Jorgen commented : My landlord is cheating me! He and his family live on the property. It’s awkward when we pass by as I don't make eye contact with any of them.

onlyme commented : Welcome to Thailand, enjoy your stay.

DonAleman commented : I, partially, agree to no re pay raises for the PRESENT force but believe by getting in new leadership with proven/effective/turn around capabilities, raising hiring qualifications to include education - then start new salary levels/benefits/pensions to keep them honest and not so needy they must solicit bribes. First trash, from the top down the present force, selecting those few that could meet new qualifications. Probably means a new, foreign top dog to avoid local obligations, relatives and friends. Someone who owes nothing to any Thai Hi so !

azurite commented : Confusing post written poorly. What is the real issue here? Police harassing tourists or tourists not complying with the law?

thompson commented : [quote:bq6yal9m]by azurite on Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:15 pm Confusing post written poorly. What is the real issue here? Police harassing tourists or tourists not complying with the law?[/quote:bq6yal9m] Not confusing. If one keeps up with Thai news, it's well known police and people posing as police harass, intimidate tourists for extortion money! Don’t see anything in bobbyd’s post about tourists not complying with the law’! I think there's some good advice in the post too about what to do in the situation.

bobbyd commented : Can tell you one thing! My feeling is that any school that doesn't give you a printed sheet of the school fees and instead writes them out for you, will most likely be ones that will later ask for tea money.

Rocks commented : Exercise extreme caution when dealing with State run primary schools, as the later generation teachers are most often employed in return for some favours etc. etc. The principals position is frequently given to someone who has risen through the mire and muck of corruption one way or another. I can't remember the last time my kids had a full week at school as the principal (some call them Director) is always giving a half day off so the staff can talk. My advice, for what it's worth, is enrol the kid(s) at a private school where staff are scrutinised closely.

Rocks commented : Living in a remote and regional area of Thailand I always give way to pedestrians attempting to cross at pedestrian crossings in my local town. This usually brings looks of amazement from the pedestrian but always other traffic just drives around me and keeps going. As I have a dash mounted video camera come the day a pedestrian gets knocked down I can supply the police with visual evidence as to where the fault lies.

