Balance

If he was diving off a PADI-certified boat and there were PADI instructors in the water with him, and he was diving with a "buddy," then he should not have died while diving, barring, of course, that he did not have a congenital heart condition or another catastrophic issue lying in wait. Perhaps the details will surface someday.

When I was a 14 (1955) kid in what was known as Middle School, between Grammar and High School, the only person who could legally use corporal punishment was the Vice Principal. The reasons were disruption of the classroom, not obeying the teacher, fighting in the classroom or outside, harassment of girls by boys, boys bullying boys, and smoking cigarettes, among others. The wall behind the VP's desk was covered with paddles. You were told to pick the paddle you wanted applied to your butt. This seemed to have the psychological effect of connecting the punishment to themselves and the responsibility for their behavior.

I think the motive for charging more is simply collecting more, and money from foreign tourists is low-hanging fruit. Westerners tend to want to know where the money is going—to more tea money, to needed projects, or to invest in projects to increase attendance, for example. When a museum in America wants to add more space to display new art, it advertises the project, gets media attention, and generally builds a Buy-In for people to donate. People with extra money who can afford to donate to a project can also be recognized. Projects do not have to be big; improving or building new trails, building new restrooms, and renovation projects, for example.

I believe that most of the smoke is due to the surreptitious (at night) starting of fires in the forests to coax the shy mushrooms to the surface.

As I read through this, it occurred to me that Tea Money is likely the largest source of earnings in the country.

The part about solving the income inequality problem will begin with the completion of a mandatory hypocrisy class.

If you and your partner are in a monogamous and honest relationship then both can be tested. This was common as the AIDS epidemic was winding down.

Your post points directly to part of the problem at TA; there is no training. Assuming that the seats were not broken and that the controls were confusing, there should have been one or more people among the cabin crew who knew how the controls worked and were able to walk over and show the passengers how to work them.

The last sentence gets to what should be creating the real prospect that there will not be a Thai National Carrier in a couple of years and that the reputation of Thailand will continue to decline. I stopped flying with Thai Airlines when the U.S. banned the carrier from landing at any U.S. Airport. The reason: nonexistent or incomplete maintenance records combined with a demonstrated lack of training and inability to perform the work. The issue has been around for at least 15 years, but it seems that has been done about it and/or nothing can be done about it due to a lack of will to make individual people responsible for doing their jobs correctly and firing them.

My takeaway: I'll never do business with Booking.com again

How about declaring a medical emergency in the North and getting rid of the smoke? Then, it's off to the moon, or Uranus.

Of course, there can be no declaration of a health emergency because it could hurt tourism. So, let them come, then wander about for a few days, deal with burning eyes and coughing. A few photos will go viral worldwide, and tourism will take a steep and long-lived decline; think of COVID. Someone recently posted that the Canadians design and manufacture planes to put out forest fires. These planes can be leased when needed, delivered, and then picked up. It would be nice to see them here next year.

It depends on what kind of visa you want/need. Marriage (and, I believe, retirement) visas are not issued anywhere in the United States. It seems that as rules and regulations change in Thailand, this is not communicated to the consulates or is misinterpreted. If you are a U.S. citizen, come into the country without a visa. You will be issued a 30-stay visia. If you want another kind of visa, begin the process immediately. When I first came to Thailand in 2011, I was going to apply for a retirement visa in the U.S., before I left. After lots of calls to the embassy in Washington D.C., no one could answer any questions. Finally, I saw and ad for Siam Legal and sent them an email. They confirmed that you can't do a retirement visa in a foreign country. They secured a 90 business visa for me, and helped me with the retirement visa once I got to Chiang Mai. I believe their bill was just under $5,000. Help with visas has gone up, but the process at immigration has improved considerably. Good luck

When we applied for a Marriage extension a few months ago, my wife was told that there would be no home visits for ongoing marriage extensions in Chiang Mai. For us, this turned out to be true; we were never contacted to do a home visit.

How in the hell do you run into the back of a 22-wheel tractor-trailer rig? Oh, I forgot, TIT; answer: 1. Fell asleep; 2. Watching something else on the opposite side of the road; 3. Texting on cell phone; 4. Having a fight with wife on the phone; 5. On drugs. I remember also reading an article years ago about another similar pile-up. The driver lived and later told police that he was told by the company owner that he would be fired if he did not take the run, and this was after he had just finished a several-hour trip. The bottom line is that there are no regulations, no REAL investigations, and no punishment for violations. What is not understood is that social media will finish the demise of the Thai economy.