robbieh

The Outlaws - that's funny

The OP really reminds me of a very close friend, that was of a similar age at the time, who decided to buy a house and car in Thailand that would be of great benefit to his children.

The outlaws even told him that they loved him more than their own children and how he and his wife would inherit their land when they died etc and how popular he was with everyone.

The whole charade went on for years until the day he told his wife that he would not buy a second house or any other assets in her or the outlaws name but still pay a monthly income.

To cut a long and painful story short, they were filing for divorce within a year and the only people who got any long-term benefit from the assets were the outlaws and not his children.

The Isaan wife was university educated, but got married instead of working, to a farang husband who spoke reasonable Thai, but her priority was always money and face for the outlaws.

A few posters have tried to give some good advice about delaying the investment until some true perspective is gained as otherwise that is all the OP may well be left with in a few years.

Renting is cheap. Why wouldn't you first rent and get to know the area? Next learn some Issan and then announce you plan to build a house on land with a 30+ year lease in your name!

Some people may be wondering how Thaksin is going to deliver on his clear populist policies, such as devaluing the Baht to 40 USD.

Shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure the new Thaksin puppet regime would be able to persuade the BOT to perform regular quantitative easing, where he keeps half of cash for himself and his cronies, and then give the other half away to the poor. This would redistribute wealth whilst the rich would be content as they could keep the bulk of their liquid assets in their appreciating non-Thai denominated currencies, e.g. during the crash of 1997.

Then why not just forget about having any social policies all together, and simply have a daily evening TV slot (-to compete with the current regular one) showing Thaksin traveling around Thailand, throwing huge amounts of large denominated baht notes, bearing Thaksin's head, into cheering crowds of red T-shirt clad supporters. To keep the other power bases happy, pass a law that states that only the army is permitted to distribute drugs into and out of Thailand in cooperation with the police, who have the exclusive right to sell drugs within Thailand's borders.

Along with the added spending power, to keep the foreigners happy, simply introduce an "Support A Thai family" visa for foreigners where if you can provide evidence of giving away 15,000 baht per month to a Thai family, no relationship required, then you automatically get a no questions rolling monthly visa with no requirement to leave the country. Advanced payment for long term visa welcomed.

Thaksin's Thailand would overnight be known as the world's social, political and economic reform hub.

It's actually an extremely powerful tool, used by religions & governments throughout the globe for centuries.

Give me a 'programmed' & ignorant mass of people & I could easily control them, as could you or anybody else who understands the power of 'fear'.

How is reflecting upon one actions and then feeling guilty a negative thing? To err is human but isn't repeating mistakes, without question, true "ignorance"?

Whilst this video is obviously not a complete or long term solution, what would you suggest to wake the masses up from the self serving propaganda of both sides?

Compared to letting 'hatred' run unabated throughout the country, isn't using 'guilt' a small price to pay in an attempt to unite the country to prevent the possibility of civil war?

To see video, try searching on: ขอโทษ ประเทศไทย

If providing a suggestion for common Thai words is against Thai law and/or Thaivisa moderation policy then please delete.

Two 'wrongs' do not make a 'right'.

That's fine for a simplistic philosophical online debate, but what suggestions do you have that could possibly impact on the real world?

Is listing a set of idealistic demands which you may struggle to implement in a decade going to diffuse the current political situation?

As to whether it twangs the guilt strings, this is a very powerful tool in Thailand, since Thainess means for many an unquestionable "love" for the country, irrespective of its amazingly obvious faults.

It's actually an extremely powerful tool, used by religions & governments throughout the globe for centuries.

Give me a 'programmed' & ignorant mass of people & I could easily control them, as could you or anybody else who understands the power of 'fear'.

How is reflecting upon one actions and then feeling guilty a negative thing? To err is human but isn't repeating mistakes, without question, true "ignorance"?

Whilst this video is obviously not a complete or long term solution, what would you suggest to wake the masses up from the self serving propaganda of both sides?

Compared to letting 'hatred' run unabated throughout the country, isn't using 'guilt' a small price to pay in an attempt to unite the country to prevent the possibility of civil war?

To see video, try searching on: ขอโทษ ประเทศไทย

If providing a suggestion for common Thai words is against Thai law and/or Thaivisa moderation policy then please delete.

