humqdpf

A task force of 70 working probably working OT for a week to catch this guy.

on the conservative side thats 70 man weeks or ~1.5 man years.

at $70K for the average cop on the task force and that comes out to $100K in salary spent

Add 30% for benefits and an additional 30% for OT work and the manpower expense becomes ~$170k

and thats before all the materials, equipment, petrol, vehicle usage, etc.

( sorry, I cant help it. I have program management in my soul)

Money well spent in my books!

What a nutcase!

Actually that is cheap and when you factor in that only the overtime will be an additional costs to the government budget - the real cost will be the tasks that those guys would have been doing had they been carrying out their normal duties (before they were seconded to the task force). By my reckoning that would be about $57,000 approx based on your estimates.

But unless the defendant pleads guilty to at least some of these killings (enough for him to never get parole), there will be a trial, which will cost millions. In that case, most of the cash will go into the pockets of the lawyers, then there is the cost of the court, jury expenses, costs of expert witnesses etc. I would have thought a couple of million dollars would do it.

In that light, the police task force would look cheap. However, many such task forces are either unsuccessful or run to many months or even longer. In those cases, new police officers would have to be hired to do the routine cop tasks, such as roping in the drug dealers and convenience store robbers. The moral of the story is that task forces to catch serial killers are cheap to set up but become expensive in the longer term.

Here is another excuse for overstaying - I tried to cross at the border into Laos but the army blocked it!

If you marry, you would only be responsible for the debts of your wife. If you keep up a relationship with your girlfriend after you marry, you will not be responsible for her debts at all.

A drunk naked man causes pandemonium?? In Phulket? Why?

A man waving a loaded gun, a declared outbreak of ebola virus - these could cause pandemonium.

Where I live in Africa, there are some mentally ill tramps who wander around without a strict sense of clothing. Everyone just ignores them and they invariably move on.

1,000 Baht?!!

You should have told him that you did not want to buy his vehicle!

Let me get this right; there is apparently some Western country where it is perfectly ok for a foreigner, who has no right to work, to take up employment without a work permit. Could someone tell me which country this is?

Many Western countries have a law whereby all hotel guests must be registered and their names and passport numbers or ID numbers passed to the police. If the owner of the hotel does not comply, he or she is charged and punished. Thailand has such a law. Why should the Thais not apply the law too?

The missing Russian tourist was apparently not registered and therefore her presence not reported to the police. Had the police known about her presence, the outcome might have been different.

We cannot complain that Thailand has laws that are very similar to those of Western countries. We also cannot complain when an expat is charged with breaking them when he has, prima facie, allegedly done so.

There is undoubtedly a completely separate complaint to be made, which is if the authorities carry out the law in the case of foreigners but not against some or all Thais. Best to point out the breaches of the application of the law rather than the cases where the law is properly applied.

Thailand is not the only country that tends to apply the law relentlessly to foreigners but less so to locals. I know of a number of cases in Western countries where this also occurred.

I have always adopted the rule that when I am in someone else's country, I strictly obey the rules - this has kept me out of trouble in the ten countries I have lived in so far.

They say that home is where the heart is - and that is true. But like any relationship, you have to work at it.

In my case, I have invested in the relationship with my home country. Although I have lived abroad for decades, I make a point about going home for a minimum of once a year for a few weeks. It is really worth it. I always keep up with friends and family when I visit and I keep in touch by Skype and email.

This keeps my identity stable so that I feel I am in touch with my roots.

Of course, it may be the case that you do not feel that way about your home country. Instead,you should consider adopting a country, a place where you feel comfortable and might wish to put down roots.

I don't intend to retire to my country when I cannot work any longer, mainly because the weather is so bad for most of the year. But when I do retire to somewhere sunny, I will always spend a few weeks back home and I know that my sunny retirement place will be a magnet for my relatives and friends from back home during those winter months.

I don't see the difficulty in tackling this problem. As far as I can see, there are two approaches, one stealthy and one to make a splash:

The stealthy one would be for the police to note quietly note the number of the car that the taxi driver gets into or out of - it should be possible to set up some surveillance, even if it is a cop hiding in the bushes. A mile down the road will be another cop car waiting for the offender. After a while the cops will know who the taxi driver is anyway and can simply radio ahead whenever he passes through the road block.

