jaywalker

I have worked extensively with the Thai Army, Air Force and Navy (Marines) off and on since 1999.

The Marines are FAR and AWAY more professional than the Army (they actually take their jobs seriously), so there might actually be some hope here.

Many of them (Marines) have done tours with the UN to Sudan & almost every one of them have done a tour in Southern Thailand.

I always see them taking their jobs quite seriously. Every Army base I've been to, well, they are all sitting around picking their noses.

Oh yeah, somebody mentioned seeing Humvee's (HMMWV - High Mobility Multi-purpose Vehicle)......The Navy doesn't have any of those trucks. The Marines have about 75 of them though & every one of them is in top condition.

I enjoyed working with the Marines because they actually give a hoot about their jobs.

Try Baht Sold or Thai Visa classifieds to sell the car..or even Craigslist

Yes Bahtsold.com worked for me once to sell my 2005 Nissan pickup in 2012.

I advertised it with several pictures at 300,000, hoping to get 250.000.

3 days later a Thai guy came and offered me 260,000. We settled on 270,000. I had paid 400,000 in 2006, so I was happy.

A couple guys with some common sense could/would/should come over with a couple cork-pop guns (maybe a couple .22 single shot rifles) and take over the country.

I've worked with the military there - in the USA at the moment - & they are the biggest joke I've ever seen.

I completely refuse to EVER work with Thai people EVER again. I can show them 99 ways to Sunday on how to do something better, and they IGNORE me.........Hired me to show them how to do it better, and ignored 99% of what I said.

It's like trying to pound brains into a rock with a sledge hammer.

I ain't saying the USA is any better. It just seems to be endemic in that politicians are all corrupt.

What fool takes a Tuk Tuk when there are air conditioned metered taxis.

Exactly my thoughts.

I took a tuk-tuk once.......ONCE. It was also the LAST time. Noisy, obnoxious, hot as hell. He did his best to take me to every scam artist around (tailors/jewelers etc.).

Meter taxi's are the way to go......then again I'd never be out at 3:00 AM anywhere......maybe in the jungles of Panama with an M-16, but I was real young back then.

I don't see any problem with re-entering Thailand.

I've done 3 or 4, two to three day overstays years ago (back when the fine was 200 baht/day) and once when it was 500bt/day.

Been married to a lovely lady for 13 years & we have an 8 year old daughter. I'll definitely be back soon.

I have my Thai marriage certificate & my daughter's (born in Surin) birth certificate. Show the bank statement of 400,000 baht (I think is what the requirement is?).

I'm 46 so retirement visa is not an option yet.

When I left Kuwait to return to Thailand in 2009, I was pals with the Thai Ambassador and his minions...OK, there were only 3 other Thai guys working there.

They'd come over and get sauced at my place and I hit more than one embassy party.

Stamp-shlamp! Visa-smchisa!

They never asked to see anything. Just gave them my passport and I had a 1 year marriage visa in 5 minutes.

As to the question of my attire and grooming standards when I recently left, it was a personal choice.

By all means go deal with immigration with dreadlocks and flip-flops......Make sure you wear a Bob Marley T-shirt with a giant pot leaf on the front........Good luck.

It's amazing / ridiculous how a country that thrives off of tourism has such a blatent disregard for tourists safety. I remember going to Koh Phangnan in December '04 thinking the speed boat was completely full and about to leave. But no, another, at least, 20 people were ushered on to stand in the middle with pretty much nothing to hold on to. It was no surprise the following party a boat capsized and double figures died I believe.

Where I am from, if there is a chance of a serious accident, you don't do it. Here it seems that if there is a chance of not having a serious accident, you do it.

$$$

I was on Phangan at the same time in Dec 2004.

As I recall the incident, it was a boat rated for 2 engines, but had 3 on it. It was going as fast as it would go when the steering cable broke, putting it into a high-speed turn in rough seas.

It capsized at high speed & killed a couple of Swiss folks.

