Toknarok

Bloke in UK fined 185 GBP for 'Drunk in Charge of a Horse'...http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4400618/Man-fined-185-for-bei

Yes these are wild pigs (moo pah in Thai). Some farmers around here keep them although they don't grow as big as your normal domestic pig. Until about 5 years ago I had a few. They grow quite tame although they have fearful tusks. You have to watch them as if they get out of their sty they will dig up and eat just about anything that's growing. They are good eating, pork with a gamey flavour. The males are inedible unless they have been castrated when very young.

There are genuine Christian Pakistani refugees living in Thailand. There is one family living in the local town. They are registered with the UN refugee agency and are witing to have their status confirmed and perhaps onward travel to a country willing to take them. They are trying to do it legally unlike the hundreds of thousands entering Europe illegally. One of the men has got a job teaching at a local school, probably without a work permit therefore illegally, but under the circumstances quite understandable. These people are not con artists but I've no doubt that some do exist.

Quite correct. It was never suggested that this was to be a gift, it was always a loan whicgh he promised to pay as quickly as possible. He was a chef so there would be no problem in getting a job in NZ.

As for the suggestion that I wanted hiim to to 'kiss my arse in gratitude' that's absurd. I was doing the bloke a bloody big favour at great inconvenience to my self.The plain fact is that he renaged on his promises and let me down.

It's always sad to hear of people getting into this sort of trouble. I think it's human nature to help in whatever way you can. HOWEVER

About 15 years ago when in Thailand I recieved a desperate call from a Kiwi farang who was incarcerated in the Immigration Detention Centre.He had been arrested for overstay, or rather he hadn't done his 90 day report on his one year visa. He had no money either for the airfare back to NZ or his overstay fine. The fine wasn't 20K as it is nowadays but was calculated on the number of days overstayed. I hardly knew the guy, I'd only met him two or three times in a pub in Perth W.A.

I thought long and hard about it, 'there but for the grace go I' In the end I sent 22K baht to the New Zealand Consulate to spring him. I got a 'phone call thanking me profusely and saying he would repay me ten times over, I said that wasn't necesssary but don't let me down. 22K was a lot of money then and severely restricted my activities for my stay in Thailand.

Needless to say I never heard from him again, not a phone call or a thank you note.

They say that farangs are more likelyto be ripped off by other farangs than Thais in Thailand. This was surely a prime example of this.

NEVER AGAIN

I'd say your number one priority is to get out of Bangkok. With the increased security after the bombing it's only a matter of time before some army or police detail will check you out

The sugestions that you try to persue your writing carrear seem valid. You are articulate in English so presumably are fluent in French and Flemish.Surely there must be something out there. Nowadays with the net you can work from anywhere.

Good luck.

I'm often called 'lung' (uncle) by younger Thais and sometimes 'taa' (grandad) by the very young.

Ducks love to gobble up millipedes, chooks will also have a go at them.

Going a bit off topic about Americans killing anything that flies, let me remined you about the passenger pigeon. Before the arrival of the European they existed in their billions. When they swarmed they blocked out the sun. Unfortunately they were easy to shoot and good eating. The last living specimen is said to have died in 1914.

The poison sting in the smaller species of scorpion tend to be much more potent than the larger ones as pictured. I think this is because the large scorpion can grip its prey (such as a beetle) in it's claws and thus be able to sting it multiple times, whereas the smaller scorpion cannot hold its prey so well and need a more potent sting to immobilise it's lunch.

Of course there is corruption in the West. Most people are inherrantly greedy and whilst most resist the temptation to steal (corruption is a form of theft) many don't. Here in Thailand corruption is endemic, it's built into the system, everybody's at it, i's just the extent that varies. Corruption is a basic failing of human nature.

A small example. Very recently in Australia certain politiciand were caught with their pants down over travel expenses. Junkets for MP's and their families were claimed as 'official Government business'. This lead in one instance to the speaker of the House of Representatives resigning. Would this have happened in Thailand? never in a million years, Thai politicians think it is their 'right' to fiddle the system, they think it's part of the perks of the job.

The so called 'Leaders' in Thailand set this bad example so everyone climbs on the bandwagon.

Living here in Isaan (Buriram) I see them all the time. In the small village where I live (155 houses) there are at least three.

