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She speaks good English, is young and looks good. What’s not to like? Once the crazy settles down she might be worth a second look.

Out of curiosity I took the new version of the Chiang Mai RTC Bus this morning. There are three lines: 24A, 24B and 24C. I took 24B: 1. Picks up was at One Nimman and destination was the airport 2. Fare was 50 Baht’ 3. The Buses are smaller than the blue buses which were used before the pandemic. The AC was working fine and at 1000 AM I was the only passenger. Apparently ridership is rather low. 4. The journey was about 20 minutes. Traffic was somewhat heavy mainly due to road construction and because of TIT an ambulance going Code 3 was cutoff by a couple of drivers while it was trying to get to Suan Doak Hospital. Nothing new there. 5. The timing of the buses is something I have not figure out yet. At this point the only times posted appear to be when the buses start from the Aiport. It looks this is still a work in progress and hope to see improvements as times goes by. I rode on the blue buses quite a lot before the pandemic.

Same here. Over a 20 year span many times. Some people did not like getting handcuffed and certainly did not want to go to jail. A guy I used to work had part of his ear ripped off by an unhappy customer.

The US has other ways for gambling addicts to get even worse. 1) Sports betting is getting almost out of control 2) Lottery tickets can be bought in most states 3) Once your son turns 18 he can legally go into any casino. The US has more casinos in more states than most countries. Many of the Casinos not in Vegas or Atlantic City are technically on Indian Reservations. Once he gets to the US maybe a call to Gamblers Anonymous might be worth it. Good luck because an addict will always be an addict.

3 years ago I had the combo(Gastro and Colonoscopy). Had a polyp removed and biopsy was done. Back then the total came to 39000. Probably I will do the same sometime 2025 if I am still in CNX. I have had two Gastro's and one Colonoscopy at Ram Gastrol and so far no complaints. In 2019 the Gatrol was 17,000.

From Chiang Mai Ram:

Just got a call from an 877 number. The caller sounded very professional and knew my name and was a USAA Member. I knew right away it was a scam and told him Fxxx Oxx. I then called USAA Fraud and got this reply. Go to the USAA website and send us an email with the details of this fraud call. What a relief. USAA Fraud now can go back to denying my legitimate charges whenever I use a foreign merchant. In the past my attempt to pay for a Visa on the E-Visa site was always declined to due fraud. ????? I had to switch to debit card in order to pay for the visa.

Been with USAA since 1988. The downward spiral of USAA began with the hiring of Wayne Peacock as CEO. Peacock has no military experience or association. I have not been hacked (at least not yet) but getting simple things done with USAA credit cards has been difficult. Their entire fraud detection alert system. is a catastrophic failure. I tried to book a domestic fight on Thai Airways with my USAA Visa credit card. I got a fraud alert on the USAA app and a text message asking "did you make this purchase?". I replied Yes both time and it still got declined. I am not surprised at JimGant is going through.

I flew in Monday night from Incheon S. Korea. The plane was about 70% full but immigration at CNX only took about 20 minutes to get through. Got out of the airport 45 minutes after landing. Really did not see huge crowds the last two days. I guess the surge will occur for Lunar New Year?

The Southern Border?

I don’t know but I just got back to CNX after spending two months back in So Cal. First the good things: 1) Gas was under $4 a gallon. 2) Got a cheeseburger fries and a drink at my favorite In N out for $9 3) Got my usual Charles Shaw wine at Trader Joe’s for $3.49(no longer two buck chuck) but it was still a great bargain. Now the bad: Tried to get a haircut for almost a week and just about every barber shop in my old neighborhood was booked solid for almost a week. These barbershops now charge anywhere from $17 to $25 for a simple men’s haircut. Found a homeless guy sleeping in the hallway of the hotel I was staying in. I was paying $140 a night and it was not great. I saw more and more homeless people camped out on the sidewalks of my old neighborhood. I grew up in the city of Torrance and it was always considered to be a solid middle class neighborhood. The most shocking thing I saw was a job poster at a local Panda Express(for those who have never been to Panda and it is the most popular fast Chinese outlet in the US). The starting pay at Panda is now $20 per hour. Conversely a two item combo plate is now $12 dollars. The days of lunch at Panda for $8 is long gone. A plain bagel at one of my favorite places was $2.89. I wonder how does the average person survive? The macro economic data announced by the Biden administration sounds really great. GDP at over 3%, 300K in news jobs and the stock market at over 38,000 means little for those in the middle to lower end of society. Wal Mart, Targer and Dollar Tree were all very crowed. Other stores were not very busy. If Trump gets convicted any of the charges pending by November then I guess “game over”. In 2016 I did not vote for Trumps and in 2020 I did not vote for either. Life looks tough for most people I spoke to in So Cal. Really don’t know how many will vote and for who.

