joekicker

They don't. This is usually the first error. Almost no Thai government agency gives a rat's axx about foreigners retiring here. Maybe the Government Housing Bank that will give loans to property developers, but that's about it. Immigration has a set of rules that retirees can follow if they want to live here. Or not. Up to them. That's the attitude you MUST deal with because they do NOT want to attract expat retirees, they are DISinterested in them. They only are interested if those who do want to retire follow the rules and paperwork. Also they are totally oblivious and also disinterested in any problems any change in rules might or might not cause. It's not on their table of things-to-do. If you don't proceed from that, then you will definitely be frustrated and possibly upset.

No proper web board is going to let you run scripts or auto-links on their site. Just a guess, but my guess is it's a security block.

I have both True and TOT, and I have access to a couple of others. True is consistently the best in my experience. Only TOT has wireless ADSL for the home, which is a very big plus for them, and it's not bad, either. If I absolutely couldn't get True, I'd be able to make do with TOT for sure but I have no intention of unplugging the True line I'm transmitting this on.

Obviously "all" international comm is not down since all the big networks are up such as True, TOT, Internet Thailand ... . Sounds a little strange to me. Did you give them a big deposit?

KILLED BY A SCORPION British dad bitten in the Thai jungle By Richard Smith The Daily Mirror is English. Maybe that explains why they run fantasy instead of news? Stupid story du jour. Jeez. Father-of-three Gareth Pike, 56, tried to suck the poison from the wound on his thumb. But he fell ill with a fever. The retired businessman was treated in a Thai hospital but when he failed to get better, he returned to the UK. AdvertisementGareth, of Barry, South Glamorgan, was admitted to the special diseases unit at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. His condition improved and he was sent home. A week later, his health deteriorated. He went back to hospital but died of severe internal bleeding and a damaged liver. Three weeks before his death, Gareth said of his ordeal: "I was living in a tin shack in the jungle and there were lots of black scorpions around. I was getting dressed one morning when I was stung on the thumb. "I had a blister come out on my thumb and foot and I came out in a rash. I was in dreadful pain. I lost half my body weight and I felt very ill. I was glad to get home." His sister, Pamela Roberts, said yesterday: "They shouldn't have let him out of hospital. I brought him home from Thailand to get him better and now he's lying dead in a hospital morgue. "We're all so upset, I loved him to bits. He was so full of life, he loved dancing, having a laugh and playing golf. He had so much more living to do." Divorced Gareth leaves a daughter, Natasha, 21, and two sons, Daniel, 14, and Harry, 10. He sold his property business in Barry along with a penthouse flat in the resort's marina two years ago. Gareth moved to Thailand and later married a local woman. They moved to her home village in a remote area outside Pattaya. He built a new home for his new wife and her three children. A coroner will investigate his death.

If you get to Bangkok drop by Villa Supermarket on Sukhumvit between Soi 33 and 35. You can pick up all that stuff at one place, with a choice of what brands on each one. Most of the pies and most of the sausages are frozen, so you might want to bring some newspapers along and ask for some dry ice - Villa has that. Failing that, you'll have to shop around. But most supermarkets have a couple of ordinary Cheddars, usually Strine and very tasty. Usually they have bacon. You might get some dinky ordinary breakfast sausages, VERY ordinary but probably you'll like them if you haven't seen any for a while, they're edible I think. Pies, go to a pub and have a chat with the manager on taking out "raw" ones, that'd be my first suggestion on that. Custom butchers, special sausages, I'll leave to others, English sausage's not my thing.

You guys ought to open it up in the morning, serve breakfast and Marys, when the game's live. Hell I might drive down for that!

Yahoo sports has it all.

I have been at it, but have not stayed in it. It is a good, substantial place. I don't know about the birds chirping, but a good deal of the traffic noise is blocked out. It seemed very quiet when I was there, and I would certainly want to know if they allow guests.

