The Importance Of Keeping Your Mouth Shut

[girlx]

that is the point of my thread, terry, can you not read? we just had a thread similar to this, where a man was asking if we all thought he should warn a friend about a thai acquaintance. my advice was if he did so, to do it anonymously.

[Robski]

the islands in thailand are lawless.

thais are the most volatile and mercenary people on earth i think.

i think in all of thailand you run the risk.

they are out to get you as they are all wearing masks.

you are all very quick to generalize the population of an entire island.

Shoowa!

[tijnebijn]

You sound like you know it all,girlx.But you get pretty quick heated up yourself.To give a warning how things could be is a good warning.It is not only in Thailand ,on the gili islands ,in the east of Bali(indo).I got robbed and been stolen of everything I had,had no cash nothing anymore,was a not so nice experience back then.There is no police,just the local scumbags who are looking for the next tourist to get robbed(I actually find out they were cooperating with some longterm farang).Happily some other travellers helped me out a bit(english are really generous)to get back to Bali.The islands are lawless cause they are hard to reach,with so many people visiting it,just a matter of time,especially if you think about the alcohol consumptions taken everyday......

Thailand is more then those islands by the way,island people always seem to be a bit 'different'.

[t.s]

while it is NOT beyond belief .....

...it is very common in certain social setting here in Thailand with a very unhealthy mixture of a certain type of foreigners and a certain type of Thais, very often seen to newly booming beach areas.

Yeah! KPG is a newly blooming beach area ........ ignore the years and years of FMP's

and you can ignore the sudden tripling in land values islandwide as well as the influx higher end resorts over the last three years where 100 baht a night bungalow operations used to be.

the full moon party is limited to haadrin.

[t.s]

well thanks for the advice but these are not my friends, and i don't get involved with them, and i don't have these problems. i am relating the problems of someone else.

You need to expand your horizons of Thailand beyond the Rasta Cabana Boyz of Koh Phangnan.

you need to pay a visit to koh phangan so you know what you are talking about. there are no rasta boys here in TNPY whatsoever, and i don't associate with any of the beach boys. you are all very quick to generalize the population of an entire island.

no mafia either... uh huh right. generalizing about the population of a lawless and mercenary island? why do those words sound familiar?

[jdinasia]

well thanks for the advice but these are not my friends, and i don't get involved with them, and i don't have these problems. i am relating the problems of someone else.

You need to expand your horizons of Thailand beyond the Rasta Cabana Boyz of Koh Phangnan.

you need to pay a visit to koh phangan so you know what you are talking about. there are no rasta boys here in TNPY whatsoever, and i don't associate with any of the beach boys. you are all very quick to generalize the population of an entire island.

huh? wasn't he replying to your generalization about a whole country? and haven't you generalized kpg already?

[jdinasia]

the islands in thailand are lawless.

thais are the most volatile and mercenary people on earth i think.

i think in all of thailand you run the risk.

they are out to get you as they are all wearing masks.

you are all very quick to generalize the population of an entire island.

Shoowa!

:D

[Aujuba]

Be careful of course. I don't get involved with drugs or mafia types in Thailand. I agree with your message. But it looks like a lot of people here accept life on their knees. As for you friend girlx I feel very sorry for her. If she's a foreigner didn't her story make the newspaper? If my friend were to go to jail for a crime I knew he or she didn't commit, I would have to think of a way to get revenge on the people who put him in jail. I'm totally for revenge against criminals. I would never do anything to bring attention to my friend or myself in the process of getting revenge. Criminals don't need to to be told why they suffer; they know.

I can't accept an innocent person in jail especially a friend! The pigs in Thailand who make the innocent suffer deserve death. If they are not confronted they will continue to destroy the lives and hope of the innocent.

[soundman]

I think this thread has a lot in common with the recent "street smarts" thread. That's one part of being street smart - knowing when to keep your mouth shut.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[CHdiver]

I don't have any (knowingly) contact to drug dealers or other typ of mafia members. So I should be safe. Your advise count's for people who like to stay around criminals. I think Criminals act the same all around the world, maybe will not set you up with drugs, just shoot you. They may not do that here, because set you up with drugs will do the job perfectly.

Girlix; you probably hang out with the wrong people. I highly advise you to think about that.

[Luckydog]

well i am attracted to the islands and the islands in thailand are lawless. anyone who stays here long term will eventually run into a situation like this. like i said i learned this lesson awhile ago, and i don't get involved with the mafia locals. it still really scares me how easily you can have a problem here based on so little. thais are the most volatile and mercenary people on earth i think. it's not just my group of friends here, or the locals on this island, or this region of the country- i think in all of thailand you run the risk. it's a different culture so sometimes you might think what you do or say is innocuous, but the thais feel differently, and you may not see it coming when they are out to get you as they are all wearing masks.

