rickudon

As said, get your visa before you come, or in Laos, and then extend later an on subsequent years in Thailand. Yes, i had a hassle trying to open a new account in Thailand, had one already but wanted a better account - took me 5 attempts and one and half hours to do the paperwork when they did agree (they also throw hurdles in your path). Keep trying. If you want/need to do the 400,000/800,000 in a Thai bank, rather than on monthly income, and you do not have enough cash - borrow it in the UK, repay over 7 years, not that expensive - that is what i did when they stopped accepting Embassy income letters for extensions. Finally, if you are going to be living in Thailand, make sure you have enough money..... are you going to work (if you do not have a job lined up, do not count on it)? Do you have enough pension? You said you do not have much cash. What with exchange rate calculations and contingencies, you need 50% more than you calculate you need. Otherwise you WILL end up broke.

As quite a few have said - housing is the big cost in our home countries. In the UK, renting a one bedroom flat anywhere in the south will cost you near 1,000 GBP a month (or more). But ... you also have Council Tax, house insurance, TV licence, Internet as well as Utility bills. So actual 'housing' costs are actually around 1250 GBP and up. This would represent around about 80% of my pension. Running a car also expensive - 50-100 GBP a month on top. Other transport costs also high. I suppose if i was still in the UK i could still afford Tesco value baked beans on toast 3 times a day, but that would be it. In Thailand my living costs are about one third of the UK. Negatives - yes foreign food is more expensive, but you can find substitutes - if you keep looking can find many items at similar costs to UK - Jam - i make my own, frozen strawberries and sugar are cheap, i make 4 jars for about the same price as one jar of imported stuff and tastes better too. Wife makes good burgers patties, just hard to find good buns. Even found Muesli at 150 baht a kilo. The big negatives are the heat and humidity, somewhat counterbalancing the cold in the UK; and the big elephant in the room, Healthcare. Is Thailand perfect - far from it, but where is. And the 20 year younger wife a bonus too.

She had a daughter. Next trip back 9 months later a Yank had already snapped her up and she had gone to the USA.

Right, first are you after lure fishing or just bait fishing, or not fishing at all? You stock about one fish (fingerling) per square metre, so about 2,000 fish max. Put to many in and they will be stunted, even if you feed a lot. If lure fishing, then snakeheads are OK. Giant snakeheads - maybe not, they will eat pretty large tilapia, for instance. Could put in some barramundi (sea perch in Thailand); They will not breed but could be fun. Red tailed catfish also predatory. Need to stock some fodder fish for them to eat; maybe Plaa tapien (java Barb), or tilapia. If bait fishing lots of options. All the following fish not really predators, although maybe eat some small fish. Mekong catfish, Striped catfish, various carps (Catla, Rohu, common carp, mud carp). Pacu (plaa Jeramid) are very pretty when young, but do have sharp teeth, related to Piranhas, but omnivores, they like Jackfruit, but will eat anything. Giant Gourami (plaa rat). Tilapia. Walking catfish also omnivores, but as said, will Walk! If just for show, no fishing, then yes Koi carp. Taptim, the yellow tilapia, will also look good, and cheaper.... Depending on if there are other water bodies close by, you may get wild fish getting into your pond - particularly small gouramis, climbing perch (plaa mor) and of course snakeheads Lots of other species, but some hard to get. If you look on the internet there are quite a few sites (e.g. famous fishing lakes) which will provide pictures and brief descriptions

Prefer Emirates from London, quieter (A380) and better drinks selection. But depends on price and total Travel time. I like to have an intermediate stop as good to have a decent walk rather than sit for over 10 hours. Have also used Etihad and KLM when price was right, plus a few others - worst airlines were Jet airways (now defunct i think) and Kuwait airways. A few are much cheaper but involve a 20 hour plus total travel time with a long airport layover.

In our village, there are at least 6 village grocery stores and a similar number of street food stalls. Also 5 mini-laundrettes. I doubt that any of these traders ever make 1,000 baht profit a day - certainly they cannot afford to employ staff. Practically every restaurant in the wider area has expired after 2-3 years. There just isn't enough money around to support all these restaurants.

