Indra

I'm sure Tacky is shaking in his boots .... NOT

THINK THE SUM IS ACTUALLY INSULTING FOR A MULTI-BILLIONAIRE

Agree!!!

It is just another way of offending Thaksin.

1M Baht? It is just USD 28,400. Microsoft is offering USD 250,000 to catch the maker of Conficker virus.

Maybe, but a) Living on my boat negates the need to buy a home. I can rent c) Already own a home elsewhere d) I already have her e) All of the above.

I'll still probably buy a place here though. I don't mind having somebody do just about everything else for me anyway. I won't spend any more than I can walk away from. (P.S. my son in U.S. is of Thai descent, so I can always give it to him, hehehe).

Now you make the confession

The closest relationship, which I have in Thailand, is a just a Thais friend, who was my former customer; My wife has a Thais friend too, who was her friend in college.

We only spent 1 year+ in Thailand, but we think that Thailand is nice and the people are kind.

My wife and I are Asian, so we can judge based on Asian standard manner.

Perhaps in your home country, people are nicer? OK good boy, don't be shy to make another confession.

Thank you for saving me the time and effort of writing the same thing. I think based on what I've seen in the last 6 months here in Thailand I will NOT be buying a condo or building a house, not here, like I had planned. I don't need TiT crap, I've had enough already over the years.

I think I'll be better off to get another boat instead. This country is in for some enormous changes in the coming years anyway. It's anybody's guess which way things will go. Thanks TAT for the 2 free visas though, at least I'll likely stay to benefit from them.

Well, you may try buying properties in Singapore, but then you'll find out that the price is about the same like the one in your home country.

Or perhaps you want to go buying in Japan?

After trying several countries in Asia, eventually you'll decide to return to Thailand and buy a condo or a leased house, and find a mia noi

I have SCB Visa card. It has smart card on it.

Therefore, whenever I use it to pay something (gas station, tesco, carrefour, big c, etc), the cashier will insert it into EDC machine instead of sliding the magnetic stripe.

Smart card technology is quite secure unless you have CIA or NSA secret inside it.

Most places in Thailand use EDC, which verify the smart card instead of the magnetic stripe.

Or perhaps you may want to intentionally spoil the magnetic stripe of your credit card so that it can only be used on EDC with smart card reader.

The main problem is ATM card as all banks in Thailand are still using ATM card with magnetic stripe.

Even Indonesia, a country with GNP much lower than Thailand, is starting to change the ATM card magnetic stripe to smart card.

Nowadays, magnetic card is only good for membership card of fitness center.

if i write in all lower case letters is this okay?? can you "hear" me ok? try selling an 18 karat gold ring in your typical mom and pop shop and see what they say.....i have seen and heard of plenty of people getting ripped off selling alloy gold. so sorry indra.....

Since you have a Thai woman as your girlfriend and if you can trust her, then you can ask her to find a gold merchant, who is trustable.

However, you should also understand that it is a common practice that they'll value the metal itself, not the form, hence the payment will be based on the weight and price per gram.

TO SELL GOLD AFTER REMOVING THE STONES IS NOT A GREAT THING TO DO IF YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW RINGS...AND IF THE GOLD COMES FROM THEU.S. THEN GOOD LUCK , ALMOST NO CORNER GOLDSMITH WILL WANT IT...YOU CAN TRY IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER OR AT SOME OF THE BIGGER LUXURY SHOPS.....WHAT KIND OF STONES ? WHAT KIND OF GOLD? WEIGHT ?...MY WIFE MAKES STUFF AND SHE HAS A LOT OF TRAINING...YOU CAN PM ME IF YOUWANT ANY MORE ADVICE. SHE IS IN HAWAII UNTIL FRIDAY.

I think that upper case and lower case letters should be used sparingly in written language especially in the net.

If you write all in upper case, people will think that you are mad or in a bad mood. Or are you?

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot presided over the campaign kick-off held at two major Bangkok shopping centres -- Siam Square and Central World -- and informed shoppers that the government places violations of intellectual property rights high on the national agenda.

He didn't think to hold the kick-off at Pantip?

Yawn...business as usual.

Well, we can say that both policemen and Thai government are doing smart.

Thai people will be happy to know that Siam Square and Central World are prohibited places to buy such pirated material; They'd better head to Pantip instead

So are these genuine?

Bought on Friday at a local Supermarket, they were sealed in a DVD case and priced at 59 baht each

Son of Rambow, A Teachers Crime, Breaking and Entering, Earthquake and Lakeview Terrace. Have not seen any of them before..

Most likely they are pirated ones.

Do you think that it is possible that someone might sell a USD 15 things at the price THB 59?

Just face it.

Is there any of us, who don't enjoy the pirated CD/DVD/software from Pantip?

I don't completely agree that weapons are useless in untrained hands; if the OP found himself in combat with a trained assailant, perhaps. However, most mugging situations are opportunistic where the perpetrators are untrained scum bags. In the situation as described by the OP, he had the element of surprise, had he produced a leather billy or, a slapper from his pocket; he'd have had an easy opportunity to put his attacker down for the count. Similarly, if he'd hit him in the face with a pepper spray; he'd have almost certainly had the opportunity to make his escape. Of course there is a risk that you may inflict serious injuries on your assailant, but in my opinion, that's a second priority; you & your belongings come first.

A knife is a terrible example of a weapon to use in self defence & not one I would advocate; inflicting serious injuries are virtually unavoidable.

Yes, a pepper spray is much better than a knife.

With a knife, you must attack the guy, hence bring you to come closer to him; Although perhaps he is not an expert in martial art, but some people (especially the ones, who are living in a hard environment) will have enough agility to handle an attack by an untrained one.

