sambum

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Maybe their figures in this post have been taken from the wrong out of date source, then:- "Despite concerns surrounding China’s current real estate market downturn, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) remains optimistic about its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.

"Lunch is usually on a staggered time between 11 and 2" Correct, so the employee can purchase beer during those hours - doesn't give much time to cool it down in the refrigerator! However, not everybody that drinks has beer as their preferred tipple! I would imagine that among Thais, SangSom will come pretty high up the list! The reason I heard was to stop schoolchildren from buying booze on their way home after school, which I suppose makes a bit of sense, but not a lot - all that would be required would be for shop owners/supermarkets to not sell to schoolchildren - easily recognisable by their uniforms, or if not in uniform, check their ID for proof of age:- "You should note that the minimum drinking age in Thailand is 18 years old. In addition, alcohol beverages can only be sold to a person who is at least 20 years old. If you sell alcohol to an underage person, you may be subject to a criminal penalty of up to 1 year imprisonment and/or up to a THB20,000 fine." The problem is, it needs the law to be enforced, and I am sure that there are plenty of "momma/corner shops" that turn a blind eye as well as lots of BIB that realise there is no "tea money" to be had from your average schoolkid! In any case, if the UK is anything to go by, the kids will always find a friendly adult to get them a "carry out"!

Lucky you! I was told that if my new passport didn't arrive in time for my 90 day report (7 days leeway) I would have to pay a fine of 2000 baht!

"........ the prohibition on sales of alcoholic beverages between 2 PM and 5 PM" Absolutely RIDICULOUS law! What was even more ridiculous in some stores, was having a girl at the checkout at the entrance to the "liquor" department watching the unwary stock up, only to tell them "no can have"!!!

"they are too enegetic to do labor themselves............" As for the rest of your post - ???????????? I presume you mean "energetic", but I also think you've picked the wrong word - do you not mean "lazy"?

Yes the rules, fair or unfair, might be designed to avoid too large "tourists" numbers. Unbelievable - try telling that to TAT!!!

"I don't consider Thailand as easiest in the world for tourists." Or for expats!

"........a Russian who overstayed six days but is also facing charges of cryptocurrency fraud amounting to US$72,700 (around 2.5 million baht) and not paying the bills for accommodation and food totalling 66,255 baht." And so it begins! Expect more of these type of stories in the near future - I don't blame them for running away from the war, but there'll be many Russians running out of money, and not being able to afford to pay their bills. Next step is they turn to crime to enable them to stay here, but I suspect it will be a problem that will not only exist in Thailand!

I've been retired in Thailand for almost 20 years - retirement visa (Sorry, extension of visa based on retirement) for a few years, and for the rest of it, based on marriage to a Thai national. Only problem is that my UK pension is "frozen" due to Thailand not having a "reciprocal" agreement with the UK ???? ????

Described as a "Foreign man" throughout the post! (a) Can't be British, then? (b) "The names of the foreign man and his girlfriend were not released by Pattaya police, noting an ongoing investigation." Speechless!