dragonfly94

Maybe I didnt see or understand it clearly, but it seemed like the Volunter Tourist Police guy had some sort of right to search people (or their property), when he found the pills.

Have they been given the authority to search people?

I think you didn't see it properly. I picked up the pills from the floor but did not search any person but did assist in searching the food vending cart under the supervision of a Thai Officer who arrived on-scene and can be seen on the film.

But why were the tourist police volunteer force investigating a Thai? I thought they were only meant to help tourists yet here you were investigating (or assisting) a serious crime by a Thai, nothing to do with tourists.

I need to know what paperwork is needed for a UK man to marry a Thai . I tried to use the search but could not get it to work. Thanks for any information.

DONT pay an agent to do anything as it is all straightfoward. Freedom to marry form has to be typed up and handed in at the embassy, go back next day to pick it up then get it translated into Thai then go to the ministry at laksi, if you get there before noon you can pick up the paperwork in the afternoon and get to the registry office up the road by three where it cost me 20 baht for each marriage certificate. You need to get a fre photocopies there of passport but it's not as difficult or time consuming as agents want you to think

@ Udonfarang52

It is not about being personally offensive, but it also gives me an uncomfortable feeling if a diagnosed PSTD walks around in in an uniform.

Once again a comment made that i am still in uniform......If, i repeat if,you had read earlier posts you would have noticed i am know longer a volunteer.repeat, no longer a volunteer........yet i still support the establishment of Of the T.P volunteers.And positive input to improve public relations.

Nowhere do I say you are still in uniform, but you were and that is disturbing for me! (please note the past tense)

nuff said

It is not about being personally offensive, but it also gives me an uncomfortable feeling if a diagnosed PSTD walks around in in an uniform.

Present tense,"walks around" in a uniform,please try not to display your biases against those with PTSD

Surely anyone with PTSD is not mentally/emotionally fit and should never be considered for a volunteer in the first place. One of my best pals here in Bkk is a vet with this and he is certainly not up to the task.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbFAqKpGV8M

Here's Howie again laying down the law, his own law that is and claiming to be the Police when he's just a voluntary dogsbody

I am looking for some insight into why the lady in my life wants to go to the temple for a week. She cannot explain it well enough for me to understand, so I am hoping some bright spark here might enlighten me

Something she also says about her being a Buddhist and me being one of those Christian people and harmony and some other stuff.

I cannot understand why she cannot go to the Temple on a regular basis like most other Thai people.

As it says in the topic, she will be eating and sleeping there for a week. Seems I will be required to take her food on a morning and afternoon too (but I've said I'd like to go on holiday while she goes through this).

My mention of going off on a holiday has rather upset the balance a bit

So if I know more what is happening, I could be better placed to understand. Ignorance can be bliss, but not always

TIA.

Mods if you want to move this to Buddha's section then that is OK.

Often done to repay a spiritual bribe although they might not tell you, lady promises Buddha she will do a few days at the Wat IF she gets xyz, spiritual childishness but it does no harm. Be glad of a few days peace and quiet.

Is this about the pretend Police?

Another chance for them to big note themselves on TV as that's all I've ever seen them doing in real life.

Then maybe you would like to volunteer and show us all, how it should be done!!! (ex volunteer from Udon Thani)

Why should I volunteer to do a job that real Police officers should be doing? Thailand has one of the biggest per capita Police forces in the World after all.

I notice one of the volunteers was caught in Pattaya this week dealing drugs and using his status on the force as cover.

How could anyone lower themselves to work with the Thai Police? I think you get the answer from watching Howard, he really gets off on the power trip and the feeling of being a somebody when he's just another ex pat who ran away from the UK strutting around in a silly T shirt with Police volunteer on it. The real Police are out collecting bribe money, or as happened to a dead friend in Pattaya last year, stealing off the dead, while Howard and his mates are doing their dirty work for them for free. I wonder how many pedo's and sunee plaza sickos Howard has arrested in his 7 years?

I use k bank every month in Bkk to pay the rent, never seen any such message

I'm pretty sure I have the symptoms of colon cancer. It's a family trend unfortunately with both my father and sister sucumbing to it fatally. I've been really, really stupid because I've ignored the symptoms for so long. I'm scared, that's why. Can anyone reccommend a hospital in BKK for a check up ? I need a colonoscopy. Anyone with any experiences ? Thanks......

Same as you but mother and sister had it, mother died. Started having checks 8 years ago (57) and glad I did as they have removed lots of polyps and now have every three years. I would not go to Bumrungrad as the charges are high at over 20k and that does not include everything, look up charges on their site. Just have to fast the day before and take very strong laxatives and drink plenty of water the day before. They put you under and it takes about 30 minutes.

