soc

'Snow Dropping' is the correct term

An Australian prison term,

Snow dropping means stealing any washing from someones line.

To actually steal other's clothes to wear yourself.

Don't know the exact term for just knickers or bicycle seats! lol!

l'll bet that there is one though!

Get used to it Europe.

How far sighted(NOT!).

Politicians are ALL Liars.

Merkel & all the PC Idiots should be executed.

Why steal clean washed knickers? lol!

Jimi007 I agree that immigration at Phuket Airport is pretty horrible with all the scams going on for years.

What I don't understand from your post is why you had to pick up your bags from the international terminal when coming via domestic flight and having cleared immigration and customs already in BKK.

BTW I came two days ago and didn't have any issue with having to show a hotel booking (I rent a house and specify the address on the arrival card).

I think the most likely scenario is that some tourists didn't have a booking and didn't know what to put in the address field on the card so the officer gave them a bit of a hard time.

You missed the part that we checked our two heaviest bags all the way through to Phuket. We are allowed 23 KG per bag internationally, but only 10 KG domestic. So we used the international connection, free two bags at 23 KG for my wife (Star Alliance airlines). Actually that the international weight allowance is to and from the USA and Canada.

If not for my dog, we could check 4 bags at 23 KG all the way through to Phuket, but with EVA Air we still have to clear immigration in Bangkok. I made sure my checked bag that I had to pick in BKK was under 10 KG and my dog is always charged at the excess baggage rate, even though she and her kennel weigh about 23 KG and is my second piece of baggage usually. I could check another 10 KG bag without any additional fee to make the domestic connection free. It's a bit of a complicated mess to fly with your dog internationally, but next month will be her third trip from Thailand to California. And people bitch about their retirement extensions here! LOL!

Just curious, where in the aircraft does your dog travel?

Can't be the hold or she'd die.

Must be with you in the cabin.?

Or is there a pressurised section for animals?

Who feeds her etc etc, 23 hours is a long trip.

Thanks

Why? Delightful people. Warm welcome everywhere. None of the surliness so common in Thailand these days. Easy communication in English. Wonderful scenery. Gorgeous beaches. Low prices. Why not? Scruffy cities. Boring, unhealthy food. Above all, skip Manila. Worst city in SE Asia by far. Fly into Angeles/Clark (CRK) from KL, Singapore, or HK if you can and start from there. On the armed security guards everywhere, I admit it's off-putting at first. But the profession is a job-creation scheme. Most of them are too mild to shoot rabbits. The murder rate by gunshot is far lower than in Thailand.

the people are great, so much more motivated and hard working than thais. filipinos express opinions, can make decisions and can speak great english, they can solve problems and use initiative. sure it's not as safe as thailand but then it's more exciting too. depends what you want. i wouldnt live there but a visit can be an exciting, rewarding and satisfying experience.

My ex-wife was a Filipina.

Thats enough to put me off ever wanting to go back there, lol!

Agree that Manila is a shithole, the countryside is much nicer.

She came from Cavite City where there is/was a lot of Spanish blood.

Some pretty Mestiza girls in Cavite.

Instead of reading the posts of clueless fools, try being nice to the dogs. They're far easier to win over than the scum posting in this thread.

Try being nice to one with rabies and let us know how you get on, or ask them nicely not to bark all day and night, stop crapping all over the place and stop fighting and weeing up your tyres, I'm sure they will respond in the proper manner

You encounter rabid dogs often do you? Sometimes it's better to say nothing than something nonsensical

You can't tell if they're rabid or not.

l'd rather not take the risk.

l've had a small pack follow me on my morning walk & l was distinctly apprehensive l can tell you.

Like the idea of the ammonia bottle.

l've been carrying one of those shock guns as the noise frightens them off.

Same in lndonesia.

A friend of mine imported a 25 year old BMW & it ended up costing him a small fortune.

Double what the car was worth.

Well to some point "worth" is arguable, if you love the car and have years of love into it and don't have designs on reselling it any time soon or ever? Then the cost may be "worth" it, but not just for the average car certainly.

As he related to me.

He was sorry that he imported it.

l never saw the car, l know that he said that he could have bought two new cars in lndonesia for what it eventually cost him.

Why do we(& the Americans)even waste time with these people?

Anyone who bites the hand that feeds them are ungrateful bastards & should be given an immediate lead injection.

Problem solved.

He is as American as you. Born and bred.

Did you even read my post?

l never said that he wasn't.

He did bite the hand that fed him, don't you think?

