BradinAsia

Disgusted with the electric company. They also do not consider that maybe in some houses people might be on vital medical equipment. Recently I got cut off, never got a bill, was in the house my phone number on the meter. No questions asked no service. Immediately went to pay; it took them 5 hours to re connect. It would make life easier for them and the users if there was a warning service.

I agree that this is a very distressing occurrence but at the end of the day the mother for whatever reason is solely responsible for the deaths of her children.

Electricity bills come out regularly and she would have been aware (should have been aware) that one was due.

Natives of the realm are notorious for pushing the envelope too far, not paying their bills on time, living beyond their means, borrowing on one credit card to pay another when it falls due.

Maybe historically she was always late, maybe she had received warnings in the past.

Are we gonna get into the situation where the supply authority has to change the diapers.

People have responsibilities and if they fail to meet or honour them they cannot move their culpability on to someone else.

If all the do-gooders here could come up with some positive "PREVENTATIVE MEASURES" their time might be better spent.

Having said the foregoing, it grieves me to think of these two children, but at the end of the day I didn't create all the problems here and I sure as he!! am not responsible for fixing them.

What a huge load of rubbish.

"Natives of the realm are notorious for pushing the envelope too far, not paying their bills on time, living beyond their means, borrowing on one credit card to pay another when it falls due."

Think about this statement -- would it not equally apply to a sizable number of the natives in many other "realms" in the world?

It's a very sad story. You can't blame the electricity company, that's the way it works here and cutting the power sometimes is the only way to make people pay their bill. Can't blame the mother either for sure, 9 and 13 yo are old enough to stay on their own if the mother was working. The kids should have put the candles out before going to sleep, but everyone here is so afraid of the dark and of the ghosts...

Yes you can blame the electric company. The only reason they cut the supply by taking away the connection or meter is to collect the extra 100 or so baht for re-connection.

Survey the people who work in the electric office and see how many of them have had their lines cut, on second thoughts don't bother, I already know the answer.

I have paid mine at 10am on the last day due and at 12.30 I was watching the outside of the house when the guy came. parked his bike at the end of the Soi and walked to the meter, so I wouldn't hear him, when he got to the meter I stuck my head over the wall and said Hi, what's your problem while holding the receipt for him to see.

Received no answer and he just went back to his bike and disappeared.

I agree 100%,it took me around 6 months after moving into my house for the idiot delivering the bill to manage to find the house!My electricity was cut off first on Christmas Eve,then for the next two consecutive months until I told the owner if it happened again I was moving out!

I made the comment to the owner that they know exactly where to come top cut it off but not where to deliver the bill?She told me the cut-off people work for the Electricity Board and the delivery muppets are sub-contracted!

The idiot turned up the next time with his wife and big smiles at my gate,I honestly think they were expecting to get a tip,unbelievable.To top it all off the owner's Father,a Chinese-Thai Doctor had already paid it so it didn't get cut off!Now I just let him pay,collect the receipt and pay it into his bank with the rent money.

These monkeys can deliver a paid bill but not an unpaid one to the house for me to go and pay myself,I've given up now!

Anyway,my problems really do pale into insignificance compared to this Mother who has just lost her two little angels,I hope that one day this poor lady is able to come to terms with what has happened here.They say that God takes the best ones young and turns them into angels.

Amazing how one could create a huge negative outlook against the electric company, the unreliable "monkeys" who can't deliver a bill, and apparently against all Thai people for being idiots.

Let me suggest an alternative.

Since you need electric and the company needs its electric fees, just mark your calendar for the whole year -- every month 2-3 days before the normal due date just write "Pay electric."

It's really not rocket science. The average 8-year-old could do it.

Big life-troubling problem solved.

LIke NeverSure said I can't image someone wanting to give up their U.S. citizenship and the associated benefits unless they are trying to avoid something like taxes owed.

I think taxes owed are not the problem, I think future taxation is the issue.

Can't understand how a country can tax its citizens who live abroad without providing services in return.

Well they do provide services in return. Just whether those services are worth 39% of my annual salary are another discussion.

Services the U.S. government provides it's citizens who live abroad...

Here's an example: Recently, I went to the U.S. Consulate to have 3 forms notarized. It took about 2 minutes of the guy's time.

