simon43

Sorry - screwed up editing my previous post! Perhaps it's because one is required to work for a Thai company, and there really are not any Thai space companies to work for!

Bearing in mind the recent government announcement about building a spaceport etc, I find it curious that Thailand is not seeking foreign space/rocket experts. Knowing what Thailand currently does in the space sector (builds the occasional Cubesat under the direction of Japanese engineers in Japan), there is no way that Thailand has homegrown skills to build a spaceport.

Why an anaconda? Was the woman walking in South America? Update - Oops - beat me to it!

Ride a horse from the Atlantic side of the Pyrenees mountains to the Mediterranean side following the GR10 High Pyrenees trail. (Many years ago I had a holiday home in these mountains and loved climbing/walking there. Once my pension kicks in I hope to have available time to fulfill this wish).

I just tell them that it's a large island close to China and which is claimed by China. The people have slitty eyes and haven't yet learnt to eat using knives and forks.....

A skilled chef could probably expertly dismember a human corpse with a small penknife. (Don't ask how I know, but I'm not a skilled chef!)

Hey troll, go research aspergillosis. It might help you to avoid sounding like an ignorant (edited out to avoid suspension!)

Yep! If you follow this link to a BBC article from 2004 (some years after I wrote the software): BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Has text-porn finally made computers 'human'? their comment is: " But the best candidate for passing the Turing test is the Natachata program that conducts smutty conversations via text messages. Regular users of pornographic SMS chat may be shocked to find out that they are swapping dirty talk with machines rather than young women and men. But it's a fair bet that they are because the Natachata chatbot, written by former rocket scientist Simon Luttrell, is so widely used by porn chat merchants. " I wrote this AI chat application which (at the time) was rather good ????. Granted that it was rather limited in subject matter. Apart from smutty chat (which was the money-maker), it was also able to discuss sport, geography, maths and would remember user's names and likes/dislikes etc. Anyway, others also thought it was rather good because I sold the AI program for $2.2M...

I was living on the island of Mauritius for a short while after leaving Laos because at that time it was too difficult to enter Thailand. when Thailand eased it's Covid entry rules I returned ????

Yes a backpacker ghetto on the west side of town near to the river but relatively 'normal' on the east side of town and near to the railway line. LP is a wonderful place to live but my hobby (amateur radio) does not sit well (that's an understatement!!) with the local police chief and my garden just by the peninsula is too small for all my antennas. In VV I can rent a rural house on the edge of town with a bigger garden.

On a recent visit to the UIK (Blackpool), I was pleasantly surprised by the local gym (just down the road from Sainsbury if you know the city). Access into the foyer was free of course but then there were a pair of electronic revolving doors. To enter/exit the gym area you had to punch in your access PIN which was automatically disabled if your payment had not been received for that month. You could sign up in the foyer by mobile phone or using their touchscreen system. Access to the changing rooms also required the PIN code. Lockers were free (bring your own padlock) and there was always 1 staff on duty (only 1 was required because of the automatic system). Plenty of machines, saw no roid nuts, mostly 'normal' people of all ages. I paid about 15 UK pounds per month for access to all equipment.

Hi Sid, after I returned back from hospital tests in the UK (see post above), I planned to return to Burma to continue my in-class teaching. However for the second time the military junta refused to issue me with a visa. So with that situation and bearing in mind my cancer 'scare', I decided to retire from in-class teaching and only teach online (which I have mostly been doing for the past few years anyway). After recovering from the UK climate on Phangan Island for a couple of months I moved back to Luang Prabang in north Laos where I was once the Principal of the international school. When I start to draw my UK pension (in only 22 months from now yippee), I will probably move down to live in Vang Vieng because with the new railway and motorway it's only an hour or 2 from Vientiane and the only decent private hospital in the country (although exercise/good diet keeps me healthy, I am mindful of my age and assume that other medical ailments may arise). My small but adequate pension will also enable me to spend more time doing voluntary teaching in the community ????

Yep, he definitely has a reading problem! BTW, when I returned to the UK in early February for prostate cancer investigations, I almost abandoned my stay in the UK because my lung problems returned rapidly in that cold climate. It took me about 2 months back in a hot/humid climate to recover.

