sunlong

Most retail liquor outlets discourage sampling prior to purchase.

Yes, but getting burnt once-off is NBD is it.

For repeat purchases, once you've found a reliable source then you're safe.

I was just trying to answer the OP's concern, perhaps the packaging, raised lettering etc is good enough to spot the fakes before wasting any money, maybe not, IMO the taste test the only reliable indicator (for me).

And you're right for those that don't have the taste, experience etc to use that, or adulterating the nectar with Coke or whatever then it doesn't matter.

Except for the fact that you can die I suppose if you care about that. . .

The claim I'm disputing is that this alcohol+flavoring would (by itself) taste exactly like the real thing (by iteself).

Is anyone really trying to defend that claim?

And it's besides the point, but IMO anyone who's actually a fan of JD wouldn't mix it with anything but a little soda or water, obviously best neat.

Even further OT, I shared a liter bottle with a friend from Texas, matching shot for shot about two hours before high school graduation ceremonies. He never made it, drove a porcelain bus in the gym locker room while his parents (having made a 2000 mile trip) searched for him.

I don't remember, but my folks never mentioned it, so maybe I actually passed OK. . .

One thing about Bangkok Bank. They have stated publicly that upgrading their branch quality/service is currently a big deal for them. They are of course doing it to increase revenue through cross selling products. But they seem to be serious this time

Top management (Sophonpanich clan) may well have the best intentions, but in that kind of corporate culture very hard to change behavior where the rubber meets the road. And of course could just be PR/marketing spin anyway, in which case totally useless.

You can buy the flavorings. People who make moonshine use them. They are made somewhere outside of the USA. They are made by a spirits chemist. They are made for every large selling brand of whiskey or whisky. You may ask why I know this. I used them to marinate beef and make other food products. Jack Daniels also makes sauces and I would imagine they don't use the whiskey to make the BBQ sauces.

I'm not saying the flavorings don't exist, and obviously BF makes their own.

I'm saying there's no way any substance can simply be added to raw alcohol to create a counterfeit JD that would fool a fan of the genuine article.

IMO most likely true for any quality whiskey or whisky.

The country is losing its cultural values, its good food, its beautiful beaches, the air the water, have never been so polluted, corruption is at its highest, freedom of speech is long gone, Thai start to hate farangs and prefer richer chinese and we should say amen???

The truth in what you say applies to most of the world as a whole, and certainly at least as true in most of our "back home" countries.

And in most of those categories even if Thailand's deteriorated IMO still better than most places.

I completely disagree about freedom of speech, in practice here much more open discussion is possible on things that matter. I can wear a "Muslim Jihad" t-shirt wherever I like even travelling by air and might get an occasional odd look or smile, try that in the west these days see how far you get.

But then I don't care about the issues that the Thai government tries to suppress.

I've banked with more than a dozen, been pretty happy with Kasikorn back from when it was Thai Farmer's.

UOB used to be great, since they got bought out not so much.

BB has given me several bad experiences, not due to CS staff so much as very bureaucratic inflexible policies, local branch management seem to have less leeway to be flexible.

But then again the way fraud is so rampant and consumer protection non-existent, friendly English language customer service probably shouldn't be your top criteria for choosing a bank anyway, maybe the run-a-tight-ship rigid enforcement indicates more security of your balance?

In any case I wouldn't put too many eggs in one basket if you're taking the risk of keeping a lot of capital in Thailand better to spread it around.

Absolutely agree. And if you can't afford it and are putting your kids through the Thai system then you are putting your needs ahead of theirs. And before I get hammered...yes I had my two children in a Thai school for several years, yes my kids are now in an international school, yes it is totally different and yes it is better and yes it is expensive and no I am not on a huge expat package and yes if I couldn't afford the schooling I would probably pack up and head to whence I came. OK, just hang on while I put my crash helmut on.

Well I'll back you up, pay no mind to the haters, most likely feeling guilty.

I personally would love to stay here for my own selfish reasons but I just can't justify it anymore, kids are getting to an age where their education is important and I just haven't been putting in the necessary time and energy homeschooling to compensate.

As a teacher having worked in a variety of international schools, both "so-called" and genuine, please make sure you do everything you can to take an active role, check up on and supplement what goes on in the classroom if it isn't one of the top dozen 600K+ tuition places accredited by one (usually more) international agencies.

Lots of lousy so-called schools delivering poor value, usually more so those run by Thais for profit only, but even in the western-run places, unqualified alkie/sexpat teachers abound.

The better places rarely recruit locally, 90% of the teachers are brought in from back home on full packages, tickets home 100K+ salaries + generous housing allowances etc.

You won't see high proportions of pseudo-NES Filipino/Indian teachers at the good places either.

But obviously these schools are unaffordable for most.

Sorry can't help with the specific question, but as a point of comparison, we pay 17 baht each for those large tanks of drinking water to be delivered to my house in Bangkok, including the guy bringing them up three flights of stairs to the pantry.

We go through four or five a week. Never had an issue with washing food brushing teeth etc.

Your mileage may vary, but I never thought the systems your talking about to be cost-effective compared to that.

