Benmart

no matter what wrongs a monk/abbot will do, there are always people who will still follow and continue

to trust, idolize and worship those people no matter what dirty deeds they have done, and some of those

people happened to be big donors and very, very influential.....

I think you should be saying Priest/Mullah/Rabbi/Monk/Religious leader, This is a problem with religion in general and much more prevalent in the west, Just look at the peadophile scandals with the Catholic Church and lets not forget the rash of Honor killings that happen in the name of religion in the 'stans

Indeed, all those people who hide behind long white beards, turbans, and other head gear, tonics and long

flowing robs, dangling all sorts of religious icons and chanting and mumbling stuff no one can really understand anyway..... yes, all of them are nothing but charlatans and looking for their own gains...

I don't know them all, so I can't lump them all together.

Plenty of fully clothed locals engaged in the sale of the same substance.

An unknown number of alleged posts, on an unnamed social media does not represent the whole of society.

The article fails to mention any posts that support the suspension and criminal investigation of the officer. I would imagine there might be a "few" that would consider his conduct unacceptable and criminal.

Only high rank officers on that helicopter, do I smell a conspiracy here? RIP.

The smell is most likely conjecture.

RIP soldiers.

maintenance, not a word in a thai dictionary

Conjecture is.

Bell 212 is a very trusted and field proven bird.

It was a variation on this same aircraft that had a hard landing two days ago--a Bell 205B, I think.

The deaths in this crash go to show how lucky the 15 passengers in the previous crash really were.

A real loss to so many families.

I hope they are performing their scheduled maintenance on these aircraft. I am guessing the Thais have their own version of the FAA to investigate.

Like i said before on a previous post,MAINTENANCE is an ugly word in Thailand.

I wasn't there and the investigation has yet to determine the cause.

NHRC

sort of like a dog without any teeth,, ill lick you to death if you dont come to me

in regards to the next meeting,,

is this plan b, c, or xyz

I also keep threatning the kids, if you dont put that phone down while im talking,, ill talk to your mother about you,,

and she'll do nothing

One dog may have big dogs as friends and some have teeth.

As for mothers. Mine would call me to the dinner table and if I was late, the food was put away and I went to bed hungry.

Here's what I think happened. The tourist who was drunk, gets in a Baht bus and tells the driver where he wants to go. That alone tells me he does not know what is going on. No need to tell the driver where your going, the bus drives around in a big circle and you hit the bell when you want to get out. They also stop and try to pickup more customers along the way as we all know. The idiot tourist sounds like he expected the Baht bus to work like a taxi and run him direct to his hotel for 10 Baht. When that did not happen he gets pissed off and starts raising hell with the driver. The tourist is in the wrong and if I had been the driver I would have knocked the krap out of this guy as well. Hope the tourist has learned a lesson. He is a guest here, act like it or go home. The locals in any place are only going to put up with so much BS off a bunch of tourist. I've been wandering around Pattaya for 30 years and never had any problem from a Baht bus driver, but then I am aways polite to them and don't expect them to put up with any verbal abuse I might send their way.

The last sentence, put up front, would have been sufficient and would eliminated the remaining absentee wisdom.

If you are in a hurry to get home then take a taxi.

If you have spent the night drinking then be wise enough to keep your mouth shut.

Raising your voice and giving orders to a bus driver is not going to get you home any quicker anywhere in the world.

The Irishman didn't deserve to get bashed but he certainly created the situation.

I wasn't there, so I can't comment on who "created the situation".

I'm not in the habit of passing on any wisdom about keeping ones mouth shut. I prefer to let people make their own decisions.

I do agree about being civil and being polite when interacting with people in general.

Ships at sea, that are in distress, often send up flares and blow horns to gain attention.

Countries send up similar "flares" in the form of reassuring statements, statistics, flag waiving and grandiose programs aimed at encouraging investment.

One needs only to lightly scratch the thin veneer to see a volatile and unstable economy.

Well, I hope the guy in the pix does something about his dandruff before coming here. Won't impress Thai's with snow flakes around the collar!

While I noticed the dandruff, I'm hardly in a position to point out the imperfections in others.

Some seem to find fault and imperfections as a means of making up for their lack of meaningful contribution to the discussion.

Pity they only beat them up and not cut their balls off.

Advocating violence for violence is a sad choice, particularly based on a mere news article. I wasn't there, I don't know the facts and I am not judge, jury or executioner.

Time to learn some Thai. It's a relatively easy language.

It's actually one of the most difficult to learn for a Westerner.

Not really. I'm completely fluent in it and sound like a Thai - and I know I'm not the only one. You just need some street smarts and stop instinctively speaking Thai using your native accent or letting your native accent interfere with learning Thai. In any given country one should be able to pick up the local language and eventually become fluent over time if residing in said country for an extended period.

It also helps a lot if you are already bilingual or fluent in other languages before attempting Thai. I grew up speaking multiple languages since birth, so have a bit of a gift when it comes to language acquisition. Having said that, I don't want to brag but all I can say is Thai really isn't that difficult. I see so many westerners speaking Chinese quite well whenever I'm in China (I personally only speak intermediate conversational Chinese, including some reading and writing) so I can't understand the difficulty about learning Thai amongst westerners when Chinese is so much more difficult, mainly due to the many characters you need to learn, and also the ability to decipher the difference between it's many, many homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings).

Thai actually doesn't have that many homophones, it's more about being able to tell the difference between words that have different meanings based on changes in pitch or tones (to a trained ear they do sound different hence why strictly speaking I wouldn't consider them to be homophones unless they have the same tone and same pronunciation). Apart from that, you have to assume that English homophones (pick any 2 words that sound the same but have different meanings) are not going to be the same in Thai. For example, to wear (an item of clothing) and wear (as in this bicycle tire/tyre shows signs of wear or deterioration).

