witsawakorn

Why is the tourist guy just looking at these two pieces of s__t instead of beating them around the ears as they deserve?

Yeah great idea that will solve all their problems won't it? Doh!

Surprise, surprise - not reported by The Nation or the Bangkok Post - had to be picked up by a foreign news source.

This country disgusts me sometimes. These kinds of things happen all the time and never get reported on.

So sad. Just 22 years old. Hopefully the family can at least get an apology out of the owner, we know they'll never see any money.

Obviously the story didn't meet the Post's or Nation's criteria for publication. There are probably a number of accidental deaths in Thailand everyday which aren't reported.It is obviously of more interest to an Israel based news organisation. To be fair to the the Nation they did report the unknown western guy jumping off the 38th floor of a high rise building in Sathorn a few weeks back http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/rea...keyword=q+house

I am surprised that story didn't make it into TV. Before expecting an apology from the owner you should probably get some more facts together. Maybe the party peoples sound system fell into the pool!

I stopped taking my family to Phuket for the simple reason you can't go anywhere without being ripped off severely or having to argue to get a decent price ( I mean 200 baht for a tuk tuk to go 100m in Patong is a joke ) - it ruins the holiday and there plenty of other beaches in Thailand where it doesn't happen

You tried to get a tuk tuk to travel 100m? You deserve to get ripped off! If it forced you to walk the guy did you a favour. People are too lazy these days it seems. It's not good for your health. Negotiating the price has always been the norm with tuk tuks. It is the reason I learned to count in Thai 20 years ago in BKK before meter taxis arrived in number and found prices dropped by half instantly.

Don't you just love the way the Nigerians are so inventive?

By inventive are you referring to the allegation that they were trying to import heroin rather than export it?

I hope they accept my Thai driving licence.

They do at airport check-in.

It has worked for me in the past.

From 100 baht to 600 baht.

I wonder why most people pay 20-30,000 baht for it.

Maybe that fee will also go up by a factor 6

blink:

I also wonder why people pay 20 to 30,000 Baht for a WP...the application fee used to be 100 Baht (now 600) and the approval fee was a couple of 1000, nothing dramatic. The paperwork is done by my secretary (guess most foreigners working here have one) and then you waste hal a day of your life at the labour department for submitting the application.

Any chance you could either post or pm a process flow, exactly what you do for a renewal? I am one of those farang without a secretary and I am sick of the 20k rip off for a renewal every year!

Which comes first the visa or the work permit?

The visa then the work permit.

I thought you need a nonimmigrant B visa to apply for a WP then the visa is extended to match the WP. Then for renewals you apply for WP before the last visa and WP expires then after receiving the next WP an extension of stay stamp is put in your passport with the same validity as the WP. That's what happened with me the last couple of years. I only had to show up in person to sign for the WP at Dept of Labour too. I have always found the whole process to be reasonable and efficient if the person preparing the application knows what they are doing.

That, with respect to you TB, is not the question - There might be many reasons, valid and invalid why someone criticizes the country they have chosen to move to...... But why do some other expats get so upset about it?

My experience of Thailand is different to yours, your is different to the next guys and consequently we all have different views from our own experience/perspective.

What I've pointed out above is that I can't think of a single incident where some other expat's view of Thailand has had even the slightest impact on my own life in Thailand - I mean there is ZILCH impact if Joe Blogs has a bad Thailand experience and posts about it on TV..... My own day is completely unaffected by Joe's views/comments.

You have made a lot of posts on this thread GH. It seems like a fair amount of time was taken up in your "unaffected" day. I wonder whether a lot of the negative posts are produced by people who are in Thailand for the long haul but are basically unhappy e.g. no money and therefore finding negative things to say about Thailand makes them feel better about their own less than perfect situation.

The suspects are British national Ahoor Rambarak Fath, 45, and Swedish woman Masobukwe Moiseng Patricia Segage, 45

Yeah they really sound like British and Swedish names, more likely Middle eastern and African

These days they could easily be British. Some parts of the UK even have Sharia (civil) law now. Not sure what John Nettles would make of it all....

The only thing left that is "British" in the way you remember it is the weather.

Really! Which parts of Britain are subject to Sharia? Please educate me!

