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Posts posted by Kerryd
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My 1st trip here (Feb 1993) I think the exchange rate was about 20/1 (Baht to Canadian). I remember buying 5 t-shirts for 100 baht and laughing at the bargain prices.
In 1997, much of SE Asia was hit by the "Asian Flu" banking crisis brought on when Rakesh Saxena, an Indian national working for the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, swindled the bank out of billions of baht before fleeing the country (to Canada of course, where he lived in luxury for over 10 years, committing even more crimes, until finally being extradited back to Thailand).
His swindles cause the collapse of the Bank of Commerce, which lead to massive losses at other banks (who buy/sell/lend each other money all the time).
That cause the Thai baht to take a dump of course and led to unrealistically high exchange rates for awhile.
By the early 2000's, things had settled down and, unfortunately, Thai banks started dropping their interest rates. A lot.
Remember that after the Tsunami in Dec 2004, the World Bank offered to loan Thailand money and Thaksin, despite being a crook himself, basically told them to shove it. (Because the money came with "strings attached". Conditions that the World Bank expected Thailand to meet in order to get the money. However, Thailand had mostly recovered from the banking crisis a few years earlier and, aside from the downswing after the tsunami, tourism numbers had been on a stead climb.)
They really didn't need to borrow money from anyone.
Around 2008-2010, I was getting 32/33 baht to the dollar and the US was around 35-37. That was when oil prices were going through the roof.
It was quite annoying at one point when the Canadian dollar was worth almost $1.10 US, but the US dollar was getting 3 baht more on the exchange rate in Thailand (because the Thai gov't had pegged the exchange rate to the US dollar instead of letting it float naturally).
(And no, it wasn't worth buying American $$ and then converting to Thai baht as the loss on the exchange fees would negate any gains on the rate differences. I had calculated at the time that I'd have to be doing over $100,000 in transactions to even make a small profit, which could be wiped out in a moment if the rates changed before you could get a transaction completed.)
Then of course, the Liberals (in Canada) got into power again and our dollar took another massive dump. Historically, going back to just after the end of WW2, every time a Liberal gov't is in power, the Canadian dollar loses value.
Normally, when a Conservative gov't is in office, the dollar gains strength, or at least doesn't take a massive drop.
After Trudeau gained power, our exchange rate went down to around 23/1. Not far off from where it was back in 1993.
It's up to about 28/1 now, but more from the Thai baht losing strength than the Canadian dollar gaining strength.
Transferring money is a <deleted> shoot because you transfer a wad today and next week kick your self because you could have gained a couple thousand baht if you'd just waited a bit longer.
Or, you wait a bit longer and realize that you should have done it a week ago because doing it now means you'll lose a couple thousand.
I'm sure a lot of people thought the baht would take a massive drop when the stopped letting tourists into the country. How the baht didn't drop dramatically I can only guess. Most likely the gov't just set the exchange rate ("pegged it") to the US dollar to prevent a massive drop in value.
Just have to hope some other con artist businessman swindles another bank out of billions and causes another Asian Flu. Just so long as it doesn't happen to "my" bank !
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7 hours ago, jacko45k said:
Thank you... it has been irritating me for a while trying to remember that!
It was called the Blue Lagoon before that. Some Scandinavians owned it (part of the Samurai motorcycle club). They relocated to a place just off of Beach road.
The owner of the Wet 'n Wild was using it as a front and was on the run from the cops "back home". He apparently upset the wrong people over here as well and got busted back in 2009 I think it was.
Never heard what happened to the bar after that.
Used to be a hoot to go there on a Friday evening as they had the cheapest drink prices of any go-go and never any customers ! I'd be in there alone at 10 pm with 20-22 half naked dancers. Dancing on those large, metal, reflective tables. In their little short skirts with no knickers on.
It was rough I tells ya !
(The bar got in trouble a few times after I took girls up to the pool, or the sauna, or the jacuzzi. Apparently we "made too much noise".)- 1
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On 7/21/2022 at 3:52 PM, Shuggy said:
There used to be a gogo bar in Pattaya with a huge fish tank that the girls would swim in.
On 7/22/2022 at 7:41 AM, jacko45k said:There was a Go-Go bar off Tai in Centre Condo
On 7/21/2022 at 3:07 PM, Kerryd said:Wet 'n Wild
Checking to see if I have any "safe for ThaiVisa" photos of the tank there.
