mfd101

No innocents in Thailand, it seems.

Not sure of the law but common practicality should probably suggest the answer. Fix it yourself, for goodness' sake! Are you completely helpless?

It's happening to you on a daily basis. Get used to it. (Do you perceive the world and think about it the same way you did 30 or 40 years ago? I hope not.)

I assume it will be your credit card that sets the xrate, not Agoda.

An interesting read. Nice to read a report of high-quality thinking and discussion on a sensitive subject. For the obvious demographic reasons, permanent migration to Thailand will become more and more important for economic health. Nothing surprising in that. This is the norm for Nth America, Europe & Oz ie for our C21st modernity. Thailand's capacity to head cheerfully down that path and accept - as it already (partly) does for the inhabitants of Isaan - 'newcomers' as new Thai citizens will be a test of its general capacity to move forward. Currently Thais are far from 'colour-blind'.

Thailand seems to have - along with Usofa - a disproportionate number of over-the-top clowns in public life. Not a healthy sign of national cultural or moral values.

But not in Thailand. Here a 'loan' is a gift covered in face-saving cosmetics.

Oh dear!

Oh dear, poor abbot. Still, he'll be better able to keep his vows now.

Impossible for (most) Thais. Status is all. I have always thought that, if my b/f won the lottery, the whole of Surin & Buriram would know within 24 Hours.

Here's a photo of us abuilding in Dec 2016, 3 months before moving in. And a couple in mid-2022. And yes we made every mistake known to man. Went thru 3 sets of local/family 'builders' of varying levels of incompetence & thievery. Only when my boy took over the daily management & supervision did things improve. Took 15 months all up and the end result isn't bad, with some rough bits and some areas for improvement when we can afford it. But overall solid (built on stilts down to the bedrock below the usual hundreds of truckloads of 'soil'). Comfortable inside, plenty of room for all my books, large rooms, high ceilings. We used an architect design which I modified to reduce the number of bedrooms and build the main library u/s. An interesting experience. If I were doing it again (God forbid) I would employ falang builders.

I thought 'flux' was a tummy upset.

The people who display spectacular levels of ignorance are the people on AN who haven't a clue how these things work. After lengthy consultations at Embassy/diplomatic level (usually over months), the 2 countries agree that a visit by the German Head of State would be appropriate as a gesture to warm up relations between the 2 countries (& more generally the EU & The West) in light of the outcomes of Thai politics last year. Further discussions agree on mutually agreeable dates. The German Head of State arrives ... And people here expect him to launch in to a torrent of abuse about how awful Thai politics is, how they need to join the C21st or else I'll never deign to visit you ever again you each-way Charlies & toadies etc etc etc!

Um, I think your second sentence is more likely to be correct than the first.

In the broad I agree, but calling Thailand "the most miserable place on earth" is a ridiculous exaggeration. I live among the poor & illiterate Khmer peasants of Surin but they are infinitely preferable to (pick a country/place) Yemen, Gaza, Congo, anywhere in the Sahel, most of Russia, most of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, most of Iran, Bangladesh, Myanmar ....

That he apparently MET with Pita - as in the photo above - is both surprising and a bold step from the point of view of polite international relations and the fact that Steinmeier is a head of state, not of government.

Just as you do when you smile politely at the neighbours you detest.

The usual peculiar article full of non-sequiturs. Supposed to be about BKK to Vientiane, but the article is all about 20 minutes either side of the border, without ever quite connecting it all together. Still, at least there'll be a change of drivers at the border. Lao of course drive on the right.

So what's he supposed to do? Stand there smiling beatifically and waving to the adoring masses as if he were the British queen?

If every visiting head of state (in this case) or of government spoke the truth during an official visit, there wouldn't BE any official visits anywhere in the world. Or any unofficial ones for that matter.

You can have the land bridge but we want the submarines.

He needs to learn to talk less. Don't just jabber on to please the cameras!

We'll buy your land bridge if you buy our submarines.

No corporate body with half a brain will put money on the table. The only people who might possibly put money down are the Chinese government, for strategic not economic reasons (gives them a LITTLE extra wriggle room around a US-led blockade). But even then, I doubt it would be worth the candle for the Chinese.

Give me a double shot short black any day.