Orac

Suwattana Gardens is much better located in between Soi Siam and Soi Nern Plub Wann.

4 lane road through the middle of the village, tennis courts, club house with 2 pools, heaps of grassed covered parks throughout, childrens play area and more.

kids play ground and tennis courts the pics look fine i know where this village is i have pasted it often never went inside yet

is many kids live there ..

How many houses thee aproximately /

Certainly worth a look round - I have been renting here for 8 months now. I would guess (wildly!) at 150 houses of all sizes in total however the estate is now split in 2 with a security gate in the middle due to issues over maintenance payments. Zone 1 (NPW side where I am) has about 100-120 houses and includes the club house which was sold 3 years ago however the owner is not here and allows residents to use it and the residents comittee pay all the costs. There is no guarantee of continuing use if he should return. There are a few children here and quite a few young families - I have a 2 yr old daughter and my wife has many friends here now with kids of similar ages. The residents comittee have plans to invest money into improving play and exercise facilities and, in my opinion, are working hard to maintain standards.

The other side of the estate - zone 2 which can be accessed from the SSCC side - has a lot of houses for sale or rent and there were a lot of ppl not paying maintenance fees hence the reason for the 2 zones.

Cheers

Orac

Hi Op,

Do you see a helmet stand at any taxi stand in Bangkok, or two helemts hanging from any taxi Motorbike, or how about tourists walking around with helmets (just in case they decide to take a motorbike taxi). That's gonna take SOME TIME .

As far as should one wear, or not wear a helmet. Up to you. It'll sort itself out in the end.

Although my bike doesnt move it the rider/riders does not have one on.

:jap:

If you are living somewhere as lawless as Bangkok what do you expect. You should come to Pattaya and see how it is done properly - I can't remember not being offered a helmet here when I have used a motorbike taxi in the last 3-4 months.

Suwattana Gardens is much better located in between Soi Siam and Soi Nern Plub Wann.

4 lane road through the middle of the village, tennis courts, club house with 2 pools, heaps of grassed covered parks throughout, childrens play area and more.

I understand the club house with pool has been sold off but still a very nice estate. Had a few security issues a few months back but security has been beefed up now.

Out of curiosity, what was your wife's reaction to finding out they were not Thai? I would assume that the Filipinas spoke rather proper English, and living in England, I would assume your wife would have picked up a fair amount also. They should have been able to have a conversation, correct? Last thought. Would the fact that they were Filipinas be a reason to NOT talk to them? Afterall, I am not talking about walking up to a stranger whose ethnicity I do not know, to have an in depth discussion about politics or high finance or anything of consequence for that matter. Just a nod perhaps in passing. And if this person decided to want to speak with me, and he was German or French or some other language I am unfamiliar with, I would still feign attempts at communicating. If unsuccessful, so what. New Yorker syndrome is running rampant it seems where 10M people can live in close proximity and in an apartment building with 20 apartments on your floor you do not know a single one of them. I am glad the Thais are not this way at least.

I am sure my wife could have spoken to her in english, in fact, I assume she must have to find out she was Filipina however, once she had established that she was not Thai, she did not see the need to carry on any conversation. I suppose this is the same as the situation you are refering to with farang in Thailand and, to be honest, my first reaction to my wife was that this filipina (and there are a few around where we lived as opposed to the 2 thais which I didn't know and took my wife all of 2 days to find) would be someone who my wife might like to get to know as they were of a similar age. My wifes response to this suggestion was a baffled 'but she isn't Thai".

"Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjiva, as the Democrat Party leader said of the arrest of a Democrat MP for Krabi Sakhon Keawkhong in Hong Kong that he was planning to ask for more details from Agriculture Minister Supachai Phosu , who went on the same trip as Sakhon."

Surely he should be getting an explanation from the MP himself rather than someone who was on the same trip.

