Friend of Australian man found dead in Bangkok questions the circumstances around his death

[farcanell]

1 hour ago, essander said:

It brings back some bad memories to read this story. Here is what happened.

 

After a long night out, you come back to your hotel room with your girlfriend or whoever. Drunk, maybe some drugs involved, but feeling on top of the world. After a nice hour or so in bed, you just need that last sigarette before you go to sleep. Naked, feeling free, and still on top of the world, you go out on the balcony. Your eyes start to slip, but you just need to finish off that sigarette. Suddenly, you find yourself off balance, falling forward, your hip hits the rail, your arms shoot down to grab the rail, not realizing that your arms are already outside the rail, creating a pivoting motion that throws you over...and you are statistics.

 

I can play this incident in slow motion in my head over and over again, after this exact thing happened to me a few years back, except for the statistics part (and drugs). I am only 172 cm, but were very close to pivot over the rail. I am sure if I had been 5-10 cm taller, I would not have had a chance.

 

I do not say that something like this happened here, but I know now how easy a lethal accident like this can happen under the right circumstances. Be careful out there!  

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Add to that, a theoretical ten kilo applied force from behind, and we may well be discussing your naked body on the pavement.

 

lucky man... It's a jungle out there ?

[ClutchClark]

30 minutes ago, mki8 said:

Not everyone here is is cheap charlie

 

50k is nothing to many

And certainly nothing if you ha arrived on holiday, probably not in safe

 

Well if a guy chooses to carry 50,000 Baht around instead of using an ATM and doesn't use the safe as you mention in your post then I don't have much pity for the fool...I guess there are some of us old-timers who have a bit more common sense than that.

 

But none of this relates back to this incident because the reports are that he was a squared away young man and not a high-roller fool looking to quickly become separated from his money. 

 

Cheers

 

 

[Squeegee]

1 hour ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Well I do agree with you that the World would be a much better place if people acted more like me...and, yes, I am of the opinion this young man fell and did not commit suicide.

 

However,  I do not think that this thread about a young man's unfortunate death is where you should be flaunting your own personal insecurities.

 

If that's the best you can do then I was spot on with my assessment of your cone of vision.

 

For your benefit, here's a somewhat more insightful offering where it's easier to imagine how the lad might have fallen:

 

1 hour ago, essander said:

It brings back some bad memories to read this story. Here is what happened.

 

After a long night out, you come back to your hotel room with your girlfriend or whoever. Drunk, maybe some drugs involved, but feeling on top of the world. After a nice hour or so in bed, you just need that last sigarette before you go to sleep. Naked, feeling free, and still on top of the world, you go out on the balcony. Your eyes start to slip, but you just need to finish off that sigarette. Suddenly, you find yourself off balance, falling forward, your hip hits the rail, your arms shoot down to grab the rail, not realizing that your arms are already outside the rail, creating a pivoting motion that throws you over...and you are statistics.

 

I can play this incident in slow motion in my head over and over again, after this exact thing happened to me a few years back, except for the statistics part (and drugs). I am only 172 cm, but were very close to pivot over the rail. I am sure if I had been 5-10 cm taller, I would not have had a chance.

 

I do not say that something like this happened here, but I know now how easy a lethal accident like this can happen under the right circumstances. Be careful out there!  

 

[sabaii69]

22 hours ago, djjamie said:

It is always hard for any family of a young bright life like this to face the reality that he was having sex with a prostitute let alone that he committed suicide.

 

Lets hope the family get the closure they seem to be denying at the moment.

 

 

 

[sabaii69]

So, you know she was a prostitute? Are you related to her? I would be very careful calling all Thai women prostitutes, Chum.

[sabaii69]

It seems that this forum always concludes that if a woman was seeing a man that she is a prostitute. Not in my case: My wife worked in a factory and I had a proper introduction and paid 'sin sum'.

[lostinisaan]

 The joke is that too many "accidents' in form of balcony fall offs occur, people therefore are warned and you'd think that the number would  decrease? Nope, the opposite. 

 

   Everything that would be bad for ToT comes under the carpet, the OD deaths in the north and islands like Ko Panghan, where all drugs are openly available in a country with such draconian jail sentences for a few grams of hard drugs?

 

     They can give such stories to some naive people who don't understand that a life here isn't worth  a lot. 

