JimsKnight

A different culture than what you are used to.

That is a large part of the reason I am here. Granted there are parts of it I don't like just as there were parts I didn't like back in Canada. And I am quite sure any place I would go that would hold true. Actually if Thailand could learn to driver on the right side of the road in one lane it would be much better.

Thia's seem able to take things in stride far more than westerners. :jap:

They do drive on the right side of the road in one lane, much of the time!..........and on the left.........and in the middle

You must have touched a nerve with the Thai ministry of Transport ,I have just read that thery are to change driving on the left hand side of the Road, to the right hand side, next Month. Cars and motor cycles On the 1st of the Month, Wagons and busses one week later

It's a bit early in the year for April Fool jokes.

What else do you expect in this part of the world ? For peace of mind stop comparing.

Indeed, I am getting tired of these whinging idiots who seem to think this place is a paradise and no-wrong happens.

Just read a Thai newspaper and you'll see it's a way of life here. Without the candy-coated and so-called 'civilised west'

If you want it like home, go home!

I'm in Chiang Mai too and what a load of horse manure.

I lived in Chiang Mai too dude, and agree on that

There's few silver merchants in Bangkok.

I took the silver I have into one of the goldshops for advice and he suggested that the Post Office (of all places) is a place you can possibly take silver coins for whole-sale buying and selling...

What kind of idiot carries 300,000 Baht in cash? DOH! A fool and his money are soon parted.

Ohhh, maybe someone just happens to be:

Transferring it to another bank...

Making a large cash purchase

1000 other reasons!

Not everyone is a credit whore you know... :rolleyes:

Normally it can have an effect of making a currency stronger with interest rises.

At least that's how I see it with the state of the £ against the baht...

Can someone actually define what a 'restricted' currency is and if that prevent's a mongolian (or otherwise) exchanging it for Thai baht...

www.rigzone.com has tons of jobs

Posted for the most part by agencies who are speculating/ bidding on man power supply contracts....ie they dont have the job yet themselves...

+1

Get down to Yaowarat Road in Chinatown plenty of the shops down there will have it off you,you will just have to do some legwork.

The real question is how much will you accept?

In Silom, Patpong area there is a Chinese Gold Shop that buys Kuggerands. I've had one sold their a while ago.

Naturally when you build things first they get old and decay before the newer copies.

For example if you compare the MRT with 'The Tube' in London there's quite a difference. Of course they started work on the London underground 150 years ago so it's no wonder it looks quite old and degraded these days.

That's right, the western worlds infrastructure has been built on top of the older one's.

This means that there isn't a fresh canvas to work on now, it's old, out-dated and about to be given a shock when it comes to the eastern world.

Here they've been able to learn from the mistakes we made and adapt them to fit into city's that have been planned and laid-out for traffic, unlike the UK say, where it's still based on a horse and cart principle for most towns and city's.

This is just one reason the west is falling behind.

No-one in the west has the balls to say 'Drastic, sweeping change to a new way is needed while still maintaining our identity.'

tool

The only tool I see is the one with the inane, over-commercialised and morally bankrupt sport of football that you have as your avatar

But carry on with your child-like insults, it's always fun to hear what the moron-class has to whinge about next.

another pointless video from jimskight.... yey!

Glad you like it.

It's fun to Wind up the morbid dross of TV who seem to dream the S. Spielburg farang of LOS will show up and give them endless mind-rot.

Keep up the pointless insults and I'll keep churning out the 'pointless' videos for you peno

Or you could bother your arse to try and do a video instead of wasting away on TV

Rock on!

riveting ... another fine addition from jimsknight

call Animal Planet we seem to have found the next David Attenborough

I don't get the fascination, all he ever posts is:

"This post is hidden because you have chosen to ignore posts by JimsKnight"

Time after time....

LOL, if I'm on your ignore-list Steiny, then why are you even bothering to click on my video threads then?!

Maybe you're Steiny avatar can answer that

It can't be doing much for those of you on fixed pensions - and the outlook is no brighter.

