kankaroo

If that is not a good enough reason to put the bong away for a while, then nothing is

I feel sorry already for the casual users who will be spending the next decade or so behind bars because they dropped a couple E's at a club and so on.

When will they learn DRUGS CANNOT BE ERADICATED FROM ANY SOCIETY, no matter what then penalties.

Must be you mate - found it far easier to meet and take some out in thailand than the west.

Agreed, i was once picked up by some young tasty posh sort in one of them shopping centres by Siam BTS, i think she just wanted to try a bit of farang once she had used and abused me the relationship was over.

I never even get looked at in similar environments in the UK.

Agreed ! in the UK it is not the norm to walk up to any bird and start chatting. Even if they like you they will tend to scowl and back away. I was in Edinburgh the other week after pub closing hours. I asked some girl in a taxi rank what time it was, as my watch is broken. I immediately got hurled abuse by her and her friends saying I was trying to get in their pants etc ! If you had seen what these skanky, drunken bedragled tarts looked like I thought they were taking the piss. I myself am a normal looking guy in his twenties, so even if I did want to go there it wasn't happening (perish the thought)

Thai girls (normal ones) like a big smile and not too confrontational approach in my experience. Make a funny comment in Thai, then make a joke about how bad your Thai is, for example. That will be a good start, and an indication of whether she speaks English, is interested in you slightly etc etc. Then ask her if she (and her mates) would like to go for an ice cream etc to maybe swap some language skills

Failing that I find that lurking about shopping malls in a ankle length trench coat, choosing your victim desired girl, and then stalking / staring them out all day works great also !

"It's all down to the fact that foreign men on the whole don't get to meet the fairer skinned Thai women, this on account of where the majority of foreign men in Thailand meet Thai women."

This is hardly the case. The reason why they end up with dark skinned does not have to do with the places they frequent, but rather the fact that Westerns are considered 2nd class citizens in Thailand and most women are not interested in them as a partner. Similarly, some black males in the USA might find that for no good reason white women are not interested in them. So it goes...

Agree, I have dated light skinned Thai women from wealthy Bankok families and my current long term GF is Chinese - Bangkok Thai. And they are not with me for my money, for that I am sure !

I like all women but i am more attracted to darker skin.

Coming from a cold country that rarely sees any sun, everybody walks around with a pasty, sickly white complexion. Opposites attract and all that jazz.

Apparently there are "officially" 600 shootings per year in Phnom Penh, according to the government. With actual figures reported much higher. Phnom Penh is a city similar in size to Glasgow UK (Scotland) in the UK which enjoys the status as most violent city in Europe.

Come on people this is a very sad but very normal occurrence. Human race =animals.

Peace be with said victim ; Hanna Charlotta.

Too busy we couldn't convince more people from the land of the rising sun no to eat the bloody things !

No, unless you can live like a Thai, which you won't.

Yes, it is alright for some !

I thought this was a wind up until I googled it ! Nanny state gone insane

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770

//Edit: add link to the source - Maestro

Kankaroo's musings are not boring, they are thought provoking, otherwise why would people respond.

The nanny state where we are treated as children is becoming more widespread. Bureaucrats are running our lives from the cradle to the grave (and beyond). Grey, soulless creatures with no spark of life telling the world to be boringly safe. Not my cup of tea, thanks!!

not really, most people have better things to do than compare bus rides, like read a book, listen to music, or sleep

Yeah, or spend there spare time making negative comments on "boring" posts. I think it is you that needs to get a life......

I think for many people like howtoescape and myself the problem is living in a country where we don't want to be. I am the opposite of a patriot and hate life in the UK. It is not my fault that I find it hard to like anything about my home country, whether it be the horrible weather, girls, insane cost of living etc etc.

However I know that after living in LOS for years it is far from perfect, but I would move there in a heartbeat if I could. And one day I will.

on a British coach there is no excitement, enjoyment or feeling of 'life'

Fortunately, there's not much feeling of 'death' either.

wow! I do understand Kankaroo's point of view and I pretty much feel the same .

There is no suspense or Russian-roulette blood-rushing sense of gambling on your life like the ones you would feel if u would step on a road side bomb, or get hugged by explosive-belted fanatic, or stopped in police checkpoint nearby bombed car, or being the only lucky survivor among your friends when being shot at your car by tanks for driving 102m close to their vehicles, or being kidnapped on your way to work which is not more than an hour! living through out all this or watching it happen to others every day like "Ground Hog Day" movie by Bill Murray is a way of an interesting Rambo action-stunning living.

That's the enjoyment-excitement (HAIR-RAISING) & (heart-stopping) life am sure that kankaroo's would love and wish to have which is far more better than his old boring safe & easy living in UK!

Yes but you signed up for that and were not conscripted. Although I appreciate it because my friend is just back from Helmand province last week.

Anyway what I was trying to say was (I'll never make it as a writer) that there is a trade off as far as safety & quality of life living in either Thailand or the west. I don't have a death wish as such but I am willing to take the risks and live a happier life.

I mean getting told to wear your seatbelt on public transport like a child. Having a sandwich confiscated by the driver when boarding a bus to be told 'you'll get it back after we arrive', in 4 hours time. Cameras hovering in your face as you sit..... I'm sure there are good reasons for all these things and many people enjoy living in such a society, I just don't.

Just reading a couple of articles on tourists being killed on coaches going from A to B in LOS. The last two were put down to bad weather, namely wet roads. OK, it is raining which makes the roads more treacherous and therefore makes accidents more likely.

However here in the UK it rains quite a lot and these type of 'accidents' are almost unheard of. I mean we have blizzard weather with icy roads and millions of people traveling all over the country with virtually no accidents.

