BigWheelMan

I've still never been. I drive down Chang Moi road regularly and haven't seen piggies open for a while either. I'm sure there are expats that enjoy the occasional plate of English-style fish and chips, but to build a whole business around this tiny demand is a bit daft IMO.

Not as daft as you

Blimey, this is scary stuff. Really, this looks like a death threat.

I`m going to call it a day with Thaivisa, this is way over the top.

The Internet has become a dangerous place.

It`s amazing what you can find out about people, with just an email address, phone number, name and photo traces. Births, addresses, employment, social security numbers, company ownerships, relatives, email, phone and fax numbers, marriages, children, debts, newspaper reports, medical and criminal records. It`s all there either for free or a small fee.

No one is anonymous anymore but many users don’t realise this fact, especially those that use social networking sites, visit adult sites, chatting, use a webcam, submit personal details, photos, personal so called one to one emails, forums, messenger and Skype conversations, everything is logged. Even your ThaiVisa profile is obtainable in a Google search.

If you make comments or put up images anywhere on line, sooner or later they will appear in the search engines. The system makes it extremely complicated or even impossible if you want these removed and could be there forever.

These days it is wise to consider the Internet as an open public facility and to do no more on line than you would in a public place. Because everything you do or say on line can be taken as evidence and used against you. Emails and messages can be recognised as evidence in a court of law. It`s like conducting your business in an open field, you never know who is listening, who’s looking in and who is going to sneak by in the dark and steal your stuff.

Yes, these are definately the times of big brother and the thought police. The 1984 Prophecy has come true. Be careful what you do and say out there, it`s a dangerous game.

These are fantastic professional looking photos, HTWoodson.

Normally when I take night shots, the end result is shadowy figures in a grainy background.

Can you tell us what camera you use? And how you achieve such perfect night vision on your camera?

The OP is, sadly, just the flip side of the coin of the very people he is complaining about. There are some good points on here about the diversity of people wherever you go.

I'm not sure the new people arriving necessarily fit in the categories offered.

Typo

There seems to be three categories of Farang ex-pats living in Thailand.

1. The business owners or workers.

2. The retired, those living on pension incomes from their home countries.

3. The down and outs, scratching about will do anything to stay here.

Many times while out shopping in the supermarkets, I have seen Farangs, young, middle-aged and old, dressed in attire that even a scarecrow wouldn’t be seen dead in, unshaven, dirty, smelly and appear as if they have lived in a Salvation hostile for the last ten years, jumped on a plane and flown over.

Although I agree that diversity can be beneficial to some degree, I’m sure the above mentioned number three category are not the sort of foreigners any Governments want to attract to their countries. An influx of these people does not create good images for ex-pats of the same race, nationalities and what’s worrying is that I am seeing more and more of those types in Thailand.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is rapidly overtaking the present longest English word, antidisestablishmentarianism.

Although not yet entered into the English dictionary, I bet it will soon be.

My grandfather had a chain of successful clothing stores in Gravesend, Kent, England from 1919 up to 1980 when he retired. I used to work with him often. Even in those days, disloyalties, dishonesty and pilfering amongst staff was rife. This is a phenomenon that affects all business owners the world over, always has, always will.

Respectfully saying that if UG has never experienced any of those problems in all his 20 odd years in business, he must be extremely fortunate or has his wits about him and is a very shrewd man.

Good luck to him and may his business thrive, but of course everyone’s experiences are different and can only see the situation as has affected them personally. This is understandable, so in a way, everybody is right.

This problem does not only pertain to Thailand, but the world over, I can assure you.

I do disagree with one poster who quoted that Thailand has become worse for rip-offs and corruption over the last 10 years. I think it`s always been there but maybe we have become more aware of it, more publicized, better ex-pat communication via Internet etc.

Going back to the theme of this thread, I think it`s impossible to assume whether or not Thailand is better or worse than any other country until we`ve actually lived in that other country for a long term.

samuiman

I liked the place enough to even pick a place to settle down and I leased some land and built a lovely villa on Koh Samui. I lived in the villa for almost two years but things were not perfect in paradise. The scams and rip offs slowly grind you down until you realise you are no longer enjoying yourself. I got tired of being continually ripped off by the Thais and I sold up. Now I holiday in Cambodia and Vietnam spending about two to three months in each. Although no place is perfect, I have found the other Asian countries I have spent time in to be considerably better than Thailand with respect to corruption and in your face rip offs. They are also much cheaper for almost everything.

