daveAustin

Stop the F burning and ban all those disgusting tuk-tuks for starters!!

subsidise flights

His guy already said the relationship was heavy, dude, and they were both tooling one another up, so I think we can garner from that that he is no Mark Poppins. Thailand already has enough issues with troublesome farangs. He might have a stamp in passport, a doc, both or none. But if he must I would get a Thai to call immigration in Bkk and drill down. Probably best not to ask his misses though.

Also, these guys should be forgiven because without the Brits and Americans, the whole world would be speaking German and Japanese and be drinking good beer... oh, wait!

This happens a lot with Thai people and property overseas. It is called ownership. I'm surprised nobody is pointing!

Beautiful. Even one of those darlings cruising overhead at an airshow is nuts. Imagine dozens of them with big guns flat-out in anger! Esp enjoy the Hurricane. Was at Yeovilton 2019 and, while the jets are amazing, when this lot float over it is just next level. Digressing--sorry Gamma--but will never forget the Vulcan howl at UK airshow in the 80s as a kid. Chest absolutely bounding!

Nice one, Crossy. Remember that well -- "F me!" lol Those V-12 Merlins are LOUD, esp full throttle 6 foot from your ear. Gamma, why don't you use an Otteri launderette? They're cheap and are everywhere nowadays, all have driers .

Gin and vodka not too bad, but I will just continue to drink the monopolised dishwater beer. Good in a way because there's only so much one can take before one's taste buds have had it and it's time to call it a night.

Probably not come in yet but have noticed 7-11 upped their wine in multiple locations in a not very touristy town. 500 baht for an okish cab, which would be 200 baht in UK. 699-999 when you start getting half-decent recognisable names??? 55555. No thanks. Could be wrong, but from what I gather, something like 100 baht ish could come off a potential 500 baht bottle of wine (at the customs end). Duty needs to be properly axed (most of it) and genuinely passed down to consumers (big fines for those not cooperating) for this government ands cronies to join the 'league of nations' and wine industry to take off. But won't happen because of the donkeys sifting off the top and the so called protectionism for the Thai wine industry (😂😂).

Sshhh!

As above, plus such gross misconduct would not allow bs governments to form in the first place. But certain European states have already gone through their really bad and corrupt periods and have hundreds of years of experience. Thailand is unfortunately still generations away from weeding out the wholesale me me me mindset.

I’ve generally done ok with Thai police, but was in Chiang Mai many moons ago, bike had run out of fuel so was pushing it to gas station. Cop stopped me and tried to fine me for not wearing a helmet. I refused and said you’ve got to be kidding, citing it was boiling hot and I was doing about 0.5kmph. He let me off but insisted I wear the helmet. All the while myriad Thais were passing by without helmets, riding illegally etc. What the Singaporean did was OTT and yes he was in the wrong, but Thai police can at times be real stinkers.

I dunno, Mike, despite all that--2-4 trillion galaxies in the Observable etc--we could actually still be it. The universe is very young, though granted is immense and now loaded with the right ingredients to produce anything it wants. But the fact that we came about is chance encounter upon chance encounter X gawd knows how many thousands of chance encounters. Without Theia crashing into us to rake out our moon and lend us a massive iron core and slow us down we would not exist, without the late heavy bombardment, the ingredients would not be there for us to exist, without Jupiter hoovering out the trash and capturing comets and asteroids we would not exist, and despite that without the comet extinction event that took out the dinosaurs for mammalian life to gain a proper foothold we would not exist... + very stable sun with no neighbour to chuck stuff at us and an abnormally stable solar system etc. It goes on and on and on. All of this is fantastically abnormal. I understand the Drake equation and the probability going by the vastness and massive numbers -- probably summat like 20-40 billion potential planets like ours in our own galaxy in a potential habitat zone alone. But, bearing in mind, much of the galaxy is uninhabitable. You've got to be right out in the boring suburbs where we are or will get trashed by big radiation. Most of the planets of the billions upon billions of stars will be utterly sterilised, though granted worlds with thick ice could potentially harbour activity, but good luck in putting together electronics and launching rockets. But despite my diatribe, there's every chance we are the ancients and have been 'built' and are being watched. I mean, look at us... weak as piss, always sick, struggle with most environments on earth. Contrast that with how well most animals on our planet thrive, naked, and are properly in tune with their environment. But, yes, most of these extra terrestrial projects are focused on finding the tiny; microbes and such... and it is likely they will.

Probably visiting some of those abandoned buildings in Bangkok. Not sure if that thread is still going, but it is one of the best, most thorough topics that has ever been on this site. I have typically had the best times here on road trips when making impromptu stops and bumping into normal Thais going about their daily business. Also, Songkran with the natives when they are at their laidback best (boomers will not like that suggestion... but a good reason why the rest of us leave our staid countries). As to individual Thai sites, there are probably fewer and fewer since most of it is being monetised, albeit out of the way mountain temples for cyclists are still abundant and often garner great views.

Lol, it is the same government.

Hilarious. He’ll be on the cover of Rolling Stone next! If only the people that read that tripe knew the score over here, that he is nothing more than a mouthpiece for a fake government.

Pathetic. Thailand still highly corrupt and behind the curve. Western nations (and eastern nations with real democracy) should start coming down on them to get their S together. i.e. stop doing business and entertaining their two-bit government when overseas.

Who do you think you are, Isaac Hunt Newton?

NZ is a Western nation and if there was a full-on exchange of strategic warheads it would not be spared, since Putin/Xi despise everything West and would want all main infrastructure gone. Only way you'd survive is if you're well out of the way in somewhere like Oz and are self-sufficient. You would then need to fight off your fellow countrymen because it would be pretty much dog eat dog. Just as well hole up here, but I'm with Charlie... pick yourself a good spot on a hill with a beer near a major city and watch them suckers come in!

In a pool hall, we'll aim for about 55% rel humidity. Start going below 50% and it pulls too much water out of the pool, makes people feel rough and overburdens the equipment. The hot, compressed gas coming out the compressor for the drying process exacerbates the above issue.

Load of old tosh. I have never raised by hand to a woman, and would never do so unless one was coming at me with a bottle. That some farangs may attack women here is not the norm, but it is always blown up by the press because they lap it up. Your Thai guys are misinformed or telling porkies, because Thai males are renowned for slapping up their women. They might not do it so much when they are in farangland, because that is a totally different kettle of fish. The types of Thai males that make it overseas are generally monied and educated; well to do middle class and up, while the average Somchai Blogs stays here. Whereas the type of farang that comes here is often down the low end of the social spectrum, and can be antisocial. You see it time and again; the farangs here (despite there being good ones) are typically not indicative of the average farang in the West.

Yep, it'll dry you out too much and you'll wake up with a mouth tasting like a ferret slept in it. Only ever have my aircon set to 29, 28 at the lowest, which is enough to get the humidity down to around 55-60% and zap excessive heat. The actual temp coming out of the thing is super-low.

Barring the immense traffic nowadays, commuting and the obvious bizarre shenanigans that one routinely witnesses on Thai roads, I generally enjoy driving here. Have done many road trips over the years (bikes and cars) and greatly enjoy it when compared with the angst and utter boredom of driving back home in the 21st century.

Did Emmanuel not do the honour of mentioning that he still had his bath towel wrapped around his neck?

A Thai guy was caught touching up my bike seat a while back in full view of the restaurant proprietor and customers. He actually worked there and had been on the yaba by all accounts and didn’t know what he was doing. They called his brother to take him away. Poor fella.