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Same kind of ferry accident as mentioned in this original article happened in 2002 or 2003 off of Pattaya........started taking on water & everybody ran to the top deck.

As I recall that one, 3 or 4 people died.

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Working in BKK right now. The work can be a bit dangerous. I've been begging the boss to have weekly safety meetings....it only takes 30 minutes a week.......something I was doing 30 years ago.

The safety meetings tend to increase overall awareness. They keep safety at the top of your brain.

I suppose possession of a brain is a prerequisite.

I get totally ignored. One of his workers will get killed or maimed.

Maybe then he'll listen to my idea.

I may be more inclined to accept the point of these arguments if the two ASEAN member neighbors to the South did not also drive on the wrong side of the road. However, that is not my main concern.

You will remember Sweden switched from the wrong to the right side of the road several years ago--the Swedes heavily advertised the switchover for a couple of months beforehand, then at midnight one night, they made the switch. A few accidents were reported, but not many, and the switchover was made.

Let's suppose the powers that be in Thailand decide to switch driving to the right side of the road--how many, well, you fill in the blanks?

I'm from the USA. Born in Orlando Florida, so we drove on the right hand side of the road. I either take a taxi or have my wife drive from point A to B in LOS.

It would just make matters 1,000 times worse in Thailand if they changed the rules (one would need a large imagination to even THINK they have rules).

They can just somewhat slightly follow the rules as they are.

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

I was WALKING I don't drive here..........to Top's Supermarket last weekend. It's maybe a mile or so away.....Good exercise.

HOT out so I took a break at a bus stop on Rakhamhaeng Road.

A cement truck came screaming by............He had clearly just been in an accident as his front left fender was caved in & rubbing his front left tire.

A rather nice-looking Thai Lady was at the bus stop also.

She was as flabbergasted as I was.

We looked at each other & exchanged <deleted> looks.

as it costs investors extra logistic expenses for having to change the car engines when crossing the border.

Obviously the guy knows what he is talking about, makes a lot of sense to change the cars engine! after all a left handed engine works different to a right handed engine, it turns in the opposite direction!!!!!

Dous that mean we would have 4 reverse gears and one foreward---------------- cant see that that is going to help??????????

The bone-head was probably talking about the steering system, which is quite a bear to change.

Ever notice how a right-hand drive car in Thailand has half the leg room of the left hand seat?

Largest markets are for left hand drive, so the left sides have larger leg room (for clutches & brakes etc)........Just a thought. Maybe it is right, maybe it is wrong.

I'm sure this must have been said in this thread already, but, Thailand's failure to integrate (with anyone) has nothing to do with which side of the road they drive on.

It is caused because the country is controlled by total numpties like the one making this announcement, and the millions of sheeple that have been brainwashed into believing them.

End of.

I've been working here in the defense industry off & on for the past 14 years.........Currently working with an agency.

They are complete idiots. No matter what I say, to try and help them, they just grin at me & continue to do it the Thai way.

They hire me because I'm an expert, to teach them, and then ignore everything I say.

I've tried to organize safety meetings.........it goes in one ear and out the other.

One pr1ck had the gall to tell me "Hahaha! This is Thailand!"

Fair enough. It is Thailand.

I've also been informed by upper management to never act angry.

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I love living in Thailand, but working here is for the birds!!!!!

I can't get anything done on any kind of schedule. Even my Thai boss is perpetually late to any kind of meeting.

It gets to be absolutely ludicrous.

After 14 years and it still bothers you? The money must be good for you to endure this torture.

Go with the flow, remember you are living in the land of pushing water downriver with boat propellers.

Take the cash and smile every day.

Good luck. Now about those birds.............

You are correct my friend.

I do enjoy the country as much as I can. I just find Thai folks to be rather nice overall, but extremely difficult to work with.

I have driven down the wrong side of the road back in Florida though! I actually ran somebody off the road once after a 26 hour trip to get back home!

I was jet-lagged (yet sober) out the wazoo & thought the other driver had a death wish.........It was ME that was wrong!

