richard_smith237

(Nearly) All of Thailands laws a good laws... ... road laws, nearly all good laws. ... Building laws, good laws. ... Fire laws, good laws. They are nearly all good laws, but they mean nothing without effective enforcement. The issue with the current state of law enforcement is that not only is it ineffective, it also enables illegal and corrupt practices which lead to a sense of entitlement that short cuts are taken.

This is a misleading comment... Priority is only from the left when people are turning from a road of equal status... the vehicle to the left has priority. i.e. when car (a) is turning left off a main road, and car (b) is turning right off the same main road - onto a smaller road, the car to the left has priority. On regular junctions such as a T-junction, a main road passing a smaller road, traffic on the main road does not give priority to the smaller road on the left. The issue with this ‘statement’ is that its a terrible and ambiguous interpretation of the Thai Road traffic act of a regulation which itself is written extremely poorly and vaguely - this itself has led to arguments on this forum that even on traffic islands there is a 'give way to the left’ rule which is not true at all.

Airlines - they serious suck a$$.... Currently dealing with compensation claims each for delays of over 24 hours. According to EU law I’m owed €1800 Euro’s total (€600 for each flight - 2x of us on one airline delayed for over 24 hrs, and gain me on another airline, delayed for over 24 hours). One Airline replied with € 250 lowballing me and told me the the claim is closed !!! The other Airline e-mailed with the offer of €600 but only for one passenger not two !!! Of course, its impossible to get hold of anyone. Their e-mails are sent out from a no-reply e-mail. So each time I have to start a new complaint... Its their game - just to make us give up... what can we do ???... Just keep on going, but all they have to do is keep delaying, lowballing and on and on. I’ve already filed formal complaints with IATA but have not had any response from them, they must be so busy with so many complaints already !

this old record.... VAERS is something any layman can contribute to, there is no scientific basis in the numbers. You can have the vaccine, have a headache and report it as an adverse reaction on VAERS. As such, I had a sore arm, the same innate immune response to the vaccine that the vast majority had, I also had a mild temperature and felt feverish - as did most people. Then there are the deaths reported in VAERS... ... Doreen, overweight, unhealthy, has a heart-attack and dies... heart-attack caused by her poor health. She had the vaccine 3 days before hand, loved ones blame the vaccine, file a VAERS report..... Another example: in the 2017, on average 92,500 died each month.... in 2021 and 2022 many of those who make up the average monthly death statistics will have recently had a vaccine.... is the vaccine to blame for those deaths, or is the vaccine merely coincidental ???? Rumac - IF you are using VAERS reports to discredit the vaccine you have lost any credibility of your argument... there is enough information out there regarding the flaws of the VAERS system. As someone who wishes to hold and intelligent debate on this subject you should be avoiding such flawed examples:

Obviously needs to be checked, but that can’t be too difficult to see if the Taxi driver & courier have had any communication via Line messenger etc. On the surface this looks extremely harsh or the taxi driver who in effect appears to be an innocent bystander.

It was business class.... they all (seats) have direct isle access.

Here... I corrected it... 'A number of pubs in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit area, which were extorted by the police for operating without a license and/or for violating COVID-19 safety measures between November 2019 and April last year, have been operating under the protection of the police for healthy bribe... ' EVERYONE knows that any entertainment venue operates only with the permission of the police - they all want their cut. Even when the specific venue is fully legally, fully licensed etc the police will still want their cut. If the don’t get their cut they simply raid the place repeatedly until customers stop going... Police and the venue owners (management) know the police can kill a place off in weeks. Thus, there is no point in fully licensing these places... they get a restaurant licence, serve a bit of food and thats sufficient pretence for the police to turn a blind eye... for a fee... The best way to deal with any of this is to have a ranking police officer as a partner, they can enter negotiation with the local station chief to bring the cost of the monthly ‘bonus’ down.

When you call it ‘gene therapy stuff’ your comments lose any credibility... Its the same for those who use words such as plandemic, sheeple, those who spout on about mainstream media... etc...

I remember reading what appeared to be an official document stating a limit of 30% (blockage of visible light). However, I have since been unable to find that document. I have not been able to find any other written statement in any Thai law or other form of authoritative statement regarding car-window film. I can only assume the document I read was a proposal a number of years back (about 10-15) and the regulation or proposal was since rescinded and public documentation removed. As such - while I believe there may have once been a proposal for such a law (30% limit) it was never finalised and as ridiculous as it seems to many of us, there is in fact no law regarding film in car-windows and windscreens.

