fruittbatt

Had a tropical fruit farm in tropical North Queensland, Australia: sunset skies with black clouds of ravenous fruit-eating bats every evening. Also used to care for orphanned baby bats if their mothers came to grief on overhead wires or through other accidents.

cdnvic.

You will get nowhere keep making sensible remarks.

Unfortunately these junkie lovers and liberally minded morons do not or cannot use the brain cells they were born with.

I try to stay away from these threads as a likely ban would occur if I REALLY said what I thought

Oh, don't hold back. I'm sure we'd all love to hear your views as well as your insults. Surely having the courage to voice your convictions (no pun intended) is worth it even you ARE banned

It is hard to add anything new to the great tributes to this brilliant woman. I'd like to salute her gutsiness, tireless work post-tsunami, for caring for her workers through that time, for never shirking dangerous or confronting situations with powerful authorities (police, puu yai eg.), and her punk/goth femininity with "attitude".

Khunying Pornthip's persona and courage remind me of the fictional character "Anil", forensic anthropologist in Michael Ondaatje's "Anil's Ghost". I wonder if the Khunying was a model for "Anil"?

I cannot draw a line between those whose problems we can label "workaholic"/ "drug addict" and everyone else in this world who seeks escape/ego boosts via any habitual activity.

Nobody gets aids stepping on a pen carelessly discarded by workaholic.

No, but I'm told that one can get hearing aids by listening to a**holes.

Don't we all have addictions to something or someone? Drugs, alcohol, sex, money, gambling, extreme sports, consuming/shopping, exercise/fitness, work, posting on TV, ego....in fact isn't just about every habit, innocuous or harmful, a form of "addiction"?

Why are we "addicted"? Because we are human and seek to escape everyday "reality" and "imperfection"????

I cannot draw a line between those whose problems we can label "workaholic"/ "drug addict" and everyone else in this world who seeks escape/ego boosts via any habitual activity.

Loved it!

While drugs remain illegal and the black market determines prices, there will always be people desperate, greedy, stoopid,or dependent enough to take the risk of trafficking. Many small-time mules will actually have been set up as decoys, whilst bigger fish import larger quantities and get away with it.

i do not sympathize with heroin traffickers, young or old, but as long as any drugs remain illegal people will continue to take this foolish chance.

The older i get, the less i want or expect from others. I chose to marry my husband (the current and 2nd one) because he is kind, quietly funny, relaxed, self-directed, intelligent, faithful, and financially independent. And he can live peacefully with my impatience, whims, and occasional melt-downs. I can't imagine what more I could want.

Making things illegal does not make them go away, it merely makes criminals of the people that choose to do them.

Illegality also

allows corruption and a drug mafia to run rampant

raises prices of drugs to the point where users have to commit crimes to get their hit.

The obscene profits from illegal drugs also

keep regimes like the military junta in Burma in power

fund Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan

fund civil wars and arms purchases.

In other words, keeping drugs illegal serves some very powerful interests, from aggressive regimes to arms dealers and manufacturers.

Thousands of women travel in Thailand every year, either alone or with a female friend or two. I travelled to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos alone when I was younger, and felt safer than in my former country of residence.

Agree with NR's cautions. Yes, there have been murders, rapes, disappearances of young women in Thailand, but not often.

A few precautions may increase your sense of well-being: Do not agree to share a room with anyone you don't know well, don't carry mega-cash, use padlocks on luggage and doors where possible, don't walk in dark streets late at night, don't get mindless on alcohol or drugs, invest in a mobile phone, keep regular email contact with family & friends.

You will probably meet many other solo travellers. Often it is great to hang out together for a day or two, and you may even travel together for a while, and end up great friends. Exercising discretion and going with your gut-feeling in relation to people is a skill which travelling helps you to develop IMHO.

Enjoy your travels!

I bought a few pairs of black fisherman pants. The original stretch, cross and rollover tie style. Always remember walking up the hill with two big bags of groceries and suddenly feeling my pants falling down. Yep, had to ask the villagers how to fold and roll properly. They thought it as hilarious.

Reminds me of my first -- and last -- attempt at wearing a sari.

many, many years ago, while travelling in Nepal, I became enamored of the look and the fabrics and on the way up the Anapurna range for a trek, bought a locally made sari. One the way back, needless to say we were sweaty and dirty and desperate for a shower. Reached the guesthouse in Pokara to find that the person who had the key to the storage room where all our luggage -- and my only clean clothes -- were was unavailable. Desperate for a shower I figured, never mind, I'll just change into the new sari I bought. Did so and went out to dinner. Walking back I began to get the unsettled feeling that my clothes were coming loose. Looked back and found I was trailing a couple of meters of cloth in the dirt...I was literally coming unwrapped there in the (fortunately dimly lit) streets of Pokhara. Grabbed up the loose fabric and attempted to re-tie it, a task made harder by lack of light and my companion's hysterical laughing. Started walking again, again came undone..by the time I reached the guesthouse I had resorted to tying all manner of knots here and there and was sort of hopping along, bound up in a tangle of knotted cloth.

Needless to say, the end of my sari-wearing career. Years later I spent 4 years living & working in Bangladesh, but wisely stuck to shalwar kamezes. They, at least, reliably remain on ones body.