Hmmm - appears I may have to edit a couple.
Almost forgot to check the reflections and what appears on the far right.
Never liked the "green" water. Kept telling the manager they should clean that tank and fill it with fresh water but that would have taken effort (and money) so they left it as is.Some fond memories of that place.
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1 hour ago, Guderian said:
Reminds me of that Gogo bar a long time ago near Centre Condo in South Pattaya. What was the name of that place?
Wet 'n Wild
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The original story shows 4 scooters in one photo.
But it was most likely 10 as they said 10 people didn't have licenses (and you can't bust a passenger for not having a license).
The ones confiscated were probably the ones without the proper tax decals (which would probably mean they also had no insurance).
And these were scooters, not big bikes. Probably like those annoying kids with bored out mufflers that go screaming down the highway all the time (usually without helmets as well).- 4
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I got another email from Paypay yesterday, informing me (again) that my (personal, not business) account would be suspended if I didn't register with the NDID.
Which of course we can't do.
I posted in PayPal's "help" forum. I noted that not only can we not get a Thai ID, but we can do things like get driver's licenses, open bank accounts and buy condos using our Passports as ID.
Doubt I'll get an answer there.
I also emailed the NDID and asked them if there was an alternative method of registering, like using our passports, which are good enough for pretty much everything else in Thailand.
I'm guessing I won't hear anything from them either.
Ah well, PayPal won't miss all the money going both ways from people living here, will they ?
They seemed to take notice when this scheme first broke and we were going to have our accounts shut down last Spring, which was then delayed "indefinitely".
Got to lol. On one hand they are trying to attract people to come to Thailand and then on the other hand they are trying to make it so no one wants to be here ! -
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Just over 16 years ago was the Route 999 Nightclub fire on #3 road (not far from #3/North Pattaya Rd intersection).
8 (or 15 depending who you believe) died in a fire started by someone (a welder I think) working on the air conditioners on the roof (or under it).
Same deal, people died when they tried to use the fire exits and found them chained and locked (to prevent people from sneaking in or out). It was fortunate that the club hadn't opened for business yet or the death toll would have been much higher.
And the New Year's Eve nightclub fire in Bangkok. (Santika Club - 1 Jan 2009.) 66 died in that one. The club had one main entrance/exit, a private staff entrance and a third exit that was locked "to prevent robberies".
And it's the same story every - single - time. The authorities promise a crackdown on (clubs/condos/hotels) and nothing is ever actually done.
Until the next tragedy strikes and then the authorities will - again - announce another crackdown (and then go back to doing nothing - again).- 2
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So tough that he admitted he carried (at least) 2 knives and a bottle of hydrochloric acid in his "man bag" in case he got into a scrap and his two
ballsbuddies weren't there to back him up.
Like when he went into a rage because a much smaller man (Canadian school teacher if I recollect) said something about his tattoos so he whipped out a knife and slashed the guy.
How he managed to get away with that I don't know. Anyone else would have ended up in the slammer and then been deported.
He was arrested a couple other times as well and always seemed to get away with whatever it was they arrested him for.
He used to brag that he had a string of women paying him for "protection". (Yeah, how many women in Pattaya pay someone a weekly fee for "protection".)- 16
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I seriously doubt there is a "flood" of expats suddenly, for no reason at all, moving back "home".
Nothing has changed, here or "there", that is dramatic enough to cause a sudden flood of relocations.
Any who wanted to return "home" could have done so at almost any time over the last couple of years. Now, just when the country is opening up to tourists again, those expats suddenly want to go back to (wherever) ?
I don't think so.
Sounds more like some lawyers trying to drum up business more than anything. Back "home" it's still freezing cold for half the year (or more - they just had a large snowfall in Alberta - in June !).
Prices for everything are higher than ever. No significant change in the politics (the same crooks in different stripes doing the same things as before).
Some will go back when their health deteriorates to the point they know they will need quality (i.e. free) medical care.
Reminds me of my old home in Canada, way out in the boonies in a very remote community. Lots of "elderly" types liked the solitude, until they got to a certain age and needed to be close to a hospital. Then they'd move to a retirement facility or cheap home "in town".
Personally, I can see no reason to move "home". It's unlikely they'll mess with the Immigration requirements anymore (for a few years at least). Prices, for some things, have gone up but overall it's still cheaper to live here than in many "western" countries. The weather is pretty much the same (not so much rain during this rainy season so far though).
