MangoKorat

OP, what model of bike is it? There are vast differences in the levels of security. If we are talking about a basic Wave, Scoopy or the like, your local bike shop should easliy be able to help you - usually just a matter of changing the ignition switch. Older models sometimes have the key number on the lock - believe it or not. If you're talking about a more sophisticated model/newer big bike its more of a problem - some switches cannot be ordered alone. Some 'chipped keys' have to be ordered along with a new ECU and a complete lockset. Some new switches though, can be coded to match the ECU - with the right equipment (rare). Contact your local bike shop or bike thief.

Maybe not if you live in an area like Bangkok or Pattaya - out in the sticks its different. I wouldn't even be able to pay for my bins emptying if I couldn't speak any Thai.

Its always puzzled me why doctors only refer to air quality outside. As if the air that comes inside magically cleans itself on the way in.

Strange as it may seem, some of us actually like to do things ourselves. Its precisely because I can speak a little Thai that I can get these things done in the first place

Correct, you did not. However, the whole tone of your post is derogatory.

No mate - 'at the end of the day', you couldn't live without those 'uneducated people' because those 'uneducated people' make the food you eat. Just one of those 'uneducated people' is worth ten like you.

Take no notice of him Mr Kickstart. He clearly doesn't realise that he doesn't actually appear smart as he thinks, to me he's just another would be smartass who thinks he's better than everyone else. He's just trying to wind you up - rise above it.

Nope.

Much easier to speak Thai and I'm yet to come across a translation service that doesn't translate at least part of a sentence into gobbldygook.

You think so? I recommend you try registering a vehicle in your name and getting new plates for it at Korat Land Transport office or dealing with matters relatinng to your home at the local Amphur. Then come back and say speaking Thai is useless.

I'd say I'm above basic and can speak enough to get most things in life done. However, many of those who think they can speak Thai, fall down when it comes to conversation - I'm one of them If you are not married or don't have a Thai partner, I think its essential. Lazily, I relied on my wife to get things done when I was married and I realised just what a handicap not being able to speak Thai was when I divorced. I'm improving and will continue to do so but I think converstaional Thai is going to take some time. On the subject of converastional Thai, I learned one thing recently - we worry too much about using the correct tone. If you listen to Thai's in conversation with each other you will soon realise that they rely on the context of what's being said far more than the correct tone. I'm told I will learn to speak Thai much faster if I also learn to read and write Thai. Judging by the intricacy of some Thai characters, that seems hard to believe but the guy who told me that is fluent in both speech, and written Thai. Thai friends say if they didn't know he was foreign, they would think he was Thai so I guess its better to try his advice.

If you have the time to spare, I am sure that there will be prisoners that would love a listening ear. The embassy of your home country may be able to help you find out about who needs/wants a visit and how to go about that.

If you think everyone in jail in Thailand is there because they deserve to be, you're the one living in the wrong country. I hope you never fall foul of Thai law or have drugs planted in your pocket etc.

Tried both recipes - both awful now. I don't think the taste is any different, just smaller beans.

Did you notice a change in the taste of Ayam brand beans about a year ago? They were acceptable before but I can't eat them now, they're awful. Luckily I travel home often enough (at the moment) to be able to get a regular supply of decent beans which in fact are from Aldi and 42p. I never thought I'd say this but they are as good as Heinz.

There is a difference between bias and the truth. I'm pretty sure I have stated many times that I support neither side. One cannot though, ignore the truth and the truth is that thousands of people are dying and dying without reason. To be against that is not bias. If you think Israel is actually achieving anything at all in the long term through its current actions, you are very naive.