You can use a pepper spray at a nice distance.

I kicked a guys ass in Khon Kaen about 2 years ago,he had a knife and tried to rob me at the ATM.Unfortunately for him i have boxed for over 25 years,i beat him up pretty bad, the police were there in minutes i think they were close by.If it hadnt been for a tuk tuk driver i think i would have been in trouble with the police.The tuk tuk driver had seen everything.The damning thing was that the police never arrested him,it was like i had done something wrong.

That's what friends are for?

I use the words sawadee khrap all the time here, in England. Ok most people reply with a puzzling look, but, I feel if I use to enough times, they may add them to the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

What a weird idea to popularize a foreign word

However, I appreciate of your love to Thai language

How about 'sarong' - made common (ish) knowledge in the UK by David Beckham a few years ago?

pretty that is Indian, Hindi

I think that "Sarong" (or "Sarung" in Indonesia language) is a common word in South East Asia.

People in Indonesia use Sarung as their traditional wear.

Yeah, but Siam is simply the old name for the country. I don't know if that really counts. I was going to say pad Thai and tom yum goong but those are kind of a grey area also. Bong is a good one though!

Siam (สยาม), although it is an old name of Thailand, but it is still commonly known by Thai people as well as foreigner.

In Indonesia, people know "jeruk siam" (Siam Orange)

Perhaps somebody can provide update about the news, I believe that the accusation is based on certain facts (either breaking a light bulb on the way out or a DNA test)

There is no point of blaming the police before we even know the whole story.

Well, I think that the guy is trying to speak to his Thai maid that she may go home now.

So the proper sentence would be:

เดี๋ยวนี้น้องกลับบ้านได้ - diauw nii nong glab baan dai - now you can go home

or

เชิญกลับบ้าน - chern glab baan - please go home

And my Thai teacher will simply explain that it is a ยกเว้น (exception)

Just like when you read ก็ (gor), which actually should be written as ก้อ

น่ารัก (naa rag) means lovely.

Sample sentence: The kid is น่ารัก = The kid is lovely

Among the measures proposed to revive sector, the ministry will urge Thai Airways International and other carriers to cut fares by 50 per cent to encourage more advanced bookings.

If they can start applying it this week, I think that Thailand will have good amount of visitors from Asia during Chinese New Year.

Well, I'll go to Thailand as well when Thai Airways cut fares by 50%

Nah, it's not a problem. You say "koon bpen katuhy chai mai?"

If it's a ladyman they might get a little coy but a real woman

will get seriously indignant. But hey, at least you will KNOW.

Either the person is a trans or a real woman, for sure you'll loose your chance if you ask such question.

thanks, i will take a look at those books!!

david, is the book that u are recommending in thai text only? my reading in thai is alot worse than my speech so i'll be struggling with both at the same time...

Khaojao,

Now you are able to form a simple sentence and get some feeling about pronouncing Thai words.

Then it is time for your to learn read and write Thai character.

If you want to be fluent in Thai language, like or not, you have to learn the read and write Thai character.

I know a man from Indonesia, who has been in Thai for more than 17 years.

He married a Thai woman and has his happy family in Thailand.

His factory is running well in Thailand.

Obviously he can use Thai language pretty good.

But he told me that he still makes several mistakes in speaking Thai language because he didn't learn to read and write Thai character.

AFAIK there is no standard rule to write Thai word in English and vice versa.

There are some common rules but none can claim that other writings are wrong.

Hence, it's better if you try to learn reading Thai character and translate (or read if it is already translated) your name in Thai.

Let's use my name for an example.

My Thai teacher suggest the writing as อินดรา (Indraa, with the long a, which pronounced like a in Baht)

But I preferred to write it as อินดระ (with short a) and so does my wife (she is not Thai and she only knows Thai language a little)

I used อินดระ for a while until certain point I feel that it's better to have อินดรา (long a) instead of อินดระ (short a)

Now, I use อินดรา

Another way, you can share your last name in this forum together with the Thai translation, and let the experts here help you

I ever heard a Thai woman answered ยินดีคะ (yindee ka) when I said "thank you" to her.

Hence I guess that yindee ka (if said by a female) or yindee khrap (if said by a male) is more appropriate.

Any other suggestion? You are welcome to explain as I am also learning

If you are learning a foreign language, there are 3 major component i.e.:

1. Vocabulary
   
2. Pronounciation
   
3. Language structure (grammar)
   
4. Custom/culture
   

However, to learn East Asian languages (including Thai), you have to add one component, which should be put as first priority i.e. tone

Same pronunciation but different tone will have different meaning.

For instance, to say "white rice", you will hear Thai people say "khaaw khaaw" (ข้าวขาว); In fact the first word has different tone than the second word. The first khaaw with falling tone and has meaning "rice"; The second one with raising tone and has meaning "white"

If you plan to move to Thai within the next few years, I think that you can consider going to Thailand for one month.

Then you start learning Thai language (everyday) from a Thai teacher.

Start with simple conversation, after getting some feeling about the pronunciation (tones), then you start learning read and write.

Once you are able to read and write, then you can go back to your country and continue your study there.

Another solution is to buy some structured lesson books from a good Thai language course in Thailand.

Then find a Thai near your current home country and ask him/her to teach you until you can read and write Thai.

Once you are able to read and write, you don't have to worry too much about wrong pronunciation.

Yes, just go to Pantip and buy a keyboard.

Logitech will just cost you around THB250

Then you can simply connect it to USB port of your notebook or computer.

However, I understand that if you are mobile, then it is troublesome to bring the keyboard.

Hence a picture of Thai keyboard is usually what I use as I seldom write Thai characters.

Here is the Thai keyboard layout, which I took from a web site: