Simon1287

I bet you did though but yes, fun though this is the mods will tell us off soon so probably best we get on and do something more useful :)

Quiet? I have no need to to repeat myself. Only people like yourself do things like that. If you have not yet worked out how everything intermingles here to extract money from wherever it can be extracted from by saying, doing or writing whatever needs to be said, done or written then you really ought to go back to basic Thai school. On the other hand, you seem to enjoy the sport of winding as many people up as possible (nothing wrong with that. Its quite good fun) so you probably are as aware of stuff as anyone else really :) Simon

Yes, I speak with a lot of people. It's what most of us do to avoid living in a fantasy world. I suggest you try it sometime.

LOL you are the only one who does then judging by peoples reactions to your posts :) When I first arrived in Pattaya in about 1993ish just about any farang you could speak to would gladly have banged any of the multitude of 16/17 year olds that were in the bars then (as young as 14) but now most would say they wouldn't. Odd that. I once asked an old school friend of mine who is a psychiatrist why men had, apparently, changed so much in 25 years. He laughed and said they haven't, only what they say has changed to fit in with what everyone else is saying and some may even have convinced themselves its true, though most will be lying. He pointed out that when men have all moral and legal constraints taken away, as with ISIS and the like, its teenage girls they almost invariably prefer even if they aren't aware of it beforehand. In fact he went so far as to say that they might actually believe that even if they had permission from God Almighty himself to be teleported a planet a few million light years away from anyone they know and to do whatever they wanted to do with whoever they wanted to do it with that they would choose 30/40 year old women to do it with. Then he laughed. He also made a comment about men who post too much on online forums soundly condemning certain things done by other men. The phrase "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" came into it somewhere.

Who gives a crap what you believe.

With certainty, if you ask a girl who is 17 years and x months how old she is she will say 18. It's not a lie it's just how they think. Which I suppose could make sense especially if she's 17 years and 7 months as she's more 18 that 17 anyway I remember hearing about a farang in Pattaya I think it was years ago who was thinking of banging a 17 year old who claimed to be 18 and whose ID card showed her as 17 so he asked a policeman if she was old enough to which the very Thai reply was said to have been "Yes she is but not yet". Simon

As someone who has watched the bar scene change all over Thailand over the past 30 years, first hand, I can pretty much say without any doubt at all that finding a 17 year old in a normal tourist beer bar since about 2017 (?) is very very rare indeed and if one was found she would have tricked her way in with the help of a friends ID or a fake ID (of which there are many "legal" ones actually issued by corrupt officials for money) or by the owners wife lying to him about her as she was a friend/family member. The vast majority of beer bar owners in Pattaya etc etc won't allow an under 20 year old to even work in the bar selling beer in 2024 let alone go bang customers. They know if they get caught pimping her out the police will most likely take over the bar if they can't pay the enormous bribe and they will quite possibly still go to jail. For anyone who saw the thread about the German guy who was accused of taking an underage girl from Cobra bar in Pattaya then finding a way to flee Thailand (!) I seem to remember reading some posts that said the girl was 14. Made no sense to me at all as NO bar owner would be that stupid nowadays so I asked a policeman I know in Pattaya. He was involved in the case and confirmed she was in her 18th year. Ok, 17 but not far off 18 so though illegal hardly warrants stringing the guy up by his balls from the nearest lamppost as some on here would like. He may even have thought she was over 18 for all I know as after a dozen Beer Changs any ID card checking can be a bit cursory and even if sober the girls own mother probably wouldn't recognise the photo on 50% of them. Simon

Even just about beats where I am ! Its "US AQI 24" here in west England. I can see a viewpoint about 6 miles away from where I am sitting and it's clear as crystal. Cold out but brilliantly sunny day.