The splash would be to borrow a taxi on a busy drinking night and put an undercover cop in it. Once he leaves the car on the other side, the cops are there to arrest the drunk driver. They could put it on TV and make a splash - that would stop the practice.

It would be a good idea to go onto an expat phillopino site and ask the question or better still take a trip for a month or two and see for yourself !

The following was current when I left the Philippines several years ago:

Retirement resident permit was originally intended for those people born in the Philippines but who went to the USA and served with one of the USA's armed forces - they would retire as early as their mid 40s and want to come back but would have by then become American citizens.

As I understand it, the person wanting to avail of this permit will have to invest money in Philippines - I cannot remember how much but I think it was about $20,000 or less. The usual way is to purchase a bond which can be redeemed if you want to give up the resident permit.

The great thing about this resident permit is that it allows you almost all the usual rights of a Philippine citizen - you can work without limit. From memory, you can own property and run a business. I cannot remember the age limit but I think it was 40 or 45 - those interested should check this.

Although all of this sounds pretty good, you have to remember that the Philippines is a very bureaucratic country with lots of hidden costs if you want to run a business.

I have never understood booking an international Thai Airways ticket online as they only offer the highest price, the equivalent of rack rate. This is the same if you go to a Thai Airways office in one country and want to purchase a ticket for a journey beginning in another country. They are heartless about enforcing this, no matter what the reason for your journey (including when I was trying to get back to my home country for my mother's funeral!).

If you want a Thai Airways ticket online, go to the websites of any of international booking agencies - I find that ebookers is about the best.

Only in the unlikely event that you are a customs clearance agent in Thailand would customs communicate directly with you. They would only communicate with the customs clearance agent who would in turn communicate with you.

It can be the case that the customs clearance agent may be required to show your passport to customs just to ensure that it is not some scam on his part (especially if you are importing using tax waiver) but customs would never request it from you directly. Besides, you should never send your passport by post.

To reduce loose skin issues, aim for slower weight loss over a long period of time.

For those losing a lot of weight, the skin takes about two years to fully adjust, and in many cases will not ever fully adjust.

Then it is a matter of whether to consider surgery, and such surgery is not trivial.

Going on radically low calorie "crash diets" is known to be a recipe for failure. The body thinks you're starving and sets you up for almost certain failure and rebound.

As far as no carb or radically low carb diets, how many people seriously think that style of eating will be healthy and sustainable for life?

Up to date scientific work on weight loss among the obese advises low carbohydrate (and low sugar) diets. This is because of the ability of the human body to efficiently convert carbs to fat.

There has also been some discussion about the addictive quality of carbs or of certain carbs - the more carbs you eat, the more you want. This has not been scientifically established, however.

Until relatively recently, the view was that if you ate low fat diet, you could lose weight. Now it appears that low fat food versions contain higher levels of carbs and sugars and in fact contribute to putting on weight.

No one should try to eat a zero carbohydrate diet, at least not for any length of time, especially if they have certain medical conditions. But a diet with only a small amount of slow-release carbs is good. For instance, there would be nothing wrong with a diet with a small amount of unsweetened muesli in the morning and no other high carb food for the rest of the day.

If you think about carbs, humans evolved at a time when carbs would not have been as available as they became later. The hunter-gatherer would have eaten meat, fruit, greens, herbs etc but would not have had access to rice and other high-carb foods until the agricultural revolution (when people stopped wandering and began to till the soil for the production of food). Some researchers say that while tooth decay existed before the agricultural revolution, it became a real problem afterwards because of the prevalence of farmed carbs (which stick to the teeth and are broken down into their constituent sugars which in turn become acidic and cause tooth decay).

My take on this is quite different. I think that the truth of the matter is that what the radar picked up was not actually seen by anyone but instead was recorded (it was the middle of the night). It was not in Thai airspace and therefore did not trip any automatic alarms.

It was only when someone had to review the tapes that they found it and then had to pretend that they had seen it - face-saving, the usual motivation!

I suggest that you take a creative approach to this scenario, so that you girlfriend will not fall for such scammers/salesmen again.

