BritManToo

^^

I was thinking exactly the same, they wobble like they're real.

You really can easily despair about the kids of today with obesity and total lack of physical activity (for many).

None of my children are obese, or even slightly chubby.

Overweight children is down to poor parenting skills IMHO.

Didn't a previous poster suggest the world is on the edge of starvation, which one is it then?

It's both funny and tragic to read comments bemoaning the fate of Europe from those who've clearly somehow forgotten the darker times in it's recent history. Do you really think things were better when millions were slaughtered during two great wars, and fascism threatened to take over the whole continent?

As most of us were not born then I was talking about when we were young,in the 50s and 60s etc but then perhOs you are in your 80s and fought in the war? Terrible time ,but not my time

Which war?

Vietnam war ran from 1945-1975 (first 10 years France, next 20 years America)

Post war years were blissful . When I was married my wife and I lived on £5 per week for everything .

Rationing from WW2 didn't end in the UK until 1954, that couldn't have been all that 'blissful'.

I'd take this one over Koko the Issan Princess any day of the week.

But the guy should not saddle LOS with his problem...He is better off in England where he will have real care...

Thailand has caused his problems, the police have his passport until a court case is finished (defamation?).

They won't let him go anywhere, possibly for years.

My understanding of "basic economics" tells me it ain't the farmer, but the vast array of middlemen who are the problem.

I don't think you'll find much interest among British farmers in trucking a few lorries of their grain out to a Somali market in the hopes of making a sale.

'Middlemen' have always been what drives international commerce.

Anyway,

The world's a great place for me, international flight has never been cheaper, Europe is open to me.

I have a bigger choice of places to live, and a better lifestyle than my parents ever had.

My older children seem to be able to travel all over the world easily.

In the last couple of years they've been in Nepal, Australia, Kilimanjaro, India.

And they're in their early 20's.

Too much doom and gloom from the old guys.

The worlds a great place to be in.

And nobody can predict the future.

How would they have found enough work to support their families much less the food to live on? The house we call earth is becoming too small to provide what is required to support in a comfortable style the growing population as it is. Personal freedoms are probable the least of the problems the upcoming generation will have to solve.

The world has mountains of excess food produced every year, always has since the start of the industrial age.

Staving people is caused by poverty, not lack of world resources.

Farmers grow food to earn money, if you can't pay for it, they won't give it to you.

All through my life I've read about, milk mountains, butter mountains, rice mountains, wheat mountains.

Food that's just left to rot, because nobody who needs it, has the money to pay for it.

You need a better understanding of basic economics, before you write nonsense about too many people in the world.

When what you really mean is too many poor and useless people in the backward countries of the world.

'SNAP' @Soibiker

Being unemployed and living on benefits isn't all that bad.

I wish I had been able to work less when I were younger.

Embrace the social changes in the world, learn to adapt to the current situation, whatever that is.

I think old people always claim it was better in their day, because they can no longer change, and have forgotten a lot of the bad things.

WW2, Vietnam, The Cold War, constant threat of nuclear death, it wasn't all that great a time.

Yep, better off going home before it even gets close to this type of situation......

They should have deported him the first time he attempted to kill himself , he needs help and it would be better if he was returned to the UK

Rumour has it, he can't return to his home country because the police are holding his passport, until his court case is resolved (defamation?), which may take years. The Thai legal system is meanwhile draining his resources and he is facing poverty, homelessness and overstay.

It's a catch 22 situation.

I'm sure he would have been overjoyed to have been deported (or allowed to return) home.

It's a pity you can write but not read your own writing.

Jewish Americans

Dutch Americans

Irish Americans

Italian Americans

Etc...

Are and Must be first and above all - Americans!

They All must live by American Laws.

This Must include Afro-Americans - whether they like it or not.

Those who do not like it are free to go back to wherever they come from.

Or "expect bad relations with Police" - even get shot occasionally. No big drama.

I've never met a Jewish American who thought of themself as American first and Jewish second!

