tourleadersi

Sorry to hear of your loss....

One question. Did your friend have insurance to cover such an emergency?

Do insurance companies covering people in Thailand issue a card saying "Will cover all necessary costs, please try to revive then call this number"? If they don't it sounds like they should or what is the point of having insurance? Perhaps there should be a policy that covers 'Concious Only' requirements, anything else sounds like it may not be of use.

A friend of mine's brother died in Cambodia for the same reason. Sadly his family were loaded and he died of relatively minor injuries that became complicated because of lack of care. We was not concious you see...

This is a little disconcerting.

Marriage seems to dry up conversation pretty quickly anyway, na?

I used to hear the same thing in Africa, so perhaps it is a western saying intrinsically linked to the wealth of other nations.

There seems to be sensless crime and a wanton abondon to personal safety in almost all parts of the world (how many Thai's are regular base jumpers compared to more affluent countries?).

You ask in any country anyone who has lost a loved one in a morobike accident or crime, they'll tell you the value of that life.

Perhaps if you are looking from a viewpoint where you have very little to loose, there is less value on other peoples losses.

We do place a value on people. A life saving doctor and a homeless guy are both killed in a car crash, would the feeling of loss be equal?

If you have a friend over here in Thailand already you could ask them to open up a PO Box address for you at a post office near to where you plan to live, all they need is their ID card and probably about 1000 Baht for the first 3 months. It is best to open one in a the Post Office as opposed to these companies who set up in Malls and haddle mail for a fee. I opened up a PO Box with them and besides being treated with overwhelming apathy, more than once I was handed other peoples mail!

As Lopburi3 said you could get a family member to collect all your post and send it out once a month/2 weeks. I would advise that they use a method that enbles tracking should they be sending out essential post. I should imagine it would deter most 'opportunist' mail theives.

Definately the best advise has already been given by Lopburi3, get as much as you can online. If a family member back home is computer smart, couldn't they scan and email your post to you, and post only items that need to be signed?

Good luck with your move out here.

I reckon my Gran's gonna give Harriet a run for her money. She just turned 90 and is still flying around her hometown like a mossie in an abattoir.

Do you really think that an ox-bridge educated person is automatically better than a job candidate from a lesser-known university who attended a state school? Would WHERE he attended sschool be your first criteria?

I don't think it should be anyone's first criteria when you are wading through a large number of applications (and lets face it, Oxbridge graduates are going to be applying on the whole for the top jobs which means there will be many other hopefuls applying too). I would have to agree that when you are trying to sort a pile off 1000 candidates down to 30 interviewees, schooling background would have to come into play to some extent (especially for entry level applications).

I didn't go to public school, and went to a less than well known university so I am not defending what is happening, but can see the logic.

If you don't need it urgently there are currently 2 copies of it on Ebay....

May take a week to get it shipped, but like I said, if its not urgent.

Hard to find items or not so good quality in Thailand

Ok I + thai wife are heading back to Thailand in a few months time after the sale of our home here in US and planning to be there for about 5 yrs. We think there will be some room left in our 20 ft container. What should we also bring back with us that can be quite useful? I’m talking about normal household items. I’ve heard bed linens are quite expensive, is this correct?

So far I have......

bed linens

step stool

pancake mix

And what else?

I'd say think about the food that you like and that you prepare yourself. I like mexican, indian curries, middle eastern and etc. Then think about the spices that you need to prepare the food. When I returned to Thailand from Bahrain I took a load of basic indian spices (widely available; whole seed cumin, coriander, powdered tumeric, cardamon, and etc, etc with a small wooden mortar and pestle) because they are impossible to find in Thailand. I also brought back cans of prepared houmous and baba ganoush, also impossible to find (you can find eggplant for the baba but garbanzos in thailand are terrible for houmous...but bring back a large can of sesame tahini paste, just in case...garlic and lemon juice no prob).

you say that you are US...if you are from CA then be prepared to not ever have proper mexican food again. The best you could do is to bring a few 50 kg bags of masa mix to make your own fresh corn tortillas...but then you would also have to import the apparatus to fabricate the goods. Alternatively, you could sequester 3-4 mexican peasant ladies in your container (and their families) to hand pat the tortillas every morning and awake to their quiet chatting as they stand around the comal preparing the 5-6 dozen required for the day's consumption...their kids playing in the yard a delight and the husbands preparing for a days labor in the paddies ('work permit?... we ain' got no work permit...an' we ain' got to show you no stinkin' work permit!!!' - with apologies to John Huston) and also to stand guard to protect the padron/falang from inquisitive cops and neigbors...other ingredients such as chiles, garlic, tomatoes, avocados, fresh coriander abound for daily preparation of guacamole and fresh salsa ranchera...I can taste it just now...(fade-in a sentimental ballad from Javier Soliz)

a small price to pay for acceptable mesoamerican cuisine...

tutsi introduces a new dimension to human trafficking

Dude that me quite emotional! Man I could kill a decent Burritto right now!

