joekicker

A confusing way to say you've never been to Egypt. Or Indonesia. Or Iraq. Or Thailand. Or many, MANY countries. Did you have an actual point beyond lack of travel experience and observational skills? No religion bans women from driving. Or going out alone. Or all the other ... er, "stuff" you asked questions about because you really, truly do not know the answers even though you have seen the answers here several dozen times on this forum alone. You opinion has the same or less weight than all other opinions, not more. You are most certainly welcome to it, too. Yuck-o! And yet another moment of swoosh. There is NO Islamic compulsion in your "dress code". It is strictly written, interpreted and enforced at gunpoint by MEN (literally) who have no religious reference except in their own minds. Countries that have what you imagine in your fevered obsession to have a "Muslim dress code" have no such thing. In fact, your alleged non-existent "Muslim dress code" is EXACTLY the same as dress codes everywhere in the world including in whatever country you are reading this. Every country has them, every police force enforces them at gunpoint and will KILL anyone who violates them and justify the killing with quotations from the dress code. And those enforcers are all doing Good Work but they are all -- all -- unbacked by the writings or commands in any book of any religious authority. Do you really, seriously, actually think that the do-gooder Culture Ministry of Thailand does NOT order enforcement of dress codes at gunpoint with appeals to the Buddha and Buddhist scripture? And do you actually think they can actually quote one of those strictures from the scrolls of the Tipitaka? Of course they can't, any more than the idiots of the Qud can quote anything from the Koran about it or the Baptists of Bumphuock County, Georgia can quote the Bible. But all of them CITE their books, eh? Nevertheless, the dress codes WILL be enforced. And everyone will somehow put up with it, sometimes because "it's not as bad as those Muslims". .

In Nidworld, zoo visitors support the monkeys. .

Yes, as J-Rex shows, it's not "by". Ngan and talang-wah are both area measures. 1 ngan is 100 square wah. Basically, 2 ngan is a decent sized urban lot - a modest house and yard, say - while 8 talang wah is a little less than tiny. In British and (roughly) US measure, 1 ngan is a tenth of an acre, while 8 talang wah is 38 square yards, a comfortably-sized bedroom or a fairly cramped studio-type apartment. .

Look at Seattle as an SFO alternative on your way out. Probably no fare difference, but worth a check in case. It cuts your total flying time down, and it's not only closer to PDX, it's going the right way (north) instead going the wrong way to SFO and then back. .

Well, okay, but she's not Thai* and not in Thailand. Plus, Ricky's working on a budget here, okay? Not like those Hollywood types and their money-is-no-object like... like... like some guy on a Pattaya holiday! * Yes, I know she has Thai blood. She's not Thai. .

My whole family including me said the same. But stepping back, I think they got at least the lead katoey because of the language skills. .

There was a piece in the Fishwrap about a week ago about all the restaurants in Bangkok forced to close, even though they are in totally dry areas, and on the third floor of the malls and so on. When the Rojana Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya went under, so did the factories that pack and deliver so much of the restaurant food. Incredible knock-on. .

Are you talking about Thailand? No of course you aren't, not in any serious manner anyhow. There is NO zero none zilch nada no danger of the spread of yellow fever. For example. Stop feeding STUPID fears. It's quite serious enough without this ... this .... crap! .

You miss the point: There haven't been rains for months in the North. There are no rains, no floods in the North. In December, there won't be a sign that there were rains in April and floods in July (as there are EVERY year in the North, and this year was no worse than most years in the North). In December in the North, talk will be starting about the drought. .

