DaveinAsia

Animal nosies don't bother me at any time of day or night....I like them.

Hahaha, yeah, animal noises as in chirping and singing birds and the occasional roar of a tiger in the nearby jungle. Try living beside a bunch of dysfunctional loony bins for a while who let their stealing and scavenging dogs bark all day and night long. I like them too when the guy in the pick-up truck with his 6x1000 watt speakers accidentally runs over one again . On a more serious note. It makes more and more sense to me these days why so many farangs just give up and join the local farang bar scene. What else can you do living in such a dysfunctional society where nobody cares about anything or anybody. We always say; we have to accept our new surroundings and blend in, try not to complain, be nice to the neighbors, etc, etc while the whole time the neighbors don't give a s-hit about you. They just don't. Where we are from we somehow learn to be more considerate and somehow care about noise or bothering other people. That's our shortcoming over here. Every time I have approached neighbors on a soft and decent note they change for a day or 2 and then it's back to the old tricks. On the other hand when I approached them as the mad farang I always got things done. When you show fear or weakness the locals don't take you too seriously. 15 years later I am still here and unlike many apologists who always warn us not to be angry when dealing with matters like this because they might hurt you or even worse; speak for yourself! I've never feared any of them and that gets things done. Respect to the guys who live upcountry and have managed to blend in and actually like it. They are true saints or either complete alcoholics

The problem is, we are not deaf. Like our hosts!

no the problem is Thais have been trained to not complain and if they do they have been trained to avoid any answer or solution at all costs. Im pretty sure many Thais would love to complain but dont for fear of violence or petty repercussions.

I have heard the most horrendous noises by some neighbours but all the Thais are too afraid to go down bash the door and tell em shut the eff up.

Very true indeed! In our moo baan there was a neighbor who constantly was using a metal grinder to make whatever he was making. Day in, day out. After weeks of this I finally gave up and went over to tell him to either do it inside or find another place to do it as he was terrorizing the whole street. He gave me a dirty look but has stopped doing it ever since. Since then many of the Thai neighbors have thanked and said to my wife that I was very courageous for stopping this guy as nobody else had the guts to complain to him. My wife told me that city Thais also hate the noise that the rural Thais bring to the city with them but most Thais will just accept it out of fear of fights or worse. All the comments here about farangs being only paying guests here and that we should stop complaining are from farangs that have accepted their fate and believe that they should be seen and not heard. What a way to live guys. It means you will never stand up to any injustice ever because you have made yourselves believe that this is the way Thais live, just to save your own face, literally that is. Noise pollution(dogs, roosters, trucks selling cra-p, elections, etc, etc), dumping your plastic bag full of waste by the roadside, burning plastic at 5am right beside your bedroom window, not caring about anyone but yourself can hardly be part of any culture and if it is, it needs changing. Very simple. I'm pretty sure most urban Thais/farangs agree with me and probably many village dwellers too

Hahaha, sorry guys but this is not news. This happens I don't know how many times a day in TH. I guess the Thai female married to the Orangeman got them fined in the end with her never ending nagging voice and camera in the cops faces. It's funny how the Dutch guy says to her; get his rank and name; sorry mate, but this TH, not NL. And to be quite honest; what is the difference with NL where the cops have cameras everywhere flashing when you drive 3 km's too fast or haul your car away when you didn't empty enough euros into the parking machine. All the complaining here about getting ripped off for 14-15 euros, in NL the fine for carrying a knife is more like 200 euro. Move along now

Who cares what the US Gov thinks and wants. As if they are a good example to the world. What a cheek they have to dictate their idea's to foreign countries. While they are supporting the radical coup leader Poroshenko over in Ukraine, who unconstitutionally removed President Yanukovich, supplying him with weapons and stirring up the war brew, they have the arrogance to say that Thailand's bloodless coup was undemocratic. Please Mr Prayuth, ignore these idiots completely. They carry no weight whatsoever in this discussion. If indeed the US was a great nation that thrived on freedom of speech and liberty for all mankind it would be useful to give them some microphone time but as the world is waking up and realizing that the only thing the US actually does is always only and I emphasize on the word ONLY, speak, act, spin in it's own self interest.