FYI, I am not American.

Why do we(& the Americans)even waste time with these people?

Anyone who bites the hand that feeds them are ungrateful bastards & should be given an immediate lead injection.

Problem solved.

And don't forget that the Australian pension is "means tested", which is absolutely BS because it should be a general pension for each citizen whether rich or poor, If you saved all your life for your pension you are not getting anything, but if you spend it all you are getting the pension, what a lot of bull is that. Australia is going down the drain pretty fast and soon you can not even afford to life in Thailand anymore like a lot of Brits lately realized and they are back home now. The Australian economy is hit by the downturn in China and now they tell you that the low Australian Dollar is good for exporting Australian manufactured goods, what do they manufacture???? If you can dig it ship it that's the truth.

Recently helped to clean out all the junk from a house. Lots of dead washing machines, fridges etc. Some of them 40-50 years old. As we rolled them off the verandah to the trailer taking them to the scrapyard, it saddened me to see proudly displayed on their back panels "Made in Australia".

Don't see that anymore. All white goods sold in Australia now come from China, Thailand or Taiwan. TV sets from Korea. Went to a farm auction. All the old farm equipment inc tractors, Made in Australia. No more, tractors from lndia, balers, ploughs etc from China, no more Bedford, Dodge, Leyland or lnternational farm trucks. All Mitsubishi or Nissan. Soon be Chinese trucks. Actually we don't make anything anymore. Shameful.

Well...what do you expect when a Single, Unemployed, Dole Bludger gets $100 per week MORE than a person(pensioner) who has paid taxes all their life, to make it possible.....

It costs $50K per year per Refugee, to maintain them....But they pay Pensioners a base of less than $20K...shameful hey?

WHO made the Money available for this to be paid to refugees?.....Tax Paying Australians. Why arent they considered FIRST, then whats left over can go to Refugees....

Ask any Australian Pensioner when they last ate a "T" Bone Steak...

How do you know the pensioner paid "taxes all their life"? Most of the people living in poverty at pension age, were living in poverty before pension age. What do you think happens to long term layabouts, drunks, petty criminals etc. once they reach a certain age? They are transferred from social assistance to state pension rolls. If many pensioners are impoverished, there is a reason: It is called not having prepared for their old age when they were younger. The question you should be asking is why do so many Australians abandon their elderly? Is it a culture of reaping what you sowed? Those elderly have kids. Where are they?

I don't like the willy nilly acceptance of refugees either. Unfortunately, Australians are not willing to do certain jobs. Have a look at who is working in the hospitals and elder care homes cleaning the piss and crap off the patients. it's not good ole Mabel or Bob is it?

Still, plenty of cash being pumped out to the dead-sheets who sit around doing nothing and also these family payments that go out are a joke.

In the old days, if you wanted to have kids, you paid for the little jiggers, tense days there's all sorts of handouts for families, payments for this and that.

Time to get Back to basics.

I cringe at the thought of old retires who retired before, around the time or in the 15-20 years before superannuation came about.

I can't imagine trying to live in Oztralia in 20k...........must be eating rats and cockroaches. Poor bastids.

Some eat canned Dog food.

Horrible joke from Australian Comedian, Rodney Rude(l don't like him, but some do).

Q.

"What reminds you of rotten kangaroo meat?"

A.

Pensioner's fart.

As someone here said, the govt(spelled with a small "t")don't mind spending big money on so-called "refugees" & trying to "rehabilitate" scumbag criminals but can't be arsed to look after our old folk.

They are also very good at increasing politician's pay packets.

Utterly shameful.

Same in lndonesia.

A friend of mine imported a 25 year old BMW & it ended up costing him a small fortune.

Double what the car was worth.

Great,

Love the beach scenes & the small islands poking out of the sea.

So when the 2 links are finished(ha, when?), we'll be able to travel by rail from Singapore to London?

Singers-Bangkok

Bangkok-Phnom Penh,

Phnom Penh-Saigon,

Saigon-Hanoi-Southern China,

Southern China-Northern China-Manchuria,

Manchuria-Moscow-Western Europe,

Western Europe-via Chunnel-London.

and if anyone is interested, London-Wick in Northern Scotland.

Then return!

Like shutting the gate once the horse has bolted.

Too late, far far too bloody late.

ldiot PC fools.

Your grandchildren will curse you for it.

I have also noticed at Money Exchanges in Pattaya, along with requiring a form of ID, drivers license or passport, they will not take older series of US dollar currency. I had some 100's that were put in circulation in 1997 and they would not take them. Also the bills have to be clean, no writing.

