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dirty guru
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Agree in part Australia is a Klu Klux Klan nation we are as bad-
the treatment of refugees for instance is terrible-
Woman and children locked up -
We are Total f*** wits in this respect-
Its also a pussy whipped country-
But where I differ is Thailand does make fundamental errors and at times embarassing-
Like Children you have your standing orders - and the vote is elusive really - more a coup system-
The mentality at crossings is keep going-
The Idea that Thais feel they are very clean is a myth-
The dried fish (some of which is deemed unfit in western countries for human consumption) covered in flies-
Basic quality control - media controls -
Military forces- corrupt police-
Red tape - delusions of greatness-
Well I could go on-
But the basic thing is if you cant tell time yet at your own show piece (airport)
If the Idea our smirks are misplaced - then no I disagree-
Only in Thailand could you be charged to take a woman to a 4 star hotel as an extra-
And half of Thailand doesnt even know Buddha was indian
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:20 am on Mar. 17, 2011
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expatchuck
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Quote: from Ghatotkach on 12:05 pm on Mar. 17, 2011
"...just because you happen to be an Australian or an American..."
You don't think comparing Americans to Australians is villifying Yanks? 
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 2:28 am on Mar. 17, 2011
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CalEden
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Quote: from Ghatotkach on 9:05 pm on Mar. 17, 2011
But your statement vilified an entire nation when
Quote: from Ghatotkach on 9:05 pm on Mar. 17, 2011
just because you happen to be an Australian or an American or from one of the so-called developed countries, you are not God !
Ghatotkach, you are just as guilty as those you accuse!
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:49 am on Mar. 17, 2011
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Ghatotkach
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The reference to Australians or Americans was more figurative because a reference had been made in the post to Western civilizations.
In a way, I am glad that there have been such responses. The reason is very simple. As long as we think of ourselves as nationalities, we tend NOT to remember that we are humans first. Most such issues crop up because we believe that we are better than other humans. And, we tend to forget that we too have enough swept under the carpet.
If we only learnt to treat every person as a human first, we would have no egos to play with, no wars, no bad words ! Life is too short to go about thinking of ourselves as superior to person A or B. Well, there are going to be others superior to us.
As is said in India, 'the entire world is our family' and if we accept this, we would not have such discussions in forums like this.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 7:51 am on Mar. 17, 2011
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thailife
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What the f*** is all this phycho-babble about? I almost shed a tear..... NOT.
It doesn't matter where you are... there is only one rule.... those with the gold make the rules. Get it? It's not about who you are or where you are from, money rules.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 9:09 am on Mar. 17, 2011
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jibblies
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Quote: from vox on 8:13 am on Mar. 17, 2011
I'm completely with you on the Thai walking (though we're getting off the original subject a bit) It drives me crazy, along with the standing side-by-side on the escalators, blocking passage for anyone who wants to move past. They seem to be in their own personal worlds, unthinking of others.
Someone mentioned that the Thais lie to maintain harmony. That's only partly true and they don't do it in the same logical way a farang would tell a white lie. They will take it to such extremes that it will inevitably cause greater disharmony than if they'd told the truth in the first place.
I.e.
Farang - "Have you done XYZ (that I asked you to do) ?"
Thai - "Yes, it's done." (hasn't done it but wants to maintain 'harmony'.. or, more likely, 'face'. Doesn't want the tiny scene that might occur if he/she said no.
..
.. later..
Farang - "So where's XYZ?"
Thai - "Er... oh, I didn't do it. I didn't think you wanted it/some silly excuse"
Farang - blows up. "What? Why did you tell me 'yes' before, then? If you'd told me sooner, I could have changed my plans, made other arrangements, whatever. Now it's too late. You've wasted my time. Why did you do that?"
... happens again and again and again... why can't they see it makes it worse for the other person and themselves?
I don't see that this kind of lie is for the benefit of the other person. It's for the teller's own harmony (short-term only). Another reason for lying could be short-termism in itself. I think a farang is more likely to think of longer-term consequences of an action.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:19 pm on Mar. 17, 2011
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mybutterfly
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I visited Thaialnd 2 or 3 times a year for 18 years and retired here 2 years ago. I was only ripped off once, when I paid 1,500 Baht for a beer in a clip joint & left before they could do worse. Admittedly, I have resisted numerous other rip offs e.g. a uniformed man at the old BKK airport charging me for a taxi to Pattaya & then loading my suitcase onto a bus. My conclusions (1) Most Thai people are ok. (2) There are a huge number of Thais operating plans to scam tourists but they are so childish that they are harmless compared to the organised rip offs in other countries. Anyone who browses the monger web sites (or who read a good guide book in the pre internet days) knows how to avoid them. Compare Thailand with London. In Soho there are a handful of strip clubs. There are dozens of pure clip joints advertising non existent strip shows. You go down a narrow stairs to a basement. You are persuaded to order a few sodas before the show starts. A pretty girl asks if she can sit with you. When you finally realise that there is no show and say you're leaving, the "checkbin" is presented. Coke is five hundred pounds per can. The "hostess fee" for allowing the girl to sit beside you is another few hundred per 20 minutes. 2 or 3 thugs appear from nowhere and "persuade" you to pay. I'm not making it up. Normally victims don't go to the cops. A 16 year old schoolboy who had passed himself off as an adult screamed blue murder and the girl & thugs were prosecuted. That's where I got the coke price from.
