Nooky2

Good luck changing this in Issan. Dog is as common as chicken.

Dogburgers taste awful & afterwards you feel a bit ruff.

But yeah, human digestive system = herbivore. We descended from plant-eating monkeys, and we don't need meat at all in our diets, so theres even less reason to eat dog meat. Was a good study a few decades back on obesity/cholesterol levels globally and Thailand was in the very lowest bracket, at about 250x lower than western nations, and this is largely because of traditional papaya salads and other vegetable based cooking, fish and poultry etc. but mainly the vegetable-oriented diet. Obviously Thais do eat meat, much more so now with KFC/MCd. All animals suffer the same, cows pigs dogs etc. if you eat one you might as well eat the lot. I'm vegetarian and so I don't distinguish, ppl think dogs are cute but I had a pet pig and he was gorgeous.

Maybe Thais descended from plant-eating monkeys but westerners didn't. They descended from meat eaters.

How does one attempt to jump?

Does he try to jump and changed his mind? Did someone grab him?

I'm confused with this whole attempt to jump thing.

Fuzzy math

"Blair said Thailand has economically expanded in the last few decades with outstanding tourism". Apparently Blair gets it.

According to the Thai government tourism is a small fraction of Thailand's economy and does not sway Thailand's statistics.

LOL. Not laughing. LOL is the "Land of Lies".

I learned something interesting. I heard a Thai teacher state to Thai students that there is American accent, British accent, and Thai accent. These are all English accents. So what they were saying was the Thai English with all it's errant grammar and mispronunciation is merely a Thai English accent.

Amazing.

I'm really trying to care, but it's not happening.

Come on guys. It takes a lot of time to come up with all those outfits. I have never seen her in the same dress twice. She's not missing, she's just shopping for her next 20 outfits for public appearances.

I'm afraid that this is a dream that would never come true in this lifetime.

Consider the following;

1. The chosen neutral language for the AEC is English.

2. One would have to change the whole curriculum.

3. 70% of the Thai teachers cannot speak English.

4. 20% of the Thai teachers speak grammatically wrong English.

5. 10% of the Thai Teachers speak acceptable English, but have no logic.

(Theoretically this means that over 90% of the Thai teachers would have to be replaced.)

Now comes the difficult part

Would it be an American or British Curriculum?

You say its almost the same! No it isn't

1. word pronunciation is different.

2. Spelling is different, i.e. Words ending in our in British end in or in American so do re, ce, in British, become aer and ase in American. and many more.

3. the word stress is different.

5. the same words have different meanings

6. etc., etc., etc.

Actually there is a vast difference in American and British when it comes to education, so much so that they can be considered as two different languages.

One must ask oneself in the AEC do the majority follow the British or American curriculum

Excellent point. I haven't seen any discussion on that topic.

But if Thailand or the AEC should decide on one or the other, then the teachers coming from the unselected country would not have much use here. I have seen Brits teach from an American curriculum/books and completely reject it as improper.

There is no American language, they use a version of English called "American English" why is beyond me, most of the rest of the world are content with the original, some of the grammatical errors would not be made in an English Primary school, but thats the route the former colonists have taken and from what I have observed here many Thais seem to have followed blindly down this route as well, they will probably end up with a new version which will be called "transpacific English" Just what the world has been waiting for!

Thank you for making my point of the Brits point of view.

"most of the rest of the world". Could you please identify the most of the rest of the world?

I'm afraid that this is a dream that would never come true in this lifetime.

Consider the following;

1. The chosen neutral language for the AEC is English.

2. One would have to change the whole curriculum.

3. 70% of the Thai teachers cannot speak English.

4. 20% of the Thai teachers speak grammatically wrong English.

5. 10% of the Thai Teachers speak acceptable English, but have no logic.

(Theoretically this means that over 90% of the Thai teachers would have to be replaced.)

Now comes the difficult part

Would it be an American or British Curriculum?

