Charma

Beerguy - CHECK YOUR PM'S!

If any other Coco investor would like current information on what is happening, please PM me.

charma

why dont you share this with all. is there a reason for this to be on PM only?

Yes

Beerguy - CHECK YOUR PM'S!

If any other Coco investor would like current information on what is happening, please PM me.

Song sung blue - neil diamond

BLUE xmas...........elvis

I wish it could be xmas everyday - Roy Wood

Quick quote from the BBC Match of the Day commentator during the Man City match last night:

"...and that's the FA chief sitting next to Mr Shinawatra, certainly seems to be giving a seal of approval to the former Thai Prime Minister"

Cut to picture of a smiling Thaksin very much enjoying his teams success!

Simpsons by a mile

This is something I'm a bit clueless about.

I've got a card in the camera it's a Lexar 256MB SD card. It's got nothing special on it now, but I'll soon be taking lots of pictures of my newborn son who's due any day.

Is the card reader just a little box with USB connection?

Thanks for your help.

spot

The readers are very cheap and just plug into your usb port. Many printers have them built in nowadays. SD memory is also very cheap at the moment so if you are going to be taking a lot of pics at high res, then it may be worth getting a larger card as well (2gb card should do)

Charma

thanks for getting back on topic.

I condem violence.. of any kind by any side.....

I have yet to see any forigner publicly admit that he was drunk and he behaved abusivly towards the Thai and that it was his fault that the fight started... and that YES he did desreve to get the beating he got because he was realy out of order.

Is it me, or are these two statements incongruous?

what is a manager?

I think the study used data relating to managers at head of function/department level.

I came across an article in People management magazine and was surprised to read that a recent study placed Thailand 8th in the world in respect of manager's disposable incomes. The study takes into account tax and cost of living and concludes that the west is facing unprecendented competition for managerial talent. Top of the tree is Saudi Arabia, with Singapore ranked behind Thailand at 9th. The US are down in 24th, Australia in 26th and the UK all the way down at 40th!

The full list is reproduced below, with figures in US dollars. I found reference to the original stuudy here:

http://www.consultant-news.com/article_dis...adp&id=3877

1 Saudi Arabia 229,325

2 UAE 223,939

3 Hong Kong 203,947

4 Russia 157,348

5 Turkey 154,762

6 Mexico 152,283

7 Ukraine 149,118

8 Thailand 147,547

9 Singapore 142,655

10 Argentina 138,188

11 Poland 128,537

12 Spain 128,197

13 Switzerland 127,732

14 China 126,281

15 Greece 126,102

16 Malaysia 126,026

17 Brazil 123,766

18 Lithuania 122,941

19 Germany 122,427

20 Ireland 117,010

21 Portugal 116,678

22 Romania 115,280

23 Austria 112,906

24 United States 104,905

25 Netherlands 103,823

26 Australia 103,578

27 Japan 102,604

28 Italy 101,487

29 South Africa 100,257

30 New Zealand 100,136

31 France 98,117

32 South Korea 97,867

33 Latvia 97,409

34 Czech Republic 97,352

35 Egypt 97,001

36 India 92,750

37 Hungary 91,358

38 Belgium 89,632

39 Slovakia 86,632

40 United Kingdom 86,367

41 Denmark 82,697

42 Canada 81,613

43 Estonia 80,908

44 Norway 77,202

45 Sweden 75,581

46 Finland 74,038

47 Indonesia 71,839

To get back on topic -

Highdiver, perhaps you could clarify your position by simply stating that it is NOT an acceptable situation for tourists who refuse to pay an exhorbitant and unlawful taxi fare, to be stabbed for their trouble (even if one were to accept that they "gave a bit of lip" in the process). I do understand your general desire to balance things out a bit and put over a "thai" point of view, but perhaps there are more deserving cases than this one. Most Thai people I know would not seek to justify this guys actions. By all means advise people against picking arguments with unknown and unpredictable locals, but please don't make it sound like an excuse for attempted murder.

