Stevemercer

I try to avoid the sun and wear long trousers, shirt and hat outside. I put sunscreen on any exposed skin. I guess coming from Australia, where skin cancer is common, is behind this. I'm always surprised to see foreigners wandering around in shorts and lying in the sun. I assume they are from colder European countries where sunlight is a treat.

What would happen is someone tattoed a likeness of The Prophet on their arm?

I miss Rooster and sometimes wonder what happened to him. Did he ever write his book?

Yes, I have to agree the charging infrastructre is much better in Thailand. Every village on a highway seems to have chargers, on top of those in service centres etc. Our small town has half a dozen located off the main road. I've never seen them used, but they are there. The owners offer a service whereby you can drop off your car at their secure charging facility, they will give you a lift home and message/take you back to your car when it is fully recharged (100 Baht for this extra service).

Ha ha. I was talking about hardware upgrades. Try replacing/upgrading the hardware on a Chinese brand EV in 5 years to take advantage of new tech for recharging or simply to keep all the high tech functions running. In my opinion, technology still has a way to go on EVs. Each year, EVs will have more range, faster charging and greater efficiencies. You will need need to upgrade every 4 or 5 years if you want to keep up.

Drive Australia recently did a comparison driving identical BMWs from Melbourne to Sydney (900 km) One was electric and one was petrol. Apart from that, the cars were identical. Surprisingly (?) the petrol car was 20% cheaper than the electric on fuel costs and made the journey 3 hours quicker. EVs are, of course, cheaper if you can charge at home and take advantage of cheaper tarrifs. They make sense around the city. But for longer driving, they don't make so much sense. Fast chargers can be relatively expensive and often seem to be broken adding time and uncertainty to a long drive.

Unfortunately, modern EVs are high tech and, with the technology increasing every year, are disposal. Figure on an average life span of 5 years. So, yes, it is true, the battery will probably outlast most modern EVs. The supporting electronics will die first and won't be worth replacing. It's like computers back in the late 1990s. You bought the best and most up to date you could afford, but knowing full well you will need to upgrade key components within a couple of years, and replace the computer after about 5 years if you want to keep up with the latest hardware/software.

If it had been a wild tiger it would would have been hunted and shot as a danger to the community. A dog kills someone, and is a danger to the community, but it seems to be tolerated.

I've seen the photos showing North Korean and Russian POWs in their cells in Ukraine. Even POWs get better treatment..

Yes, last January had the odd cold day, but was pretty balmy. The month was slightly above the long term average.

We are heading for the coldest January in over 10 years. But, of course, it doesn't fit the narrative of climate change and won't be of news interest anywhere (we only ever hear when things are hotter than normal).

It works both ways. I've met many Thai woman who have been lied to, scammed and dudded by their foreign bofriend.

Having to go barefoot into the dentist (and many doctors too). While I'm all for bare feet, it seems strange wearing no shoes in a surgery where there could be chemical spills, blood/human wastes, needles or other hazards.

RIP Sometimes I worry about Thai diplomacy as it seems appeasement is the bottom line. The killer will never be found, similar to killers of Chinese nationals and other dissidents in Thailand. It would be embarrasing if the killer was caught and was found to have connections in Cambodia. Better to avoid this possibility. I still don't understand Thailand's approach to Myanmer's imprisonment of 4 Thai fishers. The attitude seems to be to work quietly behind the scenes and not do anything that could imply criticism or rebuke the Myanmar regime. Maybe this quiet diplomacy is the 'Asian way', but it may not be the most effective way to secure the release of the Thai nationals.

I have sympathy for the OP. The fault was with the poisoner. It sounds like he wouldn't poison the dogs because they barked at him (or whatever) but only because the OP yelled at him. So his poisoning was aimed at getting back at the OP, and the dogs were just collateral damage. The poisoner will have won if the OP leaves Thailand.