That's a very funny, vivid image, Sheryl. Slightly off topic, your post brought back some graphic memories. I did that Annapurna trek in 1977. Remember staying in a village at a place with a small dorm: flea-infested straw mattresses, cooking smoke from the kitchen filling the windowless room. Next morning I felt sooo itchy and foul that I stripped off and bathed in a waterfall which had very recently been snow. A real heart-stopper! The white-faced monkeys, rhododendron forests, snow, crisp views of mountains, pumpkins on thatched roofs, donkey trains.....wonder how it all looks 30 years on?

If Nina's mother was going to work instead of to play, i doubt we'd be hearing your moral condemnation of her.

Nina's mother IS working, but at a job that she enjoys.

She's back on the game!

The OP claims that "mom" has a boyfriend with whom she is "partying". "Mom" may or may not be a sex-worker: I wouldn"t assume it automatically.

So what exactly is the nub of your "concern": that the child is being "neglected" by her mother, or that the mother is cheating on her husband?

It sounds as if your neighbour is caring for the girl as best she can. Hopefully she is also being paid to care for her. Maybe you could suggest some healthier food/ buy the kid some toys/ have someone speak to the mother about her duty of care to the child, especially in a country where the child cannot communicate with her carer (I assume)??

It appears that Nina's mother has made arrangements for her child to be cared for by a neighbour. I wonder how you know so many details of her junk-food diet, the length of her mother's absences, etc.?

If Nina's mother was going to work instead of to play, i doubt we'd be hearing your moral condemnation of her. you sound like a busy-body or a troll to me. If you are seriously concerned for "Nina" why would you post on this forum rather than do something more immediately practical to help the child?

Marshbags, i totally agree about the shamefulness and futility of killing drug offenders and even those suspected of being involved. To me the biggest and most relevant question is:

whose interests does it serve to keep drugs illegal.........in this country or in any other?

Here we are in a Kingdom with

a brilliant climate,

people who mostly do not have "attitude" and many of whom are genuinely kind and helpful,

great food which I don't have to cook,

a very affordable cost of living,

easy access to many other interesting countries,

beaches, mountains, trails, & Bangkok,

a national religion/philosophy which makes a lot of sense to me,

reasonably high-level technology,

most western "comforts"...........

I just wonder why it took me so long to make the move here.

Sheryl,

about the sheets: these ARE reasonably expensive, but very good quality thick cotton, and come in plain, strong, colors, with no frills. The brand name is Exotica, available at Central. Sheets and pillowcases are two-tone reversible (dark green/brown is the one I have). You can buy individual (flat and fitted) sheets, pillow-cases, or sets with reversible duvet covers. I bought mine some time ago in a sale, and don't remember the exact cost. The dye is fast, and the set is still in great condition almost a year later. Worth every baht IMHO.

I always had a profound sense of dislocation in Australian culture, and reacted strongly against many mainstream/middle-class values and prevailing political views.

It was partly the feeling of "being at home" as a "stranger" or "foreigner", of not experiencing pressure to conform to or disagree with the views of those around me which appealed about to me about living in Thailand....if that makes sense.

By living here "between two cultures" but not strictly belonging to either, I have started to sort which values are worth retaining from my life in the west, and to try to adopt some Thai and Buddhist values (eg resignation, greater individual responsibility, active love and assistance to members of my immediate and extended family).........with occasional success (lol).

I am always surprised when I go to expat meetings (rarely) to see men and women dressed as if they were in New York or London or Sydney.

Sydney? You've got to be kidding!

amend that to Woollahra....

FruittBat: Try renting the Matrix next time

I'm impressed with the response to "Matrix" here, so will do that, Sheryl. Thanks.

K,

my sister & I are still laughing, and my husband is too!

yay!!! happy, joy... glad you like it as much as me! Fruitbatt, are you from Cairns (CNX?)... me too!

very, very close K,....had a great rainforested mountain property overlooking the "broken nose" of Mt Bartle Frere, just south of Babinda. Brilliant environment but back-breaking farm labour and entrepreneurial work 7 days a week. We probably know some of the same people....

K,

my sister & I are still laughing, and my husband is too!

I am interested to hear about our diversity, our varied tastes, habits, and shapes and sizes It all helps us to learn and appreciate more about each other, IMO. Jet, like you, the longer I stay the thinner I get. Thai food may contain plenty of sugar and salt, but I think bread may have been the culprit in my farangland life.

MiG, I think the idea of asking guys NOT to reply to more personal/women's concerns topics on this forum could work. I have generally found that the guys who venture into the Ladies forum are respectful and often helpful, too. Of course there is the occasional misogynist who seizes every opportunity to "have a go", but the mods are vigilant in dealing with such worms.

NR, please feel free to PM me, ditto others. I'm no expert on anything, and for health stuff I think Sheryl and Cathyy are brilliant!

Count your kyat carefully when you exchange in Bogyoke market (as suggested by mark lamai)....There's a wheelbarrow-load to count in a decent exchange, and it's too easy to get short-changed if you're not lynx-eyed. You'll probably find that clean (no marks) USD in large denominations nett you the best deal.