tomahawk

I believe the big international media like CNN and BBC were just as bad as local Chiang Mai news. BBC guy was interviewing Thai army colonel, who said there were 40,000 people in protest area but only 3,000 protesters at the time. Next thing, only 2 minutes later, same BBC guy announces there are 40,000 protesters fighting with army. Then Bloomberg channel says that state of emergency declared in 15 of the 37 provinces of Thailand. Then Thaksin's lawyer comes on and starts talking about his client, but pronounces th in Thaksin like thank you. I would not want lawyer defending me that cannot say my name right. But that one not the news channel fault, just the lawyer.

Maripaun Beauty Salon and Massage

Maejo Road-6.5 km from Meechok Plaza on right side of road heading towards Maejo University, between Wawee Coffee and driveway to muban Wang Bua Thong

Thai therapeutic massage-120 bht/hr.

Oil massage-250 bht/hr.

Foot massage-80 bht/hr.

Two masseuses, Allie and Newt, who are both middle age and very experienced. Will give massage as strong as customer wants. Both have helped me greatly with herniated disk problem, rotator cuff also. Both very friendly and so is owner Marisa.

Phone number- 0852849118

I do not know as never ask but dont believe any "extras" at this shop. Very serious and old fashion about Buddha here and sometimes shop closed on Buddhist holidays., but otherwise open every day. Good idea to call first and make appointment but can walk in and they also give good haircut. Sometimes man comes and get massage while wife/gf gets hair done.

Yes citizen. I am sure you are correct. Seh Daeng will be remembered long time. Americans never forget General Benedict Arnold.

Yes now that it has been mentioned I guess fair to admit massage is Maripaun salon and information about this is in posting mention by mr. miller. It is true Nok is no longer working there but other masseuses there including Allie and new girl are just as good. There are also some improvements recently such as new massage tables and curtains. Nok did good job but apparently left due to family reasons.

Yes you are right, the English I write is very bad. Not because I do not speak English but because of 3 things. I type very slowly so I try to keep short, my eyesight is bad and also I do not speak to so many farang. Where I live is mostly all Thais and so I am either speaking Thai or tinglish or whatever you call it all the time. I can try to write better grammar but I think main thing is if people understand. What is strange is even when I talk to my children or other Englsih speaking people if I am not thinking about it I end up talking to them same way as to Thai people and then they think I am an idiot.

I do not want to give wrong impression about massage. Although I speak about pain I am mostly trying to do so with humor and good natured because actually it was very good massage and my back and leg are much better, so really since this is my purpose for massage I must say it was very good and I will definitely return. I do not know if other people have this experience, but for me it seems if I feel no pain during massage, it is not effective for relieving the back pain on the long term, so I would rather suffer a bit of pain during massage if it means I can get a good night sleep and live normal and active life.

Like I post in forum before I go to massage regularly for back and leg problems and helps me a great deal. I am not giving name of massage here because people on forum just think it is advertising, so I will just say it is a very nice place with friendly people and excellent masseuse. Anyway they have new girl name Newt and she gives massage first time and I tell owner it was not very strong and less pain than other girl Allie. Next time I go, I once again get massage from newt as other lady Allie busy and she tells me owner says I want stronger massage as it helps my back pain more. So I get what i ask for. I think this girl newt should be wearing black leather bikini and a whip. But this is what I asked for so I tried to be macho and pride would not let me complain but I tell you I think she can crack walnuts with bare hands.

However despite the s and m treatment it did the trick and back has been very good and loose ever since. I will definitely keep going back but perhaps i will shoot up morphine first. However to be fair if customer does not want the s and m just tell masseuse and they will do whatever way you wish.

Seriously, in this case either the perpetrator will flee the scene, in which case let him go, or not in which case you must neutralize the threat

which means prevent him from being able to harm you through whatever means available. If you do have a gun and the perpetrator becomes hostile then shoot him. This whole thing about shooting him in the leg is unrealistic.( The department I worked at in US said they had policy of shoot to disable, but then at the range we were taught only to shoot center of mass, in other words, in the chest.) If he has a gun he will kill you anyway, and if a person is untrained they may miss if aiming for smaller targets like legs. Most farang in Thailand do not have guns, so use whatever is handy such as knife, chair, stick or bare hands and make sure you do not stop attack until he is unconscious, dead or for whatever reason is no longer a threat. Then call the police.

