mgjackson69

If it's a gasoline powered car, take out the rotor in the distributor.

I didn't realise that it was a vintage car. Most late models are electronic fuel injection with an electronic engine management system,

The OP stated it is a diesel. The post you quoted says "If it's a gasoline powered car..."

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I like "burn a fuse and put it in place of the fuel pump fuse". However, if Somchai decides to drive it, now he is going to kill your battery trying to start it. So perhaps there us another fuse for 'starter relay' or some such. If so, put a bad one in there also. Take the good fuses with you.

The check the odometer and logger ideas do not make sense. The OP is trying to prevent the car from being used, not catch somebody doing wrong.

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Most of the young Thais seem to be of the opinion that red shirt supporters are all stupid buffalo and should go back to the rice paddy. They view themselves as part of the elite because they live in Bangkok and drink Starbucks. They don't really have much of a worldview because they have grown up in the Thai education system and class society. They don't realize the bigger picture, that this is not about Thaksin, it is about globalization and rising economics and political power of lower classes. There are no winners. There are 60 million people and they all turn like a machine, you can build dams but eventually water will flow through.

It is the same everywhere in the world where you have a large population of young people attending university. They believe that they are enlightened simply by virtue of having a student ID.

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What I really dislike is when people sanitize a word by calling it "the word" or "the bomb"...such a "the N-word" or "the S-bomb".

That substitution means the same thing as the real word, therefore it should be just as offensive (if one is offended by such things).

If you are going to say it, put away politically correct bullshit and say the word.

As far as 'farang' goes, I take zero offense at being called that. My response is usually "mai chai farang...baak see daa".

But then I do not take offense at being called "honky", "whitey", or "cracker" either.

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I arrived here 5 times this year, on a US passport. Do I count as five 'tourists'?

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The question is, what will happen next ?

 

 

Will the protesters go home, and everything in the current government will continue as if nothing ever happened, including the lying-cheating and looting the state coffers ?

 

Or will there be a house dissolution and new elections?

mai bpen rai, we will worry about that later

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Isaan does not mean "farm" it means a geographical plateau Region. Includes towns, villages cities and yes, farmland. However, you will find farmland in all regions of Thailand. So saying cities are not Isaan is just silly. Many Isaan people live in cities...or perhaps unread and unwise self proclaimed experts have actually thought that Isaan only refers to farmland.???  Shaking my head. Just incredible, but when your only tour is to Pattaya and Phuket, then its just sad.

According to my wife, Isaan is just the name of the region, it does not mean "farm" or "dry place" or anything else.

But she is an uneducated Isaan lady, so maybe she does not know as much as some farang ;-)

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In USA engines are rated by horsepower and torque output as well.

Many of us older 'gearheads' have long been accustomed to a very direct correlation between engine displacement and power ("There is no substitute for cubic inches"). With the advancements that have been made over the years it is common for the 'smaller' engine to make more usable power, more efficiently, than its 'larger' counterpart of years past.

In 1979 I bought a new Chevrolet K10 pickup truck. It was equipped with the venerable 350 cubic inch V8 (5.7 L in modern-speak) . That engine was rated at 175 HP/275 ft/lbs torque. It was not a powerhouse exactly but it did pretty well, handling farm duty well as well as commuting.

Fast forward to current times. I now have a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. It is equipped with the 5.3 L V8 rated at 295 HP/330 ft/lbs torque.

It is a smaller displacement engine, with much greater power output, and it uses significantly less fuel.

The more interesting comparison is to look at the 4.3 L V6 that was available for my truck in 2004. It was rated at 195 HP/260 ft/lbs torque...nearly the same numbers as the old V8. It is giving up some torque, but that would come into play more for load hauling than daily driving.

Some would say a V6 is "not enough engine" for that truck. The numbers say otherwise.

But, if someone said that to me, I would say, "Buy what you like."

What is "enough engine" is a subjective measurement for each buyer to make. But, logic says it should be based on a bit of research and test driving experience, not simply looking at a displacement number.

