way2muchcoffee

If you want to whine feel free....please don't drag me into it........I am of the opinion whining serves absolutely no purpose.......at least pay for sex is one step up on whining

All I was doing was highlighting an area where perhaps the 'service' may not be considered the 'same' as any other........but I also know in some cases not an issue.

I get your point. But is it really all that different? How much of a person's objection to prostitutes or frequenting them is based upon a lifetime of programming? Arguments could be made against utilizing the services of prostitutes while married, but as a single person?

"I,m just popping down to service the car darling"

"I'm just popping down to service a prostitute darling"

yep sounds ok to me........just the same......a service......

You're the one who made the marriage vows. No use whining about it now. I made them too. It's all about choices and values really. I couldn't care less who others choose to sleep with.

But when I get a one night stand in the UK or a bit on the side for a period of time I don't pay her rent or other bills, I don't go with free loaders and the women I go with in the UK have their own money to be able to pay their way.

Spot the difference..

I think I've spotted the difference. Economics in the UK requires that nearly all women and men work. Minimum wages in the UK mean that most women and men have discretionary income for frivolous things like trips and such.

Most Thais aren't in this position. The most frivolous action the majority of Thais can take is to purchase a 2000 bt mobile phone, hit a karaoke joint once a month, or have a few drinking sessions with store bought beer over the course of a month.

Can you spot the difference?

Yes you,ve had way too much

LOL. Perhaps. Seeing that it is nearly 8 pm I've switched from the coffee to a bit of beer.

But when I get a one night stand in the UK or a bit on the side for a period of time I don't pay her rent or other bills, I don't go with free loaders and the women I go with in the UK have their own money to be able to pay their way.

Spot the difference..

I think I've spotted the difference. Economics in the UK requires that nearly all women and men work. Minimum wages in the UK mean that most women and men have discretionary income for frivolous things like trips and such.

Most Thais aren't in this position. The most frivolous action the majority of Thais can take is to purchase a 2000 bt mobile phone, hit a karaoke joint once a month, or have a few drinking sessions with store bought beer over the course of a month.

Can you spot the difference?

Fault in the accident is for the court to decide.

I see what you mean. Perhaps you should follow your own reasoning then. Clearly you have already established guilt as evidenced by your post here.

Getting angry because the Thai family wants a large payment for the member of their family that you killed is very silly.

What is he supposed to counter sue for? Because they won't accept the amount of money that he wants to pay to have the charges dropped?

OP just has to decide whether or not he really wants to live in Thailand and how fearful he is of being extradited/harassed in the future.

Getting angry because the Thai family wants a large payment for the member of their family that you killed is very silly.

Evidently you missed the part about the accident being solely the fault of the motorcycle driver. Wrong lane, no helmet, etc.

I am surprised not one person has mentioned the best Mexican restaurant in Bangkok: Tacos and Salsa.

I cast my vote for Tacos y Salsa.

Well we are in our new house tonight.

What a wonderfull feeling!

The guy next door just told my wife that the wood flooring was bought from Homepro for 3,800 bht sq/m, there is over 95 sq/m installed!

My plans are to park my wife's Dad and brothers here for a few months, just in case some besotted Englishman darkens our doorstep with suitcase in hand. They will take care of any "potential problem"

I post this thread as a warning to all you guys!

My wife was even approched by another "potential seller" this afternoon.

Gloating over the likely misery of another. Appalling attitude and behavior. Have fun counting your money.

Quality children starts with responsible parents.

How many chidren are being abandoned into the care of grandparents or other relatives, and how many husbands walk out of their pregnant wives?

Arjan is spending too much time with his books and computer and lacking fieldwork.

If there was not an unwritten law that decrees the poor people of the north will be the migrant workers of Thailand the parents of these children would be home everynight with their kids. Build the <deleted> factories where the labour force is and not only on the land of the chosen few. How much actually gets exported from Rayong etc. Through the North there is EWEC and if governments take their foot of the development of this road it will allow industry to come North. Give the incentives for the foreign businesses to open shop up North. Silly me I thought I was back in the west for a moment, ignore this post only dreaming

You make valid points. More could and should be done to shift some industry up north. Feasibility would require a better infrastructure. On the other hand, Thailand competes regionally with some pretty low-cost countries. The additional transportation costs associated with an Issan-based factory or industrial park could put the cost of production up enough that Thailand can no longer be competitive in the world market. These are not easy problems to solve. The same goes for the minimum wage. It's hard to compete when most of your nearest neighbors have lower labor costs than you.

18 hours a day for 70 days straight. That's the equivalent of 3 full-time jobs for a little over two months. The payout is probably only about 70k after all is said and done. Exploitation comes to mind.

On the other hand I suspect the man who returns to the village after 10 weeks with 70-100k in cash will be pretty happy.