This is one of the biggest problems I've always faced when learning new languages - making those incorrect assumptions about the transferability of homophones. In Thai to wear a piece of clothing is "sai" for example "sai seua", while wear or deterioration is "seuk" or "seuk hro". So completely different words are used - you can't say "sai" when referring to a worn bicycle tyre. It just doesn't make one bit of sense.

My hero! Do you like the sound of your own voice?

I like seeing my posts, particularly the ones that irrelevant and uncivil. No hero here.

I'm sceptical of such sensation stories. The Tawana Brawley and McMartin Day Care scandal comes to mind.

Did I miss something or is the "World Day of Remembrance" only here in Thailand??? As bad as the Americans with their World Series

The American World Series has no relationship to the WDofR, except in the minds of those who can add two and two and get five.

Police can't be everywhere and the key part of the story was that the guy was caught.

Its true they cannot, but they can do little more than nothing.

As i type i am watching 9 police doing the road block/checks, on 3 road, which they have been doing every single day from morning to late night.

While all 9 of them are busy issuing tickets on 1 side of the road, the other side have people running red light, blocking intersections, doing illegal uturns just to name a few.

Yes the thief was caught, its great, but how many do not get caught.

Pattaya is trying boost its image and Thailand promoting itself as a safe holiday destination.

This kind of experience does not exactly help, and while for many of us living here, we realize it is not as often or as scary as it appears, for a first time tourist, its enough to scare them off and tell all their friends.

There must be more police presents patrolling the streets, NOT only issuing tickets.

There must be harsher punishments for offenders, a few hundred baht fines do not deter them from doing it again.

When a police force lacks training, equipment, commitment, competent leadership and a mission statement to protect and to serve, it may well display it's prowess by superficial displays such as ticketing errant drivers and checkpoints.

I've yet to see any regular patrol of my neighborhood such as is common place in many other places where a professional and well trained force exists. The pickup trucks that drive with overhead flashing lights seem to be mere eye-candy that announces that "they" are out and about.

I've yet to see any spot lights on these vehicles for checking darkened areas when on "patrol" or any static or mobile radar to catch the nuts that drive unsafely on roads that have no posted speed limits.

Community policing, accountability to the public and local control seems to be lacking in these regions. What a sad state indeed.

And because there is virtually no Police presence anywhere on the streets, it will go on happening again and again and again.

There are police around, but not the uniformed ones that are really needed.

I would like to see many more uniformed police driving around and many more traffic police issuing tickets for bad parking etc.

And how do you suggest paying their salary?

The question may be better asked of those that employ them.

While interesting and colorful, such displays and games do little to address the plight of the homeless, the hungry or the downtrodden.

It's a good show that is lacking in meaningful substance, except to those that make money on it...of course!

I'm glad the lady was not seriously injured or killed and glad that the felonious creature was caught. A long jail term would be appropriate.

As a bit of an extra on this, from what my wife read in the Thai news sources, apparently his gf tricked him into spending 10M THB to buy the elephant sanctuary, then got him to work there.

However, they didn't actually buy it, and they just let him work there because they allow volunteers to work at the sanctuary. He apparently dding realize this, so worked there thinking it was his own business. Although by the time he found out the truth, his gf had done a runner.

A very sad story indeed, but as a graduate from Oxford how can you "buy" something without a piece of proof of ownership??

Anyone interested in my Sydney Bridge?? To prove that everything is correct, I will let you paint the bridge!!

Not everyone is as smart, worldly, coherent, aware and knowing as some. Graduation from a prestigious institution does not eliminate the possibility of falling prey to scams and illegal schemes.

The various victims of Bernie Madoff were highly educated, experienced and supposedly savy concerning investments. The criminal often becomes close enough to the victim to get them to "paint the bridge".

RIP to the Dear Man.

Perhaps it will be written using the Russian Cyrillic Alphabet so the rest of the world can ignore all six pages.

Thailand is going to lose what tourism they have left if they start demandig fingerprints from foreigners entering the country. I know in many countries it is a violation of rights to take fingerprints unless accused of a crime and many people will feel violated if it is demanded here.

Thailand better find a new source to get foreign dollars to be spent here

As an example Malaysia has electronic finger printing at the airports, there has not been any down turn in arrivals, nor will there be for Thai tourism if implemented.

I think the US has been doing it a very long time.

Yes, dont mentioned that. I mean as "Non" American you are kind of <deleted> in the whole global survailance thing the US is doing by entering the country. US Immigration Officers are the worst in the world. Because they know even more things about you then yourself. I faced this a few years ago and was questioned about things I would not even tell most of my friends.

If Thailand wants to become like this.....

Travel, in most cases, is voluntary. When I cannot or will not comply, I have options of choosing another destination.

Choice is a wonderful thing.

I am not the center of the universe and the world does not revolve around my wishes.

Kicked upstairs.

Stairs that go up are sometimes a method of securing a long flight down.

When one knows only vague details, it is best to wait and see the outcome.

Shoes, worn outside, can pickup dirt, garbage, dog feces, mucous and anything else on the ground. When worn in the house, the same is tracked onto the floor.

Children are often on the floor, as well as adults when relaxing, sleeping or eating. I prefer to take my shoes off and have, both here and back in the USA.

The rule, in my house, is shoes off please.

guess the OP could move.

Yes, he could. However, I don't believe he asked for relocation information.

He seems to be sharing an experience that may be of interest to others.