Mark Wolfe

The concept of flogging time shares is not in and of itself repulsive to me; it is the way in which it is done.

The last exchange I had with one of these gentlemen was in Lamai, near the "Walking Street." Some guy was handing out something on the street in the afternoon and had either prior knowledge or followed a couple of vans full of tourists who were from somewhere with Russian-sounding accents. There were three men around this guy and I wandered up since I had never seen anyone trying to promote anything on the street in Lamai, much less a foreigner. I hung back a little but when the guy saw me standing within earshot, he turned to me and in a stern voice said something to the effect that I should move along. I said I didn't want to; I wanted to see what was going on (at that point I still didn't know what he was doing). He got belligerent, while the "marks" were starting to become bewildered. I said that I lived here and anyway, I could stand anywhere on the street I liked. He said he lived here too. I said, So go on (with whatever you are doing). He clearly thought that I knew exactly what he was doing and was about to queer his pitch.

He was a wiry-looking guy and was starting to glaze over in the eyes and looked like he might come unhinged and then another foreigner, his partner, started to walk over. They steered the "marks" away from me, and I lost interest and went away.

This was also some scratch and "win" thing, which of course is disingenuous. If you have something to offer that you think is interesting, make it interesting and offer it; don't use subterfuge.

I also dislike the ones in Bangkok who are young women dressed in polo shirts that say something like "Thai Tourism" on the front and ask you to fill out a survey. I got sucked into this once because I thought I was doing something for tourism. You end up, if you agree, in a hotel somewhere and are put though the pressure mill with foreigners now, mild at first and then psychological later.

All the people involved were very slimy in manner and appearance. I have had other run-ins with these people (in Chaweng too) and they all repulse me for the fact that they are so willing to compromise their own self decency and use some from of indirect "capture" of potential customers.

Look, if time shares were so dam_n good, the people trying to get you to sign up and fork out for them would just work up a pitch that began right off with what they have to offer and why it's so unbelievably amazing. But that isn't the way it happens. You get offered a free bag to listen to a pitch; you "win" some prize in a bogus scratch and "always win" card...

And as for the OP, I hardly think this is what he had in mind.

Tourism has recently overtaken coconut production as its main industry.

"Recently"?

And now all the tourists lured by Songkran are gone.

And, as an aside, I wonder how much water revenue was poured down the drain, literally.

Songkran is supposed to be something different from wasting potable water by throwing it on people. In some parts of the world, if people saw what went on here they would be scandalized.

By the way, these figures -- 30 percent and 200 million/500 million baht -- do I sense a rabbit being pulled out of a hat here? Estimates by whom? Using what figures or models? These number are almost certainly incorrect, and perhaps wildly so.

A time-share salesman? God, I'd rather stick my dick in a fan.

Read and re-read the comments by ibngazelle. Very much worth thinking about. I agree with all of them.

Samui is what you make of it. If you have some qualifications for hotel or resort work, you may be able to find something, but I think it's like finding work in any new place -- you need to make connections even before you come and be ready to hit the pavement day after day.

If I were looking for work along those lines, I'd be hitting up the places that are under construction, of which there are many. Remember, there will be positions that could easily be filled by competent and educated English-speaking Thais, but the reality is that holidaymakers often want to deal with a non-local in certain public relations or management issues. It may seem racist, but it's the fact.

Oh, and I hear pastry chefs make zillions of baht a month.....

MM:

...an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of flesh.

Ha! Very Homer Simpsonesque....

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

-- Benjamin Franklin

"This kindness will I show.

Go with me to a notary, seal me there

Your single bond, and, in a merry sport,

If you repay me not on such a day,

In such a place, such sum or sums as are

Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit

Be nominated for an equal pound

Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken

In what part of your body pleaseth me."

-- Shylock to Bassanio in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

BigC:

also i have stop getting inssurence now becuase the hospitals in thailand have a reputation of over charging a rippping the inssurence companies.