In our village, there are at least 6 village grocery stores and a similar number of street food stalls. Also 5 mini-laundrettes. I doubt that any of these traders ever make 1,000 baht profit a day - certainly they cannot afford to employ staff. Practically every restaurant in the wider area has expired after 2-3 years. There just isn't enough money around to support all these restaurants.

After a long flight, you just want to get out of the airport. Also, you do not pass by any duty free shop on your route from plane to immigration, then baggage reclaim and customs, at least i have never seen one. The delay at immigration usually means your baggage gets to the carousel same time you do. As for departure duty free, prices usually higher than UK supermarket - also they never seem to have the brands i like. 16 years and have never bought anything.

Got off the plane at Swampy, first time in Thailand, took the sleeper train to Udon Thani, and 6 hours later had found a pond and was fishing for plaa sawai. Also a public park which was better than most in the UK. Other farang were friedly back then (70 baht to the pound helped). Within 4 days the hotel owner had tried to set me up with one of her waitresses (a real beauty). I knew then i was looked upon as a local, albeit still a farang.

Not worried here. Too old now. Had NSU in UK twice, nothing in Thailand.

Yes, i guess it has changed. Also i am older now. In 2008 to 2010, didn't have to go looking for girls, they found me.... would get chatted up every couple of weeks. Every one was very helpful. Then i got married, so that cut down my socialising. Also, rather than attracting attention, just another person. Certainly in Udon the number of farang rose about 50% between 2008 and 2012, or at least seemed too. A mixture of socialising less, farang no longer special, more money after Yingluck raise the basic wage, exchange rate for us went down, and so we spent less. No longer quite as desirable. In the last 10 years, the main changes in the suburbs/villages near to city, has been an explosion of house building, cars, flowers in gardens instead of just chickens, and less litter. Thais are wealthier. The Lao khao alcoholics have mainly died off. Infrastructure has evolved - fibre internet, mains water, more reliable electric, street lighting and most sois now concrete or tarmac. And 7-11, lotus express everywhere. Provincial Thailand is becoming more like the west.

Last time i saw a glow worm was in France about 25 years ago. pretty rare these days due to too many lights at night-time. They live in the long grass, rarely fly. Used to see Fire-flies here in Isaan 10 years ago, but rarer now as every house has about 10 solar lights stuck up around their gardens. Have to walk down to the farm to have any chance to see them, and that has half a dozen solar security lights as well.

Earlier this year as part of a family outing by van we visited a waterfall near Phetchabun. Price for farang was 400 baht. Only there for 30 minutes, nothing else to see. Of course i didn't pay farang price, just pulled my hat down and said 'Khon thai'. Everybody laughed.

Most cakes are very disappointing in Thailand. Yesterday, in 7-11, I saw slice of real fruit cake - small, cost 40 baht. Taste - well not up to UK standard, but far better than the sponge and fake cream cakes in Thailand. Other favourites - yes the triple sausage/ham and cheese croissant, and the double small round tuna rolls, 25 baht

A lot of ranting, denial and deliberate attempts to confuscate in this thread. Yes, we don't know EVERYTHING about Climate change, but we know enough to have some good ideas about why it happens. We can model the astronomical factors quite accurately, into the past and into the future. It is the terrestrial factors which complicate things, because some of them are hard to predict. What we do know is that for the past 10,000 years Climate has been fairly stable, and CO2 levels also. The medieval warm period (MWP) was not really significantly warmer than the previous millennia. and was mainly confined to the North Atlantic and Europe, cause - uncertain but believed to be due to changes in ocean circulation. After this a period of cooling began again. it was followed by the Little Ice age (LIA) causes - not known, BUT recent research has suggested a slight fall in CO2 levels - it has been suggested that this was due to the colonisation of the New world, during which up to 90% of the indigenous population may have died, due mainly to disease. This resulted in the mass abandonment of farmland, which then reverted to forest - thus lowering the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. The following depopulation of Africa to provide slaves may have also increased forest cover in West Africa, prolonging the LIA. So we can see that even 500 years ago man could probably alter the worlds climate. Then came the industrial revolution, and the growing use of fossil fuels. For the last 100 years CO2 levels have increased, by about 50% - far more than has been seen in previous Ice age interglacials. So far, no other source for this increase in CO2 has been identified. What we can see is measurable shifts in climate, damaging weather events and ecology. If we do nothing, we can easily model the impacts - rising sea levels, more droughts, more floods, crop failures, heat related deaths. We could just throw our hands in the air and say we cannot stop it, but shouldn't we try? Alternative is a world without coral reefs, mass migration, famine, water wars. Better start building that bunker! A link - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mass-deaths-in-americas-start-new-co2-epoch/

