KunMatt

Neeranam

 

If i was to live in Thailand  i'd be worried (for my child) about the drivers who are some of the worst in the world and have been proven not to care less about killing people. Hardly neurotic it is a fact that crossing roads in Thailand is like putting ones life in the hands of others.

 

Its aspects of this mindset that is accepted by Thais that is one reason for her spend minimal time there and to be brought up thinking like the English.

 

Though to be brought up nowhere near the new English underclass who are an embarrassment to themselves is obviously a prerequisite.

 

It's not just the drivers that are a danger here, pedestrians and scooter drivers don't seem to care in the slightest for their own safety. I don't know how many times just this week I've been driving full speed down a highway and a pedestrian (or group of) have decided that they need to cross in the middle of a main road and even though there are no cars behind me they decide that it is worth being hit by a speeding pickup and run out in front of me instead of just waiting 5 seconds for a clear road to walk across.  I will never understand that mentality and if I didn't expect it and take precautionary measures to avoid them I would have killed somebody by now.

 

The same goes for scooter drivers who seem to think they are in an armoured tank.  I know that 100% of the time that when I see a scooter coming down a side road at 50km/h to join a main road that they are not going to give way at the junction or even slow down, they are going to pull straight out, come out of the scooter lane and encroach into the inside lane before turning and then checking over their shoulder to see if any cars are coming. 100% OF THE TIME. Again, I make it my responsibility to not kill these people which is ridiculous.

 

I don't think that this is all about bad drivers. This is about a mindset here of one-upsmanship and people are willing to cause a horrific accident and potential kill themselves, their own family and mine, just for the win of getting in front of me and saving themselves a few seconds in traffic.  If anyone drives here you will know exactly what I mean. Selfishness doesn't fully cover it as it is just another extension of this face system where somebody doesn't want to give way to another because it means they've lost. Every time I signal to change lanes the car who has been behind me for miles in the lane I want to go into will all of a sudden speed up so I cannot change lanes and get infront of him (even though I am already infront of him in another lane), what is that if not just pure bloodymindness? That happens every time I try to change lanes.

 

I see the difference between the UK and Thai drivers as this: In the UK if you flash your lights at someone it means "I am giving you way and letting you go first", in Thailand it means "I am coming and not going to slow down or avoid you so get out of my way".  When I do give way to someone and do them a favour in traffic it just confuses people and has nearly caused me accidents because drivers here are not used to selfless acts on the road. If you don't drive selfishly here then you are a danger to others. How ridiculous is that?

 

That's not to say there aren't bad drivers here,  I don't think I've ever seen a woman driver who is not talking on the phone with her right hand holding the phone to her left ear.  I've almost been rear ended multiple times by some idiot who has no idea how to predict a few seconds in front of him.

 

All of this is ONLY the driving side of things in this country, there are many other dangerous aspects to this country.  I don't want my kids to have any of this mindset as a driver or as a pedestrian.

Maybe 'your'real fear is seeing your half thai kids being more Thai than your nationality.

Think a minute about the psychological effect of telling your kids that half of their being is no good. I'm no psychologist but seen the results - low self esteem, depression, drug addiction etc.

You can do this in many ways - for example taking them to playgroups that speak English, shielding them from Thai TV, and general racist comments based on your own ignorance of the society. Remember, whether you like it or not, your kids are 50 % Thai.

No. You keep trying to over analyse this and apply some deep psychological misgiving on my behalf but I can assure you, I literally am afraid that my kids will be injured or killed here before they reach school leaving age because I see the dangers everywhere. Do you ever read the news here?? That's just what is reported. My partner's cousin's 3 family members who were killed by a drunk hit and run wasn't in the news, the police didn't even make a report about it until her family complained. The 13 year old shot in the head in this small village was also not in any news. The deaths and accidents here are much higher than reported and what's reported is already horrific enough.

If I had some problems with having half Thai kids because I hate Thai people like you are insinuating then I wouldn't have had 2 kids with a Thai girl and we wouldn't spend all of our days with all of her Thai family.