The charges to the insurance companies is a matter between the hospitals and the companies. You are covered to whatever amount you signed on for regardless of whether the hospital is an expensive one or a cheaper one. Even taking into account what you wrote, with insurance you paid once out of three visits; without insurance you would be paying the full amount all three times. Seems like insurance is wise.

my g/f went into bangkok hospital samui because i thought she had taken and mistaken over dose.

What was taken and what made you think it was an overdose?

koheesti:

A year ago a friend's gf OD'd on paracetamol (50+ tablets)...

How bizarre. What was that about? Most of the paracetamol here is sold in blister packs, which would entail ripping open lot of pills = lots of time (to consider what one was doing). Or was this some big bottle full of them? Who keeps so many aspirins (which is basically what these are, like ibuprofen) in the house?

*****************

I read all this and wonder if there is some sort of ...and I am not sure of the right terms here...an ethics or standards board (presumably in Bangkok) to which one might appeal for redress for what appears to be price gouging and a policy of encouraging unnecessary treatments or hospital stays? Granted of course that for every negative post here, there are probably thousands of satisfied customers at the hospitals, there still must be some oversight body governing this.

I am a bit disappointed. Selecting a "throwing water" pic as the best was not what I expected. Stand by the road and you can get hundreds of these; it's the human side that interests me. There were a couple of photos of men chatting or laughing which, to borrow a term, showed fellowship -- the real meaning of Songkran (so I am led to believe). I thought these had a chance of winning. The third place is almost in the right ballpark, but the photo would never appear as a stand-alone in a newspaper since -- and here is the key -- it doesn't tell a story. A photo of some girls on a float or whatever is just a snapshot; at least the winner does tell a story.

I think next year perhaps the judge(s) might consider asking for something that shows the spirit of the event, rather than the mechanics of it.

I heard from someone claiming to have the correct information and that an altercation did take place, but that the person was injured falling and by chance hit his head on a cement pole holder. This is different from the fanciful image of someone picking up a heavy concrete thing and hitting someone over the head with it.

My source is a good one, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it either.

What you do find here, and this is related, is the alarming number of mishaps -- fights and injuries (motorbike) -- being the result of intoxication. I can think of five people just off the top of my head that I know or knew personally who were injured or killed because they were drunk themselves or because others were.

Fights happen, but drunkenness certainly ups the risk factor for them as well as other unwanted situations that might otherwise be avoided.

samui04:

As any good SciFi movie have showed in the far future the normal people will use chinese worldwide (japanese is a variant)....

You keep writing about "speaking." While Chinese writing is mostly unified (Traditional like is used in Taiwan, and Simplified like is used in mainland China), the spoken language is hugely varied. I am not a linguistic Sinologist, but I believe that most of these are mutually unintelligible. Although Mandarin (the "people's language" on the mainland; the "national language" in Taiwan), is the official language of the land, you'd be surprised how many in China can't understand it either at all or enough to have a conversation.

It seems to me that the only modern language that really fits samui04's template is Vietnamese. For most of its life, the language was written using Chinese characters and their adaptations for this purpose. Only in the 17th century, thanks to those wishing to save the natives from the fires of hel_l, did the language become Romanized, after a fashion.

Ozsamurai is wrong on at least two counts. One being that, "Pronunciation of many foreign words can never be achieved within the letters we have."

You are confusing the letters with the standard (if varying) pronunciation of those letters and their sounds in English. Without getting into the debate over the proper or "best" Romanization of Chinese, the "unusual" sounds in the language are represented by certain English alphabetics BUT with different pronunciations, which is something you have to memorize from the outset. An initial "C" in Chinese is pronounced more like "ts" and this is something you have to memorize. Many languages have specific sounds that are not found in English and would have to be learned -- but could be represented by an English alphabetic symbol.

"Words would end up with the same spelling whereas the meanings are different by use of different characters in their native form."

Perhaps, but that is not problem in English itself. Run means something in baseball, in your stocking and getting from point A to B, to name a few. Context solves this "problem."

