Bob

I'll pass along your greetings to Khun Smiles. Now, watching the tide come in during the late afternoon isn't all that bad. Sitting on your lounge under an umbrella, sipping a Chang lek, and watching the locals frolic in the surf. Not all that bad. Hey, we've got 3 host bars here and the Chang lek tastes pretty good there too. Okay, I've got to go (nap time....).

It's difficult for me to conjure up a scenario where Thailand becomes too unstable for expats/foreigners (unless you like to hang around the airport or government buildings in Bangkok). One could always get out if things ever got too crazy here but I can't see making choices now based on the possibility that it would happen. Now, if you're interested in historical things, just stay home and look in the mirror! (just a little humor, KT....).

I'm keeping my hat on......too much sunburn to salute the old crab! Come to think of it, perhaps GB will hereafter be known as Gay Bpoo?

A rather appalling result in my view. This guy, 8-9 years ago (when he was 23-24) apparently steals the equivalent of about $8,000.00 US, he confesses, and the article notes he's paid the money back. Still, 50 years in prison for that. According to an article by Kiettibhom Sangsasitorn titled "Sentencing Guidelines On Offenses Against Property", Thailand's courts have no sentencing guidelines and apparently the process provides no or little pre-sentence investigations to assist the trial judge in formulating an appropriate sentence. In this particular case, it would appear the defendant faced a "hanging" judge with no sense of proportionality. Rather pathetic, shocking, and third-world in my opinion.

One-2-Come is a nice place. Also, a new place - very nice massage rooms, etc., - named Oriental Mystic Massage opened in Chiangmai this past year. Here's the url: Oriental Mystic Massage You can check out part of the very good looking staff by clicking on the appropriate link.

I know, a bit callous of me. I'd have to pull this trick myself, though, before anybody would ever accuse me of being "hung."

Hmmm...like putting together a jigsaw puzzle (as to both the head and the body let alone trying to figure out why he would travel all the way over here to off himself, so to speak). And "the man's body showed no signs of assault?" Other than having your head ripped off and then falling 50-80 feet? Lucky guy, I guess. Strange story and probably we shouldn't jest about it as somebody somewhere knew him. Oh well, may he rest in piece(s).

About the only comment on this thread that I believe (other than many have not yet been significantly impacted by the downturns). The apparent reality is that Asia started it's heading toward the economic toilet 6-9 months after the US and Asian bad times are just beginning. Sadly, there's beginning to be a snowball effect and every "buying" country that's heading south is dragging the "selling" countries with them. The slashing of jobs due to reduced exports is just beginning to be felt in the Asia economies. It's going to get awfully ugly for the next couple (or more) years. I personally see a convergence of factors all at once that have not been ever seen and my fear is what is about to happen will make 1997 in Asia look not all that bad. As for the Thai banking system being strong, I respectfully disagree. Based on what I've read, it's in reality rather thinly capitalized (largely due to refusal to recognize the true worth of their loan portfolios) and some (like TMB) would have been taken over by the FDIC years ago had TMB been in the west. Hate to be the pessimist but I see absolutely nothing on the horizon that indicates anything is going to get better anytime soon. Those of us who have been "safe so far" probably are going to get substantially affected by inflation later if/when the world economies ever recover.

Balderdash! (I don't think I've ever used that word before and I have no clue how to spell it). Khun Deceased, planning his own demise, actually didn't jump off the bridge. He did the plastic thing over his head and then snared the rope already on his neck to a passing balloon. So he was sorta "hung up?" In any event, back to the story (fair and balanced reporting, of course), the balloon driver never noticed the partial corpse attached to the line and, when crossing the Andaman Sea, cut the rope as the thought it was just extra ballast. Shortly thereafter, the Thai Navy found what was left of Khun Deceased and placed it on boat with Royhinga (can't spell that either?) and cast it out to sea. And, what can I tell you, they were hungry! Case closed....

