The Dancer

20 minutes ago, rwdrwdrwd said:

 

Unless he was well connected of course, either personally or by virtue of his employer.

I don't think you've actually witnessed many situations with Thais and police, especially in dodgy areas like Patpong.

Well connected?  A masseur? You sound dumb enough to be the gal's brother.

Thai Ways 101: do not mess with the Police.

24 minutes ago, rwdrwdrwd said:

 

You have rather too much time on your hands.

This I'll admit.

Probably a communication issue. If she went to a happy-ending place for men and women and chose a male masseur then, unless she had the Thai to make clear she just wanted a man's touch but nothing more, the expectation would have been she wanted "full service".

I know it's not PC to say this but it's pretty stupid to go into a massage place in a country known for pay for pleasure, disrobe and ask for a man to knead your body in a closed room. Unless ... Nah, I don't think she was entirely innocent. My guess is she started out wanting full monty but got cold feet at some point.

Condolences. Yes, I have been bemused by this on more than one occasion.

A young guy where I work lost his mom to cancer. He came into work a couple of days later like nothing had happened. Another colleague has a wife with terminal cancer and an only child who's autistic. We're close and he's sad when he talks about them, which is not often and only reluctantly. Other times you wouldn't know what's going on his life.

Weird. Might be all part of the "keep  your emotions to yourself" composure so important here. Or as Peter says no one's really ever gone as in ashes to ashes, dust to dust - they just become spirits on the way to reincarnation. So they're still around as long you believe they are.

6 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

Would not consider that especially cheap when one could get price down to 6 baht each by cutting 40Mg Chlovas however.  Pill cutters are not expensive and work quite well.

Thanks, good idea. I didn't look for Chlovas yesterday. Will do so next time I am in the vicinity.

On 3/3/2017 at 1:50 PM, lopburi3 said:

Believe recent post that Atorsan is available and should be cheapest atorvastatin.

Update: I went looking for Atorsan at the row of pharmacies opposite the Rajthewi hospital west of Victory Monument. Most knew of it, none had it in stock. No big deal as one place had Atorvastatin 10 mg. tabs. in a box of 30 for 550b. which works out to a very reasonable 18.33b/tab.

However, I am surprised that none of them had Atorsan as those pharmacies are collectively supposed to stock every med under the sun. Anyone know why Atorsan is so hard to find and/or where it's available?

Thank you all for the responses.

I am looking for atorvastatin 10mg tabs and allopurinol 100mg. tabs. Which are the cheapest local/generic brands for the two? Thanks.

It takes 2 secs. to start reading a post and decide if it's worth continuing.  If not, move on to the next one, rinse and repeat. So, I would much rather err on the side of freedom than censorship.

Lighthearted and even off-topic contributions can spice up a thread  making it more fun to rappel down. A post by post learned discussion is  all good but sometimes after a hard day's work we crave a wee bit more spirit. And as I said it takes not more than a moment to sidestep the stupid and mean-spirited.

And at the end of the day we are all anonymous so who gives a rat's ass what anyone says of someone.

44 minutes ago, manarak said:

Facebook is a privacy nightmare.

I'll second this. I used to have Facebook on my phone. Then some months ago I saw a familiar face on the people you might know list. This was a woman whose shop was across from the liquor stall on Suk I would stop by often for a late night beer. I knew her and would exchange pleasantries and that was it. Never had we exchanged numbers or FB, Line or whatever ids. Looking at her FB page felt like peeping through a window. Suddenly, I knew all about her family, where she lived, her friends and on and on, none of which she had ever volunteered any time we had talked. Icky, felt like a voyeur. And I guess likewise she had seen my page.

To this day I am not sure how FB decided to put us in touch. The only thing I can think of is that they were co-locating us via GPS coords. And that wasn't the only time. I had a few more of people pop up as as possible friends that FB had no business knowing about before I decided enough was enough and deactivated FB. And haven't missed it one bit since.

Neat. Now I have to start saving to eat there.

This Brexit deal is hitting the UK hard. BBC has it that the Govt., with royal encouragement, is looking at renting out rooms in Buckingham Palace, particularly the bigger ones off the Marble Hall. There is enormous interest from Russian oligarchs and Chinese billionaires in throwing birthday bashes and wedding receptions in the home of royalty.

Apparently, too, William and Kate might be available to attend these occasions at an enormous (undisclosed) hourly fee. And the Queen herself might pop in for guest selfies at over 1000 pounds each.

2 hours ago, malt25 said:

They are smart enough to know that we are smart enough to eventually challenge their grip on the kingdom if we, westerners, were permitted to become land & business owners outright.

So you're saying the English teachers might lead a revolution if only they could sink their roots here a bit and not have to worry about quarterly border runs? Yes, I see it now. A platoon of English teachers marching on Government house in their Chatuchak shoes, plastic briefcases full of sharp pencils, causing Thai soldiers to drop their weapons and flee.

Lord, what inflated self-farang-opinion. Wake up, kid. As far as most Thais are concerned every farang living here is still a tourist. Just sticking around a bit longer than the others. We are not looked at as co-citizens or apprentice citizens or whatever. We're tolerated but we're way too different in every way ever to be accepted.

As for the rulers being scared of us. You can't be serious. The highest level of officialdom in Thailand that's even aware of resident farangs are the cops in the Suk area who randomly pick on us and make us pee in a bottle. Above that they either don't know we exist or couldn't give a rat's ass if we do.

But life in the LOS is still good, wot?

4 hours ago, transam said:

You are talking out your ass.....My visa says.......NON IMMIGRANT.....

 

Explain why that is.........?

Language, trans, language. I am with Bodh though that you (and me and all the others) are immigrants. Effectively. If you shit, live, eat, fork here for most of the year then you are an immigrant and it don't matter what your visa says. Kind of like Mexicans in the US.

