Loptr

I had a replacement US sim card sent to me a couple weeks ago via DHL... No import tax for me, although I'm in Chiang Mai...

Oh for some Thai massage and foot massage places readily available in the USA. San Diego is the closest place I have seen that has as many massage places, many are chinese and not Thai, but at least they do have a foot thingy. Claremont Mesa area has some pretty 20 - 30 USD an hour places. But nothing like a little Thai walk in foot massage place. Gosh I can't wait to get there., < 20 days to go

A late Christmas for you I guess : )

There's a GREAT Thai massage place in Linda Vista on Ulric road (about a mile up from Mission Valley). Thai owned and all the employees are Thai, very good traditional Thai massages. It's right across the street from the fantastic Sab-e-Lee Thai resturant and on the same block as the Vietnamese market there (which is pretty good too).

http://www.thaimassagesandiego.com

Do they charge 150 baht / $5.00 per hour for a Thai massage?

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Most of the nutritional products I take that keep me free of those expensive American doctor bills, are not available in Thailand. The few that are, are substantially lower in price here than in LOS. After feeling like crap the past few years, I am once again healthy and have my vitality back. That has great economic value.

please do tell us what these nutritional products are?

And perhaps why you can't order them from anywhere in the world and have them shipped to Thailand... Anything I cannot find in Thailand that I really want or need, I can have shipped to me in less than a week...

Everyone rationalizes their actions in order to justify their decisions, based on some pretext... It's human nature, even when their statements really don't pass the smell test... In this case, I'm not sure how anyone could state that living in Thailand is more expensive than living in the US... Yes, crap you buy in Walmart is cheaper and electronic gadgets are cheaper due to little or no import duties being imposed on imported good, while at the same time the cost of day-to-day staples rise dramatically...

One factor alone will blow your budget in the US over what you spend in Thailand and that is health care... Unless you and your family are fortunate enough to be covered by a health-care program under which you have no premiums, you will be sorely reminded of the ever-growing cost of health care in the US on your return... And please don't forget that health care insurance coverage is now mandatory in the US...

In 2006, the average family in the US spent an average of $6,400 on health care per year...

In 2014, the average family in the US spent an average of $16,500 on health care insurance and costs per year...

Using the above example, health care, my current annual premiums in the US for 70/30 coverage with a $4500 deductible is $10,860 per year and this is through a retired execs program with a former employer, thus reflecting a 20% discount... My annual premiums in Thailand for 100/100 coverage with $0 deductible is $2,140 USD...

Of course I have just returned to Thailand a few months ago, so perhaps my rose-colored glasses need adjustment, but my cost of living has dropped significantly since moving back... To the tune of being 45% cheaper to live in Thailand vs the USA, while having a better lifestyle...

To each their own, it's what makes the world go round, but please don't blow smoke up our skirts...

Food stalls and people selling their wares on the streets is the basis for free enterprise... What would the OP prefer, an antiseptic shopping / eating environment run by a MNC like in the west? I came to Asia for the culture, all of it... If I wanted western standards, I wouldn't have moved to Asia...

The irony is that drinking water from plastic bottles does more harm than anyone realizes... Which is the real reason people are brain washed into buying the stuff...

http://www.livestrong.com/article/183101-the-negative-effects-of-using-plastic-drinking-bottles/

Harmful Chemicals

Plastic drinking bottles contain many chemicals, some of which interfere with hormones in the body. These chemicals include bisphenol-A, or BPA, and phthalates, among others. Chemicals in the plastic can leach into bottled water, especially when exposed to heat or when the bottle is old.

Getting insurance doesn't make it cheaper.

Larry, is that your Indiana logic or your Boston logic? Insurance is a necessary evil that can prevent you from financial ruin.

Insurance is for poor people...

If you can afford to self insure, and are healthier than average and live a low risk life.. Why not ??

But you better be able to afford a few mil baht ICU if it goes wrong.. thats the choices.

Not necessarily... I would self-insure, but I carry coverage in Thailand for that one-off scenario that I am rendered unconscious, taken to a hospital and refused treatment due to not being able to pay up-front... The insurance card in my wallet tells them all they need to know...

