Galong

Welcome to Southern China... formerly known as Thailand

KOH KAEW: About 1,000 people from Koh Kaew blocked Thepkrasattri Rd for four hours this afternoon after a 17-year-old local youth died after being shot by a policeman on the bypass road early this morning.

The protest caused long tailbacks with some tourists forced to carry their luggage past the mob and continue their journey in another vehicle.

http://www.phuketgazette.com/news/index.asp?id=5625

Hmm, about half of the stories on this page (Gazette) are about shootings and mostly about teenager shootings. This is getting to be a bad problem. How on earth do these young people get guns? That should be a big issue.

But back to this story, giving in to demands by a mob... is that the best policy? Some of the points are reasonable, but it is saying that a mob can get their way... perhaps this has worked so often in the past that it's the thing to do. I remember reading an article in the Gazette about mobs and how often they happen.

Mobs are scary. I'm sure that the tourists who had to walk around that scene will be telling their stories 'back home'. What a scary thing that must have been for them.

A MOB in Thailand? No way man... everyone knows that things are jai yen yen here.

I don't live far from there, but I ain't about to go out and see what's up. I don't want to be caught up in a potentially violent situation. I'm sure the boyz in brown got it under control... god, I can't believe I said that... doh!

According to an article in The Nation, "A total of 4,214 road accidents took place nationwide during the week-long Songkran holidays, killing 361 people and injuring 4,805 others."

Isn't it cool to get drunk and be irresponsible... wow, I used to be a teenager too.

Doesn't sound like much fun to me. How would you feel if a drunk killed someone you loved?

no i will not, but i will give arrogant forigenrs that think we are a third world country full of natives rice pickers with a sole duty to provide easier lifes for forigners .it abou time that someone reminds all our guests that they are guests and shhould start beahving like ones. and the first thing we expect from guest is for them obide by the law.

Well, this is how you TREAT GUESTS in your country? This door swings both ways you know. Is this how you'd like a HOST to treat you if you were a 'guest' in their country?

Thais can come to my country (US) and get help from my government. Thais can be 100% owners of companies (StarKist Tuna, Bumble Bee Tuna for two examples) in my home country. My government doesn't make it a level playing field, they make it an easy field for Thais to prosper.

There is certainly enough money in Thailand to NOT make it a third world country, but the uneven distribution of this wealth coupled with a total lack of reliable law enforcement and blatant corruption sure do make it look like it's leaning towards the third world status.

You have been colonized from the inside by the Chinese. They are your enemy, not us. They may speak Thai, but they know that they can't compete with an educated Westerner on many counts, so they stir racism to get their way.

I pay a hel_l of a lot of taxes and it really erks me when I can't get a proper tax receipt (when I pay a bill) from a Thai company so I can claim it on my taxes... you know, like the Thai laws say.

Why don't these macho men use Muay Thai to beat up drunks? It would be more impressive than having a gang beating up one person.

Yep, theocracies always work best!

Unfortunately, I can't really think of any examples... doh!

Maybe they can start charging foreigners 400 Baht to visit temples

I would rather take my chances with the aircraft as a new yorker I would have never dreamed in a million years terrorist would fly two planes in to the WTC I live in Udon Thani I will stay home I don't need to get water thrown on me and also risk being in a place I should not be in keep in mind this is thailand if anything happens to you You are on your own no law suits or hospital bills being paid by the govt. if you should get injured and not killed I hope every falong stays home and those who were thinking about coming here cancels there trip

Dude, have you ever heard of a period? It's what you put at the end of a sentence instead of running on and on like you did here.

There should be a standing travelers' warning for NY City as it's more dangerous than anywhere in Thailand. Drive-by shootings, random acts of violence and heavily armed Christians... what could be more dangerous?

Why is the baht so strong in light of all the lack of confidence in the economy? I just can't get my head around it.

I think that a big slide in the baht's strength would perhaps help open the eyes of the powers-that-be. And, as I'm fat with US dollars at the moment, the sooner the better

I am not sure what bubble some people live in here. It's as violent as many other countries. Just many farang are ensconced in their moo barns away from it all. Get your girlfriends to translate the local rags to you.

Can you give us some examples of what's being said about foreigners or at least let us know which particular 'rags' are talking bad about us... please? I think that this would be very useful.

I'm interested in finding a vitamin shop other than GNC (too expensive) where I can buy selenium, glutamine and l-tryptophan. I can find the selenium, but I'm having problems finding the amino acids.

I've been to Super Cheap, Tesco - Lotus, Big C, Central, etc. I'm looking for a place that would either have these items or could order them.

Thanks!

On a related note I'd like to tell my story; I live in Udon Thani and I REALLY BELIEVE the anti-farang sentiment is much more concentrated in/around the tourist areas.