 

     I don't want to know how many foreigners got a  spiked drink by a ladyboy, or  hooker with her husband waiting outside  and ready to do the job?

 

  A lot of couples work as a team and foreigners usually come to Bangkok for one reason and that's not the temples. 

 

 

Of course do the cops know that not all people jumped off balconies, or fell off "by accident." No investigation, case closed. 

 

  Foreigners who die overdosed in Mae Hong Son usually die of a heart attack, it's never what it was. The truth.

 

  How can it be that all drugs are available on Ko Phanghan and that in a country with such harsh prison sentences? 

 

   The cops run the business and the guys who overdose then drowned, or similar. Just throw the dead body into the sea and it looks so logic?

 

     It's just not good for Thailand';s image and the reason for so many lies. 

 

       The news are full of foreigners who fell to death from balconies in Bangkok, but also other mostly bigger cities. 

 

        Instead of a deceasing number of "accidents", the number of balcony accidents is increasing?

 

It's common sense that too many criminals are using this already old, but still good functioning "trick." ( as they know that the cops don't do anything).

 

   The irony is that there are a lot of people, even on this forum who really believe that most of them really fell off without "anybody's help?" It's easy to "let somebody fall". 

 

      The foreigners who didn't survive a spiked drink didn't die because they got poisoned, there's always an excuse, a health issue, or anything else that's got nothing to do with the truth.

 

   The irony is that the country is so corrupt that you could theoretically call the cops after killing somebody and pay them a good amount of money to make it look like an accident.

 

      For those who live in a higher apartment with a balcony, just put a rope around your body that's attached to something that holds your weight. But wait.

 

       That wouldn't work either, because the guy(s) would let it dissapear.  It's too obvious that more and more criminals are using this "trick" to get rid off people for whatever reason.

 

      Stay safe out there. 

 

   .

 

      

 

 

     

    

Edited August 10, 2016 by lostinisaan

[lostinisaan]

28 minutes ago, sabaii69 said:

So, you know she was a prostitute? Are you related to her? I would be very careful calling all Thai women prostitutes, Chum.

 

 Let's hope it wasn't his m.........hmmmm? 

Edited August 10, 2016 by lostinisaan

[ClutchClark]

1 hour ago, Squeegee said:

 

If that's the best you can do then I was spot on with my assessment of your cone of vision.

 

For your benefit, here's a somewhat more insightful offering where it's easier to imagine how the lad might have fallen:

 

 

 

Well I don't smoke and I don't do drugs so I can't really comment on those experiences. 

I don't recall reading snything about the deceased partaking in those either. 

 

If you were to read my posts you will see that I have provided some "possible" scenarios as well that do not include needing to be a smoker or a drug user. 

 

If my posts are unsatisfactory to you then I encourage you to simply place me on Ignore. 

I assure you my feelings will not be hurt  ;-)

[farcanell]

5 hours ago, sahibji said:

for a person to commit suicide without clothes on sounds a bit odd. what is even more mysterious is that the woman who checked with the deceased  left just like that. hope she is traced so that light can be shed on this mystery,sad as it is.

 

Further fact checking.... See attachment.... Maybe he was a god botherer... See Job 1:21

[bazza40]

9 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

50,000 Baht?

 

Was he carrying that kind of money around? 

 

Does anyone carry that kind of cash around? 

 

That is twice what I will spend here in a month.

You'd be surprised. I've seen Thai women and men at banks withdrawing wads of 1000 baht notes the size of house bricks in banks. This is still very much a cash economy, it's probably only the hi-so's that carry credit cards.

 

On topic, there are so many alternative scenarios surrounding this poor guy's death it is pointless to speculate.RIP.

 

[bazza40]

4 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

I weigh about 100-kilos and I respectfully disagree with you.

 

If there is a railing and if that railing does not fail then it is not a matter of simply "shoving"...it requires an upward force to get the center of gravity "over" the railing.

 

Although I am not amazed by anything at this stage of my life, I am often surprised how few people actually understand even the basics of physics. 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to your explanation of the First, Second and Third Laws of Thermodynamics.

[snooky]

10 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

50,000 Baht?

 

Was he carrying that kind of money around? 

 

Does anyone carry that kind of cash around? 

 

That is twice what I will spend here in a month.

