Lee4Life

As far as NongKhai goes, I have done the 90 day border hop there (I live in NongKhai) many times, and just zip across and back, never any problems for me. Have never heard of the 48 hour thingy.

4 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

What is "light winking action" and is it legal whilst driving?  If he did whip out his pistol then its nothing to be proud of 

How dare you wink at me! .....no, really...I have no clue whatsoever. Is this something that is lost in translation? Or maybe a term from another country?

It amazes me that in a country where "anything goes" in so many ways, people are so stuck on procedure and adhering to policies, especially where extra fees are involved. For example, I bought ceiling tile at a large chain-type building supply store. The workers loaded the wrong tile in my vehicle, and I didn't notice as it was all in plain white boxes. I got home and opened a box, saw the tile was wrong and loaded it all back up and returned to the store. I explained that my receipt was for the correct tile but the workers had accidentally loaded the wrong tile in my vehicle. Instead of just swapping it out for me, they insisted that I needed to go to the main office and have a new invoice printed.

         I went to the office, where they printed an invoice for the tile that they incorrectly loaded into my vehicle, then printed a return authorization saying I returned it, then printed another new invoice identical to the one I first received. To top it all off they charged me a fee for printing the invoices, when I protested, the office worker told me that if I didn't pay the fee she would have to pay out of her own pocket because it was company policy that somebody paid for the extra invoices being printed. 

6 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Horrific is truly the correct word.

 

I often hear (but don't see) racers on my island late at night on the weekend, and occasionally see the end results of racing as I go for a morning cycle; it is a terribly sad situation.

 

Kids will be kids, but one certainly has to wonder where the hell the parents are; well-brought up kids don't do idiotic things like this.

 

R.I.P.

 

   Agreed...terrible thing to happen.

Up here in Isaan we also can hear the motorbikes racing at night, but they are not limited to the weekends...it's nightly. There are no manned police checkpoints in the evenings and no patrols that I have seen, so what is there to keep them in check? 

I bought my last phone on e-bay during one of my trips home, it was an unlocked Verizon S5 gsm and was listed as refurbished but when I received it the package was obviously new and had never been opened. It was a funny turquoise color and I figured that's why it was about half the normal price. I have purchased several phones here before and haven't had any luck with them at all, I'm happy to say this phone has been flawless for the year I have owned it. I would definitely buy another one there. Just do your homework and make sure you get an unlocked phone, not just contract-wise but also unlocked as far as regions go.

I had one the other day at the local mom & pop coffee shop, it was really more like a chocolate smoothie though...but what the hey, what did I expect?

A few rain showers off and on here at NongKhai, but mostly just wind. Sure feels nice compared to the heat and humidity normal to this time of year. Besides..I don't have to pick the mangos, they are coming down to me

15 minutes ago, Juan B Tong said:

OMG!

They actually have sweeper trucks?

yep.

Condolences to the fellows family.  

2 hours ago, kingstonkid said:

the thing I like about people here is that they do not seem to think that the Thai police cannot walk and chew bubble gum.

 

I imagine a tourist having a leak on Buckingham Palace champ d;elise. statue of liberty or the front of the Sydney opera house.  

 

These things are not allowed and would not be accepted.  People would be charged and punished.  The same thing goes here.

 

To be honest the fact that the BIG JOIKE" is taking crime in all it's forms seriously and I AM SURE HIS STAFF is IS A GREAT RELIEF TO this tourist.  I just hope that more officers will take his lead.

While I agree with you on the main point of your post, I don't really think it's fair to compare someone sitting in a place they shouldn't be to someone urinating there. And what do you even mean by the comment about "I am sure his staff is a great relief to this tourist" anyway?

I think I have run into a few counterfeit Kingston micro sd cards, the packaging appeared to be real to me but the cards were unusable, when I looked more closely at the cards I noticed they were the only cards in the batch that had a little hologram type logo sticker on them that said "Kingston", the good cards were sticker free.. They were purchased at a retailer in Chiang Mai and we live in Nong Khai so I just wrote them off.

2 hours ago, essox essox said:

who goes out on a cycle at 3.30 am....??

and why??

 

I was out just after 4am this morning, nice and cool, not much traffic at all, even the mean dogs seemed to be asleep...great time to get some exercise, but that's just me.

2 hours ago, neeray said:

Talk is so cheap !

That did sound like an awfully quick turnaround from out of control to “under control”. 

But it is under control, somewhere!

2 hours ago, SABloke said:

Do you dislike to word slaughter for the same reason?

