KhorTose

I was told when I applied for a new passport that there is a market for American Passports and they can sell them for thousands of Baht. I have no idea how they can be of any use to any one else, but apparently they are. The best advice I have received and the only one that makes a lot of sense is to buy insurance when you part with your passport. Something I will do the next time. I have a feeling if the package had been insured for $1000 there would be someone with real power demanding its location. Not just me or some travel agency.

In wonderful hindsight, I guess I will never send my passport anywhere again. I guess I just got spoiled as I had to mail my passport to the Burmese Embassy in 2002 to get a visa for extended travel in Burma when this was the ONLY way to obtain a visa to visit Burma. No Problems. I also mailed my passport to the Thai Embassy to get my 0-A visa to retire in Thailand. No Problems. I guess I just could not believe that once a passport reached an embassy it could "disappear". What is really surprising to me is their complete lack of response to my request to track my passport once it reached the embassy. Just out of curiosity, if they can steal my passport once they have signed for it, why would your passport be any safer if you hand carried it to them? All they had to tell you after you wait several hours is they do not have it, just like they told me. What are you going to do? Call the police? Make a scene and shout you can't do this to me I am an American (European, etc.). Ask you government to declare war on Vietnam? The truth is if they steal passports delivered to them one way, they can steal them delivered to them any other way.

I probably never will again, but I guess I got spoiled. I had to send my passport to the Burmese embassy to get a visa for extended travel in Burma in 2002 when this was the ONLY way to obtain a visa. No problems. I also sent my Visa to The Thai Embassy to get my 0-A visa to retire in Thailand. No problems. I just found it hard to believe that once a Visa arrives safely at an Embassy it can "disappear." What it really rude is the complete lack of response to my asking them to track down what happened to my visa once it arrived at their embassy. If they can ignore the fact they signed for it, what makes you think that they can't deny you handed it to them and steal yours also. What are you going to do if they do just steal it? Start a war?, call the police?, shout I am an American you can't do this to me? If they steal one way they can surely steal another.

I was having someone pick me up at the airport and I did not want them to wait on me, and yes I do wish I had gone through a travel agency. See reply to Atri 1666.

I believe there may be some small demonstrations here, but so far it has been very calm. I have not seen any military or extra police presence either.My Thai friend tells me they all went to Bangkok.

I would have loved to check this out, but this is what happened to me when I tried to get a visa to travel to Vietnam this year. I mailed my passport by overnight registered mail, along with the requisite money and information, to the Vietnamese Embassy asking for a visa and expedited service. When I did not hear from them in five days I contacted the embassy by Email (Their phone lines are always busy), and received a phone call from an unidentified man who said they did not receive my passport. I went to the the post office and received the tracking data, and a signed receipt that showed a Mr. Chin had received the passport the next day at the Vietnamese Embassy. I immediately called the number back that called me and all I got was a mumbled I did not get it, call me back this afternoon. Since then I have been unable to contact that number and the embassy does not answer my emails, or even a direct letter to the Ambassador, Mr. Nguyen. I have since been told by others that you must hand carry your passport to them or hire an agency to do it for you. Needless to say, this has cost me hundreds of dollars and delayed other trips while I await a new passport. I had heard that corruption was rampant in Vietnam and I am sadly reporting that it even extends to their state department.

It is not over till the fat lady sings. In the North many Thais are angry. I still say when the "most important one" dies the s... will hit the fan. I expect it will be a very long and maybe bloody time before the lady sings.

Sorry guys, but one nice thing about living in Chiang Mai is that I do not have to care that much about what happens in Sunee Plaza. All I can say is that it is a far better and cleaner place now then it was 6 years ago, and I hope whatever is going on contributes to the trend of cleaning the place up. Don't get me wrong, Chiang Mai has some shady enterprises too, but we do do our best to shut them down. I could not agree more with Z909. This is probably the best reason for censorship. Tell the cops, or the NGOs or foreign enforcement organizations. The last thing these places need is advertisement.

