chico

According to CNN (Asia) which has cancelled all news and other broadcast to send aftermath stories, the first food was dropped TODAY = after 4 days! into New Orleans, near the convention center, and they will have police and national troups arriving maybe tomorrow, or after tomorrow.

for four days, people there have no electricity, no food, no water, no shelter -absolutely nothing!

it takes four days in the "greatest democracy in the world" (55555555) to get the first help to Hurricane victims!

and about 50% of the police in the affected region has run away from their jobs!

and nobody can say that they didn't know how bad Katrina would be!

compared to that what happens now in those areas, 9/11 was peanuts!

and the shooters now are no terrorists, but good old americans killing their brothers and sisters - they even shoot at helicopters.

but don't worry, senate will end their vacation quickly (on monday) to come together and talk what could be done!!!

maybe send more troops to irak, or start invasion of iran lil bit earlier than planned??

Intersting stories:

I have a (joined with my thai wife) Bangkok bank account, got ATM/Visa (works international!!) card immediately,

applied for internet banking, I cannot get it without work permit, but my wife can - we applied!

after 4 weeks bank called us to come sign a new form - wa the same form we signed initially, but I had to sign too!

two weeks later, bank called, she cannot have it, (as it is a joined account), when I don't have a work permit

but if I open another account only in her name, she can get it immediately - top question? who is then using it??!

AMAZING THAILAND!!

will try residence certificate first from Immi, or even residence certificate from embassy, translated and certified by ministery of foreign affairs, this was good enough to register the car in my name

What any reasonable discussion of this topic needs is further information regarding the case. If any of our learned bilingual German members could visit these sites, it would help us to learn more details. I've already referred the pages to website translation on google and yahoo, but they remained so garbled as to render them useless.

http://www.ln-online.de/news/archiv/?id=1531517&dbci=1

http://www.ln-online.de/news/archiv/?id=1540964&dbci=1

http://www.n-tv.de/573924.html

http://www.tip-thailand.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2473

In the interim, here is a photo of the accused:

From what I WAS able to glean from these reports, it seems like there are many unanswered questions regarding changes as to the cause of death, the police not sealing off the crime scene, the accused having an allibi at the time of death, the victim was apparently a heroin addict, the accused's house suffering arson days before the alledged murder occured, etc. The accused's lawyer brought up 24 discrepancies in the case.

Once again, I might have gotten wrong some of the what was readable in those sites.

In light of the above... there is certainly great cause for concern in this death penalty case.

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I have read those articles, the first two are from "Luebecker Nachrichten" = News from Luebeck (town in northern germany), wher he comes from:

short story:

he was living 4 years in Chiang Mai, having a brick factory.

before that, he was a civil employee of the thai police, working in fighting drugs.

early oct 2004 a friend of his asked him, if he could allow a young swiss guy to stay in his house for some time.

this guy had just finished drug rehab.

one morning, a labourer found this guy liveless on the floor of th bungalow, it appeared he had been strangled.

they called the ambulance, but when the doctor arrived a few hours later, he could only confirm death.

the german guys lawyers (one from germany, one in Thailand) have not been given an official reason for the death yet, and have not been allowed to see the files yet. (last year in october)

second article (november 11th, 2004) about the same, with just one very interesting point:

official post mortem examination from switzerland states, that overdosis heroin can not be excluded!!

third link - n-tv - (one german tv station) from august, 31st, 2005 :

german embassy involved, will do all they can, but refer to police statement, that the german guy seemed do not have liked swiss guy, and that he had a dangerous watchdog, therefore nobody else could have killed the swiss guy.

fourth link refers to "tip" (one german "newspaper" in Thailand, which normally only translates and copies Pattaya News, and "Pattayablatt", plus some juicy stories about Pattaya, Phuket...), but does not give any article, just offers to become member

hope this is of some help

btw : I think do remember a topic to that case last year in TV, but have not checked yet?

I'm certainly no expert on buddhism, for this I would have to understand the language spoken in prayers, (which seems to be some old india dialect),

but what puzzles me, is why people think, that buddhism is against gambling?

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Now I tried to be clear about this in two different posts and I guess I wasn't. In my 2nd post in which I tried to clarify my question, I never stated that I definitely thought Buddhism was against gambling. To refresh our memories, let me bring back this tiny excerpt of what I said:

" My question, for the Buddhist experts, is gambling considered bad for Buddhists? If it is, why does this person who follows everything as strictly as possible let this slide without worry?"

I asked if it was bad and then I continued to say that if it was, why would they still do it. Perhaps I wasn't clear. I am not claiming to know anything about Buddhism, quite the contrary in fact and this is why I proceeded to ask my question.

