Mr_Pedantic

Adjusted

I could make a list in any of the countries I have visited or lived but I must say the good things usually far outweigh the bad things but here is my current list, sorry for duplication of other posts.

That Thailand doesn't seem to understand the word courtesy, unless they are paid to be courteous.

Every week I battle to get out of the BigC/Pattaya Festival front doors with a trolley because nobody will open the door for me. What is more annoying is when I open the door for myself to get through with the trolley a whole pack of people barge their way through like I have held the door open for them.

When you go around the aisles of a supermarket Thai people invariably block the ailes and nobody will move out of the way, even if they have seen you coming.

When baht buses try to charge me 150 baht to go a kilometre down the road when the cost to get a meter taxi from Pattaya to Bangkok is just 800 baht). Don't get me wrong Baht bus drivers are the most genuinely friendly, helpful people in Thailand.

When I get served the cashier puts the coins on top of the notes when giving out the change, ensuring that the coins fall on the floor as you try to pocket the money with your only spare hand. How difficult would it be to put the coins in your hand first followed by the notes.

Satangs: Supermarkets always give them out and nobody but supermarkets use them. If the supermarkets stopped using satangs the coins would be made obsolete.

Stamps: Why don' t the post offices have any stock of the higher priced King Rama IX stamps. I always seem to have to use 3 or 4 commemorative stamps that hardly fit on the envelope and invariably increase the postal weight.

A thing that bugs me even more is when they give you the little white metered stamp labels to stick on the your packages/letters yourself, while they have taken the time to write the cost of postage for each package in the space where the sticker goes. How much would it speed the queue up if they stuck on the labels as they went along.

The only time you will ever get a seat on a bus/train/waiting room is if it's next to another farang as Thai people have an aversion to sitting next to farangs - no matter which city in Thailand you are in.

Queuing/Standing in Line. It has to be done because you'll never get anything done, whether it be in the Post Office, in a bank or paying your electric or telephone bill. It always amazes me how the people on the other side of the counter are never in any rush to get people served. Sometimes there are 4 counters open at the post office without any customers because they are phaffing around doing something or other, before pressing the next customer button.

In the UK I never had to queue for anything as everything was paid by direct debit, being in a third world country I can understand why that concept has not quite reached these shores (except for the waterboard).

How they look at you like you are an alien when you ask them for just a little bit of ice and not to fill the cup with ice(I get that in the states also). All it does is water down the drink and reduces the amount of chilled drink you actually receive(it is also scientifically proven that adding ice increases the bubbles making the drink go flat quickly, just like if you'd shaken a bottle of carbonated drink). I believe that if there is any ice left when you finish your drink then you have been given too much ice.

How Thai people need a calculator to carry out any sort of an equation. I bought ten x 12 baht stamps the other day(That was the highest denomination they had) out comes the calculator. Another time they inadvertently charged me US rate for a UK letter and the calculator had to come out to take away the 8 baht I had been overcharged.

Motorcycle riders that weave in an out of traffic, overtaking on any side where there is a gap, riding up the wrong side of the road(making you have to look both ways even on a one way road), parking awkardly so pedestrians can't get past and of course speeding along without a care in the world. It takes my mind back to the movie 'Death Race 2000' where points were gained for running down pedestrians and the incident when all the cars were stuck in a traffic jam and a motorcycle speeds past all the stranded cars only for someone to open their car door , the motorcycle and rider go flying through the air and everyone got out of their car and started applauding. Not a serious movie of course, but it does remind me of so many accidents waiting to happen. Judging by the amount of chalk lines on every road it almost certainly has.

Thai language where Ka or Krap is said at the end of each sentence(usually by people with a microphone), it is so monotonous. It's on a par with English language where someone says 'Yer Know' after each sentence.

Thai lack of attention to detail. How many very important signs are spelt incorrectly. In 2003 Central Pattaya Festival celebrated the New Year with giant numbers on stage - shame it said 2002. If they don't know why not ask. If I don't know how to spell a Thai word I ask someone that does. Ok half the time it is the sign writers that make the mistakes but I'd get it checked before I paid up.

My daughters English text school books are full of mistakes, not only spelling mistakes, but grammar mistakes and totally wrong words that make things very misleading. As these books are supplied to every school in Thailand you would think they would have been proof read by a native English speaker before printing.

The cost of Thai internet charges for both dial up and broadband. In the UK I was paying £5.99 per month for off peak dial up internet access. That is from 6pm - 8am weekdays and weekends from 6pm Friday to 8am Monday(472 hours). That is just over 1p per hour and no charges for actually dialling in. Broadband can now be had for £15.99 per month. (672 hours) which works out at just over 2p per hour. In Thailand not only do I have to pay for the call but 25p per hour adds up when you use 200+ hours per month.

On a good note I do like the way the rush hour pedestrian traffic on the Bangkok Sky train make two orderly lines to get on the trains, leaving a wide central space for the people getting off. Shame it doesn't happen all day long, as people getting off the train struggle to get off because of the force of the people trying to get on.

