Stubby

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

Another crazy on yabba, this yabba problem is massively out of control in Thailand.

Why do people take yabba if it makes them go crazy? I thought the whole idea of getting off one's face was that it made you feel fantastic. Or maybe it's the eventual craving for more that puts addicts over the edge? I've been in Thailand for many years, yet I'm still ignorant of this societal menace.

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I definitely agree with that but on the other hand if a man you know informs you he is whatever for example "gender fluid" and perhaps he asks you to refer to him as they, does it really hurt you so much to politely agree?  Believe it our not, I find the they thing completely absurd  but I still value treating people with respect if they make a polite request. On the other hand if you mess up one time and call him he and then he/they/whatever tries to get you fired for that, that is evil. 

 

Another thing I won't do (but it's likely generational) is announce "my pronouns" upon meeting someone and asking for their pronouns. I'm going to assume the standard UNLESS the person presents as transgender in which case I would assume they want what they appear as. But as above if a person tells that information unsolicited may as well listen to them. 

 

In life I find a lot of things absurd, such as Jews for Jesus or Gays for Trump, but if that's how such people identify, well, they're telling you who they are, and not agreeing to accept their self identities doesn't really make any sense.

Good points, well made. And that, my friend, is the purpose of a rational debate ;)

PEOPLE CAN WEAR WHAT THEY LIKE, BUT THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES

IT ALL CHANGED FOR WOMEN

It's a funny ol' world. I remember when the so-called unisex clothing first came out. I thought it was a new range of fashionwear for men and women... in my ignorance. It wasn't that. It just meant that women could start wearing trousers, pin-striped suits, flat caps, trilbies, long socks, and flat shoes without the stigma. There's nothing wrong with any of the above, but unisex clothing was basically men's clobber on women. 

NO CHANGE FOR MEN!

Heterosexual blokes, on the other hand, didn't start wearing blouses, long dresses, fishnets, high heels, or playing netball. Of course, they could if they wanted to, but most haven't gone down that path, at least not in public. And let's be honest. If a man anywhere attends a mainstream job interview in hot pants, a midriff shirt, and blood-red lipstick, well... he's not going to make the shortlist, is he.

CHANGING ROLES?

I do believe male makeup is now quite popular among Gen Z and Millennials males and less of a thing with women. In fact, modern women in the west are more like men than men ever were. That's not the case with transgender Thais. In fact, some of the best-looking women in this country are fellas. It's probably why they can... and should.... be allowed to wear what they want.

Me? Well… I couldn't give a rat's ar$e what anyone wears be they gay, straight, or Australian. But what I won't do is try to learn the 100 newly recognized genders and their associated pronouns. 

Stubby

19 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Lets move this over to the Motorcycle forum for a wider audience.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, CM Forum.

I know there are plenty of excellent paper maps on the Northern Thai motorcycle loops. But does anyone know if there's a motorcycle app covering the loops and places of interest en route? I can't seem to find anything, hence this post. The GT Rider hard copy maps are excellent, but they're not really practical when you're on the road. I prefer to have the phone out of sight and plug in my Bluetooth earphones.

I won't hold my breath, but there's no harm in asking.

The day loops I have in mind from Chiang Mai city are:

• Chai Prakarn Loop
• Mae Kuang Dam Loop
• Mae Ngat Loop
• Mae Wang Loop
• Phrao – Wiang Pa Pao Loop
• Phrao- Chiang Dao Loop
• Samoeng Loop
• San Kamphaeng Loop

Thanks in advance.

Stubby

3 hours ago, CygnusX1 said:

I’ve always felt safer wandering at random around Bangkok than in many European cities, where I’ve occasionally been approached by aggressive beggars. Despite spending a lot more time there, it’s never happened to me in Thailand.

It's true, and most people in major UK cities wouldn't dare walk to the corner shop for a pint of milk after dark. Why? Take your pick. 

There's the:

• One-punch knockout thugs hiding around corners (just for kicks)
• Acid attacks at random pedestrians (just for kicks)
• The moped snatch & grab gangs operate with impunity 
• Out-of-control stabbings (with a rise in machete attacks) 

Worst still, the criminal thugs are getting younger and more violent. I wish I weren't like that, but it is, and it's getting worse. The UK isn't safe; it's become a divided and violent nation.
 