Sorry Dave, you are incorrect. We are great because we believe in freedom and democracy. We have choices. We have constitution which we believe in strongly. We believe in the rule of law and not coups to satisfy a whim of the military.

We are a great county and world leader well, because of all that.

Hate from afar doesnt change facts same as the 8th Thailand coup will never bring the country out of archaic principles.

You dont like what the US has to say, thats ok. But it wont change the way of the world.

I'm sorry to be the one bringing you this sad news but your great constitution my friend was left behind a long time ago. Watch the Untold History of the United States by your great war hero Oliver Stone. Perhaps that will help you see things in a different light.

After you learn how to operate a computer and what i said has relevance.. you just dont like it.

The US just supports whoever they think is beneficial and they don't care one bit about legitimacy.

Support of Suriname. Support of Egypt.. I think we can go on with some dictators helped into power by the US.

Them enforcing a party only means they will get more benefits from it then they could get from the rival party. Its based on business and pragmatism.. not on right and wrong.

You are not being honest. The US support of Suriname was so strong that it did not hesitate in arresting the son of its President and charging him with supporting a foreign terrorist organization. That was a real show of support for the President wasn't it?

The US is not "supporting" Egypt but is working with what's there. What would you like the USA to have done? Invaded Egypt and reinstated Morsi, a man that brought the country to the brink of civil war? The USA has crippled the Egyptian military with its refusal to release aid monies. If it does any more, Egypt will suffer another massive uprising and tens of thousands will die. Do you want another out of control country in the middle east, this time with a large well armed military? How will that benefit world peace?

It's all very well and nice to criticize the USA, but I don't see too many countries with the assets trying to keep the world at peace. Russia's doing a bang up job in the Ukraine isn't it. Before that it had its adventure in Georgia and Azerbaijan. China isn't making friends in its region now as it engages in an expansionist territory grab from its smaller neighbors. Several South American nations came close to all out hostilities in the past decade, Pakistan and India are at each other's throats, the Africans are busy killing each other in sectarian conflict, Iran is occupying UAE territory etc. etc. Please tell me which country has made an effort to keep the world from descending into madness. Sure, criticize the USA, but no one else is really doing anything, much like the response to the Ebola crisis. Russia and China and all the 3rd world big mouths at the UN did sweet FA to help. A large part of the funding and resources came from the USA. Did you see Mahidol's medical faculty offering any assistance?

Where was Thailand's health ministry?

So well put!

Wonder what the world would be like if China or Russia was the world "peace keeper" or leader? Or for that matter, any of the TV anti US brigade's own home country's?? Everybody is quick to bash the US leadership in promoting democracy and peace but, NOBODY is recommending alternative solutions.

Alternative solution could be; 1. Stop meddling in independent countries policies 2. Stop invading independent countries 3. Stop policing the world for your own benefit and greed 4. Dismantle the illusionary UN 5. Treat other cultures and nations with respect

Already these simple 5 points would make the world a much better place than it is today

Who cares what the US Gov thinks and wants. As if they are a good example to the world. What a cheek they have to dictate their idea's to foreign countries. While they are supporting the radical coup leader Poroshenko over in Ukraine, who unconstitutionally removed President Yanukovich, supplying him with weapons and stirring up the war brew, they have the arrogance to say that Thailand's bloodless coup was undemocratic. Please Mr Prayuth, ignore these idiots completely. They carry no weight whatsoever in this discussion. If indeed the US was a great nation that thrived on freedom of speech and liberty for all mankind it would be useful to give them some microphone time but as the world is waking up and realizing that the only thing the US actually does is always only and I emphasize on the word ONLY, speak, act, spin in it's own self interest.

