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Everything posted by richard_smith237
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Yes you are.... and I would be too.... the idea that he sounded the horn for someone approaching from behind is ridiculous. With something like this.... my automatic suspicions are usually that the vehicle pulled out in front of the the motorcycle which was going quickly. Not always... i.e IF the vehicle suddenly changed lanes etc and there was nowhere else for the motorcyclist to go. BUT... all of that said.... a brand new powerful motorcycle... was the American guy an experienced rider ? New bike, brand-new tyres... the tyres usually have a ‘coating’ and don’t perform well straight out of the showroom... (they need wearing in).... Was the rider going too fast on his new bike and simply couldn’t slow in time or couldn’t counter-steer quickly to get around the lorry which may have been going a lot lot slower than he initially anticipated ??
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What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
Quite the dumb comment that... This very forum is designed specifically around ’seeking advice’ from the ‘community’.... .... many of the very people you call the arm-chair experts are the very ones who have encountered the very situations being discussed and are well placed to offer solid advice. Where do you go for your local advice ?... ’the rough guide’ ??? -
British Man Arrested on Samui Island for 25 days of Overstay
richard_smith237 replied to webfact's topic in Koh Samui News
Officially, or unofficially.... because there is as a difference. Officially - to police and assess the entry or presence of people from other countries. Unofficially - to police and profit from the entry or presence of people from other countries !!! Now, I know you won’t like that latter response and ask for something to back up that ‘assertion’... of course the Police do not keep records of their illegal behaviour, there is no link to published statistics and the ‘unofficial job responsibilities’.... But... I can tell you what they do - A lot of Immigration outside of the visible ones we see at the Airport and Offices investigate businesses etc... visit them, levy charges on them for the 100’s of illegal immigrants they have working (migrant labor)... then there is either the ‘pay off’ or a phone call from the local Chief of Police who’s been contacted by xxxx army general another police chief, politician etc to let everyone go... money has already changed hands in advance... its lucrative business ! (And no LL - I don’t have links or proof, you’ll have to take my word for the way this works, but I’m sure you may also know Thai Policemen and Senior Immigration officers who can tell you first hand how this works). -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
indeed, it is always better to depend on others to navigate life for you. No... thats not what he wrote, thats just your interpretation. Another interpretation is... Allow those better placed to resolve an issue to do so. Sometimes there is a language barrier with the Wife can circumnavigate to your advantage. At other times the perceived social status of the wife may impact proceedings, or the wife may be to timid and not offer any help, or the wife may shout and force things sideways etc... each situation is different, its not always better to let the Wife handle it, but there are also times when the Wife can do a better job of handing a situation - It's up to us to be clever enough to know when. -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
And will they even be bothered if you call them at 1 or 2 am while half cut and tell them you are being extorted by the Police at a check-point in Lad-Prao ????? Its fine saying... they have a 24 hr manned emergency number.... but do they really consider police extortion an emergency, or something that we can just deal with ourselves ??? I may be incorrect of course, but my guess is that we’d be told that they are not authorised to deal with such issues or some such response - I’d obviously like to be corrected with first hand information from someone who’s been helped in similar circumstances. -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
personally despite having such friends, I would never waste their time for a taxi stop. Things would need to very serious before i would play that card, chicken little. The friends i have would likely laugh at me as they know I am well capable of navigating a simple police stop. Depends.... my mate jokes that I never use him and deal with issues myself... most can be. Sometimes they can’t. I was actually on my way to meet my one friend (close friend of 20 years who’s also in the Police). It was 7pm... Checkpoint, saw a westerner in the taxi, stopped the taxi, asked for my passport and told me to get out... No !!! - they were just going to waste a load of my time... I called my mate who spoke with them, took a minute, they waved me on. On another occasions I was actually talking with my mate (on the phone handsfree) while driving... ... Police checkpoint up ahead... “hold on, your mates are pulling me over”..... "let me speak with them”.... “No... you’ll probably tell them to do a rectal search !!!”..... “I’ll call you back !!”.... dealt with the issue easily. So.. it depends on the situation. -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
