gemguy

If ever there was a country that needed to have every motor vehicle equipped with some kind of a speed limiter then Thailand would be that place.

RIP

57 minutes ago, Flustered said:

A bit too quick to lay the blame on the Canadian. If you watch the video he was the last person to leave the scene and he did not "flee the scene".

 

It was dark and the tuk tuk that saw the people about to do this stupid thing slowed down, the motorbike could not see the people and moved around the tuk tuk. Another tuk tuk almost goes into the back of both of them.

 

The motorcyclist pulls over under full control within 10 metres proving he was not going that fast.

 

The couple must have been out of their minds to just push a child into the oncoming traffic like that.

 

My sympathies are with the child first and the motorcyclist second. No sympathy for the parents who will have to live with this.

Yes ...your description is more accurate

You can not fault the man on the motorcycle.

If you say he can be faulted it is trivial compared to the people bolting across the street with a baby in a baby carriage.

Unfortunately what you see in the video is a common occurrence here in Thailand but we simply do not hear about how many accidents are caused under the same or similar circumstance.

One of the reasons I really have no desire to drive in Thailand while I prefer my Taxi Chauffer to d the driving ...although I know I am also at risk with the crazy taxi drivers...lol

Geez ..BS if there ever was....you can CLEARYLY see a car pulling over in front of the motorcycle while the motorcycle went AROUND THE CAR THAT WAS PULLING OVER AND STAYED IN HIS LANE, THE SAME LANE, AND DID NOT (OVERTAKE ANY VEHICLE ) WHAT SO EVER

THEN, YOU CLEARLY SEE THE CAR THAT WAS PULLING OVER SLOWED DOWN AND ALMOST CAME TO A STOP ......THEN THE PARENTS WITH THE BABY AND CARRAIGE MADE A QUICK MOVE TO START TO CROSS THE STREET AND SUDDENLY, THEY ARE CONFRONTED WITH THE MOTORCYCLE ..IN THE SAME LANE, NOT THE OTHER LANE AND CLEARING PAST THE CAR THAT WAS PULLING OVER.

I can not see anything at all the monocycle driver did that was or could be considered illegal or dangerous or reckless...NOTHING AT ALL

The video clearly shows who is a fault and caused the accident.

Other than the guy leaving the seen, the video clearly proves his innocence up till he left the scene.

Geez ..the evidence is plain to see but he still is held at fault.

Thailand...such a disappointment..... so often.

Opportunist abound and hang about like vultures ready to pounce and extort some money... some how someway.

Cheers

Mr. Wit probably is attached to the police in some way and some how and all part of the sad ruse they perpetrate.

Good chance the victim is telling his sad story to one of the police officers who is in on the ruse and part of the deception.

Now I could be wrong ...but meantime.....someone tell me why exactly I would be thinking like that after living in Thailand for 28 years

I wonder why I would be thinking like that....?

Hmmm ...let us count the reasons why...lol

Cheers

22 hours ago, tropo said:

It doesn't matter what you want to call the weapons they used. If they have been serious about killing him, they could have managed quite well with what they had.

 

The Canadian would have been smart to hand over the gold necklace and wish them well. What was he thinking? How stupid was that?- an unarmed 68-year-old gent going after 2 knife/blade wielding Thais. 

 

 

IF...as in if ......you where confronted with a machete or large knife or a gun, then Yeah, I am certain most people would back off and just cooperate as that wold be the smart thing to do.

However, if the altercation begins with an attempt to snatch the purse and or valuables and there is no weapon observed in the beginning of the criminal action, but part way through the resistance to the criminal action the perpetrator(s) quickly pull out a weapon and faster than you realise and quicker than you can back off.....well...you will most like get hurt even if you were now trying to get away from the nut case that is seemingly hell bent on hacking at you with crazy rage.

But definitely, if some desperate individual or nut case for that matter is waving a large knife or machete in your face or in very close proximity and threatening to use it while attempting to snatch your hand bag or what ever...then best to just throw them the bag or hand over what ever they are trying to snatch.