BEST luktung/morlam

WORST string, TV, customer service, traffic, pollution, corruption, Thai stupidity, double pricing, lack of health and safety, poor building standards, lack of urban planning, high tax on wine, being referred to as 'the alien' even if you have been here 20 years, no rights to buy houses or land. Women.

I certainly hope the doctor did not try to sell you Leviquin/Cipro, because that particular antibiotic has been linked to ruptured tendons. http://www.drug-injury.com/druginjurycom/2...iotics_ten.html

Amazing Thailand

Yes I read about this, made appt with Bumrungrad, maybe a bit more expensive but I never had reason to complain there before.

If you do suspect it is an Achilles tendon problem, have it seen to asap by a good orthopedic surgeon. An injury will not be the cause of "tendonitis"; this implies overuse over a period of time.

Yours seems to be injury related and may well be a partial rupture of the tendon and may proceed to a complete rupture if not managed properly.

Treatment at this stage will depend on the extent of the rupture or tear. Can be anything from surgery to a cast.

Use some Ice, Elevation of the foot and an anti-inflammatory such as Ibuprofen or other NSAID if you have no contra indications to do so in the mean time.

If you can get to Bumrungrad, Dr. Panya is a very good orthopod.

You did not describe the nature of the injury so not possible to say if any of the other ligaments around the ankle are involved but best to have it examined asap.

Thanks, already doing the things you recommend, best to go the Hospital as looks like not getting any better. I will look up that Doc. Seems no Panya comes up on the Bumrungrad website, maybe left?

Seem to have torn something around my ankle after running a few days ago, swollen and painful. Any recommendations on where to go in Bkk for good advise? The local clinic was no use at all and wanted to prescribe anti-biotics! I am assuming it's a tendon problem which has not ruptured but don't want to make it worse or prolong healing by not getting advice, problem is some medical advice here can be worse than doing nothing.

Here is the official website for the Ministry of Culture, Thailand;

http://webhost.m-culture.go.th/en/

It's also worth taking a look at this page, which is on the above site;

http://webhost.m-culture.go.th/en/index.ph.../43-e-book.html

Check the "e-books" downloads

As expected nothing about popular Thai culture but rather the upper class version and the one they want to present to the outside. Search results give nothing for morlam, luktung, kantrum, phua cheewit or even string, oh yes that does bring up classical orchestras, very Thai. Did not try muay thai or chicken fighting!

Culture Ministry gets Bt8 billion for cultural projects

BANGKOK: -- The Culture Ministry has obtained a budget of Bt8billion for strengthening the country's ability to make money from cultural capital.

The budget is approved for the implementation of 14 projects between this year and 2012.

The projects, for example, are about improving the Thailand Culture Centre, the promotion creative cultural festivals, enhancement of lifelong learning centres, and adding value to communities' cultural tourism.

"We also plan to give income opportunities to people through the promotion of arts and cultures," Culture Minister Teera Slukpetch said Tuesday at the Asia Cultural Ministerial Roundtable Meeting.

-- The Nation 2009-08-18

There is nothing wrong with the Thai cultural centre, unless they want to improve the sound system. I wonder what 'adding value to communities cultural tourism.' means? I very much doubt any of it will be spent in the cultural pursuits of Issan people who make up a third of the population. There will be nothing spent on the promotion of morlam, luktung, rural dance, kantrum or anything else. This will all be wasted, never heard of lifelong learning centres, surely they are educational and not cultural centres?

every 14 to 16 months the wife and I have a 16 week jaunt around thailand and bali, because of the 7 or 8 flights in asia we have to book our main flights well in advance, we book and paid for this years flights with Thai in december last year, on recieving our diverse flight itinery in april , we started booking and paying for hotels and things, boy oh boy what a chuffing mistake, in july thai airways started amending the flight itinery bringing flights forward or changing the date even , upto now 7 flight time changes,some as little as acouple of hours , no worry about that , but now our flight time to leave Brisbane has been putback 24 hours and our return flight has been put back 2 days, we have emailed them, phoned their offices spoke to their computers but no repply they dont seem to be interested !! anyone else had these sort of problems

Yep that's why I will never fly with them again, hopeless. After buying a one way ticket they emailed me to say I could not use it without giving a reason. No replies ever to further emails or phone calls. I had to travel over 200 miles to the office in London then the girl there did not know and had to phone TG at heathrow who said no problem at all!. When I asked why it was so hard to contact them and why I had been given the wrong info about the ticket the girl in the office said a lot of workers at Thai did not know the new viisa rules. As I said hopeless and they don't deserve custom.

I wonder how al those people react when it's their stuff they are copying.....

I know a famous singer who was pissed off at copies of his CD's being sold at one of his concerts. He hired a bunch of guys to attack and trash any stall found selling selling copies of his stuff - the criminals selling the fakes went to the Police. Nobody was charged and to this day this singers material is rarely seen being sold as copies.

