connda

I am retired too. What is your credit limit?

100,000Baht. I have fought off having a credit card for years ... if you drop it in the street it's bad news!! I wanted to book a flight on the internet so needed one. I have also been with this branch for about 10 years and have a BB and Easy Buy bond with them... maybe that fact helped a bit.

"if you drop it in the street it's bad news!!"

In the US, credit cards are protected against fraud by law. If you lose it, and contact the bank in a timely manner, you're not responsible for the fraudulent charges if any show up.

I assume that is not the case here in Thailand?

Yes, I do.

One person's trashy disgrace is another person concept of fun. Hell, I'm officially a senior citizen now, and it looks fun to me.

To clarify my initial post, I've just schedule an appointment with my sixth dentist here in Thailand; my first two dentists were in Korat and the last three here in Chiang Mai (I obviously changed dentists once because I moved).

From another forum, a Thai member posted this to me: "As far as I know, from my experience watching my Dad as a dentist working, Thai dentists use anesthetic only when 'necessary' (depends on what kind of procedure is performed). They don't use it in such a simple procedure as filling teeth."

So, I'll concede that there are cultural differences between America and Thailand in the use of palliative medicine in dentistry (and the medical field). It is just common practice in America to use local anesthetic unless the patient "asks" that it not be used (my own father never used Novocaine or pain relief for dental procedures). Here in Thailand it seems that it is common practice NOT to use local anesthetic unless the patient "asks" that it IS used. But, imho, there still is a strong cultural bias on the part of Thai dentists NOT to use local anesthetic even when asked, especially if the procedure is deemed "simple" by the Thai dentist. For me, this is where the arguments start with the dentists I've had. They want to drill; I want anesthetic; they consider the procedure "too simple for anesthetic"; I insist it will hurt; they insist it won't; I give in because I dislike confrontation about as much as I dislike pain; they hurt me; I endure, and then I find a new dentist.

This won't happen again. My wife and I have talked to the owner of the dental practice I've booked an appointment with. My wife is coming with me to ensure we have no communication problems with that fact that I will require the dentist to use local anesthetic for all procedures except an inspection and simple cleaning (which I consider painful, but I can generally sit through unless they start poking around underneath the rim of a crown). Hopefully we can come to an understanding with the tech doing the periodontal cleaning and the dentist regarding the use of anesthetics. We'll see...

So........in any conflict with a Thai, fall to your knees, perform a deep wai, beg forgiveness for being a lowly farang, and hand over any amount of money the Thai wants ??? Ok no problem...

did I say that? u seem a bit of an overly emotional person.

In all these years i've been here i've had zero serious/remarkable conflicts with thai, never. But then again, I don't live in some farang infested hole. My life here is very relax and peaceful.

Hahaha not overly emotional at all..... :-) But I don't take shit in my home country, and I don't take it here either . The conflicts I have had here resolved themselves with me neither advancing in anger , or retreating in fear, but simply stating my position and holding my ground. Regarding the " farang infested hole" I currently live in , Pattaya, I rather enjoy living here. Has to beat the hell out of watching rice grow... :-) Wait a minute... If a bunch of farangs are an infestation, are you as a farang an infestation of one out in Nakon Nowhere ?? LOL

Sorry, but as soon as I saw the machete come out of the trunk of the car, I would have been running. In Mr. Pinkington's case, he should have beat feet after he blocked the first attack. But he went on the offensive. Maybe he thought his martial art training was good enough to disarm the cab driver.

There's a time to stand your ground, and there is a time to run like hell. That would have been a run like hell moment for me personally.

"You're just scare mongering" -- No, I'm not scare mongering. I'm glad you and some other CM TV members have had good experiences. But I'm talking about my experiences with dentists in Thailand -- and the experiences have not been good when it comes to pain management.

"there are some fine dentists in Chiang Mai" -- I'm not talking about quality of work. I'm talking about my overall experiences with Thai dentist's inability to empathize and utilize palliative care with me (and probably others).

