bifftastic

…and that's how we do it in the Rai.

Seems to me that the VCD is king and when seeing the vast array of movies in the malls and asking 'pa sa angrit mee mai khap?' was, after a fifteen minute search by the helpful sales person, presented with a choice of 2 Thai movies with English subs

With regard to file sharing (of copyright owned legal files of course!)

Many public sites are full of viruses so be extra careful, have very strong and up-to-date virus protection running and check before you download. There are private sites with much better speeds and stringent anti-virus policies. (Or so I've heard! )

A PM may result in a URL

It is a great shame that the clearly constructive aspiration to representation by the so called 'rural poor'...not that poor!!..is hijacked by the demagogue and mobile phone and silk tycoon Thaksin..the Chinese Slim of Thailand.

It is indeed unfortunate that a personality cult rather than a legitimate political party with clear policies seems to be what they have. They may have it but everyone focuses on Thaksin, this last rally was, I believe, a missed opportunity to swing public attention away from him and on to the issues.

In all political arenas the leaders of various parties often fall foul of either their own mis-guided actions (or criminality!) or are discredited by the opposition. What happens then is, they step down amid much publicity, disappear into the background whilst others repeatedly re-affirm the party line and the party re-groups and carries on.

Well people in most western countrys will think what is the truth about the red shirts. They are poor and should have nothing to do with politics.

Quite how you reached the conclusion that most people in western countries think poor people should have nothing to do with politics is puzzling. Perhaps you are trying to qualify your own opinion by saying that.

After all, it's only in western countries that poor people have anything to do with politics.

A vote every few years is about the limit of it, but they have some rights in the eyes of the law, and a history of struggle to get those rights.

I think others have it about right, no-one really cares. Those that do, will watch the news and have a fleeting opinion and then go back to watching the soaps or the football, get up in the morning and go to work and try to pay the bills.

I have never heard anyone say that because people are poor they shouldn't have a political view.

EDIT:

I just read someone mentioning evolution (which happens over hundreds of thousands of years and has nothing whatever to do with politics) could it be they mean that Thai people are less evolved than others? What an odd thing to suggest.

Very true. But for that 1.99 in the Uk you actually get a good pint of beer. I don't think the same can be said in Thailand. But I guess some might say that in Thailand you may get some sort of company to go with it.

Not in <deleted> wetherspoons you don't! (good pint of beer that is!) It's £1.99 because they have 2 bar staff behind a 93 foot bar which has 400 people trying to get served at it.

Local boozer pint (stella) is £2.90

petrol (yesterday) £1.14/litre (london)

have a look in the supermarket, in my local one they have bread, biscuits, potatoes, chocolate, and beer. That should help, works for me and chips, and more beer.

And beer.

Have I mentioned beer?

Padi Madi guesthouse right next to BTS Thonglo with Agoda.com it's about 800 baht a night

I believe the money needs to be 'seasoned' in a bank account in the husbands name (not a joint account) and two months is for the first extension, as people often use a single entry non-imm o type visa (which is only valid for 1x90 day stay) which then gives you 30 days to sort the bank account and transfer the funds.

Subsequent extensions require the money to have been at or above that figure for 3 months.

If you go for the extension of the single entry visa then you report to immigration every 90 days, if you use the one year multi-entry non imm o type then you need to leave the country every 90 days and can extend the one year to 15 months by exiting the day before it runs out and get a further 90 days on re-entry (no financial info required).

There are many threads on this subject on this forum. If you find the forum search unfruitful try a google search and add 'Thaivisa' at the end of the search.

all the above is good, book hotel, get taxi.

Buy SIM card the next day, I would un-lock your phone before you leave your home country, it's just easier. Whoever you buy the sim card from in Thailand will set it up in your phone for you and sell you some credit.

It's all easy stuff

Oh, when you book your hotel, let them know what time you'll be arriving.

Enjoy your visit.

call your travel insurance company, tell them you need the shots, go to a hospital they recommend (ie one they will pay for) and get the shots. When you are there the doctor will tell you everything else about follow up shots, when you need them etc. I very much doubt you will be given rabies vaccine to take home with you.

You might have to pay first then claim it back when you get home, depends on who your insurer is.

double post sorry

PhilHarries might have an even better suggestion though. Why does it even have to be democracy? As long as whatever system it is works for the people, then that must be a good thing.

Why democracy indeed. Surely we can figure out a better system......democracy is usually more like autocracy worldwide.

On a different note, call me "crazy," but I think this is very similar to an economic war between rural elites and urban elites.

The reds are rural. The yellows are urban. There is big money involved.

In my own country we had a similar struggle between the urban-north and rural-south.......it was called the Civil War.

It was horrific........but it did finally decide which way the country would go in terms of economic development: rural or urban.

