mikalmus

your wife is right - he is undemocratically PM! he got in by democratically elected 'leaders' changing sides - ok for temp thing UNTIL elections but current govt. are not saying they will hold new elections - Thai people are up in arms - and so they should be - let a new election happen and everything is difused... NO ONE has voted him PM! you don't get it???

Not taking sides but this is the system that works in most Western democracies. Nobody but the MPs elect the prime minister. I vote for my MP who then in turn elects a Prime Minister. There is no system for the people to elect a prime minister like the Americans do with a President.

In the UK, Gordon Brown is the PM. No one has voted him PM just like Abhisit because its impossible for them to do so.

I would assume almost any magazine/newspaper shop will sell adult magazines but you will have to ask because they are illegal, so probably not on display.

I'm going back to Thailand in June for a month and have decided to explore Isan with a few days either end in Bangkok but not sure where to begin. Obviously tourism is less developed than the other regions but I only travel by government bus and eat in Thai restaurants anyway, so the most important thing is guesthouses and attraction.

I am on what is probably considered a tight budget and would like to visit 4 or 5 places for 3 or 4 nights each.

Do you have any suggestions as to which towns/places are really worth a visit or just any regular advice would be really appreciated.

My gf is thinking of buying some land from her Mother's sister but says that she is unable to sell it by law...

???

If it can't be sold then how can it be bought?

Fair point. She pays her Aunt for the land but doesn't become the legal owner of the land.

My gf is thinking of buying some land from her Mother's sister but says that she is unable to sell it by law so the deal will have to be handshake only. She says she will inform the village head but she has fears that once the Aunt dies her children may come and try and claim the land as theirs. I have no actual involvement in this whatsoever but she has saved up nearly a year to buy this for both of us (she is the breadwinner) and I don't want to see her getting screwed.

Does anyone knoe about this law? I assumed it was brought in when the government was assigning land ownership to areas with no official records. The government 'gave' the land to the farmers but restricted their ability to sell. Is this true? She says other people have done it like this but I'm still nervous for her and was hoping someone here ould shed some light on the subject.

The land is in Surin if that helps.

Thanks

Last week I started a thread about receiving the same message from Thailand multiple times, well its turned 180' now and I don't receive any.

I'm on O2 here and my gf is using DTAC Happy and whilst she gets my messages ok I'm not getting any of hers. This has never been a problem before and seems to have started on Sunday.

Its so frustrating. First 5 of the same message now none.

Anybody any advice?

i have been nearly everywhere in thailand and i am always happy to get back to samui. i don't know why exactly but it has that island feel to it and feels like u have mroe freedome here. prices are expensive but that is the cost of living on an island. like gurnsey island off england, monico, examples all islands all more expensive than the mainland

Do you mean Monaco? You do know that's not an island?

Which Service Provider is you TGF using?

I don't get multiple copies of messages but delayed a lot and using AIS.

Cheers.

DTAC Happy. Sensei, I take it the people sending you the message weren't charged 20 times?

I'm in the UK and when my tgf sends messages to my phone I almost always receive them more than once. Just yesterday I got a message from her and then while I was reading it 2 more exactly the same came. 8 hours later I got a 4th.

Does anybody know why this is happening and whether she will be getting charged for it? Its difficult to track costs on Happy because they are slow updating your credit so you don't know whether something has been taken into account yet.

Thanks everyone. it appears the problem is that the message is being sent twice and being charged twice. Anybody experienced a problem like that?

I've heard that sending an sms from Thailand to the UK has increased to 9 baht using dtac prepaid service.

Didn't it used to be so much cheaper?

Is there anyway to do this cheaper because I only pay 10p on my o2 prepaid service, so it seems a bit expensive?

When I was buying my ticket to return to the UK from Bangkok thsi year I asked my friend in England to do the research then come back to me with the best price. He was able to find £318 Qatar but suggested I pay for it so that I have the card when checking in. When I came to purchase the ticket it was 15,000 baht, much cheaper than the £318 quoted in the UK. Is this the usual case and is there any way I can use this to my advantage when purchasing a ticket here in the UK to Thailand?

Thanks for the help

Mike

So you have or had a TGF from across the world ? Was it a 2 week holiday followed by months apart ? Was she a working girl ?

Sorry but I never fail to be amazed by people who think they have a girlfriend when all they really had was a holiday romance or a paid for hooker.

If it was more, how did you think it was going to work what with you being on the other side of the world ? How often did you anticipate being able to see her each year ? How realistic were you being ?

Get over it, go get drunk and wake up in the bed of another one.

We lived together for 6 months. She works as a waitress. I came back for 5 months so and anticipated staying in thailand for the next 8. I read private dancer while I was over there. Good book. I don't see why that should have any higher chance of the relationship failing this way than most of the others I read on this forum, or how it makes me a fool.

