way2muchcoffee

Heck I don't think the Thais would knowingly want to offend anyone, unless you pee'd them off first!

JJ

You haven't met very many tuk tuk drivers have you?

My wife thinks that you should only pick up 100 bt notes or higher, no coins. The reason is that picking up a small amount of money curses you to always have only a small amount of money. Nevertheless, I pick up whatever I find.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

When southern white people chose to use racial slurs in describing people of african descent, the white people were not offended. The african-americans were highly offended. This is the case for every racial slur - IT IS IMPOLITE IF THE GROUP BEING REFERRED TO FIND IT IMPOLITE. Given that many westerners, perhaps the majority, do find the term somewhat derogatory, then it is indeed derogatory and shouldn't be used. It really doesn't matter what Thai people believe in this type of situation. It only matters the effect they have - which is causing offense.

This is my principled opinion.

Practically I really don't care much because it isn't an issue to get bent out of shape over. Sure every once in a while I might get annoyed, but that's about it. However, I would never use any sweeping terms to describe people when I know they cause offense. But hey, that's me.

Driving on the elevated expressway coming into town near Bang Na I was pulled at the final toll booth. An officer was standing there. He looked at my new vehicle and started to walk away. Then he looked through the windshield right into my eyes, saw that I was a Westerner, turned around and walked to my window. He stated that I had been speeding. This wasn't true as I had intentionally been driving at the proper speed of 80 kph. It was either 500 bt or a trip to the station.

This was not an isolated incident. I've been pulled 5 times. Only one of those times was I actually guilty of anything. One of those times was a random check upcountry and we drove away without having to pay anything. The other four times I was made to pay 500 bt each time. So the stats for me are: 2 honest cops versus 3 lying and thieving cops.

Sorry <shaking head> I can't believe I had to read through a page and a half of this thread before anybody mentioned morality and justice. Must be a lot of Gen-X and Gen-Y on tonight. I truly hope that your wife chooses to do what is right, not what is convenient or lucrative.

I was thinking exactly the same thing until I ran into GH's post. Kudos to GH for being the first. It is disappointing that nobody said it sooner.

Make a police report, and MAYBE just maybe they will get the THUGs off the streets. . Fighting back is NOT a good choice unless you have some kick butt skills like Steven Seagal or the late Bruce Lee and can take three or four the Thugs down with easy. Best choice Police Report.

Even better - Police Report + Cash-filled Envelope

I

... and that doesn't even touch on the duties of an individual to take part in the justice system where they have material information that may impact the outcome of the trial.

Ok, so let me rephrase it fo ryou, just cause you dont seem to really "get it"....."Would you think it wold be a good idea for you wife to ummm testify ummm in a case but you are fearful that it might be too much stress for her etc."...is that better?

Duty?? duty??? are you serius? there is no duty here, if you want to be a part of something is up to you, if you dont, that is also up to you. Is it my duty to protect my country? so i guess its my DUTY to gp amd enlist into the navy, right? no, it is up you.

What are you on about? If a person is a witness to some kind of crime it is their DUTY to offer that information to police. In fact it is the law. If it is a civil case there may well be an ethical or moral DUTY to testify.

The opinion you expressed above is simply ridiculous.

I guess it's just luck of the draw, but it's intersting that you've NEVER met an honest Thai traffic cop in 20 years, yet 2 out of 3 I've had encouters with appeared to do the proper thing.

I've been pulled over 5 times in 1.5 years driving a new D-Max. Four of the five times I had to pay 500 bt (each time). Three of those four times I had done nothing wrong. The kicker was that two of the straight rip-offs occurred during one trip over a two day period. I was not pleased. Mafia indeed!!

Maybe if you get shot running away from the police you should have to pay $118 for the bullet.

Use of a weapon would be considered 'deadly force'.

Shooting a kid because he wasn't wearing a helmet and so didn't stop when flagged is criminal.

My next-door neighbor is in this mid-thirties, just like a little girl with his temper tantrums, breaking and throwing things and hitting his wife. He's next.

I didn't realize little girls were known for breaking and throwing things and hitting their wives....

We have one teacher over 60 years old at the private primary/secondary school I work for in BKK. Every year the school needs to write a letter stating that he is a good teacher and is in good health for him to get a special dispensation to obtain a work permit.

I think this one was tackled by Mythbusters in the form of is it better to leave your lights on or turn them off, the answer was turn them off

What do lights and air conditioners have in common, beyond the obvious (they consume electric power)? Lights use electric power at a constant rate. Air conditioners consume power at a variable rate that depends on various factors, e.g. outside temperature, frequency of opening doors, temperature inside, number of heat-generating appliances used inside etc. MaximumSecurity had the best advice.

500k is ridiculous, hi-so thai chinese don't get this much.

That's not true. 500,000 is probably the average price of sin sot at the moment for the middle classes and it's what I showed at my wedding to get married (it was all returned to me afterwards though).

For a hi-so wedding it will be in the millions.

Hmm. I'm thinking middle class salary for a Thai guy not long out of university, working in BKK, certainly isn't going to be much more than 25,000 bt/month. Much of this would be spent on rent, transportation, food, and entertainment. So if he can save a massive 5,000 to 10,000 per month, each an every month, it would take him 4 to 8 years to save the dosh, assuming no other emergencies came up - ever. I wonder if the girl will wait this long from the time sin sot is discussed.

