TheSiemReaper

Obtaining a degree in one year isn't as hard as it sounds but... it does usually require "accreditation of prior-learning" which can be a mix of self-assessment style stuff and/or previous educational experiences. However, it's never cheap (a 1 year-degree obtained in this way costs pretty much the same as a 3 year degree elsewhere).

There is no university in the world offering a 1 year crammer degree which would be taken seriously by employers or governments of this world. The cheapest degrees of any value require a program of 3-4 year's study in Germany, Norway, etc. (these degrees are free of charge to non-citizens of these countries though living costs aren't cheap).  

Nan,  Thailand at dusk. 

All shots taken in Chiang Mai. 

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Unless you have a specialist agricultural education - there's not much in the way of job prospects in Chiang Mai at all. Though if you're both graduates - you can always get a job teaching English for 3/5ths of nothing each. Thailand isn't a land of opportunity for foreigners today (not sure it ever was). 

9 minutes ago, robblok said:

I disagree with you.. that drunk driver could have been more drunk.. there might have been more cars and so on.. not the same thing by a long shot.. not to mention that driving drunk is never a smart thing.

 

and as a good accountant i know that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future terms is because the situation can change.. they are not doing the same thing.. the market changes.. more competitors ect. 

 

Your examples make no sense because they are not the same.. here in this case the government is doing the same all the time the farmers don't change their methods of production, their sales channels and expect to be bailed out each time again. That is pretty much the same. 

 

I am real sure of myself that farming in Thailand needs to change if you look at its neighbors who can do better. No need to be an Einstein for that. 

 

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thai-farmers-poorest-asean/ read and educate yourself.

 

You think Thailand's neighbours do it better? You only need to turn to Cambodia (an absolute neighbouring state) to know that's not true. You're full of hot air old boy and your insights are trite and dogmatic. You seem incapable of actual thought; you're approaching this as though it were a religion rather than a science. 

You also completely failed to read the post I made. Which is why your disagreement is as infantile as it is. All situations change constantly. This is a fact. The impact of subsidies over time varies - if you don't know that - you need to hand back your accountancy qualifications and apologize to the people whose businesses you've "helped". You are not a rice farmer, you're not engaged in rice selling or production or distribution, you're a "know it all" without any actual knowledge. You have no proof of your assertion that this is "exactly the same" (which it cannot be - entropy again old chap, read up on it, very, very important). You're making stuff up to suit your argument and then basking in the glow of your own self-importance. Get over yourself already.

17 hours ago, lkn said:

I had family stay there, main complaint was the noisy neighbours, one day it was Indians, the other it was Chinese, and they could hear everything (through the very thin walls). Secondary complaint was the slow elevators.

 

For nightlife, Loi Kroh Road is Chiang Mai’s red light district, unsure if that is what you are after. When I am showing friends around town, I do my best not to cross this street, for many people it’s quite the embarrassment.

 

Chiang Mai has quite a lot of universities, so there is real nightlife to be found. If that is what you’re after, you should pick another place.

 

 

I'm not embarrassed, nor do I know anyone else who is embarrassed by the presence of a red light district in Chiang Mai. In addition to the bars where favor may be rented by the hour - some of Chiang Mai's best restaurants (and indeed possibly its best burger joint) can be found on Loi Kroh. It would seem remarkable to be so embarrassed that you deny yourself the pleasure of eating because you can't go "yeah, prostitutes and punters" *shrug* 

Why would an Internet cafe user need specs like that on a machine? If this is real - it's the stupidest thing I have ever seen from a business perspective. Net cafe users are generally seeking out an e-mail client not the ability to play Crysis 3. 

5 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Meanwhile, absolutely nothing is done to round up and destroy countless thousands of potentially rabid soi dogs roaming the country. According to the results of a recent survey of dogs in Bangkok, around half may be infected and an estimated 15-20 percent of animals in the provinces could be carrying the deadly disease.

 

In the coastal resort where I live, there has been a marked increase in the soi dog population in recent years. One reason is the failure of the local authorities to ensure rubbish bins are neither dog-proof nor emptied when full. Another is the fact that well-meaning individuals feed packs of strays, ensuring they stay relatively healthy and can breed unchecked - which is what happens.