 

Yes, we kill animals in a cull, but the English language is great in that a word can be very specific and give the reader/listener a lot of information instantly without the need to clarify. I can say a thing is 'big', 'huge',or 'gigantic' rather than having to say, 'big', 'very big', 'very very big'. Kill is a very vague term.

 

kill: cause the death of (a person, an animal, or other living thing)

murder: the unlawful and premeditated killing of one human being by another

slaughter: kill animals for food.

cull: reduce the population of (a wild animal) by selective slaughter, select from a large quantity; obtain from a variety of source

 

 When cattle ranchers in the states "cull" the herds, they take out the defective animals but it does not necessarily mean they are killed, not yet anyway...most of the time they are sold off at a different price. This is one definition of "cull", the other definition is, as you stated, to kill off a number of animals to an acceptable level. (most dictionaries actually state "wild animals")

On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 3:28 PM, Just Weird said:

 

 

So original.  Don't you lot feel embarrassed copying other poster's dynamic work?

nope...and I don't even feel embarrassed for not reading through pages and pages of comments to make sure I didn't double up on a posting! (but I may attempt to do so in the future so as to not bother others)

3 minutes ago, jimster said:

I've seen Thai cars traveling in Vietnam on a tour - with their Thai plates attached. Very simply, you need to register your intentions before entering the country through a travel agency - the agent in turn makes all the arrangements with the relevant ministries and departments. Driving tours to Vietnam are not actually that expensive and they apply to every foreign registered vehicle wishing to enter Vietnam irrespective of whether it's a RHD or LHD car except for Lao registrations and Cambodian registrations (these are restricted to border provinces only). ONLY Lao vehicles can travel freely around Vietnam without seeking permission in advance.

Thanks for all of the good information...but in this statement I understood you to say that vehicles with Lao registrations are restricted to border provinces only, but in the next sentence you seemed to state that only Lao vehicles can travel freely around Vietnam without seeking permission in advance. What am I missing?

4 hours ago, Darcula said:

 

Autobots? Decepticons?

O.K., I'll throw my hat in the ring... Made in China?

It's been a few years ago now, but another foreigner told me he tried and the authorities at the Vietnam border turned him around because the car was right-hand drive. maybe someone else has heard of this also?

8 hours ago, Cadbury said:

The answer to your last question is obviously NO. I suspect that even if there were auditors they would be as crooked as the rorters themselves and if they found anything irregular they would want to be in on it as well. Such is the Thai civil service.

Pity some civil servants are are not as efficient at doing their jobs as they are at scamming public funds. I speak generally of some senior personal who seem to have the greater opportunity to defraud. I know there are some bad eggs but I am sure there a lot of good people in the service.

They do have auditors, at least they have private auditing firms anyway, my niece worked for one of them, I can tell you that she is an honest young woman...don't know about the others where she worked. If you are talking about if the government has their own audits or auditors, I'm not sure about that.

On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 5:08 AM, metisdead said:

I think it is safer, that way when it is time to leave, the first motion is forward and the driver has a clear view, can see if another car is coming or exiting from another parking space. Reduces accidents caused by reverse exiting and the driver reversing may miss somebody in the blind spot. 

 

Another reason for reverse parking, what if your car develops a dead battery or other mechanical problems? With reverse parking the engine compartment is easier to get into rather than if the driver parked in a forward position. 

 

Reverse parking is promoted in other countries:  http://safestart.com/news/4-reasons-backing-parking-spaces-safer

 

 

 

 

 

It might be that you stated the rationale commonly used, but if you think for a moment...which is more safe, to back a vehicle into a narrow, confined space? or to back the same vehicle out into a wider more open space?  But on the other hand I was thinking that other drivers are going to be driving at a sane speed and give you a break when they see you are  backing out... sorry, I forgot where I was living for a moment.

3 hours ago, mercman24 said:

carrying a blade should be 6 months in jail, no questions asked no excuses. but we know it wont happen every man and his dog carries  a blade, the guy on the street, taxi drivers, bus drivers, moto taxis, i could go on lol

I think you're wrong about all of those people carrying blades, some of them are carrying guns

3 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

A bit early/off season for such a warning.

I know it most from around June.

And "bamboo"?

Must be long ago that they used bamboo for the rocket casing.

All blue PVC nowadays.

I was wondering the same thing,  I have been here ten years and have never seen a bamboo rocket except for in a parade. Do they fire those? Only seen them fire the  pvc rockets, and some of those are huge.