Roj

He said she had another lover now. I`ve known of more than a few guys who married a Thai woman subsequently to find out that their `blushing` bride also had a Thai husband/boyfriend to who she was sending his cash! It would appear she`s a little bitter at losing her bekilted sugar grandaddy. Maybe she has been refused a visa as the ECO deemed her to be a likely flight risk once in the UK. He`s got to make a judgement call.

I`ve been here a fair while and my best advice is to blend in and go with the flow. Most tradesman here, although not all, aren`t up to the standard of a time served western tradesman. Best thing to do if you don`t know a competent one is to use one recommended by a trusted, sensible farang. It`s an alien culture here and you have to learn to accept its idiosyncrasies or you`ll go crazy. Most Thais and most areas of Thailand aren`t dangerous. In my experience the most peaceful areas to live are those untouched by tourism.

With no proper driver/rider training or education the only reference they have to go on is what they see everyday. As far as they are concerned their driving is acceptable and normal. I agree with the poster who said that women drivers here are far better than their male counterparts.

Cigarette producers must be the most evil people on the planet. The work of all of the world's dictators and terrorists pale in comparison with the deaths these people cause with obvious relish.

I remember when China opened their first night clubs and major brand cigarette manufacturers where inside handing out complimentary cigarettes. Once again profit before people.

Toyota Australia have just announced 350 job losses at their manufacturing plant here; high Aussie dollar, falling sales. Didn't mention other countries charge 200 % import duties crushing any chance of export. Meanwhile a vehicle produced in Thailand could be exported to Australia with nothing like that kind of duty charged.

Life is unfair, so what.

You want same same both ways.

Oz come to Thailand no need visa. The reverse is not true.

You still want same same both ways?

There`s a world of difference between being able to come to Thailand for 30 days and losing your job because of another country`s blatant protectionism. At the end of the day Thailand needs to collect punitive import taxes to avoid their home industries going under in the face of superior European and American products because if Thais could purchase a Mini Cooper for the same price as a Toyota Camry I know what I`d put my money on them parking on the driveway. Thai exporters are already bleating about the minimum wage doubling. If they had to pay the same duties as foreign exporters Thailand would go belly up in a week and revert to an agrarian society.

Why on earth would you prefer a pokey little pommie shitbox over a Toyota Camry

Not me, I have to go around in my wifes overpriced Teutonic car. Come to think of it the Mini is really a re-bodied VW styling exercise but the Thais seem to love them.

Toyota Australia have just announced 350 job losses at their manufacturing plant here; high Aussie dollar, falling sales. Didn't mention other countries charge 200 % import duties crushing any chance of export. Meanwhile a vehicle produced in Thailand could be exported to Australia with nothing like that kind of duty charged.

Life is unfair, so what.

You want same same both ways.

Oz come to Thailand no need visa. The reverse is not true.

You still want same same both ways?

There`s a world of difference between being able to come to Thailand for 30 days and losing your job because of another country`s blatant protectionism. At the end of the day Thailand needs to collect punitive import taxes to avoid their home industries going under in the face of superior European and American products because if Thais could purchase a Mini Cooper for the same price as a Toyota Camry I know what I`d put my money on them parking on the driveway. Thai exporters are already bleating about the minimum wage doubling. If they had to pay the same duties as foreign exporters Thailand would go belly up in a week and revert to an agrarian society.

There`s a world of difference?

So Thai people should be treated as 3rd class citizen of the world?

Just like the little black lawyer got thrown off the train in Pietermaritzburg station, South Africa.

I`m looking but I can`t see where I said Thais should be treated as 3rd class citizens and I`ve certainly never seen Thais being treated as such in the UK, quite the opposite in fact. In my many years here I`ve met lots of humble Thais, but you sound like a Thai with an oversized chip on your shoulder and a whiff of racism about you.

Toyota Australia have just announced 350 job losses at their manufacturing plant here; high Aussie dollar, falling sales. Didn't mention other countries charge 200 % import duties crushing any chance of export. Meanwhile a vehicle produced in Thailand could be exported to Australia with nothing like that kind of duty charged.

Life is unfair, so what.

You want same same both ways.

Oz come to Thailand no need visa. The reverse is not true.

You still want same same both ways?