So no, its much more simple than you are trying to make it. It is exactly what I have explained here.

It is a big decision for you to make and maybe I am over analyzing. But your children's mental well-being should also be in the picture.

Have you thought of moving out the village. I agree with you that they are dangerous places.

One thing my kids don't have is the freedom to go where they want to play like I did. I walked to school with friends when I was 4 years old. Having 2 beautiful white-skinned daughters with brown hair means I can't let them out my sight for a second.

My eldest wants to study in Scotland when 15. I plan to send her there for a couple of months per year for a couple of years to help her/me decide.

Well obviously they wouldn't grow up in this village which is why I was referencing Bangkok international schools before. But even so, is Bangkok any more safe? I always see turf wars on the news between rival schools and high school kids being shot and stabbed to death by a gang of kids from another school.in Bangkok.

I'm guessing being half farang is going to work against my children when it comes to bullying in and out of school, something which would be much less prevalent if we lived in the UK. In fact the minority kids were revered in my schools growing up. And incidentally my children look more European than Thai so it would be a factor if we stayed in Thailand.

I grew up in a lovely big village in the UK on the coast. Our village had a beach, a wood, farms, a huge road of amusements, local sports teams, swimming pools, cubs and scouts clubs, a first, middle and high school and I just remember biking and skateboarding all around the village growing up knowing everyone. I am prepared to move back there and hope my kids have a similar upbringing that I got. I cannot see now how it can be any better chancing it in Thailand given everything discussed so far in this thread. We can just come back every summer holidays and stay in our house here to visit everyone.

If what I'm saying is total lunacy then please help convince me otherwise.

Many years ago my friends' kids went to the best international school in Bangkok.

Cost him over 1 million baht a year for 2 of them.

One day, whilst taking to the 17 year old a Thai woman walked in the front gate. I asked who it was told her grandmother but she never talked to her. She lived in a house next door.

why not speak to your gran?

She is thai.

But you are half thai.

No I am American.

But you live in Thailand and your mum's thai.

But my dad's American and I've been brought up that way.

Then I thought these kids were going to have problems.

Now in their mid - late 20s, both attend 12 step groups, for different conditions.

Their dad is the nicest guy you could meet and sacrificed everything for his kids. Foreign universities etc.

One thing I think he missed was to educate them in their thai roots.

OK. Is that story supposed to apply to my situation somehow?

I said from the beginning that we are extremely close to my partner's family, there are 7 of them and 4 kids sitting in our house having lunch right now, and I also said from the beginning that the biggest reason for staying in Thailand or not wanting to move to the UK is that I don't want to break up our family.

So you're trying to make me out to be something I'm not and I'm telling you are wrong with this assumption.

Neeranam

 

If i was to live in Thailand  i'd be worried (for my child) about the drivers who are some of the worst in the world and have been proven not to care less about killing people. Hardly neurotic it is a fact that crossing roads in Thailand is like putting ones life in the hands of others.

 

Its aspects of this mindset that is accepted by Thais that is one reason for her spend minimal time there and to be brought up thinking like the English.

 

Though to be brought up nowhere near the new English underclass who are an embarrassment to themselves is obviously a prerequisite.

 

It's not just the drivers that are a danger here, pedestrians and scooter drivers don't seem to care in the slightest for their own safety. I don't know how many times just this week I've been driving full speed down a highway and a pedestrian (or group of) have decided that they need to cross in the middle of a main road and even though there are no cars behind me they decide that it is worth being hit by a speeding pickup and run out in front of me instead of just waiting 5 seconds for a clear road to walk across.  I will never understand that mentality and if I didn't expect it and take precautionary measures to avoid them I would have killed somebody by now.

 

The same goes for scooter drivers who seem to think they are in an armoured tank.  I know that 100% of the time that when I see a scooter coming down a side road at 50km/h to join a main road that they are not going to give way at the junction or even slow down, they are going to pull straight out, come out of the scooter lane and encroach into the inside lane before turning and then checking over their shoulder to see if any cars are coming. 100% OF THE TIME. Again, I make it my responsibility to not kill these people which is ridiculous.