Agreed on all counts. I think most people in the Western World are guilty of ignoring the plight of the people of Gaza until the current conflict started. I, for example, had no idea of the situation; that Gazans were under blockade or that the population has relied on aid for years to simply survive. There is no excuse for that but for me I guess the reason is that I've been hearing about trouble in the 'Middle East' and seeing Arafat on the TV since I was a kid - after so many years, it tends to just go over your head. I remember many years ago, making a stupid comment that we should just drop a bomb on the whole Middle East and be done with it. Many criticise the actions that various Islamic terror groups have performed over the years..........we can all probably remember news reports of bombings, kidnappings and hijacks on TV since forever. I wonder just how many of us though, ever looked at the reasons behind such acts of terror. I would stress that I am in no way condoning such actions but to borrow the words of Antonio Guterres, they didn't happen in a vaccum. The very same reasons provide the backdrop to what brought about the Hamas attack on 7th October 2023. However, to lean towards the explanations of either side in this confict would be to over simplify matters and to accept the impossible. The impossible is that neither side is ever going to achieve its entire wishes without the complete destruction of the other. The matter will never be settled without compromise. Even with compromise though, I fear there will never be peace. There is nothing in this Universe that prevents 2 countries being formed out of the existing lands in dispute and the occupants of both living in peace. However, there will always be those, perhaps not currently dwelling in the immediate area, that will not accept any deal and seek to cause trouble. Israel, through its current actions is creating further hatred amongst hundreds of thousands of people, people who are unlikely to ever forget what is happening to them now. They are also fueling the constant hatred of the entire Western World advocated by Radical Islamist regimes across the region. The Islamic world seems to be in turmoil as it fights to reject the 'infidels' and even amongst its own people in order to try to retain its archaic way of life. In Iran, a country widely held as the backers of many Middle Eastern terror groups including Hamas, people are rejecting the hardline policies of the Islamic regime. Wherever one looks in the Islamic world, be it Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa or indeed Thailand, there is tension against 'non believers', and modernisers both internal and external. Such thought may seem to over complicate the current situation in Gaza and short term, that is probably correct. Long term however, the tension between hardline Islamic regimes and the rest of the world will ensure that the problems continue. I hope that a total settlement of the entire Israel/Palestinian conflict comes out of the current situation. So many people have died that to simply return to how things were and hope that the sentiments of Hamas have been crushed would be extremely naive. That is though, only hope. In my opinion, no lasting full or partial settlement will ever work if it is left to Israel. Any settlement will have to be imposed on both sides and must include Israel handing back land that it has stolen. It may seem Utopian and I suppose it is, in concept but I think that a 2 state solution misses one important matter - Jerusalem. Both sides lay claims, both religious and material over that city. The only way that will ever be solved is to actually create 3 territories - 1. Israel, 2. Palestine and 3. Jerusalem, a separate 'City State' shared and administered between the two. Reality - Israel will purge Hamas from Gaza, the rest of the world will pay for the rebuilding of it and return to compaining about but allowing Israel's continued land grabbing etc. in Palestine. Things will be relatively quiet for a few years as Gazan's recover from their own 'holocaust' and then return to acts of terror. Nobody is going to accept living the way the Palestinians have had to and Israel will not ignore terrorism................................and so we go on and on, ad infinitum. Why? Because the International Community is not willing to accept that what it created in 1948 was wrong and just doesn't work. Fixing that means going back to the drawing board and imposing a settlement on both sides - forcefully if necessary. One simply has to explore the amount of financial and therefore political power held by Jewish people around the world to understand that such an impostion will never happen. That power is something I haven't seen discussed anywhere in relation to the current conflict but I believe it explains the current, otherwise bewildering reluctance of countries like the US and UK to condemn Israel's actions in Gaza outright and take action against them.

You leave Highway 1 just over an hour from Suvarnabhumi. If you're going to stop on Highway 1, with stops of that frequency its going to take an awful long time to get to Udon. OP, when are they planning to do this journey by the way? As of Thursday/Friday Highway 1 and Mitraphap (Highway 2) will pretty much be a car park due to the Songkran Exodus from Bangkok. I once made the mistake of arriving at the airport on New Year's Eve (much the same as Songkran traffic wise). My journey to Khao Yai took me 9.5 hours instead of the usual 2 to 2.5.

