Ministry of Som Tam

Ministry of Som Tam, or whatever your regular board name is,:

I had a detailed response typed up, but I know where that would go - pages of keyboard warriors tearing into one another. Suffice it to say that you think I'm an imbecile, and I think you are a sanctimonious, patronising <deleted>. If you want to lecture me on Cambodia, go right ahead, but my knowledge of Forex (<deleted> ..) and international finance in general has nothing to do with you or this thread. The 'brown bags of cash' line is beneath contempt - it speaks volumes for the spite you want to bring to this discussion. My advice is to cut back on the purple pills.

16 posts that were clearly designed as nothing more than thinly-veiled barbs. Last time I checked, that was considered trolling.

I won't hold my breath for your lecture on Elliott Waves,Bollinger Bands and Fibonacci Retracements if you don't mind!

+1 beautifulthailand99, I don't think people realize the juggernaut that's on it's way from China.

When I was in CM two weeks ago I saw staff members practising Chinese phrases and the boss told me he was getting a menu prepared in Mandarin. The Chinese were everywhere ( as they are entitled to be ) and there will be a vast increase in tourism from that country shortly, especially I predict in Chiang Mai.

I'm like a broken record on this subject, the Chinese are coming, they're looking for bargains, they're looking for investments, they're looking for relaxation, and most worryingly for a lot of Western guys, they're looking for Brides.

Many of them are awash with money and they'll go snapping up the best of the women in a heartbeat. The competition is getting a whole lot hotter, and there's a weird thing on play in Chinese society, Chinese men always marry down. .

Dont even know where to start with that - suffice it to say that I disagree with almost everyhing in that post. Congratulations

Well I just expanded upon the post so that'll give you even more to disagree with.

Same here.

As a guy that has lived in Thailand since 1990, I don't know where this Scottish tourist gets his ideas from, they're certainly not from experience.

He's certainly never been to China as the women in Shanghai are absolutely smoking hot and desperate to find a husband,no Chinese would even contemplate some battered old bargirl from Pattaya,Bangkok or Chiang Mai,why would they?

It's the same with any country you dare to migrate to. If you're good enough and willing to survive in a foreign country, you can adapt to almost anything.

I'm a German who lived for some odd 10 years in the UK. Now I live in Thailand and I still find myself drinking English tea with milk instead of instant sh*t with milk powder. I cook my English breakfast every Sunday and miss it if I don't have time to cook! Oh yea, and I drink as much as I can (rather as much as I should drink) when I know I'm off the next day...

And as a German I miss the German beers and good wines. So what am I??? German? Engilsh? Thai? One second, let me check my passport.... Sh*t there is it? Think I lost it. Oh, there it is. It's a Thai passport! Damn, it's just my daughter's passport. Oh well. Never mind...

Im from the UK and cannot live without my bacon and egg butty in the morning,with a nice cup of tea of course.It makes me wince to see people drinking tea without milk,horrible!

BTW,Tops has very good teabags,I'm on Waitrose round breakfast ones now,just finished Tesco's Finest Ceylon but I have to say these are better!

German beers also,Tops has Bitburger,Warsteiner and many others.Villa Market has my favourite Krombacher and not too expensive at 99 baht for a 500ml can!

Has no-one made the connection between waiing everyone,then buying houses,cars etc for the family?Motability scooters for the sick buffalo etc?
It is a very sneaky Thai test of your malleability and gullibility,if they can get you to wai everyone then they know they can get you to hand over the ATM card and everything else!

Waiing is for wimps and suckers,that's all there is to it!

She must have friends you can contact for her stuff.

Alternatively,the weather's gone a bit colder now so have a bonfire with it to warm yourself up!

Well, our relationship was long distance for the initial six months, then one year when I studied in England and now again but just for four months. However, we are looking into living/working here together and we won't break up . To be honest, I would not mind him having some time off and me taking care of both of us. He's been working really hard, has done the same thing for me for quite a while and deserves a long holiday - but I'm pretty sure he'd be bored after a couple of months at the latest and of course he wants to stay up-to-date regarding his business field.

You seem very determined,so much so that I am prepared to step into his shoes and let you take care of me,I wouldn't do this for just anyone though!

Talk him into teaching. If you both really really wanna live there, its his easiest path.

Yeah come and live high on the hog on 30k per month and all the hassles that go with the TEFLr world.

Eh, no thanks, would rather stay in the west.

If you both TEFL as hard as you can for a decade or two who knows,you may even rise to the position of TV moderator at some point,the sky's the limit!

There are banks in USA with no foreign ATM fees and will reimburse your 150 baht withdrawal fee at the end of each month. Interest rates have been around for a long time; they help me do things today when my income is parceled out monthly. Likewise, some credit cards have foreign transaction fees and some have none. As I have no heirs, if I drop dead tomorrow the CC companies are stuck with the payments.

