JSixpack

Did you make sure the wifi switch is physically turned on?  My Lenovo laptop has a little switch on the front with turns the wifi (and bluetooth) on/off.  If that is turned off it will appear as if your laptop doesn't have a wifi adapter.

brit1984, on 2012-05-18 16:34:27, said:

It's called a chalkboard.
Prudent  business owners will invest in one.

balo, on 2012-05-05 05:40:50, said:

If Thai Immigration applied that rule it would reduce the falang population of Pattaya by at least 50%!
And reduce the falang population of Soi Buakhao by 90%!!!  

I will throw my hat in the ring, with all the other British eateries and pubs in town, Greggs was over rated and over priced. The fact he is shutting up shop, moving and lowering his prices says a lot.

fletchsmile, on 2012-03-10 00:16:38, said:

There is a direct correlation between those who say that and those who have no money to invest anyway.

rinteln, on 2012-04-14 23:49:56, said:

You should get a grip mate. This is not a thread intended to get anything done about Songkran - this is THE yearly whinge thread - so get lost and let us complain to our heart's content.

... and what makes you think nothing will change in the future? I predict you are wrong and one day the local authorities will stamp out this 9 day nonsense and restrict it to 3 days as it is in Bangkok and other areas. It wouldn't be difficult to do.

JSixpack, on 2012-04-14 10:47:08, said:

I have 3 separate physical disks. Not a great fan of paritions.

:-)

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Let's see if we can make her crash her motorbike . . .


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I wouldn't get too excited about the latest and the greatest. My wife wanted my old dual core with 4 GB of RAM and Windows 7 32 bit. That gave me the excuse to buy a new desktop. I now have a quad core with 8 GB of RAM and Windows 7 64 bit. Most of my time is spent on the Internet so a more powerful computer made no difference. There is some difference in boot speed and big programs load a little faster but not a significant difference.

buhi, on 2012-03-31 23:55:19, said:

There's no doubt that Songkran gives free reign to aggressive, sadistic a**holes. For them it's a dream come true. It's not enough just to wet someone. They only get pleasure when they make other people as uncomfortable and miserable as possible. They are looking for the people who don't want to get wet - the people who beg not to be sprayed - the people trying their hardest to stray dry. There's no fun in wetting people who are already wet. Then you hear their sadistic laugh once they've done the deed.

My biggest problem at Songkran is not getting wet, but trying to resist the temptation to pummel some of these a**holes.

JSixpack, on 2012-03-30 19:47:44, said:

You forget Chiang Mai. I don't have nothing against people who want to play water, but I hate risking my life every 200m on the road while driving my bike.

OK, you live in the heart of a big city, and like big cities all over the world, they can be lonely, unfriendly and cruel places.

I know Onnut quite well as one my ex wives used to have a hair salon there. It might have changed since  last spent time there, but during my days I never ever experienced any racism or rude behaviour, but I admit that I did not take the buses. But I did spend a fair amount of time amongst Thais there, and like everywhere I have been in Thailand I found them, on the whole friendlier and more willing to help than most people from my home country.

But like any big city, most people were more concerned with their own personal affairs than worrying about some farang in their midst.

I now live some 20 kms east of central Pattaya, and even here the difference in the attitude by Thais towards me,as compared to down-town Pattaya, is chalk to cheese.

If you want to know what Thais are really like, the further you get away from big city environments the better, but even here, the Thais are great - most of them are better than the general class of farangs who have recently moved into the area.

They're polite, deferential when the occasion demands it, (i.e when I am a customer), usually very friendly and often offer to help when needed.

I can honestly say that after coming to Thailand since the early 70's and living here all told for almost 20 years, off and on, I have never detected any outright racism towards me and no Thai has ever insulted me or given me a hard time to my face. Neither have I ever been attacked, robbed or in any way been a victim of bad Thai behaviour. And trust me, I have been in some pretty unsavoury places at pretty unsavoury times, in a pretty unsavoury state. In fact, in my worst drinking days, when I have been in a really bad state, it has always been Thais who have come to my rescue and taken care of me.