Water in plastic bottles..... ever seen the stacks outside of 7-11 and Lotus express, sitting in the sun, maybe for weeks. Just because it is bottled doesn't mean it was absolutely sterile. The large re-fillable 20 litre bottles have a high turnover and probably safer to use. Some years ago a study in UK found that tap water often less bacteria than bottled water. Anyway, have never seen any reports in Thailand of deaths attributed to drinking any type of bottled water. Not saying never happened, but would be extremely rare. Most tap water safe as well; i use it for brushing my teeth, never any evidence it caused any illness. Like anywhere in the world, water from a proper treatment plant is nearly always safe when it leaves it (always some exceptions, e.g. Flint Michigan). But contamination post treatment is a theoretical risk.

It is true that Putin has a high level of support in Russia. He lifted Russia off of its knees and rebuilt the economy, not surprising he is popular. You know who also did this? Hitler. Both of them went on to destroy any political opposition, and started to threaten and annex parts of what they considered 'their' old empires. They then went on to try open warfare. Bob needs to find out how corrupt Russia's military complex is, ever wondered why they have failed to crush Ukraine? Most people expected that the Russian onslaught would overwhelm Ukraine in a couple of weeks. In reality Russia was fighting a war using obsolete weaponry, incompetent leaders and WW2 tactics. Yes, they are learning how to fight a modern war, but the Russian military industrial complex has been so successfully looted that they are incapable of producing tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery or warplanes in any significant number. Russia will run out of armoured vehicles in about one year, artillery a bit longer. The other question is do Russian people realise how many men they have lost in their blind frontal assaults, 90% of which fail? About 500,000 casualties so far.

I think some of the 'history' mentioned in this thread is somewhat distorted. I suggest that anyone who actually cares about the Palestinian problem (or the spread of Islam in the middle ages) takes a week off to actually read up on what actually happened. Do not need books, Wikipedia has enough.

Cost of living in Europe has risen steeply the last 2 years, also airfares to Thailand have gone up 25-50%. A Thai holiday isn't going to be cheap. Other issues - pollution in land, water and air often in the news; lack of good transport options and the congestion caused by mass Asian tourism has lowered enjoyment. A 2 week holiday in Europe is now cheaper, safer and healthier.

Thailand actually has one of the largest dairy industries in South-East Asia. Over 350, 000 cows. Bit not self sufficient. Apart from the problems already mentioned, bear in mind you need to compare prices with unsubidised western products. Tesco in the UK may sell 4 pints for 1.49 GBP, but 2 pints will cost about 1 GBP, while in Thailand you get 1.5 pints for the same price. Not a lot of difference. As for cheese, Makro 2 kilo blocks of cheddar is similar price to UK. Smaller sizes of other cheeses in Thailand are, however, much more expensive.

According to my son, the Israelis used the floating dock the US built for AID deliveries to get in and out. The return trip was facilitated by bombing everything either side of their escape route, hence the casualties. He has access to some non-media state sources, but cannot say if that was where he got it from.

Since when? It is Palestinians who usually have to do the 'giving'

Yes, the 2 cars i see most frequently are the Neta V and the Ora Goodcat. MG and BYD not so often.

Not disability. Sick benefit was due to the injuries i kept getting doing the part-time job - injured both shoulders, required physiotherapy and also back, required chiropractor. last injury kept me off work for 3 months. My body just was not up to the heavy lifting. So i stopped work at 57.5 and took early retirement at age 58 from my company pension, from the job i was made redundant from, so then could not get any benefits. At 65 got state pension.

it was a video from a Russian mother trying to locate 2 sons, following a coach she believed they were forced on to by men in uniform. As to authenticity, no idea, but did watch the video. If it was true do you think it would appear on Russian government controlled news? 😨