John Galt Presents: One Year On

Last week was the one year mark of this "NotStickman-John Galt" column. I've made it through an entire year. I never intended to be here so long. I had a simple mission. I wanted to knock Stickman around a little and straighten him up so he would fly right and start respecting his readership again. I somewhat expected him to take a step back, make a short apology for taking liberties for unfairly profiting off the news and then get back to center and get back on track in looking out for the best interests of his readership. Sadly, that didn't exactly happen.

As a long time reader, I had emailed Stickman on and off over many times starting 7 years ago. He knew where I was. My full name appeared in all my email to him. I told him about a number of things as a friend. I didn't feel there was any reason to hid and certainly I was always was straight forward with him.

And so when my "NotStickman" work took shape, and he finally knew that I was on to his real identity -- he began to search back through his email to figure out who I was. I don't think this was very hard to figure out at all. What I wrote to him directly to him in email, I repeated in my NotStickman columns. With any reasonable effort, I knew he would discover who I was before I actually came forth and revealed myself.

Anyhow, during the course of his investigation about me, he came across the email that I had written to him about my experiences with The Man Tour. I told him that I had come to Thailand with that group 6 yea

rs earlier. In his response, he warned me that I could be thrown completely out of Thailand for being associated with them..... Here is a copy of that email -- take a peek.

Evidently when he found this piece of my history in old email, he had the bright idea of trying to use that information to test out his theory. I suppose he really believed that I would "virtually face immediate deportation and blacklisting from Thailand". (I think he got me confused with being an English teacher...)

He probably thought that I would coward away and immediately and take my site down. I suppose that he thought that I might really be in trouble with Thailand and be asked to leave.

Stickman the self proclaimed guru of the Thailand Internet was wrong. I never even received an email or phone call from any Thai authority. Not one. I had a feeling Stickman was wrong on this from the beginning. This tour group has been coming here legally for years and years. They may not be good public relations for Thailand, but they are not breaking any rules. It not like they were an English teachers running for-profit web sites outside of their work permit.

I never intended to go to extremes with Stickman and "dog" him for a full year. I never really intended to publish his identity, but he upped the stakes when I saw that what he tried to do to me. So, did end up publishing his name and place of work several weeks later.

At that point Stickman closed down his publishing for about 4 or 5 months. He lied to his readership about the closure. He made up stories and excuses and did just about everything except take real responsibility for what actually happened.

Ultimately, people talked amongst themselves and chatted up the issues on web sites and read my accounts here and the real story of what actually happened was finally was passed around.

To this day the StickmanBangkok web site has never really regained it's readership base. Point A is the time of the controversy last year and the publishing of Stickman's name (Paul Owen). I also came forth and confirmed my identity (Keith Summers) at the same time. He pulled the Stickman site down right at the point of A. The area of B shows his readership while the Stickman site was down or partially restored. C is the time where the Stickman Weekly came back on line. 4 months have passed

now and the Stickman site numbers are still looking a bit feeble.

Noticeably, the old issues of the Stickman Weekly from 2001 to 2005 have not been restored. Evidently, the "old" Stick is not very compatible with the "new" Stick-Mark.

I have pointed out on many occasions that the "old" Stick looked out for his readership first while the "new" Stick was methodically selling his opinion and swaying readership into spending money with advertisers. The net result -- the new Stickman (whoever "they" are) are just another commercial enterprise who is unfaithful to their readership.

I have heard from several sources that the old Stickman (Paul Owen) is getting the boot from his employment at Patumwan Demonstration School. He was the only teacher there without a degree anyhow. At one time they did have all the pictures of their staff up on their web site, but my guess is that my publishing here caused them to rethink their design and they and they changed their web site from this page to that page. There were 2 other teachers in this StickmanBangkok mix but we didn't name those teachers. Those others never messed with me (to my knowledge) and I think they probably distanced themselves from Paul and the web site to some degree.

Anyhow, the school allowed Paul to gracefully leave his position there by allowing him to stay until the end of the school year. The school also benefited as they would not have had to replace him mid term.

I have also head from a number of sources that he no longer is doing the weekly himself. I was told that he sold the weekly section of his web site to another entity. Based on the reading there -- I would tend to believe that rumor. BUT it could all be a ploy by Paul to go back under cover and run the weekly secretively again.

So what is the next stop for the Old Stickman? Does he return to New Zealand? Or does he start up a new boiler room operation?