 

I don't think that this is all about bad drivers. This is about a mindset here of one-upsmanship and people are willing to cause a horrific accident and potential kill themselves, their own family and mine, just for the win of getting in front of me and saving themselves a few seconds in traffic.  If anyone drives here you will know exactly what I mean. Selfishness doesn't fully cover it as it is just another extension of this face system where somebody doesn't want to give way to another because it means they've lost. Every time I signal to change lanes the car who has been behind me for miles in the lane I want to go into will all of a sudden speed up so I cannot change lanes and get infront of him (even though I am already infront of him in another lane), what is that if not just pure bloodymindness? That happens every time I try to change lanes.

 

I see the difference between the UK and Thai drivers as this: In the UK if you flash your lights at someone it means "I am giving you way and letting you go first", in Thailand it means "I am coming and not going to slow down or avoid you so get out of my way".  When I do give way to someone and do them a favour in traffic it just confuses people and has nearly caused me accidents because drivers here are not used to selfless acts on the road. If you don't drive selfishly here then you are a danger to others. How ridiculous is that?

 

That's not to say there aren't bad drivers here,  I don't think I've ever seen a woman driver who is not talking on the phone with her right hand holding the phone to her left ear.  I've almost been rear ended multiple times by some idiot who has no idea how to predict a few seconds in front of him.

 

All of this is ONLY the driving side of things in this country, there are many other dangerous aspects to this country.  I don't want my kids to have any of this mindset as a driver or as a pedestrian.

Maybe 'your'real fear is seeing your half thai kids being more Thai than your nationality.

Think a minute about the psychological effect of telling your kids that half of their being is no good. I'm no psychologist but seen the results - low self esteem, depression, drug addiction etc.

You can do this in many ways - for example taking them to playgroups that speak English, shielding them from Thai TV, and general racist comments based on your own ignorance of the society. Remember, whether you like it or not, your kids are 50 % Thai.

No. You keep trying to over analyse this and apply some deep psychological misgiving on my behalf but I can assure you, I literally am afraid that my kids will be injured or killed here before they reach school leaving age because I see the dangers everywhere. Do you ever read the news here?? That's just what is reported. My partner's cousin's 3 family members who were killed by a drunk hit and run wasn't in the news, the police didn't even make a report about it until her family complained. The 13 year old shot in the head in this small village was also not in any news. The deaths and accidents here are much higher than reported and what's reported is already horrific enough.

If I had some problems with having half Thai kids because I hate Thai people like you are insinuating then I wouldn't have had 2 kids with a Thai girl and we wouldn't spend all of our days with all of her Thai family.

So no, its much more simple than you are trying to make it. It is exactly what I have explained here.

Neeranam

If i was to live in Thailand i'd be worried (for my child) about the drivers who are some of the worst in the world and have been proven not to care less about killing people. Hardly neurotic it is a fact that crossing roads in Thailand is like putting ones life in the hands of others.

Its aspects of this mindset that is accepted by Thais that is one reason for her spend minimal time there and to be brought up thinking like the English.

Though to be brought up nowhere near the new English underclass who are an embarrassment to themselves is obviously a prerequisite.

It's not just the drivers that are a danger here, pedestrians and scooter drivers don't seem to care in the slightest for their own safety. I don't know how many times just this week I've been driving full speed down a highway and a pedestrian (or group of) have decided that they need to cross in the middle of a main road and even though there are no cars behind me they decide that it is worth being hit by a speeding pickup and run out in front of me instead of just waiting 5 seconds for a clear road to walk across. I will never understand that mentality and if I didn't expect it and take precautionary measures to avoid them I would have killed somebody by now.

The same goes for scooter drivers who seem to think they are in an armoured tank. I know that 100% of the time that when I see a scooter coming down a side road at 50km/h to join a main road that they are not going to give way at the junction or even slow down, they are going to pull straight out, come out of the scooter lane and encroach into the inside lane before turning and then checking over their shoulder to see if any cars are coming. 100% OF THE TIME. Again, I make it my responsibility to not kill these people which is ridiculous.