At least two barbershop in CNX that I know of charge 200 Baht. I will not complain about CNX prices because last week I paid $35 for a haircut at a barbershop in Southern California

The counter to this argument would be those on Non O or OA spend money while in LOS as well. I would venture to guess some on O or an OA would spend more money while residing in LOS. I am an OA and Pacific Cross in Bangkok(A Thai Insurance company is very happy when I pay my annual premium without filing a claim).

A school that is aware of what Immigration might be thinking would discourage people over a certain age from applying for an Education Visa. A few year ago I knew a person in CNX who was almost 60 and tried to obtain an Education Visa but the school advised him a Non O Retirement Visa would be a better. The school even directed him to a local agency to obtain the Non O. This person has been extending the same Retirement Visa for the last 5 yeas with the same agency. In this case the school did him a huge favor.

Have you been to Los Angeles County lately? Have you been to San Francisco lately? It is not pretty. What people say on a survey can be different than what they actually feel or do. Of course I know families that have one, two and even three Tesla's and they rarely feel much pain. When I was working and was making a lot of money I felt none of the pain that I see. Why is the US economy so strong? What about the 31+ trillion in national debt? California has a 68+ Billion budget deficit and no one seems to care. This is concerning to me because my retirement pay comes out of Sacramento. "Empirical Data" does not feed you. I went to three other barber shops in the same area and they were all busy. All asked me to make an appointment for next weeks because they charged the bargain price of only $20 per haircut. Also, for the first time I was offered $100 dollar bills when I withdrew money from a Bank of America ATM; I guess a $20 dollar bill just is not enough. Money or lack of money has always been the great equalizer. Just imagine if welfare payments, SSA, SSI or SSID payments are delayed? i know many who rely on those payments to get by.

I have been back in So Cal for the past two months and I can say categorically these allegedly positive economic numbers mean nothing to most Americans. “GDP grew at 3%” and “335,000 jobs added”(most were probably for Christmas). What does this got to with the cost of lunch. The cheapest lunch out for me was $10 dollars. The average was around $15 to $17 dollars. The only stores that’s were full of shoppers were 1) Wal Mart 2) Target 3) Dollar Tree 4) 99 Cent Store. I took a stroll through a local Kohl’s and it was like a ghost town. The local people I spoke to had the look of despair and most just wanted to make it to pay day or the end of the month. Even with some fast food places offering entry level job at $20 per dollar an hour many people looked somewhat anxious. It looked like those fast food places that started out at $20+ per hour were operating with a limited number of employees. The most interesting person I spoke to was a barber. The barber just opened up his shop and came from Vietnam 10 years ago. He said “ I never knew life would be so hard in America and my wife just wants to back to Vietnam”. HIs barber shop charges $25 for a man’s haircut and he was just barely getting by. I will never say anything bad about the 150 Baht haircut I am used to getting a local shop in Chiang Mai. For the first time in my life I fear the future of America. I fear some kind of internal conflict will be triggered not by politics but economics. I hope I am wrong. I look forward to going back to LOS.

Eric Clapton's son, Connor, was also four when he died in a similar way. The song "Tears in Heaven" was written as a tribute.

Not surprised by the Chinse but how the British Police Officer responded was surprising.

1. Which Embassy/Consulate are you dealing with? 2. Have you set up an account with: thaievisa.go.th ?

Last time I flew TG to the US was back in 2013. They were flying a B777-300 ER and the routing was BKK-ICN-LAX. The stop in ICN was about 2 hours. I do not see TG ever flying to the US again.

Yup. 340. Thai offered a great Premium Economy back then for just slightly more than Economy.

Last time I flew BKK to LAX nonstop was back in 2008. It was on Thai Airways on an A350-400. The plane was half empty because of the amount fuel needed to fly almost 9,000 miles nonstop. I believe Air Canada is planning a Vancouver to BKK in the near future.

Many times with Singapore on the A350-900. As a passenger it was a nicer experience. The EVA 777 from TPE-LAX and back was nice back in 2018. The last two times I have used Korean Air from CNX to LAX (CNX to ICN on an older A330 and ICN to LAX on a A380). So far KAL has been good. Round trip economy is usually around $1,000 (give or take $50). I prefer KAL KE 17 because it arrives at 0940.

Possibly. I am currently renting a Hertz vehicle from LAX. They were pushing a Tesla at check-in. I am renting a Nissan Altima and the Tesla was 30% cheaper. When I made the reservation the cheapest car available was the Tesla. Even the lowly Chevy Spark was more expensive than the Tesla.

A criminal background would ease any concerns. One can pay for such a background check. If the DUI was a misdemeanor (most DUI's are) the records in most cases are not retained for 30 years.