Acharn

On 4/23/2024 at 3:29 PM, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   The legal age to get married in Thailand is 20 years old .

Even if the 16 year girl did give consent at the time , she can still change her mind afterwards . 

She can consent to sex one day and change her mind and then file Police charges the next day 

Do you have a reference to that legal age for marriage? Please see this article from Thaiguider. It's really quite complex, but I think from this that the age to give consent to marriage is 18. As far as the granting of consent, the Thai police have complained that it is almost impossible to prove whether or not sex took place. Two people going to a privacy hotel is not proof that they had sex there. Sexual assault charges are underreported in Thailand.

On 4/24/2024 at 6:09 PM, Bday Prang said:

        Errrr.... They are married he has every  right to comment on how his wife wants to squander money, I'm pretty sure my missis would have something to say if I returned from the casino 500,000 baht worse off, despite it being my money   What contract are you referring to?

        

I'm referring to the contract with the caterer, and possibly with the local wat who provide the monks for the chanting (I don't know if that falls under Thai commercial law, but I think not). I presume your wife depends on your support, so she has a right to comment on how you spend your money, unless ฿500,000 is a trivial amount to you. If you're married in Thailand, by the way, the money is half hers, not yours alone.

28 minutes ago, Andycoops said:

This is hilarious, the sky is the limit with Thai weddings.

Set the limit.

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.

On 4/20/2024 at 6:43 PM, malct said:

<snip>

 

My wife is paying for wedding , So its nothing out of my pocket, But i don't want her getting ripped off , I question Why the GF hasn't been married before and why the rush, If it was me , I would run a mile  with talk of marriage so early on...   And no babies on the way yet LOL

<snip>

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.

On 4/23/2024 at 3:30 PM, FritsSikkink said:

A usefruct doesn't mean you own the land, you can use it.

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

On 4/21/2024 at 3:15 PM, Nick Carter icp said:

The girl and the Parents can file police charges for underaged sex 

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.

23 hours ago, Smokin Joe said:

 

I feel sorry for you.

Thank you for sharing.

18 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

 

That's a first , no one else has admitted not tipping 

I guess there is a lot more and that can be for various reasons 

Great post

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.

8 hours ago, rumak said:

 

Q :"eat rice... or not yet ? "     

A:  "eat already" 

 

simple ! 

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

On 4/8/2024 at 7:27 PM, atpeace said:

Remember thinking this 27 years ago after arriving here to tour Thailand on a pedal bike.  Just finished up with doing 6 months in Mexico and struggling with the complexities of Spanish.  I was completely wrong! 27 years later (20 spent hear), I speak less Thai than the Spanish I learned in a few months.

 

Can you hear the different tones?  How does a person that is tone deaf learn Thai?

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.

7 hours ago, Goat said:

It is the ones who can not speak and read who are always in a state of frustration.

It is like living the life of an illiterate, deaf mute. 

 

And frustrating for the poor locals who bear the the brunt of this frustration with the the farang pulling faces an using hand signals, often using singlular Thai words and thinking that the Thai is the stupid one for not being able to understand the mess.

 

In Australia we make immigrants speak english, we should do it here also.

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.

11 minutes ago, Dolf said:

Maybe you are taking the wrong ones.

Yeah, that's actually pretty likely. I tend to be a cheapskate. About 47 years ago I quit drinking alcohol (I am self-diagnosed as an alcoholic). I started eating a healthier diet (I was in the Army at the time, so I ate what was served in the mess hall) and exercising regularly. After a year, I was in great shape, without any vitamins or supplements. I also started following a couple of Usenet newsgroups devoted to health and body-building. Most of the people there (mostly power lifters, rather than body builders) were skeptical of vitamins and supplements; they were very concerned to avoid steroids. Alas, with the growth of the commercial world wide web Usenet is practically extinct and I haven't had the comfort of those newsgroups since the late '90s. By the way, I think the body builders had a somewhat different attitude toward vitamins and supplements (and steroids), but I never got into that side of it. I'm 86 now, and think my good health comes from that period of several years of physical fitness.

On 3/19/2024 at 8:19 PM, Dolf said:

Why are they scams? Most athletes take them and they know better than most.

