wamberal

Put the million in a managed fund that is invested in blue chip Australian shares. 6% per annum, and very little currency risk for the forseeable future.

Anybody who is relatively young and contemplating retirement needs to put their money into growth assets, and in particular, assets whose underlying income will continue to grow.

if he really has 3 months and is alone what is there to lose?

you can all waste time arguing about the logistics of taking a plane flight, but i have put myself in this mans shoes, its high time to fly and theres no turning back.

dont really understand why time is even being wasted on a forum with such a question and indecision.

Then you do not understand much about human nature. These are matters of life and death, they are surely worth talking about. If you are not interested in "wasting time", then feel free to bugger off somewhere else.

You are being very arrogant in saying that you can put yourself in this man's shoes. You cannot.

This is a complex issue, trying to reduce it to a simple one is totally misguided and, frankly, lacking in compassion for somebody who is facing death.

Anybody with the requisite experience and skills can also think about talking to the big Accounting firms, or Management Consulting firms.

Mmmmmmm. I think it is pretty much certain that an individual who undertakes a reasonable amount of physical activity will have a longer life expectancy than if he or she is inactive.

Of course, we are all different, so there will be instances of people who live to 110 and claim not to have done an hour's exercise in their lives, and people who do a lot of exercise and die young.

However, so many studies have been done about the benefits of exercise (and physical activity in general) and the dangers of physical inactivity, that only a fool would disregard the statistical proofs.

What are the odds on this game actually going ahead?

There's your sponsorship, right there, a sports betting shop.

This will be a rugby league Test match? A bunch of rugby union players who have probably never seen a game of league, much less played one.

Ludicrous.

Just be a bit careful if you arrive a bit tired and emotional, count the money very slowly. I have been cheated (once only) at one of the airport currency exchanges, only a couple of hundred baht, but still, it rankles.

It gets you the best exchange rate. Believe it, or not. Up to you.

In the first instance, if this child is the legal child of the ill Canadian and if the marriage of the Canadian to the Thai was legally registered then it would be a simple mater to make a claim for maintenance and to register the dependency in the Canadian courts (Distance and communicating across international boundaries might cause some difficultly but that ought not to be insurmountable).

I would be very surprised if the question of a legal marriage would matter much in terms of the child's rights under Canadian law. Surely the fact that her father was Canadian is the main criterion in terms of her rights?

Surely the Canadian consulate would take an active interest in a case like this.

There's no fool like an old fool.

There's plenty of competition, though.

Outside the bar scene, lower class women have few, if any rights in Thailand, especially if they are unfortunate enough to have married a Thai man and then been discarded, or found that she could not be supported, or that she was abused. And especially if she has a kid or two to support. Not much Government help for women like this.

Oh, of course she has the right to prostitute herself, and there are plenty of avenues for that, outside the bar scene.

I too an a self-funded retiree, and I came from a working class home, not that I think it matters in debates like this.

I am always amused when expats pontificate about Thailand and its culture, without, apparently, knowing much about it at all.

This game is still being spruiked on a rugby league forum. Any truth here, or is it just wishful thinking?

Money and skin colour. The more money, and the less colour, the higher the status.

The smile, in Thai culture, means something very different to the meaning in western culture.

It is not surprising that Thai people who deal with westerners do not smile. Would you?

The Dusit Thani Hotel. Not a great building, by any means, but one of the very first high rise buildings in BKK.

My wife and I have never had kids, unfortunately. However, for what it is worth, I believe firmly that the genuine happiness of the parents is the most important thing in any family. I am reminded of this every time I fly, and the safety announcement says that, in the event of an emergency, be sure to put your own oxygen mask on first, before attending to the needs of kids and others who need help.

If you and your wife are not genuinely happy, no regrets, no hardships, etc, the kids will not be happy. For what it's worth!

As Billy Connolly once said ; Australia is a great country. Its just a pity that its full of Australians. Same goes for Thailand.

Thailand would be great if not for being full of Australians? Really?

Australia is Australia precisely because of its people, and pretty much the same thing can be said for every country on earth. Including Thailand.

Maybe it's players based in Australia with some tenuous link to the country. There are Lebanese and Italian teams formed this way.

Yep, probably. But I would be interested to hear from anybody who knows anything about it.

I was intrigued to see a report on a rugby league forum that there would be a game between Thailand and the Philippines.

I wonder whether anybody else knows anything about this? Surely it is not a serious match, no rugby league in Thailand ever, AFAIK.

What was it that Rudyard Kipling said? "And the epitaph drear - 'a fool lies here, who tried to hustle the East' ".

I honestly wonder why people try to impose their own (usually western) values on those of a very different culture.

It amazes me how quickly any attempt to have a serious discussion on this forum always ends up mentioning prostitution in Thailand.

It's as if that is the only thing people know about Thailand, which reveals a lot about those posters, I suppose.

I actually think prostitution is very relevant to this thread

There is an inextricable link between foreigner trash and prostitutes

Yawn. Prostitution only exists in Thailand because of foreign trash? Really?

The old Lee Gardens Hotel in Wireless Road. I stayed there with a bunch of work colleagues for a few weeks, it was a wonderful place to stay in those days.

Another thing I miss is the old 100 baht buffet lunches in all the five star hotels (except the Oriental, can't remember how much the buffet in Lord Jim's cost, maybe 400 baht).

I miss the Country and Western Bar on the corner of Soi 19, great spot, a really good and decent management, lots of the girls married farang. The Australian Embassy used to recommend the place (unofficially) as a safe and sensible bar for bachelors to go to. And it was.

I also miss Cleopatra's. I hasten to add that my bar and sauna days are long gone, but I would love to be able to visit some of these quality places again.

Of course not.

Also be aware that some people are prone to DVT. Sleeping the whole trip after taking a sleeping pill can be dangerous for some.

Personally, I would forget about jet lag. Do not drink or eat too much on the flight (other than lots of water), get up and walk around as often as you can. Do not drink too much coffee.

When you arrive at your destination, again have a good walk around, do not go to sleep until the normal time at the destination.

Get up with the sun the next morning, again have a walk in the bright sunlight. That helps reset your circadian rhythms.

Do not drink too much alcohol or eat too much until you are back into synch.