I was talking about this very subject with a friend the other day, who has lived here even longer than me, and has also had a very similar, good experience of Thais. I think it is all down to how you behave, and how you react with Thais. The obvious behaviour 'pointers' are: never to stare at strangers; if you do make eye contact, always smile, and generally behave in a soft, polite manner, much as you might expect them to behave towards you.

But it is more than this, it is more instinctive, and if, deep down you don't really feel very friendly, the Thais will sense it.

Of course it goes without saying that the more Thai you can speak, the more you will be both respected and accepted. It never fails to astonish me how farangs can live here half their lives yet can barely speak a dozen words in very bad Thai.

If you were in England and a Thai who had lived there for 20 years spoke to you in such bad English that you couldn't understand a word he was saying, how would you feel about him?

Now I'm not suggesting that everyone should run to school and learn Thai in order to make the Thais more friendly, but I am suggesting that anyone who wants to interact in any meaningful level with the average 'Thai in the street' should at least make an effort to speak a bit of basic Thai, and more important than the extent of your vocabulary, is the clarity with which you speak it. The clearer your Thai, the more you will be respected. Go learn from another Thai - not from a school. Immerse yourself in Thai for a few weeks. And never, ever learn Thai from a dictionary with phonetic spelling - it will screw you up forever. Learn by listening.

These days, I speak pretty good Thai, (all learned from 'immersion'), but there was a time when my Thai was minimal. But what I did know, I spoke very clearly, and it never failed to impress any Thai person who I spoke to.

Frankly, as soon as a Thai hears you speak Thai reasonably clearly, their whole attitude changes and they accept you as part of the Thai community. It is almost as though by speaking Thai, you are considered knowledgeable on all aspects of Thai culture and thinking. This isn't necessary the case, but many seem to think it is.

Of course, there are many farangs who have no desire to learn Thai and they also have no desire to interact with Thais at 'street level. I knew a German, a retired banker, who, when I asked , wouldn't it be nice to hold a conversation with the street noodle seller when you buy a bowl of noodles, answered: 'I never have any desire to eat noodles or any other Thai food and I have no desire to communicate with anyone here. I have everything I need in my house and my driver and wife do all the shopping.'

Farangs are guests in an alien country with a culture so far removed from their own. It is screamingly obvious that it is the farang who should be the one who should make the effort to fit in and be accepted, rather than the other way round.

Thais are as good and as bad as any other race of people and the have their likes, dislikes and prejudices, just like the rest of us. I personally happen to believe they are actually better than most races, but that it just my opinion. But if you are having many problems fitting in and think that all Thais are racists, then with respect, I suggest it is you, and not them who is at fault as many other farangs do not experience similar problems.

Maybe you are simply not cut out to live in Thailand and maybe you would be happier somewhere else.

Everyone has a choice when they land in Bangkok which way are they going to go, where are they going to lay their roots for the foreseeable future. Some folk make decisions that suit them some folk make mistakes this is where the bitterness comes from.

I just watched the beautiful sunset set across Pattaya Bay sipping on a ice cold beer where I live, not to far away from me the likes of Kobi Elbaz is investing over 2 Billion baht on Bali Pier, the harbor and his new high end project along with other projects where I'm sure millions if not billions more baht has been poured into.

That's just an example, there are countless other major companies pouring astounding vast amount of cash into Pattaya to make it an even nicer and better and even more desirable place to live, if you like to live amongst nice things that is.

So as I call out to my beautiful girlfriend to kindly pour me another ice cold beer on my balcony over looking the bay, I raise a glass to you Pattaya haters with a cheeky little wink becasue at least for me I know I made the right decision. Cheers.

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no you don't. you are just bored. why not go to the beach, count sand grains per m² surface, depth 6.5cm and report the interesting number here?

Soutpeel, on 2012-03-05 13:32:09, said:

you mean then the stories he can tell us are less boring?