One way would be to find one of these salespersons and get her (better if it a her) to teach your girlfriend the tricks of the trade so that she will know how to deal with them. If you cannot find such a person, perhaps get your girlfriend to take some assertiveness training or put her on a training course for selling so that she can see through the bullshit and manipulation.

While getting angry is a completely understandable response by you, it does not help the situation at all. Instead, finding a way for your girlfriend to avoid the "politeness trap" that is often used by these snake oil salesmen/women to get people to buy their rubbish for ripoff prices.

It always amazes me that Thailand chooses to devote a lot of time and effort in curtailing visa privileges for law-abiding foreigners who just want to stay in Thailand and yet we hear nothing about what they are going to do about the many criminal activities that go on in the Kingdom, such as the production of false passports by criminals, for instance

You may or may not be depressed (anxiety is often associated with depression). And who knows whether your high BP is a result of something else or your anxiety.

As with any medical problem, you need to get treatment. A doctor (General Practitioner) would at least be able to examine you and assess whether you ought to see a specialist to help deal with your anxiety.

There are many medications out there that can help with various conditions related to anxiety. You need to have a specialist find out exactly what is wrong with you first.

It is difficult to advise you as I am several times your age but here are a few suggestions and observations:

- consider learning how to ride a motorbike in your home country first - that will open your horizons a lot. However, it is not absolutely necessary to drive a motorbike in Thailand as there are other ways to get around

- read up on Thai culture and Buddhism - understanding Thai culture will help you a lot. Learn how to smile and not to raise your voice in anger

- try to learn some Thai in advance, at least the basic words and phrases

- many years ago I worked on a program in Chiang Mai - I lived in a room near the university and was able to drive in and out of town on a rented motorbike. That suited me because I was not acceptable to the Thai students as I was old enough to be their father; I worked at the university and socialized in the city.

- Get in with Thai people of your own age. Don't write off university students so quick. Many Thai university students have lived very sheltered lives and you will probably be ahead of them in many ways, especially the first year students.

- there will be some opportunities to volunteer for NGOs in Thailand but it depends on what you want to do. You need to research this and decide whether you wnat to be involved in eco projects, social ones or pro-poor programs. Your ability to speak English is great but you do not have a qualification.

- North of Chiang Mai are many hill tribes - tourists get to visit them in an organized tour but someone who lives there can spend more time exploring their culture.

- Sports and other spare-time activities are key to getting in with a crowd of like-minded people of your own age.

- make sure that you have permits and visas etc and be aware of the Thai law regarding work permits and so on. Depending on your situation, you may have to go on a visa run every few months and you should factor that into your budget.

Good luck!

Reading between the lines, it seems to me that you have not had the chance to really talk all of this through with your girlfriend. Now is the time to do so.

Lecturing her on the badness of abortion or that she is killing a child is just not the way to go - no matter what your religion tells you, it is her body and her choice. Given that you had not planned to get her pregnant and she did not expect it, that is just the way things are.

IT is clear that she does not think that the relationship is at that stage when she should introduce you to the parents. That is very telling but it could be that until now you have not shown commitment. Very pragmatically, she is hedging her bets - at some stage in her life, she wants to get married and having a baby before makes this difficult or impossible (at least for most Thai men).

What you might do is to sit her down and tell her that you are prepared to support her in her choice, whichever way she wants to go. If you have the idea that you really want to spend the rest of your life with this lady, now would be the time to start to float that idea. The only way in which she will keep this pregnancy is if she gets a commitment and her parents agree with her marrying you.

However, if you have doubts or especially if you think that this lady is never going to settle with you, cut your losses now, pay for the termination and move on. Yes, it is the termination of a potential life but so is the morning after pill and, when you think about it, so is any situation in which conception could have taken place, including abstinence!

There are plenty of other nice young ladies in Thailand who will want to be with you and marry you (assuming that you are a reasonable guy). Perhaps this is just not the right one.

Lets just assume that your friend can persuade the lady to live with him or marry him but without the kids. How long would you think that would last before the cracks would show? Before long she would be squirreling away money for the kids - she would suffer psychologically from being deprived of her kids and that would have an effect on the relationship. That is not to mention the resentment that she might feel.

