Lemsta69

some merchants won't directly accept credit cards but will let you pay via a third-party app that does. eg. I can't top up my AIS account with my crypto.com card but I can use Rabbit LINE Pay to top up and the latter allows my card. dunno about TrueMoney because that's very difficult to get for me. they want Pink ID card or Thai DL and as yet I have neither.

I think you mean "Americans"

that's quite a provocative move though isn't it? CCP might retaliate with a scorched earth policy of their own. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens because it seems inevitable that "She" will make a play for Taiwan sooner or later.

again, guilty as charged! but is it exclusive to hookers? or is it because a lot (most?) BGs come from a certain area/socioeconomic class. ps. I've spent time at some "hi-so" places here in Bangers and I can't stand the clientele. happy in the gutters of Pat Pong ????

guilty as charged yer honour! ???? but you're right, a lot of us don't make enough of an effort to learn the local lingo. dunno what anyone else's excuse is but the Thai language scares the hell out of me.

I was thinking that they want to set up close to us in order to be able to make quick strikes on high-value targets like Pine Gap, Nurrungar and Tidbinbilla.

without semiconductors we're pretty much screwed. if Taiwan falls into CCP hands then I guess we'll eventually have to make peace with them and dance to their tune. i don't either Taiwan or the US would consider blowing the factories before the PLA takes over as that would probably trigger a severe response from the CCP. but I could be wrong, US hubris gets in the way quite often and damn the consequences.

yeah I reckon I'll not bother. if I can't just pay someone 1000 baht tip have it delivered to my door then I'm not interested. but I still want to know why it's wrong to call a Yellow Book a "tabien baan". I don't mind being laughed at because I don't get it (story of my life) but when you're done laughing... please explain! ????

I disagree about the Pacific nations. Chinese bases on Solomons, Fiji etc isn't a good look. but you're right, Indo is very important and unfortunately Aussies don't seem to see it as either a place to avoid (eww Jakarta's disgusting) or a place to go and get paralytic and turn get beaten up by security (Kuta, Bali). I've also spent a little bit of time in Indonesia and have had a little glimpse of what you mentioned. it's not pretty. best to move on like you did and avoid the confrontation.

Albo's first visit was to Tokyo for the Quad meeting afaik. at any rate you are correct, Oz hasn't been doing a particularly great job of managing its relationship with either Indo or the Pacific nations. imho they have too much of the born-to-rule attitude plus the fake moral high ground they love spouting so much.

I can help you with that ser ????

I read somewhere, news(.)com.(au) perhaps that reckons it takes years to set up semiconductor plants. not sure if that's true or not as the author is a bit of a Cassandra.

Aussie Wagyu cheeseburger. Roadhouse BBQ cnr Suriyawong and Rama See. 345++ so not for the hoi polloi ????????????

so are you saying bad stuff never happens? or that the complainers are just making it up because Thai bashing?

Lebanese hummus is the best. please post your best recipe for that.

me and a buddy and his TW went on a trip to Chiang Rai many moons ago and we hired a pickup and a driver to ferry us around the area to see what was what. bush mostly, but not as good as Astraya LOL. the dude took us to some random national park where you could supposedly rent boats to ride up and down a river. they wanted 400 baht for farang and we weren't having any of that so we parked up under a shady tree for a bit of a breather. a bunch of young Thai dudes with expensive cameras turned up next to us and asked us what the park was like. when we explained that we CBF paying the farang tax they said tell us about it, even for us 40 baht is a rip-off! ????

thanks mate that's really helpful. I think I'll pass and maybe try for a Thai DL instead. but I'm still curious as to why @Neeranamis laughing at those who call a Yellow Book a "tabien baan". this is what I get when I Googled the team so how are is n00bs supposed to know otherwise?

I don't have a driver's license because I don't drive. so this pink ID would be useful for me if I wanted to open say a True Money Wallet. I thought about getting a Thai DL just for the other benefits it affords but don't really know where to start, any ideas? I'm in Lumphini, Pathum Wan. Also would you mind explaining the "tabien baan" thing if you have a moment? I'm happily single so I don't have a long-haired translator to help me out. kop khun khrap ????????

thanks, I didn't know this. I want to get one of those pink ID card thingies but first you need a yellow book and my condo office doesn't know what that is even though I showed them a photo. I'm thinking I need to go visit the "ket" and see what they need for a YB etc

y'all are just jealous because you can't do stunts like that. I thought it was pretty cool.

the "normies" have been bullying and belittling, heck even killing these people for millennia. now they're pushing back, deal with it.

Auckland check-in staff weren't doing their job properly. lucky you.

"duel pricing" is a thing here. build a bridge and get over it.

I hate to be the one to break this to you champ but Straya ain't same same Thailand. Thank heavens! ????

ser, I think your need to either take a break from Thailand or go and do some meditation. or maybe take antidepressants like I do. or all three LOL. I'm retired here since December 2021. prior to that my last visit was late 2014. on that trip and previous trips since 1997 I found myself getting frustrated and aggravated over stuff you described. it took the shine off of my holidays and I became quite jaundiced about the Kingdom. I thought long and hard about whether I was cut out for living long-term in Thailand with that kind of attitude. then I finally came to the conclusion that i needed to "flip the script" and stop worrying about all the little niggles. Elsa from Frozen helped me too...let it go, let it go! ???? so armed with that adjusted attitude I've been happy here for the last six months with only one or two little incidents where I got riled up. the rest of the time I've been doing the good old jai yen yen and moving on with things after something less than optimal happens.