vpi78

Bloody hell Person... That sounds like a terrible ordeal!

You were really lucky that someone came to help you and you managed to get away physically unscathed, although not mentally.

Take care out there people (and person)

Actually it sounds entirely made up from an over active imagination burned out on Google searches about Thai police.

Just bullshit, especially the pretending to have a seizure and collapsing on the ground, way over the top.

In 1984 the bar fine at Soi Cowboy was 250 baht, try find that today.

in 1973 the total cost of a "package" was 300 Baht

Package ??

Drugs or what ?

It is the "What" Usually includes Bar Fine, Girl, Short time room and sometimes condom. STDs are a no cost extra without the condoms and for some viruses, e.g., Herpes, they can tag along with or without the condom.

Sorry, no idea. I've been coming to/living in Bangkok since 1993...and I've never been to Khaosan Road.

Go to the Occupy Wall Street bitch feasts. you'll see the same sights except for the Pad Thai stalls.

Paad Thai has been 80 baht for a long time. Probably you were eating out of a dumpster.

You can get it all day and night long today on KSR carts for 40 Baht. No dumpster diving necessary.

If you can get past the Thong Lor Police Thugs unscathed be aware of the Cigarette Butt "Litter Police" Shakedown, furthur down Sukhumvit.

Google "litter police bangkok" if you don't know about this police scam on tourists.

You know that is just bullshit, I.e., the "Cigarette Police" are not cops.

Regardless, anyone caught littering next to spots with visible warnings of the consequences deserves to have their wallet lightened.

The fine for similar of fences in the UK is considerably more than the 2,000 Baht the fake cops try to get. Anyone dumb enough to get caught and pay more that 500 baht is not just stupid but too incompetent to be walking alone and unsupervised. Hopefully they are not breeders.

......and there are aliens at Area 51, JFK was shot by the KGB, the US never landed on the moon cause the flags waving in the wrong direction and the world will end in 2012 cause the Aztecs said so.

Sorry but you need to get out a bit more and stop the wild conspiracy theories

The Maya, not Aztecs is the source of the 2012 belief. But, they did not actually write that the world would end then. It is a misinterpretation perpetuated by the popular media.

Actually, the Mayas' predicts the end of a world cycle (the fifth) (as per their calendar ending on 21.12.12). It's more due to Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation of ancient artefacts that has propagated the belief of the end of the world. And just in case it's true, I'm going to spend every penny I will earn in 2012

I think you are both wrong and instead that the Maya were speculating about the demise of NEP and Washington Square in 2012 like Stickman. If you say it enough times like a stopped clock you will eventually get it right.

Footage costs money-talk is cheap.

Yeah, for a similar reason in the US many of the TV programs are crap "reality" shows. Real programs cost much more to produce.

Islam is the most intolerant religion on the planet. Far from sanctioning or condoning murder in the name of Allah, it embraces it.

Please name me a tolerant religion

For one, I was raised by intolerant Catholics.

Take the Serbs and the Croatians, which ones are the Orthodox and which ones are the Catholics again?

Anyway, they killed each other and the Muslims who were in their way too.

As Christopher Hitchens said it so well: "Religion poisons everything"

Throughout history good people do good things and bad people do bad things, but for good people to do bad things religion is often involved.

Darrel - you did the right thing - you voted with your feet. Any one with more than one brain cell knows you are right. Any one else who is critical of your actions must be easily pleased or willing to be ripped off.

Maybe the (fat) woman has heard that if you borrow 5 baht from every one you meet you are a Bhat / Bath / Baht / Bt millionaire after you meet the 200,000th person you rip off.

Note I still do not know how to spell Bhat...?

... or anyone so upset by something so trivial is not suited for life in Thailand. You guys must walk around angry all the time, complaining about 5 baht rises in prices, imagined rip-offs more likely due to misunderstandings, and all those irrelevant comparisons to how it is/was in your home country.

But you are entertaining. Keep posting.

,,, and I thought the guy bitching about a bad 295 Baht steak in Pattaya was a cheap charlie.

" Managing victory is harder than winning elections " -- of course it is. You now have to deliver the goods to the people you allegedly paid to vote for you.

Don't worry about your rice exports, the foreign middlemen will ' chemically ' adjust your rice so they only need to buy the cheapest. Whilst in the UK, my wife fancied some jasmine rice so we bought a packet ( Asda Scunthorpe ). When she tried it, she commented that in no way was it jasmine rice so we read the packet. Sure wasn't jasmine rice, but ordinary rice modified to supposedly taste like jasmine rice.

