jaywalker

Am considering doing my own construction supervision (Project Management) for a house in Huay Yai.

I've done it before on commercial projects.

I need to be there every day, as I know how they like to take short cuts. I'm looking for a small trailer (caravan) that I can use for an office on the building site.

Does anybody know where I might acquire such a contraption?

Just need something big enough for a desk is all.......Something I can haul away & either sell or burn after it's finished = nothing too fancy.

Of course I'll install an AC unit in it. Electricity is already there.

I'm guessing something about 4 meters long & ~3 meters wide?

I know the guy you're referring to.....at least I've seen him.

2 years or so ago I was pulling out of Khaotalo on to Suk. one day, stopped at the light. I'd seen the guy in the police box quite often.

I'm guessing he was rolling his own cigarette, but anyhow, I jokingly asked him "is that some some good shit man?".

He just grinned & waived at me.

==========

I once saw a crazy bum in Chicago, and it was COLD! Snow was everywhere. I thought to myself "if I ever become a bum, I'll do it someplace warm". I guess that's what he's doing?

Beware of the neighbor's yapping mutts also.

Spend some time around a potential place at night.

I moved in to a decent 3 br/ 2.5 bath house in Eakmongkol 4 once.

The "lady" across the street had a poodle.....Then she'd feed soi dogs right outside her front gate, so the poodle would yap at them all night long. It was maddening!

Try the optician shop next to Tesco Lotus in S. Pattaya. Walk in the south entrance & they'll be around the corner on the right.

I wear a + 5.25 prescription......extraordinarily difficult to find.

They always had to order them (daily wear), but they always had them on time, usually 5 days or so.

Even Wal-Mart Vision Center in the USA has to order them & they take 2-3 weeks to get here.....Errrrrr = I should probably get some more on order now.

Another option is to get the 2 week variety. It's hit & miss, but I always find them in stock at one of the many shops on Central Road. Just park at Big C & start walking towards the beach & hit every eyeball shop you see on the right & if no luck there, return up the other side of the street.

I've probably done that 5 or 6 times, and always found a shop along there somewhere that had what I needed.

Not sure if you've ever tried the 2 week kind, but they cost about 1/3rd of what the dailies cost.

$44 USD (in the states) for a 3 month supply of 2-week wear vs. $155 for a 3 month supply of dailies. Those are pretty close to Thai prices.

I from the USA & lived in Kuwait, Thai wife got pregnant.

Baby girl born in Surin. I was there for 10 days & had to return to work. I signed an affidavit at the Thai embassy in Kuwait so my wife could get the little one a Thai passport. When she was 3 months old they came to stay in Kuwait with me.

I went to the US embassy in Kuwait to do a consular report of birth abroad, and was told it would take 6 - 10 MONTHS to process, since she was born in Thailand......Fat lot of help that was. I said "no thanks".

About a year later (2006) I had 3 weeks vacation time, so we went to the US consulate in BKK. At the time their website was singularly confusing (it's much better now). Anyhow they asked if I had an appointment.....Errr, didn't know I need one. They tried to book me for 6 weeks out! GRRRRRR!!!!!!

Told them we were all leaving in 3 weeks, so they "Magically" managed to squeeze me in 2 days before our departure.

I showed up on time, replete with squalling 10 month old kid for an "interview".

Some big hog of a lady (AmeriKan), shows up 45 minutes late for our so-called "appointment" and starts asking all kinds of inappropriate questions about my wife (we'd been married 5 years by this time). It's a good thing they have that thick glass to hide behind, because I was ready to choke the life out of her.

Sounds scary what most have posted with regards to repairs at the shop, on the other items being destroyed instead of just the bodywork. So what do you guys think could have happened? Since your car is in their area for a long time, they took it for a rough drive? Have you checked the odometers? etc.?

That's one of the reasons I like to maintain my own cars, we could never really see what those "trusty" mechanics done to our cars. Making it worse or better? You be the judge.

