Shaunduhpostman

This article presents nothing other than dismissive, whiny, nastiness using acceptably polite language. I wonder how the publishers or the author would like it if we all just disappeared? Just you guys and the junta and only your nice Chinese tourists for company. Something tells me you would not like that either.

Foreigners are human beings not Hollywood celluloid come to life. Just because they don't conform to stock cartoon-like naive preconceptions doesn't mean they are all worthless and should be written off. Like the locals we all have our flaws but we are not all alcoholics, homeless people, and criminals. If Thais don't want us here because we are just bad apples, then they need to take responsibility and bar us from all but 2 week holidays. If we are nothing more than a problem as the article suggests, then the publication needs to suggest solutions instead of backing down and slinking off. Otherwise what is the point of this rather banal caterwaul anyway?

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of the word heat is, if 41 degrees isn't hot, ok, it isn't hot in Thailand and maybe it never will be. We could just say Thailand is a lovely cool country with no deserts and where people feel uncomfortable in April perhaps because the clouds clear a bit and remind people of the existence of a blazing ball of fire in the sky and it is that that makes them think they are hot.

I was there two weeks ago, I did not make a copy of my Laos visa and they never asked for a copy and I got my 1 year multi marriage without a problem. even if they ask the photocopy shop is right there next to the consulate.

One tip is going half an hour to 45 minutes after the consulate opens their doors. The Indian guy running the guesthouse where i stayed recommended doing that to avoid the often unpleasant queuing in front of the door. He was right, there were only two people ahead of me at the window and no mobs to stand around in the sun with. Same for visa collection, going a little while after they open and its so much more relaxed and stress free.

I really liked staying at Pilgrim Kitchen guest house. Opened just 5 months ago and clean, cheap and very friendly, tho a clear backpacker vibe that some on here don't like. Excellent reasonably priced food from the kitchen. They've done a nice job of renovating an old French colonial house so quit nice and great location near the square where there is now a fairly good night market and place to stroll around in the evening. Its far from the consulate, but right in central Savanakhet. The manager will call a samlor to take you out to the consulate and its below the sidewalk rates, good guy too, he'll wait for you and take you back to the guesthouse. The rooms are 800 baht/night for the huge rooms, 500 or 600 for much smaller rooms.

I was eating too many myself recently. In my own case I just decided to stop buying them. If they aren't immediately available, I won't think about eating them and that leads to actually not eating them. There are a lot of healthy but delicious substitutes that will satisfy your need to eat and if those are in your fridge then you will switch to them. Fresh juices are amazingly filling I have found. Even small amounts of cheese are going to be nutritionally more beneficial than chips even if high in fat. Crackers work as well and even the worst of those, made with refined white flour are probably healthier than chips.

He's so clever. He tricked us all. Now we will have to pay. Give him his own monument, a national hero.

The bar worker's behavior at the copper's coop doesn't really help his credibility that the customer was just another no good person who comes to Thailand and thinks he doesn't have to pay for drinks. Sigh....

Of course I wasn't there and don't know what happened, but being overcharged, double charged happens in one out of three bars I've visited in the last year in Bangkok. Wouldn't surprise me if Pattaya wasn't much of the same. Usually I can talk my way out of being overcharged, but it is really hard to keep a lid on your outrage when that doesn't work and they won't back down and if you don't back down and politely, you know what will happen.

It all defeats the purpose of going out for a nice time because it isn't nice anymore, pretty nasty the whole scene, if you ask me. Need to stay away, speaking for myself anyway.

Bernie's on a roll. Big upset win over Hillary in the Michigan primary a few nights ago and this debate in Miami was arguably the soundest thrashing he has given Hillary yet. She could do little to nothing to defend herself on her ties to Wall Street which he finally went after with no holds barred. It seemed to have worked, Sanders seemed to have converted quite a few of the Miami debate audience by the end, the 50/50 support sounding crowd at the beginning sounded more like 80/20 in support of Sanders by the end of the debate. His opening statement was really strong as well, he said what he wanted to do as president convincingly and with passion, like someone on a mission whereas Hillary blandly used the opening statement slot to thank the sponsors.

