somchai jones

You can catch some exotic stingray off the beach to about 15kg to 20kg just 15 minutes north of Cha Am, its beaitful place to spend a day too. The locals line up about 15 rods though to get one or two fish usually, the stingray are the type with the large spots on their back (or at least the ones Ive seen caught are. Locals also jig off the granite outcrops just south of Hua Hin places like Ko Takieb, but it looks hellishly dangerours to me and little in the way of reward from what i have seen.   Ooops am I being helpful? I apologise! LOL

phl, on 2012-05-25 10:47:19, said:

Depends what phonetics you use I guess, I've seen a couple of variants, but who cares as long everyone knows what's meant.

Thais would probably bother less about being called "Asians" than "Chings", the latter would mean "chinese", right?

somchai jones, on 2012-05-25 10:12:33, said:

What I find quite amusing (if a little tiresome) are the the people who

1) often fail to admit that the country they live in has all manner of problems that they have no control over

2) make the infantile assumption that anyone who lives in Thailand and who doesn't like or levels criticism against certain aspects of Thailand is somehow unable to leave or wants to leave or is silly enough to actually believe that if they live in a place, they should be happy and/or accepting of everything that goes on around them

3) people who are predisposed to an (often quite self-serving) philosophy which encourages them to interpret negative things in a society (so long as they are not directly and negatively impacted) as positive or which encourages them to be indifferent at every opportunity because they know that being truly aware of what's going on around them is much more challenging to deal with.  Some people call these kinds of people 'selfish cowards' -- although I don't, of course.  

It's certainly much easier to sit back in a nice condo with a nice job or perhaps in healthy retirement and try to interpret crappy things in Thailand as being OK.  While looking out of my 15th floor condo window, observing a row of street vendors baking in the sun slaving away for what, under proper circumstances of mental health, I would call meager, I think to myself --

"Look at those wonderful street vendors happily working away in their traditional ways earning a good living.  They certainly do look happier than the people exploiting them.  Yeah, now I feel better about the whole thing.  Let me put some ice in my imported craft ale and relax a bit.  Maybe later I'll go down and buy a meal for 30 baht.  Not sure why they are always look at me funny when I walk over with my constant (if condescending) smile.  I want them to feel that we are equals; that's why I do it."

Oh, in fact, it's not a whole lot different from the Hi-So Thais who spend so much energy convincing themselves that they live in the same Thailand as their Thai servants.  Same same.

** If one looks around the web, one will find all manner of stories by different agencies covering this very story.  I've seen several, and I find no significant spin in the TV one.

laurentbkk, on 2012-05-25 07:44:03, said:

Nonsense. Most Thais have a very healthy sense of humor. It just tends to have certain blind spots. (And judging by some of the silly outrage I see posted on these forums sometimes, they're not the only ones.)

And yes, as someone suggested, check out Twitter in Thai. Plenty of Thais are having a laugh over this as well.

This made me crack up! But yeah, The way some Thais react is no different from westerners biatching and moaning about being called "farung" and such. Human nature I guess, though some (Thais and farungs) do have a sense of humor and find can have a good laugh.