pedro01

What we do know - police bribes are your classic carrot and stick scenario here. The stick - going to court for a committing a silly crime. The carrot - making it all go away with a payment. Admittedly, that's not much of a carrot. But without the stick, the police don't have leverage. Same with traffic police. In that case, stick number 1 is a trip with them to the police station to "sort things out" - you get a chance to pay a bribe and not go to the police station. If you DO go to the police station, you are offered the chance to pay a higher bribe because you've inconvenienced them. The stick used then is the sentence for the crimes (no matter how silly) you committed. At a guess, I'd say she refused to pay a bribe on the spot because the police don't want to go to the police station - it takes their time away from bribing others.

This is also normal here. The full truth won't come out from that side as it would implicate them. Instead there will be lots of versions of the story come out and you can pick which one to believe, although I still prefer "none of the above".

At this point, I would go for "neither". We all know how it works here - you do something that is wrong according to the law, you can pay your way out. I'm not defending it - but I find it hard to believe a bribe was paid without the threat of a stronger punishment. After all, what will the police do - keep her there forever if she doesn't pay? That's not how it works here. The ecig explanation does make a lot of sense, certainly much more than her version of doing nothing against the law but still needing to pay her way out.

The police enforce the laws, they do not make the laws. Having a squeaky clean police has nothing to do with whatever laws the government put in place.

I eat the fermented fish and crab here - only made me sick the first time. That fish head looks very fresh, the eyes haven't glazed over yet - maybe someone likes them that way. I can only wonder at the parasites that could still be in it as I presume it's fresh water fish - not good at all.

To be fair - if the police were squeaky clean, the outcome would have been way worse for her. That's the whole point of a bribe - it helps you avoid a harsher penalty.

Not to mention that paying a bribe is a crime too. She had 2 options - the courts, or an illegal bribe. She took the latter.

She did commit a crime, she paid a bribe which was less than the published punishment for that crime. When she went public, she forgot to mention the vape, or the fact they are illegal here, so she's trying to garner a bit more sympathy than is due IMO. The fact that the specific law in question is idiotic is somewhat irrelevant. There's 2 sides to paying a bribe and in this case, she had a choice between being booked for that crime or paying off the police for a non-custodial, immediate exit. Let's be clear here - you have 2 choices in this situation: - get arrested and take you chances with the courts - pay the bribe and break another law (bribes aren't exactly legal, are they?) For those advocating "standing your ground" - would you all risk going to court over a vape when there's a custodial sentence for it? I don't think so. As for the police and their check points. They are looking for drunk drivers (yes, they don't check taxis generally speaking) and drugs. They have the right to do this, so might as well get used to it.

Chris Hansen called, he wants you on his next show ????

No - it's smart. When you get stopped by the police here, you need to put on your friendliest face and be nice to them. I was in Thong Lor police station after being in a 3-way accident with an Ikea van, a motorbike and my car. The Ikea insurance company sent a lawyer and our job was to assign blame. Anyway - I got the coffee's in for the cops, we all had a laugh and a joke during the proceedings and the Ikea driver was found at fault, their insurance company kept going on about my wheel being over the line, which it was - but had I been 6 inches to the left, the van and bike (and rider) would have still hit me. So to shut them up, the police gave me a 300 baht fine for being over the line and told the insurance lawyer that this settled the over the line issue. I was very happy with that and I have no doubt that if I'd been an <deleted> with the cops, it would have turned out differently. You gotta play the game here.

Taksin bridge was not named after Thaksin Shinawatra, it was named after King Taksin. Just to be pedantic...

You aren't doing it right then. I've can't even remember which year I came to Thailand ????

Last time I was out at that time, a friend and I got pulled over in our taxi at a checkpoint. First thing they did was put hands in our pockets, checking for drugs. Nobody asked for ID, which is just as well as I don't carry my passport around with me here. It was all friendly, I asked if they caught many people that way and they told me that yes, every night they caught people with drugs there. My experience is that they shake you down when you've done something wrong - like failed a breathalyzer (which I haven't) test. Once you are on the wrong side of the law, the negotiations start. It's the same when they bust you for a wheel over the line at a junction, it's petty but they have their excuse to start the negotiation process. I've not experienced or know people that got shaken down when they did nothing wrong. It seems to generally be the way here I'd put it at 50/50 that the girl in question was on the wrong side of the law, somehow. 27k fine is pretty steep and would be in line with being drunk at the wheel, having narcotics etc. it's not that I don't believe her, just that normally, you get shaken down for a crime of some sort.

"He said that Willy's family had put him under pressure to marry a woman and abandon a gay lifestyle." lifestyle? lol - I've never heard it called that before. That's some family - won't accept him for who he is. Thinks that forcing him into a straight marriage would be anything but pain and failure. I can see why he prefers the company of simple trash collectors who DO accept him for who he is. Crazy world.

I am confused about the bridge from Koh lanta to Koh lanta noi, there's a photo of it in the OP and it looks in good condition. Are they building a second?

The lesson to be taken away from all this, of course is "don't get caught" - it simply spoils the boondoggle for all the others.

I was in O'Shea's in Bangkok the other day and the head shop 20 meters away was pumping out fumes and I have to say - I would prefer to not be sniffing weed smoke while I'm eating. It's on par with cigar smoke - it seems to get everywhere. Not that I have anything against weed or the smell in general - just when I am eating, it's overpowering. So I can see how people would be upset. In the end - there needs to be a place to smoke the stuff. That's going to go against the smoking laws here but there's no point selling masses of the stuff if people have nowhere to smoke it in such a way it doesn't get in non-smokers way.

That happened to me on Asok. The car behind was leaning on the horn while the pedestrians were crossin, so I got out the car to have a word and he'd simply not seen the crossing sign. Many wais and apologies later, we were both back on our way. One of the issues not yet raised here is the amount of people that stand by crossings and then fail to cross the road when you stop for them. I have put this down to a number of possible factors... - They weren't expecting anyone to stop and so had stopped paying attention themselves - They want to cross the road at some future point in time, which is not right now - They just thought it a good place to stop and have a gossip It's a bit like letting someone in at a junction. Some people just need a written invitation - again I put it down to the fact someone actually stopped to let them out. Nothing worse that stopping for pedestrians who then just completely ignore you.

I do it all the time in mine.

Love the list of dont's. It's sort of blindingly obvious not to give them food, drinks and your car keys. They should have led with the list of do's - they are far better.

I don't know if it's a myth or there really are killers there. But I'll hedge my bets and not pay the place a visit. There's plenty of other locations in Thailand, after all.

One thing against Alec here is his initial claims that the gun went off in his hand. That he didn't pull the trigger. If it turns out he did (and experts seem to indicate the gun couldn't just go off without a trigger pull) pull the trigger and it's provable, then that lie won't help him. As for whether he should be punished or not. I'm on the fence but I don't think it would harm to go up before a jury and hammer it all out.

I am amazed there's much to poach in Chonburi.

Well - that sorts out his epitaph. We can only be thankful it wasn't a few hours later, I guess.

He hasn't lost $165bn - it's not a real number. Put it like this - let's say you have a 100 million shares in a company. The last price trade was $20. That gives you a "wealth" of $2,000,000,000. But it's smoke and mirrors because if you attempted to unload the 100 million shares, you'd hit the price hard and never achieve that selling price of $20 on the whole 100 million shares. The $2,000,000,000 is merely the nominal value - and should not be confused with the amount of money you'd be able to realize selling the shares. So it's all bunk anyway. He's definitely had an impact on his net worth but these things are always inflated because of the impact a big seller would have on prices.