You may apply for apension forecast

Its free

You must complete an application

Tells you what youll get if continue to pay at todays value

In practice as longas youve paid or credits for 30 full years youl get theUk rate year one

Problem is unlike Philippines UK pensioners do not get upgrade which with inflation erodes it over time

Googe postcode but address is

DPW Longbenton Newcastle Upon Tyne

I think its Nc 1zz perhaps someone here will correct me

The postcode is NE98 1ZZ. Also worth noting is that the UK and Japan are covered by a double contributions convention whatever that means and there is a leaflet explaining more available on their website at www.dwp.gov.uk

My mistake ..... farang boyfriend was 2003 ... it was too late at night for me. Ae is only 21. He was American. Used to fly into town every few weeks.

Yes, I think 600,000 is crazy. I won't stand for it. I was going to write to her mother and negotiate directly with her. I was going to suggest 50,000 for the wedding and 50,000 bride price. Ae told me that her brother-in-law paid 200,000 and that her mother gave most of it back. I thought that if they need to show face they can borrow some of their own money to make themselves look good .... is this unreasonable on my part?

OK, I'd like some comments about the social ladder in Thailand, if I could. Ae's parents are both primary school teachers. She claims they are important in the town and that everyone can know them. Therefore they must have face if I am to marry their daughter. Is this true? Important?

Yes, I am in the wood ... and that's why I'm talking to all you "expat daddies".

I was going to write to her mother and propose the above 50,000/50,000 ... along with 10,000 per month once Ae starts work and to continue for as long as we can aford .... along with one trip to Oz for her mother each time a baby comes along and one trip for Ae's youngest sister to study here for a year ... in about 4 years time. I thought that is a more appropriate dowry than paying a huge sum of money that Ae's aunts and uncles are going to piss up a wall ..... they all drink whisky like water.

Any other thoughts?

Dump the girl? Mate, I am in love. I think Ae is too. It is now about 10 days since she's talked with her mother .... but then, that might all be part of the game, right?

Please comment, all and sundry

Virg'

Farang Boyfriend in 2003 and she's 21 now. So she had a Farang boyfriend when she was 15 or 16! Sound strange?

Some Mid-East airlines demand to see work permits these days - I take mine every time I go to the UK now....

Surely thats overkill. Anyone can enter Thailand on a one way ticket if they have a tourist visa.

How much would be lost if one were to purchase a ticket (i.e. Bkk-Phnom Penh) and then claim a refund?

Yes but the last time I applied for a tourist visa in Singapore you had to show an onward ticket or evidence of funds (S$1,000 cash) in order to get the visa

Everytime I go to Thailand i buy cigarettes there. Usually LM. Marlboro Lights or Benson & Hedges and have tried other brands. Within a few days I get a terrible cough and hack up loads of flem.

When I return to Australia and smoke local brands here the cough goes away.

Also duty free tobacco and cigarettes bought in King Power Duty Free Bangkok are also terrible, including the brands not sold in local shops in Thailand like Camel and Lucky Strike.

This leads me to believe the Thais are putting Extra poisonous shit in their cigarettes, possibly to make people die quicker or for some other reason.

I thought it might be a mixture of the poor air quality and the cigarettes in Thailand, but when I take Thai cigarettes home I still have the cough.

From now on I will bring Australian cigarettes to Thailand to smoke even though they are 5 times the price.

Has anyone else experienced this????

I think you should learn a little about how cigarettes are made and blends are put together to match a cost before accusing people of putting extra "poisonous" stuff into cigarettes.

Australian cigarettes are a completely different "blend" style to those in Thailand. That is why you aren't used to them.

I am talking about the same brands for example marlboro bought in australia or singapore irritate my lungs and throat much less than those bought in Thailand. Drum tobacco bought in King Power duty free Bangkok is more of an irritant than Drum tobacco bought overseas. I have found the same with B&H and other brands.

If you read the pack you will see in English that the international brands aren't even made in Thailand. For example Marrlboro are usually from the Philippines although I have also seen them from Indonesia and Malaysia.The same seems to apply to other Phillip Morris brands such as LM. Don't be misled by the Thai script on the pack. I presume that if you order enough you can email a health warning written in hieroglyphics to PM and they will print it on the pack for you! I remember a few years back that imported cigarettes (apart from grey market) and all cigarette advertising were banned in Thailand. Then eventually the the US forced Thailand into allowing imported cigs in citing the GAT Treaty free trade obligations (and adverts were allowed too for a while if I remember correctly) So who is poisoning who?