Took my truck to Car Buddy (I think that's the name) near Ocean Marina (I often wonder who came up with such an original name for a marina, but I digress).

Simple oil change. They forgot DUH! to tighten the drain plug = oil all over my driveway.

In Georgia USA right now.....Took my 82 year old Aunt's 42" mower deck in for a service, as it was noisy as all get-out. They replaced the tensioner pulley.......NEVER looked at the blades.

Oh yeah, the MORON about my age (47) called it an "Idler Pulley".....It's a tensioner pulley dummy!

I'm a mechanical engineer, but I'm not a lawn mower expert, so I took it to the shop, as I knew it needed new bearings.

I got it home, and the left mower blade fell off about 4 minutes later, and the right blade is seized up/won't turn.

There are IDIOTS all over the world. At least here I speak the language, which is Redneck, quite well = I took it back & made them feel lower than whale-sh&t.

My 17 year old nephew was trying to tell me he's been diagnosed with A-D-D (attention deficit disorder).

I diagnosed him with I-D-I-O-T.

Yep, I had an accident of my own some 5 months ago and ended up rear-ending some old fart who slowly eased out of his lane to prepare to take a right onto a small side road while I was trying to pass him. I guess no one ever bothered to teach him how to properly apply the brakes and use the right-hand turn signal and THEN TURN so I ended ramming him in the rear and that was that. Of course I had every reason to be angry with the old country bumpkin's reckless driving but why bother? Where would it get me? Anyway, down to the police station and I'M the one who had to pay the 400Bt fine because I hit him in the rear (That's Thailand for ya, if you hit someone from behind you are ALWAYS wrong) but my insurance guy showed up and after 2 hours I was out of there. It really pissed me off, though. This is the first accident I've been in since I've been here (10 years) and my truck was less than a year old (Mazda Bt-50 4-door 3.2) but the real pain in the ass was having to wait almost 5 months just to get my front windshield replaced. Thank goodness the body damage was minimal so that was taken car of in about a month but the windshield took FOREVER. Anyways, not a good experience at all so remember 2 important things before you buy a car or truck and hit the road: 1) Never, NEVER assume that the other drivers around you know how to drive or understand the basics of driving because many, many don't. Therefore, ALWAYS be ready for some idiot to do something stupid because they will and you'd better be prepared for it. It will happen every day. 2) If you do wreck your vehicle, your dealer and/ or insurance company is not going to be in a hurry to get your car or truck back on the road again and sometimes it will take months before your car or truck is back to its original condition.

I recall back in 2002 or so, reading the Pattaya Mail "newspaper" (rag), about them giving some farang a ticket for "stopping too suddenly" on Pattaya Central Road. He got rear-ended & got a ticket.

Back in the 1990's a friend of mine was turning North on 2nd road off of Central Road (Pattaya), when some maniac whizzed by on the right, hit his right front fender, went flying over the bike, and jumped up and ran away.

The cops tossed HIM (he's a farang) in the clink and it cost him 50,000 baht to get out.

2012 some YO-YO was whizzing around a truck, in the wrong lane, in a no passing zone as my wife was trying to make a right turn. The truck driver was courteously stopped and allowing her to go as he was backed up by the traffic light.......Soi 4 & Threppasit Rd...She wanted to go East. Said YO-YO T-boned her in the driver's door.

I have some good friends with the RT Marine Corps so I took it there to get it fixed (they owed me a few favors).

Cops saw she had a farang last name & smelled money. Gave her a "ticket" for violation of right-of-way - 2,000 baht........Another 10,000 baht or the cop said "you will have BIG problem".......Ye Olde IDIOT on the bike had no license & no insurance. Broke his leg & I hope he limps the rest of his IDIOT life.

I whacked/side-swiped a pole with a Budget rental car once in Surin.....It ripped up the entire left side...tail light flapping in the wind. I drove it back to Pattaya & told them I was trying to avoid a cow in the road (I was arguing with my wife actually).....5,000 baht deductible & I got a new car.

