ceejay

I can. I haven't carried out a survey. My opinion is based on conversations I have had with people there, and things I have heard said when cameras have been used. Could I add that the way you have edited my post in your quotation gives a very inaccurate impression? It's customary to indicate that a block of text has been omitted by a series of dots............ or some such. Timberty - I'm not sure that your post has to do with anything I have said. I have posted exclusively about taking photographs, not being photographed, and about consideration for the feelings of others -

I only knew Tim by sight and have probably exchanged no more than a dozen words with him in all the time I have been coming to Thailand. All I know of him is that I only ever heard his staff speak well of him and that he was, on more than one occasion, generous with both time and money to other farang who had fallen on hard times. As to any "background" to this sad story, whether fact, fiction or speculation this is not, in my opinion, the time or the place to post it.

My opinion on this matter has nothing to do with the law, which I did not mention. I personally think that it is wrong to: 1) Take photographs in an area where a substantial number of the people there are made to feel uncomfortable or apprehensive. The gay areas of Pattaya are such places. Whether or not their discomfort or apprehension is founded in fact is irrelevant. 2) Take photographs of people who do not wish to be photographed, as was clearly the case with this one. I would have deleted it. 3) Publish photographs taken in circumstances a) or b ) above. To argue that something is within the law, and made easier by modern technology, is therefore OK is the morality of the paparazzi. Personal standards are not just about what you can do and what you can get away with. Please, nobody try to tell me I am wrong. I am writing about my personal opinion on this subject. I am the world expert on what my own opinions are and I am not in the habit of lying about it.

Personally, I don't think it is OK, but that decision ultimately rests with board admin. Many people object to photography in areas like Sunee, sometimes for good reason. They may not be out at home and may even come from a part of the world where being seen in a gay area could put them in real danger. This photograph is not one that just happens to have a back view of someone in it. It is a post about that person with a photo attached, and they have not given permission for that image to be used. In my opinion that's just not on, whether or not the individual is recognisable (incidentally the OP acknowledges that the person could be recognised from the picture). Where do you draw the line? What level of "recognisability" do you have to reach before the post becomes unacceptable? Two other points: There are 3 Thais in that picture who can be recognised. Don't they count? On the facts in the posts above, not as rude as taking the photograph in the first place - let alone posting it in a public forum.

As a bonus at this hotel, if you walk out of the gate at the back of the swimming pool, and follow the road behind the car park, you will come to the Tuptim shrine, famous for it's collection of carved phalluses.

That's already happened, with companies like Canon (Japan, cameras etc.) and Seagate (US, hard disc drives) having huge production facilities here. Jobs in low tech industires such as textiles have been moving to Vietnam for years. If labour costs are heavily weighted into an index like this, then countries can move up in them by doing nothing. As GDP and standards of living rise in economically successful countries, labour costs do too. The biggest threat to Thailand's future prosperity is their education system. High tech economies don't just need a few highly educated stars at the top. They need a well educated general workforce too.

I have had the opposite experience to Anone in my home country, England. Horrendous legal and financial problems with the freeholder of my flat (the rough equivalent in Thailand would be the juristic person that owns the fabric and land of a condo) which cost me dear to get out of. When I did escape fron it I bought a house and wouldn't consider moving back to a flat in England. I also find dealing with repairs and maintenance easier with my own house - you just get the job done rather than faffing around with intermediaries. In Thailand, I'd probably only ever rent. As the law stands at the moment if I did buy, it would be a condo. It's doubtful whether any of the schemes to allow a farang to own land are legal, and who is to say that the laws won't be enforced sometime in the future? In any case, at first sight, the legal structured that are created to enable foreign house ownership seem to me tohave the potential to give third parties more rights over your property than owning a lease on a condo.

I have often visited in late October/early November (possibly the best time of year to visit in my opinion) and have always experienced on or two days of rain. It tends to come in sudden, torrential downpours which deliver a lot of water in a short time. That, and the fact that they are often very localised can lead to flash floods for no apparent reason - the water has fallen a few miles away.

Interestng. Exactly that happened to me in 2007. An old, definitely British guy who just bellowed "Pervert" into my ear as I walked past. I wonder if we have an acquaitance in common? This guy was a picture. Old, overweight, wearing no shirt, just shorts and flip-flops, bright red face, whether from alcohol, sun or fury I know not and care less. I know who everyone thought was the oddball, and it wasn't me (for a change).

Now all as it should be for me, too. Thanks.

Same here, using Firefox. The theme, or wallpaper, or whatever you call it has largely disappeared from the forum. All I can see is avatars and lines of text. The reply function is wrong as well. I am currently typing this is a box that is about 3 x 1cm on the screen.

I've hear the "Sunee have many bad boy" line as well. But then, the same guy asked me why I wanted to go to Cambodia and warned that they would kill me there!

You are right, Fountainhall. Mea culpa, and apologies to Z909. I shouldn't post in a rush - my excuse is that I am buzzing around the house getting it ready for later today - when the taxi comes to pick me up to go to Heathrow for the flight to Thailand. B) B)

I don't know what gives you that idea. Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria both have economies that are amongst the most prosperous and innovative in the world.