Still love the food. Still love riding the Harley all year round.
What reason is there to leave ?- 16
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1 hour ago, Wytchend said:
Any mention as to...............why?
Gotta be a back story to this one?
At the end of the video he says "I want my ****ing money. Give me my ****ing money Bangkok Bank."
And no, he's not "French".
For what ever reason, he's been on overstay since mid-April.
From the sounds of it, he tried to get money from an ATM and it didn't work (for whatever reason).
(No, Immigration doesn't put a "hold" on someone's bank account as soon as they are on overstay so don't bother speculating about that.)
Could be his card expired and he didn't renew it - because they'd want to see his passport.
My card was set to expire next month and every time I went to an ATM, as soon as I punched in my PIN I got a message across the screen (impossible to ignore) that my card was going to expire next month.
As I had to go to the bank to get my annual bank letter, I took the time to also get a new card.
No hassles and the bank letter only cost 100 baht, as per usual.
No charge for the new ATM card and they gave me a choice of Mastercard or Union Pay (for the ATM system, not a credit card). As per usual though, they had to make a copy of my passport to attach to the paperwork.
Could be a dozen reasons why he did what he did but the end result is, he'll sit in jail until he goes to court, he'll be fined for the damages and ordered deported (and blacklisted for the overstay) and then sit in jail until he can pay the fine and pay for a plane ticket home.
Not the smartest rock in the pile as they say !
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Got to love all the people thinking "he's a fellow Brit so that automatically means he must be innocent and this is all a frame up even though they have evidence and he pled guilty to all the charges".
Remember the case a couple years ago about the (Brit) guy who was taken to the hospital after a motorcycle accident and while there admitted to having murdered a woman in his home ? Cops were called, they go to the guy's house and sure enough, dead woman.
But oh no ! On TV there were those who, without reading a single sentence of the story, decided he was innocent and the cops must have beaten a confession out of him.
(And they were still convinced it was a frame up even after it was pointed out that he'd confessed before the cops, or anyone else, even knew there'd been a murder.)
Meanwhile, if this guy is lucky, after about 5 years he should be eligible to apply for a "prisoner transfer" back to his home country.
For example. Some years ago a career criminal (Michael Karas) from Canada "stole" some ID while out on probation and flew to Thailand. He spent a year living with a Thai woman (with her renting the rooms).
They got into an argument (she caught him cheating on her). He broke her neck, then mutilated her face (trying to prevent her from being recognized), dismembered her body and hauled it to a local swamp (in Pattaya) and dumped her remains.
He then zipped to the airport and, still using the "stolen" ID, flew back to Canada.
He was arrested for violating his probation and while in jail, Thailand started extradition proceedings.
Karas even admitted to a couple of "cold case" robberies he'd done and ended up with a few additional years in prison.
But when his time was up, he was extradited to Thailand, found guilty of all charges and sent to Thai prison.
5 years to the day his lawyer applied for a prisoner transfer. They concocted a tear jerk story for a Toronto newspaper, going so far as to say that, instead of him being in prison for 5 years, he had been in for "half a decade" to make it sound longer. They figured Karas should be transferred back to Canada and immediately released.
It worked and the POS Liberal Public Safety Minister (Ralph Goodale) rubber stamped the transfer.
I emailed the Minister directly to let him know who Karas was and what he'd done.
I received a reply from some flunky in the Corrections Bureau who assured me that they would make sure all conditions were met (blah blah blah).
I found out that, about 10 months after he'd applied for the transfer, he was arrested in Winnipeg (Manitoba) for a string of armed robberies he'd done in Ontario.
Which means he was transferred back to Canada and released almost immediately after arriving. And then went back to his old job of robbing banks.
So he ended up doing just over 5 years in prison for murdering a woman, mutilating her face, dismembering her body and dumping it in a swamp.
(F'ing Liberals. Never met a criminal they didn't want to put back on the streets and never met an innocent citizen they haven't wanted to through in jail.)
This guy can only hope that he can get the same kind of deal from the UK a few years from now.- 4
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5 minutes ago, mikeymike100 said:You must not get much! Apart from other areas in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, many other countries have areas where girls can be obtained for a small or large fee. Even in some countries you wouldn't think of like Indonesia or Dubai, both Muslim countries. But certainly Mexico, Philippines, Germany, even Nigeria!
And one of the most famous of them all ?
The Red Light District in Amsterdam.
