timinchina

America...corrupt...well I never!

I have heard from some expats and tourists that Thailand is not longer as much desired than before as it is over commercialized and because of political turmoil.Is Thailand losing its magic touch?

Some say that Vietnam and Cambodia are becoming the new "Lands of Smiles". Any thoughts?

Anybody who calls Vietnam the "land of smiles" has clearly never been to that country.

Land of agressivity and greed fits better. I only go there when I have no choice and can't send anybody else.

And all the peoples complaining about double standards and pricing for foreigners in Thailand should go check Vietnam where it's the rule and not the exception. Believe me you definitely don't feel welcome there as a foreigner.

Friendliest people my friends and I have met in S E Asia were from Saigon,male and female.

Hi,

I'm a freelance journalist currently working on a piece about the mental health of expats. It seems that being away from the comforts and support systems from back home, being away from what we know, our friends and family and culture, can cause some expats to feel stressed, anxious and depressed. Some people become depressed and turn to alcohol or drugs because a relationship has broken down, perhaps due to this stress or because of cultural differences. On top of this some may feel that the psychiatric/medical services are not adequate out here or the cultural gap between themselves and the mental health professionals creates a problem itself. Or is there no problem at all? Are expats generally just as balanced and happy, or even more so, than those who stay at home?

It is an issue which hasn't been explored by many studies so I'm just talking to as many people as I can to get different opinions.

If anyone has any opinions on this I would love to hear them. If you want to contact me directly you can email me at email removed, contact op via pm

Look forward to hearing from you,

Best Wishes,

Nick Harvey

Extremely original trolling...congratulations Slick Nick!

hel_l hath no fury like a ladyboy scorned...

I heard they're very good with chips though...

Yesterday I rode home, 20 km, without a rainsuit. Cue Billy JoeL,

"I've been stranded in the combat zone

I walked through Bedford Stuy alone

Even rode my motorcycle in the rain

And you told me not to drive

But I made it home alive

So you said that only proves that I'm insane

You may be right

I may be crazy

But it just might be a lunatic you're looking for.."

Where/what is Bedford Stuy please?

Of course not everyone wants to get to the level of a native speaker. They do presumably want to get as close as they can though, with the time and effort they are willing to put in. My worry, if I were a beginner, would be picking up bad pronunciation from a non-native. To try and emulate somebody's imperfect pronuncaition is only going to put you even further away from the correct pronunciation than they are.

Yes. the truth is that it is harder to unlearn something than it is to learn it in the first place. I remember during the 90's a lot of my friends went to work on German building sites. They picked up German from the other non-native speaker migrant workers. Later when they wanted to learn to speak proper German they found it almost impossible to get rid of their previous bad speaking habits.

Was one of them Jimmy Nail?

In India they say that every house has its Cobra and also a mate!If you kill a Cobra around your house there the locals will have a burning ceremony to dispose of the remains so that the mate doesn't come back to get you!

R.I.P.David,I hope they find the person responsible.

David Carradine

If you read the OP it says suicide has been ruled out!

R.I.P.David,I hope they find the person responsible.

An emotive subject!! However, in my experience the biggest source of airborne (rather than intimate) virus transmission has been whilst flying. This has escalated during the past 10 years or so when most operators banned smoking on their aircraft (mainly on economic grounds due to the fuel savings made by recirculating cabin air rather than introducing a thru-flow ventilation of fresh air as happened when smoking was allowed). I'm not trying to justify the re-introduction of smoking on flights, more highlighting the practices of airlines at the moment. Not sure of the percentages, but as someone who did long haul at least twice a month for the past 10 years or so, maybe 80% of the time after a flight I'd feel like s**t for a few days, with flu like symptoms. Spending a long time in a recirculated air environment can't be good for anyone, and there's a good possibility that someone is going to end up with the same virus as any other of the 200+ passengers.

I used to think like that, but recently I heard an expert say that air in planes is constantly replenished from outside and not just recirculated over and over, making planes no riskier than any other place. For me the problem is that the air is dry and causes dry eyes, nose and throat.

I believe the humidity levels on planes are around 2%,making them dryer than the Sahara Desert!

LOS ANGELES - Mourners have arrived under overcast skies in Los Angeles for David Carradine's funeral.

More than 400 people, including numerous actors, arrived at a cemetery on Saturday afternoon to honor the life of the "Kung <deleted>" and "Kill Bill" star.

The 72-year-old actor's body was found hanging in a Bangkok hotel room on June 4. Thai authorities continue to investigate his death. A statement released Thursday by a private pathologist said suicide had been ruled out as a cause of death.