I'm largely self-taught and there are most certainly huge black holes of ignorance, but overall I am IMPRESSED with the similarity of the three great unideity religions. I am so often DEPRESSED by those who emphasise and exploit the differences. In a very different life from the one I live(d), I'd maybe embark on a bit of a campaign or Obsession to emphasise the HUGE similarities in these three big religions. Just for a small example, it mystifies me how Muslims can so DETEST Jews for example, they are so close on so much. I "get" the Mideast geopolitical thing, but Muslims really detest Jews at a much more basic level. The four books of the three major religions are so similar. And what you call the "Faith's Rules" are pretty much indistinguishable. Well. Mostly "no" mostly it's a statement of "this is what we wear in my country" or in Bangkok, say, "what those people in Iran wear that I'm trying to emulate". Arabs (first and foremost) make a big deal about dress, none of which is backed up by the religion. This is true, but it's also true for the hijab (the scarf around the hair) and it's true for the long dress in Christian church on Sunday and it's true for the beard and black suit on that Jewish guy and it's true for the white shirt and tie on that Mormon guy in Pattaya and it's true for the horse and carriage in Pennsylvania.... "Islam" means "submission" (to God) but all the uni-deity religions have precisely the same. Again, I am struck NOT by the differences here but the similarities. I believe most people don't even SEE the Mormon missionary in his very conservative and copycat uniform, while they ogle and claim to be disgusted by the (probably) Iranian woman on Walking Street in her chosen uniform of the (probably) chador. Yet that black-uniformed Jew and that white-uniformed all-American boy probably SHARE the OP's disgust -- that's what's amazing to me. .

Yes. Thaiflood.com is just an excellent site. Shortage of what? The water WILL be subsided by the first week of December. That's a given. Why would markets be less full? National Diet Plan? There are no swollen rivers up north. Haven't been for months. December would be a TERRIFIC time to go to the North, because it's the best weather, not to mention that there are no shortages and the markets are packed. If packed markets are your thing, the North in December is your pig heaven, not to mention the total lack of floods, swollen rivers, etc. Very true. EVEN if you send them directly into the worst flood Pattaya ever had -- although in December that is barely possible, unlike the North where it's realistically impossible. .

Try one of the other three main threads on it. HUGE knock-on from these floods, in a very connected "just in time" world. Hard drives for sure. Car parts have ALREADY closed down Rayong car factories, where there are no floods, and will close down others on other continents, maybe. Hundreds of people waiting for their new Honda ALREADY didn't get it, because the cars were in the factory parking lot, ready for export. iPhones aren't getting their chips, they will be in short supply. It's a connected world. This is going to cause a lot of problems. .

No doubt, but it's PROBABLE and likely that the road to Pattaya will not be flooded. Very little if any of it is in any floodpath. .

Yes. The floods are not going to affect the baht rate so you would notice. They certainly will affect the Thai economy, but that's a very different proposition. If anything.... very, very unlikely but if anything the effects of the floods will push the baht up a tad because of the rehabilitation and reconstruction that's already getting under way. "It's an ill wind..." and so on. The stark, isolated *economic* truth is that even before they come to an end in a couple or few weeks, the floods will have been good for large and important parts of the economy. .

Sure. Not a lot of choice for foreign news on the box. I actually think the Beeb is superior to CNN International, which ASPIRES to be drivel. There are still people at the Beeb who aspire to be good, and once in a while the BBC World News is good. I lament its fairly rapid fall from its former dependability, but at least it has some - unlike CNN International, mostly from Yurp. It's all background noise to me most of the time. I find them both very grating in the background as the hours pass, but the Beeb a tiny bit less so. But I read it a lot more than I watch it. Reading is good. Headlines take maybe four, five seconds, then YOU choose the content to delve into. Either way - watching, listening, reading, I don't take ANY media much more than a pointer to something that might be interesting. If it catches my eye or attention in some way, I'm away from that MSM and on to somewhere I can find it out in much greater and much more accurate detail. Like, the ONLY thing I now watch on the floods is Thai TV, normally TNN which I think is quite superior, but sometimes NBT and sometimes Channel 3 especially in the morning, mmmm-mmmm-mmmm! They have very (pun unintended) in-depth coverage, HIGHLY credible from on-scene reporters. You probably didn't want to know all that, but I kinda wrote so much to explain myself to myself. .

From the Beeb: Chinese hit-and-run toddler dies A two-year-old girl in southern China, who was run over by two vans in an incident which shocked the country, has died, hospital officials say. .

Whose reality? You didn't read that in the Bangkok Post, so do you have some actual, you know, real reason for writing that? .

More generally: I've gotten the impression over the last... oh, year? ... that air fares are once again becoming uncompetitive. If you check out the same flights on half a dozen websites (AND an agent or two) you're not going to find very much difference at all. To me, it seems the trick is finding the right combination of dates, going and coming. I'm usually flexible, even up to a week, and I've seen very big price differences over just a day or two in the requested itinerary. Any comments more than welcome. .

