piersbeckett
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Posts posted by piersbeckett
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Father Henry's Pet by P. Moylan - Set in Thailand - I think it tells it like it is from Thai & Falang angels - www.pmoylan.co.uk - has anyone else read it?
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11 hours ago, cmarshall said:
If you want to understand Thailand, then the Baker and Pongphaichit books are the best, all of them. Also, Tongchai Winichakul's "Siam Mapped." Also, Benedict Anderson's "Imagined Communities."
I certainly would ignore novels written by white guys, probably none of whom can speak Thai, unless your appetite happens to be for fantasy.
Well said, couldn't agree more - Father Henry's Pet by P. Moylan https://www.pmoylan.co.uk is written by a mixed race (Thai & white European) girl.
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Until recently the best books I'd read about Thailand were: non fiction - A History of Thailand by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit and fiction - Private Dancer by Stephen Leather but I've just finished Father Henry's Pet by P. Moylan www.pmoylan.co.uk and thought it was a serious contender for fiction first place.
It's a confessional novel written as a biography, based on a true story and would have helped me a lot if it had been available when I first came here some sixteen years ago!
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I've read many but thought this confessional novel steeped in reality.
www.pmoylan.co.uk
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It was the economy, stupid!
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3 minutes ago, jackdd said:
Don't believe any statistics which you haven't forged yourself
These numbers come from http://www.atta.or.th/ and this is the number of visitors who used services of their members (travel agencies)
So this only includes people using some kind of travel agency for comming to Thailand.
Westerners visiting Thailand usually book their own flight and accomodation and don't use a travel agency so their number in this statistic will be much lower than the real number.
Good point - also their government may not even allow them to travel as individuals, the Chinese people resident in China not being encouraged to think or act in other ways as such! I'm not saying it's wrong or right but having citizens flitting about the world, doing their own thing is not how China has transformed itself into such a great power.
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4 hours ago, Gillyflower said:
Well I see quite a few of those, from early in the morning in my small town in the SW of France.
Christ Gilly, you got a town!
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They regularly promote 'special offers' but as Engborg says, they don't do 'sales' and certainly not 'last day of month' ones at least to my knowledge.
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On 7/15/2017 at 9:35 AM, gk10002000 said:
Don't yell and raise voice if you have any disagreement about just about anything, a bill dispute, bad service, or whatever. It is not perceived well. Use some language to get your point across as necessary, but yelling rarely helps.
Don't pay for a room without seeing it first. There are exceptions, but too often you pay for a room and get the room near the noisy elevator, over the motorcycle parking lot, facing the main street, etc.
Don't hop in a cab or a tuk tuk without fare agreed first.
Don't invest a lot of hard money in Thailand. While things can be bought you will constantly be at risk and a target. The risk reward benefits assessment is up to you
Wise words
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OP - No, I didn't but I was ready to retire i.e. financially, physically and mentally.
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4 hours ago, tharae said:
Better still, look at the label wrapped over the top of the lid. Blue label is wine, orange label is fruit wine.
I bought one bottle of 'Brookford' Colombard (Chardonnay) from Australia for Baht 290.00. and one bottle of 'Ramirana' Reserva (Chardonnay) from Chile for Baht 380.00. last week at Villa in Hua Hin for cooking - both blue wraps with no 'fruit' mentioned anywhere.
Trouble might be that the 'Brookford' is labelled 2011 & the 'Ramirana' 2010.
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Sure, it's dangerous on Thai roads but for me (as the driver of a pick-up), the most danger is at night; several times over the years I've been driving here, I've had to swerve to avoid either a group of pedestrians, a single pedestrian or a pedestrian pulling a trailer or a bicycle or motorbike with no lights crossing the highway, this mostly on dual or triple carriageways which are not sufficiently lit.
Crossing these roads at night for pedestrians is very dangerous but just the wearing of a hi-viz vest or jacket would make it a lot safer.
I suffered on these occasions, a sort of reverse road-rage, a feeling of experiencing a near miss, envisaging the horror of what could have so easily happened. Driving carefully, unintoxicated and alert as I do is not enough here, a constant expectation of the unexpected is also required!
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One of the things peculiar to Thailand is its special relationship with itself.
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On 23/02/2017 at 11:33 AM, impulse said:
Some people (not all of them) find that the grass isn't really greener... Fortunately, some come to that revelation before they're in too deep to change their mind. Others burn their bridges and/or their cash and get stuck in a bad situation with no viable way back.
That's right; some can afford to change their minds, that is to go home and still have the option of returning to LOS, while others are stuck. It's all about options and what's most important to the individual concerned; if you've enough money and assets you can put even an expensive ten, fifteen or twenty year long extended jaunt down to experience.