Other London scams have nothing to do with the p4p industry. Backpakers are approached by "hotel agents" at airports and end up paying 4 star hotel prices to sleep in a bunk bed 6 to a room. The famous London taxi cabs are strictly regulated and metered but there is a legal loophole allowing people to operate mini cabs. They don't have meters and won't quote a price in advance. At the end of the journey, the driver demands a multiple of the regular taxi price, jutifying it with a map showing that the victim has crossed several different "zones" arbitrarily created by his employer. Only big bruisers are employed and they will beat the hell out of the passanger if he objects.
Finally there are the bureaux de change and the banks (yes, the banks). I refuse to have an ATM card on my home bank a/c because of phantom withdrawals. On my last visit to London I drew cash across the counter with my credit card. At Heathrow airport I was charged a 2% commission at the counter, in addition to any charge my own bank would make. A bureau de change near the Soho roundabout quoted me a 20% (yes, twenty per cent) commission to advance UK Pounds on my own credit card. I had to take the tube to the airport to get some more cash. I looked at the rates for changing currencies. The buy/sell spread for Baht was over 25%. (In Pattaya the banks will advance Baht & foreign currency over the counter on a British credit card without charging a commission of their own). The currency spreads (apart from the hotels) are about 1 Baht per $.) The London clip joint scams have been going on for at least 50 years. They are obviously paying off London's finest. They are so lucrative that the owners rent them to gangsters for hundreds of pounds per day.
Yes' I have seen farangs being ripped off in Thailand. I saw Japanese tourists being ripped off by their own tour operaators, with the collusion of go go owners, by being chaged $00s for "admission" to Soi Diamond's best go go to which admisiion was and is free. I saw Koreans taken in busloads to the old Polo showbar on Walking Street 5 years ago. They would sit without buying any drinks. This means that they had been ripped off by being made to pay an unneccessary "admission fee". The fact that they were allowed to watch without drinking proves collusion between the tour operator & the owner. But anyone who invests in a good guide book or a determined monger who joins a site like this can avoid these scams easily. I think they only work against East Asians or Russians who may not have relevant sites or books in their languages.
Recently I met a nice English tourist couple on a Pattaya Baht bus who had been there for 2 days. They asked what the charge was. I said 10 Baht wherever you get on or get off. They had been paying 100 Baht each. Being 1st timers they had been innocently asking the drivers "how much" when they got off. They had all said "100 baht". I told them just to pay 10 baht each at the end of any journey without asking the price and never to get on a bus who asked them where they were going. That incident sums up my own impression of Thai scams.
I LOVE Thailand.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:44 am on Mar. 19, 2011
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Joe Wood
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Thanks for your post mybuttefly and for the horrible reminders of what London is very well capable of. I could almost smell the rotten odour of Soho in your story.
Your post just illustrates just how valuable web-sites like this one can be for people who don't know or who haven't traveled much.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:55 am on Mar. 19, 2011
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jibblies
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In connection with my experiences here, I've often thought of what the average tourist would make of my country and what scams they might encounter. Some of the scams you mention may be of larger value in London (and, incidentally, you forgot the one where fat native females try to pass their enormous size off as 'normal'  ) but:
1. I bet that 90% of English people, hearing about you being ripped off, would express genuine disapproval and feel shame that a visitor had been ripped off. Whereas if I tell a Thai about something similar, they don't.
I visited Hong Kong with a Thai and she expressed surprise when a native helped us find our way without any shady ulterior motive. That, to her, was unheard of, very unusual.
2. If there are phantom withdrawals in ATMs, UK banks are generally very good. I've had a few experiences of phantom card use and theft of cards before they reached me. In each case, the (different) banks refunded the charges without question. I've heard different stories when it comes to Thai banks. Generally, in the UK, the law is on your side.
3. The police are being paid by the Soho touts? You mention that very few people go to the police to complain. And yet, when one person did, you mention that the police took action and all the wrong-doers were prosecuted. Compare to here...
Come on, the attitudes are very different here. I remember seeing a survey recently about Thai peoples' attitude towards corruption in government. The majority *approved* even though it holds 90% of them back! (probably because they thought they they, too, could benefit from corruption, one day) Show me a survey where the majority of English people approve of corruption...
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 6:54 am on Mar. 19, 2011
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magnum
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Quote: from jibblies on 6:54 pm on Mar. 19, 2011
... the survey you reference is conducted periodically by ABAC University, most recently published in 4Q2010... it cites a whopping 78% of Thais accept official corruption, up from 63% in 2008.
... make whatever excuses you will, "situational values", "who are we to judge other people by our standards", "oh, America is killing Afgani babies, so Thais are not so bad"... but, understand... Thais know what corruption is... they are simply not so stupid that they do not know better.
... they merely have inferior values, in ABSOLUTE terms... forget about cop-out RELATIVE terms... Thais have inferior values... Thai inferior morals and ethics are cultural, rife throughout their society, religion, judicial system, law enforcement, military, commerce, schools, politics, government, virtually every single institution that comprises Thai culture (including the unnamed one), and anywhere morals and ethics are expressed through Thais daily personal behaviors.
... I get tired of hearing bullshit excuses by farang apologists making excuses for Thais moral and ethical corruption... it is deep, it is pervasive and it is condoned as acceptable behavior in themselves and others... Thais are third world Sub-Sahara African corrupt... think about where else in the world you would poll numbers like that.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:05 am on Mar. 19, 2011
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