55Jay

This sounds like a gag/satire story from "Not the Nation" website.  But it's not..... 

We just did the opposite.  Country to city ~ suburbs, not right in the city but still an adjustment.

Lived in a small town/village first 4 years here, about 35km out into the countryside from where we are now.  Nice big house in the middle of 1.5 rai, mature, treed land, lots of fruit trees, good size pond full of fish, dogs, cats, chickens and critters about, no close neighbors behind, left or right.  Sky full of stars at night if no clouds, and only 1 airliner passes high overhead at night around 2100; you can damn near set your watch by it.  A bit of an adjustment at first but right, there's a sense of freedom and elbow room, nobody messes with you.

The periodic trips to the city, or further afield down to Bangers, Patts/Jomtien, got further apart, and shorter duration - the crowded city vibe became a real turn off.   We used to go see friends on the Dark Side but after progressively longer gaps in between, when we would exit the #7 motorway onto the railway line bypass, pass the Muzzie road, then left on Khao Talo (or whatever that road is going up the hill).... holy crap, all those chockablock shop houses, signs and power lines, surrounded by 50 frickin' motorbikes....   I would physically cringe and shrink into the car seat, like the walls were closing in on me! 

After a few days, a week max, I'd be ready to go.  The further away up the mountain on 304 we got, I could feel the stress shedding of me.  If we took the big road, once we got past Saraburi heading up the hill toward Pak Chong, I would catch myself doing a mental exhale and then start to relax a bit more. 

Agreed, had you told me 5 years ago I would think/feel that way, I would of said no way.  LOL.

7 minutes ago, dbrenn said:

Sadly, people die every day. I'm not sure what makes this case newsworthy.

True.  And I wouldn't be surprised if some of them actually do die from complications linked to papaya salad laced with rotten fish and mud crabs from who knows where, prepared in the good old "dirty kitchen".   I don't do street food or local market food anymore, even reluctant to have a quick 35 Baht lunch at the local noodle shop.   

The Thai guy in the foreground seems to be having a laugh while indicating the size of something ? 

5 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Busy day on this topic:

 

http://news.thaivisa.com/article/1486/missing-historical-plaque-is-not-an-antique-says-fine-arts-department

 

http://news.thaivisa.com/article/1485/watana-to-face-charge-of-violating-computer-crime-law

 

http://news.thaivisa.com/article/1466/srisuwan-released-from-military-custody-vows-to-press-for-probe-into-missing-plaque

 

1 more, effectively saying "Never mind, just focus on the future".

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/979108-pm-suggests-looking-to-country’s-future-rather-than-focusing-on-‘stories-of-the-past’-as-plaque-mystery-rumbles-on/

38 minutes ago, jackTheRipper said:

Damme! Just got one today. The guy asked if I wanted visa but that would require some days of waiting. 

Oh well. Mainly need atm, but feel sort of cheated :) 

Not really cheated.  You got bluffed by the bank because they have a selfish interest in UnionPay, and their interests trump yours any day of the week and twice on Sundays.  

If you have problems, go back and insist on a Visa logo card. 

I just finished reading the article where PM says he'll have to have this plaque business investigated, suggesting he doesn't know anything about it, and his government had nothing to do with it.  He also suggested the public should forget about it, it's not really that important, just focus on the future.

But in this article, the government comes down swiftly on this ex-MP with scary sounding charges like "sedition", and anyone who tries to retrieve the useless, unimportant old plaque is a trouble maker.   Sedition is speech or actions against the government.  A government that just got done saying it knows nothing about this dusty old plaque, had nothing to do with it.  So how could finding the old one and who was responsible for the swap, be a threat to the government? 

No matter.  Kim's missile test didn't go so well anyway, blew up shortly after launch.  

Little doubt there's a couple Boomers hanging out up there.  The carrier strike group is eye candy.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The United Airlines of bear re-accommodations.

1 hour ago, wenzman said:

Sent from my A0001 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

I would Like your photo twice if I could.  Very nice, thanks! 

2 hours ago, Peterw42 said:

Pattaya Update: 19th at 1:30pm, just back from round one, its mayhem out there, 100s of people traffic at a standstill and that is just at the local 7/11 at the end of my quiet little soi in jomtien. And I am out of cigarettes, lol

I bought a carton, topped up the cars and motorbike tanks, phones, and the cupboards, then pulled enough cash out of the ATM for a week.  Ironically, reminiscent of things you do on Guam when preparing to ride out an approaching typhoon. 