In defense of Stickman and the lowly English Teacher.... You have to consider that they are somewhat steeped in a culture that calls on them to cheat the system. That's right....

They stand on the street corner down in Bangkok somewhere and they look out into the intersection. On one corner they see the high society Thais who are exploiting the law and the system to reap rich rewards without exactly having to necessarily work to hard for it. These Thais are buying Ferraris for their kids and sending those same kids to learn English at Stick's school. On another corner they see farangs employed by oil companies and paid a kings ransom to work in Thailand. They get a whole lot for not necessarily doing work any harder than teaching. On other street corner, you have the Gem dealers and scam artists who work with near impunity and rake in cash off the backs of the unsuspecting tourist. And on the last corner, the fabulous looking go-go girl who knocks down 100k a month and occasionally gets flown to Samui or Phuket for a short vacation.

So, these English teachers don't really feel its that terribly bad selling a little illegal software. Hell, if everyone else is cheating the system not getting caught -- so why not me? Why not run a web site and pick up some ad revenue. Who give a shit about a little lax reporting on a web site if the readers are at least entertained?

Funny thing... Stickman (Paul Owen) used to tell people his name was Michael Owen who is a famous Soccer star. MangoSquashDave would tell people that his name was David Gower who is a famous Cricket player..

When I published that "Gower" had a similar sound to David's real last name -- he took off and closed down his site. Coincidental timing? After thinking about this and reading email on it. I would say -- No. I firmly believe now that he split before I had a chance to pull all the information together on him and Out him in a "proper" way.

At this point, I may not eventually gather all that I wanted to gather on David, so I think it's time now to even up part of the score. He published all my personal details, so we'll publish some of his here today.

His full name is David Gourley. He is tall and slim approximate 5 feet 11 inches tall. His hair is graying but he dies it. He is in his mid 40's now and by several accounts was working in Finance in London England before he retired here.

He lives on Soi Rangnam which is just past Phyathi Road near Victory Monument. I believe this is his cell phone number 0870993325. If you're a Mango Sauce fan then you might want to call him up and say hello.

Sorry I don't have a picture for you, but David Gourley is easy to spot when out on the town. Just look for the tall guy who is ducking his turn to buy rounds of drinks .... here is a quote from a reader who knows him:

"He came to Thailand a few years ago. It was sometime before he started his website. He tried to be man about town boasting how he had retired before his 40th birthday and making a mockery of we who still work. But whenever we went out, he never had much money and would avoid buying rounds. He would quietly exit the bar when his turn came. We never noticed this at first but as the pattern emerged we began to see that he was drinking on other peoples' tab. It think this also explains his lost income last year. I thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown. He is totally paranoid."

(and by the way several emails that I received from a couple different people said the same thing... he's a tight wad SOB. Hilarious really.)

Two weeks ago, the opening piece on Stickman was an infomercial for an on-line meet and greet then shag web site. Ho hum.... Can we expect that paid advertisement to be honest ?

Last week, the "Stick-Mark" rehashed what was briefly talked about in a previous column. That's right, they wrote about Nakhon Phanom and their trip through Issan back in the first Stick Mark column this year about 4 months ago.

I read this new article and it all seemed nice and fairly standard but something was bugging me..... It took me a few minutes to figure this out AND then it hit me.

They were lying about having come up here again. They didn't come up here again. Stick-Mark rehashed exactly the same experiences they encountered when they visited 4 months ago.

What's up guys -- nothing new to report about this week? OH, no you can't do that. You have advertisers who are paying you to publish. There are club out there who need to publish there by-monthly grand opening parties. You can't be slacking off like that.

So, how do I know this? How do I know that this past week's article if fair bogus? Because the goofballs used their old photographs of Nakhon Phanom when the river was down during the dry season.

But the river is full right now. We are now in the middle of the rainy season. So, last week's efforts were just a rehash of things they didn't talk about 4 months ago in April.

Here is what the river looks like today August 31st 2007. Their photo was taken during the morning - I would guess about 9am. Mine was taken today at 12:30pm. See how much higher the river is now? Also, notice the extra green growth in front of the lower cement walkway.

I live here in Nakhon Phanom. I have been here for 5 years I know this town fairly well.

