BKKBike09

There wasn't a face mask in sight, so clearly not representative of modern day Thailand ...

I prefer my version.

I just get right out there with it. "You see, I speak English Thai well. I learn it from a book. Hello sawatdee khrab, I am English Thai ....Hello sawatdee khrab." So there you have it.

Ah, but you ignored my comment: "As the power/weight ratio of batteries improves, as does range/charge time, I'd like to think some interesting possibilities exist" ...

I 'took the gamble' and don't mind being questioned on it. 18 months later I'm as happy with my EV as with any other previous ICE I've bought for commuting / general urban daily use. Comfortable, quiet, reliable (so far) and uninspiring. Just like the various Honda's I've had before it. Ev's are ideal for some, far from ideal for others.

As it happens I bought a 43" Pioneer plasma flat screen 18 years ago for USD 4,000. Still works great. That would be a painful hit. I think the best strategy is to keep the car for at least eight years (ie the period of free servicing etc) and then sell for whatever you can get for it. The depreciation curve will have flattened out a lot by then. I'm hoping that - like my TV - my Atto 3 will still work fine many years down the road.

That’s the message the Daily Express wanted you to absorb. Well done. How about some Guardian nonsense to balance that, then? Some Muslim and LGBTQ+ constituents say they would feel uneasy approaching their new MPs including Nigel Farage https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/19/minority-groups-reform-seats-adjust-life-election-success-nigel-farage But nary a word about whether a Jewish constituent might feel uneasy approaching a Palestine-supporting Muslim MP, or a white pensioner represented by a 30-year old non-white MP. In all cases above - including the Guardian ones - the 'unease' could be wholly misplaced. Is it possible that an MP might actually try to serve all constituents equally, regardless of the MP's party / cultural background. That Guardian article has an interesting graphic showing the seats where Reform came 2nd. A great majority of them were in the northeast and northwest and Yorkshire - basically areas where Labour was, generally and traditionally, the party of choice.

Yet when you read the article, much of the 'fact checking' is prefaced with "This claim is misleading". So in other words a subjective interpretation. As if Trump is the only politician to massage and manipulate statistics. Biden manages to lie quite comfortably courtesy of his memory fog idiocy. I detest Trump and Biden equally. Both are octogenarian narcissists and neither is fit for the office.

It's a little off-topic, but I want to see what happens with electric powered GA aircraft. As the power/weight ratio of batteries improves, as does range/charge time, I'd like to think some interesting possibilities exist. Take a generic Cessna 172 for example. Max take off weight is just under 1,050 kg. Of that, full tanks of fuel (c. 150 litres) are about 110 kg. Lycoming O-320 engine weighs about 125 kg. Add another 10-20 kg for oil, filters, fuel lines etc. So traditional engine + fuel is about 250 kg and gives about 4 hours endurance on full tanks. All electric would be quieter, much easier for fuel management (the number of GA accidents caused by fuel exhaustion is significant), make for simpler weight and balance calculations, remove need for engine leaning, better high density altitude performance since power doesn't come from burning a fuel/air mix, no risk of shock cooling, carb icing, fuel contamination and could deliver 100% power instantaneously etc A Lycoming O-320 is a great engine. May be 80 year old design but will run happily at a cruise power setting for hours (say 75% / around 2,400 rpm). But a 1,000 hour TBO schedule puts you on the hook for maybe USD 30K to overhaul. With an electric-powered aircraft, maybe it would also be possible to integrate trickle charge solar paneling into the wings? Of course it's not all 'electric good'. I don't know how ambient air temp changes would impact battery performance, especially sub-zero. And there could be considerable CG issues. But the possibilities - at least to me - seem very exciting.

I thought it was quite amusing. People these days have no sense of humour and are so quick to take offence. I know next to nothing about Vance but he's a confident public speaker. Listening to any politician for more than a few minutes is never very entertaining, but this guy is better than many. If made to choose, I'd certainly listen to him over Trump, Biden or Harris. Here's the full speech from which the 'nooks comment was extracted.

I think the key point is my comment "not as convenient". I wouldn't say "inconvenient'. Case in point: some friends who live in Bang Saphan just asked us if we felt like going this weekend since neither wife nor me are very busy work-wise at the moment. It's a bit over 400 km. With the CRV that we had before the Atto, we'd just get in and go. With the Atto, we have to factor that it's currently 85% battery, which probably means about 300 km highway speed range. So we'll have to stop and charge en route somewhere in Pranburi. There are plenty of PTT stations on the way that have chargers, so it just needs a little planning. Also timing management if playing it safe by reserving a charge time slot at a specific station. None of which is hugely convenient. Alternatively, we could take the other car (ICE which currently has a quarter tank) and be there in well under four hours (albeit with a few speeding tickets), stopping anywhere to fill the tank.

There's never been a price war in Thailand for market share between the various Euro / US / Japanese brands, or at least not that I can recall. Largely because dealerships have their hands tied by the manufacturer on pricing. Not to mention the cartel-like behaviour of the manufacturers, none of whom want to discount. Any ICE discounts have always been very modest in % terms (single figures). I used to benefit from Ford's Friends & Family discount pricing here and it was 10%. I'm quite surprised that Honda and Toyota here haven't been making unfair competition claims about the recent EV price cuts - perhaps they are, behind the scenese. You're right that the EV discounting now is for market share. I think it's going to backfire in the short-term - who wants to buy a new car with the worry that the price will be slashed a month later? Especially - and this applies to both EV / ICE - now that financing is harder, and generally requires a bigger initial cash payment. I also suspect that much of the EV market low-hanging fruit (urban users, second car users) may now have been picked. Don't get me wrong - I really like an EV for urban daily use, but it's still not as convenient as an ICE for long-distance journeys.

