garyinhuahin

Pre-emptive strike. Kill all the people near airports before they can release balloons. And get rid of those birds, too! Hazardous and messy.

Good point. Observe the family entanglements carefully. This can totally determine the future of any relationship.

For a great bike road, continue south on the highway past Chumpohon, to route 4139. Right turn at a small intersection. Small road that doesn't seem to go anywhere at first, but then goes right over the crest of the mountains and connects to Petchkasem Road to Ranong at the village of La-Un. It's spectacular, virtually made for a bike and has almost no traffic. Includes a view of a natural arch, the only one I've seen in Thailand. You can look right through the mountain.

Get a good print map. Google Maps in Thailand is very out of date. Even with printed map, it may appear that the road does not connect across the mountains. But it does, and is very well paved and well engineered. There's one point on the road where you bear left onto a different route number. Google maps so bad I can't see the road numbers there, but it's hard to miss. Have a great ride.

Apple controls pricing pretty strictly. Their products sell in Thailand for just a little more than they do in US or Europe. I looked into on a recent visit home, and decided that local support alone would be worth the small price difference.

But there is always a lag in the products reaching Thailand. If you need the latest now, buying overseas might be justified. My first iPad was purchased in US at a time when it could not be had in Thailand (except at a high markup on the grey market.)

In this world, including Thailand, there's always a "pecking order".

Rich get priority over poor.

Educated get priority over uneducated.

1st class passengers get priority over economy passengers.

And whether it right or wrong, which I'm not inferring, a white "customer" will get priority over an Indian "customer".

And the OP should be aware of this passing through his life.

Chinese "think" they are high on the pecking order, therefore they "jump" queues.

Russians, likewise, think the same, therefore they shout alot and are quite rude compared to Europeans.

And another "perception" is that Indians are sneaky and try get the lowest lowest price.

This post IS NOT intended to be a "racist" post IN ANY WAY, but is a response to the OP's comments on the reality of life.

My perception is that Chinese and Russians just never learned what we consider ordinary manners. Chalk it up to the Marxist-Leninist decades.

Once had the pleasure to know a clan of flower-urchins. Not Burmese, not Cambodian. They were purely Thai and their 'owner' was their mother. A multi-generational franchise who will starve to death if no one buys their flowers. Does anyone imagine that the kids described in this article will go on a trip to Disneyland when they are cleared from the streets or their market dries up owing to do-gooder mercenary writers like Mairs?

I am not giving them money but I will ask them if they want something to eat and some times I run over to 7/11 and buy them some snakes and drinks.

I hope they weren't poisonous.

The kids? Nah. They can be pretty nasty but they're not actually venomous. It's just all the bacteria in their mouths that has nearly the same effect.

They're known to bite their prey once, then track them for days until the victim finally collapses....

Kids Selling Roses to Tourists On Khaosan Road

... and standby for next weeks groundbreaking headline...

Thai women selling sex in Pattaya

7-11 selling unhealthy foods....

This reminds me of a documentary called "Bangkok Girl". Foreigner comes to Thailand then sees the ugly under belly, wonders around the usual areas then comes to such conclusions as if they have the time mag story of the year.

Story's been done, sad none the less but this is down in the que.

Don't be so hard on the foreigners Sally, you're a by-product of this too.

Sally's fee and residuals (this porker has been in syndication about a year now) would likely be enough to put a dent in the inventory of those 500 kids for a few months. Add hers to the list of mouths feeding at the trough of false charity and moralism. She's undoubtedly made some good money here. Do you think she's sharing her good fortune? I doubt it.

So just Khao San road?....Pattaya, Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai..Hua Hin..........everywhere......and everyone turns a blind eye......cheap, forced child labour!....all a part of the cause of global condemnation towards Thailand....and the authorities still try to convince the world of their ongoing efforts to stamp it out, but it's simply just talk!