And the "Reaperbahn" in Hamburg, Germany.
And half of Budapest. (I actually went to the seedy little "Bangkok Bar" in Budapest a few months before my first ever trip to Thailand. Was disappointed as it was basically a dank, dark room in a basement with a couple of (cold) short time rooms in the back and not an Asian girl anywhere. Most of the "working women" in Budapest at the time were from Russia or it's poorer neighbours.)
(In hindsight, I was probably lucky I got out of there without being mugged/drugged/rolled/murdered, not necessarily in that order ! Apparently the Russian mafia ran a lot of those bars.)
And when I did make my first trip to Thailand (Feb 1993) it was only because I'd forgotten my International Driving Permit (I'd planned on renting a car and driving to Germany) and then I found out what a ticket to Casablanca would cost (at the time, about 1,400 Deutschemarks) and that a ticket to Thailand would only be 300 Dms more, so I took that option.
I shared a row with 2 guys and when they found out I was going to Thailand, told me that they used to go there but now they prefer the Philippines as the "girls were cheaper".
(At the time I had no idea what they were talking about as the only thing I knew about Thailand was the Yul Brenner movie The King and I and the song "One Night in Bangkok. Back in late '92, early '93 there wasn't really an "internet" so you couldn't look up stuff like you can now.)
So yeah, plenty of places to find "sin" around the world.
The hotel bars in Dubai are usually packed with Chinese and African women looking to make extra cash. Like packs of piranhas in those places.
Even in Kabul, Afghanistan, they had Chinese Restaurants were the "special meal deal" also included food ! (The girls came from Urumqi, in the NW corner of China and they'd "swap" them out every 3 months it seems.)- 4
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When Prayut first took over, he "vowed" to get rid of Walking Street and his first Tourism Minister promised she was going to end the "sex trade" in Pattaya.
That was 8 years ago and they did nothing in all that time.
Maybe someone "higher up" actually looked at some honest numbers and realized that all those hordes of "zero dollar" Chinese tourists and the "6 to a room, 6 to a beer" tourists from India weren't actually contributing much to the economy despite their numbers.
(Which was plainly evident pre-covid. All you had to do was look at how many Chinese and Indian tourists were "walking" up and down Walking Street and how few were actually in the bars, shops, restaurants and shopping malls.
I have not met one single business owner who says he was making money from that "demographic".
And the "Group of 100" (the people who own all those businesses on the "water" side of the street) wield a lot of clout and not just at the "city" level it seems.
Otherwise those buildings would have been razed years ago.
The city had no problem shutting down that Bali Hai condo and they had no problem going after the billionaire owner of Sukwatdee over buildings they decided he'd built on "public" land, but they haven't touched those businesses on WS.- 4
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Lol.
Never, in all the years I've been going to Immigration, have I ever had them tell me to go to an "agent" nor have I ever been asked for a bribe.
But then, when I go to Immigration I have all my paperwork in order and ready, before I arrive. I also shower and wear clean clothes (something a lot of Caucasians seem to think is a waste of time when they go there).
I've stood in line with some stinkers that would make your average Afghani smell almost bearable.
(And I spent 10 years working in Afghanistan.)
I do find it a bit odd that, considering the lack of tourists over the last 2 years(ish), Jomtien Immigration always seems as busy as it was before the covid crisis.
No matter which day of the week, there always seems to be lines of people, just like 2019 and before.
Oh well, still have a couple weeks before I have to worry about it again. Plenty of time to get all my ducks in order.
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2 minutes ago, chalawaan said:
It's always been this way, you just hear about all the horror in the world everyday now because internets.
When I first came to LoS all Thai news was in Thai. But the front pages were in colour by then, and every day there were corpses galore as the leader story.
If anything, they've cleaned that up somewhat, the gory photos anyway.
Yeah, they used to show corpses splattered on the road or hanging from trees, but blurred out boobs and cigarettes.
And it was common to publish the facepage of a foreigner's passport as well as their full address (and I mean full address). Used to laugh when someone from a "M.uslim" country would get into a drunken altercation with some ladyboys (or get roofied and robbed by the same) and they'd publish his full name, nationality, country as well as his passport face page.- 2
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I know of a couple people who were "grassed" for drugs. Old g/f of mine got a 3 year sentence after cops found drugs in a room she shared with another girl. Supposedly the drugs belonged to the other girl but the cops busted both of them.
