pattyboy

I wonder what they did with the confiscated carcasses. My fear is that the officials who took them ended up selling them to Chinese restaurateurs, anyway. If that was the case, nothing has been done to help solve the poaching problem, and the profits have only shifted hands.

You've admitted to driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.127, so I think you're pretty lucky to be getting off with a 4,000 baht fine. I'm sure you're aware that punishment in other places is much worse. For example, in Canada, here's what happens:

The minimum punishments for impaired driving or driving over 0.08% are:

* For the first offense: $600 fine, 1-year driving prohibition; or jail time

* For the second offense: 14 days jail, 2-year driving prohibition

* For the third or subsequent offense: 90 days jail, 3-year driving prohibition.

In Ontario, a person convicted of a DUI must also complete an 8 month training course and install an ignition interlock device for a period of one year after the license suspension.

Jail time can be imposed for any first time Criminal Code drinking and driving offence. Jail is appropriate where there is an accident and/or the readings are high. Readings above 160 mg/100mLs (0.160)are an aggravating circumstance .[6] Jail is the minimum punishment for second and third offenses.

On top of all this, your auto insurance payments will double for the next 7 years (assuming you don't get charged again during that period. If you do, you might have to mortgage your house to be able to afford insurance).

I hope you don't interpret this as being preachy. I just wanted to add some perspective to the situation.

And I remember in Dublin a few years back, the bars reported increased sales when they banned smoking .... all the non smokers suddenly started to go to the Pub. That lasted all of three months untill the novelty wore off and they returned to their non smoking living rooms to watch their favorite soap opera on TV. Now ask the Pub owners if it's had an effect ...........especially the 40% who are now seeking other employment due to pub closures since the ban!!

Smokers seem to forget they are the minority and yes the pubs will have more customers as the non smokers will be able to go with the kids and have no fear of passive smoking, if you want private smokers clubs go ahead,im sure none of us non smokers have a problem with that,

What type of irresponsible loser takes kids to a bar to indoctrinate them into the world of booze, hookers, drugs and fights?

In modern responsible countries this is illegal and for good reason. You should be jailed and heavily fined for child endangerment and corruption of a minor.

I can't agree that exposing children to the pub scene is wrong. It seem to me that when we lock them out and create a mystique about these places, it makes young people even more eager to sneak in when under age and indulge in drinking. They then do it without the benefit of a parent's guidance about drinking responsibly, and they also expose themselves to the chance of being charged for breaking the law. I think it would be much more civilized and socially beneficial to allow children to enter pubs with their parents. -- they would realize that a pub isn't such a big deal after all (and drinking isn't such a great pastime.)

I for one would not subject my kids to watching drunk limeys fight over hookers but to each his own.

I didn't know that brawls and hookers were so predominate in British pubs -- never been to one. If that's that case, then I agree, it's not a wholesome environment for younger people -- actually, it sounds like a socially terrible environment for anyone. I'm thinking of the peaceful and relaxing pubs I've encountered when I lived in Canada (or those quaint pubs I've seen in British flicks) where a bunch of drunks fighting over hookers doesn't seem to happen.

I remember in Los angeles a few years back the bar owners saying how it would hurt business not being able to smoke in the bar. What a bunch on BS. It did not hurt business at all.

Smoking is a rude as it gets!

And I remember in Dublin a few years back, the bars reported increased sales when they banned smoking .... all the non smokers suddenly started to go to the Pub. That lasted all of three months untill the novelty wore off and they returned to their non smoking living rooms to watch their favorite soap opera on TV. Now ask the Pub owners if it's had an effect ...........especially the 40% who are now seeking other employment due to pub closures since the ban!!

Smokers seem to forget they are the minority and yes the pubs will have more customers as the non smokers will be able to go with the kids and have no fear of passive smoking, if you want private smokers clubs go ahead,im sure none of us non smokers have a problem with that,

What type of irresponsible loser takes kids to a bar to indoctrinate them into the world of booze, hookers, drugs and fights?

In modern responsible countries this is illegal and for good reason. You should be jailed and heavily fined for child endangerment and corruption of a minor.

I can't agree that exposing children to the pub scene is wrong. It seem to me that when we lock them out and create a mystique about these places, it makes young people even more eager to sneak in when under age and indulge in drinking. They then do it without the benefit of a parent's guidance about drinking responsibly, and they also expose themselves to the chance of being charged for breaking the law. I think it would be much more civilized and socially beneficial to allow children to enter pubs with their parents. -- they would realize that a pub isn't such a big deal after all (and drinking isn't such a great pastime.)

