Enzian

I might agree with you if it weren't for the realities of the educational system.

Of course it's a slow motion train wreck that even the submissive Thais understand isn't going to conclude anytime soon. But look at the bright side: the baht is at 36.9 to the $ this morning. For a long long time a 1000 baht note cost us $33; now its barely $27. And I gotta admit, the std banks here convert CC charges at a decent approximation.

AFAIK we're all still waiting to see lower prices on the shelf, in spite of what this article says. I've almost stopped looking at wine because of how absurd the prices are, though there is one Australian Chardonnay I keep on hand. Also, in this climate a glass full of ice and mixer with a spirit almost makes more sense than wine. I did pick up a 750ml of a name brand vodka at Gourmet Market recently for half of the usual price. I don't think it was a pricing error, more likely phasing out old stock for the new labels coming; it's probably dreaming to think it was because of lower taxes kicking in, but we'll see.

It's strange because in person he looks sturdy; but that's how heart conditions can be, I guess. It's not wishing him ill to hope for his early retirement. He's is definitely one of the crowd (along with Thaksin) generally making things more complicated and expensive for us ex-pats here. Every day I miss Prayuth lol.

There's that old rule not to attribute to malice what can be easily explained by stupidity, but I'm not sure she deserves the benefit of the doubt; and the results look to be the same anyway... and unending.

So this will mean I can get a Nero d'Avola red in Thailand for just a few % more than in Sicily (6 Euros and up), or a drinkable Amarone della Valpolicella from the Veneto at the same price as at Trader Joe's in California (around $25 with tax)? I can't wait!

Who knows? Maybe when the infrastructure road show reaches some saturation point, we can start talking about improving education in this country so as to take full advantage of these deals in the long run. I like the tan leather jacket he's been wearing in these recent pictures; it's a northern Italy speciality. I have a darker one like it I bought in Florence, but his is nicer.

This makes sense and is encouraging on a couple of fronts. One, Stat above (if I read correctly) suggests using a credit (not debit?) card to withdraw baht from a teller at Krungsri (my bank also), which I thought was always a no-no (though with Chase there might be some frequent flyer points advantage, not sure). Second, I've long had a question of whether to tell my son to send X number of bhat, or X number of dollar; we've always sent a round dollar figure and not tried the baht alternative. The result has seemed to be .5 or .6 below Google spot, which is discouraging but perhaps inevitable. The fee is usually $40 (or $5 sometimes if he does it on his phone). Perhaps it would be $0 if we moved larger figures, idk. Any comments on this will be appreciated. Finally, I will remark that by loading up my local baht account a bit before the end of '23, I think I can get through '24 by transferring funds only from a US account wherein the only activity is US SS deposits (in other words, no US business profits, taxed or not). That's my simple plan. And watch developments here.

So will this situation be similar to places in the US where the legal husband will still be responsible for supporting the child regardless of the known circumstances?

If you're (soon) going to run a country, you'd rather not have a failed state next door sharing hundreds of kilometers of rugged border. All kinds of things could happen to make you look bad. And it would be nice if there really had been some discussion of humanitarian assistance, not impossible.

I got my PhD from Berkeley but most of my close professors had come from Harvard, so I say I got a Harvard education in northern California. Chula is interesting because I'm planning to switch to their hospital after some unhappiness with Bumrungrad.

Looking at the above, the heat is definitely affecting a lot of people. Meanwhile I'm sitting in Berkeley where it's currently 14C.

Italy only #8 on the list? Good. Everyone stay away, the land of scams and bad food and wine. You won't like it. /s

How much longer? I left Thailand on Feb. 3, been in the US and Europe since, but am returning to BKK May 7. Could it just keep going through May and part of June?

Perhaps the PT government should keep it up with this flailing about cluelessly trying to solve problems which are ultimately structural and which they really don't want to address. ATM Google pegs the baht at 36.7; it has been falling since March 9. Let's get popcorn and see how long this can continue.

What's the punishment for noncompliance? Having to listen to a recording of Anutin giving a speech in Thai for an hour?

I read the headline like there's a new party called No Move Forward that we need to get to know. Then I remembered there already is, it's the deep state power elite.

Wouldn't he be smart to just ignore the whole thing, rather than getting people talking about it?

Southern Spain is only green if they irrigate, I'm in southern Spain, Andalusia, right now. The arabs in control stepped up irrigation on a massive large scale 800 years ago. Nothing new.

I agree and my favorite is that yellow building on the corner of Sukhumvit soi 4 across from the gas station. Does anyone bother to look at the upper floors of that eyesore? (A coat of paint would not help, the relative humidity would ruin the paint in a couple of years.) But I suggest hat the mentality behind that ugly thing is part of what makes Nana Plaza possible, so no one cares.

But the peoples of which other religions are currently holding Thai nationals hostage?

Just going out on the roads on a motorbike should qualify as "risky behaviour." Who decides?

Has the BoT Governor anywhere laid out a list of the "underlying structural problems" he's referring to? That's what would be really interesting, as well as why Srettha presumably doesn't want to talk about those problems or discuss ways to address them. Reform doesn't seem to be his strong point; the status quo is. And honestly I don't see the country in economic crisis. It's not doing well, but it's not falling apart. All too often populist politicians claim "crisis" as a motive for action, when what they want are actions that result in them having more control, not in improving the lives of everyone involved.

They had opportunities for a separate state and turned them down. And they have never offered to give up the official policy of calling for the eventual destruction of Israel and the death of all the Jews.

If Hamas would admit defeat and surrender, the hostages would be free tomorrow, all of them.