Jblood

These Su-24s are from the 70s. The Russians are trying to demonstrate that the US presence in the region is nothing but a show and a farce trying to embolden and agitate the Baltic countries. If the sh*t really hits the fan - the yanks will be first to actually withdraw their troops from there - they will definitely not start a war with Russia over Estonia or whatever. It's not a reckless action - they are doing everything to prevent a conflict. The Russians want normal relations with the Baltics - it's the Russians who set them free in the first place. The Americans DO want an escalation in Europe, as what they organized in Ukraine and Syria. But as we saw with Ukraine and Syria, US just do a lot of skimming and under the table agitation and support on all sides of the conflict - but when all sides start fighting each other - they don't even show up, but act like it's not their problem it's just that the "world" has a problem, and none are better than the Americans... The Americans are pretty much the key root cause to all the conflicts around the world in the last 100 or so years.

In any case, I think almost every average American soldier understands that they have no business even being there. If there's an escalation the US have no chance of winning the conflict - their troops don't want to fight the Russians. But the Russians are saying that they don't mind going Kamikaze on the Americans if they have to - it's not hard to tell who's going to win the conflict if it actually starts - my guess is, it's going to be much worse for the Yanks than the Korea war if they actually try to use force in the region. This is precisely the message that the Russians are trying to send to the Baltics and others - conflict with Russia is what they all should want to avoid, because the Yanks won't show up to help them or will be completely ineffective if it really comes down to any kind of hot engagement against the Russians - pretty much all US troops would poop their pants if they were actually ordered to fire on the Russians - so I don't understand what's the point for them to even be there. The Yanks are really using some of the Baltic countries as their guinea pigs against Russia - nothing more - they couldn't care less about the fate of the people in any of those countries - that's why they are trying to stir up this conflict in the first place. The best case scenario is for the Yanks to get the Russians and their neighbours fighting each other so the Americans can profit from it - as they did so many times before. Whereas the Russians - I think they just want to normalize their relationship with everybody around them, but the Yanks are always getting in the way.

I have met guys from Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Ireland, Belgium and even Poland, and one guy from Africa who spent some time living in England. I'm not sure about the Polish and the African - I didn't ask them. But all the other guys from Western Europe were getting the same wages as the Native Speakers. It may be a bit different today... but back then it was pretty open discrimination against the Philipinos, and maybe against Eastern Europeans - there's just not so many East Europeans to start with, so my guess is they may or may not have a separate classification for their "eligibility" to be considered "native speakers" for the purposes of teaching ESL in this country - like it's not a problem, with being either Dutch, Danish, French, Belgian, Swiss or German to be considered a Native English Speaker, but it's always a problem if you are an African or a Philipino. My guess is you may have some problems with the English, Scottish and some Americans and Aussies who could constantly raise questions and harass you about your eligibility if you're from Eastern Europe - it's your problem to figure out how to handle those guys. The Thai admins may or may not take advantage of this situation by trying to offer you a lower wage - they could say something like hey The English guy told us that the Danish guy is a Native Speaker but you are not, so what do you want to do about it... lol. It should be a fun social experiment for you, don't worry too much about it. In the end each person decides what they want to get paid. I think the English guys may be the least accepting given how many Eastern Europeans move to London for the sole purpose of cleaning toilets over there, they could actively demonstrate their discontent if you were getting the same salaries as they are. It may not even influence your eventual salary, just something to be aware of - it's something that all non-native speakers have to deal with, sometimes it's a job on top of the one you already signed up for, except you are not getting paid for that extra part of it.

Later maybe you can come back and report on your findings - what salary you are getting and about your whole experience of teaching English as a non native.

One interesting thing though is still why everything worked perfectly at the Bangkok airport - same airline, same code, everything works. But when you are in Vancouver - the same company, the same code doesn't work and you have to spend your night at the airport... and nobody even cares to help you unless you show them $4000 for it. It's definitely China Eastern fault but I would still like to have the name and photo of the rep who denied boarding at the Vancouver airport and what was the supposed reasoning for it. Maybe it was all due to lack of communication between the Vancouver branch and their Chinese headquarters - when the headquarters in China are playing one game but their branch in Canada is playing a different game, there's lack of communication - problems like this are actually likely to happen. In the end it's still China Eastern responsibility to make sure that the Canadians they hire to work for them in Vancouver act as they are instructed from their headquarters in China.

