richard_smith237

Lets do it now !!... Only the Americans claim a whole continent - America consists of 35 countries. When someone from the USA states they are American, they do so in ignorance of the other 34 nations of America... USA does not have a demonym, so out of convenience people from the USA use American. When Europeans are asked where they are from, they don't state Europe, much in the same way Canadian's, Mexicans or Argentinians don't state they are American. So... you are right, people from the USA classify themselves as American, and that was my point - is it not somewhat arrogant to 'take over' the name of the continent in which another 34 nations exist ? Hence the question - which part of America ?... You could have easily written "I'm citizen of the USA" and removed ambiguity... you went with American out of habit which has formed out of historical laziness. You're welcome !

Why ??.. was he unwell or unable to look after himself and needed nursing ? People are getting 'caretaker' mixed up with nurse. He pays someone to look after things / him... this can mean many things - washing, cooking, ironing, cleaning etc running errands... He's certainly fit enough to be out and about walking....

Possible... However, he was also in front of his moo-baan, so I'd assume he was on his way home and there's no need for cash at that time of night - is there even an ATM nearby in that area (within walking distance ?). So, no, while remains an assumption, I don't think he will have been spotted using an ATM.. I think this is purely an opportunistic and random mugging... but, more than a mugging, it was a horrific attack that could have very easily killed him. The issue with this is the potential for the 'contagion effect' where other youths see this and get a similar idea, to attack a foreigner, its a quick route to 7000 baht.

You've just used American Red-necks as a bench mark for stupidity to insult another nation... hmmm

Yawn... This idea of yours that road engineers will stop stupid people from doing stupid things on the roads is completely delusional... You've failed at your attempts to shimmy in a prejudice and racist argument and your now failing a some basic common sense. Of course, engineering the roads for greater safety will bring improvement, reduce accidents, and fatalities... but it won't stop them all because there are still stupid people doing stupid things... Road design would not have stopped this accident... Education and effective policing may have, a cultural shift towards one that sees 'drink driving' as anti-social may have... But, none of this will prevent the consequences of stupidity.... if someone is intent on doing something as stupid as getting blind drunk, then trying to ride home and speed while doing so, losing control on a very mild bend, then there is no other cause for that accident than their stupidity. If more than one person does the same thing, that does not automatically mean that bend is poorly engineered, its just means that there are more than one drunk idiot driving too fast at that bend... if they made that bend, they'd have an accident at the next, or perhaps the straight, or perhaps they'd get lucky and not have an accidence because they were drunk and fell asleep on a straight road... ... but the stupidity of such actions means they are an accident waiting to happen and road engineering can't help that unless you are going to remove every possible obstacle from the road.

You're throwing prejudice to try and point score now, when its not prejudice, its basic observation. Is it prejudice when the Thai's I know make the same observations, that there are more people who do stupid things on the roads in Thailand than they do in the UK or Japan ???

I just checked the app and it's showing me around ฿3500 right now for an "Economy" car, and this is peak time during Bangkok rush-hour. When I checked the app earlier (when I made that post) it was showing around ฿2800 for the same type of car. If you check the app in the morning at around sunrise, then it should be under ฿3000 I suspect. At that time you might even be able to find their higher tier cars in that same price range. If you leave Bangkok at around 5AM or 6AM in a Bolt taxi, then I reckon you'll be there around 10AM or 11AM at the boat pier. Reconsider the 'BOLT' option.... and don't naively accept the price the App provides. It would be better to arrange directly with a driver / taxi company.

'Probably' - highlights your bias long with the earlier comment that these guys don't look Thai... And... the thugs had no idea how much he was carrying until after they mugged him... So the amount he was carrying has very little relevance to the actual attack... he would have been attacked if he had no cash. You also try and victim blame and imply he was drunk... there is no mention of that...

OMG - people like this really are out there... I'm surprised you are even online, what with the digital footprint you could be leaving.... I hope you are routing your internet through various VPN's, only turn on your PC from within a faraday cage.... Don't look up Brill - the satellites can see you...

