heiwa

Have just found out today that giving the finger in Thailand means I <Snip!> your mother and father. It doesn't mean that where I come from. Explains why a German motorcyclist was shot in the head in Chiang Mai some years back when he gave a Thai driver the finger after he cut him of.

I have also found that many of the more than 20,000 gun murders a year are due to a joke seen by the joker as funny but not seen as funny by the recipient of the joke. This is why I guess you find Thai people generally as extremely polite.

It can be quite easy to insult Thais big time by mistake when you are learning the language. A friend of 25 years in Thailand has chosen not to speak to Thai men for the last fifteen years for this reason. I try to avoid it also.

have you considered becoming a hermit?

Just always remember why some Thais are attracted to farang... and act accordingly as you see fit. Always tell everyone you are poor - and then you will find out who your real friends are - like anywhere. Like anywhere you don't buy friends.

Does everyone else here not understand that driving is Asian kryptonite?

You can add guns to that list. Applying Thai culture the guy in the pickup was at fault if he was not driving above 200km/hr. You have laws and you have local custom. The local custom is if you are not driving at 200km/hr in Thailand you should not be in the fast lane. Obviously this is an less than ideal situation. Preferably keep it under 140km/hr would be the better option.

You don't understand in Thailand as the Thais put it if you have enough money you can get a discount on your prison term. I am sure Taksin has enough money to get a 2 year discount Seriously this is the way things work here - all Thais know this so applying a Western perspective although commendable holds no water here. Same goes with killing someone. It's all about your background. That's what makes a lot of what Westerners say here superfluous. Jail basically is for people who can not afford to get a discount of so many years as required. Why should Taksin not be entitled to this discount when everyone else is? One must be impartial in handing out discounts. Look at people in high positions who have shot and killed tourists and they have been found guilty in court but they did not spend one day in jail - because they used the discount system. The discount system should apply to everyone to be fair.

Many people fear to return - Many have not gone back for years - Many will never go back. I wish something could be done for these refugees. The fact is anyone from this area is shunned like second class citizens. One girl I knew used to get beaten up by her Thai boyfriend if she spoke Jawi to her parents and siblings on the phone. Always remember in thailand, with all this patriotic fervour, everyone is Thai, and everyone must be Thai. If you think different you are a traitor to the nation. Hitler would agree. What is a Thai? Thailand is a country of many different ethnic groups - the failure to recognise this and respect this has caused too many dead and maimed. Perhaps they could make the Deep South like Israel where this culture is allowed to flourish separate from nearby Muslim nations.

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

Mrs Thatcher said that!, though I cannot confirm it was an original quote.

that was not a problem for the capitalists who bought up all uk oil for nothing - sold by maggie thatcher. problem was she saw the money as her own rather than the money of the electorate.

My friend told me about this yesterday when he was called by the family. He's good friends with the owner of Buddy/Susy W and is obviously upset. I almost hope it was mechanical failure rather than human error/stupidity for his and the family's sake.

Sent from Android please excuse errors in type or judgement

Sometimes its better to stick to arcade games.

This is what I have found out in Thailand. If you do not want to be rear-ended stay in the left lane if you are not going above 200km/hr. I have nearly (thankfully I always scan the mirrors and made some quick escapes from fast approaching vehicles that were oblivious to to the fact I was on the road) been rear ended so many times previously as 140km/hr is just too slow to stay in the right lane in Thailand.

Inept to the point of calling for impeachment? Must be close... Appears there is always another scandal around the corner.... Perhaps Yingluck will get a second passport while she is visiting Dubai

So true the farang so often take the "high horse" approach. However, in neighbouring countries 3,000 baht a month is a very high wage (711 = M point in Laos). Most only getting 1,000 to 1,500 baht a month and three meals a day is just a dream. I have eaten with such people and speak their native tongue - and they insisted on sharing their meal with me. Thais have got it extremley good compared to Laos or Cambodians. And in Vientiane its a 2 metre by 2 metre room for 1,000 baht a month - sleeping four people. As for owning a new Japanese scooter in Laos - well you would be in the company of royalty. For the upwardly mobile in Laos it is the 14,000 baht Chinese scooters.