It wasn't only 1 Eastern Airlines rep it was several over two hours, I even had to hand my phone over to the rep so she could talk to the Expedia rep. In the end they were both blaming each other until the flight left.

Well in that case we can only speculate as to what happened. You have no reason to just walk away from this - you need to escalate this to the upper management at both companies. Only the Senior Management has any leeway to bend the rules for the customer in completely strange situations like this, or order an investigation and root cause analysis - change internal procedures and so on. But if you keep working with the subordinates who are just following their procedures - they may be stuck in a loophole just as you are and just generally they are not at the pay grade to even care about any of this. Just keep pestering all the upper management on both sides till they give you a response you deserve, and keep both sides informed of the progress of this investigation - if you don't do that they will instantly forget about you. The higher up you escalate the faster the problem will be solved. People at the more senior level have a lot more experience and information than anybody else at the company, in fact most of them had to do quite a few escalations themselves they are more likely to understand and sympathize with your situation. By keeping a lot of relevant people in CC on both sides will make it very uncomfortable for each side to just ignore you, my guess is you will get the answer you seek much sooner than if you just keep going with their usual customer support reps.

In the end they could fix the holes in their system which would benefit all of us But if you do nothing - nothing will happen.

One interesting thing though is still why everything worked perfectly at the Bangkok airport - same airline, same code, everything works. But when you are in Vancouver - the same company, the same code doesn't work and you have to spend your night at the airport... and nobody even cares to help you unless you show them $4000 for it. It's definitely China Eastern fault but I would still like to have the name and photo of the rep who denied boarding at the Vancouver airport and what was the supposed reasoning for it. Maybe it was all due to lack of communication between the Vancouver branch and their Chinese headquarters - when the headquarters in China are playing one game but their branch in Canada is playing a different game, there's lack of communication - problems like this are actually likely to happen. In the end it's still China Eastern responsibility to make sure that the Canadians they hire to work for them in Vancouver act as they are instructed from their headquarters in China.

Most of the emails were available at the company website - I just picked all the most relevant one's, plus I did some search on google, I did find a couple more emails via google search. I didn't have to use anything more sophisticated than that with this particular company - but with some other companies some more creative ways may be needed to get this information. I was surprised at how quickly I got the response and how little work I had to do to get what I needed, as opposed to spending over a month on the phone with the customer reps of the company who were just driving me crazy the whole time, lol I would only recommend it as a last resort measure, because if everybody started doing this, it wouldn't have the same effect anymore I suppose.

https://www.expedia.co.uk/p/support/general-booking-conditions

These are the terms and conditions for Expedia bookings I found on internet.

Here are some interesting lines:

"The Website helps the Customer to find travel products and to make the necessary reservations, and acts as an interface in the transactions involved with the Suppliers"

Basically they are saying that they are not even an agent but just an interface of convenience connecting the customer and the suppliers.

And what later follows looks like they are saying for the most part that the Suppliers' problems are not Expedia's problems

The Customer is responsible for complying with the instructions of the airline and/or tour operator, in particular with respect to flight check-in times. In particular, the Customer acknowledges and agrees that:

• Expedia, has no control over the allocation of seats on any air transport, even if pre-booked with the airline, and does not guarantee that specific seats will be available on departure.
• Expedia, has no control over any indications of the hours spent flying which are provided by the Supplier of the relevant air transport and are given for guidance only and are subject to alteration and confirmation.
• It is the Customer's responsibility to confirm his / her return flight in accordance with the requirements of the Supplier of the relevant air transport.
• If Customer books a return journey and does not use the outward flight, the airline may cancel the return flight without refund. This also applies if the return flight is not taken and insofar as the travel is not taken at all. The Customer must use flight coupons in sequence.
• In the case of special or charter flights, the name of the airline, the flight schedule, the aircraft type, the itinerary and possible intermediate stops are only given as an indication of the outward and return flights in the trip. In accordance with a Supplier's Rules and Restrictions, these flights, aircraft types and flight numbers can be subject to change, and can be moved by up to 24 hours, even after confirmation.
• Additional charges may be imposed by some airlines for meals, luggage, preferred seat selection, etc. Expedia is not responsible for such charges and information on charges shown on the Website are for information only and may be amended by airlines at any time.
• The Customer must comply with all air transport Supplier's Rules and Restrictions on the carriage of pregnant women.
• The Customer must comply with the air transport Supplier's Rules and Restrictions on the carriage of children and in particular that children older than 2 years on the return date must have a return ticket at a child fare for both the outbound and inbound flights. Customers who do not comply with this will not be eligible for a refund of any seat charges incurred during travel. Children under 2 years will not be allocated their own seat in the aircraft, unless a child fare has been booked for them. Unaccompanied children under 14 will only be carried in accordance with the air transport Supplier's Rules and Restrictions.