Cost: 1,500 baht (or $50) each. Total for 3 signatures = 4,500 baht (or $150).

Years ago, I used to pay $1.50 to $2.50 for a notary in the U.S. Today, at $10 it might be called a service. At $50 a pop, it might

be very aptly be called something else...

Somewhere in the west, there is a billionaire being driven by a hired ex-SAS member in his armoured limousine, wondering how anyone can think of carting their kids around town in a mini-van.

Thai parents love their kids, just like western parents. As arthurwait implies, if they could afford a vehicle with seating and seat belts for each passenger, that's what they would buy.

Do a little math and figure out how you'd clothe, feed and get your family around town on 300 baht per day.

To suggest that they just don't care is a little arrogant.

Well, if they can afford a 50.000 Baht motorbike, iguess they can also afford a 150 Baht helmet. Not ?

Yes I agree with the above plus that when you buy a motorbike most if not all come with 2 free helmuts. So no excuse.

I recently bought two new helmuts as I wanted to have better quality ones.

Rather than throw out the old ones which were only about 7 months old, my wife went round the village to give them to families who she thought could use them. 2 hours later came back with one of them.

She stated that all families have them already but not use them!!!

I would hazzard a guess that at least one member of each house in the village has at some time been fined for not wearing a hat when they are stopped at check points in the nearest towns. But does this make a difference? NO

So those who go on about the cost, that is rubbish. It is a lack of common sense and 'finger up' against the law.

Here we go... the superiority syndrome showing it's ugly head once again.

Must be some kind of farang obsession to try to demonstrate that Western

culture, intelligence, morals are so vastly superior to those of the East.

Excuse me while I go barf...

But the people that matter in this country don't put their kids at risk like this, only poor people do, and nobody important cares about them. There's no incentive to try to pass such an unpopular law.

What you think, it's the government's role to look out for the public interest? This is Thailand or did you forget? People only work for the government in order to enrich themselves.

And human life just isn't that important! Let's leave a few places on the planet where stupid people are free to crack their heads OK?

Please don't forget --

From the early 1900s until the 1970s, tens of thousands of people were mutilated in horrific auto accidents -- thousands with their throats slashed by the plate glass windshields (windscreens) because there were no seat belts, no safety glass, and neither the auto makers nor the government really cared a rat's axx about safety.

After 70 years of senseless, bloody slaughter on U.S. highways (was it any different in other affluent countries?), who now has the right to call third world folk stupid?

I would think the requirements would be that the applicant be breathing in and out.

Best post I've seen in many moons.

Thanks for that. It says it all.

The man was standing up death for minutes on the train track,so

the train driver did not kill him ,ok ,case solved.

"...standing up death..."

What the h-ll is that?

I always hate attending these types of incidents (9) it is not a nice experience.

Yea me too (27)

"...attending these types of incidents..."

Excuse me, but what does this mean? Observing the accident? Attending the funeral?

I actually pity the sad old sex tourists who honestly can't think of a better reason to be in Thailand than for a few ageing bargirls telling them they are 'Hansum' men!

Even more pitiful is these posts showing how much in denial they are and trying to rope everyone else into their sordid little world.I see the usual Scottish contingent are out in force as usual,heartily agreeing that we all must be here as dirty old mongers like them!

I just thank the Lord that I really have more self-respect and less self-loathing than these types of greasy old lechers,who obviously know how distasteful they are otherwise they wouldn't waste everybody's time with creepy threads like this!

I quite agree. If a person is living here because its cheap (living expenses and sex). No matter what sort of financial padding, it must be a sad life. I think many, many go back home. The finally figure out the game and pack their kit and go. We never read about them, they have no need for TV any more.

Many years ago I started using Pattaya as a base. Costs of bkk went sky high and Pattaya just got cheaper. Was only 1.5hrs from airport, no traffic - it wasnt a special place, but it was a good cheap base. Pattaya has so, so many ugly problems now, where to start.

If living in Cambodia did not give me an education, Pattaya did. I got to know a lot of women working in the bars on a personal level. Many became friends with benefits. I learned thru them the game in its entirity. What they did not tell me, I could clean from my trips out to beer bars and gogos. The guys looking for a straight up deal and play it that way are few to none. These guys go.to these bars to be wanted - and the women play to this. Its really sad.