They wrote in the article that Nakhon Phanom doesn't "feel like Issan". OH yea? What the hell does it feel like? What do you know, Stick-Mark, about Issan anyhow? By what personal experiences can you gauge your expose on Issan? Slept with a few "Miss Udon" types have you? Now you're an authority in all things Issan are you? I doubt that "The StickmanBangkok Team" could hang in Issan and go without cheese burgers for any length of time. We have a US slang term for you guys who shot off your mouth like this, it's goes: "You're talking out your ass".

I feel obliged to make some corrections and explain a few things about last weeks article...

They (whoever they are) wrote "when you go into a 7 Eleven right in the heart of downtown to buy a top up card for your mobile phone the largest denomination they stock is 100 baht!" That is wrong, typically the 7/11 has at most 300 baht cards but on some occasions they do run out of that denomination and have only the 100 baht cards left because not many people just buy 100 baht cards. Local phone stores have the 500 to 800 baht cards.

It was written, "I didn't once see the stereotypical older Western guy walking around hand in hand with a young Isaan lady". This is true. You just don't see that non-Thai type of farang behavior here. Local farangs don't typically want to telegraph to everyone that he is "hooked-up" with a particular girl. Same goes for the ladies. We keep it very Thai style in this regard.

"There's a certain look to the locals of Nakhon Phanom, with definite Laos and even Vietnamese influences. The local gene pool is not entirely Thai I'd suggest. Being on the Mekong River and with Laos just a few hundred metres away, you would think that there would be a number of Laotians in town..."

30 years ago there was quite a bit of bombing going on across the river in both Laos and Vietnam. People were dying, families were being wiped out so a fair number of people crossed the river and restarted their lives here in Thailand. That would explain why Stick-Mark saw such a mix of ethnic cultures here.

Stick writes "I didn't see a Big C, and I could not find a plethora of the usual American fast food restaurants." Let me correct that. He did not find ANY American fast food restaurants here. There are none. No Big C. No English Cinemas. No departments stores. No shopping malls. No go-go bars. However, I will say that recently, it has been reported (and I have yet to confirm) that one of our discos which feature "coyotee type" dancers were beginning to show some flesh. This is the first time in the 5 years that I have been here where this has been the case. The locals have been enjoying the show.

Stick writes "I got the feeling that any Westerner living there permanently would be made to feel like some sort of celebrity". The westerners here are treated pretty well. I believe that if you are a solid citizen making a contribution to the community in one way or the other, you will be treated special. You may feel some celebrity status.

Stick writes "Nakhon Phanom might be a pretty town, but there is little to do, and from what we could make out, little of historical interest. It'd be a great place to chill, but I imagine it would get boring after a while." That's right people. Very very boring here -- You don't want to come up here. I mentioned some of the highlight of the Stickman article to the local farangs. They blurted out the same -- they said "Please don't come to Nakhon Phanom -- just stay in the farang areas of Thailand". They stressed that other farangs would probably not like it hear at all. I agreed with them.

I read an article on CNN a couple of weeks back about closing and moving of the Copacabana club in NY. The Copa has been around a long long time and this picture below was taken in 1951. Notice anything strange in this picture? It caught my eye almost immediately. What I see here is a bunch of old farts hanging around checking out the young hot babes. I recall the song Copacabana which was co-wrote by Barry Manilow. One line from that song is "His name was Rico, he wore a diamond. He was escorted to his chair; he saw Lola dancing there. When she finished, he called her over..". Somehow I don't think Rico only had conversation on his mind. And I don't believe for a minute that these dancers are the hi-society girls either.

I have said before the I sensed that Thailand functioned a great deal like the 1950's in the US. Here in this picture you have these fat cats puffing on their cigars and scoping out the girls. No doubt enjoying the eye candy. I would have to believe that some girls were making deals back then and play time wasn't for free either. Perhaps the deal was marriage and winner takes all.

Here is something you might find interesting. Here is a post card from about 100 years ago. Back then the higher society girls where dressed in the garb that you see below in the photo. This is a printed post card. It is from 1906. This is a Loas girl but back then Laos and Thailand were pretty much on a similar level. So, I believe you would expect the Thais be similarly clad. What I find interesting is looking at the features of this girl and seeing what would be a typical on a girl. The eyes, nose, hands and everything else looks identical to any girl you might see here today. When I asked around about exactly why the fashions changed, I could not find very much information on the subject except to say that the 5th king, King Chulalongkorn lead the country in exploring the world outside of Thailand. I am told he was the one to bring western influences and to the Kingdom including new forms of clothing. His reigned ended in 1910. And so he was still on the throne and ruling at the time of this picture.