The lack of paranoia among a certain section of the AN crowd is truly laughable. All Thai's have to have ID anyway... and all of those ID are already digital and online... So... nothing is new at all, just that these ID's can be used for added convenience. The level of paranoia amongst a certain section of AN crowd really is truly laughable, but to counter that takes to another level which becomes all sad from a 'tin-foil-hat-nutter-doomsday-prepper-get-off-the-grid' perspective.

The "I've been here longer than most" argument is a clutch at straws.... I've been driving here for 25 years and riding motorcycles here for 15 years... that means nothing in this debate. And... as you have been driving here for that long then you have surely shaken your head at the many outrageous and stupid things you see.... Or, when you see something really stupid do you honestly think... "its the roads fault" ??? I know, I know... you'll now argue that with road design the impact of the stupidity is less, because the 'road engineering' protects people when an accident happens, i.e. removing power poles from the road, adding armco barriers etc... ... people doing stupid things will still die on the roads. I've presented that statistic plenty of times - but have also highlighted that as with all statistics the data is incomplete as it only accounts for population basis not per vehicle basis and does not include mileage covered per vehicle - so the result is potentially distorted. That said: for 4 wheeled vehicles - the Thai stat is 4x higher than the equivalent UK stat.

The issue Kwilco has, is that we as outside observers to all these tragedies can make the clear observation that we see so many people doing so many stupid things on the roads... He really does not like that word and wants to shoe-horn in accusations racism into the discussion.... He thinks you can engineer problems out of a roads to make them safer, and he is of course right... But he completely fails on the understanding that it doesn't matter how safe something is made, how well educated people are and trained... People will do stupid things... he said it himself "you can't fix people" - because stupid people do stupid things... ..... and men get on motorcycles while drunk or drive cars, while drunk and fail to navigate perfectly safe roads that the rest of society have no issue with... Thats stupid people doing stupid things. IF this area truly were an accident blackspot, sober people would be having accidents at 7pm... This is not a 120kmh road that crests a hill into blind bend.... its a normal road, with a normal bend, nothing dangerous for most people when they are not blind drunk speeding, in which case everything becomes dangerous and that can't be engineered for.

Agreed.... but all of the above will conclude specific groups are more prone to accidents than others - thats why there are insurance bands. Its a cultural norm here for men to ride drunk on motorcycles, many crash, a lot die... Thats evidence based. The human error patterns you want to highlight... thats stupidity - dumb people speeding on narrow roads while drunk and hitting something hard... If someone did the same thing in the UK, I'd blame their stupidity.

Still at it... Simple question - Is a road accident ever a persons fault ??? or is it always the roads fault ? (through lack of road engineering ?) You are so locked into your binary rhetoric you fail to see any other picture. I understand your angle of road engineering, I think its valid in many cases... But you completely fail to identify that it doesn't matter how good the 'road engineering' is.... there are idiots out there who will still mess up through no other reason than they were doing something stupid... So... I agree... You can't fix people... That comment pretty much agrees that people are stupid and will get into accidents when they do something stupid... its the persons fault not the roads fault !!!.. If you we are going to discuss stupid, then we can clearly see how you've locked yourself into text-book theory have doubled down and now have no intelligent response without contradicting yourself.

You're getting your panties in a right old twist Kwilco... Triple quoting yourself... the text-book engineer in you completely ignores the human facet of these issues - people are stupid enough to get themselves in difficult (and kill themselves) in pretty much any situation they are faced with... Put 100,000 people in an empty room for an hour, and one of them will find a way to do something stupid enough to kill themselves.... .. and the same can be said for the roads - it doesn't matter how well engineered they are idiots will do something stupid.