"Inflection and tones can not be represented." This is completely false, and Vietnamese is a perfect example. It uses the alphabet (from the French) and adds marks to indicate long and short vowels and tones. When I was in Ho Chi Minh City studying the language, I was quite amazed that I could take their system and apply it to Mandarin as a Romanization with very accurate results. Personally, I thought it so superior to Pinyin or Wade-Giles that I had a minor epiphany and thought I should spread the good news to everyone. If anyone out there can read Vietnamese and speak Mandarin, and apply the Vietnamese Romanization to the Mandarin pronunciation, you will see what I mean.

"Cultural identity and heritage would be lost."

We are talking about writing, not speaking. We are not debating changing the language, just the way you write it down. I don't see how that can result in the loss of cultural identity or heritage.

And as for Chinese being the language of the world in the far distant future, remember that all those Sci-fi movies are in English...the language of the world. It's already the common language for business and travel. This discussion may be mute in 5,000 years since everyone will be able to speak English (but may retain some original, local tongues, like in the Philippines).

was it worth opening a topic?

It was so worth it that I (accidentally) opened it twice, which a handy Mod will fix.

Considering the level of topics here, sure, it's got wheels. Particularly if you have studied non-English languages that do and do not use an alphabet.

But if this isn't your cup of tea, there is always the MOLE REMOVAL thread.

These "first posters'" raving about MYL courses smells of shills to me.

But more importantly:

Any language not using western alphabet is dead, apart chinese, they are too many.....

Whoa, that's quite a statement, deserving of its own thread.

Here is it:

Romanize Non-english Languages Or They Die

Samui04 wrote:

Any language not using western alphabet is dead, apart chinese, they are too many.....

First off, which "Chinese" are you referring to? Mandarin? Cantonese? Shanghainese? There are many dozens. And what is special about Chinese? Japanese has a non-alphabetic alphabet.

I don't like cats...skinning them is a different matter....

I am not sure what you did with the one photo copied. Did you use the same photo several times then "blend" the different ways you set each one? I don't understand how in the lead up photos in the Photomatrix windows there is blurring of the plants, but in the final photo there is none. That baffles me.

I would also like to know the following: My photos See: Evaluate My Photos of the clouds and the wooden dock look more "defined" if that is the right word, after being fiddled with by others here. I have tried many different settings without being able to get this effect. There is more definition and contrast (brighter in the planks on the wood) and sharper. It almost appears that there has been some specific, directed burning or treatment in certain areas.

I am wondering what I can do to turn my photos into yours (pl). I downloaded Neat Image, but the other one mentioned by a poster in the other submission thread I couldn't find and it appeared to be something not for amateurs. Neat Image worked well with some single shot, large telephoto/low light shots, but I am not sure it is something that isn't included in Photomatrix in one of the sliders, the name of which escapes me right now.

I also have this thing going on where certain areas of photo are "burned" out. This is before I do anything other than load them into Photomatrix. You can see this in the clouds in this photo if you zoom. Sometimes it is a large area and not necessarily ultra-sunny. I have no clue what this is or why it happens.

The copper roof as shown in the photo is odd, too. Won't verdigris be a huge problem? And frankly, it looks completely mismatched with the tropical surroundings. I bet it cost a mint, too.

Just a quick update...my lawyr contacted me today and I was informed the accused's brother (she didn't have any brother as far as I knew) phoned my lawyer to inform him that the "Harley" was sold last week for 300,000 Baht.

Great. You found it. Where was it? Who purchased it?

The big Kodak shop on the ring road in Lamai. On your right hand side heading to Lamai from Chaweng. Ask him there, he seems to have all kind of machines.

But none will print from .tiff files.

There is a place by the side of the main road across from the turn to Beach Republic, but that bamboo is old and about had it.

Where can I get decent quality bamboo poles?

Thanks in advance

M

First off, I'm not "cool" and don't own anything close to the white outfits people were wearing at the "opening" of the place. I am not buff and I don't use preparations in my hair to look fashionable. I am not rich and think spending 280 baht for pad thai (no joke) is making fools out of the customers.