Hi there everyone.

I am hoping to buy a dog in late September and was wondering if anyone might be able to advise me in the best place to do this?

I live in Bangkok and am interested in getting a Labrador puppy.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Si

“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear”

“Dogs have Owners, Cats have Staff.”

Can we please leave US politics out of this thread and keep it Thailand-related?

Sorry boss, I was just trying to highlight that it can and does happen all over the world. Lesson learned.

In Thailand, the Maid could have a Master degree, speak perfect english and not progress more than a head maid if she was ugly. This is one of the major negativity about Thailand. In other word, it could have zero to do with class but everything focused on apperance. Intelligent people will always take a back seat to the beatiful ones in the land of LOS.

...which is one of the reasons why customer service here is so lacking and the country will stay poor until it changes those ways. Looks (light skin, etc.) and family connections has a lot more to do with obtaining sought-after positions than does merit or actual intelligence. Just fly Thai Airways if you're not sure!

What are you talking about, whats wrong with Thai airways? I've recently flown Thai airways and find it to have excellent service. We were greeted with a big smile, a wai and continual terrific service throughout our long flight. Of all the airline we've flown so far, Thai airways is my favorite. My only complaint about Thai airway is the food, but than again, we can say the same thing about all other airlines

I think Thohts was referrring to Thai Airways staff getting their jobs because of their appearance and 'connections' as opposed to the lack of service on the airline?

A good frien of mine is going out with a girl who worked her way up in a company. Seems she started out as a maid in a well known hotel with limited English skills. Through hard graft and night school she worked her way up to a point that when she left the hotel some 7 years later she was running front of house. A success story indeed but possibly a rareity....

Here's a question.

If the OP buys all of these foodstuffs, linens etc and puts them all in a container, and then the customs boys at the Thai port open it up (which I should imagine they would once they see a farang name on the manifest) will he/she not get hit with the equivalent import tax that Tops, Tescos etc get hit with?

If that is the case then there could be a hefty bill to be cleared before they can get their goods home....

One other thing. When I moved from Africa back to the UK, all the electrical items that had rubber belts in them (video machine, stereo turntable etc) required fixing on arrival. It was the transition from blazing summer to freezing winter that caused all the rubber to fall apart (and we all know how scary it can be when rubber falls apart. ) Its just a thought.

I thought this post was about land, houses and condos? I don't know why we are discussing health care?? Where are expert moderators and overseers on this one? As for QUOTE: "It is not the Thai people that I have contempt for - it is the Thai bureaucratic crap and inefficiency, and their 'I am better than you attitude'." I can say similar things about my own country, which I think is worse than Thailand in this regard.

I do think the property ownership rules need to be revised to allow foreigners, WHO ARE MARRIED TO THAIS, to own land for personal residences & businesses. Upon thier death, ownership would have to revert back to a Thai. I hardly think such a law would undermine the equilibrium of the property market here. Prices are already inflated in some cases by foreign money, via purchase by the wife, ie the money is provided by the Farang husband.

Let us abide by the thai laws as quirky as they are!!,isnt 2x30year lease long enough,as soon as these laws change the developers take over and the concrete jungles begin, look what is happening to the east coast of australia, in the last 3 years our sleepy little hamlet has become a suburb of brisbane which is 25kms away wall to wall housing estates, our littlevillage has grown from 86 houses to 1500 and it is still growing the land prices have gone up by 600% , So maybe the thais are not so stupid after all, we are quite happy to put up with their laws and regulations so why should not everyone else Nignoy

Good point.

I wonder if there are any UK/US/Aussie laws that Thais living there find frustrating. I know my wife finds trying to get a simple holiday visa to the UK an 'emotional' experience....