I don't think that this is all about bad drivers. This is about a mindset here of one-upsmanship and people are willing to cause a horrific accident and potential kill themselves, their own family and mine, just for the win of getting in front of me and saving themselves a few seconds in traffic. If anyone drives here you will know exactly what I mean. Selfishness doesn't fully cover it as it is just another extension of this face system where somebody doesn't want to give way to another because it means they've lost. Every time I signal to change lanes the car who has been behind me for miles in the lane I want to go into will all of a sudden speed up so I cannot change lanes and get infront of him (even though I am already infront of him in another lane), what is that if not just pure bloodymindness? That happens every time I try to change lanes.

I see the difference between the UK and Thai drivers as this: In the UK if you flash your lights at someone it means "I am giving you way and letting you go first", in Thailand it means "I am coming and not going to slow down or avoid you so get out of my way". When I do give way to someone and do them a favour in traffic it just confuses people and has nearly caused me accidents because drivers here are not used to selfless acts on the road. If you don't drive selfishly here then you are a danger to others. How ridiculous is that?

That's not to say there aren't bad drivers here, I don't think I've ever seen a woman driver who is not talking on the phone with her right hand holding the phone to her left ear. I've almost been rear ended multiple times by some idiot who has no idea how to predict a few seconds in front of him.

All of this is ONLY the driving side of things in this country, there are many other dangerous aspects to this country. I don't want my kids to have any of this mindset as a driver or as a pedestrian.

Neeranam

 

If i was to live in Thailand  i'd be worried (for my child) about the drivers who are some of the worst in the world and have been proven not to care less about killing people. Hardly neurotic it is a fact that crossing roads in Thailand is like putting ones life in the hands of others.

 

Its aspects of this mindset that is accepted by Thais that is one reason for her spend minimal time there and to be brought up thinking like the English.

 

Though to be brought up nowhere near the new English underclass who are an embarrassment to themselves is obviously a prerequisite.

^^^ This

Well it's not an opinion I've come to easily, I've lost many night's sleep over it for the last few weeks and my son isn't even 2 years old yet!! I don't want it to sound like a negative rant against Thailand because I love living here and if it was just my missus and I then we would be much better off staying here, but with kids involved now if we stayed I would be gambling a compromise of their upbringing just because I want to live in Thailand rather than doing what is best for them. Obviously I want my children to have the best upbringing I can give them, and that definitely would not come from growing up in Thailand.

If anyone can give me the other side of the argument then I'd like to hear it so I can decide how right I am.

Here we go then,

Until high school/Comprehensive the kids in the west just learn the basics of reading and writing and times tables.

In Thai government school, it's exactly the same and the quality isn't far different. Most of the day is play.

Put em in the Thai government school to learn the Thai language, home school them for English reading and basic math.

Then decide what to do when they reach age 11, ready for high school.

So if it is the same (although you admit the quality is worse) then why would I upheave my kids at age 11 to move to a country for them to start all over again with no friends, no background experience of the culture??

Also, I think my previous post highlights more of my worries about staying in Thailand: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/648824-raising-kids-in-thailand-or-uk/page-3#entry6649232

KunMatt hit the nail on the head

Which part??

Google translate says "I post"

Never ever, ever ever ever, believe anything Google Translate says.

A much better word for word translator can be done with the software Thai2English but you'll need to figure out the sentence yourself.

I think my health insurance got ripped off as they were charged 200k Bht for my wifes c-section and 3 days in a private room

at Bumrungrad

The two times we had a baby in Bumrungrad it cost me 75k each for everything including getting their English translation of the birth certificate done.

Somebody somewhere is walking around with 125k baht in their pocket because of your baby.

all went well had a little boy now 6 month old. hospital and staff excellent cannot be more helpfull. been back for jabs and check up and have registered all the kids with the same doctor thanks for advice. cheers tim

Bumrungrad hospital. We could not have been happier with the experience. 75k baht altogether.

just been to bumrungrad wife had scan and we spoken to the doctors very good thanks

Tim ... what was the cost?

