richardjm65

Theres a small cluster of around 5 karaoke bars just outside the town. Take the road to the left of 7/11 and its 2 minutes down there on the left, part of a motel complex. They are open everyday and will stay open as long as you are buying drink and a couple of the girls are actually decent looking if your looking for that. ( if your visiting your girls family it seems strange to want to do this however, that and your almost certain to get caught.)

In the town there is one farrang bar, owned by a Swiss guy. Very quiet except Saturdays when about a dozen farrangs chat over beers while their misses is in the market. Food is decent and insanely cheap.

When are you going?

The Swiss owner died 2 or 3 months ago, but his Thai manager has continued and has also added a pool table and, it would seem, turns out good European and Thai food. I think his reliability and his ability to speak quite good English will help him build a regular customer base, especially with the annual influx from Europe, which starts about now.

Saturday is his biggest day, as his place is adjacent to the Saturday market and he gets a fairly multi-national crowd.

Four shophouses up is the bait and tackle shop which also does cold beer - Leo cans @30B, Leo big bottles @ 50B. The folk who own this have also recently built and opened a small resort, but I don't know about price or how well the rooms are equipped.

I guess the topic of trust is a bit like deciding whether you're a pessimist or an optimist. If you think about it, being a pessimist means that, no matter what, you can never really be disappointed.

Being an optimist means plenty of disappointments in life.

So I choose pessimism and truly believe I'm happier for that choice.

By the same reasoning, I am reluctant to entirely trust anyone, but would be saddened to find that someone could not trust me!

A girly gun.

But as mentioned, your local ampur should be able to point you in the right direction.

It the gun does not kill you you fall down laughing anyway.

Ah yes! This would be the one where, if you flick one of the levers to the centre position, it changes to a camera. If you switch the lever to the down position, you get a bullet AND a picture. Imagine the fun to be had with that after a few Lao Khaos and Red Bull.

There are all sorts of brain dead farangs plonking themselves in Thailand these days.

Some have vicious dogs patrolling they’re properties, carry knives, carry guns and who knows what else?

These people are weird and could be dangerous because not only are they anti- social but also sending out the message, stay away from us or we’re hurt you bad, possibly even kill you.

There has to be something fundamentally wrong with the minds of people that want to carry deadly weapons or have deadly weapons in their homes, including dangerous dogs, firearms and having their homes fortified, secured and guarded like Fort Knox.

One of my worst fears is that someday I may suddenly find one as a neighbour and that would be scary. Perhaps the reasons include, these people are up to no good, are paranoid, are into certain illegal professions where they may become targets of gangs or simply have many things to hide and don`t want others to get too close to them.

Most normal, non-aggressive, law abiding folk would not consider having deadly weapons unless they are suffering from extreme anxieties and really are in need of profession treatment.

You may be right in what you say. However, we had our house broken into and comprehensively robbed whilst we slept. That has resulted in the re-examining of our security situation. We installed exterior window grills, a steel front door in addition to the fairly stout wooden door, and an extension at the rear of the house that includes not only our up-graded back door, with deadbolts, but also the typical Thai sliding grill gate, which we keep padlocked, on the inside, with an expensive padlock. We also thought it wise to protect ourselves further by putting in proper ceilings and spray insulation on the inside of our roof, which means that it's pretty well impossible for a villain to get through the roof.

We don't have weapons, other than a taser and a couple of extendable steel batons. No trained attack dogs either - just a couple of fairly lethargic cats. Our robbery took place about 8 years ago, and I still feel uneasy about leaving our house un-attended.

When we first moved up to the boonies, 15 years ago, self protection did not appear to be necessary. Now, though, with little prospect up here of honest work to fuel the jack-the-lads drug and booze alternative to hopelessness and motor cycle racing, we feel the need to be very, very cautious. Sad to say, the days of trusting that the locals are, basically, a nice bunch of chaps, are no longer valid. Look to protect yourself however you can.

I think I like drunks now.

Yes full of dutch courage they do come in handy sometimes 8-)

I have to ask - what is the significance, Big Johnny, of your use of 8- in your posts. This is not a wind-up, merely a search for enlightenment.

She'll get more respect if she dumps the "girly gun" idea and carries something with a bit of heft to it.

How about a used M60? I know a guy who has one for sale......

I think the trend started with Angelina

Is that her - on the right? My god, she's really let herself go.

I've just finished "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga, ISBN 978-1-84887-042-0. This was winner of the Man Booker Prize 2008. Because of the lurid cover I was not enthusiastic - until I started reading it. Now I'm re-reading at least the first few chapters again and maybe all of it. It's an astonishing story of the rise in the fortunes of an Indian boy and brings into sharp focus the corruption in the world's largest democracy. I could not help but see parallels between the Indian and the Thai way of keeping the lower orders in their place.

