mfd101

No no, what we need is more tourism! More! More! More!

Here in Surin my b/f has been at the family farm most of the day in Khok Salaeng, Phanom Dong Rak district 2 or 3 kms from the border. He took his aged mother back & 1 BIL to see if they could stay at the farm instead of camping on our living room floor here in Prasat. And the answer 2 or 3 hours later was a resounding NO. The Cambodians are still shooting, and not just small arms fire. Occasional shells/rockets coming across all day.

Life is about probability not certainty.

Fine, but a sensible Thai government might think that working on 'call-centre fraud' & 'online gambling scams' that target back home (ie Thailand) needs discouraging. 10 years in klink perhaps?

Good. At least 20 years in klink would be useful. Alternatively, lineup at dawn.

Mostly driven by Europeans (other than Ukraine) so not surprising.

yes.

Question: I'm on OA annual extension of stay & I have expensive health insurance with PC (around 80000฿ p.a.with a number of non-life-threatening exclusions & I pay the first 60000฿ or something like that). Am I right in thinking - 100% right, no mistakes - that the OA conditions no longer require health insurance? If that's correct, I'm thinking I won't renew in October. [Age 76, good health & determined to stay that way (decent food + physical & intellectual exercise), only 2kms from good-quality large public hospital here in Prasat to which people go from all over Surin, good (Chinese-Thai) doctor locally - pleasant & effective. Had a mole removed from my leg 3 or 4 years ago in that hospital with that doctor, in & out in 20 minutes, 4000฿]

The problem is that perfectly intelligent, honest and reasonable people can have different views on the way forward in the mind-bogglingly complex affairs of a nation-state or a province or a city. And to make headway people have to do deals with others (unless you prefer a dictatorship à la Hun Sen). And the deals inevitably involve calculations about who's up who and who hasn't paid ... Noone has invented anything better as yet.

So how do you propose to run this country? or any other?

And then there's public hospitals. Very cheap.

Definition of stupidity: Inability to learn anything new.

Wow, how many wakeup calls does Thailand need before they actually realize you can't build a modern society and economy on tourism? But you can destroy much of your traditional culture and values with tourism.

In this life there are sensible people and there are clowns.

I'll be happy when I see the pavement done (widened & levelled & no death traps) from Benjakiti Park to Terminal 21 & down Sukhumvit Rd to Nana.

The photo above in the OP is interesting: Thai military looking stern; Cambodian military looking hot'n sweaty.

As happens here frequently, the AI-generated title & the first para. are misleading. They seem to suggest that taxes are being raised to encourage tourism. Turns out - from careful reading of the rest of the 'article' - that actually it's about razing(!) ie reducing or eliminating taxes for Thai people wanting to holiday inside Thailand (as has been previously announced). So nothing there for visitors to Thailand.

If you had bothered to read the agreement between the 2 PMs, you would have seen that establishing military/military talks both centrally & regionally was part of the deal.

That's what's written on the bag of items we bought there earlier today.

As in most armies or indeed armed forces of the world, the Thais too have their 'just for display' incompetents covered in ribbons, AND their tough killers. I remember my first visit to the temple ruin currently being contested in Surin Phanom Dong Rak area (a few minutes drive from my Khmer family's farm). This was mid-2012, my first visit anywhere in Thailand beyond BKK and the family farm itself which I was visiting for the first time. I was accompanied in the truck I was driving by my b/f, his aged mother, half-sister & 2 small nieces. At the ruins we first encountered 2 or 3 fairly cheerful but guarded Cambodian soldiers, to whom the family chatted away in Northern Khmer. I was very interested in the ruins & we wandered along a bit, then suddenly standing beside us & looking rather grim and SILENT was a Thai officer all in black. From my own career experience in Oz I immediately knew what he represented. A REAL soldier, a trained killer. And of course - doing his job - he wanted to know (but without speaking) what this idiot group of people chatting in Khmer & accompanied by an aging Falang was up to ... So we moved along a bit, I took photos (but not of him!), and eventually we departed & drove home ... PS I should add - as my b/f has just reminded me - that that temple was destroyed yesterday by Cambodian fire. So much for squabbling over the national cultural treasures.

It's the RX Company pharmacy opposite the Municipality Bldg, which you can find on Google Maps.

Twas not always thus. Back in the old small building (before the new one was completed) there used to be an unpleasant guy always with his hand out for a bribe. Quite blatant too. After that there was a boss woman for a while who similarly announced that my renewal application would take several days because the big boss was away, but if I paid a 'special fee' I could get it done today. I smiled politely and said nothing then paced up & down for 3 hours outside her window till she finally came out smiling sweetly & showed me my stamped p/p. She was obviously expecting my brown envelope. So my b/f & I took the p/p, waied her politely & walked swiftly to our car. Yes, last October we went there to the nice new office & found the staff pleasant but a long wait as there were many there before us ... So it's there in future if we choose but the Provincial Govt office is close to Robinsons so easier for us to go there then on to Robinsons for a feed, Tops & Starbucks for a coffee & several bundles of coffee beans. Plus the big & cheap pharmacy in Muaeng Surin as required ...

I guess she can go wherever she likes as a politician & senior political leader. Some people are so irrational they wouldn't be pleased by anything she could reasonably or even unreasonably be expected to do.

Just came back from there (90-day report). At 1000 lots of staff with nothing to do, no customers except me. Took less than 2 minutes.

6 or 7 hours before the ceasefire took effect. As I have explained elsewhere this is the norm for ceasefires everywhere and in all wars: Ceasefires take effect almost invariably at midnight and the shooting continues till the last minute, often more intensely than usual, just so everyone understands the lesson. No different in this instance.