Sabre

File a police report about the fee and rent issue and ask them to get your money back - i.e. your suing them - tell them you can't afford to leave without the funds. The deposit would have re painted several rooms. Go ahead and tell them about your overstay issue its not like they won't find out anyway. Tell them you want to pay your fines and leave - they might take a cut but hay what you got now.:jap:

That would be a civil lawsuit, which in the end will cost a lot more and doesn't help him in the short time he has.

Not necessarily a civil lawsuit. If the police were motivated they could definitely find a criminal charge against the owner. I agree, though that it is a bad idea. The owners clearly have more money/influence than the OP has and this is what is likely to influence the police. Thai police sometimes act out of kindness but in this case it is rather unlikely.

Even you pay the fine at the airport you will be detained until they check on you and your profile to make sure you don't have any criminal records in the kingdom. Once you pay the fine and you are clear they will let you leave the kingdom without any problems. I don't think you should take any risk going to airport without fine.

That is simply not true. I have paid the fine before and I was only detained for as long as it took to pay the fine and sign the paperwork (about 3-5 minutes). Possibly they check on the computer for outstanding warrants but criminal history checks in Thailand are not computerised.

I agree with your advice, however. To go without money for the fine would be extremely foolhardy.

I think most folks are misreading this article.

What is popular in Thailand is Thai dating websites. Many Thai girls meet men with these websites. There are some bad guys out there who befriend a woman using the dating website and after a while promise to seed the woman something special. The woman gets excited and patiently waits for her gift. Instead she received the message customs needs to be paid and the man instructs the woman how to do it. The woman sends the money and gets nothing in return.

This is more common than most people think and is a real problem. I hope everyone understands the situation now.

I don't misunderstood the article. This kind of cheats are worldwide. But the customs had choosen unwisely some bad keywords. Instead of giving out a global warning the customs brings it close to irony... Unintentionally. But this kind of "humor" produces the biggest laughs.... as you can see in the postings above. ;-)

Scams such as this or 419 only work on greedy people, The greed only has to be stronger than the fear of loss ....maybe many thai girls are the perfect target,

The scam described in the article is a bit different to the average 419 scam. The expected reward in a 419 scam is money but a lady caught by this scam may have simply been looking for love, which would make her the opposite of a greedy person. It's also possible that the lady waiting for her gift was simply interested in love too, although yes, greed is more likely to be a factor in that scenario.

Aha .. the Evil Foreigners strike again!

Why couldn't Phuket customs warn Thai ladies of just "an Internet scam"??? Instead it had to be brought down to good Thai v. bad Foreigner mudslinging? This type of headlines is what fuels xenophobia and ignorance here.

But I really doubt that there were any Thai ladies who forked out money on foreigner's request. That would be like trying to milk a rock. Maybe they were so SHOCKED that they reported just an attempt to Police. After all foreigner asking Thai lady for money should know there is jail term for that.

Actually the same scam, and similar scams, have occurred in Bangkok and a number of Thai ladies were scammed out of some serious amounts. The heartless money-grubbers are actually in the minority, believe it or not.

A friend who was chatting with a falang she met on internet wasn't cheated out of anything except her time. The guy was making all sorts of out landish promises and telling her he wanted to buy a house and had her running around looking for one. I tried to tell her the guy was bullsh-t but she wanted to believe the best of him.

The story finally unravelled when the down payment wasn't sent as promised and communication stopped. Needless to say he recieved one very angry email calling him things worse than a bufflo.

What the guy got out of it who knows but he did hurt a very nice woman, she had grown to like the guy during their chats

I don't know your friend of course, but my cynical side tells me she may well have been expecting a slice of that down-payment. She may have even deserved it.

First I have ever heard of thai police admitting to a mistake. Pigs are flying

I must admit my draw dropped on this headline. Hope it encourages others to speak out if they believe their grievances will, against everything I've heard and been witness to, at least, considered.

Where is the department where complaints can be made against the police?

Complaints (in Thai) can be submitted to the Inspector General of the Royal Thai Police at the website www.jaray.org. There is also a postal address there if you prefer to use that.

You could also try to talk to the station commander and/or file a written complaint at the relevant station.

If there is a human rights issue you can also lodge a complaint with the Office of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand.

Finally, you can file criminal charges against the officer in question.

Probably though, you wouldn't rock the boat, in the interests of self-preservation.