2012 - On my way to a funeral driving down Soi Khaotalo one evening about 7:00 PM, some kid who could not have been more than maybe 12 years old came whizzing around me. Another Toyota truck in front of me was inching along. The IDIOT went SMACK & got lodged between the truck in front of me & oncoming traffic.

Poetic justice I suppose.

Folks in the USA will pay $2,000 or $3,000 to go get the Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt "Driving Experience".

I keep telling them........Just go to Thailand.

There's no rhyme nor reason.

I tried to get my old boss to set me up with an IT arm of his company. I'd been doing part time consulting work for him (illegaly for 3 years - which was OK though as we were working for the Army - no way to get busted there!)

Anyhow I tried to explain my concept to this super nice guy I've known for 10+ years, and it all went "VROOM!" right over his head, and I had even set up his website for him!!!!!!!

I was trying to get legal, willing to pay Thai taxes and split the net profits 50/50 with him etc.... All income would have been from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia etc.

Really smart guy. He knows how to bribe the Army to get contracts (saw it happen with my own two eyes), but this concept blew him away = even (some) educated, English speaking Thai folks really have no concept of the world outside.

I flew back to Florida & have it set up now....in my name. Yep, I'll be a digital nomad when I return.

"that Thailand wants IT people to actually invest and hire Thais, not just live here." well tell me how?

I would be more than happy to open a small web company and start with 1 staff and then build slowly but I can't do that. I need to get 4 staff (with no knowledge of basic English)and a office and as I see in some post I need get a photo with the office and staff wearing company shirts/uniform? Totally nuts to start with that and then next thing, I can't open the company without a Thai partners that will own 51% and they have to show that they really put in 51% of the money(2 mil for 1 wp) Share my company with Thais?? Nuts. And yes I know most ppl do this the wrong way with fake papers and proxies and its all illegal so why would I even try ? It's all BS .

We're from the government, and we're here to help.

Well, they confessed = They should HANG or at least live the rest of their lives in irons.

Capital Punishment may or may not be a deterrent, but then again it's not called Capital Deterrent is it?

Creten is what they are.

After reading the linked article, I would ask of all Thaivisa members to please have a thought for AYJAYDEE and JLCrab, two of our esteemed posters, who have now lost their favorite topic of conversation: harping on and on about how people working online are criminals working illegally. May they soon find another topic to post inane replies to.

I agree with the quote above.

Looks like the Chiang Mai whatever website could use a freelancer to help them out a bit.

The article/web page is saying it's offline at the moment. Just wondering if it's because the webmaster Somchai from CH "University" is incompetent or maybe it's a true tech glich. My guess is it's a 50/50 chance of either one being the case.

I AM a web designer, so I know technical glitches happen, but I often see Thai websites that are patheticaly put together and/or maintained for months on end.

If you look up the Thai consulate in Miami, quite a few of the links don't work. Has been that way forever.

I'm looking to get a new Non-O Marriage visa. I'll be driving 4 hours to get to Miami, as I'd like to get my passport back in a few days & don't trust them to mail it back to me. I wonder just how out of date their information is????

EDIT: Just checked that link again......Sorry Somchai......Must've been a tech glitch. It's working now.

Amin, Mugabe, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Prayut.

The world hall of fame is never ending.

You forgot Saddam. That's what I immediately thought of.

^{What I want is the enforcement of the No Smoking in the Go Go Bars and restaurants. 90 % of the people will go outside and smoke the 10% make it unpleasant. Secondary Smoke is dangerous and smoking makes all smell bad !!}

The human race survived for millinea around cooking fires, yet tobacco smoke is the killer.

Yeah, right.

How about "Cracking Down" on something that might do some good?

I agree it's all about the taxes.

Why doesn't Pattaya, for instance, put some undercover "volunteer" farang police on baht buses at 0200 hrs to bust pick-pockets?

When I was 18, I tried something called crack. I quit it very quickly (I tried it here & there for a month maybe).

Why oh why is EVERTHING the cops actually DO in LOS, called a "Crack-Down"?

