JBL

A woman calls her boss one morning and tells him that she is staying home because she is not feeling well.

'So, what's the matter?' he asks.

'I have a case of anal glaucoma,' she says in a weak voice.

'And what the hell is anal glaucoma?'

'I just can't see my ass coming into work today.'

Why are the lines long and stressful? How about passengers being prepared when they get in the line. I get so disgusted waiting in long lines behind the poster board tourist pinup, wheeling a months supply of garb as carry-on, that steps up to the window and does the, ... "huh passport, oh yeah where did I put it". After fumbling a few minutes they hand it over followed by "I need your exit card". More fumbling, but you know you have one because you just filled it out in line because you lost the original even though it was STAPLED in your passport. Now the officer has to remove your passport from the little case you bought to protect it, golly gee they don't need to scan it... do they? By the way where is your airline ticket? Crap more digging. Once you get through that, instead of moving out of the way, you stand there putting all your crap back together only to do the same thing at security.

Passport out of the case, travel itinerary and exit card used as bookmark on your visa page. Process time less than 1 minute works equally as fast on arrival, be prepared. Because it annoys the hell out of those of us that are prepared.

JBL, on 2012-01-15 17:08:18, said:

I'm acquainted with a cynical old geezer [Farang] in Prasat who has suggested for years that this centralisation [for a better term] and homogeny of "Thai" throughout numerous ethnic regions is nothing more than contemporay neo-colonialism.

His theories and ideas might come across as a little goofy, yet his pointed conclusions have validity. As we all know, the broader fashion of a Thai/Tai culture is not a dominate one.....today, the greater integration of "all things Thai" through social engineering, the education system, countrywide media, etc has molded a supposedly national theme.

I, too, have witnessed a slow weaning of this minority culture [Thai] towards the last couple of generations. Today, in Surin we only speak Khamen Saren within smaller circles of family, friends, and neighbors. The kids, of course, understand the "other" language, but don't use it to interact with their peers. Not even in the market places - where 97% of the population understands Khmer, yet interact in Thai.

Bit of an oversight here as the first emporer and settlers in the area were actually Guay.(Gui) Now pronounced, by "Thais", as Suay.(Sui) Villages speaking this language can still be found in both Surin and Buriram.

The main place where you will hear this language being spoken is in the elephant villages between Ta Toom in Surin and Satuk in Buriram. The Guay people are the original elephant herders.

Other areas of Surin where Guay is still spoken are Sangka and Lamduan. In Buriram I have been to villages as far afield as Prackonchai, Ban Dan, Ban Bua and very surprisingly Lamplaimart where the langauge is spoken as a mother tongue although it is sadly a dying language.

Will finsih off this sad saga, scumbag and 16 year old are on the bus back to Pattaya. If this sounds like some Romeo and Jullet story, far from it. Romeo in this case is a 6 foot mid 20s gold ear ring type, only thing missing were the words pimp tattooed on his forehead.. Little miss 16 year old doesn't look a day under 21 and would turn heads in a bikini on any beach in the world.
   FIL returns from a night in the jungle, some sort of family conference is held and lots of phone calls made. I am never privy to what goes on as they believe any thing bad to do with the family will put the whole family in shame in my eyes.
   FIL sits down to clean his rifle at the front of the house and calls scumbag over as he cleans the rifle. Words to the effect are, you are not from this village or area and will not be welcomed back again. Scumbag is visibly wishing he had caught the night bus.
    As I said I am not privy to the goings on, but the wife gives me just enough info to keep me somewhat in the loop. Seems sumbag was not here for his love of a peaceful rural life, but for a need to stay out of jail, as is the knife wielding uncle, but he is a local. This is a police free area, uniformed police will not enter unless mob handed and usually with army back up. That gives anyone who does not want to be found plenty of time to melt into the jungle or walk over to Lao.
  Anyway think that's the last of the MILs kin that will be visiting here. You just got to love it.
As I said earlier rest rest of the family is great, never asked for anything more than can they borrow the car for a wedding or such. Guess every village, town has it;s spoongers and losers and in ours they all seem to be on the MILs side. Jim

avian304, on 2012-01-08 21:51:54, said:

Think we had along debate about this on an earlier post. You can do it by land border if you explain to the imagration before you leave. They can update the computers and you can do a short turn around. Some have siad they may not want to be bothered and give you the run around. Be polite and mostlly they are happy to help. Jim