Nobody's arguing the point that Thai's are better off then SOME of their neighbors, the point the poster made was that Thai's don't budget their money well. I beg to differ.

Fair enough. Personally I feel Thais are just too passionate to budget. Budgets are for dull people. You will find it very difficult to make Thais dull. It's just not in their character.

'Heading'? It was, is, and always will be the wild west... well, at last for another five generations or so, by which time all that Thainess will have been diluted away by luk krungs.

Definitely is still the wild west - statistically the third most violent country in the world. perhaps the most violent if murder suicides were counted. Just be super polite and never joke with Thai men or their lady friends.

This comes as no surprise

IMO Thai people have for a long time lived beyond their means.

For so many Thais as soon as they get their monthly salary at

the beginning of the month they rush of to go shopping or they

go out for meals. Then when the last 7 - 10 days of they either

have no money left for food / water and they spend the last few

days of the month eating mama noodles.

They have no concept of saving and budgets, yet so many have

IPhones and Bloackberry's. Priorities are so out of whack, they

eat and be happy today and they do not think or worry about

tomorrow

Sorry LL I think that is very naive. I posted about this before; lets say I am single and I live in BKK. I have a high school education, if I wasn't too stupid or poor and dropped out of school. So I probably earn 9,000 bhat a month working at 7-11 and I work about 10 hours a day 6 days a week. I live in a crap 10 sqm apartment and that i pay 3,000 baht a month for and another 500 for electric and water. I have to take a hot bus to and from work everyday and it takes about an hour each way to get to/from work. I probably have to pay 15 baht each way so that is another 720 a month. Where are we now 3,000 + 500 + 750 = 4,250. Its tight already. OK now I want to eat, hmm noodles on the street are 25 baht times three meals a day times 30 days, that's 2,250. I have a cheap cell phone and I pay as you go, probably another 300 a month. Where am I 4,250 + 2,250 + 300 = 6,850. I need some water everyday and drinking the tap water is iffy so I buy a bottle of water a day and once in awhile I want some fruit or maybe a treat so lets say another 30 baht a day for other stuff like soap, toothpaste, laundry, etc. so another 900. We are up to 7,750 the government takes some taxes out so I at the end of the month I actually get 8,730. So what's left 980. Maybe this month I need some new shoes or a pair of pants or I got sick. Pretty tough life.

And you have to wait a whole month to get paid so you have to budget real well. Try it sometime. Take 9,000 baht out of your bank. Give your debit card, credit cards and your bank book to a friend and make a pact with them not to give them to you until the next month. Let me know how well you did budgeting your money. Most Americans hate being paid every other week, they wouldn't be able to cope with getting paid once a month.

So true the farang so often take the "high horse" approach. However, in neighbouring countries 3,000 baht a month is a very high wage (711 = M point in Laos). Most only getting 1,000 to 1,500 baht a month and three meals a day is just a dream. I have eaten with such people and speak their native tongue - and they insisted on sharing their meal with me. Thais have got it extremley good compared to Laos or Cambodians. And in Vientiane its a 2 metre by 2 metre room for 1,000 baht a month - sleeping four people. As for owning a new Japanese scooter in Laos - well you would be in the company of royalty. For the upwardly mobile in Laos it is the 14,000 baht Chinese scooters.

On the first day of every month my wife hands me her wage packet. I put the money into my wallet and then transfer the equivalent amount from one of my bank accounts into hers. Every ten working days I give her 1000 baht cash. Her days off are not taken into account as then she is out and about with me and I make with the readies - for everything. She also has another source of spending money by way of her share of the staff tips box which varies from 60 to 150 baht per day. When we set up her bank account we stipulated that we did not require an ATM card so that she would have to invade my 'holy of holies', my desk, to get hold of her passbook, and she is fully aware of the dire consequences of that.

