pattayadingo

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages. The main line i hear is, why should i learn another language, everyone speaks English. This line was pushed on me when i was a kid and i decided learning French or German was a waste of time. Plus my parents used to say," what a waste of time learning French or German you will never use it".

Well guess what mum and dad, I'm now working in Belgium, away from the main city's and i struggle and feel very rude nearly everyday. Most don't speak English, they speak French. Simple things like shopping is a pain in the ass if i need help. Or how bad it is when i have a party around my house and my wifes Thai friends turn up with there French speaking husbands.

Why did i listen to my parents.

Only good thing thats come out of this is, my wife now understands the frustration of wanting to communicate with someone and can't because she doesn't speak the language. She now understands why i want to learn Thai.

Before someone says it, I'm learning French now but i only have just over a year left here. I should be ok by the time i'm due to leave.

And just look at how many wonderful countries we gave English to while we ruled the Empire.

French? The French were still considered important while I was at school and so was their language. So much so that we were forced to learn French. But why? We kicked their butts all over Europe and beyond.

English is the dominant language in this world and with the advent of computers it has become more dominant. Maybe it is about time the world learned that

To lambast a person who speaks English as their 2nd language is appalling. The language police on here should be ashamed of their dictatorial little selves.

Wear a suspender belt this time too. Matching colours of course

Good story

I know this is a case of sods law, but after reading good reviews about Mr T on this forum,

on my last trip out of Pattaya i decided to give them a try, made my booking and driver arrived on

time to pick me up at 4am to take me to Swampy.

As we were leaving Pattaya on the Sukhumvit Rd the driver pulls up and stops on the chevrons right on the

exit to the motorway flyover, switches his hazards on and tells me the engine's overheating, gets out and opens the

boot, sits inside and starts making a series of phone calls, at this point i get out and start to walk to the back of the car

to see whats going to happen and im faced with on coming traffic speeding either side of our parked car.

Some oncoming cars were heading straight for us as they thought we were moving from a distance and only realised we were stationary

as they approached us at 70-80mph, (very frightening).

The driver though just sat in the boot and continued smoking and making phone calls without any fear or anticipation that a car could

at any minute drive straight into the back of his car.

Luckily another driver arrived after a 45min wait and took me to Swampy, could have missed my flight but i always allow an extra hour

for situations like this and i arrived 2hrs before my flight, instead of my estimation of 3hrs.

All ok in the end but the 45min wait on the chevrons was more nerve racking than anything else.

A hair raising experience being parked like that. I cannot imagine why he did not pull over to a safer spot.

It goes to show that the extra time allowed came in very useful as we can never predict road conditions or other hazards.

Thanks for those replies guys

Your a <deleted>

The irony is palpable

i like the irony

Here, have an ironing board then you can do all the ironying you want then.

Which is the better here in Pattaya for changing my £20 notes? Or are they all pretty much the same?

Reason for asking is it is my 1st time to exchange cash in Pattaya. Near Pattaya Klang would be best but not essential.

Thanks

http://www.xe.com/uc...From=GBP&To=THB

Charts going back weeks to years and my favourite site for fx rates. Currently showing 48.

This is great comedy reading all the posts for, agains etc. I love it.

My Gf comes form NS, and said that lake is an industrial dumping spot! Locals call it something like "itchy water". Well, she said "they say everyone calls it itchy water" and I take most of her sentences that begin "they say" with a pinch of salt. Any experience of actually swimming in it?

I'm liking the Phrae idea. I'm liking that a lot. Also the wooden house idea as well. But would that make me a type of trailer park dweller? Would I care? Food for thought.

I went there rarely when I was dating a lass from there. Have to admit I never saw anyone swimming in it. Took a few boat rides out into the lake and I know there are many rice paddies alongside it. When I took Moln out onto the lake one day she collected some vegetation from the water to take home for salad. Apart from that i would not like to say.

edit - I would add there seems to be no industry around there though they do have a lot of sugar and rice plantations due to the good supply of water.

Yes, a good result and nice long sentences for them. A shame this will never really stop these types of people doing this type of thing.

What a shame for those poor children. Their lives badly blighted by their own mother forcing them into this.

I think you'll find it is dependent on what type of Visa is required.

The quoted text available on download 'Aba' Visa Application Pack from Hull states, 'Visa applications are accepted only from persons who are residing in the UK at the time of application.'

Not directly Thailand related, but IMHO important enough to stay live.

Moving to the Technology forum.

Thanks for that Crossy. When my son first told me, I did not believe it until I went on-line and checked.

Definitely scary to think so many people can get paid for and free applications for a smart phone and have so much data available to 3rd parties.

With the bank details I keep on my phone I'd hate to think someone had a record of this.

Friends phone numbers too.

SMS I send that could be in some way compromising.

I know people who have compromising photos of ladies and themselves on their phones too. Imagine those being made public?

All in the name of profit. Make sure you do read the fine print for these apps.

Bung Boraphet? A really big lake some kilometres from Nakhon Sawan. It has islands and fish and birds as I recall. Not sure if it is a Thai version of a National Park though.

I'm disappointed that your technique of staring at the machine did not work.

If that had been a Glaswegian staring at that machine you can bet it would have surrendered immediately and offered up any amount of money to escape

I know Facebook gets blamed for lots of things, but Facebook having sex with so many Thai ladies?

'What you name, mister?'

'Facebook.'

'Oh. OK, mister Facebook, let's go make babies.'

People have advised here for others who live outside the U.K. to apply to Hull for visas. I noted on my application pack today that it now clearly states you must be a U.K. resident.

As said above, apologies if this has been mentioned before, but I do not read this forum everyday

It amazes me how so many foreigners here have so much to say about politics when they can do nothing about it whatsoever.

It's called Catharsis! It's the same reason why we have so much to say about professional football which we can do nothing about whatsoever. What else are you talk about over a beer. Religion?

The only Altar I like is the one at the top of a heavenly pair of legs

My type of religion

It's getting better and better every day.........first a 13 yo which was caught selling himself for sexual services and now a 14 yo arrested as a gang leader......not very long ago an 11yo arrested for the rape of a 9yo.

What's my point? I've no clue........fact is that I read it more and more..........what's going on with the parents?

Getting more and more like 'Farangland' all the time. Maybe they watch our movies

Now this idiot m/c taxi driver thinks he can get away with it. You can imagine him bragging to his mates about this.

How did the two Brits and the police let this driver get off so lightly?

Thick as 2 short planks sounds about right to me.

Definitely sounds like the Wild West. Amazing Thailand.

Hlarious. Remind me to ask the mafia to help out and not the local BiB if I ever need help.

Mr T is reliable too. I have used his service from several different cities and also from swampy airport. Quick, efficient and reasonably priced.

Companies are using free smartphone apps as ‘fronts’ to allow them to spy on users’ text messages, intercept calls and even track their location, it was claimed yesterday.

By accepting little-read terms and conditions when downloading apps, consumers give developers the right to harvest vast swathes of private information.

Facebook insists that people using its Android smartphone app agree to give them permission to read their text messages, although the internet giant said it had not yet taken advantage of this right.

They can even remotely take images from users’ handset cameras and even dial their phone and intercept calls without them knowing.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz1nbAB2kat

Now many people no longer have any privacy? Apps that can even monitor your photos and in some cases see what you are viewing? Those private text messages you send being read by people unknown?

How many people keep their bank data and other similar information stored on these phones?

Makes me happy I do not have a smart phone.

Big Brother? This is scary really.

edit - font was unreadable.

It amazes me how so many foreigners here have so much to say about politics when they can do nothing about it whatsoever.

Crazy.

I'll stick to the car, thanks.