My wife seems to have a similar approach to the OP on this. I regularly get dragged off to meet the farang boyfriend or husband of some friend of hers. Last week it was it was an Austrian guy who didn't speak english or thai and was 25-30 years older than me. I am sure he is a very nice guy but we did not appear to have anything at all in common or an ability to communicate effectively. Her best friend married a swiss guy last month and, when they are in Thailand, we see them regularly however my wife cannot understand why I do not talk to her friends husband more and does not grasp that I am having to use my high school french.

Point taken. I'm talking more, however, about the simple acknowledgement of existence as opposed to looking away if eye contact is accidentally made. As I said twice now, I don't really care if I meet another farang. I know hundreds and have met in passing probably tens of thousands while in the states. I just find this behavior facinating, and perhaps a little disturbing, but without any personal stake in the phenomenon at all.

The issue is that the term farang can cover a wide group of people (and even offends some for some reason who should try chilling out more!) but the only real commonality is probably skin colour. Many ppl, particularly outside the tourist areas, who have been here a while feel they have integrated to some degree with the general population around them and therefore have far more in common with locals - speak thai, understand to some degree local ways and customs - then they would with someone from a country on the other side of the world from their place of birth that shares the same skin colour.

Having said that, my wife got very frustrated when she was living in England when she saw people she thought were Thai and, after trying to talk to them, found out they were Phillipino.

One side generally acts defensively, the other side has a history of violence from it's 'fringe elements'.

Which side is most likely to use violence or at least plan to again? One guess.

It is idiotic in any case. What happened to 'the enemy of my enemy, is sort of a friend'?

ie they both are down on the government, so let them do their work...

Of course either way, elements of both sides will try and spin anything at the government S.O.P.

PAD seem to be wanting to start a war with a neighbouring nation which doesn't seem a very defensive move to me. Though they don't appear to have stated directly how to push back Cambodian presence on Thai territory I would expect it would take a bit more than just asking politely.

Not in their mindset,

they think Hun Sen will back down and that they are defending their homeland.

It is blind nationalism, but if the wanted to start an actual war they already could have.

Let's not confuse power politics posturing and actual aggression.

I see Jatuporn chimes in with his own ploy, right on schedule.

I would have to agree with you here - it appears that the activists in Thailand, from whichever side, seem to have little regard or understanding of the consequences of their actions.

My wife seems to have a similar approach to the OP on this. I regularly get dragged off to meet the farang boyfriend or husband of some friend of hers. Last week it was it was an Austrian guy who didn't speak english or thai and was 25-30 years older than me. I am sure he is a very nice guy but we did not appear to have anything at all in common or an ability to communicate effectively. Her best friend married a swiss guy last month and, when they are in Thailand, we see them regularly however my wife cannot understand why I do not talk to her friends husband more and does not grasp that I am having to use my high school french.

One side generally acts defensively, the other side has a history of violence from it's 'fringe elements'.

Which side is most likely to use violence or at least plan to again? One guess.

It is idiotic in any case. What happened to 'the enemy of my enemy, is sort of a friend'?

ie they both are down on the government, so let them do their work...

Of course either way, elements of both sides will try and spin anything at the government S.O.P.

PAD seem to be wanting to start a war with a neighbouring nation which doesn't seem a very defensive move to me. Though they don't appear to have stated directly how to push back Cambodian presence on Thai territory I would expect it would take a bit more than just asking politely.

How about Book of Brilliant Things - one of my all time favourites, especially live.

"invited schoolchildren to the event to see how the Police conduct their duties, including a demonstration by Pattaya’s SWAT Team."

Anyone know how many casualties there were????

Cut the military budget by 25% abd the shortfall will be addressed.

Sounds a bit much - would 2.5% not do it????

Heresay heresay heresay

Considering they jail more people than most coutries someone seems to be doing their job.

Polulation of England 51 million criminals in jail = 82,00

Population of Thailand 61 Million criiminals in jail 200,000

Usa 307 Million criminals in jail 828,000

Quite simply there's a higher percentage of criminals jailed in Thailand than in most other coutries in the world plus Bangkok is regarded as one of the safest cities in the world.