Possibly, they may have been attacked at the same time being robbed and had no choice really and suddenly forced to turn defensive before he had a chance to distance himself from the nut case brandishing a deadly weapon. 

"It all happened so fast"..... is usually included in the explanation as to "what happened" 

Cheers

To Lodgy and his Wife.

Sorry to hear about your demise as it seems, in a sense , you were at the wrong place at the wrong time considering you have never encountered any problems such as you encountered on that particular evening.

May I offer a little bit of advice and a dash of constructive criticism.

You mentioned that you have been coming to Thailand for a good number of years and now living in Thailand for many years...correct?

I am curious to know: Do you or your wife speak Thai with any fluency???

If not and that is the case then I highly recommend you and your wife learn to speak the language because it makes a big difference.

Of course you are not obligated to learn one word if you are not interested....AND...... it should not make a difference concerning being ripped off and or assaulted.......but...... it does... it does...in this country.

When you do learn the language and speak the language with a degree of fluency ...you will dramatically lower your chances of being taken for a ride and or ripped off when you can speak to them in their language while they know...... that you KNOW.

As they often say. Farang Lroo Muck ...( Foreigner Knows Too Much ) and what it really means is: We can not so easily BS this person or these people or certainly not too much or decide just don't go there, so to speak and leave them alone and attempt to pull the nasty BS on other Farang that obviously are at a big disadvantage when they do not speak Thai.  

Again...Speaking Thai does not make you totally immune to any of their BS and the possible run around you could encounter with all too many of them and especially in Bar districts and entertainment districts where alcohol is being served...but it certainly does makes a difference when you ask them straight out what is the price of a drink and show me the menu and speak AT THEM and let them know you know the score by way of speaking their language while anything you have to say is said in their language and do not speak English..at all......unless you do not know some of the words while you do not have to know every single word for word...lol

Just enough to impress upon them you are not to be judged as a person that can be taken advantage of because of misunderstandings in the "language department" that they often use as the reason to pull a fast one on you while they can speak English well enough to have an advantage over you in such situations.

Some may agree and others may not ...but it is always prudent to learn the local language if you can so there are less "misunderstandings"

Cheers

2 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

gemguy

George C Scott as Moredicai(sorry if spelling wrong)The flim flam man, what a great movie.Thanx for the memory.

Well...Hopefully some of the other TV members might actually watch the film and actually comprehend the meaning of it...maybe...but probably not...probably not...lol

Cheers

4 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

The sad part about all this,is, that the Thai shysters think they invented the three card trick.In counties in Europe and the continental, USA we were performing these scams long before they were born.You get a couple of likely lads from say, the East end of London, or Hells kitchen NY,and they know the score.But the Thai ignorance of the outside world prevents them from knowing that we know the game.We might have come straight over on a plane, but we 'aint come straight off the boat.

Absolutely correct.

The number 1 country for scams, rips offs, frauds, con men, "Flim Flam Men", Ponzi schemes etc. and a long, long  list of such orchestrated types of fraud based criminal activities and perpetrated in relative widespread abundance is.......You guessed it ..the USA ...hands down wins the crowning achievement award.

Once upon a time ...my friend and myself went into one of the rip off bars that have the "surprise, extra price" for a special show that they attach to the drink bill and try to charge you say 2000 or 3000 or 5000 baht or more....and some people get taken for 10,000 baht or more if it is group of say 5 or 6 tourist people that they recognise as fresh off the plane and ripe for the picking....Bonanaza!!!

After 1 drink each at 150 baht each we asked for the bill and the bill is presented and the bill is 3000 baht ( 300 baht for 2 drinks and 2700 baht for special show )

I am telling them in Thai language I / We are not going to pay for the 2700 baht special show and told them I will pay for the cost of the 2 drinks at 150 baht each and give them a tip of 100 baht for 400 bath total.

