languages.

You know it's cold when the Thais ride their scooters slower to cut down on the wind-chill factor.

OP, listen to your GF, she's the proverbial Roman in Rome and knows a dam_n site more than you. The percentage thing doesn't work here, so forget your methodology.

Here's my general procedure:

Noodle Stalls and similar - 0

Average Restaurants - 20-40B, zero if they piss you off.

Bar Beer - 20B, zero if they piss you off.

GoGo - 20B for the bar, up to you for the girls that talks to you. Don't be a two week millionaire.

Barber - 0-20B. Zero if they cock it up.

Fancy Restaurant - up to you, but many will have a service charge included anyway. Zero if they piss you off.

MB Taxi - 0

Roadside bottled petrol - 0

Gas Station - 0 (unless the chick that washes the windows gives you a really big smile, then 20B)

Taxi from airport - 0-100, zero if he pisses you off.

Fuji and similar - 0 because they already have a service charge

McD and BK - 0, but put the coins in the donation box

Gardener - 0

Golf Caddy - 300B for 18 holes

General R&M dudes - negotiate the fee before they start, 0 tip unless they do something exceptional.

Massage - I don't do them, but I guess 50-100 is in the range. Zero if they piss you off.

Security Dude - for ensuring you always have a good car park, for lugging your golf clubs to the elevator, for making sure he knows your mates and allows them access, and for generally watching your back - a 6 pack every month, and a 24 pack at Christmas.

Anybody who goes "above and beyond" and saves you a lot of misery - 100B

OP, Can you spot the trend?

Newbies should realise that those members who have posted a lot have read zillions of topics and replies and over a period have built up a lot of information within their grey cells and will hope to pass that info on.

Take me for instance, if you are rebuilding a Pontiac V8 engine, I am your man.............

not to mention fine tuning SU carburettors

Ah a jag man.....at last we have something in common

Ah....but a Jag would have SU Carburetters, both being from the land of Blighty an' all.

I have Thai friends that grew up in the UK. They have Thai families and connections, including business connection and family, back here. Yet the ones from my generation (40s) and below speak Thai with a poor accent (Thais here pick up on it straight away - even I can hear it) and can not read or write at all. They simply have not needed to - in fact one of them, a good friend since my school days, is actively learning how to read, write and speak Mandarin - but not Thai, his parents' native tongue!

I remember about a year ago there was an article here on TV about the HiSo kids going to English programs at school not being able to speak proper Thai.

Maybe it's time Thais modernized the language. Vietnamese seem to do fine with their roman alphabet and tone marks. And spaces between the words.

I recently heard a couple of Luek Krung kids (8 or 10 years old) speaking perfect strong northern Yorkshire accented English on a viewing deck of Central Plaza - (Ay oop Dud, tha' can see f' miles 'n miles art t' see from oop eer can't tha'). And they spoke Thai with a heavy Yorkshire accent that I had to really concentrate to understand even a few words, as did their Thai Mother by all accounts.

They therefore couldn't speak English or Thai.

Just don't open "iffy" emails or attachments, keep your security software up to date and functioning at its highest level, don't use public computers, keep off FB or any other social type sites that interact with each other or have potential to pass on viruses, change your bank passwords frequently, put transaction value limits on your internet banking, get sms alerts if possible, check your balance daily, don't visit dodgy websites, enable pop-up blocker, set security to disallow all cookies.

Have I missed anything?

I'm reasonably well grounded, so don 't feel the need to earth myself. But if I was so inclined I'd do it with some panache, as is my usual style.

Suggest the OP consider the following option - gold being an even better electrical conductor than copper. And this is way cooler IMHO

Yep, traffic lights will definitely work at that intersection. Traffic will back up all the way to Pattaya Klang on 2nd Road, and that's before the BIB at the corner decides he can do a better job and start playing with the sequence.

I guarantee that Beach Road will not have a single car on it, whole 2nd Road and Naklua will be gridlocked.

Why do the BIB continually try to manipulate traffic with adhoc barriers, closing off U-Turns and the like. They defeat the purpose of smooth traffic flow in most cases.

Number 20 is me - not being able to read the labels at the shop. The only product I recognise for sure is Super Glue.

A bank cannot reverse an interbank transaction at the simple request of a customer, or at its own whim. If that were possible, the whole worldwide banking structure would be in a shambles.

Once cleared funds are transferred, it's a done deal.

There is a process for making a request for a reversal in the case of an error. If the customer makes a mistake and funds go to an uninvolved third party, the receiver of the funds must be asked for permission to reverse. If the receiver refuses, then a charge of theft can be lodged against the receiver through the police. Neither bank has any liability or responsibility, although most would assist their customer if practical. (They would in NZ, not sure about the rest of the world.)

If the bank make a mistake and send funds to the wrong customer, then the sending bank is liable for the loss and must reimburse the sender and claim from the receiving bank/customer. That is provided that the sender provided correct details to the bank, and bank made the balls up.

Edit: I'm talking about normal transactions. No doubt in the case of proceeds from crimes, laundered money etc, than each country will have it's own laws about reversing/recovering cash.

Is that a lit area of beach at night? Gotta be careful.

Yes it's well lit, and in the day and evening it's quite a busy tourist area. But at 3:30am all the restaurants are closed and is usually populated by ladyboys, ladies of the night, and their prospective customers. It's also a popular place for Thais to hang out a bit further south, blast music from their trucks and generally party. There are also a few resident Thais (and a few Westerners) who seem to live on the beach as down and outs in that area around Soi 2 - Chang is the basic diet.

Cannot draw any conclusions as to why he got assaulted, but I would be reluctant to walk that area anything past 1:00am when it starts to quiet down. Even riding a bike you risk ladyboys actually following you on their bikes and doing the "I go with you" pickup line.