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ok, the "rules" of buddhism, as far as I have got them confirmed :

there are 5 of them:

don't kill

don't steel

don't lie

don't "butterfly"

don't drink lao (alcohol?) and don't gamble

if you follow all these rules, you can be a monk (buddha)

people know these rules, and they generally try to live by them, but most don't intent to be a monk, and therefore slip by some of them some times

smoking f.e. is not directly mentioned, but should not be done by monks either, as well as they have rules as to when and what to et:

one group of monks can eat twice a day,

another group only once, before 11.00am, after that, only drinking is allowed,

but they can eat fruits all day! = no food??!

as I said before, I would like to be able to understand the language, they are praying (and singing), but this seems to be ancient dialect (language) from india, which they leanr and use, as in christianism they use latin, even the pope for speeches sometimes.

I'm virtually in Surin, Chico.

During the wet season we had no problem drawing water with a standard suction pump (Bht 4,500.00) therefore it must have been less than 8 metres down, I guess. In the first dry season, the water 'dried up' and we replaced the standard pump with a pressure assisted (12 m) suction pump (Bht 8,000.00). Since the change, we have not run out of water in the dry seasons (4 years).

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as you said, jayenram, it all depends where you are :

we haven't had any problems yet, but some of our friends (with normal pumps less then 9 m) run almost totally out of water this year in april, as we didn't have any rain from sep 17th, last year, until may, 16th.

I have to admit, that most likely we would have been out of water too, if we would use the pump for our vegetable garden, flowers, or lotus ponds.

luckily, we have a big pond just opposite our house, and all gardening water comes from there.

Hi I'm a 19 year old male from Canada that's leaving for Thailand November 4th from Vancouver and my return date on my ticket is Feb 5th.

I take I need a tourist visa, correct? My plane ticket also will let me change my return date up to 6 months.

So what do I need to do to get into Thailand and stay for 90 days? I'll arrive on the 5th of November so my stay will be for exactly 90 days.

Any help is really appreciated because I've been scanning the forums for answers and have not found any.

So what are my options here? I could get a tourist visa for 60 days right? But, I can only apply for the extra 30 days while in Thailand? So will they let me into the country on my 60 day visa when my airline ticket shows my return date as 90 days?

I'm at a loss here and have been trying to reach someone to talk to all day but, no one answers their phones!

Also I might want to stay longer then 90 days because I can change my ticket return date so to do that would I need a double entry visa and how does that work?

Much appreciated,

Jesse

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two possibilities :

tourist visa, preferably with multiple entry, valid one year, make "visa runs" every 60 days, and change the return flight date to 60 or less days, if you can change it later anyway!

no visa : "visaruns" every 30 days, change ticket to 30 days return, although this option is not very advisable for two reasons : costly, and Thai Immi might not let you do too many reentries.

I'm a bit curious.  For those who disagree with death penalty:  What are your jobs?  Have you experienced violence?  Have you seen extreme cruelty from humans?  Have you met people whom you think you wouldn't want to live with in the same world?

Visit Ogrish.com, watch those videos and think of a penalty for those who try their best to harm or kill others.  Ask a rape victim how it feels.

It's easy to be lenient when one is not involved.

Talk about buying a law --- Is there a place on earth 100% free of that?

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Yes, I have seen violence, experienced some, althouh not the ultimate, as I'm still alive.

But it is not up to humans to kill other humans, not even in the name of law, however good the jurisdiction and the system might be, which it certainly is by far not in Thailand.

It is also no deterrent, as we can see everywhere, not only in the US.

but one has to bear in mind, that life in prison is not always good and easy, and certainly does not has to be made good or easy for serious offenders, as murderers - they should have a hard time, nothing wrong with that!!

not to mention, that many religions to intend to give sinners the possibility to repent, which is not possible if you are dead.

quickly : helicopter

pleasantly : limousine

cheaply : bus

it all depends on your budget, whichone it will be.

as to prices from BKK to Pattaya for taxi : book it in Pattaya, to pick you up at airport + same price as Pattaya - BKK

can book through internet, tel, fax...at most travel agents.

hotel : same story, : your budget, your intentions :

fun (sorry : sex), beach, shopping?

people gave you already a good choice

Girlfriend will receive 20000 baht per month.

NB

don't say it too loud, many faangs who give less will have problems if their wifes/gf find out!

although I personally think it is appropriate!

good luck to you!