I collided with a Thai who was driving a motorcycle. I was in my Fortuner. A crowd of course quickly gathered; no one at the scene threatened me in any way. I did find out later that the kid's father (the guy on the motorcycle was 17) made the comment "if he tries to leave....." referring to me.

Anyway my insurance paid for everything. The kid's father made a complete ass of himself; demanding 1 million baht blah blah blah. I ended up paying 5K baht for "nam jai". The police were professional and fair. I was cited as was the kid; we both paid fines. The cops said we were both careless in our driving.

My point is: had this happened in a tourist area would the scene have played out the same?

I'm not a coward but believe Tornado has provided a service by posting this. I've just advised my wife NOT to stop for anyone (I won't either) and drive to the police station should something like this happen. And don't get out of the car until their are police around.

I'm 50 now but when I was younger would fight in a second. Only won one fight though; I whipped her ass when she slipped on a wet sidewalk.

Yes, even though I've had some very situations after an accident, I've also had this sort of thing happen. The point is NOT that these events aren't handled like adults, it's that you have to be prepared in case it goes the other way... which in touristy areas seems to be fairly common. A Thai runs into you, then wants to screw you up. Um, what would you do if attacked? Try to reason with someone who is coming at you with a knife or a bunch of his buddies?

Simply not getting out of the car won't work if they break the glass and drag you out now will it?

You did remind me of a fairly funny thing that my wife did. She came home in a bad mood one time and asked me for 500 Baht to pay the police. I asked her what it was for and she told me that a woman in a Benz ran a light and forced her to slam on the brakes. She yelled at the woman driving the Benz. The lady said something that my wife didn't appreciate and as she (my wife) was on a motorbike with her daughter and felt that this woman endangered both of them, decide to bitch-slap the woman. I gladly gave her the money and told her that if she can slap her again in the police station, I'd pay that too.

Things are changing here againts Foreigners. About four months ago a BMW didn't think I got out of the way fast enough and threw something at my car. I followed them to get their license so my wife could tell the police and they tried to run me off the road. We both stopped and then three thai guys came out, one with a machete and one with a scabbard and the other just jumping around. The fat guy kept yelling in thai, "do you know who I am?" I did not. Before the police showed up, I had smashed in the back window of the BMW, smashed in three dents with my fists and ended up chasing the guy with the machete around the the BMW while the fat guy was hiding in the machete. The guy with the scabbard had run down the road. The police showed up, we want all to the police station and the "do you know who I am guy" wanted money for his banged up car. The police said would I pay and I said yes if A. he went to jail or B. I got another whack at him. My wife's whole family showed up and the fat guy's bravado (limited somewhat, by now) went down even further. In the end, I paid nothing. Oh yes, I went Trailer Trash on him and ripped my shirt off while I was trying to chase them all down. I did get a nice cut on my wrist and hand from defelecting away a machete chop and smacking him down. There we a dozen thais watching seemingly cheering me on and giving me the thumbs up sign. They momentarily ran when I was in my blood rage and went at them but then tried to calm me down. The guy had money as it was a new BMW and the costs to fix it must have been pretty high but I think the police told them that what they did was assault and battery or something but my wife's family kept me out of the proceedings and kept saying to me that they "would take care of the 'do you know who I am' guy later on". I feel for you, buddy because what are you supposed to do when you are attacked? You were smart to flail away and get in the open for everybody to see you. As for the farangs who did not help, well, that is another story.

Absolutely the way to handle stuff like this! It's not like you're going to be able to reason with them.

Isn't it a shame that civilized men have to resort to school yard crap in order to either get justice or to protect themselves. This is one of the downsides of living in a third world country (third world mentality and third world police protection at least).

I say FIGHT BACK!!! They are counting on us backing down... FIGHT BACK!!!

Oh, and dude, loved the "I went Trailer Trash on him" bit... well done!

If found guilty, this needs to be front-page international news! A major loss of face for the police and the nation would be in order in my opinion. This is a much more important issue/event than that boring Anna Nicole Smith tripe. The police need to be exposed for who/what they truly are... that is, IF they did it.

Ban alcohol - it's obvious that Thais can't handle the stuff!!!

Quote

The Surayud government and the military leadership might have shot themselves in the foot by introducing a series of bad policies or by giving some stupid interviews. However, I don't think they have been able to influence the average Thai to become anti-foreigner like the International Herald Tribune tried to suggest. And I don't think they are deliberately drawing up policies to go after foreigners. They are just incompetent. And they have an agenda to go after the remnants of the Thaksin regime. That's all.

Ouch!

Interesting. Can you elaborate a bit?

I think it could be the case that they are testing the waters to see what they can get away with. They push a new policy that adversely affects foreigners, then if it backfires they pull back and rethink... hmmm, come to think of it, that's incompetence to some degree

Here is a link to water snakes,and you can find out what it is,also on this site there is other snakes found in Thailand.

http://www.siam-info.de/english/snakes_non-poisonous.html

Why would anyone go to all the trouble of making a snake web page and then give it the wrong title? No, these snakes are non-VENOMOUS, not non-poisonous.

