I knew this would happen

Errr yes, what a surprise

If alcohol is too expensive there will of course be a bigger black market and more "home distilleries" will come up. What´s even worse is that there might be more adulterated alcohol, dangerous for your life.

There was a time when tourists in Turkey got poisend by the row, even hotel bars had bought the bad stuff. Though Thailand hasn´t had such problems yet? At least i haven´t heard of.

Based on the current shape of the Thai trains and railway system he cannot be blamed for wanting to use his own car.

Though if he´d want to use the future high speed system a CRV won´t do anymore.

I called my friend back who told me there was no need to go to the Police Station and that when the girl went she would be told to accept 50:50 or I will push for 100%... I never heard any more on the matter... I figured I was very fair but IMO it was only a very minor matter. I was mildly amused by the way the girl had attempted to strong-arm me with 20 or so people by her side.

1.Seems you always have to swallow a bitter pill no matter if you did anything wrong or not.

2.Blody lynch mop mentality against the evil farang, i really hope karma hits thai people hard someday (or maybe it already does, look at the government and the flood)

3.Not everyone has a joker within the BiB.

But there´s light at the end of the tunnel, the majority of us gets treated fair i´d say. Some real frightening stories make the whole thing look worse than it is.

Firstly, I'm surprised you don't know the way things work here after living here for 11 years. Also, you need your wife to do the talking?

This is not a Thai farang issue. When an accident happens the 2 parties size each other up. It is to do with how much 'power' you have. Granted, at first most Thais will see a foreigner, especially white one, and think they know nothing/nobody, especially if they are in Pattaya or tourist area. These stupid farang can't even speak the language - of course they won't know 'the law' or the procedure. I wouldn't be surprised if the OP didn't know what 'Boon Khun' is, for example.

I've had accidents here - one time the pick up was on the wrong side of the road and had a head on with me. As I was limping about with a broken foot I heard them say that I was at fault. What to do? Boon Khun time! I called someone and they came and I ended up getting 1 months salary compensation, my car fixed and hospital costs. The guy was also fined 400 baht.

But, my car took 3 months to get fixed and the insurance didn't pay for my rented car so what now? Sue the pricks. A police friend was going to help. Delay - my friend became senator of the region so wait a month until he's in office. Delay, Taxsin and his government is booted out. Plan 2 - settle for half the money by bribing someone in the insurance company.

Usually the bigger vehicle pays. It has all to do with positioning on the social ladder. Thais look at the woman that foreigners are with and know instantly if the farang could have any power.

I hear people talking about having a get out of jail card. I have used these before and can't stress the importance of getting to 'know' people here if you plan on living happily for years. Learn the language, have Thai friends, join clubs etc.

I can't believe that some people leave the country because another car hits theirs.

I do have a buddy who was hit from behind by an off duty soldier. The soldier attacked him with a machete as he lost face when he approached my friend's car and said it was his fault and tried to grab his keys. My mate grabbed his hand and would give them. He said if he hadn't been a black belt in karate and ex army, he'd have been dead as the machete weilder was trying to kill him. Warning - never toot your horn to show someone is in the wrong. It could cost you your life. 3 months ago In khon kaen central street a man was shot dead for hooting his horn. I have a friend who's son's friend was shot in the head for tooting his horn.

Integrate, learn the language, learn the ways to get out of trouble. Don't think it of them and us. I can't emphasize how important it is to learn the language - how the hell are you going to know what's going on if you don't?

It´s not that easy to adopt such madness and even integrate. I can understand that some people might just give up and leave this place. Thailand is a special place, and when you check the dictionary you can see that "special" has a wide range of meanings. Not everyone can get along with it. That`s a never ending discussion. But you made a fine example of what is possible here.

I got involved in a minor accident in 2011 where I was hit by a minibus who was trying to squeeze his way between mine and another car. I was stationary and had been for a minute when he hit me. The result was a four foot long scraping on the minibus from when he tried to squeeze by.

The driver of the minibus called the police to the scene, and the chaos that followed caused the attention of other drivers. Basically, the driver of the minibus wanted money. A lot of money. I got the impression others got interested when they heard the amounts being discussed, and for this reason another driver came forward and claimed I had hit his car. He also wanted money. Soon the police officers decided to have a go; if they're getting money, we're having some as well!