Of course it is. It used to be Laos.

Errm no. History gets written by the winner, so different versions depending on who wrote the schoolbooks, 99% of the time driven by(now modern flavors) of nationalistic colonial motivations rather than historical accuracy.

First of all the whole concept of "national territory" is a pretty recent import, only really implemented as a result of colonialism.

The various "kingdoms" were centered on cities - Luang Prabang, Chiang Mai, Ayuthaya then Bangkok, and the surrounding countryside paid regular tribute - treasure, elephants, slaves - to them to keep the peace.

From this point of view, different areas occupied by peoples of Isaan/Laos language/culture/DNA were "part of" Thai, Khmer and even Vietnam - Hue - territory at various stages.

Before the French took over, most of what is now Laos was controlled by Siam.

Before that the Laos kingdom of Lan Xang was quite powerful, but its territory didn't extend very far into what is now Isaan.

How many of the late 50's to mid 60's ex-pats in Thailand sat down with Thai wife/partner and had a discussion about having a child. Did future income, life insurance, living on a UK state pension only come into the discussion.

I for one don't believe it can be more than 1% of them. Seeing a mid 60's guy being dragged along beach road by his 30 year old wife and 5 year old child is a ridiculous sight in my mind. At that age a man should be enjoying retirement and not worrying about school fees, new shoes for the kids etc etc. Even if he can afford it it still looks wrong and a bit sad.

Aha here we go, I have to say I thought this sort of

meddlesome arrogant judgmental stickybeak ungracious nosy parker interfering offensive presumptuous

crap would have come along earlier and in greater quantity, congratulations to the community for refraining until now.

I'm sure the old gent is enjoying his retirement much more than most, mind your own business.

Where else can you get this sort of glorious carnage?

America!

Actually nearly every country can provide a laundry list of horrors, including along the same lines of what you've listed, in lesser or greater frequency.

But I agree that many things the rest of the world consider terrible are at the top of the list of what we love about the place. Back home they're just more expensive and provided by truly evil people rather than available as casually as strolling along the beach.

Yep, all par for the course.

At schools with higher socioeconomic background students, their behavior is immaculate and they are very very well motivated.

Some "international program" schools run by Thai management are relatively very good - I've taught at Satit Kaset - but these aren't available to expats, have to register your hi-so kids at birth basically.

Yes IMO not racial bigotry so much as not having the pre-requisite social status/connections etc.

Regarding social status, the mother of most LK wouldn't fly with most attending social events with the board of directors.

Although unfair prejudice, that's not racism that's something else.

Not a large enough sample size of large firms vs LK population to really be able to verify statistically anyway.

OP you included a lot of extraneous information.

As far as what I think you're asking goes, it is very easy to set up PayPal here in Thailand linked to a Thai bank account.

If you use Kasikorn and their (completely separate from PayPal) online banking, you can also get a "virtual credit card" to use online that wrt your account works like a debit card but appears to the payment processors to be a full regular credit (not debit) card for when you can't use PayPal. Probably other banks now have the same.

But for in-person transactions you need to get a real credit card, usually requires having a regular income, not hard at all if you meet their financial requirements, especially if you're a Thai citizen.

It is also easy to set up PayPal tied to a US bank account, but most likely you need to actually be in the states to do so.

You cannot use the SAME PayPal account tied to both Thai and US accounts, set them up with different email addresses and you can transfer between them as if they were two different people.

WRT PayPal generally, they are notorious for shutting down accounts and seizing the money when they arbitrarily judge as engaging in suspicious activity and it's apparently very difficult to get the money back, so don't keep large balances in PayPal itself, just use it for transfers.

Hope that helps.

????

You do know that article is satire - irony - "opposite-land" right?

Long way to go before Bangkok becomes "too clean" like Singapore or Switzerland.

Let us pray that day is never, shall we?

I wrote many MA thesis/theses for Thai teachers and all they were concerned about was the font that was used in the finished product.

Comic Sans being the most popular I assume?

If you find a Thai massage girl in say ...Australia and you speak some Thai to her, it is amazing the attitude change.

Same in London. Price drops.

Or even if she doesn't have that flexibility, the service may be a bit better.

Even in Thai restaurants sometimes you get extras.

Falang is Falang and despite what others say, it does come from the word Farangse (French)

Actually more likely "farang" was in use here long before "farangset", since the kingdom of the Franks preceded anything "French", a major Germanic tribe of the Middle Ages (heard of Charlemagne?) which was trading in Asia as far back as 500 years ago.

Even if there wasn't direct contact that early, Persian and Indian trade was widespread in the 17th century, and Portuguese traders later on were also called the same - that's of course how the guava (also farang in Thai) got here.

Farangi in both Persian and Urdu, Pfirangi in Sanskrit, Feringhi in Hindi, al-Faranj in Arabic, Frangos in Greek, Frenk in Turkish, , Barang in Khmer, Ferenggi in Malay.

Now I think we should have a spirited intellectual discussion on whether white people should use this word mixed in with English, and whether or not it's derogatory when Thais use it to talk about us rather than using our proper name.

You tink too mutt.

