jesimps

Didn't take long for the "blame Trump" post to appear.

Unfortunately cars and trucks are bigger than motorcycles and come off best. Also, if motorcyclists learned the highway code and didn't speed, overload their bikes or get psised, they'd be ok.

I quite like the absence of car horn noise in Thailand, the way that I drive, I never use the thing anyway. Don't even know if it works or not. Prefer it here to say Athens, Greece. I once went there for a holiday and returned my hire car after a couple of hours. Couldn't stand the constant noise of car horns, found it really stressful. Especially at lights. If you didn't pull away the split second they turned green, the whole queue behind you started beeping. Even walking around trying to appreciate the sights, you couldn't escape that constant honking of horns.

I was quoted 26,000 baht for similar treatment to a front tooth which was broken. Because I'm going on 80 yoa, I decided to live with the occasional pain and save myself the money. The days of me worrying about how I look cosmetically are long gone.

That's the first "If you don't like it here, you should go back to where you come from" of the day. Surprised it was so far into this thread. Still, you can always guarantee there'll be someone that'll utter it. Saying that, I think these six Thai guys acted like a pack of hyenas when they smell blood and should be treated severely when it's their turn in court.

Not so much the mindless water throwing because I tend to stay in over the period, but the loud bass-heavy music every evening jars me off.

There but for the grace of God....... RIP young man.

Told my missus to throw me on the compost heap at the bottom of the garden to save herself a few bob. She looked at me absolutely disgusted. Thais don't joke about death. I know that she'll have a big expensive face-making ceremony with everyone invited that'll cost her a fortune. Up to her.

I agree. It was unique and interesting for a short while on my first Songkran 17 years back. My intro was my motorbike taxi driver and myself getting buckets of water full in the face on the way to the main Pattaya celebration. Ended up hating the festering thing by the time I'd managed to make my way back to Jomtien. Took me hours and was a miserable experience. Have been caught twice more in my time here, once when I went to pick up my daughter from Bang Saen and got stuck in the procession, the other time was when I went to Kanchanaburi to escape Pattaya Songkran and accidentally ended up in their bar district. Didn't realise it was so close to the war museum and cemetary.

A lady with sense. I'd join her if I could afford it.

Reading that raving, fanatical post just made me more of a Trump supporter than I was before. I'm not even American.

Was in the Brit Army in Brunei and Labuan in the early 1960s during the Indonesian insurgency. All our unit were pushing for a transfer to Kuching, but only a lucky few managed it. Don't know if things have changed since then. Brunei was very Muslim, but there were a couple of restaurants where you could get a a beer and Labuan was quite relaxed. Wonder if I'd get a discount for helping to rid the place of Sukarno's lot? 🙂

How is it possible to stand amongst a crowd of people all doing the same thing (throwing water), from early morning until evening, without getting bored? Then rinse and repeat the following year, and the year after etc? I was bored ....less after an hour during my first and only Songkran appearance and have stayed at home for the last sixteen.

I can't criticise this guy. I remember when I was in the Brit Army in Hong Kong in the late 1960s the wife and I locking ourselves out of our 12th floor flat. We were struggling a bit for cash in those days, so rather than pay someone to gain access, I climbed down from my friend's flat above to our balcony, the door of which was always unlocked. I did take the precaution of tying a rope to his railings and around my waist. After climbing onto dock roofs when I was a kid in Liverpool, I had a good apprenticeship for tasks like this. Hope this guy has a speedy recovery.

What I do hate is waiting outside a shop in the heat for it to open late in the morning. Central Plaza in Pattaya a case in point with an opening time of 11am. They can see a large crowd waiting to be admitted, but no way on God's earth will they open those doors even a second early.

At least here they have the two-tier policing the right way around. In the UK, the cops tend to favour the incomers. I say that even though I have a daughter and son-in-law-to-be in the Met.

When I applied for C of R at Chonburi for opening a bank account, they said I had to get from my embassy. They only issued them for driving licence.

Probably the same reason that you can't get fresh bread early morning, they're too tight to employ a night shift.

I've yet to come across any of that 10% here.

They don't go much lower than Putin's lot. Awful people. They hate the world, so the prospect of causing a waitress to lose her job means nothing to them. These two should be instantly deported in my opinion.

I only eat the ones the wife makes. Those you get in restaurants and roadside stalls are usually full of sugar. Taste more like desserts. Same with the curries.

Call me stupid, but I've tried a couple of famous Soviet writers and found them to be incredibly boring. Never seeming to get to the point. Give me a good modern novel any day.

The only change that I want them to make is to allow the sale of alcohol early morning so that I can buy my booze at the main supermarket along with the groceries early on. It's really annoying when I know that my favourite tipple is within reach, but I have to settle for something else at my local shop later on.

I saw a Thai woman doing the same opposite Dongtan Beach in Jomtien at 1030 in the morning and she appeared to be a sober beach vendor. Also, on most days of the week, you're likely to pass a Thai guy having a squirt by the side of the road. I've also seen several guys at various times peeing opposite my house and outside my back gate. However, I think this particular woman should have found a more secluded spot to have a sprinkle.

I get a sore ring cycling once around the golf course perimeter, so long distance stuff isn't for me.