saeb

Just to let you know that Tesco in the UK is selling 'The Damage Done' by Warren Fellows for £4.97 rather than the RRP of £7.99 at the moment.

Nice to know that a convicted heroin trafficker is making a few bob. Even on discount sales.

Crime pays.

A morality question for the fine upstanding 'hang 'em high' brigade:

What is the difference between Gary Glitter and a smack smuggler in morality terms?.

You think this guy LIKES to fill these school books in who overstays?? He is likely to prefer to shoot any farang...

I truly love this:- Remember in Chiang Mai airport in the 90's when the immigration cop shot the Italian tourists?.

Cos' his missus had legged it a foreign chap and he felt a bit hacked off about the scenario.

So, shoot a few 'farang'.

Gosh the government at the time were splendid - they 'waived' the hospital costs.

Wasn't that nice of them?.

yen-dee, yen-dee

[Accident.

Valid reasons. You will have no problem.

Delayed money Tx.

What don't have enough money to pay for an extension. Sleeping on the street?

Throw them in jail?.

joe3180 - two things come to mind; Ivory towers and glass houses.

Delayed money Tx.

What don't have enough money to pay for an extension. Sleeping on the street?

How much interest do you make on a Thai bank account?.

What happens if you are paid from abroad (other than Thailand) but have to travel within the region?.

If your company chooses to relocate you surely it is logical to keep your money supply in one fixed point and do TX to wherever you happen to be?.

For a number of reasons - robbery, scams, spending too much - people are fallible you know,

people do sometimes need an emergency money transfer.

Alas, your average humanoid isn't a software program which does exactly what it is supposed to do all the time. So - Someone ends up in the poo through circumstance and get thrown in jail?.

Hmmmm........Ivory Towers.

move the fine up to 1000 baht. who cares. i dont really see any reason why u would overstay more then 1 day... due to miscalculation. anyone who does go over that day is either lazy or just dumb and doesnt care. hel_l they should put the limit to only 1 week and throw them in jail after that. i just thought the 200 baht a day was so cheap for breaking the law. so good for them to raise the fine.

Sickness.

Accident.

Delayed money Tx.

Throw them in jail?.

joe3180 - two things come to mind; Ivory towers and glass houses.

The only way to stop corruption mate is for enough people to complain about it and that is bloody that.

I dunno if complaining will achieve anything at all, English People are always moaning about England ( and Thailand, France, USA, and just about everywhere and anything ), but England is still a dump.

If you get stiffed - 'who ya gonna call?. ghostbusters?'

I can hear it now, Mummy, Daddy, send me money.......I've been stiffed.

Sure the U.K. is a dump - but guess what?.

Just like any country if you stand on the roof tops and moan about it then those who are giving it to you you will take a few steps back. Of course they may shoot you - but ho-hum, nothing ventured nothing gained.

So - you get set up and stiffed - call your Mum. She will believe you. The Thai Judiciary may not.

Never, ever forget that you allowed a voice. If you have any guilt about spending your hard earned cash and have no ability to put you concerns into voice or writing then I suggest that maybe a refresher course at Junior school or perhaps a quick slap round the ankles to remind you that you were taught to read and write and think. Or are you one of those ' Remove brain at arrivals hall Don Muang?'.

I'm with SiamOne on this and am very surprised at how quickly people are offended when she tries to turn the table by talking about being cheated in other countries. It's as if we - as visitors - have every right to slag off our hosts (who - incidentally - have few of the economic advantages we take for granted) yet don't like getting it thrown back in your face.

A few general comments:

1) There are thieves and liars everywhere. In every culture and creed. West, east, UK, Thai . . wherever.

2) Those complaining of being ripped off a few baht in Patpong etc need to remember that if you live in a gutter it's difficult to smell anything other than s**t. If you like to spend time in those places, do you really feel any moral superiority over the mamasan who tries to stiff you out of an extra 30 baht for a drink, or a taxi driver taking you a few extra trips round the block?