My wild guess as to what is really going on with this is that someone important is probably angry at the owner of the bar and decided to cause him to lose face and business by making a big scene. Seems sending 100 cops down to one bar is a bit much, as though they are trying to make sure as many people as possible see some kind of commotion. No skin off the police's teeth to drag a wagon load of tourists and inncocent bystanders down with the bar owner. I hope everybody brought their passports with them!

You think afluenza will cause you to commit crimes, wait till you have a case of poverfluenza.

"Judge Judy, the guy conned those people out of their life savings because of a sickness called poverfluenza. That sickness can only arise in people who feel they lack enough money and lack the means to get the money otherwise than to take it from others. Your honor, it is sickness, not a crime, and I would like to ask you and the jury to dismiss the charges, so that my client may take a long vacation in Hawaii or Thailand and recover his mental health and once again begin to respect other people's money and property."

Yet another item that should be included in a yet to be conceived of pamphlet distributed at immigration counters at airports nationwide warning tourists upon entry to the fabled kingdom about what to do and not do in Thailand to avoid trouble. Suggestion to tourists would be to make sure to change large bills at 7-11's and other franchises that hold their employees to more familiar international standards such as the notion that there is an obligation to return change to customers. It happens to me occasionally that merchants don't return my change. Usually markets, taxis or bars in my experience, bars being by far the worst because you never know some do and some don't taxis at least you can count on to not being open to changing large bills. There was a supermarket in my neighborhood in Bangkok that would list satang on their prices but refuse to accept or return satang in change. Again, its the notion that you as a customer are second to the shop and their workers in the pecking order and are open season. Punch them for their transgressions and you are asking to die, so better to take pre-emptive action and have change and be prepared to control your sense of indignation and outrage, you are entitled to nothing as a paying customer, not even the goods you've paid for let alone anything resembling service.

It's a good idea to get in the habit of trying to cash your 1000 baht bills even though you have exact change at places such as 7-11 or S&P bakeries and I am sure there are other places that can not only be trusted to return your change but don't seem to mind cashing 1000 baht notes and have more than 1000 baht change on hand. But it is amazing how many shops don't even have 1000 baht in change in their till, tho most will tell you that and ask you to wait until thy get more change from next door. Taxis almost never change, so you just don't get in them unless you have a wad full of 20's, 50's 100's and coins. Something to that effect really needs to be in some kind of TAT warning to tourists if they really are sincerely regretting the 54% surge in tourist deaths and want to do something about it. It wouldn't surprise me if a few of the taxi driver kills or beats foreigner to a pulp incidents happen over this not having change routine.

Not sure any figures would be meaningful, I doubt there has been nor is there now any coordinated systematic effort to actually keep track of who has died. What is in it for anyone, face or money? Don't mean to be cynical, but I haven't noticed that anyone's life particularly matters in Thailand, unless you are some kind of vip or what have you.

We just put in some rubber adhesive strips that seal door and window cracks, seems to have helped. Several of our neighbors have charcoal making operations, that plus the usual copious plastic burning and its clean your air indoors or die. I feel like I now have a refuge. I really like Daikin air conditioners, they are more expensive but way more reliable than the Japanese and Korean brands and the Daikins also claim to have air filtration, seems to me this also helps a lot as the air coming in through them never smells like smoke or chemicals.

I think I get your point as I have noticed the same thing out here in Isaan. What you are talking about is more than just noise. Unless you are a veteran of front line combat, most people on this forum have not yet encountered anything as loud in their lives as what we get in our village since about a year ago. No exaggeration. Earplugs are like a anthill facing a tsunami. There are now some newer extremely high powered amps and speakers rented out or sold to various people who want to have a big party. The volume has literally has contributed to the deaths of two people, according to people in our village, a new born infant and an old woman and maybe more as they just carry on and have new parties with the same lethally loud speakers, in fact the Amphur office are the worst offenders. Imagine having a large jet plane parked in the middle of a tiny village firing all engines for 9-15 hours. They are using sound systems meant for very loud concerts and very large stadiums for backyard sized parties. If there are some international health organizations who might read this and that might be interested to have a look and write about the new enormous levels of loud noise weapons systems being deployed against the Thai peasantry and probably people in many other countries world wide please do, no doubt most of the children in my village are suffering massive hearing loss and probably internal organ damage.