As a long time liberal and suporter of Obama, I hope that you take this with a grain of salt. I am very unhappy with Senator Reid, Pelosi, and Obama over the whole health care issue. I have not seen any real leadership on this issue from any of them. There is no way in hell that this bill should have taken so long to get drafted and be so long and involved. 1500 pages of compromises is the best the democrats can do? Why the hell did we elect these people if it was not to lead?

I hate to disagree with one of my favorite posters, but they are just following a great American tradition of grabbing your attention. I do not find this ad any more offensive then a women with big tits, & a bikini selling beer and a fun life (that is suppose to go with it) on the beach. The truth is that the asshole (Hitler) is dead, but I am okay with anything that reminds people of this monster and what he did from a poster to a wax image. I think the worst thing we could do is to forget this bastard and the evil he inflicted on humanity.

LOL, Now you know why I always read your messages.

Well, I don't know where to start exactly. First let me say that your post is very well written and thought out,. I also enjoy a good intellectual discussion on these boards, and wish to thank you for starting this thread. Part of me thinks Mr. dapitt should jump in here with his own thoughts on this issue rather then just doing critiques, but what the hell, I am game to a good debate. Why a debate? Why, because we are still not quite on the same page on this issue. I am going to start with the point you say you are making cited above. Your point sounds good, but it terribly vague. Who the heck are those who we

Bob, sorry but it takes no bandwidth at all to shoot this down and I do not find his statements too outrages to refute at all. You are correct in that 1930 Nazi germany should come to mind, but not just Germany. What he is espousing is rewarmed eugentics, and its theories were popular all over the world---especially in the good old USA. I think everyone should familar with eugentics just to refute people who advocate it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EugenicsI TdPerhs, I would start with the end and work up. You state 85% of all statistics are BS. Sorry but that is BS and not backed up by any facts on your part--just your personal belief. As a biologist you should already know how a study is or is not, deemed valid. Sorry but that statements makes me question your scientific background. You may have taught biology but you hardly sound like a competent biologist. Secondly, nature selects based on environment--which any competent biologist should know. Saying a bar boy from a poor country that takes yabba because he is forced into a job that he may hate doing, makes him weak or unfit is also BS. Give me the same bar boy in Amercia with many job opportunities and you may have a highly successfull productive citizen. Biology teaches that environment is one of the most important factors in selection. Most moral ethicist would say, and I agree, that we should make sure that every child has the same chance before we should judge the adult. Finally, eugentics is weak in that it is still a judgement call. Eugentics would eliminate all homosexuals, as they do not reproduce, but they do contribute to society in a very big way and I can name hundreds of contributions, past and present. So do many of the lame and crippled---Hawkins, Latrec, are two that immediately come to mind. I am not about to endorse any policy that allows others to determine for me and society what is fit and what is not fit. It is clearly a steep slope and once adopted puts us all, gay or not, on a path of destruction. Hell, I may decide tomorrow that if you are not Catholic you are morally unfit and subject to weeding out. Thaiworthy, has already made that judgement about you. Should we put him in charge of your fate? Yes, we all should know and understand everything about Eugentics and the people who advocate it, and make darn sure none of its adherents are ever put into a position of power. I am not a believer, but the bible does have lessons. I close with Matthew 25:40 Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.

I am reading this after days of being away from the board. Your BF got sick, you rushed him to the best hospital you knew of, they gave him service that was less then expected by you, but now he is getting better. Sounds like they did at least do what is the minimum expected of them, which is cure him. Having worked in a top rated VA hosptial for the last 17 years I know that even the best ran places do get strecthed thin at times when it comes to staff, and their ability to always be on top of everything. Like it or not there are things and people that money cannot buy. I really feel--based on many members comments--that this is not a bad hospital, and maybe just maybe, you expected special treatment because of your financial status. I may be wrong but that is how I read it. The word that I think Hedda should have used was "perspective", and I really think it may be appropiate to use here. Sorry, but as I was relating to another board member the other day, I have this nasty habit of telling people what I think they should hear and not what they want to hear. Hell, I call it friendship and my comments are meant to be taken in that light. That does not mean that I am aqlways right, but it does mean I am giving you an honest opinion. Some people appreciate this kind of approach some don't.