They say they want to reconcile. Unless you have justice for both sides there will be no reconciliation. The ball is Abhisits court, if they really want to reconcile then they must show equal justice for REDs and YELLOWs.

It's great to talk about reconciliation but you have to walk the walk. Methinks their actions will speak louder than the sweet words which fall from their lips.

you see this is the crux of the matter - treat both sides fairly - I have never supported violence by either side and posted consistently - prosecute BOTH factions equally - then we might see a begining to reconciliation

That's just it. You don't prosecute 'equally'. You prosecute for the crimes committed. When the crimes are not equal the results will not be equal.

I meant prosecute equally those crimes committed by either colour - naturally they are not the same - but the law should be measured and applied

Cheers. We are in agreement. We've gone back and forth before CMN. We sit on different sides of this particular political divide, but I suspect that our views are very similar.

They say they want to reconcile. Unless you have justice for both sides there will be no reconciliation. The ball is Abhisits court, if they really want to reconcile then they must show equal justice for REDs and YELLOWs.

It's great to talk about reconciliation but you have to walk the walk. Methinks their actions will speak louder than the sweet words which fall from their lips.

you see this is the crux of the matter - treat both sides fairly - I have never supported violence by either side and posted consistently - prosecute BOTH factions equally - then we might see a begining to reconciliation

That's just it. You don't prosecute 'equally'. You prosecute for the crimes committed. When the crimes are not equal the results will not be equal.

Interesting post. I suspect you either haven't been in Thailand long or you haven't traveled extensively here. Polite? Well-dressed? Fact is that most Thais don't have the money to dress well. Polite has regional and social variations. What is polite behavior at a wedding in Issan would be decidedly unpolite at a wedding in the Oriental. Frankly I disagree with most of the content of your post as it points to only a very small subset of the population within very limited social circles.

Like always.

Democrat will pull through.

The court case is for show own.

You can bed on this, we will see the dissolution of the Democrats and a ban of the party executives including M-16 May Massacre Mark.

What happened to you kissdani? At one time you posted measured comments and incisive analysis. Lately you seem to have given that up and instead turned to pure propaganda nonsense and hate speech. M-16 May Massacre Mark? Really? Disappointing to see the change in your style.

The reds on this forum who are salivating over the possible banning of the Dems should remeber that their own party the PTP is the second reincarnation of its two banned predisessers TRT and PPP which seem to have survived under the new guise.

It would indeed be a shame if Abhisit were not given a chance to show what he can do for this country.

So far he has shown himself to be the most honest and smartest PM this country has seen in a long while and is probably the only chance this country has of getting out of the mess left by those who have gone before and the reds.

If Thaksin ever got back it would be a complete disaster for the country as he went all out for revenge and to recoup his losses.

PTP have shown by their recent by-election manifesto of "bring back Thaksin, pardon everyone in the reds and yellows, bring back 30B health scheme (now free) and reinstate the village fund (1 millB to each village just before an election)that they have no ideas on running the country without the big boss.

True for a big part ,but he is "damaged " and look in nature how wolves hunt together , until one is badly wounded , the hunting party teer that one in pieces , even when it happened their leader of the group

I find it most interesting the reaction of the supporters of various camps here at TV.

The present government supporters at TV will say that the Democrat Party should be dissolved if they are found guilty. They understand that there are laws that must be followed and that violation of those laws has consequences. They will take this stance even though it may well mean that the government they support will be dissolved. So be it.

The redshirt supporters will say something along the lines of 'som nom nah'. It is interesting to note that these were the same people railing on about judicial coups, biased courts, and alleging all manners of malfeasance against anyone who dared stand in the way of the Thaksin government, or against any legal and legitimate actions taken against it. It seems the redshirt supporters are totally against party dissolution when it effects their party, but all for it when it effects the opposition. To my thinking this is an untenable and most hypocritical position to hold.

none were closed... move on

The AoT made the decision to close the airport, not the PAD. Are you saying that if airport authorities in any of the incidents listed above had decided to close the airport in the face of a protest, that the charges against the protesters would somehow be terrorism instead of trespassing? I don't think you have thought through your position.

Some Thai's I have spoken to do not want to have children because they have the risk of giving birth to a girl.  Life for a thai female is not good if she can not marry quickly.  (30 is old) Mothers do not want to see daughters on scrap heap or married to farang 50 yrs older than daughter. 

In my wife's area most families prefer daughters. Menfolk are often drunks and layabouts and are known to abandon their parents to old age without providing any assistance. Daughters tend to work more regularly and assist the family in times of need.

If you've paid for it then it is not unreasonable to expect the wife or girlfriend to ethically deal with you in the event of a break up.

Of course there might be a disagreement over exactly what it is you've paid for, but provided brains have not been deposited at the airport there ought to be no disgreement about who owns what and can sell what.

I am discussing ethics, not legality. Nobody can dispute the legal position of the woman. The law is the law.