50,000 baht is not that much to have for someone who is on vacation here.  It could be for paying a hotel bill, expenses etc.  Not every knows how much money they will need on hand nor how the whole system works until they have spent some time here.  When I first came here 26 years ago for my two week vacation, I had more than that but in travellers checks.  And if you were here that long ago, you might remember how difficult it was to find an atm machine to widthdraw cash from your foreign account.  I can remember having to go to Petchburi road to a main branch of SCB to get use an atm at that time.  Some folks don't realize how easy it can be to get ripped off here (as in other tourists destinations}.  And the way some Thai's (especially katoey's) are getting desperate for money these days, we have all read about more and more crime and theft.

 

Just too many so called suicides, especially for young guys - for some  older farts, it might be an option but I am determined to live as close to my 'use by' date as possible. ( now in my 9th decade).

Edited August 10, 2016 by snooky

[Plutojames88]

Some guys get told "" wait until you arrive better exchange rate"" they cash like $1500 USD in one swoop ...kick up the party music with said girl.

Even trusts them enough to play banker.

 

Who knows .....? 

 

But westerners have been murdered for $200 by taxi drivers with gambling debts , chucked out of windows , stabbed , hung , poisoned , beaten and burnt for less.

 

Please folks , remember the saying "" things are not always as they appear'

 

Life is somewhat cheaper  in south Asia .

 

take care.

 

 

[jhonnie]

On 09/08/2016 at 8:23 PM, ClutchClark said:

So a friend who apparently didn't even know him well enough to know his Thailand plans except that they may have included wanting to help poor people has raised suspicions?

 

Great.

 

Just what his family needs to help with any closure.

 

The answer will never be known with certainty. 

 

He fell.

 

 

or jumped, or was pushed

[SiSePuede419]

Rule #1: 2nd floor or below.

 

Had this gentleman followed Rule #1, we wouldn't be having this discussion today now would we?

[Tom Cahill]

12 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

50,000 Baht?

 

Was he carrying that kind of money around? 

 

Does anyone carry that kind of cash around? 

 

That is twice what I will spend here in a month.

£1000 is twice what he'd spend in a month on holiday in a city where you can spend that twice over every day?
He's an Ozzy thicko,  and they are used to spending loads of money back home.  They spend five ppounds on a sort of half pint thing,  which's less than three percent and call it  "mediumstength . . . beea".  They wouldn't even know they had that much money on them half the time and even if they did they'd think it normal.  Western Union don't pay you in  THB500  increments you know.  You can't put it back in your bank if you don't have a bank here.  Carrying money on holiday's normal.  It's a large percentage of people doing this all the time.  Don't be such an odd ball,  pretending like it's odd when it's not remotely odd,  nor remotely unreaonsable in a relatively safe country  (in terms of robbery).  They will have probably killed him as he was looking at them seideways or talking in an annoying voice or having eyes that were too pretty or some other idioic childish thing.

[Thomas Hannah]

On 8/9/2016 at 11:23 AM, ClutchClark said:

So a friend who apparently didn't even know him well enough to know his Thailand plans except that they may have included wanting to help poor people has raised suspicions?

 

Great.

 

Just what his family needs to help with any closure.

 

The answer will never be known with certainty. 

 

He fell.

 

 

Or was he pushed.No mention of the cctv in the hotel.Or were they not working again.

[The Deerhunter]

9 hours ago, starchild5 said:

What are these Diplomats, Embassies worth...Still Investigating...These consulates from all over the world are NOT CONNECTED TO WHAT REALLY HUMANS GO THROUGH.

 

If you really care for your fellow Australians. Send a bulletin to all press, tourist offices to warn tourist from low balcony railings in Thailand..Is this too freaking hard for a developed country to do, when the most visited forum in Thailand talks about it everyday?? or write about the dangers of bringing women to your room etc etc...Do not BS about humans rights or ethics.

 

Media and the establishment always plays the Cliche card.....common words they use..

 

"Suspicious"

 

"Investigating"

 

"Does not look suicide"

 

"bring friends and family of the deceased for narration"

 

and then after few weeks END.

 

All these journalist who care for fellow Australians never write about Balconies could be one of things...WHY?....Why they always write about non-sense. Embassies do the routine write-ups....

 

Embassies...."We are in touch with the families and doing everything we can in these time"

 

The fact is NOBODY FREAKING REALLY CARES in AUSTRALIA except your own Family.