Seeing as Buddhism is, in a sense, a practice of self-discipline, is gambling thought of to be wrong according to Buddhism?  If so, why is it that so many devout Thai buddhists gamble?  I see many of them pray, go to the temple, have all sorts of shrines & statues around dedicated to Buddhism yet continue to gamble.  If one is going to practice a particular way of thought, in this case Buddhism, one should try to abide by all the teachings and not just the ones that are convenient right?  Can someone with more knowledge about Buddhism explain this to me please?

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I'm certainly no expert on buddhism, for this I would have to understand the language spoken in prayers, (which seems to be some old india dialect),

but what puzzles me, is why people think, that buddhism is against gambling?

has nobody ever experienced people going to ask their buddha (monk) about the winning lottery number, and the monks giving them numberrs, which amazingly often really make winners?

one other point : gambling is illegal in Thailand, there is only one exception allowed by law : when people die, all who go there, are allowed to gamble all evenings, before the burial/cremation, including the time, when the monks come to do their singing!

can't be so wrong with buddhism??!

(and I'm not talking about monks taking part in the gambling, as they can fail like all other people and some of them do sometimes on other occasions, like sex, alcohol...)

There are electric deep well pumps available, "Luckystar" f.e. is one of the better brands, at about 7.000bt and they can easily handle dephts up to 50 m, maybe more.

how deep you have to go, depends on the formations below, but that can vary within a few metres.

we drilled down to 39m, just to make sure to have enough water and pressure, but got water at around 14 and 21m already.

one of our neighbours (some 200m away), drilled til 90m and didn't got any!?

first year, almost no chalk, - this year plenty, had to get a filter, and an additional one (US brand) to give us good drinking water.

area : between Burirum and Surin, near cambodia.

[And anyone who agrees with the death penalty in Thailand is a real dumbass:)

this doesn't need any discussion anymore.

There is no law here that can't be bought, bent, subverted or broken.

How could you kill someone when those imposing the sentences are often guilty, directly or as an extention of their position as a government 'offical', of mass murder, (of alleged drug dealers, Muslims in the South, etc. etc.)

They are also the ones who traffick in women, drugs, vehicles...great mother of god I'm getting dizzy just thinking about the crooks, hehe.....

IA

PS. Who does everyone think killed 2500+ 'drug dealers' in 2003? In 90 days. Subcontracted hitmen and the police! The same pieces of s.hit that send people away to the death penalty...

do you mean by "suncontracted hitmen" military and police in plain clothes?

then I could only agree to it, you are absolutely wright, although not so much about the numbers, as they have been rather between 7.000 and 8.000

I agree with the death penalty, just take a look at how it has sorted out all the problems in the US

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if this was meant as a joke, I guess, not many understood it.

if it was serious, - have you ever looked at the statistics about crime rates and murder rates skyrocking in the US?

could you explain, which problems have been sorted out - if you don't mean "overpopulation" being cut by murders!

maybe you have a look at CNN and the reports of looting in the Katrina damaged areas, and even interviews where people are proud of looting!

Talk about Thailand's bewildering and inconsistent judicial system. This takes the biscuit!

A couple of years ago, the son of an influential politician was accused of the murder of a policeman in a night club. The son high-tailed it to Cambodia where he remained in hiding for several months before returning to Thailand to face the charge. Guess what? He was placed on probation because the evidence provided by the prosecution witnesses was deemed to be contradictory and confusing, even though the entire incident was caught by a video camera

He was band from going to Disco but guess what, one week ago he had to go into a disco to save his bodyguard and ended up fighting with a movie star and get a bottle smashed in he’s back head.

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yes, but there is a glimmer of hope now, that hewon't get away too easy with the fight, as he already has been given anextension of his baaning to Pubs for another two years!

decision about fight pending!?

To answer your question

I am a farang I spend a lot of time in Thailand and enjoy it very much. I dont believe

anywhere farangs go is a shit hole. Infact I believe the opposite I believe the farang

places are very nice indeed. What I do believe is that most of the long term guys in

Thailand are bored broke and lonely, based on people I have met there and spoke to

over the last 6 years.

Thailand is Paradise for the fool,

Heaven for the few and fortunate

and a shithole for everyone else

Next time you are in a gogo bar look at the men sitting there, most look bored and

lonely, only a few look like they are having a good time

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to you ever read what you write and think about it?

talking about long term guys and comparing them with gogo visitors just proves that you have no idea what you are talking about, and probably never ever met a long term guy

you don't find them in "your shithole places", they are only for you and your buddies!

long term guys either work (mostly around Bkk) or live somewher countryside, they have wifes or longterm relationships! they are not the "bartypes" like you and your buddies!