Then we are surrounded by 4 guys and the 2 bars girls and the Mamasan  insisting we pay.

Knowing how it could get ugly I / we just sat there and patiently kept on telling them I would give them 400 baht ...take it or leave it while the lot of them stared us down with angry expressions on their face while verbally trying to intimidate us.

Finally after continually speaking Thai to them they told us to get out and Fxxx off and the usual aggressive show they put on.

When we stepped outside and went down the stairs while the bar boys were shouting at us and berating us as part of their routine

 Myself and my friend stood there for about 10 seconds deciding were else to go and  then...a police car starts to cruise by and had to slow down and stop while trying to squeeze past us in the narrow Soi ...

So, I tapped on the passenger side window and the one police officer rolls down the window and asks me what I want and I tell him that this bar here ......yes...this bar right here...... tried to cheat us.

The police officer says : And then????.......So I told him they tried to cheat us by trying to charge us 3000 baht and tried to intimidate us and start a fight with us to make us pay the bill.

Then, the other officer leans over and says: "How much did they try to charge you"  and I said 3000 baht

The one officer looks over at the other officer and says something I did not quite hear and then the both of them laugh for a few seconds and then the police officer on the passenger side rolls up the window and the driver backs up and off they go.

My friend is confused and asks me what I said and I told him what I said and he says: "Maybe they did not understand you"...... and I said they did understand but when they asked how much money was involved  and I told them 3000 baht they laughed and drove off.

My friend is still confused and said: "Why did they laugh when you told them 3000 baht....???

So I had to explain to my friend: "It is Small Money"...Not enough money to interest them.

My friend is still confused while I had to explain to him that had I told them they ripped us off for say 10,000 baht or 15,000 Baht then that amount of money would have been worthy of their attentions...but only 3000 baht is not interesting enough for them while they have more important money matters to take care.

Finally he understood ...but said: Hmmmm......should have exaggerated the amount and told them 15,000 baht to get their attentions and stir up some trouble and a little bit of pay back.....lol

1992 ...Pat Pong Road....

Cheers       

I figure the lesson learned is: After such an ugly incident best to be prepared for the worse and best advised to carry a can of pepper spray or better yet a 10,000 volt stun gun with you for occasion such as that.

Just imagine the surprised look on that woman's face when she is pepper sprayed or stun gunned after viciously assaulting someone.

Love to see "that" on video and for the record...lol 

Cheers

13 hours ago, robblok said:

If they make 15 to 20.000 after expenses they make quite a lot many Thais don't make that and they should be grateful for it and stop with the attitude. I know university graduates that make just 18k a month. 

Nope........that is before expenses....

None of them make much money while you will notice a lot of them are older guys in their 60's and 70's and can not afford to stop working.

Plus there are a lot more taxi cabs now than there were before because of all the automobile manufacturing while many of them have lease to buy arrangements resulting in many more fleet cab operations then ever before all competing to make money.

Some aspects have grown worse and some aspects have become better...such as the price of fuel is lower than before and the cost to rent the cab per day has gradually gone down.

But overall, taxi cabbing has never paid any really good money ..say 30 to 40 to 50 baht a month ..so they are more o less stuck in a rut if they choose to be cab driver or forced by financial circumstance to try being a taxi cab driver.

Just saying ...   

"Funny though, in 35 years of living in the city I can’t remember every really meeting a nasty one."

Nasty is the Incorrect description concerning SOME of the Bangkok Taxi drivers

"Surly" is the correct word while SOME of them "turn" nasty depending on the circumstances.

I use Taxis all the time and I would estimate with about 20 to possibly 30 percent of the taxi drivers I can immediately detect an attitude, so to speak, when you get into the cab and all the more so after you tell them where you are going.

You can see or feel they are reluctant to take you were you tell them as commonly the distance and the route and the inevitable heavy traffic is going to test their patience.