One of my focuses over this year has been to warn farangs against openly trusting businesses that they do not know. The law here in Thailand will not protect a consumer so questionable business practices tends to spring up spontaneously. Thai businesses and farang businesses who are going with the normal flow will tend to fall into the same rut and screw over unsuspecting consumers. This is a fairly common. After all, how will the legitimate business survive if the next door neighboring businesses are making big money of incoming suckers. Sometimes the old adage of "when in Rome" has to be applied if you are to survive in a marketplace.

One industry that I have called into question on a recurring basis is the real estate business. It's nearly a 100% "greed driven". They will call on your to "come in and get rich" by purchasing property. These realtors are preaching all the time about how to come in a lock up a property and turn it in a few years for cash and profits. Thai law tries to counter this with legislation designed to discourage foreigner ownership (and otherwise outlaw it), but that doesn't seem to deter these enterprising real estate types who hide behind their wife to own and run their real estate businesses.

Condo ownership is supported on a limited basis provided that less than 50% of the entire condo building is non-Thai owned.

But all other forms of ownership (real law-supported types of ownership) are off the table. Still, these real estate types search out loop-holes in the law to create creative deals to secure control of property into foreign hands. The whole concept is flawed because at any given time the Thai government and counter those loop holes and put your invested dollars into serious jeopardy. Sweeping changes in the law may not occur in short time frames but over time, who is to say that Thailand won't stamp out these obvious attempts to circumvent the law?

And when they do, what will happen to your invested moneys?

Here is a quote from one of my "favorite" realtors ... Clayton Wade of Premiere Home at Jomtien Thailand.

This quote was taken from a "pro-real estate" web site here. You really need to read this to follow along the rest of this article.

This guy believes in transparency? Really? Transparency in business means pretty much that all inner working and processes of the business are disclosed to the client. Is that Clayton Wade really does? He divulges his internal business to customers? I hardly think so. Many business won't divulge their business secrets because they don't want the customer to know how much money they make on a deal.

I was contacted by a gentleman who claimed that Clayton Wade was anything but transparent on the business that he conducted with Premiere Homes. This gentleman's name is David Cradduck. Evidently David came here to set up a business and it's called Paragon Executive Search. This business is still in operation in Pattaya today.

When David first came to Thailand he hired Clayton to get that business set up and going. Evidently Clayton made the arrangements to rent office space, turn on the telephone, purchase office furniture and the like.

David subsequently found out that he had been had on a number of "deals" with Clayton. These raw business deals also involved another party by the name of Mike Daly. Here is his email.

"Conformation that so called Estate Agent Clayton Wade from Premier Homes Jomtien is a crook."
I have been running a legitimate business now in Jomtien called Paragon Executive Search now for several years. When I first came to Thailand I had the displeasure of dealing with the crook Wade and his sick evil co-crook Mike Daly. Between the two of them they ripped me of to some tune giving me all kinds of nonsense about why the money needed to be spent. The building, the furniture, the office equipment, everything needed to set up the operation was done by the crooked pair of Daly and Wade. I have since realized that I could have done the same thing my self for less than half the cost them two crooks charged me. Even though I haven't dealt with the two morons I still get feedback from them causing me and my family grief. It would give me great pleasure to put a cricket bat around the heads of the pair of them and thats what I will do if I get any more agro from them. Leave me and my family alone to get on with our lives you mindless pair of numbskulls. They both think they are smart but the truth is between them they don't have half my I.Q. A pair of lying, cheating, conning, ruthless, ignorant morons and the sooner they both leave Thailand the sooner Thailand will be a nicer, more pleasant place to live. Good riddance I say!!!

I responded to David and asked him to provide more concrete details about what he felt was wrong about the business dealing. He responded with:

Dear Keith,

Thank you for your warning regarding Wade and his associates but I am past worrying anymore please go ahead and post.

These crooks ripped me off!!!!!

Several example (feel free to add to post):.

For the rent on the building I was charged 20,000 baht per month when in actual fact the price was 8000 baht per month.

I paid for an office cleaner 15,000 baht per month the cost was actually 2,500 baht per month!!!

Wade charged me 35,000 baht to set up office phone line, actual cost 6,000 baht.

