Gsxrnz

Depends entirely on what's in the Loan Agreement. Most agreements would generally allow for earlier repayments, however there's every chance that the interest calculation is based on the Rule of 78 (hire purchase type lending). That means that in addition to a probable penalty fee for early repayment, he'll be totally screwed on the interest thus far.

Logic would probably dictate that he is better to continue with the loan based on cost of funds calculation. Early cancellations of a Rule 78 loan are HIGHLY detrimental to the borrower.

By the way, tell him to go into this sort of thing with his eyes wide open - and that's irrespective of the country he's borrowing in.

I had some examples like that from my wife's university. Not quite as bad, but nonetheless it was a page of bad spelling, incorrect word usage and atrocious grammar. I went through it and corrected it all by hand and the missus went apesh*t.

The reason as explained to me when she came down from the ceiling was that if she goes and shows the corrections to her teacher, big loss of face all round.

So she then has to call a friend to scan and email a virgin copy of the homework so she could complete it.

The irony was that the questions (related to marketing) were so badly phrased and spelt that I as a native English speaker had considerable difficulty in understanding the questions and had to really think what the teacher was asking as I completed the corrections.

Until the Thai education system realises that there will be zero progress in improving the level of English unless they either use native English speakers or Thais that are fluent (by English standards), there is little hope for improvement.

And that's how sh*t happens.

If you want to be statistically accurate in your assessment then you need a lot of data to correlate properly. Your statement is a bit like saying that most New Zealanders die in Auckland.

The reason is obvious, that's where most of them are (not counting Sydney)

EDIT: As an afterthought, apparently a disproportionate number of men (world wide) die while playing golf. Reason - generally older men play golf a disproportionate amount of time. Not just in frequency, but they may be at the course for 5 hours, 3 times a week. So the chances of them popping their clogs is more statistically likely.

Pattaya Daily News: They were staying at Archon Residence Soi Bua Khao , Central Pattaya.

Pattaya One: The men arrived at the Icon Place Hotel on the Central Pattaya Road and inside their rooms consumed the drinks and fell asleep.

Pattaya Daily News: After investigating the journalist’s room it was found that his belongings were scattered, Nikon 3D camera, two zoom lens, £4000-£5000, one wrist watch were all missing. As for the friends room 170 Euro cash, and $1000, wristwatch worth more than 100,000 baht a total worth of 600,000 baht were missing.

Pattaya One: ...items of value totaling around 1 Million Baht had been taken.

Pattaya Daily News: Two Italian friends were scammed...

Pattaya One: Two men, one British and the other Italian...

Pattaya Daily News: MR.SALVTORE MANCUSO,61 MR.DOLECE SRALDO 63

Pattaya One: Mr. Mancuso Salvatore aged 61 and his Italian friend Mr. Dolcege Svalno aged 51

It's easy to be journalist in Thailand.

Epic!

I can see the headlines for the morning of 6th November now.

"3,526 Australian and New Zealanders arrested in multi bar gambling syndicates throughout Pattaya"

So much for the annual Melbourne Cup sweepstake.

It sounds like the cashier charged extra to your card so he could be ahead with the payments for the petrol dispensed from the pump. In credit if you will.

Then he could pocket the cash from other customers making a purchase later in the day and still keep the pump in balance.

That's correct - the bigger deal is that during the course of the day he/she might have done it to 5 or 10 customers, and over the course of a month, 200 customers. At say 400 B a pop, that's 80,000 Baht..

A nice little earner, and nice of the owner to offer you the refund..........um, makes one wonder if the owner isn't exactly clueless about this.

It would appear that Wednesday is the Black Friday in Thailand.

if i am at the front of the queue waiting to turn, when the red light runners are going through, i just stand on the horn until they finish

it draws attention to whats happening, lets everyone know whos in the wrong and wakes up the sleeping policeman in his box

ticks all the boxes for me

I know a bloke that fitted car horns to his bike for that very purpose. Scares the bejeesus out of everybody.