If you spend time worrying about going to jail and lawsuits and other stuff you will most likely just die. The fact is even if you are right you will very likely be charged by police, but at least for myself that is better than being dead and leaving family at hands of criminals.

Thank you everyone. I will follow your advice here and start over everything from scratch. To answer your questions, I do have Windows but am not sure now where message came from, except when it popped up I was looking up stuff on google. The anti-virus I had then was AVG, and now have Comodo. I have one more question. Since this was hacked does this mean whoever did it has all my information from computer?

Last month while on internet a message came on computer saying "you have been hacked by Syrian Hacker." I guess he is some hacker in Syria who hacks into computers and steals their software. The computer went off and after that could not turn computer on again.

Now for some reason I can turn computer on again and it works okay but when I click some websites like Yahoo mail a sign comes on saying "this is an untrusted site." I download this security anti-virus software but still the message comes on so I do not read the email or other sites where message comes on.

Is there a way to solve this problem? Is this all from the syrian hacker? i do not know so much about computers and my friends who no computers are also unable to help. Thank you for any assistance.

My wife and her family are Thai citizens but born in Cambodia, and fled from there in seventies during the Khmer Rouge regime. Most of their family did not escape and were murdered. They are poor farmers and were always very supportive of thaksin and red shirt movement. Now the whole family is anti-red shirt. They say red shirts remind them of khmer Rouge and say they do not care if red shirts get killed, they do not want army to get hurt. They say red shirts are communists. I do not think they are very politically aware about communism and everything it involves. They just relate to a mob of people with guns wearing red and trying to take over. I am very much in favor of democracy and support it and have fought to defend it. Also as American Indian I can identify with being an oppressed group. However, I believe I would now be considered one of the fascists that some people on forum want to shoot. The government agreed to election, but this did not appease red shirts as elections were not fast enough. All they had to have was a little logic and reason but their leaders have none of that. Then they want the deputy PM to turn himself in for whatever and he did that and still not good enough. it seems to me that what red shirt leaders really want is bloodshed. I understand that poor people are angry and have been treated badly for a long time. However this does not excuse everything that is happening now. Many of these same poor people are losing jobs and homes because of what red shirts are doing. Do they not count for anything? Gatecrasher it seems to me you are the true fascist. Despite that I do not agree with you, I do not wish you to be rounded up and shot. I only wish for you to receive help for your problem.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about this general, if the army shot him it was the absolutely stupidest thing they could have done. Anyone who thinks this will save lives or calm things down is ignorant of history. All they have done is given the redshirts a martyr to incite a civil war, and it is not like this general was the entire redshirt leadership.

Also, just because it was a low-caliber bullet does not mean it is ineffective for sniper work. They are usually high velocity rounds with great range.

Just some further information for anyone interested. There are 2 masseuses at Maripaun Massage and both great. I mentioned Nok before but 2 days ago got massage from her partner Allie, who went to same school with Nok and they worked together at Phuket. I have arm problem which doctors in US told me could only be repaired with surgery. It is torn rotator cuff and also a torn deltoid. This was so bad I could not raise my right arm over my head and could not reach across my body. Whenever I got massage from Nok it felt much better afterwards, but after I told Allie my arm problem she did some kinds of different manipulations and now it is, for the moment, completely better. Not only do I have full range of motion but am completely pain free. Lifted bag of cement over my head with no problem which I could not do for years. I do not understand how just rubbing muscles and pulling on arm can repair a skeletal problem, but I don't care. As long as it works, that's all that matters.

I was there today and told owner how much trouble people have finding the place. She said she will be getting a sign to put on second floor to help people find it. Also going to get website. There are 2 masseuse and both very good. learn massage same school. Always at least 1 on duty now but before there was only 1 so when she had day off massage was closed. Also I complain about closing for Buddha days and so now agree for shop to stay open 7 days.

I do not know address but is on maejo Road (rte.1001) and directions are posted here but phone number of owner is 0852849118.