100% correct. There is no escape and certainly not merely by being next to the sea. The pollution makes no distinction between land and water as far as I am aware. Being on the beach at Pattaya/Jomtien with a strong breeze coming in from the sea it just blows in more and more pollution, as I have found on very many occasions. The only escape is by buying as much air purifying power as you can for your home. The more the merrier. Overkill is good in this context! Ensure the replacement filters are available on whichever one(s) you buy and at a sensible cost. I well remember that very sound advice way back in the days before I bought my first purifier. More than once I was in a shop where they were happy to sell me the purifiers but went wobbly when I asked them about getting new filters. As I mentioned in an earlier post, those Hatari's are cheap. Just get double the amount they say you need and you will never regret it. Another good reason for that is that you can run them on very low settings at night (quieter) yet still have good air cleaning at this bad time of year as you have double. Air looks to be about 160 in Pattaya as I write this. I am in rural(ish) UK where it looks to be about 30. Zero degrees outside I admit (very cold spell the past few days) but I am nice and warm in my very well insulated house at 26 degrees and really, despite gagging to get back to Thailand anytime over the past 30 years when I was unfortunate enough to have to spend any time in UK, these days I don't envy you lot one bit for being in Pattaya all year round (for several reasons) I will probably be there about May/June though if I feel like it when the air will be passably ok until I flee again before it turns poisonous once more. The yearly pollution times are a very inexact science though. I well remember one year, about 2015 maybe, when I counted on one hand the amount of days that weren't badly polluted from mid October to late April. I woke up one day and it was gone. Didn't come back for months. The temperature inversion lifted I assume as I doubt all the polluters suddenly stopped polluting on the same day. Then some years it wasn't so bad. Now, it seems to be getting worse.. Around 1993ish I think it was I first started spending far too much time in Pattaya :) and Thailand generally, and pollution is something I really can't remember being a problem back then.

Can't quite think off hand but as you say, depends how bad the air is. What I can remember though is that if you put some 3M Filtrete on the AC filters then a lot of the air purifiers work is done for it anyway as AC units move a huge amount of air. Not sure how good Filtrete is at catching 2.5 particles (they say it is electrostaticlly charged or something so it may catch some I don't know for sure) but it will catch a LOT of bigger particles which means the purifier HEPA filter has far less work to do. If you want to see what I mean just put some Filtrete on your AC filter and check back in a week. You will be shocked by the crap it's taken out of your rooms air in such a short time (and, presumable, saved a lot of it being filtered by your lungs instead...) Buy it online or I used to buy it at Homepro or Home Depot or whatever it is at Carrefour in Central Pattaya. Even if you don't buy a purifier (mad if you don't though..) do buy some Filtrete and change regularly. Keep an eye on it at this time of year in case it starts blocking the filter, as I say, you will be shocked at the amount of pollution and crap it takes out of the air.

Excellent! I lived in South Pattaya for many years and had two purifiers going 24/7 year round as well as 3M Filtrete on the AC units. On really bad air pollution days I could open an outside door and actually smell the pollution in the air. A kind of dirty, oily, industrial smell. 5 minutes outside and I could no longer smell it, as could pretty much no one else ever as they had no purifiers to give them respite from the 24/7 body killing pollution. Even on days as bad as that my apartment had really fresh, clean smelling air thanks to the two purifiers. I finally gave up on living anywhere north of Surat Thani this time of year and in fact now only visit Thailand at all between about May and September. It's a shame it has to be those months as they are the best weather here in the UK but after so many years in Pattaya breathing in crap and rapidly approaching the age of 70 I am UK based for now and will visit Thailand anytime as and when the mood takes me outside of the polluted "killing season". After much research into the effects of air pollution before I finally gave up on Thailand full time I stand by my description of it. If I want to get on a plane tomorrow and go live in Thailand again I can but really, you are welcome to it for a while yet. I will say that if you live in Pattaya etc etc and you don't have at least one air purifier going full blast at the moment then you are, without any doubt whatever, one sandwich short of a picnic. Hatari do a cheap and really good purifier. Only 3000-4000 Baht I think. The filters are cheap enough and very easy to get both the purifier and replacement filters in Pattaya or online. I had two for years they seem to go on and on. Pretty sure thats the model I had. Certainly looks like it. 3 speed fan and has a remote control or mine both did anyway. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/32-49-w-hatari-ap12r1-filter-pm25-i4391005779-s18073631294.html I got mine in Pattaya Power Buy or Home Depot.