I was happily working in the UK as CTO of a mobile technology company that had just purchased my one-man-band AI/mobile internet company. Their new office was in an unheated and damp basement that had been empty for years. A few months after starting work in that office I developed a cough that got worse and worse until I was unable to hold a conversation without having explosive coughing fits. This was suspected Aspergillosis (fungal spores in my lungs) that were present in the damp office air. This is a chronic disease which can't be cured but can be managed with the right medication and living environment. My doctor suggested that living in a hot and humid climate may well help to minimise my symptoms. So I took a trip to Thailand and my coughing stopped! I returned to the UK climate and my coughing came back with a vengeance. I did several trips to/from Thailand and each time that I stayed in Thailand my symptoms were minimal and they always returned when I came back to the UK. So I had to make the life-changing decision to move to Thailand (or a similar hot/humid climate). At that time I had funds to start up a new business in Thailand, but my wife was having none of it. Understandably, she was unwilling to move to Thailand with our 3 young kids who were well-settled in the village school. So we agreed to separate and I moved to Thailand, but vowed to keep in touch with my kids. Unfortunately, that takes 2 to tango and my wife (soon to be ex) cut me off from my kids and (according to my brother) told them that I had left her for a Thai women...) I still send e-cards on their birthdays and at Xmas, but they never reply, even going so far as to block my email address on the e-card website ????. My UK kids are now in their early twenties and I guess they will never know the truth about why their dad left them to live in Thailand. It's more than 20 years since I left the UK. I have moved around a bit in south-east Asia and some locations had 'cool' climates which caused me problems. But in general, as long as I walk or jog 4-5 Km per day AND eat healthy food AND gargle with salt water AND take ani-histamine and anti-congestants - my lungs are great!!

Neeranam is Thai (he acquired citizenship). So he doesn't need a visa and unless he makes a public rant against HM King I doubt that his citizenship will be revoked.... As for me, I no longer worry about 800,00 baht and agents. I live in Laos and my agent visa costs just $500 per year with no money in the bank required ????

I almost died in Chaloklam earlier this year - stung by a box jellyfish...

Whatever happened to their plan yonks ago to turn Phuket into an IT hub to rival Singapore? (Rhetorical question...)

Well I certainly wish the UK police/border force would do the same with all the illegal immigrants and so-called asylum seekers. (Whoops - off topic!)

You have not commented on the usual requirement for a credit check, plus the high cost of energy bills, council tax etc. Well done if those are not hurdles for you. For me, it makes zero economic sense to return to the UK when my cost of living is so much cheaper in south-east Asia.

I went back and looked again at the 31 properties currently listed for rent in Blackpool at under 600 pounds per month. Many of these listings were for a room in a shared house, (which IMHO is not really suitable for long-term living). But indeed there are some single-occupancy flats in Blackpool (a cheap area to live in compared to other UK regions because it is .. er ... a dump!). But if I were returning to live in the UK permanently (after 20+ years in south-east Asia), I would then have the hurdle of zero credit history (I checked during my recent visit and my details exist on Experian etc). Most landlords won't rent to those with zero credit history. But if I got over that hurdle, then high rents do not really paint the whole picture. Add in council tax (or whatever it's called nowadays), high electricity and heating bills (especially during the winter), high food costs, high transport costs... I could go on and on! I realise that this thread is not about comparing UK living costs with Thailand/south-east Asia. But as a soon-to-be pensioner, you can maybe understand why I had no choice but to reject returning/living in the UK - the overall living costs in ALL regions of the country would make for a miserable retirement ????

This fireworks warehouse was of course located in a remote area, far away from houses, so as to minimise the risk of injury should an accident happen? Er... no... obviously not!

Not me - I would give them a good slap!! Theft should be punished by caning in public.

When I went on a Raja ferry early this year from Donsak to Phangan the ferry caught fire in the engine room! It sailed around for an hour before it finally docked back in Donsak and everyone was evacuated. (I posted a photo at the time on one of the forums, loads of smoke).

You have democracy?!! Please don't make me split my sides with laughter. IMHO almost all politicians in all political parties in all countries are corrupt and self-serving. In many 'so-called democracies, the corruption and fraud is well-hidden but it's there. At least countries like Thailand, Cambodia etc don't try to hide their corruption ????

In February I had to return to the UK after 20 years living in south-east Asia for medical investigations of possible prostate cancer (happily no cancer was found). But during my 3-month stay in the UK I seriously considered if I should remain in the UK permanently, based on my age, health, future outlook etc etc. I spent some time looking at rightmove.co.uk and their huge database of rental properties in the UK. (Buying a property was a non-starter at my age of 63 years). I had no restrictions on geographical location and I concluded that while it was possible to rent properties starting at say 600 pounds/month, the location or state of those properties, or the amenities on offer were so undesirable (eg remote rural property and no public transport, inner city studio the size of a cat box etc), that I decided that were the choice to stay in the UK or to top myself, then the latter was the preferred option! I returned back to south-east Asia and have now happily 'soft-retired' in Laos, where my meagre UK pension due in about 2 years from now will go far and enable me to live a modest but entirely adequate lifestyle ????