sambum

There's a fair chance that if it's a Brit or an Aussie, their nationality is mentioned - otherwise it's quite often put down as "a foreigner", hence the impression that Brits or Aussies are more often the main offenders.

"Meths"? That's a paint thinner! I presume you mean "meth" (Commonly known as "Methamphetamine" Anyway, you're right - ganja gets a bad press, because normally it has a sedative effect. I remember way back in the 60's, if you smoked "pot" (ganja), you were immediately assumed by family (and some friends who didn't know better) to be a drug addict. Fortunately, things appear to have changed for the better recently!

Wow! What a lot of words to not give an explanation or meaning to a 2 word description!

"His fall appeared to have caused extensive damage to the car’s front glass" Well who would have thought that a body falling 6 floors could do that?

UPDATE: POLICE said a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher that exploded during a fire drill at a secondary school in Bangkok killing one student and injuring 29 others was a reusable one but not fitted with a safety valve, Thai Rath and Matichon newspapers said.

Not good news for Thais or ex pats. To attract more doctors the obvious answer is to make the job more attractive financially, and that would partly be funded by charging farangs even more for medical services. A friend of mine has just been told by a doctor at the local Government Hospital that if he requires a certain treatment he can expect to pay double that which a Thai pays. And that is at a Government Hospital - Private Hospitals will probably charge substantially more.

"He emphasized that these actions flagrantly violate the law, jeopardizing public safety, lives, and property, tarnishing the nation's reputation, and involving foreign criminal elements exploiting both Thai and foreign nationals while using Thailand as a base for illicit activities." For selling a few bits and pieces on a roadside stall on Sukhumvit? ???? P.S. Not one "farang" among 'em! Yippee!

Only one comment to make about your post above, because you seem to accept all the official data rather than the facts that fly in your face when you walk down the street which is this:- "And, once again, observations of empty bars, restaurants, hotels, etc., in your 'neck of the woods'---wherever that might be and whether accurate or not .........." implies that I am a liar and consequently I will have no further discussion with you and you are going on my "Ignored" list.

Stupid to have a bag worth that much money anyway! Was it decorated with gold coins like the rhinestones on Liberace's piano?

I can beat that - a "blind singing" beggar at the end of the main street, round a corner out of sight (pun intended) counting his evenings takings!

Yes, the young flower sellers are back in my neck of the woods, when they should be tucked up in bed readying themselves for school in the morning!

"You can't, however, make the leap that if 'they ain't here' they must not be anywhere else, either,...." I didn't - TAT said that they were "elsewhere" as I stated earlier - "Ooop North"! "An empty bar is just that--an empty bar.........." But taken in context, with all the other empty bars, the empty restaurants, the empty hotels, and empty streets, the message would appear to be that "things were quiet"! And let's face it, even the Chinese/Asians have to eat and stay somewhere? Oh, I forgot - you said they were all over Thailand - yes? (P.S. I am actually quite glad that the Chinese in particular were not swarming over my neck of the woods!), I must admit to being a bit of a cynic as far as "data" is concerned, especially from TAT, because I have seen too many U turns in their figures to class them as a reliable source - and before you ask - no, I do not have any examples to hand, because they went strangely quiet over the "Covid years", and we were talking about 2019 figures?

"............it has been blatantly obvious from the empty streets, hotels and bars that their figures were way off the mark." I don't need "data" - that's where the doubt creeps in! I go by the above - not "an empty bar", and the testament of quite a few bar owners, hoteliers etc who said that if there are so many tourists, where are they all, because "they ain't here"!!! "Lies, damned lies and statistics" (Mark Twain)

Maybe their figures in this post have been taken from the wrong out of date source, then:- "Despite concerns surrounding China’s current real estate market downturn, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) remains optimistic about its prospects of attracting 5 million tourists from the Asian country in 2021. Hmm? 2021, I thought that was a bad year for tourism worldwide? I have seen posts in the past (pre Covid) where TAT have been trumpeting their success about so called tourist numbers, and it has been blatantly obvious from the empty streets, hotels and bars that their figures were way off the mark. Their justification (from memory) was that people weren't staying in the tourist resorts, they were going "oop North" to see and stay in "the proper Thailand" to investigate its culture by "visiting temples and places of cultural heritage" ????

"TAT aims for 5 million visitors despite real estate woes" Another TAT dream in the making? Why do they consistently give ridiculously exorbitant estimates? (Don't answer that!) I think most people who have been here for a while are used to TAT's nonsensical claims!

"The House of Representatives has 500 members, of which 400 are elected through single member constituency elections, while the other 100 are chosen through party lists parallel voting." (From Wikipedia)

Year after year we hear the same story with the script changed only slightly - you could almost "copy and paste" and use every year!

Headline:-"Immigration Division 1 Mobilizes Forces to Sweep Out Overstaying Foreigners in Bangkok" First paragraph of post:- "..... cracking down on foreign nationals with Interpol arrest warrants or engaged in inappropriate behavior while residing in Thailand." So, all overstaying foreigners are either wanted by Interpol, or guilty of "inappropriate behaviour" (multitude of sins!) (And yes, I did read the rest of the post!)

"......the CCTV footage had been deleted, leaving the officers without concrete evidence of the assault." Thais being pro active? Now that's a first (No, probably not - I quite often see reports of "CCTV not work" or as in the above "CCTV for yesterday gone". Can they not be prosecuted for destroying evidence? And since when is sticking your finger into a woman's vagina "part of the normal massage process"? Officers from Chana Songkham Police Station believe that the attempted rape accusation reported by a Japanese woman was a result of a misunderstanding. now resolved due to "negotiations" (tea money handed over) between the police and the shop owner, and the Japanese woman didn't understand Thai massage "techniques". ????

Dried up?

"...........a yearly visa renewal is maybe one day inconvenience per year" In my neck of the woods, a visa renewal is NEVER a "one day inconvenience"! I know of one guy who had to go back and forth 8 (EIGHT!) times in order to satisfy an over zealous pedantic young I.O.! (And don't give me that old herring about "he should have got it right in the first place". The things he was asked to do/obtain/provide weren't even on the local Immigration "checklist" which also quite often differs from the Head Office official recommendations.)

"The bar workers were seen largely outnumbering the tourists" No surprise there at all! "and they also reportedly tried to bash the tourists with a rock." Must have been a boulder!!!

Just hazarding a guess - arguing over the price of a drink with 2 straws? Or maybe wanted 2 for the price of 1? ????

Looks like he's given up on wearing trendy designer label gear in order to appeal to the younger generation - talk about mutton dressed as lamb! I think the MFP have got the monopoly on that one - and looks!

You never mentioned people that are not working, you talked about people's normal or staggered lunch hours.