The guy's head was in a plastic bag which was hung over the bridge railing. And the sharp cop states (quoting from the article): Pol Col Chavalit Prasobsilp, a police chief, said that it was apparently not a suicide and he will wait for autopsy results before concluding how the head was cut from the body. Apparently not a suicide??? I wonder what gave the police chief that clue........ B) B) B)

If the sovereign wealth funds (whatever those are) bought IOU's or stock, then yes, a nationalization of the bank may very well mean that they get nothing. A nationalization doesn't necessarily mean a "bankruptcy" or a wipe-out of investors and creditors - but it could mean anything from nothing at all to a total loss on the investor side. I've loosely understood that the US government is receiving (effectively) preferred stock in exchange for its pumping of billions of dollars into the banking system. The pumping of those dollars into the banking system - along with any rules on operations imposed by the government - is already bordering on "nationalization."

Interesting and useful question, Rich. And, of course, nobody anywhere knows the answers with any sense of accuracy (I'd suspect gay prognosticators are no better or worse than straight ones). For what it's worth, I suspect two things: (1) That the US dollar over the long haul will head into the toilet. Too much debt and too many dollars being printed for that not to happen. It's happened before to every other country in that position and I see no reason why it won't happen to my own country. The strengthening of the dollar in much of 2008 against most other currencies made no sense whatsoever(other than, perhaps, a panic play based on historical prejudices for the US economic system); however, that trend ought to reverse itself over the long term. (2) With respect to Thailand, I suspect that Thailand over the long haul will also head into the toilet especially in comparison to many of its neighbors (China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and even, perhaps, Vietnam). Why? Because the Thai education system is so inept and so poor compared to the education systems of those other countries and, additionally, because corruption is so endemic to the system. The real question is how to "play" whatever trends you feel convinced are certain to occur. At the moment, hell if I know.

At risk of pissing off some - and I don't have that intent - due process has nothing to do with some of the notions posted here. It simply means a "fair process" (yes, the word "process" is there for a reason). Due process has nothing to do with equal protection of the laws (applying the same laws equally to all persons) and has nothing to do with the substantive law itself (e.g., a stupid law really has nothing to do with due process). The manner in which one conducts the ajudication - the ability to testify, the ability to cross-examine witnesses, the ability to call witnesses to testify in your behalf - is what due process is all about. In other words, if their going to nail you for violating some law (whether a smart or silly law), it's done in a fair manner so, even if you don't like the outcome, you believe that you fairly had your chance to present your side of the story. And impartial judges and juries and reasonable evidentiary rules (rules that would exclude, for example, unreliable hearsay) are part of true due process.

Perhaps you meant that sarcastically? April 13th to 15th in Chiangmai is nutzo time especially if you are anywhere near the moat surrounding the old city. The road around the moat is absolutely jammed with traffic (all revelers) with many drivers having the wheel in one hand and a beer or whiskey in the other. And both sides of the road contain revelers trying to nail anything trying to drive by. (But I still still think it's great fun). If you're in Chiangmai and want to stay dry during those days, simply don't go outside between 11AM and about 7PM.

Hell, I'd have appointed Tommy Chong. The drug policy of the US (and most other countries) is so fucked up that only a zone-head might be able to make some sense of it. Actually, I retract that. Nobody could make any sense of the drug policy. So, given that, why not have Tommy snorting on a huge bong and, when asked a question by a reporter, retorts: "Hey man, that's a really AWESOME question. Ya wanna hit?"

Edit: Okay, figured out how to read the entire threads so am deleting the inquiry.

He who represents himself........you know the ending. Sorry, not familiar with the Thai rules of civil procedure. My guess is that there is a handbook and, given you're not fond of Thai lawyers either, you might get to reading. Good luck, Perry (and wouldn't it be a good idea to get an assistant at one of the boybars named Della?).

Yup, in honor of CNY, I'm flying to LOS tomorrow. Last year, I made a trip to LOS a day before CNY and I was absolutely dumbfounded at the lack of people there (same in Taipei). When I went into the LAX international terminal, my first reaction was something was wrong - that there had been a security issue or that the damn place was closed; however, several people explained to me that it was Chinese New Year and that everybody had already gone home. It seemed to me that the terminal had far less than half the number of people usually there. So.....I hoping for the same tomorrow (quiet and peaceful terminals and flights).