Some people are either being deliberately thick to stir the pot or really are lacking in brainpower. Personally I would not call the majority of grass-roots reds terrorists. They're not. They have genuine grievances that need to be heard. They need the right to better education (without bribes determining how far they go and what grades they get), healthcare etc. The terrorists are the leaders and Sae Daeng's lot.

This causes a problem. Some people here lump them all together. Wrong approach guys. The ordinary reds probably have no idea about the more sinister side of things, and don't forget they're there on the ground or at home watching red tv only getting a very limited set of information (information management is something the red leaders have handled very cleverly). Btw in case anyone thinks I'm biased I also think other media sources are pretty <deleted> but we have the option of scanning the channels, seeing different views on twitter etc. The guys at the rally don't have that option.

This presents a real problem for government/police/army to handle even if they were competent. If terrorists are hiding among civilians (I count terrorists as people who carry grenade launchers and ak47s and use them) how do you take them out without harming civilians? It's a tough call. Warn them and the terrorists will flee. Don't warn them and you'll have a bloodbath. Take no action and the belligerent leadership will keep on pushing and keep on making things even more lawless. And with the grass-roots reds being so lovey-dovey while the iron fist of the red terrorists lurks unseen, the world's media will rip you to pieces if you take action.

Of course the above was on the assumption of competence. Crap. We can't make that assumption. We have police who lack the skill to handle crowd-control and frankly don't give a crap anyway, and an army that's split through the middle and stuffed with watermelons. Sae Daeng vs Thai Police and army? You know who's going to win.

Now the problem here is that whichever side 'wins' will face the same problem. If an armed group rises against them they have no means to do anything about it, lacking competent police and army. This makes Thailand incapable of having a functioning government. Which brings me to the present government.

If I was Abhisit I'd say "<deleted> to this" and leave everyone else to it, as the PM's job is an absolute poisoned chalice and anyone who takes the job is doomed to lose it within a fairly short space of time. I don't think any truly democratic leader will last more than 2 years from here on in, until a radical shift happens in Thailand.

So who can rule Thailand? Whoever has a big and ruthless private army (because the state one is hopeless). One could argue that this is the reds, with Sae Daeng's lot. Yep, Thailand has backed itself into a corner where the only type of leader who can successfully rule is an armed despot. No civilian leader will have a chance, because more thugs will come and the state army and police will fail again. So the future is either red-yellow-red-yellow-red-yellow or a slide into brutal dictatorship.

Personally I don't see a way out and that bothers me. I love Thailand, I really do (admittedly mostly for the food) but I just don't see a way out of this mess Maybe that's why I'm not a diplomat, rather just another anonymous wanke_r on the internet.

Good post.

Unfortunately in the 21st century, Democracy is often a poor reflection of its original philosophy. Politicians realize that with the power of the media that is far easier, and more importantly cheaper, to deceive the electorate than actually make life for the masses either better or fairer.

Democracy is still a relatively new concept in Thailand, and ironically is diametrically opposed to the established elite rule and class system. To think that this system, which has been in place for hundreds of years can be eliminated with yet another short lived election is potentially naive.

I agree with 10027586 that the current possible outcomes are bleak. There has been rumors going around about a 3rd option, which of course is purely wild speculation. Basically Taksin will make a deal with the next elite leader and will be given free reign as PM to keep the masses in check indefinitely as long as the elite get to hold onto their trillions of baht, which is currently under threat. Then both Reds/Yellows Win/Lose!?

Whatever the outcome, history has often shown that when there has been a great political/power struggle..."Be Careful What You Wish For!"

I just visited CM and rented a car from JourneyCNX for the 2nd time and didn't have a problem, but there again have never crashed a car in LOS.

Their office is on Thapae Road, but they keep the cars in what appeared to be a residential area, so you are not paying for a premium forecourt.

First day I rented a Honda City for 900 baht/day (170000km on the clock, worn brakes and no CD player!) which was delivered to you at the office on completion of the paperwork, but then changed it the next day. They did keep a blank credit card slip which was returned on delivery of the car.

The agent took us to their car pool and let us pick out a newer car for 1,000 baht a day. Best on offer by far was a newish black Toyota VIOS (much improved from older models) with all the extras such as alloy wheels and tinted windows, which I am used to having on my own car, but after driving to CM from BKK before decided it's easier to fly if only going for a week. They didn't even charge extra for bringing the car back at 5PM.

Pushed the car quite a bit driving up to Chiang Rai (-much preferred to CM) and the Golden Triangle and the drive was fine, all in all no complaints.