However, I do believe that even in circumstances of great poverty, it is possible to get children on a path that will enable them to support themselves in the future. What is necessary is for this to be a priority -- this does not often appear to be the case in Thailand, sadly.

I'll respond a little tongue-in-cheek, but also with an element of truth.

For many poor families having their daughter marry a rich older man is a reasonable way for her to be self-sufficient. She (and the rest of the family) will be well taken care of while the older man is alive. When he passes on she will be able to take care of herself (and possibly the rest of the family) for the rest of her life with the estate proceeds. A bit cynical I know, but it seems to be kind of thinking in some poor families.

With regards to the gender reversal, I don't think I would approach the situation any differently.

You failed to really answer the question Sylviex. You responded with an impossibility (a poor family almost by definition lacks the resources to provide a good education for their children) and then a rebuttal question that doesn't make any sense (read your question and you'll see what I mean I think).

I'll give the question a go.

I think that if I was very poor (or not) and my daughter met an older wealthy man, enjoyed his company, and felt that she loved him, I wouldn't have any problem with the marriage. If she happened to fall in love with a 'waster' I would offer advice, throw up an impediment or two to slow things down, but if the couple showed true love and persevered I would remove those impediments in short order. It's really not my business to dictate to my daughter who she can or can't marry. In all cases I would not advocate for any marriage to a man she did not love.

In context - I had a village wedding in May of this year. We had about 50 guests. The party lasted 3 days, during which time we never ran out of beer, whiskey or coke. We had two pigs with loads of rice, noodles, vegies, sauces, etc. There were live musicians on the day of the wedding, and we hired a DJ for 2 days. We purchased gifts for a few of the VIP's and paid for their hotel. Including the cost of the tailored traditional wedding outfit for my wife, the total cost came out to about 120k.

As many on TV have testified so far, farangs will not be charged the non-Thai price in the majority of cases if they speak a few words of Thai, have a Thai drivers license and smile. It is this last requirement to smile that is a bit unfair for the farang, many have inherited an inablilty to smile from their European ancestors and have not yet undertaken the long road to personal happiness and enjoyment of life.

Actually this has not been my experience in living here for 7 years, holding a work permit the entire time, holding a Thai driver's license for the last 3 years, speaking Thai well enough to get by easily, and of course smiling. At national parks I get the taxpayers price about 20% of the time. And I do pay roughly 100,000 bt in taxes to the Thai government annually.

The higher prices have never stopped me or my family from entering any National Park or other entertainment venue, but they are grating.

I believe that in theory you could be taken to court for the balance of the rent owed on the contract. In practice I've never heard of such a thing happening here during my 7-year stay.

Yep - most 7-11 stores sell them. Often they are kept behind the counter or otherwise out of site, but they do not hesitate to sell them. This would suggest that they are not illegal to possess in Thailand.

On a brighter note, a couple of weeks ago I stayed at Jomtien for a weekend trip with the wife. I woke up rather early (about 6:00 am) and looked out of the room's window toward the beach. All of the vendors up and down the beach as far as the eye could see were bustling about picking up litter, arranging their chairs, raking the sand, emptying rubbish bins etc.

Yes. Bear this in mind. Not all taxi drivers know about the move, as my brother-in-law found out last weekend when dropped off at the old SBT.

I work at a Private School in an EP in Bangkok. Students here pay approximately the following annual tution, fees, materials:

1) Regular Thai Program - 30,000 bt/yr

2) Thai Program with Extra English Classes taught by Native speakers - 70,000 bt/yr

3) English Program - 220,000 bt/yr

I guess I was just one of the victims of crime in the 'rarely' category. Walking to a friend's apartment near Pra Khanong at about 9 in the evening I was cornered by two young Thai men with machetes. They said nothing, simply attacked. I managed to block the machete arcing down at my forehead, break free, and run like hel_l. Nearly lost a finger and thumb when I blocked the blade. I was alone, sober, and minding my own business. So yes, random violence against westerners can and does happen.

You can only get a new non-immigrant B visa from a Thai consulate or embassy outside of the country.

You can extend an exisiting non-immigrant B at your local immigation office.

That isn't true. You can get a tourist visa converted to a non-b right at suan phlu immigration office. All of our new teachers this year have done exactly that.

Hi

I personally had three HDD's fail on me - one a Maxtor, at that point 1 1/2 years old and replaced under warranty within 10 days. The second a Seagate, 4 WEEKS old (!!) and it took over 6 weeks before i got a new one. The third was another Seagate which didn't work out of the box (BIOS didn't detect it), i brought it back within two hours - and had a lot of hassle! They practically inspected it with a magnifier until they found something that could have been a scratch and then refused to replace it on the grounds that i "had dropped it". That was at Seagate's own service center in Panthip where the shop which i had bought it sent me.

I had to threaten the shop with police to get my money back! As Seagate wouldn't cooperate no-matter-what. Finally got my cash back.

No more Seagate for me, EVER.

That is extremely unusual, bordering on unbelievable. Seagate drives are under warranty with D-Comm on the top floor of panthip. I've taken 4 or 5 seagate drives there for replacement. In each case they didn't even inspect the drive. They just pulled a new one off the shelf an gave it to me. In an out in 20 minutes.