The back cover blurb says "meet Balram Halwai, the 'white tiger': servant, philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer......"

It's a well worth while read.

Just finished 'Bleak House' by Dickens. OK (damning with faint praise ) but it's not his best.

I'm now reading 'Sharpe's Sword' by Bernard Cornwall. Anything book by him is great, all the Sharpe series, the Arthurian ones, the viking ones, Stonehenge, and so on.

If not him then Sir Terry Pratchett, anything at all by him except 'Nation' which I didn't enjoy.

I've acculmulated 2,000 e-books for when I get my hands on a Kindle Paperwhite.

Lungbin, I just re-checked the specs for both versions of the Kindle Paperwhite on Amazon UK. Looks like it has a capacity for only 1,100 books, which means you're going to be 900 over the limit.

Can I have them?

I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried the new Kindle Paperwhite, as I'm still trying to make an informed decision.

My experience with this office isnot good. We will have had four visits to this office traveling from Nongki before I finally receive my one year extension on my marriage visa. It seems like they like to nit pick. They said that my money was not in the bank long enough but the money was in the bank for over two months, except that we opened up a CD a month and a half ago. The transfer of money was at the same bank and clearly obvious in the two bank books I presented. Also, when I explained that my retirement income was supposed to offset the bank deposit they were not even interested in seeing evidence of my monthly income. The woman obviously wanted to make it clear that she had power over us and she, herself would decide whatever she wanted regardless of the law. My wife was in tears when we left the office because all of our paperwork was in order. We were very polite.

I've learned that it is most unwise, even if you have 800,000+ baht in your bank account, to change banks during that 3 months prior to a retirement extension. Having discovered that Krung Thai Bank does not pay interest on foreigner's savings accounts, I emptied the account and trotted off to the Kasikorn bank 50 metres up the road, where a new savings account was opened for me less than 30 minutes after closing out the KTB account. Thereafter, despite offering both savings books for inspection at the immigration office (Korat on that occasion), the officer to whom you refer felt unable to agree that the 3 month maturation period condition had been met. Fortunately another, somewhat friendlier officer, spoke quietly to her and my extension was granted. I too, felt I was getting a power show.

More likely though, a previous applicant had pissed her off! It happens.

Bookman and I had a brief discussion on the recovery of the Tek Sing treasure by Mike Hatcher - after I'd enthused over "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea", by Gary Kinder. Well, Hugh Edwards has written "Treasures of the Deep", a book about the "extraordinary life and times of Captain Mike Hatcher", which is published by Harper Collins (Australia). We can expect more discussion of the ongoing controversy between marine archaeologists and treasure hunters, no doubt. I've not read it yet, but will do so ASAP. He's taken part in the salvage of 80 shipwrecks. I expect there will be references to other interesting characters who operated, (and probably still do), around the waters of S.E.A.

Right now I'm half way through Jonathan Glancy's most excellent book, "Spitfire - The Biography", (ISBN978-1-84354-528-6) which, as you might expect, is the development and history of that aircraft. It's not at all dry, as these histories sometimes tend to be, and if you happen to be interested in aviation history, this is a great read. Quite extrordinary to learn more about the personal disagreements between the upper echelon officers of the RAF - also that the average age of Spitfire pilots during the Battle of Britain was just 19 or 20. The Spitfire was used by 28 different nations (including Thailand), and the last time it was flown in military service was in 1963 when it was pitted against a Lightning jet fighter of the RAF in a mock dog-fight in which it apparently performed very well.

I'd have to try more books by Lawrence Block before adding him to my "must read" list. "Small Town" was readable but I could not see how most of the characters connected to the main story, nor was there much insight into the mind of the perp. I also could not figure out what the slightly kinky sexual awakening of one of the women had to do with anything. But there you go......

Then I picked Paul Theroux's "The Kingdom By The Sea" off my shelf and read it yet again. The back cover blurb says "Paul Theroux's round-Britain travelogue is funny, perceptive and 'best avoided by patriots with high blood pressure.....'

I've always liked him and I understand why many people find him a bit waspish and condescending, but I've lived outside the UK since 1972 and when you read the perceptions of an outsider like Theroux, if you're honest, you have to say "yes, that's how we really are - no doubt about it, a strange nation of people really". This was written 30 years ago during the summer of the Falklands war and the British mixture of derision, despair and jingoism comes across well. His descriptions of high unemployment towns and their hopeless residents are pretty accurate too. I could not help recalling the Pink Floyd line, "hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way...."