Services and the burial were private. Among those seen entering the memorial service were the actor's brother, Keith Carradine, longtime friend Michael Madsen and "Kill Bill" co-star Lucy Liu.

David Carradine rose to fame in the 1970's TV series "Kung <deleted>" and has appeared in more than 100 films.

Now a day in a corporate life style, it's very easy going with women to adjust and work in a friendly ways, or as a part of team work. Many of them have even hold and position themselves to top levels. But still it came in my mind that, Is really women are comfortable at their job place? Do really men employee gives women the chance to move ahead?

There's many women at my office that make a very nice cup of tea!

In my experience the question should be reversed. Most farang men that i know are far worse that the Thai women that they are involved with. Just an observation.

Cheers, Rick

Find some new friends?

I've bought a lot of furniture from Index for both my home and office. Each time I need to go there, I dread the incompetents handling the bills. It always takes forever and they're confused by simple math. Each time I go there I must check the bill carefully because they're always mistakes. But frankly, I've encountered incompetence by people working in retail stores all over Thailand, not just from Index. Also I need to draw a map of my home/office so they can come deliver the stuff. God, it's like we're in the jungle. My GPS find the small sois and streets just fine, why can't they use a bloody map.

It happened many times when a food delivery guy comes to my house with a bill of, let's say, 549 THB. Then I pay him with a 1,000 bill and 49 satangs, expecting to get a 500 THB bill back. But each time, their brain farts and they give me the 49 satang back looking at me funny like I made a mistake ;-)

In iStudio Chiang Mai (Central Airport shopping mall), they have a farang who works there and assists English speaking people walking in the store. I had a very pleasant shopping experience there and it made me realize the crap I've been putting up with while shopping in Thailand.

This whole thread is ridiculous in the extreme! 49 satangs ,who cares? Just a year ago you were paying full price at David Jones ,sears or whatever shopping center and forking out $20 for a Thai meal in your hometown. Cheap charlies alive and well in LOS

Cheap charlie? Read my posts, I have a lifestyle that cost me well over 4M THB per year. I was merely pointing out that the Thai couldn't do simple math - maybe you missed the point. They can't understand why I would pay 1,049 THB on a 549 THB bill so I could get 500 THB back instead of several bills and change.

Very cheap Charlie!

Three tips to make the Full Moon parties safer:

- No alcohol during the party (this should not be too dificult to enforce. The island is not that big)

- No amphetanimes (check all the boats that bring tourists and locals to the island for the party. This should take only a few dozens policemen and sniffer dogs)

- Tolerate the consumption of weed during the party (who wants to fight after a number ?)

There should not be a single murder after that.

My condoleances to the victims' families.

Don't give up the teaching job!

Well said MyPhuketLife (and Bonobo too),

The point about people assuming all western males are here for the BG scene is something that quite a few male friends (and also some random encounters /chats with men here) have mentioned. Ive mentioned before in this forum, how i feel lucky in the sense that as a female here, im never pestered, badgered, or presumed to be here for that side of Thailand. Many men have expressed how frustrating it is to be all categorised in this way. There are a lot of stereotypes here, sadly. How to overcome them or change that, is another thing. One thing though, although I have little regional experience of Thailand, I do think Chiang Mai generally has a good feel to it, doesnt seem to be too much stereotyping.

I only came to Thailand on holiday the first time after being pestered by my friends in Barcelona for a couple of years,they are both Thai but born in London,inevitably their nickname was "The Bangkokneys"!

I loved Thai food,one of my friend's parents run a Thai restaurant in London and when they visited I was always just waiting for the lunch invitation knowing his Mother and Auntie were cooking!

I'd also always wanted to see the fantastic beaches here but the stigma was too much for me,as in:

"I came/I'm going to Thailand for the beaches and food"

"Eeeerrrr,is that right now?"

And adding this in the wake of the French airbus plane going down in a severe storm,

for me at least, brings into question the robustness of Airbus's 'fly by wire technology'...

Which of course would be quite similar in the A380 too.

Most aircraft use similar probes on their planes and a lot of aircraft especialy military planes can only operate by using computers as it would be impossible to fly them manually.

Please don't worry about the.... fly by wire technology, they use very strong wire, .

Air forces craft crash even more....

more cutting edge experimental compared to most commercial aviation.

I lived in France 10 years and knew several Airbus employees from engineering to fabrication,

this was a common theme with them privately; Lightning strikes causing catastrophic loss of control.