Looks like above they are saying that the customer is actually responsible for confirming his return flight

And later I can see this:

If an airline cancels or delays a flight, is unable to provide previously confirmed space, fails to stop at a Customer's stop-over or destination point, or causes a Customer to miss a connecting flight on which a Customer holds a reservation, the Customer may be entitled to certain remedies from the airline.

The above means nothing at all - "may be entitled" means Expedia is not really entitled to reimburse you if the Airline fails to provide you with the seats that you booked on the plane or deliver you to your intended destination.

Maybe you can find a more relevant clause which applies here, this is all I found so far... Doesn't really look good, basically they are saying they are not even an agent, and don't hold any responsibility for the Supplier's end to perform their services.

I use Kayak and Skyscanner just to look for the best deals for a ticket, but then I contact the airline directly or use a reliable local agent to get the ticket... using a local agent can sometimes give you even better rate than what you find at Kayak.

From my experience flying before there even was internet, when dealing with an airline directly they manage to screw something up from time to time... That's why I was never going to trust some webpage on internet to do it all for me and expect myself to be completely worry free - that's why I never even trusted or considered using Expedia, Kayak and so on, and judging from what you told us today I realize I wasn't being at all paranoid. Even when I book directly with airline, I double and triple check my booking via their official webpage. Just like the old saying goes - if you want something done, you better do it yourself... The longer I live the more I'm convinced this statement to be regrettably completely true. Wherever there are humans there's always a possibility of human error, it's not possible to get rid of this factor completely, so when you delegate some work to people and don't do any additional quality control/verification - then you are always testing your luck

Since this happened in Vancouver - were the China Eastern Airlines reps the Chinese from China, or locals from Vancouver? It's possible that the locals were just really stupid, or just trying to be too smart for themselves, which happens a lot whenever there's a Canada vs US spat

In any case Expedia must return the money if they promised, but that might be difficult if you don't have it in writing.

I'm also really impressed that you manage to remain so calm having lost such a huge amount of money due to no fault of yours. I mean with me, even if somebody's negligence cost me only $100 I would definitely be raising hell over it They would have to compensate me and restructure their whole company just to please me, because I would just never let up till I'm satisfied...

Another option you may consider is that the Airline rep was indeed being an idiot by not letting you board the plane - if they said it was just the matter of some code - how is that the customer's problem? In which case it's not clear if Expedia should be responsible for the stupidity of the Airline's representative, or some of their internal issues. I think you should press and escalate this issue to both the China Eastern Airlines and the Expedia Headquarters. Just find and send an email to the CEO of both China Eastern and Expedia, and put as many people in CC as possible on both sides, the CFOs, Operational managers, regional operational managers and so on - explain what happened and threaten to go to the press with this... My guess is that if you prepare for this carefully, your problem will be resolved in a matter of a few hours. The problem is often that the CEO and all the upper management are not even aware of this issue, and all the subordinate managers are sending you for a run-around and only interested to keep a lid on this problem hoping that you will just go away, none of them want to be held accountable for the problem which they obviously created for you. I strongly suggest you escalate this issue directly to the CEO of both companies, otherwise you'll just keep wasting your time and put as many subordinates in CC as possible when you do this - make sure they all have something to talk about during one of their usual morning meetings

I had a problem with internet company once who kept billing me after I tried to disconnect the service. I wasted many hours on the phone with their customer reps but then I decided to change the strategy. It took me just a few minutes to write an email to the CEO, and I did some additional research about the company and put all the upper management in CC - I crafted and sent them a very scary email and my problem was solved almost instantly - I was refunded for almost half a year and I also got an official apology letter from their public relations manager or something like that.

