impulse

When my friends ask if I have any advice for traveling in Thailand, number one on the list is "don't drink anything that comes in a bucket". I hope we get a follow up after the investigation, but I won't be holding my breath.

I'd be predicting a rise in prices in the buildings that suffered no damage. Simple supply and demand. Units in the buildings that did suffer damage will probably drop in price (and sales volume). Some to virtually zero.

No it's not.

That's not accurate. They can take any job that's not on the list of occupations reserved for Thai citizens. Edit: Subject to provisions like the employer has to be registered and hire 4 Thai citizens for every foreigner, and the foreigners have to pay taxes on some minimum salary one year to get their WP extended the next.

But if they let her through, every overstayer would show up at the airport with no cash and plead poverty. This is a good cautionary tale. Bring 20,000 with you if you're on long overstay. If you do, chances are you'll make your flight. If not, you'll be arrested and buying a new last minute plane ticket will probably cost a lot more than 20K. You'll get an overstay ban either way. It would have been good info had the OP detailed why she was arrested and not just fined and sent on her way.

It would be interesting to post the vintage of the buildings that are condemned and look at the building codes on the date they were built. In a lot of the world, older buildings were built when codes weren't nearly as strict as they are today. Thailand included.

Maybe. Or maybe she has an ATM card, or relatives that can Western Union her the funds. If they just gave up and let her through, they'd be denying her the opportunity to be creative in raising her fine. And set a poor precedent.

Is there a published list of the buildings that have been inspected and categorized? I'd hate to rock up to my hotel next week and find out it's been condemned... And I'd seriously consider burning my pre-paid reservation if it's on the yellow list.

Maybe she didn't have the 20K baht fine. If they started waiving that, more of them would overstay and just turn up at the airport when they decided on their own that it was time to leave.

Good info for sure, though my experience at that border has been at SangklaBuri and 3 Pagodas, which are a different kettle of fish. TBH, I don't view this as negatively as some. I think Thailand is protecting tourists from scammers trafficking foreigners across that border. And protecting Thai tourism that's seen millions fewer Chinese arrivals, partly (largely) because of a few high profile human trafficking cases exploding in social media. Coming to Bangkok from China once a month as I do, I get warned a lot by Chinese folks to watch out for human trafficking in Thailand. That's new. Also seems reasonable that they'd treat foreigners with their own cars and those who speak fluent Thai differently than they'd treat noobs on public transport, who may be chasing an elusive "job offer", with a script for dealing with authorities if they get questioned. Like others, I'd appreciate any on the ground updates.

Simple economics. The place I stayed in Galveston had about a dozen palm trees that needed trimming. If we called in a tree guy, they'd scalp them back to a single frond or 2 and that would cost $50 per tree and last for about a year. But they'd look horrible for 6 months or so. I ended up buying a chainsaw on a long pole and trimmed them back every month to a decent looking configuration. Had we hired the guys to do that, 12 trees x $50 x 12 months a year would have been $7,200 a year just to trim the palm trees. The numbers may be different in Thailand, but the concept is the same. And Thais are big fans of low taxes and saving money...

True. Lights that are on all the time can become just part of the scenery.

That's been a handy feature for calling my banks, my insurance companies, etc. They know my account when they pick up. I still have to answer some qualification questions so they know it's me and not an imposter. But that's not starting from scratch. I'm hoping Teams retains that option. (Assuming they even have dial phone service to non-Team entities.)

For about 2 years now, I've been watching a professional center go up surrounding the hospital I frequent in Tianjin. I'm amazed at how much they added to the skeleton after the buildings were topped off. And the welders tied it all into the skeleton, leading me to believe that the tons and tons of reinforced concrete "cladding" were actually structural elements. That's the changing nature of construction. I'll wait for the investigation.

I agree with that, but I think it's important to have some motion sensing lights that give the impression that something has been triggered by their presence, especially if it's a secluded area with no (or few neighbors).

It may have been topped out, but it was nowhere near completed.

I hope that's true, and I look forward to hearing from someone who actually moves over to Teams. I got "the email" from Microsoft this weekend, but I can't access the links to do the transfer from China here. I can't tell which end is blocking me, but oh well. That's expat life in the Middle Kingdom. And I hope they keep the per minute payment option instead of a spendy subscription that gives me a lot of features that are of no benefit to me as a retired recluse and a Luddite. And I hope they allow me to use my cell phone number for caller ID like they do with Skype. A lot of the devil will be in the details. I'll be clicking the links in a few days when I get to Thailand. In the meantime, I hope to hear some details from some posters who actually transfer to Teams. It may be an upgrade, but I've been disappointed before.

As I understand it (now), you can keep paying into the SS system after your WP expires to keep your coverage. Someone else may have more details. I wish that had been explained to me when my contract ended and my WP expired.

That's my question, too.

Anyone who believes that digging out of a $35 trillion dollar hole is going to be easy or painless (or take less than a few election cycles) is just fooling themselves. Or, more accurately, being sold a bill of goods in anticipation of the next election. By purveyors of free money if you vote for me. Just to quit digging deeper is going to require sacrifices. But you gotta start sooner or later. I'd prefer 10 years ago, but that's not the way that time works. The best we can do is start today. (And thank God we dodged that bullet in November)

It can take them months (if not years) to model the building as it stood when the earthquake actually hit. And at other phases of construction when the mass was there, but none of the internal and external bracing elements. I suspect they approved the building based on their models of a fully built structure but got caught out in the interim by an earthquake when not all of the structural elements were in place yet. My suspicion is that the torsional stiffness just wasn't there yet without the external and internal walls. But you don't need torsional stiffness unless there are torsional loads, and that means a typhoon or an earthquake. But I'll wait for the investigation. With the caveat that if it's a quick investigation, it won't be complete and thorough. And nothing will be learned about the (apparently) new and zoomy construction methods. And I'm wide open to the possibility of shoddy materials, though it's way too early to point that finger before they do the "as it stood" modeling.

Meanwhile, the US job market added over 220,000 private sector jobs last month, blowing past the experts' predicted 140K. Sadly (not), gub'ment jobs are going down. But doesn't that mean more people paying taxes and fewer soaking them up?

You may want to include a photo inside the circuit breaker box so there's no confusion between wire colors and what is connected to what. Also, by "open", do you mean turned on or turned off? I'd interpret that to mean disconnected, but some folks would interpret that like an open faucet, meaning turned on and flowing.

I think Anutin was smart when he said the investigations would take months. Both the collapsed building and inspecting thousands of other buildings for damage. I'm just a mechanical engineer (not civil), but I suspect the reason the building collapsed was the state of construction where not all of the structural members were in place yet. But I'll wait for the full investigation. Though I have little confidence that we'll ever really know. Too many powerful entities stand to lose too much if the truth goes against them.

Perfect choice of words to describe what they are. Yes, pressure test to find the leak No disrespect intended. I worked my way through high school as a grease monkey. "Mechanic" was a title reserved for the experts. I was a grease monkey. I did oil changes, tire rotation, radiator flushes, etc. (and back then, we pumped gas- no self service) The mechanics did the complicated stuff. Pressure testing a cooling system only requires grease monkey skills.