Now, to get back to the point. You seem to be implying that Thailand should have the same policy towards immigrants that the UK has. Why? Ain't no UN principle that says so. Every country has a right to a policy toward foreigners that puts their citizens'  interests first. Now, if the UK <deleted> up and is selling their own out, that ain't the Thai's problem. And no cause for Thailand to open its doors.

So Thais are smarter in dealing with foreigners than the US and UK. Fair play to them. It's their country.

2 hours ago, jgold said:

That's the same question I have for my government. I am not from a developed country, not US or EU. We are considered third world and still we offer Thais opportunities that are not offered to us here. 

Just because a few Thais can afford is not an excuse, they have a right and Thais don't offer the same rights to us.

I tell you if every british, US and Australian expat jam their embassy email and phone lines they would put pressure to loosen some policies here. 

I think you answered your own question there. Your home is a 3rd world rat hole while Thailand is a country which draws 30 million visitors a year and has millions more plotting single-mindedly in their respective countries how to move and make this place their home. Ain't no symmetry, buddy.

Ain't no symmetry even with first world rat holes like the US and UK. Make your money there and move here. Which I and thousands of others did. On the other hand, in my dozen years living here I haven't met a single Thai saving up to move to the US (study, yes, and then hotfoot it back).

Deal with it. It's not fair but it's the way the world is. The pretty girl gets to choose between the Tom Cruise lookalike and the kid who drives a Lamborghini, while plain Jane either stays home and reads a book or goes out with the pimply nerd who's going to spray spittle at her from between buck teeth while talking about equations and stuff.

1 hour ago, vento said:

i know this was possible a lot of places in Chiang Mai, but i didnt think it was possible in BKK... any examples of such places?

http://www.21livingplace.com/

http://vptower.com/

Arsene Wenger

If you want a condo for not much longer than 2 mths. without the hassle of a deposit look at apartment hotels, which basically let you rent an apt. on a daily basis. Of course, you pay a premium over monthly rental. Many apartment bldgs. have a couple of floors set aside for this kind of daily business.

With your budget of 1000b/day it shouldn't be hard to find a decent place either central or an easy walk to a BTS station.

6 hours ago, advancebooking said:

Online and shopping. Same pronunciation in Thai and Eng.

Not shopping. Thais say "chop-ping" as in "cha pai chop-ping", with a sharp o as in go. In fact, I think many won't understand "I am going shopping." said by an American with a sibilant s and rolling o.

1 minute ago, simple1 said:

Something I have tried to establish without success, though I know there are some connections with Malaysia.

Ok, that could be it. There's a large South Indian population in Malaysia - folks brought over by the Brits in the good old days of the Empire mainly to work on the rubber plantations.

5 minutes ago, simple1 said:

I know a large extended family of poor Thai Muslim Indians who were originally fishermen, living for generations in Pattaya. The family has members throughout Thailand.

Interesting. I would be curious as to their heritage. My guess would be South Indian fishermen via the Andamans.

3 hours ago, Naam said:

it is a state of India only since partition when the Maharajas were "deposed". and if you read the history of Tamil Nadu the adjective "ancient" does apply. but this is irrelevant as far as the nut selling Indians and their residence permits are concerned.

That's not correct. "Tamil Nadu" came out of the Madras Presidency way after partition. And, of course, "ancient" applies to all of India but then you have to start talking about dynasties (Cholas, Pandyas, Maurayas, etc.), the extents of their respective kingdoms, languages spoken and on and on.

So, to say "Tamil Nadu is an ancient country" is nonsensical. And neither is there evidence of "ancient" migration from the south of India to Thailand, not at this end at any rate. Buddhism came by another route.

39 minutes ago, Naam said:

About 65,000 Indian Thais have full Thai citizenship, but around 400,000 persons of Indian origin settled in Thailand mainly in the cities.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indians_in_Thailand

Normally, I like Wikipedia but when they say " Tamil Nadu is an ancient country" (it isn't, it's a state of India) and "Tamil people came during the Chola period" (which is more than 1000  years ago, before there was a recognizable Siam) I start to think the guy who wrote this particular article got the plot wrong.

So here's what I know from talking to local Indians:

(1) The Indian Thais, the rich ones in particular, are Punjabi Sikhs who've been here a few generations.

(2) The nut sellers and money-lenders are mostly from the town of Gorakhpur in the state of UP in India.

They're more recent than the Sikhs but now have a fairly large community settled here.

(3) The Indians shopkeepers in Panthip Plaza are from Myanmar.

Anecdotal I know but that's all I got.

33 minutes ago, overherebc said:

It only makes sense to people who know and make themselves aware of the circumstances. I have no problem staying here because I know how things are.

I speak a bit of Hindi from my days working in Mumbai and used to chat with a couple of nut sellers when they would come by my favorite Suk roadside watering hole before the army got it into their heads to shut all the stalls down. I didn't ask them their visa situation - wouldn't be kosher - but from talking to them it was clear they knew their way around. They weren't afraid of the cops at all, even those rounding up the Africans.

Come to think of it the Africans are often targeted but they're still on Suk in numbers. Like overherebc says, it's a matter of knowing how things work in this country. Plus the Indians and Africans have an advantage over us ruggedly individualistic Westerners - they rely on community and connections through the community. Which means what they lack in apparent wealth, they more than compensate with other resources.

32 minutes ago, roo860 said:

There used to be an Indian guy in Hua Hin, would come around to the roadside food stalls on a Friday collecting money for the bedding he sold on credit.

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No Big C or bank would extend credit to someone with an address in a slum and a roadside stall for income. The Indian guy is doing this so fair play to him. It's his business model taking the risk. I wouldn't call him a loan shark.