I'm not a native speaker, I used to teach one of the government ministries here in downtown Bangkok at around 750 baht per hour, but that was 10 years ago, I did a few other gigs at Thai Banks and Corporations. I used to teach Corporate English without a Degree, without Tefl/Tesol, and I'm not a native speaker, lol, you just gotta market yourself well, everything else is nonsense. Maybe the situation is a lot stricter now, but I doubt it. I think you can get whatever salary you want. Don't listen to any other Farangs about salary and such, a lot of of them are sad losers with self esteem problems who don't know anything about life. They are very competitive and jealous and don't like it when non native speakers try to infringe on the turf(teaching English) which they would like to see as exclusively theirs due to them being native speakers and just the general entitlement issues of various kinds which they bring with themselves from their home countries... Your job is to figure out the Thais - if you can do that, you can get as high salary as you like, other Farangs babble a lot and are usually very opinionated about everything - but they don't actually decide anything at all in this country - the whole English teaching hierarchy is just an illusion they like to create for themselves. You can get any salary you want - you just have to ask for it, don't sell yourself cheap... Just try not to get a salary higher than the degreed native speakers cause you may have a riot on your hands.

Fortunately I spent the last 10 years working in other industries like the High-tech and such so I can tell you, for the most part with a few notable exceptions the people that I met teaching English in Thailand were absolutely the worst losers among the expat communities than I ever met anywhere else - like in Southern Europe for example, so don't worry too much about it and don't listen to them too much. Like for example I've never heard of the 15,000 baht salaries even 10 years ago, lol. A non-native speaker could easily get 40,000 baht without even a tefl or a degree. A lot depends on your looks - if you look like James Bond type with blue eyes - your salary goes up significantly, but if you are short, with dark hair and dark eyes - and even if you are a native speaker, the Thais may offer you less money, because of your looks, a lot of them would feel like they are being robbed if you don't look like a proper Farang as they imagine them to be.

Personally I wouldn't teach English in Thailand even if I was offered 200,000 baht per month, it's actually a very demanding job and not worth the money that they pay you for it around here. I'm permanently done with teaching English since a very long time ago...

Slavery is going on everywhere around the world. Europe, US, Asia, Africa - you name it... lol

All those illegal Mexicans usually live in conditions which one would describe as being something next to being a slave - menial labour without any rights, and that's on top of the other problems such as human trafficking and forced prostitution - it's a huge problem in US, in other parts of the world too... lol

Personally I find that I am the most non-racist and almost transcendental person I met anywhere, I feel like I completely lack the racist gene. But It's an unfortunate reality that most people on this planet are racist( but I think the right word is ignorant here) - but in my view they are just narrow-minded and can only see what's on the outside, for the most part all they see is the slight variation in pigmentation - but at least from the scientific view that should really give you almost zero information about the subject, yet for some odd reason it's the only bit of information that most people choose to see and through some magic completely filter out all the other more important information... And this is not a "white" problem by far, everybody is guilty of this... This is humans for you... A lot of us see only what we want to see... The idea that white people are somehow more or less racist than others is completely ridiculous... I think all humans tend to get confused or prejudiced in exactly the same way, because while we may look a bit different, our perception of this world is exactly the same, that doesn't really differ from one race to another, or between any two humans a lot - we are all being shown exactly the same picture, that's exactly why we all fall into exactly the same rabbit hole - it's due to our common limitations of the perception of the world we live in - we all have exactly the same problem. That's why I don't understand what all this finger pointing is for, when everybody is equally limited and therefore prejudiced in our perception of the world around us...

Sorry I have to add my 2 cents here. Before this term is ever thrown around again it's important that people understand what it actually means:

The bacteria that caused the bubonic plague was by far not the only bacteria ever around, you can add to that Syphilis, Cholera, Typhus, Tuberculosis, Gonorrhea each of which and especially when combined can easily and significantly decimate or significantly reduce population of any city without treatment. Do I really need to waste my time trying to explain that? The introduction of this WMD vs the bacteria is exactly what enabled the unprecedented level of growth and congregation of people around the planet, on every continent. There were other factors as well, but this the main one. Any technological advancement can be easily hampered if there are not enough people left around to take advantage of it. For the benefit of humanity itself and its development and growth of community, culture and so on - humans themselves are the main resource and contributors available on this planet. So this one invention is exactly what enabled the growth of so many communities - of various races on every continent, unlike at any stage previously in history.

