thaiophilus

Ha. I acquired all Mary R Haas's books on Thai nearly 30 years ago. They were for a long time the definitive English-language scholarly resources on the Thai language, though naturally the language has changed in the decades since she compiled them. (Her main academic field was actually Native American languages, not Thai, which she only took up during WWII to help the war effort. Nothing if not thorough, she also acquired a Thai husband 😀) Incidentally, don't be fooled by the title of her Thai-English Students' Dictionary. On opening its 634 dense pages you soon realise that "Student" was intended to mean "PhD scholar", not "beginner" .

Nothing tricky about that. When Pali is transliterated into Thai script, no tone marks are used because Pali doesn't need them. Thai readers who don't speak Pali therefore automatically pronounce the Pali words according to the Thai rules for default tones, not how a native Pali speaker would say them. Yes, thank you, I have studied the tone rules (for a definitive work see Chapter III of The Thai System of Writing, by Mary R Haas, which I have in front of me right now) so I'm well aware that there are many syllables for which no modifying tone mark is needed. That's obvious just by looking at any typical bit of written Thai. (For example: อย่าสอนจระเข้ว่ายน้ำ has seven syllables but only four have tone marks.) Nevertheless, many other syllables do need a modifying tone mark. But I think you've missed my point, which is that when you see sixty-four consecutive syllables with no tone marks at all something is going on, and the something in this case is that the language isn't Thai.

One clue is that กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์ has 64 syllables but not a single tone mark. Thai is tonal, but Pali is not.

... the city so good they set it to music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux8POF8eMk (That's their original "Bangkok then and now" video from 1989,with a mix of 1960s and 1989 street scenes.) I can say it, but couldn't write it down as Thai has too many homophones (and not many people know this but this name isn't Thai anyway, it's Pali or Sanskrit 😄.)

No. The BTS Senior Rabbit Card is only for Thai citizens (https://btsbangkok.com/rabbit-card) but the MRT senior card was available to anyone over 60 regardless of nationality or residence (it must have been, as I had one!) As a lawyer you may be amused by the minutiae: those over 65 were entitled to the discount, while those 60-65 were merely privileged to receive it. (E&OE)

There are Asian publishers that Amazon has never heard of. Next time you're in Thailand (or a friend is!) you might find books from those publishers in some of the more academically-oriented Bangkok bookshops. For example: Asia Books https://www.asiabooks.com/en/search.html?query=cambodia&source=all&page=1 Kinokuniya https://thailand.kinokuniya.com/ Dasa Books https://dasabooks.com/search Chula Books https://www.chulabook.com/en/categories?text=cambodia

HR... Hormone Replacement? (yes, I know. Now I'm having nightmares abour Dame Edna having hot flushes 🥵)

My guess would be "no", but one would hope that the instructor did. 😈

There's another Erawan where it's impossible to believe that you are not in Thailand 😈: Inside:

By the way, a prospective visitor might ask what's the difference between the three museums. I'd say the Death Railway Museum by the cemetery is a well-funded modern museum and visitor experience up to modern international museum standards. The other two are essentially one-man (or one-monk?) projects - labours of love but sadly underfunded. The JEATH War Museum has reconstructed POW huts housing press clippings and original art works made by POWs, and a memorial to one of the Japanese soldiers, who stayed behind to help with reconstruction. The museum near the bridge (if it's still open) is a miscellaneous collection of stuff vaguely related to Thai life in WWII. Obviously the visitor experience will be very different for people who lost loved ones here.

Which one? Kanchanaburi has several museums related to the railway: Death Railway Museum and Research Centre (aka Thailand-Burma Railway Centre) near the cemetery the JEATH War Museum Kanchanaburi at the southern end of the town by the river on Pakprak Rd. the World War II and JEATH War Museum near the bridge and POW memorial

and here... every other connection times out.

Andrew MacGregor Marshall will have something to say about that...

The clue may be in the name... maybe @Siri900 has better information? 😈

Only if you think 'car' and 'war' rhyme 😈 The Thai word would probably be naarak (น่ารัก)