Just listened to The Archers. Isn't Jazza such a slime ball?

never been the same since Walter Gabriel pegged it. Just listen to a docu on George Blake and it worked very well.

COMMENT: This site should be renamed the McW site! dominated by McW.

Any language students out there able to help with my query as have no responses?

Regards SOLOMAN

Agreed. I wish the moderator(s) would step in. I don't think sponsors should be allowed to post in the forum at all, it taints the whole atmosphere.

They do step in, but only if you post negative views of Wallen, even if they are just your honest opinion after going there! I don't think really good places NEED to advertise as they get Students by word of mouth IF they are any good.

Defamatory post deleted.

why was it 'defamatory? Is it against the rules to state my opinion of the place? I went there and thought the teaching methods were very poor, not defamatory, just my experience.

I am due to renew my yearly extension of stay (marriage). I always went to Suan Phlu, but I am now asked to go to Samutprakarn. Any one has experience there? Does it take long? How friendly are they? Anything special?

Thanks guys

Nightmare! went there two years ago to extend visa, before anyone tells me you cannot that's what their sign says down the road. Started off well but the bitch in uniform must have been having a bad day. After looking at all the correct paperwork she informed me the non imm o visa was out of date, I politely said it was not. Then she went through all the other stuff seemingly looking for something to fault me on. In the end she said I had gone too early (about three weeks before visa ran out) and told me to go back in two weeks time. I made the fatal error of daring to question her on this and she told my wife in thai that she did not know how she could live with somebody too stupid to understand the immigration rules! as if some of them do. In the end, and to my astonishment, she said they did not really do extensions there, even though they gave me the form to fill in, and told me to go to Bangkok, even though I lived in SP. Should really have complained about the outrageous service and insults, the worst I have ever met in thailand. Going to Bkk office is a pleasure compared to seeing that cow, you might do well to avoid her, about 50 looking like hel_l and seated in the far corner.

I see Tonytiger reports that the cow has gone, so you might be OK, absolute disgrace that woman was.

I sent a lot of stuff over from the UK with seven seas door to door and did not pay any taxes or duty. You just have to send it over in a Thai's name, I sent it over in my wifes name and she just had to go to customs with ID and say it was her stuff. Thai customs are thieves so do it this way and don't pay the crooks.

This is not completely true. In order for a Thai person to qualify for Import Duty exemption of Household goods. The Thai person has to have been living overseas for at least 1 year

It is true cos they never ask to see passport, only ID

This thread is scary.

I have 12 cu m (1000kg?) of my UK-life household effects (racking up storage costs as I speak) that I would urgently like to bring into Thailand in a container and if I go through with it, I am starting to feel I will regret the idea once I hit customs.

How will they assess the dutiable value of 10 - 20 year-old household stuff (basically 90% crap!). There are no sales invoices etc. as it's old used personal stuff. As a guide for myself, I've estimated I could replace all "the 90% crap" buying second hand on ebay in the UK for around £6,000. The 10% "sentimental" stuff I can't replace (which unfortunately is inextricably mixed up with all the cr@p).

How on earth do customs decide a value and what rate of duty are they then likely to apply? Shipping alone is likely to be £2,000 (before duty and tax are added to THAT it would seem!)

I'm getting more depressed about the situation as I type, having no WP or annual ext of stay to ease the way through.

Anyone with experience able to tell me what I'm in for?

I sent a lot of stuff over from the UK with seven seas door to door and did not pay any taxes or duty. You just have to send it over in a Thai's name, I sent it over in my wifes name and she just had to go to customs with ID and say it was her stuff. Thai customs are thieves so do it this way and don't pay the crooks.

Does anyone know where i can get a packet of 1mg Xanax/Alprazolam in BKK Sukhumvit area for my impending flight back home?

Also what should they cost?

150 baht for a strip pharmacy near soi 4 don't ask in thai or they will not sell, it's illegal to. It's generic not the original.

Its not illegal if you dont know if its legal or not so it cant be discussed here. However walk into the the big one cnr soi 4 and ask for xanax for sleep confidently. I have bad sleep issues and they work great for me . they will be the generic thai version just remember they 1mg not .05 so double the strength so when that plane hurtles towards then sea approaching the speed of sound, you will probably be still asleep

it most certainly is illegal to sell xanax and valium over the countrer without a prescription

Does anyone know where i can get a packet of 1mg Xanax/Alprazolam in BKK Sukhumvit area for my impending flight back home?

Also what should they cost?

150 baht for a strip pharmacy near soi 4 don't ask in thai or they will not sell, it's illegal to. It's generic not the original.

Hi,

I'm coming again next July. I was wondering if the skytrain to the airport has opened yet or not, two years ago it seemed almost finished.

Many thanks !

it has no link to the BTS skytrain and is completely different, good luck dragging yer bags up and down those (higher than skytrain) stairs.