pomchop

So was having lunch at central festival food court today. Young Thai couple eating a few tables away. A nicely dressed mid 60's farang sits at table next to mine alone. When the Thai couple gets up and leaves they of course leave behind their unfinished bowls of soup along with a little of some rice dish. The farang gets up and goes and sits at the abandoned Thai table with all the dirty dishes ...seems strange as he was already at exact same size clean table. Anyway, next thing you know he starts eating all the leftovers, the soup, the rice, bit of salad etc, using same silverware that thais had just used. Another guy sitting nearby also sees what is happening and looks at me and rolls his eyes as neither of us can really believe what we are seeing. I guess if you are here long enough you will see it all. Was the guy that hard up to have to do that or is that some sort of accepted custom in whatever country he came from. As said, well dressed and appeared well groomed. Weird.

Just passed through few days ago....strange set up from what I could see. Big beautiful terminal but from what i saw the trains don't actually go into the covered terminal part...instead you have to go underground under the tracks and then you are outside to board or disembark train....it is a long walk into the terminal itself and very little cover from sun or rain outside...one little crossover path that requires you to walk and drag/haul your luggage over the tracks where you then can enter the mrt station and walk underground a very substantial hike to the main terminal....,maybe i missed something but seems a very poor design for a major new train station.....at least at hualamphong the trains arrive and depart INSIDE the covered area and very easy escalators to BTS. Also signage at new station leaves much to be desired...some say trains and point others say railway and point meaning i suppose the mrt trains one way and railway the other...some no doubt ythink trains means the train since you are after all at a train station.....then you walk down some long hallways and the signage just stops...had to stop and ask security several times as i really wasn.t expecting the railway trains to be outside far from the station.... anyway i think it will eventually get sorted out or i hope so

Both very likely did NOT pack their own boxes when they left office. They relied on aides to do that. The investigations will no doubt determine who was involved in the packing etc and how docs got taken by both. In one case. trump, when the Archives found that many docs seemed to have not been turned over as required the inquiry began....when it was discovered trump had numerous boxes with classified docs that had not been turned over trump did turn over some of them....but begin a long campaign of lying about possibly still having other docs. He tried to claim they were all his anyway. Then he claimed they had all been returned and even had his lawyer attest to that. He has gone out of his way to obstruct efforts to get the docs back. He has attacked the courts for granting with cause a search warrant and he has attacked the police and fbi for attempting to get the docs back. He was notified in advance of the "raid" and had ample opportunity to be present or have his lawyers present for the search. Now his actions are being investigated by a special counsel but to this day he continues to deny and deflect and attack the investigators, the courts, the media and any and all who dare to say follow the facts and then notify the public after a complete investigation and take whatever if any legal actions the facts suggest and the doj and court system suggests. In the other case. Biden, when his own staff lawyer found a few, not hundreds, docs had been taken that the NARA had not even noticed were missing the NARA was immediately notified and docs were turned over the next day. Subsequently a more detailed search was done by his own lawyers to see if there were any other docs around and yes they did find a few more and once again immediately turned them over to the authorities. A special counsel has been named and tasked to investigate Bidens involvement and a report will be issued the public and just like trump the doj and courts will determine if legal action is proper. I know it is a waste of time to even write all this as trumpers will never ever admit that dear leader could possibly be wrong or do wrong. See no evil Hear no evil. If Trump had handled it like Biden that would have been the end of it....made a mistake, corrected mistake, cooperated fully, docs all returned. But that is not what happened. Not at all. And I would bet when the two special counsels issue their reports if the trump report does not please them they will whine and pxss and moan like a 5 year old and call it all a big witch hunt as dear leader can do no wrong. Just like they have done for over two years now after the election fraud BIG LIE that was investigated over and over and over by mostly republicans as well as 60 court cases and found no credible evidence of election fraud, Every single investigation by dems or republicans or trump appointed judges or special counsels are all a giant witch hunt.

I will give your comments the attention that I think they deserve.

manners are a part of culture....and of course farangs always know what is best for thai people...i read it on this forum very often.......obviously you will do as you please regardless of what the Thai people all around you on the BTS are doing......as for me i will endure the horror of putting on a mask for a few minutes on the BTS because I think it is the right thing to do.....what a bummer to wear a mask ...ruins the entire day...or not.

Manners are very much part of the Thai culture...in fact one of the most important parts. My point is for those of us who know a bit about Thailand i think most would agree that the Thai people overall are very nice polite people. I personally think it is no big deal for me to at least try and return a bit of the politeness so its overall better for me to wear a mask for a few minutes on the BTS if that is what the Thai people have decided is something that is important to them. Respect.

MANNERS is a part of culture. Obviously you have decided that you will not wear a mask on BTS and it does not bother you to be on a crowded train and one of few who refuse to wear a mask. As said before, it is about respect. Even if you choose to ignore advice to wear the mask on BTS most Thais obviously disagree with your opinion. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art.May 3, 2559 BE

good for you that you can read thai's minds and looks...you should open a business...maybe they don't look at you cause they don't like what they see?

You assume they don't care. Big assumption as many of them may well be looking at you thinking what a damn jerk.

