jts-khorat

What I see in the picture does not seem to be garbage left behind by "revellers", but commercial garbage from a restaurant or bar. Just yesterdaxy there was an article, how many millions (or was it billions??) of Baht tourists spent over Songkran in Khao San Road alone, so the businesses there might as well have a little clean-up after that out of their pocket. And while we are at it, why not have the same level of cleanliness in all the other tourist hotspots that bring in the cash, but look like a trash dump in Delhi during every single day of the year as soon as the neon lights are switched off.

Not just France. I remember in the old techno days, that we bought horrendously expensive cans of Red Bull illegally smuggled in from Switzerland from the trunk of cars in the club parking lots. Those were the happy days 😜

The reason for the prevalence of diabetes in Thailand is the rice. Maybe a shock for some, but polished white rice is really unhealthy. In our village, there is not a single older person without diabetes. Why was this not an issue in the past? Then, price was not polished by modern efficient machinery and people ate a lot less -- at least in the Isaan I know, people were that poor, that they had a single bowl of rice and whatever plants could be gathered on the paddy edges.

The reason why it is in the original recipe for M-150 (and therefore red Bull) is, that it counters the vasoconstrictive effects of coffeine. Hence also as a use as a sports supplement. I am a very heavy coffee drinker -- a currently extremely stressful job -- and as Taurine is cheap, I never drink my coffee without it. It seems to at least have the described effect there. If it extends life, I do not know; but I do so many other things that supposedly are bad for my health, so I would not be too philosophical about it and simply try it. It cannot be worse than the ultimate result of old age.

Actually this would be a misdemeanor at most, as the couple was that far from shore that they likely did not intentionally want to cause upset. In case this would have been right at the beach with many witnesses and intentional, still the likelihood of a financial fine (§ 119 OWiG). Only in the most egregious and upsetting cases, with intention to cause upset, might there be one year of jail time (§ 183a StGB), but this is really unlikely. Talking about Germany here, one of the more conservative western countries of the world. From what benighted place do you come that this would be prison time right away? Saudi Arabia?

He offered that to a few kids he knew, or *all* the kids of the neighboring villages? That could easily be a 4-digit number, meaning constant classes of 20-30 kids in turns 10 hours a day, 5 days a week. Hardly realistic, I am sorry to say, but maybe at 10 Baht a kid a day a business idea if he is also a certified swimming teacher very bored with his life?

Drowning is, unluckily, a fairly common occurrence in Isaan. One kid in our wider family drowned, with his granddad working in the field just meters away, another kid now living fulltime in our temple lost two of his sisters and as he could not swim was "clever enough" not to go into the water, but as he was older was also blamed of the accident and shunned by his family. I like government-bashing as much as the next guy, but in this instance, that children do not learn to swim properly when everything they know are little mud holes to keep water through the hot season is not something to blame on the Thai government, there simply are no proper swimming pools around. Having electricity and internet at schools is still an often missing feature, so this is where the government should start, frankly. Such drownings are the flipside of having "happy children" play unsupervised in the countryside. It is, to my mind, still preferrable to the crazy overcaring parents I observe right now here in Germany, where a tiny speck of mud on the clothes is already catastrophe or kids of 8 or 9 are not allowed to walk around in our small, sleepy village after dark, because of "dangers". Obviously, those cases on the wrong side of the statistic are still very sad and deeply regrettable and I have no good idea how to fix this without putting children into a golden cage without ever any risk to them.

The risk cannot be very big then, because they are really everywhere when living in the countryside -- both the geckos and their dropping. I think the belief that geckos would be good for charisma and sexual health comes from the fact, that they all clump together when mating, also their ability to be everywhere and squeeze into any situation (literally). They are a very common Chinese medicine (dried and pulverized, I have seen them sold thus in hat Yai) and there is a very common Sak yant tattoo that a lot of male Thais carry for this reason specifically, so this belief is fed from both the Chinese and the Thai culture direction.

I always absolutely love it, when you post your pictures. The more, the better. What I find most amazing is, even though "my" village is 150 kilometers away, both location and people look absolutely identical. I would not have wondered if somebody told me, that your house or your farm were just up the road right in my village; alas, Ban Dung is the other side of Udon, while I spend my Thailand-time in Nong Bua Lamphu. But it really is eerie. In any case, I use your posts as a welcome "if only I could be there right now" moment, while I slave away here in Europe, until my well-earned time in Isaan comes around.

The mind boggles why people would do this, in a foreign country, with a jail system known to be quite uncomfortable. I can understand crimes of passion or crimes of opportunity, but this was obviously planned -- over a motorcycle worth less than 10,000 euro. Why?! At least he did not kick anybody...

My condolences to his family, may he rest in peace. During my first years in Thailand, his column was a weekly mainstay for me, even though I was not actually in Bangkok or Pattaya at the time. This was right before arrival of the internet, possibly the reason to why it gave such a strong feeling of belonging to some kind of "expat community" he informed us all about. I am sad to hear of his passing, another small facet of my own life during my youth gone from the world.

A sturdy stick, dogs know what it is from sight. Also making a hitting or throwing motion, even with an empty hand, will make them flee. However, if there are several of them, they will remember and the clever ones will try to get you from the back. If it is always the same dogs, and the owner in the village is known, having him chat with you friendly in sight of the dogs will also make them remember that you are 'part of the allowed circle'. With street dogs, this option obviously does not exist.

Indeed, the original poster voiced so many horrible opinions in one post, it can only be a wind-up in this enlightened day and age: 1) taking agency away from women for their life decisions 2) ageism; weirdly against only the males (why would they be less capable?) 3) body shaming; even if outer appearance would not be optimal, are they lesser people for it? 4) being born in Italy makes the OP somehow wiser, so he can give advice to the natives? That is rank with post-colonialism I think, the OP can only be a troll post, persiflaging all the bad opinions we all have left behind. I think such a post does not deserve of the "respect" this person orders us to have of him.

Still, the decision of a consenting adult. Her body, her decision, is it not? This at least was what feminism fought hard for during the last 50 years.

What a weird thing to say. Are you telling us that women of a young or any age do not have agency to decide what is best for them? You make it sound as if they need a mentor to guide them through life, and basically a slave to their waning reproductive system. I thought we have left this world view in the 1970s.