Thats not completely true. There are check-points whereby fines can be paid on the spot. Those checkpoints have to be ‘official’ (i.e signed off on and approved by the local chief of police), there have to be commissioned officers present. Otherwise, a ticket can be issued and fines can be paid at the Police station. The reality: When police issue a ticket, ‘most’ people do not go to the police station and pay the fine. Everyone knows this, so the police come up with ways to ‘generate’ some leverage. The used to take your licence off you and only return it once you’d paid the fine (if on a traffic stop), now they can’t take your licence off you. At checkpoints such as these, they target the naive (i.e. those thy think are not strong enough to argue - i.e. foreigners or the young) and use threats of serious fines, delays at the police station etc to ‘encourage’ the victim to pay an on the spot fine. They are supposed to have ‘cause’.... but they don’t use ‘cause’ they use ’suspicion’ and they can be suspicious of any person out at night as they may or may not have some drugs on them... so in their eyes they can stop and search anyone... The police do not understand, respect or follow the rules by which they themselves are governed. How could the police have ‘cause’ to stop a group of tourists in a taxi ???.... Answer is they can’t... Unless the tourist was in the front seat not wearing a seatbelt, the driver was speeding or driving dangerously etc... -
You know the track record of the rtp, in your mind, I don't have that constraint. On the balance of probability.... Who’s telling the truth in such a circumstance... - The lady - unknown. - The Police, known to be systemically corrupt with a long history of similar behaviour backed up with personal experience. It wasn’t the ‘coin toss Nigel implies. Fair enough that we should be impartial and judge things individually, however, sometimes there is simply too much ‘history’ (track-record as mikey puts it) which would be daft to ignore. We have the luxury if using experience and bias to draw conclusions from events. We don’t have to forget everything we know and remove all past knowledge and deal with that singular individual event without letting reputation influence our judgement as we would if jurors in a court room. Nigel is right of course - we should be completely impartial, give everyone the benefit of doubt etc... but, that is also unrealistic given the world we live in. When a Thai Policeman stops me at 1am and starts asking questions, I’m not impartial at all, I am on alert as there is a high probability that the policeman is about to try and relieve me of some cash IF he thinks he can get away with it.... or he’ll waste my time trying.
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A guess based on experience... based on the education of being here. I also ‘guessed' that the Police were lying through their teeth and the lady in fact was telling the truth that she had been extorted for 27,000 baht.... It was a lot more than a guess though, it was conclusion based on what was said (written) and the experience of being here for 25 years and having an understanding of how the police behave, particularly in the evenings at checkpoints such as the one described. The 50/50 ‘roulette’ guess you describe implies there was only ‘luck’ involved in making that guess, which is of course wrong - Those who believed the lady and thought the police to be lying did so based on the balance of probability using their experiences here to influence their assumptions.... bias yes, that too.
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What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
One of the very fortunate things in Thailand is that while there is a lot of corruption, corruption on that level is extremely rare, such that I’ve never heard of ‘drugs being planted’.... And... Thanks to the latest extortion case (An Yu Qing - AKA Charlene An) there may be more focus on ensuring things such as this no longer occur or occur much much less. BUT... in that hypothetical station you exampled [OneMorefarang], with no phone a friend option, I think it would be very difficult to stand on principle and spend a night in jail when paying some cash can make the problem go away. What to do?... attempt to secretly record the event... and then seek help the following day filing an extortion case. That said: IF I felt that were a realistic situation (getting drugs planted) I wouldn’t be living in Thailand - things like that would be a show-stopper for me. -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
One would be lucky to get hold of anyone at all..... and then have them assist you at 1am in the morning because the police are shaking you down ???... The article seriously over egged that one... -
Photo of Myself for School
richard_smith237 replied to WalsallRobbo's topic in Primary & Secondary Education
Yup... thats taking it a bit too far... I suspect there is something lost in translation from the staff to your wife and then to you.... E-mail the school and ask them exactly what they need. --------- I recall my Wife telling me something which didn’t make sense at all. I contacted the member of staff who was Thai (head of Thai Language) and she explained it. It still made no sense to me and was completely illogical, but my Wife was adamant that was what we had to do. I contacted the head of year who was astounded how their staff could get the instruction so ‘upside down’.... logic prevailed eventually.... The point there, communication is often not a strong point and things sometimes need questioning and questioning further, especially when something doesn’t make sense to you. -
Photo of Myself for School
richard_smith237 replied to WalsallRobbo's topic in Primary & Secondary Education
My Sons school has this security measure. We have a photo ID which electronically activates the entry gate... We can’t access the school without the ID badge / card which has our photo on it. IF you don’t have the card / badge you’re not getting in the school without someone from the main reception escorting you. -
One visit should do it... The DLT is now taking ‘walk in’ applications. It does depend how busy they are though.... and you still have to do the ‘in class tests’ - proximity test, colour blindness etc... (and watch the video I think) - so if the intake for that is full, then you may need to return another day. BUT, if you are there early, or if its quiet, you should be ok.
