RikDao

Hey, fair enough. I'm aware that they haven't done anything new in eons. However, they're giving the people what they want. Apparently, your taste is more sophisticated than average (whatever that means). Playing in Cuba for free? That's gonna make millions of people VERY happy. Cuban music? Maybe it will get out and about, now that Cuba is more "free."

Stale Stones? Perhaps a reflection of yourself. And Mick's a great granddad these days.

Most obvious joke: Word has it that the Hell's Angels are providing security.

This is a racist article. A very SMALL percentage of Thai people believe in gooman thong. It is not a look into the THAI mind.

It is like me writing an article about the KKK saying a look into the American mind.

So you are also saying that almost no thai believe in ghosts, some kind of reincarnation, karma etc?

And you are the racist for believing this is a racist article.

Hardly worth a reply but....

I never said anything about ghosts, or reincarnation. Incidentally, both of which I firmly believe in as do most of the world's population.

Your second sentence is just weird.

Hey, you have my sympathy. That poor guy seemed to get a bit, well, can't and shouldn't really say it on here. I hope he's getting some rest. Still feel his fear.

Just one question for all you snooty, superior bashers:

How do you know the souls of children don't reside in these dolls?

Fact is, you don't.

You need to see something, apparently, to believe it's real.

What a constricted worldview.

God created everything in the universe one week ago, that is wednesday 27th of january 2016. All your memories aren't really your memories, God implanted them into you and all history you think you know was also implanted. Everything else either sopken, written, dream and so on are implanted into your and everyoen else head. All the light coming from far away stars are really illusions and not real and so on.

Now...

The fact is, you don't know if the things i wrote are true, don't you?

Such a constricted worldview you got RikDao.

Hmmm, a little nervous? I think you meant "do you?"

But as to your question, yeah, I do know. It's baloney. That's what "the fact is."

And son, if you wanna hang with the alpha pseudo-intellectuals, at least learn to write coherently. If you do, your credibility will go WAY up. Of course, most on here couldn't care less; in fact, correct writing is cause for suspicion, I'm sure.

Aww, how cute of you to be a grammar nazi. Well anyway english is my third language, i bet you are monolingual and we all know what monolinguals are right?

Anyhow, no you don't know. And the reason is clear from your earlier posts in this thread. Hint: lack of something somewhere.

So, grandpa, take your medication and head to bed.

Obviously, not much more I can say. The discussion has degenerated too far.

But thanks for that phrase, "lack of something somewhere." That's a keeper.

Just one question for all you snooty, superior bashers:

How do you know the souls of children don't reside in these dolls?

Fact is, you don't.

You need to see something, apparently, to believe it's real.

What a constricted worldview.

God created everything in the universe one week ago, that is wednesday 27th of january 2016. All your memories aren't really your memories, God implanted them into you and all history you think you know was also implanted. Everything else either sopken, written, dream and so on are implanted into your and everyoen else head. All the light coming from far away stars are really illusions and not real and so on.

Now...

The fact is, you don't know if the things i wrote are true, don't you?

Such a constricted worldview you got RikDao.

Hmmm, a little nervous? I think you meant "do you?"

But as to your question, yeah, I do know. It's baloney. That's what "the fact is."

And son, if you wanna hang with the alpha pseudo-intellectuals, at least learn to write coherently. If you do, your credibility will go WAY up. Of course, most on here couldn't care less; in fact, correct writing is cause for suspicion, I'm sure.

I will express my honest opinion, not that anyone particularly cares, as to what this thread is really about.

It's an IDEAL place to denigrate Thais.

A few Thais buy these dolls, and bingo! All Thais are child-like, superstitious, and vapid.

So please, do tell me, who are the real dummies here?

My sweet, complex, hilariously funny Thai wife is so highly intuitive as to be almost psychic. Once I wanted to get a pic of her in front of a large, foreboding looking banyan tree, but she refused to go near it. Said it was full of negative spirits. I gave it some thought and decided, who am I to say otherwise?

A Hello Kitty T- shirt would have done the trick.....

Says a lot about your wife, perhaps? And you?

10947472-Portrait-of-surprised-pretty-young-woman-covering-her-mouth-by-the-hand-and-smiling-over-white-backg-Stock-Photo.jpg

Hahahahah!

Hilarious reply! Made my day!

I will express my honest opinion, not that anyone particularly cares, as to what this thread is really about.

It's an IDEAL place to denigrate Thais.

A few Thais buy these dolls, and bingo! All Thais are child-like, superstitious, and vapid.

So please, do tell me, who are the real dummies here?