 

80 Deaths of Australians and the government is still "Investigating" ...Is this Afghanistan?

 

Why there is no DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE EVER FROM AUSTRALIA ON THAILAND...

 

Australia or any other country WILL NEVER BREAK PROTOCOL FOR YOUR LOVED ONES. THEY DON'T CARE.

 

My point is ...Please take care of yourself...No body gives a F about you in this world only your family does. Don't make them go through the pain if something happens to you.

From what I read on Thai Visa Forums, most foreigner's embassies are universally useless for doing anything to help their taxpaying masters when they come to grief overseas.  Makes you wonder what we have them there for.  As an expat,  I use my Embassy to witness & provide verification of certain documents  on occasion and they charge 1,300 1,400 THB or more a time for literally 1-2 minute's work.

And, I do get the impression I am imposing on their busy????? day though, when I do go there.

[nodomino]

[cyberfarang]

On 09/08/2016 at 5:23 PM, ClutchClark said:

So a friend who apparently didn't even know him well enough to know his Thailand plans except that they may have included wanting to help poor people has raised suspicions?

 

Great.

 

Just what his family needs to help with any closure.

 

The answer will never be known with certainty. 

 

He fell.

 

 

Are not the majority of Farlang deaths in Thailand mysterious.

 

You are right, I would not give this so called friend much credibility as being a character witness for the man and she seems more like an acquaintance than a close friend. We never really know people not even those closest to us. Persons can be unpredictable at times so who knows? But this is Thailand and wouldn`t like to say whether this is a case of suicide one way or another.   

[farcanell]

2 hours ago, Tom Cahill said:

£1000 is twice what he'd spend in a month on holiday in a city where you can spend that twice over every day?
He's an Ozzy thicko,  and they are used to spending loads of money back home.  They spend five ppounds on a sort of half pint thing,  which's less than three percent and call it  "mediumstength . . . beea".  They wouldn't even know they had that much money on them half the time and even if they did they'd think it normal.  Western Union don't pay you in  THB500  increments you know.  You can't put it back in your bank if you don't have a bank here.  Carrying money on holiday's normal.  It's a large percentage of people doing this all the time.  Don't be such an odd ball,  pretending like it's odd when it's not remotely odd,  nor remotely unreaonsable in a relatively safe country  (in terms of robbery).  They will have probably killed him as he was looking at them seideways or talking in an annoying voice or having eyes that were too pretty or some other idioic childish thing.

 

What? You guys are off the reservation!

 

since when has carry around a couple of grand (aud) been a large amount?

dude... It's not... It's paltry play money, by Aussi standards, were a salery of 100,000 plus isn't abnormal... So not even a weeks wage in his kick.... And who uses western union nowadays, unless desperate ( post robbery perhaps)... And I'm sure ( could be wrong, having never used the service) that a western union cheque can go straight back into the originating account... Or cashed out back home

 

as to thicko australians...  Buying light beer, for an exorbitant amount... Give me their names and I will send a hit squad around for damaging our raging alcoholic societies reputation.... More like they are metrosexual Europeans or Americans.

 

The only excuse for consuming light alcohol, is so as the designated driver is less drunk than the others blokes (or alternatively, if a venue is supplying entertainment, like free snacks and naked barmaids... In which case, no hit squad needed)

 

as to high spending.... You gotta also look at first world infrastructure, covering an entire continent, with only 20 odd million tax payers (guess only) So we are used to paying high taxes, etc, but in turn, receive high societal returns, currently ( by some polls ) rating as the 4th most desirable country to live in (thickos hey?.... Living the dream), with the U.K. At 16th, and the good old USA languishing back there at 24th... Oh dear... Not so happy, the land of milk and honey isn't doing to well there, whilst the lucky country is kicking arse

 

[Squeegee]

6 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

Well I don't smoke and I don't do drugs so I can't really comment on those experiences. 

I don't recall reading snything about the deceased partaking in those either. 

 

If you were to read my posts you will see that I have provided some "possible" scenarios as well that do not include needing to be a smoker or a drug user. 

 

If my posts are unsatisfactory to you then I encourage you to simply place me on Ignore. 

I assure you my feelings will not be hurt  ;-)

 

But do you smoke or do drugs, by any chance?

I don't really do Ignore.