Aftervthe British invasion a lot changed. The hard, sex starved guys really put these women through the ringer. They became harder.To a trained eye and an expat, it was always about money - but after 03+, the vibe changed. At this time, younger bad girls were coming out of Issan. They were arriving in Pattaya already with ugly tatoos and smoking. Many with drugs problems and sime with hiv. The young ones always popular with the young guys, they paid but also were quite ugly to many of these women.

The old birds were always a huge fixture in the beer bars and not uncommon to find attractive 35yos still grinding it out in agogo.

Now obviously thousands of guys live here and ez sex is sadly a big part of this. But the reality has been forvthe newbies, they are lured here for want of the pretty girls in photos on the Internet, but end up sleeping with a soft mother of two from Buriram.

Sex at 50+ should not be a primary driver in your life. If it is I personally tbink something a bit off. I chalk it up to availability and making up for lost time.

I made a statement earlier about ones life being food, beer and women. This is truly the case of most here. People without interests, activities (no, not work).It's just a very shallow, one dimensional existence.

Personally, I have no problem with people paying for it. None. It's when a persons entire existence is bound up in a game and industry I kniw all to well serves no one well in the end.

Almost every STI now days is untreatable. I don't fancy being a walking bag of communicable disease.

I'm not moralizing. It's just a new era.

Hmm... did somebody die and appoint you the judge of all men?

This post surely deserves an honorable mention for one of the

most crass TV diatribes posts ever.

"CM is a backwater. Bangkok is King and Phuket his queen. The rest just fall in behind."

Obviously the views of a sex tourist. Chiang Mai has everything civilized folk could ever

want -- especially, friendly people. Even most of the tuk-tuk drivers are friendly.

What Chang Mai lacks -- the gridlock traffic, the choking fumes, the in-your-face sex

trade, and the droves of overweight, unwashed, bleary-eyed geezers -- are the very

The views of the sex tourist. .

reason why more and more discerning folks are flocking to Chiang Mai.

Last time I was in Chiang Mai the traffic and air quality was abysmal...far worse than Bangkok...

You sir are a fool. One, I have been living and traveling in Asia for twenty years. That undoubtedly makes me not a tourist. As for being here for sex, I have not been in any of those dumb ass bars for five years and the five years befire that was just to drink the cheap beer. I have not been to Nana in ten years and SC and PP for 15. I have never paid a barfine in a gogo and have paid about a dozen in my life. Those were to get some aquaintances out of the bar so they could come to our beach parties

Chaing Mai is bs. It is totally overrated place to visit and has huge issues for tourist but the biggest is ...its boring! I asked my WIFE yesterday (maybe I am wrong on this) yesterday she said she likes Chaing Rai more as well as outside Kanchanaburi and MaeHongSon (right after monsoon) better. We have talked about living all over the world and Thailand. She has never brought up.CM.

We have been together for four years and regularly travel all over Thailand, Asia and the US. She has never expressed the slightest interest to go to CM.

Like much of Thailand, CM was allowed to develop uncontrollably and the price was grave. Fires, air pillution often as bad or worse than bkk, heat, drought, floods but most of all nothing to do. Finally, when you need something electronics fixed, some real medical treatment its bkk.

As for the sex trade in your face, that is utter rubbish. BKK flesh peddling is quite discreet. In fact, I recall twenty years ago somewhere in CM a main street with girlie beer bars. We don't have that here! Then you have the hiv issue up north, cant get away from that (obviously goes with sleazy sex).

You cant defend the indefensible. Call the truth a lie to avoid confronting it as fact.

You ad hominem attack on me, calling me a sex tourist is misplaced and out of line. If I was I ciuld not care less, but I am not. I never had a need to buy much sex in my life. Lucky me.

Alas, we are probably all fools, but you, sir, are a bigger fool. Like so many pseudo-experts

on TV, you make broad sweeping comments on things you know nothing about. You know

nothing about Chiang Mai, so you ask your wife. Then you tell us "Chiang Mai is bs."

What a load of doodoo. If you live somewhere at least 5-10 years you may learn enough

about it to offer useful comments. Otherwise, you merely reveal your narrow mind.

For your information I was in Bangkok over 50 years ago, so you'd probably do better

blowing your smoke somewhere else.

,

Don't know where the OP lives, but in CNX the temp get down to about 24 degrees at night.

