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Karma, as a law of nature, is not limited to humans only, and I'm afraid, you don't have a choice whether to follow your karma and put bread on the table or sit around pretending to be a boddhisattva.

You can't stop the world from going about its ways, or stop your participation in the global cirlce of events, BUT, if you are free from self illusion then it won't bother you anymore.

Think about it - we, farangs, identify ourselves with Thailand, at least to some degree, we get involved, we suffer in our hearts when Dr. T does this or that, we write "constructive crtitsism" letters to Bangkok Post because we can't stand injustice or whatever. We feel for it. Why? Why don't we feel as much for children of Dafur, or Burma? Is it simply because our ego doesn't spread that far?

If there is no traffic than that road is not so bad. I've driven there at night at 150 kmh on a few occasions, not the whole way but for considerable distances. It seems that everyone else drives faster at night as well - no need to weave in and out , just go with the flow.

What exactly is there to do for 30,000 people? Marvel at check-in desks? Ride escalators up and down?

Can you run "tracert thaivisa.com" for example? You might get a good idea about your route to Thaivisa, how long each step takes, and where bottlenecks are. Or "ping thaivisa.com" to see if how fast it takes to connect and if there are any data losses.

If you use Opera browser you can look at the status window when you open any page and see if it's the slow download speed or bad connection - if stuck on "sending" or "looking up" it means that the connection is faulty and you might try to reconnect, or at least open new pages in one window at a time, not five-six at once. If download speed is low 70bps instead of 3Kbs (still low but normal for GPRS browsing) then it's the network problem - either GPRS or the Internet.

When you know what, or where the problem is it's easier to complain.

I heard that this year there's a huge drop in divers in Pattaya - down by 80 %. That's of course 2005, last year, in fact.

I chose one of the most visible outlets on the Internet and boy, were they shit! Shitty boat, shitty food, shitty office - with walls decorated mostly by the owner's diving certificates - hundreds of them. Shitty weather (we hit the rain), only two customers - me and the guy who paid 50,000 baht for his "speciality" course. No visible safety measures either.

They, like everyone else in Pattaya, offer the full range of training courses where navy seals can learn something new.

Extremely dodgy place, and the prices are a lot higher than on Koh Tao I mentioned - for simple dives nearly three times higher.

There must be better schools in Pattaya but, judging by the presentation, it's one of the bestest.

Strange thread - Western Food forum, Indian cuisine, order curries from England, try Senior Rico Mex.

I like Taj Mahal at the end of Suriwong - food is as good as Rembrant's (who'd have guessed that Rembrant serves Indian food?).

There's one Thai auto magazine that breaks the sales numbers by models, and, while having the overall lead, Isuzu trails very badly in 4wd segment. It't the Thai customers judgement.

That was before 2wd Vigo in Prerunner form - high suspension and tough looks to match bestselling Isuzu Highlander.

Vigo is not based on Tacoma - it's Thailand's own Toyota IMV project with the same platform spread over pickups (Vigo), SUVs ( Fortuner) and, MPVs(Innova ).

Isusu is doing a great job beating Vigo that is supposed to be the next generation vehicle having put 30 bil Baht in IMV project.

What will be the next D-Max due out very soon? Will it keep up with Vigo? Does Isuzu have enough resources to keep up with Toyota in terms of design and enginering?

Due to the global reach and economies of scale Toyota is able to build trucks cheaper than Isuzu. How will it work out in the long run?

I would't bet on Isuzu - the company is nearly bankrupt outside of Thailand.

I think the button on Isuzu's gear shift is equivalent of Toyota's "Overdrive" button - not quite the same as ECT. "OD" messes with gear ratios, while ECT messes with gear shift points.

In Toyotas "OD", overdrive, is by default ON - the idea is that the wheels are allowed to rotate faster than the engine-gear ratio so that the car goes faster than theoretically possible. It saves fuel 'cos the same speed can be achieved at lower engine revolutions.

ECT Power - electronically controlled transmission - on the other hand, deals with gear shifts - it lets you stay longer in one particular gear, almost until the engine redlines, and so gives you better perdormance but lower fuel economy, especially in the city. But on highways it's reverse -it keeps you in your gear when you brake whithout downshifting so that the engine doesn't need to rev up to shift again. By default ECT is off.