Changing which side of the road they drive on here, should start with.........I won't even address that topic as it would take them 50 years to do it & 50 years for me to explain it.

I guess my point is, TIT..........My bitching point is, they hire a farang to show them how to do a job to farang standards, & then laugh about it.

Simple stuff really. Simple organization. "HAHAHAHA This is Thailand" is what I get in return.

I really don't need this gig I'm working now, it's just something I'm good at & somewhat enjoy doing.

I'm probably going to tell them to stuff it at the end of this year & go back to being bored......Better than being frustrated.

I'm sure this must have been said in this thread already, but, Thailand's failure to integrate (with anyone) has nothing to do with which side of the road they drive on.

It is caused because the country is controlled by total numpties like the one making this announcement, and the millions of sheeple that have been brainwashed into believing them.

End of.

I've been working here in the defense industry off & on for the past 14 years.........Currently working with an agency.

They are complete idiots. No matter what I say, to try and help them, they just grin at me & continue to do it the Thai way.

They hire me because I'm an expert, to teach them, and then ignore everything I say.

I've tried to organize safety meetings.........it goes in one ear and out the other.

One pr1ck had the gall to tell me "Hahaha! This is Thailand!"

Fair enough. It is Thailand.

I've also been informed by upper management to never act angry.

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

I love living in Thailand, but working here is for the birds!!!!!

I can't get anything done on any kind of schedule. Even my Thai boss is perpetually late to any kind of meeting.

It gets to be absolutely ludicrous.

Uhh --

Wait a second, guys. How were these tests run? How were the children selected? What were the criteria for deciding whether somebody was "addicted" or not? Who ran the tests? Who paid for the tests? How were the tests desiged? Any biases on the part of the testers or sponsors?

We don't know a darned thing about what actually happened here, but we've already got the testers expressing conclusions and the posters commenting on those conclusions as though they actually meant something.

Come on folks. We can all be a little smarter about this.

Sure, it's scary to watch a kid spaced out on a computer game, but I'll bet I look about the same when I watch "Mad Men" or "Breaking Bad". And I don't think I'm addicted. We all get "carried away" with something we enjoy. That doesn't mean we're "addicted". We're starting to throw that word around pretty loosely. Maybe we should all step back and take a breath.

My 8 year old Daughter loves to watch Barbie videos on YouTube.

She also likes to draw, color, do homework & play ball & is a fanatical swimmer.

Pretty sure the only thing she's addicted to is the joy of life.

Living in 2013 involves a computer is all. I only wish more Thai folks would embrace the new technology.

My father passed on a few years back....He never did figure out a computer. He called the mouse a rabbit.

I have a younger brother that was constantly in trouble with the law back in Florida. He's in a mental institution now. I bought him a computer & hooked him up with a net connection several years ago at my parents' house.

He'd sit back there half the night, drinking sweet iced tea, surfing the net.

Mom was "worried" he was spending too much time on that "inner net"..... I asked her if she'd rather have him out running the roads drunk & stealing things (he's quite the klepto-maniac) or in his room drinking tea?

I bought my Mother an email machine for Christmas once. It would dial an 800 number every 12 hours to check for inbound messages & send any emails she had written out. Just a gray screen & a keyboard.

I think it was about $100 USD for a year. I was working all over creation, so couldn't renew it for her back in Florida. She never did figure it out.

My point is, there's nothing wrong with being a bit tech savvy in this day and age.

There aren't too many places in the world where a public official is happy to have his photo taken while holding a dildo.....classic!!!.

Probably his first time. I am always afraid of trying to bring one into the country, I would not like having to say that it was for my personal use.

My Canadian buddy was bringing back an inflatable sheep to his Kiwi friend in Abu Dhabi as a birthday gift gag....just for laughs.

Abu Dhabi customs busted him........Pulled it out of his bag & started blowing it up.

Said he wanted to crawl under a rock.

My take........They're going to pass out all the Viagra in Isaan right before the next election.