Now Guys get this into your thick skulls. These people will kill you as soon as look at you. OK?

They kill each other at the drop of a hat. So what chance have YOU got?

Three members of my Partners Family have been shot dead at different times in the last couple of years, near Chanterbury.

FOR NOTHING! Just a silly disagreement over something trivial and BANG!

The News Headlines are full of murders over things we in more developed countries would walk away from.

(Have a look. Oh you have OK. So you know what I am talking about.)

I once saw a huge Farang Body Builder grab a weedy little Thai kid by the scruff of his neck for some reason or other. The kid drew a revolver and shot him dead.......

Keep safe my friends. I am sure you didn't come here to die FOR NOTHING!

Edited June 13, 2007 by Luckydog

[crocken]

Thanks (girlx) for the warning and advice.Sometimes we dont know the results of our idle chatter.

[chavy]

Weho - Mr. Rosner admits that he is you and you is he so you give it a rest. Or is it that you and he should give it a rest. Mr. Rosner is confused by himself (Weho). ###### it is too bad Burger King is still open at this hour. Hey Weho - Mr. Rosner is hungry - let's go.

Coming?

Mr. Rosner,

Keep away from the dodgy burger outlet....they are obviously setting you up with some "Carribean veggie"

Not going !!

[Jimjim]

A lot of know-it-alls here. Jumping all over the poor girl just for telling a story. It certainly makes sense to tell it if true, as it seems nuts the extremes some will go to, and she wasn't the one in trouble, so I think most should just lay off.

Of course I think her experience is limited. I would not think Thais the most volatile on earth. How about Americans? They started a big old war. Or all those Islamic terrorists?

Not volatile, but many are certainly out for number 1 and number 1 alone. However, I think humans are inherently selfish, no matter where you go. It just rears its head in different ways in different societies perhaps. But ya, that's a crazy story. Going to jail merely for telling the truth about someone? Clearly bad seeds, a bad group.

Well, I'm gonna go rent Brokedown Palace.

[uptou]

again, (jimmythemook) i am not the one with the problem. it is my friend who found herself in deep water with the scuzzballs. to completely avoid them we would all have to leave koh phangan (or even thailand)- i have chosen to accept the risk so far, as i learned early on not to get involved. still, it does still shock me how easily one can have a problem here. people who are new to thailand may not realize this. hence the warning.

im at pra artit pier the other day catching my local boat down the river and i know the 2 ladies who work the front desk.

a newbie comes along and asked the lady if he could buy his ticket on the boat.

the lady tells him no, as she makes maybe 5 baht commision from farang punters.

for a millisecond i had thoughts of tuning this guy in and telling him to buy on the boat.

i then thought, dont be stupid terry, as this is this lady's lttle bit of cream and the farang will never miss it.

on the other hand if the lady had found out i'd told him that i would of been inviting trouble for sure.

moral of the story is shut the <deleted>> up.

give it a CRACK girlx.

i know of that woman.she definitely shouldnt get a job at tourist information.constantly lies to farang,either telling them theres no boat today,so they get a tourist boat,or wants to sell them the ticket herself.

when i was at that pier recently a german guy was told by her that there was no boat today so he came out to the pier outside & asked me what she had told him,& i told him the truth,just pay on the boat.

i think most people would have done the same if the guy asked them the score,rather than say i dont know,so sometimes its just not that black & white.

[JimmyCA]

a good friend of mine was set up by a thai family today- they planted drugs in her room, accused her of stealing something from them, and went to search for it with a policeman. she had been talking too much about the various misdeeds of this family, who are notorious for having made loads of money via the drug trade and other mafia activities.

i learned this the hard way also a couple of years ago. keep your mouth shut in thailand. do not tell girlfriends their boyfriend is cheating on them. do not tell poor farang suckers they are being scammed in land deals. do not say anything about the history or goings on of anyone else in thailand unless you are prepared to face seriously whacked consequences.

my friend faces something like 5 years in jail, a huge fine, and deportation for simply telling a girl that her thai boyfriend had beat the crap out of his ex girlfriend.

standard Thai fare ..... your friend may have spent too much time reading one sided websites

[uptou]

However, I think humans are inherently selfish, no matter where you go. It just rears its head in different ways in different societies perhaps.

agree 100%,actually its a psychological fact.