You really should study the ww crime rate before slaggin the Thai police off. Sure there's corruption like there is in all countries but Ill bet like me you can't read Thai and really haven't a clue what is going or who was arrested in the last week. Most of us know local rags and little else.

You know what they say about newspapers. Half of it is untrue and the other half is made up

Thailands recorded crime rate is no where near as bad as most coutries, although they are 11th in the world for murder.

On things like assaults muggings robberies, burglary etc they come no where near the USA or the UK.

I have no idea how many crimes here are not reported here as I don't live in Buriram Yasothon Chag Mai Surin etc etc and the news seldom gets to Bkk in English.

What I do know is BKK is one of the safest cities in the world and that takes good policing.

One things for sure there are 200,000 people in jail who would disagree about that Thai police not doing their job.

Do you have a source for your stats as the following suggest differently:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/downloads/wppl-8th_41.pdf

the US is at 756 per 100k against 257 per 100k for Thailand

^ don't think anyone has died yet - but, if he is the only one who can identify the kidnapper, his sister might want to get some life insurance sorted out smartish.

Hmmm - a guy claiming to be a police officer driving a car taken from the police station - something makes me think they will struggle to solve this one

Hell I've been eating Spicy on Soi 6 Pattaya for some time. At least that's what she said her name was.

I prefer hoy on soi 6

just be careful you dont catch hold of any crabs down there.

The OP might like to try the ham there as well with spicy sauce - I am told it is very nice but a bit exotic for me

Hell I've been eating Spicy on Soi 6 Pattaya for some time. At least that's what she said her name was.

I prefer hoy on soi 6

"Meanwhile, the light-rail system linking the airport with the sport complex is necessary to serve the thousands of athletes participating in the World Cup, but it requires an investment of about Bt300 million to Bt400 million per kilometre"

Last years tournament in Brasil had 20 teams with each squad limited to 14 players - 280 athletes in all. Maybe he has got it confused with the 'football' world cup???

...the Thai people there will more or less tell him to fuc-k off...

That's exactly true. The Canadian Consulate is notorious for not helping ANYONE. If you ever get a chance to walk into the Canadian Consulate you would never suspect that there might actually be White people living in Canada.

I had a friend that had a few unfortunate episodes of bad luck (and this can happen to anybody) which when compounded effectively rendered him penniless. He went to the Canadian Consulate, explained his predicament, and begged for any kind of assistance to help him out of this temporary rut; They REFUSED to do ANYTHING. He then informed them that he was a diabetic, and asked can they at least provide him with funds to purchase his necessary medicine; NO CAN DO.

Essentially they sent this person out on the street to die, knowing full well he wouldn't survive long without medicine.

My guess is the guy that the OP saw, had already gone to the Canadian Consulate and received the exact same treatment. If no one else helped him he's most likely dead. The Canadian Consulate probably paid to have his body shipped back to Canada and thought, "there's one less case we have to worry about!"; NEXT!

I take it it wasn't close friend then???

I had never noticed - but I have just informed my wife that I need to go on crucial fact finding mission tonight.

(anyone heard of the Royal Diamond club btw? The only thing I turn up, is a frequent users spa club in Bangkok).

Did he mention anything about selling vacuum cleaners???

http://www.lux.co.th/th/news/rdc09.html

What goes on in shoe shops that would need a no photo rule - or is 'shoe shop' some sort of euphemism??

So many sceptics! It is clearly a miracle since it happenned 2 months after he died.

"Suthep said the relevant authorities should revoke firearm-possession licences of people involved in the drug trade."

Surely if they are caught being involved in the drug trade they should be locking them up???

"collect information which might damage Cambodia's national security"

It's dried out scrub land and rice farms they walked by, not a nuclear power plant located on a ballistic submarine base.

.

Exactly, makes you wonder what all the fuss is about. Anyone would think there is a hotly disputed piece of real estate involving a military build up between two nations going on here.