In your situation, go down to the repair shops and ask them what they think, which ones are easy/cheapest to get parts.

Done.

I understand your point but it's still discrimination. In Australia and other western countries there are tribunals such as the anti-discrimination commission which is designed to handle such cases and anti-discrimination laws are enshrined in the constitution these days. Also, isn't it a bit of a double standard if I go to an American steak restaurant in Thailand and all the servers and chefs are Thai - that's not very authentic, as cute as the girls might be. If I wanted to make sure I could get an authentic Texas steak I'd rather have a real Texan serving me (as is the case in Vietnam where I know a guy that runs an American restaurant in Nha Trang and although he employs locals of course, he sometimes takes orders and always chats with customers!) On the other hand why should a Thai restaurant in Australia not also employ Aussies, Chinese, Iranians etc. seeing it's a multicultural country? In America they are already doing so, why is Australia so different?

I can't speak to the fine point differences between how these ideals are implemented in practice in the US vs Australia.

Just pointing out the principle that if a business can make a valid case for using male Asian dwarfs between 20 and 25 because in that particular situation that will help the business then that should be OK.

Obvious examples include casting for acting roles, fashion modeling, really any public-facing staff, there are employment agencies openly advertising that they only accept handsome/beautiful applicants.

A ladies perfume company looking for sales people is allowed to hire females only, PC doesn't override common sense at least not yet.

Except when unions get involved protecting their members, then it often goes too far IMO.

Obviously in Thailand none of these legal restrictions exist employers are free to discriminate however they like, like the airline that only hired katoeys.

Hiring only farang wait staff for a steak house would probably not be worth the extra expense but no problem here.

Hiring only Thai wait staff at a Thai restaurant would IMO be fine in the US, would be surprised if Oz has gone too far overboard to prevent that, easy to make a business case for it.

But few businesses would actually go to that much trouble, unless there were a lot of Thais locally available anyway.

I am happy to be in Thailand with my wife and son. I am not sending him to an international school. I am sending him to a good private school. I am teaching here, my wife is also a teacher. I am taking charge of his education. I am taking charge of showing him the world, how it really works without the skewed perspectives sponsored by Pepsi or the military industrial complex infecting his brain with the lust for material possessions at any cost.

Absolutely agree that if a parent has the ability, confidence and willingness to spend the time working with their kids supplementing an at-least-not-terrible school, they will be able to fill in the gaps and perhaps counteract the negative side of what they get from the regular system.

This would in my opinion be needed almost anywhere in the world with NES public schools too, US/UK/Aus/NZ/Canada.

Home-schooling is another options, but does take more ability, confidence and willingness, plus then you need to work extra hard to provide them contexts for socialization, not let them be to isolated within the home.

Parents that can follow these paths can probably do quite well anywhere in the world, but as with any project of true love, it will require a lot of self-discipline and sacrifice of time and energy. But that's what being a parent is all about isn't it.

Well if you have to choose between upgrading the fridge or your girl, which way you leaning?

Or rather than swapping, you could of course just invest in an additional one.

Whatever you do don't just get a big huge one or we might not be able to dig you out from under those melons. . .

I can't speak from first hand knowledge, but my sister's attached townhouse flat in London has gone up 1000 percent in the past 15 years. She told me that if she tried to buy it today that there is no way she and her husband could afford it. I doubt if it has increased that much in Thailand.

Flipping it around to the OP's POV, the Bangkok equivalent is still affordable.

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I understand what you're saying, and I understand that works for some. Some families break up, even causing a father to lose the relationship with his children. Yes, some are willing to walk away.

But is that actually owning your own land in your own name, with the title running with the land to perpetuity?

Maybe it works for others, but I can't invest one pound in dirt I don't own in my name alone. I can't even think in terms of how much a house would cost me in Thailand.

I guess that's because you're looking at it from a financial analysis point of view, while for others their home may simply functional - not "wasting" money on rent, a place for the family to live, with no question of realizing any financial return, just an expense not an investment.

Say we want to discuss comparing the relative cost/value of pink diamond necklaces purchased in New York vs Bangkok. The likelihood of them being fakes, the quality of the cutting artistry of the setting etc.

Some men will retain ownership for financial or insurance purposes but let their partner wear them to the ballroom dancing competition.

Others will simply hand them over as a gift.

Both can still continue the discussion of the market variables setting aside the question of legal ownership.

Its wrong when there is no room for beer duh

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Well obviously it's her job to bring those to you anyway, so I still don't see the problem.

Yes, and who owns the land? My idea of owning a home is owning the dirt. Without the land I don't feel I own much.

My land is worth a lot more than my house, and I own my land.

How can we discuss home values in LOS when we can't own the land?

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The point is a valid one as far as I'm concerned, but it's been repeated again and again within the thread

This one issue won't bring the discussion to a halt as you may think it should, because some (many?) people here

- A put it in their kids' names or

- B trust their wives and aren't afraid of the family breaking up and their getting kicked out of "their" house, or

- C don't worry about that possibility because the expense was such a small part of their personal net worth that they're willing to walk away.

All of which are perfectly valid points of view.