[Nignoy]

I dont know whether this is relevant, a couple of years ago we were taking a group of friends on a tour of thailand,one of them had obviously read Lonely planet, because he knew everything about Bkk according to him the Indra Regent was a hotbed of vice and roaches, but he knew of a highly recommended guesthouse also near Pratunam, so there we went for a couple of days, on the 2nd day my wife stumbled on one of the houseboys in our room going through one of our suitcases, needless to say the houseboy was sacked, later on we decided to ship one of our suitcases back home filled with souvenirs that our guests had bought so we could ship them back to england for them, we had no further problems, but this is where the story really starts 8 weeks ago we started to check the state of our suitcases to see if they would last another trip, the large one that we had sent back by sea was a bit battered and smelt funny, so we decided to throw it away , we checked all the pckets and to our horror in the lining we found a very large ziploc bag full of a brown oily substance, we dread to think what would have happened if we had been caught with it at Don Muang, after over 40 years of travelling asia learned something new again, we wont make the same mistake again, as my german friends used to say, Holzauge sei Wachsam!!(young Gerd can Translate ) Nignoy

i have no idea how or why a situation like this would occur.

the dude put drugs in your bag, but why on earth would he do it, except to set you up for a bust and extort you.

that was not the reason as it did not happen, so how was this guy going to get his drugs back? or what was his purpose.

i believe what you have said, but it always seems like bollicks when someone writes about these things.

just to keep on topic, its a very silly thing to start getting involved in other business over here and why did you not tell her to keep her big mouth shut. ? considering how long you been living in tong nai pan.

i also used to live there and no the rules of these islands very well.

just shut the <deleted>> up and get on with your business. if you dont like whats going down get the <deleted>> out of there.

AS far fetched as our experience my seem it actually happened!! , maybe he was just trying to stitch us up with a bag of weed to get his own back for loosing his job, as a retired pensioner what reason have I got to spin a yarn or tell lies!!Nignoy

[bendix]

However, I think humans are inherently selfish, no matter where you go. It just rears its head in different ways in different societies perhaps.

agree 100%,actually its a psychological fact.

And long may it continue. Selfishness is essential for human advancement. If everyone behaved innately selfishly, the world would be in a state of perfect flux, with counter-balancing forces working to create equilibrium. Thomas Hobbes' state of nature, and all that arse.

It's when those ###### liberal do-gooders come in and upset the balance that things turn to custard.

[tijnebijn]

However, I think humans are inherently selfish, no matter where you go. It just rears its head in different ways in different societies perhaps.

agree 100%,actually its a psychological fact.

And long may it continue. Selfishness is essential for human advancement. If everyone behaved innately selfishly, the world would be in a state of perfect flux, with counter-balancing forces working to create equilibrium. Thomas Hobbes' state of nature, and all that arse.

It's when those ###### liberal do-gooders come in and upset the balance that things turn to custard.

Totally rubbish.People should practice compassion.

[uptou]

However, I think humans are inherently selfish, no matter where you go. It just rears its head in different ways in different societies perhaps.

agree 100%,actually its a psychological fact.

And long may it continue. Selfishness is essential for human advancement. If everyone behaved innately selfishly, the world would be in a state of perfect flux, with counter-balancing forces working to create equilibrium. Thomas Hobbes' state of nature, and all that arse.

It's when those ###### liberal do-gooders come in and upset the balance that things turn to custard.

i'm sure you are well read in philosophy,but what about that amphetamine loving,small man with the funny mostache.wasnt he selfish,but also dillusional?

[tijnebijn]

:

Name one thing you do for 100 percent unselfish reasons.

I make outrageously controversial statements (without the slightest attempt to back them up with facts), in a completely unselfish attempt to stimulate further discussion on brokendown and about-to-retired threads.

yeah he is pretty good in that.

[sbk]

I have to say, Bendix, your reference to Hobbes was a dead giveaway for me there.

[girlx]

huh? wasn't he replying to your generalization about a whole country? and haven't you generalized kpg already?

i don't think it is a generalization, i think it is more about cultural differences. it is a FACT that thais protect their "face", and in order to do so are not as honest and straightforward as it is a priority for those of us in the west to be. so the fact is that a traveller who is not familiar with the way thais handle things could be blindsided by a similar situation. it is easy to make someone in thailand angry for something that might seem trivial to us in our countries, so yes, i do feel this could be a problem all over thailand.

also, i am not generalizing koh phangan by saying it is lawless- it is indeed lawless, especially where i live. anything goes here and you have to protect yourself. most of the time it is okay- the local people are in general very lovely and good. however they (and thais in general in my experience) can flip at the drop of a hat over things that (like i said above) might mystify a foreigner. hence i call them volatile, and yes mercenary as they will go all out for revenge against any slight. most people wouldn't run in to any problems with the few bad apples, but if you were staying awhile you would most likely witness something like this.

i do not hang out with criminals or bad people every day and i don't appreciate the insinuations that i do, or that my friend deserves this fate. bad things can happen anywhere, to anyone. pick up a paper and see.

