Acharn

6 hours ago, chalawaan said:

Yeah, that's kind of the point of being here for many of us. ????

Sex and drugs and rock and roll!

6 hours ago, peter zwart said:

I dont know and dont care. You can also just avoid confrontation.

Sometimes it's not possible to avoid confrontation. If someone attacks you, you may not be able to run away after the first couple of punches. In this case, the Thai guy seemed to be surprised at being attacked, and I don't think he could escape. YMMV.

4 hours ago, possum1931 said:

It seems plain enough to me. What job employs the most people in Thailand?

Anyone??

Farming.

22 hours ago, Sparktrader said:

3 to 4 million. Not that small.

More like 150,000-200,000. Most are from the North, Chiang Mai, Chaiyaphum. Girls from the NorthEast are usually too dark-skinned. Used to be a few more before they made 18 the legal requirement in 1996. Most of them don't make very much. Most Massage girls only make about ฿1,000 a day, if even that much. Most street-walkers only make ฿3-400 on a good day.

23 minutes ago, GarryP said:

At least he's served time for one of his crimes, if only 11 months or so. Suthep and Chalerm haven't served any time and are much worse than Chuwit. 

I seem to recall that Suthep was forced into the monkhood for a while. Chalerm is one of my favorites. He started out as a Sergeant Major in the Army's Military Police and got transferred to the police when he was caught extorting merchants. Prem (remember him?) commented that he was extraordinarily ungrateful.

4 hours ago, Trentham said:

Climate change didn't begin in 2011. 2010 was also a climate change event.

Actually, it started when humans discovered fire. At first it wasn't bad, the world's natural mechanisms took care of it, but starting about 1776, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, with the industrial use of steam power, it took off. We passed the point where we could do anything about it around 1850. No link, my opinion.

Of course the climate has always been changing, but we were in a pretty sweet situation after the last Ice Age.

On 8/26/2022 at 3:37 PM, Dmaxdan said:

With a genuine smile, the eyes will move as well as the mouth.

I don't believe this. I'm 85 years old, and don't have crow's feet, which are caused by your eyes moving when you smile. I grant you I don't smile a lot, but when I do, it's genuine. I think that's true of (some) other people, too.

On 7/21/2022 at 5:49 PM, kotsak said:

I think you are referring to Chuwit Park, which he sold few years ago to L&H.

Ah, that may be. I haven't lived in Bangkok for thirteen years, now. Chuwit is the only one of the old political crew that I know of. I don't see any others as entertaining as he is, but I've grown old and don't pay much attention any more.

3 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

and he also teaches the alphabet, quite the renaissance man

I've liked Chuwit since he <deleted> Thaksin off and sent the bulldozers in to the market on Sukhumwit, which is now Queen Sirikhit's Park. Long story, but he's a very funny and very canny man.

I did for twenty years, but I haven't lived there for thirteen years, so I'm out of touch.

This year hasn't seemed hotter than usual -- so far. I live in Nakhon Sawan, and I haven't seen the temperature go over 40° -- yet. I well remember the heat wave during April 2018. Every damned day it got up to 44-5°. That was hot. Don't know what next month will bring, and my Thai family are complaining that it's too hot, but I'm OK so far.

Well, they're going to find some evil farangs, which I'm glad of, but everybody should know that by far most of the people who are into this kind of thing are Thai. Indeed, most of them are family members or at least well known to the children. The new law imposes serious penalties on those who abuse children under 15, especially if payment is involved. Back in the 2000s a sitting Senator was convicted and sent to prison for taking underage girls to "curtain hotels." This jamoke is in a world of hurt. Before the new law in December, 1996, it was quite common for girls to enter the sex trade when they were 15 or 16, and I used to know one very pretty half Korean girl whose mother put her to work when she was 14. After all, through most of human history women married at 13 or 14, otherwise they couldn't have enough children to be sure at least a couple survived to care for them in their old age (that's what "honor your father and mother" means).

On 12/14/2021 at 3:16 PM, KhunLA said:

<snip> ... and extended roof for some wall shading E/S/W.  Along with about 50 sqm for panels. <snip>

Don't forget that we're south of the Tropic of Cancer, so during the summer months the sun's path through the sky is to the north. In fact, with the solstice approaching, I just noticed the other day how far to the south the sun is rising now, compared to when we moved in in May. I know in the States a lot of architectural rules of thumb are based on the rule that the sun always is to the south. Things are a little more complicated here.