3) I'd like to think that every farang here who is bitter about the rip-offs and institutional law breaking is here completely legitimately, paying all their taxes, contributing to the economy and not taking advantage of legal loopholes such as visa runs etc. All present and correct? Good stuff. And, of course, none of you have done anything to break the law like . . ummmm . . paid for the company of a girl, bought a lacoste shirt for 150 baht, or will be watching The Island on dvd tonight, right?

4) If you don't like it, stop complain and go home.

This is a poor country full of people experiencing poverty like no farang could ever imagine. Farangs come here with western money and have a lifestyle that is beyond their wildest imagination in the west.

The odd attempted scam in a sex show bar? Jeez . get over it, or get some self-respect and don't go there. A taxi driver pretending the meter doesnt work? Get out and get into the next one. A policeman demanding a fine for dropping a cigarette butt? Use the rubbish baskets and stop treating this place like your own personal playground.

Show it some respect. And then, just then, you might stop feeling so defensive and victimised.

I'll get my coat. . . . . .

Oy -numpty. Wake up - stop taking the pills for a few days.

I get ripped off in any culture or country I am allowed to state the fact that some thief tried to rip me off.

Jump on my soap box and go for it.

I've told idiots outside the Science Museum in London to get a life, I've argued with morons in Moscow, Naples, Bangkok, Lyon, Albefuira, et al who try to rip you off.

Because we might come from countries who have better social welfare - that is no need whatsoever to inflate a local economy.

A thief is a thief is a thief - and if you condone that, well, up to you.

I contribute significantly to the Thai employment figures and foreign money brought in to Thailand - within government business and there ain't no way that ripping people off in any shape form or fashion is acceptable. ' Go home' - what a clown - there is a thing in BKK called the 'Democracy Monument' - have you seen it?. Democracy arises from people being allowed to question injustices.

End of sermon.

Pip-Pip.

[3) I'd like to think that every farang here who is bitter about the rip-offs and institutional law breaking is here completely legitimately, paying all their taxes, contributing to the economy and not taking advantage of legal loopholes such as visa runs etc. All present and correct? Good stuff. And, of course, none of you have done anything to break the law like . . ummmm . . paid for the company of a girl, bought a lacoste shirt for 150 baht, or will be watching The Island on dvd tonight, right?

4) If you don't like it, stop complain and go home.

This is a poor country full of people experiencing poverty like no farang could ever imagine. Farangs come here with western money and have a lifestyle that is beyond their wildest imagination in the west.

The odd attempted scam in a sex show bar? Jeez . get over it, or get some self-respect and don't go there. A taxi driver pretending the meter doesnt work? Get out and get into the next one. A policeman demanding a fine for dropping a cigarette butt? Use the rubbish baskets and stop treating this place like your own personal playground.

Show it some respect. And then, just then, you might stop feeling so defensive and victimised.

I'll get my coat. . . . . .

Surely then you are advocating that it is o.k. to summarily execute 2,500 people on alleged drug charges without any form of court or Judicial interferance?.

Including a nine year old girl and a pregnant woman?.

Because it is a country full of people experiencing poverty etc...blah blah.

My understanding that the orders came from one of the richest people in S.E. Asia.

Has the yaa ba or heroin problem gone away?. Nope.

The only way to stop corruption mate is for enough people to complain about it and that is bloody that.

You've started a fair amount of posts here about starting a business in Thailand Billy Boy, it might be best just to forget any business ideas until you can get by as a tourist without getting ripped off so easily, coz if you get ripped off in business it'll certainly hurt your finances a lot more than 5 sticks of chicken.

It's a learning curve.

How to become bitter and twisted. Or, learn to smile whilst arguing the point.

AC/DC did the number ' Dirty Deeds done Dirt Cheap'.......Kinda like BKK.

Inverurie has a Thai restaurant? They'll be opening one in Clat next. And Inverness?