I do not blame them as being a taxi cab driver is not exactly a job that most people would want to do while most of them are doing it because they really do not have that many options available to them while you can surmise the overwhelming majority of them are not university graduates or highly educated and come from a poor or relatively poor background and just trying to make enough money to make ends meet...like most other people.

They fight the traffic everyday for 10 to 12 to 16 hours per day hoping to make enough money.

Most of them I talk to inform me on the average they make around 15 to 20,000 baht a month while they never really know how much while on some days they make 100 baht profit...when they calculate the day by day profit and some days they make 600 baht profit.

A percentage of them choose to purchase and own their own cab and some lease the cab but most of them rent the cab on a day to day basis and commonly pay between 500 to as much as 800 baht per day to rent the cab and depending on whether the cab is a new cab or a old cab.

I do not think they have a whole lot to look forward to when they "Go To Work" everyday while they know well their status in a hierarchical based society garners very little respect or sympathy for the work they do and the service they provide....so yeah...I guess some of them get frustrated with their life and their situation and occasionally "lose it"  

Overall , most of them are more than cheerful enough and gladly take you where you request them to go and will engage you in conversation.........( if ) you can speak "their" language.

Cheers

Hmmmm...Remind me why I do not drink...lol

Well now....we all know that when it comes to nighttime entertainment activities most party hardy types of people have 2:00 AM on their mind as the usual time to go home or start heading home while others are wanting to stay up until 4 AM as part of their party hardy routine.

However, it seems that an extra 2 hours, until 4: 00 AM is like double the trouble as more people get all the more drunk and unruly and more bad things happening.

Just ask the police officers about what time the really crazy stuff happens. ....

Usually, well after midnight.

Cheers

16 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

The Deerhunter

"Interestingly enough lady drinks are always dearer than the ones you buy for yourself"

Do you know why that is? Its because the girl gets a share of the top up.We used to charge 30baht on top of any drink bought for a girl.Just 30 baht.That's a good price.No matter what drink you bought the girl,it was never more than 30 baht,on what ever you paid.
Dont forget,these bar girls get piss poor wages,and they will have a drink with you,because you have instigated the companionship. They dont really want the drink,they want the 30 baht to top up their earnings,which they get at the end of the night.If 30 baht is a problem for you,then you really should be staying away from bars.It's a common practice, and if you dont know that, then you have a lot to learn.

Geez ...in some Go Go Bars they charge me 120 to 160 baht for a bottle of water.

It is almost like an entrance fee in that respect, but I do not sweat it.

In some hostess bars they charge you 40 baht and others only 20 baht and in some beer bars 20 baht to 60 or even 80 baht

It is the PRICE you pay for the entertainment....and that is the price you pay.

I wish it was 20 baht in the Go Go bars  ...but it is not, while nearly every place has the cost of drinks and beverages posted somewhere  obvious or you can ask about the cost first or ask for a drink menu and prices seen on the menu but if you have been here for a long enough time you know most places charge more than you would rather pay ..but pay you do..... to sit there and entertain yourself...... or be entertained.

Either way, places of entertainment are going to charge you more than you would like to pay while the prices of drinks are not negotiable....but other things are...lol

But Sinchai does not have rose tinted specs - he accepted that the resort has got the sex image for good reason and this has been going on for many many years.

About 50 years...

Is that the same as many, many years???...lol

Hmmmm...people having sex and exchanging money ..or some exchanging money before the sex.

Seeing as it can not be eliminated completely I personal think they are doing a pretty good job of trying to regulate it......all things considered while we really do not want to be criminalizing the act of sex just because exchanging money is the basis of the sexual interaction and transaction.

Without the monetary transaction the act of sex is considered acceptable...right?