Same-same for Thailand I'm afraid as long as this artificial class division between rich hi-so's and the rest of Thais exists. Your daddy can be the richest guy in the world and you can attend the best universities in the world (probably with lots of tutors and a bit of cash to get others to write your assignments and dissertation) but it won't increase your IQ!

George W Bush is a prime example of how well you can do if you're 'connected'. His previous track record doesn't read well, yet he made it to the White House for 2 terms!

If you volunteered I'm sure you still have pictures of yourself in uniform, group photos, incidents happend, Can you please provided to us so we may finally believe you for a change? It seems with every topic, some how, some way youve "done it", did it or happend to you. Please provide us with something so to shut us (me) up.

Seems like your hand is being called ColPyat. Can you back up your comments that you are a volunteer?

I know what the OP is talking about.

At this time I cannot afford that house. The day will come when I can, and then I will make that call and go and view it with the mind to possibly rent. The way I see it, if do go and view it now and yet never reach the financial position to rent the place, I will spend the rest of my life bitter because I have touched something I wanted but could never grab a hold of it. Having dreams is essential to success, but taking steps to make them tangible before they can be realised is dangerous.

So to all you time wasters and dreamers out there, please bear in mind it is not only the salesmans life who may be affected by your call.

A sad admission, but at least a realistic and honest one by the sound of it.

There is little point in test-driving a Ferrari when one only has a chance of possibly realising a Honda Dream...

Noel, what is sad about the admission? That I don't want to clutter my mind with things I can't yet have for fear of distracting myself and ending up with nothing? I'm not being defensive, just 100% curious as to what you thought was sad.

Perhaps you miss the irony of your own words.

You refer to dreamers in an almost derogatory way that suggests they have no hope of realising their fantasies. That is fair enough in itself as dreams are little to do with reality as they reside in one's imagination.

You then refer to dreams being essential for success and confirm that you may well not achieve yours (quite understandably of course, in the case of dreams).

That is what I found sad.

Perhaps the words 'target', 'objective' or 'goal' might have been more in line with your thoughts...?

Fair point Noel.

I didn't mean to sound derogatory when I refered to dreamers, perhaps it just came out that way. I am presently struggling to set up a new business and I guess am a little concerened that I lose my focus and get distracted by my dreams (my wife has already spent the money we haven't made 10 times over!)

I have goals and they help me get closer to my dreams. This house is a dream yet I can afford it now. The problem is, if I move in I will be stretched and will then have a new dream which may be frustratingly unnobtainable.

This is all totally off topic I guess, thanks for setting me straight.

" If your dreams turn to dust....vacuum."

I know what the OP is talking about.

At this time I cannot afford that house. The day will come when I can, and then I will make that call and go and view it with the mind to possibly rent. The way I see it, if do go and view it now and yet never reach the financial position to rent the place, I will spend the rest of my life bitter because I have touched something I wanted but could never grab a hold of it. Having dreams is essential to success, but taking steps to make them tangible before they can be realised is dangerous.

So to all you time wasters and dreamers out there, please bear in mind it is not only the salesmans life who may be affected by your call.

A sad admission, but at least a realistic and honest one by the sound of it.

There is little point in test-driving a Ferarri when one only has a chance of possibly realising a Honda Dream...

Noel, what is sad about the admission? That I don't want to clutter my mind with things I can't yet have for fear of distracting myself and ending up with nothing? I'm not being defensive, just 100% curious as to what you thought was sad.

Mate, if someone called me up and offered me a spin in a Ferrari I would be there in what can only be described as a 'Honda Dream flash'! I'm not a trappist monk, although a good morning flogging certainly stimulates the senses. Its just that focussing on one's dreams too much makes you into a dreamer. The Levellers wrote a song about it called Hope Street, talking about how people never really pushed on as they spent most of their time living on 'Hope Street' with reference to the lottery etc.

I lived in the UK in a pretty posh town for 9 years of my life. During that time I was attacked twice by men with knives, had a gun held to my head as my workplace was robbed and was jumped twice on the street by random nutters. I know the joke... "and my friends call me lucky!"

I did security work at home and in Leeds, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East during times when the local population's tolerance of all things foreign was stretched to the limit. And I'm not talking about a week in Sharm El Sheikh here, try 5 months in the Yemen and 4 months on the Straits of Hormuz near Iran. All I can say is that in my time here in Thailand I have never once felt threatened and have only been hit twice, both times when I helped throw drunk westerners out of my local.