I know Aberdeen has three now and everyone seems to be doing great business.

Best of luck

There's an idea - a chain of Thai eateries in Clat, Durness, Unst and such like. Pound to a penny we'd make a fortune on the Mekhong and Saeng Som sales.

Ones in Aberdeen are really overpriced and overdecorated. Keep it simple, functional and with a fairly basic menu seems to be the way to go.

When I was inverness I went to what I thought was the best Thai restaurant in the UK. The food certainly wasn't the best - but the atmosphere was great. They set it up Riverside/Good View style (v popular Thai restaurants in Chiang Mai). They left out all the traditional stuff - buddhas, thai handicrafts, etc - and just concentrated on a good ambience. A live band, bar atmosphere - but selling Thai food.

It was exactly the sort of place I would go in Chiang Mai - it's called Thaitananny. You might be able to google more info.

Good to know that Inverness has a good one - I'll send my spies out.

Have you sen the one on the South Bridge end of Inverurie at Port Elphinstone called the Thai Temple?. Pass it right on by. I appreciate the guy's motives to keep his missus occupied and pehaps make a few bob but the food is, well, not nice.

I think that 'Oxford Thai', Cowley Road, Oxford have it just about right. No bloody great plants decorating the place, no bloody big ornaments to clutter the place up - but the food is good, reasonably priced and they wil spice it up if you ask.

Seems to work on the Keep it Simple motive.

No -this is not advertising!. Just an opinion.

Who was or is the worst foreigner you ever met in LOS?.

My favourite was the Liverpudlian (no offence Scouse) drug and rob guy who used

to hang around the Thermae & soi 7 in the early 90's.

Apparently he later tied his hands behind his back and kicked himself to death circa 96.

I met a Thai girl who had graduated from Chula, who was shagging a Swiss guy, but got pregnant by an Austrian guy, who was half Russian and half Venezuelan. When the baby popped out it probably had 4 legs.

sound like me , coz i came from that Univ... but just bloat not pregnant yet ..oh nooo..never eat any roo boy yet

Don't think there are too many 'roo boys' in Austria Bambina.

Maybe a typo - means 'root' boys.

I once skied in Switzerland, so can I ski in the Olympics and represent Thailand? Fast down hill my speciality!

Go for it!.

I'm British by birth, English by chance, I once ate some SWISS ROLL, does that qualify me to have BambinA buy the beer

Hmmmmmm.........I hitchiked across Switzerland once. I reckon she should buy me beer too. In recompense for me having to pay a fiver for a vegeatable salad.

Do I dare tell you, ok I'm Danish married to a Thai

I'm Jocklish (hang head in shame) and was married to a Thai.

Fried noodles and lemon chicken for tea I think.

I met a Thai girl who had graduated from Chula, who was shagging a Swiss guy, but got pregnant by an Austrian guy, who was half Russian and half Venezuelan. When the baby popped out it probably had 4 legs.

Downhill skiiing, vodka drinking, mountain climbing, hi-so, then?.

North British.

I've got a friend in China - do you know her?.

Name is Qi.

The whole point is to provoke a discussion about what is essentially rascism.

It is THE subject that is bound to sort out the fundamentals of how an individual views

not only his or her own culture, but also of how they view other peoples and cultures.

Certainly, Thaksin has sold off Thailand, but so have so many who have held the same office

before him.

How about Big Jeaw?. Now creeping his way back in the wings to pick up whatever he can

scavenge?.

Never, ever, forget that he was the nice chappie, who on a 'whim' decided to float the Baht

on the international market.

An ex (retired - yea sure) general who is an expert on the world financial markets?.

He did not de-value the currency he floated it.

And of course it was a farang (George Soros) who picked up the flack.

Naturally, of course, never, ever, did any of his mates know any of this beforehand and none

of them moved their money abroad to take advantage of this situation.

To think such things!.

