ronnie50

While I don't doubt your point, I think you need to review each of the board of directors - and their previous careers. By 'apolitical' I didn't mean just the Thai 'government' - there are other HiSo players from the establishment that make high-level closed-door decisions in this country (as I'm pretty sure you already know).

You notice there is never a cure discovered - for anything? Only treatments that commercially-backed 'science' always advance - and in doing so become more expensive. The politicians are in this up to their neck to keep it that way too, bankrolled by big pharma. RFK's ditching of research into mRNA work - especially for cancer - is yet another example of this relationship. No money to be made in cures.

Many Thai husbands have Mia Nois - and sometimes more than one Mia Noi. There used to be a joke years back - 'Western guys often talk about having a fling, but rarely do; while Thai guys often have flings but rarely talk about it.'

Disco and pop/new-wave nearly killed hard rock in the 80s due to a huge push by the entertainment industry. But because hard rock is so resilient and has so many die-hard fans that continued to buy albums and fill concert arenas, disco and new wave were consecutive flashes in the pan. Hard rock still has a huge following, and many of the bands have transcended generations of followers.

I've seen Bush's at Big-C 'foreign imports' aisle - I think at Villa too. Will give them a try. The Ayem local brand seems ok - including the lower sugar version. Certainly cheaper. BTW, is Foodland EVER going to open a new location in Bangkok ? (I like their Took Lae Dee lunch counter). Nearest one to me is at The Street on Ratchadapisek - but it's still a bit far away. Foodland doesn't have as much western food as Villa, but they are better than others, and a bit better value.

To be fair to the OP though, I know the area that bar is in. It's in the Khao San Road vicinity - probably a five minute walk from that bar. So it's backpacker area.

A Chang at 160 baht is fairly normal for an upmarket joint. Heineken is around 180-200 at upmarket places. IMO Chang and Singh suck. And Leo is pure dishwater. Glad Heineken is around. Carlsberg if necessary. Heineken draft is the best IMO - the pubs on Soi Nana sometimes have a price war for draft at happy hour - as low as 99-119 baht for a pint of Heini.

Exactly. But you need to keep a close watch on the number of empties otherwise..

Anyway, if I understand the replies correctly, the Senate re-jigged it, and the finally approved bill affects only foreign cash transfers and the like.. so Western Union and that kind of thing. So as long as a Filipino or an Indian or a Chinese has a US bank account s/he can send a wire transfer to their family back home and the 1% doesn't affect them (either), right?

As most U.S. Citizens livng here will know by now, Trump's 'big beautiful bill' has a built-in foreign remittance tax of 1% for sending money overseas (e.g. U.S. bank wire transfer to Thailand - 1% tax deducted as a remittance fee by the government, in addition to bank/transfer fees). Takes affect Jan 1, 2026. There are some limited caveats and workarounds - Wise claims to be one of the workarounds (I guess as you are storing money in the Wise cloud so it doesn't appear to be leaving the U.S.?) More breakdown here: https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/07/what-the-new-remittance-transfer-excise-tax-means-for-businesses

Funny how all the Trump supporters are out in full force talking down this poll and the whole Epstein List thing in general. They forget - Epstein groomed underage girls, he was well-known for that, and his client list would tell us which rich and powerful guys were diddling his young teen female recruits. We know Trump was buddies with him, we know many other high flyers were too. Oh, but if this was a post about PizzaGate pedos, you couldn't shut these guys up - even when it was proved to be a bat-sh!t-crazy tinfoil conspiracy.

Was thinking the same. Pretty clever of Chang to market its 'premium' green bottles of water in the firrst place, though. Heineken should do the same with its Heineken 0.0.

In March. we (family and I) were returning from a holiday and hailed a Grab on the app claiming it was 5 minutes away. Turned out the driver was nowhere near us (we were at Don Meung airport). We waited around 25 minutes for the guy to show up. More recently, I was at an event in central Bangkok and hailed a Grab Taxi on the app, again indicating just 5 minutes away. I was at a hotel lobby, and the concierge had to talk to the driver who couldn't find his way. Some 20 minutes after that, watching on the app as the guy went around and around in circles, the driver cancelled the ride. I headed to the BTS.

