BKKBike09

Surely the key point is that when China opens its borders in a couple of days, there won't be millions of Chinese immediately coming to Thailand: there simply isn't the air travel capacity for that. And surely policy makers worldwide can draw on previous experience since 2020 to understand that it doesn't matter what restrictions are in place, a very transmissible virus will always spread. Restrictions just slow that down. Possibly that was helpful for allowing a window to 'vaccinate' more of the vulnerable, but now? This isn't 2020. As long as governments don't use an influx of Chinese to maintain / reintroduce broader restrictions, I say let them travel freely. It's ironic that the Thai government is also now talking about how there's no need to be worried / frightened by covid any longer, yet still pushing the language and symbols of fear: "wear a mask, social distance where you can, have regular boosters".

Got to love China's foreign ministry spokesman saying this with a straight face ... But earlier on Wednesday, Wang Wenbin, China's foreign minister spokesman, accused Western countries and media of "hyping up" and "distorting China's Covid policy adjustments". He said China believed all countries' Covid responses should be "science-based and proportionate", and should "not affect normal people-to-people exchange". Mr Wang called for "joint efforts to ensure safe cross-border travel, maintain stability of global industrial supply chains and promote economic recovery and growth". "science-based and proportionate" ... "not affect normal people-to-people exchange" ... from a country that until a month ago was blindly implementing the most draconian restrictions. As you sow, so shall you reap.

Nicely spotted. Also, appropriately festive (Turkey at Christmas n' all that).

He doesn't look like such a bad a$$ in this pic. As other posters have rightly commented, wearing that jacket constitutes a serious offence in itself. Credit: Sophon Cable TV https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=601644495304350&set=pcb.601644591971007

As an aside, in Thailand the process requires you take weapon / any ammo in separate locked boxes to security at the airport in question. You need to show the original permit for that weapon (in Thailand the permit to own is specific to an individual firearm). You also need to show that the airline whose flight you're taking has accepted carriage of the gun /ammo. Many airlines have a limit on how many firearms can be accepted on a given flight (5 is common) and also limit on ammunition that can be carried. It's not a quick process. Plus this is only for domestic flights. International carriage is a whole different ball of wax.

What a <deleted>. Great random selection of bullets (revolver and semi-auto): good luck using the former in a 9mm semi-auto. Looks like he put them in a steel flask and figured that would avoid x-ray detection. Interesting gun, though (G19 Mariner). https://siamrath.co.th/n/409521

SEAnery Beach Resort and Coral Hotel in Bangsaphan Noi might be options. I've stayed before in Sunrise Bungalows a bit further down the beach. Okay for a couple of nights but not very fancy. Day trips to Koh Talu are something to do and the beach where Sunrise is, is pretty nice. Pine trees for shade.

It all sounds so scary - if you're not vaccinated or not properly boosted, your risk of death is so much higher! 15 times higher if you're unvaccinated, say the CDC. But it's not 15% chance of dying, it's less than 0.005% (5/100,000). And if you've been vaccinated, without booster, it's little different from having been vaccinated up the yin yang. I really don't understand why so many people are, apparently, still so focused on all the doom and gloom. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

The pandemic-fuelled explosion in delivery services - order a drink in a plastic cup, with a plastic straw, in a plastic bag - hasn't helped, not to mention all the PPE and packaging that's used, often quite unnecessarily, every day.

Ah, the trusty plastic face shields. To protect against just what, exactly? The corpse rising from the dead and poking one of them in the eye?

According to the news, there was concern he had MERS, so they tested for that but threw in a Covid test as well.

First thing is to decide when you're going to change your car. You say "not this year" but that's less a month left! If you're not going to change for another 2-3 years, then the whole EV situation here in Thailand will be so different that answers today will likely be irrelevant. In 2-3 years there will be: 1. vastly more choice of EVs available in Thailand 2. many more people using them (and potentially competing for chargers at highway gas stations), so more body of knowledge and experience about practicality in Thailand (eg battery life in prolonged high temp environments) 3. more clarity about long term Thai government policy towards EV / ICE cars If you're concerned about costs then, as other posters have said, best to keep the Vios. Cheap to run, cheap to insure, can be fixed pretty much anywhere. The debate about fuel / electricity costs is somewhat artificial because both are subsidised in Thailand. That's not likely to change much over next few years because it is a hugely sensitive political issue. But MG, for instance, show 'cost savings' on their web site based on an outdated electricity price (elec pricing as of June 2020). Truth is that, as long as diesel is subsidised heavily, a diesel double cab pick up is as good a vehicle as any up country. The debate about battery longevity is however germane. As another poster said, your ICE doesn't wear out in 8-10 years (usually). Who knows with a battery? My current car (a VW Scirocco) is 11 years old and the engine pulls like new. But if battery change is modular replacement, then cost of a new battery may be more than offset by maintenance savings over the past 8-10 years. I'm buying an EV now (a BYD Atto - supposed to get it this month) really out of curiosity. I live in BKK, most of my driving is urban with the odd 300 km round trip, I like the styling and I'm interested to see whether it really makes practical sense, since it's supposed to have a +400 km range. At THB 1.2 million it seems reasonably priced. The price of the Atto in Australia has just been hiked by AUD 3,000 so maybe a price hike is coming here. Then again, BYD are building a production facility for the Atto and other models here in Thailand; when that is up and running in a couple of years, maybe the price will be massively cheaper and I'll have to take a big re-sale hit. All that said, I'll be keeping the Scirocco as well.