Then you are not a person that I wish to debate with any further but I'll answer your questions and leave you with one. Yes its a war but its not a war fought between two nations. In this war, the entire military of a well equiped country is raging its war against a terrorist group that lives amongst the civillian population. That population might have voted for Hamas as a government but they have never been recognised as a legitimate authority, they are considered as terrorists by most countries. Given that the Israelis (without any authority to do so) will not allow Palestinians, apart from a heavily vetted few to travel outside Gaza, even to other Palestinian areas, they could hardly leave could they? The entire area of the Gaza Strip has been 'blockaded' by Israel since 2007. Various other serious restrictions have been placed on the people of Gaza resulting in it been descibed as an 'open air prison'. What type of attitude do you think such actions will breed? Gaza doesn't contain enough land for its population to feed itself and has relied on huge international aid since the blockade. Look at Jerusalem - people being told when and where they can pray. Farmers booted off their land and it being given to Israeli 'settlers'. Houses bulldozed. Who is going to accept such treatment? Who stated that 14,000 Hamas terrorists have been killed? I believe you know all of this yet you don't seem or don't want to, understand why the current situation exists. So a question, one I doubt you will answer honestly. I don't know where you're from or what family you might have, not that it matters but I suspect you are an American and most of us have families. Let's say for example, that a terrorist, responsible for the deaths of many people was hiding in an apartment building and one of those apartments was occupied by your daughter. Would you consider it justifiable for the authorities of your country to destroy the entire building and everyone in it, including your daughter in order to kill one terrorist? As someone in another post said, the IDF have weapons that can pinpoint down to exact vehicles (as they did with the 7 aid workers) - how the hell can you justify them taking out entire apartment buildings to target one apartment? They have by the way, admitted using 1000lb bombs to do so.

The number is actually over 32,000 now. Figures provided by the Hamas run Gaza medical authorities but of course, Israel won't allow independent observers in to Gaza for some reason. I don't think either of us know how many of those were actually Hamas although the number will be considerable. To be quite honest, I don't give a toss if the figure is 3, 3000, 30,000 or 300,000. One innocent civillian is one too many in my book. What figure do you feel is acceptable? Who should that be? How many deaths amongst your family would you consider 'collateral'. I have not attempted to justify the horrific actions of Hamas - don't you dare to try and justify the actions of the Israeli's, you cannot!

Are you suggesting that Ukraine is to blame for the Russian invasion of its lands or that Russia didn't invade Crimea in 2014? Do you think that Israel hasn't ignored the lines drawn up by the UN or annexed additional land? Are you saying that there is no such thing as the 'Occupied Territory'? Which country do you believe the Golan Heights actually belong to? I don't think there's another country on Earth that's ignored so many UN resolutions regarding the extent of its lands. The International Court of Justice is currently hearing arguments on the legality of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. Just a few examples - interesting to hear your thoughts.

Couldn't agree more, its absolutely disgusting. I remember a few months back where they had flattened an entire apartment block to take out one apartment. No numbers were given but from the TV footage, I'd guess there were 30-50 apartments in that building. That's 'collateral damage'? It certainly is not and hopefully, the countries, including my own, that have been supporting Israel and ignoring such things by constantly stating that Israel has a right to defend itself, are finally realising Israel's 'reckless disregard' for Palestinian lives. Its shameful though, that its taken over 30,000 lost lives to bring about that realisation. Does nobody understand that figure? Thirty Thousand Lives! Let's not forget that there will also be at least ten times that number that have been maimed or seriously injured. How many kids have been orphaned? I make no excuse for again using the term 'reckless disregard', I heard it on a radio report from Gaza shortly after the 7 aid workers were killed, it fits with Israel's actions exactly. I don't have any problem at all with Israel prosecuting a war against Hamas, the attack on 7th October was horrendous but its been clear since early on in this conflict that they don't have the slightest care as to how they do that. Its fairly difficult to believe that Netanyahu cares for any lives at all - even Israeli. Remember that the Israeli hostages are hidden somewhere within the constanly bombed buildings of Gaza or the tunnels they've flooded. Clearly there will be an end to this conflict but has anyone given a thought to who will pay for the aftermath? Who will pay to repair the wasteland that was Gaza Israel has created? Who will foot the bill for those Palestinian victims who will need life long care and attention? Will Israel play a part in that? Somehow I doubt it.

Do immigration police make it up as the go along..... It all depends on how much 'assistance' you give them.

Can't beat those PTT stops with Nescafe at 15 baht.

They are either brave or stupid. That's a hell of a drive for a first timer in a country that has some of the craziest drivers on the planet. They'll certainly get a good introduction as to just how crazy things can be on that route. Please ask them to make a video going up the hill past the cement works, going towards Muak Lek on Highway 2 and post it here. Its really good fun when your hiking up that hill at 120 kph in lane 4 and an artic pulls all the way over from lane 1, straight into your path.