KhaoYai

Any business that offers sex for money and has more then 1 person working in it is illegal according to UK law. A single girl, operating alone is not illegal but if anyone else is involved they can be charged with living off immoral earnings. Granted, it can be difficult to obtain a conviction - especially if the offender has a good lawyer but convictions do happen. As long as there's no nuisance, the police tend to turn a blind eye to it but the old Winston's was really pushing it - being located where it was with flashing neon signage.

It undoubtedly goes on but I suspect nowhere near as much as is claimed. I remember a few years ago in Leeds, UK when the locally famous 'Winstons' massage facility (for want of a better word) was finally raided and closed down. I say famous because such businesses are illegal in the UK and this place grew from a small back street house to a massive mock tudor decorated building, The business, complete with large neon signage, stood in the middle of a large traffic island, very close to the city centre on a major arterial road. They were pushing their luck to say the least. There were quite a few Thai girls working there at the time, my wife and I had met some of them at local Thai gatherings and restaurants. They were all free to come and go as they liked and the ones we got to know had all entered on tourist visas and simply overstayed. They seemed quite proud of the fact that they'd 'played' the UK immigration system. When the raid took place, strangley they all claimed their passports had been taken until the debt they owed the owners for getting them to the UK and providing accommodation etc. was paid. They'd been promised jobs as domestics etc. but had to sell themselves to pay off their debt. Poor things.

I'm not sure why you are quoting my post here. Of course a buyer should check all the things you mention - I was just pointing out the legality.

There is no definitive answer to this question. You can't put all girls in the same box, everyone has a different personality, outlook, etc. but there is one thing that covers - I'd guess 99% of bar girls - social background. On the subject of marrying a bar girl - again, everyone's different but you also have to consider the difference in thinking/attitude along with all the other differences between Asian and Western cultures. I guess it depends on what you think constitutes a 'marriage'. Many Westereners are still of an age where they think marriage is about love and starting a family. I gave up on that BS many years ago. In Asian culture there is a strong leaning towards finding a partner that can support a girl financially. In general males are more financially well off and stable when they are older, which is probably why many Asian girls are prepared to marry a much older guy. In reality, I don't think they are much different to other girls when you take away cultural influences. You or I will no doubt have been a 'hansum man' many times when walking through the bar areas - but have you ever seen the girls go wild when some good looking young blue eyed Westerner walks by? I was in Suvarnabhumi once when a popular K Pop band were passing through. There were literally thousands of screaming young Asian girls thronging the entire airport, trying to get a glimpse of the idols. So, in an ideal world, who do you think they would choose? I remember being out on a stag night in Pattaya many years ago when a girl, well actually a woman around 35 years old who was dancing on stage asked me if she could sit down. I bought her one drink and we chatted. I made it clear that I would not be taking her out of the bar as I was married at the time. This girl was very good looking and had a lovely figure, I'm sure she could be 'busy' every night if she chose to be. After the drink I bought her, she (secretly) paid for her own - she said she didn't want to get back on the stage and she did indeed pay for the drinks when I left - without being reminded. We chatted for around an hour and she explained that she'd first gone to work in a bar when she was in her early 20's. Within a couple of months she'd met a Westerner in his 40's, they married and he took her back to his country where they had a child together. The marriage didn't work out and broke up after a few years. That explained her very reasonable English. She eventually ended up back in Thailand with her child and had worked in a factory for long hours sending money back to her parents for her kid. She'd grown tired of that and decided to return to bar work to look for yet another Western husband. This girl was, I believe, being honest and genuine with me, she knew I wasn't going to take her out, she also knew that I was married - she simply wanted a rest from jigging back and forth, holding the pole on the dance floor (I'm sure you've all seen that one) and I think she found it easy to talk to me. She knew I knew the game so didn't seem to be holding anything back. I don't think she was too bothered how old or ugly a guy was, just as long as he could support her and treat her reasonably. She told me that she would move abroad when she met her future husband but expected to be back in Thailand before she was 50. I'm not going to say that's the norm, I couldn't possibly claim that everyone's the same but there's one example of an Asian girl's outlook on life and I believe such attitudes extend outside the world of the bar girl. When my own Thai wife and I were together in the UK we would often get invited to gatherings with other Thai/Foreign couples for birthdays etc. Most of the husbands had never bothered to learn Thai and my wife didn't join in the female conversations much as she was a bit snobby and didn't get along with some of the girls - she only went along for the Thai food really ????. The other girls didn't therefore get to know that I spoke enough Thai to understand a lot of what they talked about. Most of these girls were ex bar girls and had met their husband through their work. Their conversation was almost entirely about how much money their husband's had, how big their house was and how much gold he had bought them. I can't remember a single one of them talking about how happy they were but I do remember several saying the same as my 'bar friend' above told me - they didn't expect to live in the UK permanently. They mostly seemed to be clear that they would eventually end up back in Thailand and one openly stated that she would be going back to her Thai ex husband!! Sounds awful doesn't it - these girls just see us as a way to live reasonably and being in farangland as just a way of accumulating as much wealth as they can before eventually returning to Thailand. What really surprised me was that a couple of years ago I told this story to my Thai mate. He's a young, educated guy, married and has a a 3 year old child. He told me that the situation is much the same in Thailand with Thai/Thai marriages but he introduced one possible explanation. In Thailand - social mobility, the ability to cross the class/income divides is very rare for the uneducated. In general, born poor/stay poor and expect that. So marrying their way out of that trap is a route that a good few uneducated girls go down. So what does this have to do with taking the bar out of the girl? I think its just one small part of explaining the cultural differences - there are many more and some that I can't even start to understand. I think however that before even considering taking the girl out of the bar, we would do well to understand why that girl is in the bar in the first place. Why she's often prepared to accept a man that is much older than her and may not be too bothered about his looks. What would they want in an ideal world? I think my description of what happens when a good looking young foreigner walks through a bar area goes a long way to answering that. I'm not even going to try and tackle the mental scarring such work can leave on a girl or those that may occur in the future - that's way above my pay grade. To be honest, with the benefit of age and the experience of several failed relationships. I think that an 'arrangement' with an ex bar girl may have its advantages - providing we both understand that it is simply an arrangenment. For my side, I would get a much younger partner than I would normally, a partner that is not a 'starfish' and has 'experience' and I wouldn't be kidding myself that she 'loved' me. For her, well she'd be taken care of and that's probably all she wants. That's getting more and more attractive as the years go by.

