simon43

Some of the ignorant comments from (relatively) new posters about the OP author (Barry Kenyon) indicate that they have zero knowledge of Barry's track record in Pattaya. As for the fish and chips and roast beef lunch, I haven't had one of those in more than 2 decades, and I'm now salivating at the thought! 🙂

I'm so glad that one of the few decent financial decisions that I made in my life was to continue to pay into the UK social security system during my 22+ years in south-east Asia, thus ensuring that I start to receive a modest (albeit frozen) state pension next year that is sufficient for me needs. Another decent financial decision was investing in a very life-like sex doll...... 🙂

So helping tourists at the international airport makes me a bit strange eh?

First satellite in space, first man in space, first woman in space. The Periodic Table of elements was created by a Russian scientist - there are many technical achievements.

I can't recall ever getting food poisoning in 22 years! I attribute this to my cast-iron stomach, thanks to the appalling food that my mum used to give me as a young child....

To protect tourists from what? When I was a police volunteer in Phuket (many years ago), I was asked this question on several occasions by foreign tourists. My answer? I'm here to protect you from the Thai police!

Whether he is a shill or not, the facts speak for themselves. Apart from the Chinese space station and numerous other space projects to Mars and the Moon, down on Earth we have the Laos high speed railway line, with numerous tunnels and bridges. We ignore Chinese technology, ability, determination etc at our peril....

Ah, the Thai kind of economics 🙂 No thought to keep prices lower and temporarily operate at a financial loss to attract customers.

Hi, I lived and built small hotels at Naiyang for many years. It's very safe but there isn't really a village centre. The beach area is about 1-2km from the main airport road where there are many guest houses and small restaurants etc, but no large shops. So stay by the beach if you want to swim (safe) and enjoy the beautiful beach. Patong is certainly 100 times better for shopping, but it's a distance, so a taxi (not tuk-tuk) is needed to go from Naiyang to Patong.

Indeed, Thailand seems to be pricing itself out of the medical tourism market... (unless it's a government hospital)

Don't make the mistake to assume that people who live alone are lonely. I was married 3 times and for the past 10 years or so after divorce, I have lived alone. Bliss!!

With my science hat on, many foods that we hated as kids are now palatable for us as adults. That's because humans have about 10,000 taste buds when kids, but this number diminished with age, and therefore so does our sense of taste. We're still doing better than cats (about 500 taste buds), but much worst than catfish (about 100,000 taste buds).

If you check how many calories you burn from exercise, the numbers are miserably small for the effort! Exercise certainly helps, but eat one cheeseburger and you need about 45 minutes of brisk walking to burn off those calories... I would exercise to keep your heart healthy, and eat less calories to reduce your weight.

I thought those were triffids!

Very interesting, but alas apparently discontinued...

I use my computer to write in English, Thai, Lao and Burmese. I can switch between each software language by clicking on the tool bar relevant button and selecting the language that I want to type in. But how to remember where the characters are on the keyboard?! My Thai laptop shows both English and Thai characters on each key, but what about the other 2 languages? I can't really add stickers on each key because they will obscure the Thai characters. Any ideas? Thanks

I lived in Laos on an annual business visa, no money in the bank required. I wasn't working (well, teaching online), so my business visa was simply stamped with 'work not allowed' 🙂

Go on, don't hold back! Let it all out... 🙂

No land or home ownership. No requirement for 800k bank deposit, no retirement visa but annual work visas (without the need to work) issued by agents for about $600 USD.

Haven't had a free weekend for at least 6 years, nor any other day free (too many online students to teach!). Roll on retirement next year...

A single shot from a rifle would sort out some of this problem.... Then 6 more shots for the dogs..

Applying 'Thai logic', the attempted violence against the 3 Romanians would not have occurred if they hadn't been in the UK......

I have private medical insurance with WR Life, but according to other posts, they have stopped paying direct to hospitals and require the 'patient' to pay first and them claim back. That could be a financial problem for me if the amount is large, (ie more than 200 baht LoL!). So I saw a FB post from an insurance agent called SBC where they offered an insurance policy for emergency/accident cover, with the insurance company paying direct to the hospital. So this policy doesn't cover chronic/long-term illnesses (cancer etc), but does offer up to $25,000 USD (lowest premium) direct payment to cover accidents and emergency treatment etc (heart attack, stroke etc). The annual premium at 65 years old is 948 euros. Does anyone have knowledge or experience of this policy? I'm tempted to take out cover with them because of the chance (not sure high or low chance), that I have a stroke or whatever, and the hospital refuses to treat me because WR Life will only pay out after treatment (ie I have to pay first). I would still keep my WR Life policy, but would add this SBS policy as a separate cover.

I would give what you can, but as a gift, not a loan. When my Thai niece died a few years ago, her p*ss-poor family had no funds for the funeral. I gave what I could (about 30,000 baht) and they were able to have a simple Buddhist funeral. I would normally never give my little hard-earned cash, but sometimes you need to have sympathy...

One of my earliest memories (nightmares), is being forced to eat swede at kindergarten..... I still can't look at a swede without getting the shudders, (but Frankfurters and other Germans don't have the same effect!).