Yeah, evaded the question with all the grace of a hippo on ice but that's a common trait among supremacists of any colour. Poke holes in their stories and they swerve clumsily to the next piece of fantasy.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. Your disturbing tirade leaves me in no doubt that what people say about Thailand attracting the worst of the West is by no means an exaggeration.

BTW, the pace of the world's population explosion over the last 100 or so years aligns almost perfectly with the scale of oil production, squire, not cures for a few random diseases

You're nowhere near as bright as you'd like to imagine you are

Oh I did answer your question, but it seems you are obviously suffer from an acute brain cell deficiency to understand it, and you should really take it as a compliment, the reality is of course much worse. There was nothing "disturbing" or even racist about my "tirade", the problem is that you are yourself extremely disturbed for whatever reason:) Since I'm not your therapist and you don't pay me $150+ an hour, there's really not much I can do to help you with your problem

You can go back in history as far as you like... the only reason the world population never rose above 1 billion in the past was because the bacteria inhabiting this planet always managed to systemically decimate the human population around the world and keep it at a more or less constant level. Thanks to Penicillin today we have an excess of 6 billion people living on this planet, this excess in itself is 6 times more than the whole population of the planet at the date of discovery of Penicillin. This whole excess of 6 billion people was created thanks to some White looking weirdo working in his weird lab not so long ago... I'm just curious where does that really put you in the whole chain of importance of things in this world as opposed to what you would like to imagine it to be...

Hmm

Seems to me those bacteria were mostly wiping out white people on the European continent.

Where does what put me in the whole chain of importance of things?

Are you directly related to the guy who invented penicillin?

This just shows how extremely poorly educated you are. So you are the superior race to the whites? Mind telling what it is, or you already figured you don't want to be laughed at ?

I don't need any credit for that guy's discovery - it's just when your "superior" race disses white people, that literally includes the very guy to whom you should all credit your own existence, and that's not an exaggeration...

I was talking about the fact that you obviously owe your own existence, and your whole family owes its existence at least 4 generations back to the discovery of some white guy in his lab, yet oddly enough you still consider yourself to be superior to the person who in a way created you and the 3-4 generations of people preceding you... Doesn't that strike you as a little odd...?

555

What a tragic, warped view of the world you have.

Just because someone disagrees with your racist views doesn't mean they're not white. Some of us speak out against bigotry and hatred in all forms

Let's imagine for a second that I was black (I'm not).

Please explain how would I owe my existence to a white bloke in a white coat when the Bubonic plague started in Northern China and wiped out half of Europe?

Not Africa, Europe

The bacteria that caused the bubonic plague was by far not the only bacteria ever around, you can add to that Syphilis, Cholera, Typhus, Tuberculosis, Gonorrhea each of which and especially when combined can easily and significantly decimate or significantly reduce population of any city without treatment. Do I really need to waste my time trying to explain that? The introduction of this WMD vs the bacteria is exactly what enabled the unprecedented level of growth and congregation of people around the planet, on every continent. There were other factors as well, but this the main one. Any technological advancement can be easily hampered if there are not enough people left around to take advantage of it. For the benefit of humanity itself and its development and growth of community, culture and so on - humans themselves are the main resource and contributors available on this planet. So this one invention is exactly what enabled the growth of so many communities - of various races on every continent, unlike at any stage previously in history.

You can go back in history as far as you like... the only reason the world population never rose above 1 billion in the past was because the bacteria inhabiting this planet always managed to systemically decimate the human population around the world and keep it at a more or less constant level. Thanks to Penicillin today we have an excess of 6 billion people living on this planet, this excess in itself is 6 times more than the whole population of the planet at the date of discovery of Penicillin. This whole excess of 6 billion people was created thanks to some White looking weirdo working in his weird lab not so long ago... I'm just curious where does that really put you in the whole chain of importance of things in this world as opposed to what you would like to imagine it to be...

Hmm

Seems to me those bacteria were mostly wiping out white people on the European continent.

Where does what put me in the whole chain of importance of things?

Are you directly related to the guy who invented penicillin?

This just shows how extremely poorly educated you are. So you are the superior race to the whites? Mind telling what it is, or you already figured you don't want to be laughed at ?

I don't need any credit for that guy's discovery - it's just when your "superior" race disses white people, that literally includes the very guy to whom you should all credit your own existence, and that's not an exaggeration...

