hawker9000

1 hour ago, Jimdandy said:

Welcome to America's headache.

If 20 million is just a "headache", 2000 isn't even noticeable.  Still, it's probably enough to revive that joyful Thai holiday tradition of random street stops & urine tests...  

10 hours ago, Rayfish said:

Some of us like the rainbow that is the food we can get on the street. Vanilla no culture over-controlled overtaxed cities is what you can have in the West. If you don't like the culture that has developed here in Southeast Asia you can always go to America or Europe.



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Instead of just bloviating, you might actually READ what I wrote.  It's not a matter of liking or not liking street food, but your reading skills obviously didn't enable you to grasp that.

'And the old "love-it-or-leave" non-thinking, beyond stale chestnut.

4 hours ago, ross163103 said:

I didn't need any but thanks.

By the way what organization have you started, or contribute too, to save sick and starving children(?), I'll send them a donation. Just for your info I've contributed many times over many years to lots of different orphanages in Pattaya, especially the smaller ones that need more help getting started.

St. Jude Childrens Hospital

Child Fund Int'l

City of Hope

"Some of the responses on here just reinforce the fact of why I like dogs more than a lot of humans. "

You need far more than you think.

17 hours ago, the guest said:

Deflecting the incompetence by the authorities, toward foreigners is a pretty lame excuse. 

If you cleaned up all the corruption, then you might find there would be less undesirables in the country. Chances of that happening is zero!

Not lame; terrorists are still terrorists, and being able to identify and exclude them is a very real challenge to immigration enforcement everywhere, a fact terrorists have been exploiting for decades.  And they're a proven threat even where corruption is not the issue.  But there's no denying that corruption and would-be terrorists trying to enter illegally are a perfect storm.  In other countries an unwillingness to profile and obsessive political correctness benefit terrorists just as much.

5 minutes ago, Regyai said:

Mmmm a multitude of ultra convenient micro sellers dispersed where demand dictates and thrived for decades.

 

Condensed uprooted proscribed and dictated to emerge in vast incovenient governmental pipedreams where demand is none existant!!!!

 

In the "land of the blind the one eyed man is king".....perhaps someone needs a monacle ?

Yes, a multitude of ultra convenient micro sellers that were appropriate to the 1800s...   Modern cities simply can't afford to have their main arteries clogged by vendors squatting on pedestrian right-of-ways.  You might think it quaint.  You might think it charming.   You might think it "traditional".   But if you're just trying to get from A to B, as the vast majority on these main thoroughfares are wont to do,  it's a huge PIA totally irrelevant to modern day.   You're apparently confounded by the difference between legitimate "demand" and rank me-first opportunism.   The solution requires some more competent planning and preparation perhaps, but not a return to a highly dysfunctional throwback.  ....that plus the fact that what grew up over centuries isn't going to be replaced with new public attitudes and habits overnight:  it WILL take time and perseverance.

53 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Tourist police, hmmmmm. Considering they are virtually invisible ( so few of them ), it'll be interesting to see how they do on 200,000 suspects.

I just hope it doesn't lead to pavement checkpoints in Chiang Mai looking at my passport every time I go outside.

It's the price the rest of us have to pay for the scofflaws.  

200,000?  Pfffft.   Give me a call when it gets to 20 million, like in the U.S.   (OK, make it 6.7M if you want to get all proportional....)

3 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Good luck finding a Thai vet who will euthanise a suffering animal let alone suggest that Thais round up all soi dogs and euthanise them.

I

About the same as finding someone willing to do more than grow the problem by throwing food at them I would imagine.

If I had a child I considered to be in any danger, I'd handle the matter myself with whatever means was at hand.   'Sorry.   'Really don't want to be unnecessarily cruel, but a child would come first.   So would other humans, to be honest.

4 hours ago, Langsuan Man said:

Too bad all the evil-doers so far are already there.........

'Only half-wits who might think so.............

'Seems like the public willingness to put forth, umm,,,,, "questions" of its own....   is slowly growing.

19 hours ago, Monomial said:

Do this all the time. Never had a problem. Your signature is on your passbook in invisible ink. They check it under a black light. If it matches and you have ID no reason for them to refuse.

No problem, but they will probably charge the "out-of-area" fee (15-20B).   I don't know about the invisible ink thing (sarcasm?), but they'll probably want to see account-holder's passport, make a copy of it, have you sign it, etc.

1 hour ago, ross163103 said:

Some of the responses on here just reinforce the fact of why I like dogs more than a lot of humans.

So much for the sick and starving children of the world...    With attitudes like that I guess you need all the "reinforcement" you can get.

4 hours ago, inThailand said:

Maybe if Thais would stop abandoning dogs there would be few soi dogs?

Maybe.  And we all know precisely what the chances of that are.

26 minutes ago, steven2018 said:

If you saw a child left alone on the streets of India, would you still want to 'put it down'?

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LOL   So your case is so pathetic, you have to equate soi dogs with children?