Best way to get a good comfortable night's sleep without wasting electric -- turn off the air-con,

open the bedroom window, put a floor fan inside the window to draw cool outside air in all night.

Saves a lot of electric.

@candypants...

"Clearly you don't know the difference between an ATM card and a credit or debit card. The difference is enormous."

With a debit card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

With an ATM card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

Maybe you could please enlighten the rest of us on the difference.

A debit card can be used most anywhere credit cards are accepted. It means the cloned card could be used to go and purchase a notebook, or a 72" Plasma TV (or both ) as well as stealing directly from the account at an ATM.

An ATM card is for removing cash from the ATM only. Now you're enlightened.

@candypants...

"Clearly you don't know the difference between an ATM card and a credit or debit card. The difference is enormous."

With a debit card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

With an ATM card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

Maybe you could please enlighten the rest of us on the difference.

A debit card can be used most anywhere credit cards are accepted. It means the cloned card could be used to go and purchase a notebook, or a 72" Plasma TV (or both ) as well as stealing directly from the account at an ATM.

An ATM card is for removing cash from the ATM only. Now you're enlightened.

Thank you so much, I think everybody already knows that.

I was hoping to hear about a difference that is "enormous."

@candypants...

"Clearly you don't know the difference between an ATM card and a credit or debit card. The difference is enormous."

With a debit card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

With an ATM card you go to an ATM and withdraw your money from your account.

Maybe you could please enlighten the rest of us on the difference.

My (Thai) wife asked questions to our bank manager of Siam Commercial Bank (Tiwanond Road branch) and he said that in such cases his bank would always reimburse the stolen money rather than loosing its reputation.

I hope it is true.

We are notified by SMS of transactions.

Wonderful sounding words, but I had 70,000 baht skimmed from my SCB account and

they were quire indifferent. Told me someone probably used my card.

Several years later, and I've never gotten 1 baht of it back.

"You just keep telling yourself that laddie...

If you do it enough times, it might become true...because Thailand has the only tropical climate on the planet..."

How long did it take to drag this eloquent jewel out???...

Your primary reason was woman (for rent presumably) My primary reason was the climate. Let me spell it out for you that part again: If this place had prostitutes for 1 baht per hour, i would still not ever have come here if it was snow and ice here too. not ever

You just keep telling yourself that laddie...

If you do it enough times, it might become true...because Thailand has the only tropical climate on the planet...

Maybe the heavy drinking has addled your noggin.

"CM is a backwater. Bangkok is King and Phuket his queen. The rest just fall in behind."

Obviously the views of a sex tourist. Chiang Mai has everything civilized folk could ever

want -- especially, friendly people. Even most of the tuk-tuk drivers are friendly.

What Chang Mai lacks -- the gridlock traffic, the choking fumes, the in-your-face sex

trade, and the droves of overweight, unwashed, bleary-eyed geezers -- are the very

reason why more and more discerning folks are flocking to Chiang Mai.

Last time I was in Chiang Mai the traffic and air quality was abysmal...far worse than Bangkok...

No place on earth is perfect.

Even the best places (such as Chiang Mai) have their imperfect days.

The main secret for enjoying life is to find the best place to live, focus

on its best aspects and thank heaven the imperfections are few. Most

of all, avoid the dismal, gloomy, pessimistic outlook so common on TV.

When I encounter imperfections in the place I live, I immediately recall

how much worse it was in farangland.

I plan to stay in Chiang Mai until the oceans all dry up. Meantime, I will

enjoy this marvelous city every day and pity the gloom & doom crowd.

"CM is a backwater. Bangkok is King and Phuket his queen. The rest just fall in behind."

Obviously the views of a sex tourist. Chiang Mai has everything civilized folk could ever

want -- especially, friendly people. Even most of the tuk-tuk drivers are friendly.

What Chang Mai lacks -- the gridlock traffic, the choking fumes, the in-your-face sex

trade, and the droves of overweight, unwashed, bleary-eyed geezers -- are the very

reason why more and more discerning folks are flocking to Chiang Mai.

Thanks BradinAsia.

Will do, this should be no difficult chore.

If I get carried away with this assignment, then do I have to report back here to debrief?

Or may I debrief elsewhere?

(Maybe this humor belongs in the sick jokes forum?)

Huh?