Increase font size or even decrease screen res and definitely get some good glasses though just cheap reading glasses can help hugely. I well remember increasing the size of everything on my laptop some years back and was totally amazed how my eyes were less strained and vision clearer after a day or two. I used to use a laptop all the time but now in my late 60's I use an external monitor on my mac mini if I am away from the 27 inch iMac. Just get a big monitor and set the screen res to wherever is best for you. It's a game changer especially if you are not a youngster. If you spend a lot of time on the laptop it's a no brainer really. The thought of doing anything other than sending emails on a piddly little laptop screen seems very silly unless you have to for some reason.

Would you recognise the girl from her ID card picture?? Especially with you in a state of hornyness and after 10 bottles of Singha. I doubt even her own mother would recognise the girl on half the ID cards in Thailand. The girls borrow older friend ID cards as routinely as borrowing makeup or clothes.

So you all can see what it actually looks like. Image from a video I made back in August. I was standing on the"old" station taking the video. New elevated station across the tracks.

Seriously, don't do it anywhere in public away from a beach area unless you want to be perceived by any Thai seeing you as pretty much a piece of low life crap. Though unless you have been here a very long time you will most likely recognise no visible signs of their contempt for you.

To be fair, if you compare 99.99% of the worlds airports to Changi they look like chicken sheds with runways.

I must confess I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to that bit as I knew I was showing far and away over whatever finances they were likely to want to see. I did notice that if a state pension was on the bank statement sent to them then only one months statement was necessary otherwise they required 3 months. They also required details of the flight and accommodation booking. I only had the first 10 days room booked which seemed to work. Now I have the eVisa what do I actually do with it? Presumably print out a copy of the email with the details to show the airline and immigration in Thailand? Simon

OP here. Decided on the Non O 90 day route. Excellent service from the Thai Embassy in London. Applied online earlier this week. Non O visa was approved 3 days later. Simon

No, not even a double check valve is good enough for UK regulations. Sadly. Yes, I have checked it out thoroughly. It was quite some time ago now I looked into it but something like a double check valve gets you past a class (or grade or whatever the word is) 3 risk whereas the bum gun is classed as a 5 risk (the highest risk number) to the drinking water supply. The reason being that If the end gets dropped in the toilet bowl and any kind of suction in the pipes occurs that draws the water backwards up the pipes the water supply could have toilet water sucked into it. A highly unlikely event I imagine but presumably not impossible or the regs would not exist at all. Not important in a country like Thailand where hardly anyone is brave enough to drink the water anyway, of course. Yes, I know a few brave souls do drink it and seemingly get away with it but some brave souls also do all sorts of silly things in life and get away it. Most don't. Basically, in the UK, unless the homeowner has spent a lot of money installing one that is completely isolated in some way from the mains water supply it is illegal no matter if you have 100 check valves in place. If you do have one and the water company is due to pay you a visit for any reason I would disconnect it quickly! If anyone has thought of a legal way to install one in the UK please post the method here! Simon

Hi all, Was in Thailand on a retirement extension for many years but have been back in UK for almost 3 years now due to a sick family member. Probably will want 3 months in Thailand fairly soon now. I notice I can obtain a 60 day tourist visa which is extendable in Thailand by a further 30 days. I also notice that I need a flight booked out from Thailand, which, presumably would need to show my departure from Thailand within the 60 days or do they allow 90 days in case I extend the visa? Can't quite see how I can be there to extend to the full 90 days if my flight left on the 59th day. Presumably the visa can be extended at any immigration office? Is there any way these days of staying a full 90 days without a visit to an immigration office? Simon

