jts-khorat

Why would you want to have the minimum age of 20 to work in a bar be lowered?!

Weirdly, this is why I love KFC here compared to Germany. Instead of fat-less, "high-quality" breast cuts, they use the much cheaper, but tastier cuts from beside the wing (for example in their Zinger Burger). Fat is a taste carrier. Instead of getting some cardboard-tasting piece that only gets flavour from the breading, you get something that tastes like there were actual animal parts used. But each to their own. So many amazing food options in Thailand, why would anybody ever go and eat twice where he does not like it 100% (this goes especially to the OP).

And stored improperly. Note the flat tire of the car in the photo. I would not want to get a car back that was stolen in 2017. Loss of value must be horrendous.

Have you ever been in Patong? Stuck in a traffic jam in beach road, you will never make it to any petrol station. Maybe to a nearby bar -- but if this was a car for hire, running off on a mission might have much worse side effects.

Deducing from the number on the side, compared to the one in the website from BoT, this is not a limited print.

The change is indeed EU-wide law, starting as of two days ago: all newly registered car will have an automatic speed limiter. That this change has been coming has been known for several years now, so zero surprise for anybody.

Interesting. Your statements seemed quite superficial, but I seem to have misread you. I am sorry to have done so. However. Which of the many things the Dalai Lama has said about Theravada are you referring to (and why should I care?). What I found he said, in 2012, is the following: Source: https://www.dalailama.com/news/2012/reaching-the-same-goal-from-different-paths-thai-buddhists-in-dialogue-with-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama Note: "the Pali tradition" = Pañca-sila. You still were simply wrong about the formal rules about alcohol in Theravada. There are actually no other rules for laypeople than the Pañca-sila, so overlooking one in only five seems... to demonstrate that your knowledge about Theravada is smaller than you would want us to believe. Keeping with this subject, my assumption is, that we are talking about laypeople or non-buddhists passing through airports, so they should be able to follow their own volition and be able to choose not to keep the Pañca-sila at this day? And you might notice that I said, that I think it a valid discussion, if a government should have any power to decide about this very individual moral choice. You indicated this opinion to be that outlandish, as if I came from another planet. I find that a surprising contrarian discussion stance... in somebody who wants to discuss, instead of forcing his opinion on somebody else. That a large number of Thai people themselves do follow Theravada as in the Pali canon only superficially is, in my eyes, rather a weak argument. I would wish we could ease into a serious discussion based on Theravada and how it defines Sila (morality), instead of... changing the subject. Somebody with an abbot as friend should have a jolly good time doing so. Therefore, intentionally, I keep this question open, as I am interested in opinions why this should or should not be. Feel free to do so.

You said, that there is no Buddhist rule that forbids alcohol. But you were flat out wrong. Additionally you are wrong that the Pañca-sila only counts for monks, it is the layman rule for everybody. Having been caught out showing your painful ignorance, you are then changing the subject. With how many Thai monks have you specifically discussed this issue and how many of those have specifically told you that "Thailand is not real Buddhists"? I do not want to call you a liar, but your statements seem quite far out there.

Maybe you need to read up a little bit more about Theravada, it is right there in the Pañca-sila (Five Precepts). It does not get more central to Theravada than this, truly, so you are absolutely mistaken: Suramerayamajja pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to heedlessness. It is a valid discussion however, if a government should restrict people from breaking the Five precepts out of their own volition.

This happens every year. It is called monsoon. As the Phuket authoirities seem to be unable to keep storm drains clean during dry season, this is a yearly twice occuring thing on Phuket.

This, my, list has not changed since 1998. - the culture - the people - the food - the weather I am currently living back in Germany and visit only one month a year, so I certainly see the contrast. Still, if I would not be happy internally, I also could get riled up endlessly. Maybe, @bob, try to avoid that. Whereever you go, you carry yourself in your head -- as we all do. Fix this and things will fix themselves.

You mean, ChatGPT. But he is not wholly wrong with what he is saying. Truth is, however, that back here in Germany it is also full of unfriendly and obnoxious people, so I believe we really seeing a reflection of that and expats are neither more criminal nor more negative than right here. As negativity sells, also here on Thai Visa, we also have a much better chance to hear about each little transgression, so this adds to the negative echo chamber. If I remember correctly my time in Thailand in the late 1990s, these people were certainly around. We called them "characters" or Thai originals", and in those days it added to the charme of the place, because you only heard about their antics every once in a while, if you developed common acquaintances.

One would really think the world really does not need a Germany that takes re-arming itself serious. Germans are goal-oriented. If there is an armed military, sooner or later the populace will ask why that much money was spent if it is then not "used". Already there is a serious problem with right-leaning rhetoric, but few tools to act on it on a world stage. I wish that Germany stays as it is: it pays for everybodies armaments, but keeps out of the business of having them itself. And I say that, being German.

This same story, nearly word for word -- only with changing names in it -- has been going around since the time I first set foot into Thailand, in 1998. Gambling has never been legalized, but it always seemed very close. As so often in Thauland: people announcing something or thinking out loud, even if in Thai government, has little meaning. Look what the hand does, not what the mouth says (whin in this case means: who ins invested heavily in the casinos right over the border to Cambodia, or the enclave in Laos... and who would gain if those same people would be cut from the thorugh.

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