Aussiepeter

Only one airline has come within an inch of ending my life and, on TWO separate occasions. No prizes for guessing which airline. If I wrote on here what the "pilot" did the first time, none of you would ever believe it ! But I will, anyway.

So, say, if I borrowed your car to drive 700 klms across the Sahara, but I never checked the fuel tank had any gas before starting off, - that would be pretty dumb, huh ? The only announcement, just after takeoff, was "returning to BKK, emergency landing". Then a right turn and skimming over rice paddies. Never again.

An old friend of mine, now deceased (AKA 'Skipper') overheard me talking about this subject many years ago in Cosy Corner, then a popular C Mai outdoor bar. He said "hey Peter, so you are same as me, bi-sexual" (pause) "every time you want sex, you have to buy it" ! RIP Skipper.

About eight years ago when we still lived in Saraphi, (C Mai) our dogs started barking whilst looking up at something - the missus and I raced out on the verandah in time to see a hot-air balloon just miss our roof and then crash in a lumyai orchard, about 100m away. It just missed landing on a Police Box on the road from Hang Dong to Saraphi. Four very shaken Thai blokes yelled out "khor-tod krup, gat mot" (excuse me, we ran out of gas). Still have the photos. Only time I ever saw a manned balloon in 25 years in LOS. You will never get me up in one of those things !

This is an everyday occurrence in Thailand. My wife's uncle bought a brand new Toyota pickup at the C Mai motor show, then couldn't even make the first payment ! He is a tradesman with a good cashflow, but lives way beyond his means. I needed a vehicle so I paid out the loan and put it in my name. Two weeks later we go to his shop and there is a brand new Mitsubishi 4WD in front. Same deal - he couldn't even make the first payment - they never learn. It was repossessed six weeks later, when I refused to help out. He still talks to me/us just fine. Since we left LOS in 2013, he has somehow managed to buy three more new vehicles - all since repossessed. The used car yards in C Mai are chock full of such vehicles, many with only a few thou kms on the clock. Don't get involved, he will be just fine, but will have to pay the difference owing after it is sold. Doubt he will learn anything though. 

I lived in Thailand for over 25 years. The last poster hit the nail on the head. There is now nowhere in LOS now that has clean air and C Mai, where we last lived, is by far the worst. No longer just for a few months, but every damn day. Which is precisely why I relocated my Thai family to Oz six years ago - it had nothing to do with money or Visa woes, as I am financially good. We had a baby daughter and I wanted her to have a life. Upon arrival in Oz, I was diagnosed with a T1 cancer in my larynx, caused from breathing the toxic filth called "air" in LOS (I am a non-smoker). Months of radiation treatment saved me. The wife says she isn't going back, EVER ! Says she has got used to clean air and, so have I. Sad, really. 

My Thai wife is a locksmith. Some years back a young Thai cop came to her shop in C Mai with one arm handcuffed to his' girlfriend's ankle ! He said they had been 'playing a game' and it was only then that he remembered that he had lost the key. My wife made a new key by hand, from a blank (shop has zillions of 'em) - it took less than twenty minutes and she charged him 100 baht. So, they can be removed easily enough, but my guess is this guy won't get the opportunity.

When I asked my GP about safety before my first trip to LOS in 1987, he told me to avoid monkeys and monkey/photo touts. He had just finished three weeks of treatment for a young lass from Oz who paid $5 to a tout for a monkey to sit on her shoulder, only to have it bite a large chunk out of her ear. Her ear got badly infected - apparently monkeys are a major carrier of the rabies virus. Rabies is rife in Thailand, so I got the message. He never warned me about BG's tho !

Here in NSW (Oz) the fine for parking in a disability spot without displaying the right sticker is $519 or about 10,500 baht plus demerit points on your licence. Those who choose to go to court rather than pay up, usually get short shift from the Judge - fines of up to $2000 are the norm, especially in WA. Trouble is, I see too many obese slobs who have convinced their doctor to approve a disability sticker for them, when the doctor should have recommended exercise !