I am back, and safely in Hillside 4 in Chiang Mai. I refered to reefer madness in that the movies probably made the whole problem worst by the exaggerations. I love the second sentence, but beg to ask that I might rephase it just a little. Drugs are never a problem, it is drug abuse that is the problem and I would continue to urge laws to deal with drug abuse. However, I advocate more compassionate punishement through drug courts and counseling. It has worked everywhere it has been tried. Real counseling not some cheap 12 step program---although I admit that is the answer for some, and I support anything that works.

I did publish the real statistics in my last citation. What you are really saving is that you will believe what you want to believe. So be it, hope I am around when you finally achieve victory in your war on drugs. So far, the results of your 80 year war are not positive. TO YHE WHOLE BOARD. TRaveling to LOS, see you in 4 or 5 days.

Been there and seen that Mark and I know the pain it causes you. I too have felt that pain, but I think poverty is the real curse of Thailand. Look at the far greater number who drink to much. Yabba has nothing to do with that.

Thanks, lvdkeyes that is more like it. however a citation would be nice. In your case your information comes from The National Met amphetamine Awareness Campaign. This is a government-sponsored group trying to justify the expense of the war on drugs. There are many things that are very dangerous about meth, but it is no way as harmful as they make out and there in lies the problem. Remember Marijuana Madness, were one puff turns you into an insane sex maniac, while they are doing the same thing with Meth. Consider during the 60s over 50% of the population used one or another kind of upper. Fat you got speed, work nights you got speed, hyperactive you got speed, drive a truck you got speed, etc. We had a lot of heart attacks in obese people who where using meth, benes, dex, ritalin, etc. but no real crime or addiction problems. The German army used meth and the soldiers who returned from the front did not go on to become addicts. The US marines tried meth in simulated combat situations, and found it safe but ineffective for combat purposes. The truth is that meth was not a problem until we made it illegal. Make it illegal and it becomes expensive to buy. Whenever you have something expenses to buy, but cheap to make you create a market and that is what happened with meth. Furthermore by saying such things like one use and you are an addict, you create a non-truth that makes the rest of the truth that you have to tell ineffective. Many people in the gay community use meth and many are far from addicts. Tell a lie and your truths can now be ignored. The truth the casual user who uses a small doses does not have a real problem. Some citations that tell the real dangers of meth: http://chemistry.abo...crystalmeth.htm http://www.allpositi...om/APOMeth5.htm http://www.disinfo.c.../pg1/index.html A great article on meth use compared to other drugs and recovery stats. http://www.google.co...f+meth+recovery I worked for the VA and they have some great information and stats, but they only publish in journals and they are not on-line for free.

Sorry Thaiworthy and Lester1, but i completely agree with tdperhs, and I will match your argument for argument. That is when you two present an argument. All you have done so far is to suggest he is insane or stupid. So if we are just going to call names or suggest he idea has no merits then I will do the same and say you are both terribly naive and uniformed. When you get around to looking up facts and not relying on what you have always heard or believed, I will be here to listen and reply.

ROFl, it works for me, thank you.

They will find the gene that causes homosexuality and devise a pre-natal cure. All children from that day on will be born straight, and the whole world will become a very boring place.

Now this would truly be a life sentence, that would satisfy the strongest proponent of capital punishment.

Good question. After thinking about it for awhile the answer that I like, would be to take the burden off the bar owners and put it on the boys. After testing positive three times for drugs, I would put some kind of marker on a boys ID, and make sure it is recorded, and he would never be allowed to work in a bar again. The down side of this approach is that the cops could not extort tea money anymore from the owners.

I would love to go to Turkey, if for no other reason then the history. However, are there are bottom guys in turkey or is this just a place for tops?

I have no problem, but I am in the USA. However, they are not an airline, like I thougt, but a low cost travel service like expedia. Mea Culpa. Try these airlines: http://www.vietnamai...tal/vn/welcome/ http://www.maiair.com/ http://www.laoairlines.com/