If you read the story it says there are around 500 of these kids around Thailand

This story happens to focus on what happens on Khao San road, i'm sure the charity's that are trying to help these kids are aware and are trying to help kids in other city's to

The charity business is a great business model to be part of. The more extreme stories you can come up with the more interest is gained and the money just keeps rolling in. I recall on trips to Cambodia seeing all the charity workers with there new SUVs eating at the best restaurants. If you have some basic English skills and love coming up with great stories you can make a lot of money. Downside is that sometimes you have to use a bit of the money coming in to make it look like you are actually helping someone.

500 kids supporting how many charity workers?

Is there a way I can get in on this caper?

Whens the last time tey have been here.. After the army took over they cleaned out the kids working there.

Does anyone remember the news about this not to long ago?

I go there every week and I know from first hand experiance that they booted most of the mafia selling roses.

I did see one boy selling at 3am but that was it in the last few months.

Yes it was a problem before, but now its not the same.

me and my girlfriend are friends with the owner of a popular bar here and I remember the

owner used to complain about how bad it was with the kids.

Do your research and see for yourself and go look at the many stories in english and thai

about the cleanup of the kids selling roses in this area. Lets just hope it stays this way.

with that said there is still a big problem with this in other areas and it saddens me to know kids

can be exploited in such ways. I hope this problem will be addressed and cleaned up everywhere as they did in khao sahn.

Wonder what happened to the kids. Somehow, I think it wasn't something good.

Living on a cul-de-sac in a police ghetto with hoards of dogs helps...

I'm glad to hear that all the rain we're having at Hua Hin is not of significance....

You can expect the Cambodians to hit you for some large fees. Angkok Wat is a major cash cow for the country. It's an amazing place, though.

Apart from formalities, shooting around Angkor will have far more hazard than Ayutthaya. Cambodia is not a big place for law and order. Relative to that, Thailand is very safe.

Those New Years calendars should do the job...

What in the world are they smoking?

it will probably cost you a 100bth to cook it at home they way some landlord charge for the power

hope you can do keep us posted

That's a point. With those electric appliances, the power (even if your landlord's not scalping) is likely to be the largest cost.

Soon after coming here I concluded it was actually cheaper for me to eat out than to cook for myself, given wastage (I'm not terribly organized) and fuel and power costs.

Now I have a wife who's even cheaper than I am and birddogs the markets for really cheap ingredients. Sometimes I have to do the shopping just so I can spend a little money.

I think now is rather the perfect time to go. Quiet and peaceful for once. My last visits were wrecked by the techno and rowdy packer/divers.

Like Phi Phi, KT up to now has been a paradise lost.

Rio de Janeiro

No, you don't need a degree. You need a job, whether you give it to yourself or otherwise.

Labor Dept offices may or may not bust your balls about supposed requirements. I had no problems at all in Prachuab Kirikhan.

It doesn't sound like going to UK is a good option. Nasal polyps are probably not deemed life-threatening, which will mean a beastly wait. That will cost money, worsen the prognosis, and might well cost him his job here. Could all easily exceed the 300K costs cited.

Thai public system seems to be the way in this case. A bilingual 'medical advocate' would be invaluable here, to make sure things happen smoothly and he gets the right care.

Or maybe India. Key is to get the cost down to something sensible, without compromising the care. If he wants to go private, I'd suggest shopping as many as possible and not being afraid to negotiate. Said bilingual advocate would really help here too, though I'm not sure where to find such a person.

Vaccines prevent disease. They don't cure disease. If it's a vaccine, it's not a cure. If it's a cure, it's not a vaccine.

Odds on that it's neither. This reads like major BS.

There's one on Petchkasem in the section after the palace, inland side. Not the only one, but I've done business with them and been satisfied.

If you're open to Thai players, Silpakorn and Mahidol Universities have good programs and are turning out very competent players.

what would you prefer foreigner, or maybe white bread, lilly livered chickenshit m----- f-----

I generally prefer to be called 'honkie' or 'cracker'.