tomahawk

I transfer money from US bank to Bangkok Bank in NY and this is supposed to be no fees but I always lose money when I get from Thai bank. Does anyone know why this happens? Thank you.

This is not true about court granting half pension. She would have to apply for it, which she could do now if she wished. However thank you everyone for advice.

I live on retirement pension and wife could take half of that now if she wanted but she never asked for it, which I am grateful for as I could not afford to live without getting a job if she did.

I am trying to divorce American wife but having problems. I lived in NY state but lawyer says I am not resident there so cannot get divorce there. Wife lives in california but not long enough to file for divorce there. Has any American on forum gotten divorced from US wife or have information about this. If so I greatly appreciate. Thank you.

I had not been in Thailand long when I encountered this same situation. I could not speak one word of Thai but I used to be in law enforcement and this kind of crap is same everywhere. I just got between the guy and woman and held up my hand and said "stop", which I am sure guy did not know English but still figured it out. He kept yelling and shaking his fist but he was half my size for one thing and like a other posting said these types are usually gutless anyway, so he got on his bike and rode away. There were many Thai people watching but no one got involved. I am not advising anyone what to do, only reporting an incident.

As for posting who says maybe she deserved it, many women have done me wrong but I never hit them. This is a gutless and cowardly act and if woman is no good just leave or throw her out but no excuse for beating women.

I had not been in Thailand long when I encountered this same situation. I could not speak one word of Thai but I used to be in law enforcement and this kind of crap is same everywhere. I just got between the guy and woman and held up my hand and said "stop", which I am sure guy did not know English but still figured it out. He kept yelling and shaking his fist but he was half my size for one thing and like a other posting said these types are usually gutless anyway, so he got on his bike and rode away. There were many Thai people watching but no one got involved. I am not advising anyone what to do, only reporting an incident.

As for posting who says maybe she deserved it, many women have done me wrong but I never hit them. This is a gutless and cowardly act and if woman is no good just leave or throw her out but no excuse for beating women.

I think there might be many bad effects to minimum wage being raised to 300 baht.

1-Goods will cost more.

2-Many workers will be laid off or replaced by foreign workers.

3-Bangkok business will suffer because why pay more to live in Bangkok when you can live cheaper and save money upcountry.

4-Exports will go down when prices rise.

5-People will have less incentive for education if they make as much without it.

I am not against raising minimum wage, but this is a really big increase in very short time. If 1 person gets a raise, while 3 more become unemployed, is this a good thing?

I am not sure, but to answer some people, no disrespect to anyone's religion, but I myself do not want to be buddha-like, or even buddhist. This does not make someone inferior, I don't think, to not wish to be like Buddha, just as it does not make one inferior if they do. People live in many ways and does not mean this way or that one is better, and really this does not have so much to do about minimum wage.

I think the problem will be that whether this proposal is sensible or not, this pay raise is a promise and the majority of workers will consider it broken if they do not get the 300 bt. raise. it is too late to back out of it now, in my opinion. Somebody should maybe have thought this whole thing out better before they announced it. Now it is too late and I think the govt. is going to be stuck with it, regardless of consequences.

Thank you for reply. Funny thing is I asked this question in other forum which is British and every single one said they send cards to mail friends, so so much for this being American thing. However, I do feel tonto and trembly should get together. Send cards, maybe some flowers. This is not first time true love was found on internet.

My friend who is a 65 year old man says he wants to uy a birthday card for another farang guy. I told him I never heard of a man buying birthday card for a man. I suppose if they are gay, but otherwise I never heard of this. My friend says this is common. So I said I will ask forum if people really do this. Also, the other guy, who is Irish, is taking my friend to a restaurant and buying him dinner, even though it is Irish guy's birthday. I should add that my friend is from California, so this maybe explains the whole thing.

I know the people OP is talking about, and while I do not know why these people do these things, I also do not care as it is their life and their choice. The hardest thing for me to understand since I have been on forum is why so many people are so concerned over what other people do and how they live their lives. By your own statement OP these people are not really bothering you or anyone else. I think you have more of a problem than these" why bother" people do. Many people on forum seem to have a strange and obsessive interest in the activities of everyone else. Whether they are tourist police volunteers, backpackers, cheap people, rich people, people with Thai girlfriends, people without Thai girlfriends, Americans, Europeans, or whatever is nobody else's business but their own. If they are pedophiles or some other sort of criminal whose activities harm others, then it is right and proper to criticize. But if people, such as these why bother people, are not hurting anyone, why doesn't forum just leave them alone?

Even though it would seem to be political suicide for PM to contact Thaksin or take advice from him, this is Thailand and in current situation I do not think anything much would happen to her if she contacts Thaksin openly. The majority voted for her and therefore are obviously pro-Thaksin and would love it if he returned to Thailand. Democrats would make a big fuss if govt. has involvement with Thaksin, but I believe nothing much will happen to PM if she does this, which personally I believe someday this will happen.

