PaPiPuPePo

On 6/13/2017 at 2:18 AM, KhunBENQ said:

It's for the bin.

Frankfurt in the best list?

This patchwork labyrinth??

Yeah, FRA? Notorious mess of an airport. Changing planes there once I got directed to a long empty hallway and emergency-exit-type concrete staircase, fortunately I guess there were other passengers navigating this maze and together we eventually found our way.

Two things I dislike about Swampy: the 10km trek from plane to immigration, and the hassle going from floor to floor. 

At least you can get wifi, when it opened all they had were some mostly non-functioning overpriced incredible slow and frustrating terminals, I actually felt sorry for the tech-challenged bureaucrat who got suckered into purchasing them.

More on the comparison, violent crime in the US is mostly either between friends and family (as elsewhere in the world) or in certain areas (parts of cities and towns) where most people know not to go. Yes there are mass shootings, but my point is that this situation, getting caught up in violence anyplace, anywhere, is for a farang more likely in Thailand though it will be as the sole victim, and this is what gives me personally feelings of insecurity in Thailand. You have to be on the watch or at least aware that someone can come after you at any moment, probably just for relatively small amounts of money (including bent cops), but possibly for more, maybe even your life.

It's only a smallish percentage of Thai men one has to worry about, but you can't blend in and avoid them.

On 6/12/2017 at 8:10 PM, LomSak27 said:

Great Work! No statistics, no never use those, just hit it with the  … What about … What about …. The “what-aboutery” defense. You have done you job gentle poster. You banged up the first post, used an emotional opinion rant; a classic, if well worn, deflection. The usual suspects have sprouted like mushrooms after a monsoon rain around your post and popped ‘likes’.  A job well done

I agree. I got punched in the throat recently by a young Thai transportation thug for no good reason. There was nothing I could do; in the US I could at least fight back, in fact no one would get that close to me in the US. I don't think we have a bigger gun problem than in Thailand, and in the US I can and do carry at times. 

I then spent 3 weeks on Koh Tao being very careful any time I interacted with the local gentlemen lest I end up beat down or worse.

As a white male who doesn't dress poor (nice watch etc) I'm a constant target, for the many corrupt police as well.

Nowadays as big a chance of terrorism in Thailand as in the US, not that I consider either threat very serious, more worried on the roads lol.

So there's always a threat of violence or at least danger in Thailand and as visitors we have little to no ability to defend ourselves either before or after the fact.

On 6/17/2017 at 9:23 AM, geisha said:

Most countries including Europe , Britain and the USA have quite strict rules concerning visas. I don't see what's wrong with Thailand following , especially when there are a lot of un savoury travellers hitting the sky these days. I think a bit more screening is necessary, everywhere. 

Poor comparison. 1st world countries are destinations for countless numbers of people seeking work without permits and access to 1st world social services, thus making them potential economic burdens.

The chance of a visitor to Thailand creating similar problems is much, much smaller, though of course it exists.

The US and Europe are also targets of terrorists to a much greater extent than Thailand is.

Tourism adds a tiny amount to the US economy compared to Thailand; IOW we need them much less than Thailand does.

So you can't compare the two/three.

I guess because they are so enamored of the "boutique" theme, boutique this, boutique that, the plan is to make Thailand "Asia's Boutique Country."

I hang with a lot of folks without too much money and at times with moneyed folks. Rarely prefer the company of the latter, they're mostly boring people who only care about, duh, money and status.

Thailand's getting to be less sanuk every year and this will propel that trend further along.

Putting your feet up on the headrest in front of you in a bus anywhere in the world is rude. In Thailand and other Asian countries, as has been pointed out, it's especially rude. 

Her putting her feet back up right after he asked her not to is over the top rudeness, pardon the pun. I would have told her pointedly to put her feet down and repeated it more and more forcefully if she didn't comply, until she did.

