2008bangkok

Given Thai jail sentences for Westerners who murder other Westerners here (3 years and under), he'll probably spend less time in prison this way.

You reckon? It isn't a chance I would want to take to be honest. Manslaughter in the UK, may get 7 and do 3.

I read a post on another forum yesterday with links to two Westerners who were convicted (or plead guilty) of murdering another Westerner in Thailand. Their total sentences were 3 1/2 years for one, and I think the other was 2 1/2 years but he was deported after serving 2 years.

I haven't seen any other Thai sentences where a Westerner is convicted and sentenced for murdering another Westerner, but if somebody finds one please post it up.

IIRC from reports Lee Aldhouse had about 5 million baht transferred into his Thai bank account just afterwards.

I'm sure I don't need to comment on what that might be arranged to be used for.

I would say thats not true, I thinking ts gone a bit to far to be able to bribe anybody and expect to get a light sentence, this being the first time a English guy has been extradited to Thailand I would think that he will be made a example of and look at over 10

Wow, how come he cannot do the whole european human rights thing?

Good on Thailand for pursuing it

I'm a bit sad as I've never been called a "po pood" before and wanted to tell my mates down the beach all about it today. Nevermind.

man i just cannot comment anymore, i just went to the zoo today to look at the monkeys, great fun, you would try it sometime

i can tell you now every statement youv made is completley inacurrate, so you guys must have been talkin about footie not prison life

Even you must be able to see the irony in "completly inacurrate". *Completely *Inaccurate.

Are you trying to tell me that my uncle working in Wandsworth for 20 odd years is inaccurate? Or what Baerboxer said about his acquaintances/friends in the prison system is inaccurate?

I've sat here for 20 mins to try and relate any word or even sentence that anyone has said on this thread to football and I keep coming up with nothing.

You seem to know the truth here, so please, please enlighten us. Why are you leaving us hanging? Tell us HOW our statements are wrong and WHY they are wrong. Instead of getting back from whichever bar half-cut, feeling some sort of misguided umbrage against a post long-since disregarded and spouting unintelligible drivel.

The floor is yours. Explain why we're so wrong.

i already told you in a earlier post that you po pood, to the point where you even ridiculed the fact that they where red tracksuit bottoms, so im not gonna sit here and explaint what prison life is like, all im saying is that your wrong wrong wrong.

you should retract some fo your statements otherwise your gonnas lose this game

and end up with egg on your head

You paint an authoritive and knowledgable picture of life in a British prison. Can you name the souce(s) of you information, and confirm how long the scenario you describe has been in place?

I know a psychiatrist who carries out regular prisoner assessments and visits, several prison officers and four people who served over 8 years each. All described the conditions in British prisons consistently, but somewhat differently to you.

Apologies - I just saw your other postings confirming your source as a relation who worked at HMP Wandsworth.

He is entitled to his view, which is very different from the people I know. The psychiatrist still maintains that people who say that British prisons are a soft option have never been inside. I know a selection of people who have been convicted for a wide range of different offences and who come from different backgrounds and educational abilities. Not one wants to return to prison, or sees it as a pleasent experience.

Clearly there is enough evidence to extadite this man. The only course for his lawyer is to suggest that Thai prisons are such evil disgusting insanitry and cruel places that his human rights will be abused. European courts usually err on the more liberal view and Theresa May will not be able to influence this.

I hope he is extradited and faces a full and competent trial where the "eyewitnesses" who post here can give evidence. If convicted or he chooese to plead guilty, he should be sentenced in accordance with the Thai law.

You're quiet right, I do not have any lengthy personal experience from within the prison walls (thankfully), but I did talk often and at length with my uncle before his death in 2010, and he retired in 2007 I believe, so he would have been describing life in Wandsworth 5 years ago. It is my understanding that Wandsworth was being upgraded at that point and was the last prison the the UK to install flush toilets throughout the whole prison and also the last prison to be totally electrified.

If you'd like to tell me how your ex-con friends and staff say it's a different experience to me, I'd love to hear how they have described it (sincerely not being facetious, I'd really like to know!) You mentioned you knew a lot of people from within the prison system, but didn't actually articulate where their experiences differed from my uncle's at all. What is so different of the benefits and privileges I listed, when trying to compare a British prison to Thai one.

