retarius

There is not a restaurant in the world I would wait 90 minutes for.

Interesting. I can't say I have had any experience like it, but I did wonder at the tiny inter-tile gaps left in the tiling.

I'm here for coming up 17 years now. In that time, I have had many different needs in my life here, and I can say that Thailand has managed to fulfil them. The OP brings up good points about stability.....do we need major or minor changes in immigration law every five minutes? Developed countries don't change their laws this often. This year I will (inconveniently) spend 179 or less days in the country to become non resident for tax, and to avoid the new tax penalties. I don't know when, or if, the final straw that will break me will occur this year, next year or maybe will not come at all. I have an extraordinarily good life here, with a loving and fabulous wife, but my health could be better. As one gets older, what you want out of life changes. I'm finished with alcohol, with bars and the kind of people one meets in them. I want a quiet life with minimal changes going forward. Apart from more stability I am concerned at the cost of living here. There have been some massive increases at the local supermarket. I went to buy 100 paracetamol the other day...it used to be a 100 baht for the brand I buy. Now they don't sell 100 caplet containers, but sell 50's priced at 80 baht each. So a 60% increase in the month or so I have been away. I have no idea how people can say the cost of living here is cheap. Cheap compared to Mars perhaps but not cheap compared to other, even developed, nations.

Digital also lent much greater opportunities for corrupt people who ran the scheme to benefit financially. I've never known a program here that didn't include bunce for the elites....the corruption is baked into the scheme.

Lots of struggling poor people in Thailand ain't there? It's about time the some of the wealth was redistributed in my opinion. 10,000 isn't going to make any difference after a month. Plus loan sharks will be all over the cash.

Nonsense. Pretty clear what caused the inflation.

Half of the country believes in MAGA. Trump is too old at the next election, but Musk is a young man with money to burn. Don't count Musk out carrying the MAGA flame in 2028.

Yes Mrs Balls, I believe you. You will cut immigration by doing nothing when every other lying politician has increased it.

Yes propaganda can deny 8 million illegal immigrants and that Harris was proclaimed in the media as a border czar who would cut the number of illegals. She did a pitiful job and never went near the border. Ultimately the appeal of Harris is nothing to do with competence, it is all to do with flashy PR and propaganda campaigns and people knowing absolutely nothing about her. I, for one, am hoping that DJT's campaign will dig up the dirt on Harris/Walz, real or imagined and proclaim it from the rooftops. Harris, incompetence is her middle name.

I've heard this term 'zero dollar tours' many times but do not know what economics lie behind it. I don't see how a business can run at a loss for year after year even if they use foreign nominees. You can undercut the competition for a while, but in the end, you have to price your service to make an annual profit sooner or later. I am heartily sick of the tourism industry bitching with their hands out month after month.

No, I don't personally believe in god (s). I do think mentally weak, insecure and easily frightened humans are hard wired to believe in some sort of supernatural being(s). It is a disease of mankind. I do wish children were not exposed to such superstitious nonsense (usually via their parents). If I were czar of all czars, I would forcibly remove any child from its parents and put it into care, if the parents showed any signs of belief in god or aliens.

I'd look out for some fields and some trees and some electricity poles (usually set at an angle for some reason).

How silly, sugar is sucrose.....and the other mentioned agents ending in -ose like fructose and maltose are all sugars. The mathematics are challenged.

In 2005 I was 79kg and had very little body fat and a 32 inch waist. When I moved here in 2008, I weight 94 KG. I dieted with the aid of Ozempic last year down to 80kg.....but as soon as I stopped taking the stuff, I went immediately back to 94kg. (For the more pedantic among you, I didn't really go straight back to 94, but did so over a period of about 3 months). I've no interest in dieting any more and I'll weigh what I weigh and hang it. My life is now too short to deny myself the comfort and deliciousness of massive amounts of food.

I went to Koh Phi Phi about 13 years back. Horrible dirty place from my perspective, the bathroom in the hotel was infested with cockroaches and other insects/reptiles. Never went back. Is it worth a revisit now?

Someone told me that you could use the priority lane if you were over 70, which I am. I usually fly business class and so use the priority lane with the business class ticket. I guess I can still use the lane now due to my age?

RIP. Innocent lives lost, very sad indeed.

I had the misfortune to have to wait for an hour or so at Suvarnabhumi, earlier this week. I was in the arrivals area and noticed some upgrading work had been done to the toilets. Sadly, the standard of work is of extremely poor quality.

Pickings are very good in defence procurement, I hear.

Sounds like the Constitutional Court needs dissolving.

Do you really think the Thaksin trials, brother and sister, were straightforward and conducted with no political influence. BTW what about the army crooks that conspired to bring the governments down and replace them with a military junta? Shouldn't they be in the dock too?

I have a Kasikorn card. I believe it is free.

From Africa: It is mainly children who have been nursed and presumably fondled by their mothers or adults with the disease. 75% of the deaths are children. The adults are usually gay men. Sometime the WHO might connect the dots for us.

Kennedy has endorsed Trump. I think it is a mistake personally. I think it will benefit Harris/Walz by a point or two, which is the margin by which they will win the election.

Per capita