dick dasterdly

Its a shame, but unfortunately one has to be v wary nowadays (wherever you live) about sob stories from unknown people.

Hopefully the woman who has the dog has genuinely fallen in love with him, which is why she is not willing to give him up - but its depressingly likely that she is using him as a way of making money from the foolishly gullible.

Sorry to be so vague, but back in '06 there was a song/video shown regularly on TV that I thought of as the 'chicken song'. Basically it had a load of guys dressed as if they were army type people in a village with, presumably, a lot of chickens running around? The song was v 'catchy' and the video VERY funny to watch.

Does anyone have any idea of the name of this song/video? I'd love to see it again to see if its really as funny as I thought, or whether it was just newbie fascination at such a different video compared to Western videos.

was the singer male or female, was it luktung? can't think of it

I've tried googling luk tung and none of the you tube songs were the one I was thinking of. It was a male singer and was shown all the time around August '06.

I can honestly say that I've never had a job that I enjoyed - but I enjoyed being good at what I did and the social life with those I worked with.

I envy those who had a vocation, but not those whose work took over their life.

I agee totally....Best job, are we talking about cash or are we talking about a daily smile, a bit of fun....?

My best job post about my best job was looking back to the fun l had, camaraderie for sure was there, meeting all types of folk, many rascals....Yeh, that was good fun..

How I hate my laptop (compared to my old PC) - it throws me out of messages at its own whim...

Anyway, I was basically saying yes, when it comes to best jobs, money is irrelevant. It has to be the time we enjoyed most surely? And I've little doubt that the vast majority of us enjoyed our jobs best when we were young, and with a group of friends.

The funniest one that I ever heard was a guy who took his wife back to England, and when she got out of the 'plane asked why they'd left the aircon on outdoors!

How cute is that .

I can honestly say that I've never had a job that I enjoyed - but I enjoyed being good at what I did and the social life with those I worked with.

I envy those who had a vocation, but not those whose work took over their life.

More than anything, I love where I live. Beautiful, quiet, peaceful, lots of wildlife (although I could do without the centipedes...), dogs can run around to their hearts' content - you get the picture .

Additionally, I love that if I smile - its more than likely I'll get a smile back, rather than the confused/wary look we get back at home.

Obviously, there are things I dislike and, more than anything, I hate the way that we are ever less welcome here. Immigration has become a dreaded 'trip' because it's impossible to know what they'll require this time - and whatever they 'require', they'll likely ask for more.....

Another dislike is that too often when I'm truly pleased with a job well done and therefore generous, this is taken advantage of and used as a base point next time I use their services. (No, I'm not talking about bar girls, I'm talking about electricians/plumbers etc.). M'y current plumber/odd job man not only has increased his prices to my 'gratitude' prices, but also asks for a glass (or 2) of wine/cigarettes etc... I wouldn't mind if he charged his original prices!

I'm not keen on the frequent 'tea money' road blocks either. They should spend their time looking for those that are driving dangerously and extract money from them rather than stopping all scooter drivers for no reason at all. Weird how its never cars.

Sorry to be so vague, but back in '06 there was a song/video shown regularly on TV that I thought of as the 'chicken song'. Basically it had a load of guys dressed as if they were army type people in a village with, presumably, a lot of chickens running around? The song was v 'catchy' and the video VERY funny to watch.

Does anyone have any idea of the name of this song/video? I'd love to see it again to see if its really as funny as I thought, or whether it was just newbie fascination at such a different video compared to Western videos.

Better to use glue trap trays. Put some peanut butter in the middle. Then it wont die on roof. You can dispose of it privately.

Glue traps are disgustingly cruel. One of my dogs was a good ratter and in the middle of the night he jumped on my bed with a glue trap and three mice stuck to it still alive and shrieking stuck to his fur. Took bloody hours to get it all off him. No hope for the rats and they died a long slow starved death. Better to shove some tokays up there. I've a few in my roof but it's wood, so anything would drop through the slats. The tokays sort them out, quickly. Or a rat snake

Couldn't agree more which is why I wouldn't dream of using them.

A couple of my dogs are 'ratters' too and one morning I went out to find a dead rat in the carport with live, unborn babies.... They were too young to even try to save them and I'm ashamed to admit that I was incapable of putting them out of their misery. My cleaner had to do it for me .

Trying to find a good vet is v difficult and its a trial and error process. I'm sure we can all sympathise with the difficulty in finding a good vet!

Hopefully you've found your way to one of the animal hospitals mentioned by Sheryl who can give you the best possible advice.

Do you have any news?

Exciting race though...

Another poor start from Lewis, and then "T"boned by Bottas' at the first corner but he did well to just to drive the car for 57 laps... 3rd was very respectful finish given the circumstances.

Nico may be on top of the world at this time but the season has only just begun, yes he is in with a chance for the championship but Lewis will no let him take it easily.

bet tension is high in the McLaren garage as the stand in rookie driver Stoffel Vandoorne is the only driver so far to score points for the team, it was reported last year Jenson was considering jacking it in before he signed a contract for this year, and I assume Alonso is not overjoyed at the prospects of sharing a garage with another upstart who does not know his place.