The more this happens the more people will start buying, carrying and if necessary deploying pepper spray. A shot of that to the face ought to drive home the difference between a video game and reality.

Last I read, all the major US presidential candidates from both parties say they are against it and it is a bad idea. I don't trust that their election year stances will necessarily stick, probably Bernie could most counted on to not change his anti TPP stance, as for Trump or Clinton, I find it dubious that they are saying they don't want it, doesn't seem consistent considering who they are and who they seem to stand for.

One of the purported excuses, as I understand it is to present a unified trading block against China. Thailand would have to do an about face from their current trajectory. They wouldn't like ceding all of their authority to an anonymous international entity either. Though I suppose they could just sign it and kick and scream later when they run into whatever problems they would face.

Hopefully, we never wake to see the day that the TPP or the sister agreement with Europe is actually in place. I have a feeling we will have to fight this and other similar "agreements" off for a long long time.

Yeah agreed, Soi Cowboy gets a decisive thumbs down now from me as of last holdiay season, I need to not go there anymore after years of rationalizing that the place wasn't that bad. It even smells horrific down there, like dried squid and rancid grease or something.

Well, to quote Blue Oyster Cult, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," down on Soi Cowboy these days, or anywhere in the world it would seem. In fact, much worse than that, you are, or maybe I should speak for myself, semi-asking for semi-abuse to go to So Cowboy these days or any of the gogo bars in Bangkok for that matter. I need to face the music and just decide not to go there any more. I can use the coin I save from not going there to say buy some books or a nice bottle of wine I can sit and enjoy with my wife and the dogs. I am probably just now a bit too old and fat for them to want to look at me anymore anyway and I had always thought as a young man going to the bars in Cowboy etc. that I didn't want to trouble anyone when I got to looking like the iguana in Mami Poko diapers that I am getting to look like now. Though I rarely feel the need to go down there at this point and much happier to not even live in Bangkok at all any more. The whole town has become pretty charmless in general and Soi Cowboy or Nana are no exception. The heavier police presence on the soi really doesn't help either. There's that big police helmet kiosk where they sometimes sit and which is one of the first things to greet you as you walk into the soi from Asok, or you can see the cops sauntering up and down the soi or sometimes standing around in a big pack in the shadows towards the Dutch restaurant end of the soi. Welcome to Soi Police Helmet, sir! How relaxing and reassuring. At Nana they have a table where the cops call random people over for ID checks. Just what the doctor ordered, lets go out for a night on the town and good old fashioned hassle! The new Hooters, to me anyway, is nothing more than a big orange sign that screams: Game over! Isn't Hooters run by Mormons or something? Perhaps I am confusing it for the Safeway supermarket chain, both places have about just as much appeal when you are on a night out in Bangkok. So cool!

Really not a nice atmosphere at all, inside and out in either Cowboy or Nana. It just gets comedic sometimes, last time i was in Cowboy, several months ago at around Christmas, there was a huge pack of 20 or so Muslim fundamentalist men, turbaned and bearded, not particularly enjoying themselves and pointing around and discussing something. I kid you not. They looked like they were interested in redesigning one of the bar fronts. The leader of the pack looking up at one of the bar signs and tracing and diagramming various lines and rectangles and circles and most of the rest of them rapt and listening, engrossed in envisoning what he was planning. I commented to an old hostess who was standing out front of her bar and watching them, "Maybe they clear soi Cowboy with bomb!" She laughed and said, "Yeah, maybe! Haha! Good! Haha!" I told my story to some random guy who was having a beer out front as was I and he said, "Oh yeah...yeah they like to do that. They like to come down here and get a reaction, act like they are going to blow the place up or take it over or something. You and I come down here to drink and they can't do that, so that's their holiday fun and entertainment to try get a reaction from people." Hilarious.