Why do idiots write on notes/bills anyway?

I dislike French for more reasons...

You are right.

And if you knew what the French think of you, you would hate them even more ...

l quite like the French.

Should be banned as it serves no purpose (only pleasure for the smoker) but causes discomfort to others.

We need to be a bit more precise here... For the majority of smokers (and I'm choosing my words carefully here, exempting cigar smokers and 'some' pipe smokers,) smoking doesn't really provide 'pleasure.' Instead, it relieves discomfort. This 'discomfort' comes from the addictive nature of nicotine. When the body's neuroreceptors begin to crave nicotine to calm them, it sets up a very uncomfortable feeling for the smoker. Now, most smokers don't label that as ' very uncomfortable.' They just know that they need a smoke... And 'many' don't give a damn who they discomfort in their efforts to ease their own problem.

Watch smokers coming out of a movie theater or off an airplane... They rush to get somewhere that permits smoking so they can 'fix' the discomfort. Watch them in the glass booths at airports, crowded into a small space that even to a smoker stinks to high heaven just so they can fix... I use the term 'fix' because it is exactly the same physical condition that a heroin junkie encounters when he needs to stop the discomfort, only his pain is worse than the smoker's.

So... there is a voluntary condition that the smoker created for him/her self by becoming addicted to nicotine, and now the smoker, wishing to stop the discomfort, doesn't care that they are causing discomfort to others by alleviating their own discomfort? And some people think this is OK?

Most smokers that I've encountered wish they could stop. Most don't have the strength to do it. It's too bad.

l stopped smoking.

lf l could do it anyone could.

You just need strong will power.

Now if you asked me to give up a bacon & egg breakfast, l don't know that l could.

And l will kill anyone who tries to stop my morning coffee!(only joking)!

Yeah, there are lots of foods eaten in Thailand and elsewhere which are, to say the least, off-putting.

The various tripe and internal organs of animals eaten raw are fairly revolting and so are the lightly feathered embryos of various fowl, the numerous insects, and the blood and bile atrocities people consume. However, let us not forget the refuse yeast of breweries. I first encountered Marmite and Vegemite in Thailand years ago. They are right up there on the revolting list--somewhat akin to salty axle grease.

Vegemite on hot toast, so that it mixes with the melting butter & soaks into the toast.

Or mix vegemite with avocado & spread that on your toast.

Both go great with scalding hot coffee on a frosty morning.

You can also dissolve vegemite in boiling water for an early morning hot drink, although it doesn't make as good a drink as Bovril.

l don't buy vegemite anymore as it has a Halal symbol on the label which means the company has paid graft to the lslamic Certification Board.

Where does that money end up?

If they are using thai beef that is a bit of a turn off.

The pastry looks like the good stuff from what I can see in the photos so the go would be to buy the chicken pies.

Even thou I am an Aussie the best pies and sausage rolls I reckon I have had were in NZ with Perth WA an honourable second.

Tolley,

lf you're ever in Gin Gin, Qld(NOT Gin Gin WA),& heading north, there is a pie shop in the main street on your left called the "Traveler's Rest".

You can't miss it, it has a huge cut-out of a Crab above the shop.

They sell a variety of pies & are THE BEST pies that l have ever tasted.

Beware if you get a chunky beef, they are also full of delicious gravy & if you bite into it while sitting in your car (as l did!), then you will squirt gravy all over the steering wheel!

l've tried a lot of pies from around the world but these are definitely the best.

They weren't cheap, at $5 per pie, but well worth eating.

Helped open an account for my friend at Kasikorn Bank on Chaweng beach road.

They just needed a Thai address and telephone number so he used my address and telephone number.

l opened an account with the Kasikorn Bank while on a tourist visa.

All they needed was my passport details & address of the hotel l was staying at.

l had foolishly left most of my money behind & phoned my brother back in Australia to send money to my new Kasikorn account.

Don't know who to credit for efficiency but the money was in my account within a few hours.

l still have that account & when l'm in Australia l just top it up.

lts a handy reserve.

Everyone to their own.

I enjoy a drink, usually go out twice a week to meet up with good friends, and will carry on doing so.

While I respect your choice, I do not see why people should preach to others.

Most 'reformed drinkers' lost control of their drinking, I have not, and neither have my friends.

Enjoy your new choice of sobriety, but let others decide for themselves.

