jaywalker

Hope the guy recovers, but........Ever heard of Steve Irwin?

Or that Vegas guy?

I don't stick my hand in the fan, nor, run with scissors nor stick my finger up crocodile anuses or irritate elephants.

If it weighs more than me and has pointed teeth or spiky tails or is the size of a bus.....I stay away.

Took my wife to the Korat zoo one day & we went to see the Rhino's.

Only a steep ditch (no fence) separating us. I was taking pictures & turned around to see all 45 KG/99 lbs of her hiding behind a tree about 60 yards behind me.

The study also found that on average, the wife and foreign husband will normally return to the wifes family home in the region at least once a year, sometimes staying for as long as one month, which results in a dramatic increase in financial spending in the local area.

especially into the local mum and pop stores...

This is invaluable not only in fiscal terms.It strengthens the bond both between the wife's family with the husband,but also keeps Thai culture available for young children visiting maternal grandparents.

It also keeps the traffic cops happy pulling me over for imagined offenses.

When I first met my wife she was 27 and couldn't drive a 10 penny nail into a piece of cornbread.

She's a pretty good driver now. I just sit in the back & wish her luck.

Damned shame. R.I.P. together.

My Aunt has an annoying Pomeranian yapper.

I had the BBQ grill going at her house one day & suggested sticking a skewer up the mutt's butt & tossing it on the grill.

She didn't like that.

I really wish Thai's WOULD eat dogs. Far too many strays in Thailand.

And today's word is "HENCHMAN".

(a trusted follower or supporter who performs unpleasant, wrong, or illegal tasks for a powerful person (such as a politician or criminal) (Merriam Webster)

A lot of henching going on in the country and if they have guns, send in bigger guns and get rid of them, just like rats..

Can't wait.....for the "Crackdown" on "Henchmen".

I thought only Bond villains & Dr. Evil had henchmen.

Guessing the police were hoping they'd commit suicide in prison, or at least wished for a fast-track trial. Tough on them and I hope it all comes out and destroys careers and KT tourism (until it's thoroughly cleansed).

I see Mr Kent's name mentioned again. Why? And why is he still ambassador even?

I bet the British bobbies are relishing working with the Thai police. I hope they are familiar with this place as it'll be easy to run them around if not. They'd be better off being chaperoned by the army. RTP should take a backseat or, better still, get out of the car!

Stop believing that the embassy never does anything .

They have quite cleverly managed to get access for thr British police without annoying anyone in thailand. They have made their statements about the problems with the case quite firmly and diplomatically.

What would you like them to do? Send in thr SAS?

Yes.

I once saw a monitor about 5 & a half feet long in BKK.

I bet he weighed 100 lbs/45 kg. I doubt he could catch two geese though on one day. Maybe one.

Due to recent tumbling oil prices, I would hope they can go down rather than be 'held down'.

Several years ago oil went from $35 to $135 a barrel. Gasoline/petrol prices in the USA went from $1.80 a gallon to $3.50++ a gallon.

As the markets eased off on the prices, conniving "lawmakers" instituted a plethora of new gasoline taxes.

Hell, the sheeple (sheep - the populace) had gotten used to those prices.

I trade oil futures, & it was a blip on the charts, yet the price at the pump remains the same more or less.

The actual cost of a gallon of 87 octane gas is less than $1.00 at the pump.

The other 2/3rds is taxes that get squandered. The US State of Georgia has been milking a road construction project near here for YEARS now.

I see it all over where equipment hasn't moved for months.

Corruption, favoritism & vote buying is alive & well in the "Land of The FEE & Home of the Tax Slave".

Back on the Thailand side, what do they expect the gas station owners to do? Operate at a loss?

Price fixing has been tried by governments for centuries, as have capital controls (you have to claim export of money for scrutiny), and debasement of currency as well.

I think the earliest recorded experiment happened in Babylon a few millinea ago & wound up a disaster.

Have a look at what's happening in Argentina today. They have a thriving black market and bread-lines due to government price fixing, and have defaulted on sovereign debt twice since 2001.

What is "Pom" famous for on the internet?

His Romanized name doesn't google well.

You're not Australian are you? Neither am I but I know what a pom refers to.

Pom or Pommie is a derogatory term (to my limited knowledge) used by an Aussie when referring to British folks. I have no idea where it originated.

Us "Yanks" call them Limeys, as at the height of the British Empire, they figured out that scurvy was best treated/prevented with a dose of lime juice every day as it was caused by a lack of Vitamin C (mainly) to the sailors in their fleet that pretty much was bad-ass in their day.

I bet that lime juice went pretty good with a tot of rum .

I wonder what Limeys call Aussies???

It's all vernacular Brother/Mate/Dude/Amigo. Wikipedia.org is your friend.

==============

Back on topic, if I were raiding a gay bar and demanding urine samples, I'd be wearing rubber gloves. Hell, I'd be wearing a full HAZMAT suit!

Then again the BiB don't even do that with murder investigations (Koh Tao). Curious how one can refuse a DNA test in a murder investigation, but must pee in a cup if they decide they want you to.