I was talking about the fact that you obviously owe your own existence, and your whole family owes its existence at least 4 generations back to the discovery of some white guy in his lab, yet oddly enough you still consider yourself to be superior to the person who in a way created you and the 3-4 generations of people preceding you... Doesn't that strike you as a little odd...?

You can go back in history as far as you like... the only reason the world population never rose above 1 billion in the past was because the bacteria inhabiting this planet always managed to systemically decimate the human population around the world and keep it at a more or less constant level. Thanks to Penicillin today we have an excess of 6 billion people living on this planet, this excess in itself is 6 times more than the whole population of the planet at the date of discovery of Penicillin. This whole excess of 6 billion people was created thanks to some White looking weirdo working in his weird lab not so long ago... I'm just curious where does that really put you in the whole chain of importance of things in this world as opposed to what you would like to imagine it to be...

I'm not a bigot at all, I treat everybody equal. If any white person was acting the same way with me - they would get exactly the same treatment... but for some reason it never happens.

Well you'd need to leave your local KKK chapter club room and meet other white people

It'd probably happen then

Lol whatever, I have run into some weird white people ( call it whatever you like), no doubt, but still the odds are 8 or 9 out of 10 they are actually ok. As for the Indians specifically... lol, would you really like to know what the odds are if you are doing any kind of business with them? So far in my life the data I have accumulated - 10 out of 10 Indians are likely to cheat you somehow, with could cause financial losses, damage to your health or even fatal consequences for yourself... I'm sure they are a good bunch of people to have around... haha. I literally never met an Indian who didn't sc*rew me over somehow, literally never...

I bought a bike once from an Indian who guaranteed to have fully serviced and tuned it - he kept repeating it again and again till I finally fell for it. A day later I almost had a fatal accident as the breaks turned out to be completely faulty as I was going downhill at 40 mph, I missed a huge truck by just a split second, It was still a rather painful impact into the curb for me, but at least I didn't die... just got bruised. If I report this incident here for example - does that make me racist?

One time I bought a TV from an Indian, who promised it was in perfect working order, but later upon closer inspection it turned out the TV had blurred double image, which was impossible to fix and made it really annoying to watch, which I'm sure the Indian knew perfectly well about. If I report this - am I racist?

Or here in Bangkok, I ordered a suit from an Indian, but when it was finally ready - it turned out they switched to the cheaper material, and when I raised an issue about it - they just started getting very aggressive - and btw I kept the sample of the original material but it didn't help at all with the argument - they didn't want to know anything about it even when I presented the sample of the original material right in front of them...

And once I walked into a random Pizza place, it turned out to be run by Indians. I ordered just a couple of slices, and one slice turned out to have a giant stone in it, but small enough to be hidden in a pizza - I chipped my tooth on it as I was eating it - which could cost thousands of dollars to fix, I was only left to wonder if it was an honest mistake or if they put that stone there on purpose - because it's the first Indian Pizza place I've ever been to and I never met any of them before... Years later it's still the only chipped tooth I have, and all because I was stupid enough to walk into an Indian Pizza place... I couldn't even raise an issue over it - because I thought people would just accuse me of being racist and paranoid... my chipped tooth is the only evidence I have to this day...

After all these absolutely uncalled for and horrible experiences in a row one after the other - I'm supposed to believe that they are just some good honest people like any other? lol

When I start walking up to random Blacks or Thais, or Indian ( just because they are either Black or Thai or Indian) in the street and demand that they open their bags for inspection - then maybe you can call me a hypocrite... until then you are the one's with a problem, a huge problem if you ask me When either Black or other race deny their friendship to me I never make any fuss about it - it's not a problem, then why is it always "racism" when I show disinterest in spending time with either Black or Indian? Like I have no right to manage my own time anymore lol??

I think a lot of blacks and Indians, and actually Thais are interested in spending time with me or luring some information out of me, instead of asking politely for something - they often and almost always force themselves upon you, and when you politely deny them in this extremely inappropriate approach for some reason people scream "racism"... lol They are the one's being racist, not me... I just defend my own precious time and my ability to use it as *I* see fit, and it's just normal, not racist. When people try to steal my time and my company without invitation - then it's robbery in broad daylight, and it should be defined as such...