In my opinion it's the people's fault who buy the drugs. Ofcourse something happened around this guy for the corrupted thai police to get in to him.

I dealed with the thai police for some issues overthere in Phuket and honestly, these people are the worst government officials I met in whole my life.

96% corrupted.

So how bad do you think the Scottish cop is who got sentenced to only 26 months last week for distribution of cocaine and he was a member of the drugs squad. He said that he wasn't selling it just giving it away strange given that he was also found to have scales- who weighs it before giving it away! He also admitted to 12 counts of unauthorised access of the police drugs intelligence database if you have ever seen "The Shield" on TV you can guess the MO. Check out the BBC website for more details.

get a real job and a real 1 year visa! that's the other option:)

And if real job is out of a question you can always pretend to be studying thai and get a ED visa. Non-immigrant, all kind of perks like local driving licence and you can call yourself as an expat or resident in the pub in front of your "mates".

there's always plenty of Thai chicks to marry lol.

my guess is thats the only farangs the Thai govt want here - and the reason to boot the others. married farangs dont do border runs.

anyone else here under 50 is probably causing problems or running from the law. over 50 they just wanna die somewhere warm and cant afford Florida.

You must have some dodgy friends and probably living in Pattaya. All of my under 50 friends ( and myself) are legally employed here in BKK.

Best approach is St. Joseph's 81 mg baby aspirin or an equivalent 81 mg enteric coated baby aspirin.

Dr. Pepe,

Thanks for your sage advice in this forum and I eagerly search out your replies in the health forum.

Re: the aspirin question. I have been taking daily aspirin for the last 6-9 months because both of my parents (now deceased) had been advised by their doctors to take daily aspirin for hypertension problems. I checked the dosage of the aspirin that I am taking and found they Bayer aspirin sold by a Thai Pharmacy was a whopping 500 mg so I will definitely cut that back to 100 mgs or less. I am not aware of any problems resulting from my aspirin intake. On the contrary, it sure makes the day after a golf outing, more enjoyable!

Also, the following URL will lead to a story in a San Francisco paper re the efficiency of the aspirin-a-day approach that might be of interest. The title of the article (originally printed in NY Times) is "Aspirin often ineffective for strokes, study says ". It points out that from 5 to 40% of people are aspirin-resistent.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGJA7OJQS1.DTL

I recommend reading thefollowing before self medicating http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8072215.stm. Actually I would recommend that people who don't have a regular blood test (PT) don't self medicate anti coagulants based on a dosage level posted on a web forum as everyone is different

As ProThaiExpat says, you can google any medicine sold in Thailand, either by trade or generic name, and find out its normal dosage, why it's prescribed, what it treats, side effects, overdose, contra-indications, etc.

As for aspirin, my neurologist took me off of Plavix and put me on 300 mg of aspirin per day. I had a stroke, but someone commented last week that 300 mg is a lot. It's a lot more than 60 mg!

300 mg is an awful lot to take daily. Hope you have recovered from your stroke. I have taken aspirin for quite some time now. Always bought the Bayer 500 mg and cut each one into four thus taking 125 mg per day. A mate of mine in the medical profession told me I was taking too much and suggested baby aspirin, hence my original posting. Now I know I can take Aspent M 60 mg daily.

I had a stroke and I take 3 mg Warfarin daily as well as 325 mg Aspirin daily.I have a blood test every 2 months to verify that my blood coagulation ( PT) is within the correct range (even so I have still experienced worrying effects such as prolonged bleeding from minor cuts and scrapes and blood in urine for a day). I am concerned to see so many people talking about taking anti coagulation medication without medical supervision because the side effects can be serious. If you look on the BBC news website you will find an article which states that the medical profession now do not recommend people to routinely take Aspirin as a preventative.

3. Simply being precieved as attractive is very valuable in the eyes of Thai people. So they look at me and think "Oh he looks like David Beckman/Tom Cruise/etc"... whereas with you, its like "Oh god, he's gonna ask me a million dumb questions and make me speak English".

