Old Croc

Stated often here, but an obvious impossibility to insist every tourist must produce an up-to-date criminal record check every time they cross a border worldwide. Visa on arrival policies make it very easy for "bad guys" to enter a country, but expecting everyone applying for a visa to be clean also isn't foolproof.

Japanese products used to have a reputation as junk. I can remember decades ago when American space junk fell on us in Western Australia. Before it came down it caused panic in many countries around the world. Called Skylab, pieces dropped across hundreds of kilometers from the south coast near the town of Esperance. A local won a cash prize offered by a US newspaper for the first piece of the craft delivered to their office. The town fined NASA for littering. I've viewed pieces of it in a local museum.

I could give a different story. There were so many stuff ups with my house build I've thought of pulling it down and building again. I'm constantly fixing cracked walls and despairing about pathways dropping away and cracking floor tiles. There was shoddy workmanship in many different areas. Shortly after moving in, we had to hire an excavator to move the two overflowing sewage wells away from the house to areas where they could drain properly. The build did coincide with the start of covid lockdowns, and we found ourselves 1200 miles away and unable to supervise. For the same reasons, the builder had trouble finding qualified workers and compromised with dolts. I once gave some work to an expat to do some major work in a previous house. He gave the job to his unqualified BIL who made a complete mess of everything. I had to replace all he did using another Thai who actually knew what to do. It cost more than twice as much to fix. I no longer consider giving work to foreigners nor make social friends with members here. Conversely, I've had Thai workers who have done excellent work with onerous tasks and charged me about what I would spend on coffee back home.

You've never called Australians convicts? One of the few. I did quote your post about differences by region, but I was generalizing about the British. Your initial defensive post and then angry response indicates probable rancor against others.

Perhaps when the British attack all Australians or all Americans they should also be aware of the vast differences in people across these much larger and ethnically diverse countries.

Perhaps if you had bargained and made a contract to stay long term on arrival, they may have agreed to the low price right through high season. The fact that you were able to change hotels immediately indicates you were paying day by day. Few here would be surprised that prices rise in season.

It matters if their crop is on your property, and you are losing cash because you aren't planting up to the correct boundary. We had someone knock down a couple of big trees that were later found to be several meters inside our place. (We didn't complain about them clearing jungle from our land!)

Another topic that brings out both extremes. The "nothing works" people who expect infrastructure similar to their home country from which they fled. And the Theophiles who consider everything here is perfect and if not, it shouldn't be stated. I've lived here for a while now and know the actual lies somewhere between those extremes. I've certainly suffered the frustration of trying to make government (Immigration, CDC) and business (retailers, banks) websites work in a reasonable manner and also mainly blame a lack of competency of operators schooled through a broken education system. On the job training rather than formal qualifications perpetuates incompetency's in workers everywhere. However, not everything remains inoperable, they are capable of getting things right eventually. For example, the Immigration 90-day report site is now brilliant, albeit based on a ludicrous law. I completed my report in a couple of minutes yesterday morning without getting out of bed (getting chilly lately!). It's difficult at times to find competent people to do relatively simple tasks, but they do it for peanuts compared to the champagne prices of tradesmen back home. You just need to work though the mire until they get it right and use the money saved to buy champagne for yourself.

We surveyed the main property earlier this year. We could only locate 2 pegs from about ten that should have been there. There were some anomalies involving previous owners. Our land is above the one in question and apparently the other owner said something like "it would be easier if we just called the top of the rise as the boundary" and moved the old pegs up or disposed of them. The boundary was found to be a couple of meters down the slope. We've now put concrete posts all around and cemented in the ones on corners along with the pegs.

It's happened to several over the years: 2004 - 19yo Canadian, 2011 - 20 yo Brit, Tourist dies as Phuket floods (thephuketnews.com)

He's not above social conflicts with expats as he's made detrimental and insulting comments about them in the press. He was also instrumental in introducing the backdated, corrupt and compulsory health scheme for one class of visa holder. Of course, expats aren't voting participants.

He's posted this, and another pic, on several different unrelated topics. Strange.

Not many get cremated twice.

