Enzian

Forget the body shape for a moment and concentrate on the face. I used to have these discussions with my son after his months long visit here about how many different facial type groupings there are. There are distinct types, but without doing a photo essay it is impossible to define and list. I just know them when I see them. The least attractive to me is the large chin forward types. I have this theory that they all go back to tribal groups that existed in, or entered from further north, long ago. On my walk yesterday I saw a round faced massage woman sitting out that could be the twin of the woman I'm living with. There are definite types.

And actually if you just want to save money and have also have tasty alcohol you can start with "white spirits" (157 baht per .7 and up at Foodland, 40% so 8 times the strength of beer, probably safe and won't make you blind), add mixer of choice and ice, and move up from there to Thai whiskey and rum, on up from there to the cheaper imported whiskeys and whiskys and gins etc., and all within the budget of anyone.

On 10/25/2020 at 6:42 AM, Orton Rd said:

I switched to whisky, Dewars White label is about half the price of what it sells for in the UK, most are more expensive here.

About the time the pandemic started I got interested in really knowing and "researching" Scotch whisky. There is a wide range of prices of course from the cheap blends (malt and grain) to the more expensive (and much better) single malts and blended malts. The import and sin taxes here on spirits do not seem as extreme as on imported wines. Further, less expensive blends (Dewars White, J&B, Teacher's, Cutty Sark, 100 Pipers, Bell's etc.) are priced similar and in a few rare cases lower here in LOS than in the UK and US. 

But the better single malts (lately for me it's been Ardbeg, Lagavulin, etc.) can be 20 to 30 % more here than in the US, even counting for the nearly 10% sales tax in CA. And in some cases, worse. Blend 285 is the kind of Thai whiskey Thais drink, almost always with mixer; but there are many others produced in country; the moderator probably would not like me quoting prices.

A favorite meme goes:

Young girl to her mother: Mom, what is normal?

Mother: A setting on the dryer, dear.

I will say I understand those who say that their lives have changed very little. They probably don't pay for a multiple re-entry permit when they renew their non-O. I do however. Until this year I was spending a third of the year in Europe and a month in CA, my nominal "home"-Thailand was a hub. I can't complain; I'm still alive. But if it were possible to relocate to Europe I probably would.

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

I bet half the pick ups in Isaan will soon be repossessed.

And my live-in girlfriend's pick-up would possibly be one of them if I weren't making the monthly payments for her. That's her biggest expense for me if we don't count food and some misc.

Does this mean the time has come to start burning the fields and forests of the northwest?

I like it. It means that until the point next year when I leave forever I will be able to enjoy quiet peaceful streets without crowds of clueless farangs and rude Chinese. 

18 minutes ago, Grumpy John said:

I haven't transferred money for home for 2 years.....but I am getting low.  I can't wait for LOS to implode so I can transfer money at a better Forex rate.  Can I hang on? 

Lord Keynes, the father of modern monetary theory, famously said The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. 

This story, issue, whatever you call it, will only get bigger and bigger.

32 minutes ago, khunjeff said:

Oddly enough, the stability of Yingluck's government wasn't such a high priority for his buddies.

Yingluck's government  was a kleptocracy, which is what all Thai governments so far have ended up being eventually. Be careful that the new boss is not the same as the old boss, though it is beyond my pay grade to guess how to prevent just that.

This article starts out "Excluding Krungsri..." bank. Why? Is that a good sign or a bad sign for Krungsri? It's important to me because Krungsri holds my Foreign Currency Deposit account with enough to renew my Non-O visa next month, for another year. And FCD accounts do not have deposit insurance. I'm assuming they are in good shape, partly because Japanese consortiums own about 2/3 of the bank. The Financial Summary posted on their website doesn't look too bad though of course it is not easy to interpret fully, but does anyone have any info or links?

1 hour ago, polpott said:

Because eminent virologists have studied the Covid genome and concluded that it occurred naturally. Not man made. This is now accepted by pretty much everyone apart from a few conspiracy theorists armed with zero facts.

I do NOT want to start an argument with anyone here. But I asked for links, not for assertions from another member who to my knowledge is no more of a scientist than I am. 

15 minutes ago, polpott said:

Another conspiracy theory that has been disproved time and again. Even the US government have agreed that this is not the case.

How can anyone say definitively that this has or has not been disproved? Links with absolute authority? Has China allowed the kind of independent investigation that would get closer to certainty one way or the other? Isn't this exactly one of the reasons Australia and China are currently at loggerheads? And as for the US government, governments are a lot of people and departments, some of which are allowed to speak and some not, some of which want to speak and some not, some of which are still trying to figure things out but can't reveal their sources, and so on. 

Post above said no easy answers, but there is one easy answer: Bleep China! Bleep China for the rest of this century! You can blame the leaders of the US and UK and continental Europe all you want, but they didn't start it, and no one will have dealt with it perfectly, some better, some worse.

My live-in is a massage lady I've known for years. She visits her old shop every few days to talk to her friends, but they have almost no customers so she is grateful it seems to be here. She's kinda past her prime but still half my age. I thought we had a casual arrangement (started as a way to reduce possible Covid exposure), but she recently told me if she finds out I've seen a pretty young massage girl she'll kill me; I hope she's not serious. Actually my last live-in said if she found out about another woman she'd cut off my wang. Maybe I should be flattered by these attitudes. Or it's just that I "pay" them well.

2 hours ago, PatOngo said:

TAT..............forever blowing bubbles!????

I think I heard of a Chinese guy with the nickname Bubbles.

27 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Docs trained in which country?

I got it in Thailand and was here for several months after, so the doctors I saw were Thai. I did not ask them (two I think) at that time where they had studied. But this is an important point. Though medical care here in Thailand is very good, I would not put it on a par with the US, and I think persons should always be aware that mistakes are made constantly. At that time I was more naive (I still am, but less).

I respectfully differ with post #29 regarding the need for meds. I cut my hand once and went to Bumrungrad Emergency, and as usual the doc asked what meds I take, I told him acyclovir. He said what is your plan for that, you should not take it forever. So the next time I was in Europe away from my gf, I stopped taking it. In 20 days I had an outbreak. Then when in the US asked my doc at Kaiser, he said no problem, he had a patient who had been taking it for 9 years with no side effects.

I would also speculate that is is no big deal here because I would guess some very large % of the girls in Cowboy and Nana Plaza and the massage places have been exposed and seen it. They don't LIKE it, I've had them look closely and I know they are looking for evidence of something, but they know a lot of stuff is out there, yet they stay in the business.

When I first got it the docs I saw misdiagnosed it as something more serious, and put me on antibiotics which helped not at all; that's why the first few months were really suffering. Then it slows down.

I have seen a couple of monitor lizards while walking along the Saen Saep canal, but two nights ago I saw people fishing in that canal. How could it be safe to eat something caught there? Maybe it's a sign of how bad the economy is getting.

The first sentence refers to "unsubstantiated allegations", but there is nothing further in this text of the article about that, so it's impossible to know what they are talking about.

On 10/9/2020 at 9:29 PM, mr mr said:

please can someone tell me where i can get a ticket off this stupid planet ? 

 

i'm done. 

See a Chinese travel agent.