I will not go into detail of the ugly and unfortunate events that followed (though sdk here on TV actually knows the details), but this event triggered a decision to fly my family out of Thailand (which they did within 48 hours), close my business and sell my two houses and leave Thailand. Which I did soon after my business was closed.

I have always wondered what triggers someone to lie, cheat, bend the rules or even use criminal actions to extort money from others, and it's clear that jealousy is a huge factor. In my case, being a farang and driving a new BMW 5-series probably didn't help. In Europe, youngsters are getting robbed of their mobile phones by school kid bullies. Thailand is no different, only here it's grown ups doing the bullying..

Really? That sounds horrible, it sounds like LOS, but still unbelieveable.

Got a bimmer too, maybe i´ll switch to a rusty pickup with no insurance to avoid trouble.

Yes what you are saying mirrors what I have heard about bikes and cars and it also goes for Thais.. not a anti farang thing.

Anyway some of those idiots on bikes drive crazy, i hate the ones with no taillights. I drive a bike too and there are plenty of idiot car drivers too. Actually still the majority drives ok. Just more idiots then back home.

I don´t mind the cars at all in Thailand. Some drive not bad at all and some are real lthreats. But the risk of a deadly accident doesn´t scare me a lot when i think of cars here. So far i had two minor accidents with my cars, both were handled from the insurance guy in my favour. One guy rammed my parked car and some gal busy talking on her phone hit me in stop and go traffic. No problems and everything fair.

The bikers really worry me, there´s nothing you can do to avoid them, especially the so called dhek vään (young <deleted> with tuned loud bikes, no helmet and no brain driving around like lunatics while trying to impress the gals). Or whole families one on bike, 4 persons without a helmet carrying a little baby perfoming dangerous manouvers I pray everytime i go for a ride that i will not kill one of them........even if it wouldn´t be my fault, i dunno how i would feel afterwards.

You can exist about one 14-15 month, or live around 6 month.The correct calculations are made already in other post.

The only interesting thing is that the average Thai would have to live with that amount of money exactly 3 years (14k is still the average income?)

but on your average Thai calculation of 14k/m = 3 years assumes this is the "salary" they have coming in, not the amount they need to live on, in most cases at this sort of income level people are taking out loans/borrowing money off people to top up this amount to live on.

your assuming the "books" balance at the end of every month, but we know this is not the case, lets pose this question, if you gave the "average Thai" $ 16k cash money how long do you think it would really last ?.....my bet 6 months or less..

Of course i have to calculate with balanced books, though reality may be different. But if the average 14k are enough or not depends on the individual, taking loans will not change anything. It will only take away more of the available income in the long term. You have 14k, so you need to deal with it.

If i give 16K cash to the average Thai it will last 2 hours, that´s the time needed to buy the lastest smartphone. Food for tomorrow? We´ll see how to manage that.......i once was stupid enough to help out a poorer Thai and the outcome was kinda like that. One of our tenants with a small family restaurant hit by the flood. At that time i had quite some sympathy for the people, but that went away quickly.

Would in any civilized country in this world (at least in public) someone dare to shout out loud "FOREIGNER" just because you walk by and do nothing?? This Farang thing has been beaten to death many times and the word farang is clearly not meant in a good way often. Lack of education and good manners. Buddhists my ass.....

(Before someone complains, yes it may happen but imagine the looks on other people´s faces and the embarassment of everyone)

You can exist about one 14-15 month, or live around 6 month.The correct calculations are made already in other post.

The only interesting thing is that the average Thai would have to live with that amount of money exactly 3 years (14k is still the average income?)

Thai aviation seems to be ill fated, but luck is mostly on their side (for now).

I always thought it´s only a nice colour, but if it makes me fast, that´s even better.

Though it doesn´t seem to work on my sister´s red Jazz

POLICE will propose that all vehicles older than 10 years be kept off Bangkok streets as part of a plan to improve traffic flow, unless they pay the same tax as new vehicles, a senior Metropolitan Police officer said yesterday.

So no need to worry a lot. If i have an old car it does only mean i cannot have a tax rebate on my ageing car anymore. That doesn´t hurt too much, my tax is about 5500 per year (dunno exactly). So the only difference ist that you will keep paying 500B a month instead of 250B later on? My cars usually only stay with me 4-6 years anyway ,end of warranty

E90/92 M3 then, what a nice ride, really. Thumbs up! I think the E9x series in the later years has a good qualty, the F3x series still lacks of quality and refinement. A small step down i´d say, maybe the LCI will sort that out.

