mfd101

Why would you be (already) using such an expensive transfer method (poor exchange rates + atm costs)?

Oh dear! Perhaps they could buy a Chinese submarine instead.

Noone seems to have mentioned that the people who get the 600+ baht old-age payment are mostly people who have spent their lives NOT in the formal economy - piece workers, part-timers of all kinds, and of course millions of peasants in rural villages. And they have their own 'informal' arrangements out in the villages eg My PILs (just a little older than me) have paid a few baht monthly for many years in to the village 'life insurance' (my term) fund. When they die, their 2 youngest sons (including my partner) will receive some 200,000 baht out of the village fund. (That is, if it hasn't already been stolen by the village Head Person.)

I hadn't realised we had come so far!

Hope they can find their way thru the great Pacific. Left hand down a bit!

So much time & energy poured down the drain of tourism ... If only Thai governments and people devoted themselves to lifting education & productivity outcomes so they could lift their country out of the Third World/Second World borderlands.

I suspect that Thailand needs a Chinese-style simplified writing revolution ... One SIL (age 40) has 'been to university' (here in Surin - about school-leaving level, I should think). Is there a book in her little house? Not one. But the 2 small children - bright as a button - have a mobile phone each. Another SIL (mid-40s and intelligent, hard-working in a BKK factory) told me she tried to read a book once but it was SO boring ...

I gained at least an hour a day - probably 2 hours - to spend wasting time on Facebook.

And all of them following the very best of air safety practices ...

I guess they found the torpedoes couldn't reach all the way upriver.

And I'm guessing that a hundred years ago diabetes of either kind was rare, everywhere in the world, and mostly confined to rich 'n powerful people. Today, mostly poorer people ...

Precisely my point!

61% temples? Grounds poorly maintained? Left in Buddha's hands? Buddha doesn't think it matters?

Well you're an Aussie. You should know that the AFP has had 'liaison officers' in Thailand (as in many other countries) for many years. Basic job relates to drugs smuggling, but no doubt 'wanteds' hanging out are on the list also ...

If this is accurate, then no big deal. Police liaison, as with any number of countries and as in any number of countries including just about every 'Western' one.

He may be an alpha male but sexy? Pregnancy in middle-aged men is not sexy.

If you have a Thai d/l, you could always use that.

Just as I've described - English-derived, with poor cuts of meat from untrained butchers. Only the sweet things were 'nice' - pikelets & steam pud. Generally mealtimes were painful. A visit to Tahiti to live with a French family for 4 weeks between school & varsity in 66/67 was an eye-opener. I ate real food for the first time in my life. Couldn't believe it when we went out to a French restaurant on my second night there and the hors-d'oeuvres were wheeled in on a large trolley - about 15 or so dishes, and just for starters. Heavenly.

I was brought up on 'English' food in the NZ of the 50s & 60s. Went with the Queen being on her throne, London the centre of the universe and we won The War. Problem was my mother didn't have a clue how to cook. Beef was inedible by the time she'd finished with it. Vegies were boiled to a pulp ... Only good thing was stuffed roast chicken (first killed by my Dad) & 'steam pud' for dessert on Sundays. I'm afraid the words 'favourite' & 'cuisine' do not compute with 'English' or 'British'. Yuck!

Not sure what the law says but the practice here in rural Surin is as in Oz: You cut the offending trees/ branches back to the fenceline (assuming the fenceline is accurate according to the surveyors - which isn't always the case, as we found out from experience).

I'm still hiding under the bed. I have no (current) plan to emerge.

It would be nice to think that the seat belongs to the voters, and they can nominate and vote for or against anyone they choose ...

Will be interesting to see how this particular little threesome works out over time ...

No concept of being 'an independent'? Not a difficult concept to master. Common in democracies. But apparently not in Thailand ...

The thing about Oz is that it's a filthy rich country but also very egalitarian in attitudes and behaviours. In the last year or 2 before I left Canberra forever, a middle-aged male moved in to the townhouse next to mine on the rather elegant shores of Lake Tuggeranong. I never spoke to him but he had all the looks of a bogan. However I did notice on several occasions as I pulled out of my driveway he had, parked in his garage, a white Rolls Royce of some age. I never saw it moved.