rose33

3 hours ago, ross163103 said:

I've lived here 30 years and over time I noticed the same thing, although saying that, I do have some friends that have been here a long time and are fairly "normal". I think with the ones that do have issues it could be that; some people have issues before coming to Thailand, and some come here "normal" and go off the rails. From what I've seen it's mainly from women, alcohol, or failed business ventures--or a combination of all three. 

Western cultural norms are so different to Thailand cultural norms that farang actually (imo) need to "go off the rails" of western culture before they can really be settled & happy in Thailand.

On 4/9/2023 at 3:57 PM, Sparky Barry said:

Yes. Its a thyroid issue. Hopefully cheap and professional Thai private health care can help him out

Maybe cheap, or maybe massively overcharged and overtreated, as we hear about so often in LOS. 

5 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

We all know that in Thailand there is a risk when walking down a pavement / sidewalk:

.....  an uneven step, a hole, a wonky moving brick or slab can trip us up, or a drain cover gives way, or the oil that the street vendor has thrown on the floor makes it slippery.... .or the hanging live wires etc... etc etc...

 

...    Are authorities completely devoid of any accountability or responsibility when something happens ????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Thailand, a hitman gets paid 2,000 baht for a hit. 

i.e., your life may be worth as little as 2,000 baht while you're in Thailand. 

In this context, no one has time or money to be worrying about safety in public areas.

If you're inside a hotel or a ticketed tourist site, then yes, there MIGHT be some safety precautions and warning signs, because you have paid money to contract yourself OUT of public Thailand and INTO an 'upper class' zone. 

Even in the nicest suburbs of Bangkok, the public areas are still underdeveloped. Step outside your 5 star hotel or gleaming shopping mall... the sight of garbage and cracked concrete, and the smell of sewerage will soon hit your nose. By Thai logic, that's your fault for not arranging a private car to pick you up from the entrance. 

It's Thailand, not the west. Each person needs to look out for ourselves. Don't offend locals, especially those who are strong/young/drunk/drugged/crazy. Look where you're walking (3D awareness) and keep your wits about you.

46 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

This year, since covid seems to have been forgotten, is by far the worst I can remember in my 20 years of living in CM.  

 

It is so bad we have actually decided to leave.  We are in the process of buying a place to live back in the UK.

 

We will come back in the rainy season or early cool season, when the pollution has gone, then fly back to the UK each year.  

 

Flights are expensive now, and I don't like flying.... So can only see us doing this a few times before we give up on ever coming back to Thailand.  I think a lot of expats will be doing the same. 

 

 

I hear you. I also sold all my stuff and left CM last week. Moved back to the west. 

On 4/8/2023 at 11:10 AM, koolkarl said:

The pollution is everywhere, even in your bedroom closet.  Working from home  does nothing.

Most of Thailand is on fire. One can easily find out whose land is burning.  Arrest the owner and throw

him in jail for a long time.  As for these useless politicians, I leave that to your imagination. 

Tourists should stop coming here altogether until this cancer causing issue is fixed permanently.

Yes, vote with feet. 

You really think it was strangely shaped luggage that attracted the attention of law enforcement?

Also wondering how the carbon paper shows up on x-ray.

Rather different to the driving rule I was taught as a teenager on an Australian farm:

"Never reverse AN INCH more than you need to."

(asking for a friend who has just moved there). She is looking for organic (or, at least, non-pesticide) fresh leafy greens, for salads and smoothies. 

With many thanks ????

Just now, spidermike007 said:

I find that to be just the opposite. I love so many things about this place. Now, if you were talking about the US, I would agree. That place is depressing, predictable, monotonous, stupid overpriced, boring and stifling. Not here. Not for me. 

Used to feel that way about the west, myself, so I can empathise with that perspective.

2 hours ago, humbug said:

RIP to the victim

 

and you raise something that is overlooked

 

Male dominant societies exist in every non-rule of law country, the societies just hide behind Islamic Nationslism, Hindu, Budhism, Confucism, all varying ancient class systems, that some countries just fake and imitate rules based order bureaucracy, just to bring in Western Capital and develop an even stronger glass ceiling, using the fake bureaucracy to keep the masses under the strong glass ceiling, and turn them into low IQ imbiciles that sometimes go violently mad

 

I mentioned Confucism, because the Han Chinese class system is just as bad in how they treat women as the under class, just as the Islamic nationalists do, with a hugely corrupt society, and unlucky for the Thai's, as many are now in powerful positions, and like any autocratic regimes, hate and see the West as their nemesis

 

rule of law societies brings fairness to most of the people, no matter what the gender

 

So many foreigners come to live in Thailand or tourists, that they forget this could happen in many non-rule of countries around the world not just Thailand with low IQ, entitled or those gone mad locals

 

 

 

 

Regarding the western men who CHOOSE to abandon the rule of law countries of their birth, so they can live in male-dominated, non-rule of law countries... Well, back in the west quite frankly we are better off without them.

I call it self-selection into a suitable environment. People are attracted to whatever resonates for them. 

3 hours ago, Mickmouse1 said:

Why is he described as the Boss  yet the article stated that he was only helping the wife who is the BOSS?