Out of the 10 or so trips I made down to the bar areas in 2015, I was double charged at two different bars, screamed/shrieked at by a hostess because I wouldn't go back in a second time and be entertained by her doing not much more than being pushy with me about drinks, "You never buy me anything in here anyway!" She was enraged that i would cite her attitude as to why I didn't want to go back in and sit with her again and endure more of her tedious shenanigans. At Nana I was screamed at by a doorman who looked ready to kill me over nothing, over having the audacity to want to enter his bar I guess, never seen the man in my life, "You can't come in! You never buy drinks in here! You always just come in and sit and not buy a drink!" Completely untrue, I patronzed the place for years, never any problems, don't know how a person could possibly go into a gogo bar and not buy drinks anyway, that's in violation to some kind of law of physics, if I am not mistaken. Even if it were true, it would be the wait staff's fault for letting me sit there without ordering anything, would it not? No, I'm not a sucker, so no, maybe I don't buy drinks for five bar girls and three of their friends, so sue me, or kill me as it seemed they wanted to do actually. The doorman and the two other guys had that look like they were in the wind up phase to pounce and beat someone to a pulp, over nothing, which it would seem they are perfectly entitled to do. Glad I had the wherewithal to just walk away from the situation, despite feeling it was a complete outrage to be treated like I was some kind of criminal and really a scapegoat for all their problems trying to survive in an increasingly untenable business climate. Wonderfull! I'll be right down again next month when i am in Bangkok for more of the same! Another place in Nana last year sort of innocently and blamelessly assumed it would be OK to put three drinks on my tab, the girl's bargirl number and all written right next to the drink for some girl who was sitting on another customer's lap, whom I hadn't even so much as noticed until I asked whose drinks on my tab these were. The girl I had bought drinks for was incredulous, "But,she's my friend!" "Did you ask me if I would buy drinks for your friend over there?" "No." To their credit, I suppose, that was good enough and all agreed to take the drinks off the bill, but it was kind of unpleasant and I'll never go in there again, a place I used to enjoy visiting and I am sure I am completely persona non-grata anyway even if i did want to continue to shovel money into the maw of a bar that probably asks the girls to say that drinks from a padded bill were deliberately put on there to be nice to a friend, just to try and sort of take the edge off the audacity of it.

The bars clearly just need to raise their prices again. Nobody seems to be happy in Soi Cowboy or Nana with what they are getting out of it all. But I think they need to raise their prices astronomically, say another 100-200 percent, pronto. As it stands, they seem to feel that they have to resort to being dishonest or threatening to get their needs met. I'd rather all their cards just be all out on the table, as to how much money they expect to get from customers, but no that ain't gonna happen. Still I'd like it if they would just make it 300 baht for a beer for happy hour only, 800 baht for a lady cola or tequila, 5000 baht bar fine and maybe 500 baht admission charge and 50 baht to use the toilet and an automatic 10 percent service charge and 7% VAT added to each bar tab. That way people who want a reasonable night out will be warned off, and those like me who find it hard to just altogther say goodbye to old friends who have made a wrong turn and are no longer healthy or even safe to be around will be prevented from doing so by th prohibitive costs and those wealthy holdayers that do venture in to Soi Police Man will be met by cheerful well paid and prosperous bar staff making 60,000 baht per month. .

What we believe or anyone believes is besides the point. What is the law?

What is Thailand's responsibility as per international agreements?

Also, do the various countries who issue passports consider it a serious matter or not if police hold passports. The passports belong to the various govrnments who issue them so thy are the ones who should be looking after matters.

Mitchell was not only one of a handful of people to walk on the moon, but was tremendously courageous to be open with the world about his transformational experiences aboard Apollo 14 that lead to insight regarding the nature of consciousness and to share with us information he had privy to via his many high level contacts regarding the reality of extraterrestrial contact. Mitchell, also, strangely, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico and was living in the town at the time of the alleged crash. Again because of his stature and the respect he garnered, some of the people involved in the Roswell incident, including the rancher who found the strange debris, confided with Edgar and he was kind enough to come forward and say what happened was real without a doubt and that there is a cover up in his opinion.

