Petesear

I am not sure how many deaths there have been in our town but it is a few, and lots of accidents. I have seen a couple of pile ups in the last few days. I continue to find it very distressing when attending an accident to render assistance and in the front of a car you see a 4 year old child or less that has been used to cushion the impact of the mother on the dashboard. Dead, or massive head/facial injuries, broken necks, all because they were sat on someones knee in the front and that person, lets say 60kg and unrestrained suddenly becomes a 120-400 kg hammer that the small child absorbs the full impact of.

It is all bloody senseless. Yes there is drink driving and idiots on bikes, but if people would take the smallest precautions with themselves and their children the deaths and injuries would be nowhere near as many.

In our town I still get strange looks when I load my two children in the back of the fortuner into large robust child safety seats. Thais ask, 'but how do you get them to sit there without complaining'? answer....'they have no choice! They have been in a car seat since they were born everytime they have traveled in a car, it is part of their routine, they don't know any different and they are happy, never cry, never complain, and god forbid if we are in a smash, I have some chance of getting my children out relatively unharmed. It is education! Thais need to see road safety advertising campaigns as in the UK and the states. Wrecked cars, wrecked lives and family train wrecks left behind. To be honest it would be much easier than in the UK. The authorities need to get to the women! It must be 90% of women do not drink in Thailand and most get very pissed off that their husbands drink to destruction. The wives could go a long way in helping to stop the carnage. Rant over! Still feel helpless and sad.

Dear OP

Firstly you will have noticed there are many thai visa experts on women,thai women and thailand.Unfortunetly none of them are really experts and as you can see many come across as teenage idiots arguing.Can see you are 41 so you will have had some experience with the ladies but i think everyone will agree thailand is a totaly differant ball game to england.

   You say you arnt looking for anything serious but also dont want to pay for the girl,my advice would be go to ko san road plenty of western girls there for free and find yourself a proper thai nightclub where there is no falang away from the tourist areas for the thai girls.Also if you dont want to pay stay away from pattaya and buy a box of tissues.

endure, on 2012-03-25 02:37:46, said:

Excused as I am from this debate, I must interject to say that Engiish is now the World language. There are 250 million Chinese learning it, on top of 1 billion Indians that speak it, and that is before you start tacking the traditional English speaking nations.

English language skills are highly desirable, if not essential for international business. People have to be able to communicate.

The question at hand is should a BTS guard be able to speak English? I say yes, there are so many tourists of all nationalities pouring through Bangkok every day it would be ridiculous to expect them to speak Thai. It is imperitave for safety reasons that BTS personnel should be decent at English.

I would also point out that many Asians from other countries and non native English speakers rely upon English in Thailand too. Its not arrogance, it's essential for communication.

Should every Thai be fluent in English? No, should people dealing with foreign nationals  every day? Yes.

As the Japanese say, the most important language to speak is the customers language.

Its not arrogance, its reality. Maybe we expat types forget the vast majority of foreign visitors to Thailand are short term visitors.

FFS.  I have been reading this forum for 2 years and have never felt the need to register until now, but the stupidity on display by some people in this thread compelled me.

a) The video clearly starts after the guy was first hit- to those who said he looked drunk or aggressive in the video, please learn to read, or learn about why it is important to read all of the information available first.

The guy had just been hit in the face.  I would be acting aggressively too.

c) I will leave aside the idea that balloons are intrinsically dangerous (I assume they were helium filled).  I would agree maybe they take up space on the BTS.  I don't remember seeing any signs on balloons being banned on the BTS, though- is it really common knowledge?

d) Knowing the general standard of English used by Thai people employed in situations where they might well have to speak English, I could assume the guard was incomprehensible.  Was the farang able to understand him?  Did the guard give time for processing of the information, or was it, to paraphrase a more sensible poster here, "YOU! FARANG! NO!" "What... sorry?" #WHACK#?

e) The guy may have responded with a "WTF?", or even called the guard a rude word or two.  I don't believe this warrants being hit in the face, though...  If you think it does, you have issues.

f) The foreigner may in fact have been aggressive to begin with, or when challenged.  However, there is no evidence of this at the moment, so mabe some people here should reign in their assumptions.

g) If he was in fact aggressive, was it still necessary to hit him in the face?  How about somewhere that might not be lethal?  Heard of the "eggshell skull" rule?  (Yeah, rules in Thailand don't apply... unless they do...)

It may be possible the guy was being an asshol_e- the information is not all there yet.  However, there seems to be many here who are so desperate to suck on the rancid teat of Thailand that they will defend anything a Thai does against a foreigner.  Bottom line, the guard was unprofessional by most standards outside of the third world, and acted in a dangerous and illegal manner by using force in such a way.

