Aussiepeter

Hey Bangkok Barry and Dr Jack - Your comments on Hungarian/Oz Immigration are interesting, to me at least. My brother (now retired) was a senior public servant in Centrelink (the dole office in Oz) and was sent to Hungary at Oz govt. expense (yes we taxpayers paid for it) to set up their dole/welfare system, some years ago just before his retirement. He was there for a year. He told me that it was a fantastic place (who knew) and, that their immigration system in particular seemed to be geared to helping people and attracting foreign retirees, but was really painless to go through. Their social welfare system is based on the Oz model, so they have the dole for those really in need (and a few bludgers too I guess). Sounds like the total opposite of LOS ha ha ! I also note that the report says that 'both the Oz and NZ govt. have made overtures to the Thais to open up for visitors from both places ASAP". Useless for me/us if there are no airlines flying in or out of Oz. 

Looking in from the outside, it is 2200 hours in Oz, freezing cold and I have turned on a heater. I have also just opened another of my $2 a can (40 baht) real Oz (large) beers and reflected on all the news on T Visa. Missus speaks to her extended family in C Mai almost daily - they are all hurting financially but I can't help, as the boss says "there are far too many of them and anyway they are all lazy" - (but the MIL sure aint included, 'cos I sent her 50K baht last week, but that's a secret). Once every ten months - no sooner. Even Thais can keep secrets from their own families. Our farm is just outside a tiny town with two pubs. Both are still shut although they could open if they wanted, but the govt. Covid-19 limit of a maximum ten patrons at a time is useless. Nobody drinks seriously in pubs here anymore - the police breathalyser presence killed that years ago, - it is about meeting friends and having a cheap healthy meal. Covid -19 ? Not a single confirmed case in over a hundred miles (160 kilometres) since we locked down in February. Almost all cases in NSW can be linked to returning overseas travellers, mostly from cruise ships. I pity all my friends in the bar business in LOS - as others have said, it is almost as if a blanket ban on alcohol consumption in LOS has been quietly implemented, by stealth. Although the boss says she will never return to Thailand, I would like to at least visit sometime if flights ever return, as I spent half my life there and still have many friends living there, most being too old, too settled in or just too poor to leave. However, I think the LOS that many of us grew up with and adored for all the wrong reasons, is finished - or at best, changed completely for ever.

Just read that bit by another poster who said that childbirth in LOS costs about 100,000 baht. Utter rubbish. My lovely half-Thai daughter was born in a government hospital in Chiang Mai and even with me paying the salaried doctor to see us as a private patient, the cost was well under twenty thousand baht, including five nights in there in a shared room. I just asked the missus - she said 'doubt it would be over 4OK baht even with a private room'. Hmm. Of course, I do speak Thai and was a local then, but still ...

Mate - get a grip on yourself. You have absolutely no proof at all that this girl is even pregnant at all ! Sorry, but you sound very young and totally inexperienced in the scheming, nasty, liar ways of a greater majority of Thai bar girls.

I knew one bar girl in Chiang Mai in the early 1990's who was engaged to eight different guys at the same time and was being sent money by all of them, plus about half a dozen more, every month ! We locals called her "Miss International" at the time. I was in C Mai last year and ran into her - now nearly fifty, but still running a bar and still 'playing the game' of business as usual. That's just the way they are my friend. In her case, Miss "I" made sure to never date any two blokes from the same country. Of course, she eventually got found out - her geography failed her as it were. (Two nearby Scandinavians who were mates). Firstly, they ALL play emotional blackmail and you fell for it. I know I certainly did thirty years ago - that is how you learn. She is a hooker - it is her job to lie. Do NOT look for love in a bar in Asia, 'cos it sure ain't there, 99% of the time. You owe her nothing. If and when you can get back to Thailand and if she will even see you (chances are high that she is probably not pregnant at all) then you can get a DNA test on the child, if, that is, she has one (a 'new' one that is) at all. You and thousands of others have lost their jobs due to Covid-19. You were 'an easy mark' and a meal ticket - now the money has stopped she is showing her real tigers' teeth. By my calculations you will be about the one millionth bod to have even believed this scam, by the way. Of course, she may just be in the other 1% - but as someone heavily involved in horse racing - "the odds are weighted against you". Move on. You had a bonk or two, nothing else. (Hope I did not waste 30 minutes on a troll) ...

