Sir Dude

Well, what many forget is that pretty much everything is subjective other than mathematical/scientific fact etc., even then it is up for review/discussion... that's why there is so much discourse and hate in the world, because of the "I'm right and you aren't" sort of nonsense. So many topics are subjective, from fashion, beauty, or music to right/wrong/good/bad and we can't all be right. There is no such thing as good/bad music or some woman that is more beautiful or not... it's simply subject as we all like different things/styles (and it's a good job too). The truth is an elusive concept and is, in my opinion, rather simple... it's how it's interpreted that messes everything up because of people's wants or insecurities so they can get a good bead on things and operate in their bubbles. I remember two things from Lucas' Star Wars movies that are very pertinent... one is when Yoda say "Emotion is the future" when Luke leaves to save his friends, as emotion makes you act if it is important enough for you, hence making situations happen, or creating the future. Secondly, when Obi-one says to Luke regarding Vader being his father and what he told him was true from a certain point of view, then Luke says "From a certain point of view" and Obi-one says "Many of the truths we cling on to are only true from a certain point of view". This is very true, as what you believe defines who you are and what you stand for... but it doesn't make it true, as even though I probably hold many beliefs in common with many of you, there is a massive section of the world's population that that think I'm wrong and the deviant. We can't all be right now, can we? Like I said, it's all subjective and "the truth" is a very vague concept... probably no more than a certain given set of happenings at a set time to be interpreted by whoever so as to justify their existence and bring some order to the chaos that surrounds us.

So, in other words a new policy that only the mentally disturbed will consider and pretty much no-one else qualifies for. Even if for some reason someone does, how often will the goalposts change on it or will it get canceled 10 years later? Still don't get it that investors invest on confidence/sentiment and the continuity and rule of law. Bet the interior minister and his mates in government all have luxury apartments in London, NY, or Paris etc. Hypocrites.

Isn't "defending the baht" what led to the last disaster? That is how you deplete your Forex reserves... along with government dipping in. As long as the FED in the US is hawkish and raising rates, then you are going to get capital flight to a much less risky place with better returns Having a weaker baht should be conducive to Thailand to help it out of its post-pandemic malaise. Problem is, it doesn't serve the ends of the elite, vested interests, and certain individuals that like an over-valued baht. I very much doubt the best interests of Thailand are in consideration at the BOT as I'd guess they are merely puppets following orders, like the rest.

Dual pricing for hotels is way out of line. I can just imagine if the Thai diaspora in the UK suddenly faced such blatant discrimination, we would never hear the end of it with there probably be arrests for even the suggestion of such thought crime. National parks is bad enough, but this would be a huge own goal and just leaves a bad taste in the mouth... plus there are plenty of other options now to Thailand. The government dinosaurs want to turn Thailand into premier destination, well, a whole boat-load of things have to change... not just increase prices on everything and offer the same non-premier services/experience/scamming, no way. People with money like that just won't stand for the nonsense and sub-par attitude on everything on so many fronts, doesn't work like that... make the experience match the price tag.

Pretty messy and flaky really, smashed at noon in just your undies and no shoes cruising down Beach Road not know what's going on... all those classy tourists they are after turning up, huh.

Basically, when you stay here long enough you just get used to <deleted> beer (certainly if you've lived here from back in the day when it was pretty much only Thai beer other than Carlsberg/Heineken)... which is what the local stuff is. I'd rather spend a little extra these days and get a proper imported beer. Even the classic Bud from the Philippines from the local Blue Flag shop is only 62 baht a 500ml can, which is just a couple baht more than what Leo or Singha is... and a far better lager. I even bought a 500ml can of Stella from the local Mall for 75 baht a couple weeks ago. Chang, a long time back, was OK... but when they changed it from the dark brown bottle they must have changed the formula too at some point as it now tastes like a chemical grog... won't touch it these days.

