trainman34014

Maybe it's just me but things don't seem as bad as Magpuy seems to think they are. Perhaps I don't see a lot of these burned out drunkards who can't afford to be ill lining up at Hospitals, or queues of grumpy old men at Consulates waiting to lie about their personal data. I do see a few very scruffy looking dropouts who only appear to own the clothes they are standing up in but hey; I can see that if I go back to my Mother country. I have a wide circle of ex-pat pals who are all retired and they have all come here well equipped for possible disasters. At the end of the day, if people come here and can't hack it for personal or financial reasons they always have the option of going back and living on state handouts in their own country, not that any of that is my business, for who am I to tell anyone where or how they can live.

With the driving habits of most Thai's, I think it would make sense to market both right and left hand drive cars and let them choose which side they want to drive on. After all; they do that most of the time no matter which side the steering wheel is fitted !

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I visited the graves of two relatives of mine who are buried at Kanchanaburi the first year i lived here; there is also another buried at the Burmese end of the line as well but I haven't visited as yet. The young generations of Brit's know so little of the price their forefathers paid for the freedoms they enjoy today and I always make a point of passing on my knowledge of what happened to my Children and Grandchildren. These men should never be forgotten.

In my opinion they lived here without me and survived and now that i am here it does not mean that i am their meal ticket. If you start giving more and more is expected. When I arrived here they tried loaning money for stupid things. I refused and now our relation is good and they don't ask.

They live in a normal Thai house nothing luxurious but are not dirt poor either. I would help out when there are real problems, but i'm not a cash cow. I don't see their other children contributing more as us.

Its a personal choice but if you want to be the one responsible for their welfare please do so. Some girls will only be with you for the money then. Its IMHO bad enough to pay your wife a "salary" but if your also paying everything for the outlaws............

Of course not every situation is the same, if give you an usefrunct (not sure about the spelling) for their land and you build your house there and let them live there too is different again.

Good post.

My take is that if I had not married my wife, what would they have done then, and why should that option change just because I did marry her?

Still, it seems to be a given amongst Thai people that farangs will give endless amounts of money to their Thai families. My wife is always telling me about how people at her work are asking why she is still working, given that she married a farang, and why I haven't built her a house, bought a car etc.

I don't care about them so much, but get annoyed that my SIL also thinks that I should be handing over the loot to them, and it's even made it difficult at times with my wife.

Just as well I made it clear BEFORE we got married, that no one else was getting any largesse, or it might be really difficult now.

However, I'd have no objection to the MIL coming to live with us if it meant that we don't have to move back to the village ( shudder ).

I think there are many Farang married, or involved with Thai women that don't understand the peer pressure they get from co-workers, friends,family etc who are constantly asking them about how much money/land/property/gold etc they are getting from said Farang. It got so bad for my Wife that I got her to retire at just 45 to get away from a lot of it. Can be a horrendous pressure for them especially in the workplace. A lot of the women are too scared or embarrassed to discuss this with their partners and it can lead to many problems in the relationship. Being 'Miafarang' is not all cake and honey for them.

I doubt that whatever tax increase they could apply would reduce sales by 50%. The seriously addicted smokers would continue to buy even if you dumped a much larger levy on their drug. Of course, any reduction in smokers is good for the health services and all the rest of us in general, but I don't think you can stop people from killing themselves however they choose to.

Personally. I would call this a very fortunate epidemic. Too many women here unfortunately have very little in the way of Boobs so if they do have something to flaunt, then why not?

The 'Where can I get proper Fish&Chips' Brigade, closely followed by the ' Where can I get Under arm deoderant' Brigade.

And still they talk of building a High Speed Railway. Dream on.

Can only be good. I rate drunk drivers alongside Paedophiles and other assorted scum. Drink all you want until you're rat arsed, but there is no need to drive as well.

A small plastic spray bottle with the hole slightly enlarged with a sewing needle (to make more of a stream than a mist,) and filled with a diluted mix of ammonia and water will do just as good a job, and can be claimed that the reason for carrying it was that you were doing your laundry and forgot it in your pocket. No charges of 'carrying a dangerous weapon with premeditation...' Non-lethal. Will work on dogs or people. Even on people too drugged out for a stun gun to put down. Just be sure to get the bottle that has the finger-shaped button so you spray in the correct direction.

How can you forget something like this in your pocket?

Would get in the way of my Canoe !

I wonder what would be the general attitude toward non-Thai's if the social fabric did start to decay due to a food shortage,

Would it become us and them ? would there be a clear racial divide and attitude and one not necessarily positive ?

Would "ferangs" become targets because they would generally be considered to have more ?

It would be the same all over the world, Tribal law would kick in. Anyone that is not part of the tribe would be the first to go, after this they would turn on each other

Naturally. Cannibalism is the last means of survival. However; if the end of the world comes it will be curtains for everyone so no need to worry about food supplies eh? What to do? If it comes, it comes, and we won't be able to stop it.

And how many of those 'booked' seats has actually been paid for?