How was the OP preaching to anyone else? I read it as a personal story and a message to others in a similar boat

It's like a long, uninvited story and message about a random subject. I won't come on here and tell everyone a long, boring story about how I restored a 63 corvette and YOU can too if you put your mind to it.

Good luck OP on your sobriety.

Some of us might like to hear how you restored a 63 corvette.

l always wanted a 64 or 65 Pontiac Parisienne

Never had one though.

Thai people are very friendly and have made us most welcome here especially in the community we live in

I have found my neighbors in the mooban -- a small one -- to be aloof and snobbish. They have been here forever and think that myself (and maybe the other two aliens in the area) are interlopers. I have never had anyone say, "Hi" to me. And before you jump to conclusions, I am quiet and unassuming and polite. If I dropped in the street of a heart attack, I doubt anyone would give a shit.

The Thai "friendliness" is a hoax. I was recently in the US for a month and the people there ... no, any high school student could give master classes on politeness.

One neighbor up the soi has a small ma and pa shop and they have put in a pipe along the outside of their wall that takes their kitchen and cutting waste and funnels it to the next house down from them. They toss rubbish in the (now) dirt gutter and have a nice colony of rats there. The woman who runs the place and lives there is a true earth pig. I have heard that their neighbors across the soi have complained to the tessaban and they come out and waggle their finger, she tidies up and then pollutes as usual.

My landlord, after owning this property for 29 years, decides that the mango trees are "too big" and severely pollards them. He wanted to cut them down at the base, but I dissuaded him. He cut down completely a large longan tree because he could.

On my soi and the next one there are six houses vacant and either for sale or rent. One is a "condo on the ground" with a small carpark; no soil only the house. She is firm on 8,000 baht a month, which is laughable. Probably why it's been for rent for years.

The "superhighway" is undergoing massive refurbishment and the Maejo road intersection is being converted to an underground throughway and that's supposed to take three years. Haha...

If you want to own your own house, not possible (that means the land too -- who the hell would spend the money to build a house on land they don't own? "My wife/girlfriend loves me! I trust her." Oh boy. ...)

Thais are if nothing else, largely selfish and don't care about you. If I had a nickel for every Thai who gave their word to me (time to meet, work to do, etc.) and then broke it, I'd be rich.

Thais have a litter mentality (not as bad as the Indians or the Egyptians) and my mooban is always gathering rubbish. Just last week someone dumped a bag of trash by the side of the road, by a house, and the solution? Pick it up? No. Set it on fire.

The list goes on.

I stay here because it happens to be where I am now; things are cheap; you can rent companionship for a song and then tell them to get the hell out and do another; there used to be a cool season but that's pretty much gone now; and you can break the rules in SE Asia and pretty much nothing happens.

I am thinking of an exit strategy even now. It's an interesting place and if you don't give a shit about your environment and the year after year of humidity and oppressive heat and a people who have an average IQ of about 85, then it's great. You can get a girlfriend who is massively out of your league and you can even marry them, but you will never know if it's true or you are just a "big customer." I've seen several "solid" years-long relationships dissolve because the woman just got bored, or sick of the guy or found a bigger fish. "I will stay with you because you 'take care' of me and I don't want to continue working in some pissant job making nothing or working in a bar. I love you!"

Most of the foreigners I see have women who can't speak English to save their life. Then the foreigner dumbs down so now he's speaking like a knuckle-dragging neanderthal. Loneliness is one thing, but having a person around you who can't discuss current events or even locate England on a map is mindboggling. But so many men don't recognize this as a downside. Sex soothes many evils. So that's a plus, I guess.

Chiang Mai is fine if you don't care about the downsides. I know some men have "gone native" and move to some shitkicker village and live with the extended family who don't speak English (and most foreigners can't seem to be bothered to learn it, let alone read and write) and have fun counting chickens and setting traps for catching frogs. Hoo ho! My retired life is so good!

Oh yeah, and there's Kad Suan Kaow, where you can have fried rice and a Chang in the food court. All that's missing is the pigeons to feed.

Don't hold back mate, tell it like it really is!

Still laughing.

l gave up alcohol about a year ago.

Lost a lot of weight & did feel better for it.

But on a recent trip to Bangkok, l one night got the urge for a nice cold beer.

That turned into 2 beers before l slept.

What a momentous hangover(or "overhang"as my filipina ex-wife would call it!)l had in the morning & it lasted all day.

Gone straight off the grog again & l'm staying off it!

Trouble is, that l do love the taste of most beers.

The rat was the crew's lunch.