This video, most of which is his response to questions on the alien issue gives you a good idea of Mitchell, a true 21st century man with his ideas about the need for humans to get their act together and reach out for the stars and become a decent upstanding member of the advanced civilizations that make up the galactic community:

I went to one optical shop in Emporium last year that inexplicably gave me free arms to my glasses. I tried to pay anyway and they wouldn't have it. But I'd rather just have normal and good service every where I went in Thailand rather than amazing service at a few places and complete dysfunction most everywhere else. One of my peeves is going into a shop and there appears to be nobody in the place. In America you'd expect that people would just start stealing everything in sight if after 10 minutes nobody appears to be there. Of course you'd likely be beaten to death by staff if tried that here. So, you have to nice and let them not pay any attention and you quietly leave unable to buy what you came to buy.

People come to Thailand and can stay of their own free accord and will and of course people need to take care of due diligence and see what problems may arise for themselves while in Thailand. There's no lack of info about the myriad problems people encounter here as tourists, ex-pats, and retirees etc. That said, with the atmosphere currently, that of arbitrary arrests, and certain strata allowed to rip off, kill and rape foreigners with impunity, Thailand really has to be scrutinized as a whole whether they have any business extending invitations to the world inviting people to come here. They do not seem to want to make minor allowances for guests, nor feel they should reign in their own people who would do harm to their guests.

I predict those who dare to take too much of an interest in sports on television will be next.

"He watch footbawn evyday! Too mutt footbawn! It's a gambling, shoo-ah! Why him watch evvyday then?

It too boring watch all the time you no gambling! Nobody do that!"

Seems to me learning Thai would be a logical next step. It can only widen the pool of ladies that would be of interest to you and it can only add to the list of things that might impress some. When I was your age, I was just this poor dope teaching English and I don't mean to brag but just to give you the honest truth about my situation, I had ladies beating my door down, simply because I had knuckled down and studied and quickly learned to speak Thai pretty well. I was a complete failure with women in California where I grew up and in several other Asian countries I have lived and worked but not so here and it's just as well as find Thai women to be among the most appealing in the world.

Women who don't speak English are going to be far more interested than their English speaking sisters because many of the girls who speak English have already been there and done that with regard to dating foreigners. Non-English speaking girls I found were way more gung ho to get to know me, many of them were thrilled to make their first contact with a foreign guy and that is a really good start to meeting anyone. Maybe things are differnt now than they were 16-20 years ago when I was playing the field, like you are now, in my 30's. I can't imagine that things have gotten that much worse as far as ladies, tho I am sure, there is a higher level of general burn out on foreigners and more xenophobia than there was back in the day. But, I'd bet that still, even today, that If you can hold a conversation in Thai with a girl you are interested in, you are already 70 percent finished and you can get what you want out of the connection, provided you are, as you seem to suggest, reasonably well presented. To many English speaking Thai ladies, it just isn't that interesting in and of itself to met a foreigner. I can't re-call that I have ever done much better than a blase response from girls who have already dated a lot of foreigners. In fact, after 19 years of coming to Thailand and finally moving here I have yet to make any significant connection with any Thai lass who is an English speaker. I have found that they are out of my league and personally I don't trust their motivations to get fluent in English, so in my case the disinterest is mutual. Even now in my 50's there is no shortage of girls in their 20's who seem receptive to being chatted up in Thai, maybe I am just a deluded old goat, but upcountry anyway just chit chat with supermarket clerk or with someone in line gets a lot of smiles and long looks, I don't look like I'm in my fifties by certainly don't look 30's.

I'd enroll in a Thai class, you might make some friends there as well that might help or even be good for dates, who knows. Language institutes often have a lot of cute charming staff working there as well who might be interested in dating you, so it wouldn't be just a matter of lucking out and getting an attractive Thai teacher, probably many of her students are trying to do the same and it won't likely fly.

Also, tho I haven't encountered it much in Thailand, but in some other Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan, doing a language exchange is a viable way of meeting up with ladies for a chat and see if anything clicks on the pretext of getting mutual language speaking practice. There might be some web board with notices from ladies in Bangkok

-maybe Craig's list has something like that- who want to meet up for coffee and English speaking practice as there is in Japan and Taiwan. You don't even have to be looking to practice Thai, many ladies are quite happy just to meet up for coffee for an hour and chat in English, but again, it might make you all that more appealing if you show some Thai ability and interest in learning.