I think the Active Hybrid will be a worthy successor. Except in top speed areas and very high revs the Hybrid should feel even more torquey than the M3, turbo ftw. Would be interesting to see some real life fuel figures of these two cars (if you really trade in the M).

I still gotta wait 2-3 years until it makes any sense to trade my ride Let´s see what´s in the Thai Market by then, but i guess the Hybrid 3 will still be a great choice.

P.S Take a red one please, simply love that colour on the F3x

Learn? This scares me, but a great source for infos what really happens ALL the time.

And it looks great with the M Sport trim. There´s a red one at Millenium Rama 3 right now. What a beauty!

It´s not a bargain, but still "reasonable" compared to what you get (Thailand). It exceeds the "tax friendly" displacement and horsepower figures by far. I forgot to ask if is this is an imported or local made car while took a closer look. I had the same engine back home, 340hp but without Hybrid. Diesel like torque and rev happyness combined in a smooth inline six sound.

Finally i have the perfect apology to have 340hp, it´s a Hybrid But err where to use it, rod dit everywhere. Maybe the 320d is the better choice after all, and with some nice M parts looks the same.

Don´t count on any fuel gauge, doesn´t matter if it´s an old or new car. It´s only a wild guess, as trustworth as a fortune teller.

I promised myself that i will never ever again walk along a lonely road in the woods to the next gas station

My car computer stated: you can go another 50-60km, don´t worry. I avoided the nearest gas station and wanted to go to my favourite one with a decent store attached, only 15km further....then the road went uphill, but my car didn´t

Why did they let you drive off with almost no fuel anyway? No matter if it was in Thailand or Europe, they gave me at least a quarter tank to start with. The days when cars got filled up are over though

Another "investor" who had served his purpose !!

That is actually very rational.

Possibly lured him over from the west (or Patts) and sweet talked him into running a bar to support his stay in Korat/Thailand... The rest is history.

Then too ashamed to admit that she/they rolled Tony and dumped him.

Edit: Or he is going to have a row of houses built on him

Not the first guy and not the last one. Kicked out of the house, kicked out of the business and finally kicked out of the country. Sometimes even scared to death and threatend by the whole clan. And there´s nothing he could do and nowhere he could complain. Possibility of this horror story: 50-60%

(Sad) Business as usual in beautyful LOS

Poor Tony,another black widow story.

The usual list of comments made by Sunday Aviation experts and prompt to blame anything which is not from their native country.

As i can read, Thai companies do not have more problems than others with their aircraft. As i see everyday in my job Thai DCA is not worse than any other asian DCA.

Most the guys writing on here do not even know what they are talking about

HS-GBG is an aircraft from Nok Mini (Siam General Aviation) which is not owned by Thai Airways.

A problem in LG is not a "stick actuator problem" and the problem can be located in many area, defect part, hydraulic problem etc etc etc

Thai maintenance agents are not worse or better than others, you have good and you have bad in every company, and i remind you that the most of the big western airlines sur as Air France / KLM, British Airways etc etc do not hesitate to perform heavy maintenance operation in countries such as China, Indonesia etc etc for cost reasons, is it more safe ???

By the way, the most important is that nobody has been hurt in that incident and the real experts in charge about that matter will say where came from the problem ...

You don´t need to be an expert to notice that the number of incidents with Thai airlines involved are summing up these days. What is this all about? Bad spirits, lack of maintenance or human errors? I really hope for all of us, that there is not a REAL disaster waiting to happen because the Airlines are too self confident and think they can get away with cost saving measures (if that would be the case, we don´t know).

My only concern is making it off the plance alive, but i really get a little distrustful towards any Thai airline right now. This year i flew Thai A380 from BKK-FRA-BKK and felt safe, but i´m beginning to wonder though. Of course this is only my average person point of view without any inside knowledge.

I saw the doctors about my leg and was told that the waiting list to even see a specialist was 3 months, never mind booking time for the leg surgery. I figured that because this was affecting my work (climbing towers etc.) that I should just go back to Thailand and pay for the surgery, which can be done the same day if you pay, not like back home however when I saw that the cost was 250,000 THB. Yes maybe I should have bit my tongue and just had it done however I hesitated. Because I has a few bucks at this time (End of March) I started buying a few things like my chopper, musical equipment and also gave over 250,000 baht to charities: Buying a bike for the Father Ray foundation and 20,000 baht of rice, sending warm cloths to the North, buying large Buddha statues for a couple of temples and also giving my ex-wife the equivalent of her monthly salary to her just out of the kindness of my heart. I also had some plastic surgery done for 97,000 THB.