If I'm in the front of the queue, I just wait for the "fresh of the boat" Farang that think their rented scooter is a toy and race off as soon as the lights change to green. They act as a pathfinder and make the way safer for me by either encouraging the red light runners to stop, or on one occasion, get T-boned by a red light accelerator. Muppets

At every controlled intersection in Thailand there are Red Light Accelerators and Green Light Anticipators. The result is mayhem - but if it becomes standard procedure, is it really mayhem? This may have been what happened in this particular instance.

Regardless, RIP the unfortunate woman and her unborn child.

English school dinners - the caustic smell of the shepherd's pie from the school kitchen still gives me nightmares.

And I was force fed my last dish of sago pudding in 1972 by a sadistic woman teacher who firmly believed in the waste not want not theory.

True, they reckon the new batteries don't require it.......but, it can't hurt.

I fully charge and then drain as quickly as possible to flat 3 consecutive times. Fully charge again and use normally. On my laptop I use mains the majority of the time, but make sure that I use battery 3 or 4 times a week and drain to within 10% of flat before recharging to full.

It's 3 years old and the battery is still good for 2 hours on a full charge.

How can you check into a hotel without a passport? I have never entered a large hotel and gone to registration when they didn't say PASSPORT! before I even had a chance to put down my travel bags.

No problems - checked into numerous hotels all over the country with a Thai 5Y DL. Also bought a car, a bike, rented bikes, rented houses, obtained a hospital registration card. Yes, they always ask for the passport, but when offered the DL are happy to accept that.

Just hire the next baht bus that drives past your gate. That's how most Thais move house. The driver will help you. Max 500B.

Yes that's the way to do it, with such short distance waste of money renting one.

Or just ask the taxi bike drivers outside where you live now and they can quickly organize it.

Yep, either the baht bus driver or your local motorbike taxi driver will arrange it for you and find a body to help you move. These guys are the "go to" blokes for anything like this. They're basically the local version of the Yellow Pages. Just make sure you pay a fair price.

Just hire the next baht bus that drives past your gate. That's how most Thais move house. The driver will help you. Max 500B.

Having the water supply immediately above the electrical outlet is handy as well.

Also, judging by the rust around the machine it's likely that it's not exactly watertight and/or the water pipe/tap may be prone to leaking. This will add to the potential for disaster.

As everybody has suggested, get the earth sorted out for the house to reduce the odds of not getting fried, not just that particular appliance.

Buy gumboots, wear sunscreen.

When in Rome.

I let them get in front if me if they physically want to but remember the order that people arrived. When it's my turn in the order of things I either reach over everybody with my items and plonk them on the counter, or verbally (loudly) ask for what I want and squeeze in.

The Thais accept it with good grace. The Russians aren't sure which planet I came from. The Chinese would like to stick a knife in my gut.

The OP was a mug for having his passport on him.

I carry a colour copy of my travel insurance, emergency phone numbers (Thai and NZ), PP main page, visa page, latest entry, departure card, and 90 day reporting receipt. I would never carry the originals as if the BIB are on the scam they will (and do) use the fact that they have your passport as leverage to encourage a rather large donation to get it back.

Obviously I travel with the originals if I'm away from home, but even when asked I only ever offer the copies.

Also have a 5 year DL that I generally use for hotels or whatever.

Did my 90 day reporting a few months ago at Jomtien and they're all computerised. I was handed back all my documents with the suggestion that "you can use them for next time".

The copy stapled in my passport was computer generated and even had a barcode.

I remember when I was about 12, my Dad happened to be cleaning his shotgun on the kitchen table. He'd just finished and closed it when the door bell rang. He thought it was his best mate arriving so he yanked the door open with the shotgun in his hand and yelled out "what the hell do you want". My Dad and his mate were always playing tricks on each other so this was typical behaviour.

The JW's bolted and we never had another visit from them after that.

It's only the female mozzies that bite - typical!

If they've already gotten into you, don't swat them. Stretch your skin and they can't withdraw their proboscis and get their tank overfilled. Then they die of internal haemorrhage and fall off dead.

Payback is a bitch.

....and the Idiot of the Week award goes to..............................

Scion?

I think spawn, would be more appropriate.

The journalist must have broken out the thesaurus. Scion is a word that I don't recall coming across before.

But yes, spawn would be a more appropriate description.