To the guy who said he would hire the guard at double his salary if he could- seeing as the facts aren't in yet, I'm glad you are prepared to employ a person who might actually have been illegally and dangerously abusive.  If you hire on this basis, I have read about a guy based in Pattaya you might like to try out as well.

sparebox2, on 2012-03-22 17:50:08, said:

Bottled water being not allowed on flights is CLEARLY posted everywhere at departure at airports along with all the other goodies not allowed. There were no postings about balloons at any BTS until AFTER this event.

onionluke, on 2012-03-05 14:52:20, said:

and maybe say it in English or Thai while your at it

David48, on 2012-03-03 15:45:48, said:

while i think it is pathetic enough that you converse with your woman in  such a bastardized form of the english language, it is yet more tragic that you did not take the  chance while typing to correct yourself.

thanks for sharing a scintillating conversation.

Petesear, on 2012-03-03 22:18:36, said:

But you will need a work permit if you wish to give advice.

chrisinth, on 2012-02-28 23:17:08, said:

let me make it clear as to what math he is using
1 year in Thai prison = 6 years in US prison
21 years in Thai prison = 126 years in US prison

you multiply the Thai sentence by 6 to get the US sentence.

As a Jew that part of my family were murdered by the Nazi bustards I can tell you that the whole thing is ridicules and those T-shirts should offend the Neo Nazis not the Jews   or others who suffered from the Nazis .Anyway there are new Hitlers   in the world that should be dealt with .

I'm 40 now, but I was in my 20's when I married my Thai wife. A lot of my friends are similarly quite close in age to their Thai wives/GF.

Thailand is a mismatch of the old and new, and the type of courtship (if any at all) will depend on the girl's upbringing and family.

In my case, my wife was from a very traditional family, her father was a naval officer and she had been brought up by her grandmother whilst he was serving (her mother stayed with her husband). We courted for two years before we became engaged and married. Much of this time we were chaperoned by one family member or another and rarely were alone (although some family members would allow us some privacy, but stayed in earshot and with doors wide open). All this was new to me coming from the UK and having had many girl friends, from the west .

She had never been in to a bar, had never drank alcohol, smoked, taken drugs, etc (still doesn't to all of those except she will go to a bar with me or friends, but never alone). She had been privately educated and had (has) a brain on her shoulders.

We now have 2 daughters bordering on teenage and are still happily married (she's currently working in the UK on a contact; I'm here looking after the kids ).

I met her through a school friend and business associate (thai) who (through marriage) was her uncle. I met her whilst on holiday with said school friend after we sold our business (in the UK) and were having a well earned break. I had no intentions of meeting someone - infact I had already batted off (figuratively) several friends of my school buddy's wife (and her younger sister too)! We met while they were visiting family and we hit it off. I returned four more times that year (within 6 months) - and we began courting (references were taken!) - the rest is history.

I have friends, as I said above, who also have wives they met in their 20s - some are still in their low 30s. Some were bar girls, some were hotel workers (met when staying in the hotel they worked for), a couple worked in local shops and some were business people (or musicians) and met through working together. No different from anywhere else in the world really. Some of these girls are traditional (the musician is for example) and some very modern (in a western way).

I have always said, fish in a sewer and much more chance of catching crocoldiles and turds, but that doesn't mean there isn't a gold nugget in there somewhere too.

@Petesear & dean999

How am I suppose to read your posts with pics like that?

Curt1591, on 2012-02-14 16:13:37, said:

Now we should all watch The Four Lions that was their original plan to blow up a mosque.:-)

The very premise of valentines is an oxymoron.

I don't really get annoyed, its just some people seem to waste their little lives giving poor opinions that help anyone - they just want to fill the gaps in their boring days.

Anyway, this is the script from the HO and BE as you wanted to know:

- Home Office says I can apply for her Passport immediately as long as I have a letter from her mother and my name is on the Birth Certificate.
- Embassy are happy to process the application based on this advice.
- I am the father of my child and she automatically receives British Nationality, regardless of her mothers existing marriage, because was born after 2006 and also due to myself being UK Citizen who was born in the UK.

So all in all, is just a passport application fee. There is no need to get her a British Birth Certificate other than for duties that may arise in England when she lives there later. All documents in Thai must be officially translated and stamped, then they are good for everything.

So the application will take around 4-6 weeks, then my daughter is legally British and can go and do whatever she wants (later in life of course...)

Thanks to those of you who gave me some advice.