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What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
Agreed.... Still, as much as I object its sometimes just easier to give them something because too much time is being wasted already. I recall getting pulled over for turning left from the middle lane... An illegal manoeuvre. My objection was that there was a lorry parked on the inside lane so turning left was impossible without rounding the bin-lorry via the second lane. I argued and argued but realised I was getting nowhere.... The Police officer wanted 500 baht... he got 200 Baht... it was just wasting too much time to be bothered with. BUT... I’ve seen an ‘extortion attempt... Police wanted to get me out of a taxi... Wanted passport etc... it was obvious what the game was... Stop the westerner, search him, see what he can be taken for, fine him for not carrying a passport, make him pee in a cup etc etc... Apart from not carrying a passport, I’ve nothing to hide, but didn’t want t play... The only option was ‘Phone a Friend’ (who’s a senior Policeman) and the situation was over in a couple of minutes without getting out of the taxi. So.. How to avoid an attempted shakedown ? - The best defence is to have the number of a police friend, preferably a senior one... Of course, not everyone has that, but in a country with so many police a lot of us expats who have been here any length of time invariably cross paths with and become friendly with a policeman..... -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
of course.... and for those who worry about a shake down... ‘if they don’t like it, they should go home’ !!! ???? [yes, that was a satirical pish-take at those who may seriously write such a comment] -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
No it isn't. Erm... it is and it isn’t.... The vast majority of Police may want to be there to help people, but they are also embedded in a corrupt system which takes advantage of people. -
What to do if Thai police stop you and attempt a ‘shake-down’
richard_smith237 replied to snoop1130's topic in Thailand News
Why not? Indeed.... that should be your ‘go to step’ if you suspect they are ‘fake police’ that have stopped. Additionally, even if they are police, they won’t want the added hassle. -
Renewing your driving licence is one of the easiest of the bureaucratic tasks in Thailand. I think you will also need a medical certificate (which you can get at most local clinics - tell them its for a driving licence and they’ll know what you need... it usually costs about 100 to 200 baht). Just turn up to the local DLT office (I’m not sure which your one is) and they’ll just shunt you around to wherever you need to go in that typical non-communicative Thai manner which leaves you guessing but always works out in the end !!!...
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Missing Bag with Passport Returned to American Tourist in Phuket
richard_smith237 replied to webfact's topic in Phuket News
Perhaps tourists leaving stuff in a taxi is a rare event in itself. hmm..... the ‘Quantum Mechanics approach’ to the discussion.... .... Until a bag is lost and found it exists in a state of both not being lost and not being found until it is lost, then found and reported on !! -
No... you project that ‘almost everyone’ is the same as you, thus you think ‘almost’ everyone has had a marriage failure.... the divorce rate in the UK is 42%.... so thats 4 out 10... So.. ‘Almost everyone’ is incorrect... Many or under half... would be correct. Completely understandable... ] But assuming everyone else is in the same position isn’t. Neither is assuming everyone else’s relationships are doomed to the same issues and failure. Isn't the rule of thumb... never less than half your age + 7 years... i.e 40 year olds -->> not less than 27 yrs old ?.... 50 year olds -->> not less than 32 yrs old ?.... 60 year olds -->> not less than 37 yrs old ?.... 70 year olds -->> not less than 42 yrs old ?.... I don’t know how effective this is, but as a general rule it doesn’t seem ’too far off’... I also agree,..... a guy who believes a woman half his age is ‘into him’ is most likely a fool pulling the wool over his own eyes....
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Just like maids are now called... ‘domestic engineers’... we could perhaps become more politically correct and call these ladies ‘Andrological Therapists’ !!! ????
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Isn't that what homosexuals call ‘docking’ ???? ????
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Just because you know how to pay a girl for sex doesn't make you a genius. But he thinks it makes him 19% or 25% smarter than the average Westerner.... !!! With his self proclaimed excess of intelligence he’s been able to project that women don’t want men unless its for money... Those who think like this are quite correct of course, but that is in their individual world. They have not yet worked out that there is no one size fits all relationship and the generalisation that those who try to shoe horn their failures and disappointments into are not representative of the spectrum....