Alfred Gruetzner

never, never quarrel with your Thai neighbor if you want to continue to live happily where you are. If you want to sue him, move out from where you are before.  Best is: Forget the whole incident and continue to try to be friendly with all your neighbours including the one who hit your door. Sooner or later you will find out what was the reason of his bad behavior.. 

This could be a kind of a young dugong

what stupid ranking. I have been living for years since 1963 in Krungtep and visited this city again and again until these days and never, never felt unsafe, even in dark streets. On the contrary I encountered friendly and always helpful Bangkokians. Even Swiss cities do no more provide safety now as it was the case for many years in the past.. My Suggestion: Just Forget Mercer and feel happy in Bangkok.

You live now in a Buddhist country. Why not let your children - and yourself too - learn about this peaceful religion? I am a Christian too, but I was eager to know all about Buddhism and my

own children - now adults - are very happy that we opened the door to all peaceful religious people from any kind of denominations. The worst you can do for you and your children is to live in a religious ghetto. It is like living in a prison in the open minded society of Thailand.

The USA should never reprimand others about moral after having killed thousands in a senselass war in the MIddleEast. And - by the way, the "dictatorship" in Thailand is the result of the inability of civil governments to rule the country. Better law and order than ruthless demonstrations and economic desaster. And Thai are among the happiest people in the world!

Well i think mainly its because the World is just so fed up with Muslims and Extremists, Thailand certainly has no love for them after what happens daily in the south, Poisoning monks in their Alms bowls and bombing schools.

Unfortunately if you are a peach loving muslim or not - You now have a bad rep Worldwide - And usually when the world doesn't get you, you will just retreat further into extremism.

It is true though - They should be asking for help from other Muslims and not expecting it from a Buddhist country.

If it was a boat load of Buddhists trying to get into Afghanistan - Well it may well be exactly the same, except Muslims are less forgiving if you are not with Allah, whereas Buddhists are very tolerant and peace loving. So maybe this is Karma!

Persecution is wrong, and the South Muslims persecute Thai Buddhists everyday in a violent way. Is it wrong for them to turn a blind eye?

Either a Western country or an Arab country should be the ones to step in here.

I absolutely agree with your comment. The world has enough of Islam and unfortunately even the peaceful muslims have no chance to change this attitude except they start a reformation and separate mosque and politics as the Christians have done this 200 years ago during the French Revolution and declaration of human rights.

It is indeed stupid to protest now. Give the junta some time to reorganize the kingdom. So far most of Thai people agree with the junta. If civil governments and political parties are not able to go along together there must be another force enabling peace and order. And Thailand was lucky to have one: the military. It takes time to install democracy.. The Europeans must know that very well. Unfortunately most of them forget that there were two times of incredible carnage which took the life of millions to establish democracy. Many of us now complaining and lamenting in this thread about the ongoing political process in Thailand were actual contemporaries of the second of the two desasters.

Two questions I have to ask you; 1. How do you know that most Thai people agree with the junta? 2. Which country in Europe can claim to have a democracy installed by a military junta?

You might have a deep knowledge of European history but seem not to have followed the events that brought democracy to an end here in Thailand. The storming of the main Bangkok police station is only one example. For your recollection the storming of the building shown on national and international television was accompanied by comments from the military towards the police not to use force against peaceful protestors because they would not permit it.

1.One could read in the papers, englisch and thai during the last months that most of the Thai wanted P.Ch. as next primeminister. 2. Thailand never had a democracy as we think democracy should be like this. Please mind that we in the West used hundreds of years to get real democracy. To all the lamenting forangs: djai yen, djai yen.

It is indeed stupid to protest now. Give the junta some time to reorganize the kingdom. So far most of Thai people agree with the junta. If civil governments and political parties are not able to go along together there must be another force enabling peace and order. And Thailand was lucky to have one: the military. It takes time to install democracy.. The Europeans must know that very well. Unfortunately most of them forget that there were two times of incredible carnage which took the life of millions to establish democracy. Many of us now complaining and lamenting in this thread about the ongoing political process in Thailand were actual contemporaries of the second of the two desasters.

As this is a very strange behaviour of that person who wants to sell you something, I would strongly suggest: HANDS OFFFFFF!!!!!

Thanks for those the village pictures remind so much of the Thailand I loved so much. Hope you post more.

oh, yes, that is so true, Great stuff for real Thailand lovers... I was here also in the early sixties and have plenty of pix of whole Thailand. Anyhow, these early times of modern Thailand can still be found today, especially on the Isaan and even in BKK too where I lived. The pix shows my unairconditoned house where my wife and myself were very happy with one ventilator especially during the Songgran days in the sixties... yes, the sixties in BKK with its unforgettable traffic congestions and most of the taxis and busses still unairconditionned.......

If you have only a tourist visa (7 month tourist visa???) you can - according to my experience - never get a certificate of residence. A tourist visa is meant to visit the Kingdom a while and depart. And with a tourist visa you can not buy a vehicle and register it for yourself. If you enter with a 3 month Non-immigration O visa you can go on and stay longer. You can as a tourist only rent a big bike. But driving big bikes on Thai roads is an attempt for suicide....I have some experience and would never ride a big bike anymore unless I can buy and take on a NASA space dress...

Good pilots are able to handle an engine failure during cruising speed in a way that the passengers do not even feel that something is wrong. But it is necessary to check the instruments constantly. If the plane starts to stall then it is obvious: Unawarness of the flying crew! Can be deadly. If the plane - for example - has a speed of 600 nm - then an engine failure will not put the plane immediately in a stall situation, The crew has ample time to react. If the plane is in take off situation the crew might handle this much better, because they are, have to, constantly observing the engine instruments and know what to do if an engine shuts down.

If you have the engines on the wing and 1 fails, wouldn't the airplane make a sharp turn, which may cause some other problems. And what would the autopilot do in such a situation?

Good pilots are able to handle an engine failure during cruising speed in a way that the passengers do not even feel that something is wrong. But it is necessary to check the instruments constantly. If the plane starts to stall then it is obvious: Unawarness of the flying crew! Can be deadly. If the plane - for example - has a speed of 600 nm - then an engine failure will not put the plane immediately in a stall situation, The crew has ample time to react. If the plane is in take off situation the crew might handle this much better, because they are, have to, constantly observing the engine instruments and know what to do if an engine shuts down.

If you have the engines on the wing and 1 fails, wouldn't the airplane make a sharp turn, which may cause some other problems. And what would the autopilot do in such a situation?

there would not be a sharp turn by the aircraft. It will turn by some degrees only, but attentive crews immediately can react by switching off the autopilot and balance the rudders and look for the nearest airport to make an emergency landing. If this plane really has "fallen" from the sky by some thousand feet there must be another cause. May be they have flown too high up (flown in the so called coffin corner) where the

minimum and the maximum speed are very near together. If this happens the wings of the plane might suffer a flow demolition and then falls from sky like a stone. (happened with China airlines in the eighties) This incident is of course very rare. May be also they had a windshear (too much wind from the rear creating flow demolition too. Very dangerous

Good pilots are able to handle an engine failure during cruising speed in a way that the passengers do not even feel that something is wrong. But it is necessary to check the instruments constantly. If the plane starts to stall then it is obvious: Unawarness of the flying crew! Can be deadly. If the plane - for example - has a speed of 600 nm - then an engine failure will not put the plane immediately in a stall situation, The crew has ample time to react. If the plane is in take off situation the crew might handle this much better, because they are, have to, constantly observing the engine instruments and know what to do if an engine shuts down.