I accept most stuff at face value for now, but will take a harder look if things don't seem to add up. If I stopped to question and argue over everything, I'd never make it through a day.

For instance, a couple of days ago, my large, fancy juicer stopped working and I thought I'd have to take a trip to Hat Yai to get it repaired. But this morning, one of the apartment building Thai staff told me the name of a repair shop downtown Songkhla, the same city where I live.

So I took a songtheaw (converted pickup truck bus) to the repair shop, but they told me it was the shop across the street. So I lugged the heavy juicer in the rain to the next shop and they just sent me to one further downtown, so I had to catch another songtheaw. When I arrived at the next shop, they sent me to yet another place.

But FINALLY, that was the right repair shop. They didn't know what the juicer was, but finally accepted it for repair. I know that's the way it goes when trying to find someplace in Thailand, since nobody has land line phones and businesses don't advertise. You have to know the names of the shops and their locations.

So, I was skeptical, but had to start somewhere and trust someone.

Absolutely.

Hmmm have to wonder why you ask, and are you who you say you are?

And before you ask, I'm not paranoid either.... just cautious >

nah, I don't believe in skepticism I mean really, there is no proof to back it up.

I find opinions to be fairly worthless in most cases. I prefer something tangible and testable. So I suppose I'm probably a skeptic.