Unless the Amity Treaty applies (only US cits and certain kinds of businesses), foreigners can't own (control) a business in Thailand. The majority shares must be held by a Thai national. So maybe the Aussie was managing the restaurant but his wife owned majority shares and therefore was technically the boss.

4 hours ago, mark131v said:

Did you get stabbed and slashed to death? apples and oranges...

And, if he HAD been stabbed and slashed to death in Canada, his surviving family would then be dealing with the Canadian justice system rather than the Thai equivalent.

4 hours ago, nchuckle said:

But why do they still believe they’re special when mainly doing menial jobs and can plainly see there are plenty of others (especially farang) including women who are obviously more pecunious  and better educated? Are they totally delusional ? 

"Totally delusional" is not humanity's natural state. "Totally delusional" arises out of specific social contexts.

Is the system of education and public debate in Thailand built around logic, debate, facts, evidence, and reasoning? Does it encourage anyone here to develop accurate perception?

9 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

There are an extremely limited number of rich tourists who visit Thailand, for a dozen valid reasons. They continue to attract primarily low to middle income Indians, Malaysians, and Chinese. Fewer Europeans and Americans and very few with real money. Rich tourists have alot of options, without ignorant luxury and wine taxes, dumb laws, and scammers. 

 

Having said that, Thailand remains a relatively safe place to travel. 

Safer than Latin America, definitely! But, I'd say, not as safe as many people assume.

10 hours ago, Niteowl45 said:

Yeah, true, but stabbings are pretty rare here in Vancouver..... in thailand they're a daily occurrence, whether they involve foreigners or not.

I used to love Thailand but I kinda got sick of it lately. Too many issues. MIght go there on holiday again but not sure (also flights are a lot more expensive these days).

I still find their attempts to lure the richest foreigners pretty pathetic. I guess some idiots will go for it, but any millionaire with a brain should know that if you are loaded there are millions of better places than Thailand to spend your cash.

It's not an uplifting or inspiring place to live.

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

19 years ago I wrote the 'AI' SMS text-chat program called Natachata which the BBC stated was the best candidate for passing the Turing test. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3503465.stm

 

("The test was dreamed up by pioneering mathematician Alan Turing as a way to judge machine intelligence. It revolves around people and machines communicating via typed messages.

The machine would be judged intelligent if it could trick a human into thinking they were swapping text with another person. Turing thought that a machine could beat the Turing test by 2000.

TURING TEST

British scientist Alan Turing (1912-54) said if humans could be duped by computers into thinking they were talking to humans, the machines could be called 'intelligent'

He was wrong, but only by a few years.")

 

Well, my AI program was anything but 'intelligent', even though it fooled many people into believing that they were chatting with a real person.  A simple word/phrase manipulation program connected to a 100,000 word/phrase mySQL database.

 

Many people are raving about ChatGPT, but I haven't seen any detailed technical investigation of how this application actually works.  Anyone have links?

 

 

As women (generally) are better at reading human behaviour and interpreting complex verbal language, while men are (generally) better at analysing complex data, I wonder which group would perform better at first realising that their chat partner is a program and not a human. 

8 hours ago, kwilco said:

You are making baseless assumptions - Thailand has dreadful hospitals and care is dependant on ability to pay. Ine of the most serious factors in RTIs is that Thailand has no proper emergency services, no trained first responders and no uniform, centralised ambulance services.

Wow, interesting. I've seen ambulance training centres. I've seen signs on walls of hotels and massage places that show a phone number to call for an ambulance. When my area flooded there were vehicles delivering food and evacuating the elderly.

Were those only provincial / volunteer-based services?

Since 2021 there has been a Thai Facebook group, and matching Thai Twitter hashtag. The translation into English is " let's move country ". It's made up of Thais who are so growing so despondent about the situation in Thailand that they are trying to start a new life elsewhere. The Facebook group had 600,000 members within its first few days.

4 hours ago, Inepto Cracy said:

The only black I can see are the words to the song by Black Sabbath ~ War Pigs. Only sayin' ya all.

What happens on Waterkant Street ?

Sold everything and left Chiang Mai yesterday.

5 hours ago, connda said:

It was going to be a limited stay on a world-wide, post-early-retirement vacation, but my Thai wife made a cast, I bit, she set the hook, and tighten the star-drag - and here I am having just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. 
That wasn't my initial plan. 

Connda was conned-da! ????

On 3/31/2023 at 3:39 PM, itsari said:

Perhaps you could enlighten me on that one . Right now I am coughing continuously all day and night , filthy head ache and see no let up . What have I done to deserve this .

Location Chiang Mai

Only one solution to the Chiang Mai situation right now.

Chiang Mai International Airport.

13 hours ago, xylophone said:

On the subject of famous racehorses, I was living in Sussex (England) when Shergar was stolen and of course it was all over the newspapers and was the talk of the town so to speak.

 

The day before the horse was stolen I had met a new lady and decided to take her out into the countryside and have a nice meal at a country pub, trying to impress!! 

 

We ordered a steak each, along with all the accoutrements, and although the meal looked lovely, the steak was tough, and during the course of the dinner, the conversation led to where we thought Shergar was.....and I quipped, "I think we are eating him".

 

She wasn't impressed!
 

Great sense of humour and excellent date idea, better off without her ;-)

(Don't tell us she's your wife now!)