We all need to take care out there.Don't upset the locals if you can avoid it.

Thais are extremely sensitive people - even more than muslims, wow wow

I thought Theo van Gogh was dead

I think this is just today's news so Prayut can get his mug shot around.

It will probably go nowhere and tomorrow it will be some other crazy notion and again... another mug shot in the news.

Can anyone say megalomania?

Nah, he obviously doesn't like the attention at all. That's just pure trolling based on the assumption that all leaders are ego-maniacs. I'd say that many of our Western 'leaders' are megalomaniacs though; Obomba, Cam, Merkie...just to name a few. It actually makes them orgasm to see themselves on the screen everyday

I feel that the time has come to keep the travel luggage at hand.

If you feel like that, nobody is here to stop you.

I'm staying here and I fully trust that this government will change Thailand for the better.

I applaud your optimism, but 19 coups later we still seem to be in a 'back to the future' loop.

In point of fact, what military coup has ever improved things? Egypt, Haiti, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria...and dare I mention it Greece?

Not to forget the military/industrial complex coup of the USA in 1945

I'm reading about the same amount of American arrogance as Thai arrogance in this thread.

It's not arrogance if you can back it up. Smile for the drone.

Lol, sounds like a threat! Whatever you do don't criticize US world dominance policy or else they will be coming for you with their unmanned flying killing machines or send in a few retired Jarheads to sort you out, plenty of them here these days. To be honest I and many others here and abroad would be happy to see some countries standing up to the bully, just not sure if the general is the person to do this, but good on him. China almost owns the US so it doesn't really make a difference who they decide to be closer to. China might just stop lending $$ to the bankrupt American economy sometime soon, but hey, then the Fed Reserve can print another $ trillion of illusionary money, like they've been doing for the last 5-10 years anyway. My advice to all Americans here; be friendly to the Thai people because they are probably one of the last peoples on this earth that kind of still look up to you guys.

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Why do so many posters think every time some one dies it is foul play?

Several years ago, when i lived in Prakonchai near Buriram.

A french man who lived near me , was found dead in his bathroom .

He lived alone . Doors /windows locked from inside.

He was found in the shower DEAD fell in shower struck head.

No foul play nobody else involved just a tragic accident

Allegedly

Exactly catman. How do you know there was no foul play involved colinneil? Because the BiB said so? Or did it say so in the newspaper? It's easy to lock the doors/windows from the inside and still leave the house. Google it.

It would be useful to know how many farangs die in TH annually. How many of them are actual suicides or natural deaths? Even more interesting would be the amount that are covered up murders. Must run in the 100's. This information is probably not released, too sensitive. Imagine if it would come out; 100's of foreigners murdered in TH yearly but covered up by the cops to make it seem like suicides/natural deaths. It is becoming more evident that TH has been covering up crimes against fellow farangs to save their own face/pocket. Sad situation. Greed is the main motive

There are not only mysterious deaths in Thailand. Laos has also seen an incline the last few years but for some reason these deaths don't reach this forum or Thai news. A Scottish friend who traveled up to Vientiane last September was found dead in his hotel room by hotel staff, supposedly an OD but strangely enough his 8000 Pounds or so in cash was missing. The Laos police didn't release his body until he had been dead for 1 week already. They needed time to balsam the body, so they claimed, even though the family requested his body to be sent to Bkk immediately and from there on back home for a postmortem. When his body arrived home after 12 days the coroner said it was way too late to do a postmortem and the body had been compromised due to the effect that balsaming has on the dead body. Just another case of mysterious deaths. When there is a delay in releasing the body for a postmortem it gives the police enough time to cover up the evidence. If the BiB can make a farang murder look like a suicide they will. It saves a lot of hassle and bad publicity.

We all need to take care out there.Don't upset the locals if you can avoid it.

