WinnieTheKhwai

Looks like a fairly balanced article, and a sensible assessment from Abhisit. If only he could control the hawks in his government better.

(I'm assuming the remarks were made by Abhisit, the grammar in the article doesn't make it 100% clear if Abhisit was giving or receiving a briefing. The topic says 'HM the King Gets Briefing by Abhisit' but then in the article grammar itself falls apart with the opening line "His Majesty the King will be giving a briefing by the prime minister on Monday". Correct grammar would either be "Giving to" or "Getting by (or from)". Again, I'm assuming it was Abhisit providing the briefing.)

To be honest it'd not maximum hot yet. Once the pollution clears early April then you'll really see hot with temperatures close to 40 degrees.

Especially the mornings remain fairly cool for now.

Come April I may need to turn on the aircon. (Though even now I spend mos of the day downstairs where it's coolest.)

Great effort! Some of the location indicators seem a bit off though..

Is anyone in CM making plans for a getaway just in case ? I was thinking a trip to Chiang Khong on Wednesday and a few days stay at a nice place on the Mekong River with the option of going over to Laos in case things got wild here.

Yes, I'm going to Bangkok. Will likely check out the main rally site at Sanam Luang; it's convenient relative to the Khao San Road area so might as well check it out. Should be good, but if it isn't then I'll stay away.

While showing a drivers license or work permit solves the issue for myself, it's offers no solution when sightseeing with visiting friends or family. The national park fees are plainly absurd for what's on offer, so we tend to avoid the ones where admission is charged. We lose out, and Thailand loses out in the end because many tourists don't get to see or do particular things, so they're less impressed when getting home, meaning less word of mouth advertising, etc.

Last time I was hit with duel pricing ended up with me doing a 3 point turn and heading back home .....

Pfff. No J-turn/Moonshiner's turn?? More rewarding.

My 4 y/o son has a cute luke krung girl in his class. He is going to marry her. My daughter is only 1.5 y/o she hasn't made up her mind yet but I hope she choses a luke krung man. The nice thing is they will fit in fine with each others families. BTW I'm not accepteing anything less than 20 million Baht Sin Sod for my daughter so start saving now.

LOL. I don't think kids that age have a cultural preference, though my 4 year old does seem to hang out with other mixed kids a lot. Most likely it's a language thing though.

BTW, completely unrelated to this discussion and without me mentioning it my wife basically said out of the blue that she'd prefer a Western (or mixed) future spouse for our kids. I think it was largely based on an assumption of financial means and education though. Which brings me to another point; while my upbringing is very much to not interfere in any way with the partner choice of my kids, I have the distinct feeling that my wife will be engaging in some serious meddling when the time comes.. At least if her response to my mom in law's new partner is anything to go by. In that case too my position was quite obviously that it's her life and that she owes nobody an explanation on her path to happiness. The Mrs however.. wow.

I would hope that we raised her well enough to not choose a partner based on their race.

EGGsactly. The OP believes this poll is important and interesting. However, it is only interesting anybody could view the topic as important.

Why would anyone, in this day and age, even think like this, let alone expound to the world such nonsense?

[it IS a race based, (nationality based) topic of discussion and the only way to psrticipate is with some level of discrimination.]

Did anybody notice that Hillary Clinton claimed to break the glass ceiling for women in politics!? As an American she probably isn't very good at world history; --- Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Bhutto and about 4 dozen other elected women PM's did that! [including some from a handful from Muslim countries].

Out of curiosity, who said it's important (I wouldn't) ? And whether it's interesting depends largely on the replies and votes but even then it's a matter of personal taste. I do indeed find your reply interesting and I assume you do too as you posted it?

And erm.. the second part of your post, is that just there to steer the discussion off topic? (It's not working.)

ill fill you in later as to why i think thai women win hands down compared to a women say from other parts of the world.

With bated breath I wait to be clued in.

Let's hear it for paper-based information!

That's insane; 300+ baht for a glass of Guinness.

I enjoy a pint or 2 (only when recovering from a serious illness, mind you).

At those prices wine starts to look like a better deal....some cheese with that wine?

At any price wine starts to look like a better deal.

Looking at the data for all provinces surrounding Chiang Mai, why would the wind bring clean air? Where would the clean air come from?

We find out,next week with the red rally.I'm happy that I'm not living in Bangkok.

I was told by red friends not to go to bkk on those days.

Ah, those wouldn't be the Red friends that wrote that lovely sounding invitation (grammatically correct and without a single spelling mistake)for farangs to join the rally to oust the government and guaranteeing that no harm will come to them? So, they're concerned for your safety, but don't mind others dying in the cause of recovering toxic assets?

Who said anything about safety? I'd imagine major traffic jams being the main concern. (It is for me). I wouldn't have any qualms being at a Red rally. Depending on the mood I may not stick around though as I don't want to be there if the military decides on a crackdown and the bullets start flying. (I don't think that's likely, but it's not completely impossible either)

He didn't form a coalition he bought forty MPs and I say he bought forty MPs because even if he didn't pay the money himself he used the millions of stolen votes to install himself as Prime Minister. And before anybody says he could win an election remember he won't have those forty votes because those forty MPs are too scared to even visit their constituencies never mind campaign so they'll be replaced by Phue Thai Party MPs.