Being shocked by stunners is a sick joke?

"I still don't think there's anything wrong with going to places where there are good looking women."

Like HK, ShangHai.

But Chiang Mai? Really? You think?

There are plenty of nice girls, and healthy girls, smart girls, and cute girls.

But since I have been in Chiang Mai, to tell the truth, I just have not yet seen any good looking women.

I think you gotta go to HK for that, or maybe ShangHai.

Sorry to tell the truth here, but it really is true.

You all have Google Images available, and this CM question is not a fact of life that you do not know, or can prove to yourselves with minimal effort at your computer keyboards in privacy.

Sorry

So Sorry

Since I live in Chiang Mai full time, I'm wondering if you have ever lived here.

Go to any shopping mall and prepare to have your eyes shocked by the stunners.

After 26 years in farangland and 26 years in Asia, I chose Chiang Mai for retirement.

Best place I've ever lived, and one reason I like it -- sex tourists generally don't come

here.

Who are all those guys sitting in bars on Loi Kroh Road and in massage parlors and brothels all over the city? Thank Buddha that Chiang Mai is not pure and proper as some would like.

And until recently CM had abnormally high HIV rates, for decades.

Then there are the fires/smoke....and they complain about a bit of haze in bkk.

It's amazing what folks will complain about.

I knew a bloke who found a $100 bill and complained that it was dirty and wrinkled.

"In February the TAC helped a Russian tourist who had dropped his clutch bag containing US$15,000 and his passport at the airport."

Surprised that he didn't get arrested for bringing more than $10,000 into the country without declaring it.

Unless he passed out generous reward and was "forgiven."

So comical... and pathetic.

So many farang sex tourists and resident expats who've obviously encountered only

two things worth remembering (for them) in Thailand -- hookers and temples.

After 26 years in farangland and 26 years in Asia, I chose Chiang Mai for retirement.

Best place I've ever lived, and one reason I like it -- sex tourists generally don't come

here. Chiang Mai has everything a civilized bloke could want, yes, even temples.

Chaing Mai is a total bore.

To the poster that stated, Thailand has it all, Cambodia only Angkor Wat. Eastern Cambodia quite interesting, especially many yrars ago. Phnom Penh was also an absolutely lovely town until 1996. But Cambodia has its share of issues. Still, it eas crazy exotic.

Angkor Wat - you guys simply do not know the experience. Cost was minimal, no crowds even on weekends, no wood walkeays to clutter your photos, you could hang out, string a hammock, burn a few reefers and just lounge all day listening to the birds. Best of all, much of the best bas reliefs and sculpture has been stolen or ruined by exposure. I have photos of tjings that do not now exist.

Many of the temples are reaching tipping points where the entire exoerience is downgraded because the temple is so ruined. Years ago I knew so much about those temples I could be a guide.

I've been to the Bagan temple complex four or five times as well.

I've visited nearly every important temple from Bali to India (excluding deep South).

Yeah, I love temples. I love History - I majored in it in school. So to people that roll their eyes, scoff..just a bunch of plebs.

So please sit on your bar stool on Soi 4, visit the grand palace with your rental, take a bunch of photos and tell everyone back home what a traveler you are. Leave the real adventuring to adventurers.

Chiang MaI is a total bore?

So that's why is has millions of happy visitors every year.

Pray tell what planet are you from?

After 26 years in farangland and 26 years in Asia, I chose Chiang Mai for retirement.

Best place I've ever lived, and one reason I like it -- sex tourists generally don't come

here.

Who are all those guys sitting in bars on Loi Kroh Road and in massage parlors and brothels all over the city? Thank Buddha that Chiang Mai is not pure and proper as some would like.

Guys drinking beer in bars does not put a place in the same league as Pattaya and Phuket.

Nor does massage parlors. The point is: CM is not a sex tourist haven by any stretch.

Chiang Mai is infinitely more classy and civilized than the squalorous P & P.

So comical... and pathetic.

So many farang sex tourists and resident expats who've obviously encountered only

two things worth remembering (for them) in Thailand -- hookers and temples.

After 26 years in farangland and 26 years in Asia, I chose Chiang Mai for retirement.

Best place I've ever lived, and one reason I like it -- sex tourists generally don't come

here. Chiang Mai has everything a civilized bloke could want, yes, even temples.