Welcome to paradise, where one can't open his mouth or have an opinion because it may upset the locals. Great way to live. More like a prison I'd say

Such a full of crap post!

The French organized their marches in France. I'm sorry it's not up to the French to organize the marches in Nigeria, Pakistan or wherever. Got it?

Or may be you don't like when French citizen express their feelings and when citizens of the world support them? Shame on you!

Where is the march for the 2000 victims of terrorism in Nigeria? Was there a march for the 200+ murdered in Peshawar? Does anyone know why 100.000's march for 12 deaths and not for 100's or 1000's of deaths?

Lol, aye, shame on me for exposing the hypocricy of the west! 17 Frenchmen are murdered for ridiculing the prophet of a billion people and the Western world is in moarning but they don't give 2 s_hits about the 100's of thousands(if not millions) who have died in the name of the fake operation 'War on Terror'

Where is the march for the 2000 victims of terrorism in Nigeria? Was there a march for the 200+ murdered in Peshawar? Does anyone know why 100.000's march for 12 deaths and not for 100's or 1000's of deaths?

It has always been interesting to me how people reflexively say "terrorist, terrorist" when they hear of the IRA, but don't say similar things about the British government. If there is a national flag backing up a gun, it makes a moral difference? The british government was conducting extra-judicial murder in the north of Ireland throughout the troubles, just killing people they wanted dead, there are BBC documentaries about this. Is this not terrorism? They also assisted loyalist paramilitaries with intelligence information and hit lists of people they wanted dead, whom the loyalists killed for them. These loyalist organizations were allowed to remain legal and operate openly (not admitting what they were doing publicly, but everyone knew this). The BBC to its credit has made a number of fairly open minded and even handed documentaries about the troubles which document these things.

When people simply say "The majority of people in the North of Ireland want to be in the UK." and think it settles things, this misses a lot of the history and the legitimate grievances of the native Irish in the north. Britain, using physical force/military violence, settled people in Ireland, particularly the north, in order to extract Ireland's wealth and productive capacity and subject the Irish to being serfs. During the great potato famine Ireland was actually a huge exporter of food products - transported from British-owned farms worked by Irish serfs/slaves essentially, with armed military guards transporting the food products so the starving local people could not get a hold of any.

The bottom line is the British populated the north with their settlers, and established economic and social systems where the British immigrant/settler population was superior to the native Irish, systems which have continued to the present day, though improved by the Good Friday agreement. The Irish were shut out of good jobs, shut out of government, shut out of the police forces. The police forces were little more than loyalist thugs, in many cases. The provisional IRA HAD to serve as a local police force in the catholic communities, because the official police were not only not doing their job but were actively antagonistic to catholic communities.

The grievances of the native Irish in the north during the period of the troubles were very grave. The electoral system in Northern Ireland was designed to shut the native Irish out of the system entirely. The system was not "One person, one vote", but rather, votes were allocated only to property owners. Each owner of a home was allowed one vote. The owner of the home exercised the vote, the others living there (children, wives, etc.) did not vote. This dramatically favored the Loyalist community, who historically have been the property owners because the British military made them the property owners, through military violence. Also, business owners were allowed additional votes. This also favored the loyalist communities, who owned the capital and the businesses since British military domination and violence put them in that position.

This sounds unbelievable to us today, but this was the system in the second half of the last century that was used to keep the Irish under foot. Districts were also heavily gerrymandered, guaranteeing loyalist majorities in all bodies of government, even in areas which were native Irish-majority. Plus, "winner-takes-all" policies were used to completely shut out the Irish from government, job opportunities, service on the police forces, etc. It was an atrocious civil rights situation.

Most Irish did try peaceful protest initially to try to change things. The British reaction to this was responsible for the rise of the IRA in the period of the troubles. The IRA had dwindled down to almost disappearing by the 1960s. They were essentially vanished, for all practical purposes. What happened, why did they come roaring back?

