LALes

THose toilets are across the street, not on the beach.

Forget the handicapped toilets, there aren't ANY toilets on Jomtien beach. World class.

Both AC units in my condo are from 2004, too! Both still crank out the cool pretty good. I am in no hurry to buy "new" units. These old soldiers will have to be dead and buried before I do that. I only spent 2,500 baht apiece in repairs over 17 years! New ones can't touch that.

I am shocked, shocked to find extortion going on here. Round up the usual suspects.

To each his own. I can't wait to get out of Jomtien and head to Bangkok. High Season is starting now and it will be really ugly in a few weeks. The annual overcrowding of streets, baht busses and restaurants. No thank you.

Hey! My hands are down here!

Agree. This will be another whopper of a high season. Already starting to roll in every day in Jomtien. Baht busses full of Russians in Jomtien and Indians in Pattaya.

I'd vote for a woman for President. Just not this dunce.

Time to get the air purifiers out of the closet and back up and working. We had a red morning in Pattaya (over 150) and I could see it "clear" as day. Looks like an early start to this year's proceedings. And it has nothing to do with burning season. Annual transition months where the monsoon winds from the south are dying, being replaced by dirty air from China.

There are no good hot dogs here. Thai/German are blah. The German imports are OK but pricy and Villa stopped carrying the Hein imports. A good Polish sausage dog doesn't exist here. Gotta bring 'em from the States. Dyin' for a Costco dog! And don't get me started on those awful Oscar Meyer hot dogs, the only American brand available here.

Always ask who pays the electric and if you are paying the government rate when renting an apartment. If you can't see the actual bill, move on.

Meanwhile, I get to be treated like a common criminal when I go to renew my yearly visa. I have to sit and wait while some young, intern type scrutinizes my bank books for 15 minutes making sure I didn't go one baht under the 400,000 for even a day. They should be welcoming us with open arms-we who always play by the rules and bring lots of cash into the Thai system. But no, all they want is a chance to trip you up and make a few baht in fines.

Here's two words you never see together...Mafia and Vegetarian. Why is that?🤔

Once it starts getting cold, they will be stepping over each other like a bunch of Chinese at a shrimp buffet to get over here.

I was able to wire money to myself from my American bank account to my Bangkok Bank dollar account here. It routed through the New York branch but it only cost me $10 or $15 as opposed to the old wire transfer, which was $45. Took a few hours longer but not a problem. It does involve setting up the deal with your bank in your home country.

Bangkok Bank is the way to go for Americans. They have an office in New York that handles foreign currency moves and the cost is minimal.

That's what is so great about having a dollar account here. I can transfer between dollars and baht with the click of a mouse. Good thing I was active during the recent runup to 37. I built up the baht reserves and can wait out this current dip until it reverses again. To my knowledge, foreigners can no longer apply for dollar accounts.

A harbinger of things to come. We all know what to expect come December, January, February and March. The yearly cycle gets worse every year. Starting earlier and ending later. What to do?

And reassigned them to inactive posts.

Finally, something on which I agree with Joe Manchin.

I lived in Hawaii for almost 20 years. The Gray Line tour busses were always a major annoyance in Waikiki. Now, after over 15 years in Pattaya/Jomtien, I can honestly say the tour bus situation here is approaching world class annoyance levels.

Great movie and very personal to many of my friends in Hawaii who had Japanese wives or girlfriends. In my 20 years in Hawaii, I also had, ahem, interaction with many Japanese and Hawaiian/Japanese women. My good friend here would probably lose it if he saw this movie now. He was married to a beautiful Japanese lady for 30 years in Hawaii before she died of cancer.

Jeez, lighten up people. A harmless prank. It didn't offend buddha or the royal family. So much worse happens every day.

As if MSDNC or CNN would. Gimme a break. All American corporate news sucks.

You're talking about 2 countries that are barely out of the strongman era. Lee Kwan Yew ruled Singapore with an iron fist for 30 years and his family still has major sway there. The Sukharno and Suharto eras in Indonesia were similar and still very visible in the rear view mirror. While there are good signs for the future (as opposed to our little backwater), its too early to say which direction events will take them. Verdict is still out.