I was communicating with somebody here at TV not too long ago, and he told me he was playing ice hockey regularly in Bangkok. I know there was (and maybe still is) a 6-team league in the Big Mango, and one of teams was (is?) called the "Flying Farang".

UPDATE: It appears that the Flying Farang still exist, and here's a link to their web site: http://www.flyingfarangs.com/

Good riddance, less quarrels about which free anti-virus is the best.

Huh???

It's not too often that people are happy about a situation that gives us fewer choices. Personally, I like the concepts of free enterprise, competition, and choices. You would have loved Henry Ford's approach to marketing when he first started making automobiles. He made one style that was only available in black.

I gave up on the Bangkok Post ages ago when it became apparent that it was nothing more that a propaganda rag for Thaksin Shiniwatra's government. I suspect they will continue to kowtow to this government, so we will never see unbiased investigative reporting -- only the silly crap and lies that the Thai government wants people to see.

I've been using AVG Free for years, and I haven't seen any messages indicating that it will no longer be free or supported. if this is true, I'll be very disappointed.

I tried to confirm this by going to the Grisoft web site, but there isn't any mention of discontinuing distribution and support. Are you sure the message you're getting isn't telling you that you must upgrade to the newest version to continue getting the virus definitions and general support?

I can find no sympathy for this jerk.

It's tough enough to convince some Thai people that any farangs have any redeeming qualities, and this type of a**hole behaviour sure doesn't help. They see us as people with so much more that they have and with many more opportunities to get wealth, so why should we steal from them?

I hope Jacques Andre Roland Marecaux does the maximum amount of time in the Bangkok Hilton (or Phuket equivalent) then is kept out of Thailand for the rest of his sorry existence. I imagine that 30,000 baht isn't exactly small-time theft by Thai standards. Hopefully, it's a serious enough amount to justify locking this creep up for a long time.

It would be nice to know where he lives (in France, I assume) and submit a little article the local newspaper might print -- something that would shame him properly, although this type of absolute low-life probably doesn't give a moment's thought about what anybody thinks of him.

It sounds like you and Ms. X have been through a lot together over a substantial amount of time, and it also seems that she's aware that you are not a man of great means. To me, 100,000 baht isn't a great deal of money (in comparison to the sin sod and "sick buffalo" stories I've read here at TV). I'm usually one of the first people to be skeptical of the stories that Thai women tell farang to get them to open there wallets and their hearts, but the relatively small amount (and assuming this is the first/only time she's has asked for your financial assistance) makes me feel that perhaps this gal is on the up and up. Quickly scanning through the posts, it seems that there has been fairly equal representation for both sides of the coin. Unfortunately, that probably doesn't help you to decide whether or not to believe this girl, so you've really got to trust your instincts. The welfare of your child is involved, and for me that would be a huge factor that would likely cause me to find some cash to help out in the situation. Once again, the fact that she's stuck with you during times that have been both difficult and financially lean says something positive about this young lady.

I think some of the best advise that has been given is to ask her for a copy of the loan agreement. Explain that you want to help her family but don't have the cash available, so you must go to the bank for a loan, and a copy of the lease agreement could help secure a loan (although we all know it wouldn't really). Doing this would send her the message (or reminder) that you're not rolling in dough, and it would also serve as some type of gauge to determine how legitimate her story is. If she gives you some unlikely or illogical stories about why no paperwork can be supplied, perhaps the red light should go on and the alarm should sound.

Good luck

Too many 'they need to' 'their problem' 'they should'

If each of us keep asking for no bags, no straws, then this will start to get an impact.

No point in complaining about others, let's just get on with it ourselves.

And as for 7-11, plenty of people talking to them is why they are responding with a campaign like this; even if it is only part way effective, it takes time to change and in the meantime, ANY reduction in plastic bags is a good thing.

Even the slightest bit of good news and somehow it gets distorted 'upside dis place'

I've been telling them (7-11 clerks) that I don't need and bag for (and don't want a straw with) my can of Heineken for about 8 years, but it doesn't seem to do any good. I suspect people living here that have come from Western countries do the same as we're used to being asked at convenience stores, "Do you need a bag?" I'm afraid I haven't seen any positive effect from refusing unneeded bags and straws, yet.

Certainly we all have to pitch in and do our part, but it's quite valid to point out that the thousands of clerks working at 7-11 stores could be quickly and easily instructed to significantly reduce the number of bags they use.