I'm still very certain all of the benefits I listed are available for all. There are some you do have to work for. They can be taken away from you. I did also say that special cases would have altered lifestyles from the average prisoner. If you'd like to refute/rebut any of those points, then please feel free to do so.

My base point was that I find it extremely hard to listen to anyone posit that life in a Thai prison would be an "easier route", when compared to the British experience (from what I've learned from my uncle and documentaries).

You're quite right, prison is not meant to be easy. I didn't say it was. I said it was significantly less arduous than the experience Aldhouse could expect to have over here. I'm still maintaining that point of view. Mainly as for the nature of his crime, going back to hunt down and stab a man who caused him to lose face, by fairly beating him in a fight (that Alhouse would almost definitely have started) I'd much prefer him to actually be extradited and do some comparatively "harder" time. It might not sound very nice and humane, but I'm entitled to my opinions.

Moreover, there's a constant stream of criminals laughing their way into custody in the UK and having the nerve to talk back to the judge and tell them how "farkin easy that bird is mate" etc! It's always in the papers.

I highly doubt your average low/middle class Thai has had or will ever have that reaction to incarceration in any prison in LOS. That does speak volumes for me.

I am definitely no expert on any prison anywhere and I never claimed to be. I just have had a lot of information about what life in one is like (admittedly from one man).

If you'd like to debate the fact that when compared to a Thai prison, a British prison is NOT the softer option of the two, I'd be very interested to hear the argument you put forward for that.

Also, as JetSet asked before.....

Is he here yet?

i can tell you now every statement youv made is completley inacurrate, so you guys must have been talkin about footie not prison life

but the quality of the Metro apps for it has been widely panned in a variety of ways, both that there aren't enough useful Metro apps, and that those available haven't been particularly well done. I too have seen a lot of bad comment

They deserve to be panned, on my Win 8 PC they are so badly made its a joke, you have to run them all in full screen and cannot do anything else, cannot comment on the Tablets as im sure there will be a home button similar to Iphone but the PC versions are bad.

What 24/7 Bangup you are joking. The British jails are just like a 2 star hotel, you got your own LCD tv, keys to your own cell. You can wear your own clothes, choice of three meals both at lunch and dinner. Your out of your cell pretty much of the day.

You got access to education and gym, as well as other activities, some prisons have got phones in there cells.

I would imagine you would have to do some solid behind the door time before you got those types of privliges, they are normally reserved for first time non violent offenders or undesirables who are ending the end of there time, it will be 2 or 3 to a cell, nice bright red ladies tracksuits and 23 hr a day to reminise on how tough of a guy he is....

In einsight maybe the Thai route will be better for him....

You imagined wrong. Those privileges (with the exception of the games console) are available for every prisoner upon entry and are taken away from you if you fall foul of the rules inside. What he didn't also mention, is that you get paid for working in a British prison, which is all relatively easy work and gets you out of your cell for long periods.

There are two recreation periods a day. Occasionally it can be a 23 hour day inside the cell, but that's incredibly rare for the average prisoner. Obviously violent, drug taking, mental cons are normally locked up for longer than the rest of the prison population for good reason.

You have access to a phone, inside the prison, normally next to the guard house. There are flush toilets. A medic always available. Your medication will be given to you.

Your meal choices are tailored to your diet and religion. You're fed a hot calorific meal 3 times a day, for which you're let out of your cell, unless your privileges are taken away.

You can enrol in any kind of education program you can think of. They have computers, music rooms, a barber, pool/snooker tables, a fully stocked library that can get you books to order if it's not in stock.

There's a VPU (Vulnerable Prisoner Unit) that you have to be sent to if you request it on entering the prison, which, as you would imagine, where prisoners are treated with even softer rules and guidelines.

Just reading the British press on a fairly moderate basis would tell you that repeat offenders locked up in the UK often laugh at their sentence and tell the judge "thanks for the bed and board" and "ridiculously easy time".

They also wear blue. Not red. It's not a jumpsuit. You're given 3-4 sets of a shirts, pullovers, trousers, socks, underwear, shoes when you arrive. You're allowed to keep some items of what you were wearing when you were processed - like sneakers for example. There are uniforms for work in lots of cases.

Compared to the Thai prisons which are: ~20 to a room. Sleeping on the floor in a space the size of your body. Infested with insects. Outlandishly hot. Chock full of airborne/waterborne diseases. Have you shackled around the hands and legs, which leads to chafing and skin infections. Have you defecate in public. Have a lights out. Have no phone. Have the most basic food provisions possible. No prison-run education. Forced labour for no pay. No games and hobbies. Riots where live ammunition is used. Beatings. Guards that have guns. Shall I go on...