Newin Chitbob's father, who Newin had installed as Speaker, has seen the writing on the wall as he's now saying that it is possible that Newin will rejoin Taksin. However, I think that he's dreaming as Newin and the rich forty MPs will never be forgiven

Ok, that's all fair enough, but surely Abhsisit/the Democrats didn't do anything that Thaksin didn't do when constructing the TRT coalition initially? I would agree that Newin's guys were bought (or enticed with profitable cabinet positions, or both), but that's pretty much business as usual in Thai politics?

All true. ( Still, can we be happy that this seems to be a really good year, and consistent with the overall year on year decline in pollution levels? )

I'm not sure there are daily fluctuations in pollution. (For sure there are fluctuations from day to day, but less sure there are regular patterns within a single day). For sure there are fluctuations in visibility though, with mornings being not as a good as evenings. However that may be due to higher mosture levels in the air in the morning.

I suspect that most thai/farang daughters are well educated and well looked after enough to get to a stage where they will make their own decisions regardless of their parental influences...

My own sons, late teens (half Thai/English), live upcountry and are absolutely swamped by local girls and I feel no quilt at very much leaving them to their own devices - it would have been very cruel to take them to farangland to live (if they were daughters then it would have been cruel to leave them in Thailand).

So it would be different for daughters? If they were swamped by local boys you may not leave them to their own devices and decisions regardless of their parental influences?

Note: I'm not intentionally being a smart-ass here (comes naturally), but these sort of differences that are felt by Western fathers in Thailand are exactly the area I wanted to explore with a poll.

EDIT: Sorry, just saw you posted at the same time. will read first.

EDIT: Ok, I just read your post above.

To clarify: ALL poll options are stated neutrally; I could have added a qualification to all of them, trying to hit some kind of rationale for each option, but decided to keep the 'no preference' option neutral as well. Let me take responsibility for not making myself clearer earlier on when I said I didn't "add a PC/moral/feel-good option". This was incorrect; the poll choice WAS included, but what meant to say (but didn't) was that I omitted the rationale, in line with the other options, and kept all of them neutral.

So I left it at "It doesn't matter to me", instead of "It doesn't matter to me because true love and my daughter's choice is all that matters". Is the omission of that rationale the thing that irks you to the point of calling me 'prejudiced', 'afraid' and 'unwilling to let people express their viewpoint', which 'speaks volumes'?

Sorry for the confusion; I didn't leave out whole options, but decided to not advertise one with added morality.

Oh dear.. shouldn't have said PC.. I do know and should know that many people have a knee-jerk reaction to the mere word, even though compounded with "/moral/feel-good" to explain what is meant.

Either way, I completely understand your point of view and my feelings towards this topic are exactly the same the same as yours. Your issue is with the people who voted they prefer a particular cultural background when there is clearly an option available to not give a preference for any background. Then follow up that poll-choice with a regular post to add some balance and that should be that;

I don't really understand why you need to take such an aggressive tone when from my posts above it should already be clear that we feel the same about this topic? Do my choice of poll options merit such vitriol? Can you please take a deep breath, read back those options and my posts so far?

I would hope that we raised her well enough to not choose a partner based on their race.

As stated earlier, I kept out a PC/moral/Feel-Good option on purpose. Plus, keep in mind there are other considerations as well: If he/she'd marry a Thai person or half Thai person then they're more likely to stick around in Thailand, as opposed to moving half way around the world. And, with a mixed partner, grand children would end up with at least three nationalities. Come on, let go, give it some honest thought..

So far I'm the only one voting for a preference for a mixed Thai/Western partner, I would have expected some more votes there. Naturally it goes without saying that it's her choice and her choice only. But again, as soon as you add a PC/Moral poll option specifically highlighting modern/Western staples of True Love and Free Choice then 90% will pick that choice, snowing under a gut feel result that most fathers must feel somewhere, no matter how well they hide it..

I think the money question is on the decline.. That used to be the third or fourth question in any small talk conversation.. I rarely encounter it these days. The truthful answer however remains "Not enough!"

Orphanage?

I can see a whole separate topic on Thai World Records.

Meanwhile, Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the Army had no information about the possibility of sabotage, adding that the intelligence mentioned by the prime minister could be from another security agency.

So much for sharing intelligence information? More likely though the source is again the 'shark! shark!' cries from one of the hawks around Abhisit. "Meanwhile", those remarks are incredibly damaging, as the scenario seems to require that there are some elements in the military who would engage in sabotage. That seriously pushes buttons for foreign tourists and investors; even if true this should be dealt with internally.

Can't compare that.. If there is a coup, they shouldn't expect too many problems from Abhisit.

How Do You Reply?, when asked, where do you come from.

"Foodland."

Then wait for the quarter to drop (if ever).

To be honest though a large part is just making conversation. I usually ask Thais the same especially when I have the feeling they're not local to the place where I am. That's just what you do in small talk. Also there's a very good chance I've visited the place they're from, so usually I can find nice things to say about the place.