losworld
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Posts posted by losworld
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I think this is good news.
The jet ski incident was obviously a set up. Yes JJ seemed to be "typecast" and I have no doubt hes ripped people off with Jet Skis many times but this was clearly exaggerated.
I hate these bottom feeding producers, go back to ibiza and film some more kids on 18/30 holidays.
This documentary just exaggerates the bad behavior of foreigners and wouldn't do us any favors at all in the long run.
On the other hand, I wonder how Bravo are going to react... they didnt complete some of the episodes so I wonder what they will do??
They will likely air it because the only thing worse than bottom feeding producers are bottom feeding networks. However, don't look for a continuing series to be shot anywhere in Thailand soon. Wouldn't surprise me to see a "uncut" version at some time to further milk the dumbed down masses.
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Well the site is nothing special. No useful indexing, searching, etc. Not impressed to be quite honest. One thing to talk about blowing away the competition and another thing to do it.
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It was not staged managed, the Royal Marines would never have been involved in that at all.
I also don't think the marines were necessarily involved in the stage managing but I do think the rest of the 'cast' were and had probably been paid. I also wonder why the soldiers and the MP did not object to the camera being present or even seem to ask questions of why it was there. When the MP turned up he didn't even look at the camera or ask questions - if it had been me it would have been my first question as it could have had a great deal of relevance to the scenario that I was presented with and had to sort out. Why aren't some of the posters here looking critically at all this?
I think it is because if you criticize it they feel you must believe there are no ripoffs in the jet ski business. I also think there have been a few "pumpers" on this board perhaps associated with the production.
I fully believe ripoffs occur daily in these businesses and elsewhere. But I also believe that this show and other reality programs are a ripoff themselves as they portray staged scenes as real and leave everyone participating including the viewer at a loss.
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thanks everyone
all good stuff to keep in mind.
i'll do my best to not fuc_k this up, should be allot of fun though:)
i got fodors travel guide la few days ago and its been helping allot.
do you guys really think that i should be mroe suspicions of other travelers then i am thias?
I have had nothing but good experience with Thais. Sure there are the occasional ripoffs but I do my best to avoid them. Politely say no to any unreasonable offers. Most Thais have a great sense of humour and a good heart. Show them respect and they will do the same. The women will be after you mainly for your money but that doesn't mean you can't get around this and have a good time by showing them your other qualities. If you are backpacking you are not showing off money so you will find many more honest encounters.
Also it is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security in Thailand. Remember there are always some bad apples in the bunch and try not to do anything crazy you would not do in your home country. And always remember you are a guest here. I think you will have the time of your life. Soak it up and enjoy it. Good luck to you and safe travels.
And take the Nakhon Air VIP buses whenever you can they are great. If not Gov't VIP and Chang Tours are good. Buy them at the bus station.
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I think the show was a load of BS. It looks all staged and the reaction on here just shows what type of people we have on these boards.
All reality programming contains a certain amount of scripting, staging and paid actors.
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The Thai authorities have responded predictably in the "land of face". There are strict guidelines for anyone shooting in Thailand (legitimately). And a major network such as Bravo should follow the guidelines. Every country is guilty of controlling media portraying their country. Even the U.S. has stopped films such as "Salvador" from gaining widespread distribution
So the filmmakers intentionally ignored the rules. I would also be interested to know what the "purpose" and "subject matter" of the series is as stated in the application.
What is too bad is it will make it very difficult for independent filmmakers to shoot in Thailand after this fiasco. Mainstream Hollywood should be okay because they actually show the script in advance.
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Thanks, Falcon. That's pretty much what I'd come to think after Googling around. Such a shame I won't be able to come and live in Thailand now!
But maybe you can open a clinic? I recall seeing a Western doctor with a clinic somewhere I think around Bkok. How did he do it?
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Is it time for a "Clampdown on survey's"?
FF
Or, to use the other catch phrase: Thailand, the Hub for Surveys?
Somewhat reassuring numbers.
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You have a pretty good mix with a couple days in Pattaya and the balance in either Ko Samui/Koh Ph. Personally I'd suggest Phuket with a central base of Patong but you may be wanting to check out the full moon party. It's a quick and cheap flight with Air Asia. I think both venues will be plenty busy enough for you to have fun.
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I am actually optimistic this will be a good high season if not derailed by the upcoming protests.
A place like Pattaya may do particularly well as I think regulars can maybe miss one year but two years may be out of the question. Places like Soi B could do particularly well as I do believe visitors will reduce expenses by taking a step down in accomodation venues, meals, etc.
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Problem here is that many believe or want to believe the jet ski incident is real.
Many of us down in Patong know JJ.. It was real..
100%..
LL - I don't doubt this goes on all the time and this JJ may be one of the worst for it. However, my only point is that the incident was staged and did not happen "live". I think this JJ said the payment for the damage was negotiated prior to the filming... lol
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I was at a funeral in Isaan a couple of years ago, sitting outside amongst around 50 locals. I spotted a friend of my wife and shouted quite loudly, "Nok, ma nang koy" - Nok come sit and chat. I should have said, "Nok, ma nang koy gan" meaning Nok come sit and chat together, but that wasn't the problem. I mis-pronounced the "koy" so that it sounded like the Isaan word for banana and slang for dick.
