Gecko123

Thai police typically show great restraint when dealing with mentally deranged individuals, which is one of their most admirable qualities, especially when contrasted with the trigger-happy 'shoot-first-ask-questions-later' mentality of police in the States. The article says the individual had a criminal history and was known for erratic behavior by locals. Chances are that he was known to the responding officer as well, who apparently initially did not see him as a potential threat. A knife attack can occur in the blink of an eye. I don't think it's appropriate to be second guessing the responding officer's response at this early stage. The tragedy is the loss of the officer's life, and that because of this incident, Thai police officers may be more inclined to use lethal force to subdue mentally unstable individuals in the future.

Made homemade falafels for the first time this morning Overdid it with the spices and have been belching and burping ever since. The good news is no gas. Will report back if conditions change. Merry Christmas everyone.

Update: I misspoke about the vendor response from Lazada. I mistakenly contacted Lazada's generic customer service and left a message complaining about this discrepancy, but I didn't actually rate the product or contact the vendor at the time. I am right now going through a back and forth rigamarole about whether the cup I received matches the picture, but once I contacted the vendor, they've been reasonably responsive.

I recently had a "bait and switch" experience on Lazada as well. Pyrex measuring cup advertised as "made in USA" with nice large pouring lip turned out to have tiny, poorly designed pouring lip which dribbles all over the place no matter how slowly you pour. Adding to the intrigue, I left a one-star review complaining about this expecting that there would be some response from the vendor, but when I just went back and checked, it looks like not only was there no response from the vendor, but my negative review was deleted as well.

The cost of housing in the US, as well as in many other parts of the world (Europe, Australia, Canada, etc.), is so distorted that refusing to jump back into that fire is totally understandable, even if you have adequate funds to do so. These housing market distortions are totally unsustainable and waiting out the market and avoiding being sucked dry by corporate landlords is a perfectly intelligent choice and does not necessarily mean you're living in Thailand out of economic desperation. For me, it's a choice between paying an ungodly price to either buy or rent back home or doing whatever else I choose to do with the money. If you say "what about all the intangible benefits" of living back in the US, I would argue that aside from being able to utilize medicare, I can't really think of too many. So, just because cost of living is a factor in your decision making process, that doesn't necessarily make someone an economic refugee.

Yawn. Lot of big words in there, tiger, but you're not impressing me with your knowledge of Thai culture.

How about negativity from other foreigners when you speak Thai? Studiously disinterested, stone-faced, resentful, jealous, icy glares, desperate efforts to find someone - anyone - to discount or disparage your language skills. Ten people can tell them you speak Thai well but if one person makes a catty comment, it's all 'Ah-haa, now we're finally getting to the truth!" I can't remember the last time a foreigner said something positive about my Thai, asked how I learned it, or how long it took me. Any negative experiences speaking Thai with Thais, who are generally appreciative of your efforts, pale in comparison to my negative experiences speaking Thai around other foreigners.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I think the phrase you were looking for was "down to earth."

Anyone who has progressed beyond the beginner level would know that in order to make further progress you have to master the alphabet and tonal system, and you can't do that without a lot of reading and writing practice.

I have to admit that with the rise of the "designated English speaker" in many shops, who, before you can get a word in Thai out, is summoned over to interact with you whether you like it or not. He or she comes strolling over, never for a moment considering the possibility that you might be able to speak Thai. Any attempt made to engage them in Thai is treated as an affront and a threat to their status as the "designated English speaker." They do everything possible to frustrate your efforts to speak Thai either by feigning deafness, scrunching up their face, making wild guesses about what you are saying (even though you have successfully used the vocabulary plenty of times in the past) or mumbling or speaking Thai hyper-fast or super colloquially. So the opportunities to speak Thai when out shopping are becoming few and far between. The combative nature of these interactions is quite dispiriting and I have to admit my enthusiasm for making an effort to speak Thai while shopping has dropped off, especially when you're wearing a sanitary mask. If you're determined to practice your Thai in a retail setting, you need to develop a fairly assertive posture that you can speak Thai and want to speak Thai during the transaction. Me speak Thai. Me want to speak Thai. Me customer. Customer #1. Understand you me?

That's gotta be one of the most bizarre comments I've ever heard. I'm sure a few ASEANNOW members who righteously proclaim their disinterest in learning Thai will latch onto this ill-considered comment as the gospel truth, but, for the record, absolute nonsense. Sounds like a very opinionated and small minded provincial perspective, perhaps believing that the only possible motive a foreigner could have to learn Thai is to chase after bar girls.

I would distinguish between benign sharing of information, and gossipy (but fairly harmless) repetition of what others have said, and malicious gossip intended to intentionally or unfairly damage someone else's reputation. A foreigner might be be more likely to be a target of malicious gossip because they are perceived as an outsider, making it less likely that the gossip will get back to them. But amongst Thais they have to be fairly cautious about stirring the pot out of fear of making an enemy for life in the process.

No they're not, Bob. They are keenly observant and able to size people up fairly quickly, but they are also cautious about gossiping about other people out of fear that it will get back to the person being talked about. This is especially true in small villages. One thing I love about Thai people is they don't sling psychobabble jargon back and forth at one another like they do in the West. You'll hear "he's selfish", "she's conceited", or "he's immature" or "he's irresponsible", but you're not likely to hear "he has narcissistic personality disorder," "she has a fear of intimacy", or "he's a friggin' sociopath." That psychological vocabulary has done a lot of damage to interpersonal relationships in the West, and I'm grateful it's not very prevalent here.

