AhFarangJa

He should be strung up.

Yep, and not by his feet either

It seems lately there are more and more of these cases coming to light, anybody know what the thing with Rolf Harris is?

There is a dog in our town that loves its scooter rides. What makes this one special is that when the scooter moves it stands on the scooter seat and lean into corners like a pro bike rider. When the scooter stops it sits down.

How does he reach the brake pedal?

Stardust, just finished reading your story, I must admit I jumped to the end due to time constraints at the moment but will go back to it.

I just wanted to say a big thank you for sharing your experiences, it make sa change from some of the whinging diatribes that sometimes appears.

Good luck to you and I hope it all works out for you and your family.

Crowd safety, barriers, etc etc. cannot see Bernie Ecclestons mob approving this, plus imagine the traffic chaos in an already frenetic road system!

Chemical castration first, then destroy passport because these people always seem to know the loopholes that "bleeding heart social workers " give them, quote"what about his human rights" what about the human rights of all the children he has defiled. Bread and water for the rest of his life, and work for his keep. Draconian, maybe, but that is just my way of keeping these scum where they belong.

I too never take for granted a green light, I work in Saudi when not here, and believe me they are the biggest ar"£$holes in the world for running red lights. But there it is always your fault if they hit you because you are a foreigner in their land.

Nothing will happen here, we know and accept that as part of living here,

Please to all ....stay safe on the roads, and R.I.P. to the Norwegian and my condolences to his family,and ihope his wife makes a full recovery, though the sad news will of course hurt...

"... issued a directive prohibiting anybody travelling in or on a vehicle from consuming alcoholic beverages while the vehicle is moving or parked."

So motor cold, an elevated platform from which to throw water, having a beer and you can get nailed? Right - let's hope that WAS last years directive and this year they ignore it.

A contradiction in terms here, how can you be TRAVELLING in a vehicle when it is PARKED?

still, i for one will not be around but I wish all a safe and happy Su Wat Dee Pee Mai...

My wife is a school bus monitor, she was trained in first aid, and also the children are counted on, belted up, and counted off, she also has to check for belongings inadvertantely left behind. Admittedly, this is not in Thailand but where we work in Saudi, but, surely there is a resposibility on the school that provides the service? or am I simply naive?

either way, get well soon little one....

In the USA, I used to work in the Rick Fraud department of a large card processor as an investigator. So for what it is worth, here is my opinion:

The steps involved in losing your card information and then eventual theft are:

(1) The thief needs to gain physical possession of the card for a moment, and swipe it in a hand held device that captures all the information on the magnetic strip.

(2) The thief needs the pin number, a relatively easy task. Ex: Waiter takes card, swipes in capture device, informs client the credit card machine is not working, points them to an ATM, observes (often with camera from above, or "innocent bystander" close by), the keying in of Pin.

(3) Information transferred to new magnetic strip, complete with the correct Pin in hand.

(4) Steal money.

Yes, we all need to hand over our cards, and they vanish from sight, until they waiter returns it. Guests in hotels will often use the card at the lobby ATM, and then sometime later (Checkout, dinner, etc--- ) the magnetic strip is copied. That lobby ATM often has a "Security Camera" right above it. Hmmmmm...

Please do not think it is just you "date" or street market who does this, since 5 Star hotels attract the most wealthy, those card are highly sought after. Thieves do not care if they work at a strip club, or the Ritz...they want the money...Period.

For people who simply use their index finger, and methodically punch the numbers, it is child's play to steal a Pin. You may feel silly, but every effort should be made to mask, cover and confuse during the Pin process. Call me crazy, but i go to great lengths to ensure it is nearly impossible to figure my Pin the way I move my hands and fingers in the process. Crazy... perhaps...but never had any issues with cards. If there is a potential of overhead observation (which is pretty much everywhere...), I hold my free hand over the hand punching the keys.

The take away is this...when entering your Pin, regardless of location, presume someone is trying to get that Pin code ..every single time...and you will go far to protect your money.

I always do as you have said, especially cover my hand and use many fingers to enter the pin, however my card was still cloned last december at the airport, same bank as in the article, 250000baht taken from atm in phillipines over three days. I will get money back from my Jersey bank, but the Thai bank was not really interested, what angers me is these leeches that feed off honest people, I hope they rot for a long time then deport them back to srilanka to the pond they crawled out of.

there, I feel better now!!

Just keep the toilet paper in the fridge...

Why oh why do they not fit governers on these buses? Is it because speed = shorter journey times=more journeys=more profit, and what of the drivers hours? are they not regulated with a tachograph as in Europe?

R.I.P. to the student...

Ok, i don't know why i should care, but as an ex-philosophy teacher and a lover of logic, there is something worth saying about the waste of space represented by many comments on here. Every time a report appears that has the form of a generalisation about an aspect of life in Thailand, a whole posse of commentators think it is worth saying something like : 'Well i live near there and nothing bad has ever happened to me' etc. (See above). That kind of statement may be called 'personal knowledge' or one person's experience retold as an anecdote. It is 'true' but on its own it has little to do with the 'Truth'. Is is a basic Fact - like an empirical observation. From a large collection of such facts, a larger truth might be induced, and gradually a statistical measure built up. In this topic, after a significant number of personal experiences (attacks) are recorded, it becomes possible to make generalised statements about the relative risks of attack in each area reported upon. This amounts to the culture of Statistics overcoming Ignorance. If all we ever had was a host of individuals telling personal anecdotes, we would remain ignorant and lacking Knowledge, capital K. It really has no bearing at all on set of reliable statistics about a phenomenon - eg, a large number of attacks in location XXX, if an individual living in XXX has never (yet) been attacked there. That lucky history is completely Irrelevant to Knowledge if the statistics are accurate and well-founded - but if you feel a need to tell a website about your personal luck, well, go ahead and enjoy; but it carries no weight whatsoever if it is intended to be part of an attempt to disprove an objectively-generated statement about some aspect of human existence. None of this ignores the fact that publications of unreliable statistics are also, a waste of space. That's a very different topic.

