jts-khorat

The mind boggles why people would do this, in a foreign country, with a jail system known to be quite uncomfortable. I can understand crimes of passion or crimes of opportunity, but this was obviously planned -- over a motorcycle worth less than 10,000 euro. Why?! At least he did not kick anybody...

My condolences to his family, may he rest in peace. During my first years in Thailand, his column was a weekly mainstay for me, even though I was not actually in Bangkok or Pattaya at the time. This was right before arrival of the internet, possibly the reason to why it gave such a strong feeling of belonging to some kind of "expat community" he informed us all about. I am sad to hear of his passing, another small facet of my own life during my youth gone from the world.

A sturdy stick, dogs know what it is from sight. Also making a hitting or throwing motion, even with an empty hand, will make them flee. However, if there are several of them, they will remember and the clever ones will try to get you from the back. If it is always the same dogs, and the owner in the village is known, having him chat with you friendly in sight of the dogs will also make them remember that you are 'part of the allowed circle'. With street dogs, this option obviously does not exist.

Indeed, the original poster voiced so many horrible opinions in one post, it can only be a wind-up in this enlightened day and age: 1) taking agency away from women for their life decisions 2) ageism; weirdly against only the males (why would they be less capable?) 3) body shaming; even if outer appearance would not be optimal, are they lesser people for it? 4) being born in Italy makes the OP somehow wiser, so he can give advice to the natives? That is rank with post-colonialism I think, the OP can only be a troll post, persiflaging all the bad opinions we all have left behind. I think such a post does not deserve of the "respect" this person orders us to have of him.

Still, the decision of a consenting adult. Her body, her decision, is it not? This at least was what feminism fought hard for during the last 50 years.

What a weird thing to say. Are you telling us that women of a young or any age do not have agency to decide what is best for them? You make it sound as if they need a mentor to guide them through life, and basically a slave to their waning reproductive system. I thought we have left this world view in the 1970s.

I am German and I was completely unaware of it. So I would not put too much weight on it, that some person in the UK also does know nothing of this. Interesting tidbit from the wikipedia article, 'transsexual' as an expression is actually a German invention, the concept a German definition. I wonder how man transsexuals know that they are basically a category framed during the Weimar Republic.

It is those same locals who make the really big amounts of money that can be earned in a concentrated amusement mile. Property prices for those who own are astronomic. Nobody would want to change that. But this is not just Bangkok: as many city planners around the world have found, better to have the 'amusement zone' concentrated, than a noisy bar here or a loud disco there. Also much easier to police, as this is for obvious reasons also always a crime hotspot (maybe this will change one day, if weed instead of alcohol would become the preferred drug in usage).

Is your 'grow up' also hypothetical, partially joking? You are quite the joker, it seems. If not, let it then be known as fact, that with my wording "another one who doesn't know" I must have been very obviously joking in the same way as you, as *everybody* knows this already, no? Or are you maybe also one of those pesky adolescents? Good that we cleared that up, like the future mature adults we both likely will be.

To sit for years in IDC, on top of whatever conviction he gets, until he somehow gets the money he did not have before to pay for a flight extremely inflated in price? What kind of sense does that make?

Not having the money for a flight back and trying to achieve a deportation will probably lead to the worst possible outcome for anybody. Western embassies will not help, if you are convicted of a violent act, besides consular assictance during your time in IDC (however long that will take, I heard of literally years). And this is what Ubonjoe wrote about this: https://aseannow.com/topic/1095179-who-pays-when-your-deported/

Another one who does not know how deportation works. The flight back home is not free, quite the opposite.

Ouch! It would be interesting, who really backs Phuket Peninsula Estate Co. and the 100 Rai of beachfront land they acquired (and are seemingly about to loose completely). One thing is for sure, it is unlikely to just be their director, Pimphan Surintarangkul, who has doen little but play golf if one looks up the name. Either way, steaming * has hit the fan and is about to fly around. Latest now it really does not matter any more, if the Swiss man can settle with the doctor.

I am not sure I understand the outrage. LSD is not a drug with a high addiction potential like Ya Ba. For example, there are forms of LSD that are currently (still) legal in Germany (1v-LSD); they are a biological precursor, which means, that they are converted in the body after consumption to the regular LSD-25. There are shops where you can buy it openly, or you get it sent by post. On a quick assumption, this would be a fairly easy way to also have it arrive in Thailand, if not carried right in luggage. 75 sheets is merely the size of a small paper notepad, and it is an odorless drug, so basically zero risk of attracting any attention during transport. On top of it, if it is not actual LSD-25 but one of the pre-drugs, I would be unsure if it is even on the list of forbidden substances in Thailand; you need a fairly good laboratory to determine this. I guess the court case will tell us. I am a lot less sure about the 25 extacy pills, but even if one counts 5 months of dealing activity, this is a fairly small amount he finally got caught with. They also would have quite the small volume and fit in a tiny plastic bag, so to me this still sounds like somebody who brought a stash with him to finance his holiday. Quite stupid, sure, but hardly the crime of the century or a major dealer by any imagination. This is something where I would guess that Thai police is much more knowledgeable and that dealing with recognizable "pills" was what got this guy caught.