As someone who has spent the vast majority of the past 30 years in Thailand (Been to 72 of the 77 provinces) I can only agree wholeheartedly. Maybe May is usually okish or not too bad but it's a very inexact science and June is the start of the pretty much guaranteed better air season. Certainly though, even late October can be bad sometimes as I well remember from a bus trip Bangkok to Pattaya in 2017 late evening and seeing heavy "fog" i.e smog in vehicle headlights all the way. Moved from Pattaya (was there many years) to Phuket in December 2019 to finally escape the air pollution that is around at times. I had been telling myself to move for years and finally did it. Anywhere south of Chumphon is usually better than anywhere north of there at the worst times of year. Phuket was a lot better, as expected, but still a constant haze until the smog season ended in 2020 (about the time I was locked down in Patong I think or a bit after) I popped to JungCeylon Mall and got myself a Hatari air purifier when I arrived in Phuket. Very cheap (3,888 Baht I think with a spare filter) and very easy to get more filters for it when needed. I used 2 of them in one room in Pattaya and they probably saved me from very negative health issues over the years whereas several people I knew during the years did have issues eventually. Even erectile dysfunction can be caused by air pollution! as well as a multitude of other problems. At the worst times of year I could leave that room to go outside and the stink in the air would immediately hit me. A kind of acrid oily kind of smell. Within minutes I didn't notice the smell anymore and no one I mentioned it to could smell it at all as they had no air purifiers to get any respite from it. More than a few of them had coughs though. I had to come back to UK in mid 2020 due to a sick family member and am probably not moving back to Thailand on a permanent basis again mainly due to the rubbish air. At not far off 70 years of age I just don't need that air pollution anymore. Enough is enough. Even the UK weather is better, which, oddly, I don't seem to mind anymore. I well remember one year in South Pattaya (2015ish) I counted just 5 days between November (may have been October) and late April I pulled the curtains back and the view towards Pratumnak Hill wasn't "cloudy". Then one day I pulled the curtains and it was gone, all gone, the air looked as clear as crystal and stayed that way until the next smog season. All down to "temperature inversion" I believe. I have many photos of the pollution in Pattaya and have attached 3, looking from the Tuk Com area to Pratunak from 7th floor condo. Some years it is not too bad, some years bad and some years very bad. The photos are from that year I mentioned when that was the view for many months but you could just as easily get there for a holiday at what should be the worst time of year and wonder what on earth I am talking about. Varies so much. One thing I will say is that if you must live in Thailand, GET AIR PURIFIERS. In Pattaya for many years I had double the amount of “coverage” I.e if it said the machine covered 34 square metres I would have had 2 x 34 square metre coverage purifiers. Another benefit of that if you are a light sleeper is that you can run the things very low and still have the recommended coverage but with little fan noise. If nothing else, look into getting some 3M Filtrete to put on the air con. I used to use that as well as air purifiers. The amount of gunk it traps on the material in a very short time is scary so change it when it looks like it needs it. It’s cheap, vey easy to fit and available at the homeware stores. I am thinking of a trip back to Thailand but that will be between late May and late September if i do to be pretty sure I have air to breathe as I don’t fancy carrying 2 air purifiers in my bag as I travel around! As a question to to others that have been visiting SE Asia for very many years, I don't recall problems with air pollution in Pattaya etc years ago do you? I well remember telling my mother I was off back to Thailand way back in about 1995 (December for sure) and saying I was looking forward to months of solid sunshine with nothing in my head about "but awful air pollution".

I did about 10 retirement extensions at Jomtien. Last one being 2019, and never obtained the bank letter the same day (I never get up early enough in Thailand) and usually got to the immigration office the next afternoon or even the day after that once or twice. Never a problem and I never thought about doing any transactions before getting the letter I just walked into the bank and asked for it. Usually done while I waited. I did the same at Phuket in 2020 also. (Day after I got the bank letter) No problem. I don't doubt things may well have changed since then but that was my experiences anyway back then.

Maybe the Aussie was kindly trying to warn him that if he threw a punch he would be fighting with every motor bike taxi driver within a 100 yards. It rarely ends well for the tourist who does that. Seen it too many times. Almost to me many many years ago when I was stupid enough to question one about something or other he did that I didn't like. I quickly stopped when more taxi bike riders seemed to be slowly approaching us looking like no prisoners would be taken should I be silly enough to escalate things. I didn't.