impulse

Coming soon to a barbeque near you... This photo's from a night market in Kanchanaburi.

The only definitive answer is that the airline can deny you boarding without an ongoing ticket. Whether they will or not depends on which airline, which country you're flying from, and the mood of the agent at the gate. In 7 or 8 flights to Thailand this year (US citizen, visa exempt, from Singapore and China) I've been asked to show an onward ticket just about every time. I've also been asked to flash cash 3 or 4 times, as the gate agents simply ran down the checklist on their screen prompts. May happen the same way for the OP, or he may breeze through. But why risk it as cheap as rental (and short range) tickets are? At the very least, have the rental ticket website bookmarked so you can step out of the queue and buy one on the spot with no muss, fuss or payment issues. Frazzled, time crunched, in the airport queue isn't the time to figure out which credit cards they take...

None of my business, I'm sure. But I'm curious whether the OP's visa status is based on the marriage to that same woman? Because I can see that being the next thing that comes out of the blue from nowhere and presents a real unpleasant surprise.

As cold as it's been up here in the Middle Kingdom for a few weeks now, if the planes aren't loaded up with visa exempt escapees from the Arctic weather conditions, it's just not going to happen. Being one of the few who come to Thailand for my visa run, I'm sure looking forward to my next one in a couple of weeks. It is cold... (Not saying that it won't get colder, but winter hit suddenly this year.) The good news is the airfare is running about half of pre-Covid prices, but the bad news is that the schedules stink, with few (if any) non stops where there were several non-stops a day to my city of 15 million before Covid. The planes are still quite full, but not nearly as many of them. And I can live with an overnight stay in a nice transfer hotel at about $20-30 USD, along with an occasional cancelled flight. At some point, they need to draw a line limiting how low they're willing to go to get the bodies, especially when they really just want the money.

Dang. I thought I'd been banished.

Great to hear a positive review about the driving habits and skills. My experience with mini vans has been so bad that I avoid them like the plague. But that's probably the difference between well run visa runs catering to foreigners (with fixed seating) and a mini van that caters to locals where they pack the van at the origin then stop along the way to pack it even tighter. The first time I took one (Kanchanaburi to BKK) was so bad I thought it had to be a fluke. My 2nd trip was the last time I ever set my butt into a kamikaze van. It was as every bit as bad as the first. Glad to hear there's a comfortable visa run option.

You're caught up in the minutiae. She's a tiny part of this. My link got taken down, but Google her name and you can find dozens of links, a lot of them to MSM articles and a lot of them quoting Israeli media and official sources. Don't just look at what I linked. Follow some of those links and you'll find witness accounts of tanks destroying homes with hostages inside, helicopters ordered out with no clear delineation of who is who on the battlefield, civilians caught in the crossfire and a lot of other disturbing witness statements and after action inspections. Do some Googling yourself and then Google the names and places in those articles. It's all pretty disturbing.

Enjoy the echo chamber.

Gosh. I counted 15.

Anybody on this entire thread that claims they know that any info they linked to is "true" is either lying or naïve. What I linked to was a starting point, with other links and other names to Google. I've been curious enough to go down a bunch of rabbitholes this afternoon before I popped my head up on this thread. Mostly because I don't trust interweb fact checkers.

There's links out the wazoo. And dozens of results when I Bing'ed her name and then other names listed in those linked articles. You should follow a couple and get out of your echo chamber. It'll be weeks before the fact checkers get to this stuff.

Wouldn't surprise me. But that doesn't mean he's wrong on this one. Seems to have quite a few sources, including Israeli media and military, in addition to survivors.

Reference my link above to Ron Paul's article.

Bing searched that name, and if what she (and others) say is true, it's pretty disturbing. I'm sure it will be awhile before the truth becomes clear, if ever.

I had to look that one up. I thought that's what condoms were for. But turns out, it's another name for giardia.

Obviously, do what you think is right. But my bet is that a lot more guys have a can of WD40 around the house than a compressor. And it’s certainly cheaper to buy the WD40 than a compressor. And spraying compressed air into the works just drives the mung (that’s what we call congealed, dusty grease) and corrosion deeper. The most common problem with a drill press that’s been idle for too long is that the grease has lost its aromatics and congealed, along with some corrosion and dust that’s gotten into the mix. WD40 will wash some of the grease away, but it also replaces the aromatics and the grease that’s left is renewed as a lubricant instead of a blob of thick wax. That’s especially true if the bearings are sintered bronze, where the grease is actually in the pore space. And if it’s a ball bearing, I challenge anyone to remove all the grease with WD40 without soaking the bearing for an extended period. You’ll remove some of the grease, but not the majority with a spray. And the grease that remains will be a better lubricant than the dried up stuff. The best solution is to take off the endplates, clean out the corrosion and mung and soak then re-lube the bearings properly. But that’s quite a job. Bottom line, if it moves and it shouldn’t, duct tape. If it doesn’t move and it should, WD40.

Agreed, but you may also want to point out that "triple the going rate" is still a tiny fraction of a taxi fare back home. I used the guys in front of my hotel when I first arrived, and they were always helpful, friendly and more than worth the few extra peanuts they cost me. Once I got the lay of the land, I quit using them for the most part. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of the system they operate in, where they pay someone for their spot in front of that hotel, so they have to recoup that from passenger. But they're not all bad with no redeeming attributes. And though they've never spat on me, I can see where that may happen.

There's no cure. Regarding the OP, I guess the big question is who gets to decide what's vilification? A couple of years ago, I was at a neighborhood picnic and a couple of the well known local guys (fishing guides, which is a well respected genre in that seaside neighborhood) walked in wearing red MAGA hats and a few of the neighbors left in a huff, claiming they had been violated, and didn't feel safe. Is that what they mean by vilification?

A few years ago, I downloaded a BBC Big Band album thinking it would rot in my collection. In fact, it was probably a year or so before I got around to listening to it. How wrong I was. My favorites are One O'Clock Jump, Begin the Beguine, and American Patrol. But it's loaded with goodies, mostly from long before I was born.

There's a pretty good chance you won't need a prescription. I found my heart meds (after a bypass) without a script and at a small fraction of the hospital price in local pharmacies. Some have a better selection and prices than others, so best to get local suggestions which is best/cheapest.

I'd pay cash money to anyone who can tell me where to buy a stiff bristle toothbrush in Bangkok. I get tired of my teeth feeling scuzzy with those soft bristle brushes. Cash, or a beer...

Some countries, your residence status affects your bankability. In the USA, I had a couple of my accounts closed when I moved overseas. Didn't find out until I tried to use them. And I'm a US citizen. I went from WP to visa exempt at Kasikorn Bank with no problem. Flash forward 2+ years out of the country for Covid, and no issues. Took a long time in the window to update my new passport number (my old one had expired), but that was just a bunch of forms to fill out. Banks is weird nowadays.

Not to worry. They're holding Wanda Seminars across the country, and working out the bugs (and the excuses) for their vote flipping tallying machines. https://apnews.com/article/connecticut-judge-bridgeport-ganim-mayor-election-1e6d23567703c55430968ffdaa0b6369 https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/election-2023-northampton-county-pennsylvania-superior-court/

Especially the ones that don't make me feel like a Tarzan or a Johnny the Wad wannabe.

A little math here: If $280 billion was plundered, and this guy's $8 million is typical, they only need to go after another 34,999 cheaters. According to the linked US Attorney's Office blurb, he filed 16 false applications.