I had shouted out, "Nok come sit on my dick". The whole place erupted.
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Thanks for the input fellas.
I actually had the guy install the RAM at the counter so I could watch - the way d0ndela does with his customers at his shop in Hua Hin. Interesting to see and took the mystery out of it all too! Anyway he was very careful and precise, except he dropped one of the screws from the cover plate (Jeez how can people work like that?). He didn't touch anything he wasn't supposed to I'm sure.
When he'd finished he started the laptop and I immediately noticed that the desktop icons and text were of much lower quality etc., and so he changed that, showed me that the 3GB was recognised. Job done. Today it is working normally, and Nvidia is operating well, after downloading the drive- thanks for that tip bobo42, although I can't use some apps properly..still can't access my sounds library from Ableton Live 8 and VSTi Plug-ins and ACDC won't allow browse to get photos etc., but at least I can scroll and move panes, and Google Earth opens.
When I bought the laptop 2 yrs ago it had Vista installed. and I found it to be annoyingly slow with the 1GB RAM it was shipped with. As I bought it for the graphics card, with games in mind, as well as for the main use of music production, I asked about upgrading the RAM at that time but didn't do it because I had just spent 44k on the laptop and they wanted 13k for the upgrade to 2GB, which I thought was a complete rip off.
So, as an alternative I got the shop to install XP as it uses less RAM, and that seemed to work fine until I just bought $200 worth of new music software that requires 2GB RAM which prompted the current upgrade.
Thanks to all for the links, which hopefully others will find very useful too. All the online souces say the Kingston RAM I used is correct - actually d0ndela kindly gave me the correct RAM details in another thread. After reading the helpful responses here, maybe the way forward is to try another 2GB Kingston RAM to work alongside the newly installed one, giving me 4GB -as a matching pair this time, and, as I am going to have to re-install software that aint working properly anyway, maybe install 64 bit XP, or 64 bit Vista before I re-install the software, so the 4GB can be fully utilised.
Does this sound like a plan, or am I pushing my luck?
13k for 2 gigs? Probably should have been around 8k at most. In the u.s. kingston is around 800 baht per stick at present.
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avoid the beach side of beach road at night. All the way from North to South. And it is not only the ladyboys as some other poster mentioned before.
If you want to go for a walk all the way along beach road, its nearly impossible to walk on the other side. This is due to a combination of narrow pavements where people just walk straight into me (am I invisible?), having to cross lots of small but dangerous roads, tailors trying to shake my hand ( want nice suit sir - where are you from?), girls welcoming me to their bar (hello welcome), motorcycle taxis( 'you want motocy taxi?'), people renting motorbikes ('you want rent motorbike mister?').
Then there are the video sellers, suitcase sellers etc...
Add to that every Baht Bus slowing down next to me and hooting his ***ing horn - the thought of a mugging on the beach side seems the lesser of the evils
lol well said
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I was surprised when Windows update worked with it. If it had been partitioned the way I wanted then I may have kept it but I had a genuine license so replaced with that instead.[/color]
I only use legal software, but my missus uses pirated software, which in fact is just the norm here in Thailand.
Can you guarantee that the Windows Update (SP3) is going to work? I am fed up with the PC dealer coming in and reload her system again and again....
I'm glad I found this old thread. Now, I don't feel so bad about trying to update my media player (and inadvertently Windows XP), which were installed by my gang at Pantip Plaza. Don't get me wrong, they've been helpful all these years and they do seem to be a pretty good bunch. I just wished they would have told me not to attempt any new updates. Here's what happened:
I love to listen to the radio on the internet so when I tried to open Windows Media Guide Internet Radio, it prompted me to update or no go. I must have been half asleep clicking next until my computer finally shut down. I rebooted again and there was a counterfeit message embedded on my desktop along with a resolve now or later prompt. For many days I kept clicking on the resolve later key, until finally my computer hit the skids and gave me the dreaded blue screen indicating that the hard drive has been damaged. Now, I can't even get the computer to boot up anymore
.This time, I bought a new computer that had the original XP already installed along with authentic drivers. Took me forever and a day to get all the updates installed, the whole nine yards of it. Now, I'm worried about installing any more pirated stuff on this new computer. I want Quick Time, but all I can find is pirated and I'm not spending 10k baht for it (I was told that was the price for the real thing). My fear is that if I install the pirated software, my regular Windows Update will scan my computer, find it and there will be trouble again. I'm not even sure if my Norton Internet Security will give it a green go ahead. What if they have some spyware, trojans and viruses etc. on there?!
10k bath for quicktime... you can download quicktime pro for around $25 us if not mistaken.
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People keep mentioning that the producer is getting (or will be getting) rich from this show, can anyone prove this? What kind of figures are we talking about? $10k?
