joekicker

Flooded? Really? How the heck did that happen and why didn't anyone tell me about it? .

Enjoying the read are you? .

I guess it was ambiguous, but I didn't mean "drinking". As I wrote, "having" as in possessing. You would punish a Kentucky policeman for shooting a felon in commission of a crime? How droll. Look. It's against the law to HAVE the beer. The cop tries to detain you. You resist. You get dead. Just like any other ridiculous law enforced by a ridiculous cop. You think it hasn't happened? Really? I'll be back. Probably. Posts are getting too long to absorb in a quick stop, but consider the above just a tad. .

Bars. Ingots. Whatchamacallits. Gold that isn't MADE into anything but is in a solid form. What gold people "make" when they melt gold down. As stored in Fort Knox (heh) etc. Like that. If you take a solid gold bar and twist it and put it around your wrist, it's not bullion any more. Like that. If you google "gold smuggling thai" or similar, you'll probably get a lot of the little stories that hit Page 7 in the Thailand newspapers. Singaporeans are reputed masters of (getting caught while) smuggling gold into Thailand. They have big canvas corset-belts made up with 50 or 100 little pockets for gold bars. These days, sigh, lot of Africans get caught, especially crossing in from Cambodia. No, the key word here for this law is "currency". It does NOT include credit cards, personal cheques, etc - or gold. Different law. There is NO LIMIT on the import or export of legal gold. You can carry 50 pounds of gold in your 50-pound suitcase airline limit if that's your thing - but not a single one-ounce gold bar. The value of the gold is not relevant, only its form. I've never heard of anyone smuggling gold coins. I think that's because you can't smuggle them. "Bank note and a coin" refers to actual dollar (say) bills and actual (say) quarters and dimes. Nothing else. Yes, definitely. A heavy lace trimming made of silver threads would not count as gold bullion. Good one. .

??? Joe's advice is you can bring gold coins in. You can bring lots of gold stuff in. Rather than list every possibility (gold goblets are okay, gold belt buckles are fine, wedding rings are okay, gold tyre hubcabs are permitted, solid gold computer cases are legal, gold cigarette cases are permitted, gold cigarette lighters are ....) Joe's advice was and is exactly specifically that you can NOT legally bring in or take out bullion. Period. Joe's advice is sooooo simple. .

I have no idea any more what if anything you have a problem with or what IS the point. I've lost track of your claims, and I suspect so have you. Let's try this. If you don't have a problem with the OP, then why do you think it's right to be somehow.... interested let alone concerned about it? If it's not the OP (I think it's one of the sillier OPs of the month and I'm glad it diverged quickly) then what is it, or who is it you are arguing with? For reference: I don't think men should slap women around, literally or figuratively, over their dress or anything else. But it seems to me that with every post, you are criticising the country of Saudi Arabia for its particular method of enforcing the dress code. Well, so do I, and have said so all kinds of times, so again: Who, or what are you arguing against - or for? All kinds of places with sharia law do no such thing. In fact, I can only think of one place that does. I think it's ridiculous, I certainly oppose the use of force involved, but I don't, won't and never will live there, so it's not too high on my priority list. Even if you insist to include some other places that have LOCAL dress codes, I (One) agree and (Two) won't be living there. So again, who or what are you arguing against/for? How about getting shot for having a bottle of beer in, say, Kentucky, USA? Equally wrong with your wife being forced to wear an over-garment in Saudi Arabia? Worse? Different? The same? Ah. An opinion I can grasp. You're wrong. It has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with control. As you say, these people (alleged people) are INTERPRETING the word. To THEM their interpretation is "true". They are idjits. They hear voices. They ANSWER the voices they hear. They are ridiculous -- so far as the religion goes, anyhow. Saying that dress codes are rooted in the true religion is like saying rape is rooted in sex. Did you ever notice how the "correct and true interpretation" favours the rulemakers so much? I sure do. In this forum? That's a joke, right? See? I recognise humour when its pitched at me and framed correctly. Now, just how phuocking fortunate is Islam that you have come along at its time of need to INTERPRET the religion for the believers!? Islam is less than 1,500 years old. Hey, it's your time line, you brought it up, not me! By that standard, Islam is a hell of a lot more advanced than Christianity, eh? Sharia is not a theory. No matter what you (and I) think of interpretation and revelation, matters like Islamic banking and civil law are not theory. Example: The Koran does NOT say wear a chador and cover your face - but it DOES say you can't make interest on a loan. No theory about it. .

