impulse

My history? My family got pushed off their turnip patches in Belarus and Ukraine around 1900. (Edit: Though that's not how they showed up on maps of the day) Thank God Gramps made sure his kids got an education. I doubt we'll ever get back those turnip patches, much less get any free cash.

Do you really want to open that Pandora's box? What's next? There's a million potential cash grabs if you look hard enough for them.

Then how is it okay for the knobs in the OP story to start the blame game?

News flash. They're all dead. So is everyone who was harmed by the slavery. Most have been dead for over a century. This isn't about reparations. It's a cash grab. Basically, free stuff. From one pocket to another, none of which participated in slavery.

I call it the "anal extraction method".

The issue with DTV today seems to be that it's a new enough program that we haven't seen yet whether there will be future issues. I recall reading that some holders have been asked to confirm on re-entry that they still meet the criteria under which they initially qualified. So they theoretically may have a 5 year ME visa, or they may have a 6 month visa that they have to requalify for each time. Hard to tell from on-the-ground reports so far. I'm following it because it's an option for me if I decide to get away from monthly VE entries of a week or so each month. So far, I'm not convinced... I was actually looking at DTV more as a stopgap to give me time to roll the funds and fill out the foreign account forms for US tax purposes. I may just go the full route since I do qualify for a retirement extension if I roll the funds from overseas into a Thai bank account. Of course, I'm interested in any first person experiences... Not so interested in guesses or interweb links.

All part of the plan... Eventually, they'll require tax stamps on all weed sales and only the powerful families will qualify to buy those stamps. So they'll make all the money, like they do on smokes and beer. Everyone else in the supply chain will just scrape by. If they're lucky.

I always looked at it as renting a nice seat to people-watch and getting the coffee thrown in.

On the flipside, where are you going to find a Bass Pro Shop in Thailand? Before they became a national thing, Springfield, MO was a pilgrimage for fishing/hunting fans. Like Sydney and Kearney NE for Cabelas. If I was anywhere nearby, I'd carve out a day to shop there and get a nearby hotel. Nowadays, every big town has one or more. But they're not the same. Today, they're more like clothing stores that also have sporting goods. And I point out the BassPro and Cabelas more to focus on the activities I just don't find in Thailand. Fishing, hunting, real camping, etc.

I'd go see a doctor and ask before I'd pony up for an oxygen concentrator. They're too spendy to try them on a lark. Edit: And I'd get at least 2-3 O2 finger sensors and try them out on different fingers to make sure they're at least reading consistently. They're cheap.

Technically, it is the law. Whether it's enforced or not (and by whom) is a different question.

I've been tempted to write them a Thank You note for going cashless. The first time they refused my cash order for a 160 Baht coffee, I walked 3 doors down and bought a cuppa for 60 baht. And it was just as good. They've probably saved me 5000 baht over the past 2 years because I also don't like pulling out the plastic for a $5 purchase.

That should be the mantra of every foreigner living in Asia. Not just Thailand.

That's one reason I love Samila beach down in Songkhla. But I'd bet it's the international oil companies operating out of Songkhla that fund them... This second photo is the day after a storm blew through, stirring up the water and dumping trash on the beach. It was clean that next day.

Even volunteer work requires a work permit. I wouldn't risk it.

If you want to see what's coming next, visit one of the SME Exhibitions they throw in BITEC, QSNCC, IMPACT, etc. As far as business planning, I'm not sure how you'd be able to forecast the competition in a relatively new arena like coin-op laundries. Pre-Covid, I rarely saw one while working and living in Bangkok. Now, they're all over. I'd be lying if I claimed that I saw that coming.

I'm pretty sure I could afford to live in HCMC (and Bangkok). Not so sure I could afford a non-Spartan life in Singapore (Or Tokyo or Seoul or Hong Kong...)

Out of curiosity, what's the annual cost of HIV abatement therapy in LOS, assuming the patient isn't being subsidized by some gub'ment program?

Efforts to identify the murderer included DNA sampling from 379 local men, yielding no matches. Need to submit the DNA to genealogy.com or another commercial genealogy tracker. (Edit: Or all of them...) It may not provide an exact match, but it could eliminate a bunch of suspects. And it could identify his family tree, from whom they can figure out which member was in Thailand that day.

3 of those, and I'd be locked up long enough to do the 37 hour mission twice.

There's your answer. Sucks, I know. But I'd rather pay someone a few bucks than to waste hours or even days fighting the system.

My fear is that it's going to go against those brought up with a sense of fair play. Marquess of Queensbury and all. They may win in the long term, but there's going to be a lot of cheap shots and pain and grooming and stabbings in the meantime.

So, basically they're economic migrants. In search of better living conditions. Because asylum seekers are legally required to apply in the first safe country they land in.

I've entered through BKK twice since the TDAC was implemented. Both times, there were passengers in the queue sent back to the TDAC kiosks if they hadn't filled one out before going through immigration. They seemed rather cheezed that they had spent all that time in the queue, only to be knocked back when they got to the front. The first time I only had a TDAC number with no QR code. The second time, I had a QR code that I had printed on paper. Both times were seamless for me. Of course, YMMV. TIT, after all.

I've also seen a lot of coffee shops shutting down. Turns out that the market can't support one every 50', like weed shops springing up everywhere.