rickudon

North-East Thailand, very little said. Real conditions - Cold season. Best time to visit is late October to end of February. But the clear skies mean that daytime temperatures can still reach 34 centigrade at anytime. Do not expect temperatures under 20 Centigrade except at night. Hot season - temperatures of 34-42 degrees Centigrade should be expected. Anything less and your lucky! Wet season - 30-38 degrees normal, lower ones on cloudy and rainy days and higher if full sun. Humidity - always high.

Who cares about hi-speed? Try walking first, finish double tracking all the current routes and running more than 2 trains a day in each direction.

So who actually started bombing civilian targets? Actually, Germany in the Great war. First attack was Liege in Belgium; other attacks included Paris. The first sustained attacks were started by the Germans, first with Zeppelins and later Gotha bombers. Main target was London. The British did retaliate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_I Was Churchill a monster? In my opinion, no, but he was pretty ruthless. I do not suppose the starvation of millions of Indians was deliberate, but was perhaps a predictable outcome.

I was 56 first visit. Didn't feel too young, or too old. If you do come to Udon, willing to show you around a bit.

Obviously we do not know what the OP likes. For me, I am not a beach or big city person. First trip to Thailand i went straight to Udon Thani after researching it extensively online (yes, i was conversing with a girl there). Never met the girl, but was pleasantly surprised and felt at home straight away (2008). moved there in 2010, married now with daughter. Plus factors - low cost of living especially accommodation. Very little 'Farang pricing'. Reasonable levels of English spoken Quite a few retired expats, so some shops and bars serve this community. Airport only 20 minutes away (for me, as on other side of town). most of city is less than 15 minutes away by car City small enough you can actually walk everywhere if you have to. Good weather in cool season. Few tourists Quite a few women in their 30s and 40s looking for a partner Air quality rarely bad. Good road system. Reasonable hospitals. Negative factors - Hot season is hot! Wet season is humid and still quite hot Not a beautiful city, just OK Not a city for the younger expat.

Been following this war on Sarcastosaurus. Russia has used up 50% of its foreifn currency reserves and at least 50% of its armored vehicles. If the war continues for 2 more years Russia will be on the point of economic and military collapse. Ukraines problem is a lack of manpower and Russian glide bombs. There is no solutuon currently to the glide bombs, they degrade Ukrainian defenses to the point where they provide no cover, which forces the Ukrainians to withdraw or suffer heavy casualties. The russian 'meat' attacks result in heavy Russian casualties, typically about 80% of each human wave. It is sensible in the short term for Ukraine to trade land for Russian lives. So the question is, who runs out first?

Bsc in biology and Geology in the 70's, then worked as biochemist in a cannery, which closed. Next junior geologist on oil rigs in Libya, working conditions were pretty awful. Returned to UK and did a Masters in Freshwater biology (my passion). Then research that went nowhere. Offered a job with a Uranium mining company in Australia, but permission to mine refused by government - still in ground to this day. So made redundant. Back to UK hoping for job in the water industry, but no one hiring. Spent 18 months looking so career change to IT as civil servant for over 20 years. Then IT work outsourced to IBM - worst employer ever. They tried to make me quit by giving me impossible Projects, then made me redundant. To old for new job, looked for 2 years then retired, divorced nagging Lying wife and came to Thailand to fish.

I have had pretty bad diarrhea/vomiting in Australia, Singapore, USA, Libya, all food or water related. Rarely (i.e. less than once a year) in UK. Brother got severe food poisoning in the UK a couple of years ago - from a hamburger stall. In Thailand, on my first holiday, surprised to get only very mild upset once. In 16 years since then, mainly living in Thailand, have had maybe 3 times when i actually felt unwell, but not bad enough to need medicine. Otherwise just some loose motions, one time only. live in a semi-rural area, work the garden and most days also fish ponds, so exposed to LOTS of bacteria. But never a significant problem. Just wash my hands after any work, use tap water to clean my teeth. Guess i quickly built up immunity in Thailand. Wife buys in quite a few meals.

Yes, i am sure they are in the UK 'legally'. Strange that all 5 of them are spouses or family members (do you have to be under 18?). They do not work cash in hand, just they either are family members or are paying out of their wages for the job to the franchise owner. It is very hard to believe that any attempt was made to recruit locally. Just possible they are overseas students working for the summer.

Theoretically. In my home town in the UK, recently a Greggs bakery opened. All the staff are Indians who speak rather poor English. It is a small rural town, with a very small migrant community, and a lack of jobs. How the hell did they get work visas? Obviously the Bakery was set up by someone who recruited from India (probably relatives), got them possibly fake qualifications and claimed they would be paid sufficient to meet the skilled worker pay requirement. The shop will make very little profit but the off the record pay deductions from the grateful staff will be tax free.....

Exactly. My ICE Nissan March has never been driven more than 150 km in a day, now 12 years old. Typically just used for school runs and shopping.

Sodium based batteries are already in production, much greater life expectancy than Lithium and no shortage of Sodium, also cheaper. Just one drawback, currently half the capacity. The BEV of the future?

