Bangkok Barry

And you know that because? Edited 40 minutes ago by George FmplesdaCosteedback I don't know which 'that' to which you are referring. If it's what Thailand is, that is obvious to anyone outside of its borders. Thailand has no influence in anything, anywhere. If it's about whether something is newsworthy or not, then that is also obvious. If something happens in Thailand, it has less importance than if it happened somewhere with a higher international profile. People simply don't care what happens in Thailand. They don't give the country a second thought. Thailand is only important to those who live there, no-one else.

Isn't there a number to call or other way to contact them to explain the delay in returning the form? I've done that before, as it isn't unusual for mail to take 2-3 weeks to arrive here.

Exactly that happened to me. Received almost nothing for 18 months. Fortunately, the one or two that were delivered, purely due to an oversight by the postman who it later transpired was burning the mail as that was easier than delivering it, included correspondence from pension suppliers who needed me to confirm that I wasn't dead yet. A letter from my UK bank only arrived at their second attempt, which was centered around my needing to get some forms completed by a lawyer. There is a reason that some institutions, such as Visa, refuse to send cards to Thailand. Never did find out what happened to the postman. I don't think he was jailed, as he would have been in my native UK for 'interrupting the King's mail'. His replacement is a family member so delivery is now assured.

That sentence kind of sums up Thai driving standards, doesn't it. An accident as a result of someone plowing into another accident.

We never get any 'new statement', unless it's an embarrassed police force responding over and over about what a Taiwanese actress accuses them of. The story will be overtaken by tomorrow's brake failure/microsleep story.

A friend of mine was asked to pay 100,000 so they would investigate his house being broken into and his SUV stolen (they found the key in the house). The 'security guard' of the estate vanished the same day, which kind of pointed to who might be involved. He was so 'disappointed' at their service that he decided to leave this ****hole and move back to Australia - and his Thai wife was only too happy to go with him.

She said she loves Thailand. Did you miss that part? Her only problem was with the Thai police. And while you say she's "another", why not give us any more examples - preferably where you know the full story and not just half of it, as in this case.

Much better to use a hotel's facilities if you're in the centre of London. Or those in a department store.

That's the norm in Thailand. How long have you been here not to know that?

I would respond further, but it's off topic and would probably be removed by the mods.

I'm sure that protesting made you feel good, but it ultimately it had no effect. The US simply lost and withdrew from Vietnam, which had nothing at all to do with protests. Protesting against Putin will have no effect other than people being thrown in jail or disappearing. In Thailand, all protests have done is bring the military onto the streets rather than bring change - except to install military governments.

Bearing in mind that most countries around the world have had little or no controls for very many months now, I suggest that most travellers don't give Covid a second thought and consider it a given that it's safe to travel. The decisive factor is whether they have the money for foreign trips, not that Thailand has done a great job controlling a virus while at the same time a large proportion of the population are still too scared to remove their face mask.

If the problem was e-cigarettes, then instead of fining the tourists wouldn't it have been good pr to simply warn them that, unlike in the rest of the world, such items are illegal in Thailand. And if they want to make a few more baht from those using such items then I suggest they go to RCA in Bangkok any night of the week where they will find a very large number of people, mostly women, vaping away. But they are Thai, so.....

Lipton's is the tea equivalent of McDonalds - available everywhere but not very good. I don't know about tea or sardines, but I do know that the quality of meat products is far, far below the standard elsewhere - be it the UK, Europe, the USA or Australia. Unless you pay western prices+ at Tops. I also know that if you buy any product from China it is likely to be useless junk before long. I have a Chinese colleague, and in my diplomatic way I asked him why stuff from China is such cra*, and he was surprised and said he didn't have any problems at home. So, in support of the OP, I do believe Thailand just imports the cheapest it can with no regard for quality. Sums the country up quite well, really. As a Korean tv producer I worked with said in summing up Thailand in just six words, 'The standard here is so low'.

My wife was involved in a school van tipping over. One of the kids lost a leg, others were killed. She survived and ran home. That was 50 years ago. Nothing has really changed, has it. Same old same old.

Don't police wear cameras on their helmets now? Or is that only traffic police? Just have every policeman wear a camera, and if it's turned off at any time then fire them (instead, someone will ask for a bigger share of the shakedown money to make the problem go away).

I thought this was going to be a thread about bar-girls.

And how would you do that, exactly? Call a lawyer? Tell them they don't know what they're talking about? Therefore obstructing them in their 'duty' so they would then have grounds for arresting you for that? Tell me, how would you beat the shakedown? We'd all love to know. You know, just in case...

You have to remember we live in the North, it's all a bit different up here than in Bangkok. Plus I tend not to go out clubbing and ride in taxi's at 1 am, at that hour all our cops are fast asleep, as am I, I'm 73 this month. But would I stand my ground, yes, and I have, but only with fairly minor things. A traffic stop cop wanted me to pay a fine for being in the wrong lane, I told him I'd take a ticket but he wasn't getting any cash. It took some backwards and forwards but he soon gave up and waved me on. Apart from that one time, I have to say that any time I've been stopped is because I'd done something wrong, usually speeding and that's a fair cop so I pay. If you were a woman in a strange country and in a police station you might have a different approach. And yes, not being in Bangkok does help although that's no guarantee of not being shaken down.

It doesn't matter how far this travels on social media, nor any other little incidents such as murder on a certain island. People still flock to Thailand in their tens of millions every year, so no-one in authority in Thailand actually cares.

Would you stand your ground if the same thing happened to you? And what do you think the consequences of that might be, macho man? Surely you know that the rules in Thailand are whatever someone says they are.

Whenever people I know overseas have asked me if Thais drive on the left or the right, I answer 'Yes'.

Just like in the real world - if you don't qualify you don't get.

There, Corrected it.

Thais never find the middle ground on anything. Everything is done to an extreme. They drive far too fast, play music far too loud, beat people like a pack of rapid dogs with kicking in the head when their victim is down, frequent tales of killings over the smallest thing. The government cracks nuts with a sledgehammer with extreme reactions. Basically, it's down to a lack of self-control. Doesn't seem to be taught here.