A similar bit of clueless/inconsiderate behavior becoming way too common is youngsters like her loudly playing videos or having Skype etc. conversations on their smartphones without using earphones. A couple of days ago a young guy was doing that next to me at a restaurant. It was empty except for me, he sat down at the next table and right away started playing some annoying crap pretty loudly on his phone. I told him I didn't want to listen to whatever sh*t he was listening to especially out of those tinny speakers and he got the point and turned it off.

Boundaries, folks. Children need boundaries enforced and nowadays children seems to apply to anyone under 40.

Here's another:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/12/why-everyone-hates-uber-seven-step-playbook

1 hour ago, booji said:

 

 

I know Hubert - not sure I trust his views as he's always a contrarian


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

Well then I guess you need to read the whole article as well as many others corroborating this article's information.

Here's another with wider implications:

http://anildash.com/2017/03/tech-and-the-fake-market-tactic.html

and one regarding just one of Uber's shenanigans:

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ubers-phantom-cabs

Hopefully these writers aren't too "contrarian" to pass muster with you :-)

For those unable or unwilling to read the report I linked to, here's info on the author:

By Hubert Horan, who has 40 years of experience in the management and regulation of transportation companies (primarily airlines). Horan has no financial links with any urban car service industry competitors, investors or regulators, or any firms that work on behalf of industry participants.

And one small snippet that's nevertheless more informational than pages of opinion based (at best) on anecdotal experience:

----------------------------------------------------------------

Uber’s business model is radically different from past tech unicorns and has (and will continue to) massively reduce overall economic welfare

Most of this series has focused on the economics of Uber, and how the growth of Uber has, and will continue to massively reduce overall economic welfare. Earlier posts presented a wide range of evidence documenting Uber’s hugely unprofitable operations and how its growth had been driven by predatory behavior, its uncompetitive costs, its false claims about innovation and competitive advantage, and that investor returns always depended on industry dominance and anti-competitive market power.

The growth of Uber is massively misallocating resources because Uber is a less efficient producer of urban cars services than the operators it has been driving out of business. Uber cannot achieve sustainable profits or investor returns without achieving the quasi-monopoly industry dominance it has been aggressively pursuing and exploiting anti-competitive market power

The original growth of companies like Google, Amazon, Ebay and Facebook was driven by powerful competitive efficiency advantages and natural scale/network economies that generated massive consumer welfare benefits, although these welfare gains were somewhat offset by the ability to exploit market power once they achieved industry dominance.

Uber is radically different from these past unicorns because its business model is focused entirely on the second (exploit anti-competitive market power) part of this equation[1]. It skipped the difficult first part, which requires creating a totally new product that consumers value, or finding major efficiency breakthroughs so consumers can enjoy much more service at much lower cost.

As a result, Uber required a massively greater investment base than any prior unicorn in order to fund years of predatory subsidies. Amazon could fund much of its growth out of the positive cash flow generated by legitimate competitive advantages and scale/network economies. Uber’s growth required $13 billion in cash — 1600 times Amazon’s pre-IPO investment funding.

While these massive subsidies may have provided some temporary benefits to consumers and drivers they are not sustainable. In reality, they are hugely welfare-reducing because they are designed to destroy more efficient industry capacity and create the anti-competitive market power Uber’s investors need in order to eventually earn returns on that $13 billion.

----------------------------------------------------------------

In the original the bolded sections link to earlier articles. Those interested in better understanding Uber can go to the original webpage I linked to.

On 2/27/2017 at 10:14 AM, Snig27 said:

Absolutely true. We take Uber all over the world all the time and talk with countless drivers. I've never had one anywhere who has said they are unhappy. Most love the freedom and the extra cash. For very few is it a full time job.  BKK is not an anomaly at all. There is a self-righteous arrogance in assuming that Uber drivers are stupid or being screwed.  

Nice bit of projection there pal.

You think that every one who's being exploited will be aware of that? So there's no such thing as a con or scam? Riiiight. The level of reasoning on this forum is so often depressingly low. It's a truism that the less informed an opinion, the more stridently it's defended.