I did make a mistake with last directions and I am sorry. The 7-11 is on left side of road coming from rimping and meechok plaza. Massage is on right side. I only posted this message in first place because I know how bad it is to live with pain and since this helped me I thought would be nice to pass along information to help other people with pain also. I did not mean for it to cause so much argument and controversy. I will not give any more directions as apparently I am not good at it. maybe someone else here can do better job. Only last information I will give in order to be helpful is that massage is closed every Buddha day, which means it is closed 1 day a week. maybe this will be confusing to people who are not long in Thailand but If you have Thai calendar, any day with moon next to date is holy Buddhist holiday and it is closed. Also it is best to make appointment and to go in morning as sometimes afternoons are busy. Owner speaks English reasonably well but as I am having difficulty myself giving directions, I am sure her's will be more confusing.

Perhaps not so i try again. If you are driving from meechok plaza towards maejo there will be a gas station and 7-11 on left. About 500 meters or so past that, on left side of road, there is entrance to muban. It has gatehouse and roman-style statue in driveway. Directly next to this entrance is a row of 3 story buildings, with a green colored sign out front. If you keep going there is Wawee coffee shop and ornsirin muban on same side of road. This is best I can do. If directions still not clear you can call the owner and I gave phone number on previous posting.

Going towards maejo from meechok it is on right side. It is right before Wawee Coffee. You do not have to go into muban but building is located at driveway of muban with gatehouse. it is about maybe 500 meters from gas station on 7-11 which is on left side of road. There is sign out front with thai and english letters about massage. Have to go to next u-turn but if go to maejo university you went too far.

The whole situation with hospital is disgraceful, but really redshirts have a long, long way to go before they could be compared to Khmer Rouge.

Although I am farang and have not a nickel in the outfit as far as Thailand politics is concerned, I always did support the redshirt cause as I believe the poor should have a voice in the government. However, they have gone way too far now. The ends do not always justify the means. Raiding hospitals is just disgusting. As is firing at police and soldiers. Even if many or most redshirts are against this they are guilty of not objecting to it and participating. I have no respect for supposedly peaceful, non-terrorist Muslims who do nothing to object to terrorism and I feel same about redshirts in same position. I have no use for the yellowshirts either and basically there is no one I can see in this country who really understands what democracy really is. They might as well be the Crips and the Bloods.

Actually almost all the farang volunteers at police station were wearing polo shirts with patches, not regular police uniforms. They all seemed very helpful and polite and not at all like power hungry types. They were only talking to trekkers and giving directions to people at station. What is wrong with that? I think the people I met there were giving a good image of farangs. They were polite and well dressed. When I go to immigration I cannot believe at how most of my fellow farangs appear. They wear dirty clothes and are often unwashed and smell terrible. Truthfully I think many of them could not even qualify to work for police and perhaps this is why they are so hostile. In business I have I often have farang customers who are totally rude and obnoxious to the Thai workers and somehow feel superior to the Thais even though they look and smell like pigs. Yesterrday I talked to customer on phone who has been in Thailand only 1 week and was very irate because Thai girl at shop did not speak English well enough, even though this guy seemed basically illiterate. I do not have time to really devote to police volunteer and already am involved in other volunteer activites besides. However I was in law enforcement for 25 years and would not mind volunteering for TPD volunteer job as it is not a law enforcement job, just a way to do something useful. If someone chooses to spen all their time getting drunk and chasing prostitutes that is their business. But I cannot understand why these same people criticize someone who does something productive for soiciety.

Was at tourist police station today. At least 7 farang volunteers there on duty. So either the alleged Tourist police commander does not know what is going on with his own department, he is not really tourist police, or none of this ever happened. The point to me here is not just about tourist police, as I personally do not care about this, but that once again people spread false and malicious gossip about someone on forum without having any facts or evidence. All the time farangs complain about Thais and their malicious gossip, and for good reason as I have witnessed much of this myself. But some people on forum are no better. In fact I know some volunteer guys and some maybe are wannabe cops but mostly they are decent average guys just trying to keep busy and do something worthwhile, and none of them had electrodes coming out of their heads. I believe you will find a greater percentage of misfits and losers in bars in CM than at tourist police.

