bheard

No way, that's sorted. The police crack downs on the roads will reduce the kill rate by 50%, you wait and see!

I'm more interested in the AFTER Songkran spending...…...when they repair their smashed up vehicles and mocy's and pay the hospital bills!

This article does not account for the new breed that is flocking to Thailand in droves. We are called digital nomads and earn mid six-figures USD ($280k to $500k avg ) and can live anywhere in the world. I am age 33 myself. Thailand is attractive for the obvious reasons but also because it’s lenient on tax laws. If you live in Thailand but work for companies outside of Thailand, you do not have to pay Thai taxes. And, if you’re an American, you do not have to pay federal taxes on your first $105k and if you establish a company in Singapore you can “legally” avoid US taxes all together.
 
This new breed of digital nomads are not only salary-rich but equity rich as well. I myself have earned equity / stock at Google, Facebook and Netflix before relocating to Phuket. I currently work for Netflix in Silicon Valley and they are completely fine with me working remotely from Thailand. My salary is identical to what is was when I lived in San Francisco, California where a dumpy 1 bedroom apartment will cost you $5000 usd/ month. I can rent a giant palace in Phuket for that rate.
 
So you can see the obvious attraction. The digital nomad crew is expanding rapidly in Thailand and it is expected that by 2030, 75% of all American jobs will be remote / freelance ( meaning Americans can live wherever they want in the world ). It has been factually proven that you get more out of your workers when you allow them to work from home and on their own hours. Their productivity actually increases. So anyways, this is the way things are going. Expect more and more digital nomads to Thailand.
 
Thailand may be losing some epxats but it’s gaining an entirely new type of expat that is wielding lots of cash. These expats are big spenders, naturally they will drive the cost of goods up in Thailand further. But they are also bringing loads of jobs and technical infrastructure to Thailand. I myself employ over 100 Thai software engineers and I pay them 100,000 baht / month, well over the 20,000 baht that Thai companies pay. So you can see there is a huge advantage to the Thai economy to keep the digital nomad crew happy. 
 
As more and more Americans relocate to Thailand on US salary, I imagine Thailand will become even more expensive. But it will still be far cheaper than the US, hence why people will continue to flock here. I’ve lived in Thailand for 4 years now and have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars due to no taxes and a much cheaper cost of living. Why on Earth would I leave this place that is basically paradise?

We use stroppy in American English too.
 
Bolshy, that's a new one for my lexicon!
 
I'm making the leap it is derived from Bolsivich?
Which I may have spelt incorrectly LOL

We discourage the use of abbreviations, I believe this is "Do It Yourself."  [emoji16]

Obviously a multi faceted problem, one those being to do with govt energy policy. Solar panels in a smog situation produce NO power.

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Actually, this is a good OP.  On my last three vacations I've used Google Maps and was less than happy.  I've had the app flat out give me wrong directions sending me in the opposite direction from where I was going or telling me to make U-turns where I knew that the correct direction was straight.  Also, if I load in a destination on my wife's phone and the same destination on mine and then get different directions from the app.  And on a trip from Cha Am to Lopburi, the app got us so lost in the Bangkok road maze I wanted to kill my phone.  It took us off a toll road going North (that I'm sure I should have stayed on) and I could never find the way back to it.  We looped past the same locations in about a 10 kilometer radius for about 90 minutes.  I finally told my wife to shut off her phone and her screaming comments and let me drive.  I finally found an on-ramp heading north via a compass reading and just went with it until I recognized the area we were in.  It didn't help that there were virtually no highway numbers displayed on the elevated toll roads.  That was unpleasant. 

Anyway, I'd like to try a new app for finding direction.  Actually what I really want is a detailed road map like you can buy in the US as any gas station, but what they have here are inaccurate and poorly scaled, ie, they suck.  I'll give WAZE a shot but I'd be interested in other map/direction/GPS apps too.

Of course she isnt going to say sorry , it was your fault for buying the candy in the first place , you didnt lock the candy in a cupboard and you didnt stop her from doing it
   Its your fault that she took the candy and you should apologise 

So what he obviously got a Dutch passport, that makes him Dutch. I am Dutch and I don't feel responsible for what other Dutch people do. I don't see the point there are plenty of white pedo's from the Netherlands (more even I would guess).
 
The thing I don't understand is that the guy got a 19 year jail term why is he still walking free.

It"s always a tragedy when people die needlessty on the roads, but bear in mind that these two are just two of average 6 to 7 to die today. . . [emoji849]

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I presume he subsequently booted her out. After extracting the 100,000 b of course.

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Thailand still has more stability than Australian politics. Who is our prime minister now?? [emoji848] 

This does highlight a problem with modern car 'keys' - you can't just dump it in a pocket on your swimming jocks as you could with a metal key. Last time I did that with a modern electronic key (forgot it was there) it instantly was reduced to rubbish in the sea water and a new one cost me an arm and leg - exaggerating, but at least a lower arm anyway.

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Naturally the journalist has the proof with  written statements from the boys and all the divers and medics complete with photos.
 
How strange that none of the boys nor ANY of the rescuers ever mentioned these "facts" at any of the interviews during and after the rescues.
 
I was aware that they had been injected with tranquillisers, but handcuffed as well?
 
Can I smell BS or what?

Looks like nose jobs is a prerequisite for teaching jobs. Not that any of those pictured were teachers . . .

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1 am press conference in front of a mall.
The mind boggles.

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How did these Saudi embassy persons get access to the airside of the airport without going legally through immigration?  There had to be collusion by corrupt immigration officers.  I wouldn't be surprised if money was exchanged.
 
This is a serious example with major international repercussions of what is wrong in this country.
 
Saudi Arabia treats its dogs better than its women.

I wonder how many people in the bus had their seat belts fastened, and fastened correctly, ie, tight.

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Lesson: never ever travel on a Thai intercity bus at night!

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This may work for cars - not sure about motorcycles.
https://www.intoxalock.com/ignition-interlock-devices/drunk-driving-prevention/

how about tattooing a big red "D" on their forehead?

All seems a bit extreme - just crank up the prices for farangs and medical tourism - that would fix it.

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Maybe if he had changed it to John Smith it would have worked.