It'll be interesting to see where they actually end up locating them. They are talking about 5 casinos, so one in BBK obviously, but also one in the north, northeast, central/west, and south too. So, take the northeast, I'd think it's more likely that Aranyaprathet would get it than Nong Khai, due to Poipet being close and can take money off them or collectively feed too, plus Ubon isn't far away... not sure how it would fly businesswise with Laos as the opposite authority on the other side of the river. As for the south, well that's anyone's guess but probably Phuket. North would obviously be somewhere around Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai... west or central, could be anyone's guess too. Although, they are probably targeting non-western tourists/visitors like the Chinese/Viets/Cambodians etc. that are gambling mad. One thing is for sure, is that anyone that owns any land near where they decide will benefit hugely.

Love that phrase "ongoing".

Well, quite frankly, as is so often said to many, if you don't like it here... then you know where the airports and land border crossing are. People that live somewhere that is majority different to your values means YOU have to fit in, not the other way round. Don't like it? Then bail to a Muslim country like Iran/Saudi/Indo. Thailand is a Buddhist country... deal with it.

Well, you can now toss in all the muppets that get high on weed and decide to drive too... figures are only going to go up. It's not the weed or alcohol at fault, it's the muppets.

This is an emotive issue and very polarizing, plus there is little possibility of debate on it, as everyone seems to be a complete zealot one side or the other... and has thus been so for a long time. There is something to be said for just leaving it to individual states to decide, as it gives them the power to do so, rather than it being a federal law as it seems increasingly clear in the US that some one-shoe-fits-all laws don't really work because society, in general, is becoming so split on almost everything. However, SCOTUS doing this is very unusual as it is essentially revoking its previous decision, which isn't exactly a great idea mostly, unless a very long time has passed that isn't really the case in this one. Although, they sure just pretty much tossed a load of gasoline on an already raging fire here. Personally, even though I'm a man and my opinion doesn't really matter, I thought that the balance of very early stage abortion being OK but anything later wasn't, was about as reasonable a compromise as you're likely to get. Trouble is now, that things are just getting hopelessly out of control and bitter on so many issues and no-one really wants to discuss/debate anything... just pursue the "My way or the highway" angle goaded on by the media and its sensationalism.

Thailand is a manipulator of its currency, just not in the traditional way. It doesn't manipulate it for the benefit of exports or to attract tourism etc., it does so in the opposite way so that it favours the rich, government, and elites that want to go on foreign buying sprees to buy assets. Ask yourself a very easy question, and that is regarding who benefits from a strong baht... the 1% and the government/army. That's why it's so resilient/Teflon coated, it's being manipulated but in the opposite way to what people think (very sneaky). Even certain Thai tourists benefit from this in Europe who source their funds from here. People might think it's a conspiracy theory, but if you really know this lot, then it is certainly within the realms of possibility. It's being held up to benefit the rich and certain individuals... probably through the BoT buying up baht on the markets on the quiet with the blessing of all sorts of the 1%. When they are all finished feeding, then it will be allowed to drop and and these people will move money back to Thailand so that they can become even richer... rinse and repeat.

Can't see Congress signing off on that. Looks more like an order from Beijing for a reverse engineering project.

Toss the looney in the local bin... no-one cares. You can't act like a moron... laws and stuff like that are everywhere, you are not special.

It's ludicrous what I read... but I no longer drink such rubbish that will lead to an early death.

I love them all.

This vote is telling in many ways about larger countries outside of the West and reveals their apathy/contemptuousness, at best, and attitudes toward thus. It is no surprise that places like India/Thailand/Saudi/Pakistan/Iran/Cuba etc. and other authoritarian countries are siding with Russia, as it's familiar ground and have their own MO style wrapped up in it too, plus consider trade and weapons purchases more important. If you look at who abstained/voted "No", then you are in some very negative company... way-to-go Thailand. Can't sit on the fence forever, you know. There will be blow-back from all this in many ways/places.

That is indeed an interesting point to speculate upon regarding whether this government (having now been in for like 8 years) has been dipping-in to the currency reserves to finance/support projects or help the public with these political giveaways during Covid etc., or as you say, selling foreign currency to support the baht/buying up baht generally. However, I guess very few are privy to the real balance sheets on stuff like that as it would cause the markets to panic if their so-called high reserves were not quite as high as they claim. Also, I'm pretty sure that whatever the truth is, we are not being told it and the slight-of-hand/misdirection is strong here. Can't hide the truth forever though, it will eventually out somehow.