The place looks quite like it wants to be "upscale" but frankly, having looked around and examined the place (and in the daytime), I was constantly struck by this going through my head: "It's like there are some good design ideas here, but the craftsmanship is just terribly lacking. It would be like having a brilliant design idea and asking some poor, backwoods farmer to make it for you."

The water in the swimming/wading pool was brackish and far from clear. Funny since it smelled hugely of chlorine.

The lounging areas around the pool had no means for shade and the effort to bring over some umbrellas was half-hearted and didn't actually help much.

The music (remember I am not cool) during the day was perplexing (much like Swing Bar in Lamai) when you think it would be the time to play some nice, relaxing-by-the-pool, chill-out music; instead, they play the nighttime throbbing base notes-where's-the-E-I'm-totally-zoned DUNG DUNG DUNG stuff. What's the deal with that? It is music written for people to get up and move to, not sit relaxed at poolside. I am also not sure what the deal is with having a human DJ there. The several hours I was there could have been done via recording instead of some dude and NO one would have noticed. That might be a comment over the head of this thread, though.

The Russian who "owns" the place (if any non-Thai can truly own anything here) is personable and clearly has more money than 20 of the most well-heeled tourists at the venue at any one time, but I wonder if he is really getting his money's worth. He seemed to be clinging to all the wrong people. I thought he was probably lonely. His "girlfriend" here, if he has such a thing, must be thinking she's won the World Cup, the World Series, the Superbowl, the Constructor's Title and all her birthdays came at once -- the man is loaded.

The Thai staff is like a small town, and they do seem to try hard to be helpful.

My total impression was that Nikki Beach is a plaything for some young Turk from Russia who has an inexhaustible supply of money (wonder where that came from?) and the place is trying way too hard to be "cool/the IN place to be, and all those other superlatives (just look at the photos)."

Personally, I don't see the appeal -- so many other places around the island that can provide all of what this aspires to be and with not only the benefit of being well-established, but (perhaps partially because of this) better in quality and "vibe."

And on a side note, Lipa Noi has a "beach" like the banks of a lake. No waves, dirty-colored sand and about as stimulating as a glass of water with sand in the bottom.

The best sand is found at a mean of 2.456 meters from the mean of the tide at 34 minutes before the lowest tide of the day and the 12am level. Using Sand Sifter 2.34V -- the industry standard -- we can determine that the best sand is >.046 and <.052 millimeters. Spectrum analysis using the Decca Refractor 3000 (some might fall back to the earlier Dyna Specs models, but if you do the research, you'll find that this is pretty much old technology), shows a "sugar index" of 1.2, which is comparable with the sands at Shark Bay in Koh Tao, although having different hedrons, if that is important to you.

"Best sand," of course, is relative. I assume that you are trying to find the best sand to ingest for cleansing purposes. I'm not sure why you would inquire about sand for other purposes, unless you are contemplating sponsoring a sand castle-building competition, which would entail further study.

So please state the need to know where the best sand is and for what purpose you wish to find it.

We will find it for you.

If anyone finds a place that custom frames using Plexiglass instead of glass, please post.

Nam...

The series with the whale rock and clouds are RAW files and huge. I can send them via a filesharing site if I have email addresses.

The wooden dock is only three. Here they are. The camera is a Nikon 5100. I am not very happy with this camera. The flash failed and was repaired in Japan and failed again. I only bought it as a stopgap until I bought a "good" camera, but never found anything that I thought was suitable.

Looking at reviews and such of decent digital SLR cameras is like trying to decide which bottled water tastes "good."

So I have not done anything.

The whale rock photos were taken with an Olympus 8080 that works sometimes and sometimes not. It got wet, was repaired in Bangkok, failed again, and now does what it wants -- turns on and off (sometimes), functions flip back and forth (sometimes) and sometimes it won't turn on. Currently, however, it is in its, "I'm fine, really; don't throw me away!" mode. Everything works. For now.

malcolmswaine

เอาเผ็ดมากๆจริงๆครับ

ow-pet-mark-mark-jing-jing-kap

i want super spicy and i'm not joking

Wouldn't that actually be: "(I) want (it) very spicy, really."

