horsewell

Don't get me wrong I think it's a good move, however, it's a roaming service... doesn't that mean that AIS customers will be charged a premium for the service? Thinking it would probably be better if they just started erecting a WiMAX (4G) network. Probably still years away from even thinking about that. Let's see if the new government can be more effective.

It's not really the role of the immigration officer to test Thai students. There should be some sort of testing requirement and re-testing at a different location, if the immigration officer is not satisfied. I'm currently on the second year single entry Non-Ed but been learning thai for just over 3 years now. I don't even know some [Thai] people speak English anymore... also, I ask the people selling things in the market to speak Thai to me, I don't even want to deal with unintelligible English. The tipping point (easier for me "try" to speak Thai than they try and speak English) came after about a year, however, I have a real interest. Spending many hours in conversation, flash card vocabulary lists.

Thai isn't that hard with a little diligence, even if you are learning Thai with small chat at a bar. For an education visa 4 hours of classroom time / week is small fry there will be plenty for time for tours, snorkelling, temple visiting... whatever floats your boat.

I've never been even quizzed by the Immigration officer but there is [probably] no need as I write my address in Thai script and respond to the cute assistants few questions in Thai...

There are lots of different visas that people can get to stay in the country and it's good that they are starting to make moves to remove the loop holes that allow people scam the visa system.

I blame everyone for everything that I did. It was just their fault and if they hadn't been there it would have been someone else's fault. It's not my responsibility because they all, whoever they are, made me do it. Can't you see that I'm the victim in this story!!!

Children that grow up in violent house holds are just as likely to be more caring when they are adults as they are to be terrorists. Most will see that what is happening in their family unit is wrong. It's when the whole environment creates a culture that having a baby, drugs or lack will lead people to extreme things.

Some terrorists just want the world to burn, they will always do what they will. Others are put there because there seems like no alternative. Thailand doesn't have any invading force, like Iraq or Afghanistan or Palestine. If there are terrorists they are created by the communities and practises of the government that is in charge of the nation.

One ex-girlfriend: She hadn't been married, had a child, worked massage (read hooker) and I'd already discussed Sinsot with her and decided that I wasn't going to pay very much, if at all. She did have a house which I invested a few baht in. When we broke up she wanted 20,000B but she made such a ruckus that I told her to go jump, with a Thai friend sitting next to me, who told her if she wanted a problem my friend would pull so strings to get her locked up for a few days. We never broke up about Sinsot, we had other differences of opinion and my distaste for your sower old, meddling, sister.

Fast forward a year or so. We are on talking terms, and she just got married to a man. He has known her a few months (in person) and paid somewhere between 600,000 - 1,000,000B to marry her (depends on if you ask him or her). She told my new girlfriend I was a tight-arse when we where having dinner together (2 couples), and was happy to let her pay ;-) In a few days they will be living together, in his country, for the first time. I wish them luck.

If you are negotiating something like sinsot without knowing the full cultural ramification or the lady long enough to know she is going to look after you. You kind of deserve to be taken for a ride, just so you remember not to do it again.

Gold and Silver is a great investment at the moment. Silver will give a better return than Gold. The great thing is that it can be sold off and anytime and while there are all these monetary crisis going on all over the place it can only increase in value. The thing is to keep it in a safe place and not tell anyone else that you have it as an investment. A bank deposit box is a must. The way it's moving now the return would be many many times the cost of the storage!

The problem is that if it's locked up too tight you may not be able to get it out if there is a need and if it's too loose it may be fritted away.

I know a woman that is continually poor due to friends and family borrowing and spending her money, not to mention her feeling that she has a need for something and buying it without thinking about what she will eat tomorrow! With a bank lending money they can send the police around but when a person lends money it's usually to problem of the lender to continually chase the borrower to get the money back.

I read that AIS has a subsidiary that has already started making moves for 4G. It's a shame that things have to move so slow, however, it's seems that that our father's children will squabble. Have to give people time to adjust to self rule, it's only been about 80 years of democracy. Mind you, some of our older democracies seem to be busy not only squabbling internally but think they have to police the entire world with their own twisted agendas. At least they have 3G.... sort of.

Champions of "free trade"

if by pressure you mean encouragement... you'd be right.

time share is a scam! It doesn't matter about the company that sells it!

Learning Thai could be a really good idea. I've been learning for the last 3 years. These isn't any danger unless you learn for a long time and can't speak it.

There is a big payoff when you read, speak and can understand what others say. You can get a different level of understanding of the country and the culture.

In the Thai language school that I go to they have all the paperwork for me to have a yearly extension but after about a year of study they ran out of material to give me. Now I can read books and understand the meaning without having too look up every second word. It's also reassuring reading a contract and being about to get the gist of it without having someone "translate" it. Everywhere I go I inflict my language skills on the population.

I have read on Thai visa that some people have been tested for their level of Thai by the immigration officer but so-far they haven't been very interested in me. The thought of it is sort of intimidating as well, having an immigration officer that could decide if you can stay or go, test you. I have seen enough people in positions of power with a chip on their shoulder, I start to think, if I make a mistake in that moment will I have a problem? However, it doesn't seem to be that way at all, sabaai sabaai.