I was thinking why not, I will be going back to work in 2 or 3 months as I DO have a return ticket. So why shouldn't I buy things for myself too before going back to work. Yes the story began in 2011 and as I said it was dropped then with the presence of a lawyer I had hired here in Pattaya and was told that the case was closed so you can imagine how surprised I was when I was arrested one night by Immigration and told by my lawyer that it was the same case being re-opened.

You have seen some ups and downs before this story right? Maybe they´ve cost you the biggest chunk of your savings? Careing your dad for example. That´s hard and can happen, not your fault. But then you see more storm clouds on the horizon, your diabetis, decreasing health, no savings. But instead of preparing for the worst you spend ALL your money (4-500K??) not "very wise" You insult others and gamble with your own wellbeing too. Finacially and health wise. So some of your trouble is selfmade.

I have to say i don´t know what to believe and how this whole story could become this complicated and frustrating as a result of an insult via email. Does the German know about your medical status? Even the most bitter, black hearted German couldn´t accept your suffering when you´re really in need of life saving surgery?!

Very confusing and disturbing story

The 2.0g Extremo made me laugh everytime i saw one. 2.0g 4 speed EXTREMO

Vios TRD (Toyota Racing Development)

Vios GT Street Version

Sorry

My '53 Ford had push-button start, I wouldn't get too caught up in it...

No, I am certainly not going to lose sleep over it, but I do like the latest technology if it is available. The Push Start works together with Smart Entry system making the traditional door/ignition key unnecessary.

I liked my push start/keyless entry system. Until i lost my key somewhere in the trunk looking for some stuff back there before i went on a trip. Unfortunately the car still started like normal and i drove off. After an hour of driving i wanted to park the car and eat something. But the car wouldn´t lock, so i wanted to use the key. Dammit! Where is it? After such a long time driving around i needed quite a while to recall what i did before i drove off.

Strange thing is, the car started with they key in the trunk, but it didn´t lock because the car noticed that the key was still inside the car (trunk)

Yes i can`t blame the tech, i´m the stupid guy. But i miss the classic ignition, turning the key is more "real". Otherwise i love tech in the car. Hid, gps, bluetooth, touchscreen, all welcome.

So they have lost the papertrail? What a surprise!

What a pathetic bunch of bloodsucking leeches!

Half of the country is flooded and they are busy filling their pockets.

Hope karma is going to catch up with them one day!

I´d also "loose" the papers asap. Would you want that someone finds a bill signed by you, where you ordered 20 hammers for the caretaker worth 15K each?

Im pretty shocked that the newer version of the 2.0 does not have cruise control and Bluetooth as standard, as these were standard in the previous 2.0G model (2006 2010).

Par for course in Thailand - the first series of any new generation is always missing features so they have something to add to the 3-4 minor changes it's going to have before the next generation releases.

I was shocked too, no bluetooth, no cruise control, no rain sensors, no sunroof. My friend's Ford Focus has them all.

Toyota always seems to be kinda stingy for the SEA market with goodies and specs. But you´re lucky, there is much aftermarket stuff around for Toyotas. You can go to many car hifi places, ebay or walk at Worachak market to find a nice gps, bluetooth, dvd, tv, ipdod, rear cam, all in one head unit. There are decent ones around which look exactly like the oem units. You can keep your steering wheel controls too.

Just do a quick search in google and you can find many offers.

I have no experience with Camrys, but i would say the 2.0g disqualifies itself with a 4 (four!!) speed gearbox. Together with an engine that has only 190Nm of torque at 4.000rpm that has to be an unpleasant and uneconimical combination. Only if you´re driving in BKK ? and you´re stuck in traffic all the time anyway, then you could consider the 2.0g as fuel efficency wouldn´t matter a lot anyway. The 2.5 won´t do much better in stop and go, how could it?

200.000B is 6060 liter of E20 gasohol, a lot of gas you would have to save with the 2.5g. Depends on the goodies if you want/need them.

Wouldn´t the Hybrid be the best option? It´s "only" 150.000 more but then you have a real up to date, economical and powerful car. Even the fuel economy in traffic should be a lot better than both petrol engines.