gearbox

The short to medium term outlook for the economy is not so good. Oz is now pretty much a deindustrialized country with one of the dumbest populations in OECD. The growth path tried now is to flood the country with subjects mainly from the subcontinent in order to prop the housing Ponzi. This doesn't work well with the interest rates at the current levels, so expect rate cuts around the end of the year. However the weak dollar can also ramp the inflation further, so it is not obvious what is going to happen.

This old trick with splitting large chunk of money into smaller chunks has been known for long time by the AML govt agencies, the software looks for patterns and aggregates the transfers. They also use the so called "entity aggregation" to merge your possible reincarnations into a single one, for example when you use different IDs or different addresses when doing transfers. However if your money are legit you have nothing to worry about. There are some thresholds on cash transactions which are reportable to the AMLO office by law, but by the world standards they are pretty high, most of them 2mil baht. Cash is still king in Thailand.

A friend of mine used the Laos railway recently, very happy, modern infrastructure. Compare that to farangs "investments", usually bars with prositutes.

Valid point, without Oz motorbike licence he won't be covered by any Oz insurance as a driver. Songtaews - Pattaya yes, Phangan no. AFAIK there are no baht buses in Phangan, everyone operates in a taxi like mode. Not 100% sure although, we always bring a motorbike from Samui with Raja ferry.

Don't know how it would be in June, but the accommodation prices this year in Koh Phangan are insane. His budget would be probably good for a dorm or ultra cheap fan bungalow. He would need a motorbike to go around, the prices went up as well, probably 250-300 baht per day.

Hopefully hansum enough to get laid for free.

This. In the end travel is discretionary spending, up the prices and the people will stop coming. The airfares are between 30-100% higher than pre-covid, the hotel prices too. Ferries and boat transfers the same. People don't have infinite supply of money, they are struggling enough with the inflation back home.

I wonder how this forum exists at all, surely everyone would have left this terrible place already ????

Not wise, play them both and get the best deal of the day. Never overcommit and make it clear all the time that no side is taken. Same strategy when you have 2 supermarkets in town. Do the supermarkets care about your wellbeing...nope...then put your own interest first, play them against each other.

At least $600-700 airfare return, the best is if you have Qantas FF points, flights to Bangkok are possible for around 25k points + around $120-150 taxes one way, that with 30kg checked baggage. $40 minimum to go to/from airport in Sydney. Around $30 with bus to/from Pattaya. Around $100 for proper travel insurance.... don't forget this one! The remaining $1100-1200 need to pay for accommodation, food, transport, tattoos, entertainment, etc, around $60 AUD per day, which is doable as long as he doesn't pay for sex and women drinks.

24 yo going to Pattaya for 18 days and coming back as a married man...the way to go! ????

The salads are very popular dishes in the Mediterranean countries and the Balkans. If you allege that too many Serbians and Bulgarians were represented in the survey how would you explain why Som Tam is there? Pattaya flooded with Serbians? Hmm some options probably just don't exist, I've never heard or seen in a menu something like "English salad". Personally I think the Middle East is underrepresented, I would put the Lebanese tabouli in the top 5.

The country is corrupt and I knew that before moving here. I accept Thailand as it is, however I don't encourage corruption by getting my extension via corrupt agents.... something that many of the two faced "anti corruption warriors" regularly do. My mission here is having a good time, not coups and regime changes. If you are that much anti corruption you should turn your attention to Ukraine, it is sandwiched between Thailand and Russia in the corruption indices.

I consider myself to be a temporary guest of the Thai government and the Thai people. To me it would be rude to tell my hosts how to arrange their furniture at home or how to choose their friends.

You can do your bit and remove yourself from Thailand. Why spending money here and help corrupt countries?

Waking up to what? This is a criminal case and as the OP says: "This week he revealed that much of what he is learning is coming from China’s state police who are assisting authorities in Thailand." It is actually the Chinese helping them to sort this out.

I said nothing is black and white....and have nothing against people with tattoos, it is their body their choice. However from my observations so far definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed moved here. And nothing wrong with that too. Just an observation!

Masters in electronic engineering

If the government was doing a great job Thailand would be like Singapore, and most retirees would have self-deported themselves due to high cost of living.

Most of the issues above can be sorted with enough funds applied...wrt the government who cares, we are not in the electoral roll here, as long as they don't bother me all is good. I've been here more than 5 years now, the only time I had to deal with the police was to file a report about lost driving licence in order to get a replacement.

Following your logic above two corrupt states shouldn't co-operate. Maybe corrupt states should cooperate only with non-corrupt states?

Nothing is black and white... however how many doctors, engineers or scientists have you seen in your home country with their hands or neck tattooed? Mostly uneducated low class settles here. Russians are maybe an exception but they have their own issues.

Xiaomi Redmi, I used them since 2016 various models. Buy from the Xiaomi flagship store on Lazada, but recently their stock is rather depleted. Avoid Apple junk, you can't install any proper ad blocker or script blocker there. Ublock origin doesn't work there, and many plugins for Chrome and Firefox don't work.

Google it, not all trains take bikes, I think the "rapid" trains do take it. From what I remember I paid around 120 baht from Hat Yai to Surat Thani last year.

https://www.ft.com/content/87196fa8-6289-4f9c-9353-cdf18d5fabc8 These estimates were nearly 2 years ago before the war in Ukraine. Also previous post alleged that the Saudi cost per barrel is $17, which is way off the mark. The estimates are $3-5 per barrel.