It really depends on the situation of the people that you are marrying as much as your situation. Every Thai person has their own take on Sinsot. and if you haven't read "A Case Against Sinsot" on Stickman's web site (Google it) then you should, as it is eye opening. Even if you choose to pay or not to pay you should at least know the complete cultural significance of what you are doing.

You will see that by paying or not paying you will probably been in the same light depending on the family. Thai people rarely marry out of their on social level and that would mean that the sinsot for a farmer in isan will be a lot less than the sinsot paid by an office worker in Bangkok. You need to have an understanding of the culture and the family before negotiating something like this. Know where your girlfriend stands and how that relates to her parents. If you make a stand, can't articulate it eloquently enough, and she doesn't agree with you, you have probably just lost the relationship.

I recently read that Thailand's marriage rate (registered marriages) is in decline as the divorce rate is increasing.

If Muaythai fighters where a problem then it would be like a r3d shirt rally everyday of the week! Thailand is full of Fighters and wanna be fighters. On the most part, they are like Kittens that are extremely good at beating each other up! I've read more stories of people wanting to fly out hotel windows in Phuket then I have about Muaythai Fighters trying to harm or kill others in the last year or so.

Just sounds like a guy that wanted a piece of fight. He wasn't patient enough to arrive at the bloody camp before hand. Probably much better for everyone if he is gaoled, fined and deported to reek havoc on some other poor countries fighters.

What we see as 3G mobile phone service is in fact just a number of different standards. Given the right set of technologies on any mobile frequency will allow faster internet and / or more services. It all depends on the phones that are sold and what they can talk to. There is a possibility that some enterprising company could side step the whole frequency issue given enough creativity, it's that very much the Thai way of doing things? Maybe these large Thai corporations have lost their imaginations. Maybe they need T@ksin to come back and teach them just how to get things done

It's tragic that the young woman was killed and the others seriously hurt but as a cycle driver one can't assume that other traffic will see or care about the bike. There are still questions like: where is the driver, did the people on the bike look before coming out of the car park? If the truck run a red light then it's good that more people where not involved at the actual intersection itself. I have noticed two things: almost getting hit by people (all races and countries) not looking when coming out of intersections (or even on straight roads) and the pertinacity to race through on amber and red and be the first when it is about to turn green. I have found that traffic is largely forgiving to people who aren't really taking notice of their surroundings but there are times when it can not, like a fast moving truck.

I've been here 2.5 years and can now have basic conversations about the economy with a Bangkok taxi. I try and use it everywhere with everyone I can. After a year I was still pretty basic but it gets better. With the one on one teaching you should guide the teacher in the sorts of things you want to learn even suggesting role playing so you get comfortable with a conversation format.

I would suggest "Before you Know it" from Transparent Language it has a lot of vocabulary and you can also collect words, phrases to practise. I would also suggest PaiBoon "Thai for beginners" as it has conversations and vocabulary on a CD.

Also, learn to read. It's useful, if you go out of the tourist areas, and will help a lot with pronunciation and rhythm.

I read once in a Thai Air magazine that it took the King about 7 years to relearn Thai language after being out of the country for most of his childhood. So, don't feel bad about only being about to speak some basic sentences after only 15 months.

if you walk down the street and grape (grab) every "woman" you see will get a whole range of reactions and this is one of them. If she was a different girl she may have wanted to go home with him. Instead he got a ladyboy kick him square in the face.

I don't understand people who come to a foreign country and forget their manors, and laws, of their own country. Hopefully he learnt from the beating and doesn't do it again.

It's a pitty really but it's hard to have sympathy for people that know what is going to happen if they are court and hopefully know that the chances of being court are pretty high. They must have been pretty desperate for money!

It doesn't matter how many pills are seized it seems to always be more...

When the time comes they will just either find a way or that will have to be the capacity... they could always build a new airport on the mainland, it wouldn't be that much further... Sometimes people don't realise there is a hard capacity for some things unless there are major changes that may hurt a little, like each time and distance. Not to mention that there are other problems like the amount of fresh water in Phuket that will probably have to be addressed way before the airport has to be expanded again.

However, the ant colony thing... you need to send the police to check out what the writer has been smoking!

I hope that they can have a airport link because it will make the cost of getting to phuket town a lot cheaper in the long run. I live in Patong but I'm sure they will have mini-bus, bus or taxi from phuket town to patong will be even lower in cost. As I only just made it to the airport on time for the plane because of a traffic jam the other day, I'm more than happy with this idea.

I wish these companies better and hope that if they get the go ahead for there projects that it does make living in Phuket just that much more easier and economical

You would think that most tourists don't go as far as reporting crime most of the time. Either it's seen to be minor or they don't know who to go to, or don't go to the correct authority and the crime is never recorded.

it's sad that people who probably don't have too much education that have probably been living there for a long time have been evicted in such a despicable manner. I hope that the company pay the money, every last baht.

I also understand that someone may have bought the land. Probably for a really good price, that far back. They have a right to develop it.

However, if the villages had only filed a claim on the land years ago then they would have had a chance of keeping their houses. Where are the bleeding hearts when you need them?

I'm in Thailand and it's not blocked for me.... but other sites are. I wonder if it's upto the ISP to do these things!?!

I can understand being angry with the owner. I have lived in places that the owner has been difficult but wanting to burn the place to the ground seems very extreme. I hope they get everything they wanted with this act of aggression against the world!