I always try to avoid "was Stalin worse than Hitler/Pol Pot/whoever" discussions. Too often, you find the hidden agenda that if "A was worse than B, then B can't have been so bad after all". Not so. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and many others were all monsters. The differences in numbers arise from differences in opportunity rather than any in the perverted wills of these beasts.

Actually, I was referring to the Yeepeng Lanna balloon release, which takes place at Mae Jo (the link Michael posted leads to their website). I think this is what Pong referred to as "1 rather far from town set-up show-which is quite superfluous and only for stupid tourists." At US$ 80 a ticket, I shall probably give it a miss.

It's not really the same for the Dutch. Their principal concern is keeping the sea out. Bangkok has the problem of getting a huge volume of water through from the Chao Praya basin out to sea. It has to go through or round Bangkok. Certainly, Bangkok could do with better internal flood defences. Proper dredging is important, of course, but I think that the embankments lining the river and major canals need raising as well. I'm not sure that raising the height of streets in redeveloped areas would work. I could see that giving even worse problems with run off in surrounding areas. A relief canal, bypassing the city from North to South seems like the best bet to me. The basic system already exists - water can be passed through the canal system from North Bangkok to be discharged into the sea at Samut Prakhan. Increasing the capacity of this part of the system would, I guess, be cheaper and quicker than building a new system entirely. The best short term solutions are to improve the maintenance of the existing systems, and to improve their use and management as well. That includes management of water levels in the big dams. In the long term, reforestation of the higher ground around the Chao Praya basin would help moderate the rate at which flood waters are released into the river system. That's not going to happen though. Too much agricultural land would be lost. Whatever is done though, there will always be floods. I find it very hard to imaging any system that could have prevented last year's. There was simply too much water . It had to go somewhere. That makes the issue one of flood management, as well as flood prevention and that means balancing the interests of Bangkok and the upstream provinces.

I've been looking at this too (I'll be in Chiang Mai at the time). I'll probably just go to the main Yi Peng festival in town this year, though. If you do decide to go, Michael, you need to book soon. According to the booking section of the website, there are only a few hundred tickets left.

It may be accelerating, but it's been going on for at least 8 years. I first visited Pattaya in 2004, and there were a few hand-written Russian signs around then. Now, for example, I have seen I several restaurants with Russian sections in their menus.

a. I'd describe it as a group of regular posters, rather than a clique and I do not feel intimidated by them. b. I have always felt welcome to post and never put down here. c. How I feel about the banter depends on the subject matter of the original post. Usually I find it neutral. Occasionally it adds to the post. Rarely, I think it is very inappropriate. Perhaps the only way to get the poster numbers up to the level of other gay Thailand boards is to be more like them. Where is the USP for this board then? Or, Scooby, I suppose you could spend some money. The Bangkokbois blog has, from a standing start, attracted a lot of page hits and a lot of comments very quickly. If you could employ a "house" blogger with a similarly distinctive style, and with enought knowledge of Thailand and plenty to say about it, then perhaps it would bring them here and "seed" the rest of the message board?

I think you have answered your own question, because it's all a question of what you want to do with it. The main advantages claimed for more pixels in the image are the abilities to print larger hard copies and to crop smaller areas out of the original. 9MP is easily good enough for an A4 print. When did you last make a larger print than that? There is a sort of "arms race" going on between camera manufacturers, quoting higher and higher pixel values. It means nothing to most amateur photographers.

Mr Bill - if I understand your dates right, you are going to fly into Bangkok on 22nd and transfer to a flight to Chiang Mai the same day. Air Asia and Nok Air both now fly from Don Muang, so the transfer from airport to airport would take an hour or more. It depends on the traffic, in addition to the normal time to check in etc. I would suggest, for the outward journey at least, considering Bangkok Air or Thai for the flight to Chiang Mai, rather than the budget options. You may feel it would be worth it in terms of reduced stress. You can also take into account the 400 baht or so a taxi from Suvarnabhumi to Don Muang would cost you.

Context from the last quiz pointed me the right way on this. It's Charles Babbage, known to some as father of the computer.

Is it by any chance a jar full of chads from the infamous 2000 Florida presidential election recount?

It's not a big issue for me, because I don't travel to stay in hotels. They are just places to sleep in for me. I prefer smaller places that are locally owned partly because they are usually better value for money, partly because I find the service friendlier, partly because when I travel in the Isaan that's all your going to get there. So long as it's clean and quiet that'll do me. Just about the only ones I try to avoid are the Isaan hotels that advertise they have a disco and/or live music (for which read MorLam) on the premises. I know that's a plus for some, but I like to get to sleep before 3 a.m.! Given the choice, I'd like the place to be in a garden, even if I don't spend much time in there. There's just something pleasant about being in green surroundings. It's not a must though. I've never seen cockroaches in enough numbers to be a problem. I stayed in a place in Dansai a couple of years back, a very pleasant resort with a teakwood main building. Even the bathroom was all wood - the shower floor being decking, a bit like a wooden cattle grid. Of course, being dark and damp, there were a few roaches under there. That problem was easily solved - I switched the bathroom light on and waited a minute or two before I went in. Never saw them again. Out of sight, out of mind.