I am sure many farmers everywhere would like to say take this job and shove it. They should all quit farming and then they can easily become computer programmers or open their own designer clothing store. What a ridiculous statement this is. People who are farmers whether in Thailand or anywhere are generally born and raised this way. They inherit the land from parents and every generation farms the land. it is not an easy life and I have done it and I will admit it is not something I would want to do my whole life and I respect the people that do it and so should anyone who eats the food they grow. I myself came from family with farm but went into law enforcement partly to avoid having to work on farm every day.

Everywhere I have lived the rich people like to sit on their usually fat butts and drink martinis or whatever and look down on just about everyone else. Most would not last 15 minutes working in the fields and generally die of heart attacks whenever they have to do something strenuous like walk up the stairs. It is not hard to understand that if you work all day in the sun for peanuts you would be resentful of those merchants who do very little work yet profit the most from the farmer's labor.

Lending money to the guy to start business was a decent thing to do and is very commendable, but it is not to look down on those less fortunate.

I do not begrudge anyone success if they have worked for it, and do not even myself totally agree with my own previous ranting. Only trying to prove a point that it is not good to stereotype people, whether poor in Isaan or rich in Bangkok. Besides being farmer am also Native American so I can relate to having people say I am drunk, lazy etc. as this is the usual Indian stereotype same as the one of Isaan farmers.

I do not support any type of violent or terrorist behavior such as many of redshirts are exhibiting in Bangkok. But neither am I terribly surprised it is happening. It is just the latest local chapter of the endless struggle between the haves and the have-nots.

Perhaps things will change but outside of Bangkok, I do not see any anarchy at all. In fact nothing has changed in the least.. It does seem sometimes that Bangkok is separate from the rest of Thailand. Personally, I hope there is no more violence in Bangkok or anywhere else. But if their is violence in Bangkok, I do not believe this will necessarily lead to a civil war. As long as farmers have crops and vendors can sell their goods I think life will just go on.

Therapeutic massage on maejo road has new masseuse also. She does jsut as good as Nok and apparently this is because they learned at same place and worked together before at Phuket. I still go frequently and it has done wonders for pain in legs and back. Phone number is )852849118. Owners name is Marissa. Not expensive either but best to make appointment if going in afternoon.

I am not political expert and do not completely understand what all this political turmoil is about. However, I am giving my opinion of this situation not as political analyst but due to my experience of many years as leader of riot squad at maximum security prison in US. Having been involved in many instances of crowd and riot control, I am strongly opposed to using army as the main force in crowd or riot control. Police are trained to control. Army is trained to kill. I have never heard of any case, and I have read and studied about this a great deal, where military forces were deployed against civilian protests that did not result in severe casualties and bloodshed. This is not the fault of military. It is what they are trained for. During the numerous riots and emonstrations I was involved in during my career, there was not one participant killed by our unit, despite the opposition invariably being armed with various weapons, (though they thankfully did not have firearms.)

A riot is a very frightening event, even for a trained veteran. To put poorly trained conscripted soldiers in a riot situation and expect them to act with total restraint and professionalism is unrealistic. If they are fired upon, or attacked with rocks and spears, they will fire and they will not do so in controlled fashion and while they will be undoubtedly crucified as bloodthirsty goons afterwards, I would like the people who criticize their actions to see how they would respond in same situation. My squad and I trained regularly in use of chemical agents, decontamination procedures and post-event processing and restraint procedures, and even so there was inevitably unforeseen events and mistakes which occured in every riot situation. I watched the way chemical agents were deployed during the operation to retake the government house and it was obvious that the squad was unfamiliar with the agents.

I know some will say that a mob of hardened convicts is not same as a crowd of probably mostly peaceful protesters, but a mob is a mob once blood is spilt. Also some may not agree withn use of word "riot", but as far as I am concerned once a mob becomes violent it ceases to be a deomonstration and becomes a riot.

I am not trying to criticize or defame thai army or police or even protesters. Whether red shirts are right or wrong is not my concern as I am a guest in this country anyway. My main point here is that the situation here should be handled by a well-trained police force, and not a poorly-trained, or for that matter even a well-trained, army.