someonelovesyou

11 hours ago, Awinkl said:

... wanted to find a Boat to take us to Maya Bay, but decided against it due to the cost of 1700 Bath pP ...

I was also quoted 1700pp and decided against it.   Then my girlfriend managed to go haggle 500pp so we ended up going.  Apparently they have some margin in the 1700pp price. 

1 hour ago, bkkgooner said:

 

Sat and heea have nothing to do with race and are very very common insults traded among Thais.

 

Indians are usually referred to as "beng / bang". Racism is a huge problem in Asia but I would say it is very largely directed towards Blacks, Arabs and Indians.White people like ourselves tend to escape the nastier stuff. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slur for Indians is 'kaek'.  It's also used for pakistanis, arabs and - more as in insult than really seeing them as such - Southern Thai and Malaysian Muslims that dress that same way.

The other meaning of 'kaek' is "guest".     I find it interesting how they put arabs and indians into the same 'group' - not something we do.

"The National Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the second and final readings of the controversial Computer Crime Bill by a vote of 168:0 with five abstentions. "
 

370,000 Thai's took the time to sign a petition opposing it, despite knowing it was all in vain.  Completely ignored - no one in the national legislative assembly has the power to represent the people.

https://www.change.org/p/สนช-หยุด-พรบคอม-หยุดกฎหมายล้วงข้อมูลส่วนบุคคล

7 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

White skinned women beware!
Is this article real or a joke? I've never heard of any Thai calling me white skinned man. It's foreigner or 'farang'. God knows what they call other races? Yellow skinned Chinese? Black skinned Africans? Brown skinned Indians?

Farang means 'Caucasian' or 'white-skinned person'.  I'm sure he identified her as a 'farang', and the police quite likely asked how tanned her skin was, what clothes she was wearing, and several other questions to implicate him and ensure his guilt.    Either that or the translator just chose to translate 'farang' as 'white-skinned person' instead of 'Caucasian' .  Let's not read too much into this - it's quite common to us to refer to people as an 'asian guy' or 'darker skinned man'.

3 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

I was under the impression that many on-the-spot tests here are for one specific substance - methamphetamine, and not cannabis, so can't see why the OP would have any issues at all?

They should pick up any type of amphetamine - including meth. 

Pretty sure those piss tests that they do only check for amphetamines anyway.   I know a guy who got busted with weed on him, as part of his suspended sentence or whatever its called, he had to submit to regular urine tests.  

Even though he was busted with weed, he continued to smoke weed every day, the urine tests were only for amphetamines. 

8 hours ago, silent said:

That's because there are very few indigenous criminals in Thailand and statistics prove it.

Do you mean the same statistics that prove westerners get more creative about how to commit suicide when they come to Thailand?   Such as suffocating themselves by tying a plastic bag around their neck?

Tobacco products that have paid taxes are not narcotic drugs, but any that haven't are narcotic drugs.

The word "narcotic" doesn't actually have anything to do with taxes or legal status. It is derived from the word narcosis which means:

1. a state of stupor or drowsiness.

2. a state of stupor or greatly reduced activity produced by a drug.

Very true, but it's not the commonly understood meaning. Otherwise, alcohol would be commonly known as a narcotic drug, and meth would be commonly known to be the exact opposite.

Tobacco products that have paid taxes are not narcotic drugs, but any that haven't are narcotic drugs. It's pretty simple really, its a scary sounding word to fight a war on drugs where it suits the government, while they choose which drugs to peddle themselves.

Well this is not a troll but an opinion but will probably get some action.

The addicted need to be treated as medical patients and treated. The dealers of yaba and hammer, (heroine) need to be treated the same way a previous Thai PM did a few years ago, dealers want to deal in death then go after them with out prejudice...

What about the addicted that buy it for their friends as a favour? What if they do it for a few extra bucks to help support their habbit? How do we decide if we send them to rehab or put a bullet in their head?

Brothers ? English ? From London? There's a lot more to this story.or should I say there's a lot more missing from this story. I think I know these two chaps but I can't name them due to defamation laws.

I'm no detective, but:

#1 They are assuming they are brothers from the photos as they look very similar.