I saw a real Ford hutchback with red plates on the way to Rayong for holidays. I don't know if it was 2l or 1.8l version - he was doing only 100 km/h - too slow to read any labels when passing.

Second hand Toyota Hilux Tiger, no brainer.

Or you might consider second hand Isuzu D-max instead. Isuzus hold the value somewhat better but Toyota is overall a better truck for you. Call it illogical but it's about the same as with Thai voting preferences - Thais don't necesseraly vote for what is best for them, esp. in the long term.

Isuzu holds its market position mostly due to very strong marketing and brand loyalty.

You won't go wrong with either, mind you.

Cheap new trucks for under 500k are a big compromise that offsets their "newness". And don't fall for "new" Nissan or Ford, or Mazda - they are the same generation as "old", second hand, Toyota, Isuzu, or Mitsubishi.

There are two steps in negotiating the fine - first is "no police station" business, second is the fine itself.

In my recent case we failed at the first step. Some of us just can't keep their mouths shut, and we know who those "some" are.

Oh, and at no point it should appear as if you are offering a bribe to a policeman. Be very discreet about it.

I'm wondering if mods will pull this post off as it deals with illegal activities, and so are a few posts above.

Yet, in spirit of Christmas season and highly practical nature of the subject I hope they let it stay.

Hang on, wasn't Yaris the original Vios? Toyota made Vios based on Yaris platform specifically for Asian market? Exactly the same as Honda did with it's Fit (Jazz) making it into a City?

Haven't we gone a full cirlce on this?

Derivative City flopped, original Jazz prospered. Derivative Vios triumphed, what would be the fate of Yaris?

Jesus was probably a closet Buddhist....he almost assuredly had studied Buddhism or at least knew about it through that spiritual group he associated with whose name I can't spell...was it the Essenes?

That's an overstretch. Considering he always talked about God as a father, creator, and what not, and Buddhism in essence is atheism...

I'm sure two positions (Jesus and Buddhism) can be reconciled one way or another but Jesus most certainly wasn't a "closet Buddhist" in a direct sense, only to a degree all world religions are connected. Yet as some say that Buddhism is not a religion I can't even imagine how far the relation goes.

Doulbe clicked - double post. See the one below.

To use a disaster to try and convert people who are at a low point in their lives is not a good thing. it is merely exploitation.....full stop!!!

Yes, people turn to prayers at low points in their lives, and if there are no Buddhists around they turn to Christians, or Muslims. It's of course sickening to see "preachers" waiting like vultures for some disaster to increase their flock but what if they genuinely want to help? Is there something to suggest that this particular group of Christians are up to no good?

The difference is not that big to warrant a dedicated notebook buying trip, and if you bring notebook from outside, choose a make that has support in Thailand. Acer is quite big here, but Benq isn't. HP offers only corporate support and any spare parts are ordered from Malaysia.

Can we get back to the topic?

I was thinking about this "dumb" thing - it's of course nice to have the population full of Einsteins but there are ways to manage the country quite well with what it has. Thanks to well organised, cohesive society it doesn't really matter if half the population doesn't know history - it matters that those who need to know, know it very well and the rest doesn't argue and accept their superior judgement and the whole country moves on. Similarly historians don't mess with farmers, farmers don't mess with politics, politics don't mess with religion and so on.

This separation of jobs/knowledge is evident in the US as well. That's why average American can be percieved as a dumb idiot with no knowledge of the outside world BUT he/she is not the one who formulates US foreign policy, that is left to some very clever people (current administration does not count). That is also why there are 17 US universities in the top 20, but the average score of American students are just average. Last I read they were 27th in mathematics. There's a huge gap in knowledge between those 17 top unis and the rest of the country, just like there's a huge gap in wealth. These gaps in "socialist" Europe are not so big. I guess it's just the natural phenomena resulting form "free market economy".