Which one is your favourite..?

None of them I assure you. Sodomising men with tits doesn't appeal to me at all.

Remember this? The BBC banned it not because it refers to ladyboys but for the words Coca-Cola. My arse. I'll bet it wasn't banned in Thailand.

Living here in Isaan (Buriram) I see them all the time. In the small village where I live (155 houses) there are at least three.

It's long been a bone of contention by those living outside Bangkok that everything is concentrated there whilst the rest of the Country is left to rot. It's slowly changing though, and in a hundred years time Bangkok will probably be under water.

They're very good at reciting the twelve orinciples though, I know I've heard them.

I know an older German farang. He lives with his Thai wife in Pattaya. She is from my village and they occasionally visit. He is from East Germany and althought he can speak Russian he doesn't speak a word of English. My German is non existant so how do we communicate? we speak Thai of course.

I speak enough Thai to get by and be independant, but no way would I say I can speak conversational Thai. My Thai would be a lot better if the locals actually spoke it as their everyday language. Here they speak Khmer, and even when speaking Thai amongst themselves they tend to speak a heavily accented patois mixing up Thai, Khmen, Lao and sometimes Suai with impunity.

They all know I cannot speak Khmer so always address me in Thai. I have picked up a local Isaan accent which is often picked up by middle speaking Thais when I talk to them.

As for Thai outside the Kingdom, whenever I was in Australia or the UK and I heard Thai being spoken I would introduce myself in Thai and ask where in Thailand they came from. This invariably produced gasps of astonishment and very friendly chats (of a sort) after that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokay_gecko

You haven't been in Thailand very long have you? Despite the fact that Thailand claims to be mainly Buddhist the dominant set of beliefs here is animism. It pervadres everything from birth to death.

A prievious poster stated that you have no control over whom your friends marry. My younger brother and I were quite close, and he got married. Things were fine for years, she and I got along well until she 'Found the Lord' and became 'Born Again'. Her personality completely changed and so did her attitude towards me. She didn't approve of my drinking and as for my fornicating - well I was headed straight towards Hell.

I put up with this for some time but in the end the hostility towards me drove a wedge between my brother and myself that was too difficult to remove. I would love to invite him to come and stay in Thailand but I know that his wife wouldn't entertain the idea.

Yes the Chinese stock market collapse may well have an effect on tourists to Thailand. The reason being is that 85% of shares in Chinese companies are held by small time investors unlike stock markets in the West where the majority of shares are held by the big boys such as hedge funds.

The Chinese middle class who tend to be the ones that take overseas trips have seen trillions knocked off the value of their shares in the past few days. I could well imagine that any who had been planning a trip to Thailand will now be having second thoughts.

As much as I dislike Thaksin personally I have to give him credit for introducing the 30 baht health scheme.(OK it might'nt have been his idea but he implemented it) It made a huge difference to the welfare of people up here in Isaan. Should the Junta scrap or interfere with the scheme then there would be enormous social unrest here and any thoughts of 'reconciliation' or 'happiness to the people' would disappear overnight.

Stones Ginger Wine, kippers, wheel of Stilton cheese, haggis.

Here in Isaan it generally depends on the monks. They advise an 'auspicious' day for the cremation. How long that is, I'm sure depends on the wealth of the family of the deceased. If the're poor it usually takes place in a couple of days, if well off then it can often be a week or more.

The reason for this is of course money. Every time the monks appear at the funeral party to do their chanting it costs the relatives money, and the monks will often appear twice a day. Therefore the more times they chant the more mony the wat receives.

A German falang died in my village a few years ago and the cremation did not take place until 13 days after his death.

Have relocated many tukkae after they started making a mess at a rental house in the way past. Have a basket handy, and hit them with the garden house. As soon as the water hits the wall they lose traction and you can catch them as they fall or put the basket on top of them and then slide a sheet of plywood under it.

By the way, the tukkae trade must be one of the best urban legends in Thailand. Everyone talks about it in the villages, but no one has ever been able to sell one to a real buyer. Been asking about that for nine years and still no first hand knowledge.

W11

Sorry it's not an urban legend. Have a look at this TVF topic. You've never seen it. neither have I but that's not to say it doesn't exist. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/633067-asian-gecko-threatened-by-medicine-trade/