daveAustin

20 hours ago, KhaoHom said:

If I may be so bold.. I wonder how much living in Chiang Mai has to do with it. I've always intensely found the place utterly boring to a fault. Then you have the bad air on top of it. It's a dead city for dead people. No amount of silly motorbike rides in the mountains or whatever will change that. It's not even Thailand's second city although it's often thought of as such. Second City is Phuket or Pattaya.  CM just a wasteland

More garbage. Jeez, what are you people smoking? CM is still Thailand’s second city, a provincial capital and a historically and culturally significant centre. Phuket and Pattaya? 😂😂😂

They are tourists hangouts first and foremost. Hat Yai would vie with CM for second city status, but the above are not in the running. Take the visitors away and you have a pair of ghost towns. Not even that—Phuket has a quaint old town but Pattaya is a rambling eyesore with a beach.
 

Just don’t get the hate for Chiang Mai, though if you’re a mongerer you of course got limited options. 

Don’t really want the US getting involved, but what’s the alternative here in getting this plant shutdown? If Iran does its usual tactic of coming to the table and stalling, it’ll eventually have the bomb. They won’t give up that goal. From Israel’s perspective, short of the US chucking a couple bunker busters at it or a full scale invasion, last resort is Israel nuking the site… and we definitely don’t want that.  

^^ Flesh is flesh and everything rots, but who’s to say what the universe has in store? Humans can be terribly shortsighted and don’t really know wt F is going on even right in front of them at the best of times. That it made the atom and can build the brain that it is aware that it’s aware is incredible. Then there’s the quantum world—‘something from nothing’ and the rest of it. What if there’s a spiritual realm? People will discount it out of hand, but something could easily be going on behind the curtain. 
 

Personally, the thought of being reincarnated is horrifying. Coming back as a cockroach or rat might not be so bad. Op is looking at it from the perspective of a highly advanced emotional brain. It might be bliss. But being brought back as a disabled, abused kid to parents in Gaza, for example… no thanks, I’d sooner there be nothingness like our friend alludes to above.

Who decides? Apparently, if you’re into all that, there is no choice, the soul does. The thinking is, if it hasn’t grown or gotten much out of this time (let’s face it, most people bumble through life with the blinkers on achieving little), or overcome suffering or become enlightened etc, then you’ll be thrown back into the mix. You wouldn’t carry any of this knowledge through since what would be the point. With that, logically 😋 if you don’t want to come back, do your darnedest to overcome any struggle through awareness, become enlightened, definitely don’t top yourself.

Happy Saturday. 🙂

On 6/19/2025 at 1:09 PM, spidermike007 said:

I might be an exception as I see so many guys on here complaining about the Thai people, but I really like them. I find them to be quite delightful, light-hearted, humorous and fun to be around. 

 

What am I missing? 

Not the exception. Most of the complainers likely live in tourist areas and might not have genuine Thai friends. 
Someone above said it all changed when Thaksin arrived. I don’t see it, at least not where I am. Thais might be more worldly now and used to foreigners—plus smartphones and social media have frigged up the whole world somewhat—but I also enjoy being around them as much as I did 25y ago. 
 

That said, can see why people are upping sticks. The government is too wishy washy and unpredictable, messing with visas and entry requirements, threatening taxes etc. And a decent beer or wine in one of the main places is getting silly.  
 

But this is perhaps what they want. Can’t really blame them, what with all the foreigner problems in some places. 
 

Would also like to try Vietnam, but until they sort out long term visas it’d be extended visits only. 

On 6/17/2025 at 4:31 PM, Cameroni said:

Also pineapple fried rice - also has Indian spices.

 

What you didn't know: The wok appeared in Thailand before it appeared in China. Why? Because it was an Indian invention that was adapted by the Thais and Chinese.

Everyone and their cat knows the wok is likely a Chinese invention. The Indians, as is typically par for the course with them, adapted it for their overly spiced, overly herbed cooking. 

What are you doing tomorrow? Right up there with what’s your fav colour. Stroll on!

Hope he’s got his 56 suitcases on standby. 

Just hang the reprobate and be done with it. He is beyond rehabilitation and the ongoing costs to keep him locked up…

Alright capital punishment arguably costs more (and I guess needs to be legal again), but at least he’d be out of the news and victims get closure. 

^^^ Right on cue! 😴

IMO blue heart isn’t needed as there’s a thumbs up for a like as well as a +1. Red heart clearly signifies love. They should probably all be shelved bar a like, a thanks and a laugh. Thumbs down is overused and abused. 

On 6/2/2025 at 3:52 PM, Tomtomtom69 said:

 

Your information is WAY out of date! These days, Phnom Penh is roughly as safe as Bangkok is. I do remember that back in the 2003-2004 days (my first trip to Cambodia, beginning with Siem Reap was in 2003 and then Phnom Penh in 2004) there were these warnings you speak of. Already by 2010, the situation had improved considerably and since around 2013 or 14, PP could be described as being safe overall (some occasional stories of dodgy happenings along the riverfront very late at night but these seem to be decreasing). 

 

Unfortunately, that first trip to Siem Reap in 2003, I was the victim of a scam and theft. I was a naive young traveler back then. I hired a taxi to take me to Angkor Wat for US$10 for half a day on my first day. There I met an unlicensed guide, who tried to charge me a whopping US$30 a day! Now I did try to get rid of him, but he was quite insistent. I paid him maybe half and then he threatened me, telling me I needed to pay the rest.