Well here in Nong Khai we had a wild night.Holy shit.The only time that comes even close was October 1987 in London.Winds like i've never seen in Thailand.Trees down everywhere and roofs missing.We're OK.All along the main road is hazardous due to tree limbs blocking the bike lane and so bikers swerving out into the traffic flow.

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I slept right through that 1987 storm. Must have been the London Pride. I woke in the morning to dicover complete devestation outside my house, could not drive for more than 20 yards due to downed tree's

Glad that you are OK

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we do not want a catastrophy like the one in Louisiana/Mississippi, but rice farmers in many parts of Buriram/Surin would love to get one day(night) of big rain, to enable them to throw chemie and save their rice for this year!

last night here was rain, but very moderate and short!

so let me get this right

I already have a multiple entry O visa approved yesterday, after one year in the country I can apply for an extention of stay if I can show a bank balance of 400bht or more, I am not married aged 45, or do I need to be married

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no, you are wrong, but lopburi will give you the exact answer.

just for now:

multiple entry o visa allows you to stay up to 90 days, then you must make a border run for another 90 days, this you can do for one year (and 90 days max)

if you want to have a one year extension, have to be married or support (your) thai child, and then you need to show 400k, if over 50 can apply for retirement extension, but have to show 800k,

not shure, if you can get extension without supporting thai wife or child and being under 50 - better wait for lopburis answer.

let me get this right - you are a farang, living in Thailand & you think that any place in Thailand where farangs stay is a shithole ?

maye he just means the places where he stays after he's been there?!

a foul odor coming from German sex tourists room???

nothing unusual with that!

How on earth did they know he was dead?

it seems you've got a lot of experience with german sex tourists?!!

Hi All,

      Does anyone know of any hotels which allow the public to use their swimming pools on a membership or pay as you enter basis. I find pattaya park a little expensive, and mikes, well i just don't like it!.

                  any info most welcome,

                                                  Cheers.

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any decent hotel/appartment building has a pool, if you are staying in a cheap one without pool, and cannot afford pattaya park, can still use the free beaches, including jomtien.

don't know any hotel who would allow people to come in and use the pool, if they don't stay there.

How much is enough money for Thai girlfriend

living in issan korat every month until i return

again.

NB

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you already gave her an ATM-card, so you will see, how much she is spending.

the qestion is rather, how much can you afford, and how much do you want to spend?

live in Isaan is quite cheap, but if she has to support her family (being the only daughter), and you want her to have a decent life, then anything around 10.000 should be ok, maybe a lil more.

but this is to discuss with her and not with anyone else!

Chelsea and Liverpool drawn in same Champions league group. I suppose it had to happen.

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But Chelsea could still be third and move to Uefa Cup, or maybe even second and move on to the next round, couldn't they?

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I'll talk to you about that remark at the party

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Does that mean - no free beer? I will survive that on whiskey!

but statistically I am right :

3 games, two lucky wins, as luck is not always predictable -

most likely position 3 or 2!

Chelsea and Liverpool drawn in same Champions league group. I suppose it had to happen.

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But Chelsea could still be third and move to Uefa Cup, or maybe even second and move on to the next round, couldn't they?

stupid question, but how long is the multile re-entry visa valid :

1 year (365 days) or until end of permitted extension of stay?

THE DROUGHT CRISIS IN NAKHON RATCHASIMA IS GETTING WORSE

The drought crisis in the north-eastern province of NAKHON RATCHASIMA (นครราชสีมา) is getting even more serious, as more than 3 million Rais of agricultural land have already been damaged, while some districts are lacking of water for consumption.

According to Mr VICHIEN KONGKAEW (วิเชียร กองแก้ว), the project manager of the LAMTAKHONG (ลำตะคอง) water management project, the drought crisis NAKHON RATCHASIMA is getting even more serious, and residents in the 26 districts and 6 sub districts of the province have been affected by the situation.

Mr VICHIEN added that water supplies at the LAMTAKHONG dams in SE-CUTE (สีคิ้ว) district are already down, as there has been no rain to increase the water levels, causing damage to agricultural land, as well as a shortage of water for consumption for local residents.

At the moment, water supplies at the LAMTAKHONG dams are already down to as little as only 20.24 million cubic metres.

The Government has asked for cooperation from business operators, resorts and golf course owners not to block the irrigation canals that link to the dams.

Source: thaisnews.com

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Unfortunately this applies also to Surin and Burirum - what the north has too much in water, (even Pattaya has more then we have) we miss.

and apart from some local exceptions, most of those provinces will loose most of the rice this year, if there should not be substantial rains within a few days!