Urban won. [That war was not about slavery anymore than the Iraq war was about freedom.......it was an economic struggle between rural and urban elites.]

Sometimes I think Thailand is looking like the USA in 1860.

Some are saying it is about democracy, getting rid of a dictator, etc.

To me it is about who controls the pie: rural or urban elites.

Very good point, the same can be said about the UK, not quite rural vs urban but more about social class. Moving from an elitist, inheritance-based system to a more meritocratic one, all tied in, in both examples I think, to the industrialisation taking place at the time.

A power struggle with elites in charge of both factions. It happened a few times in the 'development' of our current version of democracy.

Do you suppose those same donors would be prepared to give blood at a Red Cross or hospital donation day in order to save lives, a rhetorical question.

I would imagine they would do it, if needed - as they did today

I would hope they would, but I highly doubt it

Today was not a blood donation in the correct sense.

It was a total waist of time and serves zero purpose.

The red shirt leaders are making themselves laughing

stocks inside and outside of Thailand.

Obviously today was not a blood donation in the 'correct sense'.

I don't believe it was intended to be.

I doubt you can assume the thinking of all red shirt supporters with regard to donating blood at hospitals. The fact you do not agree with someone elses political views, does not make them more or less likely to donate blood.

Whether or not it was a waste of time remains to be seen.

As for the purpose, I think it's quite an emotive gesture and will play well on the news media around the world, 'the blood of the people', quite a clever idea really.

People in Thailand may well laugh, or not, but generally speaking, I think most people outside the region don't care either way. It's hard enough to get people involved in their own democracies, let alone those of other countries.

Hard to shift the perceptions of many people in western Europe, and why would they need to?

Ask yourself:

Q. For a Thai when does not enough money,become enough monthly money?

A. Never!

Simple.

same goes anywhere really, if money isn't earned but just given and the person receiving it doesn't have a concept of the fact that it's a finite resource, then they'll always have their hand out.

I reckon she's bored.

Maybe she did earn 30k a month in the salon, I doubt it tho. More likely she earned 30k ONE month and then it became her 'earning potential'.

Aside from the obvious, 20k is plenty, no rent no bills etc.(my g/f also has 2 kids and gets 8k) she will blow it all in 2 weeks so the weekly budget thing is a good idea. Not going to Tescos every day will help! Talk with her, tell her you know she's bored but money needs to be managed. If she sticks to the 5k a week budget then every month you can give her 5k extra she can blow on something. Or a weekend away or some kind of 'reward' system (sounds a little patronising I know, but the value of your family unit's money needs to be something everyone is aware of).

If you just give her more money she will blow that too, cos she's bored and she will think she just needs to pout and you'll cough up.

Really tho I think she needs something to do, if the salons she knows don't want part-time then look for those that do. Or buy her the kit she needs and she can be 'Mrs Mobile Nails' she can undercut the salons and do home visits, earn a bit of cash and stop being bored at home every day.

There may well be some flame comments about 'home visits'! but trust issues are not included in my reply, if you have those then.....well....RUN FORREST RUN!

My g/f loves her country and loves HM the King. She was born in Korat, lived in Bangkok, Singapore, Koh Samui, now Chiang Rai

She says that before Thaksin's crimes were exposed she supported the idea that the people upcountry should have a party that represented them, I guess she still believes that that would be a good thing. However, she doesn't believe that by replacing one corruption with another anyone is particularly well represented.

As far as joining in, she's too busy working and taking care of the children. If she wasn't she'd express her views in the ballot box, can't see her jumping on a tractor waving flags of any colour.

Favourite quote from her about anything anyone wants to say about pretty much anything...

'they have mouth, if they want to talk, cannot stop mouth from talk...up to them'

So, she's for freedom of speech, she exercises this freedom very readily

and Reuters supports the reds because.......???

That's wicked! Thanks

I found this one from the youtube link you posted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI-3YxNJyII

(can't get the hang of the 'embedding' thing just yet

Perhaps it's time for you to really look at yourself in the mirror and see why people get angry at you so often. And remember, people who don't get angry with you may be indifferent. Cheers.

Very good point.

This is my fav at the moment, usual theme in Thai pop music! Love!

But she sings beautifully and the music is well put together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvxzO2HNR5E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UxpiABsHO4

That is when I am asked a question... ...and my reply is "I don't know."

Then they give me this very strange look, like they are very baffled and also feel sorry for me or worried about me at the same time, and then the reply: "Oh, why you don't know?"

Now, what kind of a question is that?

Geez, that would piss me off too!

Especially seeing as the answer to 'why you don't know?' is 'I don't know why I don't know!'

oh and in answer to your question..... ummm I don't know

Cute, his legs are a bit short.