Unless you're a dollar millionaire, I see no way in which a Thai prison is even in the same ball park.

It's hard graft and an extremely unpleasant experience and Thailand often appears in Amnesty's list of countries with the worst prisons and human rights abuses in prisons.

EDIT: I will say the "keys to your own cell" thing is a bit of a myth. In some C & D Cat prisons that may be the case for those about to leave the place and who already have regular day releases. That's definitely not the case for 90%+ of the general prison population.

---

Lastly, the phrase is "in hindsight." and it doesn't apply as "in hindsight" means looking back at some event or events that happened in the past.

Like i said you are describing A CAT D prison, somebody who gets life for murder will be on 23 hr bang up no problem, being allowed out once a day for a hr on which time they have to have a shower, clean there cell and do what ever moaning business they need to do with the guards.

As for arguing about whether the tracksuits (nobody mentioned jumpsuits)are red or blue.... well thats just a perfick example of a TV member

What 24/7 Bangup you are joking. The British jails are just like a 2 star hotel, you got your own LCD tv, keys to your own cell. You can wear your own clothes, choice of three meals both at lunch and dinner. Your out of your cell pretty much of the day.

You got access to education and gym, as well as other activities, some prisons have got phones in there cells.

I would imagine you would have to do some solid behind the door time before you got those types of privliges, they are normally reserved for first time non violent offenders or undesirables who are ending the end of there time, it will be 2 or 3 to a cell, nice bright red ladies tracksuits and 23 hr a day to reminise on how tough of a guy he is....

In einsight maybe the Thai route will be better for him....

Depending on where your goin in Laos, you may be best to nip in the consular and get a new tourist visa, you'llbe sorted then

Im on Dtac and must say it isnt the best, iv been doin random speed tests aound bangkok and have similare results to you, 1 minute 6mb then 2 then 3 then 1 its all over the place, iv also been doin comparisons with my colleagues who are mostly with TRUE-H and TRUE-H beats Dtac all the time, if it wasnt for the hassle that changing numbers would mean \to my bank account, whatsapp people then i would defo move to TRUE becuase they give you more data cap(think the XL is 5GB)and faster speeds i know i could port the number but that seems like a whole world of pain having to deal with both DTAC and TRUE-H customer service to get it done, my stress levels couldnt handle it..

After all how fast do i really need my phones data speed to be, footie results from push, email and random bit of safari but mostly im near a wifi connection

So short anwser TRUE-H

Well i must say, i didnt think that would happen, should be back for a nice Xmas healthy dinner of fish heads and rice water

Oraneg are currently doing a PAYG promotion 15p per SMS ontop of that if you topup 30 then you get 240 free international calling minutes, check it out http://www1.orange.co.uk/service_plans/payasyougo/payg_camel_costs.html

The problem with these interrnet sites that charge cheap for SMS is that you cannot reply directly to the sender as it is normally sent from a aweird number like 91000

when I log with my ID and password from the pc too it says I can buy the Walking Dead TV show series only from the US store and not from the thai one So I cannot buy it nor from PC neither from IPAD It switch me only to the PODCAST app which I guess is only audio files or commentary videos

Can I create a US id for my IPAD in Thailand?,but I guess your answer is no.Bye

To create a US apple id, make sure you are viewing the US store but are not logged in, choose any free app/podcast/anything click buy, the apple store will tell you to create a apple ID, input US address and when it comes to funding source you should have NONE as an option.

This will only happen if you choose something that is free, if you choose something that is paid for then it will ask you for credit card

Then you can use vouchers etc

PErsonally i would send tpthai2 a PM and he wil give you other details

If you can purchase it from your PC but not from Ipad then either 2 things are happening, you have 2 apple id one for US and one for Thailand if thats the case just log out of the ipad from settings>store and logback in using US ID, if you only have userid and its thai then i would guess you are ok to browse but when you make the actual purchase it will tell you you need a USA account

Just be careful. The iPad iMessages if you leave the iPad at home for the mrs while your out an about on the iPhone.

Potential for disaster

ill second that

Thai children start kindergarten at 4 years of age at government schools. If you're OK to live in East Pattaya let me know as one of my family teaches at a kindergarten school near to Nong Prue Amphur and I can ask her for feedback - are your children Thai/speak Thai?