Whenever I come back to Phuket, it is strictly holiday only. It is fun for a week, but then it just starts to press on my nerves. Maybe I am older, maybe it really is a lot less fun than a decade++ ago.

Quite daring, to write such a statement...

You would not wonder if you knew how well connected the father of the doctor is, not just on Phuket, but particularly there. Have your wife read you some of his entries from his Facebook page. He obviously, as a decade-long political activist, knows exactly how to start a very effective media campaign and how to energize the locals. https://www.facebook.com/chaiyachot.uttamang/ Nothing wrong with that, if that was my daughter, I would do exactly the same. The Swiss man rejected the offer of apologizing before calling the police himself, so he really brought this unto himself. But of course, as many here stated, this is a class thing. First, of the Swiss guy threatening with his "good connections", only to be steamrolled by the Thai side he attacked with their infinitely better ones. "Som nam na" comes to mind (however deportation seems a bit too strong a resolution for it). My guess: it will not actually end in deportation; but the pound of flesh will be a considerable amount and it can be doubtful, if the business of the Swiss man can go on like this. This reminds me very much of the owner of Shark Disco in Patong, all too many years back -- at the time by far the most successful place at Soi Bangla and the blueprint for all later discos to follow. After being publicly in the face of the local business interests, that disco never opened up after again, with quite the media campaign preceding its quick demise.

It does not seem that you have followed local news a lot. We are well, well beyond that stage...

You do live there and you want your stay be more comfortable (socially and emotionally). Having a chit chat would be the normal human repsonse to this really not complicated issue. Of course, if you are somebody better than them, go on and be all bothered about them looking at you. My guess is, wherever you live, you will have similar issues, because a change of place to stay still brings yourself in your head with it. So you do you -- but let's not forget, it was you who came here and asked for advice.

Believe me, in Thailand they do as well. After all the talking about all of their last and future meals, so with luck we rank very far down the list. But why not have a nice chat with them when leisure time allows? Thais are very friendly and their job is boring as hell, so they will appreciate it. Would make the weird feeling of the OP go away as well, his mind state might improve with more social/human interaction.

You misunderstand. The woman lost face, very publicly, and her father is extremely well connected with business interests on Phuket, with national media and politics. Serious offense has been taken, so a pound of flesh will be taken. Believe me, on Phuket there is currently little more newsworthy than this, with so many prominent figures now having taken public positions. One could discuss, if this will go too far for the actual crime committed, for example the local chief of immigration has already publicly stated that the Swiss guy will be deported if found guilty of this assault. This is quite the heavy opening gambit, isn't it? He is simply toast, or in the best scenario will be a lot poorer after this when the dust has settled (that it might go in this direction is suggested by the statement of the doctor, that she will spend all money of any settlement to "beach beautification" on Phuket, which will spread the love locally; a very artful Thai solution, mehinks).

Threatening somebody to get shot, believably, in front of a witness (there were two women) and then going on to threaten them further in presence of police would make this quite the bother also in a Western country. As would attacking somebody from behind and unprovoked, which proves malice. The added dimension in Thailand is, that he quoted his 'big' connections, but there he is very, very obviously outgunned. Here, obviously, the outcome will be a lot harsher than in a western coutnry -- but if you try to use 'connections', you should/would be well aware that this could backfire this way.

😕 Is English your first language? Your question does not make any sense, it is immediately obvious that I do not. And indeed you are linking to the same Facebook account that I did, so your post does not bring any added value to mine either. 😕

If anybody wants to witness how a tsunami of negative public opinion is created, really artfully and in the span of mere hours, you can have a look at the Facebook page of the father of the doctor that got assaulted. It is all in Thai, but pictures speak a thousand words. https://www.facebook.com/chaiyachot.uttamang/ As I mentioned in a post in the other thread, in Thailand your good connections are only worth something if the other side does not have better ones. This guy, if you go through his older posts long before the incident, has good connections... a poet, experienced with national media, decade-long political activist, and on top of that, birds nests are a gigantic business on Phuket right going back into "old money". This Swiss guy really did pick a fight with the wrong Thai girl on his steps and by insisting that he will not apologize in presence of the police called after the incident, has opened the gates to hell. A very good lesson on how not to behave in Thailand. I will find it very instructive, how this thing will end, making a public apology likely does not scratch the surface of effort necessary to get this under control for the Swiss guy (and he still has not realized it, if one listens to what he said).

Supplementing might be necessary, if the diet really does not provide enough magnesium, I give you that. However, 100g cooked rice has 12mg, ground pork 30 etc -- something like snapper has even 40 mg/100g. With two or in Thailand even three full hot meals and a varied healthy diet, I see little problem for any foreigner here hitting 400mg of magnesium if there follows 100mg of it in a green smoothie at evening time. The benefit of the smoothie would be, that it makes the magnesium in its natural context easily consumable at an amount one would rarely incorporate normally (who eats 2-3 bananas every evening indeed?). Either way, if worried, I would rather eat pumpkin seeds as a snack on top of my normal diet and evening smoothie, which are very easily and cheaply bought in Thailand, than having a (cheap) supplement with likely very little bioavailability.