To me, they are just like a cost of doing business. I save so much each month living in Thailand vs. USA that interest payments and other fees just get lost in the wash.

Citibank and Aeon ATMs still don't charge the 150 baht fee in Thailand.

Where are citibank ATM's, i am yet to see one

Central World,Bangkok,3rd Floor where all the banks are!

Pineapplesamui

Posted Today, 12:39

"She claimed that he was using them to give to the lady she had rented the motorbike from but I don't believe this story."

Let us clarify that first, before the young woman, how young?,

I think young when you are only 25 young, is accused of trying to pull off, a "serious capital crime"

Do you know, that she had a problem to rent a Motorbike in her name?

That she tried to do so?

Did you know, that she would try to rent a Motorbike in your name?

Would you have agreed to that possibility, she rents a motorbike and official you are the person that is responsible in the contract?

If not its a possibility, that she tried it differently, also it would not be fair to you!

Why you do not believe that easy version of events?

It is possible but I had previously given her a photocopy of my passport with large writing across it saying for motorbike rental only in Thai and English.

If she hadn't tried to run away when I asked for my passport back I probably would have believed her too.

But she ran and that is what lead to me thinking she is guilty.

Also some questions about age I am 25 and she is 22 so no great age difference just different ideas I think

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Perhaps the GF run away because of fear of you?

You admit to smashing her phone, which is a horrible thing to do and in my opinion is the act of someone with an unstable temper problem.

Have you ever used violence, intimidation or aggression against her in the past? If not than I see no reason why she would run away from you, unless she was in fear as to your reactions when you caught up with her.

She was stealing his passport and work permit <deleted>!

Mate,you did the right thing,she's an absolute scumbag!Who knows what she had planned for your personal documentation but there is NO circumstance under which it would have been anything innocent,quite the opposite in fact!

I would have caught her,snatched my passport back,turned her around and given her the hardest boot up her arse I possibly could to send her on her conniving,thieving way!

I once saw a Brazilian barman in my mates pub do this to a girl thief trying to steal wallets,it was hilarious and I bet she thought twice about doing it again!

I remember Thaksin at one point attempted to demand the whole Man City team wai him in the dressing room!

What exactly is the 'Yellow Book' and can someone post some links to threads explaining it,I've heard of Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve's Beige Book,is this one just older?

To the OP :

1.) It's had it!

2.) There isn't one!

I wai for no man,I'm not Thai,therefore I don't wai,simple! Don't do it!

There are banks in USA with no foreign ATM fees and will reimburse your 150 baht withdrawal fee at the end of each month. Interest rates have been around for a long time; they help me do things today when my income is parceled out monthly. Likewise, some credit cards have foreign transaction fees and some have none. As I have no heirs, if I drop dead tomorrow the CC companies are stuck with the payments.

To me, they are just like a cost of doing business. I save so much each month living in Thailand vs. USA that interest payments and other fees just get lost in the wash.

Citibank and Aeon ATMs still don't charge the 150 baht fee in Thailand.

OK - clearly, I've dug my own grave on this, but I use ATMs as a last resort. I take AUD to Thailand and exchange it to baht for my holidays, and I will be using Forex for larger amounts in 2014. Setting up a Thai bank account hasn't really been worth it up till now, although I did consider it during one 3-month stint in 2008.

In addition to the fee the owners of the ATMs charge, my bank here in Oz rapes me on every transaction. They charge me for an 'overseas withdrawal fee' or similar, and they ream me on the foreign exchange transaction. I know I will have to pay a Forex trader, but I fully expect to get a better rate than my bank gives me (I couldn't do worse ..) and I wont be paying two sets of ATM fees. I also have a problem with the increasing number of scams in and around ATMs in Thailand and other parts of Asia. Much happier using the ATMs in the bank during working hours, but that isnt always feasible. Even the currency exchange at the airports is usually several points off what I can get closer to my hotel.

Paranoid cheapskate ? Maybe, but I get pissed off any time I feel that my bank is having an even bigger lend of me than usual - Australian banks are notorious for their high fees. Of course, once I follow the suggestion given in another thread and convert all those nasty Pacific Pesos to Thai baht, my problems are over, right guys ? Er, guys ? <sound of crickets chirping>

You're obviously blissfully unaware of the fact that 'Forex' is short for Foreign Exchange,do you honestly believe that ATMs are the only places using the Foreign Exchange for currency transactions?Will your 'Forex Trader' be turning up with a brown paper bag full of money and where do you think he will have gotten the money from?The Bank,The Foreign Exchange or both?

Your 'Forex Trader' is just dealing in larger amounts than you are and is therefore not paying the retail price like you are,he's still obtaining the funds from the Foreign Exchange or Forex!

i know a few thai ladies that are living in Cambodia, (PP, SR and Shv) with their farang bf/husbands

Not a problem for them

I know one in Koh Kong,married to an Aussie who owns Bob's Bar there,he told me she can't wait to get 'home' after visiting Thailand these days!

