Richan

Rest of the world is also fed up with US sacrifices and wishes all of you all the best and go home!

Amen, brother. Why we're still wasting billions in tax dollars to keep troops and bases in Europe is ludicrous. Should have come home years ago, while there was time to allow the Cyrillic alphabet to become predominant.

I can't blame any american for wishing to go home and leave Europe to it self. But before you go, I want to thank you for not having to learn the cyrillic alphabet during the cold war!

I had some mystery insect bite which I didn't really notice until it eventually led to infection and a swelling the size of a ten baht coin. The hospital ended up cutting out a spoonfull of infected flesh and I had to return each day to change the dressing. There were no stitches required. It healed up nicely with a tiny scar.

Then recently I got another bite which I saw leading to the previous condition and started to self medicate with antibiotics. When it didn't get better I swallowed my pride and went back to the hospital where they gave me the right meds. Luckily it healed nicely and the swelling went away.

Lessons learned. With these pain in the ass mystery insect bites, go straight to the doctor.

Another good story. I'm happy you're OK.

In the SEA's there is plenty of dangerous critters happy to bite you. Normally nothing bad happens. All of them are nasty, but the most dangerous are invisible. Therefore always see a certified doctor, who knows, which bacteria are the most prevalent in your area. I won't deny, it can be interesting and fun to see a local noncertified "specialist", but the one doesn't exclude the other! Or self medicate at the local pharmacy, some times it works! Always plenty of advice from the clerk in the pharmacy.

The same nearly happened to me in the Philippines a few years ago... I got a small insect / spider bite on my ankle and didn't notice it till the next day... I put antibiotic cream and a bandage on it and went about my business... Two days later, the bite became abscessed so I went to a hospital to have it treated, took oral antibiotics and the doctor cleaned the wound and bandaged it properly... Two days later my ankle is the size of my knee and red / black streaks running up my leg toward my groin... Into the hospital I went... They finally got the infection under control, but it was very scary... Lesson learned, if something bites you in SEA, don't wait to go to a proper doctor...

Good story, good to learn from!

If one gets bitten by anything or anyone (your child?), then consider it infected. You need to see a doctor and tell the story. If they tell you to wash the wound and see how it looks tomorrow, go and see another doctor. The worst bite you can get, is from a cat. You can hardly see it, but there is 60% chance, it's infected with pasteurella or worse. So a broadspectrum antibiotic for 8 days more or less. Just an advice.

PS: I don't think antibiotic creme is good for anything, especially not for bitewounds of any kinds!

PPS: Correction: for children with localized superficial staph infections and skin fungus infections in both children and adults, antibiotic creme, if the right kind is chosen, can be beneficial.

The story honoring this plane that help attack the US and how the plane "destroyed F-105s and B-52s is odd. They wanted the Thais to explain how "powerful" this Mig plane was. Very odd display of bravado by the two generals.

I think, that maybe for the last 4 lines it was a fairly neutral article. No specific praise for the russian - and probably mostly russian flown - aeroplane. Maybe the vietnamese col. tried to hype it a little.

"Air Vice-Marshal Sakpinit Promthep, assistant chief of the RTAF Air Staff, said the MiG-21bis had played a major role in defending Vietnam against US attacks during the Vietnam War.

He said the fighter aircraft was able to destroy several F-105, F-4 and B-52 fighter bombers which were very powerful at that time. (MCOT online news)"

It played a major role and several "fighter bombers" were destroyed by it! Well, the significance of the MIGs role in the war is up to them to decide for themselves. And "several" means more than one. which probably is true. Historians of the war may have a more interesting story to tell.

This is about the OP, otherwise I might very well totally agree with you!

Unless it is with fighter pilots about capabilities and then watch the hands...lol. I'd loved to have had that conversation with my former father-in-law who was one hell of airplane driver, F-100's VN. Sorry I never did.

I'm certain, I would have liked that too. I admire "the flying aces" a lot, and love to hear their stories! No problem if not totally straight. And, I speak only for 1 european and his family, whether they like it or not, but we owe them a lot!