??? If he forms a Thai Ltd Co. The company can own the land and the building that sits on it. The company can be structured in such a way that his shares are the only ones that carry the ability to control the company so in effect, he would be the owner. The % of the company shares in foreign ownership may be less at some Land Offices. That is not much of an impediment as things stand currently as long as the company is structured properly. A decent Thai lawyer will know how to do create such a company. However, to be legal, the company needs to actually trade - not one of those flaky ones that just pay tax. If held up to scrutiny, the company should also have a reason to own the land. If it can be shown that the company was solely formed as a way for a foreigner to own land - then its illegal. As this is a commercial property it would be reasonable to assume that the OP plans to start some kind of business and therefore, the company that he controls can legally own this property. This is very different to those who form a Thai Ltd Co. that doesn't actually trade but pay an agent to concoct accounts each year and pay a little tax. Many do that and don't get caught but it is, nevertheless, circumvention of the Thai Land Laws which is specifically dealt with in the act. They may or may not get caught but they are never secure.

Straight, unadulterated weed does not cause aggressive behaviour, quite the opposite. Irrational, yes, Paranoia, regularly. Aggression, naa.

If he didn't like how much she was being paid before, he definitely won't like what she gets paid now!

Nevertheless, I find it very strange that he knows his wife's phone number. Most people simply have numbers in their phone's memory and just select the person, not the number. I can't remember a single number that's in my phone because I never actually have to dial them.

I can't comment on government hospitals but when I took my ex for an operation at a private hospital, I had to pay 30% up front.

It might be, but I can't read Thai ????. Its probably a 'defeat' tool that stops the start/stop system from kicking in. Personally, I wouldn't want to fit anything that could possibly mess with the car's electrical system. They are so complicated and expensive these days, I wouldn't risk it.

What makes me suspicious of this story is how he remembered his wife's phone number. Before modern phones I had an almost photographic memory of numbers. Now, because I don't actually dial them anymore, the only number I know is my own. How many of you can remember your wife's number? Stunt, hoping for donations???

If there's nothing in the manual that tells you how to turn it off, its probably only possible through the ECU. If you go down that route, you may have to be prepared to delete it completely - some systems allow for the switching of certain features, some only allow deleting them.

Still on the up - 42.25 today.

I have no knowledge of Fortuners but with most cars, the stop/start system can be turned off. With some, this can be done by the owner but some can only be done via software that can access the ECU through the diagnostics port.

