joekicker

Your post got cut off here. How many Thais reside in Pattaya -- "reside" as in the foreigners (like you) who have chosen to reside there, as opposed to those who come for the job and have no intention of actually establishing residence there or registering Pattaya on their ID cards as their primary residence? I bet without looking that not 5 per cent of the Thais in Pattaya reside in Pattaya. Heck, I'd even make a smaller side wager that the MAYOR doesn't reside in Pattaya. So what's the actual figure? Either way, though, I'd argue that it's not "a bit strange". It's either right or it

So why did this guy break the tradition, i.e. why is he more credible than any other anonymous poster who rants about "the Thais". .

heh. I'll remember that one. Actually, though, Guantanamo is a very diverse place. They may all be Muslims but they sure as heck aren't all Arabs. .

I really apologise. I was under the assumption that everyone reading this forum was familiar with 21st century English, including the part that language evolves. My bad. These days, seeker, a "ghetto" isn't in Italy necessarily. It is somewhere, anywhere in the world, that "like" people choose to live in order to be other "like" people. The only perjorative of the word is that a ghetto these days is an "exclusive" place where outsiders aren't wanted. I hope this helps. Now I'm on jacko's side again. Bet you can't name one such place. .

I've probably lived in Thailand longest of anyone here, but I can't imagine living in Pattaya. I love the sleaze - for a short time. Plus, it really is primarily a white ghetto and it's very, very difficult NOT to live in that ghetto. Not very many Thais live in Pattaya, or want to. I'm with them. I can't imagine I'll die anywhere but Thailand despite some lengthy absences the past few years, but I'll only die in Pattaya totally by chance during a short visit, not by choice in my residence. .

Interesting about AdBlock. I'll have to try the site with Firefox, I use a different browser for this work, and haven't noticed an Adblock problem on the sites I use Firefox for. Which reminds me, AdBlock now is available for Google Chrome browser, too. .

The Pattaya Daily News home page, when I view it, has an awful lot of links. The home page IS the latest news collection, then you click on a story that interests you, -- usually a blue headline.

Heh. France threatens (somebody). That really sets the whole world quaking in fear. That's as fear-inspiring as the IMF chief claiming that the whole world economy will collapse unless there is coordinated action. The French? What are they doing to do, refuse to export any more Camembert cheese? Declare a Year of Impoliteness in Paris? .

I bought a permanent marker for 18 baht that does labels on my CDs and DVDs just fine. I'm not selling them, just burning them for me, mine and an occasional friend. Lightscribe is actually quite expensive - the disks cost extra, you use a lot more time and the printers are like ink jets, great for the ink makers. If you NEED nice looking labels, fine. Otherwise, why bother? .

Well, so long as you take responsibility for that interpretation and don't credit me. "All Muslims" are not potential terrorists any more than all Irishmen or all Catholics. I made a very different point - that in an asychronous battle, the terrorist and guerrilla are indistinguishable from the non-terrorists and non-guerrillas. It is definitely untrue that all Muslims, Irishmen or Japanese women with dyed red hair are potential terrorists. It is definitely untrue that a significant number of Muslims, Irishmen or Japanese women with dyed red hair *_are_* terrorists. But some are, there's no do

No bomb at Thatcher's hotel, then? For example. .

But which one doesn't, especially of the Big Three? The Crusades were done entirely in the name of God and authorised by the Bible. The taking of a homeland was fully authorised by the Torah. Just for minor examples. Even humanists believe and preach just wars in the name of humanism. Even a lot of Buddhists find the justification with no problem. But in the Big Three, their big books fully authorise the glory of killing for the righteous cause, of course they do. It's not so much unfair to note that the Koran does this as you have to squint to ignore the glare from the other two (three).

God has 1,000 names. .

I agree with the tenor of your post, completely. But one thing here, the Koran is the word of God, none of it was done by Man, it was all completely and utterly handed down by Allah. This is a fundamental core belief of Islam, in a way that no other religion has. BUT that said, Muslim religious authorities argue and bicker about what it means as much as Christians and Jews and Buddhists and Hindus and Rastas and humanists. There are as many groups and sub-groups of Muslims as Christians, each of them certain they have a lock on The Truth. .

