Flummoxed

As they did not have any money the doctors said that they would cut the baby into pieces to get it out. 

The 30 B scheme is only very basic.

Baaastards

I send money from UK to my BKK account by SWIFT. It usually arrives within 24 hours of sending.....and at the interbank exchange rate. Excellent

Oh, and I'm not new here

Me too and I have seen absolutely no eveidence in my time in Thailand of Thai's being turned away in emergency situations. The Thia's aren't monsters Re, withholding medical help. The Americans hold that honour. (Now I've gone and done it )

I too smell a tall story. Kindly stay on topic, how can we as foreigners improve medical assistance for the poor in the villages. It is my understanding that, in medical emergencies, care is available to all for a very small fee indeed. I have experience of this upcountry when my TGF required medical help earlier this year.

Although not always to the standard one might expect in the West, it is however available too all in my experience.

I'm extreemly pleased with the replies in this thread. Please keep them coming. Anyone who has requested I PM them in the future, I shall.

Food for thought Yohan. Thanks.

One of the very best principles in designing aid programmes is to invite the aid recipients to discuss what they really need, and allow them to implement the solutions.

Suggest that you talk to the village leaders, or the relatives or whatever that you would like to help, and ask them what would make a difference in their lives. They might have totally different ideas about it to you -- and then, if you accept their ideas, fund them and let them implement the solution, with you playing a watching brief....providing funding as results are achieved, or as resources are needed to be bought.

And the very best of luck to you.

Splendid idea!

All your ideas are fine but hard cash is not as inappropriate as it may be in your culture. Gifts are normally in the form of cash and it is normal from children to provide cash to parents on special occasions or emergencies.

You are, of course, absolutely correct Lopburi3. However, in my attempts to meet Thai's and their culture half way, I also expect a step towards that half way mark by the Thai's themselves, in their understanding of my culture.

Indeed Ajarn, one of the ideas I had was setting up an English school near the village that would be open to all the kids in the area and free to attend. Whether or not this would be practical or feasible I have yet to work out. I look forward to discussing this with you in the future.

I am interested to hear of how people help their wife's family or neighbours. Rather that hand over hard cash, what alternatives have you found to improve the lives of those you have come to know? Examples I can think of are taking someone to hospital for cataract removal and footing the bill, this must be a massive improvement to that persons life. Taking the family for a holiday. Fitting a water pump to the well.

Ideas welcomed.

We all search, understandably, for the best flight price we can find. Personally, I would like to see flight costs to South East Asia go up to around 1000 GBP economy class. My reasoning is a better quality of visitor.

I realise it is not necessarily my place to say who should and should not come to the region. I have my opinions, however and would like to see tatoo'd football yobs and lager louts priced out of the journey here. They can then stick to Ibiza where they belong and embarass decent expats no more. Seeing a British man lying on the pavement, pissed as a fart outside Bamboo bar, arguing with a dog and hurling threatening abuse at anyone who walked past him, was the moment I had this revelation.

What say you?

Thanks

Will be in Louangphrabang (probably spelt wrong) soon and possibility of going to China for a few days. Are there any crossing open to foreigners. Visa on arrival possible? Done a quick search on the net but can't find the name of any crossing along that border. Will be taking TGF, any problems there? If necessary, we can go to Chinese embassy in BKK for visa in advance.

Thanks.

lets Us know if you do it

I rest my case.

I repeat... where was the harm in ANY of my posts... and I repeat, Where was the harm in Satuk Days request? Why was it deleted?

It was not a competing board, as he made perfectly clear. It would have been something he did as a hobby, with no forum involved. Just a few pictures and commentary on a few expat couples lives. Where's the harm in that?

I have no doubt this will be deleted before anyone gets a chance to read it.

Of the few hundred members who regularly visit the forum, it must get very boring for them to read the same old same old time and time again. Unfortunately this manifests itself in regular posters who unwittingly (or otherwise) intimidate and bully new members. Perhaps this is why there are only a few here all the time.

Regular posters have to understand that there is going to be some repetition of old subjects amongst members who have only recently joined. Also, the search facility on the forum is far from perfect so old subjects don't always appear in the results.