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2 minutes ago, thai3 said:
As the offices all seem to have their own rules on this or not it's anyone's guess. Needs to phone the office where he is staying to prevent an unneeded journey.
and hope they answer - worth a try I suppose
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Hasn't 'the very head one' just pronounced on this?
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A few days ago I ordered twenty plastic A4 folders and three ballpoint pens in a shop selling school/studying equipment and rice; the items came to Baht 115 but I was charged 120.
I thought, it's only five Baht, doesn't matter; when I got home, I noticed there were twenty five folders and thought what a pillock I'd have looked had I questioned the price!
Just speaking for my Thai GF and myself, we've definitely been undercharged here in Thailand more times than we've been overcharged and that includes in bars.
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In practice humans have always killed other humans; millions have been killed by other humans in the name of religion or in the name of defending a nation or in the name of the defense of a political view and continue so to do without punishment, legally. It looks to me like humans are in charge not a supernatural power and in that case all these humans divided into groups, countries, states, whatever, choose to have the death penalty or they don't.
If I lived in society where I had the opportunity to vote in a referendum on the issue, not being a left-wing dreamer or superstitious religious, I think that a person properly tried and convicted of a crime as anti-social as, for example, murder and after affording that person the subsequent opportunity to appeal, I would give the judge the power in cases where sufficient evidence could be shown of a distinct and substantial danger to that or indeed any other society or to any person or persons within same, of handing down the death penalty.
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I made similar points to those made by The Dancer in a post a couple of years back and got very little and no positive response, one poster telling me, sarcastically, that he was aware of many successful and happy relationships between foreigners and Thais among his friends and that he was sorry mine hadn't worked out; I was on about communication or rather the lack of it as well as the fundamental incompatibility in 'relationships' between people of European decent and Thais and replied to his claim that he had no communication problems saying that it sounded like his communication was likely limited to the sort of reply he offered me.
I have 'been' with my GF for over ten years and although the communication has much improved, I agree with the The Dancer that it will always be a compromise by comparison to a couple who've enjoyed a similar upbringing, background, education and culture despite every relationship involving some compromise. Generally speaking, that is, in my experience, most relationships here fall into the category of the foreigner billed as a 'provider' and the Thai as the 'provided for, often with family attachments' so, as The Dancer says, it's a 'deal' not 'true love' although, naturally, people form emotional attachments to one another but even then; take away the 'support' and it all crumbles. Objectively the OP sounds like he's 'in love' but is the love he's receiving the real thing i.e. would it stand his inability to support his beloved?
The idea that foreigners are generally attractive to Thais is most likely purported by the attention given to foreigners by bar girls in and around beer bars but in reality, that is, in the vast majority of cases and in my personal experience as well as what I've heard from, as it were, the horses' mouths, they're very much a second and financial security driven choice.
Anyway, to answer the OP's question; no, I don't think so but it helps, to some degree, to evaluate the situation more accurately.
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Congratulations Naam - a deserved win IMV
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20 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:
I'd NEVER vote for someone who doesn't like animals, which leaves me undecided between VF and Naam.
Well, I hope they're vegans then.
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49 minutes ago, mania said:
Yes it happens in various ways in Thailand
When I first moved there I did not mind..I thought good they take care of their own #1
But I admit I guess after a few years living there & learning to speak, read & write Thai
Own a condo/home,truck,motorbike etc you start to feel like your a part of Thailand
Then something like this.... while technically not a big deal..... pops up to remind us & yes it does sting a bit
to me anyways it did.
Same as many BUPA insurance policies with better maximum coverage's
Limited to Thai Nationals which I never really understood either
Of course there are other examples ....
But we all knew & mostly had been told many times before moving there
to never expect to really be accepted outside of your extended Thai family/relatives/friends etc.
But yes... when at times after years you forgot & something albeit small like this happened
it did sting just that bit
You're a 'citizen of the world' like you're a 'legend in your own lunchtime'
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Thailand News: Farangs famous to Thais that most expats have never heard of - Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/11/29/farangs-famous-thais-most-expats-have-never-heard
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18 minutes ago, dotpoom said:18 minutes ago, dotpoom said:
My only question is...what is Bumrungrad?....are we all supposed to know?
My only question is...what is Bumrungrad?....are we all supposed to know?
Yes, I think we are but 'Bumrungrad' should have been followed by 'Hospital' and to my mind the topic should have read, 'Bumrungrad hospital is the embodiment of Thainess'.
Hua Hin: Beware of burglars! Two houses broken into in Thap Tai
in Hua Hin and Cha-Am News
Posted
You see that woman with her arm outstretched - that's the point