astanhope

"Just trying to be neighborly."

Are your neighbors in Thailand only American farangs?

"My suspicion is that had I registered on the meter yet was clearly in control of myself, I could have bought a Get Out of Jail Free Card for 500 baht."

It's not a suspicion, it's a condescending & baseless accusation that you're making based on your prejudices.

11) Do not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

What an insensitive and inappropriate thing for you to say to me here. I'm not a Thai-basher or a Thai-hater or one of the scores of regulars on here who appear to abhor Thai culture, Thai food, Thai women... The list is endless.

I have been forced to pay 500 baht for no reason at all other than I was a farang at a road block on three different occasions. That statement is neither a slur, degrading or overly negative about any Thai or Thai institution. In the end I really didn't mind paying. Chalked it up to lessons learned.

How dare he.

In the USA there is a fairly complicated protocol surrounding breathanalysis and the method employed with me most certainly wouldn't have stood up in court had it taken place there.

My suspicion is that had I registered on the meter yet was clearly in control of myself, I could have bought a Get Out of Jail Free Card for 500 baht.

This was about a week or so ago... It was after midnight. I was heading out of the Bangkok, west on Ngam Wong Wan / Rattanathibet. I am 95% certain that I was on the Ngam Wong Wan side of the river.

The brisk, thin traffic came to a sudden stop. The previous evening there were soldiers with what I assumed to be AR-15s checking cars with flashlights. I was afraid this was to be more of the same.

Instead a policeman motioned for me to roll down the window. "You've been drinking alcohol" he said and stuffed a device roughly the size of a shoebox into my face and said "BLOW!"

I blew a 0.00 and he gave me a snappy salute and said "Very good!" and sent me on my way.

Of note were that he pushed it right into my mouth and my lips were puckered around the same space the guy in the car ahead of me's lips were. Not sanitary.

Also, I would have thought that in the aftermath of nearly *any* meal, particularly one that included a lot of fresh fruit, that natural digestive processes would create SOME alcohol.

I don't drink so I was in no fear of failing the test, but was really surprised not to see ANYTHING register.

That's the truth and I'm sticking to it.

Adam

Mubanbuathong

Given what little has been reported, it seems more likely that the bag of powder contains heroin or a "designer" opioid of some kind rather than cocaine.

Me +1

Thank you!

I doubt if there are many WW2 veterans left today. Even those who were the minimum age of 18 and joined the war in 1945 would now be 87 years old.

And I very much doubt that there could be any WW1 vets alive and well now. Those who joined that war in 1918 and were 16 years old would be 112 today. My guess is that WW1 is now out of living memory.

I believe I saw some news stories perhaps two or three years ago about the deaths of the last surviving World War I veterans. One of the very last was a woman who had volunteered as a nurse as a teenager.

There were so many men & women deployed during WW2 that there are tens of thousands of them still alive.

Thailand essentially "capitulated" to the Japanese under Field Marshall Phibul, establishing a wartime occupation relationship with Japan somewhat akin to the Vichy State in France.

Thais will never say that they've never been "invaded." The past 500 years of Southeast Asian history is all about the Thai, Khmer, Burmese and Lao kingdoms overrunning each other and sacking conquered cities.

What Thailand can claim is that unlike the vast majority of developing countries - and every one of their neighbors - Thailand was never colonized by a European power.

Which of course is a mixed blessing.

Indeed.

It is likely a testament to HRM Mongkut's relationship with Western powers, as well as the shrewd and extremely intelligent statesmanship of countless Thai diplomatic envoys of all levels across all diplomatic missions throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

GoodThaiGirl:

I don't think Thailand has anything to be ashamed of re: what I mentioned above.

Capitulation to the Japanese might not have been Thailand's proudest moment, but the decision to do so didn't take place under the auspices of a democratically elected government. Field Marshall Pibhul was a military dictator - and an <deleted>.