[jdinasia]

Girlx ..... your FACTS are really just your opinions mixed with some observations and stirred up with your personal biases. Very subjective and not FACTS at all I do have to admit that I don't like your rampant generalizarions and stereotying ... but I will admit that it may be valid for the people you have in your life.

I have so far not found people I have met in Thailand to be any better or worse about being liars etc ... nor have I found them to be more or less violent etc etc etc

<but so other folks know it ... I did not at any time make any implications as to your friend's guilt or innocence or that your friend deserves or does not deserve his fate>

[uptou]

i'm sure you are well read in philosophy,but what about that amphetamine loving,small man with the funny mostache.wasnt he selfish,but also dillusional?

Do you mean Uncle Joe's best friend Adolf the housepainter?

unselfish desire to see his motherland and fellow Germans gain world supremacy. Pretty selfless behaviour really, doncha think? You can call it evil (by our definition). You can call it mad. But it's hard to call it selfish.

dunno,i'm still confused about the gaining world supremacy & unselfishness bit.

[sbk]

To be fair to girlx, the island people consider the locals from the area she lives in to be breed unto themselves. Perhaps its from being isolated from the rest of the island for so long, who knows. But the general island-wide opinion is that TNP is lawless. As for her opinion that the rest of the island is similar, well I beg to differ, that is, having had different experiences and having met a far broader range of people then perhaps she has.

[girlx]

jdinasia do you deny there is the concept of face in thailand? in order to save face, thais will lie, smile, tell you whatever you want to hear. thus you may not even realize they are angry. this is different from the west, where if someone is out to get you or is angry at you it is usually pretty obvious. another difference is that in the west people are more inclined to talk out their problems or have some sort of diplomatic 3rd party available. this does not usually happen here. thais often will explode when they can't hold things in any longer, and if they are out to get you it will be very serious. how many fights end in death here? how rampant is corruption and how many stories are there of people who have been set up? my experience might be different from yours, and you can decide for yourself whether you pay attention to my warning, but i do think these are facts, not opinions.

and SBK, TNP is perhaps more lawless than the rest of the island however a lot goes on where you are as well. there are good and bad people everywhere, and like i said there are a lot of good people where i live too. a lot goes on behind the scenes everywhere. my point is that you might not see it coming in a country with different priorities and reactions to things than we have in the west.

Edited June 13, 2007 by girlx

[jdinasia]

do you deny there is the concept of face in thailand? in order to save face, thais will lie, smile, tell you whatever you want to hear. thus you may not even realize they are angry. this is different from the west, where if someone is out to get you or is angry at you it is usually pretty obvious. another difference is that in the west people are more inclined to talk out their problems or have some sort of diplomatic 3rd party available. this does not usually happen here. thais often will explode when they can't hold things in any longer, and if they are out to get you it will be very serious. how many fights end in death here? how rampant is corruption and how many stories are there of people who have been set up? my experience might be different from yours, and you can decide for yourself whether you pay attention to my warning, but i do think these are facts, not opinions.

deny the concept of face ..... nope don't deny that! The rest is pretty much drivel though

in order to save face, thais will lie, smile, tell you whatever you want to hear.

I am sure some will .... maybe even more than in Maine!

thus you may not even realize they are angry. this is different from the west, where if someone is out to get you or is angry at you it is usually pretty obvious. another difference is that in the west people are more inclined to talk out their problems or have some sort of diplomatic 3rd party available. this does not usually happen here. thais often will explode when they can't hold things in any longer, and if they are out to get you it will be very serious. how many fights end in death here?

again I am sure some people are like this .... more than in Texas? or Italy? not sure! but back in the day, in Texas ... I sure saw more than one guy laid out with a busted face and head that never saw the blow coming .... so again ....

corruption? yeah it is corrupt here .... maybe even worse than Connecticutt! Certainly when it comes to low level police corruption it is worse here!

Sorry that you see your opinions and observations as FACT

[qualtrough]

You lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. True in Thailand, true outside Thailand.