crazygreg44

QUOTE - There are several hundred thousand scavengers in Thailand earning about 200-300 baht ($6.5-10) a day

Isn't 300 baht minimum wage?

That's what I thought. Then again, people begging on the streets make a sh*tload more money. I had a little conversation with this chic from UNHCR doing her routine fund thingy and she says street beggars earn an average of around a THOUSAND baht a day! That totally blew me away. It'd be nice to see published information on this but yeah -- she said these people were just too lazy to actually do anything else -- yet they rake in quite a sum.

Some Beggers in Bangkok or Chang Mai might make up to $1000 Baht a day But I can assure you that the limbless etc ones in Issen & the rest of Thailand make a fraction of that amount, They don't all live in the Tourist traps you know, Touristy Thailand is actually quite a small area in a very big Country.....

you forget, the police 'tolerate' and put them into these places. The beggars end with almost nothing. All their collections end up in police's pockets . .

Fantastic story. Hope it serves as a model of inspiration for others to give it a go also!

Disagree. It is a fantastically stupid story which celebrates mediocrity and glorifies poverty; much the same as looking on approvingly as a man does the backstroke to slow down his eventual drowning.

"Grandma, who can't see past her fingertips, out driving without a helmet, on an internal combustion vehicle that is not road worthy, and is unlicensed and so is she." For starters, how idiotic is that?

Should I go on to mention how stupid it is that conceivably she gives away her food every morning (on a hungry stomach) to the overweight panderers who come by her door to chant a song to her for good merit, whilst the three grimy, nose-dripping and illegitimate offspring she is raising for her grand daughter (who conceivably is a 16 year old prostitute working conceivably for her 21 year old gang member, pimp boyfriend, who conceivably is wanted for questioning by the police regarding a robbery, rape and murder) go hungry and munch on water and rice conceivably collected from a dog dish or conceivably scraped off the street; only after the dog (bless its sweet sweet flea and tick-ridden soul) refuses to eat it?

Yes; this is really a heart-warming story of the human spirit and self-determination, all in lieu of the gods looking on with an approving tear in their eye.

Your an asshol_e.

hhmm, I think I can side this. There's always two sides of the coin. I've lived long enough in the East, to confirm that many parts of this are true . .

9) I have a new Thai identity, forename and surname. Good for

travelling to places that dislike my country of origin

If he is from Israel he can now visit the Muslim countries that were off-limits with an Israeli passport, such as Malaysia.

If he is American he can reduce his risk of trouble in whatever country has anti-US riots...

..and stil be recognized per looks, what kind of Farang he is. What a silly conclusion . . . . !!

I did my 90 day report yesterday. Normally I just go in and straight up to the window. This year there has been a wait every time. Yesterday I was #40 and #23 was being served when I got there. Airplane arrivals are up from last year. The GDP is up, the Stock Exchange of Thailand is up 36%. Central mall in Pattaya is packed every day I go. The big Japanese restaurant in Rayong has a waiting list every time I go. All the economists are reporting positive about Thailand. The only place one reads anything negative about Thailand is on Thai Visa.

Why do you always bring up Thai economy into tourism numbers??? Do you not understand it is not related ???

What does 90 days reporting have to do with tourism?

And finally , are you not aware that 1 year has 12 months and while right now we are at the peak of high season, the other 11 months of the year,the place was almost empty compared to previous years

Tourism is one of the driving forces of the Thai economy. If tourism is up the economy will be up. Tourist dollars have a multiplier effect on the economy. Tourism is very related to the Thai ecomomy.

Many Farang tourists stay more than 90 days. How many single men stay at hotels and eat at restaurants 6 months a year and then go back to Canada and the USA? A lot. And they spend a lot.

I mention the economy because the numbers from international sources can be trusted more than anecdotal evidence from some old whiners writing from cold water flats in the West because they are jealous of people who live in Thailand.

Any responsible person with knowledge of the tourism business in Thailand will attest that this year season or no, is better than last season.

Word to the wise. No one likes to dine at a restaurant with no customers.

you are totally overestimating the impact of tourism to the Thai economy. A quick look to the stats would reveal to you that it makes up something like 5% of the GDP of the nation. Who buys food every day ? Millions of Thais at millions of foodstands compared to droplets of farang in some restaurants. Have you ever been upcountry away from tourist routes and seen what's going on?

Make sure you get yourself in good physical condition before traveling.

So many overweight foreigners here ... Thailand doesn't need any more.

There are no excuses for being overweight and, when your old clothes are worn and you wish to buy new ... there are no sizes for you in the usual department stores ... ... is being fat really a choice?

.