I'm not a bigot at all, I treat everybody equal. If any white person was acting the same way with me - they would get exactly the same treatment... but for some reason it never happens. Unless it was a White Girl, or any girl, you know - I'm willing to make concessions for the opposite sex, I assume it's just a natural biological reaction - the girls can't help it, - but in all other cases it's a waste of my time... either make an appointment, or be super polite when you are trying to take something from me which is mine and you are definitely not entitled to.

Are you one of those annoying Black or Indian people who think that every person they meet on the street is somehow entitled to accommodate them and be their friend - or otherwise it's racism...? You need to grow up... That attitude is actually plain idiotic, you are plain deluded... people have a good reason to stay away from you because you are en extremely self-centered tactless idiot...

I personally would hate to be dragged away into some casual conversation with a person I never met before and I didn't set up a meeting for any purpose... I don't care if it's black or white or yellow... it's just seems only the black/brown types that like to get in your face in an extremely obnoxious way and when you ignore them - they assume it's racism and they start going mental about it. Btw if you ask me for directions( no matter what race) - I will probably help you - it's common courtesy, but that's not what happens - the brown/black types for some reason start acting really weird like they've known me my whole life - they completely lack manners or people's skills, act very rude can get extremely paranoid very quickly - and then they whine that nobody likes them. YOU have to make effort to adapt to people, get some manners, some tact and maybe change your approach - nobody has to like you... and in most cases with Blacks there's not much to like you for in the first place, and going around the streets harassing people and then getting offended when people start running away from you - I think you need a clue that you are a problem here...

It would be extremely easy to befriend me if you meet me in the street somewhere( even though I'm not into this thing usually), but you have to know exactly how to act and what to say... and it doesn't matter what race you are. I think the blacks are just not really interested in learning anything about other races and people, they don't ever want to change anything about themselves and then they complain that nobody likes them...lol that's extremely self-centered and hypocritical. Nobody came to this world to baby you, if people don't want you around because they don't have time, or are not interested in you - it's because YOU haven't demonstrated enough interest about yourself in the first place... You either need to change or stop wasting everybody's time and just get lost...

Trump is a funny character.

I think he's just an actor - playing the "villain" character to make sure everybody votes for the only other option available - the democrats(the establishment, wall street bankers, NWO, etc...).

At the moment he's already a threat to national security. I don't think he will be elected. It was already decided that Hillary will be president... Trump is just playing the "Darth Vader" character to make it look like a genuine presidential race... It's just a show for the stupid masses, carefully organized by the elites...

But if it he does turn out to be the real deal - then nothing what he says really matters anyway, it's pretty common for all US presidents to do a 180 turn around right after they get elected - Obama is a perfect example... he did everything opposite of what he promised all through his 8 year term as a president.

It's a pretty hilarious show especially since most people seem to think that it's real... reminds me of a pro wrestling tournament... It's the same Bankers, tycoons, the intelligence agencies that are running the show... who gets elected as a president is completely irrelevant. If the establishment really wanted Trump out of the game - they would have bankrupted him a long time ago...

If he's real thing though I find him to be a very likable character - more guns, less Mexicans - who wouldn't vote for that? That's exactly what America needs at the moment.

NATO needed a pretext to start a ground invasion in Syria, now they got it. All the Western intelligence agencies were involved in this covert op... It's all very simple. A couple of days later after they do "investigation" of this incident - CNN headline will read something like "Is it time to deal with ISIS?" or whatever, I mean it's always something very verbatim stupid and simplistic for the muppet audience... 3 days later Obama will do a speech - as usual reading from the teleprompter "Blah blah blah, it's time to act... la-la-la, we stand with Belgium, something about the western values as usual"... They'll probably be sending ground troops to Syria end of Spring...

You can start the "NATO Ground Invasion in Syria" topic already, the future is so easy to predict lately...

Just to explain my perspective. I lived in Malta for 5 years. 3 years I stayed with the general population - middle to upper class areas. The quality of beaches in Malta compared to what you have in Thailand... it's like nothing to talk about really... lol, should be self-explanatory hahaha. But for 2 years I moved to the super rich area in Malta cause I had a contract there, so I had like a whole beach to myself - absolutely with all the promenades, the lanterns, infrastructure, bars, restaurants with very few super rich customers, or curious travelers. Lol... when I came to Pattaya I almost threw up just looking at it... it was like OMG... I wouldn't even want to smell that water at the "beach" in Pattaya... but then I actually saw people swimming in there.... It was like a horror movie, so I ran away, I don't want to see it again... I hope I didn't offend anyone...