I guess you have never visited Brazil or Argentina (South America). Even the U.S. has somewhat softened its position on topless beaches in specific tourist areas. Many resorts in the Caribbean and Central America either allow nudity or have a designated beach for such. Even Turkey (Muslim) allows topless sunbathing at the hotel pools and beaches along the Turkish Rivera.

Herds of European tourists vacation at beach locations every year. Many European women prefer no top when sunbathing.

Tourist money drives the train for countries willing to cater and conform to tourist's desires! Atypical of Thailand "Money for Nothing" and the sex is not free.........

You have a valid point there.

Sure local tourists visit some tourist areas in Thailand, but if they really want foreign tourists, why can they not accept foreign ways in said tourist areas?

EDUCATE the locals, as in:

"Hey! There's a lot of white folks here in this area (Pattaya, Phuket, Samui, & various islands) & they like to get a sun tan.

Most of them don't live near a beach & it's freezing weather 2/3rds of the year where they come from! Oh Yeah, WE want their money, they don't speak Thai, many come for a simple vacation in a friendly place...

Hell! some of them even find it (perish the thought!) ROMANTIC to be in the tropics!"

No, no, no, no, no!!!!! We must educate them to do as we say and not as we do.

=============

I was once had a VERY LOW IQ Thai guy on a crew I was advising/consulting in BKK.

I had some pictures a Spanish beaches on my computer.

The guy went NUTS!!!!!!! He just HAD to HAVE my collection. I had to bluetooth it to his phone when his boss showed up. The guy's name was "Oh"...not to beconfused with another guy on that team named Oah ....

Oh was just DYING to get home and, well, you know...I'm sure he had a date with Rosie Palmer.

My Mother used to go on & on about what I was not allowed to do, such as skip church, drink, smoke etc...You name it.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence = I became a rebel in my teens. I was quite the drinking, smoking, fornicator.

I moved to BKK & trawled Cowboy & Nana & soapies for a whopping 3 months, then settled down with a super cool lady 13 years ago.

I'm no saint, but neither am I some yo-yo that's been kept in the dark all my life about the "Ways of the World" & human nature in general.

Does anybody recall the uproar over some prankster that managed to get a slide in of a topless gal in a Powerpoint slideshow that got clicked onto the screen in Parliament a few years ago?

I wish I knew who pulled that off. I'd buy him a case of top shelf whiskey.

Just on Thai news channel.

Speed-boat driver says he rammed the fishing boat because a "piece of paper" blew onto his windscreen, and when he leaned forward and removed it, a fishing boat was immediately in front of him.

Cannot make this stuff up.

First I've heard as to a reason why this happened. My guess it was one of 2 reasons.

1 - The speedboat driver was high as a kite & passed out at the wheel, and/or speeding in a crowded area.

2 - Something like the steering cable or throttle cable broke due lack of maintenance/negligence/installed a 3rd motor on a dual motor steering system...again, negligence by both the owner & skipper.

It happened in broad daylight, so it had to be one of the two methinks.

This explanation points to #1.

Remember the news story recently where the cops sent their case to the prosecutors for the second time, after being asked to clean it up, and they then said their case was now "perfect"?

Humm, I guess not.

Yeah that was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this headline.

If the DNA indisputably matches the accused to the victims, then what is there to question aside from BS by the BiB.

Didn't the cops just say recently they were 'done' with the case & it was up to the prosecutor's office now?

If the prosecutor still thinks it stinks, then drop the case against the accused & go get DNA from Nomsod Numbnutspornoapachasongongsomtamsomnamna.

Which brings up yet another question...... Cops can raid a bar & force everyone to urinate in a cup with no warning, but some clown related to 'Influential People' can refuse a DNA test in a freaking DOUBLE MURDER INVESTIGATION??????????????????

Just pop a drug test on ole Nomsod & whoever else refused a DNA test.

CRIMONY! put a couple plain-clothes cops on surveillance & grab a ciggie butt or soda can he just discarded.

This whole "investigation" has stunk from day one, and like a rotten egg, it just gets smellier every day.

Well if the police say they didn't do it then that's OK.

I say again...

I've never heard of the cabin crew weighing a bag after the passenger has boarded. It's always done at check-in, if at all. I'd be angry, too.

I've been all over Asia, Europe, S. America, Australia, the USA, and also Egypt & Algeria in Africa, almost 50 countries (I lost track).

Never had a bag weighed after I was boarding a plane.

It was probably a small commuter plane though and TIT.

I have had air crew staff ask passengers to move around & change seats on flights that were only part full to even out the center of balance a bit.

My guess is the guy was drunk & pissed off the staff, which is never a wise decision.

Sorry, what's the name of that weed again you're smoking?

it's called "reality"

Duuuuuude,,,Reality is for people that can't handle drugs...Like me

Joking aside, no telling what was lost in translation. They could have been water-boarded & it came out as 'beaten'.

The music torture (stuff I've seen in movies), where they play heavy metal at full blast for days on end wouldn't affect a Thai though, so I doubt that method was used. They'd probably enjoy it & sleep right thru it, so it never occurred to the BIB to use that method on anyone.