I do hope we get an answer. This is what typically happens at the climax of every rainy season in fact. There are always high tides this time of year, and they come right up the Chao Phraya system from Pak Nam. ThonBuri (west) side gets it, then the Bangkok side around Wat Pra Kaew and Yaowaraj and so on. None of the above would affect the airport at all. But you bet, it's the worst thing that's going to happen in Bangkok barring ... well, barring something no one's ever heard of before. If there are fuel distribution problems at Suvarnabhumi, then probably we won't be needing the airport at all - airplanes ALSO needing that fuel distribution rather urgently. FWIW I don't believe that particular story as of this Tuesday morning, it's way too exclusive for me. I'm looking at the morning newspapers and TV news and the Suvaranabhumi airport isn't involved in any discussion. Don Mueang, yes - some breakdowns there and some water out in front. But Suvaranabhumi, not yet. This beautifully named FROC outfit is so incompetent. (How incomepent is it?) It's so incompetent that no one believes what it says without confirmation and, of course, since no one believes it, rumours are a dime a dozen. (On Sunday, FROC denied its own report as an unfounded rumour. That's ALSO how bad it is.) FROC = Flood Relief Operation Command, based at Don Mueng airport. Also, the river embankment broke on Monday opposite Thammasat University (Thon Buri side of the river) and the Pata Department Store (Pinklao) area is under a foot or two. No problems on the Bangkok side YET. To me, the biggest story about Suvarnabhumi is that it sits atop a magnificent swamp where they used to drain the floodwaters. It is a huge, natural sponge, but where water now can't go. .

The airport is fine. It is expected to stay that way - "expected" being the operative word of course. They've built a quite impressive dyke to add to the already extensive anti-flood systems. It is highly unlikely Suvarnabhumi will flood, but nothing is certain given the huge wall of water which will arrive at Bangkok on Wednesday, not to mention the high tides that will meet it on this coming weekend. There are no alerts, no warnings -- not from Thailand or any other country about possible airport problems. Of various potential problems in coming days, the airport's flooding is currrently ranked pretty low. .

Yes. Would you claim there is a religion's book or books that does NOT have such injunctions to be modest? You wouldn't claim that, would you? Here, tell me which book this is from: In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with decency and propriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;... Let the woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Just about every poster's grandmother dressed like most Muslim women. On purpose. Because the Bible says so AND of course because that is what society expected and continues to expect. You keep repeating that nasty old men (mostly old, always men) try to enforce THEIR rules on women and I keep saying yes, indeed, they do. So why is that an indictment of the religion, at least any MORE of an indictment than any such act such as requiring full-body bathing suits for your grams, or killing doctors who do abortions or praying a bribe to Buddha for a lucky number? Ever pushed aside a guard at the Emerald Buddha who bitxched that you weren't dressed properly? .

None. Flee!! All is lost. Doomed, I say DOOMED. Without an in-room osmosis machine, there's no way anyone will survive Pattaya more than a couple of days. And frankly, it should be reverse-osmosis anyhow if we are to get through this. Seriously, though, I hope that every single would-be visitor who thinks that lack of bottled water is a severe problem stays away. Less dangerous for the rest of us if they're not in Thailand at all. Also seriously, bottled water is running out and there won't be much on the market for a while. You're living out of the stockroom. A few details here. .

You mean... (squinting very tightly here).... adapt? My great-grandmother claimed there was a time that there was no bottled water. I don't believe her, of course, silly old woman. Seems easier to bitxh, moan, fret, panic, run about and succumb to the lack of bottled water and die, surely? .

It is illegal to import or export gold bullion -- without a licence that is, which individuals can't get. All other gold and specifically what the law calls "jewellery" is legal. Jewellery specifically means the "24-karat" gold chains, bracelets and such that are made in Thailand. So you can carry "pure" gold around your neck or wrist, say, but NOT in bars in your hand. In AND out of Thailand, basically the same rule. .

Yep. The country's pretty well doomed. With bottled water running out, death won't be far behind. A lot of the Pilgrims starved to death when they landed in America, because their beef jerky ran out and surrounded by food, they died. Hundreds of years later, nothing much seems to have changed. .

If that is quibbling, then why do you merely repeat exactly what I wrote? If it is all a matter of interpretation, then why do I (and you) care about this person in any spoecial way? But I'm the one quibbling, right? Jeez. "More conservative" than whom, precisely? What the HELL does that mean, "more conservative"? I wrote about this quite a while ago in this thread. Why just repeat stuff already well established, that everyone agrees with? Clearly, you have no authority or background to discuss it. What I said, and what you repeat and repeat and repeat is that the Koran has NO instruction about this, and countries including Muslim countries enforce dress codes at gunpoint, without any of the religious authority that some of them claim to have. I don't understand your incessant use of specific examples to prove what we already agree is generally true. Did someone elect you to speak for "many Muslims" without even identifying who these "many Muslims" might be, where they reside, what their authority is (and yours) and so on? No, of course they didn't. You are giving YOUR opinion and trying to channel it through "many Muslims" as though you have some special knowledge and credibililty. You don't. Why do you say it is "crucial" when rather clearly it is decidedly UN-crucial -- just taking Tom's photo above as the same sort of statement that your alleged and ridiculous authority figures? Are you now claiming that countries under "secular law" with "freedom" do NOT have dress codes enforced at gunpoint? You're not actually making THAT stupid a claim, are you? But if you aren't, I can't figure out what claim you are making. .