Here's part nine of a long series on Uber's business model. Written by people with way more expertise in economics than either you, me, or I'll wager 99%+ of Uber drivers.

In a nutshell, few drivers take costs of maintenance and depreciation into account when calculating their income (you can bet most Thais won't). And without massive subsidies from investors Uber wouldn't be a viable operation (they've already openly cut drivers' income per ride many times and reduced their take in less obvious ways through price and service changes). Anyway these articles spell it out in detail, enjoy your education:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/03/can-uber-ever-deliver-part-nine-1990s-koch-funded-propaganda-program-ubers-true-origin-story.html

I am very sorry for your loss, whatever happened, it's tragic. 

14 hours ago, Snig27 said:

Absolutely true. We take Uber all over the world all the time and talk with countless drivers. I've never had one anywhere who has said they are unhappy. Most love the freedom and the extra cash. For very few is it a full time job.  BKK is not an anomaly at all. There is a self-righteous arrogance in assuming that Uber drivers are stupid or being screwed.  

Never did I say they were stupid. People can be duped without being fools. In Uber's case, most people don't think to calculate actual costs (per kilometer/mile) or have any idea how surprisingly high that cost is for most vehicles, and that applies to many drivers; this is one factor in earnings not being as advertised.

If you think everyone out there is well-educated financially then you're in for a surprise.

You have anecdotes, the plural of which is not data. There's reams of it on the web about the earnings of Uber drivers, it may not apply in Thailand but studies of major markets paint a dim picture of driver earnings. 

Anyway I'm not here to convince anyone, if you care to look beyond your personal experiences you may find there's more (or rather less) than meets the eye.

36 minutes ago, johnnytuc said:

I am registerd with Uber on a recent trip to Chaing Mai. Used them 3 times....Brilliant you get a picture and name of driver sent to your phone in each case they were with us within 10 minutes and you know the fare before taxi arrives. No cash involved and totally secure. Uber will be massive in Thailand. 

Since Uber's basic business model is to exploit people in precarious economic situations, duping them into thinking they're making decent money when they're not,  and there are plenty of willing marks for Uber to exploit, while providing a service that makes the customers happy (who are helping this exploitation of the drivers), yes Uber should do well in Thailand.

My comment is backed up by research which references the numerous lawsuits against and exposes of Uber freely available to anyone interested in forming an educated opinion re the company.

Hey Mr. Auto-corect. I prefer falang to farang so don't "auto-correct" falang to falling!

And interesting mis-correction though, isn't it ;-)

14 hours ago, smedly said:

I notice apart from the injuries to her abdomen that she appears to have blood from her nose and facial swelling indicating that she may have been assaulted, the injuries to the lower part of her body could seep blood post mortem depending on body position and TOD

 

I do hope they are open and honest when they carry out the medical examination as it will  confirm if she died from hanging or strangulation made to look like hanging, it should not be difficult to determine the what happened to this poor girl.

Blood freshly coming from wounds or needle marks on her arm, IIRC, that is one thing that really stood out to me. There's enough strange evidence to warrant investigation, not that it will happen. Suicide is painless mostly for the authorities who'd like that to be the catch-all reason for fallings deaths in Thailand.

18 hours ago, LandOfWiles said:

Calm down, mate. I was only pointing out the inconsistency in what you wrote (question mark or not). Even your second post seems inconsistent given that your first post was itself a 'drive-by attempt' at speculators. 

 

I already posted what I think above. I believe this is suicide just as it has been assumed. All that's missing is a motive, which is not unusual at this stage and will likely come to light soon. 

The reason I got annoyed is I see a lot of these "drive-by shoot-down" attempts on TV. Later thought I shouldn't assume that was what you were doing, but if you've been here a while you must have seen a lot of it. Anyway, my first comment wasn't that type because I have a bit of history with this gold buggy dude and he's earned the scorn of many of us here. So I was referencing that history, which both he/she and the other commenter would have understood.