So since you bring it up, it's in part the danger to CHILDREN that's in play here.  Would you let your child play in a street with possibly rabid soi dogs rather than DO something about the soi dogs?  I guess so.

Sent from Human using Common Sense

15 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

This kids going places

Maybe so, but I doubt they'll be in Thailand...

6 hours ago, BuaBS said:

Because they eat them.

As I suspect some street-food enjoying farangs in Thailand are as well...  

Soi dogs are a threat to public health and safety, I don't care how much of a dog-lover you are.   If you spay or neuter a few of them, that'll amount to no more than a drop in the ocean.  Even if you could somehow manage to spay or neuter every last one, the population would be reinforced within a month by the next generation of "discards".  They need to be rounded up and humanely euthanized, and on an ongoing basis.   If the bleeding hearts feeding them are so kind-hearted, then open a shelter and care for them!  Feeding them just helps perpetuate the cruelty of leaving them to the streets, not to mention the risk to the public.  The morons feeding them are almost as much a scourge as the soi dogs.

17 hours ago, overherebc said:

I suppose it might be possible to 'buy' the 20,000 with a card at an exchange booth, never thought of that option.

Others might know.

Can somebody verify that there even ARE any exchange booths prior to immigration?  I seem to remember at least one in that main corridor just before the turn into one of the arrival halls, but am not at all sure.

On ‎11‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 11:08 PM, spidermike007 said:

 

 

Anyone familiar with the cyber world knows that 18 out of 81 reviews, that are negative, is a devastating percentage of unhappy customers. If this is true, they are better off just closing the hotel, and moving on. Maybe try house painting, or something that requires less diplomatic skills. 

 

As far as their complaints go, what on earth is the crime called malicious posting? Can one actually be charged for that? In Thailand? Good luck.

Well, in Thailand it's called "defamation" and you certainly can be charged for it if they can identify and get their hands on you, although I expect it hardly ever happens in cases of foreigner-on-foreigner.  The owner is probably taking a wrong turn with all this ITO his public relations, but in his hotel bracket I'm guessing it won't matter that much...

Whine & backbite all you want, overstayers are a logical target for the Thai government.  'Fits in well with the overall xenophobic campaign and no end to the stream of reports of foreigners committing whatever crime who turn out to be in an overstay status as well.    And that means the rest of us playing entirely by the rules, however labyrinthine they may be, get to enjoy some extra scrutiny.  Long-term overstayers fall into two categories: the ones that really are the criminals Thai officials say they are, and the ones still living in the 1960s.   Neither group is making life any easier for the rest of us.

• Only use ATMs in or immediately outside of bank branches (not bank booths)
• If possible, keep the card access DISABLED via online settings, and activate it when going out to make a withdrawal (then disable it again)
• If possible, use dual accounts and transfer necessary amounts into the account with ATM access only when you need to
• If there's a withdrawal notification feature available (so you get an SMS whenever a transaction occurs), turn it on (it might incur a small monthly fee)
• Learn how to check for skimming hardware at ATMs - usually it's not that hard to spot if you're looking for it and have taken the time to watch a few videos
• Get in the habit of covering the keypad with your other hand when entering your PIN (SOME cards do store the PIN - as a hash or encoded - on them in a "secure element", but I have no idea whether most card thieves and skimmers have the practical means to recover it or not; I sort of doubt it) 
• Keep up with your account status online; check it regularly

I've never yet had a loss in Thailand, but it seems like one hears mixed stories about getting any money back from a Thai bank when there's a fraudulent charge or cash withdrawal.  So I more-or-less assume a loss like this is not going to be easily reimbursed, if at all.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 4:02 PM, macahoom said:

 

It would help people like me understand your post a lot better if it wasn’t littered with acronyms.

Very annoying!

 

OT? IOW?

Ever heard of Google?

'EXTREMELY common acronyms here on TV, BTW.   (ThaiVisa; By the way.   )

So you bought this condo on the assumption that all the units there would always be owner-occupied?   Are you serious?   Please tell me you're not thinking of trying to drop a dime on some of these owners who're renting out.   Esp. locals.   Unless you like flying...

6 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

With enough perseverance and fortitude, Golden Gooses can be killed.

On the contrary, 'easiest thing in the world to kill one, as golden egg hunters have done for centuries.  What takes perseverance and fortitude, in some places anyway (...), is keeping one alive!  In Thailand, they're practically extinct...

16 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

I changed the battery in my iPhone 5. Works fine. Bought from Apple in U.S. in 2013.

Plenty of online videos to walk you through it, though you do have to obtain the battery replacement "kit" from somewhere.   With new iPhones going for USD1000, it's going to be worth it for a lot of people, esp. if having your face "recognized" by your phone is something you can live without.   The biggest problem with an older iPhone is that at some point you can't update the ios any longer (which means you're not going to be able to update most of your apps any longer or install new ones either).

The things some people find to complain about...