Have you ever actually been to Thailand or any of these other countries? Everything you say is the opposite of my experiences and I have lived in Thailand for over 20 years as well as Vietnam for a short time and talked with many expats in Cambodia. I am really not sure if you are trolling, have had really bad luck, or - like many expats - just like complaining.

I am honoured. I thought it was only me you disliked and enjoyed insulting.

Why do you accuse the OP of trolling? You`re just plain nasty. I think this is an excellent thread, well thought out and probably mirrors the thoughts of many of us, including myself.

A note for the mods, again please note who is starting the throwing in of insults on this thread.

Must admit that I am beginning to think the same way, but I have no experience of Thailand`s neighbouring countries, so not really in a position to be able to compare Thailand with countries such as: Cambodia and Vietnam and I don`t know anyone personally who has ever lived in those countries on the long term.

Maybe if there are any members who live or have lived in these countries for a few years, could begin a thread and share the benefit of their experiences and what`s required visas etc, to be able to live there?

I`ve had severe dental, that`s dental not mental, problems over the years.

I tried the Ram dental hospital. I found it dirty and expensive.

Then I tried the dental surgery at Klaimor Hospital, Hang Dong. The treatment was good and not over priced, but each time I visited, the dentist tried to sell me the most expensive treatment. He was persistant and it was like being locked in a room with a high pressure salesman.

Then I discovered the Chiang Mai dental hospital on the super highway. Fantastic. clean, posh surroundings, lots of Farangs in there, treatment first class and no more expensive than any other dental practice in Chiang Mai.

I would never trust or use any other dentists.

On the super highway, go passed Tesco Lotus on the left, than passed CM Computer city and about a half mile on you will see the green hospital sign with white cross for Chiang Mai hospital. Turn into the small entrance for the hospital and the dental hospital is next to it.

Kedgeree ??????????????? I am British and never heard of it , spent years in the English army with many men having served time in India , never heard of it there either .MMMMMMMMMMMMM

Nor me, and I`m an old git.

Where do people dig up these words?

We have our drinking water delivered in 20 litre containers by a company. Cost 12 baht per 20 litre bottle.

Do not know the name of the company, or care.

Been drinking that stuff for ages and never had any problems. Best not to think about it.

This is Thailand, ya pays ya money and ya gets what ya get.

If the police decided to arrest everyone that has gone mad, than the whole country would be in custody by the end of the week, including all the ex-pats, I`m sure.

Some years ago my wife’s middle-aged cousin who was an alcoholic, used to portray similar behaviour. He once scared my young daughter half to death after he crept into my mother’s law’s house wanting to use the bathroom.

I just calmly chatted with him and escorted the guy home to his long and suffering wife.

Of course the family are protecting their own that`s only natural. What would you do if it were your brother or close relative? Severe mental illness is a tragic thing and I`m sure that putting the poor guy in jail won’t solve the problem. Leave the guy alone and let his family deal with him. There is nothing the police can do, anyway.

I hate these sorts of threads.

Remember this is Thailand and that Thais are not renowned as being dog lovers, except for the old dogs I see hanging about the Loi Kroh road in Chiang Mai when I visit.

Getting rid of a family dog like that is irresponsible and cruel.

The right thing to do is lay down the law with your partner, who IMO sounds like a complete idiot and a moron.

I have dogs that I consider as a main part of my family. If I caught anyone in my family, wife or children mistreating my dogs, all hel_l would be let loose between me and them, no way would I tolerate that sort of behaviour in my house.

But to be honest I can understand your predicament, you are caught between your loyalties to the partner and your dog, so if this problem persists and cant be settled than it would be kinder to have him put down rather than cast out of the family home. The partner that is, not Gary the bulldog.

I saw that article a couple of days ago and was going to start a thread, but decided against it.

This thread is probably on borrowed time.

Countdown begins......

Another test and with a PM box completely empty and still show the pull down box to select what to display.

Yes but, I have no my conversations, the facility doesn`t exist in my case. So I can`t get in to do any tests.

Nevermind, I don`t need PMs anyway.

When I lived in Africa out in the bush, I obtained a sixth sense.

