DocN

This was quite a few years ago now, but as a teenager my Thai GF's oldest daughter had a job on a similar van. The job was watching the schoolchildren going to and from school and then escorting them on and off the bus through the traffic to their wanting parents when they got the children home.

The rules she had to obey were these:

1. She escorted and guided the children to and from the street into the van and out of the van to the sidewalk. The children were NOT allowed to exit the van until she was there to guide them.

2. She always sat by the van door, and that door was NEVER opened by anyone except her or the driver.

3. And (though not exactly relevant) she NEVER delivered any child except to the child's parents or a relative she knew. If she wasn't sure she would personally escort the child to the child's house and the child's parents.

That was about 1987 to 1988 when she had that job.

Wonder what's happened since then?

People started not giving a sh1t on a daily basis?!

I am getting freaked out ...just a little bit...about this idiotic country.

If you just mention certain persons, historical or present figures, and you do not praise them in the highest of all possible ways, you get looked at like you just p..d on your grandmothers corps.

That of course is no reason for Thais (yes, I am generalizing) not to give a sh1t about any feelings other nationalities may have about some of their historical figures.

Of course, you can turn any flag of any country in the world into anything from flip- flopps to diapers, if you are Thai.

Just imagine, you would do the same thing with the Thai- flag!

And as much as I am for an open discourse about Hitler, Stalin, Mao (you name them) and against any king of collective guilt- trip, that we Germans have been send on for many years, even if we were not even born, when Hitler willy-nilly killed approx. 30 Million people in a war and in the gas-chambers of his Kz's....as much am I against forgetting what happened.

A ‘youngish’ lady from our village came back to the village to have a baby. In hospital. She did not want to tell her Norwegian boyfriend, about the baby. Lets not lets speculate, because even I could not understand what I was told. Perhaps to keep working, or whatever.

One of my many Thai step sisters and her Thai hubby had been childless for 21 years. An arrangement was made. We all trooped up to the hospital, the baby was born. Some papers were

signed and the sister and law went home with the baby.

The child is now about 4. She is truly beautiful and angelic. Because my daughter is obviously part farang, she has a sneaky suspicion that I am her father also and often calls me papa too.

My daughter is growing up with a rice farmers family, because it is an idyllic childhood, similar the childhood’s many of us experienced, before technology had blunted all our natural instincts, resourcefulness, and creative play.

It is a better childhood than mine because these people have existed within supportive family networks for a long time. Like many of my British generation, I didn’t. This is now the closest thing I’ve got to a family. I really have to learn this troublesome language. Both Lao Thai and Bangkok Thai. It’s a bother, but that’s life.

I like living out here because one is still able to live a life relatively free from the burdens of bureaucracy. Where practical answers to daily problems don’t involve dozens of faceless people deciding one’s fate, and then fining you for not obeying them. This is the way. The way of nature. The West has lost its way. I am happy to be here.

Good for you!

And i n a few years, when you have learned something about the wonderful family- system and the support they give each other and the idyllic live and upbringing the "normal" children have...please report again!

It happens for decades, now!

How is this "news"?

...and obviously still not enough, to overhaul a broke down education system...

I love Thailand, bumps, smells and all. No one is forcing me to live here and we can all vote with our feet and catch a plane if we don't like it.

Did it really take us 97 posts today, to get to the ever so classic "if you don't like it- go home"- post?

With pictures like these...who is being "lured"???

Looks perfectly American to me.

His name too.

So...who looks (and is named) "perfectly American" to you?

Billy Bob Thornton in a cowboy- hat?

Best thing I saw so far: brochure of a Khao Lak - hotel....I will not mention the name, but it is a big one.

Phuket Airport....straight line....Hotel....line left....Krabi!

NOTHING ELSE!

What is your budget, what are your requirements?

If you want studio, around 9.000 Baht, quiet, 5 mins from BTS Surasak, nice area...try Baan Rim Sathorn.

...ahm....anybody can tell me, what is wrong with this sentence, to begin with?

15-year old mother in Pathumthani province told police her husband...

I hope the poor child makes it...and the ape is going to jail!

edit: by "poor child", I mean the baby!

...although....

Are we surprised?

That's what you get for little to no (sex) education, willy-nilly XXXXing around with the "man" not having to bare any consequences, not legalizing abortion etc. eg: being a 2rd world country.

I hope the baby makes it.

Asian Oasis does an overnight- trip to Ayutthaya.

2 or 3 hours must be something else.

I begin to wonder: does the chairman of the TAT have compromising videos of the chief= editor of The Nation in his basement?

Why is it, that every other week, TAT can pump out BS like this and just goes to The Nation 1:1?

And to the TAT: if you want quality customers you have to ffer a quality product. Quality, by the standard of your CUSTOMERS, not the standard of YOURSELF! Regarding TAT, Thailand is heaven on Earth, pristine beaches, crystal- clear waters, untouched jungle, sight that have "no equal" in all the world and a wonderful, stress- free, holiday -experience.

Care to ask what the customer thinks about this?

Though I don't find this funny, amusing or even interesting- let him/her do what he/she wants to do.

If you don't want to see it, simply don't "click" it!

Who gives a sh1t?

Hahaha, be honest, how many of you would not be staring at this guys hands and shoes the whole flight if sitting next to him? :-D

Me!

Because I have sat next to "him" a number of times.

OK.......I shouldn't have said "Suspicion before respect" for someone dressed like this.

My apologies. I should have said 'Suspicion before respect" because he is a Muslim.

Yeah ....that makes it much better!

...not...

Did you ever take an Emirates or Etihat- flight with a stop in Dubai or Abu Dhabi?

There are literally hundreds of people, looking exactly like him, on both airports...and you know, where it get's real spooky?

They are all allowed on board an AIRCRAFT! Imagine that!

What has the world been coming to?!

...try harder next time!

Booooiiiiiiiioooooooiiiiiing....huiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.....dingdong..........

Here, I did it!

1. Isan- travel it!

2. The "Degree Pub" in Khao Lak

3. Soi Rangnam

Patpong 2: Badabing & Black Pagoda are worth a visit. I used to like Cosmos, but too many "undead" customers by now.

Patpong 1: ...well...no!

For pubs: Pintsman and After Hours are quiet okay.

... How do you teach people to respect their own country when they are lazy and too proud to do the right thing, it is easier to throw your rubbish in the street than it is to bin it......

There is ONE MAN who could change a lot of this with a few speeches ...

I am forever pondering why he doesnt.

Is it all hidden from him?

I too have often wondered why. It would be so easy.

An instant change in the habits of millions of Thais.

TL

You mean...in the same way, they all been listening to his advice on flood- prevention, re- forestation or on how he can not be beyond criticism? That all worked so well, didn't it?!

Honestly: if does a good job, serving and protecting, he can believe in tooth fairies and waternymphs, for all I care.

That being said....

And when he doesn't do a good job and you or someone else ends up dead?

Okay...so I guess, you are a bit grumpy, because of the hangover you got from the Friday- Happy Hour, so....what do you think the "That being said..."- part of my comment meant?

And by the way: if they believe in Mumbo Jambo or not...they mostly don't do good jobs, regardles, so....chill out!