JamesPhuket10

There are simpletons everywhere in the world, and there are also very bright people in the world including Thailand, I never mentioned anything only relating to Thailand in my comments, but as usual people on sites like this frequently put two and two together and come up with five. I am not sure why you pointed out "dim women" to me, there are both dim men and women everywhere in the world as well as very bright ones. I just chose not to mix with the dim ones, if you do that is no problem to me. I mentioned the degree as it was very relevant to answering messages claiming I was dim, was I supposed to agree with them or give them proof why I am not? You said, "Btw...isn't Thailand rather too downmarket for you...." No, as I said there are lots of bright people everywhere in the world including Thailand, for example, I received an email inviting me to the Oxbridge annual dinner at the InterContinental Hotel in Bangkok in November, there are about three hundred and fifty members, most of them, of course, are Thai, unfortunately, I am going to the UK on 1st Of November for a month or two. You mentioned "...ply my trade", well I am living off my retirement investments but I keep my brain active by writing iPhone apps from my own house office in Phuket, I can be anywhere in the world to do that, and sitting around just talking/watching footie would be far too boring.

Oops, he must have been the vice prime minister then, I knew he was the "vice top bloke", it shows how much interest I had back in 1987, I had never been to Thailand before and was only here for a few weeks. I met my future wife while she was at university in London three years before the marriage. A wealthy family. I didn't invite him as he did not know me from Adam, the family did though. We had a picture in the Bangkok Post Society pages, it was him, me, and my wife during the speeches at the Dusit Thani Hotel after the wedding. The reception staff at the hotel showed it to us as we were checking into the hotel in Phuket during the honeymoon, and we were surprised. We were only in the photo because of him. I am going back to the UK at the end of the month for a month or two, if I can dig it up I will post a picture of it on this blog. I wonder why some people think others are lying just because their life has been what it is, a bit ordinary, that is what I laugh at. 🤣 I will tell you another fact just to make your life feel better than it is and say mine is a lie: When I worked in a software engineering contract in Berlin around 1998, once a month I used to fly to Phuket for a long weekend, this went on for nine months, I was younger then and could handle it. I would leave Berlin on a Thursday evening and fly back on Monday. Here is another chance for you to say I am lying. 😁

Fxxx Knows, it was 37 years ago, I was not interested in the boring visit but it was part of the wedding protocol so I went along, I would rather have been at the pub having a few beers with my future brothers-in-law. And he was the vice president, I did not say he was the president. 🙄 If you are going to try and mock someone do it without making yourself look like a fool by quoting incorrect information.

I am writing to you in English, not American. Have you not noticed the word "Toilet" in the UK and most other places around the world when using English including Thailand, have a look next time you are in Lotus, they contain toilet bowls which you sit on and basins to wash your hands as well as other facilities. I do laugh at the Amecian use of Bathroom though when they refer to a toiled and the other ridiculous name is the restroom. I need a nap, oh go to the restroom and lay in the bath. 😄

Especially when they then get on their 20-year-old Honda Dream 120CC bike and ride off home. 😄 Who would want to live in upcountry Isaan surrounded by thousands of ex-bar girls?

I clearly stated the two houses I mentioned were examples, also I did not say any one of the houses individually was worth millions, the combination of all the houses was worth that, read it again. Your replies are like Brothers Dim as you skip over the details of what I wrote and come up with some imaginary story. I hope your job in the insurance company was not related to the risk, the actuarial component as the company would have gone bankrupt.

It means the equivalent of the toilet, the literal translation is " water room', which is also very similar to the earlier English name for toilet which was, "water closet". (English, not American English) Hence "toilet" is the English term for "Hong Nam" and vice versa.

The Tsunami was 20 years ago, and "some years later" was probably over a decade ago, a lot has changed, eg 95% of girlie bars are gone, replaced by restaurants and hotels, etc. "Housing estate", nice quality houses, and security guards so all is safe when I am out of the country, only residents are allowed in and out unless accompanied. I just looked out of the window, no Indians, Russians, or Muslims hanging about, the nearest tourist is probably ten miles away. The few Russians I have come across while in Makro, restaurants, etc all seem quality people to me, seeing as it is Phuket they are the richer type, the riff-raff go to Pattaya I assume. And I think most of the girls from the North East of Thailand who made up 99% of bar girls workers have returned home as no work for them here anymore, good riddance to that type of low life. But let's not waste time arguing over which area is best, you like the North East, I like Phuket and that is that. 👍