7 hours ago, joeyg said:

Let's see I'm desperate, weird ass, imbalanced <deleted> weird.  Fortunately I stop taking anything I read here personally along time ago and that is the point it has a lot to do with you but you wouldn't understand it anyway I say eat more meat... 

No.... I wasn't referring to you personally, Joey, nice try but no cigar.  LOL.  Clearly referring to your odd suggestions that omnivores should eat more meat.... in a thread about Songkran. 

No... I understand what you're doing.  First off your just trolling me at this point.  Trolling in this way indicates your level of arrogance, which also misleads you into thinking a mere meat eater is incapable of detecting and understanding your passive aggressive innuendo.  LOL. 

Born again christians, and recovering alcoholics, for example, are far worse with this than overly-enthusiastic lifestyle vegetarians.  Your snarky suggestion(s) that omnivores should eat more meat indicates you consider your lifestyle and choices superior to theirs.   If eating more/too much red meat makes a person sick and may lead to premature death, then your suggestion that they do so, means you wish harm on them.  Way to Go, Joey!  That is not only arrogant and mean spirited , but also completely irrelevant to a thread about...... Songkran.

Edit.  PS: BTW, I've got no beef with you.  Just a bit of good natured ribbing.  I'm not steaking any claims here or trying to lambaste you for yours.

8 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Aversion to Songkran has nothing to do with age. My first Songkran in Bangkok was when I was in my early 20's and I got wet one day only because that is the only day water was thrown. The Thais doing it asked beforehand and I never saw another Westerner who was involved in the throwing. It was a novelty the first, second and third time.

 

However as the years have gone on- I noticed a large influx of foreigners year after year and a Songkran celebration in which no one asked if they could douse you; icy cold water with chunks of ice thrown; powder smeared on new vehicles; drunken revellers everywhere and a complete lack of decorum.

 

It was not my age at all that turned me off from the 'festivities'.  The holiday just was not fun any longer and was ruled by selfish people who wanted to force participation on those who did not want to participate.

 

In addition, letting this so called festival continue on in a place like Pattaya for 10 days is not only absurd and dangerous- it's bad for business. Instead of people sitting, drinking and eating- they are encouraged to throw water for 10 days. It's no wonder business owners complain about a lack of customers. Not much fun for them either or people trying to conduct  personal business that cannot wait.

 

I can guarantee you that if Thailand's Songkran was conducted in the same manner as when I was here in my 20's- no one would flee the country; stay home locked in their condos/houses; or generally just hate the festival. It might then, actually be fun.

I haven't read through all the posts after yours, but I am compelled to say that your post quoted above is excellent.  Love it. 

5 hours ago, joeyg said:

But how often do you eat putrifying carcasses ?

 

Your choice for a veg lifestyle has nothing to do with this topic.  The fact you keep hauling it out as some kind of desperate, weird ass deflecting argument meant as a put down to meat eaters makes you sound like a slightly imbalanced fk'ing weird, dude.  Up to you though. No skin off my prime rib with horse radish and Au Jus. 

1 minute ago, Thechook said:

I think most expats are grumpy old men who also get upset with  children playing outside thier homes.  The have lived their lives, had fun and now want to turn off the lights and send every one home.  Selfish old codgers 

I'm in my 40s.  It only took me a couple years living here to put the commercially driven water war aspect of Songkran on my Give it a Miss List. Been there done that, got the wet T-shirt, check the box. 

Risk vs. Reward.  A sensible person with a modicum of common sense and an anecdotal understanding of Thailand's SNAFU Modus Operandi, would perform a quick and dirty Risk Assessment - the X factors being the density of vehicles and bodies in various states of impairment, moving around in a confined area whilst launching objects at each other.  Physics and statistical probability suggest there will be collisions within the area of chaos.

I still engage in the more sedate aspects of Songkran but this year, I sat at the pub, had some beers, listened to kick ass tunes and watched the herd go through the motions over and over again out in the road; which was still open for normal traffic, a percentage of which were hauling ass to avoid the water "tossers", many of which were just little kids.   What could go wrong?  

3 minutes ago, joeyg said:

Sure.  Whatever you say.  You sound like a very nice person.

I am.  You are deflecting from the painfully obvious. 

Seriously though, enjoy yourself out there! 

22 minutes ago, joeyg said:

Nothing like wishing harm on other people.  Way to go!!!