So, the farmers will get richer and will then be able to double his workers' wages and pay all the extra added costs fueled by the inflation this move has caused. No doubt he'll pay this from the average 15000 baht a tonne he gets from the government for his rice. Having doubled his workers wages and paid all the inflation caused costs, exactly what will he be left with ? Pretty much the same as now I reckon. And, what happens when your crop fails due to lack of rain or water like last year ? How many farmers won't be able to pay their workers the new wages......oh, of course, they'll charge it to their new credit cards -- silly me.

Exactly the problem Barry Hussein O'Bummer has come across. "If you love me ... pass this jobs bill." What arrogance and ineptitude, Yingluck is hopefully more astute.

Krabi?

Never been... sell it to me in max 10 words

farang000999 will not be there.

Any answer to the real question? Rate is going up, which is good for me but then I wonder when it will stabilize? If I exchange USD from a rate like 30.50 and then 2 weeks later if rate become 31.00 I will feel like a dumbass. For small amount of money, it doesn't matter but imagine you buy a condo / house and transfer some hefty amount of USD from offshore!

Well buying a condo now and here will be a double whammy. Youpay a lot and can’t even sell when you want.

My advice to anyone wanting to buy a condo here is DO NOT. Thereare much better way to lose your money and have fun too

Extremely happy I ignored those that gave that advice in 2006 when I bought my condo in Bangkok.

Check back in 5 years and tell us what you advise again.

Any answer to the real question? Rate is going up, which is good for me but then I wonder when it will stabilize? If I exchange USD from a rate like 30.50 and then 2 weeks later if rate become 31.00 I will feel like a dumbass. For small amount of money, it doesn't matter but imagine you buy a condo / house and transfer some hefty amount of USD from offshore!

I remember when the rate was 45 baht to the dollar... Not long ago. My impression is that the rates are based on politics, ie, it was 45 when Thaksin was around, and immediately dropped once he was gone. And when General Prem had power, gas was 10 baht for many years, and the baht was 25 to the dollar

Gosh and I remember when gas in the US was 32 cents per gallon, coke/pepsi was 10 cents and the minimum wage $1.65 per hour.

Guess it is all "politics."

I imagine they're discussing this on other TV forums -- the ones related to money, finance and business.

I've read several articles about this in the International Herald Tribune in the past week. My summary might not be precise, but this is what this non-economist got out of the articles: Basically, on Thursday, some European regulators loosened the rules on either how much and/or how long European banks can borrow U.S.D. I think some American regulators have also had a hand in this, too. Apparently, the European banks normally buy European gov't debts, but there is a lot of concern about certain European gov'ts defaulting on those debts and banks are interested in reducing their holdings of European debt. This rule change has created an increased demand for USD in world financial markets.

As an American, we're delighted, but also a little scared. Given the state of the American economy, the world is in pretty sad shape if everyone feels that American dollars are the best thing around.

O please the US is still a very safe currency to put your money. If it is so bad what would you suggest the chinese rimbe or the Indian rupee these to countries may be doing well but they are still light weights when it comes to the US market. Yes we have a few problems with debt but it will be sorted out and everyone will wonder what the big deal was all about. I think right now all of the hype, moaning and growning is more about politics and the fear the repukians are trying to create problems for Obama instead of solving them.

Also I think the weaker baht is a reflection of the finicial policies of the ptp and there growing spending spree especially the spending to come especially the rice program

Love your positive attitude but the reality is America is a nation in decline and once you are rolling forward its very hard to get into reverse gear. Thank GWB for his knee jerk reaction in invading another country and creating trillions of $'s debt and Republicans stonewalling any efforts the current administration tries to implement . 9.1% unemployment and the US produces very little the rest of the world wants. Poverty is rising and thousands of people have lost their jobs and houses. Is there any good news ? please tell us.And if anyone watched the Tea Party's, meet the Republican candidates for leader on CNN, you would be still cringing. If you wonder why the population of US expats in CM is increasing see above.

Priceless. I knew it would not be long for it to be "George Bush's fault."

Less Brits?

That could only be a greater advantage and benefit to the Thai society, yes?

Ha, ha, ha, a good try at winding people up just for the sake of.

I’ve always enjoyed your posts and common sense views, but sorry, you’ve let the side down on this one. Hoping to see the return of the old zzaa09 soon.

As I said previous, we are all in this together; no one will escape the world economic crisis and the ever-dwindling bahts for Western currencies.

The most we can do is try to ride out the storm and hope this crisis will not continue for too long. But I’m afraid there are going to be casualties on the way and that includes everybody, not one of us is exempt.

Common sense ... you're having a laugh. As he often does, zzaa09 mangled the English language again. The context is 'fewer Brits", rather than "less Brits."

Although, if he were more literate one might argue he was alluding to the Welsh as "Lesser Brits."