Are you kidding? Likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit if a good viewership.
Actually this is realistic. I know a producer who works for a couple brits with a successful show on a minor cable company in the United States and they are receiving around 300K per episode with a full slate of shows every year. Now this is not a running series and the market is not so big but let's say they wind up with 50k per episode. 8 x 50 would be 400k. Absolute minimum would likely be around 25k per episode with Bravo picking up editing expenses, etc. Now add syndication to other countries if picked up and profits go up. They probably spent months planning, months shooting and months in post. They have equipment and learned experience as well as producer credits. Do you think they work for much less?
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Ok will contact TV in 2 years time after having been a member of C wow for 2 years, having paid 100 baht for the second year and will be as fit as a racing snake.
Probably because you'll be running to work due to the money you lost on your membership.
Hope not but sounds sketchy.
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People keep mentioning that the producer is getting (or will be getting) rich from this show, can anyone prove this? What kind of figures are we talking about? $10k?
Are you kidding? Likely hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit if a good viewership.
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This producer will set filming in Thailand back 30 years. All in the name of getting greedy and staging the jetski scene. If it were not for this he likely would have been able to return to Thailand and continue the series. Now he'll have to go somewhere like Mexico. Problem is the Mexicans may not be so accommodating and they like to carry real guns.
So what will be accomplished from this show? Many in the audience will view Thailand as a dangerous and corrupt place filled with overzealous, drunken, sex crazed tourists. Many foreigners will avoid a visit.
Some Thais will see foreign tourists in an increasingly undesirable light and may become more Xenophobic. Any policing of ripoffs will be short lived and actually become more common if the economy does not turn.
As for the producers they will make off with a bundle and never visit Thailand again.
And the foreign film industry will see more barriers with greater monitoring and censorship.
So once again Thailand stands above all and criticising is not allowed.
Would you also suggest that Michael Moore isn't welcome in the US anymore.
No absolutely not. I am not against investigative journalism. I favor any approach that exposes the truth among lies and corruption. And yes there are some things that need to be exposed in Thailand. The problem with this presentation is that it uses "untruths" to expose the truth. One thing I always liked about Jerry Springer was he openly admitted his show was a piece of crap and that his methods were not the best. But you watched it knowing this and simply viewed it as entertainment. I can't recall anyone using a Jerry Springer episode as fodder in an argument. Problem here is that many believe or want to believe the jet ski incident is real.
Further the Thais may feel burned in more ways than one. We don't yet know what type of application was made regarding the filming as in what the objective or subject matter was going to be. I hope it was all above board.
No offense to anyone on the board for presenting my argument. I do enjoy the entertainment value on Thai Visa and have read some of the most amusing, entertaining, informative and funny posts anywhere.
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^^^^ What planet are you really from ???
Not the same one as you thankfully.
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This producer will set filming in Thailand back 30 years. All in the name of getting greedy and staging the jetski scene. If it were not for this he likely would have been able to return to Thailand and continue the series. Now he'll have to go somewhere like Mexico. Problem is the Mexicans may not be so accommodating and they like to carry real guns.
So what will be accomplished from this show? Many in the audience will view Thailand as a dangerous and corrupt place filled with overzealous, drunken, sex crazed tourists. Many foreigners will avoid a visit.
Some Thais will see foreign tourists in an increasingly undesirable light and may become more Xenophobic. Any policing of ripoffs will be short lived and actually become more common if the economy does not turn.
As for the producers they will make off with a bundle and never visit Thailand again.
And the foreign film industry will see more barriers with greater monitoring and censorship.
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I think if Thaksin is involved it will be an "uncivil" war
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There's really a simple solution to all of this... DON'T RENT A <deleted> JETSKI... take your gal and enjoy a canoe for two...
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Looking for some ideas I have a day and night spare whilst in Bangkok and fancy driving out to spend some relaxing time by the sea.
Where should I go I've done Hua Hin and Samet, any ideas.....
Hua Hin and Pattaya within striking distance but don't forget Ayutthaya. I'm sure many members will have some great ideas for you.
Good luck.
Putting Things In Perspective
in General Topics
Posted · Edited by losworld
There is no doubt the program Big Trouble in Thailand has created quite a stir. I acknowledge that there are certainly scams regarding jet skis among other things. However, there are scams all over the world every day. I personally never rented a jet ski nor do I have any desire as I have always thought they are a waste of gas, environmentally unfriendly, take away from the beach experience for others and offer little value for the money. However I have rented many motorbikes in Thailand. AND NOT ONCE HAVE I HAD ANY PROBLEM WITH FALSE DAMAGE CLAIMS OF ANY TYPE. In Thailand you can rent a bike with very little deposit and keep it for a month. To put things in perspective these same types of bikes will rent for 10x this amount in resorts in Mexico.
It seems to me some here expect all the protection, laws and amenities they know exist in the West but at the same time still want things at Thai prices. Unfortunately, I don't think you can have it both ways. If someone knows where you can please inform us.