Occasionally, OK, fairly often , I have been in situations here in Thailand where I didn't have the foggiest clue as to what was going on. I almost always just say Mai Pen Rai and just go with the flow. Sometimes things are clarified later, sometimes they stay mysterious.

Last weekend my lovely wife and I were walking up a footpath in Nonthaburi that connected a Longtail Boat dock with the road. The path was about 300 meters long and had a row of trees and a small klong/large ditch to the left and some low, marshy ground with a few houses to the right. We were walking single file with my wife chattering away on the phone a few steps in front of me when I noticed a man standing between two of the trees on our left hand side. He was wearing a ski mask a dark jacket and carrying a rifle. He and I looked at each other with a little bit of surprise and then I gave him a polite little nod and continued walking. A bit later I saw another man with a rifle sitting in a tree on our right side. He wasn't wearing a mask, but that wasn't much of an improvement as he was staring at me with no expression at all on his face. I just kept walking and gave him the same polite little nod and smile that I had given the first man. When we got to the end of the path my wife finally hung up her phone and I asked her:

"Sweetie, did you see those two men with rifles?"

"Yes" she replied.

"Well, what do you think they were? Police?, Hunters?, Bandits? Terrorists?"

Laughing she replied' "I haven't the faintest idea, honey".

This is probably one of those things that will never be explained. Or maybe the next time I see a masked man with a gun I'll whip out my Thai-English dictionary and try to find out what he is doing: "Hunting mai? Terrorist mai?"

More likely I'll just say mai pen rai.

Occasionally, OK, fairly often , I have been in situations here in Thailand where I didn't have the foggiest clue as to what was going on. I almost always just say Mai Pen Rai and just go with the flow. Sometimes things are clarified later, sometimes they stay mysterious.

Last weekend my lovely wife and I were walking up a footpath in Nonthaburi that connected a Longtail Boat dock with the road. The path was about 300 meters long and had a row of trees and a small klong/large ditch to the left and some low, marshy ground with a few houses to the right. We were walking single file with my wife chattering away on the phone a few steps in front of me when I noticed a man standing between two of the trees on our left hand side. He was wearing a ski mask a dark jacket and carrying a rifle. He and I looked at each other with a little bit of surprise and then I gave him a polite little nod and continued walking. A bit later I saw another man with a rifle sitting in a tree on our right side. He wasn't wearing a mask, but that wasn't much of an improvement as he was staring at me with no expression at all on his face. I just kept walking and gave him the same polite little nod and smile that I had given the first man. When we got to the end of the path my wife finally hung up her phone and I asked her:

"Sweetie, did you see those two men with rifles?"

"Yes" she replied.

"Well, what do you think they were? Police?, Hunters?, Bandits? Terrorists?"

Laughing she replied' "I haven't the faintest idea, honey".

This is probably one of those things that will never be explained. Or maybe the next time I see a masked man with a gun I'll whip out my Thai-English dictionary and try to find out what he is doing: "Hunting mai? Terrorist mai?"

More likely I'll just say mai pen rai.

Maybe they were waiting for someone they didn't really like. You're lucky then that you didn't look like the guy they were waiting for....

Death has always been kind of permanent.

Death has always been kind of permanent.

It's funny that

hunters?

As you know--they will hunt down anything that moves.

Guess that's why i'ts always a good thing to be right with the Lord. Jesus said the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion ready to devour us at any time. These are only the signs of the end-times-can tell you a lot more if you are interested...We (the children of the most high God) are led in all truth by the spirit of God,(Holy spirit) and all things present and future are made known to us through Him. That is why the world will reject us, for the spirit that is in the world, (Satan and the demons) hates all which is of God-and by rejecting the truth, all will be kept in bondage to the slavery of sin. Satan keeps a veil over your spiritual eyes so you cannot see, understand or reason the truth, for it is rejected by and kept away from you through sin. When you give your life to Jesus, you will be led in the truth, and also understand everything going on in the world. When you reject the truth, you will be a slave to sin and not understand the things which is from God. My brother, the armies of the world will gather and bring fear onto all the people of the world, for the Antichrist is busy to pull the strings for a one world, one government and one religion government to the whole world! Can you not see that the US/British armies are everywhere?! Open your eyes! The only way they can put this into place is to bring "terrorism" into the world by fear, so the people can want a force to protect them. It all started with 9/11. This was all orchestrated to gain world dominance-through fear.You will see terrible fear, oppression, hunger, sickness and wars in these days. Love, Daniel

Guess that's why i'ts always a good thing to be right with the Lord. Jesus said the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion ready to devour us at any time. These are only the signs of the end-times-can tell you a lot more if you are interested...We (the children of the most high God) are led in all truth by the spirit of God,(Holy spirit) and all things present and future are made known to us through Him. That is why the world will reject us, for the spirit that is in the world, (Satan and the demons) hates all which is of God-and by rejecting the truth, all will be kept in bondage to the slavery of sin. Satan keeps a veil over your spiritual eyes so you cannot see, understand or reason the truth, for it is rejected by and kept away from you through sin. When you give your life to Jesus, you will be led in the truth, and also understand everything going on in the world. When you reject the truth, you will be a slave to sin and not understand the things which is from God. My brother, the armies of the world will gather and bring fear onto all the people of the world, for the Antichrist is busy to pull the strings for a one world, one government and one religion government to the whole world! Can you not see that the US/British armies are everywhere?! Open your eyes! The only way they can put this into place is to bring "terrorism" into the world by fear, so the people can want a force to protect them. It all started with 9/11. This was all orchestrated to gain world dominance-through fear.You will see terrible fear, oppression, hunger, sickness and wars in these days. Love, Daniel

Uh-oh !

