Rionoir

"A chase ensued whereby Police fired at the pick-up a number of times"

Well I'm sure that was entirely necessary.. great job as usual Thai police.

In Udon the police are way too busy writing out tickets to people for not wearing plastic hats... I don't know when they'd ever find the time to write tickets that might actually help save a life.

Speaking of traffic in Udon, if you ever want a laugh... go sit by one of the big roundabouts here in the city. Guaranteed non-stop hilarity!

Both drivers are charged with reckless driving causing death? I guess they police thought they were drag racing?

Sad story. Always waiting for something like this when I see those pickups packed with young guys and gals.

Sad.

Foreigners are trying to make money off of Thai food and culture, we need a committee to form a mafia to stop this nonsense! Oh, and maybe we'll look into the DVD piracy thing if we have time... lol

I'm sorry but seriously... what in the world are they thinking they are going to do about foreigners making money off of thai food and culture? Wonder if that'll go both ways - no more Christmas music in the malls in December... get your own culture, buddy!

55555555

*facepalm*

"Police do nothing wrong by not taking action against mobile dens… which are difficult to keep track of,"

You know, because policing is about doing the easy stuff.

haha nice

LoL Some entrepreneurial police chief in Bangkok must've realized he could make a fortune in bribe money by expanding to Phuket. And he's probably right judging by the Mercedes and BMWs the taxi mafia are driving.

I was talking to a meter taxi driver coming from the airport last time I went to Phuket... he said he couldn't even come pick me up at my hotel to go back to the airport the next day. He told me he used to be able to, but the mafia got sick of him going to pick people up in their territory and showed some guns and said that was the last time he would be picking someone up.

Lord forbid the Thai police actually arrest someone for breaking the law... it's all about figuring out how they're going to profit from the crooks instead. *sigh*

I think you'll find gay and straight mixed pretty much everywhere in the smaller cities. Come on, learn give off some signals... it's not that hard.

You just pay I think USD 10 (or baht 500) at border for entry stamp and then shop or immediately turn around and return. You can not travel beyond the immediate area inside Burma.

Ahh... perfect. That'll be much better than using up a page of my passport everytime with that cambodia visa too. ha

You could just cross the border into Burma two times if all you need is 30 days - each border return would get you a 15 day permitted to stay stamp.

If you want to fly not sure of affordable direct flights from Chiang Mai but expect they would be to Malaysia.

I've done lots of land visa runs to cambodia and a couple to laos, but never to burma... I was confused reading their website if I could actually get into the country without some type of "pre-approval" or something? The only visa run company I can find in Chiang Mai seems to leave you to your own devices to get the visa formalities taken care of too, and usually the company that drives me takes care of that. =P

So as an American I can do this road trip to burma and should be no problem for the 15 days anyway? I'm gonna go get my ED visa when I plan ahead more than 2 days.

Ok I thought this would be really easy to find online but not so much I guess it's buried somewhere, so I'm sorry for posting it cuz I'm sure it's a repeat.Anyway, I'm in Chiang Mai.. just want to fly somewhere and back to get another 30 days. Where's the easiest place to do this? I'm an American citizen. I was going to do a visa run to Myanmar, but it looks like I need to pre-register for visa on arrival (visa on arrival?) or something, so I don't want to get stuck at the border cuz I've only got a few days left on my current stamp.Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Just because your friends enjoy it doesn't mean you will... and I think it's pretty clear that Babylon is not your thing. A 20 year old caucasian doesn't need to go to Babylon to meet plenty of guys either. I say skip it and just have a good time somewhere else where you will be more comfortable.

That's interesting, but I must say ALL my friends say คิดถึง with me exclusively. Take that for whatever u want... maybe there's a level of formality involved? My friends and I aren't very formal with each other.

I'm not much of an academic so I don't know what the 'proper' way to study a language is.

Seems to me this should be your tutors job? What does your tutor do exactly if they aren't making a program for you wherein you would be learning new vocabulary? งง

Anyway have you checked out Thai for Advanced Readers (Benjawan Poomsan Becker)? I really wouldn't call it advanced reading, but it does have a good amount of vocabulary in there, and it introduces the style of writing used in newspapers etc. in the later chapters.

Someone said you can also buy the books from the Chula course even if you aren't enrolled. By themselves those books are useless for learning Thai, but if you had a tutor I think it would be a decent tool. They cover some more advanced topics and have a diverse set of readings in there. (For someone that can read already I would recommend starting with their Basic 3 book... don't be deceived by the name, there is nothing basic about it lol)

Also... try to make some Thai friends that you can chat with online... and try to talk about whatever topic you are studying at that time with them. It really helps solidify what you are learning, and also helps u develop some new skills like typing quickly in Thai.

i met a girl named "Milk" last night. Milk.

Why not, there seems to be plenty of guys named Beer... LoL

Couldn't you say something like

พูดช้าหน่อยได้ไหมครับ ผมจะงงไปง่ายนะ [R]phom ja ngong bai [F]ngaay

?

ช่วยเปิดประดูให้ผมน้อย (or is it หน่อย? I always get these two mixed up!)

หน่อย ครับ

"see through clothing" ... that's a little misleading for the less technology-savy readers, don't you think. LoL This story is giving the impression that this machine can show a naked picture of anyone walking through it, which obviously isn't the case. It's just an xray. I don't know why that is so controversial other than the repeated radiation exposure for frequent fliers.

Here's another perspective for you, from one of my friends who speaks very little English and lives in อีสาน:

อยู่บนรถเมล์ = นั้งบนรถแล้ว (อาจ ยืน หรือ นั้งก็ได้)

นั่งรถเมล์ = นั้งนานแล้ว

ขึ้นรถเมล์ = กำลังจะขึ้น OR เพิ่งขึ้น

Most people I've asked ultimately say they are all the same though, and if asked specifically about ขึ้น will say yes you can use it to say you are on the bus... they say, it's Thai! Say it whichever way you want and people will understand you from context. LoL

The most popular INITIAL answer I have gotten, however, is อยู่บนรถ So take that for what it's worth... it wasn't exactly a large-scale poll.

I use it all the time, I rolls off the tongue easier than just saying Krub. You can also just end with "na" (instead of "na krub") with your close friends or children etc.

Krub Phom ครับผม is another formal way to say krub. Not sure how it compares to Na Krub though .. as far as I know though they are both just formal versions... anyone?

Except...Rionoir seems to have found that some Thais will use them as stative's....I never heard this before, but I'm not any kind of expert to argue...tho' before I use it myself, be nice if any native speaker's could confirm it (my wife, typically, just shrugs disinterestedly and says 'it doesn't really matter so long as I know where you are...' )

For what it's worth, I learned it that way in the course at Chula. Because of all the confusion I also asked about 7 Thai friends about it, and they all said it can be used that way. One of my friends who is a little more articulate with English said it is more confusing because it's ambiguous as to whether you are getting in or sitting on the bus, but that's very common in Thai to make the listener guess from context, isn't it. LoL

I had my first dream in Thai when I could barely say anything in Thai... I am pretty sure my dream was complete nonsense, and I was just pretending to speak and understand Thai. LoL