Another shady area that is slightly related, and sometimes used by Thai lawyers, is the Thai Private Detective/Investigator.

If anyone has experience of one that can either "detect" or "investigate" anything, then would love to know who they are!??

I would be very interested in hearing any positive experiences of Bilingual primary schools, located anywhere in Central Thailand.

Currently looking at Yamsaard in Hua Hin and would greatly appreciate anyone's feedback with this or similar Bilingual schools.

seykota: How much is the approx total annual fees for the English Program at Lertlah School in Bang Kae? Thanks

I used to make regular withdrawals with a NW Debit card, but now with a 0.85% (-is it still that?) NW fee and a 15 baht ATM fee with Bank of Ayutthaya (Krung Sri), I was wondering how it compared to a HSBC UK online transfer to a Thai Bank (baht) account. I think the HSBC SWIFT fee is 15 pounds and then BKK Bank charge something like 0.25% of the transferred amount (minimum fee 200Bt, maximum fee 500Bt per transaction).

I checked the rates for today and Visa was rounded to 55 baht to the pound and the BKK Bank TT buying rate was 54.87750, so at a guess using these rates wouldn't it take a transfer of two thousand pounds with HSBC/SWIFT to get the equivalent rate with regular withdrawals of 10,000 baht from a NW Debit card?

Would appreciate some feedback from anyone who has tried the two services at roughly the same time and compared the % of received amounts versus fees?

Does anyone know if there is any benefit to using the Bangkok Bank London branch as an intermediate bank as it just seemed to be similar to a SWIFT transfer but either cost an extra 5 pounds or require the London branch exchange the funds for you, whose exchange rates probably wouldn't match the local Bangkok Bank rates.

Was thinking that now my new long term solution should be to open up Citibank accounts in the UK, Thailand and maybe Singapore too, and make use of their cheap transfer fees and good exchange rates, so any experience/feedback on that solution would also be appreciated.

Whilst I appreciate it was a very generic question by the OP, some people are just looking for a resaonbly priced family "beach" holiday for a month.

Pattaya, Samui, Phuket, Hua Hin and Phuket would all be suitable and I also wondered if there were any owners around who wanted to rent out their properties for a month, starting between the 8th and 10th October 2009.

A 2-bedroom apartment, condo or house within walking distance of a reasonable beach, with a one month rental price, including any extra's e.g. service charge/cleaning bills, of no more than 25,000 baht.

Any and all serious suggestions are welcome and owners please feel free to PM me with contact details and overiew of any suitable rental properties.

I’m not an active poster, but this is one topic close to my heart…

While President Bush is disliked around the world for many reasons, for me personally his biggest crime against humanity stems from the fact that the largest financial backer in his presidential election campaigns were the US Drug (=medicine for Brits) companies and in return he started his term by immediately tying up cheaper imports, i.e. from Canada, with red tape for the next ten years or so.

Not surprisingly, the US drug companies under President Bush have recorded record profits, totally billions of US dollars, as the cost of health care has increased and/or the benefits have been watered down. Ironically, enough the Americans who suffer the most are those who voted him in and the number of Americans who can afford health care has decreased under Bush.

Only a few days ago I sat an discussed this with a Californian guy in length and we laughed at how they had managed to get the “red-neck” vote by portraying George Bush as a “war-hero”, when in fact he only served in the national guard, whilst John Kerry his opponent in the last election, volunteered for Vietnam and was awarded two purple hearts!

In contrast, John Kerry, if elected, pledged to expand the excellent-benefits afforded by the US Senator Health Scheme and make it available for all Americans at an affordable price, which not surprisingly won John Kerry all the major urban areas in the US whilst all the states with an average IQ under 100 were all won by Bush.

However, George Bush did not at just stop at screwing the American people out of affordable health care, but then put political/financial pressure on countries such as India, who incidentally supply all the Thai government hospitals with generic drugs that aren’t make in Thailand, in order that the US Drug companies can make even more profit.

I just can’t imagine the amount of suffering this has caused for the poor around the world when Bush is doing the medicine-equivalent of telling the world “let them eat cake” in order that his electoral backers get billions of USD in return for their investment in him.

And people moan about Toxin, who I’m certainly not a fan of despite him bringing in 50-baht prescriptions, but if you want to find evidence of “evil” in the name of the mighty greenback than there is far more suitable candidates in the world…IMO.