 

Never mind me, these spasms are a direct result of the medicine they always give me. They said if I keep taking the medicine then one day I can play with the normal children again.

[Rorri]

16 hours ago, ClutchClark said:

 

I weigh about 100-kilos and I respectfully disagree with you.

 

If there is a railing and if that railing does not fail then it is not a matter of simply "shoving"...it requires an upward force to get the center of gravity "over" the railing.

 

Although I am not amazed by anything at this stage of my life, I am often surprised how few people actually understand even the basics of physics. 

 

 

 

The taller you are the easier it is to topple over, also you need  to take into account the height of the barrier, and in Thailand many barriers, as already pointed out, are too low. Your weight means little, think of levers and fulcrums. Physics, ya gotta love it.

[Rorri]

13 hours ago, sabaii69 said:

It seems that this forum always concludes that if a woman was seeing a man that she is a prostitute. Not in my case: My wife worked in a factory and I had a proper introduction and paid 'sin sum'.

What's  "sin sum" got to do with it?

[Plutojames88]

13 hours ago, lostinisaan said:

 The joke is that too many "accidents' in form of balcony fall offs occur, people therefore are warned and you'd think that the number would  decrease? Nope, the opposite. 

 

   Everything that would be bad for ToT comes under the carpet, the OD deaths in the north and islands like Ko Panghan, where all drugs are openly available in a country with such draconian jail sentences for a few grams of hard drugs?

 

     They can give such stories to some naive people who don't understand that a life here isn't worth  a lot. 

 

     I don't want to know how many foreigners got a  spiked drink by a ladyboy, or  hooker with her husband waiting outside  and ready to do the job?

 

  A lot of couples work as a team and foreigners usually come to Bangkok for one reason and that's not the temples. 

 

 

Of course do the cops know that not all people jumped off balconies, or fell off "by accident." No investigation, case closed. 

 

  Foreigners who die overdosed in Mae Hong Son usually die of a heart attack, it's never what it was. The truth.

 

  How can it be that all drugs are available on Ko Phanghan and that in a country with such harsh prison sentences? 

 

   The cops run the business and the guys who overdose then drowned, or similar. Just throw the dead body into the sea and it looks so logic?

 

     It's just not good for Thailand';s image and the reason for so many lies. 

 

       The news are full of foreigners who fell to death from balconies in Bangkok, but also other mostly bigger cities. 

 

        Instead of a deceasing number of "accidents", the number of balcony accidents is increasing?

 

It's common sense that too many criminals are using this already old, but still good functioning "trick." ( as they know that the cops don't do anything).

 

   The irony is that there are a lot of people, even on this forum who really believe that most of them really fell off without "anybody's help?" It's easy to "let somebody fall". 

 

      The foreigners who didn't survive a spiked drink didn't die because they got poisoned, there's always an excuse, a health issue, or anything else that's got nothing to do with the truth.

 

   The irony is that the country is so corrupt that you could theoretically call the cops after killing somebody and pay them a good amount of money to make it look like an accident.

 

      For those who live in a higher apartment with a balcony, just put a rope around your body that's attached to something that holds your weight. But wait.

 

       That wouldn't work either, because the guy(s) would let it dissapear.  It's too obvious that more and more criminals are using this "trick" to get rid off people for whatever reason.

 

      Stay safe out there. 

 

   .

 

      

 

 

     

    

True , something seems to be happening .

 

A friend of mine recounted an event he experienced staying NANA hotel ...about a decade ago.
He had arrived from Chiang Rai and flown in late evening.
He contacted a lady I presumed was hired company to be waiting at the hotel.

After normal events and an hours sleep the room phone rang .
He recounted that a man had been detained claiming to be the taxi driver from the airport returning a bag.
The security on the elevator were disturbed a hammer deduct tape knife and rope and cloth were inside the bag and police had been called.

The asked him to quietly leave the room immediately in case a second man had slipped upstairs.

The friend claims he noticed the girl had left the door unopened and was herself involved as a text message stating room number had been made ( on her phone)

Police arrested her and the male and made the victim do urine test and charged him with prostitution until he paid them a bribe on the spot of 10,000 baht.

He maintains the security man had saved his life .

The most likely circumstances were had the phone not rung would be robbery and murder.
The girls ID card was fake.
The next day he sent a friend to police station to Enquire more .
Both had been released .
Police menaced the friend out with threatening over tones.