What a load of bull!

That was the worst piece of crap I have ever bothered NOT reading.

ASIC

I managed not to wast any time on it after the first line (what luck )

I bet he's in an Internet Cafe in Chaing Mai, he was just waiting for a post like this was our Daniel and I am sure he will be out trying to save Hilltribe people's souls tomorrow.

P#ss off and don't ram religion down our throats, we all have choices aand they are ours to make-not yours

I may oppose what you say but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it.

Right, now can we ban this troll?

Wow, u sound like a sunday school teacher with a nasty coke habit

I heard it's open season on mormons. Some kind of new pest-control law backed by the UN. Perhaps the masked men were on the prowl for misguided missionaries.

As for weird sights, last night I was riding my honda towards the bus station to pick up my girlfriend around 3 am in Phuket. I noticed a bike parked on the side up ahead. As I came closer to the bike, I saw two men sitting on the bike and a third standing beside the driver. During the moment I passed them, I saw the man standing raise a big pipe towrds the driver who was looking at me. I high-tailed it out of there, not really knowing if my eyes betrayed me, or if it really happened as I thought it did. Nonetheless, very trippy.

maybe they were looking for osama bin laden

Never ment to hurt you so bad guys..it was just a bit of info you know -not here to force anything upon you guys-But there's much more to life than you may think. Where do you think you will go someday? Life doesnt stop the minute you die, you have a soul and a spirit you know -or don't you even believe that? By the way, God hates religion, for it is man-made. He wants relationship-we are His children after all-He created us even if you don't like it. Sorry for stepping on some's toes!

Jeezes guy,

oeps sorry , Did you run straight in from a corn field in the bible belt in the USA ??

Sure these guy's werent waiting for you

 

 

Never ment to hurt you so bad guys..it was just a bit of info you know -not here to force anything upon you guys-But there's much more to life than you may think. Where do you think you will go someday? Life doesnt stop the minute you die, you have a soul and a spirit you know -or don't you even believe that? By the way, God hates religion, for it is man-made. He wants relationship-we are His children after all-He created us even if you don't like it. Sorry for stepping on some's toes!

Of course you never meant to hurt anyone and I am sure you did not as WE are mostly grown-ups here, but the s##t you spout is stuff we quite honestly dont want to read, we have minds of our own -so be a good boy and DON'T DO IT AGAIN- Nough said Matey

Similar thing, one night about 3am the wife and I heard a geat commotion outside our bedroom window. I looked out side and saw two older guys pistol whipping two younger guys inside a ute (pickup), the two young guys were pulled outside and were on their knees wai'ing and obviously saying "Solly Solly about dat".

The two youngersters were then handcuffed and thrown on the back of the ute, one of the older guys drove the ute while the other rode off on a scooter.

I asked the wife if they were police, she said she didn't think so, if they were police they would have turned left towards the cop shop rather than turn right and head out of town.

She checked the papers over the next few days to find out what happened but nothing ever turned up.

My guess was it was a drug deal gone bad, a loan shark showing his muscle or someone avenging his daughter...

He was wearing a ski mask a dark jacket and carrying a rifle.

I doubt that they were hunters ... a ski mask and rifle is likely to get you shot on sight unless you're one of the good guys. I'd take a wild guess at RTAF-SF or SEALs on some sort of exercise or surveillance. (Maybe the Mae Sai/Chiang Saeng anti-drug unit that doesn't exist has moved south ... although they're usually not so visible.)

One of Life's great mysteries.

I think they were hunters. In my wife's village I often see people carrying around

those funky one shot rifles; they are simply hunting birds. Now if the guys had semi autos then I'd be wary. The ski masks are used to keep the sun off their faces. I've seen stranger things, like a bus driver's 10 year old son driving the bus

down Sukhumvit late at night to get 'some practice.'

According to the Book of young Daniel, they're the evil British/US army on manouvers (sp?) against God's Army and we'd all better convert right now, just to be on the safe side. Others reckon they're RTAF or local Navy Seals on ops. Or perhaps a drug mop-up mish. However, I reckon it's just a simple case of a TAT Unseen in Thailand promo for the benefit of Nonthaburi residents. Consider yourself privileged Otherstuff.......

 

If these guys were into something serious, the poster here was probably safe as long as he minded his own business and walked on by, as he did. Thailand is not like the west (esp. the US) where there are random freaks shooting at anything in sight.

Hey Thabo.......you should go for a walk near the river in Non........

Life doesnt stop the minute you die, you have a soul and a spirit you know

Yeah I know and I hope the bg's have fun with my soul.

 

(Nothing is more unnerving than stepping off the beaten track to take a leak in the bush and having a pile of leaves whisper "Please do not piss on me, sir!")