I've never felt afraid walking around Thai cities after dark. Biggest threat? Ensure your wallet is in your front pocket when walking by ladyboys in certain areas.
 

Stubby

On 4/26/2022 at 2:55 AM, webfact said:

A Las Vegas-based cannabis company has become the first foreign franchise to jointly open a medical marijuana clinic in Thailand, treating Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, eating disorders and insomnia in Bangkok’s flashy tourist zone.

Excuse my ignorance, but how does medical marijuana help in the treatment of the above?

13 hours ago, rudi49jr said:

I am an ex-smoker and I don’t think I’m ‘winging’ (as you put it) when I complain about cigarette smoke. When I’m standing at a bus stop and someone lights up a smoke right next to me, am I not allowed to complain? When I’m sitting in the park, enjoying the sunshine, and someone sits down next to me and lights a cigarette, am I not allowed to complain? Those people are directly jeopardizing my health, or didn’t you know how harmful second hand smoke can be? And this is a thread about (e-)cigarettes, not about toxic fumes from cars.

I thought so. No disrespect, but ex-smokers stand out a mile with their anti-smoking rhetoric. And you're right; this thread is about e-cigarettes. But your complaint is about how harmful they are to non-smokers, and vaping is a smoking alternative. 

But I say HOW DARE those who jump in cars and on motorbikes for short trips complain about a tiny furl of steam drifting upwards from an e-cigarette... from the neck up—not the ground. 

SELFISH VAPERS... REALLY?

The same people who gripe about vapers force pedestrians to breathe in their lovely cocktail of vehicle fumes from big fat exhaust pipes. But do we call to ban all cars, motorcycles, trucks, and busses, or limit their use to only essential journeys? No, we don't, the complaint is about poor air quality in general, which the above contribute to. 

THINK PERSPECTIVE 

On the scope of things, I would say that a bit of steam from some random vapor registers less on the pollution radar than bad breath. So, if you're worried about inhaling toxic air, you may want to target your objection to the real culprits and leave the vapers be. It's just a thought.

These are the reasons I think the minister is right to urge the authorities to revise e-cigarette use in Thailand. 

"When you point one finger, three fingers point back to you." ~ Native American proverb.

13 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

What about the none smokers?? these e-cigarettes are terrible with the amount of pollution that comes out of them and are offensive to the extreme for none smokers 

Not as offensive as the toxic fumes that spew out of vehicle exhaust pipes considering the differences in apertures Mr. Geoffggi. Do you drive a vehicle, or have you ever smoked? I ask because, in my experience, the ex-smokers winge ten times more about smokers than non-smokers ever do.

2 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

So which plan did you subscribe to? And what was the price?

5GB data | Package Type: Auto-renew | Validity 30 days
 

Package Price: 199.00 ฿
VAT 7%: 13.93 ฿

Total: 212.93 ฿

Stubby

UPDATE

Thanks for all your help, everybody. It seems that there are other choices than the 600B plan, after all. I must have overcomplicated my options or allowed the girls in the shop to confuse me. The first link that @mtls2005 points to is about the same as I had with a 1GB loss. That should do it. 

OVER TO THE TRUEMOVE H LINK

I just learned something else. I always thought you had to go into the phone shop to top up mobile internet. But I dialed the number on the bottom of the screen, and it sent me a password to enter. I did that, and True immediately deducted the money from my regular mobile credit. So, all I have to do now is make sure I have enough balance each month for the auto-renewal. Sorted! 

BETTER THAN BEFORE

Also, this deal might even be better than my old one because it says something about 5GB at max speed. But if I use 5GB before the 30 days is up, I still have internet access at a slower 128kbps. If I understand it right, that's an even better deal than before.

I couldn't be happier, so thanks once again, folks ????

Stubby

12 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

If possible going there in person with someone who speaks Thai will avail you to the best packages.

 

I routinely change because there's always cheaper packages. 

 

If you don't ask they won't tell you.

 

It's all very confusing.

So true. And when you think you've understood, you realize later that you agreed to something completely different. That goes for a lot of things, not only smartphones and data.

9 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

How much data do you use? You can check past usage, Settings, Network & internet, Internet, Data usage, choose a date range.

 

What is your budget?

 

Do you make voice calls? Send SMSes?

 

Do you need to keep a specific number? And then add on a data package?

Hi, folks; thanks for the replies.