I constantly rearrange things at 7-11, putting everything in one bag. The other day, I was in and bought 3 things, a sandwich, a drink, and a pack of cigarettes. I got 3 bags! I took it all out and put it in 1 bag, the girl then took the other two and threw them in the garbage!

I go to the same shop all the time, so I am hoping to get them trained. It's not just about the environment (well it is), but for God's sake, I have a thousand of those stupid bags in my vehicle and I hate cleaning them up--and yes, I tried to reuse one, but she took that out of my hand and threw it in the garbage!

Their campaign needs to start with the employees.

Very nice...somebody's on the right track, here.

It's no surprise that they go through 100 million baht worth of plastic bags a year. I am convinced that the employees have been given instructions to give the customers lots of bags when they buy things (to make the customer feel good and important, I suppose. After all, this is a "more is better" culture.) The type of situation described by Scott happens all the time (using 3 bags when 1 will do). This suggestion to have 7-11 stores use cloth bags rather than plastic is fine, except for the fact that 99% of the time I end up in a 7-11 I didn't plan a trip there. I just drop in when driving or walking past one, so I likely wouldn't have my cloth bag with me, and I suspect that is the case with the majority of people. The cloth bag campaign would be better with grocery stores, where shopping trips are usually planned, and people can grab their cloth bags along with their shopping lists when leaving the house.

So, you're right, Scott. A bigger part of the problem and solution lies with the staff. If I knew that 7-11 was urging their staff to think a little more about how to pack bags and therefore use fewer of them, I'd probably buy stuff there more often. As it is now, I will give my business to the mom and pop corner store before I walk into a 7-11, and the bag issue is part of that reason.

It should be up to the owner of the establishment. I believe there is room for both smoke-free and smoke-filled pubs, bars, and discos. If as a business owner prefers a smoke-free environment and feels that enough potential customers do as well, then by all means enforce such a rule, but it's not right for the government to shove it down everyone's throat -- especially here in Thailand, where the air is often so filled with smoke from the absolutely irresponsible and constant burning of garbage, it's sometimes hard to breath. It would be nice to see the lawmakers here get their heads out of the clouds (smoke clouds, I assume) for once and actually tackle some sensible issues or do something about the laws that exist. I consistently see 10 to 15-year-old children speeding on their motor scooters with no helmet on while going against traffic . They fly by a BIB and he doesn't even bat an eye. They smash into a car driven by a farang, and it's the farang's fault. It would be nice to see the elected representatives in government actually earn their pay and make laws that will benefit the people who pay their salaries and put pressure on the police to enforce the ones that already exist.

Sounds like pretty hefty price hikes and an organized effort on the part of the hoteliers. Protest in the most effective manner -- with your pocketbook. Don't give them business and advise all you can to do the same.

I sympathize with anyone who loses their employment, but I prefer self-serve petrol stations. I don't really get much service from the attendants, anyway. They don't check my oil or clean my window. Instead they take their own sweet time coming to fuel my vehicle, and they put that silly advertising sign on my hood at Jet (even though I get out of the car, so there's no one in the vehicle to see it). Their lack of service puts me in the awkward position of possibly embarrassing them by doing their job for them (and we all know how important it is to save face in Thailand). If it's a self-serve station, I can take care of my window and check my oil without taking that chance, so as far as self-serve stations goes -- bring 'em on.

I would recommend you at least get a second hard drive and motherboard with on-board RAID, and implement a RAID 1 mirror as part of your plan. Also for gaming you'll need a decent graphics card (the more RAM the better) and your base system memory of 1GB is a bit lean in todays terms. Go for 2GB especially if you want to run Vista smoothly.

I definitely agree with the advice to increase your RAM to 2 GB.

As far as a graphics card goes, the amount of memory (RAM) on it has some influence on its performance, but there are other factors that are more important. Go to a web site like "Tom's Hardware" and read about the most important criteria when choosing a high performance video/graphics card. Tom's is a good site where there are lots of lab test results and benchmarks you can see to learn which cards give the most gaming bang for your buck (er...baht).

I'd be surprised if anybody is advertising a specific casino bus as gambling is illegal here, and the Thai government discourages people from traveling to Cambodia for that purpose. From what I recall when I used to do visa runs to Poi Pet, there was even a sign at the border crossing warning people that it is illegal to even bring back winnings from the Cambodian casinos. If you do decide to find or arrange a trek to the casinos, don't forget to get a re-entry stamp in your passport before you go or your current visa will be voided.

thais always tell me to take de-worming pills every few months or so... i guess they do it.

