jingjai9

OK thanks

I enjoyed the forum discussion entitled: Cambodia vs. Vietnam. I was wondering if any of you can comment on how safe Cambodia is for tourists, in 2022. For example I read and heard purse snatching is a usual activity in the cities. In the past I have read on multiple forums that you should not embark on the nightlife alone in PP as it is not unusual to be held up. I also read there was a significant number of guns in the country. Additionally several forums mentioned that you should make sure you ride on a Tuk Tuk with a driver who works near your hotel who the staff know as there are many tourists who ride on the Tuk Tuks where the driver sets them up for robbery by taking them on a route where they "accidentally" get held up. I also read on various forums that some of the young adult men, wealthier Cambodians who have connections, brandish weapons and harass tourists in order to break their boredom in the wee hours of the morning at such bars as "Heart of Darkness." I sure hope much of this is no longer true. When I was in Cambodia in 2005 the bars were open 24 hours a day. Is that still the same? Also when I was there I did not find any of the situations mentioned herein to be blatantly false. On the positive side, Sihanoukville was still a quaint town in 2005. I did not see any beggars and I felt safe regardless of what hour it was. I was not a victim of any crime other than perhaps overcharging.

I taught an ESL class in America in the mid-90s. This was before Trump, COVID, cultural wars, etc. In one particular class I had a group of advanced adult students who were quite articulate. As I got to know them we shared stories more and more. Near the end of the term, they as a group told me they were, for the most part lonely in the US, and they wished they could go back to their native countries and take their US jobs with them. I think that statement speaks volumes. The students felt an emptiness in the States. A place where neighbors were just people who lived next to you. There was no connection. Many of these students were not new arrivals. They had been Stateside for several years.

Jerry Mahoney, Are you related to the Jerry Mahoney of the old kids' show "Winchell Mahoney time? I was living in Seattle when the incident you cited happened. It was after that incident that the city of Seattle installed metal detectors so that anyone entering the courthouses in King County had to pass through the metal detectors. I remember that case very well.

It is the norm that elderly farang men will have a Thai girlfriend half their age or less. As normal as it is here, don't expect the same thing if you take the girl back to farang land. It may be awkward for both of you and people close to you will shake their heads. Some ladies within a year of two after arriving in your home country may very well trade you in on a younger man with more dough. Often the family back in Thailand will not deride the daughter for divorcing, they may very well accept or praise the move as good business. In my experiences I think many Thai women look at marriage as a business and think sentiment merely fogs the vision. Many girls face pressure from the family back home to fork over the loot each month, especially when their dear daughter gets a raise. I knew a fellow in the States married to a Filipino woman. The family back in the Philippines know the man's pay date each month and faithfully ring up the daughter to see if the money will be on its way as scheduled. Having said this, would you be any more honorable if your family was poor, your opportunities limited and the onus of support was upon you?

I did not see any mention of the quality of infrastructure in the comparisons, things such as the infamous hanging telephones wires of Thailand or the terrible smells from open sewers. Ever try to eat a meal at a sidewalk eatery in Thailand and gag from the sewer smell? How about the unlevel foot paths (sidewalks). How many trips have you taken? What of the Soi dogs? The unruly road culture? I would venture to say these affect quality of life markedly. Perhaps the western countries are more expensive because the infrastructure is cleaner, maintained better, and road traffic is more predictable. You have to pay for that somehow. What about the extent of the corruption? I am here in Thailand and my home country is the US. I think the US and Thailand have an equal number of problems, maybe 75% of the problems are the same and the other 25% unique to each country. So dollars or pounds cannot tell the whole story.

A teacher should be allowed to hit a child only if it is in self defense. The conventional wisdom seems to be that violence by teachers in a classroom sets a bad example and can teach children that violence is a viable solution for solving problems. Some people on this forum recalled their own experiences being hit in school and reported that it never did them any harm. Does that make corporal punishment OK? Every time a teacher hits a student there is the risk of injury.

"As usual a thought bubble becomes law before it's thought through but in Thailand money is number 1" This is the heart of the problem. How can anyone expect a positive outcome when a substance that has been banned and disparaged for years is suddenly decriminalized? The use of cannabis needs to be codified regardless of how you feel about it.

Can foreigners legally refuse to take a drug test or do they face legal action? ?