Gecko123

That's a funny story. I once drove from California to Ohio happily smoking joints all the way. Then the sun went down and oncoming headlights became klieg lights shinning directly in my eyes. Mercifully, I quickly found a hotel and stopped driving for the night. Another time, I got into a cab at night somewhere in Issan and it immediately became apparent that the driver must have had severely dilated pupils, probably high on yaa baa. Every time a car approached he had to slow to a dangerously slow crawl because he was totally blinded. I don't think marijuana should be criminalized, but I have some very serious concerns about what impact this is going to have on traffic safety, given the absence of enforcement on Thailand's roads. When you consider the carnage on the roads as well as the sorry state of Thailand's public education, I can't help but wonder if this isn't all a cynical attempt on Anutin's part to bolster his popularity at the same time keeping the general populace sedated. The people trying to shout down anyone with reservations about the advisability of all this need to consider that there is more at stake than your freedom to smoke a joint. Road safety and the health and welfare of Thailand's youth are concerns we should all share.

Where are the emergency fire exits, that's what I'd like to know. If there was ever a panic or stampede when that place was packed and all those tables and chairs started getting knocked over, it looks like it could turn into a real fire trap.

I think there's a perception out there that driving while high isn't particularly dangerous and your chances of being caught are pretty low. Haven't seen much, if any, traffic safety education to prepare people about these risks. I'm especially worried about traffic related injuries and deaths among younger people and those experimenting for the first time who aren't familiar with side effects such as dilated pupils and reduced reaction time. Wonder what the traffic stats are going to look like this time next year in Thai stick land?

This is the "bitter about mask mandates" thread not the "still kicking myself for having opened a joint savings account with my ex-wife" thread. ????

I understand why people are so eager to stop wearing masks, especially here in Thailand where smiling is such an important part of social interaction, and mask wearing makes it so difficult to communicate across a language barrier. I am too. But out of deference to our Thai hosts, I think we should continue wearing them until it is abundantly clear that the pandemic is behind us, and that day is not yet here, despite wishful thinking by some that it is.

Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickpocketing

If you're gonna fabricate a robbery for insurance fraud purposes, you have to tell the police where and when the robbery occurred and give a description of the assailant. With all the CCTV cameras around these days, you would have to be pretty confident that there aren't any witnesses or CCTV footage that contradicts your story. Pretty risky, IMHO. Also, if the cops were starting to suspect fraud because witnesses and CCTV footage didn't back up these claims, don't you think in the interest of civic pride and settling the nerves of tourists the police would have been telling news outlets that fraudulent activity was suspected? Travel insurance fraud was considered, but, again, you're assuming that all the victims had this coverage, which is an unfair assumption IMHO.

The Thai police need to deploy undercover agents, perhaps enlisting the help of Indian nationals to act as decoys. It can't be that hard to disguise a Thai person to look like an Indian tourist. I believe the vast majority of these cases are bonafide robberies. People speculating about insurance scams are assuming that all of these thefts are insured, which is improbable. Also, if you're going to commit insurance fraud, why travel overseas? What I think is going on is that Indian men are wearing gold jewelry into red-light districts in order to make themselves appear more attractive to bar girls by giving the impression they are big spenders. I believe gold jewelry is popular with Indian men. I also believe that many Indian men like to go out together in groups, and this safety in numbers probably provides them with a false sense of security about becoming a victim of street crime. Either in hopes of avoiding paying bar fines or hoping to negotiate cheaper prices for company, or because they have "struck out" in the bars because of racial discrimination or for other reasons, they gravitate towards the beach boardwalk. What they end up finding out the hard way is that this area is infested with habitual criminals, drug addicts, alcoholics, rejects who have previously been fired from tourism-related employment, runaways, homeless people, and various other predatory individuals. Whether looking for love, seeking voyeuristic thrills from ogling human pathos, or for the pleasure of parrying unwelcome sexual advances, late-night Beach road is probably best avoided.

I'm old enough to know a pyramid scheme when I see it.

Arithai12's comment may have been a little bit awkwardly worded, but it is not incorrect from an economics standpoint. He is saying that the USD is up because US interest US rates are up because inflation is forcing the Fed's hand. That's no cause for celebration. The strong dollar may make imports to the US cheaper (helping the US consumer), but it also makes goods from the US more expensive to export (hurting manufacturers and exporters). Higher interest rates are going to drive the costs of financing the Federal debt and deficit exponentially higher - and even more importantly - rising inflation and the COLA adjustments which will be needed to keep up with them is going to put enormous stress on the fiscal viability of entitlement programs - something which all forum members should be concerned about. To celebrate "the strong dollar" while turning a blind eye to the raging inflation driving interest rate hikes as well as the looming fiscal train wreck is indeed shortsighted. In no way should the strong dollar be viewed as a sign of America's economic health. And just one last point: if the Fed "pivots" prematurely, or suddenly decides that 5% inflation is the "new normal" and starts reducing or pausing interest rate hikes prematurely, I expect the dollar to absolutely crater.