I agree with you 'sometimes' regarding road engineering and other factors... But sometimes an accident happens for no other reason than the simplicity of someone was being dumb.... you call it human error... I call it being stupid, and stupid people make more human errors. You are making the human error right now of making the assumption that you have the answers and that road engineering is the issue... Drink Driving and Speeding is clearly the issue and you can't road engineer people to stop doing that... ... People can be educated, they can be policed, a cultural shift can be effected.... but stupid people will still do stupid things.... ... and to have this accident, this was not a sober rider travelling within reasonable speeds... He'd have had an accident at some point because he was dumb enough to get drunk, and then complacent enough to either fall asleep and ride into a solid object, or complacent enough to go way too fast and lose control and hit a stationary object... & you can't remove all stationary objects... stupid riders will find away to hit something... not deliberately of course, but in aggregate thats the end result.

Are all gentle bends in roads black-spots then ??... Or just the ones drunk drivers / riders crash on ? You're so intent on making this a road engineering issue that you can't see the obvious - when drunk drivers and idiots going too fast or fall asleep and crash... its not the roads fault. Drunk drivers also crash in to other things so... You 'could' engineer things to make it safer.... put padding on the side of all roads, only have traffic travelling in one direction (to avoid head on accidents), have run off areas... of course, all rather daft when 100,000's of people navigate these roads without issue until smashed out of their heads. Strange that ?... what about the rest of the year ? - the road is not a black spot then ?... less drunk drivers / riders... I bet the accidents spike at Songkran time too (though most will have left to have their drunk accidents in their home towns).

Thats and incredibly dumbed down and over simplistic outlook which fails to comprehend, well, anything really. Should you be held accountable for the actions of your government ??? It could be argued that those Russians who've moved to Thailand have done so because they completely disagree with the actions of their government.

I do see what you are getting at with the 'road engineering comments'.... but you are trying to shoe-horn in a road engineering issue... when this is a 'speeding idiot who couldn't stay on the road issue' The accident occured about 40-50m away from a gentle bend in the road can be seen on the Map posted by KannikaP - also another map pasted below... (arrow points to the accident spot). Anyone unable to navigate such a simple road can't be helped with road engineering. Its not accident black-spot - thats just BS reporting... its just an innocuous bit of road along which couple of idiots have managed to crash, through a) being drunk, b) not paying attention..... (or both). The 'spirit' thing is just as stupid and highlights the daft mentality.... its another example of people attempting to blame anything else other than the glaringly obvious - the accident was caused by sheer stupidity - it wasn't caused by the road or spirits.... Looking at the opposite direction from the accident spot to the 'bend in the road'... Its seems that the 'rider' crashed into a pole on a straight bit of road.... How would you engineer your way out that ??????... Of course, remove the Poles, which I'd agree with.... but the rider would still crash... Perhaps this time into a car on the other side of the road or another motorcyclist etc...

I think you need to go back and read through what was posted... It would appear that in your butt hurt haste to retaliate your reading comprehension has failed you as much as your comprehension of physics !!! "anyone for whom money has any form of influence on friendship is not a friend, of course, everyone knows this". Explanation: When a new Thai friend wants to borrow money - they were never a friend in the first place... That's not a tough one to understand - I'm not sure why you are struggling with it...

Been drinking ??.. you're not making a lot of sense and trying to shoe-horn an argument out of nothing... Perhaps its time to take a breather & cut back.

Congratulations... Give Qatar Q-Suites a try.. Emirates and Qatar are possibly amongst the best for Eco too... The connecting flight gives an option for an over night layover which, if not in any rush gives a more relaxed and chilled approach to travelling... I don't mind 6 hours on a flight (in Eco) longer than that and I've had enough, so day time flying with an over-night layover works brilliantly. Turkish also offer some excellent deals when flying with a layover (and offer a free hotel).. but the Bangkok to Istanbul leg is 10 hours... and that gets quite tiresome.

That depends where you are heading... I agree if you are Australian and going home !!! Otherwise, Qatar, Emirates and Etihad are perhaps the best airlines out there along with Singapore.

What would you propose ?... Gravel run off areas ??

No need, they know how to spot a nobhead... as do I... your comment above makes it so simple !!!