The landlady of a building I used to live in was asked by a former tenant if she could deliver a box the tenant had left behind. The landlady was stopped by the cops who apparently were waiting for her (having been tipped off by "someone" it seems). I was told that for a couple hundred thousand baht the whole matter could "disappear". (I wasn't about to donate any money for that.)
A few months ago, a guy I know through a friend got busted. He runs a hair shop and, because business is bad, makes house calls. I'm told a friend of his asked him to come over and give him a haircut.
Shortly after he arrived, the place was raided by the cops who accused the hairdresser of being a drug dealer. (He claims he never sold drugs and what they found in his friend's room wasn't his.)
Not sure how that went down. Can't tell if the cops were watching him or his friend or if it was just a set up (which wouldn't make sense as the guy doesn't have the cash to pay a bribe and isn't the kind to do anything that would p*ss anyone off to the point they'd go through the effort of setting him up).
He's still in the remand center waiting trial it seems.
Doesn't take much though, to p*ss someone off enough that they'd go to extreme lengths to get back at someone, like planting drugs in someone's house and then tipping off the cops.- 1
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I've ordered a number of things from Ali over the years. Some things arrive quickly and hassle free. Other things never show up.
Note with Ali. When you place an order, the "vendor" is supposed to process the order within a certain time limit so they almost immediately tag the order as "Packed" or even "Shipped" when they haven't actually done anything at all.
What this does is maintain their "order response" level and keeps you from cancelling the order, The system thinks the order is on it's way to you.
But on Ali, that means they have something like 3 MONTHS to actually get the item to you (after it's been tagged as shipped).
And you can't raise a dispute until AFTER the 3 months have passed !
For example, on 17 January I ordered a set of replacement tent poles.
According to Ali:
Expected delivery date: Jan 20, 2022 - Jan 24, 2022
When you check the order details:
Awaiting deliveryIf you do not receive the order within 26 days , you can open a dispute.
So I have to wait until mid-April and if they haven't arrived by then, I can go through the dispute process. (Note that the tracking number they assigned to the order "can't be found". That's because all they did was reserve a number, but haven't actually registered it in the couriers tracking system.)
Beware though.
I had another set of poles on order and after a month they were still listed as "shipped" even though they hadn't left the factory yet. (I was watching the "tracking number" and it hadn't moved. Sometimes they'll tag a package as being "sent to sorting center" or something and then "returned from sorting center", meanwhile, on the tracking website of the actual courier, it shows that the tracking number has only "been assigned" (or reserved) but isn't actually active in the system, which would trigger timing flags to prompt the courier to move the item.)
I sent a simple message to the vendor asking them the status of the order.
They responded by telling me the order had been shipped and the delay was caused by Customs (in Thailand) and then accusing me of doing "exceptional harm" to their business by opening a dispute.
I responded (harshly) that I had not opened a dispute, I had asked them (not Ali) a simple question and there was no way that would have done "exceptional harm" to their business in less than 9 hours as no one but them knew I'd even sent the message.
They responded the next day to inform me that they had checked the warehouse and didn't have stock of the item and asked me to cancel the order.
(After telling me the day before that they'd shipped it and it was held up in Customs which I knew was a lie.)
I tried to cancel the order. Many times. I used Ali's "chat" (repeatedly). Linked the order. Linked the message from the vendor. Never heard anything back.
Couple weeks later I noticed that the refund hadn't been processed. Went to Ali only to find they'd marked the order as "delivered" and because it was past the 15 day limit, I couldn't open a dispute !!!
It's not always like that though.
At the same time I ordered the (2nd) set of poles, I also ordered a tent. After 6 weeks of nothing happening, suddenly it started to move and it arrived 2 weeks later. Maybe the poles (I no longer need) will eventually show up as well.
Lazada is much better if you can find the item you are looking for.
Note that many vendors on Lazada have zero stock of the items they list in their store. You order from them, they order from Ali (normally) and have them ship it to you. However, a "Lazada vendor" seems to get a higher priority on orders on Ali than "Joe Blow from Isaan" does.
Tip. If you find something on Ali, copy part of the item description and then search for it on Lazada. Many of the vendors (on Lazada) simply copy/paste the information directly from Ali (pictures and all).
(Which is also why you see the exact same listings for an item over and over again, exact in every detail except for the price and name of the "shop" selling the item. I'm certain that a lot of "shops" are set up by one person who lists the same things with slightly different prices so that no matter which one you pick, he makes the sale.)