We just had our second baby in Bumrungrad. We stayed for 4 days and the final price was 75k baht. Another great experience and I wouldn't want to do it anywhere else.

Not that we are planning for a 3rd baby ever now!!

^ no need to order - it is at central in Ubon already.

Where, still trying to communicate with the mrs about info here. Weeeeeeell, l am near to cutting my throat as l am still trying to get my PC fixed with the same crap communication via the mrs and the PC ''experts'' that require a holiday somewhere to fix it. I am in kill mode at present. I think I am joking, but..................................... .

I found Marmite today!!

Tops, aisle 4, in among the various peanut butters. 250g for 289 baht. I think that is only 4 baht more than Villa in BKK.

Right, that's one check off the list. Now, any news on that Bangkok Hospital or the new International School??

I have to chuckle when in other threads people talk about the "freedoms" they have in LOS as opposed to their home countries.

I wander how many of their home countries allow packs of wild dogs to roam free, or how many would be committing a crime by running them off, or in any way would have to put up with this BS.

I won't post what I would do if wild dogs were on my property. Of course my neighbors' friendly dogs, well trained and loved and under control are welcome. But dangerous packs of dogs? Phhttt.

There is this strange duality of Thaivisa members who one hand present themselves as hard, well connected, perfect, life winning heroes who know exactly what to do in every situation better than anyone else who posts anything, and then on the other hand (like poster "antpet" in this thread http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/599216-legalities-of-owning-using-an-air-gun-in-thailand/#entry5863480) won't even shout at a stray dog if it is attacking his family out of fear he might "offend any locals".

It just goes to show how full of crap most people are on this forum as I always read these stories boasting about how hard everyone is, and then when I go out nearly everyone I see is a frail 70 year old limping man. There's a lot of compensating going on on this forum I believe and I take it all with a hand full of salt. I reckon there are far more antpets in this country than the self imagined real life Rambos,

I was looking for a compost bin in Ubon the other day and the best I could find was a large plastic 115 litre waste bin which had a locking lid and also a smaller 6 inch lockable lid that would be perfect to dump waste in. It was only 499 baht. I was going to buy it and drill holes in the bottom.

Unfortunately they only had one in stock and it was broken! They said they will get more in stock within the next 2 weeks.

What about my Marmite ? Anyone found any, anywhere in Ubon. Please

Yeah we need a Villa Market in Ubon.

In the meantime you can always order Marmite and whatever else you are missing from this company; http://www.buntersfoodsbkk.com/order.html

125g for 170 baht is steep, but how much do you miss it?? Villa in BKK sell the 250g for 280 baht and I bought a few of them over the 3 months we were just there, I was pretty devastated when the bag broke and the first big jar I bought smashed on our condo reception floor!

Thanks for the replies, I will go for the 80% and destroy a couple of things, always wanted to know how it feels to destroy a washingmachine, flat screen and some walls using a hammer. Not scared for gangsters or cops as there will be no proof and I'm well connected with those.

I just wanted to play things fair, but if she wants war it's fine with me, I don't care about the other 10k as for me it's only about the fact I didn't do anything wrong. dam_n I would even pay it myself if she didn't try asking it from me in the first place. I think I'm gonna enjoy this payback :-)

Thanks guys

Now here's someone who's going to be in for a nasty shock Thai style.

I presume this lady has your passport details..... perhaps you'll only be nicked for criminal damage and they won't put child porn on your computer or a stack of gear in your suitcase... perhaps

1- I'm Thai citizen, what passport

2- cops can't do me a thing, like I said very well connected

I am not a show off guy nor want to be, I just want justice. That ain't so hard to ask.

So well connected that you cannot even get your full deposit back but when facing a loss you want to act like a child and break some of the owner's property and run away.

There are daily stories like this and it seems like this immature behaviour runs through all Thai people, especially the politicians. I wonder why before I choose to raise my kids here?

here you have to give all your money away to be able to only hopefully have a lease on the land and house you paid for ...

crazy, isn't it

in the meantime : thais can buy land and houses whereever in the world is available for anybody else

but oh, the bad farang will buy the land and TAKE IT HOME WITH HIM ...