I have no idea of what you're saying. If you're saying the mean old men who push and arrest women in some countries claim to be enforcing the Koran, then yes, that indeed is what they say. If you claim they ARE enforcing the Koran then, no, they are not, since there is no Koranic instruction about it. If you are claiming the Koran is "the word of God directly" to Muslims, yes, that's correct. If you think it takes guts to go up against those mean old men, no, not at all, and I'd further suggest you are either unaware of millions of such incidents or fully aware of them but willfully ignore them like Obsession does. Obsession and some of his ilk claim Muslims MUST do this or that with dress. Yet Obsession (claims to) personally KNOW Muslims in Pattaya who do no such thing and nothing happens. Muslims MUST dress differently, he says - which of course is why Obsession is totally although un-blissfully unaware of the fact he rubs shoulders, quite literally, with Muslims. He is unaware of the physical fact of this, but is entirely aware of its happening, because he even talked about it himself, him and a real, live, actual Muslim, yet he goes on about this fixation of this obsession of his. Sometimes I think he's just a winder-upper but most of the time I think he's serious if foam-mouthed. .

Yes. It was the "profiteering" word I can't really accept. Business is supply and demand. It's not like hard drives are among the basic necessities of life. I think that higher rice prices and water-taxi prices - I think that's profiteering. For one thing, the supply of rice and water taxis are the SAME, and for another, they are life's necessities. There's a grey area in there, but I think computer hard drives are way the other side of profiteering. Any details on that article or what Japanese are thinking of moving? I've been watching for that, among other things. Honda, Sony and others took one heck of a beating. Toyota, too -- and of course all kinds of little guys. But is there some place you're safer from natural disasters than Ayutthaya or Bangkok? Not Japan, eh? .

Jeez. The OP doesn't know his linear from his elbow and now scale has you confused. Not to mention: You think it was square? Here. Open daily until 9pm. .

Glad to hear of your BIL, good news that. I'm not even sure about agriculture. You remember around Ayutthaya, they diverted water INTO the town so the farmers could grab the 3rd rice crop, and largely successfully. It seems the water will be gone (hard to predict, especially the future) in time for main-crop planting. I'm not saying nothing happened but I'm not (yet) convinced of "big negative". We shall see. .

I have a hard time putting hard drives in the "profiteering" pigeonhole. I'm not so sure that the economy will take it so hard. This quarter will see a problem, a drop and unemployment for sure, possibly even negative growth. But almost immediately the floods end by November, reconstruction and rehabilitiation will commence, and it will be HUGE - hundreds of billions for certain. There's not a company that is pulling out (so far) and that rebuilding alone will be enormous and almost entirely financed by insurance. .

True. You can definitely sell gold *as gold* content in Thailand and get proper world prices. The fact it's Krugerands or grandma's ring or Captain Kidd's treasure doesn't matter to gold buyers - who know their stuff for sure. In fact, that's possibly important to the OP, that his Krugerands are essentially worthless *as Krugerands*. Thais and Thai gold shops don't want them - even the colour is yucky. But the shops will buy them and melt them. You can get very fair prices on silver in Thailand, too - often at gold shops but there's a string of silver shops in Yaowaraj (Chinatown) in Bangkok. .

On the other hand... Sunday evening, Bloomberg news agency from the centre of Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok's main international airport, was operating normally along with Don Mueang airport, which mostly handles domestic flights and houses the government's flood relief operations command. The city will experience a high tide from Oct. 28 to Oct. 30, Yingluck said. ... major hotels in downtown areas Silom, Sukhumvit and Sathon were operating normally, even as they took precautions. Sandbags were piled near office buildings and hotels, including the St. Regis owned by Minor International Plc, the nation’s biggest hotel operator.

My error, I meant Nava Nakorn. Anyhow, here's the article that clued me on all this: .

No. Do you not know the difference between area and linear? This is a line, linear: ------------------------- It is 6 inches or 12 feet or 42 metres or 7.89 centimetres or whatever you want. Above is an area. It is 227 SQUARE inches or 472 SQUARE kilometres or 27 TALANG wah or 82 SQUARE feet. .

It's under the pants on the right side of you suitcase. You thought you put it on top of the pants, but then put it under so it would stay unwrinkled, remember now? .

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