 

I was running out of money and there were no ATMs in Cambodia at the time, so no way of me getting access to any more funds until I was back in Bangkok. I told him to come past my hotel at 11am on my last day (I left at 8am) and by that time I was already on the plane. I checked in my backpack, containing my camera. In an ironic twist, when I got to Bangkok, my camera with all my photos was missing from my bag. I think I made a report, and my insurance did pay me back. I don't know whether the theft happened at Siem Reap airport or Bangkok airport. Somehow, I suspect the former, but I'll never know for sure.

 

In 2011 I think it was, my motorcycle helmet, which I received from the motorcycle rental shop, was stolen from my dirt bike while parked in the underground parking lot of the Paragon Mall in Phnom Penh (a Thai owned mini-mall, that has long since gone out of business). They had a supermarket and Thai owned businesses such as Black Canyon. I didn't secure the helmet, so partially my fault, but the guard clearly didn't do his job. I then had to buy a similar helmet to replace the one that was stolen, for US$12.

 

However, I will say that these days, security and safety in Cambodia has VASTLY improved. I wouldn't necessarily walk around the unlit slum areas of Phnom Penh at night (nor would I do that in Bangkok) but I have never felt threatened or had anything untoward happen again since 2011. 

 

Bangkok overall remains quite safe but is probably slightly less safe than it was in 2004. What I mean by that is, the vast increase in tourists and expats since then, including many dodgy ones such as Nigerian drug dealers, who frequent Sukhumvit Soi 11, Chinese gangsters, Eastern European ATM skimmers and badly behaved foreigners in general, is what might make things feel a little less safe, particularly in the back alleys of lower Sukhumvit very late at night. You're still quite safe in well-lit areas and most Thai areas at any time of day or night. I wouldn't walk down Soi 11 after midnight with all them Nigerian drug dealers there. Without them, it would be safe, but it's them making it unsafe now. 

 

In any case, foreign government travel advisories usually have Thailand as "Exercise increased caution" while Cambodia is now firmly in the "Exercise normal precautions" category.

 

Basically, any increased recommendation of viligence in Cambodia pertains to Sihanoukville due to all the Chinese gangsters (although the online gambling ban sent most of them home just before Covid and thus the city is now MUCH safer than it was during the bad old 2017-2019 days), crazy traffic, lack of medical care in the countryside and warnings of unexploded mines, mainly along the northern border with Thailand as well as of course, recent skirmishes with Thailand. There may be some mention of the nightclub scenario you refer to, but to be honest, similar things can and do happen in Thailand in dodgy nightlife zones. I'd also advise against westerners hanging out in Thai bars, where you might quickly find yourself unwelcome or subject to a scam, especially if you don't speak Thai. Westerners need to stick to bars made for westerners. 

 

Government warnings about Thailand, aside from the above, also advise caution along the borderline with Cambodia, again, particularly between Buri Ram and the Lao border, near Chong Bok where the recent skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia occurred, due to the presence of land mines that extend up to 1-3km inside Thai territory along much of the northern border, border clashes as well as similar problems along the Burmese border due to insurgent activity on the Burmese side. Clashes between drug smugglers and Thai security forces are another issue in northern Thailand, which governments warn their citizens of. Then of course the southern insurgency (something that is no longer an issue in Cambodia since roughly 1998) and lots of problems, mainly between tourists and locals or among one another, in nightlife zones such as Bangla road in Phuket, Soi 6 and walking street in Pattaya, as well as a myriad of scams in many tourist areas.

I dunno, was in PP fairly recently and got nobbled on the street. Chased the scoundrels off, but this kind of carry-on hasn’t been an issue here for me. 
 

Also don’t reckon the place is as cheap as people say. If you like drinking dishwater beer, then sure, but vis-a-vis Thailand on quality items, I found it the same or more. 
 

Great that the low end Chinese are going there instead. They are a nuisance to other visitors. Let’s hope the hordes of lower end Indians and Russians divert there, too. They kinda all go well together. 

2 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

My question is how did you acquire a place to sit? Usually the cows are all sitting down on the front row perches, with another row of the third stringers on the street.

Maybe he is one of them cows. 😀

41 minutes ago, Tug said:

Anybody surprised at this?it’s what he does is la mafia or drug cartel techniques ie cash or the lash / cash or the bullet.all designed to titillate the trump supporter ….some president ehh??time to flush the toilet!

Look at the title; it’s Democrat-majority states. Are you okay?

Unsurprising. Love them to bits but they are not great on design and innovation here—Asia in general—and, oil & gas aside, the workforce tends to be inefficient. 

Yeah, no-one can be arsed in watching videos. Write it down, man!

3 hours ago, MalcolmB said:

Authorities in the north eastern Spanish city said around 600 people joined the demonstration there, some firing water pistols or setting off coloured smoke and putting stickers saying 'Neighbourhood self-defence, tourist go home' on shop windows and hotels.

 

Probably why South America is so fugged up... the spaniards have a great culture, food, language etc but are a fickle bunch nonetheless. 

Spanish colonialism: Mexico, Argentina, Colombia etc lol

British colonialism: US, Canada, Oz (never mind), NZ etc

Massive difference in mindset. Alright, the US is all over the shop of late and Oz is, well, Oz (never mind), but the mindset in having a go at tourists is proper Spain. Not the sharpest tools in the shed.

12 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

I pray it will come 🙏

Careful what you wish for. Ok, drunks shouldn't be on the road--cars that is, I'd never drive under the influence, but bikes aren't such a huge issue? If you kill yourself, it doesn't really matter. 😋

I would just be careful of the let's-make-everything-normal-and-cosy here, because all of a sudden you're in your boring country again.