GuestHouse

It's a covert operation to price cheap charlies out of the Thai market.

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I don't see anything wrong with tipping above the averge. At a popular restaurant regularly visit in Thailand I always leave a generous tip - Never wait long for a table, never wait long to be served.

What is regarded as 'geneerous' and 'over generous' is of course a personal view.

Compared with the self-mismanagement of the Thai ecconomy and lack of forward planning in investment, legislation, educaiton and maket development the dollar shift is almost insignificant.

OK the dollar reduces the profits of Thai hotels who charge in dollars and it makes selling to the US more difficult for exporters, but their markets are already being taken over by the Chinese anyway.

Are US arrivals down? Perhaps, and perhaps not only due to the price of the dollar.

The travel industry, for so long a corner stone of what ecconomic planning there is in Thailand is gradually getting things wrong.

Every bad news report of scams, rip-offs, attacks on visitors, surly immigration staff and poor service has an accumulative negative impact on the Thai Travel Idustry something other competitors for the Tourist dollar are capitalizing on.

Much is said about the US not paying attention to the world outside its boarders.

How very true of Thailand is that!

I think it would be a mistake to assume that the reason why British men moved to Thailand is representative of the reason why the Majority of Briton's who move overeas do so.

I also doubt very much that majority of Britons who move to live in Thailand are any way representative of Britons who move overseas elsewhere on a whole host of fronts.

Expatriate Brits I've met in France and in particularly Italy would seem on the surface to be from a different planet, let alone a different county than most the expatriate Britons I've met in Thailand.

We all of us out to consider this when we read the posts of expatrirate Britons here.

Balanced views are as rare around here as people balanced enough to give them.

The situation Americans find themselves in with respect to exchange rates is nothing if not a cautionary tale to us all - or at least to any foreigner planning to retire or retired in Thailand.

What happens to the US dollar can and almost certainly will happen to other currencies over time. I wonder how many Brits are forgetting they enjoy such a favourable exchange rate on their pound.

If you are planning to retire in Thailand and at the same time servicing a loan in Thailand then you are taking a huge risk - So let's learn the lesson (but we will not).

There is some good news here.

All those hotels and resorts that changed their prices to dollars when the Bht hit the fans are also loosing out on the exchange rate - Will they change to GBP or Euros I wonder?

Online chats often lead to sex, seminar is told

I'm absolutely sure they do, but I doubt many lead to the kind that involves two people.

Living it up on peoples hard paid taxes is coming to an end.

Not other people's taxes - other people's wages.

They only become 'Other people's taxes when the government convinces people that they have the right to other people's wages'

Getting rid of the Sick-Note Culture would be a good move - but its fast being replace by money spent to garner the Welfare Vote.

More or less the same as yesterday with today's very own quirky Thai thing added on top.

Thailand is changing and like back in the west the women of Thailand are gaining more equal rights under the law, just as they are learning to be more self assertive of those rights.

I understand entirely why this worries guys who having failed to keep up with these changes in the west now realize they can't keep up in Thailand either.

The world changes, some people can't keep up - Despite having had two cracks at doing so.

From the report:

Thai women have the image of being, "exotic, young, alluring, yet potentially HIV-positive 'hookers', eager to please western clients; or dutiful, devoted wives of western men who dismiss the tenets of western feminism and appreciate the financial and emotional generosity of their husbands".

The comment refers to the view the general population in the UK has of Thai women.

But if the report had said:

Thai women have the image of being, "exotic, young, alluring, eager to please western men; or dutiful, devoted wives of western men who dismiss the tenets of western feminism and appreciate the financial and emotional generosity of their husbands".

Then it is clear from another thread currently underway here on TV that many men married to Thai women would agree.

I would argue that both stereotypical views are insulting.

Good luck to the OP and his family. BTW, why is it important that your children get a Thai education? Yours is the first post that I've ever read that contained those words. I've heard the opposite many times.

Perhaps because it would be cheaper for him.

Advice to the wife.

File for divorce in the UK and get a settlement that includes attachement of earnings to ensure that his intrest in supporting his children doesn't disapear once they are verseas.

That's probably the advice her lawyer will give her too.

In all fairness Thai people enjoy a far more complete level of integration into UK society than the other way around (schooling wise that is).

Slap some double pricing, one year visas, remove rights to own property / vote, limit permanent residence to a handful per year and relegate rights to citizenship to the outer reaches of impossibility and you'd get a more balanced experience between the respective expat communities.

I'd like someone to give me an example of how Western Feminists have influenced Thai women or brought about changes to Thai society (by whatever means) and if such an example is found, a summary of why/how that particular case is a bad thing?

the key question I look to have answered is whether it or not it is appropriate to coerce/convince/persuade the people of the East to accept the Western model.

There is no evidence that such coercion/convincing/persuasion is taking place.

There is plenty of evidence (here in this thread) of western men expecting Asian women to conform to some “Asian ideal” which in truth is actually something that is dreamed up by western men who have little or no real understanding of what “Asian Values and Customs” are.

