geisha

I think your post smells bad too. Patong was open last spring 2022 ! Feb / March I was there often, meeting friends ! Why do you need pepper in Starbucks ? I thought we all had a choice where we eat/ drink / shop, I must be wrong . You don’t agree ? Why knock it, like it or not, it’s very successful, yes , more expensive than Amazon or a road side coffee shop. I’d rather pay more for my comfort and I enjoy their coffee. Plus they contribute to the wages they pay, mostly to students and youths who need it. I doubt very much they pay less than an Amazon worker, and disrespect the labor laws. Get over it !!

Emirates was once very good, used them for years, I changed in the last two years as once I had an older plane, and the next time the food was inedible. No idea what happened, but I put it down to too much success .

For me, it’s the only one I can drink due to its lower acidity . Also they do decaf as I’m not supposed to have regular coffee. I love the cleanliness, the design and comfort, aircon., I used to be able to drink the very good Italian coffee, no more. I drink it all over the world, I don’t care about the price . My favorite outlet is in Gaysorn Plaza. The one in Pattaya Central Festival is too popular, too many customers.; Everyone to their own.

Before booking you usually search flights. Price , times, duration/ stopovers , routes, easy to do. With a connecting flight very important, some have a stopover of many hours . Just looked at London to Bangkok prices with Thai, they range from 1370£ to 1500£ return. Wow. You can get much cheaper on other reputable flights. You say more comfortable for Thais to take their National company, maybe, but the larger amount of travelers are foreigners.

A bit more expensive but the comfort , quality and meals beat Thai airways easily. Look at the prices in high season, all flights are. more expensive depending your dates, time of departure and date of booking. I came on the 2 March this year and the price was good. Last time I took a Phuket Bangkok flight I was surprised, plane obviously old and worn. Also, these days , so much good competition to keep up with, Emirates daily flight from loads of countries at good times , not middle of the night only. Bangkok to Europe has a load of flights on offer. One of the best I had lately was Swiss Air. Excellent.

If he was charged with lewd and obscene behavior ( in a private hotel room) , then obviously the police haven’t been to Patpong in the last 50 years, or Bangla road ! Was he naked, didn’t look like in the photo ? Tourists take photos like that in Thailand on the road in Bangla to send to their mates or FB . If it was for scamming, then it wasn’t in the charge. The van driver who attacked a tourist with an iron bar ( on video) got a thousand Baht fine !! Laws are laws maybe, then he should have been deported and banned.

Yes, when I stayed in a condo with the owner abroad, I just stayed in an IBIS hotel (. cheap ) and asked for a screen shot of their declaration which I took for my extension. Easy.

The attack is all on video , in front of a coffee bar with witnesses ! How can anyone here condone that ? The justice system is a laugh .,

That was meant for GammaGlobulin , sorry !!

Always buy induction pans for induction.It’s written underneath the pan/ frying pan! Always buy a good quality one, wash only with a sponge, never scrape.

Oh my God, him again !!!

It’s like a drug. Treat it as one. Watch your back, do as said above, hide all your documents away and prepare for the worst. Then , nicely, find out who’s playing, talk to trusted family members, and warn her of the outcome. She could be ruining you, and you have no idea ! Put your son first. Stay calm.

It’s all relative !

While it would be nice to see a modern tram system, ( can’t imagine how many decades that would take and road disruptions?) what on earth is wrong with a normal bus service working on a loop ?? Just dreams of course, the people who own the Baht buses would not be happy chappys would they ? Buses have more seats, more comfortable, certainly safer than Baht buses for a start. Senior cards for elderly and kids and bobs your uncle.

How can anyone marry someone they can’t have a conversation with ?! I have quite a few foreign friends with Thai wives. One lady is a doctor, another who speaks fluent Chinese and English and is employed in a big travel agency, another one is a cook . Etc .All successful marriages. Would you marry a girl you can’t speak to in your own country , or have a prostitute for a girlfriend/wife ??