As if to underscore the idiocy of the whole ongoing conflict, is the muted conversation about the temples themselves - which were Hindu, not Buddhist - when they were built.

She needs to call an election, before the oligarchs and others who run this country exclusively for themselves have their coup. If, she does call an election, and the above try to interfere with the election (again) through their various methods, it will be obvious - and they'll pay a heavy price for that this time around IMO. An election is really the only thing that can save Thailand at this stage - much as Thaksin and the ultra-right fear it.

I understand the likelihood of getting taxed on a foreign pension transfered here because it's seen as a remittance under the current system. And I can understand it might be taxed twice if the source country deducts tax already there. What would be a scenario of triple taxed?

Whatever their denials, THAI is not 'apolitical' - just look at its board of directors. So it's very possible that the Boeing purchase/promise is political. Hasn't dropped the tariffs though has it? I'm also sceptical about the pledge to buy Grippen fighters from Sweden. It wouldn't suprise me at all if the change suddenly to US fighter planes. Maybe then the tariffs on other things will ease.

No way Thailand would try that (or agree to do so as a proxy with pressure coming from elsewhere). The geopolitical stakes are too high. Everyone knows China is the backer of Cambodia and Myanmar. Thailand needs to stay in good books with China.

The article mentions Vietnam but that's about it. I don't think you can compare Japan with Thailand. They are two distinctly different destinations - with different kinds of tourists. Vietnam and Thailand are much better comparitors. But I didn't notice the latest numbers of VN vs Thailand.

Yes, but for what end...

Yes, it should normally just be dying down by now, and a lot of the claims are complete nonsense. You can see by the Thai media's daily non-stop repeating of propaganda they are fed that there must be another reason to keep this thing alive. But maybe same is going in in Cambodia - who knows.

I wonder if we'll ever find out why this happened (was it a deliberate ploy to create a dramatic incident for a completely different reason) and who shot first. We'll probably never know. Just like the fire in Central World and the photos of the multi-floor hanging cement and rebars that were clearly caused by an explosion, not molitov cocktails thrown at it by red shirts - we'll never be told the truth.

Yes, there is a different agenda going on that's for sure - trying to stretch this out as long as they can. Anything more than 150 combatants (or fewer) on the Cambodian side and 20-30 on the Thai side sounds more like it. First casualty of war is truth.

It's the same in most western countries as far as I am aware. You need to be a resident there to get/renew a driving license. Like many others away for many, many years, I used a relative's address to renew. But the last time I tried that, the licensing authority woman asked me if I had a driving license 'anywhere else in the world'. The message was clear. So I let my renewed home country license eventually expire. There are good reasons to follow the rules too. The first reason is taxation. For countries that base income tax on your residency status, if you claim to be a non-resident for tax purposes, possession of a local driving license in that country is a smoking gun, and can be used as a primary indicator that you are indeed a resident (under their interpretation). The second reason is using that home country license to rent a car anywhere in the world, knowing you are not a resident of the place where you hold that license, can backfire badly in an accident. Lot's of people use them to rent, and I used to do so as well, until I realized that if you get into an accident (especially if your fault) the first thing the rental company's claims adjuster 'could' do (and should do) is check to see if the renter really lives where he says he does on the license. If the claims adjuster finds out you live in Thailand and not London or Frankfurt, then he can void your insurance because the license is technically not valid. I know many do this anyway without any issues, but you run a big risk. Nowadays, I only rent a car worldwide on my Thai DL. In many places in the US, Canada and Europe, the license becomes invalid after a certain period of living away. Each authority has a different grace period - usually 3-6 months.

The lunatics are now truly and clearly running the asylum. It's more than frightening to be honest, because the Trump lunatics, particularly Trump himself, still have another three years to continue their downward cognitive cycles, while still unilaterally holding the nuclear trigger. Meantime, RFK (no stranger to brain-eating disease himself), just canceled half-a-billion in funding for new mRNA vaccines.