In my opinion it all comes down to the 'mai pen rai' attitude of the Thais. That combined with the low value placed on life. But in a way isn't that the appeal ?

Then I got thinking about my last bus journey in LOS about 1 year ago (BKK - Buri Ram). The windows were down and the warm winds whipped about your face and the Issan music was blaring. The driver was laughing and joking with one of the passengers as they smoked cigarettes. Hawkers jumped on the bus and sold some snacks and ice cold drinks. I remember just sitting there staring out the window, watching life go by while munching my snack and enjoying my cold beer, and thinking 'this is great!'.

Now to my most recent bus journey in the UK (Edinburgh - Inverness). I sat down on the bus and listened to an emergency exit routine (just like before you take of on a plane) and was told that wearing seat belts was now the law. Just to enforce this another member of staff walked along the isle checking that everybody had their seatbelt fastened. I wasn't wearing mine and told the staff that I was OK as I was. This didn't go down too well & I was told that I had to wear it as it was law. So I buckled up, feeling like a schoolboy. Next we were told that smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages and eating of hot food, was against company policy, with the first two also being against the law. Violators would be ejected off the bus. At this stage I remembered I had bought a pie at the shop As the bus starts moving I slide down my chair a bit and proceed to nibble at my pie hoping the driver wouldn't notice and confiscate it (no exaggeration it happened to me twice before!). As I was looking up I noticed something for the first time, the roof had 6 (count em) CCTV cameras with one sitting right over my head.

I suddenly felt depressed with this journey and couldn't wait to get off. Then I remembered traveling on the Thai buses and that made me smile

Although you are safe as can possibly be on a British coach there is no excitement, enjoyment or feeling of 'life' to the journey, but you are sure to get there in one piece. However on the Thai journey there is often a few butt clenching /hair raising moments and although nowhere near as safe, I know what side I'd like to be on

So what do you think? Is the journey more important than the destination to you?

I have seen a quite a few places with PS2's when I was last in BKK. There was usually 2 people playing a football game (pro evo or something) but as I'm not into football I didn't bother.

You might be onto something here but I think the Thais would probably have cornered the market by now if there was a demand for it. Also most Asian kids love these role playing online fantasy games, or something like counter strike etc, which are all played online on PC's.

I would rather wait to post something interesting or useful rather than just post the first bit of drivel that enters my head

LOL !

IT BEGINS.... (rubs hands)

OK, I had a teeny tiny moral dilemma yesterday on the filthy streets in front of the filthy beaches of Pattaya (or rather, Jomtien).

I witnessed a young woman delivering a plate of fried prawns walking on the way to a beach customer, most likely a farang based on the demographics of that beach area, and she dropped the fork on the filthy street. Now, this caught my attention. What would she do? Would she do the right thing and go back to the restaurant to get a clean fork? Of course not! Without any pause she swooped up the infected utensil and continued on her merry way to the happy, unsuspecting, customers.

Now we know she did the wrong thing. I did nothing. How wrong was that? Would you do differently? I must say if this was my home country I would have either confronted the waiter and/or warned the eaters. But here I did nothing ... Its just healthier to mind your own business here, don't you think, but I won't think about fried shrimp the same for awhile.

I'll go with that

Last year's rain season was already three months longer than normal, but now it's already pissing almost daily in FEBRUARY????? What's up with that, do we get rain-year-round now?

And don't tell me that's "Global Warming " when everywhere that i know of it's actually getting cooler and wetter.

there was no rainy season last year in Pattaya, just once in a while a little drizzle. and... if it was up to me it could be raining and or be heavily cloudy each and every day of the year.

Wanna do a home swap, my Scotland for your Thailand ?

We have the same problem here, it is February and it rains non stop ? Weird

Love the 1,000 Baht gift for her "cat" part.

Thanks for that, I've just had 3 teeth removed and root canal work and needed a laugh !

point being, maybe she didn't like this bloke going on about too many asians in australia when she is one. Seems to me it was the main point of her article but maybe we are reading different things

He opened the conversation with : 'Where are you from, love?'

She replied : 'I'm Australian, from Perth. But I'm based in Singapore,'

He said : 'What a coincidence! I'm from Brisbane,'

And finally she started the problem with........ : 'Wow, Brisbane! Isn't that Pauline Hanson country?'

The old guy was exchanging polite small talk, she started with the politics.

From reading this it would seem this girl was asian but with western upbringing.

erm, no kidding....

Wow ! nothing like a strong 'western' woman to put the fun into travel in Asia. Pity you were not allowed to own that particular elephant for yourself on that occasion. Mind you, I was forced to share a taxi with an Aussie girl in Cambodia once. After I had shared half my food and water with her, she proceeded to bang on about how 'limeys weren't welcome' in her native country etc etc blah blah, so I can relate to your situation in a way.

Mind you that old guy sounded pretty rude by opening a conversation with : 'Where are you from, love?' THE BLOODY cheek of him! Where I come from that is called being friendly. Oh well....

Did it ever occur to you that he possibly wanted his own elephant and not be stuck beside you?

Bah !

Well in the UK the opposite is happening. We are experiencing a shortage of skilled curry chefs apparently. Tighter visa restrictions stemmed the flow of ethnic groups such as Bangladeshis into the country and now our beloved national dish is suffering!

Our government realizes that a western chef with a couple of years training in making curries is usually not as good as one who has grown up in the mother country of said type of food.

Makes sense.

Places like Pattaya serve their purpose. although they are not to everybody's taste. As long as the whole country doesn't turn into one big Pattaya it should stay the way it currently is.

EDIT : realized I was talking absolute <deleted>