#2 The victim will be from the UK and identified them as a UK accent, probably London.

#3 The victim will be from London, or at least lived there prior to coming to Thailand, and knows this is because of some bad dealings with someone from London. So, with the accent match and knowing they were hired or part of a London-based gang he had trouble with, it makes sense.

Sadly, before I read the motive of the shooting, I already knew it was because they made him lose face.

This has got to be the most stupid newspaper heading of all time

American Expat in Krabi Hangs Himself in Apparent Suicide

If HE hung HIMSELF of course it was a suicide.Duh!!!!!!

R.I.P.

Not stupid at all ! First you have to look at the options. Only the deceased knows what happened, and he ain,t talking This IS Thailand, and there is always the possibility, small as it may be, that he was rendered unconscious and then hung by person or persons unknown, and thereby hangs (excuse the pun) the doubt !

That's the point, if he was hung by person pr persons unknown, then he didn't hang himself did he.

I believe "Man found hung in apparent suicide" is what actually happened.

Again the word "farang" was used in above news article. This, in itself, is an insult.

Also noticed no specific charges mentioned. As mentioned before, repeatedly kicking someone in head is attempted murder, drunk or not drunk.

I have found over the years, a number of Thais are very confrontational when it comes to foreigners. They seem to wish to fight. I have started to

see on the roads, windows go down and middle finger comes out. Never saw this before.

I have lived in many countries and never seen foreigners mistreated like they are here, from immigration, dual pricing and many other matters.

I do not like this situation and have actively started to seek another country once my employment tenure ends here.

The word "farang" just means "caucasian". It is no more insulting than the word "asian" is in our language.

After reading the posts in this content, it appears some may be circumventing Thai web-blocking with the use of proxy services.

I think it's very important to remind all of the Thai computer laws regarding circumventing Thai web-blocking.

Using a proxy to circumvent Thai web-blocking is illegal under the current Thai computer censorship laws while in Thailand.

Don't get banged up as the Thai computer laws are in place and the Internet is being monitored.

Proxies are legal when used for privacy only, except when circumventing Thai web blocking; when used for fraud and more.

Also, if you have a Thai retirement visa, it's in violation of your retirement visa laws to work in Thailand unless you have a work visa. That includes generating a cash flow

by computer while in Thailand if you are avoiding paying Thai tax. This even includes doing charity work! Many disagree, but I suspect they have not researched the Thai law

and consulted with a competent, licensed, Thai lawyer. I suspect many are using proxy services for the above.

Laws and policies change frequently, so if any of the above is incorrect, please let me know. However, I confirmed the above today as best as I could.

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

Circumvention software (copied from the above link)

Software applications for circumventing web-blocking are readily available. Tor is in use through software including XeroBank Browser (formerly Torpark) and Vidalia, and a number of other proxied solutions including Proxify, Six-Four, phproxy are also used. Freenet is another popular solution. Available for free download from the Internet, these packages are also published on disk by FACT. The MICT minister has said in an interview in the Bangkok Post that he has not blocked these methods because "using proxies to access illegal sites are illegal, whereas using proxies to access legal sites is legal."

There is no Thai law stating that it is illegal. Just a company in UK which wants to make it harder for people outside the country to access content for free. And the reason he said that is because it sounds better than "because it's not possible"

With business sense like this guy, I'm not at all surprised that his other business ventures didn't work out.

"(Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha) called on all journalists to uphold national interest in their reportage..... and create a positive image of the country..... He added that journalists should always be impartial"

Does he know what impartial means?

The record number tourists are Chinese tour groups. They don't spend any money in Thailand so that is just bummer. I remember that a teacher at prince of Songkla university where I was a student once said "we don't need you westerner tourists when we have Russians and Chinese." Hope that she is happy now.

Seems an odd thing to say, since I've never met a Thai that doesn't consider Russians to be "westerners".

The fact that the dad let's his 7 year old hang around internet cafes and play teenager games (fist hand shooter MMO) says it all.....

I've been in a few Internet cafe's, not the ones around tourist spots, and never ever have I seen any Thai there doing anything else but play games, and I'm talking about age group up to 30+. Actually it may even be so that most Thai thinks that all you can do on a computer is play games.