Same here... So the question is... Were their symptoms less severe than they otherwise would have been had then not be vaccinated ? Of course, its an impossible question to answer on an individual level - but perhaps the vaccine meant that everyone in your personal circle of friends, family and acquaintances who contracted Covid-19 were protected by the vaccine.

Its an interesting question... I’ve recently been in the UK... I was exposed to people (who later discovered they had Covid-19, at the time one of them had mild cold symptoms that was it)... I was at a ridiculously busy UK airport departing (massive shoulder to shoulder queues at check-in, security and crammed seating in the departure lounge). Issues at Istanbul, crowds of ppl at Immigration... in crowded shopping mall, back to the airport later, massive queues.... I was exposed to covid in the UK for a few days for sure... I find it impossible to believe I wasn’t exposed at the any of the airports... I checked for Covid-19 upon arrival at my destination (ATK - day 1 and day 6). How did I not contract covid ? - Lucky ? - Antibodies from a previous case (April) protected me from contracting covid-19 ? - Antibodies vaccination and latest booster in Dec protected me from contracting covid-19? - Combination of all the above ? I’m not worried about Covid-19 in its current guise - but catching it will cause major inconvenience as I am regularly checked at work, the quarantine would be horrible. Hopefully work will stop worrying about it like everyone else ! Until then - a Booster may make the difference between contracting it again or not - So I’ll take a booster. Work will probably request that we take boosters. Additionally - IF there is a new variant against which vaccines have been developed, I would see it as sensible to take that vaccine.

They already have in the past. I recall a story of a lady going to collect her friend from a hotel. The ‘taxi thugs’ hanging around the hotel blocked this lady from getting to the hotel to pick up her friend because they thought she was working as a grab-driver. This made national news - the lady was the wife of a consular officer at one of the consulates on Phuket. Then there is also this story... drivers actually blocking access to the hotels of other taxis which have been called...

That logic would see any bar closed and a nationwide ban of alcohol. People who work at 9am are rarely out until 4am... Drink driving is a cultural issue, not a timing issue... the selfish ayholes on the road at 2am will be on the road at 4am - no difference is numbers... It could the argued that there is no need for tourists to be out later than 10pm. But they want to, so why stop them ?... its fine in other countries.... so whats different in Thailand ? Flawed logic - its just about enjoyment thats all.. why put rules and timing on it at all. While I agree, money overshadows all else, it does so in most countries. But the criticism of licensing hours seems flawed and borne of more puritanical killjoy perspective and attempting to shoe-horn additional risk into the argument than providing any real logic.

I think the points you make are highly valid, but your argument loses credibility with your ridiculous exaggeration about ‘damaging attacks’... I disagree with any form of physical punishment of children in schools, I’d also like to see the debate / argument won from a balanced perspective without the exaggeration and overstatement.

What if solution to your what if response to the what if scenario... Parents are informed that children bring phones to school at their own risk. Phones will be handed in at the beginning of a class. Phones will have the students name labelled on it. Teachers and the school are not responsible for any damage or loss to phones which are brought to school entirely at the owners risk. Too many scenarios, it gets silly. Ultimately, a good school and good teachers will have a handle on this. The schools that are unable to handle this situation already have bigger issues than a group of kids using their phone in class.

Thats the way I initially saw it... But the road was clear, the SUV had stopped and gave way. The female Motorcyclist illegally ‘undertook’ (passed on the left side of the SUV) and crashed into the Op turning across the road. IF this were a two lane road (in each direct) and the SUV stopped in the right hand lane and the female motorcyclist in the left lane continued and hit the Op turning across the road then I could see how this would be the Ops fault. ------------- I have nearly had this happen to me before. An incident actually did happen. I was turning right onto Sukhumvit 71 out of a sub-soi (in Bangkok), I’d edged out. The car driving down Sukhumvit 71 stopped and gave way. As did a motorcycle on the inside lane. The motorcyclist travelling behind clearly didn’t expect this and hit the brakes to hard, dropped the bike and slid straight into the back of the motorcycle which had stopped. Effectively, we ’triggered' the incident, but an idiot motorcyclist was a fault for failing to stop when the vehicles in front had. Now, IF the car and first motorcycle stopped, but instead of slamming on the brakes and dropping the bike the second motorcyclist had continued on and hit me, that may well have been considered my fault !!!.... Only dash-cam evidence could assist with getting me out of that one as I explain to the police that the motorcyclist was actually driving recklessly... and then try to convince them its the motorcyclists fault !!!