I just hope justice is served, and I have extreme doubts that it will be.

Oh yeah, on the translation side - I found a Thai language news site that said something about these guys, and their internal translation read like something Charles Manson would say when he was on LSD.

Something about goats looking like porcupines....I can only guess it was saying that it pointed to scapegoats???

If these two kids did the crime, they should wear leg-irons & get raped daily the rest of their lives.

If they didn't, I hope they walk free sooner rather than later.

obviously many went to Trat province to spend few days around and heading to Cambodia before coming back to the kingdom as visa runners

but now since their entry will be denied because the crackdown...it was so logical

You're 100% correct. The ONLY reason I ever went to Koh Chang was because it was near the border & made for a nice weekend trip when doing a border run.

To retrofit automatic sprinkler installations in that many buildings is virtually financially impossible. There are not enough companies in Thailand to design and install and they would have to almost close all the terminals during construction. Some major shopping malls and shops in Bangkok do not even have them. Idea might sound good but reality is different.

Dude, have you never seen the preponderance of external plumbing in Thailand?

A friend in Lam Lukka has a 10 million baht house that was built 10 years ago. Of course he was gone working most of the time & his wife oversaw construction.

There's PVC pipe laying hither & thither all over the place. It's like they build stuff and then later say "Oh yeah, we should add some plumbing".

Why do they not already have this, I mean its quite important right?? Does something have to happen before things get moving??

Yes.

Wait, Wait, Do they want attack on them-self ? Noway.

Police ordered to commit som nam na.

Seems the good General was retired at just the right time. For somebody other than him.

That said, it isn't just a case of faulty equipment, but a systematic failure of para ops. In particularly the training side of things. These two lads should have been trained backwards and forwards in malfuction drills. Yet neither seemed to possess the skills to save themselves from spudding in. I mean from the vision I seen of the incident, neither one even attempted a malfuction drill.

Therefore it is not just some engineer asleep at the wheel. But infact the training manual is obviously flawed and that happens way up the chain. Some big boppers must be sweating bricks about it.

It wouldn't surprise me if the training manual was in English and they never got around to translating it.

The military has some US equipment that's 20+ years old & they still have ancient, English, paper (it went digital around 1997) technical and maintenance manuals for the stuff that's been gathering dust since the equipment was delivered.

I've seen them.

"UPDATE (7pm): Reports surfacing that the collision happened at 4pm, but rescue teams weren't notified until 5pm."

In Broad Daylight.

Imbeciles.

"World Class Tourist Destination"?

Absolutely clueless...

I was on Koh Phangan in 2005 & they had an accident that killed a few people.

The boat was rated/licensed for 2 engines, but the owner added a 3rd engine.

The boat was going wide open & the steering cable broke, causing the boat to suddenly turn sideways. It capsized.

Sounds like some kind of mechanical failure could have caused this.

Maintenance - Schmaintenance...The "M" in Thailand stands for maintenance.

In Jomtien they have reduced the size of the chair areas which are usually well managed so there is finally some space between the chairs and the water. The government should be charging a reasonable rent for these concessions which are heavily used by tourists,

That's a wonderful idea, but.....The "officials" could care less about anything except what tea money is in it for them.

What you suggest is (I will say again) a great idea, however, it will require an entire paradigm shift in the mentality of graft & corruption that has flourished for decades, if not centuries in Thailand.

The Junta could, maybe stomp their boots a WHOLE lot harder than they are doing right now.

The country is blatantly, obviously, not ready for any kind of democracy.

Behind every 'official' smile is a gazillion lies.

Just own up to the fact that you are STUPID, and learn.......Yeah, right, one can dream, no?

-----no offense meant to the OP...You are not stupid. I meant that as a theoretical statement.

"they own the sand on which they operate on Pattaya, Jomtien and Dongtan beaches."

No problem! Cough up the chanote that say they 'own the sand'.

This is in an English language newspaper!

I'm quite forgiving for translation errors from the Thai news, but pu-leeeeeze......You OWN the SAND?????

No wonder a farang can't own a damned thing in Thailand.

Keep your Isuzu. Only Ford fans or crazy people buy Ford's in LOS.

Or anywhere else. F.O.R.D. = Found On Road Dead.

Nah I've had a couple Ford trucks, my Dad had a few. They were garbage as compared to Japanese engineering.

Toyotas & Nissans are the Cat's Meow when it comes to trucks.

Both have a few quirks, but nothing like a joke of a Ford.

I put 400,000 miles (640,000 km) on a Nissan truck I had - 1992 model. Damned thing would probably still be going if my brother hadn't wrecked it a couple years ago.

One thing about Nissans is the flippin' window regulators are garbage. ALWAYS had problems with rolling the windows up & down & I've owned more than one Nissan...Always the windows having problems. Car, trucks you name it.

Currently own a 2006 Toyota Tiger. No complaints so far other than the driver's seat could use some lumbar support......That & the RETARD at Car-Boy (near Ocean Marina in Pattaya) that changed the oil & forgot to tighten the plug.

Luckily I spotted the oil stain in the driveway before it went dry. It wasn't hard to spot in my driveway.