I have to say that after reading this through ( 3 times to be truthful) there is more common sense and logic than in a hundred posts.....Lookingeast I guess you must get pretty frustrated here sometimes, but thank you for the enlightened comments

My visa was cloned at swampy, 4000 pounds taken using atm in the phillipines. The Thai bank wasn't really interested. I obtained an atm card for my Kasikorn bank account, so I did not have to use my Jerset one and asked who was liable for fraud, they told me if money was taken out of the atm it was my responsibility. So only small amounts in there now, and also a Thai lawyer would cost a fortune with no guarantees of the outcome.

I wish you all the best in recovering your money ( luckily my Jersey bank is refunding the monies courtesy of Visa)

Bet you will still have the annual water throwing madness next month.....

In my village a lot of children are left with grandparents while parents go to work in BKK. sometimes for months on end. Then it is too much for them to handle and the children are left to fend for themselves, bowing to peer pressure from older children who went through the same mill, a never ending circle I fear. As many here say, education and poor parenting skills are the probable cause , though there is the other side of the coin, the poverty that forces some parents to move for better pay....just my humble opinion...

A farang regularly came to my bar and complained he could get a large Chang from the 7:11 down the road for 35 Baht and why did I charge 60.

He couldn't understand the sport on the big screen, the pool, and the ice for his beer wasn't free!!

Also had one who came in , drunk 3/4 of his beer then said it was off and refused to pay....he never came back either....can't think why

Finally when I lived in Phuket I was at my favourite seafood restaurant and heard a group of backpackers....here is how it went....

1st backpacker....I fancy a beer with dinner

2nd. Backpacker ( female arm wrestler i think)....If you have a beer now thats your breakfast money gone.so no breakfast ...and we will order one rice and share it between the three of us.... then we can order two dishes tommorow....

You watch Thai soaps on the t.v. and actually begin to understand the plot, and ignore the screaming..

open your own restaurant, then you can moan all day if something is wrong....oh wait a minute....there are no staff.....I really feel you need some serious help..or as already mentioned...learn to cook.

Last year my visa card was cloned at swampy, my bank stopped it but not before 3000 pounds was taken from my bank from an atm in the Philippines, which I am getting back thankfully. But, after this I went to my Kasikorn bank and obtained an atm card. I asked the lady in the bank if it was protected from fraud and theft and she said...No.... it is your responsibility.... Still trolling for info on that one, but the card does have a Visa sign, which I assume would cover fraudulent use?. The problem is, if it was cloned and someone took money...how...in Thailand.... do you prove it was not you?

I bet your getting your money back through a UK bank or travel insurance.I have been told the same about responsibility from vice president of Bangkok Bank,and assume nothing is the default action.You prove it by chasing up atm photo's in Thailand.P.I.harder ask,i'll admit.

Yes my bank is in Jersey ( for obvious reasons!), but still takes four months. Good answer ref tracking the camera, never thought of that. I told SCB bank which atm cloned my card at swampy, got a thank you reply and that was it, guess vigilance and unpredictability is the best way though. Or I could just give it all to my wife to take care of.....

Last year my visa card was cloned at swampy, my bank stopped it but not before 3000 pounds was taken from my bank from an atm in the Philippines, which I am getting back thankfully. But, after this I went to my Kasikorn bank and obtained an atm card. I asked the lady in the bank if it was protected from fraud and theft and she said...No.... it is your responsibility.... Still trolling for info on that one, but the card does have a Visa sign, which I assume would cover fraudulent use?. The problem is, if it was cloned and someone took money...how...in Thailand.... do you prove it was not you?

Education seems to be the main problem, We live and work abroad and go home twice a year to Prasar ( Surin). I always spend the first day picking up drink cans and emptying old tyres of water. Then I remove all the saucers from the planting pots. Alas, after I leave it will all be back in a short while. Also, I seem to get bitten whilst my family sit and say " must be farang blood they are after". totally ignored by the little b#$gers!!

Hi DingDongRB, Just got confirmation from Gary, yes, a 15 year old boy was beaten up by a group and then nobody realised that while he was on the ground he was stabbed several times, died in hospital..R.I.P.

Seems another typical mob handed Thai fracas, do not know what the reason was though.

Over the years there have been several attacks and fights related to the Karaoke bar at the end of the soi, mainly due to the katoeys there, but dont think this is related.

My wife also in Prasat, but heard nothing, I will e-mail Gary from staffords and see what is appertaining.

How about he runs for mayor next time, along the lines of the old monster raving loony party, sure he would win.

Unfortunately, in a lot of cases poverty is the driving force, but if we could somehow stop the perverts coming here or humiliate them when they are found, both here and in their home countries then maybe there will be light at the end of the tunnel.