And it's not speculation because if you think about it, my semi-supposition (I was being much more questioning, not making the assumption like GB) that trains would have a fail-safe for entry to the toilet (where, you know, people can do crazy things like take drugs or kill themselves, or be murdered for that matter) differs significantly from GB's assertion that there would definitely be no such thing with the further implication that therefore it must have been a suicide.

So there's the long response; it seems obvious to me so I some times go off on poorly-reasoned comments like GBs because I decide a long-winded deconstruction of their arguments is a waste of time. As was noted, GB comments (often, sometimes, I don't know or care) like a troll, so I've decided rational debate with him/her is a losing gambit.

But I do get a little too salty in my language at times and should tone that down.

1 hour ago, LandOfWiles said:

Isn't your second sentence also "low-information speculation"? 

Do you see that curvy symbol at the end of my sentence? (there's another one). It's makes what comes before it a question.

And what's your reply then, just low-information miscomprehension times a drive-by lame attempt to shoot me down. 

15 hours ago, BritTim said:

The Thai authorities are well aware of the significant numbers of digital nomads in the country, and of the co-working spaces they typically use. In Bangkok and other areas of the country, these have been sprouting like mushrooms. A couple of years ago, one of them (up in Chiang Mai) was raided. However, this was an isolated event, and no one eventually was charged, although several people were found to be (technically) working illegally. It is widely assumed the raid was a mistake, and there have been no others anywhere. If the authorities were not turning a blind eye, it would be the easiest thing in the world for them to launch a series of raids and pick up hundreds, probably thousands, of digital nomads in a matter of hours.

Hey, not to be thick or troublesome, but thinking of someone who only needs an internet connection to work, no co-working space, I was wondering how such a person might fit under the rubric for "DN" as the Thai authorities see it.

11 hours ago, smedly said:

talking nonsense, I am not going to discuss it with you because I don't like you and have no wish to have a long drawn out argument listening your usual  pile of <deleted> of trolling and baiting like you do on every thread I have ever seen you posting

 

now take a hint.....you know the rest

Agreed, usual low-information speculation. You think there's no way for a railway employee with a master key to get into one of these bathrooms?

Dunning-Kruger effect in play.

At least he didn't try blame it on a couple of Burmese passengers 

On 2/9/2017 at 1:22 PM, mcfish said:

More murders and violent crimes have been committed after a cup of coffee in the morning than while drunk.
Think about it!

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk
 

Well then I guess coffee is also a mind-altering drug the use of which--by the logic of current WOD laws--should be illegal and punishable by prison. Ha.

1 hour ago, PaPiPuPePo said:

.....semi-rebated rim will feed from a magazine :-).

so-called "rimless"....

BritTim could you expand on/give specifics about this:

• The crackdown on illegal working has deliberately ignored digital nomads.......

Thanks.

On 2/13/2017 at 0:46 PM, fstarbkk said:

 No you can't. Beside the fact that the 9mm is actually two thousandths of an inch smaller in diameter, than the .38 ( actually .357 vs. .355") the length and profile of the two cartridges differs substantially. While the .38 is traditionally a revolver cartridge there are a few semi-auto pistols that come in a .38 version, of which the Glock 17 is not one.

 

The Glock would have to be in .38 Super, no?, since .38Sp being a rimmed cartridge is also revolver-only. Only .38 Super with the semi-rebated rim will feed from a magazine :-).

Awesome, situation solved and I appreciate the info guys (and/or gals)!

Hi folks I appreciate the quick replies. 

I didn't know about the re-entry. To make sure I got it correct: I'd enter the first time on the 2-month visa. after 2-3 days I exit at BKK, get the permit, and when I come back 5-6 days later I still have 2 mos. minus a week or so for the cost of 1000Bt.

If that's correct, it would be an acceptable back-up plan if the border officer disregards my request and stamps my visa anyway. So if Ubonjoe or anyone else who's familiar with this can confirm I've got the right idea, I've then got a plan--hope for the best at the border, but if that doesn't work out I don't have to get another visa (thus avoiding time wasted and the hassle). Thanks!