Totally insensitive and unpolitically correct. He's not short, they prefer to be called "inbred retard midget dogs".

He is cute and his legs are short!

He reminds me of Pheem, the dog at my g/f's house (who is also an inbred retard midget) who rules over the other dogs in the street, when they bark at the continual night-time threat of 'whatever the <deleted>*k all the dogs in Thailand find to bark at all <deleted>*king night!' (I pictured in my mind a kind of 'dog telegraph' originating across the river in Laos and being 'passed on' throughout the kingdom as the barking started a ways off and got louder then quieter as the 'message' was passed down the line!)

He will awaken enough to add a low moan or a half arsed bark that basically says 'yeah thass right boys, you tell 'em'

then goes back to sleep. He guards the tractor, well he sleeps in it so they have to take him with them in the morning!

We went out in it to a bbq restaurant and left him behind one night, he wouldn't 'talk' to anyone for three days and had what we call in London 'the raging hump' with everyone for leaving him behind!

Another long post from me

I'm not just talking about the actual sex act. Love making is a WHOLE LOT MORE than just that. Love is about being open with each other, and to each others needs and wishes.

I think this remark is very important and one of the most relevant to the original post.

When two people can share feelings then they become very close. This would imply curiosity would it not?

I, for one, would not be involved with someone thousands of miles away from my home if there were no other attractions other than the physical.

Below, I've drifted from the original question somewhat but some of the comments on the thread have mentioned family, rural communities and gender roles so I feel it has relevance.

I think some people are closer to their cultural stereotypes than others but that would probably only be on the surface.

With regard to rural family structures and gender roles, in my own, limited, experience of Thailand, the family unit that I have contact with is from two different rural backgrounds. My g/f's family is from Korat but one of her older sisters has married a man from Chiang Saen who's father originates from Laos. Now my g/f, her two children and another of her sisters with her two children also live on the same land in Chiang Saen. So there is a difference between the Korat 'immigrants' and the local community, also the Laos connection makes for an interesting mix!

In this household, my g/f's sister is like the MD or CEO of the business, she organises all the workers on the land they farm, pays all the bills etc. She fields all the enquiries about houses or land for sale, (she was the one who negotiated the pick up rental for me from a woman down the street) whilst her husband makes things (like the house!) repairs the tractor etc. His father is the one who consults the monks at the local Wat about the right day to do everything and he owns all the land the family lives on.

There doesn't seem to be any role designation based on gender as such, everyone pretty much does what is necessary, apart from the washing up! I got a funny look when, after dinner I took some plates into the kitchen! 'Bai Nai?' said Pi Suk, with a frown. Apparently I should sit, smoke, and drink whiskey whilst the women wash up!

I don't know if the mix of the family and the fact that they are from different backgrounds themselves has anything to do with it, or if that is unusual in Thailand but I found them to be tolerant of difference, interested in things about my country (mainly the price of things and my videos of snow!) and concerned only if I was 'jai dee' or not.

More 'on topic' my g/f resisted talk of us being a couple in the accepted sense until we knew and understood each other better. Our only real fallouts have been when this understanding has been brought into question. I think I have mentioned before that it was this ability to connect on that level that brought us together in the first place.

It seems that now we have this understanding she confides in me quite readily and isn't shy or cautious in her answers when our conversations veer off into deeper, more personal areas. She is also kind and sensitive when hearing some of the things I share with her. Sometimes I need to give some background about how my culture may be different from hers (the fact that I spent some time in a childrens home even though my mother was still alive needed quite a lot of explaining!).

Maybe she's not typical of her nation and doesn't fit a stereotype too well but maybe you have to know someone to understand that. Maybe people who appear to fit a type or a culture on the surface are more than that and will surprise you if you get closer to them.

We all have cultural aspects to our personalities and these are, often, not apparent until contrasted against others we are close to. This undoubtedly happens in the Thai-Farang relationships we are discussing here and gives us the opportunity to recognise them in ourselves more readily and, in my opinion, can only be a good thing.

Don't worry too much. When they ask you about how much money you have, they want to know how much you can afford to pay them every month.

They ask about loans because that would be money you pay out every month.

Tell them everything you pay every month and how much you have left.

It is very important that when they tell you how much to pay every month that you always pay it!

if you miss a payment they can ask for the whole amount in one payment!

They should not ask you to take a loan to pay them because it will put you in financial hardship.

Next time you speak to them ask them about Council Tax Benefit. If you have a small income, sometimes you don't have to pay all the Council Tax.

Your husband should be helping you with this, I hope it all goes ok

even if they are a rip off it's only £8 <deleted>!!

Just get a taxi mate

The rights and freedoms we enjoy in my country (UK) were not given to us by the ruling classes. They were taken from them.