BKKBike09

I also live in a rented house. My landlord is very easy going - I just told him I wanted to install a charger and he said fine. Since it was free I'll likely just leave it if/when I move.

It's not crazy if you have easy and quick access to a charger and willing to expend time setting at a charger. But charging at home makes charging a LOT easier and cheaper...about as easy as keeping your smartphone charged. But let's see a picture of your electric meter along with the wires running to and from the meter. I wouldn't have bought an EV (an Atto) if home charging wasn't possible. It's certainly possible to make it work without but, as PIB says, it's not very convenient. I live in Bangkok. I couldn't be bothered to wait for BYD to install the free charger so I paid for someone to come and do it. Cost THB 3500 + another THB 2500 for the 40A Type B breaker that you need. This was included in the BYD free stuff but they didn't have them in stock at that time (Jan 2023). The guys who did my install did a good job (a firm called Wallbox wallbox.in.th). They simply spliced a separate line and circuit breaker from the main supply into the house - running another circuit off the existing house breaker board or the main breaker would have been a pain, given where they are located relative to where I wanted charger. Here are some pics - the meter we all want to see is the one on the pole usually outside your house. In a mooban I'd still think it would be outside your house.

It's usually hard to go too wrong with Cotes Du Rhone although it does depend how long it's been stored / how it's been stored. Generally speaking I stay clear of many wines here if they're more than a couple of years old (i.e. something being sold cheap that's from 2020 I'd probably avoid). Cheaper reds can sometimes (but not always) be improved by opening first for an hour and/or using one of those aerating devices that you put in the neck of the open bottle.

Wrong again. You buy craft beers for 70 baht? Troll. Whoah there pardner. I'm on your side here ... I was responding to the FrogMan's comment: Wine is mostly a scam to get people with too much money to part with their money. You never see absurd and insane beer prices. Yet a lot of beers are really good.

I'm guessing you stick to Leo and have never looked at "craft beer" prices in Thailand.

If you're in Bangkok I'd second Vinum Lector: Marc who tuns it is a good guy and their service is very good. I've ordered from them on several occasions. Generally I go for Italian reds and whites (although they have had some good Italian rose in the past - cerasuolo). They have regular promotions - these are some of the offers in November (I've circled ones that take my fancy). Prices are ex VAT but still pretty good for Thailand:

I must be missing something here - wouldn’t that make these locks worthless? Probably a TSA approved lock - combo with a small key lock for TSA or other agencies to use to unlock your case. In the pre-TSA days Customs used to have large bunches of suitcase keys to hand so was just a matter of finding one that fit.

It's only relevant if you do business with a US taxpaying entity and want to claim exemption from US tax on grounds that you're a non-US domiciled entity.

The Japanese '60 Baht' or whatever shops like Daiso usually have tea strainers and fill your own tea bags. These tea bags are pretty good for the price. Way better than Lipton and the other cheaper options.

I'm assuming you're in Bangkok where, yes, they have good doctors any day of the week. Finding 'a good doctor' however can be tricky. Make sure you tell any doctor you see what antibiotics you have already taken, and ask for specific blood tests. Don't assume they will test for things if you don't ask. There's a test for a liver enzyme called CRP (C-reactive protein), the level of which can indicate bacterial infection (mine was waaaaay up but now coming down). Good luck.

I didn't have any stomach issues - still don't - and only had intermittent low-grade (no more than 100F/38C) fever. I wouldn't have considered typhoid based on the symptoms I had (feeling really run down, runny nose for two days, then a sore throat for half a day, a headache for 5 days, lots of phlegm, backache etc).

No idea. Only been in Bangkok.

I have very similar symptoms like you and I have been sick for almost a month now. I feel like <deleted>. Had 3 different antiobiotics (just finished last one) but now have extreme throat pain. Not sure what to do. I don't trust the doctors here anymore. By the way, where did you test for Covid, Flu and RSV and how much was it? You can get test kits nowadays at most pharmacies that test for Covid / Flu / RSV. Think it was THB 119 or something like that. Postscript to my story is that I didn't feel any better after two days of antibiotics, went to see a different doctor and tested positive for typhoid fever. Needed IV antibiotics as it had started to have a go at my liver. So now I'm in hospital, albeit feeling much better and leaving tomorrow. Maybe get blood tests for things like typhus / typhoid?