 

In our soi alone several people have suffered dog bites in the last month and we are told the local hospital deals with 20 cases PER DAY

 

Pure fantasy. If half the dogs in Bangkok were infected; they'd all die within a month. Rabies is as fatal to dogs as it is to people. Unless someone has documented an insanely rapid decline of the soi dog population; this figure is fantasy.

The same goes for the 15-20% figure. It's just not feasible. 

Rabies is a big deal in S E Asia. Vietnam is only outstripped by India in terms of numbers of rabies cases. Rabies now kills more people than Malaria in the region as a whole. But there are not 20 cases a day at any hospital, anywhere in the region. You'd be looking at death rates in the hundreds of thousands and a straight up humanitarian crisis as a result.

As for the original post; rabies in direct sunlight becomes inactive (without a living host) in 1.5 hours at 20-30 degrees. Without direct sunlight it takes up to 20 hours to become inactive. Assuming the dogs had been dead for a day or two before they were dug up - the youths are unlikely to contract rabies. Which is good because vaccinating them 2 days after the fact is a total waste of time. 

Life coaching is a real profession. Heck, you can even get academic certification in that field. However, it all boils down to "ask questions about people's problems" and then ask them to solve them themselves. It's the biggest load of hooey in history. But it keeps idiots in work and idiots out of trouble all the same.

This ponzi scheme is probably better value than most life coaching experiences but don't forget that when in doubt; digital nomads don't want to work - they want to sign up for any program that promises millions for nothing instead. I feel a life coaching seminar coming on any minute now...

Translation: "We're doing nothing for the ordinary citizens of Britain who pay our wages; we're out here representing big business instead - that's the way the British diplomatic corps works, as if you didn't already know."

15 hours ago, Rama said:

Many Thai lawyers are certified by the thai bar association to be notaries. They usually charge 1500 baht. Pick a lawyer and ask if he can do a notarization. They take a notary course and a test to be certified. One word of caution...Thailand never signed the international notary treaty, so if it's a doc needed by some company in the US, the Thai lawyer notary is ok. If it's something like a Will, I would get it done by the US embassy in bkk.

 

Except the problem is that Thai notaries are not legally recognized anywhere else in the world. So, spending money on a Thai notary, if the people you are dealing with require an official notary, is a waste of time and money. 

I'm not sure why people are upset by the Duke's price increase. They're a commercial venture if they think they can sell all their tickets at 4,000 Baht - fair play to them. If they can't they'll learn a harsh economic lesson and charge less next time. They're not required to charge what people think is reasonable at all. 

Given that you can see lanterns, etc. from many places in the city; there's no-one being deprived by their actions.

So was this an example of the oldest con trick in Asia. Local partner persuades foreign partner to lend them money against the value of a "priceless heirloom" which turns out to be priceless because it's worthless? 

What kind of WordPress Expert? Developer, designer, user/administrator? There's quite a bit of gap between skillsets. Let me know what you're looking for - I'll see if I can point you in the right direction. 

There are more than 200,000 monks in Thailand compared to fewer than 20,000 priests in the United Kingdom. 95% of the country is Buddhist and nearly every young man spends at least a little bit of his time as a monk.

The reason you hear more about monks doing wrong here is twofold: first, you're here - cases like this one don't make international news so when a priest in your country is arrested; you don't hear about it very often. Second, Buddhism is simply far more pervasive in Thai society than religion is in most Western countries. Thus claims that all Thai Buddhists are bad (or even a majority) bear no scrutiny whatsoever. It's more of the small-minded mindset of foreigners who couldn't wait to abandon their own countries in order to spend their lives criticising the country that they abandoned home for. 

Unless you have clear evidence that a monk or a Buddhist is more likely to commit crime than the background population - making accusations is simply a racist slur. No surprises there; I look forward to more sophistry to justify this prejudice and anti-intellectualism. 

20 minutes ago, JustNo said:

I came here almost 7 years ago a younger more naive man, Buddhist in mental disposition and eager to further that learning / path here. Now 7 years later I have found very few actual monks who understand the Buddha Dharma and furthermore who practice it. It is not a faith as such as there is no God in Buddhism, it's more a philosophy on leading your life, a way to strengthen wisdom, compassion and insight into the true nature of suffering and life. 