Yes, Islamic courts and Islamic non-courts can get very involved in apostasy, in Malaysia -- but not JUST in Malaysia, there's no reason to emphasise that at all. That's about what I wrote, including the fact that Islamic law can sometimes drag national law into it, as I wrote it has IN Malaysia, quite recently. Seems we now agree, at least on the main points. I think we disagree on the one point of a legal (constitutional) necessity of a "Malay" having to convert INTO Islam. But I believe (for now) that it's a moot point in the real world, untested to MY knowledge for certain. One other thing for clarification, Sharia has a certain standing in many, many countries including Malaysia and even Thailand, but "a certain standing" is not part of the "common" constitutional law enforced by heavily armed state agents. There are lots of traditions and the like INCLUDING Sharia that have a standing in law almost everywhere, but police won't kill you over it like, say, they might kill you for making an illegal U-turn. Malaysian POLICE for example won't kill you over religious conversion - although mobs might. Legally and constitutionally, it's kind of like cheering for the Liverpool opponent - you won't be harmed by POLICE over it. .

Why? Was he a non-Muslim forced by the law of Afghanistan to be Muslim as Evil wrote is mandatory in Malaysia? (Answer: No, and then no, and then, finally, no again.) FWIW, since you raised this DIFFERENT subject from Evil, *Islamic* authorities in Malaysia can be very uppity about Muslims converting to non-Muslim. But that wasn't what Evil wrote about. AND he was very, very wrong that the government (the law) is involved in the issue in Malaysia, which it is not. Which is the reason *I* wrote that the national *law* is not involved anywhere in Asia, at least what we think of Asia, including Afghanistan. Evil didn't mention Islamic strictures on conversion. He also didn't mention converting FROM Islam. Neither did I. In fact, there was a serious and long court case about a Muslim converting FROM Islam in Malaysia that still rankles and brews. But that, again, had nothing, absolutely totally completely nothing to do with what Evil wrote. He wrote that non-Muslims must convert TO Islam BY THE LAW OF THE COUNTRY, which doesn't happen by the law in Malaysia ... or, Afghanistan. You could have mentioned the very, very famous Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who had a spot of trouble converting FROM Islam in Europe (Dutch land) - but of course European law was not involved in creating her troubles, as Evil claimed very wrongly that Malaysian law is involved. But since you brought up the different subject of conversion (apostasy) *by* Muslims -- it certainly can bring all sorts of trouble to them in Asia, including in very, very "non-Muslim" countries, including, say, in Pattaya, Thailand - but not, in any of them, from the government of the country. I'm surprised, in your nit-picking spreee, that you didn't point out in a nit-picking way that Saudi Arabia is in Asia!!! How did you miss that one, jacko? I actually cringed when I wrote that about "Asia", figuring someone would nit-pick it. Slipping? Or did you just know/realise/accept what I meant, and go with the flow like reasonable people so often do? .

The flooding will have a large economic effect, but I can't see it will affect the baht rate so you'd notice. As always, the baht rate is supply and demand, and the brutal truth is that floods and post-flood rehabilitation are GOOD for stock-exchange type businesses. There's already a heavy inflow of dollars and euros and such, and the baht went up this week. /

I didn't catch that, I admit I barely skimmed the post. Malaysia has no such rules for conversion. Lots and lots of Malaysians are Buddhist and Tamil, plus other religions. All of them are protected by the state. In fact, no country in Asia has ANY such rule at all. .

The current blackout applies only to cable-satellite. It is available on terrestial aerials. Here's the longer explanation. .

Well.... Your source starts out by saying that 15 (14 actually) girls did NOT die because of the dress-code problem/controversy. The majority of the deaths occurred when a staircase collapsed ... Oh, and I'll be darned. The public criticised the old men, no one in the religion or the state apparatus defended them, AND there was a public inquiry where these actions were excoriated. Or so your article states, no room for me to decide about it. Is there some other article about the religion or the religious people defending them that you were using? I can't find any reference or inference about Islam or Muslims at all, actually. You have more than that, right? .

Stop putting yourself down. It's not credible anyhow. .