When I first married my missus twenty years ago I was flat broke and used the last of my $ after the wedding party to buy a new Honda Dream 100cc in Chiang Mai -I still recall the exact cost - 36,400 baht on the road from Niyom Panich. As I have been riding big bikes all my life and no offence to her, I always (and still do) put her on the back behind me unless, as another poster said, "I am a little under the weather". One day I asked her (after noticing the odd Thai or two giving us strange looks) "what do they think about you being on a motorbike with a farang ?" She answered "half of them think I am a prostitute, the other half are jealous" ! Pretty fair comment really, given that she was a locksmith at the time and had never set foot outside the family business). Like many on here have said, 'up to you but don't read too much into Thais looking at you', anytime. Just enjoy the fun of being on a motorbike, with a lady.

Heh Stadtler, I think you mean a '78 Holden Statesman Caprice, as in 1968 it would have been an HK and thus only a Kingswood or Premier (sorry, I'm a Holden guy), - the V8 Statesman was ten years later. (I also saw that TV guy warm a pie on a Statesman block). The whole lot in the foil, into the ashes, takes less time and tastes a lot better. Just sayin'. Of course, my Koori mates barbecue just about anything here in Oz, especially during lockdown. I suspect the monitor lizard though is cold-blooded like many reptiles and, was simply warming himself on the donk, just as many snakes do in Australia and lots of folks find out, usually the hard way after parking overnight in the bush ! 

Don't know about the scam, but I just enlarged that picture and if that lady scammer is not from "the Indian sub-continent" some place, well, I am lost in the jungle. Whatever, her roots are definitely not in LOS. Even the darkest Isaan lass has no skin that dark and her frame, well, it sure is not your average Thai lady, not even a fat one.

Many on this forum may not be aware that these alcohol rules started during the reign of a certain allegedly corrupt Telecom king, who now lives in exile. I used to take the wife out for lunch at a Suki restaurant in C Mai at least two or three times a week. We'd relax, cook and eat at the table and I'd enjoy a large beer with my lunch. I am not an alcoholic (though some who remember me may beg to differ). Then came some stupid inane change in law, whereby you could only buy alcohol between 1100 - 1400, then it could not be sold till after 1700. Supposedly, the law was changed to prevent schoolchildren accessing alcohol before or after school, (when parental supervision was minimal). It made no difference whatsoever, other than to destroy the jobs of thousands of Thais who worked in the alcohol industry. As many on here who live in LOS are aware, if you want a drink then every mum and pop shop in the country will sell you one, whatever the hour. Money is the only thing Thais understand universally. Age of the customer seldom even comes into the equation. Sometimes we'd go to Big C after I finished work, at about 1600. The missus would shop and I would enjoy a cold draught beer or two, served by 'pretties' promoting the various brands. It hurt nobody. Instantly stopped by a stroke of the pen and all these folks lost their jobs. As for the Suki place - same deal - I wanted to have a beer with my meal (and still be safe to drive) but now could not. They lost my custom and that of hundreds of other customers. The place used to be packed from 1200 - 1500 and sometimes no table was available. Now it's almost empty all the time. Don't even start me on why I now had to plan on being at Makro at a certain time on payday to get my drink supplies for the house. I miss many things about LOS, but not their stupid alcohol sales rules/hours - or the current people running the place. 

An educated guess would be that as Thai kids can now get their Thai ID card (but-pa-sha-shon) at either age 7 or 8 (it's one of those) years old, they can also open a bank account as I am pretty sure that is all you need to open one if you are Thai. I am guessing that a parent or guardian would need to assist. As an aside, our daughter can't get her first Thai ID card until such time as she returns to LOS, as they only issue renewals, not originals, at Embassies outside of Thailand.

Sorry, but I'm with Baerboxer on this subject "a thief is a thief is a thief" fullstop. An exceptionally good thief, is still a thief. One of my ex BG girlfriends said to me during an argument once "yes, I am a hooker, but high class" - to which I responded "there is no such thing." A hooker is a hooker. Fourteen years after he got away with it, I wish this clown would just crawl off under a rock someplace. The missus' family all live in C Mai and can't stand him. Rare, that, in CM.

That's OK Lacessit, given your age you will remember that Carlton gave Peter McKenna a run in a Grand Final in the early 70's after Collingwood sacked him, when he lost a kidney after being struck and they were scared of it happening again. Carlton took him on - they just put in the contract that 'no pay for kidney damage' clause. He kicked the winning goal in that game for Carlton and they won the Premiership, against Collingwood ! What a star he was, for both clubs.

