OneMoreFarang

As far as I know it is illegal in Thailand to rent out any condominium, even your own, for less than one month at a time. If you do that you might get away with it, but it seems more and more condominium owners and committees fine people who do that.

Bye bye. It won't be necessary that you keep us up to date about your adventures. And it's also not necessary to report back to Thailand. I am sure you will find a Japanese forum.

And I thought Thais want wise and experienced leaders. But then again, who did they vote for? The daughter or the father? Imagine if the father would be sick in hospital and wouldn't be able to make any decisions, and then the daughter must think for herself. Difficult times.

That reminds me of those times:

Revenue for whom? And will those people pay tax on the revenue? Most of the problems with late closing times are not inside the venues which stay open late. More drunk people, more disturbances, more accidents, all that is bad for the towns in general. What is the positive side of 4am for most of the people who live in those towns?

Halfway between Nana and Soi Cowboy. 😉

Thanks Coming back to the theme of this thread, how is the Triumph service in Thailand? My KTM Duke is a great bike. But the available service in Thailand is just bad. So next time no KTM for me anymore. How about Triumph service in Thailand?

It's obviously also a question of the perspective. Years ago, I considered people who are 60 and older old. Now I have friends, who I mostly know since many years, who are in their 70th and I still don't consider them old.

No, younger. I guess not having grey hair is part of it. And I avoid stress, take it easy. That definitely helps not to get old too soon.

Center of Bangkok, since forever. I love it. It happens seldom that I want to go anywhere more than 10min away from home. In a high floor the air quality is acceptable then the view is great.

Buffets at the best hotels.

They should do that on Koh Phangan. Let them all party together far away from the rest of us. Win/win.

There is no need for that with a little bike which has 5 or 6 gears up to 100km/h. I had a VFR400 which had "top speed" of 100km/h in the 1st gear. Sometimes I had to feather that clutch. But I don't remember that that was ever a problem or annoying. Not too long ago there were no bikes without clutch. And bikes had no ABS. And people used those old-fashioned bikes all the time without any issues.

How many people use a motorcycle every day in Thailand? Many millions. How many die every day? About 50. That number is obviously high, but there are millions of riders out there all the time who never had an accident. We all die. Riding motorcycles is one option, walking across the street another one, cancer, heart attack, and and and. I am sure by riding a bike I didn't spent at least 1h per day in traffic. If I add this up for 20 years that's 7,300 hours. With an 8h day that are 912 days or 2.5 years. So, since I live in Thailand I avoided 2.5 years in traffic. I rest my case.

I have my number since forever. I think at the beginning I received some ads and I asked DTAC to block them. I think at that time it was just annoying but didn't cost any money.

BS! If you are used to it, then you don't even notice when you use the clutch and change gears. Why restrict yourself to automatic bikes if you can ride any bike? I see lots of people with automatic bikes holding their phone with the "free" hand. Another reason against those things.

That is just not true. Sometimes a trip takes <10min with a bike and >1h with a car (taxi, own, whatever). On some routes public transport is available, but many people use motorcycles before and after the SkyTrain for the first and last kilometer. If people drive in the morning to work and in the evening back then maybe you get used to spending additional two hours in the traffic. But if you have to go here and there, maybe 3 or more trips in one day, then a motorcycle is basically the only viable option.

Depending on what you do and if you need to get around town all the time then motorcycles are by far the fastest method. Then you can decide if you want to rely on the skills of the motorcycle taxi riders or if you want to blame yourself if something happens. IMHO many motorcycle taxi riders know what they are doing. But some think they are invincible. All in all I feel more comfortable to do it myself and blame myself if something happens. I ride in Bangkok since over 20 years, and I didn't have any accident which hurt. Worst case a collision with maybe 5km/h.

When I arrived in Bangkok many years ago I thought I will never ride a bike here. Then I used motorcycle taxis for years. I learned a lot from them. How cars and trucks and bikes ride in general. Where they use legal shortcuts like some small alleys instead of the main roads. Where they use illegal shortcuts. On the junctions on my usual way: red lights which are ignored and any other crazy moves which are done by many riders all the time. After years I bought a relative small and agile bike and I learned how to ride myself in this town. I recommend you by a small bike like 150cc. I suggest one with gears and clutch so that you get used to that. You will learn a lot with that little bike and if you have an accident or drop the bike, then the costs are not too high. Something like this. Perfect for Bangkok. 100km/h is no problem. Fast enough for the city and small enough to wiggle between the cars.

Please explain how it is possible that someone charges for a SMS which they send you. I understand that I might have to pay for SMS if I use roaming. But withing Thailand I don't know how that should work (without malware on the phone).

And who do you think came up with this idea? Thaksin's daughter? 555

They will do what is good for them personally and their criminal owner. Thailand? Who cares?

It seems some people break their arm(s) when they do that.

The problem with prison is that once people were in prison, they have often problems finding work, etc. And then they commit crimes (again). So, if it possible to keep people out of jail and still punish them that makes sense. IMHO that should not be used for serial offenders. If it is obvious that people commit crimes again and again, then lock them up!

I was never there and I don't plan to go there. It seems many of us have a distorted view about that continent. I recently saw a video (sorry, no link) that lots of people made up their mind about Africa since Bob Geldof and Band Aid in 1984. And then they never changed their mind. And it seems lots of "charity" organizations use that preestablished view of the continent to make money.