Unfortunately the term "fixed" applies to the UK state pension for all those resident in Thailand.

The times of plenty are over it seems...

Well said Sout, I had a good run during the $130 boom. If there's more to come in 2011 I'll look forward to that. I've got to get my medical renewed soon so maybe I'll rolle back to Sattahip once more...

would have been nice to see the girl involved in killing 9 people on the tollway to be arrested that fast .... unless she was ....

I thought that was a 17 year old boy?

This farang was captured / arrested at the scene and pretty much paralytic by accounts.

I think right now isn't an easy time for working in the Oil and Gas industry Thai or Farang..

I've a farang buddy who got about 3-4 trips offshore last year, with months without work (feast and famine).

It's not too bad if you are 'on-the-books' but if you are freelance it's a lot harder until an upturn.

Khlong Toei is a big area. If you want the slum part - and Father Joe's Mercy Centre - I think it borders the Chalerm Maha Nakhon express way to the South. Do a web search for 'Father Joe Bangkok' to see it on Google Maps. Apologies if you already know this.

No problem man, I did learn of this but it was after I made the initial trip.

I think next time I go to Klong Toey I'll focus more on the eastern side of it for footage and pictures.

I might get to meet Father Joe himself!

The name conjure’s up images of a sordid and slum-filled part of Bangkok with ramshackle tin-shacks and sanitation not much different from a 3rd world hell-hole in Africa.

My journey into the ‘Klong’ started from Subway station 1.

Just before I left the subway carriage a brutish and chunky looking farang made stupid and condescending comments about the pronunciation of the station itself when the announcment that we’d arrived. Klong Toei being said in a distinct and emphasised manner. Sighing at the lowly standards that the new-wave of farang seem to be setting I exited, glad that the swarthy and greasy looking fellow was not exiting also.

Although I was not naive enough to believe that there would be a sprawling shanty town at the door way, as I ascended from the bowels of Bangkok on the elevator I did wonder if there’d be an element of that at least.

On the street outside I saw it was as I’d reckoned, working class buildings of three to four storeys lined a main road running north-east to south-west. In the background were the ever-present skyscrapers, a notable one being the imposing Lumphini Tower.

A part of me was still curious about the slum-factor this district was supposedly known for and I turned left, following the road to where an expressway roared overhead.

It was not only an expressway but a vast intersection of road, far too big to cross unless you sprinted at full pelt as constant traffic from all four directions was relentless once it was their turn.

A railway track passed across it from left-to-right and I briefly considered walking down it for a bit to see what was down there. But I quick look showed it was urban wilderness in both directions.

Dismission that direction I turned around and headed back in the direction of the MRT, a young farang with the look of the Norse about him just exited and I could tell he was out to explore like I was. Stopping in front of him I let him know that on foot it was almost impossible to get across the road and that there was nothing to be seen. I’d intuitively guessed right on his intention as he thanked me for the info and made his way back inside the MRT.

Emboldened that it was not just myself that set’s out on roving adventures I continued past the MRT and into the Klong Toei district further.

A shambling and wretched-looking beggar appeared ahead of me. While they seem harmless enough a beggar has little to lose with the state of his life and circumstances.

I discretely fired off a few shots and footage of him once he was a safe distance away.

Notice the tattoo’s that adorn him, they say that these are for luck and grant powers. Yet I can’t help but wonder if they’ve either had them done after their more ‘down-at-heel’ turning point in life, or just abused the chances they had to end up in such a state.

The road traffic here is steady and brisk enough but in rush-hour I cannot say the standard, expect it to be near a standstill.

I cross over here completely to the other side. On this side of the road near to the MRT there is a more ‘working class’ aspect I notice. The soi’s are slightly narrower and the people somewhat poorer from the look of it.

The buildings here though are bright yellow, something I’d not seen before in Bangkok. Looking to the end of the Soi I notice that the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly building is dead ahead!

Before I can get to it there’s some doings afoot in fornt of me.