The response of the British to peaceful Irish protest is what happened - internment, massacre of peaceful protesters, refusal to implement effective policing for Catholic communities, jury-free trials placing Irish republicans in prisons where they were tortured and beaten, the gross indifference of Thatcher to the hunger strikers, most of them convicted only of being members of the IRA, and by courts run by the British with no juries - who had legitimate complaints about how they were being beaten and tortured in prison, etc., were the major forces promoting recruitment to the IRA during this time. When the Irish tried peaceful protest, the british military massacred them, on bloody sunday, and continued a policy of extensive extrajudicial murder which has been thoroughly documented by the BBC and others. The British government essentially gave the native Irish of the north two choices - stay down with our boots on your necks, or join the IRA. The situation is a lot more complex than "Terrorizers" versus "British democracy". The bottom line is the history of British cruelty and occupation has placed all the people who now live in the north in a very difficult situation.

When finally the British government decided to stop responding to the situation with escalating extrajudicial violence, and serious efforts were made to address the legitimate grievances of the native Irish in the north, culminating in the Good Friday agreement, then the situation improved, and the PIRA agreed to disarm and disband.

Hopefully the peace can last. The way forward involves an understanding of the actual history of the region, and understanding of how British policy and brutality over the centuries has placed both sides in the North - both the native Irish and those who are descended from the settlers sent by Britain to exploit Ireland a few hundred years ago - in a difficult situation, and hopefully commitment by all to addressing the legitimate grievances and needs of all parties can lead to a lasting peace for everyone. We dont need name calling, just honest analysis of history and the present, and a committment to finding a better way.

The real history, thanks a million!

Asked a few questions, get a few slaps on the hand and that's it. Does anyone really believe this guy will spend 1 day in jail even if he is found guilty? Wake up!

I was in Panama checking it out a couple of months ago. I couldn't wait to leave. Every home needs a barb wire parameter. It's ridiculously hot (and I live in LOS). The food sucks and I've never seen so many ugly fat women! This place continues to get on these list with marketing (probably paying to be on there). Note that articles praising Panama are usually written by people living there and trying to sell the overbuilt condos.

Mexico? Ye gods. I wouldn't want to visit there let alone live there.

Malaysia continues to swing towards sharia law with the Muslim hardliners demanding and getting more say as time goes on.

Medellin Colombia was a beautiful city and I could definitely live there...if I spoke Spanish. A lot easier to navigate Thailand than Colombia with just English.

Take these best place to retire results with a grain of salt. These articles come out every few weeks.

And you don't think that LOS pays a lot of money to be on that list? Time for another coffee

Talking about dogs. What about all the Thais that let their house dogs bark without any end? Training a dog to be quiet is not part of the curriculum is it?

One has to be really braindead to be able to ignore this 24/7. The dog problem is just another thing that will never change without the Thais growing up and facing reality.

Is it laziness, lack of caring, lack of responsibility or pure stupidity?

I hope your daughters wounds will heal properly mate and that her scars will fade in time.

This is for all the Brits calling Irish Freedom Fighters cowardy scum, and this is only a top 10 of British crimes against humanity. The whole list of British cowardly acts would probably take 10 full pages here

http://listverse.com/2014/02/04/10-evil-crimes-of-the-british-empire/

Every country on that list has benefitted considerably from international aid, famine relief, earthquake rescue etc from the tiny little country they hate and continue to blame for everything.

Back on topic; where's this left footer?

Lol, so that makes it ok to murder them as you please? You are obviously in denial mate. Britain has one of the worst colonial records ever and even today continues to conquer other countries, e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq. Sorry to say it but Britain together with its allies are responsible for most of the s_hit going on in the world today

Same is happening over in Goa

http://www.heraldgoa.in/Review/Is-Goa-dead/82722.html

what is the term for a low class Russian? I know we have chavs in the UK and the Aussies have boguns, So what is a chav Russian when he's at home?

гопник = gopnik

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