Glad to see some positive reports. My experiences with Immigration in various places have all been positive, except the very first one in Bangkok in 1982. The officer was an elderly man with a very sour attitude, but he ended up behaving professionally and stamped my passport to come back in two weeks. I never saw him again. I'm currently dealing with the Nakhon Sawan office, and they are very laid back and pleasant to work with.

I believe the price of Thai gold (22 carat) is standardized, and all shops give the same price. The gold shops in Chinatown are the longest established. Look along Phahurat Road, but really any large gold shop, including the ones conveniently located in any shopping mall will likely have the same policies. The ones in the shopping malls are more likely to have staff who can speak English (my opinion, which may be wrong). Your best bet is to take the jewelry to one or more shops and ask them. I think European jewelry uses gold with a higher standard of purity, so they may not want it.

On 12/10/2021 at 7:12 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Did it ever happened to you that you took one of those girls out and then you discovered that she didn't look as exiting as you thought in dark Thermae? If you see a girl on stage in a go-go bar there are not many surprises later on.

Nope, never happened. I never thought the Thermae was particularly dark. There used to be a joke, though: "I never took an ugly woman to bed, but I've woken up with a few." Luckily, I found out I'm an alcoholic, so I don't drink any more.

I never cared for the go-go bars. I spent some time at the Biergarten on Soi Seven, but mostly the Thermae. The girls dancing in front of the jukebox were enough, and if I wasn't looking for action I could actually talk to people there. I don't live in Bangkok any more. I wonder if the old place is still there.

Chuwit makes me recall the Thai police chief back in the '90s who said there were no brothels in Bangkok. After days of ridicule he was forced to clarify that he meant the places where there was a mat on the floor and a spittoon to spit your betel nut into. And he was wrong that there weren't any of those even then.

6 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Ah yes. The good old days of hand signals. Sticking your hand out the window and flapping it up and down to indicate slowing down ect.

My granddad used to tell me about that. ????

We mostly just didn't do signals. Figured it was more an aspirational thing. I never heard about anybody getting in trouble for not signalling, but in those days we didn't ticket or arrest people for the money. Rich people paid 90% on the top segment of their income, so government worked.

Gaprao is also known as Thai basil, or sweet basil. I'm very surprised you can't find it. Might not be able to get it fresh, though.

15 hours ago, CLW said:

Believe 1/10 of what he's telling and it might be right. Thais always like to brag about business numbers and money.

Also with that extraordinary high price you have to find a buyer for these rare plants first.

My (Thai) niece has been buying this type of plant recently, but only priced at ฿50-100. She seems to envision eventually selling them, and they're a good fit for her existing business, a small building materials company, but I think she has realistic expectations. She'd have a dozen or so plants for sale displayed in front of her shop and probably could expect a profit of a couple thousand baht a month, at best. At least she isn't sinking ridiculous amounts of cash in the project -- yet.

I don't know if Thai law requires signaling before changing lanes. I grew up and learned to drive in a time when cars didn't have signal lights, so drivers were expected to pay attention and anticipate what other drivers were likely to do. The driver ahead of you changing lanes shouldn't be a big deal.

I don't know if the law has been changed, but one of the things that appalled me when I still drove was that the law did not require drivers to pull over to the side of the road when they heard an emergency vehicle. I have seen one story about a person who was arrested for purposely blocking an ambulance, but that seems to have been deliberate obstruction, not just ignoring it. When I had driver's training in Germany while stationed there, the law was the same, and we were warned the Polizei were very strict about all traffic rules.

Is this the place to ask about how to use the Mor Prom app? On my phone I don't see any way to change language to English. I can read Thai, but it's a painful process and I usually choose the English option if I can find it.

I recently got an email from Bangkok Bank informing me that I will be charged ฿300 for my "debit card." I thought it was just an ATM card, and never tried to use it to make a payment online. The reason you can't use it with foreign vendors is because their payment systems don't recognize the card. It's not a credit card.