There`s a world of difference between being able to come to Thailand for 30 days and losing your job because of another country`s blatant protectionism. At the end of the day Thailand needs to collect punitive import taxes to avoid their home industries going under in the face of superior European and American products because if Thais could purchase a Mini Cooper for the same price as a Toyota Camry I know what I`d put my money on them parking on the driveway. Thai exporters are already bleating about the minimum wage doubling. If they had to pay the same duties as foreign exporters Thailand would go belly up in a week and revert to an agrarian society.

The government is proposing a minimum salary of 15000 baht a month for new graduates. Maybe some do start at 50000 a month as suggested by one poster but I have yet to meet one and one earning that at my wife`s company would have a number of years and a couple of promotions under their belt.

Does the UK insist on the English language qualification for other nationalities other than Thai (females)? Odd, given they often boast about their mullt-cultural mix and number of languages spken in their country.

Yes they do. I go back to the UK often and have never heard anyone boasting about the number of languages spoken. Quite the opposite, in fact, because it causes great strain on schools, especially in parts of London where as many as 20 different languages may be spoken in a single school. Multiculturalism was a product of the New Labour government which admitted they did it to change the face of Britain and score points over the Conservatives in opposition. Multicultarism has been a failed experiment as many immigrants have no intention of integrating, unlike Thai wives.

If the wife is not a British citizen she won`t be entitled to any state pension from Britain just the same as a non Thai spouse here isn`t entitled to any monetary benefit that the state may offer it`s own citizens. There is no reciprocal arrangement between the UK and Thailand. Some private pension providers continue to pay a dependents pension when the pensioner dies but it sounds like the deceased didn`t have one. Using a third party in the UK is likely to result in a negative response unless an acceptable legal representative is used which will be very expensive. British pensioners have a hard enough time themselves getting the benefits that they`re entitled to, especially if they live outside the UK, so I think you can multiply the difficulty in this case tenfold. The son needs to contact the British embassy. If he can speak good English this should enable him to get past the switchboard. An ECO is supposed to have a good knowledge of Immigration law and should be able to advise but In the present immigration climate in the UK, without concrete proof that he is indeed his father`s son, he`ll need professional help.

As for the son and daughter, maybe they couldn`t afford to travel out to Thailand. Affordable travel for some is unaffordable for many others these days. Also, they may want proof that their half-brother is exactly that. Can`t condemn them without knowing the circumstances.

Like Mark, Tony Blair is a fine specimen of a true English gentleman, and a great leader with vision.

Stop being ironic.

QUIETMAN......do you live here? Have you ever fought a thai man from patani or yala down south.? Probably not. If you had he would of knocked your head of with one hit

Having spent time in both those provinces and seen locals squaring up to each other I can confirm that they don`t breed a man there that is harder than your average Thai.

The common denominator amongst young men, whether here in Thailand or young British men/women, Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians on a Friday night out in, Cardiff, Glasgow, Darlington, Peterborough etc., seems to be an excess of alchohol and an expectation of respect no matter what their behaviour. When I was growing up in one of the less desirable parts of London you only had to be perceived to be looking at someone the wrong way in the pub to end up being challenged by some knuckle dragger - the common parlance being "oo yew screwin` mush?" A lot of people come here having only had access to the airbrushed holiday brochure version of Thailand and it comes as a shock when they see that some Thais are the equal of the thugs back home.

Pity those living in the designated water retention areas. If the government has decided to permanently blight peoples lives they need to start putting money aside to purchase the properties of affected homeowners who want out of Waterworld

Oh, the naivety of Thais. It`s a shame they still have airbrushed history lessons in school but hopefully one day they`ll learn what a truly posturing, electorate ignoring, selfish, lying, self enriching creature Blair is. Still, he fits in exactly with the model of politician they are used to here.

Nigeria has already made it to Hub status - being the world Hub for scamming people out of their savings.

If anybody has a phone # for these guys that haul dogs to Loa or cambodia. Please publish it, or let them know in the Kleang district south of Rayong there are thousands of dogs roaming the roads. Come and get them please, I would rather them go to a dinner plate rather than greased on the roads, starving to death eating whatever from trash cans, or me end up in the hospital because I hit one on my motorcycle.

For all you people that think eating dogs is the most inhumane thing that ever happened, is all I can say is, take a good hard look at how these dogs live. Then you might have a change of mind., Until there is a program to controle the population, this seems to be a good way to deal with things.

