connda

Well, yeah! What politician is going to cop to misconduct -- Bill Clinton?

Quality / Manufactured to fit my farang body

Avia sports shoes

Clarks Naturevelt shoes

Haynes underwear (T-shirts / briefs / whitey-tighties)

Quality cotton sport socks

Wrangle Jeans

Actually, quality anything. I swear, everything I buy here falls apart. For instance, umbrellas. I think the average umbrella in Thailand has a life-life of about 15 seconds.

Dream on...

*Unnecessarily long quote*

What's a suspicious vehicle?

A black Humvee, a red Ferrari or a 20 year old Toyota Corolla?

Just curious.

Moving abnormally slowly, kerb crawling, parking illegally, blacked out windows, pickups with canvas covered objects in the back, things like this is what I would suggest.

Oh, you mean virtually every car and truck in Thailand!

I lived in the area. Those aren't "hills". They are shear-faced mountains. Dangerous place to fly, especially at night.

I wouldn't bother with a gift. You're providing a service to someone in need of your skills and expertise. Be friendly and attempt to provide them with your best work. That's all you need to do. Good luck and enjoy your 90 days in the Land of Smiles.

Drug free ASEAN in 3 years, not gonna happen in his lifetime. Tooo much tea money to loose.

\

they better share their technique with the west since they have been trying for over 50 years and billions of $$$$

They probably have learned. Eternal wars on drugs are eternal money spinners and also good for vote getting.

Amen on that!

I'm wondering if Mr. Sukhum is crashing his own stash. What planet does he live on? Show me one country in the world that has eradicated "illegal drugs". How many? -- Zero -- ! Impossible.

Better plan: Legalize pot, decriminalize everything else, pour the money into education and rehabilitation -- if there is no demand, the supply will sputter and stop. And why won't this happen: same old story -- corruption.

Reminds me of a story which I think I can tell now as this topic is getting long in the tooth.

A good friend of my fathers, (We will call him Bill) a 67 yr old retired paramedic was married to a Thai woman for 35 yrs until she sadly passed away a few yrs ago from cancer. They lived together in Australia and raised a family, Thailand was no more than a holiday destination once a year.

A couple of years after her passing he formed a relationship with another Thai woman who came to Australia to spend some time with him in the early stages. The woman was around 47 yrs old still a few years younger than him. After being together for a couple of months she asked him to build a house back in Thailand for her parents. To keep the story short he replied, "No" he was not going to spend his retirement fund to build a house for them Well this did not please the woman who then threatened to leave him. Bill replies ok so what time does your plane leave or words to that effect. Well this went down like a wet fart and it was then plan "B" The woman goes to the kitchen and gets a carving knife threatening to kill herself and actually cuts her arm just a little in an effort to make a point.

Bill being a retired paramedic knows the proceedure when dealing with such people and called the police. The police turn up and she is ranting and raving how he is a bad man and still holding the knife threatening self harm. She cops a face full of O.C spray and is carted off in the back of the police van for a psych assessment. At the hospital psych ward she is still ranting about how he is a bad man and will not build a house for her parents and still want's to kill herself unless he does. She gets admitted for 10 days as an involuntary psych patient (Tax payers expence of course) Last he heard she was back in the LOS where she phoned him to say sorry and she still loved him. Good old Bill moved on without the nutcase.

Which just goes to show that what is considered as "insane" in Australia is perfectly "normal" here in the LOS. lol

No sympathy.

I am sure the commercial owners of the prison, the prisons for profit system would be happy for this guy to be in jail for 60 years before the death penalty is carried out.

I was watching a documentary on Russia's hardest supermax prisons (google it or look on youtube), and its a tough old ride there. Once committed to supermax you can only leave in a box. From 6am to 10pm they are not permitted to sit or lay on their beds (the beds are locked away), nor can they sit on the floor or sleep. Any sign of masturbation or sex is stopped swiftly with beatings. No TV, nothing, 2 men per cell for life and they never see the sun or sky again. 24/7 CCTV surveilance puts a stop to any thoughts or chances of suicide. Yikes! As the prisoners say, they dream of death as its the closest thing to hell on earth. They have some very nasty people in there though!

I'm thinking these dudes have some pretty strong leg muscles!

Gotta love the US justice system. Guy kills an elderly old lady and gets off with 8 years in jail. Then kills another women and sits on death row for 31 years. Amazing.

I recall reading once that we retain biological markers (not sure of the details) of EVERY person we have kissed in our entire lives!

I think I need to rinse my mouth out! Yuk! Where's my minty-fresh Scope?

Obviously there is no news to report today

Of course they are addicted to online gambling

They are not allowed to fornicated, kiss in public and cannot celebrate Valentines day

Since they canot spend money on condoms and chocolates, they need to spend their

money on something

Pent up sexual energy leads to gambling...priceless!

I'm thinking that being a middle tier bookie could earn you a short flight off a tall high-rise condo if luck doesn't shake out on your side. Think I'll limit my betting to an occasional 100 baht ticket that I can buy right next to the Chedi at my neighborhood Wat. (puut len sparebox2)

Thailand is a Buddhist country. Gambling is not allow, and is part of the 5 sins in our teachings.