And remember the NYC crash caused by faulty airspeed readings also if memory serves.

Something besides a micro burst caused this crash, and lack of ANY communications from the crew,

during a decent from 40,000 feet is mega troubling.... long time to not have ANY radio coms....

I can't imagine the amount of money Airbus will spend to find out the reasons. But they MUST find out.

regardless of pronouncement from lower end government weenies.

They now believe that the "Pitot tubes" or air speed sensors froze over giving a false reading to the rudder limiter causing the rudder or vertical stabilizer to shear off.

A memo sent to Air France pilots by the Alter union Monday and obtained by The Associated Press urges them to refuse to fly unless at least two of the three Pitot sensors on each planes have been replaced.

So it's not actually the fly-by-wire system under scrutiny here.

I have been having a chill out night and reading many threads and posts on TV.

What i would like to know is why, when there is a perfectly respectable discussion going on do you get some jumped up a-hole(s) who obviously hasn't got a clue what he is going on about or disbelieving the OP and butting in and ruining the thread!! There seems to be alot of jealousy about the forum and there seems to be a few ppl on TV not happy with their lives in LOS and try to argue all the time or diss posters for no apparent reason..... it always seems to be the same ppl as well.

I know i don't post a lot on here............ but i do like to read the threads a lot..... some of them are quite interesting..... until the petty arguments start from the know it alls then the original topic goes to shit !!!!

Am i the only one who feels the same???

What a load of old tosh,you're obviously married to a bar girl or you wouldn't be talking like this.Now my wife's Thai Chinese,Hi-So I believe they call it,when I met her she showed me her bank book with 5 gazillion baht in,I wasn't buying her a pad thai koong until she did mind!

Anyway,I've been here for 47 years and my visa's bigger than yours,fact is when I arrived here Pattaya was just a fishing village and nobody was wearing elasticated shorts along with sports vests and thongs/flip-flops etc.etc.(see previous thread!)

Thai Airways may cancel A380 jet order

THAI reconsiders costly jumbo jet deal

Not going to happen unless the contract is switched to other stock of equivalent value. Airbus possibly have bent over backwards to get that initial deal signed.

I can see the high power negotiations now

Head of Thai Airways to Airbus CEO:

"You want money for plane...you bad man!"

Did the wife's mother in Thailand also buy a lottery ticket here?

Actually yes, she bought two tickets.

She's parked them under her statue of the elephant guy

Joseph "John" Merrick?

You know the Lie: Thai (and sometimes Asian) woman are often unfairly portrayed as more promiscuous than western woman in the Western media

Here's the myth of Asian women as I understand it:

Chinese -- neutral

Indians -- baby machines with their husbands

Japanese -- frigid, but prolific porn producers

Filipinas -- promiscuous, but Christian, therefore repentant

Thais -- outright whores, the lot

Indo, Malay -- I don't think they're allowed to have sex. Ever.

Israelis -- promiscious until marriage -- then immediately frigid

Arabs -- Promiscuous ones are culled from the herd immediately

Russians -- frigid in temp only, otherwise hot

Western women -- seems the council estate/trailer trash are the only promiscuous ones

The Promiscuity Lotto winner has to be Africans.

I lived in Bali,Indonesia 8/9 years ago just before the bomb ocurred,with my ex-girlfriend and believe me the Indonesian girls used to come onto me when I was with my girlfriend,she was none too pleased.I would say they are less shy than the Thai girls!

Why are you asking farangs about what biz is good for low class uneducated Thais? doesn't make sense. all your getting here is advice from westerners who have run a business and that may help you but how will it help your extended thai family in the village? every cent that comes in will be spent because its profit. Better off investing it in the stockmarket on the global uptrend and triple it in 3 years right? give them the profits and thay can watch it grow everyday via internet platform, but hey its your money, up to you

Or lose you rmoney within 3 years. Yes you can make alot of money, but you can lose alot of money too.

My bet is play it safe and invest into something alot safer, like real estate. Will go up slowly, but it will always go up

Historically,equities outperform just about any other investment on the market and have done for the last 100 years.It's unlikely you'll make 300% over the next 3 years but not impossible.

Real estate is a poor investment,historically it may just keep up with the rate of inflation if you're lucky!

Wake up call for anyone who still hasn't realised that the Asia markets are far less affected by the credit crunch and sub-prime lending than the rest of the world!

Expect to see far more of the same this year and very likely all of next year too.

Knock on the door and offer them post a post-coital cigarette,they may invite you in for the dinner they're making!