Does it have to do with penis size? Who knows?

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You 'surrender' your old passport, in a sense, when you apply for the new one.

But, the old one is returned to you.

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A true democracy will only work for a very small population. As we become more and more electronically connect it would be possible to have a true democracy with the populace directly voting on every bill.

In practice this would give the 'special interests' even more influence. Instead of buying representatives and advertisements to influence constituents to call their representatives, now the special interests could target voters directly via mass media, tailoring the message to each particular bill. It would be "all political ads, all the time" on television and radio.

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Lets be honest though apart from a few nice towns like roi et and ubon, issan is one hell of a boring place to live, bit like an open prison, Most falangs who claim to live in issan do not live in villages miles from anywhere they live in places like those mentioned or KK or Udon, not really the same experience. Life in a village where the highlight of the week is insect hunting or fishing (emptying a pond) is not very attractive. There are falangs of course who live in nice houses they have built insulated by sat tv, internet and a bike ride into a town for sanity and maybe eatable food. But this is not the issan of wooden shed houses, nothing to do and being surrounded drunken lazy villagers. issan sucks, that my opinion after 20 years of visiting the place, towns excepted.

I don't "claim" to live in Isaan. I LIVE in Isaan. Granted, I'm a relative Isaan newbie, only 5+ years now (17 years full time in Thailand).

And I plead guilty to living in an area that doesn't give me your Isaan " .. experience ..". But that's personal choice. So Isaan doesn't necessarily "suck". Your choice of lifestyle "sucks" -- in your opinion.

For me, at my age, KK is my smartest and most comfortable choice.

I can see Khon Kaen as being a good compromise between being in one of the more "mainstream" larger metro areas and being in a 40-house village swatting flies.

I spent some time there for work some years back and liked it pretty well.

The OP is on the right track...one can be generous without becoming an ATM.

If the relationship continues, rest assured that some family member will ask to "borrow" some money. It is on you to evaluate such requests and say 'yea' or 'nay'. A refusal will likely result in a bunch of talking and you being asked again...just stand your ground and set the precedent.

I guess your crystal ball is 100% accurate?

Been living with my wife for nearly 5 years, legally married for 3 years. Very large extended family. No one has asked for a handout or a loan. Everyone works. Neither do I pay my wife a "salary".

Maybe you have been reading TV too long?

Rest assured my comments are based on experience and living in Isaan. If we want to have a pissing match about it, I have you beat on years with my wife and years married to her...so what?

If you have never had a single person ask you for a baht, good on you. I admit I might have been generalizing a bit...but, I was doing so in an attempt to prepare the OP for his next visit, in case it did happen. I would be happy to see an update from the OP after his next visit where he says "the second visit is completed, with no requests for money".

Can you truly say that no family member or any of there drinking buddies has not tried to get you to buy a bottle of whiskey?

Is it the Marriott Mayfair on Soi Lang Suan?

You will get the old passport back stamped "CANCELLED" and with a couple of holes punched into it.

Go to your bank with both old and new passports and have them update your profile/information.

People throw the word "scam" around almost as loosely as they do "hero".

This Ford deal might be annoying, but I do not think it is a scam.

Pay the premium or wait...up to you.

There is a difference between a percentage of votes cast and percentage of eligible votes received. The second number is meaningless, as an unused votes does not count.

Skilled liars...oh wait...statisticians make use of the percentage of eligible votes number to diminish the win of their opponent.

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The wife is to talk to the people. If you speak good Thai, then a translator is not needed.

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The OP's comment regarding Fillipinos and the amount of baggage they typically travel with was not in any way racist, it was an observation, and part of his narrative as a possible contributing factor to the baggage problems he experienced.

I would make the same observation about Chinese people. When I worked in Toronto, most of the time when I saw Chinese travelers it would be a large family group with two trolleys (real skycap trolleys, not the little self-serve ones that keep getting stolen from Suvarnabhumi) full of large hard-sided bags. While waiting for my bag one time I counted the family members and bags in one group...as close as I could get it was a minimum of two LARGE bags for each member of the herd, and there were enough additional bags to give half of the group a third bag.