Anyway it has been hard for me to see the true nature of most of these 'monks' and I wonder what will happen to Buddhism with such leaders as these. I recently went back to Vientiane in Laos, and was walking through a temple there to get back to my hotel and saw an old monk sitting by himself drinking a glass of beer in the courtyard! So it is not just in Thailand I am sure. 

RIP little guy, such a sad and tragic way to go and hoe you suffered the least amount possible

 

You seem to have missed the basic tenet of Buddhism is that we are all human and all prone to do non-Buddha like things at times. There's nothing in Buddhism which says monks are somehow super-human and able to avoid the temptation of a cold beer on a summer's day. 

Conflating these tiny observations to all "Buddhists in Thailand fail" is a somewhat huge leap.

If this monk is guilty of what he has been accused of; I hope they throw away the key. 

But I'm tired of this endless "trial by ThaiVisa" where a bunch of ill-educated foreigners make judgements based on a newspaper report which contains not a single shred of evidence for someone's guilt or innocence. This is then always followed by racist condemnation of Thais and/or Buddhists. 

There are sick, sick people in all countries and all walks of life. This isn't unique to Thailand or Buddhism. 

I hope the poor little lad is reborn to something rather more pleasant next time around and that he rests in peace until that happens. 

Canon 70D, 1/15th of a Second, ISO 400 and F2.0, 50mm f//1.8 II with flash

I'll give you 28 Baht for it. Unless you can find a numismatic collector or a reputable auction - you are unlikely to get anything like its value through sale; dealers generally pay way below valuation so that they can make a profit when they finally find someone to buy it for their collection. 

Another day, more racist stupidity - the two little girls were innocent of any crime. They were accused internationally throughout the media based on a stupid post on Reddit. If I were their parent; I'd be furious too.

Pretending that this is somehow a generic fault of Thai people after the "they're all thieves" line was disproved is simply disgusting. If it were true that Thais didn't want us here (and it isn't) you couldn't blame them, based on the comments here. 

Pay $60 for Amazon's unlimited Cloud Storage program. Transfer all files to the cloud. Access them from anywhere. Forget harddrive. Costs less than posting too. 

Just now, Rob13 said:

Next time go to Classic Burger. Always worth a visit.

I only eat burgers once or twice a year.... but I'll bear it in mind. Thanks.

9 hours ago, CMBob said:

The OP tells us about his history of ordering this same item at D's before (and twice he's mentioned it was "always fabulous") and, yet, when he claims it was bad on this one occasion, he comes to this board and intentionally (or unintentionally) attempts to publicly shame the restaurant (rather than do the seemingly intelligent thing by resolving it with the waiter or Dave at the time).  Blabbing about his current issue here is what I find really distasteful (no pun intended).

 

I have no connection whatsoever with D's other than I and a small group have eaten there once a week for a fair while.  We've enjoyed the food and service and, so far,  have had no complaints at all (but, if and when we do, we'll handle it privately as noted).

 

Wrong. It's the restaurant's job to notice there's a problem and then address it. It's not the customer's job to "be chummy with someone they don't know" to get things fixed. Welcome to the internet age - deliver lousy food and service - people will out you.

I went to a Thai run burger restaurant recently. I made the mistake of being more adventurous than I normally am and the burger I ordered turned out to be utterly displeasing to my tastebuds. My friend's burger, however, was excellent. They noticed I wasn't really eating my burger. Asked if anything was wrong and if I wanted a replacement. I assured them the burger was fine - it just wasn't something I liked very much and that they'd done nothing wrong. When the bill came - they'd deducted it from the bill. See me complaining about that eating experience? No. Why? Because they went over and above to fix a problem they didn't create. I did. 

My own experiences of the chain alluded to in the OP's post are that he's overstating the good points. Been twice, will never set foot in one a third time. The food was bad. The bill was about 3 times what it should be for the quality of product. The service was worse. I don't know "Dave'" or "the waiter" but if that's the best they can do; it's not good enough.