Initially I handed over 100 baht per day but we are now progressing towards her being and acting responsibly with money. Although a devout Buddhist she now accepts that Buddha will not provide and that she is solely responsible for her financial situation. It is rewarding to know that she is spreading that gospel to her family members. They have known from the outset that I will assist them in obtaining the things that they need, and never what they want, or think they want.

When we instituted the measures to bring her spending under control there were a few long faces initially but now she becomes almost orgasmic when sighting her bank credit balance. One of the tenets of my life has been that it doesn't matter how much money that you have, it is what you do with it that matters. The majority of Thai people need to learn this lesson.

Good to see that some farang are not paying the pimp husband his monthly salary for his beer money and karaoke girls. You have set a good example for other farang. Good on you. If more farang act like you farang will start to get respect and they will no longer call us bufallos. It is some relief to hear this story after hearing so many farang paying 10K to 100K baht to pimp husbands indirectly through their wives of course.

What a pair you are.

Must be delightful company..........

Love that opening sentence, I take my wifes money and put it in my wallet.

Bet she loves yah...................

And the rest of my opening sentence didn't register with you? Do you do orangutang impersonations as a hobby? Any person with an IQ greater than their body temperature would realise that I remove cash and credit HER bank account with the equivalent amount. Even she, a lady from Isan (a species who tend to be much maligned here) realises that it is for her own good. My wife has a blood condition that requires medication for the rest of her days. It is a major concern of mine that she has the wherewithal to pay for her medication and medical advice to ensure that she lives comfortably for the rest of her hopefully long life.

BTW my wife will have nothing to do with Thai men and there are no hangers on, including her father, whom she now feels no obligation to support in any way. Her husband left her for a younger woman when she announced that she was carrying their second child. She struggled alone for 10 years before we met, often going without food as she could only afford to feed her two children. I was concerned for her health when we met and took her to a private hospital where the doctor said unless treatment started immediately her life expectancy was three months. That was 10 years ago and now she is fit and lively and dedicated to both me and our family, as I am to them. I have instilled in them financial discipline and am proud that I have achieved that.

Your sickening cynicism and ignorance should be obvious to all here and does you no credit.

Mr Phil - if your idea of romance is paying a monthly salary to a wife then you should reconsider. It is well known in Thailand among Thais that a farang man who has to pay a Thai wife is a man a Thai wife could never love. Such a man who thinks he can find love by paying is an absolute joke of the local community. She has a Thai man on the side for this and pays him part of the farang monthly salary to him. You are also in great danger with a woman who demands a monthly salary from violent retribution from the pimp husband which I have seen so many times before with colleagues and news reports. I know of many farang who pay this monthly salary and I know their wives all have Thai husbands (the locals are only to happy to tell a farang and share a laugh with you ) who are in great need of beer money

The Thai government can do little to stop Vietnam and India from doing what you allege they are doing, what they can do within their country is exactly the opposite of one would do if one wants to increase their exports. You know, artificially doubling the price of rice, a point that you seem very intent in ignoring, unsurprisingly.

Please explain how the price of rice in Thailand's domestic market is related to the price of rice in the export market. You are claiming that if the cost to the consumer of rice in Thailand was lower, Thai exports of rice would be higher. In this case, the price in the two markets are not related. Are you aware of how key commodities are priced?

GK - its nice to know that in your world, your government never does anything that you disapprove of. How can I sign up for that kind of government too?

Why are you going off on a tangent? I replied to a comment that made an unsubstantiated conclusion.

If you disagree with me, then why not deal with the subject matter at hand?

If you believe that the domestic price of rice in Thailand has a direct impact on how the price of Thai rice for the export market is set then please explain. The fact of the matetr, is that you cannot, so you fall back on the standard defensive mechanism of making a completely unrelated statement. Good job.