LOL, the old guilt trip, eh?   As if I had any influence over what I saw happen.....   I wasn't wishing harm onto anyone, just stating an obvious, statistical probability borne out by, oh I don't know, decades of examples maybe?   The Monks seem "get it".  

Sorry to hear you got dinged up the other day (your quote below).  Me, I stay a respectable distance out of the firing line, more so once the booze and beer has been flowing for hours.  When I see them fall and bust their ass, or bend over in pain after being hit in the face with a chuck of ice, or get an eye full of powder,  I turn to my mate and say, "Golly gee, didn't see that one coming, eh?"   Yep, Fun FUn FUN!   Duhhhhh!

56 minutes ago, joeyg said:

This year I got hurt by Getting hit squarely in the face with a 3 gallon bucket of water while I was standing on the back of a bhat bus Stuck in traffic.

 

I took a day off but have been back out in the celebration yesterday and will be out later today and tomorrow. But I got a little bit of insight into the danger that may be encountered during the celebration. Glad I didn't get knocked out cold and fall off the back of the bus and split my head open.

My most memorable event was sat inside my local in the evenings watching pick ups going by blasting music, precariously overloaded with drunk/stoned, young Thai guys throwing water around at nobody really (it was already dark).  Once I yelled out toward them, "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" and raised my arm in cheering salute, Woo Hooo!  They thought that was great, so they cheered back loudly and as they went to toss a bucket of sewage laced water in my general direction, their nose-ring wearing douche bag driver hit the gas, causing most of them to lurch backward and fall like dominoes, luckily blocked from spilling out onto the road by the double row of open mouth breathers sat on the open tailgate, legs dangling out the back.  Roughly 10 minutes later, a white government hospital ambulance van went by, lights and sirens blaring, headed down to the market/Songkran HQ area where folks were busy sucking more funky water out of the lake to throw into people's mouths and eyes.   

I thought of that truck load of revelers.  Songkran certainly helps cull the herd a bit every year.   Monks must rub their hands together in anticipation as they stoke the fire under the big pizza oven for the influx of business.

On 4/13/2017 at 10:30 AM, Bundaberg Baxter said:

How much did they pay the monks? You would think westerners would have more sense than to engage in this nonsense

If you look at their website, they are located on temple land.   Some of the key, full-time staff appear to be Thai but the Operations Manager is European.

United's been rolling the dice for a long time wrt passenger treatment.  They finally got caught, and now they are the flavor of the month in the media.  Anything United is "news" for a while because the media is desperate as well as sorely lacking in talent and originality.

I was all over the Dao event and threads,  but this one, and the scorpion.... not newsworthy at all, just desperate journo-boobs bottom feeding for content.

54 minutes ago, janhkt said:

Not understanding that number in context. "Per unit" is kWh, yes? Currently seems like the highest tariff is 3.9361/KWh (for 400+ kWh/month). Source: http://www.boi.go.th/index.php?page=utility_costs

 

Hardly makes sense that "The current FT charge, which has been in force since January, is set at -37.29 satang per unit" - that's almost a 1000% increase. Can anybody explain so even I can understand please?

Got my bill today.  FT rate shown as -0.3729

2 minutes ago, phuketjock said:

Of all the books I have ever read, and there have been many, Private Dancer is probably

the one with the most uninformed BS ever written, imho of course.

That seems to be the moral of the story.  I've heard that opinion before, but I saw it on a book trade shelf so I'm about 1/4 way through it right now.  He just plucked her out of Zombie bar at 10k/month. 

What was the question again? 

Oh right, anybody else have bad relationship experiences in Thailand?  The answer is obvious, especially here on TVF, which OP knows of course, but always a fun thread.   

It doesn't make you dumb or stupid if you fall into the same old, predictable traps that so many before you, and many after, have and will fall into. 

You are more than a bit daft if you keep doing that over and over again.  Even if you can afford it financially.  Money doesn't equate to common sense.  Neither does age indicate wisdom.  Age just happens.  

OP, have you ever heard of or read Stephen Leather book called Private Dancer?  I'm told you can get a free download.  Even at this point, check it out if you haven't already.  

At any rate OP, at least you've got a handle on it now. The most important word in your default lexicon here is "No".  Lots seem to forget that one, or are so puzzy whipped, or scared of being alone one day, or so beat down by western feminism by the time they get here, they make themselves easy marks.

Keep your trigger clean and cocked, and your powder dry.  Have fun, good luck to you.