I agree - good race .

Lewis cut across Bottas IMO, but I think Bottas out braked himself and would probably have hit Lewis even if he (Lewis) had kept to his outside line.

Worryingly, the top 3 drivers lapped everyone else (from memory) and even Ric and RoGro were way behind Merc and Ferrari. Kimi too way way behind Nico, which indicates Merc still way ahead, followed by Ferrari and the rest way behind again. The rest of the pack are fairly close which should give some good racing amongst the mid-field .

Ignoring the obvious (not worth taking the risk) - it would be interesting to find out when rabies was last detected on Phuket?

I'm also ignoring the 'its painless' comments as I've never had a jab that was painless and can only assume some of you have a v high pain threshold!

Teachings about animals start when a baby has just been born. Cutsy putsy liitle ducks, cats, dogs, monkeys, tigers, kuala, bears dolls etc.

All animals incl. the above can be dangerous, but the kids are not taught of the dangers. Try to grab a rabbit !!

Better still, don't treat wild animals as tame animals - and only tourists make this mistake.

And yes, I too stupidly (as a tourist) fed wild animals, not to mention becoming the best friend of a tethered monkey in a resort... I don't much lke monkeys, but felt sorry for him being tethered. He bit everyone else that came within his reach, but was happy sitting on me - as long as I didn't move away...

Needless to say, he eventually bit the resort owner's daughter and was released lnto the wild. Hopefully he had enough skills to survive back in the wild, but I seriously hate those who put animals into this position - and have little sympathy for those who get bitten when thinking of it as a safe tourist activity.

They should not injure the tourist because they are drunk or may have said something stupid. And why the attackers were roaming around with knife in hand? Unfortunately the land of smile is becoming more like a land of blood. I hope the government take some serious action against people who fight with foreigners. I believe if a foreigners or tourist do something stupid they should call police like any other country and they should be fined or jailed whatever necessary fro their crimes. But beating up people is not a way to go. Soon those tourists will also head somewhere else just like those coming to Pattaya are heading other places.

Yes, but this is not going to happen.

As always, it's down to luck.

Tourist areas in relatively poor countries are likely to suffer more thefts etc., especially when people are out in the middle of the night.

Phuket is a well known tourist destination and consequently has a lot of tourist robberies/attacks etc., especially now that tourist income is going down.

Having said this, a few years ago a friend and I got pissed (at another friend's house) and didn't realise that it was around 2 a.m. We walked/staggered to Rawai beach to get a taxi and discovered our mistake . (We vaguely wondered why our usual taxi driver was a bit vague himself when we 'phoned from friend's house to get a lift home!)

Even though it was the middle of the night, the few 'locals' around were friendly (albeit highly amused by our intoxicated state) AND our usual taxi driver got himself out of bed to pick us up!

In short, it's down to luck.

Still not so late for that neck of the woods Dick, Laguna Disco just getting started. IMO different than 4:30 on Patong Beach.

We had our own problems in Rawai around the Sai Yuan/beach area a few years ago when scooter drivers were being kicked off and robbed.

Thinking about it, this problem seems to have been sorted out?

Believe me, I'm not blind re. the probs on Phuket when out late at night/morning....

Sure I remember that, two things have changed.

Lighting is a bit better in what used to be some real dark spots as well as no Icon pub which was a magnet for druggies and gangsters.

As my Pops used to tell my older brother and I as teenagers "nothing good happens after midnight", then in our twenties he told us, "nothing good happens after 2AM", at which point he would also say, "typically nothing is too ugly after 2AM neither". Pops doled out good advice

I've somewhat returned to the Pops advice, try not to be on the roads anywhere after 2. Not only are their criminals about but drunks behind the wheel which may or may not be just as dangerous.

Not convinced that lighting has made much difference, as few are around in the middle of the night. Why would lighting put off those intent on robbing tourists when there is no-one around? Presumably their locals (who knew them) did something to stop the attacks.

No idea about Icon pub as I rarely visit bars, and even then - only during the day.

Agree with your pops - not a good idea to be out after midnight in a tourist area.

Its not looking good, but let's hope that this season is better than '14/'15. Merc's bad start brought some excitement to Aus, but will they have sorted this out?

Alonso's crash was truly frightening, but he has got away with hairline cracks/bruising in his ribs (?), which is good news and shows how safe F1 cars are nowadays.

IMO, as the Mclaren is still so far from the front - many/most F1 fans will not miss Alonso, but rather be interested in how Stoffel performs.

All that aside, I once saw a lady leaving the hotel to get to nearest big hospital. Badly bitten by a monkey , holiday ruined and cut short, and my, did that bite look bad. !

Where was the hotel that this would happen???

Sitting in a Khao Lak coffee shop one morning I saw a monkey steal someone's bag and run up a tree with it. Hilarious as the woman tried to throw things to get it back, whilst the monkey ignored this and gradually threw things down when he found them of no interest. It was only when the woman/group left that the monkey threw the bag down .