There is a great deal of evidence of a robust anti-Japanese / pro-Allied powers Thai underground operating during World War II providing invaluable intelligence to the Allies and helping to thwart Japanese progress through acts of sabotage.

Well, Suthep has been engaged in his Rachadamnoen Rant for about an hour now and is still going strong. He has thrown down an ultimatum to Yingluck. Drop the amnesty bill by 6pm on Monday or else...

Other things I noticed were a sign with Taksins face on it saying 'Wanted-Dead or Alive', and also that they are showing crowd pictures chiefly of noticeably younger people than at previous yellow or red rallies.

Can the bill actually be "dropped" at this stage?

As a general rule of thumb, bills can usually be "dropped" at any stage prior to being signed into law.

In this case specifically there are a number of procedural paths that can be taken to legitimately kill the bill.

In the US he would have been shot.

Good for them for subduing him without killing him.

I'm waiting for a self-loathing luuk-kreung (half-baby) who lives here (on an expired visa, of course) to chime in before I say anything.

Oh, the number of times I have seen a picture of smiling Thais pointing at a dead farang and never heard an apology. I guess it all depends on whose ox is getting gored.

Really?

How many times, exactly? Is it a number between zero and one?

I've been here a long time and have never seen such a photo. I'm not saying that such a thing couldn't exist, but if it does exist, how many have you actually seen?

It's best not to use hyperbole - or outright fiction - when maligning an entire people.

Should we assume that a link to the video is not being provided in deference to Colonel Pramote?

This story is apocryphal.

Yaba is in such high demand that it is priced outrageously at 500 baht per tablet retail. There is always a scarcity, hence people risking smuggling/transporting tens of thousands or millions of tablets at a time.

Any report of an organized effort by illicit drug manufacturers and dealers to target children should be regarded with great skepticism first and foremost for the simple reason that children don't have money.

This particular story is particularly suspect because children have access to candy. As was pointed out in a comment above, candied methamphetamine would taste horrible. Where are children likely to spend the money that they do have? On expensive, bitter shit-candy that he or she has to buy from tweakers or some of the real candy that Thailand has in abundance?

To err is human

to moo, bovine

Microphone check, one two, what is this?

The quote likened them to monkeys throwing shit then said not that they hadn't been taught proper values but that they were inherently deficient in intelligence to grasp the concepts of right and wrong - and then presented them as representative of ALL Thai youth, circa 2013.

Some of you find this constructive/entertaining?

Hanno asks a perfectly valid question that I honestly wish were asked more often here... Who are you guys who seethe with hatred for Thailand and all things Thai, yet choose to live here?

And to be honest... Over my past 25 years here I see a correlation between more and more farang with attitudes like yours sticking around and a slight chill in the general Thai attitude towards their foreign guests. You have created precisely what you claim to hate by acting in a manner seemingly engineered to raise their ire.

Didn't you love this place when you first arrived? Can't you still find things that make you happy here?

Oh! I clicked through expecting a woman.

Walking down the road
With your pistol in your waist,
Johnny you're too bad.

I wonder to what extent MySQL affected Larry Ellison's fortune. My guess is that the impact was enormous.

To an American's ears, the term "sex fiend" seems somewhat misapplied here.

Why, some of my best friends are "sex fiends," but as far as I know none of them have ever been interested in anything but consensual sex with othrr adults. I daresay more than a few of them might be found reading this very forum.

Am curious why a rural Isan school would have armed guards, never heard of such a thing. Perhaps this attack was not unexpected.

The article notes that the school is in "Amphur Muang" of Buriram. Amphur Muang is what the capital city district of every province is called. Amphur is a district one tier below Jangwat (province) - perhaps roughly equiv to a "county" in the US. Muang means the city or capital... (or "country" sometimes as in Muang Thai = Thailand - somebody 'splain THAT!). Anyway, it happened in the main central district of the provincial capital... Not a bustling place like Times Square, per my memories of an afternoon spent there 20 years ago, but not like a village setting, by any means