I think Edinburgh Council should be taken to task for their insensitivity in - I'm confident is the case - not recognising all of these as well. I'm looking forward to 'Aromatic Spectrum Awareness Week'. As ever, we have so much to learn from our American friends (the instigators of Transgender Day Of Remembrance). https://www.bnl.gov/pridealliance/important-dates.php

Indeed. The corruption in Laos is even worse than in Thailand! Indeed it is. I lived there in the mid 90s, when at least the corruption was "reasonable" - want to build a dam? Minister needs a Land Cruiser. By the 2000s it was Minister's kid needs to be educated overseas and a new house would be nice. Now it's even worse thanks to the Chinese criminal money. There's also very heavy State control of the media. I dredged up my Lao and did some searches just now for articles about this in Lao language and there's zip. Only RFA and some anti-gov FaceBook news channel.

RIP to those poor people. Vang Vieng has become a version of Koh Phangnan / Koh Tao / Khaosan Road all rolled into one. Sadly, rich people in Laos also have the same level of immunity as their Thai counterparts. Perhaps more so because many of them have got rich through tight links with certain ministers / Politburo members, rather than through general biz.

Huh? Says he traveled to Phuket with his family and that a relative confirmed his identity. However it does seem slightly odd that the relative was only 17. Where's the wife? All very mysterious.

I'm with you on that assessment. I stopped watching the vid when he made the laughable comment (at 04:07) "I found an opening in my schedule"! Priceless. Rocks up at his destination (I'm guessing Phils) and only has about USD 10-12 but still buys a coffee at the airport. I guess then he walked into town? His web site makes clear he's all about digital biz and monetising his online activities. His Channel:

I wonder what the police are pouring over the footage? Lao Khao? Chang? Is that a new investigative technique?

May have been the case for you but I've had Delta, Omicron and whatever was after that. Never felt very sick. The last time I wouldn't even have known without positive test. Also not true dengue gets worse each time you catch it. Again, I've had it twice. First time was tough, second time not so much. Depends more on the variant and the individual as to how you react (or so doc told me last time).

Have you actually tested positive for Covid? I've been sick as a dog since last Friday. Never felt this bad with Covid x 3 (Delta, Omicron and whatever came next) or the last time I had dengue (had twice, first time was grim). Repeatedly testing negative for Covid, Flu A/B, RSV etc. Lungs clear. Doc says bllood work suggests bacterial infection so just started antibiotics yesterday. Still running a low-grade fever, lower back pain, coughing up shed-loads of green gunk. But at least no pulsing headache (finally). Hope you feel better soon.

Good. At least now you recognise that London's historical diversity and multiculturalism was not particularly diverse from an ethnic perspective. Also, "The ‘consent of masters’ being ‘invariably not given’ suggests opposition to bigoted laws is nothing new" suggests nothing of the sort; people who had coloured servants just didn't want to give them up.

Come, then. Demonstrate that 'ignorance' with some facts, rather than empty comment. You know, things like - Catholics weren't allowed to live in London or hold public office until the The Catholic Relief Act of 1791. All Jews were booted out of England in 1290 through the Edict of Expulsion and were not allowed to return until 1656. The 1596 Elizabethan edict that authorised the Lord Mayor of London, amongst others, to “take up…Blackamoores here in this Realm and to transport them into Spain and Portugal" - although this also required the "consent of their masters”, which was invariably not forthcoming. Yes, 'alternate history' is all the rage. Take that nonsensical faux-Regency series 'Bridgerton' as a classic example. It's ironic, of course, that if the Left narrative is one of historic racial oppression of ethnic minorities by the white majority, how does that square with a series that depicts said minorities as influential and respected equals in Regency England? Especially since I suspect many younger viewers will take it as fact.

It's time for Thailand to move into the 21st century and ditch the xenophobic and anachronistic restrictions on foreign ownership of businesses and properties. Western expat retirees are not the ones buying up large tracts of land: that's Chinese money. Investment rules were changed recently so that in some sectors - manufacturing for instance - 100% foreign ownership is allowed. So many of the Chinese companies now located in the Eastern Seaboard IEs are 100% Chinese owned, with all Chinese directors.

I'm surprised at you, Chomps. 'Blighty'? We now know that this is yet another example of cultural appropriation from our evil Colonial past. An informal and often affectionate term for Britain or England, chiefly as used by soldiers of the First and Second World Wars (in the First World War, a wound which was sufficiently serious to merit being shipped home to Britain was known as a Blighty). The term was first used by soldiers serving in India, and is an Anglo-Indian alteration of Urdu bilāyatī ‘foreign, European’, from Arabic wilāyat, wilāya ‘dominion, district’. Also, I think Johnson's famous quote should be amended for historical context, given that the ethnography of C18th London was almost exclusively Caucasian. "Why, Sir, you find no White man or even, though it is a modern concept, no White woman, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a White man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." Johnson's manservant, a former Jamaican slave named Francis Barber, left London pretty much as soon as he was able.