sambum

Must be a heavy notebook - it's taking 3 people to hold it!

Another point.

Some people may think the thing to do was to contact the tourist police.

However, if seeking to not pay for bad food, etc. that would generally not work.

It's my strong impression that the blanket policy of the tourist police is to advise foreigners to just PAY such bills, and move on, thus avoiding trouble.

Also these police live here and must continue to live with these business owners. Tourists just leave. See the point?

In my experience, the best hope for justice is to be a pain in the arse, right there and then. They know the majority of people will cower and cave, but if you show them, not this time, you can often win the dispute.

"They know the majority of people will cower and cave, but if you show them, not this time, you can often win the dispute."

Agreed! I once refused to pay the VAT on a bill, and pointed out that there was nothing shown on the menu to indicate that prices were subject to VAT. The waitress IMMEDIATELY deducted the VAT, and merely asked me to sign the amended amount on the bill - obviously to prove that she was not "pulling a fast one", but the speed at which she agreed (without involving any other member of staff/manager) implied that it was not the first time that someone had objected!

Excuse my ignorance, but is an "F-bomb"?

Excuse my ignorance, but Is an "F-bomb" what?

I'd have started with burying the thousands of tons of trash.

I've never been gagged by the smell of ugly wires.

Me too, the worst problem at Chaweng mainroad is the very loud noise at night so nobody can sleep. In our resort they all waited untill 6 am for the noise to calm down and we could go to sleep.

The 2nd problem there is the smell of the drains, the 3rd is the agressive ladyboys at night.

But i haven't been back to samui for more then a decade so it might be different now.

You haven't been back to Samui for more than a decade, and yet you still address the problems in the present tense?

This is a rare thread. Seldom do you see the majority agreeing on anything. I am with the majority and think this barbarism should be outlawed. If they want to get the best of a bull, there is a sport called bull riding. I think that the bulls enjoy that sport.

Not as barbaric as bull fighting I grant you, but I don't think that the bull actually "enjoys" having a rope tied round his testicles and yanked while he is trying to unseat his tormentor!

There is no rope on the bull's testicles in bull riding.

Whether or not the bull enjoys the sport, the animals are treated very well and they only have to jump around for 8 seconds and then go eat hay till the next time their drawn. Off season or after retirement, they go out to pasture with a harem to do what bulls do best,

Quite a contrast to what the Spaniards do.

Edit: I mean what Spaniards put the bulls through.

My apologies! This is an extract from an article I have just read about "Bull Riding" in North America:-

Bull equipment[edit]

This bull is wearing a flank strap.

The flank strap is a rope made of a soft cotton rope at least 5/8” in diameter is acceptable as a flank strap and does not require extra padding with sheepskin or neoprene. It is tied around the bull's flank.^[10] Contrary to popular belief, the flank strap is not tied around the bull's testicles.

This is a rare thread. Seldom do you see the majority agreeing on anything. I am with the majority and think this barbarism should be outlawed. If they want to get the best of a bull, there is a sport called bull riding. I think that the bulls enjoy that sport.

Not as barbaric as bull fighting I grant you, but I don't think that the bull actually "enjoys" having a rope tied round his testicles and yanked while he is trying to unseat his tormentor!

Out to TENDER. That's the magic word.

The work has actually been in the pipeline for three years but has been hurried along recently after senior government figures got involved.

It all makes sense now.

I suppose they are the same people supplying the canvas for the rubbish tip.

I would have put it otherwise, that is to say why not use canvas to cover those wires?

I'm sure they simply did not think about it, it could be suggested maybe

I think the poster was being facetious by suggesting canvas be used to cover the rubbish tip! How about a 50,000 gallon bucket of whitewash?

Still, at least something is being done to "beautify Samui" ( ), rather than just talk about it!

Out to TENDER. That's the magic word.

The work has actually been in the pipeline for three years but has been hurried along recently after senior government figures got involved.

It all makes sense now.

I suppose they are the same people supplying the canvas for the rubbish tip.

Beat me to it Rooo! Maybe someone should invite Bill Gates to have a look at the rubbish tip too? I am sure that he would have an appropriate comment to make, especially as the PM has been involved to no avail!

So all you squeaky clean ban all overstayers brigade you really hate them for some reason won't speculate why.

Now let's take it one step further although not to far removed so it could easily happen anytime soon. 90 day reports just the same as over staying a visa still a government requirement what if they decided that if you don't report instead of a fine and a slap wrist you got a fine and a overstay of report resulting in deportation and a years ban. Wonder how many then would be so enthusiastic about people getting thrown out. It could happen sooner or later

When you do your 90 day report, you are advised by immigration when your next one is due.

Simple to make a note, and turn up on or before the date advised.

I have not bashed overstayers, but it is common sense to make a note of your next time of reporting or doing a visa run.

It isn't rocket science.

When I do my 90 day report, a piece of paper with the date that my next 90 day report is due is STAPLED into my passport by Immigration, so providing you look at your passport from time to time, barring disasters, there is no reason why the date should be missed.