It's not just Google, others are making it annoying to log in. Lazda for instance now requires an email code check.

It appears he hasn't been able to meet the retirement extension financial requirements for some time and has been using an agent to get extensions. (Perhaps since some Embassies refused to certify income?) He departed, returned, then overstayed without seemingly being aware of the basic legal requirements for long term stay. Apparently now, he cannot even afford the "dodgy" agent method. Border bouncing also appears to be outside his physical and financial ability. I wonder if he even has provision for health emergencies. Incidentally, there are many of us expats in our 70s, and older, who have a very good grasp of the requirements to live here and are also au fait with phone and computer use. Advanced age doesn't automatically beget befuddlement. In my opinion NancyL has the best plan for his future, although, if he has family ties here prepared to care for him, perhaps the thought of just lying low might work (not recommended).

No street lighting in the countryside. The highways must be littered with legless riders. Actual, thinking about it...............

Wife bought home a bag of quail eggs from the local market a couple of days ago. Ha some boiled for breakfast yesterday. (Loei)

No such thing.

For information. Copy of self-explanatory email from Medibank. Dear ......., I am writing to provide you with a further update on the cybercrime, which is subject to a criminal investigation by the Australian Federal Police (AFP). From the very start, we have committed to being transparent about what we know, and how it impacts you. We understand you’ve left Medibank, but we are writing to former customers to alert them to this incident because customer data – both current and former – is our highest priority. Unfortunately, it is now clear that the criminal has taken data that belongs to Medibank customers, in addition to that of ahm and international student customers. This is a distressing development and I unreservedly apologise. What's happened We have received a series of additional files from the criminal. We have been able to determine that this includes: A copy of the file received last week containing 100 ahm policy records – including personal and health claims data A file of a further 1,000 ahm policy records – including personal and health claims data Files which contain some Medibank and additional ahm and international student customer data Given the complexity of what we have received, it is too soon to determine the full extent of the customer data that has been stolen. We will continue to analyse what we have received to understand the total number of customers impacted, and specifically which information has been stolen. As we continue to investigate the scale of this cybercrime, we expect the number of affected customers to grow as this unfolds. What we are doing I know you'll be anxious to hear whether your personal data has been taken as part of this event. While we cannot provide that clarity today, our teams are working around the clock to verify the full extent of the data that has been stolen. If we find your data has been stolen, we will notify you, by email, as soon as we can. Until this verification process is complete, unfortunately our contact centre and retail teams will not have access to further information on whether your data has been stolen. You can visit our website for our most recent updates, answers to frequently asked questions, as well as a reminder of the further resources available. Our contact centre team is available on 13 23 31 to answer other questions that you may have. It’s important to remain vigilant to suspicious communications received via email, text or phone call, and I encourage you to review the valuable information offered by the Australian Cyber Security Centre, including clear advice on how to further protect yourself. I want to thank you again for your continued understanding as we work through this event. Regards, David Koczkar Chief Executive Officer, Medibank

True. We have farm properties totaling about 20 rai in Loei Province. Finding locals to do almost anything is very difficult. Those not fitting the description above, are either too old, too involved with minding grandkids or too busy with their own land holdings. Labour is almost impossible to find. I'm worried how our 6 rai of ripening corn will be picked and packed by just the wife. I do what I can from my wheelchair, such as cutting lawns, weed control, fish feeding, etc., to the amusement of passersby, but have no qualms about anyone getting officious about the legality. When active at all, the police are mainly concerned about the amount of yaba being funneled through the local highways or the antics of local users.

Why are visas on arrival only available at entry points?

Photos can be deceiving. They anchor about 1 1/2 kms out in deep water. They don't dock at a pier as stated in the OP. Passengers are ferried in.

Surprisingly large and newly built to be on the Singapore run. Tonnage even higher than the QM2.

Thailand is not a signatory to the Convention so even with these new policy guidelines (see link) many genuine claimants are still not guaranteed succor in this country: (Refugee advocates fear that, with all the possible exemptions, the program “could be the mechanism that screens people out instead of screening people in”)

In his first post, to which I was responding, he stated he did have such an extension. It's easy to be clever after the actual situation is explained in a later post.