Salerno

You posted what you find ironic, I posted what I find ironic.

I could see that. A lot is the atmosphere and their not "terrible" just not my thing. You've also opened my eyes, who knew kids are useful, can expose you to new things 555 Still don't want one though.

Who mentioned intelligence? Definitely should use some of his cash on a stylist IMO. Guessing similar comments where made about this guy back in the day too.

Likely makes more money than the combined posters on here, entertains millions around the world, acts as a role model for troubled people (regardless of how dumb I think the pronoun BS is), supports various charities helping improve peoples lives and various other things ... although I don't think he posts inane comments on forums.

Now that is something I give you kudos for - you'd have to wrap my balls in piano wire and drag me behind a pickup truck to the gig for me to watch them 555 That said, as with most "artists" there's a couple of their tracks I don't mind. Kinda figured the club scene isn't your scene. I've got a fairly eclectic taste in music, depending on my mood I'll be listening to Sam Cooke or Sam Smith, or Ramstein, or Bauhaus, or The Righteous Brothers, or Queen, or Swedish House Mafia, or Underworld, trance, house drum and bass and on it goes (other than country and western or classical which I really can't get into). Perhaps that's why I'm surprised by the amount of "never heard of him" posts, even if I didn't like someone, there's a good chance I've at least heard of them especially when they are highly nominated and awarded artists in many categories. It's easy to project and good to get pulled up now and then.

As I said earlier, a generational or genre thing. Although no doubt there are some windup merchants posting in here, I'm somewhat surprised at the amount of people that haven't heard of him - regardless of whether his music is to there taste or not.

In other words your just talking <deleted> then?

What is a "social media site" and what do they have to do with ... anything in regards to who a famous artist is?

Yep, not ideal. But give it time and I'm sure they'll ditch the coach tours in the not too distant future. Bumped into a family (looked like three generations, 7 or 8 of them) one night at the corner of 2nd and South trying to grab a baht bus who already had. Watched the younger guy talk to three baht bus drivers and the baht bus driving off. Thought I'd stick my nose in as he obviously spoke some English and asked if there was a problem. The baht bus drivers where quoting a price for hiring, the youngish Chinese guy thought the quoted price was per person so was trying to barter it down as it would be too expensive and he thought he was being ripped off. Explained to him what the deal was - said to just all jump on the next one without talking to the driver, 10 Bht each, stay on until they see Terminal 21 then take it from there or accept the quoted price (around 250 Bht) for door to door to where they where staying just north of the Dolphin Roundabout given the oldest couple looked ... old! Lots of thanks from the whole family after he passed on the info and cheery waves good bye as they headed off on the back of the next Baht bus (opted for the cheap charlie option 555). Just a normal, happy, polite family a little confused with the language barrier and how things work. Not the stereotype BS people on here go on about as if it's the only Chinese people.

@ThailandRyan Nice, you reckon it has enough to keep you there? I'd always thought I'd end up in Bkk when I could finally escape the rat race but the 4 years or so before covid I found I spent less and less time in Bkk, last couple of trips I didn't even stay overnight in Bkk. Still need some decent nightlife within easy reach and HH itself didn't really grab me but as I said, only scratched the surface.

Ah cool, I actually rented a pool villa ... one sec, let me check ... yeah, I actually stayed there 555 Stayed at The Heights 2 Village. Lovely area down there, I take it you know it well? Only had five nights of which we only headed into HH itself on two nights and one afternoon.

Please enlighten me, PKK? I actually thought HH waa a nice place to visit but it did seem to be a bit like "God's waiting room". Will definitely head back to see more of the area, only scratched the surface obviously.

I had one of those classic conversations with a yank in Bkk one drunken avro. I let him prattle on for a while before telling him it was perhaps time he moved on as it was getting boring. He started getting indignant so I cut him off with a "Mate, maybe I don't look it but I've no doubt I'm older than you and I'm too young to have served in "The Nam", no way did you and your tales have changed from faintly amusing to quite pathetic so jog on" 555

We had a saying in my previous life "A whinging soldier is a happy soldier" (based on the fact that if someone is quiet and withdrawn it's a good sign he may have issues). The person that coined that phrase, god knows how many decades ago, may well have changed his mind if he was a member on here or got bailed up by certain expats 555

If any of the "never heard of him" brigade ever go out past 9 pm I'm pretty sure you would have at least heard this one (unless camped in darkest Issan perhaps).

Just Googled, time flies it was back in 2018. The hotel I alluded to is just off of South Pattaya road, not far from Tukcom, was running late (hire car needed to be returned) after Google maps screwed me around, driving on fumes, and having pulled up for a second to figure out where the hell I was, decided to book a couple of nights before heading to Bkk and fell for it calling itself "Boutique Hotel" - the vision in my head of a cute little cosy joint in a fairly decent location was soon vanquished when I found it, a right <deleted> hole IMO not helped by the four coachloads.

6th is OK. Come back on the 7th (although personally I'd probably head to KL or Singapore for the weekend). Just enter visa exempt from wherever you decide to go. You'll have plenty of time to convert to Non-O and then permission to stay. Pre covid, some IOs at Swampy and DMK where proving to be a pain to some people with multiple entries, unlikely IMO to affect you. But if more risk averse, land crossings do seem to have less hassle - avoiding certain ones - minds just gone blank but mentioned on various threads on here.

I think perhaps you're mixing a couple of things (or I'm misreading). You obtain a Non-O and then using that visa you get a permission to stay based on retirement - for 12 months at a time. If you stay in Thailand for 90 days you will have to do a 90 day report - if you leave the 90 day countdown is reset. In this scenario, when people are talking about single or multiple re-entry permits that's just to enable you to leave the Kingdom and keep the permission to stay alive so no problem on your return. Or are you actually talking about an actual METV (multi entry tourist visa) which basically requires you to leave every 90 days and not really relevant to retirement on the face of it?

My eyes my eyes ... damn, you just had to repost and not just reference it! ????

@NanLaew Yeah, when I read/heard about it just being for foreigners (can't recall where I heard or saw it) I thought it rather strange and not conducive to a happy population. More clarification to come in the coming days no doubt.

Any IO as far as I'm aware, "local" used in my post just as a figure of speech indicating nearest.

It's like when travelling and someone figures out your nationality you then get the "Oh, there's an Irish/Aussie/American/French/Kiwi (whatever fits) pub on X street." At which point I tend to go blank. I'm travelling to get away and see other places, why the hell would I want to frequent a bar potentially full of my compatriots! (Although that said, I have popped into a few over my time and actually turned one into my "local" in Bkk for a number of years having avoided it for the previous 5 or so. But it's certainly not something I hunt down.)

And that's the future with all this BS a confused populace 555

About 20 minutes by all accounts.