On the same tack, I thought that as far as the 90 day report was concerned, a certain amount of leeway regarding the due date is normally given by Immigration - I think it may be 10 days either way, but someone on TV may be able to verify this. I have gone to report 2 or 3 days later than the due date before with no problems (e.g. when the due date falls on a weekend).

You are wrong about him not being able to get a visa.He cant leave the country without permission from the courts but he can get his passport back from the court.

And he can also be kept on given 30 day extensions from immigration while he is waiting for his case.All he has to do is go to the court be given paperwork from the court about his case the dates have it signed by judge only takes a few hours then bring the paperwork down to immigration they will give you visa 30 days each time until case is finished.

Going by his record (criminal, and otherwise) I think that going to a court and asking a judge to sign papers on his behalf would probably be the last thing he would think about doing!

I do believe that the Thais have an expression to cover this "tragedy" - "Som nom na"?

Bit of a non story to be honest, the article ends with the words:

Outraged fellow officers swooped in and slapped on the cuffs. If he didn’t want to pay, they told him, he’d either have to leave within 24 hours or be forcibly deported.

Which is what they should be doing anyway when they encounter someone on overstay, right? In fact the option to pay within 24 hours shouldn't even be there.

Doesn't seem to me like the swearing is relevant here.

Of course the swearing is relevant! One of the first things you learn here is that an Immigration Officer can decide at his/her own discretion whether to grant you a visa/extension etc.

So the LAST thing you want to be doing is swear at an Immigration Officer! As a previous poster said "Som nom na", and his experience should show others that shouting and swearing at someone in authority doesn't get the required result - and that applies worldwide - not just Thailand

Like they'd let him walk out of immigration without resolving the issue on a known overstay if he hadn't sworn...

He was arrested for overstay, not for 'swearing', which is why I state it's irrelevant. According to the wording of the what the arresting officers reputedly stated, the offer to pay remained on the table after the point he swore.

The accurate title would be 'Irishman arrested for overstay'.

I'm not claiming swearing was a clever thing to do, and suspect he could have been arrested on that basis, but he was not.

"Irishman Brian Daniel Walsh (seated, center) has been arrested and scheduled for deportation for hurling an expletive at a female Immigration Division officer."

"Outraged fellow officers swooped in and slapped on the cuffs."

Were they outraged because he was on overstay? No, they were outraged because he swore at an Immigration Officer.

And as you say yourself, swearing was not a clever thing to do, and he could have been arrested on that basis (as well?) and I did not say that that was why he was arrested.

What I did say, and still stand by, is that the swearing was relevant. If he had paid the overstay fee and fine as requested, without swearing at the Immigration Officer he would NOT have been arrested.

Well Brian, wherever you go, there you are. But you're no longer here, thank heavens.

Maneeporn has always been pleasant and polite to me - I'm glad her colleagues didn't mess around with this loser.

I would have hoped that he got a stay of 30 days in the monkey house first and then blacklist this LOOSER.

Loser.... Not looser lol

His tongue was certainly LOOSER than it should have been!

a bleached out stain how can you see bleached OUT stain

Whats the point of pointing when there is no action on the bed.

He's pointing at a bleached out stain in the middle of the bed

You need imagination..., and a computer screen - but mostly I just smelled it

You must have enjoyed the aroma to smell it and post about it 4 times!

Bit of a non story to be honest, the article ends with the words:

Outraged fellow officers swooped in and slapped on the cuffs. If he didn’t want to pay, they told him, he’d either have to leave within 24 hours or be forcibly deported.

Which is what they should be doing anyway when they encounter someone on overstay, right? In fact the option to pay within 24 hours shouldn't even be there.

Doesn't seem to me like the swearing is relevant here.

Of course the swearing is relevant! One of the first things you learn here is that an Immigration Officer can decide at his/her own discretion whether to grant you a visa/extension etc.

So the LAST thing you want to be doing is swear at an Immigration Officer! As a previous poster said "Som nom na", and his experience should show others that shouting and swearing at someone in authority doesn't get the required result - and that applies worldwide - not just Thailand

Will someone please tell the authorities how utterly ridiculous they look when they point at things for the press?

It's been mentioned MANY times, but probably just by dumb farangs, and what do they know?

Also, when some "villain" is captured, do we really need to have about a dozen police in the photo?

Wat Chonprathan

I met the former abbot of there, Luang Por Panyanda, when in I lived in Non many years ago. He was and still is a very venerated monk He had close ties to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, who in my opinion was one of the greatest monks of the last century. I spent time at his forest temple, Suan Mokh in the early 90s and learned so much.

If only some of the monk-bashers had an open mind to read some of their books instead of believing everything they read by people who know nothig

Exactly ,people spouting ridicule here are godless ,and spout the usual hatred about anything Thai .There is good and bad in every religion .

It's a breath of fresh air hearing from you and 'hookedondhamma'!

Sadly we are outnumbered by those who like to pass judgement to liven up their boring days.