"Why do people like to do this?" Because I consider tooth pain from dental procedures to be about a 10 on a 1 to 10 scales where 1 is no pain and 10 is agony. I never had this problem with my dentist in the US. So I'm trying to find a recommendation to dentists who won't argue with me over a d_mn shot of Novocaine and the 5 to 7 minutes of the dentist's precious time to allow it to take effect.

I'll consider either Grace or Dr. Waralak at Elite (thanks BabyJesus and CMNightRIder).

I'm on about my sixth dentist and now looking for a new one. Every dentist that I've seen in Thailand is reluctant to use local anesthetic while performing dental procedures, and every dentist I've seen has hurt me. And I've had to argue with every dentist about using anesthetics. They seem to have a screwed up, sadistic cultural bias to cause pain and suffering when they have the medicine to prevent it.

We all know how Thais are about "face". But I'm tired of Thais with a Doctorate in Dentistry talking to me like I'm stupid. So, maybe that is something that is a unique cultural trait of Americans -- I don't like subtle connotations that I'm somehow stupid and ignorant compared to the doc; I don't like to be patronized. The callousness of it really makes me angry. So I haven't seen a dentist for over two years now, but I have to have periodontal work done or I'm going to start having serious problems.

I don't know what to say. But I'm not going to sit still like a good little farang while some sadistic Thai inflicts torture on me again. Never again! Dentistry in Thailand has pretty much turned into a phobia for me. I took my wife to the dentist today, and I came out shaking. That's how totally screwed up I am now.

I don't know who to trust because my trust and my dignity has been violated by every dentist I've seen up to this point. I don't know what to do.

Thai exams are notoriously difficult. The exam given to foreign teachers for a Thai teachers license is a joke with less than a two percent pass rate.

It may have to do with the illiterate fools who think they understand how to develop an

objective-based exam. But they're only illiterate fools because culturally, it's almost impossible to develop critical thinking skills with an education in the Thai school system.

No wonder Chinese-Thai amart send their kids to the West to get a credible education.

This probably explains why the students and teachers in my Ampher are only able to put together two English sentences:

"Good Morning Teacher. How are you today?"

Yep! ASEAN 2016 here we come! Chok dee kruu laa nak rian. You're gonna need it.

No wonder he has ten bank accounts. It's hard to stuff 2m baht in your begging bowl.

Sorry, but is stuff like this and the jet setting monks that are going to destroy whatever credibility the Thai Theravada Sangha has left.

I've lived here over five years. What I have found is that family slowly disappears. If I don't initiate contact, they eventually stop contact. On the flip side, I've found that some of my friends back home have turned into surrogate family members, and I've made many other friends both in Thailand and from other countries around the world. I've just redefined family: Family are the folks that care about me - at this moment - and vice-versa. Simply sharing a common genetic link is inconsequential, and as far as I'm concern, irrelevant. When family stops responding to letters, emails, and phone calls, I've just let them go. Indirectly, that might have something to do with being a "military brat" (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_brat_%28U.S._subculture%29). I like Wikipedia where we're referenced as a "modern nomadic subculture".
You develop some interesting coping mechanism after you have been yanked up by your roots every three years and follow you parent to new military bases. New school, new friends, new environment -- you learn very early in life to let go of relationships, and to pretty easily develop new ones. But you also find that you enjoy moving now and again. Life gets stale -- move! So here I am in Thailand.

By the way, you're at the two year mark. I've seen a lot of people get homesick after a couple of years away from the "Motherland". It's a phase. You either come out the other side and find yourself still living here, or you go home.

He probably suffered the Blue Screen of Death in the last seconds of his existence. Hope he was a nice guy or else he'll probably spend eternity in a Linux-based after-life.

/sbin/shutdown -r now

RIP. If you were Buddhist, I wish you an auspicious rebirth.

Nice effort to put it together ... but, have to say ... remarkably unremarkable.

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Agreed. It might be worth putting on your Facebook page for the folks back home, but for TV expats, it's old hat. I've seen a lot stranger than that.

