impulse

The real benefit of paying in is the Gub'ment health insurance, which you can keep as long as you keep paying in a few bucks a month. Probably not as good as a $500 a month plan with a Euro health insurance company, but good to have if you need it.

If you're in Bangkok, get off the MRT at the Wat Mankon (sp?) stop in Chinatown and walk down the spooky alley across the street from the MRT station and you'll find dozens of kiosks, each with a dozen or so different green teas. Some in bulk out of burlap sacks, some pre-packed in vacuum sealed bags. Wat Mankon is the first stop after Hua Lampong. That entire neighborhood is fascinating for the food you can find. Also, about halfway down that same alley, there's an amazing spices shop, famous throughout Thailand. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of different spices at very reasonable prices. Stuff I never found anywhere else, and with English on the labels along with the Thai. I bought the ingredients for my home- made Italian and Cumberland sausages from there and they turned out amazing.

Just in time to send millions of ballots to dead people so they don't have to expose themselves to to Covid in order to vote blue. They're going to have to hold a gun to my head if they want me to get another jab. 2-1/2 years later, I still haven't recovered feeling on the left side of my face, my balance or my energy that I lost a couple of days after my 2nd Pfizer. When I first presented, the doctors said they didn't know what caused it, but it definitely wasn't the jab. 2 years later, they finally admitted it's a commonly reported side effect.

It's not just the baggage claim delays. On some flights, the cost of checking an additional bag can almost double the cost of a ticket.

Don't know. Wasn't there. And the videos (if there are any) never start until after SHTF. So we rarely know what really caused the kerfuffle. Edit: And to answer your question, I've helped many shorter people stow and retrieve their overhead bags.

Personal circumstances have sent me on over 20 flights this last 6 months, most of them between Thailand, Singapore and China. I can't think of a single time that someone else's excess cabin baggage has had a deleterious effect on the quality of my life. And when I do find myself irritated by that lady with 6 bags, that knot is in my stomach, not hers. I've actually been over the weight limit myself now that all battery operated equipment is banned from checked bags. Between a higher end (heavy) laptop, a tablet, a power brick, bluetooth speaker, etc, I'm close to the weight limit even with a backpack that weighs less than a pound.

Health care and/or insurance costs for the aged. Euro's and American and Canuck retirees have gub'ment paid health care (even if it sucks). My friends in their 70's are paying $1000 USD a month just to get insurance cover in Thailand. If they can get it at all, given pre-existing conditions. That may be the single factor that keeps me from retiring to Thailand, since I have some pre-existing conditions. During my prime earning years, there was no such thing as a digital nomad or an influencer, or working from home in a corporate environment. I think the interweb and AI are going to play a huge role in shaping the next generation of expats. Thailand can either capitalize on it. Or not.

Much more dated than that. Closer to 45 years.

Maybe 1% of tourists become expats. (to use your own number for passport bro's) Tourists aren't committing anything beyond a week or 3, before sleeping back in their own bed in their own country. That's a very different decision from picking up your entire life and moving it to a different country.

Lost in the clutter is the HUGE difference between tourists and expats.

Gosh. Who would have thought that they'd discourage firing up "skunkweed" in common areas? At least, that's what we used to call it. My guess is that someone did complain.

My forecast: The next generation of expats will be even fatter. And more American men will become passport bro's. Saw an article the other day that Korean Air will be weighing passengers for a couple of weeks to rejigger the country's weight and balance tables for airline safety. The most disturbing paragraph was the last one that said the average American woman weighs 170 lb. That's truly scary. The article was on RT and I'm not going to provide a link because I suspect it's frowned on as a source. Easy to find, though. And CDC data matches pretty closely...

Late to the discussion, I know. But I wanted to relay my experience hauling my 2 kayaks on top of my pickup. I was pulled over several times and asked to leave to motorway by police pointing out that hauling stuff on top my pickup wasn't allowed on the motorway. I was also denied entry to the BKK-Pattaya motorway and had to turn around at an entry tollgate. Getting to Pattaya without using the motorway was impractical so I did something different that weekend... I was also pulled over at a police checkpoint on my way back from Kanchanaburi, told by the cop to exit the expressway because cartopping a kayak wasn't allowed. (Edit: My kayaks were securely tied down to a proper roof rack, not flopping in the breeze) Never had a problem on any sideroads, but that rules out a lot of Thailand. YMMV, but a nice inflatable is how I'd go. I ended up buying a 14' KaBoat skinny inflatable and powered it with a 5 HP Yamaha. Worked great. I tried a 15 HP Yamaha clone and scared the crap out of myself on the River Kwai.

Why waste their time when they don't have enough votes to override the inevitable veto?

We'll never know. (Unless he foolishly pops up somewhere) Even with fingerprints and DNA, we'd be depending on some gub'ment entity for the identification. One with a dog in the fight...

If you'd actually read the article, they're already at 454,000 HK arrivals for the first 7 months of 2023, anticipating a full year at 700K. Not too much of a stretch to believe they can get to 1,000,000 with some targeted marketing and cajoling the airlines to offer up more seats. They mention a limited flight schedule coming back from Covid as a hurdle. Once the flights resume a full schedule, I hope they get there. Anyone know if HK is visa exempt or visa on arrival?

If the first plane was a decoy and he was on the 2nd one, he knows the lengths someone will go to to kill him and he'd be a fool to show his face anywhere in the world. And I don't think he's a fool. It'll be interesting to follow whether it was a missile, a bomb or just bad luck that took down the plane. So far, all I'm seeing is speculation. But I'm limited to English language sources on the interweb, and not all of those since I'm currently in China. So please keep posting any updates.

How much ya figure you'd have to pay a Russian morgue attendant to say "you can quit trying to kill him, he's dead". Thanks for the post and the update, but I'm not convinced. Of course, I still think Epstein may be on a beach somewhere with Ken Lay. I still think the first plane may have been a decoy.

Look at a map. What city is north of Richmond? Can you see why normal people are a little less than pleased that people go to DC to get rich sucking the gub'ment teat? Has nothing to do with the Confederacy.

What is it with Thai women's toes?

Oh, I forgot my other favorite, though it's not as relevant for Uni Girls... The best paying, most secure and longest lasting job available to many Thai women is "mother of some foreigner's kid" Wear your wubbies. Check them for holes. On a more complex note, there are a lot of great Thai women and there are some idiots. The problem is cutting through the cultural differences to figure out if that's the source of friction, or whether she's just an idiot. That goes both ways, too.

Reports are that 2 Wagner owned aircraft took off. One crashed and the other one turned around and landed in Moscow. If I were cynical, I'd suspect the first plane was a decoy. If that is the case, we probably won't know for awhile.

You mean he was not on the plane? And they killed 10 just for appearance? I'd say he's dead, thank the gods and might this bring some light at the end of the tunnel in the Russia-Ukraine-USA-NATO madness. I wouldn't be surprised if that plane was a decoy and he was on the second plane that turned around and landed back in Moscow. Not saying that's the way it happened, but...

Apologies that I don't have more specific guidance like brands, but I'd just get on Lazada and search for "guitar hooks" and "screw anchors" or "concrete screw anchors". Even if you don't buy from Lazada, you can print pictures of what you want to wander around and search locally. That's the kind of project for which I used to love scrounging around Chinatown's hardware sections. Blocks and blocks of hardware. Edit: If you do buy from Lazada, make sure your purchase will be sourced locally and not "overseas" or you may be waiting awhile. Not too long, but awhile.

Advice? Don't take relationship advice from reprobates.