louse1953

So far no one even the great Prawit has provide the motive for the plot. What's there to gain from the assassination but more heavy hand military reaction and possibly a continuing military government. There are lots of things happening at this current times and all are not privy nor allow to be discussed. Forget Thaksin; he got less to gain.

I have forgotten Takky,but his frustration must be high and his money is not working,so anything is possible.He will crack one day.

Its usually the people who can't afford to buy that trot out the ''it's better to rent'' line most times.

Rubbish,these are wise heads that don't like making a huge loss.

Our village handyman was bragging that he had shagged every mia falang in the village, except one.

When I told my wife about it and she said "That will be Noi from number 22, she thinks she's so hi-so".

So he's done your missus.

Would he be doing the same if he still lived in Australia?

You don't have to in Oz,we respect our beachs,that's why it is an affront to us when we see beachs in Thailand.I use those long twizzer thingys when i go to any beach,not hard.

Wow.... Ok, girl 23... You know she must have been beautiful. Everyone above absolutely dead on. Dive buddy, where was the boy friend? A 23 year old China Girl always comes with friends. Now what I consider signs of a stuggle. Forces under water would occur closest to the reef and shore, where strong waves will slam you down. This location is not where any reasonable captain would take novices. This is just like the game Clue. These chain of events only point to fowl play.

The captain would have to preassign dive buddies. The question, where is the ledger that tracks couples.

The questions we should be asking, was did she need someone to guide and ensure her safety.

I don't know anything about diving, but I do understand Common Sense.

Here will be another (now new) attempted rape since DNA and Thais are getting smarter.

But for those who are not a half full kinda guy, she hit here head, no one noticed.

So it would be not so bad if she was ugly!!!

I assume you're talking about the bars that cater to foreigners. And no, it's not the only place. Udon Thani has a small strip of girly bars and western bars, and to the best of my knowledge they all close around midnight. I imagine those are not the only two provinces that operate as such. With regards to immigration, Chiang Mai has one of the highest if not the highest concentrations of foreigners in Thailand. Seriously, last time I was up there in the downtown area, it was a bit of a struggle to find Thai people. I think I heard there are about 200,000 Thais living in Chiang Mai province and an estimated 100,000 foreigners.

3,000,000 Thais Vs 100,000 foreigners.

Immigration in CM is a disgrace.

Bar opening times are restricted all over the world, drink when they're open.

There are about 1.68 million Thais living in CM province. Best guesses as to foreigners, perhaps 200-300 thousand Countrywide.

Bangkok and Pattaya, perhaps Phuket, will have a greater concentration of foreigners than Chiang Mai by a long shot.

Google it.

Do border runners count as residents? Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm just speculating that maybe CM- and Thais as a whole- is not so hot about the foreigners there. Thais seem perfectly happy to let us have our crusty slum on the beach, but CM seems a bit sacred to many of the Thais I know. They all say there's too many foreigners there now. A lot of em are going to Chiang Khan now.

So a lot of Thais are leaving their homes,jobs,friends kids schools and moving to Chiang Khan and doing what exactly.

Compassion is good, but this is a stereotype of a scam.

Turning to arbitrary strangers on public street, forget it.

The only credible part of the story is, that "Martin Hackl" could be an Austrian name

Having lived in a big city for more than 30 years I heard so many variations of these stories.

Point him to police to make a report and then go to his embassy where they will tell him how to continue.

Then go your way.

Your post lost all credibility as you cannot tell the difference between Austria and Australia which may not be in same continent.

Your cred is shot too,no maybe's about it.Besides Oz is an island.

The way I see there are three different types of teachers in the world today:

Teacher No 1 wants to educate the world and change it too. They are planning lessons until midnight, organise clubs every day, get stressed about writing accurate reports about every student in the school...etc...

Teacher No 2 doesn't give a shit. They ignore everything and everyone. They have little or no lesson plans,are always late, complain constantly about everything etc etc..

Teacher No3. sees teaching as his job.Nothing more or nothing less. He plans his lessons but goes home at 4 o'clock everyday. Sometimes he helps out in a club or sportsday etc...He grades his books but never brings any home.. He attends parents evenings but doesn't stress about them. He isn't trying to change the world.He's doing his job but he's not slowly killing himself either...