4. I dress well, so might continue them in their line of thinking "Is he a famous athlete or model or movie star?", whereas when they see you they are thinking "Why does that farang sweat so much?"

Now, sometimes I am kinda scared for the future, how I will be treated in Thailand. To be honest, again, I really don't feel like you guys get treated very well. I border on the line of saying that Thai people more or less hate you. Its not fair to many of you who fall into the minority and do behave, dress and act well... Because you are simply a victim of the overall perception earned by farang in Thailand. Its as though you were to walk through the ghetto and see a young black male with baggy pants and tattoos. Maybe he is a law student but you will probably assume he is to be avoided and perhaps selling crack...

The perception of farang in Thailand, is again, "Oh god, xxxxxxxx" or "Oh god, xxxxxxxx + I hope I can get some money out of him".

Thoughts? Has the ship sailed? Is there any way to save the farang image in Thailand? In 30 years, will I receive the same eye rolling, "please someone blow my brains out", sighing, "why god me" reaction from Thai people where ever I go that you guys are receiving now? Will I be the one posting about how much Thai people hate me and how all they are interested in is my money? Will I be the one inquiring about sin sot and complaining about the sick buffalo stories?

The word conceited was made for this joker. I have been here for over 10 years and my experience doesn't match your "perception". Maybe having a good well paying job helps. I don't invoke the "Oh god, he's gonna ask me a million dumb questions and make me speak English" reaction because I've learned to speak Thai.Can't you? You aren't from the same Gotti family that were in a crappy TV show about a bunch of spoiled obnoxious kids who went on holiday to Italy with their rich mother are you? If so is your mother still here? Do you really think that people here are really going to mistake you for a football or movie star? I think people might be laughing at you a lot more than you think. You don't sweat either! What do you do to regulate your body temp? Pant like a dog? Wonders never cease

You will only get a single entry and will need to show a ticket out of Thailand.

Penang is actually good now and issues single entry tourist visas on the same day.

That could work. I'm only planning on getting a single entry because I plan to fly out 90 days later.

I think you can only get a 60 day tourist visa and have to show either a ticket out of Thailand or SGD 1,000 in cash as evidence of funds available to buy a ticket (waving a credit card at them doesn't work) if you go to the Singapore consulate

Legionnaire's disease is a possibility too.

Says they upgraded to AC room and stayed there during the day, her more than him. She got sick so went back to the room, and got worse. He was out but still got a bit sick. They did eat the same food earlier.

It's a serious matter, the bungalows should be evacuated, which they could be we don't know.

It is not likely to be Legionnaire's disease unless the aircon was a centralised system with common cooling towers and a ducted cool air distribution system. Such systems tend to be used by bigger hotels not guest houses/bungalows as such places usually have individual aircons which don't use cooling water.

Syphallis is specifically requested... But not HIV....

When was the last time you'd heard about someone contracting syphallis?

Or infecting someone?

More Thai Idiocy.

CS

It might not be as idiotic as you think. A few years ago the authorities came to my ex employer's construction site in China and did an on the spot health check on all foreigners. One of the Brits tested positive for Syphilis and was ejected from the country and lost his job. Apparently the only way that he could have got it was a moment of unprotected passion on a beach in South America many years earlier. Apparently he didn't have any symptoms. According to the CDC website "Many people infected with syphilis do not have any symptoms for years, yet remain at risk for late complications if they are not treated. Although transmission occurs from persons with sores who are in the primary or secondary stage, many of these sores are unrecognized. Thus, transmission may occur from persons who are unaware of their infection." I had to have an STD test including HIV test to get a Philippines WP a few years back so the new Thai requirements are not a big surprise to me. If you are under the impression that Syphilis has been eradicated perhaps you should get a test CS

Start charging for plastic bags. Problem solved.

I agree with that. I often buy one or two small items in 7/11 or local minimart. They rush to plastic bag it, and I always say (in my broken Thai) mee plastic paw uban, krap. Don't know if my bad Thai, but they look at me as if I'm mad to not accept a plastic bag .... sigh sigh ...

I just say mai ao plastic krap. It seems to work. Keeps it simple