thehelmsman

Seargant Schultz

Crocodile Dundee of course...

I thought one way turnstiles had been built to stop access to taxi's dropping people off at departures?

They turn both ways hahhhaa have had the Security standing close by as I walk across to taxis

Archie Bunker

Am I reading this all right, you all drink everyday?

I like to rotate between every day & every night. Sometimes I do both in one day just to liven things up a bit.............

Those Farang living in Isaan with rice fields have probably had the discussion of cost and benefits of growing their own rice. At best it's a break even deal giving the family sticky and steam rice. They are very aware of rice bought in store comes from unknown origin. We make fresh rice daily regardless of left overs. Latey we have been having the freshly cut rice fields tilled under. It makes for a better rice yield without using fertilizer.

Also growing other crops during the winter months gives the soil a boost.

It is what it is..... Just watch and have a laugh ....

Just one hour ago in Bkk sitting at McDs having a burger. Farangs doing same me finish and take their trays and dump in garbage can and put tray on top. Very simple and takes no effort. 100% of Thais, yes 100%, left their mess on the table with the exception of one who brings her tray over to the trash but only sets it on top of the other trays and does not dump.... why ???? Now farangs go to dump their tray but have to look around for a place to put the tray after dumping. Hahaha.... made me laugh but also wonder why we farang will take the time to do things correctly and kind while Thais will just ignore and leave someone else to clean up after them. Sometimes I see a cleaning lady picking up trays at some fastfood places but at McDs the cans are setup for the customers to do. Do you think perhaps Thais share a sense of entitlement ? Totally different mindset ...

Farangs have been trained to do it, and I don't mean training in the positive way of acquiring a skill, I mean trained like an animal would be trained to automatically perform what its master wants.

Personally, I do like some aspects of Asian culture, in particular the sense of who a customer is.

You simply don't ask a customer to clean up trash.

trained ....really? I walked out and dumped my tray and took a look at all the people walking around looking for a clean table to sit at. Someone was at my table in a second because I took a second and dumped my tray. I am sure that person was happy to get and not have to stand around waiting for someone, who was not seen, to clean a table.

McDs is about cheap fast food, hardly a sitdown restrurant where people take your order. It's about serving yourself and cutting costs.

Also, what's so difficult about dumping a tray, it takes a second.

I have stopped cleaning up after myself both in the USA and Thailand. I leave it at the table, let the business hire another person to cleat the tables. I look at myself as part of the solution, if noone cleared their own table the business would hire more people. Now, you've just created jobs.

My wife always lays claim to the chickens bum (parson's nose) and loves to crunch on the cartilage of the leg joints.

I, on the other hand, enjoy a mouthful of breast.

Reminds me of a nursery rhyme - Jack Spratt...

Parson's nose - is that like the priest's nose. My mother used that saying in danish.

No garbage service so we burn everything except glass.

Can always jump on Bangkok Airways from Swampy to Samui for about 4,000 baht, easy peasy/////////

canarysun is our resident champ in the Pattaya Minimalist thread - he claims to live here on 100 baht a day. A charismatic guy, he brings a smile to a lot of faces, but I wonder how thrilled many of the Thais in Pattaya would be if you told them they needed to live on 100 baht a day - that's Nakhon Nowhere money and well below the Thai poverty line.

The only thing which makes "sakon somewhere" cheap is rent and in some cases lack of places to spend money.

There was the military guy who killed the lady boy in Olongopo, PI not long ago. He drowned the LB in the toilet.

For the most part I my thinking is in line with OP, but it wasn't always that way.

When I first arrived, and everything was new and exciting, it was easier to overlook or make excuses for the 'differences' I experienced. I told myself (and anyone else who would listen) that Thailand was a developing country and that things would get better. 12 years on and I see very little has changed. Sure there are some shiny new Bangkok shopping malls.... but that's about it. The vast majority of changes are superficial to satisfy self serving needs. Very little has been done for the betterment of society as a whole.

Perhaps in another 10 - to 20 years?

I think once you get over the "TAT portrayal" of Thailand, and the rosy spectacles come off and you start seeing through the veneer, there is a rather "dark undercurrent" that permeates everything in Thailand and the longer your here, you see it more and more.

for me personally it doesn't bother me, having worked in far worse places, but could well understand how this realization could become a bit of shock to people who have lived in their own countries most of their lives, never really been anywhere expect on holiday and up root everything and decide to settle in Thailand for "whatever" reason they have and then they find out Thailand, ain't that "tropical paradise" with the natives working the rice paddies who are happy with their lot in life

Afterwards the cheerful natives come to bow down and pray to godlike farang on the hill aka...me. It's exactly how I imagined my life would be in Thailand.

Try a newspaper...

I can visualize that, roll up nice and tight, bottle opener....

Church key (or churchkey) means bottle opener.

It's used a lot in the forces and usually refers to an improvised bottle opener (e.g., a bic lighter, a belt buckle, a bayonet, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchkey

The Bic Lighter is a classic, pocket knife...just the shaft, another beer bottle, any plastic bottle with cap, keys, pretty much anything, spoons, forks.....

So Mr. Helmsman (i used to drink in a pub in Northern Ireland (Bangor) named The Helmsman ), what do you use as a church key?

I hate to seem slow but not sure what a church key might be.

Leo is easy, Chang not............

Yeah, I'm not a Chang drinker.....I'll stick with Leo

OK, so before coming to Thailand I've been around a bit and haven't needed a REAL bottle opener for some time, But my skills at opening beer bottles have improved and are now equal to anyone. Well, almost.....still can't and never will use my teeth.

Show me a man who's content living in a dingy one room place and I'll show you a man who's simply given up. A beat man.................unless he's saving for a large ticket item or has great plans........................

I'll never log onto facebook, my lady doesn't. No smartphone and probably never will.

Why bringing it in from laos. In the 60s Thailand was famous for their thai sticks. Plenty of space to grow it here.

Let us thank Nancy Reagan for her war on drugs campaign. We got Thailand to step up their campaign and now it's almost legal in most of USA.

Som Tam lao or Som Tam thai.

No surprise. It's hard to have a decent conversation about anything here without being shouted down by fools.

Ohhhh......come and have a cry on uncle Costas's shoulder.......

Who upset my SoiBiker,recently? Tat, tat, tat.........

I'm very sorry.......................