For many farangs.....We do Not Like aggressisive homosexual advances.

Why Katoey's do that is beyond my comprehensive powers.

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

Let's say you ARE homosexual, and some guy walks up and grabs you where the sun don't shine.

Maybe your boy-toy just ditched you & you are in no mood for amorous activities.

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

I'm heterosexual. If my wife/girlfriend had just dumped me.....Some bar girl grabbed me by the nuts......I wouldn't appreciate it.

Everybody has their own state of mind at any given time of day.

Some katoey, or even a bar-girl assuming he or she has the "Right" to accost you........It's Pattaya folks.

Oh My Gosh, and I actually thought this was a good comedy forum until the straight and narrow blogs showed up. Take a good look at the photo, one cop is laughing out of control and the others I'm sure are holding it in for the photo shoot. Sorry but this LB is uuugggllly with or without makeup.

Yeah....Imagine getting approached (& probably groped) by that character in the seedy areas of Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, London, Amsterdam......

Any Red-Blooded heterosexual would clean his clock/knock his block off or at best give him a hard shove the other way.

It's just our natural reaction to aggressive homosexuals.....You can be homosexual all you want...None of my business. Don't grab my nether regions though at first glance.

When I was 18 (VERY young and STUPID), would have been 1985.....I took Carlos-the-translator with me in Panama City, Panama, to procure something illicit.....something that is now legal in Colorado & Amsterdam.

I had to learn the culture though........WOW!!!!!!! That was one scary walk thru a scary neighborhood.

I learned that night (quite well) how to deal with another culture........The culture of slime.

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

This incident happened on Boo-Cow road. I always hated it because I had to drive it a few times.

It has to be one of the seediest areas of Pattaya.

It's like Parramore Street in Orlando. Folks go to Orlando to see Mickey Mouse. Folks with half a brain don't stumble around drunk in seedy areas of any city. NOT saying the victim WAS drunk.

There's just certain areas of certain cities, that one avoids.

Soi Boo-Cow is the primary one in my opinion.

If you don't like my spelling of Buakhao, then please reference the photo at the top of this thread.

It's no wonder Thai's believe in the "Phop".......The ghost that eats unborn children.

My Father-in-Law believes in them, so, my wife does too.

He was frog hunting in Surin, and actually SAW a Phop.

The description I got sounded like a Ladyboy on meth and would have looked very much like the charachter in the photo.

That SOB would scare the sh&t out of me in some Surin rice field late at night....

It would be really cool if Thaivisa can follow this story so that we find out the result of it going to court.

I hope that it goes to court immediately before facts and evidence fade...

well done the BIB for catching the perp, this was a violent crime lets not forget that!!

You do not need to hold your breath. If it goes to court, which it likely won't, it will be months from now, and the american guy will not be around to testify. Hence the case will be dismissed, or considered self defence or whatever story the ladyboy comes up with.

The ladyboys (and other criminals) know this, so worst case for them is a 500 baht on the spot fine. Not much of a deterrent, which explains their disproportionately high crime rate

HMMMM? I'm no lawyer, but (in the States), I've heard of something called a "Sworn Affidavit (a sworn statement)", that can be taken now by the police, and used later as evidence in a court when the case comes due before a judge.

Yeah, I know, that's stretching the bounds of logic for the BiB.....and I'm no lawyer, so that's just a thought.

At least they made an arrest.

Also amazed that 20 katoys and motorcycle taxi drivers didn't mob the guy and pummel him into the pavement.

Err....They probably DID, as 13 stitches seems a bit extreme for one whack with a shoe.

I lived for 7 years in Thailand and never had a physical altercation.

I've been back in the USA for 6 months and a guy wanted to fight with me 4 months into this stint. He was an IDIOT, and using EXTREMELY vulgar language around my 81 year old Aunt. I told him to leave the property.

My Aunt had met him at church & felt sorry for him, so had him over for dinner....The guy is a convicted felon & on probation & I never much liked him. He's just off doing 11 years out of a 15 year sentence for shagging a 14 year old when he was 17....Tried & sentenced as an adult.