The job of politicians is to make up false good news and also to make bad news look good. This should have been a PTP election promise..... Vietnam has beaten Thailand in the high-end market for hommali fragrant rice. One may spout about dumping and pretend one is a Harvard scholar but isn't it better to be more down to Earth and find the reason for this dumping? The reason is Thailand's productivity (yields) are far lower than that of India and Vietnam and the quality is no better. Sometimes it is better to look at the big picture (the real situation) than partake in pretentious debate. Because Vietnam and India through working smarter and harder they are able to offer rice at a price (market price) that if Thailand farmers "tried" to match it would make them bankrupt. Governments subsidies is the only way they can survive. The fact of the matter is that Thailand can no longer farm rice profitably (costs exceed income) and therefore it is time to close shop and start importing foreign rice. Why should the working class factory workers who need to eat suffer from unproductive farmers. PTP by creating an imaginery market price (Vietnamese farmers don't have the option to go crying to a paternal government to receive fictional prices when costs exceed revenue) has taken away the need for Thai farmers to be competitive and therefore have "destroyed" them. Sometimes you must be cruel to be kind in order to survive rather than promising farmers gold bars forever more.

On the first day of every month my wife hands me her wage packet. I put the money into my wallet and then transfer the equivalent amount from one of my bank accounts into hers. Every ten working days I give her 1000 baht cash. Her days off are not taken into account as then she is out and about with me and I make with the readies - for everything. She also has another source of spending money by way of her share of the staff tips box which varies from 60 to 150 baht per day. When we set up her bank account we stipulated that we did not require an ATM card so that she would have to invade my 'holy of holies', my desk, to get hold of her passbook, and she is fully aware of the dire consequences of that.

Initially I handed over 100 baht per day but we are now progressing towards her being and acting responsibly with money. Although a devout Buddhist she now accepts that Buddha will not provide and that she is solely responsible for her financial situation. It is rewarding to know that she is spreading that gospel to her family members. They have known from the outset that I will assist them in obtaining the things that they need, and never what they want, or think they want.

When we instituted the measures to bring her spending under control there were a few long faces initially but now she becomes almost orgasmic when sighting her bank credit balance. One of the tenets of my life has been that it doesn't matter how much money that you have, it is what you do with it that matters. The majority of Thai people need to learn this lesson.

Good to see that some farang are not paying the pimp husband his monthly salary for his beer money and karaoke girls. You have set a good example for other farang. Good on you. If more farang act like you farang will start to get respect and they will no longer call us bufallos. It is some relief to hear this story after hearing so many farang paying 10K to 100K baht to pimp husbands indirectly through their wives of course.

Stay home to avoid the bomb blasts 28th April to May 15th. Bombs are always planted on significant dates. If they can bomb Lee Gardens Hotel (centre of Hat Yai) they can bomb anywhere. Avoid crowded tourist areas.

Have just found out today that giving the finger in Thailand means I <Snip!> your mother and father. It doesn't mean that where I come from. Explains why a German motorcyclist was shot in the head in Chiang Mai some years back when he gave a Thai driver the finger after he cut him of.

I have also found that many of the more than 20,000 gun murders a year are due to a joke seen by the joker as funny but not seen as funny by the recipient of the joke. This is why I guess you find Thai people generally as extremely polite.

It can be quite easy to insult Thais big time by mistake when you are learning the language. A friend of 25 years in Thailand has chosen not to speak to Thai men for the last fifteen years for this reason. I try to avoid it also.

I really don't have an opinion as to what an adequate wage is for the Thai workers, but I don't quite understand how anyone could think that if you force companies to raise employees wages that you are automatically "injecting" those raises into the economy. Wouldn't it be more likely that the companies will adjust the prices of their products to compensate for having to pay higher wages? And if this happens, isn't this going to just raise the cost of living for the very same people who receive the wage increases?

