Bangkok Barry

I'm sure I'm not alone in having to fit my shopping hours around this stupid law if I need to re-stock my beer supply.

YES!! The first 13 responders to this clearly didn't read the linked article before posting. Just jump to the keyboard.....

Did you read the link before asking?

Trying to report the taxi is pointless. I was having a problem with another driver who was doing the long way round thing and called the taxi complaints number. They told me to call the tourist police. The tourist police told me to call the taxi complaints number. No-one is interested in doing anything, which is why the problems with taxis continue and always will.

The last time I took a taxi from that airport, from the drop-off area, the driver quoted me a fare and wouldn't use his meter when I asked so I walked away. Then he called me back and said he'd use the meter, and he did. But he drove a very long way round to my destination, thinking as a stupid foreigner I wouldn't know, and it ended up costing the same as the fare he originally quoted. Now I always use the train. Fair fare every time.

The incident caused panic among both foreign and Thai beachgoers as the area was still crowded at the time of the shooting, and the fact that the police station was located nearby. The beach was crowded at 4am? And why did the location of the police station nearby cause panic? Bizarre reporting.

Same old same old. Statistics are that someone dies on Thai roads every 30 minutes, and that 80% of them are motorcyclists. This victim is just one of many who died that day. Some make the news, many do not. Why that is, I have no idea. I suppose that reporting every one would be boring and not leave room for the reports of jealous Thai men attacking and/or killing their ex-partner (yet another one today).

Sorry, I have no ideas what doxxed is, even if the x's stand for something else.

So, along with your other problems relating to difficulty in communicating with your partner, you are paranoid. I think, as several others have suggested, that you need to seek professional medical or psychiatric advice.

Why? What are you hiding? There are specific conditions relating to different countries, different help and advice that might be available. Bizarre behaviour.

I see that police or rescue workers now wear clothing with Chinese on their jackets.

Nobody cares. Their parents don't care, the police don't care, the schools don't care. Nobody. Everyone just plays Russian roulette with kids' lives and sometimes they lose.

A lad in the house opposite mine had half his face ripped off and was killed as he drove drunk to see his girlfriend and crashed into an electricity pole. The next day I saw his brother roar off on his own bike, wrong side of the road, no helmet. There is no helping these people. They don't have enough brain matter to survive. I have no idea why so many Thais are like that. With a reported 80% of the estimated 20-25,000 road deaths being motorbike riders, that is one hell of a problem.

I sometimes think that Thailand is one of the most dangerous places in the world outside of a war zone. Plenty of people carrying guns, many of them mentally unstable and with fragile egos in a country where many have little or no self-control or sense of proportion. People are killed over 100 baht to save face, or because of a 'wrong' look. And yes, I know other countries have violence too, including knife crime in my native UK. There, it's largely confined to a certain ethnic group. In Thailand it largely involves the male population.

Yet another example of one-step thinking, so common in Thailand. Announce an idea without thinking it through, what it involves, how it might be implemented. And then it either results in a U-turn or gets quietly forgotten. Perfectly normal here, and next week there'll be another ill-thought out idea. It's the kind of thing you'd expect from small kids who haven't yet developed the skill to think clearly and logically.

Please enlighten me, because I can't think of one.

There is really only one reason to use an agent for something as straightforward as a retirement visa which only needs to trouble the applicant once a year. Isn't there.

So, if religion had its way, he and every other male would never be with a woman and the human race would die out. Okay.

Interesting that those who have the power to decide if I can 'visit' my wife or not work in two of those offices, one local, one regional HQ. My future here is dictated by crooks.

Which was crazy from the start. Yes. I receive frequent reminders from non-Thai banks and others who deal with passwords etc, saying they will never ask me for personal information such as passwords. Maybe Thailand is trying to catch up with the real world.

Are these more common here than in the West? I've never read of one in the West, but have done so many times in Thailand. What is your experience?

Whatever humanity invents is often swiftly corrupted because humanity isn't mature enough to use it responsibly. The most glaring example is social media, which is used by millions to send abuse and death treats to others, usually total strangers, as well as provide a platform for any loony to spread lies and propaganda. Go back a few decades and gunpowder is another example of misusing something that was invented for a good and practical purpose. Humans corrupt.

I assume you are not aware of forum rules, as in: 9. You will not post disruptive or inflammatory messages. You will respect other members and post in a civil manner. Personal attacks, insults or hate speech posted on the forum or sent by private message are not allowed. I just wanted to let you know that you could be suspended from posting insulting remarks.

It's a forum about all things Thai, not a rose coloured glasses only forum. Unlike the locals, we aliens don't ignore the faults and pretend they don't exist. Rather like you want to do, it seems. We discuss them, which seems to offend you and which is probably at least part of the reason officialdom does no more than tolerate us here. They prefer to keep such things under the carpet. Not wanting to confront reality has always been a problem here, and your reaction suggests that it is a problem for you too.

Posted in the wrong thread. I'd ask who the moron is, but that would be impolite. Oh, the irony.