An ice machine with a small work-crew grafting like trojans. They dump in the great block of ice, it slices the thing into ice of a fine ‘slush’ composition, which is packed into bags. The Thai’s work it like a machine and themselves like a well-oiled mechanism. They’ve been doing this all day so far I reckon, but still they carry on. The heat might be pounding but the Thais have work to do!

I’m only about four yards away filming and they soon notice me.

Amid certain other races and nations this might earn me scorn or derision for recording their toil, but not the Thais. They are not in the slightest bothered or upset that I’m among them recording the doings. The give off mostly happy and warm smiles to the wandering stranger. Perhaps it’s because they’ve never endured the double-edged wonders and trials or imperialism that I get such a friendly welcome as the adventuring white man? Who can tell...

Further down I go and get to the gates of the Monopoly building. It’s yellow too, and is probably where the trend started for this area. Some vendors are selling food and seem happy and cheery enough. The constant traffic blasting in and out of the gates makes filming and picturing a bit hairy but after a few close-calls all is well.

I eat some nice and tasty pinapple from here but after a bit more walking back up the soi decline the restaurants. The meat looked a bit too dodgy from what I’m used to in other Thai restaurants. Good for a Thai stomach, 50/50 for a farang one 

There’s plenty of old cars here, rough and ready, but still in action and serviceable from what I can tell.

This one here has seen heavy use yet still has a good bit of life left.

As I explore further down the main road I notice a green fence to my left, it’s got spaces in it that reveals a small slum in Klong Toei. It’s not like the sprawling and crowded slums that occsaionally get shown on th Thai TV/ This one is on a vverdant green wasteland.

As I walk further along the grassy slum a large opneing for cars and bikes becomes noticeable. A guard post is inside it and for a moment I hesistate. At first I think it’s being manned but the two Thais inside it are slum dwellers, half-drunk and lethargic.

I go inside to begin my observing work.

At 5:53, the Danish bloke looking bewildered at this gaggle of thai witches cackling and screeching in his living room, poor dude has my sympathy's.

Next trading range will be 43-46.

Quid sat at 38-40 throughout the 1990's until 1997, whilst Blighters was in recession and this place was having its nutty boom. Looks like history repeating with all that Western QE hot printy printy money flowing into 'emerging' markets bonds.

Car sales here up sharply, people borrowing, HomePro fully stocked . . .

Anyone read 'Confessions Of An Economic Hitman'?

Well said, it's fanciful to try and knock the Chinese but unless there is a seismic shift in economic and foreign policy from the USA/UK plus Europe a baht fall will not happen.

Asia is now the workshop of the world for the most part (like it or not). It's stranglehold on cheap goods is likely to continue until it's middle-class can take the baton. The the west had better of got it's act together or they'll be even more crisis on the horizon.

They (the Chinese) hold vast gold reserves and US bonds.

They (the Chinese) haven't wasted billions on wars that have done nothing positive (economically) to the US and coalition forces economy's.

I'd like to see the baht weaken but the long-term forcast looks very dim for that happening.

Let is be man, it's his life, if he chooses to live that way let him do it.

All this sticking-noses into the Thais business is something like a small scale UN mentality.

Stayed there a few days.

For family's I guess it's so-so.

It's got a bit of a reputation (from the locals I spoke to) of drunken sailors (navy) out at the week-ends.

Nice geography but not much going on.

Plenty of stuff for single guys into the night scene and you're only a short trip from the costa del sleaze

FacebookZuckermazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hopefully he's not out to spread the FB ego-masturbation into Thailand any further than it already is.

We know that the majority of Thais do not even know that the rest of the world exists, But how can those that are so called educated and aware of world opinion, not recognize that to the non third world countries, they themselves are nothing more than that. If you want the rest of the World to recognize you then you need to play by the Human rules. The days of the untouchables as far as law is concerned was left behind in the 18^th Century. Discrimination against people now belongs to the third World

I know this story and may the family get some justice from it

Thailand is the third world dude and the first-world has a lot of learning to do from it.