I salute your German guy, I wish I could run over and kill kids for less than 20k baht, it must be a great area to live in.😄 Phuket has 1/3 the area of Greater London, but what some farangs do is come here for a week or two and spend all of their time in the very small girly bar areas in Patong, they do not see the rest of the island so have a false view of the place. There are dozens of restaurants/bars in the area I live in but are mostly frequented by Thais, definitely no girly bars, etc here. But at the same time, it is very quiet in the housing estate I live in as there is no through traffic, and the access in and out is controlled. I can't imagine living anywhere else in Thailand, I do visit a small village now and then near Surat Thani but two days is enough, there are only so many trees I can look at, it even has a beach but still so boring. I do see the effect though of living in the middle of nowhere in some tiny village as I read the very many anti-Thailand comments from such guys on sites such as this one, many of them are stuck in Isaan for example with absolutely nothing going on around them, they must be bored witless after being there a year or two. P.S. I ran over and killed a cat while I was driving my car a few days ago, but that was for free.

No, it was a few years ago, they had set up a roadblock here in Phuket. They had caught about fifteen people, half of them were Thai and half farang. It was my fault as I did not know the drink limit was much less for people driving on farang licenses, I had two small bottles of beer and was over the limit. So after standing around for ten minutes I spotted who was in charge and asked if I could 'pay now', I offered 10k but they wanted 20k. One of the officers drove me and my car to the ATM, I gave him 20k baht, and he drove to a police station and got out, I said what now and he told me I could drive home. The roadblock was only a mins drive to my house. So now even with my Thai driving licence I do not drive at all even after one beer. I bumped into one of the other people a week later who had also been arrested at the same roadblock as me, he told me he had to spend one night in the monkey-house, go to court the next day, and pay a fine of 30k baht.

Your wife pocketed all of the money from her salary, which to me is seriously dim. A profit margin of 10% in a good quality restaurant is another seriously dim comment. (Especially as most of the takings were cash). "...being tied to a 60 year old aging woman because of finances would be my idea of a living nightmare.", where did I say I am tied, try and read the details, try and read more slowly, I wrote "Ex-Wife", we split the money years ago. I started buying houses in 1985 when they cost next to nothing, eg the first house when I was in my 20's cost £42k, with a deposit of 10%, another example was another one bought in 1994, paid £175k (mortgage), sold it two years ago for £750k, those are just two examples. In those days all you had to do was fill out a self-assessment mortgage form and you had the mortgage offer within two weeks. You really should read what people have written instead of ranting on like a madman, I said "....they are now worth millions of pounds", I did not say I bought houses costing millions as they cost bugger all when I bought them decades ago. I know all of these things seem impossible to people who have been employees all of their lives, but they are not. It must be a tiddly little house if it is only worth 500k now in a place like St Albans (I went there lots of times as a friend lived there), it looks like you missed the boat a long time ago. "....tons of guys on here send their kids to private school.", yes true, but there is no way you can compare private schools in Thailand to private schools in England, the rich Thais here send their kids to school in the UK. I don't understand your angry reaction to my comments, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder about something. If I were to show off and lie about things I would lie and say I have hundreds of millions, not just millions, you won't believe this but my brother does have that amount in properties, he has been building nursing homes for years and a management team has been running them for him.

Yep, I think the law is subtitled, "20k baht in the back pocket."

Live in full-time servants.

No, I was working in the USA on two occasions, not I only saw two American women. 😄 The first stay was in Arlington Texas, they just "loved" my accent I was told on many occasions by the local beauties. Short contract, only four months. I had a bit of a "go" with an ex-Dallas Cowboy cheerleader for a few months. The second time was in New Jersey for one year, I met loads in the Morris Town hotel I stayed at which on weekends was also a nightclub which I visited every week. Being young, slim, English accent worked a treat with the ladies. But I always did a 'runner' before they became too bossy, and a great time was had.

I only ever smoke when I drink a couple of times a month so I wouldn't know the difference between the two brands being that I am drunk when I smoke. 😄

Erm, no!

Oh no, not another one please, no it is not standard for Thai women to be the dominant partner, that job is left up to American women as I saw on the two occasions I worked in the USA. My Thai partner cooks both Thai and Farang food at home and she and I decide ourselves what we each want to eat. Have you not noticed a large number of Western restaurants all around Thailand, they are frequented by Thais mostly as they are well outside of the tourist areas.

