sandmike

A Great Wall of China ??

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Is this restructuring in the Roman sense ... in order to create the illusion of progress ??

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There seems to be one point that has not been mentioned here, except in passing, and the point is that Assad is an alawite muslim, which is basically shia muslim.

Iran is predominantly shia muslim. Hezbollah is backed by Iran, hence their involvement in the conflict.

All of the groups fighting Assad are sunni muslim. Saudi, Qatar and other countries who are funding the rebel groups are sunni Muslim.

Saudi hates Iran with passion, and regards shia muslims as not part of Islam.

The whole conflict in Syria is a battle between the sunni and shia sides of Islam.

Just my two fils worth ...

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I fly in at least 4 times per year, in economy, and land at swampy around 6:30 am .. I'm always through immigration before my bag comes off the carousel. But, I've never seen queues as long as in the photo above. Maybe I'm just lucky ...

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There's a very good post early on in the thread that explains U-Tapao's origins .. 12,000 ft runway for fully laden B-52's plus all the facilities.

I've flown into there and a 737 is dwarfed by the width of the runway.

Take a look on Google earth ..

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Many thanks for the reply UJ

A question to anybody out there .. in Lite Beers post above, the extract talks about the 65,000 baht per month income. Can this income be generated from inside Thailand ?? Say, by renting out apartments (obviously everything would have to be legal and above board) ..

Guidance would be appreciated.

OK .. I stand corrected. Thank you ..

Yes, I do not think being an expat has to be related to working in another country; simply living in another country is being an expatriate.

 

/snip/

 

I always worked for American firms or had my own company and we used to refer to any workers who were not part of either the foreign contractor country or the local client country a TCN--Third-Country National.  When I worked in Saudi and in Iran, my companies had some British contractors. They didn't like it when we referred to them as TCNs, but TCNs they were.

 

Why is it a point of contention when a word or term is plainly defined?

 

 

When I worked in ARAMCO in the early 1980's TCN had a very distinct meaning ...

USA was 'First (world) Country', the rest of the western world was 'Second (world) Country', and Asian countries were Third (world) Countries.

So TCN, meaning 'Third (world) Country National' was very distinct. Someone who was from Asia .. Filipinos, Indians, etc. was a TCN in ARAMCO jargon

I'm not suprised your Brit contractors took exception to being called TCN's ...

BTW, I'm a Brit, and having lived and worked in my little sandpit in the middle east for the last 30 years, I very definitely consider myself an Expat(riate).

Will someone let us know when it passes the raining season test? If you will do the testing please wear SCUBA gear.

Ah, but then it would not have been an "Elite" card ...

M6 in rush hour any night is a pain .. especially when its cold, dark, and pissing down. Glad I don't do that any more.

I'll take the 90 day reporting thank you .. and the visa cost. Whichever one I end up going for.

My corner of the sandpit is ok as a half way house, but it's not Thailand .. can't wait to get there full time ..

If this is going to come to fruition, then it's time to buy stock in storage manufacturers .. these images will need to be stored for some considerable time (120 days ??). Analytics will certainly help, but there will have to be new massive infrastructure, control rooms, trained monitoring staff, etc. You can bring regulations requiring cctv to be installed in allsorts of locations (remember the hoo ha about installing cctv in the bars ??), but who is watching all of this ?? This will take years to fully implement.

Probably not ... but I'm only using them on normal roads, in traffic.

It was just a thought ..

Have you looked for Michelin Primacy ?? They've got very good reviews in the US. .. I've just had them fitted to my 3.5 mitsu magna vrx in the sandpit and I'm very pleased.
Size used .. 215/60 R16

Dubai DXB can have huge queues and 90 minute waits at immigration too .. especially at the weekends .. and that's with all of the 30 or so immigration gates open ...

There are also a considerable number of Shia living in the eastern province of Saudi, between Kuwait and Qatar which Saudi wants to keep under control too ...

Rubbery .. fank you so much !!!

To be honest, the food in C&C in Jomtien is good, and in a nice setting ...

I like the comment made by the French policeman when her husband protested ... you are French first, and Muslim second ... her husband didn't like that ...

That has to be the worst use for a chrome pole *ever* ...

I fly a middle east airline and buy tickets online. Its clearly mentioned as you go through the purchase process that the credit card has to be available at checkin, or there is a validation process to follow for my wife to fly alone.

Having said that, neither one of us has ever been asked to show the card.

YMMV.

SM

Unfortunately, that's far too close to the truth !!

We don't pay for sex .... we are paying for condoms ...

With a free demonstration on how to use them ...