newnative

I hope this is my last 'He still alive?' post. But, I think not.

I'm in a 'surrounding area', namely the Mabprachan area on the Darkside. We have the same problem here--dirty, dusty road construction taking forever. In this case, it's widening the road and installing bigger drain pipes. Long stretches have been torn up and many days there are no or very few workers working. When they are working, often it's with with inadequate equipment. There's absolutely no regard for the poor businesses along the road, which have had their business frontages torn up for months in some cases. Instead of quickly finishing short stretches of the construction, for minimum impact on the businesses, the whole length of the project has been torn up and, at this point, none of it seems to be done. In some cases they seem to be re-digging for the second or third time. One way we can tell the work has been taking too long. There are two big trees in the path of where the road is being expanded. Tree cutters came and hacked off all the branches in anticipation of the trunks being soon removed. So slow is the work, the trees have now started to grow back their branches and they are now about 2 or 3 feet long.

Huh? 'Many states' larger than Thailand? I think just 2, Texas and Alaska, of the 50.

I think the 'been there, done that' could be applied to a number of countries, and by a number of your average tourists, including me. I have a long list of places I want to visit for the first time and a not so long amount of remaining time; I suspect I am not alone in that. Likely, I will only be going once to some of the places on my bucket list, and that would include Thailand, if I didn't live here--a 'one and done' country, for me. Covid shot everything to hell but, pre-covid, only two of the countries tracked by Thailand's statistical department had slight declines in tourists to Thailand from 2015 to 2019, Australia and Singapore. The numbers for western countries were at least slightly up or better. UK, up about 5%. Germany, about 13%. France, around 9%. USA, 34%, a bigger increase. The perception for some posters was big declines in western tourists for years, even before covid, but that wasn't actually the case. The big increases, of course, came from Asian countries, especially China and India, where more of the population could afford to travel and many picked Thailand as a nearby place to venture to for their first foreign country visit. I think, even if covid hadn't happened, Thailand would have seen that trend continue, with western visitor numbers increasing modestly or remaining steady, and the bigger increases continuing to come from Asian countries. I get a chuckle when posters chastise Thailand for 'putting all its eggs in one basket' regarding trying to attract tourists from this or that country. Thailand can certainly do outreach to selected countries but I doubt it makes very much of a difference in the tourist numbers for a country, despite what TAT would like you to believe. People will travel where they want to travel. People will travel when they want to travel, depending on their circumstances. China gave me a 10-year travel visa; whether I choose to use it again is up to me, not a marketing campaign. In 2019, over 1 million Americans visited Thailand. This year we are at 534,000, so far, with the high season yet to come. Not great, maybe, but also not horrible, in my opinion, considering there are still some after effects of covid. It will be interesting to see what the final figure is for the year but I think the US figures will, in future years, be in line with the European countries mentioned, holding steady or very modest gains. All things considered, Thailand should be happy with that.

You forgot to add the time spent packing and then unpacking your suitcase. 555 Google tells us that half the people in the US live within 17 miles of a decent size airport. 90% live no more than an hour away. For the vast majority, you're, at the very worst, an hour drive to the smaller airport to take a 2 to 3 hour flight to one of the dozen big city airports that flies to Thailand. So, that leaves us, worst case: Pack suitcase (I decided to leave out showering, dressing, and brushing teeth) 1 hour Drive to small airport 1 hour Wait time at small airport 2 hours Flight to large airport 3 hours Wait time at large airport 3 hours Flight USA/Thailand 22 hours Total 1 way 32 hours Less than a day and a half, one way, worst case, equals less than 3 days total, not your '5 days of travel to & from the United States alone'. (Note you weren't figuring in after arrival travel in the 5 days.) In any case, what one does after one arrives at a destination is up to the individual and not really relevant in regard to travel times to and from a destination.

Totally incorrect regarding tour groups--regardless of country--not contributing to the Thai economy. But, you will be happy to know that in 2019, independent travelers from China were the majority of the Chinese travelers to Thailand, not tour groups. I believe that is also the case so far this year.