I have my usual phone balance for making calls, SMS, etc. But if I use that for the internet, it eats the phone credit in minutes. That's why I have a separate internet package for online use, which is very light. 

I only use mobile internet for the occasional search on Google, weather checks, and listening to UK radio stations. That's about it, and I don't think I've ever gone over the 6GB allowance on the previous package. I'm not a skinflint, but I don't want to pay for services and speeds I don't need.

At home, I have WiFi, so I don't even use the mobile internet indoors. The old package was for 60 days, which auto-renewed after 30 days. I would then revisit the shop to top up another 60 days. But last time, I got very confused with what they were trying to tell/sell me. And the TrueMove H website confuses me even more, hence this post.

I've had this True sim and number for a while, so I want to keep that. Does that mean I have to choose a True mobile internet package?

Stubby

Morning, Folks.

Every two months for the past few years, I head down to my local phone shop to renew my mobile internet. My ISP is TRUE, and my internet package was 12GB 60 days for 400 Baht. That's 6GB for 30 days that auto-renewed. 

Anyway, the last time I went to the shop, they said my promotion had ended. I had no idea it was a promotion as I've been using it for years. The replacement package was 600 Baht for 60 days (auto-renew), although it was supposedly faster and unlimited. The thing is, I didn't even use the 6GB from the old package, and the speed was perfectly adequate for my usage.

Anyway, I paid up and didn't think any more about it until this morning. It seems that the 30 days expired a few days ago, and the phone then switched to my call credit which has taken it down to 0 Baht. I didn't get SMS notifications about either of the above. Or maybe I did but delted them as spam as I get a lot of that daily from TRUE.

There are so many ongoing packages and promotions I don't know what I'm looking at. So I'm asking for advice from those who are better educated than me on simplifying this prepaid mobile internet malarkey so that I can choose a seamless package.
 

Thank you in advance,
 

Stubby

27 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Your concluding good news summary bares no resemblance to the article you linked to in its conclusions which are:

 

"Future variants, if and when they appear, may have yet other modifications to their structures and abilities. “I’m not confident that we can rest on our laurels and say this is all over,” Barclay says. With infections continuing to spread and evolve among many populations around the world, the virus is going to come up with more ways to transmit—including ones that scientists haven’t even thought of yet."

Firstly, I never said anything about COVID19 being over, but rather one of its unwelcome headings. 
 

So yes, it's goodbye and good riddance to the "Even More Contagious Than...." headline once and for all. From a psychological viewpoint, that is very good news indeed because folks have had enough of 2+ years of grim updates. Hopefully, the next one will be that coronavirus is less harmful than a mild cold, but let's wait and see, a?

TIME FOR SOME GOOD NEWS FOLKS

When COVID-19 made headline news worldwide, the experts banged on about why it's so dangerous to humankind. They told us it hovered around in the air like invisible smoke. 

BE AFRAID, THEY SAID, AND MOST OF US WERE

Whenever you were close to someone, you never knew if you'd breathed in a gobful of the submicroscopic infectious agent. So I was one of those who rushed out to buy disinfectant and hand gel. Yes, I sanitized anything and everything that came in from outside... including the cat!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

Over time, researchers announced new predominant variants and sub-variants. And each one that became the latest headline was even more transmissible than the previous. I couldn't get my head around this. I mean, the experts described Delta to the lay public as highly infectious. 

"It's more transmissible than viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, seasonal flu, and smallpox..." they said.

It's no wonder everyone was bricking it.

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news is that there are no adjectives left to describe the transmissibility of the Omicron sub-variant BA.2. And yes, it's even more contagious than those before it (no surprise there). But it seems that it's reached its end in terms of transmissibility. I've read numerous reports that the most contagious virus known to humans is measles, and BA.2 is pretty much aligned with that now.

So, we should never see that awful headline again that includes the words "Even More Contagious Than (previous variant here)."

Stubby

One of multiple reliable resources: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/omicrons-surprising-anatomy-explains-why-it-is-wildly-contagious/

21 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Probably more like "Fully vaccinated with the last jab being within X months".  That seems more practical.

You're probably right, BR. The old jabs are waning fast, hence the need for boosters. And there's talk of omicron-specific vaccines in the pipeline. Indeed, the vaccine makers have been working on this since last year. The reason is that the orignal+booster jabs are not working as well as against omicron as the experts had hoped. If they were, big pharma would not need to invest time and money into shots tailored for protection against omicron and its subvariants. So yes, it seems that authorities won't care about earlier jabs; it's the last, most relevant vaccine that'll get you in.