I am going to follow this thread, but I have little hope. I have turned to the BitTorrents, where you can download sports almost immediately after many of the games. It's not dependable of course. There's always mlb.com, yahoo for football and so on, but I don't like watching on a computer monitor, frankly. ESPN/Star has lost the contract for the Premier League, which raises the interesting question of what they will show instead of the Premiership, shows about the Premiership, repeats of the Premiership, classic Premiership matches and shows about upcoming shows about the Premiership. They COULD show sports from various countries including North America, but somehow I think they won't.

People who are annoyed with being called "farang" have no idea what they're talking about. I was called "mun" in a column in Thai Rath one time, by name. I went to the newspaper office and boy, were they surprised! And did I get a deep wai from the editor and public apology from the columnist as a result. I was really pixxed! "Oh, we didn't know you would understand." Which just made me more pixxed of course. It was some years ago and I don't froth at the mouth any more about it. I guess I can't complain any more, but I sure as hell will.

"Cosmopolitan" I think is a better word. The Thais have always been very good at this, being very comfortable with foreigners, particularly farang. The King and I depicted that, in its own way. Chulalongkorn freed the slaves, built the railways. Thailand had compulsory co-ed education before most western countries, before the USA. The Thais took a look at stuff like that and said, "hmmm that sounds good, lets do it, too." Look at Thai food - almost none of it originated in Thailand. Most Asians are either obsequious or arrogant, almost certainly because of colonialism. (Or totally secretive like Japanese and previous Korea). The Thais are neither, not as a country or government or regime. Tom where are you, in Petchaburi?

Got them, except they're not boxes, they're stickers on the windshield. The expressway entrances have "tags only" lanes that cars speed through. Works very well, inclduing for me. It was put in aeons ago, way back in the last century, I believe. Edit: Take a look here. The yellow sign is "tags only" but as you see the tags will work at any lane: http://www.bangkokpicture.com/photos/bangkoktransport01.jpg Well the trains are a mess, no doubt. The problem is a horse-and-cart. If there were bullet trains, no one could afford them. The only reason people travel on trains is because of the price. I might or might not use a bullet train. Frankly, I enjoy having my car, I even drive to the South. But I'll give you this one overall. It would be NICE to have, no doubt. They have these on every highway, every day. They are known as "pay the police" points. They most certainly have this. This is one thing Thais can do and have done for a long, long time is make REALLY good roads. The problem is that highway building corruption is endemic. There's no lack of technology. The "back-expressway" from the airport into town hasn't seen a repair crew for eight years now just for starters. Ah, yes, I wondered when you were going to give an example of advanced techology they use in Dubai.

You forgot to mention the crappy hot dogs at 7-11. But I'm stumped. What have these to do with technology? I'm not actually doubting that Dubai and Singapore have higher technology at all. I'm only wondering how it affects us, and what current technology might be put in place to help *us* out. And wouldn't I LOVE to see wires go underground. I live on a teeny tiny soi that deadends on a dead-end teeny tiny soi and there's not a reason in the world the wires couldn't be buried. But of course they're not. On the other hand, when I call the phone company and report a line is out, the guy is on the job within two hours and then calls me to make sure it's properly fixed, and doesn't come by for a tip. That's happened twice in the past three months - I have a number of phone lines. Maybe he works better with overhead wires, who knows? Meanwhile, in a world far removed from the Bangkok suburbs, my wife has been trying for the past 8 days to get a Comcast guy to come by and throw the switch that would give her TV and Internet access, but he's pretty busy even though she has paid $200 up front. Maybe by tomorrow. Or so.

Up to you. But *I* DO think, and I think it's silly to claim that Singapore controls traffic because of technology. I DO think there are a couple of other reasons that intervene. In fact, go sit on Orchard Boulevard any afternoon and let me know how well the traffic moves. You'll have loads of time to consider it. Being stuck in traffic is what happens when you have too many cars and/or too few roads, not when you don't have enough technology.

Fair enough, but I'm scratching my head. What's lacking? I file my taxes on the Internet, my car is a Ford at US specs (yes it is, believe me), I'm online 24/7, I work at home and go to the office once every couple of weeks... I know you can keep adding technology and never catch up, but what's missing here between what we've got and what would be "technologically advanced"? Example of what I'm after here: I go to Singapore, there's nothing there that makes me go, "wow, wish we had that in Thailand".