According to the OP this 'fault' only happened once and the car has been fine since. I understand that he wants answers but the chances are that he's not going to get them. The only chance he has is that the event is recorded on the car's ECU and the dealer's diagnostic software is capable of reading that. In other countries having such software is mandatory but we are talking Thailand here. In the UK a dealer, faced with a customer who is adamant that he wants the fault tracing might interrogate the ECU to try and try to locate the fault. I say might because people are busy and the fault is no longer there. Thai attitudes are somewhat different and the likelihood is that they just can't understand why someone wants them to look for a fault that's no longer occurring. From the description the OP gives, I don't think the event will have been recorded on the ECU so any investigation is just stabbing in the dark. For a fault to be recorded, it has to either, create an immediate change in certain electrical values or, if its not directly recordable, create the conditions where it can be picked up by a sensor. The latter is unlikely to happen unless the event continued for several seconds. The 'fault' may come back in which case it may be possible to trace it but in all likelihood, I think the OP is just going to have to forget this, put it down to 'one of those things' and stop worrying.

I hadn't realised that but that makes a lot of sense. It appears that, once again without any scientific proof ????, that 42 is the new 35.

Nope.

Naaaa, cars are strange things. If you think they run them for hours to check them before they leave the factory, youl be sadly disappointed. The longest the engine will have run is on a PDI road test by the dealer and there's no guarantee they will have done that. An airlock, bit of swarf etc. could have caused the issue you describe. If its fine now - don't let it make you paranoid or you'll be hearing and seeing things for months. Anyone of a thousand things could have happened. The event may or may not be recorded on the car's ECU. Accessing 'cleared' faults is not always possible without dealer software. Not every fault throws up a code and sometimes the same fault can generate a code one day and not the next. Unless it comes back - just enjoy the drive. I'm a retired mechanic by the way.

Aplogies, I can't find a place to post this so if necessary, please move it. Over the last few years there have been quite a few posts on AN/Thai Visa regarding the value of the British Pound against the Thai Baht. Such posts usually occurr following a drop in the value of the pound and always attract attention from so called experts who have invariably claimed that the pound will continue to fall - sometimes to ridiculously low levels. I can't be bothered to search for it but one of those posts happened just a few months ago - again, out came the experts - I seem to remember one saying that the pound would fall to the late 20's against the baht. These 'experts' write lengthy paragraphs giving their reasoning and trying to look knowledgeable. I on the other hand have always argued with them, not because I claim to have any knowledge of the markets - I don't. I simply argue because there simply hasn't been any logical reason or catastrophic event that would justify their claims. Well experts, where are you now? Where are those of you that forecast the fall in the pound a couple of months ago would continue - way on down. The pound is now back to where it was and has been for quite some time now - circa 42 baht. 21 years ago when I first visited Thailand the pound was at 66 and I've seen it as high as 75. Events such as Brexit have driven it down over the long term but the value of all other major western currencies has also fallen against the baht. I'm not an expert as I say but I'd take a guess that its more that the baht has risen than the pound has fallen. I doubt much will happen over the course of the next year but I will make one conditional forecast.......not one with acres of wordiness and justifications just a gut feeling. Providing the UK gets a hold on inflation, its economy improves and interest rates stabilise or fall - the pound will rise to 43 or 44 by the end of the year/early next year. The pound is not at 30 or 25 as the experts forecast - its back to 42 so what's your 'scientific' excuse for that experts? I'd be really upset if I was employing one of these guys as an analyst or to advise me on investments!!!

Somehow I doubt it. There'll be a lot of noise for a while, announcments will be made and then, as with everything else, it will simply become a forgotten cause.

OP, unless I've missed something, this fault only occurred once right? If it did and hasn't repeated, I wouldn't worry about it. It sounds like a communication/language problem with the dealer but if the problem persists, go back with a Thai speaker. If you don't get anywhere, write to the manufacturer's customer care department, or see a lawyer.

A cheap OBD 2 scanner will only report existing problems. They rarely interogate the ECU for past faults. So if the fault has cleared, its most likely that is will not show up with many cheaper scanners.

Come on, prey tell. I don't know what others are getting but its quite ridiculous now. I have to move my writing frame right up to the top in order to see what I'm typing and the little button that provides a short cut to take the page up to the top again (bottom right hand corner) is obscured 99% of the time. Then there's the other 2 or 3. Click 'em off, they just come back. I actually read the site less now because of it - if others do the same, that kind of defeats the object doesn't it? There's going to be a lot less traffic using the site.

Secret Informers..........my rear end. I have no idea how they found out but I think these claims are just done to spread suspicion. Surely their own records will tell them who's not left when their stay expired? They won't necessarily have an address but why would anyone else know they were on overstay? Don't believe it.

AN really needs to get their stories written by native English speakers.????????????