I wish I had not loaned out my Bill Bryson book about the UK, (never got it back), because it would have been fun to compare his comedic impressions with Paul Theroux's. I remember in Bill Bryson's opening chapter, his description of his first B&B landlady, the horrible Mrs Smegma. A laugh a minute from thereon.

Carlsberg makes me fart too much!

Really, Lenny? Tell us how much farting is too much? And how would you know? Are we talking room-emptying emissions?

You might remember that I posted with enthusiasm for Don Winslow's book "The Power of the Dog" - so much so that I immediately re-read it. The Don Winslow book that I've just finished was pretty impressive too - it's called "The Winter of Frankie Machine", ISBN 978-0-09-950945-5. This writer has really got my attention, and I must get hold of his other books.

I see that "Savages", (which is another of his books), has been released as a film in Thailand, and I note that he was one of the film's scriptwriters.

My next read will be "Small Town" by Lawrence Block. I'm told he's pretty good but for some reason I've never heard of him, despite the fact that he has at least a dozen books to his credit. Any of you guys read anything of his?

"A legal marriage also entitled me to an additional 60% of basic UK pension as a kind of marriage allowance. I've heard since that this benefit may now have been amended. Can anyone enlighten?"

No longer I am afraid! The married mans allowance known as ADI (Adult Dependency Increase) was discontinued for new applicants in 2010 and will cease for current receivers in 2020. In addition the qualifying age for both male and female applicants for state pension is being increased to 67 over a number of steps, you need to go to the Direct Gov website and use the pension calculator to work out when you and wife will be entitled.

Interesting point - that of the ADI ceasing in 2020 for those now receiving it. I wonder if that will affect her pension. I must check further on that, thanks for the tip. I was aware that we'd just skidded in under the bar before the ADI issue was stopped in 2010.

I married my wife in 2004 and became of pensionable age (65) in 2008, so I've been receiving the "enhanced" pension, though I did have to jump through a few hoops before it was fully implemented. Because I'd been working in SEA since 1972 and had never believed I would ever grow old, I'd made too few NI contributions to qualify for the full state pension. However, I found I was able to make a few years of NI contributions which brought the pension up quite considerably, though what I do get is being eroded by the increasing cost of living, an unfavourable exchange rate and, of course, the fact that Brits living in certain territories (Thailand among them) do not receive any annual pension increase. This matter has (and is) being exhaustively discussed elsewhere on this forum.

I was fortunate in being able to afford those NI contributions in arrears, and further fortunate in having some savings which help to mitigate the effects of dwindling pension value. We can afford to live in Thailand, but the gold-plated Rolls will have to wait until I can track down a rich and generous relative who urgently needs someone to pass their fortune on to. I'll own up to that......

Why r u going to register a marriage here? Is your gf pregnant?

Most Thais get marry without going thru the registration.

Sent from my XT910 using Thaivisa Connect App

It could be a no more meaningful act than to prepare for the day when you die. The only reason I registered a marriage with my gf of many years, was to ensure that she copped the entitlements from the pension service (UK) when I die. She will also receive a (small) UK pension when she reaches pensionable age. A legal marriage also entitled me to an additional 60% of basic UK pension as a kind of marriage allowance. I've heard since that this benefit may now have been amended. Can anyone enlighten?

Then there's the question of wills. Being officially married makes things easier in Thailand and in the UK. Two wills are recommended - a Thai will and a UK will each dealing precisely with one's assets in each country.

Sadly, I have seen a good number of long-term good and faithful girlfriends left financially out in the cold because the UK family, or an existing but un-divorced former wife were able to show their entitlement to the spoils exceeded that of the Thai gf. If the relationship with the gf has been a long one, perhaps she is then too old to attract a replacement partner. So, that leaves her where, exactly?

Yes, there are good reasons for registering your marriage. If you're a proper couple, I'd say that preparing for what happens after your death is something of a duty and responsibility.

And, the being legally married bit gives your bride some personal reassurance re your intentions, and a bit of face with her family.

There maybe some validity in what the OP is saying, lets face it Thailand has large numbers of foreign retiree's, hanger's on and wannbee's where as places like Singapore dont, the vast majority of expats in Singapore, HK etc are working there with reputable companies, therefore there would be a tendancy for there to be more undesirables in Thailand just based on numbers.

Based on my own observations of 10 years here and in comparision with other countries I have lived, worked in, Thailand does seem to have a lot more "damaged" , bitter, resentful, chip on their shoulder type expats floating around than I have seen on other places

You are obviously an expat who has experience of working in a number of regional locations. Your comments are well observed.