BritMan Too is a real hoot. Just because some of the Sunday hikers are females in their 70s he thinks they're a bunch of mall walkers. It's evident he's never climbed Kilimanjaro with them. That's what several of them did just a few months ago.

Please point out any negative post I made about female hikers of any age?

Well, you can see that you will not be put on many peoples christmas card list.

Just for you, I've changed my avatar to a Xmas photo.

Nobody else could have got me to do that!

Just you ... xxx

Most of us put up a rather fancy friendly xmassy avatar.

I hate Xmas.

But will agree the Santa outfits the go-go dancers wear are fine.

The real issue here, and one that someone on the forum might have the "in" to address is: How to actually make things better?

Allocate a greater amount of officers to the queue system for extensions.. The same amount of people get seen, but people have more narrow time slots waiting.

Allow 90 day reports at promenada.. Its a trivial task, a single officer can do many per day.. Theres loads of room there.. Whats not to do ?? Far less people at the current office.

Streamline the queuing system in a better way.. So many ways this could be done..

Have a stack of 100 cards in a rack put out the night before.. In the early am the early people get the first numbers.. these convert into queue positions without a scrum.. Fair is fair..

Unseen queue positions in the previous day get a take home queue card for the next morning.

Similarly people coming and getting a queue spot that will obviously not be fulfilled (any afternoon extension or re-entry these days) could get a 2nd tier version.

Rolling the queue counter overnight instead of resetting in the morning effectively.

Every bank in the country can have a little menu computer that prints queue slips.. But immigration, with all those fees and income, are still using handwritten paper numbers, ratty plastic cards, etc etc.. Its pretty basic to improve..

Overall its simply the 'too many customers, too much work, for too small a space'.. We know a newer larger place is happening in the next couple of years so start the expansion now.. The promenda section seems barely staffed and mostly empty.. Why cant they shift out (employ more) officers to process tourist extensions.. the 30 day on 30 and 60 days.. The 7 on 90s.. The simple ones that need no superior officer oversight out to there.. Re-entry permits are similarly low difficulty tasks.. Get the airport office down to working on only annual long term extensions and questions of complexity and judgement. Getting your annual B or marriage.. Sure that needs going over and an interview.. Want an extra few days on your holiday, thats take a ticket and be have the right copies.

Ohh while I am rolling on it.. Put the damn forms everyone needs outside !!! Theres a queue, to simply ask for the forms.. To fill in and queue up again.. Pure madness...

Then put up a guide for each category of what pages you need copied and what documents to back it up.. Make these large sized posters outside where the forms are. Right now theres a queue, where baffled farangs arrive and say " i need to do X" so she gives them a form, which they fill in and queue again to be told.. Go copy this this and this, with barely an explanation.. The do that and queue.. To have it all checked and either given a number, or told to go get another copy, or the photo, or whatever it is they dont know they were missing.. Put some guides on the walls.. Hell get some of those students doing work experience or volunteer immigration police to help.. But get it outside in the copy shed etc.. Get it so most people walk through the door prepared, informed, ready.. Its not that hard !!

While I am again at it.. How hard would it be for there to be a immigration website, to host the forms digitally, where you key in all your data once, and then could, at home, print your forms, all neatly filled out.. All saved, and all giving them the perfect data entry for a eventual later database and easy ID card.. Log in, tell it what form you want, and press CTRL P.. Job done..

All good ideas, except for cards left out, visa agents would take them and sell them.

Part of the problem is immigration want the backhanders from the visa agents, so do all they can to make personal callers unwelcome.

You know, i would imagine that a lot of the men on this thread would love to take me out.

PM me a photo and I'll give an honest opinion.

Why should i, you don't even have an avatar.

Keep imagining then.

Apart from SB, most of us aren't that desperate.

1000m climb over 2hrs 30 mins is 400m per hour. Normal rate of ascent. Not that special.

I agree it's a normal rate of ascent for normal people.

Where did I claim otherwise?

You know, i would imagine that a lot of the men on this thread would love to take me out.

PM me a photo and I'll give an honest opinion.

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More talking and eating than walking.

