Runamile

Be careful, guys, but, Stoli, yes, sometimes a menacing look is enough - especially viable if you've a quick getaway available!

Another technique is to just say the most utterly stupid things. These situations are all about cliché responses. So I intervene with a guy kicking the shit out of another. Guess what he said: "What's it got to do with you?" Reply: "Absolutely nothing". Look of total confusion over face. Stops kicking. Other guy runs off. You can almost watch the brain waves saying "he wasn't supposed to say that." "He was supposed to say ........ Then I was supposed to hit him". While he was still trying to compute, I walked off, as did the crowd that had gathered!

And I doubt that 99% of Thais would know that they shouldn't intervene without that certification ........ which isn't to say that they do intervene. What explains that?

Incidentally, I saw a guy killed outright - snapping his neck - falling from a motorcycle, going along Sukhumvit, in central Bangkok. A couple of car drivers were quick enough to intervene then - one taking the legs, another the arms and tossing the body to the side of the road, so that they could get back in their cars and continue, unimpeded.

Not to belittle the story, but, in a way, it clarifies to look at less extreme situations, the point being that you might have got hurt - whereas the Asian non-involvement thing is all-pervasive. When I was in Bangkok a couple of weeks ago a crocodile of blind people was tumbling around the hotel lobby, trying to work out where the lift was and, then, how to operate it. The hotel staff watched on, doing nothing. I intervened, walking the lead guy through space, leading his hand out to touch things. At the lift, I ran his hand over a large part of wall area to the call, button. Likewise, inside the lift. In fact, the buttons were braille marked, but he needed to be physically guided to make that discovery and to repeat operations. In China, on buses, I've lead blind people, while other passengers stood back, alternatively with blank expressions or with embarrassed looks of "we should be doing this".

You can make tenuous arguments like I might slip, taking the blind person with me, so making myself liable - or he might just invent such a story. However, the honest truth, whether it be East or South-East Asia is that if it's the family, it matters. If it's anybody else - couldn't give a stuff.

Heavens, what's this - A Thai politician showing shrewd political judgement?

Why alienate anybody, when the Courts are about to do your work for you. My guess is that Yingluck is now history - and by the rich irony of this being connected to the rice scheme. The Shinawatras, of course, will never, though, be history.

Suthep's other big gain is, of course, that, now, in theory, in response to her own rhetoric (if you can use that word about her) Yingluck should now come to the negotiating table.

Not quite sure by what manner of Thai contortion Suthep won't be arrested whilst at the table or on his way to it, but I think he'll be safe. I guess the Land of Smiles will produce it's own solution - THAT blank look and huge smile

Posted Today, 21:17

Huh! So you don't understand that Stevie Wonder's spying, too. He's just been pretending all those years!!!!!

Seriously, Fat Haggis you are so right. I'm less than sure who disturbs me most in the current situation, those who are taking paramilitary action, and certainly like the paramilitary dress option, or the idiots that are pretending that this is all a jamboree to take the kids to, encourage the teenage daughter to meet her friends at, snap a few selfies at and take a look at the stalls.

I go further than Haggis in saying not only is the situation dangerous, but that the young should be encouraged to take a more considered view. Thailand is a very immature democracy, if democracy at all. The ill-considered football supporter, sloganizing, type of view that is modelled to young people, maybe even required of them by their parents, will not move Thailand toward democratic maturity.

Most considered opinion seems of the conclusion that Thailand is a kleptocracy. Political leaders are there to plunder, whether that be for their benefit or that of those in their network. It's very hard to argue against that view. A good starting point is to look at Suthep and the Shinawatras. Shades of degree, yes, but shades of intent, no. Instead of blind, sloganizing, support for the currently available elites, maybe the point is to feel that Thailand is worth better than a choice amongst thieves. Maybe it will never be, maybe it can never be, so ingrained is feudalism in Thailand, but in this football supporter maelstrom, people have even forgotten that as an ideal! And if it is a choice between thieves, it's quite possible that those with the highest satisfaction from the lowest headline figure from their skulduggery lay not in civilian Government.

I fail to see why it's not understood that whether she was creating a publicity stunt, seeking to prove the demise of the rule of law, spying, considering beauty creams, or whatever else is utterly irrelevant. The fact is that events showed just how fragile is the rule of law in Thailand - unless, of course, it can be proven that she was actually grateful for the security guards' intervention.

Western Union.

Don't tangle with the banks on currency issues - can of worms.

If you have to make regular payments to a particular person in US, I've heard of people managing to get two ATM cards. One goes to the US to make direct ATM cash withdrawals. Being no expert in EVERY Thai bank, I also wonder if you can survive in a normal one-card situation on a particular account, sending that card to USA - meaning I don't know whether all Thai banks require your bank card to pay in. Of course, I'm assuming that you're not married, where two cards on a joint account is normal.

Cancels Gym subscription forthwith. Please advise which chemicals - Viagra, cocaine, or both?!!

At your age, you're lucky to want sex once a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Thais are so honest, so witheringly honest, or is it realistic, as portrayed here, if I search out an older lady, perhaps a little overweight, hopefully with a bad relationship history, not to mention, of course, a couple of kids, and no job prospects, can I expect her family to pay me to marry her?

Before anybody laughs, reverse bride price is not at all unknown in China when a lady is over 30, never mind with any of the other impediments I mentioned.

PS: What's the best pickup to buy? Cost immaterial - her family's paying.

I recently flew into Bangkok on a ticket with return later than 30 days. I was given visa waiver on arrival of 30 days ie my visa waiver ended before my flight out. Questions from neither airline, nor the officials in Bangkok.

If I had been questioned, my reasoning was that I was carrying return tickets to Phnom Penh that would prove that, in effect, I was doing a "visa run" - subsequent to the Phnom Penh trip, my visa waiver cover, through a second waiver stamp, would extend out beyond my return ticket from Bangkok. Two things did occur to me:

1. I seem to remember that you could only play in this way with visa waiver stamps X times (maybe two or three).

2. That it would be logical for the authorities in Thailand to expect to see a visa to show that you could, indeed, make that exit, though, of course, the exit may be to a visa-free country. I was travelling to Cambodia with an e-visa, which I could physically show. If travelling visa on arrival, you'd only be able to show your entitlement, not the actual visa.

In the event, nobody, be it airline or Thai authorities looked at anything, asked about anything. Maybe starting the trip from, and with all boarding passes issued at, a tiny airport in the middle of nowhere in China helped!

OK, cards on table - I don't get the big Thai/Farang marriage thing. I'm cynical.

However, do you honestly believe that many care home staff at home, only mostly behind your back, don't wish you dead? I suspect that's big locker-room chat. I suspect it ranges from totally humorous to fairly deadly serious. I suspect that very often the speaker won't be very gracious or caring in your company, often won't be physically attractive, will often be quite old and, certainly, won't sleep with you.

Go make your bed, perhaps a rather unsatisfactory one - but be aware of the alternatives!

Where there was true love, I've seen parents put in place, meaning by their daughter.

Ultimately, this is a matter not of the parents' position, but the daughter's.

If she is simply a spokesperson for her parents or wider family, that is what she will, forever, be. Do you want that?

I would have that it's critical to ask how you managed to parent the pickup, unmarried and at an early juncture. Pushy them? Overly accommodating you? More important, what role did the lady play then?

Maybe time to put your foot down - either with her, them or yourself, or any combination thereof!