I feel short-changed. Where's the 'heated argument'? He's right - a$$holes who block the doors and don't move inside the carriage deserve all the abuse they get. So nothing to argue about here anyway.

The build quality of the Atto is good (at least mine is). At those prices it's a bargain if you need / want a city or second car. Go on - treat yourself! You might like it.

I'd say it depends on the car. I have an ICE that's more than 10 years old and I love it (a Scirocco). I'm very attached to that car whereas I have no attachment to my BYD. Like the CRV I had before it. It's a great city car but if it was crushed into a small cube tomorrow (obviously a. without me in it, and b. also getting paid by the insurance) I couldn't care less.

Yep. BYD are now getting stick from many customers who have suddenly seen their THB 1.2 million vehicle sold for THB 340K less. You're correct to say it's unprecedented. The only such massive discounting i can recall in Thailand was when Chevrolet said sayonara and sold Captiva's for half price. But they didn't care about unhappy customers since they were abandoning the Thai market. Be interesting to see how the insurance companies react: will they continue insuring the pre-price slash vehicles for what will be above market values, or will they say "too bad - your car is now worth THB 700K for insurance" even though the owner is still on the hook for finance at THB 1.2 mil? Not a good position to be in if the re-valued car is deemed an insurance write off, which is more likely if it's value has been greatly reduced. Right now I'd be better off getting my Atto totalled, collecting the THB 960K total loss insurance and buying a new one! I really like the car but not that impressed by BYD's strategy here. Of course, if they have say 1,000 very unhappy customers but the new prices add 100,000 new customers, why would they care?

Sorry to hear of all your problems. What you describe here sounds like an optical migraine. Starts with flashing in one part of your field of vision and then over 30 mins or turns into a flashing uneven circle that goes round the field of vision and then stops. No pain at all. If that is what you had, that (at least) is nothing to do with the retina, it is caused by temporary changes in brain chemistry. Good luck.

The study was designed to examine risk factors associated with severe outcomes of COVID-19 including admission to an ICU or stepdown unit, invasive mechanical ventilation, and death. Main Findings: Certain underlying medical conditions were associated with an increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness in adults. Having multiple conditions was also associated with severe COVID-19 illness. Obesity, diabetes with complications, and anxiety and fear-related disorders had the strongest association with death. The number of frequent underlying medical conditions (present in ≥10.0% of patients) increased with age.207 https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/clinical-care/underlyingconditions.html So fear of dying from Covid can actually make it more likely that you will die from it, if you get it.

Thanks - I enjoyed reading the Independent article: ... Prof Woolhouse said waves of Covid continue to be driven by new variants and “partial waning immunity to infection”. “For now, we have to expect this pattern to continue,” he said. “Over the coming decades, we will shift to a situation where most people are exposed to Covid – possibly several times – when they are young. “This will not cause a significant public health problem – healthy young people were never much affected by Covid – but it will result in a build-up of immunity that will make them much less vulnerable when they are elderly and frail.” He said that “to all intents and purposes” Covid-19 will become just another common cold” ... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/summer-covid-wave-2024-uk-euros-b2573767.html

However, although 10 times more people died of Covid (according to your info) in UK than Thailand, the NHS and public health luminaries don't feel the need to issue warnings etc, encourage general mask wearing when around other people etc. Perhaps that's because people here have moved on given that, for the vast majority, it is of no interest or consequence.

I'm sure the chance of having a problem is remote in the extreme. But it does exist, especially because it is a matter of interpretation. There is a difference between 'have' and 'use' - one could argue that just keeping your original nationality is not 'use', and the Act makes that distinction in Section 19 (2) - ยังใช่ (still uses) and (6) - ยังคงมี (still retains).

You asked ... https://www.bora.dopa.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/nationality.pdf This is from a riveting DOPA review of nationality legislation.

Many thanks for the helpful insight. I've made a fair number of trips over the past 3 years and have (mostly) used the auto-channels. Coming back from the US a year or so back, via Taipei, the gates were out of action inbound. The I/O actually asked me if I had another passport so I simply said "Thai passport is good enough for me" or something like that. No further questions. I suspect things will never change but you never know ... what you don't want is to meet the Thai I/O who is having a bad day, possibly because some random foreigner has been rude to him/her

I'm not so sure in this particular case. It involves a high-profile SET-listed company, apparent malfeasance, and massive corporate default. Last thing Thailand wants is further erosion of investor confidence - especially foreign institutional investors.

Not required by thailand where is your source ? The Nationality Act 1965 (and 2008 amendment) "Section 19. The Minister shall have the power to revoke Thai nationality of a person who acquires Thai nationality by naturalization, if it appears that: (1) the naturalization is effected by concealment of facts or making false statement of essential facts; (2) there is evidence indicating that the naturalized person still uses his or her former nationality ..." Applicants are required to submit a statement of intent to renounce former nationality once Thai nationality is received and Special Branch tell applicants on several occasions that former nationality has to be given up. It may all be just for show but anyone who naturalizes absolutely does not want to be found using their "former nationality". Which is why e-gates are preferable to a passport check by a Thai I/O. "Flying direct to the US? But no visa in your Thai passport? Explain."