Isn't there a word in Thai for "super," and "joking"?

Also, when you Romanize "not" shouldn't it be "mai"? "Mee" is "have," isn't it? "Mai mee," would be "don't have," right?

I just mention this so that we who read the Romanization can end up saying something in the right ballpark.

Edit: Sorry, just noticed the "mark-mark." I bet "mak-mak" would get you further down the road...

Oh, and when you say you "love rich/spicy food," I wonder if you really know how fierce some Thai dishes can be. Just make sure your health insurance is up to date....

Toret:

Veeery close to a big disco with a fruity name

Well, that's pretty helpful. Couldn't just give us the name, eh? Have to make some sort of guessing game out of it? I'm not sure how this works. So if I spot any of the missing vehicles I should post some sort of clue as to where it is? Maybe a cipher?

OK, must be "Seed," right? Give us another hint. Is it bigger than a breadbox?

Richardshane:

I'm looking forward to the trial at the end of July....there will be some surprises in store....

Wombat6 (from linked thread):

…the victim was a personal friend of mine (as was his wife)....they had an "arrangement" to be able to carry on a separate lifestyle at times. So there was never any jealousy…

Surprises, indeed. I don't see any mitigating circumstances for killing this man, and the brother has my sympathies, but if Wombat6 is right, there might be some surprising (and potentially embarrassing) testimony from the Thai side on how a "marriage" entails these separate lifestyles. And Wombat6's line clearly infers that it was "acceptable and understood" that either or both could have a lover (isn't one of the co-defendants referred to repeatedly as "the boyfriend"?).

Wombat6:

Due to his broken leg, he was staying in Ranong for a lot longer than normal and it is believed the boyfriend of the wife became frustrated that he was not seeing enough of Dale's wife.

"Never any jealousy," eh Wombat6?

If the deceased had been a celebrity, this case would be discussed and debated on Larry King and elsewhere; of course to say the killing was wrong and stupid, but also to figure out the motivation. Why kill the goose that was laying the golden eggs? It sounds to me exactly the opposite of what Wombat6 says regarding no jealousy – every Thai associated with the deceased was living the good life, but this "open marriage" clearly (and Wombat6 admits to this) got under the skin of the wife's boyfriend (and her too, it appears).

I don't see the insurance policy angle as anything other than an adjunct to the wife and the boyfriend wanting to be together without having the wife have to pretend with the foreigner husband just to keep the cash flow coming. I mean the question, "Did the wife love the foreigner husband?" is mute. Clearly if the allegations are true, she did not. Was the foreigner husband not aware of this? If the marriage was "open," was he unaware that his wife had a lover?

Truly I feel sorry for the deceased and his family. We often see men get involved in situations with Thai women where observers can see clearly what is really going on (and the man is oblivious), but this virtually never leads to this conclusion.

Sadder still is the fact that most likely all the Thais in the neighborhood knew the foreign husband was being taken for a ride (they knew what was going on when he was away) but did nothing to intervene. Perhaps they thought it was just another one of those falang/Thai things.

PoorSucker mentions, "staff on the ferry checks all bikes leaving the island."

This is going in the right direction, but I am not aware whether anything substantive is recorded regarding vehicles coming and going into or out of Samui, and, most importantly, who the owner is and where they are going.

Also, and maybe this is being done already, but it appears that the deceased was wealthy. I would think that the cost of hiring a Thai private investigator to find these vehicles might well be worth the price. My hunch is that he could find the stuff. A good dick has connections and knows what palms to grease to get results. This avenue would have been my first recourse.

OK, what can be done with this one? It's a bigger file. I know the clouds don't match exactly and it is crooked, but hey, it me.

Thanks.

Considering I don't know the first thing, really, about Photoshop, I'd need someone to stand over my shoulder to show me this stuff. I can't even figure out how to get a layer going. I am sure it is easy if someone shows you, but I am not very good at reading stuff in manuals and then applying it.

But you certainly have more photo treatment software than I do...

The end result is that I will probably give up this HDR thing; clearly I haven't the skill or the tools for it.