10 hours ago, maryell said:

Let me put this straight to all of you. I am now known as 'the woman in the white dress'. We had 1 drink only in that bar as I cheked the bin as soon as it was put on the table. She charged us 350bht for a vodka and tonic .For a drink in an ordinary street bar that is outrageous. Our other drinks were also well overpriced. We had words with her over the bill, PAID IT IN FULL and went to leave. She then produced another pot with a bin in it( not the pot on our table) and wanted more money. We refused to pay more as seeing her prices on the 1st bin there wasn't any way we would order more. She lost it when I said I wanted tourist police at the bar. The 711 story is a load of nonsense. The only comment made about anything like that was I live here I know what things cost. To charge 70bht in a small bar for a coke or tonic is well out of order. As if anyone with half a brain expects to pay convenience store price in a joke. We are happy with the help we are getting from the Thai police. My partner didn't even want to report it. It was me that made him go there. This crazy behaviour cannot be allowed in Thailand. I have many Thai friends and they are disgusted by this incident. She needed reporting, as I wouldn't like to see her get away with it again. Next time, it could leave someone with a permanent injury or worse. For those people who have given us your support we want to say 'thank you'.

 

I have always said: It would be great if the police would agree to allow you to have 10 minutes in an isolated jail cell with the perpetrator and "settle the score"

Heck...most people would be willing to pay say, 1000 baht ( or more ) to the police to have 10 minutes with A-Holes like that and settle the score.

Cheers

Lured to Thailand...I like that ...sounds devious...Lured to Thailand...

And then ..and then, after 1 week in Thailand and all the FUN to be had the silly Muslims could easily recognise the error of their ways and never want to go back to living their ridiculous  Muslim / Islamic lifestyle ever again.

Thank you Thailand ...Thank you Buddha....lol

Well....let me speculate a little here.

More than likely the woman has had to deal with more than a few people that run up a tab and then refuse to pay and argue over small money.

Thing is, there is a very good possibility that the woman padded the bill and the man realised he was being over charged and refused to pay the overcharged amount while she claims he refused to pay the whole bill.

It looks like she lost patience with the guy and started to beat on him and that is when he walked away so he would not get beat on anymore......but clearly looks like he is doing a walker, not a runner, while he is obviously drunk and acting stupid thinking he can just walk away without settling the bill...even if it was padded.

Meantime the bitch should be arrested for assault and charged as such regardless of how upset she was.

However, you have to remember....she is the one held responsible for the lose of money if the bill is not paid so it is her job to make sure all money is collected and probably has to get aggressive all too often with drunken bozos who "belligerently" argue over their bill and try not to pay or try to pay less than the correct amount because they forget how many drinks they actually did consume.

I think many of us have witnessed just that...and occurring either way... 

Cheers

Maybe he did not get the daily dose of Ya Ba in time and was highly agitated.

The passenger did not slam the trunk closed....not at all.

Just another angry taxi driver with attitude while there are plenty of them out and about.

What to do...what to do??

Hmmmmm.....I have lived here for 28 years now....

I do not feel Thai at all while Thai people know I am not Thai....obviously ....lol

Is there something I am doing wrong???

Maybe the color of my skin and the color of my eyes restricts me from being like Thai people in many respects.

I am not so sure if things like eating Thai food and speaking Thai language and doing the Thai Wai to Thai people makes me like a Thai person...certainly not in the eyes of Thai people.

Besides......sooner or later .....You learn you can never be like a Thai person while the Thais will never really accept you as being like a Thai person no matter how much you "emulate" them and or their mannerisms and or their persona and or their conduct and or their Thai decorum etc, etc ....because you will never think like them and or  fully understand the way they think or certainly not agree with the way think on all too many matters  ....so why try to be like them......as you were not born as a Thai person.

Just be who you are.....lol

However, they do appreciate the effort and the sincerity when seen to be emulating them in many ways and that is for certain....

Meantime... going with the flow is just sensible and logical and should be enjoyable while everything entailed to emulate the Thai people should be comfortable for you and not something you believe has to be done..... or you will not be happy here.

Cheers 

I think they need more troops.......not enough troops for that particular  "Felonious Monk"...lol

The usual...

Just happened to a different person.....

Hmmmm....they could have a made a porn film while they were there.

Just a thought....lol