Could smell a lion from a mile off, especially the red ones.

At the bottom of what? I still can`t find it, Help!

At the bottom of Your Messenger page.

As mentioned, the ones in red are PMs sent to other members and which they have deleted at their end.

I still can`t see it and also went into help, now called forum support desk, read this message:

There are a couple of ways to get to your messenger inbox:

- If you have unread messages a link will appear in the black bar just under the menu, that says: "Messenger (x new)" - click that link and you will come to your messenger inbox.

- Click the number in the black square just to the right of your name (also in the black bar just under the menu), it will bring out a popup that shows your latests notifications, if any of those notifications are about PMs there are links there as well.

- And finally the easiest way that is always available: Click the down arrow just to the right of your name in the black bar under the menu. This will bring up a popup that has a link to your messenger.

Tried all that, but it`s just not there, I cannot access my pm boxes or blocked list, seems they no longer exist.

Several of my friends and I have checked this out with the same results.

Anyway, maybe we are all thickos, so I have gone the easy route and disabled my pm facility.

The print shot below shows the message I receive when clicking on the messenger icon, which is not accessible.

My inbox, sent mails and blocked list has completely disappeared and not been able to locate them since the introduction of the new format.

At the bottom there is a list box that allows you to show all PMs you have sent. Appears all PMs have been put into one box and probably a limitation of the new software to import since naming conventions have changed.

Oh God, I must be going senile?

At the bottom of what? I still can`t find it, Help!

My inbox, sent mails and blocked list has completely disappeared and not been able to locate them since the introduction of the new format.

Am I doing something wrong, or have these items been removed?

Anyone who has reasonable computer knowledge can create their own websites, banners, posters, business cards and upload photos.

Some know how about css and HTML scripting is required, but easily learned and no need to be a genius.

If you search Google you will see that there is scores of free good quality domain websites available.

I used to create websites for friends free of charge, but they expected me to maintain them, update and amend the sites when required.

This became a burden and now I don’t offer my services for free because it`s not just the website creation but the continued site maintenance in which I don’t want the commitment unless I am well paid as an incentive.

Another all Thais are stupid thread.

I started work as a shop assistant when I was 14.

In those days there were no calculators or tills that worked out the change for you. It was either work out the sums on paper or in the head.

Since the introduction of calculators, adding machines and computers, people have become lazy and now totally rely on the micro chip instead or having to use the brain for arithmetic and spelling.

It`s the same the world over, not only unique to Thailand. Technology has turned people into blockheads as they consider that pushing a button or key is easier than thinking.

I never look at the mantelpiece when stoking the fire.

Can you remember the old UK TV advert? Is she wearing Harmony hairspray? Who cares? And who cares what she`s wearing in her mouth, excuse the pun.

12.30am, Saturday morning and it`s peeing down here.

Has been raining from 6.00pm yesterday evening.

After those few weeks of that deadly heatwave, for the first time I am happy to see the rain.

I’ve had worse responses from my own kind here in Thailand when I`ve said hello in passing. Complete pigs.

Does the OP believe that it is these girls duty to acknowledge him and it`s OK to give the girls verbal abuse because they are foreigners?

Why not try it on with some English girls and see how far he gets?

The only party in this case that was rude and used unacceptable behaviour was the OP.

Some years ago, one of my wife’s Thai girl friend’s living in London smiled back at a guy on a train after he smiled at her. She believed this to be the proper thing to do according to her culture. The guy ended up following her home all the way to her doorstep. This scared her and after the incident, my wife’s friend learned that this is not a safe thing to do in England and from that day she ignored the approaches of strange men.

I do hope that if the OP visits or is in Thailand that he receives the same reaction from some annoying Thai person who tries to start a conversation with him and than he can experience what it`s like to be on the receiving end of some loud mouthed holier than thou, bigoted moron.

I’ve been married now for 22 years and it don`t seem a day too long.

Every time I go out about in the town I see all those beautiful girls and instantly fall in love.

Just can’t help it. It`s a chemical thing, our chemicals just mix and than wallop we’re hooked on each other.

Then I start a thinking; I wonder who she’ll be mixing chemicals with tomorrow night, and so I forget all about it and go back home to errr indoors.

Now we have all these young ladies walking about with no bras because of this thief.

They should take revenge and steal this guys underwear, a sort of TIT for tat.