You obviously haven't been on their hikes. Elderly? There's a whole range of ages from 5 years up...

I am relatively fit guy in his mid forties who has been on a couple of these hikes and found them a good 4-6 hours hiking of hilly terrain that gave me a good workout. As Mr Smith pointed out the guy who wrote 'more talking and eating than walking' has in all likelihood not been on one of these hikes. Try giving one of the Sunday hikes a go you will find a great bunch of interesting and active people of all ages. If you check through the archives of the website you will see various past walks that will give you some idea of how challenging or not they are.

The next walk on their website;

A couple of us are going up from the dam behind 700 year stadium to the Hmong village Saturday morning.

Starting at 7:30 at the dam security hut. 16Km round trip 1KM elevation gain and fall.

2l of water required, 2hrs 30 mins up, 30 mins at coffee shop at the top, 2hrs down.

Super fit only.

I look forward to seeing BritMan Too showing everyone up with his youth and prowess.

None of the Sunday bunch could do that hike.

It was a special, and it was last week.

The war has been over a long time, nobody cares about who did what to whom.

As fashion,

I like the SS uniforms, very smart.

I don't like the Japanese uniforms, not stylish at all.

So Western women can't go to Thailand anymore and go out and drink and enjoy themselves like most normal people on holiday? Oh dear, that's really going to get the tourist rates right down, Only Sexpats alowed.

In whorehouses and places of prostitution?

Do normal people really go on holiday to such places?

I thought it was just us sexpats and perverts.

I think this is just another little incident where someone makes things look less than good in Thailand.

There have been various seemingly unconnected things happening since the coup which attempt to show the government in a bad light.

Two things that immediately spring to mind are the fact that certian embassies are actively refusing visas to tourists and the police harassment of tourists / white skinned foreigners which has been widely reported lately.

Now this has happened I'm even more convinced that there's groups of people working together from the inside to make trouble for the current administration.

And the Nazi parade was also a conspiracy organized to give a bad image of Thailand ?

I love that photo, the girls look great!

The tyres are the best we can have ; not sure we can buy this type of tyres in Thailand : Schwalbe Marathon Plus; 26 x1,75

they were bought by a nephew who is living and working in Tokyo - Japan ;

They are nearly 18 months old and nearly 20,000 km;

never a problem with them ; they are heavy, nearly 1 kg each ! but so strong .

You should try some 28mm (should fit that rim OK), your current 40mm will have a huge drag, 25% more pedal effort than you need. Even 35mm would save you 15% pedal power. 600bht (ish) each.

PS

Your frames look 17" (18" tops) to me.

I wonder how many German expats (and all the other nations represented here) speak Thai at home in Thailand? Or Thai anywhere? Perhaps Tycoon's statement "Well its true, fit in, embrace the country 100% or F off" would apply to expats too lazy or superior to at least try to learn Thai....

They are talking about migrants ..... those that attain German citizenship (and can stay in Germany forever).

Expats in Thailand will never be migrants, but for those few that become migrants it would be fair enough.

Why would anyone learn the language of a country they only have permission to stay in for 90 days?

I was thinking of the many "de facto" immigrants that are here living on retirement visa or whatever. I come from USA and always shake my head when some of them start in on hispanics (or other groups) that haven't learned English, yet can barely say hello in Thai after being here for decade or more.

I try to learn as much as I can of language of where I happen to alight, even if only for a few weeks. As it is now, I can be misunderstood in many languages! It shows respect and you have chance to talk with folks who may not have been tweaked by too much shoulder rubbing with foreigners.

There are no 'de facto' white immigrants in Thailand.

When you're living in a whorehouse, no need to respect the pimps, you just give them money.

So, western women who dance and drink in Thai clubs are all lesbians by default?

Oh, my! I still can't believe what I am reading abouti n this thread- farang men complain about farang women who have a fun in go go clubs.

What a strange place.

I always was led to believe that western women disapproved of prostitutes and places of prostitution.

Guess I'm just a bit old fashioned, but how could they have fun in such a degrading place?