Just returned from Cambodia.

I find the women more attractive there than in TL.

just a personal preference i guess.

Just about everything else, i didnt see much difference.

People are just as lovely, just as friendly, just as corrupt, lol

Prices are just as low, and ferang prices just as different lol

but I don't believe there's any work over there for an EE

so its a moot point.

Not that there's a lot of work for an EE here!

Agree on the women, but then I think the Buriram, Surin, Sisaket, etc. area has its beauties.

By EE if you mean electrical engineer, I heard there was a lot of hiring due to the fast increase in power generation facilities.

In Surin they even speak Khmer,do you think that might have something to do with it?Who wants transparent,stuck-up ironing boards anyway,like most of the younger population of Bangkok?

Well the OP has dreams of a cheaper life with cheaper women in a cheaper country in a cheaper hovel with cheaper food. He is just living the dream of cheapness, a pentultimate objective in a fulfilling life if ever there was.

Some folk also cited the easier visa system as an incentive for considering Cambo, but I think you have hit the nail on the head. In any case, a month in Cambo would answer a lot more questions than 500 of these threads.

He's only hit the nail on the head if the OP is a fat,bald Cheap Charlie whoremonger who came here to die,not for anyone with any imagination who is interested in learning about the culture in Cambodia.Which after all,is where all Thai culture is from originally,after they stole it from the Khmers!

I'm going to take the positive route and believe he's not,maybe he might be interested in exploring the largest and most pristinely preserved temple complex anywhere on the planet also?

Why do so many people on here have so little imagination and so little quality of life,it's a self-fulfilling prophecy surely?

Well the OP has dreams of a cheaper life with cheaper women in a cheaper country in a cheaper hovel with cheaper food. He is just living the dream of cheapness, a pentultimate objective in a fulfilling life if ever there was.

Maybe he actually has dreams of a country where they can speak and understand English to a reasonable level?Don't want you to just leave your chequebook and F-off back home,genuinely encourage foreign direct investment and businesses,not just use them as a premise to rip you off for every penny you import.

Maybe he dreams of a country where if you buy a bar you are actually allowed to go behind the bar of your own establishment (this one just makes me lol!),a place where the male population Is actually worth conversing with and they are genuinely working hard to provide a better life for their families?

A place where you can expect to not get bumped off by your relatives,as soon as your significant other gets their greedy,grabbing hands on your assets,while the authorities look the other way and pretend nothing happened?

I could go on but I won't,none of the above has happened to me but reading the newspapers it's probably just good luck more than anything I've done!Then again I'm not stupid enough to own a business in Thailand and the only money I bring into the country is the bare minimum I need to survive!

Go back and read some of bangkokburning's posts in this thread, but he isnt alone. The attitude that 'Cambodia has moved on - the KR are ancient history' seems to ignore certain realities. That said, I'm not Cambodian - to speak on their behalf is way beyond my pay grade.

I'm not looking to start a flame war here, but making sweeping statements re Cambodia without so much as Wikipedia entry seems awfully ambitious for mine.

Have you been to Cheoung Ek,The Killing Fields and seen The Killing Tree,where they used to hold children by their legs and smash them to death on the tree to save bullets?

My point is that everyone in Cambodia just wants to forget about the horrors of the past and just move on,even the acknowledgement of what went on seems too much to bear for most Khmers these days and I do know many Khmers that did live through the full horrors of the Khmer Rouge!

I have read virtually everything available by Thai, Khmer, French, Chinese, Vietnamese and American scholars on the subject,

Joe,

I'm always interested to learn more. I'd be most great foul if you could recommend a good book or two on the subject.

Thanks.

T

If you ever travel to Phnom Penh, you can find tons of books at excellent prices. Also, take a visit to S-21, which is worth a thousand words.

True. Especially the latter (I'd been reading about it all for years before I ever went there - and to a great degree all that I read, and have read since, pale in comparison to that visit's impact).

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I went to Tuol Sleng (S-21) with friends including a lady who was half Chinese-half Khmer and had barely escaped the clutches of the Khmer Rouge as a child,she refused to go inside and sat outside on a bench until we had finished looking around!

<Snip>I have read virtually everything available by Thai, Khmer, French, Chinese, Vietnamese and American scholars on the subject, <snip>

Joe,

I'm always interested to learn more. I'd be most great foul if you could recommend a good book or two on the subject.

Thanks.

T

The Gate by Francois Bizot is an absolute must read,about a French Correspondent fluent in Khmer,who was in Phnom Penh for the takeover by the Khmer Rouge.

I think he was the only foreigner to survive capture and imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge but be warned that it is harrowing stuff with no punches pulled!