Doubtless, the partisan Highdiver would have deemed such culturally offensive behaviour on my part to be worthy of a good slashing or perhaps just minor flesh wounds would have sufficed ?

Highdiver is not partisan, he is merely representing the much maligned "Yellow Slasher" Taxi service. How dare these arrogant tourists moan about a few knife wounds!

meters going on .......that will never happen unless they asign somebody to monitor all taxi's that have people inside and are still displaying the for hire sign on the roof. this has to be one of the most talked about topics by all visitors .somebody in power please sort this well we still have tourists.....

I am also a liitle sceptical about any changes really happening. I seem to remember not so long ago, a local Thai politician vowing to make changes after even he was ripped off by one of these guys. Nothing really happened though. The problem is that foreign residents and repeat tourists do know about the problem and gewnerally keep away from them, but your average tourist does not get warned and so these things will just continue to happen. As others have said on numerous other threads, if there was a proper metered system like BKK, I am sure all the drivers would make more money and the taxis would be full most of the day.

Maybe it will take a murder before action is really taken to change things. They need to target the people running the taxis, which is normally not the person behind the wheel!

As a follow up to this story, the driver was arrested earlier today in Nakorn Sri Thamarart. Here is a link to story (in Thai again I am afraid). He confessed to the attack saying he was provoked, etc, etc.......

http://www.matichon.co.th/khaosod/khaosod_...;sectionid=0301

Interesting story. Looks like the guy will be doing some time, not least as states that it is unlawful to carry an offensive weapon in a public place! Also goes on to talk about a clamp down on taxi and tuk tuk drivers, regarding paperwork, I.D. and fingerprints to make them more traceable if things like this happen. Even mentions a clampdown on use of meters! It will be interesting to see if anything comes of that.

I beg to differ.

I differ on your assumptions of the case and I differ at your remarks about me.

your post is a fine example of how things can quickly become a conflict. instead of adressing the issue you have chosen to address me personaly.

not that I have not done the same to others

I was not really making assumptions, merely referring to the information YOU put forward as an excuse for this guys actions. In this post and also in this post:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=135306

...you have accused both tourist parties of abusive behaviour and hinted either that they have deserved their treatment or that they should not complain unless they wish to meet some (unstated) unfortunate event.

As I said in my post, only those that were there really know what happened, but there will NEVER be an excuse to resort to a knife attack to solve a fare dispute - if the guy can run off to get a knife, he can run off to get the police.

Can I suggest a new job for you - Official Spokesperson for Samui Taxi Drivers. Everytime someone posts on TV about being ripped off, you could spring into action and point out what whining, whinging, abusive gits they are!

Highdiver

You do seem to think that any tourist that dares to question their treatment from any Thai business deserves physical harm! You readily believe any version of events given to you by your Thai "friends", even when the facts may not support them. As has been pointed out, the taxi driver fled the scene and possibly did a runner after dunping his taxi. You also state that the four tourists attacked him and he was getting a beating. Yet somehow he manages to get away from them and return to his cab. Then, rather than getting away to summon the police, he gets a knife and returns to stab them.

Only those there at the time know what really happened, but anyone investigating this would have some serious questions for the driver.

This kind of incident does tremendous damage to the island as it is. It does not need anyone else to justify the guys actions!

My current house if I were to pay a 10% down and then use the equivalancy of my rent payment as a mortgage payment, I calculated it would take 42 years to own! Ridiculous to buy in that situation; whatever the term is for that. It reminds me of being "upside-down" (owing more in car payments than the value of the car.)

Of course you seemed to forgotten that a car depreciates, whereas land & property (generally, over time) appreciate. However, I think most people buy more for security than investment - perhaps sick of being at the mercy of a landlord. But then again, they will probably end up at the mercy of their wife!