To this day and especially since military came to power .
Criminals do indeed use the verandah to eliminate evidence and almost every time no note is left.
No social media hints.
Facebook posts.

Suicide it is not.
And almost always family later reveal large chunks of cash were withdrawn prior to said incident.

One solution might be a report online app if in some high rise in Thailand on holiday.
Confirming your not about to suicide.
So Thais don't treat us all as just nuts jumping.

Harder to refute if the post has a bright happy guy saying he is having a great time.
The CTTV footage can be removed but such posts can perhaps not and at least prove they are killing us ( with silent military approval)

Edited August 10, 2016 by Plutojames88

[Thechook]

11 hours ago, Tom Cahill said:

£1000 is twice what he'd spend in a month on holiday in a city where you can spend that twice over every day?
He's an Ozzy thicko,  and they are used to spending loads of money back home.  They spend five ppounds on a sort of half pint thing,  which's less than three percent and call it  "mediumstength . . . beea".  They wouldn't even know they had that much money on them half the time and even if they did they'd think it normal.  Western Union don't pay you in  THB500  increments you know.  You can't put it back in your bank if you don't have a bank here.  Carrying money on holiday's normal.  It's a large percentage of people doing this all the time.  Don't be such an odd ball,  pretending like it's odd when it's not remotely odd,  nor remotely unreaonsable in a relatively safe country  (in terms of robbery).  They will have probably killed him as he was looking at them seideways or talking in an annoying voice or having eyes that were too pretty or some other idioic childish thing.

We stopped using the pound about 50 years ago.  Most aussies beers are around 4.9%  you seem ill informed to comment on aussie lifestyle

[tuonsai]

Farang falling naked from a balcony in Thailand. Why is this theme so familiar? and why don't we ever hear this happening in other countries? Do naked guys go out on balconies? I don't think so. Do people committ suicide naked? I don't think so. Poor guy, RIP, I suspect they got in a fight and was pushed off by his psycho bitch gf. I myself almost got killed by a Cambodian psycho bitch gf once, and the balcony seems to be a favorite theme for them.

 

Edited August 11, 2016 by tuonsai

[Andrew65]

12 hours ago, Tom Cahill said:

£1000 is twice what he'd spend in a month on holiday in a city where you can spend that twice over every day?
He's an Ozzy thicko,  and they are used to spending loads of money back home.  They spend five ppounds on a sort of half pint thing,  which's less than three percent and call it  "mediumstength . . . beea".  They wouldn't even know they had that much money on them half the time and even if they did they'd think it normal.  Western Union don't pay you in  THB500  increments you know.  You can't put it back in your bank if you don't have a bank here.  Carrying money on holiday's normal.  It's a large percentage of people doing this all the time.  Don't be such an odd ball,  pretending like it's odd when it's not remotely odd,  nor remotely unreaonsable in a relatively safe country  (in terms of robbery).  They will have probably killed him as he was looking at them seideways or talking in an annoying voice or having eyes that were too pretty or some other idioic childish thing.

One reason for me carrying large amounts of cash was to avoid tthe 2-3% charge for using a credit card when booking an airline ticket.

 

I always withdraw 20k Baht, I used to just keep it in my pocket, but in recent years I leave 10k in the safe/at home. I was once pickpocketed & lost 16k Baht, when I withdrew the 20k the day before I noticed a guy wearing shades watching me from about 50 meters away. Luckily I had put  the plastic on the side at home the previous evening.

 

I never carry plastic or a wallet here unless it's for a specific reason, just some cash in my pocket.

[car720]

On 8/9/2016 at 7:09 PM, waldroj said:

Some of us do things that we look back on in later life and think how lucky we have been to survive. Others are not as fortunate!

 

Luckily for me, when I first came to BKK in the early 70s, there were few tall buildings, and even less with balconies. 

 

One has to feel for the family of Joshua (and all the other visitors to this country who meet their end through suspicious balcony incidents - far, far to many it would seem)! 

 

I thought I was the only one here from the R&R days of the early 70's.   Good to know there is someone else out there that actually knows something about Thailand and is not just another eco tourist or wowser with an opinion.

Some folks should ponder why they changed the name from Siam to Thailand in the first place and as for those that say that Thai women don't know what they are sitting on, all I can say is where were their grandmothers in the 70's?