Andrew65

The Big Mac Index was originally in The Economist newspaper. I think that at one time Hong Kong had the cheapest B M in the world.

Heinz stuff is also way over-priced in the UK, stopped buying Heinz a few years ago, supermarket own-brands taste the same for 1/3 the price.

Pre-COVID numbers, but at that time Brits were the falang nationality that made the most visits to Thailand per annum. Also, if you read about 40 Brits being arrested over the course of a year, there were another 728,632 who either hadn't done anything wrong, or hadn't been caught😁 It's a number thing, maybe not that they're more prone to criminality, just that there's lots more of 'em!?

On the subject of Embassies, I'm a Brit who was Thailand-based, but worked in Australia for a while. The Australian Embassy was MUCH nicer to deal with than the British Embassy, and about half the cost if fees were involved too.☺️

Yes, no problem.

Until it becomes apparent that they don't. Although, many years ago I had a nice chat with a young lady at the Beer Garden in Soi 7 BKK. She seemed different to the other women there in that she was dressed differently, and she also spoke very good English, and you could have a decent conversation with her. I think she said that she was studying at Chula. I bought her a few drinks.

You're right, there. In my 20 years there, as well as the bar girl thing, I also dated 2 ordinary Thai women, who had ordinary jobs. I met the one on a dating website, she was from a very welathy family and had a very good job. I tried to filter the women whom I could view by putting Master's or Batchelor's degree in the education criteria. By doing this I wasn't viewing girls that work in Nana, who are quite unlikely to be graduates, plus, I can obviously meet them any time that I want to. My other girlfriend was a hotel receptionist, whose father was a Major General in the cops.

That's true, when your girlfriend isn't a hooker. This guy got all p-----d-off when his hooker gf started seeing other men?

He's beeen left looking like a bit of a Turkiye.🙂

Many years ago in Bangkok I was out on my morning walk, 3 dogs came running towards me and looking like they might be aggressive. I'm quite tall and gangly and ran straight towards them waving my arms around (making myself look bigger), they ran away. It's a good idea to carry a walking stick or umbrella for such purposes. In later years you pretty much never saw dogs on the streets of lower-Sukhumvit any more, 20 years previously there had been lots.

If I went out for long walks in Thailand I would usually have a large umbrella or walking stick to use as a 'dog'repellent'.

There's also the meddling in their countries by Western powers,

When I worked overseas I had a lot of Muslim friends & colleagues whom I had more time for than some of my "Christian" friends & colleagues, and as you say, good workers too.

"Wife beater" AKA Stella Artois😁

"The woman with 2 brains"😁

They just spent the night having long discussions about Idi Amin, and the Ugandan coconut industry😁

I had less than that for my 15 night stay in Bangkok earlier this year. Mind you for the full 15 nights that I was there I was alone when I was in my room. (I did have a plastic card with me though).

I thought Canadian names were more like Running Water and Little Feather?!😁

Worshipping imaginary beings.🙂

I've never believed their unemployment numbers.

I always got the impression that Thais, especially the middle classes, view falang beggars with utter disdain, they don't expect white people to be doing such a thing.

Underbelly was pretty good, still have it on disk.

I left Thailand in 2018, after 20 years of living there. Up until 2014 I had worked in the oil industry, and spent breaks in Thailand, 6 weeks away working, followed by a 3 week break in Thailand. By the end of 2017 I had been 3 years without work and was getting incredibly bored in Thailand, I also wasn't in a relationship or messing around in the bar-scene there. Partly due to this, by the time I decided to leave Thailand I still had quite a lot in savings left from when I did work, £XX,000. This meant that going back to the UK was quite easy. It was just as well that I had that money, as on 2 occasions I had to pay 7 month's rent (nearly (£4,000 a time) when moving into properties. Also, because I had lived overseas, and hadn't insured a car for more than 5 years, my car insurance cost around double (around £1500) what it would have cost. One company refused to insure me at all! I did manage to open a UK bank/current account, but because I had not maintained a financial presence in the UK, I had no 'credit-rating'. When I moved back I was only 53, so still had another 14 years of working life until state pension age. I started doing some agency delivery driving work, but got a full time position, where I have now been for 3 years. When I left Thailand I probably could've stayed there another 2 or 3 years, but was getting very bored, and I knew that I had to 'grasp the nettle', leave Thailand, and get a job.

Saw a documentary years ago about the Italian Mafia's presence in Australia, the Camorra from the Naples Area, and the Ndrangheta from Calabria. I believe that "Ozzie Bob" a character (based on a true-life character) from the drama series "Underbelly" had links to them.

Prison is only for the poor in Thailand. He'll get a 'slap on the wrist' and be told not to do it again.