Aside from Thai and dating, and as you can see I bang on quite awhile here, just to mention some of the many things you'll run into learning Thai, as far as actually dealing with Thai language and Thai speakers, a whole unexpected world opens up. While I speak Thai very well, and have for years, I still have problems with all the informal ways that people speak, local dialects, and also have problems with comprehension when the situation is very formal such as at a business meeting or listening to government officials making some proclamation on the news. Also, it's from very hard to impossible to, for example, eavesdrop on conversations between Thais and understand more than about 20 percent of what is being said. There is also the problem that some Thais have where they find they have a mental block as far as a non-Thai speaking Thai, they either cannot or will not understand what you are saying even tho you may speak clearly and correctly, they'll just sit there screwing up their faces saying "Arai-na?". That might sound like I am Thai bashing here, but it is what I have found and can present an obstacle to your confidence in how well you speak. Chances are you speak pretty well and the problem is just with some people who really just don't want to communicate with others period let alone someone with a strange accent and foreign face. But particular problem will only mostly come up with people you don't know well, tho I still have problems with some of my in-laws refusing to understand or listen to what I say, but I've noticed they are that way with Thais as well. Most Thais, especially if they don't know you well, don't deal with your asking them to repeat something you didn't quite catch, they either won't answer any questions or just say forget it, it wasn't important anyway or if you tell them what you think you understood they won't tell you that you didn't understand correctly and will instead just agree to whatever you say you think you understood no matter how off target it is. But if you are Asian, then you will have fewer problems with even the most butchered Thai. In fact, my Japanese English students used to complain that too many Thais would just not accept that they couldn't speak Thai and refuse to speak English and yammer at them in Thai everytime they'd meet up. "My neighbor! He is very nice man! But I tell him why don't speak the English to me? I cannot undrstand you!" Again, the way you look has a lot to do with the way the world turns here. Learning Thai and trying to use it is not exactly straight forward, and there are more than a few Thais who simply will have it out for you just because you speak and understand Thai, as foreigner you are not supposed be able to speak at all, and it seems to be a pet peeve of too many Thais that they really cannot stand having their preconceptions about anything shattered and should you be the one who did them the favor you won't exactly be thanked.

However, once you connect with someone even just a bit, they may be capable and willing to grade their language and will speak a little slower and clearer and drop the idioms and slang and they of course won't do the you-are-a-foreigner-so-speaking-Thai-is-out-of-the-question number and will cooperate regarding clarifications that need to be made about things you aren't understanding 100 percent.

I find that after all has been said and done I feel more confident being able to communicate in Thai than my friends who can't really speak, and that confidence will ceratinly open some doors with the ladies. You can't go wrong putting your nose to the grindstone and studying everyday for an hour or so for a few months, and then having a fun Thai class a few nights a week and then more fun trying to practice your Thai on unsuspecting young ladies of your choosing. I envy you being well off and with a career in your 30's, I'd bet with a good handle on Thai under your belt you'll clean up if you can be a bit forward and extend yourself to any who seem to be interesting that you may happen to meet anywhere.

One that happens to me more than it should, and still kind of blows my mind after many years and happening to me many times is that you will be quickly approaching someone ahead of you, there's plenty of space for you to pass on the left or right but with the person ahead of you still 3-10 feet in front, just as you are making your move to pass, they will move abruptly into your path blocking your way. The person has their back to you and it is unlikely they know you are approaching, especially if you are wearing soft soled shoes, but nevertheless the person in front seems to somehow know someone is coming and that they should now get in your way. It happens far too often for it to be just some fluke and there is no other place in the world, no matter how crowded the city, New York, Seoul, San Francisco, London, where it is ever happened to me that people just routinely and very deliberately walk in front of me when they don't even know I'm there. Used to happen to me about once or twice a month over the decade I spent living in Bangkok. Seems almost symbolic of much of what happens in general daily life in Thailand, that people just try and obstruct and stop others from simply getting from point a to point b. And yes I should stop whingeing and just go back to my country.

No comment is required, their actions and proclamations speak for themselves. They can ban and censor all they like, but as long as their proclamations and actions are made public...

Just don't buy land here. Anyone who tells you you can is scamming you.