I don't know if I'd follow that advice. I remember when I came here for my first visit to Thailand, I learned that it was (is?) common for bar girls to take antibiotics on a regular (daily) basis to keep STD's away. As most of us know, this is not a good idea as doing so severely compromises one's immune system. Also keep in mind that Thais generally feel that "more is better" if it's something that's supposed to be good for you. But I think most would agree that that's not a good overall rule of thumb.

Please excuse me, but who cares?

As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with Thailand, and I barely notice when they "celebrate" it in the Night Bazaar. It seemed to come from nowhere a few years ago. Whose idea was it anyway?

This is very confusing! You criticize someone's post because you say it has nothing to do with Thailand, yet there are hundreds of threads at TV that have nothing to do with Thailand, On top of that, you admit that it is "celebrated" at the Night Bazaar, which I assume is the one in Chiang Mai. Hmmm, seems the last time I looked in an atlas, Chiang Mai was still in THAILAND.

C'mon...give us a break and don't be so critical about the things that aren't of interest to you in particular. I think introducing Thai to other cultures is a good idea and long overdue.

I was working out at the gym today and a bunch of foreigners were on running and eliptical machines in front of a TV with the BBC news on which most were watching while they exercised. A middle-aged Thai woman walked up and put her towel on a running machine and immediately started changing the channel on the TV to Thai programs without a word to anyone.

One farang went ballistic and started going on about people with no manners and got off his machine and left. As soon as he left, she went back to the TV and started changing channels again looking for a better program while ignoring the rest of us.

How would you have handled it?

Probably lack of intelligence on her part, no deliberate malice.

Omni present thought processes that lead to considerate actions are mental faculties general lacking in lesser intelligent members of our species.

I'll probably get slammed badly for this but, I feel that many Thais DO often show a lack of consideration for others, and I've always wondered if it's a matter of them not being aware of their actions or if it's just their nature. This is not meant to be criticism -- just an observation. Deep down, I suspect it's more a matter of what's socially acceptable in Thai culture isn't acceptable where I come from.

Hopefully, I won't hear the typical "If you think they're so bad, why don't you leave" comments. Instead, it would be nice to hear people tell us about some of their experiences and offer some opinions on the subject without it turning into a Thai (or pattyboy) bashing thread. (If I thought Thai people were so bad, I would have left this country years ago.)

I'm not sure who "they" are. When I go to register my older truck, I have to get a vehicle inspection, but that's done by some guys that have the concession across the street from the DMV. The DVM people have never actually come out of the building to look at my truck. As a matter of fact, the "inspection" required to get my new windshield sticker was nothing more than taking the serial number of the vehicle from the engine block the last time I went. They didn't even check to see if my lights, horn (and other basic things) worked. It sounds like the OP got someone who was in a particularly bad mood that day, or as others suggested, was looking for a little extra spending cash.

I know that there is a lot of confusion about what is occurring at the moment, but there does seem to be some change coming for those wishing to teach in Thailand.

I have friends who teach here in Thailand, but they haven't mentioned anything about what is occurring at the moment or the changes that will be coming. I'm afraid that they may not even know about what's going on now (and coming in the future) so would you please elaborate or point me to a source.

I think that people are still not sure about what is happening and more importantly how strongly any rule change will be enforced.

Here is a thread about some of the proposed changes;

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=167152

Thanks garro. I'll send my friends the link.

However, it occurred to me that my friends are teaching at an International University, and I recall them saying once that teaching licenses are only required for those teaching Prathom (basically grades 1-6) and mathayom (grades 7-12) students. That's probably why the subject of new requirements hasn't come up in conversation.

Does anyone have a take on whether these new requirements affect university-level instructors? Or only teachers of Mathayom 12 and down?

I'd like to know the same thing. According to my teacher friends (who work at an International University) they don't need licenses. The license requirement is only for those teaching prathom and mathayom students.

I know that there is a lot of confusion about what is occurring at the moment, but there does seem to be some change coming for those wishing to teach in Thailand.

I have friends who teach here in Thailand, but they haven't mentioned anything about what is occurring at the moment or the changes that will be coming. I'm afraid that they may not even know about what's going on now (and coming in the future) so would you please elaborate or point me to a source.

"Good Chinese Food Where?"

in China i presume

Actually, some friends of mine worked in China for a couple of years and they said that real Chinese food (the stuff grown, prepared and eaten in China) is actually quite bad due to the generally poor quality of the ingredients available. It's something I've often heard.