impulse

I think that's a lot of the problem. Housing codes that are meant to benefit the haves at the expense of the have nots. 400sq ft is perfectly livable for a single person or a couple. Quite tolerable for a small family (especially if the choice is nothing or choosing between food and rent.) But illegal in most places. Hence, the Tiny Home movement to change those laws. I'm not a big fan of Tiny Homes of 100-400sq ft, but I am a huge fan of reasonable sized homes on the smaller end. What I also haven't seen discussed is the massive purchases of entire neighborhoods by hedge funds. Turning a basic necessity (like housing) into a financial product. Just like they've been doing with health care. You'll own nothing and be happy... Or you can go pound sand. Up to you.

They're equally effective in both cases. Solving crime on one case, collecting brown envelopes in the other. I'll let you figure out which is which.

Has anyone found a link to the alleged fight on the boat? Or is that one of those coconut telegraph myths? Falling off a boat into moving water in the dark, with noobs driving around in circles and the motor running looking for her would explain pretty much any cut anywhere on her. Not to mention drifting a km or so around rusted pilings before the body was found. I've fallen out of a boat before and ended up with cuts all over. There's sharp edges all over a boat, and plenty of things in a river to get cut up on. And that's without a bunch of idiots running a boat trying to find me in a fast current in the dark.

I hate to be Captain Obvious, because most migraine sufferers know of the caffeine connection. I suffered from migraines for 30+ years. Consulted many doctors during that time, with many treatments tried. I'd be debilitated for entire days, complete with vomiting. Lost 4 or 5 days a month to migraines until I started working and just had to suffer through them at the office. Not once do I recall a doctor suggesting a caffeine connection. When I got my caffeine intake stable, they pretty much disappeared. In 7+ years living in Thailand, I had a total of 3 bad migraines. I didn't give up caffeine, but I made sure I consumed a pretty consistent amount every day. I even bought NoDoz tablets for those days when I couldn't get coffee working in the field. In fairness, I did my suffering and got my relief before many of the current treatments were even available- and doctors had pretty much nothing to offer. Starting in the 60's, through the 90's. And it may be sheer coincidence that the migraines quit when I started paying attention to my caffeine intake. But I don't think it's coincidence that many migraine remedies contain caffeine.

I'd also consider the possibility that the cord is made of inadequate wire size. Is that a new phenomena, or has it been going on since you bought it? Seemed to be pretty common with electrical products in Asia. I'd measure the diameter of the wire, look at the rated ampacity and figure out that it doesn't come close to meeting western safety standards. Keep in mind that there is an allowable temperature rise in a cable due to the rated current. Cheap products often push that limit to save a few pennies on the cost. And it also depends on the material of the insulation, whether it's plastic or rubber, etc.

With rates starting at 1340 per night, those are some pampered drug addicts. That's $1,340 USD. Not baht. Going up to $13,000 a night. https://soneva.com/resorts/soneva-kiri/villas/

Anyone remember this autopsy? https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/quebec-sisters-who-died-mysteriously-at-thailand-resort-were-likely-intoxicated-by-pesticides-coroner-says That's why I advocate getting another autopsy back home. That case was 10 years ago, but there are things that you just can't forget.

Up to 430,000 baht per night. Kinds flies in the face of those who claim there's no money in domestic tourists. And only #63 seems to have burned down. When I first saw the drone footage, it looked like a whole resort was burned. Turns out that one villa is about the same size as many whole resorts. https://soneva.com/resorts/soneva-kiri/villas/ Pretty impressive... I wish I could afford to stay there.

Link?

That's the way it works here. It's a wrongful death settlement, on the civil side. The 30 million settlement doesn't absolve anyone in any criminal case. And it's so much more efficient than the west, where the Alec Baldwin case (for just one example) will be tied up for years in the courts, and cost millions of USD to litigate.

I'll believe that when they do an autopsy back home. I don't trust a thing coming out of the RTP where tourist $$$ are at risk.

Bookstop Borders Crown Books Waldenbooks All bankrupt. Gotta love the guys who compare Thailand today with the "back home" they think they remember, that they left before smartphones, the modern interweb and laptop computers. The same guys who ridicule Thais for their love affair with their smartphones, because they don't remember anyone from their high school glued to a smartphone. As if they existed back in the 70's. The same guys who forget the scandals from back home where men beat their wives, insisting that's all about Thai small man syndrome.

Is it 20K baht, or 20K USD?

They'll settle for returning Vladivostok to the Middle Kingdom.

I've never filled out the departure side of the TM6 until I actually departed. For most of my Thailand stay, I was on an extension based on working with a BOI WP. But even after my WP was over, I was in the habit of leaving the departure side blank and that never caused an issue. Edit: One time, I was asked to fill in my name by the arrival IO, but nothing else on the departure side. And that was just once. YMMV.

You wouldn't get out of bed in the morning for what they're offered.

Do you see the flaw in your logic?

Post back and let us know how it goes.

2 comments... 1) If that house happened to be in Flint or Detroit MI, it would be worth about what they paid for it. (That's an exaggeration, of course. But you get the point) Luck of the draw in terms of what sector your parents found employment in. If it was at Pontiac or Chrysler, too bad... 2) Your ROI comparison assumes constant costs. You left out insurance, taxes and maintenance which have been skyrocketing along with the values. Here where I live, taxes alone would be about $15,000 a year and flood insurance would be about the same (we get socked here at the beach). Add those numbers into the comparison, and putting that money into some other investment vehicle looks pretty good.

And that seems to be the rub. According to whizzergo's post, Thai Elite themselves have said there may be problems from Immigration: The exact wording from Thai Elite: "Since we have been informed that our applicants who obtained a volunteer visa and came back to Thailand with Tourist visa, they were denied to enter Thailand with Thai Immigration’ s reason. Therefore, we would like to suggest you that you may have to leave Thailand go back to your home country, then change a new passport and come back with a single-entry Tourist Visa, Visa on Arrival and Exempted Tourist Visa." I suspect that some IO or IO's in some location or locations have denied entry to a tourist visa holder (they didn't specify an Elite visa holder) when they found a previous dodgy volunteer visa in the passport. Seems like one of those "your mileage may vary" depending on which IO you face when it's time to get stamped in. And how they feel about your ethnicity, the way you're dressed and the way you speak to them. This is another good topic with possible implications for a lot of people. If only there weren't posters saying a definitive "yes" followed by others with a definitive "no", followed by yet another that tells us the Elite people can't be trusted... Hard to know who to believe. I suspect they all contain a sliver of truth.

I think he mis-spoke. It's 30 million %...

Go to YouTube and search "boat fails" and you'll see literally tens of thousands of people doing stupider, all over the world where people can afford boats.

We did offshore safety training in BKK, practicing getting out of a downed helicopter. When they asked who could swim and who couldn't, most of the Thai people did not know how. Add to that the dark, the shock of hitting the water unexpectedly, a fast flowing river, and a gash on the leg from a prop strike, and even a good swimmer could be overtaken.

As I recall, the last time home and gas prices exploded and people couldn't pay both their McMansion's mortgage and to fill up the car to commute the hour to get between their office and their home was 2008. And we all know how that went. The saving grace may be the vast number of people working from home due to Covid...

Apparently, the Traditional Chinese Medicine concoction is effective on flu, and tests on Covid patients are mixed. I don't know why they'd make a traditional mix of herbs illegal. There are hundreds of TCM's sold all over Thailand. I used to buy some for my heart, based on recommendations from cardiologists in China.