modsquad commented : Pretty much sums up the mindset of Thai drivers / officials. 'Sydney. London. Stockholm. Copenhagen. Bangkok. Can you spot the odd one out in that list? Here's a hint; four of them feature drivers who stop at zebra crossings. One of them features drivers who speed up at the mere sight of them. Every now and again a new campaign or crackdown hopes to right a social wrong in this country, not unlike the one I detailed in last week’s column. The latest idea is one that involves white lines — white squiggly lines. It was announced that white squiggly lines would be drawn on roads all over Bangkok, not unlike the way a five-year-old draws white squiggly lines all over a chalkboard, and with much the same result no doubt. According to a government spokesperson in charge of, well, Squiggly Lines, lots of really big progressive civilised cities have them already. Sydney and London, for example, are full of white squiggly lines. So too are Stockholm and Copenhagen. Are you starting to get the picture? If our roads have white squiggly lines, then it proves we are progressive and civilised too. The squiggly lines confused me at first. I wondered if they were the work of some untalented yet well-connected rookie Transport Ministry official who had been given the task of spray-painting straight white lines, but I was wrong. Those squiggly lines are intentional. It’s a campaign to make drivers aware of impending zebra crossings as if those crossings actually have some meaning or function here. This campaign aims to get Bangkok drivers to do something outrageous — namely, stop at them. Bangkok drivers don’t stop for anybody. Ambulances? Get outta here. Pregnant ladies … the elderly … the disabled? Don’t you get points for knocking them over, and what are they doing on roads anyway? I once wrote a travel guide for Thailand in my first year in the country, gathering information for rookie foreign travellers. When it came to writing about getting around Bangkok, I wrote what I thought to be a succinct yet invaluable and perhaps life-saving paragraph: “In Bangkok, zebra crossings serve no function other than to break up the blackness of the streets; they are pretty white lines on the road, but that is all. Don’t for a minute think anyone will stop if you step onto one.” What excellent advice for tourists coming from cities such as Sydney, London, Stockholm or Copenhagen. I felt more than a little holier than thou as I sent the story off to my Thai editor, Khun Veerachai, for perusal before being laid out on the page. If I could save just one life, then my article had been well worth the precious time I took to write it. Sanctimony is not one of my recently-developed character traits. [img:1qns9uvt]http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/content/20150120/745815.jpg[/img:1qns9uvt] “Khun Veerachai would like to see you in his office kha,” his mousy yet polite secretary came over and said to me not a few hours later. “Now … kha.” I was still feeling pious when I entered my editor’s office where I saw a print-out of my story on his desk, and a look of inclement weather on Khun Veerachai’s face. “This paragraph about the zebra crossings. Can I delete it?” he asked. “What on earth do you mean?” I asked dramatically. “It doesn’t really portray Bangkok in a good light, does it?” he said, choosing his words with the same care a durian aficionado chooses his first fruit of the season. He went on to explain that my story would portray Bangkok drivers as brazen, wide-eyed sociopaths who’d stop for nothing, let alone a pedestrian. Piety shrivels up and dies in the face of reputation. I put up a good fight, but in the end there was no way I could win. The lives of pedestrians needed to take second place to Thailand’s image, and he announced he would delete the paragraph. Twenty-five years have passed, and if Bangkok drivers were brazen, wide-eyed sociopaths in 1990, what are they now? Is there a word for “brazen times 10”? And yet despite being roundly ignored, zebra crossing keep popping up on our streets — often in tourist places. Why is that? Perhaps if we didn’t paint them on our roads, we would look like some under-developed nation and that would make us look bad on the international stage. Perhaps they will help return happiness to the Thais. Perhaps this military government is keen on making us a hub for zebra crossings or, more recently, squiggly white lines. What is the relationship between a zebra crossing and a squiggly line anyway? It’s a psychological ploy. Apparently when you approach squiggly lines, you are led to believe the road is narrowing and that makes you slow down. At least it works like that in Sydney, London, Stockholm and Copenhagen, so it should work here. Never assume anything, dear reader. First of all, this trick relies on the expectation that drivers have their eyes on the road. Bangkok drivers gaze intermittently at the road ahead, but that is in between Line messaging, checking Facebook pages, watching soapies on the TV screen mounted just to the left of the driver’s seat and painting one’s fingernails. Second, how can a squiggly line go up against a deep-seeded, ingrained desire to ignore zebra crossings for fear of having to slow down? I know; I tried it once. I was driving along Sukhumvit Road where there was a zebra crossing. I would normally have ignored it except that as I approached, a group of school students had already stepped off the kerb and was on the white lines. I momentarily forgot myself; perhaps I was reminiscing about Sydney, or London, or Abba or Hans Christian Anderson. Whatever the reason, I slowed down. And stopped. What transpired was a tirade of intimidation as the man in the pickup truck behind me went ballistic. My actions caused him, too, to have to stop, not to mention nearly rear-ending me. He blasted his horn and when I looked into my rear-view mirror I could see his lips writhing and contorting, as is necessary when one spits vitriol at a bald-headed farang in the black Teana in front. In summary; stopping at a Bangkok zebra crossing is as dangerous as a pedestrian thinking he or she can safely cross the road on one. Wouldn’t it be great if squiggly white lines truly could change the bad habits of an entire city. It would be a lot cheaper than enforcing traffic rules, or mounting a serious campaign to teach Thai drivers what they must do when approaching a zebra crossing (and can we throw in an extra bit about how to properly use a roundabout?) There are plans to extend those Dinso Road squiggles throughout the entire city. What a boon for the Somchai Squiggly Line Company Limited, owned by the relative of the department head who will contract out the work. As for the rest of us, life no doubt will go on as usual. By the way, my travel guide story has an unexpected happy ending. Khun Veerachai was “asked to leave” not long after and in the ensuing kerfuffle the order to delete my offending paragraph never made it to the lay-out guys. The paragraph ended up being published. Editors, like squiggly lines, are oft times ignored. [i:1qns9uvt]Story by Andrew Biggs, Post Publishing.[/i:1qns9uvt]

seattle77 commented : I had same problem with True billings, they are so confusing I used to deal with them many times both at their offices in the mall and on the phones. It had been long process and finally I gave up. Seemed like there is no way you can prove yourself or to get them to understand your points. I got so many bills from them each month as I have cable and 2 cell phones with them. Instead of making it easy for their customers with simple one bill that itemizes transactions for each use, they split them. True offers e-billings which I will never take as it is bad enough to keep track of their charges on papers, it would be much more confusing to have to check each bill online. I wish an authority look into their billing practices. For now I have contract with them as soon as I am done I will surely look elsewhere to give my business to. saroj wichienwidhtaya

gwats commented : One rule applies in Thailand, as in the rest of the World.... don't pay a 'dime' until the work is done to your satisfaction, even if you need to bring in an independent contractor to verify results....

GregPhuket commented : This is not atypical of residential construction anywhere, but is absolutely di rigeur for Thailand. Before settling in my current house I looked at a lot of them ranging in price from reasonable to quite expensive. Finishes improve with price, but construction standards here are among the lowest I've seen in my engineering career (outside Africa, that is). Pay nothing until is is done well and completely. Best advice, and have an outside professional inspect before you buy. Won't venture a guess as to Why things are so poorly built here, but the fact is that they generally are.