"Ice hockey"???!? Is that what you call it? heh, okay, kind of labels you though. But here's why I'm posting. Your post got cut off, and all the stuff you wrote disproving my post disappeared. Sorry to ask, but could you post it again, I'd truly like to see it. thanks .

I wrote very clearly why. You can argue with that, but not if you don't read it. The post was damned clear. There are an awful lot of people on those "35 tablets a day" regimens. It's possible but statistically unlikely you don't know ONE. If you know no one who has died of pneumonia, TB, something like that, in the past 25 years, it's unusual. I don't know what *you* know, only what's the "general" rule in Thailand. .

Another way to look at it: You missed my point or refuse to discuss it, same result. That's the way I look at it, for example. You don't know because you didn't read my two posts on it maybe? Because those were the places I explained it. You may not agree, but if you read my posts, you certainly do know. I'd just remind you that you were the one who brought up the point about extra costs and budgets and all. The OP didn't and hasn't mentioned such a thing, and I merely disagreed with your claims about it. So it "adds to a post" about the OP exactly the way you wanted it to, I gues

I'm not screwing with your break, and richness has nothing to do with it. I'll stick with what I said: 150 baht is not something you SHOULD be worried about on a holiday, which taking a bike to an island is. If I were going to have to even give a second thought to 150 baht I simply wouldn't go in the first place. Frankly, on holiday, I EXPECT a lot of extra little niggling charges to come up. I budget for a whole bunch of them, it's part of the deal to me. I simply won't give even a first thought to 150 baht let alone a second one. In the event, it seems the OP was more concerned about two

Not sure why you withheld the rather vital information that there were at least two separate charges being levied. jacko already has the best answer - you really should have asked. Transporting a bike isn't a place for dual charging, I don't think, that's my opinion. Unless they came up with a good one like a season pass or a resident's price as jacko suggests, you probably should have made a stink and forced them to one-price the deal. .

The assumptions, sir, are yours. I addressed Mr Sinbin, who seemed to feel that 150 baht was a crucial amount to the travel budget. You gave no such hint of thinking such a thing, and I didn't make any suggestion to you. .

You want to save some money? Sell the gahdemmed bike, stop polluting my ears, get thousands and THOUSANDS of baht of spending money. If 150 baht convenience fee for having the bloody bike is going to spoil your entire vacation and break your budget, the solution is pretty easy. Lose the bike, get a fistful of baht, and don't worry about skinflinting it for weeks and weeks afterward. Like like a human for a while, an actual human who doesn't worry about 150 baht being the difference between bare survival and outright starvation. .

Dave. Really. Seriously, if you believe hockey and speed skating have anything at all in common, you'd be better watching this silly argument than trying to participate. For starters: Hockey players don't skate fast, they skate quick. In team sports, players have roles - in hockey they do not all gather at the goal line and skate as fast as they can to the other goal line to determine the game's winner. Women hockey players HAVE IMPROVED faster than the men in recent years. That's all I said. And to be even clearer, I don't think that women in general will overtake men in general in ANY ph

Actually, I bet you do. You'd be surprised - from the tone of the post - to learn how many death certificates in Thailand have TB or cancer or pneumonia or something similar as the cause of death -- truthful in a way, but only after a year or two of DEFICIENCY that made them susceptible to, and killed them from, something you or I would shrug off or beat easily. "Twenty years of openness" about it in Thailand has also been 20 years of agreeing not to talk about it too much. Of course, I think you'd have to be an idiot to buy into that "anyone is equally likely to get it" malarkey, as you w

"Pee Wee" the first time was kind of amusing, but now that you insist that it's serious, it's just stupid. Top-grade women's hockey is to Pee Wee as Thai Airways is to walking from London. I assumed you were being silly first time for the sake of emphasis and literary licence and all. Now I assume something very different. It's 2010 now, kid, but stick around a bit, get some more experience by all means. You got an opinion, so do I. For the next 10, 15 years, that's all they will be. Except for the excruciatingly stupid "Pee Wee" part, that is. And the 35 years. A youngster! Sports are

Let Canada have hockey. If they beat us in obesity, then I’ll start to worry. - Jimmy Kimmel, US comedian .