orosee

Sue? I'm not American.

But you are a douchebag.

You're not paying £300 a day at a hotel in Hong Kong because of these idiots.

There's nothing I can do except make a point of actively NOT supporting the people behind the PAD by avoiding the companies involved.

Ummmmmmm. . why don't you move to a less expensive hotel? Or are the PAD occupying all the HK hotels bar they one you're staying in?

While I sympathise with your plight, blaming the protest for you losing 300 quid a day is a bit rich.

Agreed, there are many options to reduce the financial strain. A cheaper hotel is a start, and there are good hotels in HK that go for half and less that rate.

Go to Macao and have a casino subsidize your stay, perhaps get your money back at the slot machines.

Move over to Guangzhou and stay there.

Fly to the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam. All cheaper alternatives.

Considering that the airports may need an additional week or more to be fully operational again, the savings potential is still huge even with another international flight involved.

Looking at the wounds of the "students" (a very loose catch-all term not entirely comparable to a student in the West) it seems like almost accidental, i.e. not targeted. Might as well have been some house wife or jobless alcoholic. "Students" in these days are quite content killing each other and if possible, taking some innocent bystanders with them. I consider this an event that cannot clearly be attributed to an escalation or even to one of the two parties. It has been said already in this thread, but for all we know someone may have been angry at somebody for staring too long at his girlfriend.

When I read the news these days (BK Post and Nation) I feel it would be more helpful for "the cause" if a few journalists would be shot instead.

You are very young which is both good (time on your side) and bad (lack of experience). Here is how it worked for me:

In January 1995 I had been working 2 years for an inspection and certification company (ISO 9001 was very big then). This company had overseas offices and I applied for a job in some of them with the person in charge for international coordination. Six months later I was in Bangkok (I was actually aiming for Vietnam) and worked there until recently, about 13 years.

What I'm saying is that if you research a bit what Canadian companies (or US companies if that would work) are stationed in Thailand or nearby, you can talk to them whether they are looking for expats to work there. For example my company does a lot of business related to the European pressure equipment directive which also involves welder qualification and non-destructive testing of pressure equipment.

You can get much better conditions when you start in your homeland and are sent overseas. With luck you might even be covered by the labour protection mechanisms that would cover you at home.

If you can (since you're young), look for trainee positions in Thailand or Asia. Valuable experience and contacts can be made this way. Upgrade to become a certified welding engineer. One interesting thing is that speaking the local (Thai) language is not important if you go this route, although it can never harm.

Carefully consider this: Once you are there and want to stay there, you are limiting yourself quite a bit. People do the craziest things in the end just to stay in Thailand (or other countries, mostly those where they met their partner/spouse). Hence the advice above to delay and make money first before moving. It increases your options for the future.

Comfortable living in Thailand requires 60-120,000 Baht a month (cheaper is possible but this is what I found missing from my account at the end of each month). If you have found a way to get this much regularly then you can set yourself up. 800,000 US$ put away at 6% will do the trick, and if you can get a steady 12% then half of that will do.

Now my own question would be, has anyone already done this?