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1 minute ago, StayinThailand2much said:

What does it have to do with mental health, except, of course, giving your Thai partner your last pennies? No job, no dole... the thing to do is ask your embassy for a flight ticket. They will ask you to pay back the money later, but at least you have a chance to get back onto your feet.

The embassy won't lend you the money, unless theres someone in the UK who'll guarantee it and pay their extortionate fees on top...

7 hours ago, faraday said:

As Sammie says a similar scene in the UK...

 

So sorry for him, came here no doubt with some dreams, & it all goes horribly wrong.

 

Despite what anyone might think, we are all just a few wrong turns from homelessness or any of the sad unfortunate events that too many people experience.

 

Truly hope he is able to access proper help in the UK. But being a single older man, it won't easy.

I hope he has some understanding, reasonably well off relatives in the UK, or he could end up even worse off than here. The present government certainly won't help him in any way, shape or form.

    Anyone tried sleeping rough in an English winter? 

12 hours ago, stanleycoin said:

In the Army now.

 

Oh, oh you're in the army, now.

I often have that song crossing my mind when I'm teaching here, particularly at morning assemblies...

Still not gone through Ban Phai yet, but I will, sooner or later and will give you a shout, keep your end up mate...

18 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Here's a pic of the Mekong taken in April 2018, in Nong Khai looking across into Laos:


I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to paddle across in the dark. In other places (along the borders with Cambodia and Myanmar for example) people probably just find a secluded area and walk through the jungle.

I'm sure there are thousands of places along the border(s) where people can cross undetected at almost any time of the day.

It was the idea of swimming across it that got me, it's wide with a strong current, there'd be plenty of dead swimmers...

14 hours ago, owl sees all said:

Simply swim across the Mekong. Easy peasy.

Ha, have you ever seen the Mekong? especially now, in the rainy season...

And deputy directors at schools too I suspect...

Such a shame she didn't think of stashing the ill gotten gains slightly better, would have made her eventual homecoming soooo much better...

Very sad,

              why don't more Thais learn to swim, especially if they're going to play in the surf...

              Rhetorical question really, there's the huge danger of turning brown and looking like a peasant if, you go swimming much...

Thai builders are great at building using bamboo & small trees, as far as using even semi modern materials go though, the vast majority of them haven't a clue and just make it up as they go along...

 This is probably one of the reasons, (as well as ghosts of course) why Thais don't like buying secondhand buildings

On 5/31/2019 at 7:45 AM, BritManToo said:

Immediately agree to everything they say so no conflict ever arises.

But never actually get around to doing the things you didn't agree with.

The Thai way, summed up perfectly.....

Pretty well every day or night here in Mukdahan for the last week or so, a welcome relief...

13 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

 

I'm wondering if road safety is drilled into Thai kids at primary school level so it becomes second nature (look left, look right, look left again, what road signs mean, how to cross safely etc)? 

 

Does anyone know? Maybe the parents are expected to do it.

 

Nope........

5 hours ago, epicstuff said:

lots of hate comments . But All these regulation the goverment is enforcing, takes away oppertunities  for  young   entrepreneurs to enter the hotel and tourism industry and  offering  unrivalled accomodation to guest who make   that make the extra effort to look elsewhere  for their bookings.  

 

If I started on a budget and I can offer a better deal  by letting and subletting  and renting through air BNB why not?. this is all about Hotel greed and goverment  Tax....  there are a lot of people caught in tough place,  condo and villa owners trying to subsidize their life style here, with ever changing goverment rules

 

. 

But youre missing the point, it's doing exactly what they want it to do. Only Thais with the right connections are allowed to make money from the hotel & tourist industry, anyone else are unwanted competition, and they don't want that.....

On 2/20/2019 at 10:23 PM, Khaeng Mak said:

Your leverage would come from your superior working capital.  My friend just works on one big bundle at a time because he needs to recover his capital to buy the next bundle.

 

If you have more than 20K you could buy several big bundles at a time and also diversify across shoes, clothes and bags.  I am not sure but London to a brick if you also wanted to buy numerous big bundles at a time you could also get a reduction in the overall price.

 

You can see examples of this economy of scale business model everywhere in Thailand.  Simplest example is the mom and pop shop who can afford to buy a pallet of beer and then sell the individual cans to the village punters (who often barely have enough cash to buy more than one or two cans).

 

If you want to leverage your expatiness, get your friends to raid oxfam shops and put together a shipping contain full of items and then create your own bundles (or mini bundles).

Out of curiosity, given the hypothetical shipping container of charity shop clothes & footwear, how would you get around getting completely screwed on import duty from Thai customs? 

To my taste, Archer is the best tasting Thai beer, but you don't see it in bars often. If I'm out drinking, I drink Chang as the next best tasting, I agree about the hangover if you drink more than 4 or so. Leo taste metallic to me, like bad canned beer, Singha is far too sweet. Beer Laos is the best, but too overpriced in Thailand, as the Thai alcohol companies can't take competition.... 

I think that there is a very simple answer to this reading question. Thai written language is so complicated that after deciphering a couple of sentences most Thais give up as it's far too tedious. Maybe writing it in a phonetic Latin alphabet might improve reading numbers but of course the country is far too nationalistic to do something like this, so reading numbers will never change unless everyone learns English and that's not gonna happen....

56 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

work?

Ha, yeah right, would you give him a job? I'm just pointing out that if you let your crims leave prison with no gov. support whatsoever, what do you honestly expect them to do???

And congrats BTW Rooster, for having managed to write a rant that has got over 3 pages of comments to it before Sunday is over. Something of a record in recent times anyway I'd say....