Oh of course there are! Mah Boon Khrong Center, Bangkok (MBK), 6 th floor. Just start feeling well in all that glibber and don't listen to these extra slim carbosaturated Joes trying to make you feel bad . . .

Easy, fix the towers and test on a regular schedual, establish evacuation plans to high ground. The warnings will be generated and sent from Hawaii, there are often several hours to prepare for the waves.

not possible. It will require "preventive measures". Unknown to Thailand.

If the Thai banking system and Government are worried about this, they should ask the question, Why will most retailers and particularly small businesses NOT accept plastic transactions. Answer CASH IS KING here. no trace no tax to pay, simple !!

Big brother is just waiting to the point when every farmer finally holds a credit card or can pay by mobile phone NFC.

Then money bills will be abolished throughout the World.

It is a dream No.1 of bureaucrats of all governments to stop money going around unnoticed.

The more debit & credit cards are fluctuating, the higher the risk of "real" money getting abolished.

Some in this forum will say, that this is a far ahead and only a dream, or paranoid.

Just loved to gave ya a wake-up call . . .

Passport required.

- Nationals of USA can enter with passports and/or passport

replacing documents valid for the period of intended stay.

Passport Exemptions:

- Holders of emergency or temporary passports.

Visa required, except for A max. stay of 30 days:

Minors:

- When arriving in, or departing from Thailand, minors aged

under 16 yearsFor details, click here

Additional Information:

- Visitors who are visa exempt are required to hold documents

for their next destination.

- Visitors over 12 years of age are required to hold

sufficient funds to cover their stay (at least THB 10,000.-

per person or THB 20,000.- per family).

For details, click here

- For those who do not require a visaFor details, click here

Warning:

- Visitors who are visa exempt but do not hold return/onward

tickets could be refused entry.

Finally something that makes us hope the conflict can be completely settled, one small step after the other wise !

Clearing the mines in a JOINT operation - a true go-together, when you realize their soldiers were staring at each other point blank for years.

We live close to the temple, within reach of mortar fire, so I welcome this turn of the affair and ALL MY BEST WISHES !!!!

If a man has taken care of his wife and let her stay home all those years and they get divorced for whatever reason, it is his legal responsibility to continue working to support her in her current life style and also his children who will likely be given custody to his wife. Failure to do so will result in a prison sentence.

Where??

they all will whiten your teeth and bleach your wallet . ..

sorry can't give a lead . . there must be a hundreds of them . . .

it really takes time, a borrowed motosai and the will to explore the field.

Warranty . . ARAI NA ??

there is no warranty that you can claim a warranty, no matter what kind of shop.

This is Thailand. you can try and find yourself lucky,m or you can try and be s...g into your pants

First Vietnamese civets. Now Thai elephants. Why not French poodles? Why not gila monsters? Why not Jingthings? We've gone down a slippery slope, coffee lovers, and I'm willing to do my part ...

bet if anyone ever holds a blank test, Thai tongues won't be able to tell the difference.

Just another - successful,though - sheme of making real shit more interesting than the copy.

What about the Mouse-shit-chili ? Has it really been wandering through the mouse tracts until it

delivers the spicyness so famed ?

A much better way to piss off tailgaters is to slow down and then when they try to undertake you ( with no signal to tell you this) you give a signal and doubly piss them off as you move into the lane they want to undertake in, its even more sttisfying if they then get stuck behind you as all other traffic now passes freely in the outside lane.

This involves no finger waving or anything and is nicely effective at winding them up.

There is one universal technique for tailgating that works the world over, even in Dubai where they make the Thais look like grandparents driving a 30's Buick. When being tailgated gently take your foot off the gas, flick on your hazard lights do a couple of quick left and right tugs on the steering wheel. Then watch them swerve into the next lane almost immediately. Requires no sudden braking on your part and they dont even know you have done it to deliberately wind them up. Works every time.

love this one!!!

I have had a many parcels sent from Germany to Thailand to myself and my wife in the Eesarn. Never was anything missing. I always used the original post office sticker, but added a self-made sticker that showed the adress in Thai script as well. I took a photo of this Thai adress sticker, printed it and gave some of them to my Mom for use when mailing another parcel. Seems that helps a lot. And parcel always gets sent to my wife's name, never to Mr. alias Farang Keeniauw . . .

such a piss poor performance in trying to extort money.

How stupid to use one's own computer in sending blackmail.

Must be Pattaya's open-to-all-possibilities image that changed his mood from warily to

completely unawareness.

Another fag going on holiday to the all-inclusive. Just he should feel VERY HAPPY for being sent back to a german detention center instead of Bangkok Hilton. There they would have taught him scams soap-wise

I am a Farang, and my Thai family calls me GREG all the time, which is an abbreviation of my real name. I must belong to a privileged class of Farangs in Thailand, I believe, after reading the post.

