GeoMill

17 hours ago, mr mr said:

i can't take much more of this. i feel like i'm in bazzaro world or something. 

If keeping some distance is all that's needed for you to be no longer able to take it, I'd suggest to seek professional help. It's hardly the end of the world when people are not breathing in your neck.

2 hours ago, varun said:

For every opportunistic Thai ripping off a foreigner,

there will be an equally opportunistic 419 scammer ripping off a greedy Thai - what goes around, comes around.

Westerners are the victim of the same Nigerian scam. What a unbelievable shortsighted reply of you. 

On 4/16/2020 at 10:23 AM, Assurancetourix said:

Too late ..Regarding the farang; they relocate home
So they want to speed up the process that will make Thailand a Chinese province

 

Explain to me how the "maximum 100 per nationality" is in favour of the Chinese. Last time I checked there are more western countries than China's (there are two).

Quote

The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) will slash its fiscal 2020 budget by 33 per cent, or by Bt4.1 billion

Something here does not sound right. If 33% is bt4,1b, the total budget would be bt12,3b. 

According to other sources the total defense budget of the navy last least was bt45b and for 2020 this was projected to be bt47b.  Going by these numbers a budget cut of bt4,1bt does not even make the requested 10%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Thai_Navy#Budget

http://www.bb.go.th/en/topic-detail.php?id=8562&mid=456&catID=0

Page 84 of the Budget Brief.

4 hours ago, jimmybcool said:

No comment on any of that.  I am merely correcting the statement that one can fire a bullet without the gun.  Do you dispute that? 

 

 

 

Interesting though. On youtube you can even find video's of people firing bullets with sunlight. Wether it causes enough damage to be a danger on a plane I'm not so sure. But I rather not find out.
 

6 hours ago, Susco said:

I hate to say it, but you have no idea what your are talking about.

 

The mortality rate of covid-19 is about 1%, of the people that get infected, which is so far in the worst case in the world 0.5% of the population (San Marino) , so how would it be possible for any country to have 20% of their population die of the virus?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/22/what-is-coronavirus-and-what-is-the-mortality-rate

What is the mortality rate of the new coronavirus?

It is probably about or a bit less than 1%. Much higher figures have been flying about, but the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, is one of those who believes it will prove to be 1% or lower. The World Health Organization’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, talked of 3.4%, but his figure was calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of officially confirmed cases. We know there are many more mild cases that do not get to hospital and are not being counted, which would bring the mortality rate significantly down.

Love how you're quoting a quote that says its 'probably' 1%, whereas in the same quote the WHO says 3,4%. Let's stick with the WHO for now, who has access to way more stats, than Chris Whitty. A Brit who has probably not been anywere near China for the past months. 

On 2/12/2020 at 7:16 AM, soalbundy said:

you mean a viral infection with a 1% mortality rate ? dark and scary?

1% mortality rate based on what if I may ask?

As of now nearly 20% of all the people that are no longer sick do not live to tell the tale. 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Not saying the fatality rate is going to end up at 20%, it'll probably end up lower, but 1% is nothing more than guesses from 'experts' living on the safe side of the planet. Let's wait with claims like these until after the pandemic has been resolved. 

This CV is a close cousin to SARS and MERS, neither of which were anywere close to 1% fatality. 

Quote

The ship has been at the sea for more than 20 days after being turned away from the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Guam and now Thailand.

Quote from this article: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/preparations-under-way-to-evacuate-21-thais-on-westerdam-cruise-ship/

To my knowledge Guam is part of the United States? So even America rejects a cruiseship owned by an American company? If they don't even take in their own, how can we expect anyone to accept them?

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

I was having a joke with him in case you didn't realize .....   

oh never mind  !!

Was gonna rephrase it, but nvm. 

I didn't indeed. 

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

sorry to hear your not well,  don't worry,  the chance of catching coronavirus is so small .... you've got more chance of catching syphilis  .... 

Rewritng my comment

3 hours ago, Estrada said:

The fatality rate is actually around 0.14% which is what the normal rate is for flu. The 2% rate is of those who are so sick they have to visit a hospital. Many more have mild symptoms and recover at home. In the U.S. the annual death toll from flu viruses if 61,000 out of 45million infected.  The current number of actual infections in China, including those who have mild infections, is estimated to be around >500,000.