You say its almost the same! No it isn't

1. word pronunciation is different.

2. Spelling is different, i.e. Words ending in our in British end in or in American so do re, ce, in British, become aer and ase in American. and many more.

3. the word stress is different.

5. the same words have different meanings

6. etc., etc., etc.

Actually there is a vast difference in American and British when it comes to education, so much so that they can be considered as two different languages.

One must ask oneself in the AEC do the majority follow the British or American curriculum

Excellent point. I haven't seen any discussion on that topic.

But if Thailand or the AEC should decide on one or the other, then the teachers coming from the unselected country would not have much use here. I have seen Brits teach from an American curriculum/books and completely reject it as improper.

"Once tourists touch down, they will be given high security.

Boy do I feel better now. I expect this will be another B500m project. After all you can get only 200 clocks for B16m.

Yes, more rhetoric to sell tourist on false security.

There's no waste in my house. When I finish eating my wife goes through my plate to see if I left anything behind. She's a food Nazi.

What's with this DSI? Are we to believe they are miraculously credible? Or do they just get a bigger payoff because they are "above" the BiB. And where did they get these "honest" Thais to be in this department?

Some great thinking there. I agree with most of what you write. The only response I would or could think of, is that

there is so much bad foreigners of all the kind and sorts possible coming here. And all of us normal guys had to suffer of course

because of their presence here!!....

Glegolo

I think we are all considered bad foreigners.

I believe the the foreigners here are the worst of the worst from our own countries. I would say 90%. The remaining 10% fall into different categories.

For my experience, initially, I think everyone comes to Thailand with a certain level of excitement and like myself say hi to foreigners when you see them. It doesn't take long to change your attitude from work experiences and just general exposure to foreigners in public. Add to that the poor treatment from Thais and you just stop talking to foreigners. Maybe that's why there are so many poster in TV because that's the only conversation we have with foreigners.

I won't go into nationalities, that will create a firestorm.

It's the managements fault for allowing the staff to get away with it.

The management is equally as guilty.

Thailand has the most resilient tourism industry in the world today.

If one tenth the incidents that happen here in LOS happened in Australia we would be hauled before international courts and heavily penalised by Korean 'ban the moon' boss of UN and others.

Thailand's tourism industry will continue to grow regardless of the slow/useless hotel service and no matter how many people are murdered ,drugged ,kidnapped,disappear,crippled ,scammed,ripped-off ,filthy beaches or even bankrupted.

Where else in the world can you get a hotel with pool + a drinking session + girl = about 70 dollars ? Not even in the Phillipines. ( not necessarily a girl either, tens of thousands of men and some women come here for the Issan boys).

Thailand is strategically placed in Asia with a major int airport and one smaller in Phuket.

Farangs arent coming here in as big numbers but that will change with the UK pound and euro climbing the ladder. Thai's are chasing the Chinese,Ruskie,Indian an Nth Asian markets now.

The Thais love us for it !.......... huge money. Their major industry for sure.

I visited guests at two 4 star hotels recently. Staff took 45 minutes to bring whisky glasses even though i had ordered wine glasses.

The other hotel took about 30 minutes to serve one person but not the other. Nothing, probably because i ordered a glass of iced water. No money in that ! ...f##k 'im.

Service used to be good here but they get rid of the 'old staff' and bring in pretty young faces. no experience.

I'm guessing you are Thai.

Let's say they build a high-speed rail link, who is going to maintain it? Who is going to build it?

A scary thought.

When your new passport is issued then the old one is in effect canceled and canceling your extension to stay now. How do you avoid the fine/overstay?

It amazes me, every time, how dim people are. The above question is a classic example of not bothering to read the relevant information, which was;

The new policy means that now when you get a new passport because the old one has expired you have to apply for a new extension of stay, with all the accompanying paperwork and of course pay the usual extension fee of 1,900 baht.

Put simply:- old passport about to expire, therefore apply beforehand for an extension of stay, thus avoiding over stay charge. However, to avoid extension of stay fee...