That's a sad fact. Here in America Thais and all nationalities can buy all to their hearts content and guess what, it belongs to them. We should start making laws that treat them equally as we are treated in their country, but wait that would be a violation of their civil rights.

This kind of property law is used in lots of "poorer" countries. It is meant to protect the citizens of the country and to stop companies from first world countries from buying up the entire land mass.

Which obviously applies to a husband who wants to build a home for his family!

It seems that most laws and WP/visa rules here are purely just to evict foreigners from Thailand with nothing once they have spent all of their money and benefit the Thais with the spoils.

We've moved from BKK to Ubon and back a few times and always send our boxes in the local minibus that runs a couple of times a week. We just moved back from BKK a couple of weeks ago and sent 20 large boxes in total in 2 minibuses, lots of fragile items and kid's things etc and no problem. Total cost of 800 baht. On the second bus somebody was shipping a large motorbike back from BKK!

We live between Ubon and Sisaket BTW.

The only problem I can see is that I guess you need someone to be on the sending/receiving end as it goes door to door (and usually leaves late at night and arrives at dawn). You could always travel on the minibus with your belongings though.

If not then hire someone with a pickup. It will probably cost about 6k baht.

I still have problem with TOT Internet sporadically but mostly at night time. My home is not too far from YES school. I also gave up on calling customer service to report the problem since it didnn't seem to make any difference.

If the internet is out for more than 2 days then I'd make a call to the technician who installed the equipment in my home & charged me 600B extra and told me that I shouldn't have any more problem with internet any more. So any time I need it fixed I'd call him & give him 24 hours to fix it otherwise I'll march in TOT Wanarom office & demand to speak to the manager.

The manager and I had a talk since I was a brand new customer & had to wait several days before the service is working.

To sum up, I just tolerate TOT

I was the OP of this thread and (unbelievably?) I still have the problem I described 8 months ago! I thought it had been fixed at first because it used to turn off and on like clockwork at the same time everyday but instead it now usually drops off around 11pm and works again by the morning, so I just plan around that and make sure I do all my downloading before the routine downtime.

I have narrowed it down to an ADSL line problem due to their ISP being down for a whole weekend and I could still see the ADSL light drop on and off in the same pattern at the same time my net usually goes off nightly, which means that the ISP is not causing this issue as I was not connected to the ISP for a few days and the fault remained.

TOT technical support and customer service are useless and, as I said 8 months ago, because they never follow up on any issue they never know if it has been rectified and I never know if they have worked on it and if they consider it fixed. It doesn't help either of us that the Ubon technician doesn't work nights (or Sundays) as he is never at work to see my fault They also refuse to give me his telephone number and any time he calls me the number he uses is unreachable to call back on. I now only call 1100 when I have a different problem like when the ISP is down and during that call I will inform them that I still have the problem from 8 months ago and they say they will pass it onto their tech and we all carry on with nothing being done about it. The most frustrating thing is having a customer support rep who refuses to say anything outside of the script in front of them, so when I ask them a question they just parrot back the same line 5 times until I give up asking. The whole situation is a joke really.

At some point soon I have to go to the TOT office to setup a direct debit so I will put a complaint in at the same time, but judging how inept their support has been in the last 8 months I don't expect any real investigation and resolution to happen.

The thing is there isn't any other provider where we live, but also I get 8000kbps during the daytime with TOT and it never drops out. If they could just find out why my line drops out at night time and fix it then the service would be perfect.

Thanks so much people, lot's of great advice, I'll take it on board, Cheers:thumbsup:

I love my wife trust her, it goes both ways, but no point being a sitting duck yeah!

I just want some kind of peace of mind in the future if un-for-seen things could happen, my wife supports this thinking also, as she has some health issues and wants to see I'm ok in the future, safe from draconian laws of Thailand and falang's

So what is the cost of the house you are planning to build here?

How much is a usufruct these days?