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I know I've only been coming to Pattaya for just over 25 years now so I don't have the same experience some here claim, but in those few short years there's 2 things, wait, 3 things I've never had happen.
I've never had a bill "padded".
I've never been attacked by security guards for any reason.
(And never been "mugged" or pick-pocketed by a ladyboy.)
Things I have seen during that time include;
T.W.A.T.S. pretending they are just "stepping outside to take a call" and then trying to wander off down the street without paying their bill.
T.W.A.T.S. waiting until they think no one is looking then crumpling and tossing their "bin" (bar bill) on the floor while pretending to have paid it.
T.W.A.T.S. thinking they should be able to walk into any bar with their 7-11 bought bottle of beer and getting pissy with the staff if they try to stop them.
T.W.A.T.S. getting pissy because some bird they fancy is sitting with some old geezer (that's buying her drinks) instead of with them (who they seem to think are so "hansum" that the girl should be grateful just to be in their presence).
T.W.A.T.S. getting violent because they thought all those tall women with the huge knockers still sitting in the bar at 1 am must the "real deal" and then finding out they are in a ladyboy bar.
T.W.A.T.S. staggering down the street deliberately trying to "bump" into people and then threatening them (also usually well after 1 am, when all the best looking women are already gone and they're too drunk to score anyways so they start looking for a fight).
T.W.A.T.S. haggling prices with a ladyboy (or a couple of them) and getting pissy (mouthing off, calling them names and so on) because they won't drop their prices. (And then whining to the police after that they were "mugged" or pick-pocketed.)
Yeah I know. Obviously haven't been here that long. Back between 2004-2014 when I was working in Afghanistan, I spent most of my holiday time (3-4 months a year) on Walking Street. It wasn't uncommon that I'd go back to work and realize I'd spent 4 months of "war zone money" during my 1 month on holiday.
I drink Jack when I'm in the bars. The smell helps to let you know you are getting the real thing. I recall nights at the old Polo where my "bin" would be 4,500 baht and that was a "quiet" night. (I buy usually drinks for the dancers/service staff/mommasans but rarely ring the bell.)
I even tried the trick of buying a "bottle" at a bar, drinking some of it, asking them to keep the remainder under the bar for me and then coming back 3-4 months later to see if they still had it. Did that at 4 different bars and they all still had the bottles each time. (One time, one was a little "shy" of the mark they'd made on it and the mommasan replaced it with a new bottle. It was only cheap Sang Som anyways.)
Funny though, never saw any security guys just start beating the <deleted> out of someone for no reason at all.
Oh right, the guy was from the UK so that means he must be an angel who would never do anything wrong.- 5
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14 hours ago, bstafford214 said:
For people who rely on PayPal to receive payments from overseas, they will no longer be able to do so without a registered business account.
Online teachers, freelance workers, digital nomads or even people in Thailand who use PayPal to receive money from friends and family overseas will have to find an alternative.
Here is the real kicker and many people who are trying to run an online shop as their main business are being shut down by this Greedy Thai Government.
I never panicked when I first heard about the issue because they said it was accounts that only receive money (in Thailand) from sources out of country that would be affected, i.e. "digital nomads" and others working in Thailand while pretending to be tourists.
It's unlikely that PayPal's reversal had anything at all to do with a few foreigners closing their accounts. Why do the tiny, wee percentage of foreigners in Thailand keep thinking that the world (and Thailand specifically) revolves around them ?
It is far more likely that it was all the little vendors all over the country (like the ones on Lazada or various "Facebook" shops as well as the restaurants and food vendors that supply all those "Grab" delivery people) who receive a lot of payments through PayPal that complained and caused PayPal to reverse their decision.
And some people are just ID-10-Ts.
I had a Thai friend who had his PayPal account frozen. Turns out a guy he knew (American) from a motorcycle gang he wanted to join asked to use his PayPal account (and associated email account) so my friend gave him the log-ins/passwords.
Turns out the guy was selling stuff from the USA like marijuana seeds and hydroponic supplies and of course, didn't want to use his own PayPal account or email where the transactions could be traced back to him. (Basically, the money was all coming in from the US but withdrawals were being made in Thailand.)
PayPal flagged the account for suspicious activity and my friend couldn't prove that the transactions were legit because he had no idea what was going on (until I showed him and explained what was happening and why that guy was using my friend's account instead of his own).