Thailand and Thai tourism will be fine, the mix of tourists will just keep churning as Anglos of all varieties are replaced by more colorful folks.

Durty Neilly's is a newish Irish pub in Ekamai. It has a seating area outside as well as 3 floors inside. The Brits would probably consider it a gastro-pub and the food is pretty good. Not too crowded and plenty of room for a small party group as well as the usual bar games. e.g., pool, darts, shufflebpoard, etc.

dude, if you're jealous. run your own scam./ i d0.

LOL, good post.

You'd have to been either a Indian/Russian/Chines package tourist or completely illiterate to have never read about the scam. Other than some ThaiVisa posters, only the Nigerians could possibly care about it and then only because they are envious of the money the Thais are raking in.

The Phrom Phong SuperRich booth is in the BTS Walkway on the West side, exit the Emporium on the BTS walkway and head West. It is in the North grouping on booths. There are several other exchange booths in the vicinity and the SuperRich one is always better. It is much better than the rip-off booths inside the Emporium.

Coffee World right outside Nana BTS on the North (odd numbered sois) side of Sukhumvit.

First of all Hi, I'm new here, and new to the BKK expat community....

Secondly, that was a horribly written article; tangles syntax, incomprehensible figures, full of subordinate clauses - a total journalistic train wreck. It'd be far more useful if they could express the date in percentages, and contextualise by suggesting deviation from the norm.

The basic fact that seems to be missing is what happened last time a similar quantity of water arrived in BKK, and have things since improved or worsened ? Can anyone tell me what we may expect, and indeed what preparations would be prudent ?

This "flood" is not much different than years past. In the last 30 years there has been significant improvement to Bangkok drainage.

Back in the 70s and early 80s they practically paved over much of the natural waterways/khlongs/canals which made the place resemble Amsterdam and it was not unusual to wade through 2 feet of water along the lower end of Sukhumvit/Ploenchit.

Although they are blasted most of the time on ThaiVisa, particularly by people that have only been in Thailand for a year or so ... if they have even been here at all, the Thai authorities woke up to the danger in the 90s and have greatly improved the water runoff and drainage system from Bangkok.

In short, you have nothing to worry about. This tend to happen every year about this time. The rainy season peaks this month and will wind down greatly in October.

Helicopter pilot circles. There are a lot of Farang chopper pilots in Thailand especially from Canada.

Oil and gas executive circles. There a lot of

Farang oil and gas executives here.

Automotive circles. There are a lot of Farang auto executives from here.

Consultant engineer circles. There are a lot of Farang engineers here that inspect things because they have certain certifications.

From what I see about 80% have hookers for wives and GF's; albeit absolutely strikingly beautiful ladies. Because the above guys make big bucks.

Military circles. A number of Americans live here who were based here during the war. Very few of them were Rambo types. Most being involved in construction, although they have Thai ties going back 40 years (interesting stories). There are some real hero's here though such as the guys who pulled the Thais out of Laos when the sh** hit the fan. And guys who flew the last prop fighters, and guys who flew all kinds of odd missions in strange aircraft, the variety of aircraft used is mind boggling.

If you didn't know it the mission decisions were made in Washington and then relayed to the air bases in Thailand. This meant that the data was usually old and dangerous. The pilots stationed here had brass balls. I saw B-52's go on the same mission three days in a row using the same flight path. On the third day you knew they weren't coming back (Even the North Vietnamese AA gets the range after three tries). All because some clerk at the pentagon was too lazy to plan a new mission.

The dog handlers are interesting too and a couple are still here. These guys worked with incredibly large German Shepherds in guarding air bases, U-Tapao for example. The VC attacked U-Tapao on a couple of occasions trying to get at the B-52's.

Off shore mercenaries. Most of them are truck drivers from Iraq, they make $120,000 a year.

The military circles suffer the same tendency towards exaggeration as all stories told as years go by. For the entire Vietnam war there were only about 30 B-52s lost due to hostile/North Vietnam/Viet Cong actions and less than 20 of those were via combat.

There is a great leather shop at the corner of Soi 1 and Sukhumvit on the west side of the street. It has been there for at least 30 years and has a broad range of leather products, boots to jackets. I have had several items made there. It's the soi that leads to Bumrungrad heading North from Sukhumvit.

Must be serious. The OP posts here on the average of twice a year and has already posted 3 times on this thread.

Guess he'll need to lurk for the rest of 2011 to avoid overload.

<br />OP,<br /><br />Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not watching you and are out to get you.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Seed, here is my point. Whoever wrote this must be Thai because it makes no sense. LOL

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you" - Joseph Heller.

He's not Thai but the you are not that well versed in anything any way.

I assume you are in fact a Thai who teaches English!!!

Bad guess, but judging from your paranoia you are not that balanced any way.