soalbundy

I lent 5,000 Baht to a man so he could bail his brother out of the local nick (probably corruption money) but he was true to his word and paid me back two days later as he said he would. Another occasion was a little strange, one of the men involved in building my house 16 years ago and lives in my village (a neighbour in fact) asked to 'borrow' 2,000 Baht with the caveat that he probably won't be able to pay me back, at least if he could it would take a long time. He needed it to repair his motor bike that he needed for work. Now I know this man well, a proud, honest man of few words who worked hard on the building sites in the locality, he seemed to be skilled at everything to do with house building but the pay in Isaan is low. Despite this he had built his own modest house and sent his two daughters to teacher training college. So yes I gave him the money as a gift for doing a good job on mu house, I told him to accept it as a bonus but he was never to tell anybody about it, especially his wife, I didn't want a bunch of ne'er do wells lining up outside my gate. We mostly come from countries who pay well, we get paid sick leave and paid holidays (OK not Americans) we have good health care and pension rights but these people have none of that, no security, and yet they struggle on regardless, everything they have is by due of their own sweat, I admire them, I wouldn't survive 6 months in a farming village here.

That he was a very silly boy for getting caught.

That's expensive, I did a forbidden U turn and was stopped in the busy bus station where it happened at 10 km/h. The policeman just pointed at the sign, put his clipboard on the windowsill with his open hand underneath and said 200 Baht is easy for for you, it was.

Paying bribes is ingrained in Thai culture. I spent most of my working life in Germany which really does have clean law abiding police. At the firm I was working for we had a high ranking Thai partner come over for talks, he was given the use of a company car and was advised to drive carefully as Germans use the right lane not the left. He just grinned and said he carried enough Euros to pay off the police. My boss almost had a mental breakdown explaining if he attempted to bribe he would be led off in handcuffs and would appear in court, no mercy shown. He shook his head in astonishment, he just couldn't understand it.

True, they won't come.

Not really, nobody ever believed that would happen. The low police pay reflects the fact that police corruption is expected and condoned, it saves the state a lot of money, intelligent policemen with decent training and good pay would be expensive and a danger to the corrupt practices of the high-so's.

Trust me, I'm a green grocer.

The police are secret entrepreneurs. A paid police escort from the airport to hotel, booked online in China. This had to be well organized with online contact people in Thailand, an online bank account, ID the customer at the airport, a rota for the escort police, money sharing, etc. This wasn't an occasional past time side line, this was/is a limited company.

merely something I noticed, not worth getting depressed about an observation.

I find it surprising that there seems to be frequent accidents where cars catch fire after a collision in Thailand and yet modern cars have so many safety features built in to them to prevent this. In Europe there have been rare incidents of fire but not due to accidents, usually spontaneous engine combustion due to an electrical fault but not due to a collision, could be due to using gas instead of petrol but they are supposed to be safe if properly installed.

Yes apparently. It would seem to be stricter in the city or tourist centers. In the small market town near me an Italian (no work permit) openly serves food and beer to his guests in his bar/restaurant while his wife stays in the kitchen, he has never had anyone approach him about it. I openly help my wife in the rice fields and work on my house in the village, everyone here thinks that to be normal. I even chatted to an IO about the spreading of bio fertilizer as opposed to chemicals, no mention of 'you must have a work permit', I've been doing this for 17 years, no problems.

I may be wrong but I believe that if you are legally married you are duty bound to help your wife in her small business and it would not be illegal.

Then I haven't disappointed

More likely that the kids were regularly using their phones during class and the teacher just snapped.

Woke much?

Let this be a wake up call......don't get caught.

Where's the 'in and out' shop, it wanted a bribe in crypto currency only

Oooops, the Chinese owner was legal and went to the police, they didn't expect that.

I'm sure there's an app or a brown envelope for this.

The system is called such because it works.....unfortunately, never in your favour.

So it was docked for repairs, it's certainly in the right place now

Same with the Euro, it's gone up against the Dollar but down against the Baht. I read in Bloomberg that the Baht is the only Asian currency which wont have problems in 2023.

Well the engine isn't going around for a start but the tik tok's cash flow certainly is.

Possibly blinded by the sun? The man was crouching down and when hit was knocked into a prone position so if a heavy vehicle rolled over him with two side wheels it could have felt like a bump in the road.

Presumably they are now ex expats.