More importantly, there is the matter of the husband. Given than he is not contributing (as far as we know!!), he may not care too much about his kids. But some Thai men retain a kind of ownership over their wives long after the relationship is over and they are living with someone else. Your friend should check the situation regarding the ex just in case.

What would be very important would be to ensure that the divorce has already gone through otherwise there can be legal implications, as I understand it.

Getting into a full relationship or marriage with a significant other involves taking on board all aspects of that person. That includes a woman's children and it will also include responsibilities that your significant other has, such as debts, Otherwise it would be best for the man to have a "gig" relationship or something like that. But having someone live with you on a full time basis is a very different prospect. Sometimes I think that certain falang men should be honest with themselves and hire a housekeeper "with benefits" rather than fool themselves that they are having a relationship with a partner/wife.

Aren't the passports actually the property of the governments where people come from. What right does Somchia the local vender have to take them? I know people in Thailand love to collect copies of passports, geez soon you will have to provide a copy to buy a bowl of noodles.

The real question is how stupid can farangs be to hand over their passports to some 'street vendor'?

As quickly as every farang stopped doing that, they would just as quickly find another way to get the deal done.

Very few farangs hand over their passport to a street vendor but instead provide it as security for certain kinds of activities. Yes, you can adopt the "I am not handing my passport over to anyone" approach but it will severely curtail your activities as a visitor to Thailand.

For starters, most hotels require your passport for registration - they may give it back to you within a few hours or even sooner but it is still possible to take a copy and use that as the basis for making a fake. You may never know about the fake unless the holder of the fake falls under suspicion of a crime or we get another MH370 incident.

Renting a boat, jetski, diving equipment or motorbike requires handing over the passport as security. Yes, you can avoid this by not availing of these rental services and you can stay in a very basic guesthouse where they do not bother with copying passports but that would curtail your enjoyment of you holiday.

The problem is that foreigners are being told not to hand over their passports as security but businesses are not willing to provide the service without the passport as security. Would we really feel secure by handing over large sums of money as security to such businesses? The trouble is that the approach makes the foreign tourist, who is often unaware of the precise legalities of the situation, take on all the risk. Only if they prosecute the businesses for insisting on passports will the practice stop.

Perhaps you are confusing a soi cowboy clinic with a nurse uniform themed go go bar? LOL

That would indeed add a whole new meaning to the term, "Stem Cell Treatment"!!

I brought tea leaves in my checked baggage from America. TSA busted the (TSA approved) lock (then discarded it), dumped everything out, smashed one of my XBOX 360 game cases & shoved everything back in; shirts all waded up. Guess it depends where you fly out from.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

America was it...

Well, that might explain it.....

Ah, the "Peoples' Republic of America," aka United States. Even in Vietnam, they have the courtesy to pull you to one side to open your stowed luggage if they thing there is something wrong with it - ie if you put a laptop in your stowed luggage. In the PRA/USA, they just bust it open.

when you've had over 30yrs experience of Thailand then you can come to some conclusions.

6months doesnt give you time to wet your whistle.

I know you are saying that joking like becasue you have the smiley

It dont matter if you are in Thailand for 2 months or 2 years or 30 years, it is all experience and you can make conclusions any time.

" ... it is all experience and you can make conclusions any time."

Yes, but you needn't feel compelled to thrust those conclusions on an innocent and unsuspecting world.

In the wonderful world before Facebook and Twitter people realized that their conclusions about anything after 2 months or 6 months were probably superficial, childish and naive and they wouldn't rush to publish them because, again before Facebook or Twitter, they knew that they wouldn't get past some editor who would realize they were superficial, childish and naive.

In the past we would just wait until the start of the next school year and offer our conclusions in the inevitable "What I did during the summer holidays" essay assignment and our teachers would lie to us about interesting it all was.

Someday we'll look back on this period in history as the time verbal diarrhea and over-sharing ran amuck.

We will spend the first two or more decades of the 21st Century spreading our privacy over numerous networks and we will spend the next couple of decades inventing ways of stopping the spreading of our privacy over numerous networks.

"I wish I could be a butterfly but there are too many women holding me down." Unknown