My Aunt was giving him a free meal every evening & he starts getting vulgar with her = IDIOT with me around.

I didn't fight the guy. I walked away and called the Police. He now has a restraining order.

Sorry for getting off-topic, but....

My point is: It is IMPOSSIBLE to defeat an idiot in any kind of argument, so why even try?

I suppose it is better than the old American Indian joke, "why do the call you Two Dogs F......" 

The American Indian says:

Father, how did you name your children?

When your sister was born I stepped out of the teepee and saw a running deer, so I named her Running Deer.

When your brother was born I stepped out of the teepee and saw an angry bear, so I named him Angry Bear.

Why do you ask me these things Two Dogs F&^%ing?

Anyone who believes they are avoiding living in a police state by living in Thailand are dreadfully ill informed....how much more of a police state can you get then getting arrested for reading in public, I mean isn't that the quinessential "Police State"???...not sure if those are the rules anymore, but anyone yapping about how much a police state the UK or US has become, just remember, no one ever has been arrested or prosecuted in either of these countries for freely speaking about government officials or reading books in public!

In many ways, European countries and America enjoy A WHOLE LOT greater freedom than Thailand, and I never really understand exactly what people are getting at when they claim encroachment of civil liberties by the government, after all we haved faced and continue to face a serious threat from Islamic fundamentalism and if listening to phone calls is going to play some effort in preventing another tragedy from happening, I say go for...it.

As I said, at least at the end of the day, I can walk down the street in London or Washington DC, saying whatever I feel like about Her Majesty or Mr Obama, without worrying about any sort of criminal consequences.....

And when you see an army general breaking broadcasts on friday to give an "update" to the country, I don't know how you can get anymore BIG BROTHER than that

Well said! You make a very good point.

I stayed out of the US of A for 7 years straight though, and decided to come see my aging mother & Aunt.

However, I bring up this point:

“The system itself could not have intended

this in the beginning, but in order to sustain

itself it was compelled to go all the way.”

—Milton Mayer

They Thought They Were Free :

The Germans,1933 –1945

There's no "right" or "wrong" answer to this argument about Big Brother.

To each his own.

Also, keep in mind this statement from 1941 or so.....

Herman Goering explained:

No end of the rearmament is in sight. The struggle which

we are approaching demands a colossal measure of

productive ability…the only deciding point in this case

is victory or destruction. If we win, then business will

be sufficiently compensated… It is entirely immaterial

whether in every case new investment can be amortized.

We are playing for the highest stakes… All selfish interest

must be put aside. Our whole nation is at stake. We

live in a time when the final battles are in sight.

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

Kinda sounds like the US "War on Terror".

I would go to hell...that would be any country in the Middle East...no booze...women covered from head to toe...instant conversion to Islam...all the goat you can eat and sheep you can...bleep!

I drank more booze in Kuwait than you could shake a stick at.

I had my wife & daughter with me, so it was cool. I DID, however, hire a full time driver/bodyguard for my wife so she could go shopping while I was at work.

I actually miss Arabic food. Never ate any goat, but the lamb & chicken were pretty damned good with some moutabal & fresh pita bread!

Oh Yeah, Kuwait & Saudi are the only countries I know of where booze is illegal.

I've been to:

Kuwait

UAE

Qatar

Yemen

Oman

Egypt

Jordan

Iraq

Afghanistan

Bahrain

Never been to Saudi, but I hear it's dry.

All the others, well, they have bars you can belly up to.

Yes, Australia is a fabulous destination if you can afford it, have a job, a working spouse or five friends to share with otherwise forget retirement unless you can afford to buy your own home.

Yes. I spent a couple weeks in Darwin once & really liked it. I only had one day in Sydney, but it seemed nice enough.

I've heard nice things about Perth, though I've never been there.

I'm not much on big cities....Can't stand BKK nor Atlanta for that matter. I was in Atlanta last weekend. If I never go back it will be too soon!