Yes, every religion has good and bad. I'll bet you won't get immigrants in the UK etc spouting off hatred towards Christianity, for example.

I really wonder why Thailand breeds the sort of immigrant it does. Maybe because most aren't real immigrants an think they are some kind of special immigrant called an expat and are superior to the rest of the world.

Before the internet it was easy to avoid them by moving barstool but now, they spread their vitriol all over every thread here. Very sad.

" I'll bet you won't get immigrants in the UK etc spouting off hatred towards Christianity, for example."

Are you being serious, or am I missing something here? Or maybe you haven't heard of the "M" word that goes hand in hand with "clerics" and "fanatics" and " mosques"

did I read "forced windows open on a honda CLICK" ????

If they moved the statement about the Honda Click to the sentence afterwards, it would have made more sense, but as per usual, proof readers seem to be absent again!

I think its ironic that in a competition that requires excellent spelling and knowledge of words that the engraving on the trophy was misspelt as 'SENIOR PIZE"

And it is also quite subtle to use the old "pointing finger" to illustrate that fact!

Anyway, out of all the posts on this thread, only one fleetingly offered "congrats", and quite a few were only too ready to point out the spelling mistake, which I think is out of order, so with the permission of the Mods:-

"CONGRATULATIONS! Well played Gerry Carter"

And still they never learn not to wear their pretentious gold jewellery around the streets of Pattaya at night.

I agree with you Brer Fox , if you park a convertible car outside a 7-11 and leave the keys in it for all to see it will be stolen in 5 mins , anyone who goes out at night and has to loop gold round their necks is likely to get it lifted , you dont hear much about LBs robbing folk of a 1000B. As another one posted , take out what you need for the night not ' Hey look at all my bling folks '

Next you gonna say that we should also wear beggar type clothing, because going well dressed indicates that we are not beggars and may have some money in our pockets, and thereby again inviting to be robbed.

The problem is that Pattaya is full of criminal scum and that the powers that be fail to do something about that, not that tourist walk around dressed same as in other parts of the world

There are certain areas in the larger cities all over the world where you are ill advised to walk at night showing off your obvious "affluence" - not just Pattaya.

I was in New Orleans for the Mardi Gras a few years ago, and was advised many times not to go to a certain area at night - by day it looked quite innocuous, but at night time became a haven for junkies and gangs etc. An English tourist decided to go there one night and film the "goings on" with an expensive video camera, and needless to say he ended up being mugged and killed, and it was headline news in the English papers the next day. Today it would hardly rate a mention on the front page. My point is that whatever city you are in, heed the locals' advice it could save you a lot of grief, and possibly your life.

And still they never learn not to wear their pretentious gold jewellery around the streets of Pattaya at night.

Dear God man you're defending the filth who stole it. Substitute expensive Camera and would you say the same. ?? Course not. Just because the individuals or me choose to wear a gold chain of whatever value doesn't make it our fault in the first place !

However, it's bit like waving a hypodermic full of heroin in the face of a junkie!

Thieving Ladyboys Back on the Streets and Continue to Damage the Reputation of Thailand

Reputation?

Thieving?

Touching someone without their consent with a sexual intent is assault.

True...

But there was no attempt...

Asking for sex is a question..

The touching makes it assault.

I've given up on this one Bluespunk - agrees then still disputes the point!

Tin can vaginas?

How desperate do you have to be to slap your John Thomas into a tin can?

I mean, why did no one tell this guy about lubricants...

They should have told him about warm loafs!

Was explaining the difference between:

To an unwanted touch on the leg... "Not Assault"

To an unwanted hand up the skirt to her privates.. "Assault"

All she declined was his offer of sex and drugs..

Even if she did tell him to remove his hand from her "leg" -- it's still not assault.

The firing point and not excusing my opinion that "this is in no away an assault case"..

Punishment should be the same for a cab company or an independent driver..

Which would be a fine in this case..

Hence "should" be fired.. If he worked for a cab company..

I'm sorry you are making me dizzy with all these circles you are going in!:-

"Punishment should be the same for a cab company or an independent driver..

Which would be a fine in this case..

Hence "should" be fired.. If he worked for a cab company.."

So, the way that I read what you are saying (I think!) is this:-

The punishment should be the same, whether the offence was committed by a cab company driver, or an independent driver, which in this case should be a fine.

So please explain why you then say:- "Hence "should" be fired.. If he worked for a cab company.."

You have already said that whether he was an independent driver or a cab company the punishment should be a fine, yet you then say that he should be fired if he worked for a cab company!

Normally a company gets fined for the stupid things their employees do...

And the company has the option to fire that employee...

Since this taxi driver is an independent owner/driver.

He was given a fine..

And will eventually be back, driving his taxi again.

And it's still not an assault, to put an unwanted hand on a persons leg..

I'll make other comments, on a new unimportant stories you can disagree with..

So, let's move on to a new story to beat to death.

We'll have to agree to disagree regarding the rights and wrongs of this case, then. but I do agree with your last suggestion!