Many of my colleagues are based in HK, KL, Seoul, Tokyo, Sing, and Macao. The general consensus is that the man who has been transferred to BKK is the man who has drawn the short straw.

My contract is only for 6 months. After this, I'm back to Sing.

I invested 13 years in Singapore - and now I'm here. Drew the short straw this time, didn't you? Well, never mind, we all cop a ration of shit sometime or other. It could be worse, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, the Sudan, Afghanistan and Libya are marginally worse. Belgium's pretty gross too!

Ever tried Manila?!!

Actually, yes. I was there in 1986, only for 6 months though, and strictly for R&R after the rigours of Singapore. I especially remember the delights of MH del Pilar and Marbini, and a good Catholic lass called Malinao, who could do quite extraordinary things. I also did some photography in Malacanang palace the day after Marcos was extracted. Happy days. Then there were happy days in Angeles and also Puerto Galera. Those days, I must say, were much more to my liking than any of those ME countries. Or Belgium.

But each to his own, I say......each to his own.

There maybe some validity in what the OP is saying, lets face it Thailand has large numbers of foreign retiree's, hanger's on and wannbee's where as places like Singapore dont, the vast majority of expats in Singapore, HK etc are working there with reputable companies, therefore there would be a tendancy for there to be more undesirables in Thailand just based on numbers.

Based on my own observations of 10 years here and in comparision with other countries I have lived, worked in, Thailand does seem to have a lot more "damaged" , bitter, resentful, chip on their shoulder type expats floating around than I have seen on other places

You are obviously an expat who has experience of working in a number of regional locations. Your comments are well observed.

Many of my colleagues are based in HK, KL, Seoul, Tokyo, Sing, and Macao. The general consensus is that the man who has been transferred to BKK is the man who has drawn the short straw.

My contract is only for 6 months. After this, I'm back to Sing.

I invested 13 years in Singapore - and now I'm here. Drew the short straw this time, didn't you? Well, never mind, we all cop a ration of shit sometime or other. It could be worse, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, the Sudan, Afghanistan and Libya are marginally worse. Belgium's pretty gross too!

Let yourself go? Quite inexcusable!

Normally, in my village, I like to wear a cream silk shirt with a pastel blue cravat. For the nether garments, a pair of well pressed linen trousers and white silk socks and two-tone leather shoes. I like to set this pleasant dress off with a jaunty cap or fedora, the latter enhanced with a colourful hat band. I find an ebony cane, (silver tipped), seldom fails to impress and a long cigarette holder, with a nice Balkan blend tobacco smoke nicely completes the picture of elegant affluence that I like to present and which. I believe, the local rice farmers and the poorer folk recognise and appreciate.

It gives them an example.......something to admire and aspire to, don't you think?

I supply all my staff with their own T shirts when I had them building my house, I like them to rise above the other locals,

This, of course, is a laudable sentiment and one with which we should all agree. I applaud you for supplying your staff with uniforms. I assume that he's your foreman?

How did your house finish up?

I notice that the OP never did return - but maybe he did - and got fingered by the Welsh mafia. (Or the Belgians).

A lot goes on at that Saturday market that most of you guys can't imagine. The stories would chill your blood.......

I agree, Rsquared, the story is not spoiled one bit by knowing that yes, they find and recover the gold, amid on-going legal arguments, insurance claims and so on which lasted several years.

And, Bookman, I wonder if the Chinese porcelain find you refer to would be from the Tek Sing, which sank in Feb 1822 in a South China Sea area called Belvedere Shoals. The cargo was auctioned in Germany (Stuttgart, I think), and the Indonesians were mightily distressed, as they considered the salvage to have taken place in their territorial waters. Many of the Tek Sing's crew and pax were rescued, but many died. More, in fact, than the number who died in the Titanic disaster years later.

Tek Sing ran about 1000 tons, was about 50 metres long and was a 3-masted junk carrying about 200 crew and 1600 passengers. The tallest of her three masts was 90 feet. She was greatly overloaded and in an attempt to take a bit of a short cut, hit the shoal. Mike Hatcher, (met him a time or two in S'pore), looked for and found the wreck and in May '99 started to effect the recovery.

It was said by some that part of the cargo of porcelain was smashed to make sure auction prices were kept high and, indeed, the porcelain sold at record prices. True or not, I cannot say, but once again it raises that archaeology/treasure question. Tek Sing was not difficult to salvage - she sank in about only about 100 feet of water, requiring no particularly innovative equipment. Scuba divers could reach her.

Sorry if I'm rambling, it's just that I'd give much to be at that stage of my life again.....