The danger from falling bullets is very real. What goes up must come down and bullets come down fast enough to kill. Every time somebody fires a gun into the air, they are gambling with someone's life. In the middle-east, where people fire AK47's into the air as a form of celebration, there are many deaths from falling bullets.

This doesn't explain the death of my Canadian friend during the same time period who only swam in that hotel's pool and then died of the very same heart symptoms the next day. He got a coupon from the hotel he was staying in that did not have a pool that allowed him to use the pool at the suspect hotel nearby. He swam there once and died one day later with the same symptoms of all the others.

Did they spray the pool with the bedbug chemical... I think there are still more unanswered questions here.

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Perhaps that hotel used the same company for its own bedbug problem .... ? Or maybe he came into contact with the chemical via a towel, or pool furniture or something ... ? Or maybe the chemical got into the pool somehow, whether accidentally or otherwise ... ?

The only way to know for sure is to set it up somewhere and see who comes out of the woodwork. Be prepared to apologise/beg for merccy and retreat quickly when someone does. I'm sure your local constabulary will take your protection money, or at least refer you to someone who will.

Make sure it is staffed by Thais and try not to make it obvious that a foreigner owns the operation, or it will cost more.

Use common sense of course.

Too right!

Air traffic control is one industry where I want standards to be maintained. And anyway, if he's careless enough to get caught by leaving his mic on then he's obviously not paying enough attention to, or not sharp eough to carry out, his normal duties.

Personally I don't want to see too many Western influences in Thailand, I love the country just the way it is.

You mean like the western tradition of wearing bras?

So essentially you're advocating that women should return to the Thai tradition of going topless ...

Most Thai laws need updating but why bother ? nobody seems to care about laws.

Exactly. But we've got to start somewhere ....

Apparently medium-rise buildings of two to 10 floors are at more risk of damage from earthquakes than taller buildings. This is supposedly because the shorter buildings have a natural frequency closer to the frequency of seismic ground motion.

Only when these buildings are tens to a hundred km from the point of the quake, like those in provinces bordering the fault lines in Burma. Short seismic (high frequency) waves will quickly dissipate into heat over distance. The same reason you hear the rumble of the jet engines of a plane passing a km overhead, but not the whine.

Long seismic waves can travel great distance (over a thousand km) and affect high-rise buildings. Recall the Four Seasons complex in Bangkok suffered cracks on their walls from the 2004 Indian Ocean quake that also resulted in a tsunami.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Yes I remember it ... at the time there was a great deal of concern ... I forget which tower it was though ....

Where did the Nation get that photo of Chiang Mai? It has changed a lot since I was last there. Where did the sea come from?

I would also add that at least some of it looks to be artificial (i.e. rendered).

Apparently medium-rise buildings of two to 10 floors are at more risk of damage from earthquakes than taller buildings. This is supposedly because the shorter buildings have a natural frequency closer to the frequency of seismic ground motion.

This is simply awful.

Something needs to be done.

The number of people I know about (both Thai and foreign) who have been killed by shoddy wiring and dangerous practices with electricity is just way too high.

It isn't rocket science ... and yet it seems nobody is learning anything at all from these tragedies.

Why would the process of obtaining Thai nationality amount to a loss of face for the mother?

It's telling that respondents ranked verbal politeness above good principles as best behaviors for politicians. So it is OK to be corrupt as hell as long as you keep your voice down and say 'Krub' a lot ...

Most coffee and canned drinks actually make you thirstier as they are effectively diuretics.

So is beer.

And my original post in this thread was not to point out if chlorine should be added or not, it is one of the best ways of getting rid of some of the nasties, but rather to illustrate that you can't use the phrase of "an appropriate amount" to a nation that measures pinches of salt by the cup.

Incidentally, chlorine does evaporate from water quite quickly, that's why swimming pools smell of it, if you buy water that does have a wiff of chlorine about it, pour it into an open jug and let it stand for an hour, it'll be gone.

All good points.

Somyos advised people to boil or add an appropriate amount of chlorine to water before drinking it.

You can't advise people to add an appropriate amount of chlorine without telling them what an appropriate amount is (any guesses what that amount would be?)....... even then they'll probably get it wrong and the whole of Thailand will resemble February in Chiang Mai.

