newnative

Huh? You must not have read the article or your comprehension skills are lacking. It's the exact opposite of what you posted, according to the article. The high-end hotels are doing ok, the mid and low-end hotels are not. The conclusion? Thailand is doing ok with the number of higher-end tourists visiting but is not attracting enough mid and lower-end tourists to fill those types of hotel rooms. So much for all those posting by you and others saying Thailand is being over-run by 'cheap mass tourism'.

For long-term living I would choose Pattaya hands down. I often say Pattaya is actually a better place to live than as a tourist destination to visit for a few days. It has all the things you'd want in a place to live, either year-round or for shorter terms. Great selection of neighborhoods, each with its own vibe. You can choose beach side, with a number of different choices. Or, you might want the quieter, less touristy Darkside, with lots of terrific housing projects to choose from. Great selection of housing choices at all price ranges--hugely important in a place to live--whether you are renting or buying. You can, and my spouse and I have, live in everything from a studio condo on the beach to our current 4-bedroom pool villa. As our housing needs changed, Pattaya easily accommodated us. Tremendous choice. Also so important, very good health care, eye care, and dental care available with a number of large hospitals and clinics. Terrific shopping choices with two very good shopping malls, furniture and hardware stores like Home Pro and Index, good grocery store choices, a large number of car dealers offering a wide brand selection, and a huge number of different restaurants. Plus, cinemas in English, golf courses, scuba, snorkeling, fishing, badminton and tennis courts, etc. And, the added bonus of being an easy drive on the 4-lane Motorway to both a big city and two major airports. Three if you count U-Tapao. The cherry on top is the large and diverse expat community living here. You'll likely make some new friends--we have.

Specifications can be different if you select a different sofa type, such as a sleep sofa vs. a regular sofa, and, certainly, a different sofa series from another one. I think if you select a series, such as Vimle, the materials and specifications will be the same, comparing apples to apples. For example, Vimle makes a small 2-seat sofa for 25,990 baht. They also make a huge U-shaped 6-seat sofa for 100,000 baht. If you check the specifications, they are the same except for length. Seat depth is the same at 55cm. Seat height is also the same at 45cm. Armrest width and height the same at 15cm and 65cm. Etc. Fabric choices were the same--the two sofas I looked at both came with a fabric called Grann/Bomstad, with likely some other fabric choices available. I'm not sure all fabrics are available with all sofa configurations. Composition of the sofa cushions is the same--high resilience foam. And, of course, the overall design style is the same. My main point remains that in many cases you can use a different version of a sofa series to check quality, design, construction, fabric feel and weight, and, most importantly, how comfortable the product is for you when you sit on it.

Can't speak for Phuket but I would totally dispute Pattaya being number 2 on the list. It's a tourist town and, yes, it's popular, it has lots of tourists, but it's also large and spread out, with a number of different beaches, tourist areas, and tourist attractions, such as Nong Nooch Gardens, in different locales. The tourists aren't all concentrated in one small area so it doesn't feel 'overcrowded' to me. I would certainly rank Venice much higher. It was so overcrowded when we visited it was hard to even walk around--that's not the case with Pattaya.

With IKEA sofas, usually a model type, such as Vimle, will have a number of different configurations, from smaller 2 and 3-seat sofas to much larger configurations such as what you show above. Although IKEA stores are huge, they don't have the space to display all the configurations available, and especially the really large sofa configurations. But, you should be able to test the quality and sit comfort of a model type by checking out a smaller version, which usually is on display. The bigger types are usually just that--bigger versions of the same model. Things like seat depth, arm height, and back height and angle ( very important) should be the same. Fabric type, feel, weight, and color should also be the same. As for the OP, some good choices, such as SB Furniture, Index, and Chic Republic have been mentioned, as well as some others I would add Jas Furniture, which allows you to select fabric type and color, and Boonthavorn's Lifestyle Furniture, which also has a number of different sofa types.

Yes. We had lasik around 2012 and this year we both did the lens replacement, both procedures with Dr. Somchai. Happy with both.

Thank you.

Thanks!

