impulse

Here's a typical breakdown from my Jan/Feb Orbitz itinerary, flying R/T from Tianjin to BKK. It doesn't break it down further by the various accounts, but it gives an idea of the amount. If Thailand is only charging 750 baht ($22 at 34Bt/USD), they're on the light end of the scale. When I was flying from the USA, the imbalance was even more stark. In my mind, Thailand could jack up the airport taxes by double (or more) and they'd still be charging less than the other end. So I don't whine about $22 or another $9. It's a bargain. Edit: Here's my Feb/Mar invoice: (Keep in mind the Chinese New Year holiday was the month before.

My vision is having machines where they scan their boarding pass and their smartphone and it gets added to their Line (or other) account in less than 30 seconds. Their citizenship should already be encoded by their boarding pass. Maybe with a few manned booths for those who don't have QR payment capability or want cold hard cash. (or if the QR scanners go on the fritz).

Airline taxes around the world change all the time. It's a 2 minute job at the the airline to change that number in their database. They also have no problems dealing in whatever currency the passenger wants to use. That's done every day. I understand the reluctance to charge different rates for different passengers. Which is why I'd propose charging everyone and offering a rebate to those who can show that they're exempt. Whether they be Thai, or foreigners on WP, or whatever they decide. Edit: It may be more than a 2 minute job, but think about how many taxing entities charge airport taxes in cities around the world. Local taxes, state taxes and federal tax rates change all the time. Like when the city builds a stadium, and hoses taxes the travelers who will never use the stadium and can't vote. But that's a pet peeve of mine...

They're already being charged to enter their own country. My airline tickets already charge 15x that amount of tax to get into Thailand. (The taxes usually exceed the cost of the ticket itself). Another $9 isn't going to sting any worse. And it always feels good to get a tax rebate, with the added benefit of knowing the foreigners aren't getting any money back.

That's part of what makes it complicated. Who has to pay and who is exempt and how (and where) do they figure that out, especially on the fly? I still contend that the simplest solution is to add it to the plane ticket price and offer rebates to those who should be exempted. Flying into BKK once a month like I do, I'm probably more affected than most will be. And I'm not nearly as concerned with the $100 extra that's going to cost me in a year (12 trips) as I am that one of my trips is going to be derailed by some kind of online payment SNAFU. Edit: Or, God forbid, queuing up to pay it on arrival at the airport before going through immigration.

It would have taken a while for SWAT and ICE to get across the pond.

I think the experience with "BP" depended on where you worked for them. I actually worked for Amoco, which BP bought, and was the part of the company that was responsible for Deepwater. It was full of great people and a small cadre of cowboys that screamed the loudest at our meetings. In the ivory towers, we always had adults in the room. But not necessarily at the field locations, especially when drilling.

Wow. His Florida place is worth almost 2x what the judge claimed that Mar-a-Lago is worth.

Here's a giveaway. If they believe and insist that the kerfuffle started in 2022 (or even in 2014), they can't be reasoned with.

And what they conveniently forget is that if it wasn't for whitey (or is it pasty?), the Aborigines would be speaking Japanese. And they were a lot more malevolent to their subjects, as they proved in Nanjing.

Biu needs to buy a better camera.

But they did screw the pooch on Deepwater Horizon. Both the arrogance that caused the disaster and the despicable way they handled it afterward. And that's coming from a guy who spent my first 10 years out of college working for them, with mostly fond memories. But based on my experiences there, I can envision the macho bullcrap that led to the decisions that caused the blowout. I've been in a hundred of those meetings.

He proclaimed a dude to be "woman of the year". What else is there to say?

I struck up a conversation with an Aussie last week in Kanchanaburi. Turned out he's a bigger Trump fan than I am. He told me you guys have elections coming up this year, and he's hoping for a change. What's your bet?

Other than the omnipresent graft and corruption, can anyone explain the reasons for the extended project? In fairness, that G&C isn't specific to Thailand. In the US, it's a common practice for highway contractors to front load the costs into the first phases of the contract so they get paid a lot up front, then they use that money for other things while they slow walk the rest of the work. Like, they'll charge $200 million for early dirt work, then $20 million for the rest of the project. They're still low bid, but they get to use that money for years before they actually earn it. BTW, those links are blocked here. So apologies if the answer is in there.

Yup. Brianna Skinner is the best thing since sliced bread. According to... Brianna Skinner.

How lazy do you have to be to not Google Brianna Skinner and find your own sources? It takes all of 3 seconds.

If a Texas guy won "woman of the year", I'd pull out my best Chicago accent and start talking about da Bears. Good thing is, that ain't gonna happen. Edit: Except maybe in Austin, which is now known as East California.

This week, a transgender “woman” was named Sydney, Australia’s Local Woman of the Year by an Australian state PM earlier this week. Brianna Skinner reportedly won the award despite being a biological male.

The one time I did a round trip to HH to buy a kayak off BahtSold (or was it Craigslist?), it was pretty smooth sailing both ways. I think I left and returned on a Saturday afternoon, not during prime time. Traffic is about the worst disadvantage of having a work schedule in Bangkok, when I couldn't pick my travel times.

In lefty bizzaro world, anal extraction is considered a valid research method. Along with navel gazing.

When did the right wing media call him sleepy Joe?

And in a few months when the killing and dying end and the rebuilding starts, they'll find something else to hate on him for.

I stayed in HH a few times, usually at the behest of other couples I knew from work. I enjoyed it. But, as others have pointed out, the road down was pretty miserable. I suspect that's because we were following the weekend crowd on Friday nights. I recently arrived in BKK on a Friday night and felt sorry for those headed to Pattaya on the taxi ride going the other way. It was gridlocked the entire way. That's the way the road to HH felt.

It would have been nice to see a photo of that tire. I quit taking kamikaze vans after my 2nd trip. The first one was so white knuckle bad I thought it must be a fluke. The second (and last) trip confirmed that it wasn't. I'll still take a van that's been arranged by friends or the company with a driver that they know personally. But never a random driver again.