Re. swastikas - I'm very well aware that the symbol itself is very ancient indeed but these particular swastikas - black cross in a white cirlce on the red background are unmistakenly nazist. Thais or Burmese who put them on are like Cartman from South Park who put on Hitler's costume for Halloween party. He was taken to the head master's office and shown anti-nazi video - and he thought that legions of those marching SS troops looked VERY cool. I had the same problem with my students - I wanted to quickly convey the nature of nazism and selected a few pics from the Internet - the one where a nazi officer was shooting a man in the head point blank on the edge of a grave elicited quite a few opposite reactions.

Beer and noodles are for sale. You can, of course, stock on beer before the flight, but stocking on sixpacks of mama is a bit strange. I think they'd charge you for hot water anyway.

Flights are short, true, but delays will make you hungry even before the take off. Stuff yourself at Burger King in departure lounge and take a sixpack (of beer) as carry-on.

I don't buy the argument that WWII is not relevant to Thailand - it's just another demonstration of ignorance.

Why Americans got so insensed over the matter escapes me. No need to overreact when you hear the word "stupid" - it does not always refer to you.

>>>>>>>

Perhaps calling poor farmers "dumb" because they have never heard of Elvis or because they have never been taught about world history is politcally incorrect but what else are they if not "great unwashed"? No education, no interests outside of eating, sleeping, drinking, gambling, and mating - you wouldn't call them enlightened either.

They do their own very useful jobs and we wouldn't survive without them but, com'n, don't give them credit in areas outside of their expertise. You can stretch "affirmative action" only so far.

I, personally, hate dealing with people who change their minds every day - it's chickens today, also shrimp tomoroow, and rubber and/or rice next week. I imagine how much headache it is for Russian arms trader. How may companies have to be involved? What about the final payment - Su makers don't use frozen chicken in its production, I believe. What if chickens don't fetch the agreed amount? Who will settle all the payments with market fluctuations and so on, considering that it will be spread over a few years.

Can Russians actually manage all this? What if it all turns sour - they'd be stuck with the chickens forever - they won't get their jets back in any case.

Now, I remember, they owe Thailand money for rice. Money. If this deal goes through Thailand will owe Russians dead chickens and chicken parts.

This will be the one to watch over the next couple of years.

Yeah, tire pressure and changing spare wheels is all I ever do here. "Jet" stations usually have self-service air pumps.

For new cars - there's warranty and insurance if anything gets broken. For older cars - I see my neighbour fiddling with his old Honda every morning and it doesn't look like something I would want to do.

First time I saw it the text was visible - that's why I didn't see the point. It makes sense now that the text appears as you drag the mouse.

Today I had another look at Fortuner's interior and I was satisfied. Not impressed, but satisfied. There's climate control intstead of air-con knobs -from my Altis experience I know it works really well, no comparison to manual air-con controls.

Lots of little spaces everywhere to put whatever you have in, even umbrellas. Ladder gearshift looks cool, too. Fortuner 's a little crumbled in the back but , considering it will be Thais riding there it's ok. Seven little Thais will be ok.

I couldn't find ECT button - a life saver in underpowered cars. It's a little button that messes with your auto transmission settings and gives you better performance - longer time in one particular gear and more sensible shift points. Perhaps with 160 hp Fortuner simply does not need it.

I do. It's the next best thing to manual gear, or gear shift paddles in Hondas.

Fortuner has D2 (or is it D3?) instead - that's the button that messes up with your tranny as well but in a different way - in real life it simply forces your engine to rev up. In gasoline cars it could make sense because you'd get better torque and acceleration from higher revs, but in diesel cars it makes no difference 'cos their torque delivery is falt across the whole rpm range.

I think suspension is ok, I had Innova for a test ride, from the same stable as Fortuner, and its suspension is very much ok. It isn't stiff in any sense of a word but I should admit I've never driven CRV. Fortuner should have the same set up as Innova and it's soft on bumps for sure. How does it hold in cornering I don't know yet.

We, as in our family, will consider replacing my current ride, Sportrider, when Toyota comes up with two wheel drive model for better fuel economy and lower maintanance costs.

My ex girlfriend used to take tuk-tuks to cross the big roads like Rama IV 'cos she was too scared to run across.

That was before 1997.

Beg to disagree. These particular set of girls can't get a job anywhere else but Pattaya.

I doubt they are from Moscow anyway. Do they have some sort of Isan over there in Russia?