The icing on the cake was the office furniture for which I paid an inflated price of 200,000 baht for, by pure chance I bumped into the gentleman in the JP Bar who Daly purchased the furniture from, he was a nice man (Wade introduced him to Daly) who previously owned a fire safety business that had gone under. During the course of our conversation it turned out that Daly had procured the furniture for 80,000 baht making huge profit in this in cahoots with Wade.

So please go ahead post I am past caring and be sure to send me the link too!!!!

Regards

David Cradduck

I ask David if he had any receipts for any of these transactions that would add some credibility to his claim. I also warned David that he might receive some retribution for posting of this article and I asked him if he would be willing put his name on it. I also said that I did not know Mr Daly and I asked him to explain more about who he was.

Dear Keith,

Daly is a crook I knew from Manchester who I asked to come out to Thailand to help set up Paragon in around 1998-1999 he was very well paid to do so, not to mention what he stole from me!!!!! He then did some commercial real estate under company name B.O.C which lasted around 3 months.

Unfortunately I have been sitting on this episode for close to 10 years!!!!! It seems Wade and his associates have been at this for many years and this is the first time i have seen anyone else speak out about Wade and his outrageous, bullying behavior and attitude so I felt the time was right to take action!!

As for receipts I was never offered any Daly being the 'friend' who arranged everything I mistakenly trusted him and paid for it.

If anything else is required let me know otherwise I have no problems with you going ahead and posting.

Regards

David Cradduck

Dear Keith,

Thank you for your support and please stay in touch.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask I will only be too pleased to help rid Thailand of this scum, we owe it to the ex-pats coming out here to live to expose these type of criminals.

I found I got more constructive feedback from people in Bars and Cafe's than from Mr Wade.

I wish you well in your business deal, please be sure to update me once the post is up, I look forward to it!!!!

Regards

David

Let me stress here that what Clayton Wade did what could be considered by some to be completely normal here. I thing in the west we would consider this type of mark up almost unconscionable. In the west, we cling to the idea that normal free enterprising businesses should "charge what the market will bear", but here in Asia is seem like they follow a different precept. Here they seem to follow "charge what the sucker will pay". And that seems to extend out to, "If the sucker keeps paying fees without question -- keep increasing the price until he does".

There is an added bonus for these local operators -- many of these new clients who try their hand at businesses here in all likelihood will not be here in a year or two down the line. So, the history and the bad public relations of the rip-off is quickly extinguished. Also, previous to the proliferation of the Internet, there was no real mechanism to help get the word out about these unscrupulous business practices. So, misbehaving has previously been almost a completely unchecked practice.

If you read the article from the link above, then you have read Clayton Wade's history. He talked about coming to Thailand and being a fencing instructor for the Thailand sports authority. He then said that he jumped right into the real estate business. If you look at the time line you'll see that he left out a year or so in there.

To recap - came to Thailand 1991 and work for 3 years as a fencing coach and opened up Premier homes in 1995. There is one year in there where he forgot to mention that he worked for "Ideal Homes" which at the time was on Soi Yamato in Pattaya. Ideal Homes was primarily a gay run Real Estate agency who catered to the gay client. Anyhow, Clayton was fired from that job due to an "incident" at a place called Sunee Plaza. I was told his little "indiscretion" had nothing to do with what is normally peddled in that part of town.

I'm not saying Clayton is gay. Not at all. I have dealings with Clayton myself - personally. I chronicled those in this article. And I can tell you personally, I have seen him look with lust at my own girlfriend. So, I would doubt he is gay. And of course that isn't all that important anyhow. What you want to know is does he treat people right.

I think he was just working in that real estate office to gain some experience. That office was prone to trouble and in the months that followed one employee was severely beaten and another shot to death (probably gay related troubles). So, perhaps is was best that he was terminated from his position there anyhow. Perhaps it was at this juncture that Clayton learned how to get tough and screw people through business? Perhaps this is where he saw the first practical examples of it?

There are plenty of reasons to believe that there is not quite so much "transparency" here in Thailand business as you might be lead to believe.

Notice in David's last email, he says "I found I got more constructive feedback from people in Bars and Cafe's than from Mr Wade". This is quite common. This is why I preach that you come here for six months or more in advance of starting your business here in Thailand. You need to make friends and listen to what others are saying who have no direct connection to your business. Some of the best advice you will receive will come from those who don't even know you.