Many places (in BKK) lease copiers. Here's one for 1500 a month. https://gcs.co.th/รายละเอียดสินค้า-242636-canon-ir1730-rental-copier1500.html "what are the costs" depends on things like do you need to do colour printing/copying? How many copies/sheets a month etc.

The 'alleged' seems a bit redundant. A semi-auto 12 gauge. Yep. Shooting at them in the shop seems reasonable (If four guys, at least two of whom are visibly armed, break into your place of business, do you politely ask them to leave), but the guy in the shop also kept shooting at them once they were outside.

Thai media reports that this was the 4th time this guy had trespassed on the property to steal weed. https://www.khaosod.co.th/around-thailand/news_7402657 Plus he wasn't taking a few leaves - he took armfuls of weed as can be seen in the CCTV footage: As the houseowner points out, it took the thief a long time to seek medical attention. Good luck proving that he died as a result of injuries received that night - perhaps he tried to steal something else a day or two later and got beaten up by another person?

Good for them. I much enjoyed this photo of Papa Didi "giving a speech on bitcoin adoption in Tulum, Mexico" (pop. 93) to an entranced crowd. Not sure why he doesn't spend some of his billions to buy a few more t-shirts.

Prospective BYD Atto purchasers who can understand Thai might find this interesting - guy got 525 km out of his car. He explains (in endless detail) the route / driving conditions / speed etc. Basically he didn't go very fast because of traffic etc but I guess it's a real world trip so ... I'm buying an Atto (booked on Day 1) and am told delivery in Dec. Be interesting to see whether it's a practical alternative to an ICE vehicle. I've no interest in pottering along on a highway at 90 km. Atto says it has a 480 km range: as long as it can do a 250 km round trip and not use more than 75% battery, with music playing, A/C at 23 and highway speeds of 110-120 kmh then I'll be happy. THB 1.2 million for the BYD Atto seems reasonable enough - same price as in Oz/NZ. Adaptive cruise control, built in dashcam system, PM2.5 filtering A/C, panoramic sunroof, quirky interior styling (which I like), well built, not too much hard plastic etc. Test drove briefly and was quite impressed at how responsive it felt - albeit can tell it's a heavy car. Better tyres would probably help. Seems to me full EVs are probably at the point where they make sense for urban dwellers who rarely make any longer journeys and - key point - live in a house with space to park and have a home wall charger. Live in a condo? Out of luck in most, I'm sure. Hybrids make the least sense to me, at least in Thailand. Fuel and labour costs here are so much less than in the West.

I like the fact that whoever installed it appears to have had an old shower hose lying around and has recycled that as an inlet hose, although it's about a metre too long hence the convoluted fitting ... Is this one of the heaters with the RCB underneath?

I did chuckle yesterday when I entered the sauna at my local gym to find one other person in there, a Thai dude wearing an N95 mask! In 75 degree C dry heat. Go figure. Social pressure coupled with ignorance and fear.

Yes, yes. Right. People in the North of Thailand are particularly well served by your "countrywide" network ... As for a comfortable interior, leather seats, walnut trim and a mini-bar would do it for me.

Great STOL aircraft. Basically a Porter. Not sure if the RTAF ones still have Garrett engine or have been changed to a flavour of the PT-6?

Peugeot? "Countrywide"? Dream on. Apart from a handful in Bangkok, there's the extensive choice of Pattaya, Phuket, Ubon, Hat Yai, ... er, that's it.

See post below. I ordered the MB from Apple online and chose the dual charger option because it seemed like a good idea even if an additional cost. It's not clear that the plug isn't removable. So I ended up going to an Apple store to buy a standard charger ... As an aside - I wanted to buy the MB from a reseller but if you want to add RAM etc buying online is waaaaay quicker (days as opposed to weeks). Seems like Apple don't really want to support their resellers that much. I think that's correct.

Only had it a month so it's looking pretty new ... I like the Midnight colour - I wouldn't swap it for Silver. As you say, makes a change.

The charger with the ability to change wall plug fitting is also what you need if you use an extension cable with the charger. The cable on the new MB Air charger is longer than on my old MB Air charger, but I still like to be able to use the extension lead. Apple have also changed the design of their chargers so that the cable to connect to the laptop can now be removed from the charger. This stops the cable fraying where it joins the charger (nearly every charger I've ever had, had this issue after a while). I've never used a skin so can't comment on the tactile qualities. One other point about all the new MBs - they no longer have any USB-A ports, everything is USB-C. So you need an adapter to use any USB-A device ...