As you know, what you get from a poll often is how you slant the questions. When I've discussed the situation with my friends, there's fairly unanimous agreement that Hamas caused (gave cover to) the Israeli response by the daily rocket firing and that Israel had the right to respond. There also is fairly unanimous agreement amongst us that some of the civilian deaths were on Hamas' hands, they having purposefully fired rockets from civilian areas and hid in civilian areas. That being said, we also flatly disagreed with the disproportionate response that the Israelis knew would cause substantial civilian policies. In a nutshell, what Israel did was stupid and against its own interests in the long term. I think that most of us here (small-town America) do not like how the US has supported Israel and has largely ignored the plight of the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank - and we're hopeful that the Obama administration will steer a more civilized and neutral approach to help resolve things there. And it'd be my guess that, if the opinion poll questions were neutrally and intelligently crafted, most Americans would take the same view. Asking a question such as "do you support Israel's right to defend itself from the daily rocket attacks across its borders" doesn't really answer anything much.

Kudos to the Obama administration for quickly taking up the task and his proclamation that this will be a sustained job and high priority of his administration. Quite a contrast to the recently expired administration who essentially didn't do diddley to promote peace anywhere for the last 8 years. The Israeli/Palestinian issue has been the the major focal point of much of the US' problems throughout the arab world and, while the challenge won't be easy, the entire dynamic of the middle east (and US relations with much of the arab world) would be altered for the better should some resolution be attained.

The couple of posts here that suggest that other forums (either Sawatdee or Ting Tong) either condone the pedophiles or that the posters may be pedophiles are simply wrong and insulting. I visit those other forums almost daily and I've never viewed that angle there. If somebody desires to repeat that insinuation again, I'd suggest you either give a specific example of such a posting or simply shut the hell up. There may be a few rude or idiotic boneheads posting at SWD (not usually at TT) but nobody at either board deserved the insulting pedophile comments made here. P.S. I have viewed a few posts over the years that were deleted or locked when a poster has complained about seeing underaged kids in a bar and it was obvious from their comments that the moderators felt it was wrong for the discussion to occur (so as to avoid providing helpful information to a possible pedophile).

An obvious part of this problem is the Thai government's failure to do anything to kick these bastards out of the country and to stop them from coming into the country in the first place. One would think that one critical component at immigration would be having some recordkeeping of home country arrests/convictions (they do electronically swipe your passport and it's hard for me to believe that most western countries would not electronically share criminal records). These pedophiles likely didn't start their dirty business in Thailand and likely have at least some criminal record in their home countries. But....presuming the article is correct in that the guy has a history of 40-50 cases in Thailand, why they hell didn't they jail him and/or throw his ass out of the country long before this poor kid was victimized! Amazing. Oh.....and if you see the Pattaya Daily News article......those slimeballs have several photos of the kid involved (the kid's wearing sunglasses in most of them) plastered all over. Victimized again.....

GB, you're hardly a romantic, that's for sure. Geez, lighten up and recognize the historic event and the palpable pride felt by both blacks (who never had much to be prideful about before) and whites here in the US due to the election of Obama. It's a huge deal here, at least in my opinion, and it merits a lot of hype and hope. Sure, if he doesn't produce, it'll also merit tossing the guy out after 4 years but starting out with a "until you prove it, you don't mean squat to me" attitude is a little cold and hardly hopeful.

I'll fully grant that the Israeli government is responsible for overreacting and causing too many civilian casualties and that the Israeli government for far too long has acted terribly and stupidly towards the Palestinian people; however, to use that background as some type of cleansing cover for the intentional attacking and murder of civilians by some of the Palestinian factions is way beyond me. Intentionally attacking and killing civilians is reprehensible and a war crime - regardless of who's doing it. And one side doing it is no justification whatsoever for the other side doing it. At least that's my view. Most Palestinians and Israelis are decent people; however, some on both sides are no more than murdering thugs and idiots who cause nothing but terrible effects on the rest of their own countrymen. Rather sad and it's absolutely pathetic that neither side seems able to engage in any honest dialogue and compromise to craft a fair solution. That's what true leaders should do and just maybe neither side has any such leaders (and/or that the rabid element of each side has had the ability to drown them out).

Nope, never had a problem....and I probably too often have left valuable items and money in the hotel room (I've never used a hotel's safe).