But are ethics and morals determined by law? Sadly you seem to defending the idea that everything legal is correct and just. Any action that isn't illegal is acceptable. That logic stinks IMO.

Isn't the practice of buying houses in other people's names a means of working around the legal system?

I would say no. It is not so simple as you make it out to be. Buying a house in the name of your wife or girlfriend is a means of working within the legal system and yet still being able to provide the security for you and your wife of a domicile that is paid for. You can't take it with you, nor can you will it to someone who is not a Thai (actually you can't will it to anyone since it isn't yours by law).

If you've paid for it then it is not unreasonable to expect the wife or girlfriend to ethically deal with you in the event of a break up. It is also not unreasonable to expect others to deal ethically even when there is no law against acting otherwise.

The argument in favour of dual pricing, is that the Goverment has already spent a large ammount of money on developing various sites. The people of Thailand are basically the owners, and have already paid through taxes etc. Therefore they are entitled to a discount.

This type of thinking, is normal in many countries. See ticket prices for Uffizi Gallery in Florence for example.

If you have a work permit or Thai driving licence, and show this when paying, you will usually be charged Thai price.

Privately developed attractions are not supposed to have two-tier pricing, and most do not.

I do not agree that a work permit or Thai driving license, speaking Thai, smiling, going with a group of Thais, or anything else will usually get you in for the Thai price. I would say that it sometimes gets you the Thai price. It is totally unpredictable. This unpredictability can be more frustrating for some people that it is for others. It doesn't matter that I pay 100,000 bt/year in income tax. Whether I pay the foreigner or Thai price is at the whim of the person at the gate.

Guess your friends are just need to grow some balls when they're in the right. Although some people do seem to walk around with an invisible " MUG" printed on their forehead that only locals can see. This " the westerner will always be blamed and always have to pay" is, quite simply, a pile of crap.

I was involved in an accident which was completely the other guys fault. He fell off a motorcycle coming the other way to me and went straight under my wheels. He was drunk. Luckily no damage to my vehicle. After the ambulance carted him off to hospital the police came, took a look at the scene, checked my docs, took a statement and left. In fact they asked if I wanted to take the matter further. I haven't heard anything since 3 years later.

I can give you a number of incidents like that involving westerners I know.

But that kind of knocks the barstool fantasy doesn't it.

Your experience is different than others. Their experiences do not invalidate yours and yours do not invalidate theirs. You and others have had an experience with honest police. Many others have had experiences with dishonest police.

There is no universal truth here. It has nothing to do with growing a pair of balls or being a mug.

If I don't steal that garish 5-bt gold necklace from the stupid foreigner's neck surely someone else will.

If I don't pick up that wallet he just dropped and liberate the 20,000 bt cash inside surely someone else will.

If I don't make a move on the man's hot wife and get her in the sack for a serious rogering surely someone else will.

If I don't make two menus, one in English (at triple price) and one in Thai so I can make more money from the fools, surely someone else will.

The guy has probably moved on......do people really get upset over a couple of mill baht house they never really owned?

Yes, I'm sure he's moved on, or eventually will. Who gets upset over a couple of mill baht? Not him, for sure.

No doubt when he bought and furnished the house he was prepared to walk away from it suspecting correctly that his gf would turn around and sell it at 25% off. You may ask why the man just didn't hand the woman the cash, saving himself 25% (of an albeit insignificant couple of mill)? Well, if he did that, how would a complete stranger (but fellow farang) like Livinginexile have reaped the benefit?

If you take the risk you must play the hand you are dealt, the guy who built and furnished the house did just that, livinginexile is now taking his risk, he may come out of it ok, in which case he was the better player. Morals sadly only come into it when you are not the one who is set to benefit........

Morals and ethics apply to all. You either have them or you don't. Personally I wouldn't enter into any such arrangement.

Yes, yes, yes, we all know that the request for evidence is a strong indicator to weather a fact is a fact or not but it is hardly surprising that it is beyond the bounds of any one on here to prove or disprove any thing, mostly it is peoples opinions, based on their belief in what they saw or perceived to see that makes their minds up about one thing or another.

What bothers me is if say that none of the 90 mostly civilians did not forfeit their lives at the hands of the Military then who the <deleted> did and if it was a group of separate individuals then thats murder is it not , and should that not be investigated by the authorities, or a some thing like which is popular at the moment a committee set up in to the cause of these killings.

Agreed. Personally I believe that all sides were guilty of some crime or other. These incidents should be thoroughly investigated.

Unfortunately I don't believe it is possible for all the facts to come out even with the most rigorous investigation, using the best tools available.

This doesn't mean that a serious investigation shouldn't happen. It should. In the end I don't think it will happen though, because I don't think any side really wants that.

Denial it is then

Your inability to back up your claims with evidence is the problem. If you can then please do so. If you cannot then you lack credibility.