We all noticed. Didn't you know? Members drink for free, if they mention it to the barkeep at the time they order. Participants pay.

Oh, I'm sorry if you think I took issue. I didn't. When it was written it was actually quite good. It holds up. I'd give props to Stanley. But it's 9 months old,and a lot has happened in the past three months. I think less of your second one, but only because I find a lot more of "the fortune teller" in it. In economics these days, if you say "it has to happen again because it happened last time", you lose me. For example: There *is* a bubble growing again in Asia, but it is *not* 1997, and things will not happen the way they happened then. I say this with even more confidence if possible than your Mr Liu say the opposite. Absolutely. I have no idea what your own opinion is, if any, and I was commenting on the article, which I found very interesting but, as I say, now outdated. I'm not an economist. I believe there is one economic law, which is supply and demand, and everything falls from that. I don't believe there is such a thing as "too much". But that's me. I sure as HELL remember stagflation, man oh man did I make a lot of money betting correctly that Jimmy Carter was an economic midget. 20 per cent interest in a savings account? Don't be too sure about this. Actually, in the past three months, Thai growth has gotten some legs. That's why I say that post-coup paper by Morganstanley is out of date. Baht is up, exports are WAY up - that's a very good indication of growth, since exports are supposed to fall if the currency goes up. But there is a lot of stuff bubbling in the Thai economic pot, and you're also a fool if you don't take politics into account because right now politics is 95% of the confidence factor. And my last word here is that the economy is classic, evolutionary chaos. When a butterfly flaps its little wings, the knock-on is very unpredictable. If the economy was easy to predict, we'd all be very, very well off, eh?

It was interesting in September. Yesterday, the baht and the stock exchange both hit 10 year highs. Growth will indeed be around 4, maybe 4.5 per cent but that's only because it had a very slow start. I bet Mr Morganstanley has changed a lot of things for this month's report. Like most economies, the Thai one profits or loses from the mood and confidence. Right now, confidence is up, foreigners are tossing billions into the stock market and short-term investments. The problem with a military junta is that it can reverse on a dime, so to speak, heh. But it's pedal to the metal right now. The Americans and Yurpean governments are keeping arm's distance from the junta. But if they really have elections this year as they say, then it's back to pre-1997 growth in a flash. Even now it's at an annual rate of about 6 per cent or better.

I don't find this post offensive like the one above, but same criticism, really: You're just talking for yourself without any facts and little if any experience. The one thing that is definitely wrong in your post is when you say "in general". In fact, people who live in Thailand "in general" do not go back to the US or Yurp when they reach 65. They have insurance, or they have income or they plan medical care on the Thai economy because it is generally (heh) affordable. In *my* experience which is very limited but I'm sure more general than yours, I know one Yurpean who went back for a free, Dutch quadruple bypass and was back in Thailand in a month. It seems from your post, and correct me by all means if I'm wrong, but it seems you know something about the US and its medical system, and pretty much eff all about Thailand its medical system. If I had to say anything at all in general, I'd say it is impossible to say "in general" about expats in Thailand and be taken seriously.

No kidding. Yet in another thread here we have the opinion of one guy who informs everyone that: 2) The more you get to know the thai people the less you will like them. I told him, what do you mean by "you"? I suppose it's a cliche but the Thai people are exactly why I stay here. I try to imagine Bangkok or Pattaya filled with other nationalities and I couldn't stomach that. Bangkok without the Thais would be unspeakable. There's no perfect country but this is among the tops.

Shouldn't the ladies put the fish on the grill instead?

Why is Europe old and dying? That's why.

Good work. Easy on the eyes.

Fruit of my own sperm puts KETCHUP on her hot dogs. Jeez. What next? Mayo on the french fries? Oh, wait, sorry. But totally weird exceptions can be ignored. Vegemite sandwich. Got a real ring to it, like sheep's eyeballs. Yucko. And a Thai, too! She ought to lose her passport.