Funny thing is, that while the Vietnamese are shipping their Russian museum pieces for display in Thailand, they are fervently seeking out a new relationship with the US. The Vietnam War was indeed a murderous fiasco for all concerned. Going on almost 40 years after its end and the two antagonists might well find themselves joined in an alliance once again. I always thought we Americans made a mistake in Vietnam. Right at the beginning, we should have allied with Ho and declared war on the French. Vietnam and the US will always have the same mutual concern--China. But it's a good move to send the Mig to Thailand, as some Thais seem hell bent on building a dependency on China, while all their ASEAN partners are becoming worried about the PRC.

"The Vietnam War was a murderous fiasco for all concerned". Well, yes !

"Right at the beginning, we should have allied with Ho and declared war on the French". Sorry, what ??

The USA fought to liberate France during World War Two. This Ho Chi Minh person. He certainly would not have allied himself with the USA to fight against the French ! The French were the colonial masters, I really don't think Ho would have wanted to remove the French and replace them with America as a colonial master ! Don't forget, the USA fought the Vietnam War, supposedly, to prevent the communists taking over Vietnam. And Ho Chi Minh, he WAS a communist, right ??

Yes, I know everybody loves a winner, and Ho Chi Minh was a winner. But he was a winner for Vietnam, AGAINST America ! I really don't think that American service-men cheered on Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War. That's like saying American soldiers didn't really like Adolf Hitler during World War Two !

And is it really the case that Vietnam and America have the same mutual concern-China ? There are a large number of Chinese-owned factories in Vietnam. And the CIA World Facebook basically says, that Vietnam does considerably more trade with China than it does with the USA ! Hey, does Hanoi really love Washington more than it loves Beijing ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110117082642AA78HwN

http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/ho-chi-minh-thomas-jefferson/

The US, siding with colonialist France, drove HCM to the communists for support. He was, at heart, a Vietnamese nationalist. This was not the first or last time the US would choose the wrong side to the detriment of the whole world. The US spent more to help France defend its colonial stakes in Vietnam, in the last five years of the 1950s, than it spent on the entire Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Massive stupidity, arrogance, and blindness on the part of the US government (and possible corruption). HCM would have gladly accepted US support to gain independence and your assertion that the US would replace France as a colonialist is ridiculous. It sounds like you have been propagandized. I know it's hard to let go of your dogma but please read the links and educate yourself.

Hey, does Hanoi really love Washington more than it loves Beijing ?

Yes.

Okay, okay, let's get into this Ho Chi Minh person, and try and see what political group he was in.

According to wikipedia, he did travel to France, USA and England during the early part of his life !

In France, 1920, he was part of the French communists. In the early 1920s, he went to the USSR (by then, definitely a communist country) and was with the communists there. He went to China in 1925, and was a communist there. He left China on 1927, he left because the Chinese Nationalists (under Chan Kai Shek) took over China, he was forced to leave. He did actually turn up in Thailand in 1928. He went to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and back to communist China in the late 1930s.

So, basically, he was a communist ! Yes, the CIA (they was called the OSS back then) had contact with him in 1945.

And basically, bearing in mind that he was a communist at a pretty early time, well, I don't think we can say that the USA drove Ho to the communists for support. Yes, he was a Vietnamese nationalist, he loved his nation. And when the French left Vietnam, okay, so we have Vietnam and America fighting a war. If Ho did love the USA, and if he was not a communist, why didn't Ho say to the Americans "hello America, I'm not a communist, my nation is not a communist country, you're not interested in becoming my new colonial master, I love you, stop spending a lot of your money to fight this war against my country, I want your support and nobody else's, you're only fighting my nation because you don't want my nation to be a communist country".

Why didn't Ho Chi Minh say that to America ? Is it because he was scared that China and Russia would declare war on America, and that China and Russia would win ??

