Acharn

Errr... He says his wife is paying for the wedding. If she has her own money, what right does he have to interfere? Thai law does not require a man's approval for a woman to sign a contract any more.

I think you can trust your Thai wife to not get ripped off. She knows the culture, after all. I'm sure she knows the appropriate cost of her son's wedding.

Exactly. I think he's assuming family relations will be good forever. It might work. It does for millions of people.

Not if the girl is 16 and the farang married her in the amphoe. Probably not at all since the parents seem to have consented to a marriage. The law on prostitution passed in December, 1996, even allows marriage at 14 with the parents consent, IIRC. Not sure if parents' consent is needed at age 16.

Thank you for sharing.

Bangkok is not Thailand. Thais don't tip, Thai employers pay livable wages (a lot less than farangs could live on).

I've lived in Thailand for 42 years, and was stationed here in the Army for three years before that. I have never tipped once in that time. There were three times I was charged a "service charge" by a New Orleans restaurant in Bangkok, which had lousy service by the way, and have always regretted going there.

Eyes like stones, and throwing a gang sign. I'll be glad if he's finally expelled from the Kingdom.

I have two accounts with Bangkok Bank, but in different cities; one in Bangkok and one in Nakhorn Sawan.

And, depending on the context, "eat already" might mean "after eating," but the meaning is clear from the context.

I don't think the tones are all that important. I mostly get the meaning from context -- what's being talked about. I agree that for words like "horse" and "dog" (or "near" and "far") it can be important, but if you just keep on talking your meaning will probably become clear. I mostly don't hear the tones consciously, although I sure do when watching the news on TV. The most important thing is to speak. As much as you can. People are hardwired to correct what they hear. A native speaker will probably understand you, and will be able to question you if you're too garbled.

Thai nouns don't have a plural form, and Thai verbs don't have tenses. Thai grammar is actually pretty simple.

The hospital is not going to mind if you're an hour or two late for your appointment. If you arrive on time you'll probably have to wait anyway. Try to get there before 5:00 PM, so the doctor can go home on time.

You need to go to a pawn shop (raan rab jamnaam) instead of a gold shop. Pawn shops handle numismatics here.

I never met Trink, and I suspect his best work was for the Bangkok World, which was out of business before I retired from the Army. I enjoyed reading his column in the Bangkok Post, but it didn't give me any information. Alas, Silom became sleazy and they raised the price of beer at Nana Plaza. I spent most of my time at the Thermae or the Beer Garden on Soi 7, which had great pork chops. In his later years he had quite a bad reputation as a grifter and freeloader.