I didnt know you used chlorine in drinking water ( im no expert ) but i remember i had the taste of chlorine, in Florida once, and i asked locals why the water tasted look pool water, no one knew :-]

so how much pool water should we drink today ?

i bet the bottles are better, :-]

Here in the US, many systems use chlorine as part of the cleansing process. Chorinated water is a common thing here. I hate the taste of it! So, I drink coffee and canned drinks instead.

Most coffee and canned drinks actually make you thirstier as they are effectively diuretics.

And if this woman really was innocent and pleaded her innocence, does this mean that she would have been put to death if she had not pleaded guilty?

Sounds like a catch 22 to me.

In South east Asia, you are guilty until proven innocent.

Reality check: All judicial systems presume guilt. They couldn't work any other way. Presumption of innocence occurs only at a trial, if it occurs at all.

Absolute nonsense. Otherwise the entire population would be locked in jail until proven innocent in a court of law.

"Keep drinking water in clean containers. If the containers are large, you still have to clean them every six months."

the clue is to drink running water, and not still.

there use to be times, when you could drink water from the river and canals - it's gone, since some 40 years ago they started to use extensive agricultural techniques, pesticides etc

I should keep this secret, I never buy water but I have more than 2 litres a day...how is this possible???

being an engineer and somewhat of inventor in solving daily problems, here it goes...ready...all you people have air conditioners right? I put it this way when Newton had an apple fall on his head did he recognize gravity? Do you realize that you... the complainers and worry worts...of course out of shape.. yes you with the A/C throw out some of the most purest water in the world and do not know it...du? you struggle to lift heavy jugs of water.

Solution: I have put a "T"tap on the 1/2" gray plastic drain on my Air Conditioner drain line feeding outside my apartment, it is low enough to put a clear 20L hardplastic water jug below onto the balcony., when I do not want water (very seldom) let it flow past and down the roof vent drain.

WHERE DOES THIS WATER COME FROM? well my friend when ya take a beer out of the fridge and let it set on table.."Condensation occurs" the same principle as the evaporation of liquid will be cold... liquid that goes through the radiator mounted in your A/C that gives you cold air from the motorized fan behind. Are you with me...put your hands up engineers aw yes engineers are inventors... the rest of you can go and buy your water...ya never look to nature for your answers do you...watch out for them apples...Rotor Ron

I don't know what sort of aircon unit you have but I wouldn't trust anything coming out of mine. A great source of microbes, dust and who knows what else ....

Rumor has it that Singapore has already made sure such a canal will never happen ...

Nothing to do with Singapore. The Southern Thailand Canal has been scrapped because it does not make any economic sense. However, this has nothing to do with the ASEAN rail networks, whihc are going ahead.

It seems China may disagree with you ... some interesting reading here ... http://www.pittsburg...b/s_307155.html ... but yeah, not really on topic...

Not really on topic, and the article linked dates back to 2005. My information is from a concerned Thai government official based in the Thai OTP, and as of last year. I am sure it has been in the news since, but I'm too lazy to google right now.

OK you convinced me ... The political situation in Thailand probably doesn't help either ...

That's right, the Chinese referred to the Nanning-Singapore Economic Corridor in last year's ASEAN summit, linking down through Vietnam. Perhaps this railway is already part of a larger plan to culminate in the belated creation of a canal through southern Thailand, which is a very old idea and is the only way China will secure it's future energy and material needs.

Rumor has it that Singapore has already made sure such a canal will never happen ...

Nothing to do with Singapore. The Southern Thailand Canal has been scrapped because it does not make any economic sense. However, this has nothing to do with the ASEAN rail networks, whihc are going ahead.

It seems China may disagree with you ... some interesting reading here ... http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_307155.html ... but yeah, not really on topic...

Think of it as one leg of a Shanghai to Singapore line.

Just a thought, are they still going to use the narrow gauge track and build another the same along side ?? 2WAY--or a european wide gauge double track. still keeping the existing track for inter town service. having then 3 lines ???

I doubt that they will worry about the old stuff. Furthermore, I would bet that the whole route is done in 10 years or less, if the Chinese have their way.

That's right, the Chinese referred to the Nanning-Singapore Economic Corridor in last year's ASEAN summit, linking down through Vietnam. Perhaps this railway is already part of a larger plan to culminate in the belated creation of a canal through southern Thailand, which is a very old idea and is the only way China will secure it's future energy and material needs.

Rumor has it that Singapore has already made sure such a canal will never happen ...