Old Hippie beat me to it - I discovered the "Cortez" song about six months ago and play it, along with other Neil Young stuff, mostly Vietnam War era, most evenings when cooking my dinner. NCC - the car you had in 1971 was sold in Oz as the Chrysler Charger RT - cheap, very fast, but had bad handling. Collector car now though, worth mega bucks, if you can even find one for sale. An old gf and I went to the same NY concert in Sydney in 1986 two days in a row and during a break, he pointed to us and said, "these same two people were here last night, seated in the exact same two sxxt seats, so I must be doing something right". The seats were at the side of the stage - no-one wanted them. What a performer. His band that night were called "the International Harvesters". Amazing showman live.

What utter garbage ! Has the UNHCR forgotten the mass graves of trafficked Rohingya refugees found in the south of Thailand a couple of years ago, or the fact that the ringleaders convicted included a Thai Army General and senior police and government officials ? Did any of these criminals ever serve any real time ? The UNHCR itself has been widely reported as saying that 'like several other countries' governments, the junta led by General Prayut does not permit the UNHCR to properly investigate the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Thailand'. I live in an area of Oz known for its' quality "alternative tobacco". I do not partake (suds does it for me) but when I read this report, my first thought was 'this new UNHCR must have been to the local festival, which is called "Mardi-Grass" and inhaled once too much' ! 

Liked your post Fore Man - we got right out of LOS, but the missus' best friend comes from Nan and so my wife visited there many times. Good luck for the future - I doubt we will ever return permanently to LOS though - but if and when I might just check the place out. I don't play golf much, but it would have to be better than Green Valley (CM) !

I can advise all firsthand that the numbers of 'available' or 'on call' troops in Thailand is nothing like the numbers crunched by the good general. More like the dodgy numbers put out by TAT. In 1999/2000 I lived for a year in a small village just north of Chiang Dao - about 100klm north of CM. The nearby army camp was huge, but I never saw more than thirty or forty troops and the guard house was nothing more than a lean-to open on two sides, with a couple of M60 machine guns on its' counter. Never more than two on duty, sometimes none to be seen at all ! Each evening I'd share a sherbet or two with my neighbour, a Thai guy who told me he had a timber business. One day, he appeared in uniform as a corporal. When I asked him what he was doing he told me he was actually a corporal in the army, but simply paid his boss (I'm guessing a Sgt?) 2 thousand baht a month "to not be there" ! He said " lots of us soldiers do it - we all pay the boss but we have to turn up sometimes, like today, because there is a big parade for some general who is coming from Bangkok to inspect the troops". I bet the said general would have got a huge shock, had he come unannounced a week early. I watched the parade from the highway - over six hundred men. TIT  

Thanks Lacessit. I suggest you chuck it in the fridge - I left a jar in the fridge in the family shop in CM in 2015 and was happy to eat it 3/2019 when I forgot to put some in my bag upon return to LOS ! It goes hard a bit, but still seems ok. I need to lose about 5kg myself. After beating cancer, I still like to ride track-work, on some thoroughbred horses that I and mates/family own. Now 74kg = too heavy. At the moment, my only indulgence is mid-strength beer. Most real jockeys never touch it - too much carb. I'm nearly six foot tall. Anyone got any real ideas, apart from no beer ? - I no longer have a prostate, the beers are my only pleasure, apart from Thai food and my half-Thai daughter ! I am going to try the celery thing though, sounds nice. Good luck to all LOS diet folk. Stick with it !

Don't knock Vegemite - when I married my Thai missus twenty years ago in CM she tried it and she said 'chem muk-maak' or, 'too salty', but since we returned to Oz she has now eats toast with Vegemite and avocado slices on it for breakfast, seven days a week and, has done so for the last seven years - I kid you not ! (Honest) - even I can't eat the stuff every day ! Wonder just what they REALLY put in it ? It's supposed to be made from left-over scrap beer hops ?

Absolutely shocked to see the ex GF on here ! I mean, what WAS she thinking ? I never could have believed that she would lower her very high standards by, oh my goodness, WORKING in a restaurant !  -  tut tut oh my goodness, - I suppose she is just keeping abreast of the times, - lots of young ladies take on second jobs now.

Don't know if they are still operating, but a place called 'Star Translation Service' just up the street a bit from the US Consulate and almost opposite the Muang Mai market are/were very good. Used their service several times and it was accepted by both the Oz and (the old one) UK embassies. About 250 baht a page. They were there for years, but I left six years ago. Good luck!