The only descriptive word I can think of for the bloke is.......muppet.

Edit: I forgot he was French - I think it translates as Muppette

Not a muppet: Genuinely duped.

I was genuinely duped too. Except we managed to live together for 5 years before she carried out her scam. I totally believed her and she lived in the UK. A good buddhist, honest etc etc etc. But in fact a very clever liar. For the purposes of this description I will call her 'Ami'. She is a trained civil engineer and when we moved from UK to Thailand, got an MBA at the North Chiang Mai University. During this time she carried out a number of cheating scams - I reckon she cost me 5m baht or so. This included a house for her mother, god knows how many brand name handbags, a businss for her father and the careful removal of cash from the joint household account. She was travelling to Bangkok for "job interviews" but in fact having nookie with an ex-boyfriend. A very clever piece of scamming all told. I have been told that she's still seing 'farangs' and is with an American. Poor guy. I wonder how much he'll lose. For me there is no comeback. I just wish everyday that the spirits turn against her.

Over a 5 year period, taking a large chunk of your capital and then ending up with another lover isn't something that is unique to Thailand. That's pretty universal. I could change some of the details and have a similar story regarding my American, Christian ex-wife.

Only 276k?! Shoot, I have had gfs worse than that—and friends in ozi, with the ozi wives!!! (house, car, dog...). But seriously, that sux. Good luck with the cops. Next time try before you buy.

Has to be said, my thoughts too were that he learnt the lesson with relatively little pain.

Let's hope he's not a repeat offender.

He makes 400K/month. The French dude lost some pocket change. 276K baht was tuition for his TIT education. Look how much wiser he is now.

Write to Montsanto. I'm sure they'll develop some GMO Frankenstein seeds that will grow anywhere, cross-pollinate with any heirloom plants available in the area, effectively making them property of Montsanto, and then never produce seeds of their own so you're a slave the corporate food barons.

But I got to try that potatoes in the tires trick. I like that.

Here is my answers.

#1 Give to Thai who like that rubber stuff.

#2 Throw in garbage with lid.

#3 Give to cats.

Give it to me!!! Lemon and butter and salt -- grill -- enjoy. Or cut into strips about 4 inches long, saute, add to a nice marinara sauce, simmer, serve with paste and a glass of nice red wine. Maybe its an acquired taste.

APRIL FOOLS!!!

Wait a minute, this is July 1st. Oops! Never mind.

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kcal9.com

I wonder why he has the potential for the no-fly list?

Got me stumped ...

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Actually he's probably lucky that he didn't get the "special" C-130 flight to Gitmo. Just saying...

Bigger engine, larger tires and breaks, manual g-box, larger fuel tank between my legs, not under my butt,,, I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

Actually I like the gas tank under my butt so I have space between my legs for carrying things: groceries, case of whiskey/beer/wine, TV sets, tool case, boxes of merchandise from my trips to Big C/Tesco/Makro, my dogs, my cats, small children without helmets (never mind, I don't allow small children on my scooter...the dogs are much more obedient) - you know, those sorts of things.

I'm not sure about bigger engines either. My 125cc goes faster than my 250cc, although the 250cc will out accelerate the 125cc...but it's a moot point because Thai's don't know how to accelerate so I'm a kilometer ahead of all the BMWs and Hiluxs prior to them passing me at 140 +km/h, just to have me split traffic and get in front of them all at the next stop light. Rinse/repeat.

And Triple AAA service so I can get my tires repaired when I'm out in Timbuktu. Wishful thinking

Wider rims and tires, higher quality stock tires, 12 volt accessory plug, and options for additional lights (like Fino has), and molded carry cases.

If they all would have been post-op and in a "girlie" venue" -- not a problem! A little hypocritical.

The play on words alone makes me want to run the other way.

I would prefer to see what the US authorities find in their tests.

They will find whatever US corporations pay not to be found in their product.

I'm thinking its a good time from him to disrobe.