"Rametindallas", you ask me to educate myself ! I say to you, read the stuff yourself ! The USA wanted to stop the spread of communism, the USA regarded communism as a cancer that had to be stopped, the so-called domino effect. It appears to me, that you love Ho CHi Minh for whatever reasons. You don't want a picture were Ho Chi Minh was actually against the Americans. You're trying to re-write history, where Ho Chi Minh is regarded as a friend of the USA !!!

"MARILYN MONROE HAD A SEVEN YEAR ITCH, HO CHI MINH IS A SON OF A BITCH".

+1. at least.

HCM didn't defeat America - there was an Armistice, the same as WW1

HCM defeated sth vietnam

Are you a Thai or a US citizen? No loss of face, never admit defeat, you must be Thai then, although quite some ill-informed or manipulated people in the US, not only by Republican party extremists, are still in denial of the deserved flat-on-the-belly defeat there, deserved because of your blunt hillbilly way of imposing your narrow-minded materialistic way of life to the populations, because of your blind trust in your military power, because of your military command wearing blinds, because of your politicians being afraid of the media, and the voters, with so many boys coming home in body-bags, or missing a limb, or two, because of your own CIA helping the French being kicked out (considered too weak and potential future 'accomplices' in the establishment of socialist governments in Indochina), because... No, in fact, you're right, it was not a defeat, the US armed forces were routed in Nahm... look at the pictures of the last days of Saigon, and the Billions USD of equipment left behind, or thrown off of the carriers' decks, the hundreds of POWs left in VC 'hands', the hunderd thousands of Vietnamese 'friends' refused an asylum, etc., I should have been there, but wasn't, you weren't anywhere near may I guess, Mr Kissinger...

Uh, uh! Now we've really been told! A very impressive display of anger. I'm neither thai nor citizen of the US of A, but I took it to heart, anyway! It's interesting, how many feelings the pretty diplomatic article concerning a gift of an outdated fighter aeroplane for museum use from a neighboring country can arise.

Advice to self: never start a bar discussion about MIGs!

Reading this thread makes me wondering why we at all care about commenting!

As I read it, we all hate Thailand and would prefer it to be like GB, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia and all those dreadful places! If it was like we wished, it would be a different, very different country. As it is we love this country, and those of us, that do not, are absolutely free to leave.

Religion poisons everything

Not every religion. No one is all good, but only a very very few are mostly bad!

Looking around, seems to me that all the major ones have a lot to answer for... By "major" I mean any that is the choice of the elites of a given society.

Those in power utilize religion as a tool to control and divide.

I am hard put to find examples that are mostly good.

After rethinking I'm forced to say, that I'm in total agreement with your post! Thank you!

Religion poisons everything

Not every religion. No one is all good, but only a very very few are mostly bad!

Well of course if you allow employees to get drunk on trains on the job, bad stuff happens.

He was off duty so its like saying if you let anyone get drunk then bad stuff happens.

According Mr Wanchais testimony, he took two amphetamine tablets at the train station in Nakhon Si Thammarat province before starting his shift, and took another tablet while was working onboard the train.

Mr Wanchai told police today that he first noticed the victim when he and three other employees were drinking beer together in car number 3. Mr. Wanchai said he was sexually aroused by the girl and plotted to rape her.

Where on earth do you get that conclusion that he was off duty?

From another article which indicated his shift had ended and he was drinking after his shift.

I was hopeful you could shed light on the nature of his job but I now see you are quite hung up on this.

Which "another article". Please enlighten me.

You wouldn't wanna be on the wrong end of that shooter!

In the words of Harry Callahan ... 'blow a man's head clean off'

Absolutely correct! We call it Brennecke bullits (I think). Not to be taken ligthly. There are some interesting forums on the net, about whether pellets or slugs in a 12 gauge shotgun will be best, if attacked by zombies. And we all know, that sooner or later it will happen! I've seen enough movies to be sure!

Well of course if you allow employees to get drunk on trains on the job, bad stuff happens.

He was off duty so its like saying if you let anyone get drunk then bad stuff happens.

Read the OP, please!

Not often one sees Thais complaining about noise. I wish they would do it more often (without the stabbing).

But without stabbing, how would you know, it was meant seriously?