Fatality rates at this stage are all guesses at best. 2% is based on deaths to sick. The sick however are still sick and can still die. We'll know the real fatality rate in a few months. Until then if you're a boomer, better stay inside. ????

1 minute ago, KC 71 said:

Carabao has done some tracks in English before 

You quoted the wrong guy. It was Nick that claimed otherwise. 

28 minutes ago, Saint Nick said:

....aaaaaaah...the ever so popular "guests in this country"- chestnut!

No one aske any Thai to be perfect in English!

I am German and although I recon my English to be quiet good, I don't think I am perfect (although way better, than most Thais I know!).

Still: if you want to (literally) cater to an international clientel, I think you should at least TRY to learn the language to a certain efficiency.

Still: we don't know what the problem was, in this case! All we know, is that some brat thought it was a good idea, to scold customers and told them to learn Thai, for a dinner in a holiday- spot! Bit over the top, if you ask me!

Still: I have traveled this country up and down for the last 25 years, living here for 12 years and I can say, that I have not often met people who are so intellectually lazy, as the Thai- people are!

Living here for 12 years, that is the amount of time I had to learn Thai (which i find to be very difficult) 

I am in my 50's and I learned a lot of my English through my own interest- reading English books, watching English movies, listening to English music.

I know a bunch of Thais at my age, who had the same time to learn English by themselves and they have the vovabulary and the language skills of a toddler.

Even worse: they are not even interested in changing that!

Maybe, If carabao would start to sing English, that would change!

 

Oh...and like I said before:  if I am a guest - treat me like one!

"Learn our language or shut up" is hardly how I treat my guests!

 

How much do you know about the restaurant in question? For all we know this restaurant is not centered in a holiday hotspot, and their aimed clientel is not foreigners, but Thai? I bet plenty of Farang go to these restaurants rather than the tourist restaurants because of the inflated prices at the latter. 

And the guest in this country chestnut? How about criticise your own country before you criticise others. Germany and France are among the western nations where English is mostly useless. And Germans aren't underpaid sub-90-IQ people, whats their excuse? A quick search showed that actually most tourists in Germany come from the Netherlands. Have Germans bothered to learn Dutch? Last time I was there I had to order my food in German to make sure I got what I wanted. Why expect something from Thai, when we ourselves don't even bother?

Again, not saying it's not a good idea to learn the language of the tourist. But it is your own choice to come to Thailand. If their broken, or lack of, English is an issue, perhaps go elsewere? Australia or Canada perhaps? But I guess the working ladies and food there is too expensive? If you want cheap food, just suck it up that they don't speak English. At most fancy restaurants I visit in Thailand they do speak English btw.

Also, may I remind you, that learning English, a GERMANIC language, for a German is something diffrent than learning it as a Thai? I wonder which one of you and your friends would pick up Cambodian or Lao faster.

Next time if you don't want to sound like a hypocrit with your last sentence, answer to me in Dutch. 

Edit: Little sidenote; "Please, Don't complain about our English, If you can't speak Thai, Love you". is NOT the same as "Learn out language or <deleted> up.". It's just pointing out how hypocrit you all are.

40 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

I'm certainly not suggesting that thai people should be fluent.

I'm suggesting that ANYONE who wants to do business internationally will be better placed to do so with a smattering of English. the OP seems to suggest that this is not needed. However as anyone from Netherlands is well aware the languages spoken by most citizens there are a great help to the countries trade Ove the centuries and subsequent wealth.

 

Actually to me it seems to suggest the poster of the sign asks foreigners not to complain about their bad English skill. I agree learning English to some degree would help their bussiness, not denying that in any way. 

The problem I have is that some individuals, ParkerN for example, seem to feel entitled that the whole world needs to learn their language. His post is full of demeaning assumptions based on nothing but his own lack of knowledge. Even if he is right, how can he expect a sub-90-IQ waitress to learn several languages in the little spare time she has? Surely he must know Westerners aren't the only tourists here. There is Chinese, Japanese, Indians, granted the latter usually speak English. And all this for a few dollar of wage per day. 