You are right to a certain extent, the funny thing is according to the majority of Thais we all come from the same country, which is "farangLand", it does not matter if we are Russian, English, American, etc we are all farangs, we all have the same culture, I find it funny so don't take it as I am complaining. Also, the article is a little bit simplistic, there are lots of overlapping cultures in Thailand, the Thais in the south see themselves as completely different culturally to say the people from Isaan and vice versa, they even have completely different dialects and languages and would not understand each other if they were speaking in their local dialects to each other. I laughed once as I knew an Australian in Phuket for a few years and he went to Thai language school a few times a week, after a year he said he had learned a lot of standard Thai but it was not much use with his wife and her friends as they all spoke Laos (Isaan) to each other. Well-off Educated Thais do not mix with the less educated ones unless they are "conchies" (spelling?) working for them, even then, they eat at different tables as is the case when they are on a car trip with a Thai full time driver and they stop to eat. I have seen that firsthand on many occasions. In the late 1980's I was sitting in a very large house in Bangkok, it was owned by the ex-vice-president of Thailand, we were there to invite him to our upcoming marriage ceremony in Bangkok, a "conchie", came into the room with a tray of refreshments for us but saw we were sitting down so she got on her knees, walked on her knees across the large room and presented us with the drinks, I was shocked but the ex-president took it as being normal. Do Thais become very British for example when they live in the UK for decades, do they fit in and learn how to talk straight, become orderly and logical, do they heck like, they take what suits them just as the rest of us do, I have also seen this first-hand many times. So as long as we accept we will never be seen as or be accepted as a Thai, have to continue to get annual visa extensions, and 90-day reporting then all is fine but I do not intend to sit and look through rose-tinted glasses thinking I have been accepted as a local, that will never happen. But as I said I have accepted this as a fact, nowhere in the world is perfect, 99% of life here is great. Leave your wealth, and money in your home country as it is almost guaranteed we will have to go back there when very old, don't do as many do and burn the bridges to the only country which will look after them to some level when that old age point arrives.

Marlboro Gold at 7/11, 150 baht, genuine. You more than likely bought fake B&H made in Cambodia etc.

Where to find rolling tobacco? Try on the side of a hill.

The real danger is the idiots who voted for Labour. I will be laughing my head off on the 31st of October when Labour tells us how they are going to rob the twits who voted for them.

Yep, that is what the media and news are telling us to get our attention so we read their nonsense and so they make money on advertising, etc. Unless you are less than one year old you have nothing to worry about in your lifetime regarding the so-called AI, most people don't even know what it means, they just follow what people are saying blindly.

"Is there anything else in the world that can accomplish this miracle? " Viagra might help the old buggers get a head start (pun intended). 🤣

I agree especially if the topic is boring football, Coronation Street, or East Enders for example. I wouldn't have a clue. Seeing as you introduced knowledge of certain subjects, I am amazed at the number of people who go on about AI as though it exists, it might exist maybe 100 years from now. The simple solution is to ask ChatGPT if it has AI, it will tell you no, but it will tell you it has a set of complex algorithms, machine learning capabilities, and fast links to all sorts of data it can cross-reference in superfast time, much better than Google as a stand-alone system for example. But it is a fantastic tool as instead of traipsing through thousands of lines of reference manuals when I write system code for iPhone apps it can point me directly to the correct area to look at. But we do have to keep an eye on the results it produces as many times it has got it wrong, eg I asked it to refactor about 300 lines of my code, it was a test to see how good it was, and it got it completely wrong and missed out half of the existing code. Plus if we update it with some new information it says it can not use that info, hence another reason it shows it has no AI, it has to rely on database updates now and then.

From what I have seen a lot of old farangs in Thailand do not have a choice in the matter, they don't have the money to buy property. 😄 But renting a bedtime partner, no thanks, I have seen who the 'rentable women' have already been with. But why pay for a partner when we can get one for free? I remember a farang once telling me all Thai women are for sale. I made him a bet, I said go into that bank over there, hand over a note saying you wish to hire the female cashier for ten thousand baht for the night so as not to embarrass her in front of her colleagues. If you manage it I will give you the ten thousand, but if you fail you give me ten thousand. I have never been taken up on such a bet. Right, that is it, no more comments from me for this evening, I have skived long enough on this site, and now back to "work".