Flights to Thailand from the east coast of the US take around 23 hours each way, with one stop. Washington Dulles to Bangkok on Qatar is 21 hours 10 minutes, for example. So, that's around 2 days of flying, round-trip, not 5.

Yes, they are. The Motorway avoids all that. Lake Mabprachan is getting popular, with a number of new projects, because it's easy to get into town via the Motorway and also easy to quickly get on the Motorway to head to Bangkok, just an hour and a half away.

Not from Lake Mabprachan, which the Outback is close to. I've lived on both sides of the lake. Jump on the Motorway by La Miniera, no toll, and my partner and I can be at Big C South Pattaya in about 15 minutes, without a single traffic light until we get to Big C. Or, in the other direction, Terminal 21, also in about 15 minutes from our house by the lake.

Walk it off, you'll live.

My partner and I do. And, seeing much less fortunate people every day is a reminder to us.

Where do I add my signature.

No, he didn't.

Well, let's see. Which of his 'initiatives' should we keep? I guess my favorite would be using water hoses to spray water into the air to wash the pollution out of the sky. Absolutely brilliant. Really beyond brilliant, when you think of it. Let's definitely keep that one. Meanwhile, buh bye bye.

Good. Glad to see their popularity drop like a stone.

Another member of the Wannabe Legion, Never Been rank.

Boo hoo. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Pictures were 'drilled into the walls'. I suppose they mean some artwork was hung on the walls. 'Shocking', indeed.

No, I'm afraid you don't 'see' at all--he made a perfectly wonderful' point'. And, apparently you are not inclined to learn your one new thing each day. At this point I shall bow out of our discourse as I have nothing more to add.

Speak for yourself with your 'we'. I'm American and when someone asks me where I'm from I say America, not one of your terms. Just like if someone asks me if I'm from 'X' country, I'll say no, I'm American. Not I'm a USA citizen, US citizen, etc.

Umm, he wasn't 'trying' to say something. He did say something, in an entertaining and intelligent way, using a form of expression called sarcasm. Google it and it will be the thing you learn for today.

I, myself, adore sarcasm but one does use it at one's risk on this forum. As you are seeing. But, kudos for a great post! Now I shall let you get back to your explaining to Nick.

Boy, you said it. We've had 19 pages of this thread, plus the lengthy earlier thread with the federal indictments, with the facts of the cases clearly and precisely laid out in well-written fashion over and over and over again by different posters, very intelligent and patient; I know I've become better informed reading their posts. The Trump cultists just do not want to hear any of it. Period. As you said, they have no interest in the facts, and facts are irrelevant to them. With that rigid mindset, there seems to be no way to reach them, no matter how hard this poster or that poster tries to break through. Likely after I post this a Trump cultist will respond with the question, 'What facts?' Or, perhaps something along the lines of, 'We don't need your facts because we have our alternate truth that Trump has given us.' One of the things I've learned from these two threads is it will be a complete waste of time, for not patient me, to bother to respond. It doesn't seem all that long ago that poor Gary Hart, a popular candidate for President at the time, had to withdraw from the race after a rather tame dalliance with a lady not his wife. Jimmy Carter also got into deep kimchi in a Playboy interview for merely admitting to thinking impure thoughts. Trump, on the other hand, gets a pass from his cultists for raping a woman and paying hush money to a hooker, among other sex offenses. Not to mention all the extremely serious current indictments, state and federal. Or, all the other disgusting things he has done, including serial lying. Lying also used to be a big no-no with American presidents; Trump didn't just chop down the 'ol cherry tree, he hacked it to shreds. I do find it distressing and disturbing that there are way too many of these Trump cultists than you'd think there would be, who have, let's face it, completely disengaged their brains when it comes to processing any negative facts regarding Trump. A recent poll had just 28% of Republicans believing Trump had committed a crime. I'm incredulous that figure is so low, given all the overwhelming evidence. That's scary for America, even with 62% of all Americans believing he did commit a crime--also very low, in my opinion. Reading the cult comments on this thread, and the previous thread, have both been eye-openers for me, as an American.

Besides world-class grifting and lying, the only thing he could be said to be experienced at.

Good.