SGD

Yes it is wrong to steal but say the average wage for a maid was 8000 baht then, so 100,000 baht a year, it was a year's salary. If the annual salary in your country is say £30,000 then consider how many normally good people would be tempted if they saw £30,000 lying around in a hotel room ? Doesn't make it right but ....

So he renounced USA citizenship aged 18 did he ? Did he serve in the Thai military for national service ? Or did he circumvent tax laws and then decide, in his latter years, to dump USA citizenship when the tax burden became too burdensome and FATCA was being initiated ? If he wanted rid of the USA passport, he could have done so 50 years ago !

He renounced US citizenship as Uncle Sam wants to tax you on your worldwide income and whilst Bill was happy to have the USA passport and live under the umbrella of protection the USA offers, he wasn't willing to contribute to the upkeep of the country or its institutions. So he wangled a Thai passport and citizenship and got rid of a problematic tax burden. He when it comes to influence and doing the right thing, he is clearly more more Thai than the Thais !

I totally agree. Equally, if you are the sort who has 40m baht lying around for a holiday home, then presumably you have other, better assets elsewhere and some means of managing them, including setting up dodgy Thai companies to own your Thai house. In any case, get outside Bangkok, Phuket and Samui enclaves and you would really struggle to see what you could spend 40m on and for a maximum of 1 rai, it would most surely not be worth it.

Decent theory but the detail doesn't support the projection. The assumption is that people don't have work, which rules out the majority. Then family, as most people need that closeness. Then you have inertia, as people want what they know and the unknown is scary. Financially, the hypothesis suggests people might go overseas to "save" money but if they had more money last year when fuel and most other prices were lower, why didn't they go then ? The notion that someone can save even the £1500 cost of two round trip economy tickets on their fuel bills over what, say 3 months, is ludicrous plus you cannot rent a villa in Phuket for £500 a month. It is an opportunistic comment by a corrupt government hoping to profit on the back of misery suffered by others. How very very Thai.

Yeah, I miss those simpler times too. I had identical twin sisters teach me Thai numbers, 1-10 but I could never remember which one was which.

Never worn a face nappy and never will. Also not deficient mentally and a bit to smart to be conned into thinking covidbollocks was anything other than a scam.

It is the aggressive "demand" from the vendors that is the (occasional) problem but in reality, shouldn't they be off public beaches altogether ?

Proving beyond doubt that non of it was necessary. By the way, any news on where the trillions of dollars, pounds, euros etc. have gone to because no-one seems to know, except we now have a World War debt to pay back over the next 100 years. Perhaps look at who usually profits from war.

Joe le Taxi ?

Seems news of the 200,000 received for someone touching a women on Walking Street in Pattaya has reached the girls in the red light district of Bangkok.

Kids weren't all woke and useless back then and not scared of a bit of dirt or a gecko climbing the wall and we certainly didn't need a "safe place". If I were 24 I'd go off grid too if I had the money. He's been gone 3 weeks, hardly a lifetime to cover the South Andaman is it. Has his bank been used, does he have money, is he alright in the head etc. ? Shacked up with some Thai bird getting <deleted> / stoned is my bet and perhaps exactly what he should be doing, not checking in with mama as a grown man.

You only half jest. It is the beginning of the end but not just for Pattaya, rather Thailand, as the world's Ibiza wannabees now turn the whole country into a Full Moon party.

I have pretty harsh personal views about drugs and a simple mantra that I've never seen a hard drug user that didn't get their start on dope one way or another and I'm old enough to have seen lives utterly destroyed by both drug use and the desire to profit from it. This experiment in Thailand is going to go horribly wrong and it could be seen from afar with certainty. Of course, the weed apologists will decry any such idea as nonsense but already you have what was Pattaya's natural expat for decades, the early through late retiree with the odd younger business guy replaced by tattooed wannabee gangsters who seem to have no desire for Thailand, the culture, not even the beaches or the women but who are here for the drugs and the nightlife and the easy money that comes from such a wasted life. You will see more of them around Pattaya and if that drives people like me out, people who are not financially challenged, then Pattaya will suffer financially and be worse off in the end.

The guy has a Mercedes and he was involved in a murder case and gun issues previously. What say it goes down as a brown bag of "compensation" and a donation to the Policeman's Ball fund and he walks away ?

Yet with so little ease he could have been captured somewhere around the world had he been on Interpol's wanted list or similar. Perhaps they got brown envelopes too ?

Echoing some on here and many further afield, here we have an uneducated grandmother with, to her, an impossibly large amount of money to comprehend and the forces of Thai greed will surely come out of the woodwork to "help" with "reasonable fees" attached. You can deride me and we all hope I'm wrong but this amount could already be invested to produce 50k per annum and give some capital appreciation for her future. However, my gut and decades of experience in Thailand tells me that in no short time anyone investigating how things are going will find that there is little left and no explanation of where it has all gone.

Avani Pattaya last month 39999 to 49999 This month 84000++

So how many millions did the Red Bull kid pay ?

Ask people whether they should do the right thing but which costs money or do the wrong thing which is cheap or free and 99% of time on here you will get the same response because generally, most people on here and in truth, most retirees in Thailand don't have enough money. Harsh words but I lived there for a decade, up and down country and it is sadly true. Then again, ask in the UK and the same "save your money" types respond. Of course, if you have tyres that have been sitting in the sun for years then replace them but also buy proper quality tyres, not the cheapest or only set that Somchai has. Not cheap and we run 3 vehicles where the bill falls onto my desk. The naysayers will of course say that nothing will happen and in all likelihood they are correct but all you'll get from them is a mai pen rai or RIP comment if something did go wrong. Old tyres are no good and your inner self tells you that. Its true, multiplied by infinity if sitting in the sun.

I sat in a bar on Phi Phi watching this movie when it came out. Somewhat iconic moment.

I agree except for the outpouring on here and elsewhere about the unfairness of it needing you to be insured. From the numbers, it might be that over 50% of travellers are not insured and see nothing wrong in travelling without insurance. The alternative could be an immigration requirement but that would be hugely difficult with airlines stopping people travelling. Nevertheless, I think some form of insurance for you, not against covid but against injury, should be required for any travel.

Ensuring that visitors to a country have adequate insurance is not only to be encouraged but should be mandatory. Of course, the shambolic money grasping way the Thais run this is deplorable but hardly new. Nevertheless, millions of people come to Thailand every year thinking it is fine not to be insured. I would not let them travel.

And PR is worth exactly what ? Minus 204,000 baht I think ????

I loved and then lived in Mallorca because it was edgy, didn't have as much law as the UK where I was born and it was a place you could drink all night, be free as a bird or relax on a beach all summer. Don't be too stupid and the greater freedom will do you no harm. When I discovered Thailand 30+ years ago, it was Mallorca on steroids and off he wall in terms of attraction. In the beginning the wild nightlife and endless sunshine and seemingly total lack of law was amazing and the main attraction along with the food. Over time, I visited more and the vast variety of places to see (many now destroyed by tourism and greed) made it impossible to ever get bored with the place and in love, I moved to Thailand. I've seen a lot, lived in the north, south, in Bangkok, on the beach and I love most of it. I could find things to do for the rest of my life and never become tired but the lack of freedom is killing the country. Open up, drop the stupid rules, get rid of the military government and set Thailand free or the generation who have not yet discovered Thailand will find another magical place and their money will largely be lost forever.