Should be a fun meeting....'Hello Boss, how many free seats can we have on the new A380? I've already got requests from my extended family of 47 plus my gambling partners, Mia Noi,...and her extended family of 35. What? oh, you want to talk about the future of the national carrier, well, can that wait until we have sorted the free seat thing and then had a three hour lunch with copious amounts of good French and Italian wines?

It's probably the same in other parts of Thailand, but where I live, you get one idea, and 200 people copy it. No variations. Examples are rife: At big C, there are about 200 individual vendors of mobile phones. All do the same things with the same products, no variation. Along a large hwy, there is a stretch of about 13 Km where there are vendors selling nothing but pineapples. Another shorter stretch has nothing but strawberry sellers. In both cases, all the booths are identical, same for all the displays and prices. Go a half Km from those locations, and you won't find any pineapples or strawberries for sale.

So it goes with rice growing in Thailand. It's all 'follow the leader' but the leader is long gone. So, it's a nation of just followers. No matter if the concept (growing rice) is past its due date, and that there are many superior crops to consider growing. Rice worked ok from grandpa, for dad, for me, and it will suffice for my son and my grandson, and so on. No creative thinking.

New motto for Thailand: 'Land of Follow'

All true. However; there are a great many rice paddy's being filled in and built over in the North these days as the younger generations who have watched their parents struggle to make a living (mainly against corruption) are no longer prepared to live the Farmer life. As the older family members are dying the younger ones are just selling off the land. In the area I live 29 Paddy's have been filled in over the last 4 years 10 months. May not seem a lot in the big picture but if this is happening all over the country it will not be many years before Thailand is importing rice and not trying to export it.

Half would like to become 'sales executives' at 7-eleven no doubt !

'Back Home' where I come from it's going to be winter soon, just like here, but the difference is my relations will be racking up the central heating and worrying about the huge bills that will follow, whilst I will be sitting on my terrace sipping cool beer and feeling very jolly eating my Christmas dinner 'al fresco' as I laugh inwardly at how ridiculously cheap my power bills are.

Am I adventurous? Well; not really in the sense that I want to go Mountain climbing, Pot holing, Deep Sea diving, Et al. I like to ride my Bike every day and chat with the village locals, which is adventurous enough for me, but I know that's not enough for everyone. All depends on what people want for themselves when retired.

I'm thinking of becoming vegetarian if I can't find a reliable source of high-quality meat.

Go for it - you won't regret it - the range of vegetables, tahu and soya products, beans etc that you can get hold of here will more than make-up for the lack of meat - plus you'll be eating and living, healthier and cheaper - you can always eat small amounts of meat when you elect to eat out in the Thai style stir-fries etc..

Yeah; go ahead and eat all those heavily sprayed vegetables and live a fit and healthy life style !

Just another face saving exercise by a bunch of conniving liars. This weeks 'Bullshit Bulletin'. Watch out for next weeks exciting episode !

Do you believe in Aliens O.P ? personally i think that anyone that believes someone is travelling hundreds of light years and billions of miles to land in the outback and give people an anal probe has a screw loose.

I believe Steven Hawking no less has proclaimed that with the billions of stars and galaxies out there,it would just be mathematically impossible for no other life to exist.Who am I to argue?

Oh i believe there is life out there ,i just think anyone who thinks they travel for light years and billions of miles to get to earth and then just fly around us are crazy.

I believe there are two possibilities, we are the only life in the universe which most likely means the god hypothesis is correct or life evolved naturally and there is no reason not to believe it has not arisen elsewhere. I suppose a third possibility is that there is a god and he created life in more than one place. Things like the supposed Roswell alien spaceship crash i find amusing. Let's face it how can you believe that a super advanced life form which has presumably conqured faster than light travel made it across the incredible distances of the galaxy to get here and then they crashed??

Maybe they weren't carrying enough spare parts !

There will be a second-hand goods section at the November 24 JJ Market Christmas Charity Shopping fair. Many of those tables are booked by individuals to sell their personal items -- like their collection of books, clothing in good condition that they no longer wear. household items, etc.

I know it's not a replacement for the many used book shops in CM and I don't think they're particularly expensive. But the fair would be a good opportunity for people to sell books they no longer want and to stock up on new titles.

Also, several charities will be selling second-hand goods at the fair and would appreciate donations if you don't want to reserve a table and spend the day selling your personal collection. Royal British Legion is one such charity that would appreciate donated clothing, books and DVDs.

http://www.lannacare...-shopping-fair/

Nancy; can you give me a location for JJ market as I've never seen it or been there....Thanks.

Just can't give up that old Cowboy and Indian mentality can they? We've got enough cranky Thai's running around tooled up without importing more gun totin' hombre's. Why not go back to the ranges from whence thou came and shoot holes in them thar redskins?

dam_n; next time I must remember to cover up the number plates on my stolen bike !

My girlfriend said she read an article about the subway plan in a Thai magazine that was published this month. She said a high ranking city manager was interviewed about the proposed plan. According to the article, the city manager stated the electrical lines have been laid and they are going to go forward with it. I think it is a great idea if it happens.

I know we have a mayor, but how many ranks of city managers do we have ????

I don't know how many there are, but what I do know is that every last one of them will want their cut before a sod ever gets turned !