My point was in answer to the idiot rascist meester 414 was just this - let us all have a look around

and see who gets the blame when the going gets a little difficult in a country.

Sure Thaksin will sell out - he has no personal morality concerning Thailand or the Thai people.

I presume he stills adheres to Bhuddist principles?. Well, it's his future.

But bigots and racists in any country should be wound up - it is an absolute.

To the chap or chapess who dismantled my view of English history - please get the joke.

It was written that way for a reason.

(See line one).

P.S. I am U.K. born, however I can see the faults in my native society - but BNP style rants will always make me wish to send them to work in a T.B. ward in Pakistan or Nigeria for a bit of re-education.

Not so long ago we had T.B. in this country......................One of my Mum's sisters died from it in 1943.

Thanks.

[quote name='Petra' date='2006-02-12 02:52:07' post='641435']

In australia if you overstay your visa you get locked up for years.

There was 1 case were we locked up a overstayer for more then 10 years

Strange. Why would the Australian government want to feed, house, clothe, and provide health care for a non-citizen? Why not just deport him/her? Certainly less expensive

Up here in the frozen North,(UK) the overstayers are taken to the local jail until such time as deportation. And (really this the local nickname), Craigie is pretty awful to look at from the outside.

They can stay there for for as long as it takes and in the case of the U.K. - this can take time.

Lots of time.

Things in LOS sure have changed these days - used to be it was fairly commonplace to meet folks who'd overstayed for years and didn't really worry about it.

I once had a girlfriend who whilst creating all bloody hel_l at a police station because I'd thrown her out, (gambling), kept telling the duty officer that I was 10 days over.

He couldn't care less. Threatened to put her in the monkey house for being a pain in the ar..

Don't forget - it's LOS -there will be an agenda here someplace.

Wait until a family get stiffed because one of their kids was sick and the family couldn't leave the country..................Think money ; Its always money.

Hear Hear!

And of course..........wot's her face, Vera Gin who sung all about the White Cliffs of Dover.

She liked them so much she spent her life living on the Isle of Capri.

"Ooohh how we luvved her simple little songs whilst the bombs rained down".

"Bloody Germans look wot they dun to the chippie darn the road".

Churchill loved England so much he retired to Italy.

But then again - he had enough loot not to have to live in postwar U.K.

If you ain't born within the sound of the Bow Bells then you ain't a Londoner.

Ergo - not born in the centre of the universe.

I always thought the East End was a massive slum with the inhabitants living in mostly,

squalor. Maybe Goering did them a favour?.

'Course..... the streets wus safe to walk in in them days'.

Yea, right ; The Krays were just misunderstood boys who needed a good social worker.

The needed sent off to a Siberian gulag or a Chinese re-education camp.

Or as with an unstable dog, taken out back and shot.

Great fun this!.

Oooeerrrr.....Meester P414.........studied selective history did we?.

Wasn't it something to do with them being commonwealth citizens after all?.

And, ahem, were they not recruited to fill the jobs that you fine upstanding English

chaps wouldn't lower yourselves to do?.

And after all - England is the commonwealth isn't it?. There are other wee bits in the

U.K. you know.

Do you ever go for a curry?. England's national food I believe.

Intereresting though : Just what is an Englishman?. Colonized by Danes, Saxons,

French (ha-ha-ha-ha), with a royal family descended from Germans and Hungarians

and Greeks.

Hoo-hoo - and of course James 1st was Scots. (Alas Queen Mary of Scots got stiffed

by Liz 1st - 80% French).

I remember now, English. Red roses, pug ugly dogs, Churchill fighting on the beaches, laying flowers for Diana, playing the piano in the underground whilst London burned, boring tasteless food,

and a god given right to win every football match ever.

And you should see the women...............aaaargghhh.

Brilliant ; Thank goodness for culture.

The post below is absolute rubbish - please check your time line and refresh your memory.

The traffic was stopped outside the Burmese Embassy.

They had no AK's.