My sweet, complex, hilariously funny Thai wife is so highly intuitive as to be almost psychic. Once I wanted to get a pic of her in front of a large, foreboding looking banyan tree, but she refused to go near it. Said it was full of negative spirits. I gave it some thought and decided, who am I to say otherwise?

Just one question for all you snooty, superior bashers:

How do you know the souls of children don't reside in these dolls?

Fact is, you don't.

You need to see something, apparently, to believe it's real.

What a constricted worldview.

Because souls have better things to do than going to nails parlors or facespas.

Lol. Hey, you convinced me!

Geez.

I would be annoyed if I could not book a flight because of some seats were taken by dolls.

Thankfully, you'd probably never know.

Just one question for all you snooty, superior bashers:

How do you know the souls of children don't reside in these dolls?

Fact is, you don't.

You need to see something, apparently, to believe it's real.

What a constricted worldview.

The requirement is to report after being 90 days in the country.

If you are not here 90 days you do not report.

Simple really.

Thanks again for all the replies.

What was tricky for me is the "90 consecutive days" aspect.

I was thinking in terms of "90 days in Thailand since my last 90 day report," regardless of whether those days are consecutive or not.

Speaking of my trip out of Thailand, I was coming back from the States with my Thai wife thru Korea on a round trip to Chiang Mai. The Korean ticket lady asked me to prove I had a ticket back out of Thailand. Took 15 minutes (with a few "Please wait here, sirs") to explain my re-entry permit and how my retirement extension is good until July. Man, a lot of Korean women clicking around on high heels, that was. Meanwhile, we had to get to the gate!

OK! Many thanks to all three of you who replied!

I guess this rule makes sense, but I couldn't find it anywhere. However, it doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not, yeah?

Reading my reply, let me clarify:

I couldn't find the RULE anywhere, not I couldn't find the sense of it. LOL!

I mean, I guess the sense of it is... Oh, who cares, right?

OK! Many thanks to all three of you who replied!

I guess this rule makes sense, but I couldn't find it anywhere. However, it doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not, yeah?

Apologies if this has already been covered, but I couldn't find anything on here to answer my question.

Let's say you have a 1 year retirement extension, and during that year you do one of the usual 90 day reports. Then, 30 days after you do the report, you leave Thailand for, let's say, 60 days. My question is: do you have to do the next 90 day report 60 days after you get back, that is, adding the 30 days from before you left, plus 60 more, or do you just need to do the 90 day report 90 days after you returned?

Sounds a bit complicated, but I hope I've made the question clear enough.

Thanks in advance, and Happy New Year!

If my American mates boast once again how well their dollar is doing I am going to do something seriously nasty to them. Like put ice in their beer. Forget that, they already do it.

I know I'll shove koala poop down their throats.

You may have missed it, but when you get more Baht for your Dollar, it means Dollar is doing pretty well.

I didn't miss it but maybe I was being a bit subtle - I'm only interested in the Australian dollar.

I think it's time the yanks paid for a few beers for us poor Ausies!

Sure, why not?

As a side note: Me no drink no more, but back in the day, I considered Australian beer second best in the world after German. Cooper's, that was the supreme one I remember. I'm sure that now, just like similar in the States, some of the Australian micro-breweries are amazing.

(That's it. No more replies to this thread from me for awhile. LOL).

I hope and pray that this continues, and China collapses, leading to 44 THB to the USD and NO Chinese tourists, like the good old days 12 year ago!

I assume the above was said in jest. But where's the smiley face? Anyway, the Chinese tourist situation 12 years ago was likely driven by political, not so much economic forces.

China collapses? That would be somewhat nerve-wracking for the world. And I don't get the all the acrimony regarding Chinese tourists.The older ones, yeah, maybe they're kinda loud and boorish sometimes, but I think it's because they're slightly nervous and being a tourist outside of China is relatively new to them. Haven't been to China, but maybe you gotta yell over there in the big cities just to be heard. The younger ones? They have their own social media, they know the importance of being respectful in Thailand, they ain't dummies. All the ones I've come into contact with have been very polite and friendly. And the porcelain doll vibe of most of the women? Holy cow!

I'm sure this has been said already in this here thread, but a strong dollar attracts more American tourists. And all snarky comments from the huddled masses of impoverished expats aside, the Thais want more tourists.

Perhaps Winnie and some of the others can comment on "the good old days" when THB was fixed at 25 to 1. Was it better then?