Look around , people are huge ! My Thai friends are all on the very slim side, their kids have layers of fat, ice cream, hamburgers , crisps, Thai fast food etc etc making them all unhealthy. I’ve never seen an overweight person who is fit and healthy. I’ll never forget sitting on a beautiful beach in Mexicos Isla de las Mujeres. I walked over the the quay as a US cruiser arrived and tourists disembarked, they could hardly walk the short distance , huffing and puffing. Healthy they were not.

France , for example is the leader in tourist numbers ( around 66 million). The income per tourist is much higher . Thailand has 5 star hotels of course, but not that many. Most hotels in Thailand have hundreds of rooms, and are very cheap compared to Europe and US , or the Emirates. Have you actually seen the price of a room in Rome , Paris or Dubai ? Have a look. Or the Michelin starred restaurants? Thailand isn’t cheap because the airfare is expensive , the hotels and necessities of holidays are very cheap. The Chinese tour groups bring nothing , that’s well known. Why ruin a country with hordes of Tourists when they are cheap ones, it’s just not feasible.

Really, unless you oversee the building of your own house in Thailand, or buy from a well known reputable construction company , you might have huge problems. We all have family somewhere in the west , Germany, Uk,France , wherever. Is it common in those countries to see homes collapsing?. Or new buildings looking ancient after 3 years etc etc. I rent in Thailand ,and have rented many a condo over 30+ years. Bar 2, both older buildings , the others have been shoddy , from the front of the building paint, to the doors which even I could kick in ! One new condo I was in 3 years ago, all the shelves fell off the walls . They came to repair, and hammered huge nails into the wood under the shelves ! Really pretty, not. Catastrophic plumbing a huge problem. Small windows wouldn’t open, sliding doors didn’t slide, the niveau wasn’t right. Needless to say I moved out after 6 weeks. Always thanked my lucky stars I’d never bought. My family have all lived in their own homes for years , and so do my nieces and nephews , never heard a complaint.I live in a beautiful condo in France built 1975 , and apart from embellishments and modernization, I’ve never had work done on it. Still looks great from outside. Good quality and maintenance is what Thailand doesn’t have.

I don’t understand, how can a suitcase, big or not, cause a leg to be stuck under the belt ??

Happens too often on Phuket. Have witnessed it myself , incredible that the police , authorities do nothing to stop it. Every Thai knows what these dangerous thugs will do .

It’s on the TV and newspapers for all to see !!

You should never use antibiotics for eyes or ears without seeing a docteur ! You can do big damage , so always see a Dr first. I was told this by my pharmacist in France when I wanted to buy some for my travels in case, and confirmed by my doctor. I trust them much more than any Thai pharmacy .

Walked down a Soi and wondered if I’d been transported to Africa ! Not much used to Sukhumvit apart from an occasional visit to terminal 21 or a nice meal in the Pullman, I was a bit shocked to be offered drugs, and I also came across some sort of clothes market where it was full of African clothes market vendors. Not to my taste. Probably the police too afraid to go there !

Many from those 3 countries have work permits . Can say they certainly are hard workers and nice with it too.Many speak English and a very good command of Thai.

Anyway, it’s not quantity it’s quality. Quantity overruns the beaches , pollutes the water and creates traffic jams , buses full of group tourists that create chaos., which add to the air pollution, makes huge queues everywhere , whether it be in Bangkoks beautiful temples or restaurants that can’t cope due to lack of staff. Also quantity , not mentioning any nationalities, eat and drink at the 7/11s or dine with babushkas tasty meals which stink out the whole condo building ( sorry but true.) At least western tourists are normally good spenders, usually have manners ( I’m not talking about the scruffy drunks) . At least Malaysian and South Koreans have good manners and education, but Malaysians are mostly border tourists and S Koreans you don’t see that many. In my eyes Japanese are also very nice people. We all saw what happened to Spain, which was a beautiful country until the tour groups took over. Better is Italy and France for beach holidays and wonderful sightseeing, great food too, their hotels being quite small and quite expensive in comparison. I think that probably their income from tourism is vastly superior to Thailands 30 or 40 million. Tourist numbers are just that, numbers.