I can assure you that you traumatic depressurisation of an aircraft must be horrific. About thirty-odd years ago I guy I worked with was sucked/blown out, seat-and-all, then went through the right hand (starboard) inner engine of an American B747, somewhere near Hawaii. It was caused by a faulty cargo-door lock. His name was Michael. He was a doctor of the non-medical type - PHD in biochemistry or whatever. Brilliant man, but totally eccentric, (not unlike some on tv maybe) ? He came to work one day after some hi-so function wearing a dinner suit, no tie, but with one black patent leather shoe and one old slipper ! He had gone to the USA for a job interview at a major uni and got the job - they paid for the return flight, business class. Those who knew him well said that if you knew him, that was the way he would have liked to go, - apparently he was a bit of a showman !

As Langkawi has said, the courts in Thailand are highly suspect. Try this for size - and I am not making this up. About ten years ago I was enjoying a quiet beer on a Sunday night in a then famous Chiang Mai go-go bar. Quiet night, sat next to a bloke who turned out to be an expat from Oz. He explained that his Thai missus had convinced him to get involved with selling ya-ba, as her family had a connection. They made heaps he said, right up until they were dobbed in by a neighbour jealous of their lifestyle. He told me "the wife didn't have a lawyer, so she got 15 years, but I had all the money and got a very good lawyer and the judge gave me 12 months in jail". I asked him when he had got out of jail, to which he replied "I haven't yet - I've still got 4 months to go" ! When I sought further info, he told me his lawyer had made some sort of $deal with the boss of the CM prison, to let him out of prison at 1800 every Sunday night so he could get a feed of western food (and a bonk) on the strict proviso that he return, like Cinderella, before 2400 hours ! You couldn't make up stuff like this. Amazing Thailand. So liberated. 

I had the same situation as you with my Thai ex. - many moons ago. We divorced in Oz - neither of us went to court.

If there are no children from the union it is a rubber-stamp job, if both agree. You simply download the form, pay the fee and serve a copy on your soon-to-be permanent ex. Property settlement is a bit off subject, but contrary to what others may tell you, the Family Law Act in Oz was changed quite some years ago after a succession of greedy (mostly Phillipina at the time) ladies married old blokes (mainly farmers at the time) whose wives had died, then dumped them and sued for the farm so to speak. The law was changed to protect wealthy partners from gold-diggers and these days the court looks at exactly what each partner brought into the marriage, dollar wise. If she brought in zilch and you own a house in your own name and there are no kids, as a general rule you keep your house. It is a whole different kettle of fish if there is a child, or if you have, say, bought a property together. From the sounds of it, you don't plan on getting hitched up again to a Thai anytime soon. If and when you go to Thailand, pay the baht over there for a certified translation and go to the amphur, they will sort it and dirt cheap too. That's what I did. Good luck mate !

Plenty of 'em in Oz. We live in the bush these days (wifey likes quiet) and there are half a dozen in the local small town. They are only 1.2 mill baht here for the top V8 model. Spoke to a lady who has one - says it ain't economical but so far after a year has had no issues. Thai missus won't have a two door car tho.

It's like reading the story of my build - exactly the same problems ! I turned up one day and there were two workers building what appeared to be a chimney on the side of our house, right where the steps would be. It turned out that the builder had changed both the size of the turnaround/landing and the depth of the steps and needed this new 'box' on the outside to accommodate his new landing ! It was too late to change the steps back to the right depth for my size 11 UK ex-soldiers' feet as we had been to Maesai for a Non-O visa stamp, but I managed to get the landing back to size. They wanted to knock down the 'chimney' but I had them roof it and bung in a window and used it as a tool shed ! Yes eyecatcher, we loved Saraphi and if you are bored, you can view my old gaff only 50m from Wat Don Kaew, on the street with the (now covered) klong. Can't miss it - the wall has dozens of broken beer bottles set in cement on top - builders idea, not mine. Right next to the main water tower for the suburb. I reckon Cashboys place puts mine to shame, by the way. we spent 1.2 mill baht in 2008, sold it for 1.5 (worth heaps more but a fire sale) in 2013. It re-sold in 2018 for 2.4 mill. Cheers all, time for a lager. Gotta see the finished photo Cashboy !