Ok I'm prepared for the backlash but as I said I can make lists for any country I've visited.

Sounds like you got some poor first hand advice from the Thai Embassy. It should be common knowledge in Thai embassies that Thai nationals who give birth to children outside their homeland can register their children and get a Thai Birth certificate and consequently a Thai passport (don't lose the birth certificate as you cannot get another one, just a copy of the original).

My daughter flies in and of Thailand frequently and has no problems as long as the correct passport is shown, no matter how long the duration.

By the way always go through the Thai passport section at the airport with your wife when entering Thailand it's much quicker.

It always amazes me where they get the money to have the op, unless they really need it to work professionally. I suppose they could always get a bank loan or finance?

You can always tell a ladyboy, they are the ones with the least amount of clothes on - oh, and they are six foot tall.

All my wife's friends keep asking me to set them up with farang boyfriends it gets quite tiresome at times and I have to tell them to go and work in a bar and they can have all the farang boyfriend they want but they just say they are shy.

With regards prostition it's just a job out here it's not even frowned upon. The post offices are full every Monday morning with the girls sending post office payments to their parents up country.

Now if I was a young stud muffin and I had a captivated audience of older females wanting to pay me to take me out, wine and dine me, take me to nice places, buy me nice things and have their wicked way with me at the end of the night for say 30 minutes (average I hear) then thats the job for me. What a life, where do I sign up.

It always amazes me why states in these hurricane zones don't have some sort of set standards with regards ensuring that all houses are solidly built, all cables are underground, all precariously looking trees are uprooted or trimmed right back, warehouses full of sandbags ready to dispatch at a moments notice.

This is Florida's third such storm in as many weeks and all you here about is the loss of lives and the billions of dollars damage. Get it sorted Jeb.

The problem is their noses. Because of their pug noses, that you can see up into while looking at them face to face, they have to make sure the nostrils are free of any alien waste. Seems to be mainly a female thing, like the zit squeezing in front of the handbag mirror, the hawking and spitting in the gutter and the under arm hair plucking in public.

Sometimes Thaksin reminds me of the King in 'The King and I' , big ideas carried out, whatever the cost - just to impress.

As more and more of the lager louts who usually holiday in Spain or the Balerics find their way to Thailand they will realise that they cannot get away with what they get away with in Spain. I suspect seeing more of this sort of thing happening on a regular basis. A drunk Brit thinks he his is a law unto himself- that goes for the Brit ladies also.

Whoa betide a farang that upsets a Thai that has had a few too many to drink.Their wrath is unmatchable.

Exactly where do these news clippings come from the 'Daily Joker' or is it another branch of 'Farang Affairs'?

Here is a new link (other link in these postings must have been moved).

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...us/default.mspx

It's worth getting the disc incase you have to reboot your PC

Here is another link to a list of the programs that lose some functionality after loading SP2

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884130

The size of your SP2 download will vary as to whether you have windows update switched on. I've just turned my off as I want to decide when I load it until I'm sure that SP2 is safe.

You can turn off auto update by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, and first choosing the Automatic Updates tab. Select either Turn Off or, minimally, Notify me.

Thailand to bid for 2016 Games?

Biggest joke I've seen on this site for a long time

SP2 has a 'smart download' which means that you can surf at the same time, log off and it will pick up where you left off from next time you log on.Or you can wait for the disc that Microsoft will be making available free of any charges.

Many thanks, very helpful

Thinking of taking my daughters to Bangkok next Thursday(12th Aug) Queen's Birthday National Holiday. Anyone know if it's business as usual everywhere or are all the places of interest closed. Grand Palace etc. Or is it the opposite, everywhere open and packed solid?

I prefer the oil massage, not so stressful and even better when one girl is training another. Two pairs of hands for 150 baht.

More pleasure than you get from those 'Wham bam thank you farang' bar/go-go girls.

"Those questioned were given 11 scenarios and asked to indicate the strength of their approval or disapproval. These included drinking a can of drink in a supermarket and not buying it; reporting a lost item as stolen to an insurance company to collect the money; changing price tags in stores; using an employer's telephone to make private calls; not saying anything when charged too little in a restaurant; taking towels from hotels; and renting a double-bed hotel room and using it for more than two people. The majority of British consumers said it was OK to cheat in eight of the 11 scenarios."

Hardly like robbing banks and mugging people.

1. Drinking a can of drink in a supermarket and not buying it;

Ok Dishonest but who can drink a can of drink all in one go anyway.

2. Reporting a lost item as stolen to an insurance company to collect the money.

Lost! How do you know it hasn't been stolen and what about that £50 excess before you get a penny.

3.Changing price tags in stores.

What price tags would those be then supermarkets all use barcodes, all items come up as full description these days making it silly to change tags.

4.Using an employer's telephone to make private calls.

Who doesn't? If you ask they will generally say yes anyway.

5.Not saying anything when charged too little in a restaurant.