I've had Thais who know me alert other Thais who don't know me that I can speak Thai but it's usually in order to let them know "knock off the pigeon English" rather than "be careful what you say, the walls have ears." I've also had Thais playfully test to see if I understand what they're saying by saying something unflattering and seeing if I understand that they've just insulted me. But I've never sensed someone wanted to say something unflattering but were biting their lip out of fear that I'd understand what they were saying. If someone wants to say something nasty about you, they'll just say it under their breath, or wait for you to leave before ripping you to shreds.

This guy may be an over-staying, beer-swilling, drunk-driving, loud-mouth, cop-dodging, love-sick whore-mongerer but I still found the tone of this article to be insufferably smug, almost to the point of indulging in feminist schadenfreude.

Valid points. I believe this is the location where the accident occurred.

Eat a lot of sprouts during cool season. Tried broccoli sprouts a few times, but a lot of problems with insects. Collard sprout and tomato salad with honey mustard dressing. Fak tong blossom, carrot, daikon radish sprout salad Red leaf and cilantro sprout salad

If you look at the picture in the OP, you can see that the shoulder of the road effectively disappears at the bridge. Any slower vehicle on the shoulder would have to move into the main traffic lane in order to cross the bridge. Rather than the electric scooter erratically making a wild unpredictable turn into oncoming traffic or shooting out of a soi into oncoming traffic without looking, a far more likely scenario is that the electric scooter moved off the shoulder into the main lane so as to be able to cross the bridge. A vehicle approaching from behind likely assumed that they could force the scooter to come to a stop so that they wouldn't have to slow down while the scooter crossed the bridge. If this turns out to be the actual scenario, while the scooter driver may have been negligent for not checking if it was safe to merge into the main lane, I would argue that the Isuzu driver was at least partially, if not equally negligent for not anticipating that the scooter would likely merge into the main lane and slowing down as a precaution against this possibility, especially if the young child passenger was clearly visible from behind.

I read all that too. But as far as the local's saying "she shouldn't have been riding the tricycle on a busy road because of its slow speed," the same risk is presented by slow moving bicycles, motorcycles, farm trap wagons or tractors of which there are many on rural roads. My only point was that if more care had been taken by the vehicle by slowing down and anticipating that the vehicle might have to pull into the lane because the roadway was cinched at the bridge, the accident probably could have been avoided. Also, what the locals said about whether it was advisable to be riding an electric tricycle on the road doesn't necessarily mean that she was breaking the law. Like if a bicycle is involved in an accident alongside a busy roadway. Everyone says that riding an electric scooter on such a busy road is ill-advised, and I certainly would agree, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's illegal or even negligent.

My guess is that the mobility scooter was riding on the shoulder of the road but when the shoulder disappears at the bridge, the mobility scooter pulled into the traffic lane. Traffic approaching from behind should have anticipated that the mobility scooter would have to do this and slowed down, but, as is so often the case, the driver probably sped up intending to force the mobility scooter to come to a stop or just assuming it would. When the Isuzu driver realized this was not going to happen he was probably already going too fast to avoid colliding with the scooter. This issue would have been the exact same if the vehicle had been a slower moving bicycle, farm vehicle, or motorcycle. If the mobility scooter driver had more experience, she probably would have come to a stop before crossing the bridge, but that doesn't relieve the Isuzu driver of his likely negligence in the accident, especially since the small child riding in the rear was probably very visible, which should have triggered an even higher level of caution and defensive driving. Certainly, his reluctance to let people see the dash cam footage suggests possible awareness that his negligence may have, at least partially, contributed to this tragic accident.

By the way, while anything is possible, I don't think the sudden imposition of a residency requirement to qualify for entitlement program benefits is at all likely. At worst, such a requirement would be imposed on future beneficiaries. Were the government to suddenly impose such a restriction on existing social security beneficiaries, it would likely trigger a tsunami of elderly beneficiaries being forced to repatriate, many of whom would experience severe financial hardship adjusting to their home country's cost of living. This sudden influx of repatriating expats would strain social services, including medicaid, likely add to homelessness, and be politically unpopular as well.

I would be very interested in hearing why you think you would be better off repatriating were the $hit to hit the fan. Looking at issues like climate change, cost of living, cross-border migratory influxes of people, political stability, risk of currency devaluation, potential restrictions on entitlement programs, gun violence, terrorism, or even looking at global famine or global war scenarios, Thailand looks to me like a safer bet. But, again, I would be very interested in hearing your or anyone else's arguments as to why you believe repatriation might be a safer bet.

I think there's a lot of class resentment associated with the game. Maybe not particularly apparent here in Thailand, but back home it's seen as a leisure class activity requiring lots of money to pay for country club membership and green fees, equipment, and one-on-one lessons. It may seem equalitarian for a retiree hitting the links in Thailand, but back home in the business world where a great deal of golf is played, it's associated with being a "good old boy", often leading to promotions and business deal opportunities that others are excluded from, i.e., antithetical to a meritocracy. Yeah, yeah, I've heard of Tiger Woods, but golf has such a long history of being a "whites only" sport, I think its an inaccessible and difficult to relate to sporting activity for many people. Kind of like polo in many ways. Not hated, just an irrelevancy in many people's lives. Sports involving hitting a ball with a stick have never been among my favorites. That goes go baseball, polo, croquet, jai alai, although tennis can be interesting. Not due to any hand eye coordination problems, just hitting a ball with a stick has never struck me as a skill that was important to acquire. To me, watching golf seems like an unbelievable waste of time, especially tee offs where the camera pans into the sky but you can never see the ball.

I trust your pith helmet has a chin strap.