Johpa

dam_n shame about the title of this thread: I'm sick of seeing it every time I go to My Contents.

Although I did not know Bill Young personally, I did pass on the first link to some friends of mine who did know him and they too were rather upset at the headline that they considered bordering on libelous. Out of respect to the Young family, one of the most respected western families in Chiang Mai, perhaps the mods might want to edit the topic heading.

The Young family, as well as many of the older missionary families, have long had an impact upon Chiang Mai; the Chiang Mai Zoo was partly founded by the Young family. I only met Bill Young briefly once, maybe twice, long ago. I knew of his background, but he came across as a rather modest man, there was certainly no braggadocio present during our very brief encounters. I do hope he left a memoir as he was a first hand witness, and often for better or worse an actor, to a very changing environment up in the hills, an area where there is still little first hand reporting apart from missionaries and anthropologists and the few intrepid freelancers like Bertil (Shan) and Jim (Akha). By the way, there is a rather different perspective on Young over at akha.org.

I wondered how long it would take one of the 'bitter & twisted' to tear Credo a new arsehol_e.

Feel better now do we?

I am neither bitter nor twisted, at least not twisted in the manner that you are implying. I did not tear any new orifice into the quoted poster although we do disagree. Nor do I need to resort to the weakness of ad hominem attacks to bolster my opinions and observations based upon my experiences.

Admittedly, I'd left cleaning alone for almost a year, and I don't have new teeth. Still, Grace charged 1700 baht, which is greater than I would have paid in the States, and there insurance would have paid most or all of it.

Good luck finding any dental clinic in the US that charges only $56 for a cleaning other than some hillbilly clinic up in Appalachia with a banjo playing in the background. In my metropolitan region, the Farang dentists who like to golf now charge close to $200 for a cleaning and the immigrant dentists (my new dentist is Iranian) charge around $125 which is what the insurance companies reimburse a dental clinic for a cleaning for those fortunate enough to have dental insurance. Most of us who do not work for the government or the big corporations (now the same duopoly of power) can only afford catastrophic medical without dental coverage.

This story is very sad all the way around. A young girl's life has been cut drastically short and a family is left to grieve. A young man will most likely live with the guilt and pain of the misery he has caused and most likely some legal and financial pain as well.

<deleted>! The young man will have little, if any, long term guilt as the deceased was someone from a far lower station in life, a Lao. The Bangkok elite sees folks such as Lao, Isaan, Burmese, or highland minorities as being a lesser form of life (many see Caucasians in the same way, you bloody gwailo too blind to see the obvious). The financial pain will be minimal. The only pain will be the funds for reimbursing the family of the deceased and the repair of the car, two expenses that will be equated in the minds of the family, will be spent in Thailand and not sent to offshore banks.

Insult an Aussie in this way and you would find yourself dead in the time it takes a bee to flap it's wings once. (200 times per second)

The wealthy Thais have no need to verbally insult Aussies, they simply relocate their spoiled children who have behaved badly to schools in Australia until the Thai public forgets and daddy has paid off those he must. In a former time the peerage would send misbehaving children to England, but back in the 1980s one particularly ill behaved lad wore out the welcome mat in London.

I used to live opposite the accident scene. There is a small overpass bridge here. If the girl was on either side of it, and the driver was driving too fast over the bridge (say over 150 km/h), the accident was probably unavoidable.

It was an "unavoidable accident" only if one assumes that driving at over twice the post speed limit in an urban environment is an accident of fate.

"gin-khao" ?

It's known as "kin muang" in the local vernacular, an activity favored by politicians as well as police officials. (sorry, but spelling it "gin" will lead you to bad pronunciation.

I'm still seeking the hilltribe honey that goes well in bed.....

I found some of that 25 years ago, still hasn't dissolved.

Then again, honey scandals have been fairy common news in the business section here in the US for several years now, fake Russian imported honey, fake imported Chinese honey. Apparently most folks can't taste the difference.

They changed the goal posts a few years ago to 'Climate Change' as they realised that maybe 'Global Warming' tied their hands a little too much

The switch from the term "global warming" to the term "climate change" was initiated by US Republican Party propagandist and pollster Frank Luntz, a disciple of Edward Bernays. The switch in terms was purely political.

Why is it that just about everything posted in the news section reads like an echo of an earlier report? How any times have we read this exact same announcement over the decades? As Bangkok is the hub of news echos, I would ask for a wee bit more discrimination as to what is posted as "news".

Mods, ban me if ye shall, but if posting non-Thai related items is cause for deletion, then so is posting this repetitive non-news Thai government drivel.

I really doubt this monk happened to collect 12 tons of gold in small donations over the decades and then miraculously had the gold melted into nice neat gold bars. More likely someone, or some group, felt a bit guilty, or were made to feel a bit guilty, about the large amount of gold amassed over a very long period of time that is now being sold and shipped out of the Kingdom, and decided to tithe themselves a percentage to give back to the Nation.

This amount pales in comparison to the Kingdom's institutional gold that is currently being sold elsewhere.

Also encouraging they're showing so many women, given the up-hill struggle Farang women tend to face in order to feel somewhat in place in Thailand.

Then you might be interested to know the woman from Payap has been an ex-pat, actually I think she may be a Thai citizen, for over 30 years and is perhaps more "in place" in more levels of Thai society than anyone I have known posting on Thai Visa.

Without generalising, I know of several mahouts, who make a very good living from elephants, so do not assume it provides a meager salary.

