ozzieovaseas

To cut a long story short..i'd arranged to meet up with a guy i'd met on a visa run last week.

Had a few beers at Sukhumvhit and everything seemed ok, being of a similiar age and sharing a few of the same sentiments about life here and the various issues about Thai GFs. After two beers he suggested a moove to another bar as he needed to drop by an ATM.

This immediately puzzled me, as the first thing i always do is always check finances first..prefering not to go to ATMs in the city while drinking..anyway, up to him

So im waiting on the soi and he comes over and says the machine won't accept his card for some reason. I say its probably just a dud machine, maybe try another one in another soi.
He makes some brief eye contact and says something about his pay (from a thai source) being delayed for some reason and how his wife needed the 3k baht he had in his wallet before he left to come out and was left with only a few hundred baht.

I sort of stood there in silence for a bit, he paused,looked around and then rang someone and walked off a ways...coming back and saying actually he might opt for an early night..nice to meet you catch up again soon ect ect

It was an awkard situation to say the least, but after all ive read on here i was hesitant to get involved.

On the other hand the guy could have been on the level and the same thing might happen to me one day..although i dont think id allow myself to be in that situation

Anyway, So i ask myself now..what should i have done?

What would you have done?

Offer to buy a few beers? offer a loan?

The guy who posted about his wifes annoying habits kinda jotted my memory about an American guy i'd met on visa trip to Laos some years ago. Can't say i knew him all that well but we would say hello on MSN every now and chat about life in Thailand.

Anyway,with him been married to a Thai for many years, i found it quite intrigueing to hear about all the dramas and ups and downs he would go through in his marriage. (and by the way, he had never mentioned TV, so i have no reason to believe he is a member or is reading these forums...maybe someone will recognise this story.)

They would have the usual arguments and the bigger ones would result in her refusing to talk to him for days on end, which i know from experience to be pretty much the standard MO for Thai females. In the end his viewpoint was that it seemed like she was deliberately trying to make his life hell so he would walk out and leave her the house and car and bike he'd ponied up for.
The big kicker was how his wife would refer to the house as "her" house,constantly to friends (in Thai)..as opposed to "ours". Apparently she also made comment on her Facebook page about it being HER house and her being debt free!!..although no mention of the farang who funded it all!!

I guess i can see how this would be a prickly issue, especially when this guy definately bought the house with his own funds, but possibly signed papers to say the exact opposite....

If it were me i guess i would be a little annoyed. I remember his last message was after a few nights on the syrup and he had finally confronted her about this and a few other things that he had been stewing over.

Anyway, I guess its not so much the fact that she constantly referred to it as HER house, (it could just be a language thing) but if it were me i would be more worried about the implications of this attitude if/when things went belly up.I guess In Thai eyes this would fall under "you think to much"

So was the guy being over-sensitive in your opinion??

After some of the stories i read on here i really do have to wonder why anyone would want to get married..anywhwere!!
Sadly i never heard the end of the above story but i often wonder if this issue might have been the straw that broke the camels back and made her kick him out of HER house for good

I don't know if this has been done in any previous threads, but it would be handy to know of some common phrases meaning the same thing.
It seems to be the biggest hurdle i've had in studying Thai...many different ways of saying the same thing,(or rather, many different words and phrases used for the same thing.)

It can get a bit embarrassing when asked a basic question in Thai, but in a different way than previously learned...you end up producing the "stunned mullet" look for what is a pretty basic question

  

ie. "Where do you come from?" has been a tricky one for me..it seems there are a few different ways of going about it.


Since ive seen many others pop up it makes me think i will never get a decent grip on this language.


One observation today:

เมื่ออาทิตย์ก่อน  (muea arthit gaawn)

and

สัปดาห์ที่แล้ว (sabda tee laew)

So there is ก่อน  and แล้ว. ?

Also the "arthit" word and "sabda" are different words for the same thing but also in the same sentence!! What the?



Anyways, if we were to look at this and any other specific terms:


1. Which would be the more commonly heard and applicable?

2. In this case does the ก่อน come from the English word "gone"? (just wondering)

And more importantly:

3.Are there any other majour ones we should know about?

So, I had just noticed a strange withdrawal from my account a few days ago for 500 baht.

Because the code beside that particular transaction said "ATM 09001",  immediately i thought the account had been accessed illegally.
So, I used the online chat function (thumbs up service BTW) and after a parody of the usual confusion, she tells me this was a yearly service fee taken out by the bank for the web card.

Has anybody ever come accross this?

I guess im just asking for verification, as this is the strange part...after i told her the initial information about the transaction she said i should suspend the card, but when i asked her if she could look into the suspicious transaction she tells me it was a service charge  

thinking logically id imagine there would have been a lot more gone missing if it were accessed illegally

SO, if you should see 500 baht dissapear from your Kasikorn dont be alarmed   

    

Although I can sometimes get by with my limited Thai speaking skills, i must admit i am a little lost when someone sends text via SMS.

I guess those who read thai well will get the jist of it,...and the last XXX bit is the girls name (i presume) but i dont understand why the question mark was added.

I've got a rough idea as i think ive heard stuff like this spoken (just a few times ) but would be interested in hearing your take on it...

SO....

รักและคิดถีง xxx?  

wheres tod daniels when you need him!!??  but thanks in advance for any replies!