That would be great if you could, I'm easy in terms of places to live I don't mind living anyway where it not massively tourist populated, my main criteria is basically the quality of the school and also the cost as funds at limited I have 2 of my own and the mrs has one that all need to be put in school.

My kids are 2 and 4 and Thai speaking who understand good English but do not speak any English yet mostly because they are shy to speak it.

Thanks appreciate the effort

Ok.... Got iPhone 5 yesterday, set it up, now my SMS 's for my iPhone come through on the iPad ......

Not sure how I did it, but that's cool. Have keyboard for iPad..... So even easier to reply

Is that all your SMS or just from people who have iPhones? When people send you from iPhone they will be sent as iMessage not SMS only if I message not work or from people who are not on iPhones are sent as SMS

Nowhere yet I'm looking for schools and then move near to the school

Hi,

Im sure this has been asked before but i cannot see any info, looking for a goverment school in Pattaya to send the kids 1 is 4 and 1 is nearly 3, private school is not a option becuase of funds, so looking for xpats who have kids in goverment school to give me some advice.

Thanks

windows backup/restore does not clone!

Contol Panel>Windows Backup/Restore>Create system image , will create a full disk image

an image is not a clone. period!

What is it then if an image isn't a clone,an image enables you to have an exact copy of your current machine either reinstalled or on a new disk system.

I would say that is the same as a clone, infancy Even on Norton Ghost they call it a Ghost Image.

Stop nitpicking

windows backup/restore does not clone!

Contol Panel>Windows Backup/Restore>Create system image , will create a full disk image

It is the fault of the phone because even apple say the correct way to hold the phone in IOS5 onwards is with the volume buttons up( to use the new shutter feature) and if you do that the photo comes out upside down.

I am not sure you are understanding the basic issue. I just did a little test - Hotmail and Yahoo can't deal with the image. Gmail does the right thing and the image appears correct. Downloading the image from Hotmail or Yahoo, it appears correct.

Conclusion: Hotmail and Yahoo mail suck. Don't use those.

The iPhone 4 is currently the most popular camera. Not cell phone camera - camera, period. All the image uploading sites such as Flickr confirm this. So those two webmail clients cannot correctly display images from the world's most popular camera.

Maybe we can get back to talking about iOS 6 maps now? I've read some positive articles too, apparently the navigation is a bit better than Gmaps on Android.

First of all it was the phone's fault now its the fault of the 2 biggest providers of webmail.. its just everybodys fault but apple's

I would not say the Iphone camera is the most popular camera, infact in my experience its totally crap at taking pictures.

Regardless of whos at fault common sense should tell apple that people dont want to have pictures that turn out incorrect, infact i would say 99% of the people using 'the world most popular camera' would prefer to be able to take a picture any which way they want and it would always turn out correct, its only the small (and av very very small) minority who want to intentionally take pics that come out sideways or upside down and they certainly wont use Iphone camera as preferred camera!

Back on topic, everyone should just ditch the not so good maps app and go for sygic much much better and ontop of that the maps is offline as is every other GPS mapping app like garmin, tomtom, sygic yet again Apple deliver a top notch app that is the exact opposite of what everyone wants

If you are only going to China and Malaysia you should be ok as long as you tell the immigration where to put the stamps rather than letting them put a stamp right in the middle of a new page!

If you over compensate and go 1/2 page for Thai stamp, 2 pages for China trip, 1 page for malaysia you will still have 2 pages left. you should be ok as no stamps are needed for reporting.

P.S Just incase you didnt know if you are already in UK then the next time you need to report is 90 days after you arrive back in Thailand.

As for anyone else with an Android proper smart phone yes wcdma only will force a 3g connection.

Most smartphones are GSM phones so there will be no option to force CDMA only and even if there was the option the only network that is CDMA is Hutch network and I dont know anybody who is on that network

When it comes to a tablet the Ipad is the best, i have both a Ipad and a Andorid 10.1" tablet and handsdown the Ipad wins for looks, feels, works and the apps look 10 times better on a Ipad.

You can use this piece of free software http://www.virtualwifirouter.com/p/downlooad.html that will create a virtual wifi router from your PC and should be able to use the dongle connection,

If you dont mind paying the price i would pay the extra 3k and get a tablet with a SIM you never know when you might need it.