Aussiepeter

As others have commented, it's a reticulated python of about average size for over there. It always amazed me as a child that snakes could swim, but being raised in the bush in Australia, I've seen it all. I used to have a Thai hill-tribe wife many years ago, so I saw (and ate) plenty of snakes, though python was seldom on the menu, thank goodness. Where we live now in the northeast of NSW in Oz, there's a lot of uncleared rainforest/jungle, which those who grow a certain illicit 'weed' like, as it conceals their activities. This area is known for the quality of its' weed the world over. The locals often comment on the huge pythons they encounter when "out in the rainforest" as this area gets some of the biggest carpet pythons known to mankind - 5m long is usual and I've seen them 6m+ several times. Our 90 y.o. nearly blind lady neighbour had one eat several of her hens last year, before the govt. bloke came round and re-located it. We are going into summer here and already, the "greenies" are asking locals to watch out for giant pythons crossing the road, as like most nasty critters in Australia, snakes are protected and there are heavy fines for messing with them. Yes, they make nice belts too, but then, that's illegal ...

Many thanks to Sir Trans for this information. My best friend from the many years I lived in LOS, the late David Francis, married his Thai wife in 1999 at the Amphur in Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai. Some on here may remember him as the author of numerous articles about LOS in tourist magazines around that time. He actually survived in LOS on a UK Army pension of only 100 GBP a month, for eighteen years - some sort of record ! He had been a corporal at one time in HM Royal Marines, but the rest of his pension had been garnisheed for some reason. He supplemented his pension by teaching English to hill tribe kids under the Royal Project. I was still a serving Officer when I met him in 1994 and I helped him whenever I could, as he was such a decent bloke. He died aged 66 after a massive stroke in 2008, but had told my wife and I that his wife would inherit his army pension. His wife moved away shortly after his death and I have often wondered if she indeed got that pension, as she had never been to the UK and spoke no English whatsoever. I believe she did have help in applying for it in 2008, but I was 'away' working and never heard about the outcome. Although his wife spoke no English, David had taught himself central Thai and spoke it well, but with a broad cockney accent - even I had difficulty understanding him when he spoke Thai ! From the sounds of it, his Thai widow may have got the pension right up until 2020. I hope so - she was a widow earning 80 baht a day peeling garlic when he met her. A true Thai love story - they had 10 very happy years together.

Regarding comments here on the AZ vaccine and side effects- I had my first AZ jab two weeks ago. Apart from a sore arm just as I always get from any jab, all I felt was a bit tired for a couple of days. I treated that symptom in the appropriate Australian fashion, with numerous cold beers, taken therapeutically, of course. My 99 y.o. ex WW2 fighter-pilot father has had both AZ jabs and, tells me that he experienced no side effects whatsoever. He also told me that he quit drinking alcohol this year, at the suggestion of his new (Asian) GP, who told him that at his age alcohol consumption may shorten his life, but that is another subject entirely. Personally, I'd have told the doctor to ....

I think in Australia it depends not only on how early you got in, but also where you are. We are in a small country town in Nth Eastern NSW, which has its' own hospital. Up until about three weeks ago, they couldn't give AZ away in this State as many were scared of the well-reported side effects. As I'm over sixty & could only get AZ, I initially decided to hang out for the Pfizer jab, especially as we have been pretty much isolated from covid in this area since the start. Once Covid-delta got out of control & started spreading like an Aussie bushfire & folks started dying, even slackers like me got on the wagon. We are only 600M from the local hospital, so I called and got my first AZ jab the following week, which was exactly 2 weeks ago. My Thai wife is 49, so she qualifies for the Pfizer vax. I called the government covid clinic in the nearest city & she indeed was given a date in late September for her first shot. After booking it, I then called the local hospital (which I should have done first) and she was able to get her first Pfizer jab the next day - yet we are only 40klms from the city with the longer waiting time ! Covid-delta is out of control here now and we have been in lockdown for two weeks, with more to come for sure. Over a thousand new cases here in NSW yesterday and three deaths, including a lass aged only thirty. I get my second AZ jab in October & my wife gets her second Pfizer in the second week of September. Our daughter turns twelve in February & the govt here is now saying they will offer the Pfizer jab to every kid over 12, as children are catching this latest strain at an alarmingly high rate. Stay safe everyone !

Like Pharoticus, I got my family out in 2013 after I'd lived in LOS for more than 20 years, when I saw the writing on the wall. On the topic at hand - what's the big deal ? That 104 million baht is only a bit over $4 mil AUD - hardly a fortune, even by Thai standards. I've accumulated almost that much in my lifetime, all of it legally. As others have said, he probably never declared it all anyway - who would in LOS ? He's small fry. House/land prices are so bad here in Oz, that my modest 3 bedroom 100 y.o. shack on 10 acres cost me over twenty million baht. By comparison, the two storey place I sold in C Mai was three times as big, but only cost 1.5 mil baht. It is all relative, but, you can breath the air here.

I too lived in Thailand when Thaksin was in power & just as the this poster has said, Thaksin was rotten to the core. I gave up trying to convince Thais (and farang) in Chiang Mai who adored him, that he was a total scumbag. I'd bang my head on the wall, yet I am one of the few expats who made it my business to not only learn to speak, read and write 'Phasaa Klang' (the Thai language taught in schools - also known as Central Thai) near-fluently, but also to learn to speak the language of the North, known as 'Phasaa Nuea' or, "Cum-Muang" (district language), as that was what my wife & family speak. Back in his time, Thaksins' company sold a satellite to the Burmese government for what I believe was reported as some $500 ? million USD - only the Burmese didn't have the cash, so 'Mr T' settled for $75 ? million USD in cash - and then gave the Burmese a "soft" loan on the Thai government for the remainder. Any further comment on the man would be superfluous. Thailand will NEVER change. After living there for around thirty years I know it and, after eight years in Oz breathing clean pure air and becoming an Australian citizen who now speaks educated English, my wife surely knows it, as she has told all and sundry that she is NEVER going back to LOS, other than perhaps to visit the MIL for a few days when covid is gone. She fears for her friends' back in Chiang Mai, but not enough to lose any sleep over it whatsoever. She is Thai, after all.

Oh my goodness - a new level of stupidity that even I, after some 30 years in LOS (before I left for good) find hard to believe, seems to have surfaced. Truly 'Amazing Thailand'. Outstanding.

Absolutely. I'm almost sure this is a .22 airgun pellet - the mushroom head type. Looks too big for a .177. When I lived in the 'boonies' up near Chiang Dao in the late 90's, I did a visa run to Laos with the the now ex-wife and we saw some AK47 lookalike (folding stock) Chinese single-shot airguns for sale for 2000 baht. She came home with one. Very powerful - left the old British Diana .177 from my youth for dust. This chap is lucky it never severed his carotid artery, or he'd be toast. Ours was sold on to the "Pu Yai Baan" only a few days later - (far too nasty a thing to be in a house with a Thai woman).