Then you must lead a somewhat sheltered life and/or have minimal contact with Western women who visit Asia for the first time and listen to their views on what's right and wrong here. The things that spawned my original post (amongst other things) was having just had two female house guests visit Thailand for the first time, one from Aus and one from the US and both very feminist in their outlook. Between the two of them I have endured two weeks of near non stop rantings about how women in Thailand would never possibly be treated and regarded the same way "back home" and how things here have to change.

I'm laughing like a drain at that.

You mean you had two feminist women staying with you and because you could not (for whatever reason) stand your corner in face to face discussion with them you come on here ranting about Western Feminist Women.

Why should we have to put up with arguments you failed to make when you had a chance?

Like I said a few post back:

Traditional Western Men moving to Thailand and wearing the trousers in their own house.

Thailand is full of them – talking like a man out of the house and behaving like a mouse when at home.

Squeak Squeak !

"I am trying to protect myself financially"

You are looking to ship your wife out of the UK to deny her and your children the rights to which they are entitled.

Get her signed up here on TV so that we can give her the advice she needs to help protect her own future and the future of your kids.

OK that's my advice, now can you help with solving this anogram.

AMGCBSU

the key question I look to have answered is whether it or not it is appropriate to coerce/convince/persuade the people of the East to accept the Western model.

There is no evidence that such coercion/convincing/persuasion is taking place.

There is plenty of evidence (here in this thread) of western men expecting Asian women to conform to some “Asian ideal” which in truth is actually something that is dreamed up by western men who have little or no real understanding of what “Asian Values and Customs” are.

If that were the case how come most western men hook up with entertainment providers who except for the cooking and cleaning bit are very well capable to take care themselves and earn their own money?

That says a great deal about the western men who make that choice and nothing about anyone else - male of female, eastern or western.

I've read some garbage on this site before, but the OP here has leapt to pole position.

A) The claims the OP makes regarding to western women coming on this site and professing a form of feminism in which men and women are seen as equal and without difference in all respects are hogwash - I've never seen a feminist or anyone else claim as much on TV.

The norms between East and West are indeed different - Many a western man with 'Traditional Values' will tell you how women are home makers and not workers - certainly not manual labor workers. The evidence all around Thailand is that Thai women are both homemakers and workers and often manual workers. Ya' don't get many women digging ditches in the west (feminist or not).

C) What's all this Cr@p about it being dangerous to meddle with things as they are? A veiled excuse to leave things as they are because the suit the OP.

D) Thai women are able to figure out what they want - They don't need western feminists to TELL them what is best for them, they are quite capable of having a DIALOGUE with feminism and deciding what THEY want for THEMSELVES. Least of all they don't need foreign men to tell them what its best for them.

E) It is my observation that the Thai women I know who have moved to the west thrive in the opportunities western society offers them. In Thailand they are discovering for themselves that they can have a fairer society and if you think they are going to forgo those opportunities because it suits men, Thai or foreign, that things remain as they are then you are a bigger fool than your Opening Post suggests.

Traditional Western Men moving to Thailand and wearing the trousers in their own house.

Thailand is full of them – talking like a man out of the house and behaving like a mouse when at home.

If your wife is registered as joint account holder and joint property holder + joint contract signatory to the lease agreements then she has wealth and income domiciled in the UK (regardless of her nationality/imigration status and eye colour).

So she would be entitled to claim half the profits and against those claim a tax allowance.

Speak to a tax advisor.

My wife loves the UK, but she also enjoyed Singapore and deeply misses Rome.

I'd list the things she likes but that would only lead to a bun fight with missfits desputing what is in the end only someone's opinion.

Banks are almost always a really bad bet for anything other than regular banking business.

At best they are selling you someone else's product (at an unreasonable fee).

What else would you expect a property develper to say?

He's trying to shift stock.

I don't know anything about Austrlian law.

If you are from Australia then I would certainly start there - or more precisely in your home country.

We set our first trust up via snail mail. We were in Thailand at the time and set the trust up in the UK via letters -but we did have to get our trust documents notorized at the UK Embassy in BKK.

Well done Bambi, I'm sure you are going to love Utrecht and the Netherlands in general.

Don't miss out on Carnival while you are there (Bergen-Op-Zoom is the place to catch that) .. In fact the whole Dutch life thing, its really a very good place to study.

It would be interesting to know the suicide rates among farangs living in Thailand - Farangs topping themselves seemingly such a regular occurance. (Particularly in Pattaya).

How much were you paying the guide?

If substantially less than the dolly in the office then I'm sure he wasn't happy.

You perhaps should consider doing a short course on man management or some reading up on management and motivation.

I had to deal with a very serious offence by one of the expats in my department a couple of weeks ago (Gross Misconduct - Subject to summary dismissal). In the past I've had to deal with one other such case.

In both cases I went through all the motions according to company policy but still struggled with the issue on an emotional level.

I mentioned this to my HO manager and he suggested one of our internal courses 'Dealng with Conflict'. I'm working through that in the evenings at the moment, it has been a great help in understanding what I got wrong and what I got right.

We can all of us always learn new things - and should do.