So he screwed himself and his only choice was to basically abandon the account as he couldn't "unfreeze" it. (I have no doubt he probably opened a new account and then gave access to it to that guy again, or someone else.)
I use PayPal when paying for Lazada and some other transactions. It's better than it used to be. In the early days they were pathetic. I had a credit card with a $12,000 dollar limit but PayPal told me I was restricted to $1,000 (total) - unless I "verified" my identity by giving them my banking details ! They wanted access to my bank account !
And despite paying off my credit card within days of making a transaction, as soon as I reached the "$1,000 total" PayPal froze the account !
I sent them a couple emails, no reply. Sent them a nasty one and then closed the account.
Didn't open a new one until something like 15 years later (while I was overseas) and it's worked fine, without having to give them my banking details. -
Whatever happened to the "Thai wai" emoji ?
I've been looking all over and it seems to have disappeared, but the ": jap :" () emoji is still there.
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Interesting.
Some "Canadian" drug dealers were also recently killed in Mexico (on 22 Jan).
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/hotel-shooting-victims-criminal-activities/
Apparently members of (or connected to) Vietnamese drug gangs in Canada.
And it's not hard to travel on a fake passport. Or one that was "stolen" but never reported as such.
It used to be common in Thailand for people to sell their passports when they ran out of money, then claim they'd been "stolen" from their hotel room (or while they were on the beach, etc, etc). They'd then have more money to extend their holiday and get "emergency travel documents" to get home with later on.
Two Iranians on the missing Malaysian MH370 flight were apparently travelling on (Austrian and Italian) passports that had been reported as "stolen".
Michael Karas was out on probation (after serving time for a string of armed robberies) when he travelled to Thailand on a passport he supposedly "stole" from someone, who never reported it stolen for over a year as Karas used the same passport to return to Canada after murdering the Thai woman he'd been living with for a year.
The mother and the sister of Omar Khadr (the 15 year old terrorist who spent time in Guantanamo) were both placed on a "restricted" list for (Canadian) passports due to them both claiming to have "lost" their passports a few times too many.
They would use their Canadian passports to get to (wherever) and then give them to their terrorist friends to use, then after awhile would claim to have lost them and apply for new ones. Something they apparently did often enough that it raised flags and ended up getting them on the restricted list. (But not because the father and 3 brothers were all involved in terrorist activities that the mother and sister supported.)
We've had (in Canada) people who've been deported (usually to India it seems) and caught (in Canada) again months later, deported (again) and caught (again) barely a year later. (Makes you wonder why they keep going back and how they can keep getting new passports.)
Most IOs see so many faces everyday they rely mostly on the computer to tell them if there's a problem with the passport. So long as your skin colour and hair look similar to the passport photo, they don't really look that closely at you so it's easy to get by on someone else's passport (assuming they haven't reported it or are wanted themselves of course).
Biometric scanners (fingerprint scanners like they use at Suvarnabhumi, retinal scanners used in other places like Sharjah in the UAE) will put a crimp in the ability of some, but many countries do not have that level of tech and even countries that do, may not use it at all border crossings, so a certain element will still be able to travel around far too easily.
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There is stuff in that article that may apply to you that wasn't included in the bit snipped/pasted in the OP.
Stuff like:
"In the last week, changes first introduced on October 1st last by the Ministry of Public Health in respect of enhanced requirements for any foreigner applying for an O/A Retirement visa were highlighted by Thai officials and international embassies.
This means that those applying for this retirement visa type, which should be differentiated from the normal O Non-Immigrant Retirement visa, must show hospital inpatient insurance of $100,000 or ฿3.4 million, an increase from the previous requirement of ฿400,000.
Higher medical coverage requirements for O-A retirement visa option but now Immigration Bureau will also accept self-insurance for those with assets
However, the Thai Immigration Bureau has, at the same time, provided an option for applicants to self insure provided that they have adequate capital and income available.
New health insurance regime for retirees living in Thailand means foreign firms can provide cover
The critical requirement for this option is to show ฿3 million in available assets including cash in the bank, available financial assets or ownership of property.
It is also understood that Immigration Bureau officers are authorised to accept evidence to show that any hospital bills will be paid for by sources from abroad.
This would apply to insurance provided to foreign retirees by their national governments or services in their home country.
The evidence requirement will mean that written documentation must be provided and certified by the foreigner’s embassy in Thailand.