It's the same everywhere in the world for the past 5 years... travellers have smart phones and can get local simcards or use free wifi hotspots. The days of people using internet cafes for anything other than games is over.

Some people don't want to invest in a gaming computer to play the latest games, its better to simply rent a gaming computer occasionally and use a cheap computer at home for your basic needs. In the case of Thais, most probably don't even have a basic computer at home. Also, if you want to play with friends its a lot easier.

Recreational drugs help to cull the herd.....

By this I assume you mean alcohol, which culls far more than all other recreational drugs combined.

UPDATE:

My school still hasn't sent out the letter yet, but they are now telling me that they are not going advise students about the 5-day/10-hour part because they believe they can keep the current days (and just report to immigration that 5-days is being done).

So, I'm sure this policy change is going to impact some schools, but as usual there's probably a lot of back-end corruption going on, it might not affect others. In fact, my school actually mentioned that the people at immigration give them suggestions on how best to report everything so that everything looks good. It sounds like they are on the same team.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how widespread this 5-day/10-hour policy gets adopted by schools. Also, the other policies - like having to show your rental contract - are going to be very interesting.... considering there are surely thousands of people here on ED Visas without a property rented in their name. It doesn't sound very well thought out.

So much nonsense. Why would anyone wish to study a dead end language such as Thai. Only reason would be possibly long term plan to work in los with main skill being able to speak thai and English. Even that's rubbish. You might get job in tour company. Or rather not. The folk pretending to wish to learn thai as a second language is rubbish. I'm happy for people to try and have extended (long) stays living in los. Seriously give us all a break. Ed visas were never about an burning love of the thai language. It was always a vehicle for the vast majority. The abuse of rules has sent the grim reaper. Happy days.

Mostly to talk with Thai people (i.e. wife) and because they get enjoyment out of learning it (like a hobby).

There are a few people that do it for work too (generally not through the ED Visa program though). Mostly its managers that are working here (restaurants, hotels, multinational companies, etc) and have to communicate with their Thai staff. They aren't learning Thai to try and get a job, they already have a job that being able to speak Thai is somewhere between hugely beneficial and basically required.

Of course, there are also the missionaries that are coming here to preach in Thai. I met one recently that was studying 5+ hours per day and spoke extremely well for someone who had only been learning for 1 year.

Are you serious? The vast majority of folk living in los on ed visa are using ed for one end. To remain longer term in los. Good on them. I don't have a problem with that. Mind you there are better options to remain here on extended stay. The VERY FEW people learning thai seriously then fine, but please don't suggest that this somehow supports the survival of the thai language.

Still, if serious students like me are considering switching to METV because it provides me with better Thai learning options, then the current ED Visa program isn't serving us very well.

I'm being forced into a program/schedule for 175k/year for one-on-one where I can actually learn something, or paying 85k+/year to attend group classes 10 hours/week where I will learn basically nothing. They used to acknowledge this to some extent and made the hours required for 1-on-1 less, since you were paying more anyway, but they did away with this a year ago.

I can probably just do METV and for 175k cover the visa fees and design my own learning program better than the forced school rates/schedules with approved schools - just by attending adhoc courses as they are of interest, sampling some group courses, and using private tutors that come to my home.

Chiang Mai Immigration notified my wife of this 2 weeks ago, saying she could be "in trouble" if she didn't come and report me living here. We both went, and she wasn't polite. She asked them how stupid they had to be, seeing as we have been living here as husband and wife, originally with a Marriage Extension, which was later changed to Retirement, for the past 7 damn years, with me reporting every 90 days, and with them originally coming to the house to verify it. They told her it was "policy", to which she replied - "Policy is fine, but you're all a bunch of idiots!"

I was even shocked, as my wife is normally a very polite, very soft spoken woman, but this touched a nerve somewhere inside of her that set her off. They finally filled out the forms, with a receipt for me to place in my passport, stating that without it, I would not be able to renew my yearly again. Needless to say, they were happy to see us leave.

Yep I had to get a receipt to stamp in my passport too. And provide a copy of my rental contract with my name to my school (for them to send to BKK to extend ED Visa). Told that without this I would not get a 3-month extension on my ED Visa.