Also, I've GOT to be someplace TROPICAL. It's flippin' August here & gets down to 68F (20C) at night, then shoots up to 98F (37C) during the day. Also rural Georgia has the most annoying bugs (knats) of anywhere I've been.......Well the flies in the Kuwaiti desert in the winters are exceptionally annoying as well....

Then again, as I mentioned above, the Police State is alive and well in most every "Developed" nation, which is something I prefer to avoid.

Big Brother is WATCHING You!

Show me your papers!

If you see something, say something!

That last line is remeniscent of what I've read about Saudi Arabia & East Germany, where neighbors were urged to spy on each other.

I would urge the original poster of this question to do a Google search for "Sovreign Man Simon Black" and sign up for his newsletter.

I lived in Thailand for 8 years, and yeah, it finally got to me.

I'm looking into moving to the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, as they speak English & I can get a passport from there after buying a house.

Then again, I've been a bit of a gypsy since 1998. I'm back in the USA now (southern, rural Georgia). Bit of a culture shock really, but at least I speak Southern (born in Florida).

I got pulled over at 11:15 PM the other night. I was driving my flip-flops (walking), under a street lamp, next to the Montgomery county courthouse, right next door to the Sheriff's Department main office, and some fat lard-ass redneck cop asked (TOLD) me in a very Gestapo-like manner "Show me your papers".

I'd had a few beers, so decided to walk to the store to grab some beer & ciggies.

Pissed him off because I asked him "WHY?" He said I looked suspicious. He ran my ID and it came back "No Wants, No Warrants". He looked like some 9 year old kid that just found out there's no such thing as Santa Claus.

I've spent the night in 45 countries & speak passable Spanish.

One of the primary beefs I have with Asia is the mindset of overcrowding. Taiwan (mentioned previously) is SUPER over crowded & I hate Chinese food.

I loved Mexico. Puerta Vallarta & San Felipe are beach towns. It was 2000, and I passed out drunk on the seawall in San Felipe & woke to a nice sunrise. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but, it happened & I was OK.

Argentina would be nice. I spent 3 weeks in Buenos Aires in 2001, and a week in Bahia Blanca.

Panama & Costa Rica would be other places to consider, but traffic is mayhem (much like Thailand).

"When in Rome"... people make mistakes, nothing bad happened and because of this the Thai would have thought it a personal attack from the American. If the opposite had happened and the American had been at fault and put his hands together and said ka toot kap the Thai very most likely would have given the same "polite" gesture and moved on. When in a country that has a "polite particle" in their language for both male and female, even if you are in the right a display of anger is considered very impolite.

I quite agree.

As an American living in Asia many years, I have come to realize that Americans are prone to quick anger and

vulgarities. Americans seem to think this is normal behavior, but in Asia if you get nasty and call people dirty

names as a result of some minor incident, it is not taken lightly.

As this case demonstrates, Americans who plan to visit or live in Asia would do well to learn a bit of manners

and civility. Otherwise they would be better off to stay in America.

Could replace your word "Americans" by Westerners

Why does this article even address a person's nationality? Are we not all humans first?

It was an incident between a bicyclist ant a motorcyclist, that escalated into attempted murder.

They can get cheap 400 baht cameras from Pantip Plaza. No need to hook them up. Just put them there for scare tactics.

It's what they do all over Pattaya.

How many times have we heard that "The security cameras were not working" in Pattaya?

2,500 baht??????? Whoever robbed this train was a regular old Jesse James wasn't he?

A motorcycle hit my wife in the driver's door about a year ago. He was illegally passing on a double yellow line, zooming around traffic as they do, and it broke his leg.

She was fined 2,000 baht for violation of right-of-way, and a further 10,000 baht to the "police" otherwise "she would have big problems".........WHY? She has a farang last name.

The cop actually said that to her.

"You have a farang husband. All farangs have big money"

Edit: Oh yeah, the moto driver had no driver's license nor insurance either.