The current relative strength of the USD is ENTIRELY based on the interest rate hikes the Fed is being forced to make in order to reel in inflation. Euro zone countries, Japan, and a number of other smaller countries, including Thailand, have been dragging their feet about raising interest rates out of fear this will undermine their economies which are still struggling to recover from Covid shutdowns. Some countries are also betting that the Fed is going to reverse course as soon as the US economy starts showing signs of slowing down, so they may not have to hike interest rates that aggressively. Hence there is an unusually wide spread in interest rates between the US and other countries, which is why the dollar is strong for the moment. I personally think inflation is going to be a lot more persistent than some believe, and the Fed is going to be forced to keep hiking even into an economic slowdown. If this happens, yes, the dollar will probably continue to rise, but Federal debt financing costs are going to balloon, the housing market is going to tank, and financial markets are likely gonna get skinned alive. While the strong dollar may make overseas vacations and expat living cheaper for Americans at the moment, in the greater scheme of things, in no way should it be viewed as a cause for celebration, as it is only symptomatic of the enormous task facing the Fed as it tries to sort out America's catastrophically weak financial condition.

Very offensive to be calling Thais "sheeples" because some are reluctant to stop wearing masks. Not everyone has been vaccinated, some have comorbidities, many are concerned about variants. Thai mask wearing is an admirable reflection of their community mindedness. Social distancing and mask wearing were instituted in part to avoid overtaxing the health care system, which in many regions isn't as resilient as one might hope. Fear of hospitalization is perfectly understandable. Both the "พ" and "ท" in the name Pattaya (พัทยา) are aspirated, "ph" and "th", respectively. The correct pronunciation would thus be Pha-tha-ya. The OP's pronunciation in the video was the anglicized (but very common) unaspirated pronunciation, Pa-ta-ya, but in general Thais pronounce Pattaya as "Pha-tha-ya, with stress on the middle syllable.

I'm happy the divers found the "Thai" woman's diamond.

Me too:

Quite the contrast.

A day doesn't go by without supply chain problems, food shortages, bank runs, crypto currency collapses, disrupted air travel, Covid flare-ups, reservoirs and rivers running dry, threats about deployment of nuclear weapons, financial markets in turmoil, unsustainable government debt, and extreme heat and flooding affecting crop production being in the news. All things being equal, being an expat makes you more vulnerable to these food shortage risks, if for no other reason that you will likely be at the bottom of the social totem pole in an extreme situation. You wanna go the Alfred E. Neuman ('What me worry?)' route, that's your choice, but labeling those who wish to take precautionary steps chicken-little alarmists, in my opinion, is simply denying the reality of the times we live in.

I notice that a number of the posters pooh-poohing concerns about food security live in the northern provinces which do enjoy a climate more conducive to fruit and vegetable production, perhaps contributing to the perception of endless food abundance in Thailand. Suffice it to say that there are many areas in Thailand where agriculture is under more stress than in the North. I'm not some prepper proselytizer, but I do think some of you are underestimating your potential vulnerability were a genuine food crisis to emerge here.

Ground water is severely depleted in many areas. Extreme weather is making droughts more frequent and severe. You can't grow [expletive deleted] without water.

I'm very surprised as well Adumbration. OK, in a food crisis, Mr. Farang Deep Pockets might be able to outbid the starving peasants for a while, but what if there was no food at all? Farang-y boy is going to be at the back of the queue, big time. As far as Thailand being a big food producer, true enough, but most of that is rice, corn, cassava and production which could easily be severely crimped in a major drought.

Anybody who follows the news should be aware that food insecurity is a growing concern worldwide. Most foreigners probably imagine that if things ever got bad they could just hop on a plane and head home until a crisis passes, but that may not necessarily be possible if the SHTF. I maintain about a three month supply of food and drinking water as a precautionary measure.

Really? I think you might want to check on that. Sure, there's seasonal produce, but over all there's plenty of fruits and vegetables coming from China. There's also this misconception that meat sold at farmers markets is coming from small artisan family farms when in reality most of it comes from industrial producers like Saha Farms, Betagro, etc. The local vendors buy pork by the side, and then butcher it themselves. I don't think things are quite as "local" as you imagine.

Having lived in a small farming community for close to 20 years, this has most definitely been my observation. Practically zero trickle-down moolah being splashed around. Only remittances I've ever seen being sent home are for child care for the bar girl's own children, and usually it's just the bare minimum, i.e., 3-5K/mo. I am sure some of the top lookers might pull in well over 30K a month, but I am inclined to believe that the 20-30K figure is true for many girls, especially with tourism struggling. If that's true, that goes a long way towards explaining why there has been a precipitous drop in the quality of women attracted to the industry. 12K working a nine to five job compared to 20K to put up with all the stresses of sex work starts looking pretty good. I thought the OP was very informative.

I doubt he has been charged with anything yet. I imagine that he is being held on suspicion of murder based on the circumstantial evidence that the police have compiled so far (reports that he and deceased had dispute in restaurant some time before murder, his possession of deceased's phone, reports from relatives that he was seen with scratches and blood stains on clothing, his leaving the area, etc.) I suspect that they are waiting for the physical evidence from the autopsy and DNA tests before charging him because the circumstantial evidence on its own isn't sufficient to charge him.

The remembrance photo refers to the deceased as Mr. Teerapong Lamlua. I personally don't see this as a sign of disrespect, however I understand if others disagree. I'm not sure if Thais make gender pronouns as charged an issue as it has become in the West. I was left wondering if a mother's prerogative to remember her son as her son trumped any preferences which may or may not have been expressed by the deceased, and whether any religious precepts were taken into consideration in deciding how he should be referred to at the funeral. As far as the timing of the cremation, to the best of my knowledge, it is standard procedure worldwide to release the body to the next of kin promptly after the autopsy is performed, and in my opinion, speculation that the cremation may have been "rushed" in order to destroy evidence is totally inappropriate and unjustified.