Yes, there is crime in Thailand, but from a purely personal perspective it is safer than anywhere else I have been in the world. I practice the same vigilance I do everywhere else I go. It is often better to swallow pride than blood, and as my Kung <deleted> teacher told me, "The best defence is to not be there." Dont' read that as meaning I am a coward, I have a file of x-rays to confirm I have stood my ground when needed, but it is often better to avoid confrontation at all costs rather than be a hero.

Yes there is crime here in Thailand, but what did you expect? Anyone living here thinking that the country is 100% safe and all is fine and dandy is going to get a pretty hard jolt one day. Don't live in fear, but be aware of your environment.

I know what the OP is talking about.

Just up the road from where I live there is an amazing house for rent that has been sat empty for well over a year. I know the reason, they are asking about 600% over the rent that most people are paying in the area. Although the house looks 600% better than the others, it is really in the wrond neighbourhood.

Everyday I pass this house and get just a tantalising glimpse of it through its gates, attached securely to a very high wall. More than once I have been tempted to call the number and arrange a viewing, pretending to be a prospective client just so that I can get to the otherside of those oh so high walls.

But I don't as I cannot bring myself to waste someone elses time. I run my own business and time is precious. The last thing I can well afford is to use it chasing dead ends. I agree with some of the posts here that as a salesman you should treat every enquiry as a potential sale, but surely the customer should enter into it believing that they might be potential just that, a customer? People who tie up your time knowing full well that they are not a potential customer could be the difference between you making ends meet from month to month.

At this time I cannot afford that house. The day will come when I can, and then I will make that call and go and view it with the mind to possibly rent. The way I see it, if do go and view it now and yet never reach the financial position to rent the place, I will spend the rest of my life bitter because I have touched something I wanted but could never grab a hold of it. Having dreams is essential to success, but taking steps to make them tangible before they can be realised is dangerous.

So to all you time wasters and dreamers out there, please bear in mind it is not only the salesmans life who may be affected by your call.

A few years back a pizza company in the UK started a campaign with posters in their restaurants that said

"Order two 12 inch pizzas and we'll get our chef to toss in a salad"

They had to withdraw the campaign when someone pointed out their error, and the chef collapsed from dehydration!

Regular post is hit and miss from my experience. I seem to only be getting 50% of my post through from overseas (UK mainly), so opened up a PO Box and had an important package sent there. Sadly the poster forgot to put tracking on it and 3 weeks later, no letter!

I am beginning to pull my hair out. No goods inside, just paperwork so customs would be NFI.

So in the 60's Thailand was great as at the time the US was racially discriminating against its own people whilst bombing the arse off of smaller nations? My how things have changed!

Last time I looked everywhere was going tits up. 2 Men just got life sentences in the UK for kicking a gay man to death because he was gay. The world changes continually and is filled with individual characters. We either sit at home reading our newspapers and bitch about how bad everything is, or we go on a search to find something better. Those that find Thailand to be better for whatever reason settle here. After a few years though the homesickness settles in and bad past memories begin to fade. It is important to focus on why you left, and always try and reconcile your present lot with that of the past.

If I ever tire of Thailand I simply go home to the UK. My parents live on the outskirts of a city and once in a while I hop on the public bus to go into town. Trust me, that is all I need to remember why I like Thailand so much.

To knock the people of Bangkok is lame. Bangkok is the capital. I remember with such fondness how the people of London, New York and Paris just charmed the socks off of me last time I was there. Bangkok is one of the friendliest cities I know. Perhaps it is the vibe you are sending out that makes you feel that way? So many people living in Thailand hate the city and so when they come here they look for reasons to justify their feelings. I love the countryside, but give me a wealth of choices anyday.

How long before the situation escalates and we start to see reports like we just saw in Sri Lanka? Trying to fight fire with fire never works with insurgencies, because one side is duty bound by international law to play by the rules and the other is not.

The fact that the ruling party doesn't know who is leading the insurgency shows an ineptitude beyond belief. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Their priority should be to find out who is ordering the bombings and engaging in dialoque. That is the only possible way to stop these bombings. They seem to be relatively small weapons, impossible to search for effectively.

For once I have to say 'Come on Thaksin, please talk'

Well, I think that just about sums it up then - thanks for the insight!

What a monster posting mate, 10 pages and still going strong!

Saturday night? There's a monkey burning a hole in my pocket so its time to get our freak on!