"this is a harmless snake.The pupil is round.By all kinds of Viper(Poison snake)the pupil is lenghtways." Um, another dangerous myth... and it's VENOMOUS not poisonous

Something similar happen to me. This Thai guy came out of his car with what appeared to be some steel bar. I got back into my car and drove off...

Nothing much one can do against a crazed out Thai. AND in most cases bystanders will join the Thai in beating that farang so the farang will most certainly end up in hospital.

Yup, many Thais (not all) are racist cowards who will only fight if they have outrageous odds.

Yai Yen Yen... yet another myth about Thai culture/society.

Apparently, the father is not Australian but Austrian.

News.com.au:

AUSTRALIAN officials say a young boy brutally murdered in Thailand was Thai-Austrian, not Thai-Australian as media reports said.

Australian diplomatic officials alerted to the case said their investigations had shown the boy was not a dual Thai-Australian citizen.

The boy was murdered, and his mother severely injured in an attack on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui.

Police said the boy and his Thai mother were sitting at the rear of a house when they were attacked on Tuesday.

The boy's throat was slashed during the attack, and he was also stabbed several times. The woman also suffered wounds to her throat.

The mother is recovering in a Koh Samui hospital and has been able to give a description of her son's killer

.

... i think all people around the world this is unforgiveable and the thai police should pull out all the stops and catch this animal at all stops and if i hear hes been unfairly treated in custody i will feel slightly better .. to the father my thoughts are with you ........

Why associate animals with this horrible attrocity? This is what PEOPLE do to people. Animals aren't nearly as vicious.

Let's see if the international press does anything with this. It seems that a loss of face is the only way to shame some Thais into action...

Is it proper for embassies to get involved in things like this in the hopes of pressing the issue with the police to solve this outrageous crime?

I wonder how many Thais don't know the words to their national anthem? There sure seems to be a lot of Americans that don't know theirs. I watched The Tonight Show with Jay Leno recently and they stopped people in the streets and asked them to sing the national anthem... wow, what an eye-opener.

Another point: why do national anthems have to be based around violence and war and the conquest of land? I don't know many national anthem admittedly, but that seems to be a trend. Please enlighten me if there are non-violent national anthems out there.

Anyone going to Hat Thai Muang National Park in Phang Nga province and hoping to see the 'protected' turtles arriving to lay their eggs might be a tad disappointed. Apparently the National Park Officials there are letting people use the beach as an ATV and motorcycle race track !!

Praise..?

But then again the ATVs might run into the mist nets that the locals are using to trap wild birds. It is just a matter of time before all wildlife is gone in Thailand and when that happens (or before that happens) I'm outa here... praise my arse

Is this a joke or are they actually serious? For Christ's sake, there are endangered specied OPENLY for sale in Chatachuk Market (spelling?)!

The mai pben rai attitude is partly to blame in my opinion. It's an excuse to say that one shouldn't interfere with whatever someone else is doing.

I wish this article rang true and I can't figure out the motive behind it, but this is not something based on reality unfortunately.

Blame the "fast food" invasion from the west............

Children in still in primary education, under 12 years old, are now often overweight,

due to trendy BAD diets.

This is the path that leads to diabetes, heart attack and many other problems in later life.

I've noticed a change in children in my 15 years here. It's incredible how many very overweight children come out of the school next to my house.

BTW, white rice IS sugar. It has virtually no fiber too. But as we all know, white is good, dark is evil... geez, even to the point where it kills you.

Next thing you know, they'll be blaming us bread-eaters for the screwed up airport.

Nationalism is a very dangerous and could end up in more Thai on Westerner violence. I'm packing these days... got one of those stun guns and one of them extendable clubs. I'd carry a gun if it was legal. Luckily I don't drink so I don't run into many drunk Thais.

Um, does it have a color or is it clear?

What about the physical size?

"Several shrill calls" describes many birds. Can you give a better description? Is it a "hoop, hoop, hoop type call?

I hope they're wrong because I just love the Thai Shrimps!

Besides being loaded with dangerous drugs, antibiotics and other chemicals used to keep the shrimp alive long enough to sell to unsuspecting consumers, shrimp farming is one of the most destructive forms of farming out there. Shrimp farming is banned in almost all other countries because it is so bad for the environment.

Shrimp fishermen have an outrageously high amount of 'by catch'... meaning, for every shrimp they catch, they catch a lot of other species that are killed accidently.

Australia is wise to have strict controls on flora and fauna. There are likely many possibilities for very harmful life forms to enter Australia. They should beef up their controls even further... in my humble opinion.