trainman34014

I've never lived upcountry, so I can't profess to be knowledgeable on the drinking habits of Pheu Thai's main constituency....

But I'm curious: what portion of the distilled liquor consumed by those folks is likely the locally (village) made rot gut that presumably escapes all taxation vs. what portion is actually the commercial and taxed stuff purchased through stores???

I live in the sticks and around my way the local gut rot is not normally sold but consumed by anyone who happens to be in the vacinity when it's put on the table; which is nightly. There are a lot of people making it in the villages and there is never a shortage as they share it between themselves.

As for Rice Wine; well that's easy and I make my own, it's not Rocket Science.

Coming from Northern Europe I'm glad to leave the cold behind and I never moan about it being too hot here. No Aircon in our house, just contra-rotating wall fans that provide enough fresh air. I think if people go down the Aircon route too easily it just makes them more uncomfortable the minute they are out of it. One of our neighbours comes from Belgium and he's got the Aircon on 24/7. He rarely goes out and when I go inside his house it's like being in a fridge. You can't adjust to a hot climate if you live like that.

The OP needs to get his head out of his arse in his Bangkok palace and try looking around the rest of the Kingdom. Developed it is not !

Usually get the Thai price by showing Thai driving license, but if they argue Wifey produces my Yellow Book from her handbag and that shuts them up.

Don't worry; he has a cunning plan !

You are still both young enough for a mistake to be rectified by time. Whatever you decide to do just make sure you hit the ground running and get on with building your lives with no regrets about leaving the 'other option' behind.

Now Man up and get on with it !

I was a teacher here in 1968. When a student would correctly answer a question I would throw them a ping pong ball. At the end of the class the student with the most ping pong balls got a prize. This is why Thais react with such frenzy when anyone throws them a ping pong ball today.

Didn't do them a lot of good at the Olympics though did it !

Yes; really weird isn't it. I hate having to peel every sausage before heating it and just don't understand why they have to wrap them individually. Wifey doesn't know the answer but just says they've always been like it.

Don't tell us the emergency escape doors were chained and locked please!!!

They reported on the Australian news that patrons had difficult getting out the rear doors, didn't say they were locked or whatever just that they had difficulty. It was also stated that the four tourists were French.

'Difficulty ' probably meaning the could not find any bolt croppers to cut the chains with!

I have a Female neighbour who earns 6,000 Baht a month and supports a family of five on it. I say support because she is the only one working at present and she has a Government job. Her salary is 300 Baht per day as a Hospital cleaner. Her sister had a good job on 8,000 a month in town until she had a Motorcycle accident, but now she is injured and cannot work for several months, she gets no wages at all until she returns to work but ,as she puts it, she is 'lucky' because her boss has told her he will hold her job open. Basically the family survives with only enough to buy very basic food supplies and people like my wife help them out with some extra food from our budget for the young 9 year old kid etc. The only man in the family is 85 and cannot work and the Mother is 79 and partially incapacitated. If there were five people earning the basic 300 a day they would be rich by Thai rural standards but many families have only one or two wage earners. There are literally hundreds of families living around our area alone that are just surviving and it seems plainly obvious to anyone with half a brain that it will stay this way for a long time to come, no matter which political party are at the helm.

Good report but, as always, rather sadly, it will fall on deaf ears. Three day 'crackdowns' are no use and we all know that the present helmet checkpoints are all about tea money. The BIB don't want to lose their nice little earners now do they? The will to enforce the laws that are already in place is just not there so it will be same old same, and then next year and the year after there will be more reports, more warnings that things need to be done blah blah blah.

Wifey just read through this thread and is rolling around on the floor laughing. She is Thai through to her bone marrow and says anyone who thinks that Thailand will ever have a chance of staging the Olympics is totally mad.

Say no more.

Anyone fancy sitting in huge stadium built by Thai builders using crappy materials because some High So creamed off the largest part of the building budget? Not me pal; you can take over all my ticket allocation anytime, that is, if there are any left after all the 'important' Thai people have been allocated their thousands of freebee's.

Good wind up Blether; and BTW, Scotland didn't win any medals because they were part of TEAM GB. Perhaps when Scotland gets the independence it craves ,self funded of course, they will enter as a Nation in their own right.

Fascinating Post.......I'm just wondering what exactly you are doing with a pineapple in the bedroom that garners such outstanding results? I'm sure we all would like to know . Also, who gets the rough end?!!! 5555555!!!!

Pineapple is really good for halitosis, so I guess his breath stank before he introduced them. LoL.

Back in 1961 when my Father was about to start teaching me to drive his 1948 Austin 8; he first sat me down to explain to me that I needed to understand that I was going to become a young man in charge of a Guided Missile. I've never forgotten those words and have always had respect for the fact that I have the responsibility of guiding the said missile in a way that is least dangerous to myself and other road users. Whenever I read of yet another road death of a young person in Thailand I often pause to wonder what, if anything, their Father's said to them before they started driving. Not a lot I fear.

Any foreigner driving here has to be extremely careful - you cannot assume that the other drivers know what they are doing or are even properly trained in hadling their vehicle - whatever it may be.

Having said that, and despite many others having bad experiences with drivers having no respectfor others on the road, I can say that driving in Australia and other western countries, if the traffic volume was the same as here, you could NEVER cross heavily congested roads, as nobody would even consider slowing to let you turn or whatever, whereas in Bangkok, I regularly find that drivers will actually slow and stop to let you cross their path - try that on say Mona Vale Road in Sydney - you will be abused and have horns blasting at you for being a complete arsehol_e... so although yes, the roads here can be very dangerous, its not all completely bad.

The only piece of advice after driving here for about 15 years - assume everyone else is an idiot until proven otherwise - and ALWAYS make extra allowance for stopping distances in front AND behind your vehicle.

Please explain to us how we can make space behind us, when if we try and leave some there will always some crazy local who will dive into said space in a microsecond. As far as they are concerned they own all the space around you and the space you are actually in as well, because you are Farang and you shouldn't be in their space !

Happy Birthday Your Majesty. I hope one of your children has baked you a cake.

Logic !!! You have obviously forgotten which country you are in.

Does anyone think that arresting a couple of bent Coppers will change anything or stop their pals from upping their criminal activities even further? In the minds of large numbers of Thai's, the only thing these people did wrong was got caught. 'Money First' is the endemic disease that will never be eradicated.

Until there is a mandatory 5 year prison sentence for running away things will not change. Of course; no Government here is going to pass such a law as they or their High So family members may be involved in an accident and have to run for it, claiming the next day that it wasn't them, or it was the persons fault that got run over.

Just another photo' call for the Bimbo of Bangkok.

4 years rural and not a lot changes except a lot more Paddy's being filled in and new houses going where there used to be rice. Kinda sad but it will accelerate as the young Thai's don't want to be Farmers and will sell even more agricultural land.

Met a bloke on the Green Bus last year who bought some cartons of smokes, and when he opened a pack on the bus there was only two inside a 20 pack. Opened up a few more and the most in one pack I saw was five.

I was talking to a 30 something Thai that I have known for a couple of years and he has always seemed quite 'with it' having worked in Oz and made a few trips to Europe. He was showing me some land he had bought and I asked him if he intended to build a house there. No,too many Ghosts live here already, he said. 'How do you know' I asked, and he said....because I have seen some yesterday ! I didn't take it any further.