Super rich area in Malta, is that where they own 2 Honda Waves per household. I live in a super poor area of Australia, I own 2 cars and a Ducati M821 and earn the equivalent of 4.5 million baht a year,

Where you live means nothing.

So you have all of that yet you still have to fly to get some pussy in Pattaya? You must be a very happy guy I was talking about the quality of the sea water and the general atmosphere and quality of infrastructure, also a very important thing like crime and safety, friendliness of the locals, road safety, sightseeings, culture, climate, etc..., but you are talking about cars and your personal income... I don't see the connection... If it wasn't for all the sex workers and go-go bars would anybody really have a need to visit Pattaya for anything? I think obviously not...

What is the tax on that 4.5 million baht? I think what you are left with is about 3.15 million baht after tax, which isn't terrible... but then we don't know what other expenses you have... Forget about your cars, unless you own a private yacht or a helicopter, there's no need to even mention it

red onions are plentifull, even BigC sports 'em

fresh olives I have not seen in BKK but know a shop in Pattaya with fresh olives, but plenty of canned ones around

tomatoes, no problem I think (but not at markets)

bread? Villa Market between soi 33 Sukh and soi 33/1 Sukh has some OK bread, not great - but OK

bei Otto in soi 20 Sukh has some

the bakery in JW Marriott in soi 2 Sukh has some bread

look at shops like Villa Market - Tops - Foodland, some of these shops have pretty good vegetables

(note all Villas and all Foodlands ae not the same, the selection varies from shop to shop)

Ok thanks man, I'll check it out.

I used to live in the Mediterranean for 5 years so I got used to all this food. So what's the best place in Bangkok to eat the Mediterranean food - I mean the good stuff, not something from last year, overpriced and in small unusual portions - Greek, Sicilian, Arabic or whatever - it's the same theme all around that area - Olives, Cheese, Bread, Hummus, so on and so forth - I think you know what I'm talking about. I used to be a Mediterranean food addict so I can be very picky about the quality.

Also what's the place to shop for the Mediterranean veggies - it seems it's impossible to find Red Onions anywhere in Bangkok - even at Siam Paragon I couldn't find any good quality red onions - they had like tiny and very old red onions from last year or something - they were so small I think it would be hard to even cut them with a knife. Also what is a good bread place - cause all the bakeries seem to be selling more or less one or 2 types of bread, and it's not the best quality by far... It just doesn't have the same scent, or variety like the typical Mediterranean bread or European bread... I also find that the Avocados are just silly overpriced... Olives are almost non-existent. And the quality of tomatoes is just generally not good at all - they just don't seem to have those big plumpy tomatoes like what they have all over the Mediterranean... The veggie market here is just not great at all - what do you think?

If you know some secret place in Bangkok where I can find one of the above - let me know...

Just to explain my perspective. I lived in Malta for 5 years. 3 years I stayed with the general population - middle to upper class areas. The quality of beaches in Malta compared to what you have in Thailand... it's like nothing to talk about really... lol, should be self-explanatory hahaha. But for 2 years I moved to the super rich area in Malta cause I had a contract there, so I had like a whole beach to myself - absolutely with all the promenades, the lanterns, infrastructure, bars, restaurants with very few super rich customers, or curious travelers. Lol... when I came to Pattaya I almost threw up just looking at it... it was like OMG... I wouldn't even want to smell that water at the "beach" in Pattaya... but then I actually saw people swimming in there.... It was like a horror movie, so I ran away, I don't want to see it again... I hope I didn't offend anyone...

Ukraine to Pattaya... Moving from the Brothel of Europe to the Brothel of Asia... no wonder he feels right at home...

The salaries in Ukraine are half of what the have in the Phillippines... Moving to Pattaya is like a huge step up for this guy....

But seriously it's an absolutely mad town, I think half of residents are sex workers - the other are mad foreigners, and the beach is more like a Sewer... lol

And this guy is like, oh it's a beautiful town, it's just not big like Bangkok.... hahaha... lol. So much BS in just one blog...

I would never even go there...

Hey Davie Boy, is it a large pocket? How big is your pocket - can you give us the dimensions? Can you fit your hankie in there - have you tried? What else can you fit in there? Please tell us...