Having high ranking connections as I do in Mossad, CIA operatives, hitmen assassins from the Calibrese mafia, poicemen and some five star generals as well as some secret people I am not authorised to reveal or I will have to kill you, has made life so much simpler here in LOS. Not that I am boasting about it or anything.

Over the years, I have been given telephone numbers/business cards/contact details from the police, army, district judges, government officials, band members from some of the biggest Thai groups around, etc. which number in the hundreds. I have been given business cards from security specialists, CIA, DEA, even a personalized dollar coin from a certain General I/C the American marine corp. The second group obviously foreign contacts. The majority of these contacts was through the wife running a bar for almost 13 years.

Please do not interpret the above as boasting, I have only written this as clarity for my viewpoint on the OP.

In all cases concerning the above, the contact details were given with a variant of "If ever you get in trouble, contact me". I have lived my life here in Thailand with the understanding that if you were ever in a position that you had to make that call, then your troubles really begin. Nothing in this life is for free.

I think that a lot of falangs who boast about having contacts here have maybe found themselves in a similar position as above and believe they have found a friend through a random encounter.

Those that have true influential contacts do not boast about it.......................

Agreed.

I had a recent meeting a while back with a farang and from the start it was "I'm friend's with him, I go to dinner with them, I can influence this, if you need this blah blah blah.

My response was that I've lived her for almost 12 years safely and cleanly without the need of any of this and that's how I want to remain.

My wife was offered "administrative assistance" by one of her top superiors at her job. This person offered for a "fee" of 60,000 baht, to provide her with the ways and means to secure her promotion and transfer to a facility very near our home....Golden! When all was said and done however, the ways and means were mostly bogus and my wife was simply out the 60,000 and no further ahead than she was at the start. In short she was scammed by the so called "influential connection" but has no recourse because nothing was in writing. It was all wink, wink, nod, nod. My wife feels like a total sucker, embarrassed and angry, but she doesn't want to pursue the issue because this person holds a lot of power over her. This is that "double edged sword" other posters have alluded to. My first reaction was to just drive over to the bitch's house and drop the hammer on her ass, but we both knew where that would lead......my wife would lose her job and I would spend time in the Bangkok Hilton and/or be deported. Just not worth it. Dang it! We could have used that cash towards a new scooter.

never trust a contact you befriend in a bar or when they were drunk or feeling jolly!
Never trust a contact who is high up in a corrupt and dirty system - unless ofcourse you yourself are a part of a similar system.
This is a land where money buys friends...
Genuine friends? rare!

A lesson well learned. Use your connections once, and payback is a lifetime. I learned this in the philippines. When I asked for help, they sent two detectives with a gun and escorted me like I was a VIP. Cost me money...and every time the police drove by, they would flag me down and ask for a drink in a farang bar. I looked pretty stupid bringing in cops to a gogo bar. Never happen again. Also, when I brought them to my home, they were eyeballing the appliances and trying to grab stuff. Also wanted to plant a 9mm on me (life sentence in jail for that). Beware the set up.

Can anyone explain the significance of having a Senior Police officers card with their handwritten note on the back and what I assume was their signature. Apparently common practice to use the card if one gets into any trouble. I dunno if it is common or if it's supposed to be a 'get out of goal free' card or a message to throw away the key!?

For something serious I don't think it would help much.

But for something really minor...

I did once get stopped by a traffic cop for accelerating too fast when the lights went green (can't remember if the car I was in had a badge on the front at the time, but it's why I used "generally" in my earlier post.) My wife took out the card, phoned the police officer (friend of the brother-in-law), and handed the phone to the traffic cop. Phone was handed back and we were waved on.

I'd never attempt to use a card in that way personally. For something relatively trivial, I'm fine with going to the police station to pay the fine, because the fine for something minor here is tiny, and is probably cheaper than the bottle of whisky it will end up costing us.

I have never been in "so called trouble" however I have used my contacts a couple of times on fairly mundane things. Had denge fever and was admitted to Bangkok Hospital, which seeing the cost, made me feel even more ill, despite having a medical insurance. My Wife arranged for me to transfer to the Government Hospital with private room which was far, far less expensive. When I renew my Retirement Visa and have to do the medical bit, again, my "connection" arranges so that I do not have to wait in a queue for the best part of a day. This is done by Friends whom we periodically have a meal with, which I try to pay most of the time, but other times, they say, is their turn. I am not averse to making fiends with responsible members of the local Thai Society, but not with the intent to ask favours, just enjoy their company by and large. Horses or courses.

their ok until they get drunk and start pullin out guns

I did once get stopped by a traffic cop for accelerating too fast when the lights went green

What does this mean???

Over the years, I have been given telephone numbers/business cards/contact details from the police, army, district judges, government officials, band members from some of the biggest Thai groups around, etc. which number in the hundreds. I have been given business cards from security specialists, CIA, DEA, even a personalized dollar coin from a certain General I/C the American marine corp. The second group obviously foreign contacts. The majority of these contacts was through the wife running a bar for almost 13 years.

Please do not interpret the above as boasting, I have only written this as clarity for my viewpoint on the OP.

In all cases concerning the above, the contact details were given with a variant of "If ever you get in trouble, contact me". I have lived my life here in Thailand with the understanding that if you were ever in a position that you had to make that call, then your troubles really begin. Nothing in this life is for free.

I think that a lot of falangs who boast about having contacts here have maybe found themselves in a similar position as above and believe they have found a friend through a random encounter.

Those that have true influential contacts do not boast about it.......................

Nicely put Chrisinth...especially your last line.

Just remember this TVF folks..candles can burn from both ends.

How you deal with that is ub2u.

everything i learned is local knowledge, everywhere no matter where is just like a small town, the only real contacts and connections are people you or your family have grown up, gone to school with ,lived in the same neighborhood with- those are contacts and get out of jail cards.

I know a guy here that is very influential. Have done him a number of very big favors, with nothing in return. Am I missing something here???

How abrupt a descent can your body handle ? Just fly straight and keep your nose clean, and you will never need the assistance of these so-called helpers of farangs. You get nothing for free here, there isn,t even a thai word for it !

it's Thailand everyone has connections

I've nothing against the law and nothing to hide, but I wouldn't invite a policeman into my house in the UK, let alone LOS.

This level of intimacy is strictly limited to an as and when necessary basis. Hopefully, that's never.

Best post vote: chrisinth

Life is a game, and there are some things in life that you carry with you always, and only you, and you alone, Keeping it that way is the only rule of the game. All other rules come from that one, single-most, important rule.

if you live here a long time and make a sincere effort to make true Thai friends (non business ones) you don't need to have high up connections when in trouble. Your friends will go out of their way to help you by finding some one who knows someone who can. The Thai people make the most wonderful friends and that is why I have lived the best part of 50 years in Thailand. Most of the farangs who boast about high connections in the police are those who own bars and employ prostitutes and pay a police protection money or has a police partner in thier bar business.

Foreigners boasting about their connections are to be ignored. Particularly if they own a bar and have a wife, etc. If you are a good member of the community, influential people will stick their necks out for you if you need it.

I own a bar and have a wife but you've hit the nail on the head, I can't stand that either, especially with the wife thing.

I did once get stopped by a traffic cop for accelerating too fast when the lights went green

What does this mean???

I was stopped at traffic lights.

When they went green, I pressed on the accelerator rather strongly as for the first time in about 40 minutes, I had an empty road in front of me (the lights can stay at red for quite a long time here).

Unfortunately a traffic cop a couple of hundred yards down the road then pointed at me and made me pull over.