<deleted>! My wife and I owned an elephant in Thailand for nearly 20 years. My wife's father was one of the best known traditional elephant doctors up north, thankfully replaced now by real veterinarians. I have known many, many a mahout over the past 25 years. They all, and I mean all that I have met, earn a pittance unless they also own the elephant or have some other sideline or you mistook a camp manager for a full time mahout. We were constantly financially helping out our mahout on the side, well beyond his mahout salary. And there are few independent owners left as the economics at the elephant camps (pang chaang)no longer make renting feasible. We ended up selling our elephant to one of the larger camps in order for it to be well taken care of, care not available at some of the smaller camps or the camps down in the south well outside the traditional elephant regions up north, such as where this incident took place.

You may not like all the camps, and there are many commercial tourist camps that cater to many tastes ranging from Mae Sa to Khun Lek's camp up at Mae Tang. But an unemployed elephant soon becomes a dead elephant and without all the major tourist camps up north the Thai elephant population would dwindle to critically low levels.

Toys for the boys but air supremacy is a known factor in defense and essential. No complaints from my side. Go for it.

The Defense Department in Thailand is focused upon defending the ruling elite from internal opposition. As others have noted, there is no external threat to Thailand from the air. And in heavily forested and jungle-like terrain common along Thailand's borders, fast movers are pretty useless. This is all about a few generals finding an excuse to buy pricey items that allow for a handsome kickback into their private bank accounts. Although not quite as useless as the purchase of the aircraft carrier, it does rank up there in corruption.

Just fly with EVA. They code share with Bangkok Air, so if you can find a convenient connecting flight you can use the trans-pac weight allowances on your domestic leg. The AM flight back to Bangkok arrives about noon and you can hang out in the Bangkok Airways lounge awaiting the departing flight back to CNX. Not always the cheapest fares, but always competitive and almost the only flights that avoid the midnight arrival into Suwannaphum and the forced overnight transit at a Bangkok hotel.

Don't you (Johpa) live in the states ?

Indeed, I currently live Stateside, but have maintained the homestead in Mae Rim since the 1980s, and where I use to reside full time for many years. I now make an extended visit annually.

Again, my wife, who spends half her time at our Mae Rim home, is ecstatic about the news of a Makro closer by. Yet I am of a different nature, and wish only to move further up into the hills, further west to Wat Chan or maybe northwest over to Yang Moen as I assume that within a few years there will be some similar modern shopping supermarket in Samoeng township.

But people need their marmite and peanut butter!

Yes, but those of us who prefer a more Thai lifestyle and thus hide out up in Mae Rim need our laap dip and the meat and produce sold at Makro and the other national outlets is not fresh enough for our needs.

Double post deleted

As one the ex-pats who has maintained a residence in Mae Rim far longer than most, I fail to see the good in this. I don't want to see Mae Rim turn into another Hang Dong or San Sai. No need to spread such dreariness to yet another district. Mae Rim already has one of the better traditional markets around in kat muang pa, and we have any number of small shops along the main street whose owners go out of their way to be helpful and who have competitive prices to the larger chains. At least they have the decency to situate this store south of town. I just hope they don't connect the parking lot to the back road. Oh well, I'm trying to talk the wife into relocating up to Wat Chan, but without much success as she is delighted at this news.

I wonder if this news report is the first time these twenty-something year old males models realized their dates were over 40.

Methinks that Canadian male models are not all that much different than Thai female models and that dating 40+ something "hi-so" women in Asia would be quite the norm. Or did you really think that they only model on the runways? The young Thai guys don't even have to be models, they just need to save up enough money to head out to Samui for a week or two until they catch the fancy of a 40+ European woman.

What you should be regretting is the old section of the Night Bazaar (it had its own name, which I forget) which preceded the Peak and the plywood shacks, bars and handicrafts shops, surrounding it. This was the kind of old market with forgotten corners where you could find all sorts of surprising things. This was really part of old Chiangmai; the Peak was not.

I am of the same sentiment. At one time the old, original, multi-level night market was a lively place filled by local shop owners where one could find true antiques, true little treasures, and true handicrafts. Later, in the basement, it became one of the few places to place an international phone call in the evening hours. The bars came later, as did the change to mass produced handicrafts and the selling of tourist crap ad nauseum. But last November I visited and the place was a ghost town. For all intents and purposes, the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar is now finally gone and too few of us here remember just how truly unique was this cultural institution of Chiang Mai at one time.

The important aspect is that she sounds like a career diplomat...not a "political" appointee that gets the due to being a friend of the president.

The critical aspect is that it will likely be upon her watch when the doggie doo doo hits the fan and I would prefer someone far more familiar with the ever evolving political machinations here, a true Thai-hand, rather than a career diplomat whose only professional goal over the past 20 years has been the support of the US empire. Perhaps she would like to address the current selling of some long accumulated hard assets, representing significant wealth of the Kingdom, into cash that is being deposited offshore.

From everything I've read about the new ambassador, she is a very personable and high energy person.

From what I have read, she is a South American specialist and not a Southeast Asian specialist. Her last stint was in the Philippines where there was some criticism of her being too close to the ruling elite and too far from the reality on the street level. I am sure she is highly personable as the recent wiki-leaks episode clearly demonstrated that one of the primary roles of Ambassadors is to schmooze and collect idle gossip. But given the precarious political conundrum that Thailand finds itself in at the moment, I would prefer a cantankerous curmudgeon familiar with Southeast Asia rather than a generic career "diplomat" with an engaging smile.