I want to thank David Cradduck for coming forward and sharing his experiences with the community. David and family are still operating their business in the Pattaya area. And evidently they still from time to time have minor clashes with Clayton since they are so close to each other. It takes some nerve and solid conviction to go on record with accusations against someone who is local to you.

His experiences with Clayton Wade match my own as Clayton flat-out defrauded me (The Galt) of money but not much about 6k baht 5 years ago. I think Clayton has some mental problems. At heart, I think he will steal from people when he feels he can get away with it. I think he is a mentally abusive person prone to violence. My recommendation would be to not to employ his services. However, if you are a big company with deep pockets and are unknowingly paying a Western wage for an Asian task, I also believe that he would take care of your needs. He may be very good in Real Estate. On a personal level, he is substandard. If news would ever come out of Jomtien about his untimely demise, it would NOT surprise me at all. I believe Clayton has been building bad karma for years.

Hello Keith,
I wish I could be polite with you in this email but to be quite honest I can't. your approach to find out if girls use condoms or not is a shambles. you are a pathetic man at the moment. You have absolutely no moral stance. Why you are proud of paying woman to have sex with you is beyond me. Your pride is warped and demented. I don't know why and I don't care. You seem to be stuck in a place where you are deluded and think these unfortunate girls actually emotionally want you. It sounds like you manipulate them into sexually giving themselves to you. Economic power is shallow. Thankfully it also travels with a great degree of stupidity. You were scammed in the hospital. sorry. You are a cliché. The old American who is tricked by the Asian beauty. You are not young. You are not a stud. You are not good in bed (at least not with woman you pay for), you are not handsome to young prostitutes, you are not sexually attractive to young prostitutes, you are not a good guy (currently), you are not interesting (currently), you are not insightful (currently), you are not the friendly good fun falang they tell you that you are. You are an ATM. you are an idiot. Please try and gain some REALITY PERCEPTION. any self respecting Thai people view you as a joke. no doubt quietly and to themselves, but there is still no doubt that they think this.. you are a walking bank account/clown. if that is comfortable with you fair enough. but you seem like a smart guy and a good hearted guy as well so I gather that this is not all that you care about. change is important. start with the man in the mirror.

The hospital, though an expensive choice, was not a scam. It's a real institution and not only that but they refunded some of my money after the procedure went better than expected. That would not occur in a scam. This was a verifiable situation where someone was in need. It wasn't a sick buffalo story.

I am from the US. I can't think of a time in recent years (when I was still in the US) that I wasn't judged by my ATM capabilities there. Girls in the US are materialistic and for what reasons? They are spoiled and soft and want everything perfect. I would much just rather be the "man in the mirror" to them but they want Mr GQ, with X amount in the bank, nice car (less then 2 years old), and a nice house with 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.

The girls here in Thailand just want to help ensure there is food on the table and sometimes get through college (and perhaps have a decent cell phone as well). I think all these goals are quite reasonable.

One of these girls is 20 and the other 23. Both are very nice looking girls - beautiful by normal standards. Both have completely flat stomachs and excellent physical features. They both look like normal collage co-eds. If I were in the US, I would not have the chance with either of these lovely females. I'm quite lucky that they avail me the opportunity to enjoy their company.

The younger is in college and I give her the equivalent in money each month of a full time job. She really likes me and would gladly be married to me. But, I have explained to her that I'm not in that mode in my life and she has accepted it (with some disappointment I might add).

The older girl is working a normal job making 3,500 baht a month. I probably double that for her easily. I keep asking her if she likes me and she says "Mai Baah". That is basically Laos sarcastic lingo for, "I'd don't think I'm going to tell you". This 23 year old has a sick mother right now. Her mother is loosing sight in one of her eyes. I know the family fairly well. It's no joke.

BOTH of these girls could easily choose to hang out with older Thai gentleman who are much richer than I am if all they wanted was just the money. Or, they could choose to run the circuit and sleep around with a large number of customers and easily double or triple their incomes. My thinking is that I am their best choice of both worlds - physical/mental/emotional acceptability and a practical financial benefit.

Mr TW, aren't you and I doing the exactly same thing? Isn't everyone looking for the best in both worlds?

Should I cut them loose just because it's not right to make a mutual exchange the includes sex an

d money?

Just exactly how does one discern the threshold where morality steps in a dictates our actions in such matters.

You're right, I don't have the correct REALITY PERCEPTION. I just don't know what the correct view would be. I am most certain that I don't know exactly what the "correct choice" is. I only know what works for me and what seems to work for them. For now, I'm choosing what seems the most practical and beneficial to all parties.