This way they make sure that no one can complain they didn't "have a proper erection".

I wonder if anyone can find a dipstick in the country ?

Nope. I've been helping our agent here train his guys (5 each) how to rebuild some military trucks.

Re-installing the engine & I asked "Where's the dipstick?"

None of them had a clue. They started stumbling around & bumping into each other looking for it.

We wound up having to rob one out of a wrecked truck.

How long before one of our fruitloop TV naysayers manages to pin this on the Thai bloke for parking his boat on the beach?

I'm still holding out for the blame being laid on the railing heights of Thai balconies or that someone didn't pay tea money or that Hitler's picture was displayed on the boat. I'm pretty sure those three things alone are to blame for 90% of the bad things that happen here to otherwise blameless farangs according to the resident gurus.

This is just an example of the sort of inane and biased comment that the readership have come to expect from you. The only reason that this gets a mention in what masquerades as the Press here is that a farang is involved. If you can bear to emerge from the nationalistic cloud that you live in, I think that you will find that the majority of posters have scant sympathy for this young brain dead idiot and are of the opinion that he brought the mishap upon himself.

It seems to me that you delude yourself into thinking that all things Thai are quite perfect and the natives are superior in intelligence and intellect to the majority of farangs. My take on this Incident is that the idiot farang was behaving just like a Thai does when riding a motorbike and was a disaster waiting to happen. Perhaps he thought that, as so many young people of any nationality, do, that they will live for ever. My experience of over 70 decades is that life is a battle for survival.

Maybe you should give some thought about the number of Thais on bikes who kill or maim themselves outside of tourist areas and the reason for them doing so, before making snide comments about the appalling number of farangs involved in tragedies and the following cover ups to shift blame, all in the name of a juvenile practice called 'face' or to prevent further damage to Thailand's dodgy reputation. .

1st, I ain't making judgments,, but I do recall a few years ago a Thai motorcycle driver came speeding off Pattaya Klang, ran the light, smashed into a car & killed himself.

It made sensational headlines, because rescue workers discovered he was wearing a condom at the time of the accident.

True story - I couldn't make that up if I tried... It MUST be true, it was in the paper.

When my wife, who is Thai, arrived in the USA, I told her that if she ever had any problem, she should find a police officer and ask for help. I told her that she could trust them completely. I had a hard time convincing her that she of that. I finally had my brother, who is a cop, take her on a tour of his precinct and introduce her to other officers. She told me that the police culture is very different than Thailand. In Thailand, it is accepted that if you needed help on an issue, it is best to "grease the wheels" to get attention. It is just an accepted fact to her.

My nephew is a deputy Sheriff.in Florida.

I threatened him with strangulation if he ever abused his badge.

He's terrified of me & his Dad is dead,

Good guy....I can just picture that kid (he's 30) at Nana Plaza!

"There's fire and ice on all sides of the spectrum, i love the fact that i can get caught speeding here and pay 200 baht for my misdemeanor, i can do this over and over, back home i would have lost my license by now plus a few grand. Like." You are the same as those that we who still can summon up some moral outrage deplore. Your (relative) wealth grants you immunity, so you seem to lack a basic understanding that perhaps laws against speeding are there for public safety, and not there to make your life uncomfortable. You have the same attitude as the son of Red Bull who most of us despise. You should lose your license if you can't follow the rules. No brainer.

I just quit driving.

Can't believe I used to try it over here........Taxi's & buses everywhere you look. Been shook down by the cops so many times it ain't even funny.

Some prick with no driver's license on a scooter nailed my wife in the driver's door of my Toyota..

Guess who had to pay?

Cops clipped me for 10,000 baht because she had a farang name on her license. They actually said that to her. You have farang name. You have big money.

Working with the Army & Air Force over here right now. Also the Marine Corps at times. Got 5 local guys & I'm the TOP technician.

Cannot, for the life of me, get them to listen to reason.

I get mad as a hornet

They say "Jai yen yen!"

