ben2talk

Assuming ‘Move forward’ is allowed to survive…

Surely the hidden hands made sure that elections won’t really challenge them - the wheel of power still grinds and prices still rise to further fund the elite dinosaurs.

ROFLMAO The best ideas always come after a few cans of beer at a football game.

One would hope that this guy was a little younger than 83... It's easy to pass it off as a simple accident, though much more fun to imagine maybe some foul play being afoot. But no clues here.

Wow, mumbling in Muslim language - string him up!

Better advice - never ride on an empty head!

Ever since buying my first bike (a Honda CBR400r back in maybe 2013) I started learning the hard way. Following a police bike down Ramkhamheang in very dense traffic, being pulled over for not riding in the gutter - my GF said following a police bike isn't a defence, because they're allowed. They can't be wrong. Paid fine and left. Working in Samutprakarn, there were very regular mobs on Srinakarin road doing the same - stopping everyone not in the gutter... stopped and paid once or twice there. One time approaching a green light at the top of Ladprao in heavy rain at 60km/h lights started to change, rather than brake hard on slippery road, rolled through and got stopped. At that time I made a call to a lawyer friend and was waved through. The main issue with being 'shaken down' is they take your licence and you have to pay to get it back... Feign complete inability to speak or understand Thai and they quickly get bored and move on to the next sucker. At this time, I also decided to put my licence in a wallet - so I could hold it up to display it without them getting their grubby fingers on it. If you do stop - it's enough for them, to see the licence. They never show interest in anything else - tax or insurance - and if they don't gain possession of it, they don't tell you to give them cash - because you don't need to pay them in order to retrieve your licence. A week later, going over one of the old 'flat top' bridges on Srinakarin at 80km/h seeing traffic on the other side, I pulled across to the 2nd lane to pass, and saw police in all 3 lanes trying to usher bikes into the gutter again. They caused a major jam, and as such they were causing problems which they then stopped people for avoiding... That was the last straw - as I slowed down (now on a GSX-R750) in first gear at 30km/h I decided to blast through a gap. One officer managed to stretch out and get his hand on the bar, but instead of stopping me he got hurt - I saw him in my mirror cradling his arm and walking off the road. 200m later, stopped at a red light - watching the police in the 'box' for 4 minutes waiting for a green light. Learned that day, if you pass them - there's no need to 'flee'. Once passed, it's all forgotten. Lesson learned - it's just a game to them, and they aren't at all serious to chase up anyone or even record the licence and chase up anyone who doesn't willingly stop. Since then I just never stopped for them again... last time was 8 years ago but I've passed through a few since then (e.g. one where you're not allowed to exit Bangna-Trad at the U-turn exit and join the road going straight, they put a sign saying 'no right turn' but actually I was going straight. The alternative/correct route would be to exit 2km earlier and get stuck in traffic at Market Village, or do another 4km to the next exit which is past my turn. However, I'm not sure how well this advice would go down in more 'Western' areas like Pattaya or Phuket as I don't really go there, and managed to always avoid them when I did.

“has begun in earnest“ Nothing to worry you unless you live in Earnest…

This is sadly the top post here. You still see people driving to work in their own cars, wearing masks because someone said they should do that a few years ago. It all boils down to the programmed response to do the right thing, because you never know when it could happen... but if you're caught then the punishment would be dire. There is often no rhyme or reason - to demand such a stupid number of sit-ups is ridiculous and it's sad to say that students will rarely think it an option to refuse or even complain. Thai's are very proud of this culture - and they see little wrong with school behaviour. Complaining is a crime. Refusing to obey lawful orders is a crime. Teachers are Gods - so any order must be lawful... and so it goes...

Just one question in reply to this... Why?

In the context of Thai Schools with their military discipline, this might be taken as a slightly unfortunate incident… Severe rules, generally lax discipline and enforcement, but over zealous reactions when they do enforce are the normal way here.

Impressive - so they'll all resign after all the politicians and local leaders are fired, and the soldiers too - starting with the top and working their way down. After that, perhaps start to train and recruit some real police, including the new initiative started abroad some years ago called 'Traffic Division' where they actually go out and see how people drive (rather than go out and deliberately ignore everything they see). Very reassuring - I'm confident that this isn't simply a publicity story for the media.

Same old story - idiots riding on an empty head. I rode bikes for years... from 18-36 years old in the UK, then from 37-60 years old in Thailand. When I was younger, I rode my tyres down to the canvas, and I've gone from my old GSX-R750 with superb stopping power to crappy rental bikes with brakes that didn't work better than simply putting my feet down. Needless to say I rode slower... always paranoid on a scooter because the other traffic can be faster, more aggressive, and more busy playing with their phones - and when I did fall off in the rain, it didn't hurt much. So once you've discussed the insurance question, move on to remind people not to ride bikes unless they know what they're doing... Helmets won't compensate much, especially the Thai variety, and nobody will ride a scooter in full leathers on holiday.