The only way I can see a variant here is if the only companies that had to raise the amounts they paid in wages were export only companies.

Of course:

1) less sale and export: laying off some worker: That eats already most of the positive thing, unless you devalue the Baht.

2) all prices will go up

If you want to do something to get the people more wealthy than offer free education. Quality education. That will also push the lowest salaries in the long term.

But who is interested in anything longer than till the next election.

What planet are you on? The strategy has always been to keep them stupid so that they don't wake up to the fact they are living in a caste system. And Vietnam with solidarity and brotherhood is going light years ahead and has already wiped out the Thais prestigeous Homali rice market. One must face the facts - Thailand is in economic decline and this is why we are seeing epidemic criminal violence. And it is going to get a lot worse with the ensuing economic downturn. The Vietnamese grow the rice, The Thais watch the rice grow, and the Laos listen to the rice grown. You will not change this fact.

Justice relates to money. The more money you have the less guilty you are and vice versa. This is Thailand. If you don't like it bugger off. Thailand is not going to change for farang. The got a way of doing things around here if you get my drift.

Vietnamese workers are getting the upper hand with cheaper rice. Cheap Vietnamese rice. This should be made available to those living in poverty and struggling workers in Thailand where many are finding it hard to pay their bills. Market economics. Perhaps the politicians are already importing this cheap Vietnamese rice?

Cheap Vietnamese rice. This should be made available to those living in poverty in Thailand where many are finding it hard to pay their bills. Market economics. Perhaps the politicians are already importing this cheap Vietnamese rice?

The simplistic response is to blame the government. It appears that some people are either so blinded by hate or are incredibly ignorant that they do not acknowledge what Vietnam and India are doing. It is called dumping. It is not the first time these countries have done this and India which is in the midst of a serious debt crisis needs to undertake drastic measures to get FX and to provide a market for its battered farmers. In case anyone forgot, India had suffered through several bad harvests caused by droughts and flooding and lost market share. The strategy is to "buy" back the lost market share. Vietnam has had a bumper harvest and is suffering through soaring inflation. Vietnam needs to dispose of its inventory as it does not have the extensive warehousing and logistics facilities that its competitors have. Simply put, if Vietnam doesn't get rid of the rice, it will go bad. As such it is better for Vietnam to get whatever it can now than to watch the rice deteriorate due to mold, fungus and vermin.

The failure on the government and the rice exporters is that they did not plan ahead to prepare for this scenario which was evident months ago. If one wants to play the blame game, it goes far beyond the current government to the mindset of the planners (or lack of planning thereof). The people running the rice exports and that have responsibility for following and planning are the same people that were there 2 years ago.and even 5 years ago. It's all about a failure to anticipate and to plan. Nothing new in that regard as that seems to be a characteristic of Thailand. Sorry, but this "problem" runs alot deeper than some lacklustre minister.I doubt the response from the government would have been any different had there been a Democrat in charge, or for that matter, a sack of papaya.

So what are you trying to say - Job well done? It sounds like the old five year communist plans of the Soviet Union.

Government to Government deals 555 . Wasn't Vietnam meant to have the communist system and Thailand the capitalist system??? It appears there has been a swapping of economic systems. A rose would smell as sweet by any other name. No need to see a comedy at Cinemaplex that's for sure.

Vietnam has beaten Thailand in the high-end market for hommali fragrant rice. As the USA found - Vietnam is invincible. We are looking at the economic collapse of Thailand and the ensuing criminal violence that goes with such collapse. The key rice policy should be to find more farang husbands for daughters of esan farmers. This is the only thing that can save Thailand.

Appears the Vietnamese will wipe the Thai rice farmers out especially with the government polices weakening their survival skills. There is no stopping the Vietnamese in farming or war. Coffee growers have learnt this worldwide. Thailand will have to find some other crop to grow. We are witnessing an end of an era for Thai rice. Those esan girls will have to find more farang husbands

There is good reason the mob and police don't want drugs legalised.