I say, "you have the pittman arm tied on with a fan belt! a rod (no bolt or bushing) in the upper control arm & a parking brake rotor on the left rear caliper".

Ain't no hope for them.

Got my honey bunny Thai wife & an 8 year old baby here, so I put up with them...........barely.

Only thing I will drive here is military trucks. Cops are terrified to pull me over.

Just never let the Army get full control.............It would only get worse.

I love 3rd world countries/developing nations.

Headed to Chile next.

I suppose some countries just ain't ready for democracy.........Some need dictators.

My wife is a red shirt..........because her friend said she should be.

Utterly clueless. I still love her though.

I have no political views, as they seem to be useless & just the thugs get the power anyhow.

I should be more of a thug. Put money in my pocket.

PLEASE, quit it guys.......nah.......keep it going! There can be no end to the jokes & puns on this one!

I'm in tears laughing!

"Does he work in a China shop?" is the best one I've seen.

Tons of close 2nd's to that one though!

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About 12 years ago I had a Pattaya Mail paper & the headline was "Elephants and Prostitutes Cleared From Beach Road".

I scanned it but Lord only knows where it is now. It was a TOTAL CLASSIC though! PURE Thai journalism......

I understand this article is from Coconuts & good on him/them for digging this one up!

The cover up of this cover up is more amusing to me than the anticheating cover up.

At least the university found a way to stop people looking at their neighbours paper.

My solution number the desk

print randomly ordered papers.

record which desk marked which paper and then process normally.

Good to see them trying to do something about cheating though. That is something the University should be commended for. The cover up..well this is Thailand.

Surely you jest??? (OK I'll stop calling you Shirley :=)

THAT, my friend would require thought and planning.

DO NOT expect that to happen anytime soon here.

Is she having sex with it ?.

Not yet, but she's expecting him to get more horny by the day

I see from another source that these ignorant of technology peasants have a facebook page.

Ah well I suppose some posters have had their laugh, now could be time for an apology.

Yep.they do. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amphoe-Muang-Phrae-Phrae-Thailand/113546315324095?ref=br_tf

There's actually quite a few results on FB for Phrae, Thailand.

http://youtu.be/20v_0Af-Nd8

Suk is jammed. Was a mess around Klang yesterday afternoon, and as you head out of town...near Ban Amphur. Completely stopped there. A parking lot.

Took me 15 minutes to get from Tai to Klang, heading north on suk , yesterday around 2pm.

The beach down here in packed with Thai families. Neat to see them out having fun. Great morning as the tide is way out.

I'm staying home today, yesterday driving was a nightmare.

At 3pm it took me 30 minutes to get from the level 4 parking in Central Festival to the ground floor. Another 40 minutes to get from there to Phratamnak via Sai Soong, Klang, and Sai Saam. I'd expect it to be as bad today if not worse than yesterday.

The only possible chance for traffic to flow is if the BIB decide to spend the day gathering cash contributions rather than trying to control the traffic lights. I had lunch one day at the café on the corner of Klang and Sai Saam. Traffic jammed for 45 minutes.

Then the cop at the controller scored 6 Indians with no helmets on 3 bikes. As he stopped them he flicked it to auto and hey presto - in less than 10 minutes the traffic was flowing in all directions. He got his cash contribution from the Indians and returned to the controller - in less than 5 minutes, traffic jammed in every direction. Go figure.

HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm working with some Thai's right now. They hired me as a consultant.

They absolutely ignore everything I say & I speak half decent Thai. Never going to change them.

I just try to go with the flow & smile a lot.

I stayed in last holiday weekend..

My wife was trying to get me to go to Surin........"No thanks. You go have fun up there honey."

The parents, if this is true, should face summary execution on general principle.

I have a 7 year old daughter. It would be a cold day in hell before I ever turned my back on her for an instant, anywhere in Pattaya or anywhere else......PERMISSION to break the window?????

If I had seen that baby I'd have head-butted my way in there to help the kid.