Uncounted times, i introduced myself as Khun Greg to newly met Thais, and they adressed me by this name from there on. It seems that when you make all efforts to act and behave like a Farang, Thais might be tempted to classify as a good example of this species.

You might be tempted to use a pair of scissors and clip of an edge of the old passport - clipping through all pages. It is the usual process of devaluating an old passport when you receive a new one. Showing it to the immigration officer in command, it might be very useful in argueing that your passport has been cancelled for real.

I transferred my retirement Visa from the old passport to the new one, without a problem, though. The old passport hasn't had any clip-offs, I just tested it with the immigration officer, and he did not mind. Some who are strict with these recommendations, however, will always mind.

I think all the salt has given you high blood pressure, and if you don’t calm down, something in your head is gonna burst.

Never seen them add salt, but plenty of fish sauce. Yum

There are 1190 mg of sodium in a tablespoon of fish sauce.

Tiparos 690mg

and all this Thai Salt that can be bought, is Salt from the coast of Samut Songkhran. Marshland dried salt. It does not contain any Iodium, which is said to increase the growth of bodyily and brain cells and hardens the teeth and bone when humans grow up.. Indeed, the lack of Iodium in their nutrition has entered Thailand into statistics of the World Nations Organization of Health

say: mai aow glua loey

You would not say mai aow, they would probably be confused and not know what you are talking about, you would say mai sai.

I'm not sure that Thais actually use much salt in their cooking.

They may be adding Rod dee powder and that has a lot of salt and fish sauce is salty.

You must be kidding me or you that NAIVE as to not know the amount of salt that goes into everything that you eat here??

Not kidding. I can't remember one single time that I have eaten Thai food and considered it too salty. Also, on the numerous times that I have seen Thais cook, I have not noticed them putting in salt. MSG, yes, but not salt.

Maybe you are extremely sensitive to salt taste.

exactly, what the OP tastes from the food he gets, is MSG, not salt.

He can simply avoid this nasty stuff by adding to his order "mai sai pong sa rot, krap/ka" every Thai cook will understand and refrain from adding spoonfuls of white powder MSG to the dish.

Sometimes it's not possible to avoid, when devouring soups, the prepared liquids in the kettle are already infested with MSG.

One can easily use Maggi as an alternative to salt, original Maggi in Thailand carries the "J" sign on the bottle, meaning it is true vegetarian quality. It does not contain any sodium glutamates, instead uses naturally fermented soy and other natural ingredients. But never SALT !

We, Europeans, should not forget that during the 2nd world war there were no dogs or cats safe in any place. They all disappeared at night and popped up the next day in pots and meat stew... Nothing wrong in eating dogs. Some people eat horses, in Laos I saw squirrels as food, Japanese continue to eat the whales for scientific purposes... and somewhere on a Danish (or is it Norwegian?) island there is a yearly slaughtering of pilot whales as it also exists in Japan, but then with dolphins...

Have a look at the countries that enjoy horse meat > http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Horse_meat

So... which meat is really good to eat?

Is this not a case of "The pot calling the kettle black" ?

The german specialty "Rheinischer Sauerbraten" , which is a 2-day-marinated shoulder steak, was actually prepared with horse meat, but as the practise of slaughtering horses for their meat has gently diminished and lost acceptance among the consumers, now they use Beef instead. There are, however, a handful of horse butchers left who sell their produce openly.

Now what are they going to do with them? I wouldn't be surprised if they vast majority of them are put-down in the end anyway.

Exactly. Now the meat will go to waste. I highly doubt that they will use the humane method of putting them down too. Knife to the throat. Poor lil guys either way

I remember having read a report that they club them to death. Cutting their throat would mean too much work in cleaning all the blood from the yard. Thais are clever when it comes to saving them from some mess when it can be done easier.

Thais average on 100 points in IQ ??? I always thought the IQ index starts at 30 points, giving them a chance to gain a handful of point on the scale upward . . .

HAHAHAHAHA. They won't even be able to speak basic English in 6 months.

Manchester United, Chelseee, Liverpull, Arsenal, been speeking English long time.

So they know thier english geography, I presume these are english towns but I may be wrong.

no, Falang not know! It english name for football !

Germany got 140 million visitors in 2011.

Sure?

8. Germany 28.4 million 2011 26.9 million 2010

http://en.wikipedia....ourism_rankings

Ah I now see, they seem to count overnight stays, not sheer tourist numbers. Thanks for the correction!

. . .and I was not aware that we Jerries are the top Big Spenders just before em Yanks