ross163103

Exactly! I've watched this build up since day one. the very first island was meant to be a rest stop for their fishermen, yeah right. We see what's happened now! Woody island is especially impressive--in a bad way, unbelievable the amount of structures on it. Once they installed personnel on those islands it made it extremely difficult to counter this type of action. Plus they landed nuclear strike capable bombers on one of them in 2018 as a show of force--training exercise in their words. Plus now they say everything on the islands is for defense, who believes that crap?!

Uhhhh.......four different articles from four different sources saying the same thing, guess I didn't do enough research for you, I can find more if you want but I think I proved my point--to most people, but obviously not to you. Plus the article you linked too basically says the same thing so I'm not sure what you wanted to say, seems there are five articles now saying the same thing. We'll just agree to disagree as I don't see this discussion ending. This will be my last post on this, have a nice day.

Yes, that's what they took from me, easy to carry.

Been hit once, had security bars installed after that, don't like them but better than being robbed. They pushed up the latch on the window, never noticed how that could happen until I saw the evidence

https://blog.politics.ox.ac.uk/chinas-role-in-restructuring-debt-in-africa/#:~:text=China has become Africa's biggest,of the Sino-African relationship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt-trap_diplomacy https://fortune.com/2023/05/18/china-belt-road-loans-pakistan-sri-lanka-africa-collapse-economic-instability/ It's called "debt trap diplomacy". No specifics on whether certaIn nations are very happy or unhappy just that there are in debt distress or at a high risk of debt distress. I'm sure China will have a way out for these countries when they start to default on their debt..........if you know what I mean. Cambodia is going the same way.

As I've said before concerning this kind of issue; be careful who you get into bed with. Some of the African nations that took "loans" from the Chinese are finding this out. The problem is; Thais tend to look at today--and possibly tomorrow, but not farther down the road. The Chinese don't care about tomorrow they're looking at hundreds of years down the road.

Have used these for years in Asia and recently bought one here and took back to my home country as they aren't available for purchase there. Never looked back at toilet paper, water does such a better job! Plus I read somewhere that the incidents of rectal cancer are less in Asia because of this cleaning method, sounds good to me, no one wants that!

No, he cut his losses and moved on.

I had a Canadian friend living in Phuket that woke up one night with his Thai girlfriend coming at him with a meat cleaver, he got his hand up top stop it but almost had his thumb cut off. Luckily they were able to sew his thumb back on.............and not surprisingly they broke up after that.

Should've showered together

TIT, 55555!

From all the years I've lived here, not much shame in Thailand........anywhere.

Hmmmm, an amphibious support ship that's bigger than their aircraft carrier................. priorities.

I saw this guy on a Thai news show years ago explaining how it worked, pretty amazing--in a bad way, and not sure why so many Thais--especially the women, fall into the trap of these gambling dens. The info is out there, in Thai! I've known several friends wives who've gotten cheated out of houses/cars/motorcycles/money by these kinds of thieves. Greed is an ugly thing! One of my neighbor's wife kept showing us big wads of cash she was winning. I told my wife, "Just wait, it'll all be gone one day." Sure enough about six months later their 4 million baht house was owned by the mafia, on a 400k baht debt. They offered to sell it back to him for 4 million...........he doesn't live there any more. Basically they let you win small amounts--to them, big to the women, then when they're hooked they start ramping up the stakes, next thing you know your house deed is on the table.

Talk about spinning the situation; this guy could be a Thai politician!

I'd like to say I would intervene, but after being here 30 years and seeing what I've seen, if you do it's not going to go well for you in the end. Thai males can be very vindictive and will "get you in the end". They look at it like it's not your business--especially with a female involved. I knew a couple of farangs that had an issue with some Thai males; the Thais ending up waiting approx a year then beat the s**t out of the farangs. It was all over a "loss of face". Plus if you intervene you'll probably end up fighting with him and all his friends, not just him.

I've lived here 30 years and over time I noticed the same thing, although saying that, I do have some friends that have been here a long time and are fairly "normal". I think with the ones that do have issues it could be that; some people have issues before coming to Thailand, and some come here "normal" and go off the rails. From what I've seen it's mainly from women, alcohol, or failed business ventures--or a combination of all three.

The clue's in the number of years this thread has been going, and # pages it has, 4 years 575 pages and counting, basically, never ending and going nowhere. I know, I know, I don't have to read it--and I don't, I just popped in today to see how long it's gone.

"Cutting your losses" comes to mind, luckily my wife took my side as she could see how it was going to end up. I had a friend in my exact same situation as me and he told me one day, "Steve, just get your stepson in the bedroom and beat the <deleted> out of him, it's going to come to that one day so might as well get it over with." It never got to that but was real close a few times. Just a complete loser.

Exactly, a lot of Thai mother's just can't let go, they don't understand that it's better for the son to learn responsibility and become and adult; too many of them never mature and can't handle life later on. Like mentioned before; basically it ends up a life of sponging/stealing money, drugs, prison, etc. Good luck to the original OP, he'll need it!

Time to visit Bangkok!! 555

As far as I know still not working. Since he was such a loser from day one I don't ever ask about him. If he fell off the face of the earth, not many people would notice. Oh yeah, and for people wanting to know, he's 30 something now. When I think of him the phrase "Oxygen thief" comes to mind.

I feel your pain.....it was the same situation with my wife's son. LOL

Kick him out, tough love! It'll make him a more responsible adult later on. There's no excuse for this kind of behavior/living conditions, especially in someone else's house. My wife kicked her son out of our house when he turned 15 because he dropped out of school with no plans for the future. She knew there would be major issues between myself and him eventually.....and I agreed with her. Best thing that ever happened in our household! Sabai sabai!

Agree, maybe I'm over cautious but I tend to do what they tell me so there's no issues later. You never know when you'll run across an IO thats pissed off, having a bad day and decides to make life miserable for you. I'd hate to show up for my annual extension and it goes something like this. IO: "Why you no show money at three months?" Me: "Uhhhh, people told me on Aseannow forum I didn't have too." IO; "What's this Aseannow forum? No extension, you start over with new visa." Like I said, maybe over cautious but I like an easy life so don't want to create additional problems.