I have been dinged twice at that spot. They are targeting people who cut straight across Changklan Rd on Loi Kroh. Only a right turn is permitted at that intersection. Both times I have been nicked they sent me to the police station for a 200 baht fine. So they are not on the take, unlike the police on Tha Phae just W of the bridge. I have been stopped there twice too, both times for nothing, and both times paid tea money (400 baht each).

They got me at that spot just west of the bridge on Tha Phae last Friday morning, along with a slew of other foreigners... I had all my papers in order and I was wearing a helmet, but the BiB didn't like it, so off to the cop shop to pay 400 baht...

You forgot to mention what you were fined for.

Oops, he didn't like the helmet I was wearing, even though it was legal...

If you having problems with suay, just wait until you get to maa...

134,000 km??? "vehicle with so little mileage"???

I don't know where you are from, but in Texas, we don't think that a vehicle should need many parts, beyond normal service, until after it has reached more than 250,000 miles, about 400,000 km.

Yes, but that's just one round trip across Texas on interstate 10.

You are not far wrong... From Orange, Texas on the border with Louisiana to El Paso, it is 898 miles...

I haven't had a cold or the flu in 15+ years, ever since I began taking 5000 IU of vitamin D3 a day...

http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/features/secrets-super-healthy-people?page=2

Go to the Mee Chok Plaza on Saturday or Sunday... Next door, behind the market is an area where locals buy / sells motorbikes... There is usually at least 100+ to choose from...

Got to love those self-righteous foreigners that will complain non-stop about the week law enforcement, corrupt police, poor driving standards but themselves are, of course, above the law (or so they think).

In the US he would have been tazered multiple times:-)

Which is one of the reasons I live in Thailand and not the US... I can do pretty much whatever I want here as long as I don't piss someone off, especially the BiB... And without fear of being shot while doing it...

Now back to the tattoo debate...

I stopped reading at nice lady from Isaan...

RUN!!!!!!!!!

Good and bad everywhere soft lad.

I'm sure she is a nice lady, but it sounds like the OP can''t afford her AND her family...

Don't try and twist it, you said " I stopped reading at nice lady from Isaan ".

Care to explain you comment?

I was attempting to appease you as you obviously have a partner from the Isaan region of the country... So be it, the truth is that every Isaan princess I have ever met was, wait for it, in a bar, had little to no education and their primary concern is BAHT.... Does that paint all women from Isaan with the same brush, no, it doesn't... Just the ones that ply their trade in the bar industry... Now, where do YOU suspect the OP met his lady?

You happy now?

I stopped reading at nice lady from Isaan...

RUN!!!!!!!!!

Good and bad everywhere soft lad.

I'm sure she is a nice lady, but it sounds like the OP can''t afford her AND her family...

You will probably have to do what I did when my first wife pulled the same crap... Bite your tongue and bribe her to sign the flipping papers...

Yawn, yeah right... Just like the exhibition day for the Tour de France and of course F1 in Bangkok...

Thailand, the hub of outrageous claims!!!!!

Por Pia... Buy them in bulk and toss a few into hot oil for a couple minutes when a guest requests a snack... Cheap, easy and culturally neutral...

What's that then?

Spring rolls, and he's offering them already

Hey, that's what it says on the menu when I order them...

For the same reason they rub the Buddha's belly, good luck...

The PRC must be feeling their oats to go after the Triads...

Bill Maher has suggested that now he has been revealed as a liar Fox News have offered him a job.

I would hardly quote Bill Maher on anything that is not considered a joke...

The truth of the matter is that ALL western news outlets, and I use that term loosely, are nothing but propaganda channels for TPTB, and that includes Fox, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, CNBC, BBC, Reuters, AP, S&P Ratings, etc, etc, etc... All owned stooges of the banksters and corporations...

Case in point... How long has the global warming / climate change debate been going on and major televised media happily reporting that the sky is literally falling, while demonizing anyone to dare challenge the mantra? Let's see them refute and debunk this latest report that all global warming data has been manipulated by TPTB for decades to push their agenda of taxing the very air we breath with carbon credits...

The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/globalwarming/11395516/The-fiddling-with-temperature-data-is-the-biggest-science-scandal-ever.html

Por Pia... Buy them in bulk and toss a few into hot oil for a couple minutes when a guest requests a snack... Cheap, easy and culturally neutral...