...anyone holding this visa needs to renew their passport while it still has at least 13 or 14 months validity. Usually the Homeland Embassy will compound any remaining time with the subsequent 10 years validity of a new passport.

But this is Thailand, so check Immigration for any opinion relating to the new passport number not matching the one on record and held against the existing visa. It should be ok as you have a legal passport in your name and with at least 10 years before expiry, as per Thai Immigration rules.

You must be new to Thailand. When has Thailand created a law and adhered to it 100%. They make the rules as they go, daily.

I wonder how many more years it will take until they come up with long term lasting straight forward and sensibly thought through, as well as for all immigration offices standardised visa regulations without implementing new ones every few month.

The common practice to change the rules every time a bureaucrat comes up with an idea how to increase the revenue from visas has to stop as it will not be compatible with countries more developed and responsible in this matter.

I hope this will end when ASEAN applies! But then again,- TIT.

ASEAN will have a big impact on many facets of how business is conducted here. Non-compliance with ASEAN rules can result in monetary fines, up to suspension of membership. It will remain to be seen how the Thai government receives this. There is big money and prestige involved and they don't want to be left out. As the Borg on Star Trek say, "Resistance is futile".

Agreed, but I don't think it will help us at all. And we are assuming that Thailand will not delay participation into the AEC, which I expect.

In a semi-related story that you will never hear about because there are no foreigners involved. This happened several days ago locally. True story.

A 61 year old Thai guy paid gold, diamonds, and a large sum of cash to a family to marry their 34 year old daughter. Apparently, she was very beautiful with white skin, of course. After waiting for 2 months and being rejected, the man wanted to have sex but the newly married wife said no way. The man said he wanted his money back from the family which there came no response. The wife apparently moved back with the family and it appeared she was hunting for her next victim. The husband confronted the wife again about the money paid to the family and again was denied the repayment. The husband pulled out a gun, stuck it in her mouth, and pulled the trigger.

He has yet to be arrested.

I wonder how many more years it will take until they come up with long term lasting straight forward and sensibly thought through, as well as for all immigration offices standardised visa regulations without implementing new ones every few month.

The common practice to change the rules every time a bureaucrat comes up with an idea how to increase the revenue from visas has to stop as it will not be compatible with countries more developed and responsible in this matter.

I hope this will end when ASEAN applies! But then again,- TIT.

If what gosompoi is saying is correct, they have yet again found a way to jerk us around.

When will it end....never.

It will end when another country near Thailand opens up their country to foreigners and makes visas easier to live with. I believe that will create a vacuum into that country pulling the foreigners out of Thailand.

"When will it end....never. It will end when another country near Thailand opens up their country to foreigners and makes visas easier to live with. I believe that will create a vacuum into that country pulling the foreigners out of Thailand."

Well, it'll pull out some of the chronic complainers, maybe. Thailand's gain and to-be-named country's increased noise pollution.

Interesting. So what is so special about Thailand that say Vietnam couldn't replace?

Kiloman

You mentioned about a press. Can you show a pic of that and where can you get one?

I was well aware of this fact that it will happen sooner or the later. I have been lucky to have my passport extended before this rule came out. Being informative is always rewarding indeed.

Thanks for sharing your expertise in time!

I could have mentioned this on this forum as a early warning. But then its against the rules and policies of Immigration as well as this forum. Secondly in case of non-existence of the said rule would have back fire my credibility on this forum. I hope you can understand my point.

You are safe. Nobody has credibility here.

Tyswas

Take the new passport to immigration. They will transfer the extension to the new passport.

Immigration says,

After the renewal of your passport of obtaining a new passport, you have to re-apply for Visa Extension by submitting required document and paying extension fee ( 1,900 Baht ).

I am at immigration, they said "No more transfer!"

Are you in Bangkok?

Maybe outside of Bangkok is different. They all seem to have different rules.