Thanks, everybody. Who would have thought there wouldn't be a straightforward answer to this? There are so many Thai video tutorials online, yet I've never seen one by a Thai teacher for spelling words out aloud. And believe me, I've looked. There might be somewhere, but I've not come across any tutorials yet.
 

@digbeth, that's what I thought. If you spell every character aloud in a word, you are not pronouncing/practicing the vowel sounds.
 

I will message some Thai language teachers to see what they have to say. Perhaps I should have started there. I will update my findings here, so be sure to follow the thread ????

Stubby

15 hours ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

Yes, I believe spelling out loud in Thai is the same as writing/typing in Thai. Each letter/symbol is pronounced individually even if two of the same appear in a row...such as your example with 'meet'. 

I'm sure you're right, ColeBOzbourne, but I'm pretty sure I was taught otherwise. Either that or I read something somewhere once that planted it in my subconscious. Or maybe that's how Thai educators used to teach it, although I can't be sure (it's been a while), which is why I posted here.

However, your way does seem more complicated in that you're spelling out many more characters instead of a single vowel sound. Anyway, if I hear anything contrary, I'll update this post by quoting the source. Of course, it may turn out that it's either-or, so who knows.

Stubby

1 minute ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

Yes. Agree with Richard W that this would be the spelling. 

You can't enter sara ea (เ–ีย) on the keyboard with one stroke. Each part is entered separately, so each part is also spelled out loud separately.

Thanks, ColeBOzbourne.

But writing and typing isn't quite the same as spelling out loud, or is it? I mean, if I were to spell the word "meet" aloud in English, I wouldn't say em, ee, ee, t, but rather em, double-e, t, though double-e is not on the keyboard. But hey, I'm probably overcomplicating things… it happens ????

Stubby

1 hour ago, Richard W said:

The old system is not quite as simple.  It's onset consonants first, then the tone mark if the vowel is all to the right of the onset consonants, then the vowel, then the tone mark if not already said, than karan.  This ใหม่ 'new' is ho hip, mo ma, sara ai maimuan, mai ek.

I don't think the compound vowel symbols are treated as units in the modern system, but spelt out individually, so the เชียง bit would be sara e, cho chang, sara ii, yo yak, ngo ngu - as you type it, which is simpler, and handles anomalous spellings like เทอม 'term', which by the rules should be *เทิม.

Thank you, Richard. It's not so easy or clear-cut, then. Perhaps that's why the gazillion Thai teachers online shy away from spelling, but I wish someone would tackle it. Like all learning, there must be a beginner's level on which one could build their skills.
 

Regards,
 

Stubby

Thanks for your replies, guys.

Apologies for the late response. For some reason, I didn't get notifications despite having clicked the Follow Topic radio button.

I'm still a little confused, though. And I'm surprised at how hard it is to find a Youtube or text tutorial on Thai spelling. 

Richard, in your example, เดี๋ยวนี้ I think I was also taught to speak the consonant first, followed by the vowel sound, followed by any tone marks. Alas, it's all become a tad distant, hence this post, but it's starting to come back.

On that note, I would spell the word Chiang Mai (เชียงใหม่) out loud like this (I think):

Cho chang (ช) sara ea (เ–ีย) ngo ngu (ง) ho hip (ห) sàrà ai maimuan (ใ) (mo ma (ม), mai ek (◌่)

But now I'm not so sure after reading ColeBOzbourne post. Is your girlfriend saying Thais would spell it like so:
 

sara ea (เ–ีย) cho chang (ช) ngo ngu (ง) sàrà ai maimuan (ใ) ho hip (ห) (mo ma (ม), mai ek (◌่)?
 

Why Spelling Matters
 

When someone says an unfamiliar word that you need to know—but can't quite grasp—it's helpful if they can write it down or spell it out loud. Or at least it is for those who can read a bit of Thai.
 

Sorry, could you spell that for me, please?
 

"Kŏr tôht kráp kun sà-gòt kam dâai măi kráp."
 

ขอโทษครับคุณสะกดคำได้ไหมครับ
 

Unfortunately, I'm one of these expats who's been here for donkey's years who's useless at speaking Thai. Even so, that doesn't stop me from trying.
 

Stubby