If you hit the car ahead it’s because you were too close, too fast and/out not paying attention. Probably should have been driving on the left anyway!

For taking one case and applying it to everyone else. There was an old black woman who had an accident, so we should stop black people driving too, and certainly women shouldn't be allowed to drive. This is a UK related thread, I missed that point. I thought we were in Thailand where everyone can jump on a scooter or in a car and just drive with no worries about policing. Again, irrelevant - bad driving at any age is not acceptable and the sooner the police pull him off the roads the better... more chance of that in the UK. Hence the need for an addition to the general checkup, 3 years doctor's note and a refresher driving test at 80 to be repeated before they get to 90, 100 etc. But more likely, traffic police should become aware of bad drivers and weed them out. So these cars were travelling at a fair lick, we might assume, but still I can pull up a thousand more cases from the past month driving here with people nowhere near this age. The most basic need isn't to think about how to make things better, or make new rules or regulations. The most basic need is to have more competent traffic police, and stop thinking that AI cameras will make things better by catching fines from people changing lanes or speeding - whether it's safe or not.

This is rather annoying TBH. It's not clear what happened, maybe he had a heart attack (I had mine aged 46) - that's not a problem with age, right? Maybe it was a suicide pact - that's not age related either. However, my wife takes a bus from work and has to cross a road to get home. I'm sure that 99.9% of the drivers there are between 20 and 60 - and they either flash their lights and drive faster as you complete crossing the first two lanes with 2 lanes left (each side), or they just don't react at all. This morning, someone stopped, and the vehicle 2 cars behind made a sandwich - so we had 3 completely wrecked cars because of the way Thai's generally behave on the road. Last week it was 3 bikes, one stopped - the next one bumped him and fell sideways, and the last one hit his bike and went <deleted> over tit rolling across the crossing - he hurt his arm quite a bit in the process. Driving here it's difficult to say you wouldn't get caught out that way yourself because it's pretty much the norm. So let's hear it again for the 94 year old who drives too slowly into a canal and hurts nobody except his passenger and himself. Safety won't be improved by more rules, limiting age - or ability to drive when taking medicine (despite medical advice) unless there is some fear of traffic policing - only then can this stupid country move forward. Until then, just smile and accept - anyone can drive pretty much any way they like and at any age that they like.

How does this improve safety? Surely the dangerous people have tons of cash to sort their visas…

"Enforced" is a pretty key word here. They don't improve 'enforcement', they simply put in more rules which could be enforced in an imaginary land where there would be traffic police and proper driving instruction. I saw a while ago how they are bringing in AI to help with crossings too. My local crossing has no AI, or lights - but they did put some plastic pipes with red cloth attached (not so useful at night)... this despite the fact that both sides of the road has 4 lanes. So does this mean that, next time I go to pick up my wife and start to cross at the crossing, as the cars flash their lights and continue driving past (often accelerating) there will suddenly be some kind of enforcement? Would it also imply that the three scooters who crashed trying to stop last week would be able to sue the local authority for placing a pedestrian crossing without sufficiently clear signage or lighting? Would there suddenly be a special camera which will start issuing fines for cars based on their close proximity at any speed on normal roads? Or will this only apply to the few cameras that they put up to collect money?

It should be a matter of choice.

Forget the news then, but don't forget that I am seeing the worst flooding in my soi that I've seen for 8 years, and my wife is now taking an extra hour to get home.

Wow. Antibiotics have different classes to target different kinds of bacteria. Any bacteria affected will report 100% strength - but the wrong antibiotic, or a general antibiotic, will kill other bacteria which is not good for your health. You should see a doctor who will either have an answer ready for you, or will do a blood test to see what you have and then prescribe the most effective and properly targeted antibiotic.

Ridiculous - there never was anything to escape. Elite has no rules.

Haha - looks like there's some tread on the rear tyre - so it's worn, not slick... and it takes more than slicks to make it a racing bike for sure. Still, I've done that before - bad tyres and bad brakes aren't what get you, it's being too stupid to ride within the limits of whatever junk you're riding - and riding within limits includes unexpected outcomes, grit or pepsi cans mid-corner and any number of other things, so it looks like he got what he deserved. Too many idiots think it's cool to test the limits on their cornering - I lost many friends over the years. On the limit is way too much for public roads... but hey, TIT. I had some good fun blasting mine up to over 300km/h on a good stretch.

Since when were Thai's worried about laws?

Ok, - to finalize this story - I was told by Shopee that it wasn't their problem, the seller got banned and no action was taken against him... But Kerry, after a good many crazy phone calls over a month, did come up trumps - the keyboard was collected and I was refunded. It seems that scammers don't get in trouble as long as they cough up when they get caught...