New regulations do not yet impact the more popular Non-Immigrant O visas for marriage and retirement
These new arrangements do not impact current requirements for non Immigrant O visas or extensions either for marriage or retirement visas for now but may signal future intentions by the government which have also been regularly aired publicly by senior officials.
(So - rich Chinese in, old (white) retirees out. (Kind of like the "good guys in, bad guys out" motto of Immigration eh ?)- 13
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People think because they've read the article in English that means that it's all about them.
You are reading an English translation of a Thai news article !
Guaranteed that they are not thinking about you when they plan schemes like this. They are thinking about their masters in China and the boat loads of wealthy Chinese that Beijing wants to transplant into other countries to spread their influence.
The ones who will help China's ambitions by promoting things like high speed rail lines and "exclusive" resorts (and new airports and so on, just like they are doing, or have done, in places like Cambodia).
They don't give a toss about the geriatric Westerners scrapping by on their meagre pensions (yeah yeah I know, you all are bringing in and spending well over 65k a month, blah blah blah).
They also don't give a toss about the "digital nomads" who contribute little more than the odd Yelp review while their income goes to their home banks and they spend their time moving from the cheapest dive hotel they can find to the next cheapest.
Yeah, those "digital nomads" are not all (insert big tech company here) millionaires living the "free" life. They are mostly the ones doing the "Top 10 signs your cat want's to kill you" type garbage or whatever piecemeal work they can get to pay next month's rent with.
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Watching the video closely a few times. When the Mercedes enters the intersection he starts moving to his right to go behind the Honda but appears to go into a skid. About halfway through the intersection it looks like he's "turned into the skid" (like you're supposed to) and his momentum carries him into the Honda which is basically sitting still in the middle of the road like a deer in the head lights.
As a result, the Mercedes hits the Honda almost smack in the middle it seems, instead of slamming into the front-left corner like it seems he would have if he'd kept going straight.
Watching the video, the Mercedes is on the right side of the middle lane before getting to the intersection. As he enters the intersection it is clear he is trying to move into the left lane to go behind the Honda.
However, the Honda enters the intersection and stops just before crossing into the middle lane, thus blocking the left lane.
The Honda hesitated in the intersection. An experienced driver would expect the oncoming traffic to figure out that he (she) was going to cross in front of them and they would go behind them rather than try to cut in front of them.
Had the Honda driver continued to cross the intersection, the Mercedes would have passed behind it probably without incident.
Obviously the Mercedes was going too fast and the driver was possibly distracted, or at the very least was expecting the Honda to cross the intersection, not stop in the middle of it. Probably by the time he realized the Honda was stopped he didn't have enough time to react (because he was going too fast) and jerked the wheel to the right to try and go behind the Honda, only to end up going into a skid.
I'm not sure where the lights are but I'm guessing the Honda started to turn because the lights had changed and it had the green "right turn" light.
(Which would mean the Mercedes would have had a red light, which he apparently ignored for whatever reason.)
Happens so often and because there is pretty much ZERO police enforcement of traffic laws, people get it in their heads that it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.
So many times I've been at a red, waited until it turned green, let off the brakes and ZOOM ! Someone goes flying through the intersection at high speed and you know full well they had plenty of time to stop. Especially as many of the intersections have a couple second delay between one light turning red and the other turning green (which probably is why many of them decide it's OK to just blow through the red anyways).
Other times I've been approaching an intersection, saw the green flashing, knew I couldn't make the light, slowed down and stopped just as it went red, only to have some car/truck/SUV blow past me and through the intersection.
They do it because they know there is pretty much zero chance that there will be any cops anywhere in the area so the chances of getting pulled over and ticketed are pretty much non-existent.- 4
Monkeypox: Thais advised to avoid sexual contact with foreigners, hotels advised to clean properly
in Thailand News Headlines
Posted
So they haven't detected any other cases in Thailand other than the one Nigerian tourist, but now they are thinking he may have contracted the disease in Thailand ?
He arrived in Thailand in October 2021, spent some time in Chiang Mai before going to Phuket. In July he went to the hospital as he'd developed blisters on his dick.
When they figured out it was monkey pox they told him to come in for treatment but he decided to skip the country instead.
What about the 19 people he supposedly had "close contact" with in Phuket ? Supposedly they were all tested by 25 July and the results were supposed to be back by the 28th.
I just saw a report on an English language Chinese news site dated 2 days ago soys that a 2nd case has been discovered. A Thai man in Bangkok.