Maybe it's just me being cynical, but the way the baht has behaved for the last couple of years, then it smells badly of being manipulated... not in the traditional way of making it lower so as to benefit exports or tourism etc., but in the opposite way, to keep it artificially high to benefit a small dynamic of the elite. The Bank of Thailand is probably aggressively buying up as much baht as possible on the quiet and will do so until it's ordered to stop by some individual or small group of such folk right at the top. This section would primarily be those shifting money ashore to foreign accounts, those on acquisition sprees (CP etc. who have been busy on this for a while), buying imports needed for the men in green, attempting to fleece the tourists that do come (along with expats too) and so on... oh, and of course, for certain powerful individuals that reside outside of Thailand but generate their wealth mostly here as it suits their MO and location (get more bang for the buck when abroad). We might see a change in the baht value when this elite group has finished gorging itself on its affairs overseas and wish to then bring it all back to Thailand so that they can become even richer and more powerful (rinse and repeat)... or we see another total collapse, but this has been predicted for a long time now and has thus far failed to materialize, despite the tsunami of bad news that would have taken out most places to a considerably higher degree.

Any dog that is out-of-control and the owner is muppet, should be shot. There are far too many children in Thailand attacked and disfigured/killed by wayword dog owners... because they think they are the business and that the rules don't apply to them. Everyone should be held accountable for theactions of their animals. In the UK, a farmer can legally shoot a dog/whatever attacking livestock, which is perfectly reasonable. Rogue aminals cannot have no fate other than a final one when you are talking about other animals or children/people.

As usual, Russian authorities in denial... has been happening on multiple fronts for many years.

One of the main problems here is that you have poor quality drivers that are paid peanuts and are mercilessly driven by greedy bus companies and schedules. Most buses are only given a certain amount of time for each section of a route, and they have to punch in a time card at various designated places/stations along the way (Wang Noi is a good example of such) and drivers are penalized for being off-time... hence why you see bus drivers doing impressions of Spanky Spangler or some such type. Secondly, maintenance is at the discretion of the company, not the driver, and tyres etc. are only replaced at officiallly established milage/times. I'd say it was a potent mix of poor driver going too fast in an old bus (probably refurbished many times already) with questionable maintenance checks/servicing trying to meet a fascist schedule. It could have been a trye, but the companies or supervisors are also culpable in this sort of stuff too.

These are dreamland TAT figures. There is no way, at the rate things are going, that there will be 15 million electric cars on the road here in 10 years... calling BS on that. It is going to take much longer and there will have to be large subsidies on everything related to convince your average Somchai to go electric, plus it will need to be as convenient as a diesel pickup is now. Yes, the rich can do it, but it'll just end up as another marker between the haves and have nots. On top of all that, then I guarantee that the pitchfork wavers will be out in force the minute it gets uncomfortable (look at the truckers whinging over 30 baht a liter). Remember a decade or so ago when diesel went up to about 45 baht a liter? There was almost a revolution. Things are not as simple in the real world as your green theorists think in their plush eco-office. Going in a green direction is fine, but it will take much longer than they think and there are a lot of obsticles that have only been given scant thought. Unless it's economically friendly to your average person that isn't in a 1st-world country... it won't fly very well for obvious reasons. Fossil fuel cars and trucks are here to stay for a long while yet in places like Thailand, basically because they can't go electric yet on a large scale. As an aside, how are you going to wean the poor of internal combustion motorcycles any time soon? Good luck with that.

It would be relevant that we all remind the Thai authorities of the freedom on many fronts that Thais enjoy in the UK/US an EU etc. and the rights that come with it. You are all lucky that reciprocity is not yet a factor in the relationship between elsewhere and Thailand... but you never know. I would bet that every high-ranking government oppressor here has an apartment in Paris/London/Berlin/New York or such place and feels quite smug... that they can go to if it goes south. Bunch of bar stewards. And for all the apologists, why shouldn't it be a two-way street? So many times we hear the the one-way stuff... BS to that.

Need to be very careful when dealing with China on stuff like this... no surprise the Thais are dragging their feet. If you are going to do it Thailand, do it on your terms, plans, and pay for it yourself... then you'll keep your leverage when it's needed. If you can't do it like this, toss it in the "out" box or boot it into the long grass until it's possible.