I'm pretty sure one third of what they're taking is worthless, one third you or I would need a prescription for, and the rest are illegal. I dunno. I confess I take vitamins and/or supplements from time to time, but usually they don't make any difference in how I feel. I'm sorry I posted on the topic.

On 3/18/2024 at 8:52 AM, brianthainess said:

White vinegar with lemon juice. Marinated then apply with some lemon 'flesh' and a plaster on top to hold in place. I had some removed with dry ice in a hospital, but they started to come back. then I tried the above method, they went and never came back. 

The internet tells me the preferred method is liquid nitrogen, which is quite a lot colder than dry ice. I'm currently trying salicylic acid. I may try superglue, since this doesn't seem to be doing anything.

On 3/18/2024 at 1:37 PM, Jaymatheson said:

Getting older and slowly adding various things into my daily intake.  Currently taking Zinc Picolinate, D3, Omega 3, B Complex, and C.  I don't have any known health issues worth mentioning and don't really have much insight on my body as I've never had any serious problems to look into.  I eat healthy and stay in shape.

 

Any recommendations of what I should add to my daily vitamin / supplement routine? 

 

Thanks

Vitamin and mineral supplements are mostly scams. It probably won't hurt you to eat them, but you usually don't need any, either. I'm currently taking B12 and zinc citrate, but expect to stop when I've finished these bottles. I admit I'm not consistent.

On 3/12/2024 at 4:22 PM, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Pun intended?

 

Seriously though, I've been having vision issues too for the past couple of years. I've been wearing glasses/contacts for the past 30 years - always been fine both reading and far sight with glasses or contacts on, but now I can barely read anything with contacts on, and it's not optimal with glasses either. Far sight isn't what it used to be either. I had a couple of vision tests done and my prescription hasn't changed - doc had me try different close prescriptions too but they were even worse. So bottom line is I can ace a vision test, but I don't feel like my vision is what it used to be.

 

Anyway, might give Rutnin a try. 👍

When I served in the Air Force, from 1955-1958, I didn't need glasses. When I joined the Army in 1965, I needed glasses. When my wife took me to an ophthalmologist in 2008, she diagnosed cataracts. When I went to another ophthalmologist in 2021, I had astigmatism, along with nearsightedness. I wish I could afford lasik, but the prices I've been quoted are ฿80-100,000, which is far beyond my financial ability. I gather lasik only corrects astigmatism temporarily anyway.

On 3/7/2024 at 4:11 PM, bob smith said:

what happens if a Thai upsets us first?

 

do we have the right to defend ourselves or will we be deported for that too?

 

bob.

If the Thai physically attacks you, you can defend yourself. If he just annoys or upsets you, and if you hit him/her, you should be deported. Some people get very upset when Thais refer to them (when talking to other Thais) as "farang." I've never understood why.

On 2/14/2024 at 6:06 PM, Mike Lister said:

There's ample evidence that QE causes inflation and that's effectively what the 560 bill digi wallet giveaway is.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022615/why-didnt-quantitative-easing-lead-hyperinflation.asp

Well, we had QE for twelve, fifteen years, and until two years ago the CPI inflation rate stayed at 2% or less. It was great for the stock market, though. I haven't read the link you enclose, but the headline seems to agree with me. Sometimes people luck out and inflation follows their prediction; sometimes they don't and it doesn't. Nobody knows what causes it. I used to really like Milton Freidman's theory, inflation is a purely monetary effect, but that didn't pan out.

23 hours ago, Mike Lister said:

All bets are off on the Baht. I just read that the cabinet has approved THB 560 bill in extra borrowings, not fund the digital wallet which happens to be that exact amount, but to pay for a budget deficit. If I read that correctly, the government will no longer borrow specifically for the digital wallet giveaway but will instead fund it from a budget deficit. 

 

This is going to lead to inflation and loss of investor confidence, the new borrowings total over 750 billion baht or 15% of GDP, the highest it has ever been, during peak covid it was 9%. 

Alas, nobody has figured out yet what causes inflation, much less hyperinflation. Pundits in the USA have been predicting catastrophe from our budget deficits since 1789, and yet we persist. In fact, the five times we have seriously lowered the public debt have produced recessions/depressions. Japan's public debt is well over 200% of GDP, yet they persist. The big problem is the debt denominated in USD.