As always, it's down to luck.

Tourist areas in relatively poor countries are likely to suffer more thefts etc., especially when people are out in the middle of the night.

Phuket is a well known tourist destination and consequently has a lot of tourist robberies/attacks etc., especially now that tourist income is going down.

Having said this, a few years ago a friend and I got pissed (at another friend's house) and didn't realise that it was around 2 a.m. We walked/staggered to Rawai beach to get a taxi and discovered our mistake . (We vaguely wondered why our usual taxi driver was a bit vague himself when we 'phoned from friend's house to get a lift home!)

Even though it was the middle of the night, the few 'locals' around were friendly (albeit highly amused by our intoxicated state) AND our usual taxi driver got himself out of bed to pick us up!

In short, it's down to luck.

Still not so late for that neck of the woods Dick, Laguna Disco just getting started. IMO different than 4:30 on Patong Beach.

We had our own problems in Rawai around the Sai Yuan/beach area a few years ago when scooter drivers were being kicked off and robbed.

Thinking about it, this problem seems to have been sorted out?

Believe me, I'm not blind re. the probs on Phuket when out late at night/morning....

It appears that there will always be those who will try to excuse Thailand's dark side no matter what. In reality certain resorts are more dangerous than others but certainly Pattaya and Phuket are top of the list. Unfortunately there is not enough warning given to tourists to Thailand even though many tour companies now have a "not to do" list. These lists state that you should not wander around after dark, do not wear expensive watches or jewellery, always keep your valuables in the hotel safe or concealed on your person, never get into a vehicle where you suspect the driver may be unfit to drive etc etc.

There are certainly many other countries where the warnings are also valid but let's not be naïve, Thailand has a serious problem that appears to be getting worse.

Despite my positive experience, I agree.

Tourists should be warned that tourist areas can be dangerous places. But would they heed the warnings? Of course not, they're on holiday, happy - and think nothing bad can happen to them.

Other than bad taxi drivers taking the piss when choosing the route they like for a trip into town it seems I have been lucky. But there is one question I have, has anyone ever bothered to listen to the entire lucky man scam that used to be run by the Indian fellows in lower Suk? I have not seen them in a long while but I can count the times I have went to lower Suk on one hard in the last year. But has anyone ever bothered to listen to it?

Plenty of people have stood there and listened to the entire "lucky man" scam, and for plenty, it has ended with them giving the man money.

I don't know if he still does this, but his M.O. (at least for the guy who stood on the sidewalk between Sukhumvit sois 5 and 3) used to be to get the mark going on the sidewalk, and then bring him in to Starbucks to sit down at a table (they never order anything, either) for the "close".

Once, I was sitting in that Starbucks, and saw the "Lucky Man" guy and his assistant bring some poor sucker in. But that particular day, a previous mark who had been scammed by the guy apparently saw him and went out for the cops. Two cops came in and took the "Lucky Man" away. I don't know how that particular scenario ended, though...

When I first moved to Phuket I came across the same thing and told him "tell me my date of birth, rather than the 'fact' you want to tell me".

Needless to say, he never came up with my DOB - but as a newbie I gave him 100 bht for his wasted time.

Hadn't noticed how heavy they are as I'd put it down to age, but the mattresses in the spare room (rental - no bed supplied in the master bedroom - thank god!) are as hard as concrete!

Having put a good, king size mattress over the 2 single beds, it's always fun to show visitors just how hard the original mattresses are underneath .

I had god knows how many rats around for a few years and they had occasional parties in the ceiling whilst I was trying to sleep.... It didn't bother me until they found their way indoors and, more importantly, into the kitchen - so started trapping and releasing them whilst blocking every hole I could find.

This worked (insofar as keeping them out of the house), but the weird thing is that a couple of months back I noticed they were no longer around at all! Presumably the snakes ate them all.

Edit - I used bananas to trap them.

As always, it's down to luck.

Tourist areas in relatively poor countries are likely to suffer more thefts etc., especially when people are out in the middle of the night.

Phuket is a well known tourist destination and consequently has a lot of tourist robberies/attacks etc., especially now that tourist income is going down.

Having said this, a few years ago a friend and I got pissed (at another friend's house) and didn't realise that it was around 2 a.m. We walked/staggered to Rawai beach to get a taxi and discovered our mistake . (We vaguely wondered why our usual taxi driver was a bit vague himself when we 'phoned from friend's house to get a lift home!)

Even though it was the middle of the night, the few 'locals' around were friendly (albeit highly amused by our intoxicated state) AND our usual taxi driver got himself out of bed to pick us up!

In short, it's down to luck.

I have never particularly liked monkeys because they are too much like us.

Even so, tourists have taught them that they can expect to be fed by tourists and that has resulted in the (slightly exaggerated) human emotion of getting aggressive when something expected is denied.

Presumably this 'problem' wasn't a problem until tourists arrived, as the locals knew that monkeys would take any food within their reach and wouldn't dream of feeding wild monkeys?