You seem to be a Teacher No 1. They always burn themselves out. Teaching is a noble profession but you also need to be realistic. Nobody can change the world.If some students learn something your job is done. All of them will never learn everything. The best thing teachers can do is teach children how to learn for themselves. Reading is key to this. Teach your students to love books and they will teach themselves, if they want to.If they don't it's their loss and not yours...Take your payslip and forget about school when the last bell rings every day.Its the only way to survive teaching anywhere...Good luck...

Thanks for taking the time to write this post. Yep, there are people and there are people. Same goes for teachers. One example and pretty good to understand an Ebn\nglish bloke, a certified teacher who started in the EP at a well -known school in lower northeast.

His wife, an Indian/South African citizen who taught there before met this guy somewhere in the UAE, they fell in love and got married.

The woman thought that teaching in Thailand would still be as easy as it was back in 2005 when we worked together, but she's completely shocked how things had changed.

Her husband, the qualified and certified teacher from England started to teach in the EP section, but he never taught Thai kids in an Asian country.

The guy was so serious, exactly type two you've described here, the scissors and all the things had to be at the same place, everything had to have its order and so on.

I never saw the guy smiling in the two months of his tenure. Not even once. The grade three kids ( pretty nice and easy to handle kids) hated him because they easily picked the negative feelings up.

Neither did the students have fun learning anything, nor did the teacher enjoy what he was doing. He quit hid position after only two months.

Whenever I met the kids, we had a great teacher/ student relationship and a lot of fun.

You're really wrong about me. I try to take it easy, but they give me too much work.A very good example today. One homeroom teacher not there and the kids were everywhere.

In addition did some subject teachers not show up and joined a sports event instead?

So I had to look after them and had my other classes downstairs. Oh, the office word stopped working, but also my colleagues needed the PC where our IP's attached.

A fast fix between hopping from one class to another, then picking up some handouts, while a mom wants to have a chat about her day\ughter's performance.

Now it's 6.05 and I'm still at school because the director called in a meeting. One of these useless meetings nobody wants to go to.

I might be able to leave in an hour, then I was here for 11 hours.

When is enough enough? Have a great rest of the week. Cheers-

They are using your good will up and it will burn you out.You can't do everything.You need a break,start coughing a bit on Monday,go see a doctor and take the rest of the week off.They don't appreciate you while you are there,maybe they will when you are not there.

Oh really, I guess my total loss in the divorce scenario would be 450k max............ the Mc Mansion "YOU" mention is 50m2 + I built myself another house which is 48m2, both done for 450k, yes "built myself" .....NO I dont mean hired a local ,and NOPE nobody came and arrested me for doing it.

The land cost 800k and the Wife paid for the LAND out of her own cash NOT mine.

I NEVER said use yer own money............. 450k was my own money for materials concrete steel etc..............of course you could rent some condo box for 15k a month in the middle of a city but I have NO neighbours and NO noise. If you cant walk away form 450k you must be pretty damn poor.

At the current time that would be 45k a year as married 10 years almost

LOL, I risk a damn sight more than 450K every day of my life, mate, but I'm not stupid enough to risk it pursuing a "peace and quiet" strategy that's entirely dependent on others

I can get peace and quiet for a fraction of the cost and with zero risk

No prizes for 2nd Hill,kannot wins.

Thailand is a noisy country.

Thais seem to be able to tolerate a high level of noise without complaining. I've always found that to be peculiar.

Presumably the reason is that they were raised with it, whereas most of us weren't.

This topic is a regular on ThaiVisa - especially the Chiang Mai forum.

Familiar remedies are proposed time and time again, replete with personal accounts. Retaliate with loudspeakers of your own; throw firecrackers into your neighbours yard; poison their dogs or livestock, etc., etc., etc.

These are the fantasies of macho blowhards... don't believe a word of it... they are pussies at heart.

Like Casper Milquetoast they dream of a virile response and sweet revenge.

Your only realistic option is to move into a gated community or a condo with fellow farangs and leun mai Thais.

Disabuse yourself of the notion that you can integrate or assimilate to any meaningful degree in Thailand. Most farangs have come here too late in life. They are set in their ways and unable to change in any fundamental sense. Too old to master the language, or start a family and be anything other than a cash cow for some mercenary woman and her scheming relatives.

That's the reality of the situation.

Yes, there are those of us who have been here for a long time, "gone native" to one extent or another; but that cultural change very often brings unintended consequences such as the loss of our sanity.