The eating of the dogs isn`t the inhumane part, it`s the cruel way in which they are put to death.

It`s the way many in the outside world still see Thailand so the authorities have got their work cut out if they want to portray the country in a more respectable light.

Perhaps Abhisit would be better applying his muck raking skills to the Klongs of Bangkok. No wonder he was accused of "only being good at talking"

(incidentally he responded to this affront to his person by a woman by saying this in his Facebook Page -"This person who accuses me - How dare she!". What a man.............)

I`ve always thought of Abhisit as a pretty decent politician. Careful and making no great promises that he has no chance of fulfilling but more a desire to follow a safe road taking everybody with him. Patience and stability offer more chance of building an inclusive society than throw cash at people, rock `n` roll politics.

He should fit in very comfortably with the bribe giving and bribe accepting elite he`ll be addressing. Maybe his wife will be taking time to visit the more salubrious parts of Thailand to drum up business for her specialist, paedophile representing legal chambers. From my vantage point here I`ve watched a few British PM`s come and go but Blair is the most lying, arrogant, self serving creature of them all. I hope he goes on a publiced fact finding tour of Yala and Narathiwat without his security while he`s here. Still, the Yanks love him.

yet more tripe from TV members who like to post opinions based on little or no evidence or "better still" - hearsay or their own personal prejudices.

One is left wondering why there was a fire ATER the rescue workers had started their work.

As a former London Fireman from many years ago I attended a lot of RTA`s and in a proportion of these the vehicle caught fire when we arrived on the scene. This was virtually always caused by a ruptured fuel pipeline being ignited by the battery before we had a chance to routinely disconnect it. Maybe Thai rescue workers aren`t briefed to carry out this necessary action. That aside these minibuses are a dangerous way to travel. You only have to see the amount of them sporting Toyota Racing Development stickers and fitted with ridiculous, torque sapping, big bore `silencer` boxes to understand the mentality of those driving them. The poor girl who died in the fire deserves redress for her terrible death but with Thai driving offence sentencing being on a par with that of the UK I don`t expect those responsible have too much to worry about.

Please you do not have to write flaming posts about Thais. Would somebody write about a specific race it wouldn't be tolerated... Not all Thais have a small brain, many accidents are only because of an educational lack.

So many school kids are sitting on top of Songtaews, not knowing the danger. Can you call them stupid, because everybody's doing it?

Surely a thing called common sense might just come into play here? So where does common sense fit in, is it learned or is it inbuilt?

I believe that common sense is a racial trait and isn`t learned. Thais are as intelligent as any other race, you only have to see how innovative they can be, but they do lack common sense.

About time foreign governments started issuing travel warnings for Phuket!

EVERY SINGLE TOPIC (no matter what it is) involving firearms/guns is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS jumped upon by anti-gun crowd who will always spout off about how guns are evil and "if it were up to them..." Ultimately what it results in is that no one can exchange any useful information about guns on this forum (such as "how do I obtain a permit" or "how do I import" ) because the thread always gets hijacked by the anti-gun lobby.

This if fact: firearm ownership is legal in Thailand. Deal with it. If private gun ownership is truly disturbing to you, then by all means move to a country which bans it. No one is stopping you. If you are in Thailand, you accept Thailand's laws. It is very presumptuous to move to another country and think that the host country should adapt to you, rather than vice versa. To illustrate the point, imagine someone from the middle east moving to England, and upon getting to England they start saying "you know in our country, women wear birkas. All women in England should have to wear birkas too." I'm sure you're not going to be too happy about that.

Some parts of England muslims are already operating their own Sharia law. You only have to visit certain areas of England to see how some have been taken over. They don`t call London Londonistan for nothing. I left London many years ago and when I revisit my home area it is like entering a foreign country with street names and road signs in both English and Arabic. So imagination is not needed because incomers there have already displaced most of the native population. They even put posters on lamp posts saying that under Sharia law homosexuality was outlawed in THEIR area.

I`m afraid most Thai drivers have about as much road sense as a domestic cat. Add to that they are some of the most selfish drivers in the world and are quiet prepared to use their pickup/truck/bus as a weapon to bully their way through traffic and you have a recipe for mayhem. Proper training, instruction in road etiquette and enforcement of traffic rules should be the norm. It won`t change though.