The kayaks for rent at Wat Faham are 100 baht. They will also teach you how to use them if don't know how. Opens at 4pm, last time I went there anyway. Also if you have a kayak your self they will let you keep it there for a small fee.

Yes JF it was Chiang Mai office where friend got visa extension.

I usually eat wife's cooking but she does not really follow the rules of food hygiene as I have always been taught. Food is frequently left out overnight in heat and she often reheats rice which I read is very unhealthy. I used to refuse to eat this but that lead to so much complaining and nagging I figured food poisoning was better than suffering with this. However despite this I have so far not experienced any major problem with food poisoning in 5 years. I think sometimes I eat too many chilis and pay the price, but this is natural and was the same when I used to eat too many jalopenos and habaneros back in US.

Thank you I will try this idea with bench press machine. Leg press at 700 year stadium goes up to 140 kg and I lifted this and it seemed heavier than the 200 at Home Fitness, so I assume the 200 was pounds and not kgs. However they were different kinds of machines so perhaps the Home Fitness machine had better leverage or something.

American friend just got retirement visa extension last week and everything is same as before. Only need letter from consulate. Immigration officer says there is no plan to change this as far as anyone here is aware of.

I went to gym at 700 year stadium today and I think it is great. Only 30 baht and it had leg press machine and many other good machines and free weights. I went in morning and only 1 other person was there. It is perhaps not as nice as some other gyms but it is definitely a good value for the money.

Thank you finy. I already do pistol squats and also do hindu squats every day. However due to disk injury I no longer do deadlifts or barbell squats. Basically I prefer these to leg press but the leg press is safer for back.

Thanks everyone. I would never expect there to be so many gyms. I will check out all of the ones suggested. Just some information, Home Fitness near Big C has leg press but has maximum 200 lbs. which is not much for leg press.

Does anyone know of gym in Chiang Mai with a good leg press machine? Thank you.

No doubt the maid thought it was a tip, or you would not have gotten it back. Hotel workers are no doubt now talking about cheap farang who left tip and then wanted it back. If I were you, I would not order anything from room service, if they have any there.

I used to go to Home Fitness gym near Carrefours. They have very good equipment but it is a very strange gym. First the little guy who runs place tells me I was making too much noise with weights on lat pull down machine. I did not see anyone sleeping, but I tried to lower the weights silently, which is not always so easy. Plus the clanking weights seemed more enjoyable to listen to than the alleged music they play there. Next thing he tells me I have to stop sweating. First I thought he was joking, but he was really serious. he said maybe I get sweat on other customers on elliptical machine, even though there was no one else even on machine. I told him he could get a spray bottle and rag, like US gyms, to wipe down machines after using them. He says maybe I will spray other people, like a cobra or a giant squid. Then I said it is very hot, so maybe he could invest in air con. he says no one else sweats so much. This is probably true, as most of his customers are Thai and from what I have seen they expend fewer calories than most inanimate objects. The guy was not impolite or rude or anything, but he seems to not grasp the whole concept of what gym is designed for.

God Bless America! This is truly a great day. It would be great to be in NY right now. This day came because of Guantanamo and waterboards and all the other stuff that US bashers whine about . Where did the information come from that made this possible? Only thing I am sorry is that Bin Loser died too easy, and now US will probably have to pay a fine for polluting the ocean. Today I am very proud of America and US Navy and now conspiracy nuts can drone on but nothing can change the fact that this is a great day and justice is finally done.

Thank you all for kind words. Strange thing about all this, is that if it happened back home no one would even mention it, as it is basically common courtesy. It is sort of sad to me that in Thailand it is considered out of the ordinary to help an injured person. I am not bashing Thai people here, but one has only to read this thread to see what I am talking about. Basically I love Thailand and Thai people, but to be honest, how many people on forum would really say they would rather be lying on the road injured here than they would back home, wherever that is? Unless maybe they are from Cambodia.

As for h2o dunce statement about badge, which actually is called a shield, when people retire from law enforcement in US they generally are given a retired police shield. It says retired clearly, along with rank you retired at, which in my case was lieutenant. Yes i know I am not a cop here and have no authority. However the fact is this shield has been every useful. It has gotten me out of two potentially costly situations while driving, where what with me being a farang and therefore always at fault, nevertheless the other parties, who in both cases were Thai, upon seeing the shield in my wallet, just ran away from the scene. I guess this is due to the usual Thai reluctance to get involved with any kind of police. Also, since it is NY police shield, I usually get decent treatment from Thai police and immigration, since they all seem to like American police tv shows and movies. I am not saying this is right or wrong, it is just the way it is.