Lemsta69

I've been to quite a few of those 78 (Google says 76) provinces and all of them were dull compared to Pattaya. I guess they floated your boat, after all you think that 20 baht noodles are tastier than prime rib, don't you Sparky? 🤣

If I dress more nicely will that stop the streets of Bangkok from smelling like shìt and clean up all the discarded cooking oil? Will it increase wages for the downtrodden serfs and increase the price that rice farmers can get for their crops? Will it mean less annoying white-skinnd hi-sos in ads and on the telly? Yeah, didn't think so. I could go on but you get the picture.

That's not what the original Bangkok Post article from the 28th of May says.

Of course you can. Apply for the non-O in your home country before leaving for Thailand. Simple.

I've done Bangkok to Butterworth and the reverse many, many moons ago. Scenic allure? The other one plays Jingle Bells

I stopped reading after "ATM machines" 🤣

I just installed the app and started the registration process. They want my full name and DOB. Fugdat. I continued without registering and did a quick search for McDonald's. There are many near me so it is a good choice for a test. All of the nearby restaurants are showing as "closed" even though one of them operates 24/7 and a couple of the others are available via Grab. This is central Bangkok, ie. the centre of the known universe. Buddha help them! 🤣

I guess I've acclimatised then because April didn't feel that hot and now it's so cool I'm not even using the aircon at home.

Six pages of affluent 🤣

I use an agent, the famous one in Soi Post in Pattaya. I dread going there when it's busy because of the complete ignorance of many of the clientele (not to mention their loudness). The girls are very patient with the customers and I have heard them having to repeat very simple instructions over and over again. Some of them can barely understand where the bank branch is located (end of soi, turn left, just after Loyal Gahden) let alone the difference between a visa and an extension 😂

AOC as Prez and a senior Tren de Aragua or MS-13 member as Veep. Happy Days! 🤣

Quoting the OP when it's a news story is just dumb. You've been told off about it before but keep doing it, are you restarted?

Yes, the soi you are referring to is called Thaniya. It's between Silom 2 and Silom 4 and is a short walk from Patpong. It is quite a nice little street, much nicer and cleaner than PP.

You're thinking of Thaniya. It's not part of Patpong but yes it is geared towards the Japanese customer. Golf shops, Izakayas, ramen joints and "snack bars" abound. Oh, and it's got a Don Don Donki.

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It's irrelevant if it's legal or not, it's what happens in practice that matters. "The law" doesn't put an invisible force-field around you when you step into the street at a zebra crossing. More fool you if you stand on principle in that situation. As for manners and politeness, I guess you must have lived in a bubble during your time in the LOS. Plenty of nasty people here for whom the politeness is a thin veneer that collapses very quickly when put to the test.

Computer tech and the taxman. Yeah right. I guess you've never looked too closely at a 7-Eleven receipt.

I first saw this in Indonesia on my first trip to Indonesia in the late 1990s. It was when we went to a "fancy" hotel in Surabaya for a bacon and egg breakfast instead of a local restaurant. That was ++. Then we went to Singapore and it was +++ FFS! Again, it was in more "fancy" places. Hawker centres etc didn't do that nonsense at that time. When I first came to Thailand in 1997 I went to places like Koh Samui, the "Koh San Road" and Pattaya and I rarely saw the ++ nonsense. That was both at local restaurants and foreign restaurants. I ate mostly at "budget" places and just assumed that the practice was exclusive to "higher end" places that I couldn't afford 😂 I don't know where the practice originated in SEA but I've always gotten the impression that it came from the American hotel industry. I've no evidence to back that up, it's just a gut feeling. Now that I have more funds than in my backpacking days I don't have to stick to "budget" restaurants. I've noticed that the ++ in Bangkok isn't limited to the fancy hotel chains, it has spread to lots of other places as you've noted. I wouldn't say that the vast majority of restaurants do this because Bangkok is a huge place and they don't do it in "normal" Thai restaurants. However it is quite common in places like Sukhumvit and Silom. I too despise the practice however there's sweet FA that I can do about it so you just have to suck it up and either pay the extra 17.7% or stick to restaurants that don't try to trick their customers.

The Thai way is to show the total price. "Plus plus" of 17.7% is a foreign concept. I don't know the history but I presume it came from the hotel industry.