Yeah Like anyone would really notice. Usually it's the restaurant that makes mistakes and add extras.

6.Taking towels from hotels.

Yes bit naughty, but hotels have a budget for lost towels anyway and usually reflect this in the room price.

7.Renting a double-bed hotel room using it for more than two people.

Yes nice little scam that is - for the hotelier. Hey I paid for the room I can have as many people as I like to sleep in it. Just like good old Thailand..

Stay here and live longer!

Unless you live in Pattaya.

The mortuary now have scheduled trips to the airport called the 'death run', for all the expired foreigners who wished to be returned to their homeland.

And Joe Stalin made Hitler look like a girl scout when it came to killing folks.

And Reinhard Heydrich made Stalin & Hitler look like angels.

GOOD LUCK EMBLEM

"The Swastika" is the oldest cross and emblem in the world. It forms a combination of four "L's" standing for Luck, Light, Love and Life. It has been found in ancient Rome, excavations in Grecian cities, on Buddhist idols, on Chinese coins dated 315 B.C., and US Southwest Indians use it as an amulet.

It is claimed that the Mound Builders and Cliff Dwellers of Mexico, Central America consider "The Swastika" a charm to drive away evil and bring good luck, long life and prosperity to the possessor.

The Mound Builders inhabited the Ohio River Valley and the Cliff Dwellers lived in the Southwestern United States; however, both did use the swastika, as did the Mayas of Mexico. Furthermore, although the swastika may look like four "L's" to one who uses the Roman alphabet, in Greek it forms four Gammas ("G's"), in Hebrew it can be seen as four Daleths ("D's"), and among the non-literate people of North America, it corresponded to no letters at all.

So, I guess the Nazi's adopted the swastika for good luck but in turn, turned it into a symbol of death and evil.

With regard Adolf Hitler, he was just a dying man (riddled with parkinson's and full of drugs) who wanted to do as much damage as possible before he passed on. He even made sure his body would be cremated so nobody would ever find out the truth.

World history and Geography don't seem to be of much interest to Thai schools.

My 11 year old daughter not only didn't know where Thailand was on the world map but was totally gobsmacked when she saw how small England was.

Soon they'll be breathalysing the immigration queues at the airport.

What next? Mouth swabs for DNA testing so they can confirm the identities of farang dead bodies quicker.

Mandatory drug testing on all Thai flights.

Airport customs actually checking a few foreigners as they enter Thailand instead of relying on tip-offs.

They really need to start at home first before worrying about a few lager lout tourists.

A proof reading, spell check, punctuation and grammar check wouldn't go amiss.

Might make the previous two posts a little bit easier to read.

it certainly isn't Thai people as Thai people don't read sub-titles unless they go to watch the latest movies at the cinema.

Where did you get this little gem of Mis-information from?

Through experience. I have been 'living' with Thais since 1990 and they never watch the English movie channels with Thai subtitles. The titles are so small and flash on and off the screen so quick that they barely get a chance to finish reading them and then lose part of the story.

Gotta be Sophon Cable TV. (Pattaya)

Like when they change discs halfway through the movie, and either it starts at the begining again, or you get the blue "Aconatic" screen for 10 minutes. I always imagine some underpaid guy in a hot cramped little room full of monitors and cables, asleep on his chair, full of whiskey.

The movie finishes, and you are just dozing off, then Tony's Discoteque advert blasts out in Thai 10 times louder than than it had been on the movie, you cant find the remote, but you will not go over and turn the tv volume down manually, because it means the tv has won you.

Oh yeah, while im on about it, ever got up at 5-6 am and flicked the tv on, and noticed all the decent movies are played in the dead air time hours. Then the crap ones all day.

I thought I missed Sophon cable until you brought back a few memories.

When I moved a mile down the road and couldn't get Sophon Cable and had to put up with Banglamung cable because of location restrictions I was pretty miffed. But at least with Banglamung cable there are no Pattaya ads, no Pattaya Mail/Pattaya People news broadcasts which upset the schedules so often.

Just getting rid of those annoying 'Toe-neee' crap adverts every day is a Godsend.

Although Banglamung Cable only has one movie channel their selection is much better than the two Sophon Cable Movie channels. When I had Sophon I used to go to the movies once or twice a week since I've had Banglamung Cable the only time I go to see a movie is when I'm in Bangkok(Never anything to watch if I don't).

Banglamung always seem to use DVD's as there is very rarely a break to change a disc. They too show the best movies between 1am and 5am in the hope that someone is watching, it certainly isn't Thai people as Thai people don't read sub-titles unless they go to watch the latest movies at the cinema.

This year alone Banglamung cable have shown nearly 700 different movies.

My only complaint about the Movie channel is that they also show music concerts but if it wasn't for the occasional concert I'd never get anything done.

No I don't miss Sophon Cable one bit and when their limit restrictions were lifted on Jan 1st 2004 I never even thought about changing back. From time to time I look on the internet to see the latest Sophon Movie schedule and it has hardly changed since I left the 'Sophon area' 18 months ago.