On 1/20/2020 at 11:41 AM, ParkerN said:

Yes. well. English is the default uniquitous language of the world. Thai isn't. It must surely be the responsibility of Thais to speak English, not for Europeans or Americans (both of whom come here mainly for cheap beaches, cheap food or cheap sex) to learn how to order Somtam in Thai or to engage a waiter whose IQ is likely less than 90 in conversation (quantum mechanics anyone?).

 

Seems reasonable for foreigners to boycott jingoistic little restaurants like this one. It probably isn't very clean anyway and it seems they need a few lessons in how not to <deleted> their customers off.

On 1/20/2020 at 11:34 AM, samsensam said:

 

if someone complained about my second language ability, for example my french, and especially if i was using that language in order to be successful in business, i'd work hard to improve my language skills. that would be common sense/good business sense, wouldn't it?!

The arrogance of some westerners here is disgusting. Demanding the Thai to learn fluent english while we are guests in their country. 

I myself am multilingual as are most Dutch, but if a German, Japanese, French or Brit complained about my language skills when visitting the Netherlands while they dont speak a word Dutch i'd tell them to f*** off. 

Where does this missplaced entitled feeling come from that the whole world should speak English? Still living in the colonial days?

On 1/14/2020 at 10:57 AM, rgrdns said:

"Robinson's have given 100,000 baht to each of the families that lost a loved one and 50,000 baht to the injured while Central Group have donated 43,000 baht to each victim." 

 

These are the donations of big multi-nationals coming up with such ridiculous small amounts....no shame?!  

It's a nice gesture nevertheless. And if you compare it to the El Paso aid from Walmart, it comes down to +-1/3rd per victim. Considering the economy in the US is stronger and Walmart is way larger (nr 1 company by revenue) i'd say it's within proportion.

Send you a pm. 

11 hours ago, StevieAus said:

My wife and young daughter have both Thai and Australian citizenship and passports,

We live in Thailand and when we travel which we have several times they leave and arrive in Thailand using the Thai passports and use the Australian passports elsewhere.

The Australian passports are not shown to Thai Immigration.

We have never had a problem.

This is how we'll do it from here on. However our daughter did not have a Thai passport yet at the moment of entering Thailand. ???? 

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

She should of entered the country using her Thai passport.

Now she has to leave on her Dutch passport. There is no way around that but she will not fined for an overstay since she is under the age of 15.

At that time she did not have a Thai passport yet. 

So if we just ignore the visa, she'll have an overstay but not get a fine for this? 

My wife, newborn and I travelled to Thailand last december for a three month trip. Purpose was introducing the new family member to the Thai side of the family and ofcourse taking care of registrating the newborn in the Thai amphur etc. 

When I applied for a 3 month visa at the embasy in Netherlands, I was told our newborn daughter does not require a visa because for Thailand, she's considered Thai. Made sense to me, so I only get myself a 3 month visa, and we let our daughter travel into Thailand on a 30 day visa on arrival. Now this has expired and my wife heard that it's better to go to the immigration office with her passport to get everything sorted before we leave. And to my surprise we heard she is required to have a valid visa, which they charged us 1900 baht for. We didn't bring her Thai birth certificate with us, which they needed to give our daughter the visa. But I have questions wether this is really normal.

Our daughter is fully registrated in Thailand, has a Thai birth certificate, Thai passport as well as a Dutch passport. But since she entered Thailand on her Dutch passport she needs to leave on this as well. Does anyone have experience with this?

Buying a 1900 baht visa for a Thai citizen to be in Thailand sounds...  fubar... 

My wife and I now consider to just show both passports and the Thai birth certificate on the airport when we leave. 

If anyone has experience with this it would be much appreciated to share. ????

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Non-o multi from Suvannahkhet, no financials, just marriage cert and 5,000bht.

That'll get you 15 months in 90 day lumps.

Are you sure? When I went for the same visa (single) version, I had to show marriage certificate and proof of finances to support myself. They didn't ask for a specifik number, but I did have to show a bank statement. This was at the Thai Embassy in my home country though. 

On 12/8/2018 at 3:34 PM, madusa said:

Very much agree with you MAJIC.  I do feel strongly that Thai culture doesn't emphasize on being grown up and take responsibilities. I may be wrong of course but I see people think Thai young ladies(16 to 23) are cute and giggle a lot that's because they don't have a care in the world and not really know they have lots of responsibilities once they get married. They don't think much further than what is the immediate future.