If you are in Pattaya the doctor at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital is terrific. My spouse and i both had lasik done there and were very pleased with the results.

Thanks for your interesting post. I'm curious regarding the $61,750 tax-free figure you mentioned, which I am not familiar with. Is that for higher income levels? (Which I am also not familiar with, more's the pity!) In 2023, I had Social Security, Virginia state pension, and dividend income for a total of around $50,000 in income for the year. I ran my taxes with both Turbo Tax and Tax Act on-line tax preparers and they both came up with around $1,500 in federal tax still owed, on top of what I had already paid. To add insult to injury, I had to also pay a small penalty as I didn't have enough tax taken out during the year, which I have, hopefully, remedied for 2024.

Terrific debate performance for Harris. Trump was demented horrible--yaa!

Wish that were true regarding the good 'ol US of A. No tax expert but I do know I have been paying federal tax for the last 50 years on income that has never reached $60,000. My 2023 tax owed was around $1500.

No, not a lot, in my opinion. Certainly nobody I know would fit that description. They might be more noticeable than other ex-pats going about their business in less visible areas but that is perception, not reality. My Thai spouse and I live in a new housing estate on the Darkside of Pattaya, one of a very large number of housing estates that have sprung up, and are continuing to be built here in booming Pattaya. Of the 30 homes in my housing project, in the 10MB range, almost all have at least one ex-pat in residence. It was the same in the two previous housing projects that we lived at before this one. Are we visible, on display? Nope. Nobody sees or notices us. Only those down-and-out sad sack ex-pats seem to get noticed and commented on. But, for every one of those, there are dozens more living in out-of-sight housing estates or in one of the numerous high-end condo projects that have been built, and, like the housing projects, are also still being built, to handle the demand.

This is not news. We've had this same story periodically for years. News is reporting something new; hence, the word 'news'. Something new would be reporting that the high speed rail project is on schedule or, dare I say it, ahead of schedule. Odds of those two news stories are slim and none.

Sounds like you have some things already lined up. A few others, A boat ride to one of the nearby small islands with snorkeling from the boat is fun. As already mentioned, Nong Nooch Gardens is very nice and there are several shows. I liked Sanctuary of Truth and Underwater World. Terminal 21 can be fun and there are a lot of different restaurants, including a number of new ones.

Yes, I did.

College degree, worked my career in the library of a community college in northern Virginia.

1. To avoid jail. 2. Grifter opportunities galore.

I hope they take just as long to enact this as they are taking for gay marriage.

Zero hours. If it isn't permanent press I don't buy it.

Be aware, though, that Centara Grand is currently undergoing an extensive renovation. It's still open but some of the attractions are closed during the renovation work and some of the property has been walled off to screen the work being done. I do know the gym is still open.

He was actually correct in calling the 2000 election for Gore. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors beyond his control, including several instances of very poorly designed ballots, voter confusion, suppression of the vote due to improper deletion of largely Democratic voter registrations, etc., even though the majority of the Florida voters thought they were voting for Gore, the voter tally ended up too close to call, with Gore ultimately declared the winner when the Supreme Court ordered the recount halted. It's interesting that the tv networks, using voter exit polling, were correct in initially calling Florida for Gore. As I said, the majority of the Florida voters in 2000 thought they were casting their ballots for Gore, and that was reflected in the exit polling. However, once so many votes for Gore were not counted due to some of the above factors, Florida became too close to call later in the evening. Lichtman and Gore were both victims of a combination of things that should not have happened in the Florida presidential election that year. But, I count him technically correct with his 2000 prediction.

As always, a mighty and likely thankless task to explain what is obvious and true to a Trump supporter.

Thanks for the information.

I have been following the discussion regarding SS and spouse benefits. I wonder if anybody knows the answer to my situation. I am an American citizen, age 72, legally married, in the US, to a Thai citizen, age 58, since 2016. We live in Thailand full-time. Thai spouse has a SS number but no SS work credits. Would he qualify for spouse benefits when he turns 62 and survival benefits after I pass away? We do not plan to live in the US for 5 years. Thanks in advance if anyone has any information on this type of marriage situation.