Anyway, gambling is a desease brought in by the Chinese (Taoist) and Portuguese (Christian) in the 16th century.

As a Buddhist, I don't believe I've every heard anyone refer to the percepts of "sins". We really prefer to leave the mental self-flagellation to other religions. They are just the minimum requirement for living skillfully and aware.

Now, I'm trying to find gambling in the 5 precepts. To sum them up briefly:

I. Don't kill.

2. Don't steal.

3. Don't engage in sexual misconduct.

4. Don't lie.

5. Don't take intoxicants.

Nope, don't see it in that list. Now, again speaking as a Buddhist, anything that causes a person to grasp objects and ideas should be gently left go of -- it's a path to peace. Gambling causes one to grasp. There is a lot of attraction and aversion: Happy and elated to win money; sad and fearful at losing money. That's a viscous cycle. But a don't see "Don't Gamble" as one of the 5 precepts, although I'm pretty sure it is one of the 227 followed by Buddhist Monks. As layman, we can have a little more fun

One more thing -- I think to say that Christians and Taoists brought gambling to this part of the world is painting with a pretty broad brush. I'm pretty sure our ancestors were happily betting on various games (like cock fights and kwang wrestling) back in the days before Buddhism made it these shores. Be easy on our Christian and Taoist brothers and sisters. They're just trying to find happiness in this world the best they can...just like us!

...and just out of curiosity -- what are students betting with? Lunch money? I doubt seriously that this is limited to Hi-So kids.

Where are the numerous posters predicting gloom and doom at every turn, when it comes to an Australian company stranding hundreds of tourists? Surely this will mean that no one will want to visit Australia in the future, or fly on an Australian airline. And it's certainly emblematic of irresponsible Australian ways of doing business that will surely cause a long-term slide in their economy. And it's just too bad, isn't it, that Australians don't show the slightest consideration for their customers. And....

It's funny how governments will bail out an insolvent bank at the drop of a hat, but will not go to bat for their citizens. At a minimum, the Aus government should offer short-term, low interest loans to get their folks back to their country. But unfortunately no government gives a rip about the 99%. Now, if you were a banker or a highly connected CEO........

Shades of "The Terminal". I pity the poor people who end up over-saying their visas, charged for the over-stay, unable to pay, and then forced to stay as an incarcerated immigration criminal. It would make for a great movie!

Nothing but a Photo Op. Ignore the public, then make plans to funnel the 5 billion baht to her father's cronies. 5 large can make a lot of tea! Anyway, nothing to see here folks...just business as usual -- well, until the next flood.

Well, I guess she doesn't have plausible deniable now -- well, unless Ms. Yingluck doesn't read. You never know.

Excuse me but if you have lived here for the past 5 years you would have also noticed that the pattern continuously changes... FYKI this year the burning started around mid October !!! As soon as Chiang Mai was over the Flood Shock that we had end Sept and it was dry enough they were already Burning big time ... don't know where you live but maybe need a little reality check at your end...?? Last year the burning started end Dec and went on till end Feb and then for some odd reason crazy rains kicked in and there was no more burning .... Again... where do you live ???

Firstly, it might be wise to "turn down your volume" a bit. There are a lot of posters on this forum that have lived here a lot longer than five years, some for decades.

Secondly, please explain why, if "this year the burning started around mid October !!!" the pollution level for October of last year (I assume that you mean 2011) was 18% below the 2002-2011 average (November was even lower)? Incidentally, the whole of last year (i.e. 2011) was the least polluted since the Pollution Control Department started posting their measurements in the late '90s. There was not one single day in excess of 120 µg/m³ (the Thai standards limit), in fact the highest value measured during the whole year was 92.0.

The above data are from the measuring station at the Provincial offices, at Yupparaj College in the old town, the October value was 25% below the 2002-2011 average.

/ Priceless

Actually, I thought the air quality has been really good this year until very recently.

This is season when the locals go out into the forests with the intent of setting them on fire. Happens every year.

I can pretty much do any of those jobs. I'd be more than happy to take a job that "no Thai wants". Just call me a farang with a work ethic.

I wish that both the West and the Middle East would stop using Thailand as part of their freaking chessboard.

Blow yourselves up, but leave SE Asia out of your game! I moved here to get away from the stupidity.

It's now been about 16 months since I contracted Dengue Fever. I started feeling better two months ago, and I've started to gain weight again. I dropped about 10 kilo in the months following the outbreak. In the last two months I've gained about 4 kilo. I've been working out (weight training and aerobics) since the beginning of January. I'm actually starting to feel better than I did prior to contracting the virus, including developing muscles that I haven't seen in over 10 years.

Dengue is not something you want to deal with. The initial outbreak is bad enough, but the months long fatigue is just horrible.

If you do come down with Dengue and find you are suffering from chronic fatigue, just take care of yourself the best you can. It takes a lot of time to get "right" again, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You will get better. Eat right, sleep when you body wants sleep, and try light exercise. What you're experiencing is very real. Accept it and move along with your life and things will gradually improve.

I don't totally regret coming down with this illness though. It's set me back on the path of looking after my health, including reestablishing a fitness routine that I let slip after I turned 50. I feel good about myself physically and emotionally. I guess as the old saying goes, "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!"

Best of luck!