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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I renew my visa in Nakhorn Sawan using the income method. The local Immigration Office wants a twelve-month statement. I use Bangkok Bank, and they give me a printout of ALL my transactions for twelve months for ฿200. They also demand copies of my bank book for the twelve months. Seems like overkill, to me. Oh, and don't forget to make copies of the tabien baan and the owner's ID card.

Errr... the age thing wasn't illegal until December, 1996. I remember the before times very well. Used to be a lot of 16 and 17 year olds in the Thermae. Even the occasional 14 year old. I'm not so sure about removing a minor from her guardians, but I imagine they're very well-to-do. I don't expect we'll ever hear the facts of the case, nor its outcome in the courts, nor the reason they decided to prosecute now.