Spilornis

Immigration booths are so old school. Even Bali now has e gates The wait has now moved onto baggage claim which even in Singapore is still around 20 minutes post gate arrival. At least you can usually find a seat to relax and check your emails etc. The measurement is aero gate arrival to kerbside plus in many instances ease of trip to hotel etc

I now rank airports on the ease of ingress and egress plus their proximity to hotels at a reasonable price. This allows me to break up the long journeys into more comfortable legs. Singapore is by miles on top with its electronic immigration and uncluttered self check in but of course it fails the cheap hotel test. KL is getting much better as they expand their e gates but self check in is slightly chaotic. Hearing good things about Dubai. If and when Delhi does e gates etc it could be a great stopover given the easy rail access to AeroCity which is full of reasonably priced hotels. Would be interested to hear from others which airports they like if breaking your journey for a day or two

Interesting as all of snake, goana and iguana are (or were) eaten in their home countries. Could be their diet which makes the meat taste off

If not more Both manufacturers have full order books for around the next 13 years. Many of the buyers in the queue are leasing companies. Will be interesting to know of they have committed lessees or will they lease to the highest bidder. There's always the Chinese plane but it will be ten years at least before it makes an impact outside China. Then there's the issue of ten hour plus flights using single aisle planes in an LCC seating set up. Squeezy to say the least. Indian airlines particularly IndiGo have big orders on these planes which will dramatically change Indian air travel.

Sounds reasonable given that Malaysia has done much the same and has severely restricted Singapore buses from entering Malaysia. Completely different to Europe where it's common to see UK buses in Europe and vice versa even though their steering wheels and passenger exits are on the "wrong" side. Having crossed the Thai border in my car a few times it's certainly harder getting your car in out than oneself

The average holiday period for working couples these days is a week. Often less From Europe why would you come to Thailand. One day to Bangkok and one more day to your destination island/resort. Thailand competes with so many destinations closer to Europe. Turkey and Egypt for example not to mention Spain and Greece. From USA the competition is Mexico and the Caribbean not to mention that from the East coast Europe is much closer than Thailand. American retirees who have more time are a massive market but what does Thailand do to attract this crowd who I like to call bubble tourists. (bubble in the sense that they fear independent travel).

Indian horn use is considered good driving in the sense that it signals awareness to other drivers. I agree though it makes me mad with the over use of horns

Who even tests or reports these days in most countries? What is driving a different approach in Thailand

One of the joys of Asia is the barber shave. Each country has its slight variant. They are all great but perhaps my favourite is Bangladesh and Kolkata which both share Bengali history. What makes it special is the use of a crystal when the shave is complete to rub all over your face. While the crystal is room temperature its interaction with your skin is such that it feels that your face is being rubbed by a block of ice. Can't say I love the ear cleaning in Vietnam. Such joy for around US$1 or 2

A very good friend had a close friend who died a couple of years back after a long illness. For his final weeks he was in palliative care His cause of death was listed as covid. Long before that I had ceased to be moved by covid death numbers where they were not accompanied by co-morbidity or even age data. I'm a big believer in science and vaccines but the post December 2020 reaction to covid didn't cover governments or the medical fraternity with glory. To see that continuing in 2025 is amazingly disappointing

It's a gimmick... "Hundreds of Aussies have turned up to vote without pants. Australian swimwear brand Budgy Smuggler put a call out on social media earlier this week encouraging people to “exercise their constitutional right to vote without pants on”. The company offered a free pair to anyone voting in their smugglers and posting a photo with the hashtag #SmugglersDecide." https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/why-aussies-are-voting-on-election-day-with-no-pants-on/news-story/02f376617dbeb1e1fdc7b6c032bf7cc2 It worked. Media all around the world have picked up the photos. There were a lot.

In India where the prices to national monuments and museums is around ten times the price of local entry the foreigner tickets are highly regulated and tracked to avoid re-use. The usual means is electronic scanning of a QR code. FYI the usual admission charge for a foreigner is around 200 baht with the Taj Mahal being 400 baht. My main gripe is that it is the same price (200 baht) for the "lesser" places which means you quite often give them a miss. A weekly ticket for say 1000 baht would be great but imagine the fraud. (Then again some countries mange tickets like this with potos on the tickets etc

What you say is true and often quoted for both China and India. What is not often analysed is what the Chinese/Indian middle class want from a tourist destination. From what I read domestic tourism in China and India is going strongly (prior to Trump's tariffs at least). One thought that strikes me re Chinese tourism is that they have become used to an "internet environment" including payment systems that is completely Chinese. Perhaps Thailand needs to include that environment if it hasn't done so already. Also there's the dreaded influencers who are enormous in shaping Chinese short term habits. At the end of the day I think the wealthier tourist just wants to feel safe, comfortable and welcome

Kerala or Karnataka is where most expats go. Kerala has a significant Christian community and is known locally as Gods own country. Easy to get a five year visa allowing you to stay 180 days each calendar year. India's not for everyone but have a visit by all means Understand the local weather. 50 degrees in summer is common in many parts including Delhi. Air quality can be very bad. Although India is not much bigger than Thailand as a landmass it's enormous when you're there

Normal for an ex parte injunction. May even have been that Nestle didn't want to submit to the jurisdiction preferring to enforce the foreign arbitration order in its favour. Jurisdictional fights are the norm if you have enough money