These xenophobic sentiments cut across all political divides. This law was only pulled at the last minute because so many of the NLA wanted MORE restrictions. Any future compromise with the junta is likely to add these! The vast majority of the voting population will not understand the implication of these measures, but will certainly be susceptible to the time honoured election tradition of "blame the foreigner". Because of this, I think it is very unlikely that any future election will change the direction on these matters. If things do not improve economically, anti-foreign policies may become even more prevalent. Certainly a time to look at company assets and be ready for changes!

As has been pointed out, posters can be affected differently by the more "confrontational" exchanges. The fascinating thing is that our "fight/Flight" reactions can easily be triggered during an online interaction. On reading an aggressive post aimed at you, your body will release stress hormones, your heart will beat faster, breathing will accelerate etc etc. This ancient physiological system will leave you wanting to either strangle the person at the other end of the forum or log off. Of course you can't strangle them, so you have all this pent up anger that you try to vent by attacking them at the keyboard.

Ulitmately you are doomed to failure as you will either get more abuse or get banned (although there have been a few cases where TV members have tried to get a "real world" attack in).

Each person is affected by this to differing degrees, but there is not a lot you can do to stop it happening. If you notice it - take a deep breath and try to get your logical brain in gear - "It's only a computer!" I have met people that are still ranting about a forum exchange several days after it happened. I have recently had an ebay exchange that has deteriorated into retaliatory feedback. I could not stop myself wanting to cause deep physical pain to the T*@t at the other end... hold on, deep breath....that's better.

Looks like the dollar might just be about to drop below the 30 baht mark. Also UK pound is at a 30 year high against the dollar at 2.04!

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/Investing/C...s&WT.srch=1

After two years a thai spouse can apply for British residency (no test req'd), after that (if they choose to) they can apply for British citizenship which is the only time they would ever have to sit a test.

As has already been stated the above quoted post is wrong. The rules changed on 1st April 2007. They will not now issue indefinate leave to remain until the test has been passed. There has been a post on this already in the visa frum, where a member's wife has been ordered to leave the UK (they have a 2 year old in school in UK). They applied for further leave to remain in order to get the test done, but were denied this because they applied a few days too late. This was after they followed home office advice on when to apply! The determination was issued WITHOUT the right to appeal. The TV member is now seeking advice on what to do. It is worth ALL UK members with Thai wives that may be in a similar situation, to find out about the new rules ASAP.

Lots of advice for you here Paul - Take particular note of the scouser's comments - his advice has served TV members very well over the years. One thing to check may be whether your wife is entitled to legal aid and if such aid is applicable to these type of cases - particluarly judical reviews (I know there have been changes over recent years). You need to get this thing sorted as soon as possible and in no way follow the advice of that your wife can simply live on here as an overstayer!

Did I read that his 28 year old wife left the village with her eldest son, who lived as a woman? These ages have to be stretched at both ends to make sense. Perhaps the local rag in Wales got a bit carried away with the story here. Seems to have every possible ingredient that could be drawn from Thai stereotypes. God knows!

These post are great if you look at them in the right way. It is not about laughing at someone's ignorance, but enjoying a familiar experience from a totally different perspective. On arriving in the UK my wife pointed out so many trees, plants and flowers that I had not really noticed before. The questions she asked me over the years often make you think again about the way we live here (animal housekeeping included). There are also the funnies, like asking me why so many people could not afford to cover the bricks up on their houses.

Charma, sorry but although I have gotten many pm's I haven't gotten yours.

I'll try pm to you.

Beamer, I went the leasehold route and saw the villas very recently.

Beerguy - PM reply sent

Beerguy

I am rather surprised that you are still asking for information on this thread. I have PM'd you three or four times offering information, but have not had a reply. Either the PM's are not getting to you , or you do not really want the information. Perhaps you may appreciate that not all of us on this forum wish throw information out on to the public forum (samuijens) without realising that it may have an impact on individuals and their situations.

Anyone wishing to exchange information with me is free to PM me.