Geez Lacessit, your life in Oz mirrors mine a lot. I paid off 2 houses in ten years - then I came home and found the ex bonking some thick, uneducated and totally broke loser. I lost one house and had to buy the second one again, in order to pay her off. She and the turd lost the lot. I chuckle when my son from that marriage (who incidentally adores his half-Thai sister) told me they are both now nearly 70 and are in debt for a quarter mil $AUD mortgage. She will be stu**ed when he dies, as they live on his pension. Yeh, it could be a lot worse. Gotta go, my lunch is getting cold. I got a BBQ pork strip (moo-ping) at the local supermarket here in Oz - for $10 (200 baht). Missus nearly had a fit ! You know ... blah blah "you can get about 8 for that price in LOS etc etc."  ('But darling, we can't go to LOS at the moment') ....

I/we are riding it out just fine, given that my retired (ex-Army) pension was designed to support one person, not three. Wouldn't have it any other way though - 20 years married to a Thai - we both should get a medal of some sort ! I agree with you Lacessit, I love AFL but as I'm a life-long Carlton supporter, the last 25 years have been lean, to say the least. When hit with the "you get a point for missing" thing, I always respond with "toughest game in the world - no other type of footy makes you play for two hours a game" ! I like reading your comments too Colin, plus I also like rugby - took the missus to the world rugby sevens in Chiangmai about 15 years ago, - she loved it. If there is nothing else, I like soccer too and am a lifetime supporter of Liverpool. Waited 40 odd years and then Covid comes along and robs us/me. As someone else said they are all football - just friendly rivalry between codes. As for Covid 19, my 98 y.o. ex WW11 fighter- pilot dad says "the chinks have a lot to answer for." He thinks the whole world should declare war on them but at his age, I suppose it would be exciting. He is going bonkers on his own during lockdown (pi**ed every day). 

Not entirely relevant, but one of the missus' friends in C Mai named her daughter 'Beer' and her son 'Soda'. Nong 'Beer' is a uni student and is more than a bit "fresh" - or to put it better, is rather pleasant on the eye so to speak. She also doesn't mind enjoying a beer with a farang, as long as he buys it ! 

I don't know why, but after reading all that I recalled a sign I saw in a butcher shop when I was a child. It read (in small print) 'Pleased to meet you' and under it (in very large print) 'Meat to please you.' Methinks this is what 'Tinder' is all about - is it not ?  

I too frequented Lucky Bar in C Mai for years and I have known the lovely lady owner since 1989. She is a close friend and she speaks English and several European languages fluently - my first Thai wife was her best friend. (She did say it would not last - sadly she was right). A skilled businesswoman, she would probably see the funny side of what she would no doubt call "free advertising". She did say one interesting thing to me some years ago though - (we were talking about all the filth and corruption and how polluted the air in C Mai had become) and she commented that "Thailand is a throw-away country, a place just-for-fun, - as a Thai you make all your money here, then you just retire and go live some place better." The thing is though - she could have retired and left LOS many years ago, but she still lives there. Chog Dee little lady.

I think the poster's just lonely, but I have to look at the irony of this from a personal point of view. I once had a landlady in C Mai decline to renew my lease on a condo, just because I had developed the habit of bringing home several different pussies each week. These pussies only ever stayed one night, never damaged anything (except perhaps my wallet) and they all left in the morning. Guess it's all in the interpretation ?  

A lot of valid comments on this post and a few a little off topic too, but I'll add my bit. I think Spidermike is spot on, along with a few others. I used to visit the particular hotel on this thread for a feed when in Bangkok and a good one it was. No-one is going to be travelling anywhere at any time, for a very long time (or they wouldn't all be parking-up their aircraft in Australian desert airports) and all because of C-19. Added to that, there are enough very credible Thai horror stories on the internet now to make a best-selling TV series that would run considerably longer than MASH ever did ! My Thai wife says she is never going back. (First time she's made real sense in over twenty years). She said she never wants to risk her life or that of her family ever again just by going outside and being asphyxiated by air pollution, or risking death or injury just by driving in to town. No more BIB b/s, no more visa runs - just lots of lovely clean air and safe food. She's a farang now, after seven years out of LOS. I'm not sure I like it, but she is. Thailand - the one I fell in love with over thirty years ago that is - sadly, is finished. 

Many thanks Berkshire for the prompt response and as an ex UK soldier I/we love your user name. Cheers, - I'll have a cold ale for you, especially as I hear it's getting a little difficult to imbibe in LOS at the moment. For the record, no case of C-19 within 60klms (35 miles) of our little town in NSW Oz, but hundreds elsewhere in the State. Killed almost all elderly residents in one aged care home in Sydney. Nothing like the UK though. Thanks again.

Can anyone, particularly in the Mae Hia market area, confirm that the Bangkok Bank is still open ? The MIL is fast running out of cash and we want to send a few baht to her but no point if she can't go to the bank ! (We are in Oz). Thanks in anticipation.