I reckon this is all a misunderstanding.... ... After ripping off all the customers.... the Police asked her how much money she had in the bank.. Her answer was ‘nun’.... reporters went with that !!!

If you had been more clear with your comment we’d have avoided the debate... Here...

There is... ‘what is means in the highway code’... vs ‘what is means on the roads of the UK’... Everyone is in fact correct on this one when arguing from there own specific point of view... - In the US highway code the flashing of lights are a warning. - In the real world in UK’s roads, the flashing of lights are a submission to yield. Both are correct.

I bet the people she defrauded are nun to happy about that....

I’ve had a number of situations in Thailand where I am asked for my credit card details. Most recently an Insurance broker gave me a form on which to write, send my credit card details (for insurance renew), including the 3 digit security code.... I refused and demanded an online portal through which to make a secure payment - they contacted the main provide who sent me their portal details.... It was a strange an unprofessional request from the broker (I was renewing insurance and the previous year payment was made through a secure portal - I’m not sure why this year they tried to change it). I’ve had the same requests from hotels in Thailand when trying to make a booking - the want the full CC details sent to them by line Messenger !!!! the direct deal was cheaper than agoda etc.. In the end I had to make a ‘bank transaction’ as I wasn’t going to give them all my CC details.

It happens to me with my UK card (about once every two years) with online transactions. It happens to my Wife about 3 times per year, with transactions in Thailand (with her Thai card). In ALL situations the Bank’s contact us... the card is stopped and we receive a replacement. We don’t lose any money. While we try to be careful, we use our cards a lot and certainly don’t avoid using them for risk of fraud. We don’t worry about fraud because there is no personal financial risk.

Phones handed in at the beginning of the class. No phone handed in, no entry to the class. If kids misbehave, they can collect their phone from the head-teacher at the end of the day. Now the real issue with this thread.... its a ‘what if’ hypothetical scenario... and the issue with these ‘what if’ scenarios is that they can be debated, discussed and argued until the end of time. The reality is, each situation is different and needs to be handled individually. The situation above does not warrant physical violence towards any of the 6 boys - a good teach will identify and resolve many issues way before they ever become issues. In this case, the good teach would already have these boys sitting apart from each other. The phones would be in a desk at the front. ------------ At my sons school the children are not allowed phones in school until (I think) 12 years old. They can have smart watches, but are not allowed to take calls on them in class-room time. After 12 (I think) children can have phones, but they remain in the child's school bag, they cannot use the phone in class time. IF any of these rules are broken, the phone is removed from the child and handed directly to a parent., or for older children who are making their way home, collected from the head of year.

I recall some 20 years ago there as a big deal with the seatbelt law (in the front coming in). I was pulled over at a junction... officer wants 2000 baht, he says my passenger wasn’t wearing their seatbelt (passenger was wearing a seatbelt)... I say no. Definitely wearing a seatbelt. He wants 2000 baht baht... I just say no and drive off with a smile.. I half expect them to take chase and follow me (I escalated by driving off)... nothing happened !!!!...

Like clockwork, riding in the back of pickups gets banned every year just before songkran, then forgotten about just after songkran ... there is usually an announcement that riding in the back of a pickup is illegal and will be clamped down upon..... Then there is a nationwide furore as people are claiming they can’t get home etc.... So there is an about-turn and its announced that.... 'ok.. you can do, but not more than 6 of people in the back'... ... as if allowing 6 people is safe, but 7 is not !!!... The reality is, riding in the back of a pick up in a highway is ridiculously unsafe, but there are significant practical considerations, any such bans have a significant impact on the nation - ultimately a blind eye has to be turned - this is the issue at hand with road safety, a blind eye is often turned. Thus; They [authorities] do what the can do... they place rules on the ‘enforceable’... in this case, those middle class with cars... this seat-belt law may have an impact on the middle class only.