A recent thread of mine was closed for no reason other than the moderators found it boring and apparently had been covered before. Yet threads containing racist and hatefull comment are allowed to continue with impunity on a regular basis (I refer to numerous threads with America bashing, some of which are racist and filled with vitriol. Now don't get me wrong, I'll be front of the queue when it comes to America bashing but I thought this sort of thing was against forum rules).

I have a friend who joined the forum 2 days ago who's forum name is 'Satuk Days'. He is building a website and would like to inculde a section about expat life and will include expat profiles, pictures and a brief story of their expat family lives. He posted a thread yesterday wishing to open a dialogue with other expats. He simply wanted to know if anyone would be interested in being included in this section of his website. His thread was immediately closed by Doctor Pat Pong, who said it was spam and basically told him to get lost. WHY!? It most certainly was not spam. He simply wanted to increase his involvement in expat life and put a few expat family profiles on his website. He thought it would be a good idea to meet them through Thai Visa. The fact that he was dismissed in such a callous way has put him off his idea already. I've tried to tell him to try again elsewhere for some volunteers but his attitude is now such that he really doesn't want to get to know these people. Nice work Moderating team.

I point out again... why are innocent posts like this deleted or closed, yet racist and hatefull threads continue with impunity?

Kindly delete my profile from this old boys club of a forum.

I love my Ex Bar Girl Wife, She's lovely to me. Lovely lovely lovely

I tend to use 0871 606 0141 (6 pence/min to bangkok landline) and

0871 990 0141 (10 pence/min Mobile)

from www.calls.siamcentral.com

... because they seem to have much clearer lines than the ridiculously cheap numbers... and the ones above are cheap anyways!

Don't know if this has been polled before. Just curious to know the statistics of forum members.

Red lorry, yellow lorry... red lorry, yellow lorry...

Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!

I love Americans... it's their unwavering arrogance that I despise, particularly in the younger, less travelled Americans.

Some of my best friends are American but I hasten to add they are all middle aged and seasoned travellers. It is often the American youth that have an utter lack of understanding of the disdain with which the rest of the world view them.

If only they could emulate the local culture of the land they visit, rather than try to dominate.

Incidentally, I'm an Englishman... and I consider some of the worse people overseas to be the English. God help us when British lager louts hit the streets of Thailand in large numbers. I'm all for raising the airfares to keep them away... and in saying that, I've unwittingly proved my own point. The British and most of the rest of the world, are able to criticise themselves (the French being a notable exception), whereas Americans think their template for life is the one that works and can work for EVERY country.

I don't like to see Western logo's and ideals in Thailand and it upsets me to see young women with these naughty T-shirts. Ironically, they usually don't even understand the text on the T-shirts. I saw a woman in Surin with a T-shirt that said '<deleted> OFF W*ANKERS'. I told her what it meant. She was awefully shocked.

However, it's their country and they can do what they like with it I guess.

What an interesting thread!

This is something I am deeply concerned about. My Mother lives alone and is still working. Small family with no intercomunnication so uncles/aunts/cousins we never see. Only me, my Mum and my Sister. Problem is, me and Sister despise eachother and there is absolutely no chance of reconcilliation... Mum stuck in the middle. I want Mum to retire out East and live with me and Tee Ruk but I can't see it happening.

I hope if/when the time comes, I'm able, logistically and financially, to take care of Mum.

It's a real worry.

As you know, Don Muang is to close to international flights next year (supposedly). I've been to many many world class airports of varying quality. For me, Don Muang is my favourite because I never had to wait at immigration and never lost luggage (maybe I'm lucky in this respect).

When Kai Tak airport closed in central Hong Kong, 10's of thousands turned up to watch the last plane land amongst the skyskrapers. That was because it was much loved in Hong Kong and airliners flying low over apartment buildings was part of life there. Don Muang is just a grotty lump of concrete alongside an ugly tollway but I'll miss it... what say you?

I rather suspect 'The Gentleman' was banned for most ungentlemanly behaviour.

A Gentleman is one who shows kindness and respect to women, regardless of their origin, status or employ.