Much better to live here as a complaining misfit, bitching about barking dogs and loud music... TIT.

Sad pesamistic life you have there.

It's not the noise,upcountry for me it's the constant burning of rubbish,plastic and all other garden waste.

It doesn't happen where I live upcountry. The trash truck comes every Wednesday morning around 6 am and takes it all away for only 30 baht a month.

In this smallish town in Khon Kaen province, our binmen come every weekday about 5am. Despite that, my neighbours used to (don't now) burn their rubbish frequently and it pissed me (and my wife) off a lot but we lived with it, partly because Mrs.L didn't want to upset the neighbours even though they didn't seem to mind upsetting us - or, more likely, it never crossed their mind that somebody wouldn't like it.

It came to a head when one of them decided to burn some old tyres when the wind was blowing from his plot towards ours. A few minutes of the stinking black smoke was enough and I quickly doused it using our hose pipe. He said nothing at all. Another neighbour heaped a big pile of rubbish against our perimeter wall & set it alight - again, out came the hose; I didn't want a blackened & damaged wall. Again, no comment or reaction. Both times, my wife reminded them that the bins were very close by & were emptied every weekday. That was the last burning on our soi although we get smoke from more distant houses. Now, every morning I see those neighbours that used to burn taking their rubbish to the bins.

Clearly, my neighbours are more reasonable people & more open to change than some I read about on TV.

I should say that we live on the plot my wife was born on 60 years ago so she knows the locals very well as most of them have also lived in this soi for decades. Maybe that made my actions a bit more acceptable to the neighbours.

Noise - we get dogs, chickens, parties, screaming kids etc. I don't mind at all. We have an open invitation to any celebrations, although we very, very rarely take it up, and I like to hear my neighbours enjoying themselves. They work hard for little reward. The dogs - including my 4 - warn of passing strangers at night so serve a useful purpose. The screaming of the kids is usually because they're having fun & enjoying themselves - who wouldn't like to hear happy little kids? I like my neighbours and the only issue I've ever had with them is the burning of rubbish.

EDIT - my immediate neighbours are all just ordinary Thais, no foreigners anywhere near that I know of (but I don't put any effort into finding them if they are around). They cook street food, drive ambulances, work in shops, look after the family etc. They don't have big incomes, swanky houses, big cars or drape themselves in gold. Does that make them low class? Not for me - they're all TOP CLASS people because they're nice & friendly. Offer me a Moo Baan full of well-to-do Thais & foreigners and I think I'd run a mile or ten.

My making charcoal issue was with my ignorant bro inlaw.Murphy's law said that the smoke always blew my way and into the house,until my law placed two fans next to the stinking fire and blew it right back.He never batted an eyelid,but the next batch was done well away from me.

Go home John,Thailand is not for you.

My point is the whole non b, work permit and teachers licence issue is difficult and not worth doing for some people here on a holiday for a year. I was wondering if they will decide not to stay.

Your being <deleted> for the sarcasm lost in issan.

No problem for a QUALIFIED Teacher.

How can someone be working and on a holiday at the same time ?

Have you never heard of a working holiday?

Only for under 31 years and certain countries.

My point is the whole non b, work permit and teachers licence issue is difficult and not worth doing for some people here on a holiday for a year. I was wondering if they will decide not to stay.

Your being <deleted> for the sarcasm lost in issan.

To be fair, that's sort of what the powers that be wanted. They want teachers to have better qualifications for the job. I'm not entirely certain if the change in visas were to assist in this, but meh could be.

People on a holiday for a year should be able to continue working. Unless you are saying they were without a bachelors degree. In such a case, the government has never been that happy with them being here. A person with a degree and a smile can stay on teaching for at least 2 or 4 years without a problem.

And yes, I'm aware that it's a mess getting legal here. However, I can say honestly I've yet to have a problem. Just a headache chasing shit down at times I won't argue against that fellas.

I personally know a few people that are probably leaving, albeit some of this is due to salaries not moving in 10+ years.

You can't be on a holiday for a year and work.

The lack of presence of the police on Bangkok sidewalks continues to astound me. Where are they hiding ? I think they should all be fitted with a GPS tracking device.....not that their bosses care.

Moonlighting in air con gold shops.

US$ 2,000 will probably cover it all unless you happened to meet a pretty Issan girl

who will ' madly fall in love ' with your wallet, than, the sky is the limit...

