Andrew65

"return happiness to (rich) Thai people".

I thought it was in April. Anyway, Klopp's still moaning.

Irreversible, less chance of a "balls-up"????

Liverpool are my team. However, this season I've quite often heard Herr Klopp, our manager, bemoaning the amount of games they have to play in a short space of time ('fixture-congestion'). Next thing, they're gonna fly 6,000 miles to play in a totally pointless game, well before the end of the season.

"There is also a retro theme for this year’s celebrations with people who attend invited to wear retro style clothing". Lots of wizened old expats'll just show up in their usual attire then!???? (And 70's mullet hairdos!).

Many years ago they clamped-down on Songkhran "water-activities" in Bangkok, it had become a real pain in the a*se. An old Thai guy (now late 70's) told me how when he was a kid Songkhran was 1 day, and sprinkles of water, rather than buckets of ice cold water over a 3 or 4 day period, as it had become.

I believe it involves administering female hormones?

I was asked a few times at Heathrow too.

Over land it's probably gonna be a 7,000 (?) mile journey (to where most Russians live), not really 'practical'. (And even then, maybe their plastic cards no longer work!?).

Over a 35 year period, and maybe entering Thailand over 100 times, I was never asked for an onward ticket, I believe that has always been a requirement, though unenforced. I was once made to buy an onward ticket (to Penang) before they would check me in for a flight from Brisbane to Bangkok. (I mailed the ticket back to them and they refunded the money back to the same account).

...heart attack...

RIP Shane, sounded like a good bloke, and a great cricketer. 52, not that rare. My brother in law dropped dead of a heat attack at 50. Although he had been diabetic for quite a while.

Some years ago I was reading some comments from a British couple who had emigrated from London to Australia, The question was, why are returning to London? The answer, a lack of culture in Oz, concerts, art galleries, museums etc. They loved so many things about Oz, but a lack of those things meant that they couldn't stop there.

If the same standards were followed, a very large number of Thai politicians would have been convicted of malfeasance, corruption etc. It seemed to me that the only 'crime' her brother committed was to be seen to be (really) giving a sh*t about poorer people in Thailand, which is what politicians in very many countries in the world do.

The Saudi's Baht is just as good as the farang's Baht!????

Different strokes for different folks.

I had a Thai girlfriend with a masters degree, and another who was a hotel receptionist. After 18 years of living in Thailand I moved back to the UK in 2018. Reasons for leaving? I left long before the money ran out, When I left I hadn't worked for 3 years and got a bit bored in Thailand.

My old mate Bjorn was a $ millionaire, maybe 10 times over, his Thai lady was almost penniless, so that wasn't an issue.

I would want to talk about anything in general, small talk. I found that with Thai ladies anything beyond what's your name and where do you come from, and it's hard to find things to talk about. Examples: What's in the farang news, farang TV shows.

What I found with Thai ladies is that conversation with them can be at a premium. Why? Because it's hard to make small talk with them about things that we would do with farang ladies, they don't have the same 'general knowledge', so it's harder to make small talk with them.

I had an old Swedish friend who had a live-in Thai girlfriend for about 17 years. He said the main difference between her and a Swedish lady was that she would get up to make him breakfast every morning, whilst a Swedish lady probably wouldn't. I think the main difference between Thai and Western ladies is that women's-lib and 'equality' is yet to arrive in Thailand.

Many years ago I was working in Saudi and chatting with an Indian colleague, he said it was well known in India that a lot of Indian 'underworld' figures hangout/live in Thailand.

Apparently during the last century the King decreed that everyone should adopt a Thai name (instead of their migrant/Chinese name). This can be seen in names, Charoen is Chinese/Thai, a name that's quite common? (As in Charoen Krung Road?).

"Demographics. Thailand has the largest overseas Chinese community in the world outside Greater China. 11 to 14 percent of Thailand's population are considered ethnic Chinese".

They're dual-use, can also be used as an eye-patch, and a pair of ear muffs!????