NEWS FLASH --- I just received this message on my phone today at 3pm. I rarely get message like this one. It's from a girl that I know and who I'm friends but I have never been involved with her. She works at one of the local businesses that go to regularly.

Today it seems that she is looking for cash and a fair amount of it. Does she have a family emergency? I have no idea. I haven't responded to this message yet.

Is there anyone out there who wants to come forward and just donate this girl's 10,000 baht request? Anyone? ... I didn't think so.

We have some stray immigration offices up here running around talking to farangs. They are taking informal survey's and claiming that their work is about making it easier for foreigners to apply for Visa and immigration paperwork. It was clear they are from another city because they don't know their way around here.

They are asking very few questions... but they are networking from one farang to another. They are asking from each farang a list of all the other farangs they know.

Here in Issan its easy to fall between the cracks and be ignored by the local officers.

There is one very well known farang who lives between here and Sakhon Nakhon. I think he has a small place in both cities. He has been here many years and doesn't have that much money coming in. I would not be surprised if he is playing one town off the other in terms of his Visa paperwork.

In fact, he'll tell you that he has no Visa at all. He says he has a police issued document that explains he has permanent residence here. I have no idea if that document is valid - my guess is that it is not - but I could be wrong.

So, if you over-staying your Visa and hoping to dissolve secretly into the countryside - it's likely that the authorities are beginning to look for you.

The numbers are a strong now as they ever have been save last year's Stickman outing. A year ago I was seeking 2,500 people come by and find out what happen when Stickman did "web running". Afterwards, 600 to 800 had been the norm. With MangoSauce off-line, I think there have been more people searching around for things to read so we obviously received some of that over-flow here.

The last article, "Is the Risk Acceptable?" was quite a lighting rod and I received more than average traffic from it. I don't remember seeing so many people coming to read an article in such a short time.

Well, it was controversial and I expected a few hits for that reason. The topic was sensitive and one that is not given too much treatment in full public view.

4 months ago I wrote here that at some point I would take my leave and stop publishing my column. That time has now come. This will be the last article that I will write for some time.

I choose to end my publishing at the one year mark because I wanted you as the reader to know that no one "got to me". This is my plan and there are no external forces forcing my hand.

Right now I must put my best efforts into my business. We are just now getting ready to take a big leap forward. We are releasing a new product line. We have tons of documentation to write, many test procedures to develop. I need to get the whole manufacturing process under control and get it up to ISO standards. There are almost unlimited opportunities to sell to new customers. I hardly have time as it is to make all this happen even without my publishing on the web. So, I have to cut something from my schedule. (Sorry, I won't be cutting my normal recurring nocturnal activities with the local girls -- as you might have surmised)

Besides, you're probably a little tied of my weekly mantra anyhow. I'd like to come back next years and say "Guess what -- I'm a millionaire" and then tell you exactly how it unfolded. That would be fun.

Let's see where I can get in a year. Let me accumulate a few more interesting stories about Thailand.

Until then.... you know what I say... Don't believe a GD thing anyone says about Thailand. Read as many different accounts as you can. Ask lots of questions. Don't accept the first price on anything. Be bold enough to stare people down and challenge them saying "I don't believe a damn thing you just said". Don't take "no" for answer and don't take "yes" for an answer if it doesn't suits your goals. Don't be afraid to ask for more then you think you can get. If you're not feeling any resistance in the business world -- then you haven't adequately pushed your limits yet. Take your time when researching Thailand if you plan to bring your money here. If you have been working 28 years as a fork-lift operator somewhere, have sense enough to realize that you don't know jack about being an entrepreneur and act accordingly with ample preparation before you plunk down the proceeds from the sale of your house to open up a bar and restaurant in Thailand.

And one more powerful suggestion to those of your on the hunt here in Thailand (before I take my leave of you). If you pass a girl who gives you second look or some other appropriate hint of interest -- never fail to stop and talk to her immediately. If you pass by and circle back 5 minutes later-- you will find most times that they mysteriously will be gone. You never get a second change to act on the first encounter and in Thailand there is no downside on breaking the ice forthwith (without delay).

Finally, I want to sincerely thank everyone for their readership, email and input over the past year. It's been a very interesting year for me. I hope that you were able to glean a little bit of value from my publishing here.