..so if you are one of the 90% of farangs riding BTS with no mask while 98% of the thai people do wear masks you stick out like a sore thumb....how about have a tiny bit of respect for the Thai people. When you are in another country does it not occur to many that it can be good idea to show respect for the cultural norms of your host country? Would you go into a home in Japan and not remove your shoes? Would you wear a speedo into a Thai wat? While the thai people are too polite to call out all the farangs on the BTS you can be pretty sure that most are likely thinking what a jerk. It's not going to kill you to wear the damn mask for a few minutes regardless of what your opinion may be regarding mask. It's about respect. Have a little class and show some respect to the Thai people.

yes but those nurses in boston probably making a bit more than a few bucks a day like thai nurses...plus rents, law suit liability insurance and everything else astronomically higher than thailand in boston.. you are a trusting polite man not to go back and ask to see supervisor and complain or at least ask for an explanation of why so much for simple procedure....

wow those were some expensive stitches...$100 usd + per stitch....absurd unless something else involved

ok guess i missed it..and this was a compliment? strange compliment ..but glad YOU Know it would not be good for Thai people....try "you think" And when she becomes PM, her daddy will have another puppet in power, just as he did when Yingluck was PM. And they will be laughing all the way to the bank

so you know best what the thai people should do and that of course is not to elect a person that you don't like so you support those that you like and denigrate those you don't like and have a great insight into what will be good for the people of Thailand...got it. Repeat: .it is so very simple...let the thai people vote and then let their pick serve a term

another farang that knows what is best for the Thai people....it is so very simple...let the thai people vote and then let their pick serve a term without the generals plotting to overthrow them....amazing how many people seem to support coups over voting.

yeah if you can't win at the ballot box just call out the tanks and take over.....just like dear leader would approve of....screw the voters....we know what is best for you

I would wager that the number of overstays among Russians will balloon over the coming months....lots of them arriving and as I understand most get 30 days upon arrival like many other countries...but when it's time to go back to Putin Land i think a lot of them will miss that return flight...who the f would want to go back to the mess that Russia has become with sanctions etc not to mention you may well be given a gun and sent to the front lines. So will Thai immigration round them up and deport them or look the other way?

I would like to see a major thai tv news station have one of those countdown clocks on their daily news broadcast showing how many days/weeks/months/years police have been "unable" to locate red bull and return him to stand trail for killing a cop while hyped up on coke.....then a second clock counting down when statute of limitations expires and he can return to thailand like nothing ever happened, BUT somehow I don't think the powers that be would be much in favor of a daily reminder of the corruption and incompetence of the Thai legal and judicial system. Maybe if the current dear generals get voted out and a taksin heir takes over ms taksin may tell the cops to go get him.....that would be fun to watch as i would bet the current judges that have hounded taksin for so many years are many of the same that see no reason to arrest a guy for killing a cop and fleeing.

What is a headbutt in slang? to deliberately strike (someone) with the head.

How about we let the Thai people decide via votes instead of illegal midnight coups. Prison sentence handed down by the junta judges? How about the coup crew face the music for overthrowing the duly elected government years ago.

Very very hard to believe you can live in central Pattaya and not go to walking street for 15 years at night. Sort of like living in New Orleans and not going to Bourbon street for 15 years. I rarely ever go to walking street as not my cup of tea but I at least am curious to visit for a few minutes every few months just to see what may or may not have changed. To each his own is a good motto to live by in Pattaya.

i would bet that it was a 60 baht beer which is not all that rare in off the beaten path bars in pattaya and i highly doubt that you will find a 60 baht lady drink in any pattaya bar. Odds are he bought a beer and then didn't want to pay...in spite of all the theories about how the poor russian got picked on, cheated ,beaten up by the Thais (that were about 1/3 his size) the far more likely scenario is russian was a mean drunk that bought a beer and thought he would also charm the ladies and when that didn't happen he was a complete total idiot jerkoff.

...being asked to pay your bill is not being molested...slapping a thai gal over it is about as dumb as it gets. Not getting the absolute <deleted> kicked out of him over it was his lucky day

How about a new visa policy 1. Visa is $1 per day PLUS $10 admin fee. 30 days $30, 365 days...$365 Payable in advance online or for additional $25 fee in person at special desk on arrival. 2. Renewals or extensions at immigration office for admin and additional days fee 3. Upon renewal passport will be checked against police data base. Any legal violations other than very minor no more $1 a day visas period. End of the line and deal with immigration like before. 4. Max visa is one year. Then must be renewed and admin and police check done to add additional year. 5. People caught with expired or no visa big fine and future visa requests strictly in person at immigration with appropriate penalties. Keep it simple. How many tourists would likely stay a week a month or ? a bit longer if it were simple. Of course many current immigration staff would need to be reassigned or eliminated but such is life and there seem to be no shortage of jobs for thai govt staff.

The obsession with money. I have a lot of wealthy friends who are still working in mid 70's who seem to want to tell me how very lucky i was/am to have retired at 52 and been roaming the world for past 23+ years. I have a fraction of the net worth of many of these but would not trade my memories and freedom with hardly any of them. Of course I understand that many love their jobs just as i loved mine but if that job is preventing you from "living your dreams" then just maybe it is time to give it up or at least cut back and get on with living the dreams. Personally it seems kind of sad to me that some just cannot give up on the idea that they need to make more more more and keep working til they drop dead but never got around to their bucket list because of their greed. There is more to life than how much $$ you have......would you rather lie on your death bed and say wow i have xx millions of dollars in the bank still...or would you rather say i did just about every item on my bucket list and would not trade those memories for a miilion more bucks left behind. Fortunately i long ago learned to live within my means and to spend my $$ on things that bring satisfaction to me rather than living my life trying to impress anyone with my house, cars, clothes, etc. Over the years i have been called cheap, tight, frugal, you name it for simply living within my means. Of course i can think of many similar slurs to use on some of my money obsessed friends like greedy, stupid, pretentious etc. Millions of people seem unable to distinguish between what they need and what they want and end up broke or working way too long as a result. I have enough to live the rest of my life not extravagantly but quite comfortably. My motto for 23 years of retirement re trips adventures etc is "If not now, when?" It has worked well for me as you get older you do start to realize that health is number one and there are a lot of things that maybe you've been wanting to do for a long time but now you are simply too old or have health problems that say no way. My two baht worth.