Ah yes,the evil golddigging girls from far away Issan,to be avoided,but girls from,Chaing Mai,down south or any other surrounding country,hearts of gold.Leave all those dark skin beauties for a man to handle.

If your a greenhorn how come you rekon Thai lawyers are more corrupt than not or are you just pissing into the wind.

I wish all the time that I could go home, but I am married to a Thai girl who could not survive England. I am a semi-invalid, 76 years old, and would die if I had to leave her after 13 years of marriage. So comments like "go home" are so crass. We have enough money to live on, but now from being 100% active to being almost totally inactive is just existence and not living.

Most of the comments were directed at the OP not at yourself. With your skills im sure you could imerse yourself with something online or learn a new skill? Your never too old to learn

Prof,where does your wife come from? Surely her hometown is not Pattaya? At your age you should be living in a nice place in the country, enjoying the simple pleasures of birds singing in the morning.There's nothing to beat nature, especially when we know we are in our sunset years...,we're going back to where we came from, It's comforting with contentment and dignity.... and the internet connections are as good as Bangkok.!

I live in rural Thailand and it is great for me but not for everyone.

The main thing I have learned about nature is that sunshine and rain makes the grass grow. The bad thing is it grows so fast, the good thing I that I get exercise when I cut it.

Slow down the posts billd,you closing in on the 10,000 posts.

You can increase your validity for one month for 30 baht if you don't want to add additional finds using the Mao Mao service.

Just dial *500*9#

You can do it multiple times. Useful if you are going out of the country for a long time but don't want to lose your number.

20 baht,5 times did it for me,got me past Songkran.

Thai food is NOT healthy(as others have said). When I arrived in Thailand 7 years ago I was slightly overweight and both a non-drinker and non-smoker. I gained a lot of weight over about 5 years and had a big gut eating only Thai food, no desserts, no sugar drinks etc. I lost 28 kilos in the last 6 months by eating zero Thai food. I made kale shakes with protein, carrot, beetroot and ginger, I ate boiled eggs, lean chicken or tuna fish and an apple with every meal for carbs...a handfull of almonds for a snack when really hungry in between meals. I went from 118 kg. to my current 87 kg. in about 5-6 months.

Thai food is terrible. The noodles are are not a healthy carb. If you want a healthy carb eat oatmeal for breakfast and brown rice with other meals. They put sugar, MSG and salt in everything they cook and they use very unhealthy oil for cooking, as others have said. Also, they put very little good protein in their food; the meat servings are too small and very poor quality. If I order cow man gai on the street I get a big plate of white rice which is devoid of all nutrients with a few tiny slivers of chicken on the plate with fat and skin making up 50% of the chicken. It's not the right balanced diet at all. You never really get the right amount of protein when dining out, mostly empty calories from white rice.

I'm so healthy now that when I occasionally eat out, if there is MSG in the food my body reacts violently every time. I get an instant headache and heart palpitations when I eat their crap food. What does that say about all the people who are eating that stuff every day and slowly poisoning themselves? It's not until you step back and get healthy that you realize how badly that bad food affects your health.

For me it started when I decided I didn't want to be another fat farang waddling down the street with a Thai wife half my age. So I started to educate myself on what is a healthy diet and how to exercise properly. Now I am a slim, handsome man walking down the street with a Thai wife half my age.

Thai food cooked at home is the best.If you can't manage it,get the half your age to pull the finger out.

in France many people know the drug dealers from Paris surburbs, enjoy and wash money in Phuket

And Sin City.

It is good to show, that we can work to :-)

But I have one question, every time someone say you help the family or a friend or the whole village,

some one very quick tells you can't work whiteout work permission,

you really need that, if you help without getting paid?

One thing if you work and get paid!

Technically yes even if you are not receiving any pay.

As if anybody is gunna lag you in for helping them.

This will be used against you with immigration,55.Seriously,you should try cutting the rice and loading it on tbe trailer,all bloody day.Asleep by 7pm and up again at 6am.Hard yakka,all credit to people older tnan me that do it for weeks on end.I just do our crop.

You will only be living here for a couple of years if you have an Education visa.If you plan on touring the country a fair bit, you need to be aware of the new visa situation in Thailand.

I don't really get while frugality attracts such a hostile reaction here. I wouldn't want to live like that myself, but I don't have a problem with those who do.

Being frugal is ok,but boasting about it and baiting others to better him is not cool.