What was better? I think it was a mixed bag when it comes to pricing and exchange rates. Yes it was about 25 Baht to the USD, but pricing was also a lot lower. You'd go for dinner at The Riverside (mostly because that was by far the best place in town) and most dishes were in the 40-60 Baht range. Beverages in bars.. 15-30-40 Baht. My guesthouse room: 50 Baht. (which was cheap also then, Daret was pretty much 80 Baht/night.) Dutch Mill yogurt was 7 Baht at 7-11. A liter of Diesel: single digits.

However, other things were crazy expensive; pretty much everything imported was even crazier than now. Like buying audio equipment.. or a car.. Cars did go up in price of course, but relatively a lot less compared to basic everyday items.

Anyway, ask Gonzo, he can probably just grab the "1994" binder with prices out of his filing cabinet.

For me personally I would LOVE to go back to 25 Baht to the USD..! Not bloody likely though.

Speaking of audio equipment, I just got some real nice Sony Bluetooth headphones at Cha Chang (big electronics store) in Promenada for $124.00. They go for $150 and up in the States. Big stores here might not be raising their baht prices quickly enough to compensate for the stronger dollar. I'm thinkin bureaucratic inertia, but then there weren't three customers in that giant place on the day I went, and two of them were getting the "buy one, get one free" coffee deal at the coffee shop in the middle of the store. Maybe it's too much trouble to raise prices, just not worth it.

But the USD, yeah, on a roll. Maybe the price will spike higher soon, and as we all know, a big drop follows a spike! Timing is everything, yo? And the drop is always faster. Right now, the dollar is in an orderly, incremental rise against most currencies... Odd that, since the US is multi-trillions in debt, more than just about the whole rest of the world combined but I might be wrong about that. Just shows what clever marketing (of the America brand, LOL) can achieve.

(Interesting to note, very few farangs were wandering around Promenada. I thought maybe Immigration moving there would be good for Promenada business, but not so far. I also noticed that farangs were packing into a songthaew to come back into town, when right next to them was the free green truck that goes back and forth from a few hotels (Le Meridien, for example) in CM. Maybe they think you need to be staying at the hotels to get the free ride. You don't).

Since the locals got internet and social media - a hell of a lot more of them know exactly what old Western men marrying younger women are all about . . . thank God

LOL. The implication being they didn't know about old farang geezers and young Thai women before Facebook.

That's not what I was implying. The clue to that fact was in the use of the word "more"

Nope, cannot accept. Maybe you weren't saying it outright, but with or without the use of the word "more," you were definitely implying it.

It seems, due to their education system, perhaps, that Thais don't have the same sort of inquisitive nature as we Westerners do, but they aren't dummies.

You're welcome to your opinion

. . . however idiotic

Oh, thank you for reassuring me that I'm welcome to my opinion, I was worried for a minute.

However, in this case, I'm not expressing my opinion, I'm stating facts.

Since the locals got internet and social media - a hell of a lot more of them know exactly what old Western men marrying younger women are all about . . . thank God

LOL. The implication being they didn't know about old farang geezers and young Thai women before Facebook.

That's not what I was implying. The clue to that fact was in the use of the word "more"

Nope, cannot accept. Maybe you weren't saying it outright, but with or without the use of the word "more," you were definitely implying it.

It seems, due to their education system, perhaps, that Thais don't have the same sort of inquisitive nature as we Westerners do, but they aren't dummies.

I wince at how Westerners fail to anticipate the likelihood of situations like this developing when they decide to buy into a local family in return for shagging one of the younger female members.

The OP's not a buffalo; more of a cash cow

Sorry, but being a farang doesn't guarantee respect anymore and it never should have in the first place

Since the locals got internet and social media - a hell of a lot more of them know exactly what old Western men marrying younger women are all about . . . thank God

LOL. The implication being they didn't know about old farang geezers and young Thai women before Facebook. More likely they've heard of forums like TV where disrespectful ferners put them down constantly.

As far as the OP, sounds pretty sensitive and self-conscious. Most, but not all Thais I've come in contact with have been nice enough to me. All I need to do is be polite to them and respect their culture; simple enough.

Huh? They threatened to throw short sellers in jail! Nothing obfuscatory about that! But hey, the original question in this thread was, umm, it was about whether it's a good time to, uhh...

Yeah, the Chinese know how to handle the market: threaten to throw the shorts in jail! Hahahahah! That'll do the trick! We need a little more of that on Wall St.

Seriously though, when the Fed says OK, we will absolutely NEVER raise interest rates again, that means they're gonna do it.

They've been talking about raising interest rates for years, literally years. In my book, they won't raise them until they shut up about it.