Illegal migration is just the tip of the iceberg, 30,000 a year compared to a million 'legal' migrants. Yes, some of those legal migrants are ones that are needed to do specific jobs, most are not. And supposedly we have a skill shortage, but in reality nearly all professional skilled jobs see a hundred or more applicants for every post. So we have one million legal migrants, and less than a million British born ones entering the workforce every year (or trying to). Back in the early 70's I had no trouble finding jobs, nearly every job I applied for I was successful. Nowadays most University graduates have to apply multiple times to get one, often being unemployed or temporarily employed for a year or more. This was my sons experience, and that of many of his friends (even with Cambridge degrees!). What are the consequences? Disillusionment, am expanding population on a crowded island where buying property is now beyond the means of many, infrastructure unable to keep up with the population growth, pollution and environmental degradation. Only allow migrants to do the work for which their is a real skill shortage - e.g. farm workers ( give them annual visas). Illegals are criminals - fine them, make them pay for all services they receive, offer them the unwanted jobs and no citizenship until all debts paid. If they do not like it, no-one is forcing them to stay - just give them a free ticket back to where they came from.

I have had more bad memories of Taxi drivers in Bangkok that when i visit now (as infrequently as possible) i plan my travel in the town to avoid using them. Do have one good memory - my UK daughter and boyfriend were visiting Thailand and wanted to see the sites of Bangkok so spent 3 days there - ONCE a taxi driver used the meter and refused a tip, said the fare is the fare, not want more!

One word of advice - cooling. Every laptop i have brought to Thailand has died within 3 years, due to not mich air-conditioning at my home. Laptops get too.hot to keep on your lap. I swapped to a refurbished desktop 5 years ago and stand a fan next to it for cooling. Still going strong. My current laptop is now 3 years old and already has problems even though not used much (asus).

Only recognise a few of those puddings. Not a great variety at our school. Remember the prunes ... used to hate them, but then realised that as lots of other people didn't like them i could have theirs as well! Same for the boiled cabbage. Strangely enough, cannot remember the meat dishes at all, must have been very unmemorable.

Not google, but once clicked on a friend suggestion on my Facebook page. it directly connected to an account which was basically many semi clothed photos of this girl. I did browse it a bit, but eventually got bored. But new video from her kept popping up on my Facebook page. Eventually i blocked her. But ever since, I get these 'reels' on my Facebook page of various women, not just Thai ones. All involve very skimpy swimsuits or flashing bits of anatomy. nothing comes up elsewhere only Facebook.

Had a similar dilemma a couple of weeks ago. Bought some ham/cheese croissant from seven eleven, 32 baht. Gave them a 1000 baht note, got 968 baht change, all good left, ate croissants. When i checked my wallet later, saw the receipt. it was for change from 100 baht, not 1,000 baht. I did consider going back to the 7/11, but thought, if i say i got 968 baht change, but show my receipt is for 100 baht, they might insist i pay them the 900 baht difference! felt a bit guilty, but it was not my fault.

They say they were sampling along the Yukon river. Have they considered that the area was for a long time mined for gold and mercury was often used to recover gold? levels may be lower elsewhere.

The key words are "registered workers". Many people running the odd roadside stall, one chair hair dresser or day labourer are not registered. As also once indicated, one third of all Thais of working age are not registered workers. They have no OFFICIAL job.

2 years in prison? Highly unlikely, considering his influence, but one lives in hope....

A couple of observations. First, the man was stupid to run his money down to nothing after he lost his job; no welfare state for farang in Thailand and no Russian relatives to help him. If he cannot even afford to pay instalments on a motor bike, how on earth could he buy a plane ticket? Only hope is Russian embassy pays (unlikely?) or relative in Russia does. He is now desperately in need of help. Second, maternal instinct not always strong in Thailand. In my village alone, know of 3 cases where the mother has abandoned their kids to go live with new partner, leaving them with the old one or once just dumped the kid on a friend!

Many people in UK live from one pay check till the next, particularly lower skilled people. Welfare state means that no need for emergency savings, although sometimes takes some weeks to get the help you need. Unfortunately cost of living in the UK is high and to many do not have a savings habit. 13% have no savings at all 33% have insufficient to last one month if they lost their income. 65% have insufficient to last three months if they lost their income. Cost of housing is astronomical, many require government assistance to even rent. Many food banks. In many ways like Thais - live for today (or this week) no plan for the future. Nothing is done in schools in UK to prepare children to be financially independent. Even my son, 1st class degree and a masters from Cambridge, found it hard to budget and save once working, took him a couple of years (and a lot of advice from me) to get him started. I think part of the problem is in the past kids lived at home after they started work, and could pick up some common sense from their parents. Now they stay in education until 21 or older, but no common sense.

Astaxanthin is a carotenoid, and anti-oxidant. It is sold as a food supplement for human consumption. So i would say it is pretty safe.

I was taken to a touristy one in Pattaya during Covid - free for Thai, farang must pay! I was the only farang there, 80% of the shops stalls were deserted, hardly any people. Most interesting thing was watching a catfish slowly swim between one pier and the next. Never again.