No-one was hurt.

No one outside the consulate saw the hostage takers, even when they were being ferried out.

There were three helicopters and they landed in with pilots. (surprise surprise).

A politico went with them and volunteered to do so to be assured that no 'extra judicial' harm may befall them.

Some of the hostages volunteered to ride with them in case of 'extra judicial' deaths.

It was a t.v. stunt. Walk up the street a little bit - OH -surprise, surprise, JUSTMAG SEASIA.

Really.......

There was a hostage situation a couple of years ago in the Burmese embassy

The Thai police would arrive on the scene, but they didn’t close the street, due to heavy traffic. So on one side your would have 40 police, then a lot of tourist walking, some locals selling pan cakes, lots of cars, and then on there other side, hostage and hostage takers with AK47’s what a scene.

Long story short, the hostages takers demanded a helicopter to fly them and the hostages to Burma. They arrived at the field where the helicopters was placed and went inside…for a couple of minutes…then the interior minister of Thailand came to…negotiate…well the took him too.

Then they opened the door and asked where the pilots where? And the police responded that they had only asked for a helicopter….not any pilots…so they waited and a pilot came…then they went off to Burma, got out…all the hostages and the interior minister could fly home to Thailand again…the police was happy and the government was very happy. No one died and all was solved in peace…until next days newspapers made the following announcement.

Given their crap income and lack of resources to actually do what they want to do - they are o.k.

Sure, you get a bad egg in the basket - but generally they are decent human beings.

Just keep smiling.....................

On a provisional U.K. licence you cannot drive a car alone. You may drive a motorcycle up to a capacity of 124 cc but pass your motorcycle test within one year.

A provisional licence will not allow you permission for an IDP.

Do NOT try to get round this as it invalidates any insurance that you may hold and motor vehicle insurance is mandatory in the U.K.

If you lie to an insurance company and you get caught you are in deep, deep, shit.

I had this argument with lots of Chinese in the U.K. - but, sooner or later you will get caught.

Just book a date for a driving test!.

Then drive peacefully and at ease................

BBC-1 2030 hrs - 'On the fiddle'. 6/2/06.

Consider: this was filmed 2 years ago.

The staff in that particular restaurant have all been sent home.

On ' student' visas - but working 50 - 60 hours per week.

(Oh- student visa allows you to work 16 hours).

khun mii taa chai mye khun mye chop duu cheewiit.

Get real pal.

Pip-Pip.

Junkies have a choice just like any person. Nobody ever made me crash a motorcycle.

Nobody ever stuck a needle in my arm. Nobody ever force fed me liquor.

Nobody made me kill somebody.

People do get used to a substance - be it smack or drink - but most people find something more constructive to do with their life.

But, and here is the BUT: The smack he had would be sold on to further others addiction or habit.

I have known a number of junkies who have completely screwed their lives and all the others around them and they are the most selfish people going. They don't give a rat's axx if their granny is burning to death just so long as they can rescue her purse.

Ask a junkie. I am sure after a few months clean they will tell you the same.

I don't care if junkies screw themselves up, fine, up to them - it's the others they drag into their mess and have to deal with the fall out.

If a member of my family?. Tent, food, rucksack, mountains, walk, fresh air for 2 weeks and nowhere to run to.

Actually - I would really like to get a project going for people like that in Scotland and people of every race. When I was a pilot (!) I had a drink problem, but I sorted that out easily enough.

The project, well - anyone interested - shout me on [email protected]

We have lots and lots of beautiful, empty countryside to walk and camp in here.......

What about the person who got addicted to drugs in Thailand. He/she was so strung out that he didn't know the risks, or was so sick that they would do anything to get a fix.

Drug addicts are bad people?

I think that they are sick people. After reading some responses in this thread, I wonder what some people would do if their own family member(son or daughter) got into this mess. Would they still have the same opinion?

Have any of the som nam na crowd ever been addicted to drugs?