I never thought I would make one of these threads but right now I really need the support. I've just finished with my tha gf over the phone 10,000km away. I found out after being home 5 months and only a week before I was set to return she had be sleeping around and even emailing her ex bf about how she loved him. I don't believe her letters to him were anymore real than those to me. I think she truely believed in her head that she wasn't doing any wrong. Right now I'm really trying to keep my chin up and look forward to what would otherwise be a once in a lifetime trip. I know for certain the 1st thing I'll do is head over to kpg and see her depite her calls for me to never see her again. I am angry for that she has done to me but I'm more angry that she has been so supid. If she was just in it to find a husband to take care of her and her family she was going about it all wrong (I never gave her any money), if she was playing the very long con why would she mess it up by sleeping around. When she talked to me I don't feel she even recognised she was in the wrong. I feel like she is wasting her life moving from one bf to the next then always screwing him over without having anything to show for it in the end.

The worst of it is all my friends over there are her friends much more than they are mine and I really fear I'm just going to be lonely. Basically, I just want to hear from someone that I will have a great time and meet loads of new friends and hopefully a good girl to look after me and not spend what should be the best time of my life wallowing in some dingy bungalow. I think I definately need to learn how to ride a motorbike to get around or else I'll be in the same place all the time (are they easy to lear?, she always drove me around before).

Stupid ######ing thread I know and the biggest cliche possible (except the money and thai bf) but I needed to do it.

To be honest when I see a man with a Thai wife in the UK I automatically assume he is a loser. The fact that he is 20 years older than his much more attractive girlfriend makes me think money is involved, whether directly or indirectly. But, if he said to me, 'she obviously is only with me for my money, but she makes me happy', then I would have a lot more respect for him, but some of these guys think its true love and thats what makes him a loser, but then I see it in Thailand as well. If I saw a couple who were of a similar age and attractiveness then I would be less likely to assume he was a loser. (edit- but the same goes for any situation like that I suppose, its just easier to spot with a thai girlfriend).

As for me, I'm not necessarily proud to have a Thai gf, I'm proud of her and love her, but pride seems incorrect. I don't see why I would be proud for having a Thai gf in particular, I'm a 20 year old male, its hardly an achievement to have a girlfriend from any nationality.

The dollar is so just so weak now its incredible imagine what it would be like if the baht was as strong as the dollar is weak, that would be a double whammy.

Well I got my passsport in the post today (there and back within 48 hours!) and they have given me a non immigrant o visa instead which seems better than the 4x tourist visa.

A Thai friend of mine has asked me to teach them english. Her English is good enough for conversation and she is quick to learn but it is still very obviously Thai English with the lack of tenses etc. She can write English but her punctuation is seemingly random.

I told her I would be a useless teacher and it would just be frustrating for both of us but I promised to look into alternatives.

She has a 12 hour job 7 days a week so school isn't really possible even if she had the money. I was thinking more along the line of textbooks, cds etc that she could buy in Bangkok.

Plenty of people here must have been in the same position and was hoping for some recommendations.

Thanks

I sent my passport off special delivery yesterday and the Royal Thai Consulate in Hull will have received it today. I asked for 4x2 month tourist visas. The price has recently gone up from £25 to £28 so I asked them to withdraw £112 from my bank account blah blah blah.

Anyway, I checked my account today and the balance is only £100 down. Its too early to say who charged it but considering that was the only genuine possibilty I asssume it was the consul.

Has anybody had any experience since the price change and are they charging this new price yet? If not what else could they have done?

Not really that important but a mystery to me.

A lot of the talk has been about how the baht has strengthened so much against the dollar making exports less competitive but as shown above the US accounts for only 15%.

It is a case of the dollar weakening against every currency. 10 year high? I think the pound is at a 26 year high against the dollar.

My girlfriend phoned me this morning to tell me a Thai man had been shot dead at Had Rin beach last night. Have you seen or heard anything about this. If true, it just confirms that place is turning into a mafia run shit hole.

Seems a little harsh without knowing any facts.

If it's not true what does that confirm?

It confirms my girlfriend is lying to me to keep me away 555 .

My girlfriend phoned me this morning to tell me a Thai man had been shot dead at Had Rin beach last night. Have you seen or heard anything about this. If true, it just confirms that place is turning into a mafia run shit hole.

There is a bus to the ferry & then boat to KPG.

Do you know whether this service will still be running if my plane arrives at 3pm?

I posted this in the travel forum but never got a full answer. I'm thinking of booking a flight using airasia to Surat Thani instead of Samui in order to get from Bangkok to Koh Phangan. Is there an easy link from the airport to Thongsala?

Just found a great deal for one-2-go. 1598 baht for 2 adults and it leaves from Don Mueang. It gets there at 14.45pm. Everything about this ticket seems better but I worry about getting from the airport to Thongsala. Any information would be a great help.

Thanks scouse. I'm only researching on the possibilty we might want to come to the UK to visit my family and its giving me a headache. I'm just so scared of getting a refusal based on my incompetance or lack of understanding.