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yingluck is elected by the people, not suthep, thus he is in no position to give the ultimatum to yingluck and she need not bother about him actually.

 

Was Yingluck elected  ??????   I have an idea she was placed there.

 

 

well I can also say that Abhisit was elected OUT, hence Yingluck was elected IN. Whatever it is, it's still a fact that Yingluck government was elected through elections.

No No NO! You have it all wrong!

Since Yingluck is not "our guy", she was not elected...she was placed, the election was rigged,

If "our guy" gets in power, regardless of the circumstances, i will be democratic, by the people,

Note: I do not include myself when I use the term "our guy"; I do not belong to either 'side'.

Do I have an opinion on who should be in power here? Certainly.. Do I feel the need to share it? Not really..I cannot participate in choosing the leaders here, I am a guest regardless of how long I have been here (longer than many, shorter than some). Even if I had intricate knowledge of Thai history, the government structure, and the personalities involved, I would not presume to tell the Thai people who their leaders should be.

That he rest of the world would afford the same courtesy to me and my fellow countrymen.

As to the current political situation in Thailand, I tend to comment on the hypocrisy and double standards demonstrated by both sides.

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And 4 other things!!

1. Why is it impossible to ask anyone either for directions or where anything is and,if you do,you get an answer like:

"round the corner by blue house"

2. Where did eating out of plastic bags come to be the norm?

3. Why do they keep changing the road numbers? + Why is it nearly impossible to buy a map? There are very good ones. But all shops in CM only have maps of Phitsanulok!

4. Why do people sleep and go swimming with their clothes on? But perfectly acceptable to nip out to 7 in your pyjamas?

Funny, your point #1. Some time ago, while discussing this topic with my wife, I asked her to tell me how to get from the Chok Chai Intersection (see yaak yaai) to our house. I got the blank stare first, then "I tell to call me".

It took a while, and a bunch of discussion, but I finally figured out that the sticking point was stringing several directions together.

The Thai method seems to be "Go to the next landmark and call me"

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Another thing I don't understand are the drivers who cannot seem to find proper cruising speed. They will floor it for 2 seconds and then remove their foot from the accelerator, then open up full throttle again and so on instead of just maintaining even pressure.

Taxi drivers seem to be the worst for this.

Drivers of large trucks as well. You can hear them pulling away from a stop, or even reversing, and they are fluctuating/modulating the throttle for no reason'

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Your partner had no shampoo etc because you did not go out and buy some. You let your partner suffer, such as it was, for 'principle'.

Yes, it was an unfortunate situation, and it sucks when it happens. True travelers realize this and take the steps to minimize the inconvenience, to make things the best they can under the situation they find themselves in.

The part about not sending your remaining bag out to Yala is unacceptable. They can get the bag there by any number of means.

Go out and buy you partner the toiletries etc she needs to tide her over, and also replace what she used from the family. And really, was using someone else' soap a hardship?

As far as compensation...for what? How much is a delayed bag worth per day? If you incurred real and documented costs associated with this fiasco, then sure, it is reasonable to ask for that. If you are looking for punitive damages I have zero sympathy.

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My wife is one of the rare exceptions to those 'features" of Thai drivers noted here. She does not use the phone while driving, she understands and uses the concept of matching the gear selection to the current travel speed (selecting the proper gear before it is needed), does not pass on hills, curves, or in no passing zones, uses turn signals properly, and obeys lane markings and traffic lights.

But then, I did teach her to drive.

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People in other cultures are wasteful, so that makes it acceptable here?

The discussion is about Thai culture, not other places.

It is interesting to not, as others have mentioned, the Thais are not wastedful with rice. The children are told about how hard people work to "make the rice", and it is disrespectful of that hard work to waste a single grain of rice.

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