Lacessit

I buy my gold and silver in ounces.

The phones are smart, it's the customer that is dumb.

Central Bangkok is about as representative of Thailand as a whole, as Vaucluse is of representing Australia.

Checkout is a breeze when I am not waiting behind some person whose memory bank is 0.1% of what their smartphone has. IMO most successful criminals have already figured out how to get around the roadblocks in the digital world.

IME it is usually less busy in the afternoon. Most traders seem to be doing the cash deposit transactions up until lunchtime.

I carry copies of my passport on my smartphone, have paper copies in my car and scooter. I've been here 12 years, and not once have I been asked for my passport by the police. Different banks have different rules, some accept photos on the phone, others want the original passport.

Why would I care about that? It's not a cost I incur. I haven't seen any examples of being charged more because I am paying in cash.

As I said in a previous post, it doesn't save me time when I am stuck behind some f***wit who ends up needing the checkout chick to help them complete the transaction. It does remind me of the time an Egyptian managed to roll a Land Rover at the mine site I was working, a considerable feat of incompetent driving. As a Scottish engineer and myself surveyed the wreckage, he turned to me and said " I've always thought it's a mistake to give them cars, when we have only just finished teaching them how to ride bicycles."

Take a walk through the day markets of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, none of the market stalls have QR codes. Half the time it's foodstuffs sitting on a tarpaulin on the ground.

Take a walk through any day market in Thailand, and you will realize how out of touch with reality your post is. Everyone pays cash. In places such as Big C and Central Festival, my guess would be 80% cashless, 20% cash, so you are closer to the mark there. My GF's relatives in the village have bank accounts and cards, invariably they use the cards to access cash from a local ATM.

What real world? I get along fine with a bank passbook and cash. My debit cards only get used for buying on Lazada. I don't understand what you mean by the costs of money transmission, I don't get charged anything to deposit or withdraw cash here. OTOH, I do get charged a service fee of 300 baht/year for the debit cards. If you are referring to international money transfers, AFAIK there are none that are free. There is always a cost somewhere in the chain.

How's the headache this morning?

"After this, therefore because of this" is not necessarily true. The woman in question has multiple tattoos, how could anyone know one of those did not cause her current ailments?

Nurse Ratched, you have an admirer.

The Kia Stinger kills the MB equivalent.

When did paying more if one used cash happen? IME, laying down cash 5-10% less than the price asked on the table was quite a successful strategy when buying something.

If push came to shove, I would prefer a card over a smartphone. Mainly because, provided one uses a Faraday cage, it's hard to skim a card. IMO anything goes with a phone, can you imagine how many hackers are out there trying to break in? Cash will always be king for me, out of the reach of nosy governments. One can only lose as much cash as they are carrying.

MB has a long record of throwing its customers under a bus, just another example of the bean counters ruling the roost. BMW has a much better reputation in the German makes. The only reason people buy these brands is for the cachet of ownership, the Japanese and Koreans can make autos just as good.

Cheerful chap, aren't you? First it was the AUD crashing, now a change in the 800K. Excuse me if I take your predictions with a pinch of salt. https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=AUD&To=THB

I get rather fed up waiting at checkouts while people faff about on their smart?phones, when I get change in about 30 seconds flat for my cash. The Romans said it first. "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Who shall guard the guardians? IMO anyone who trusts any government not to use the data of a cashless society, in ways never anticipated by a participant, is a complete moron.

Par for the course.

Islam was one of the drivers in my rejection of Indonesia and Malaysia as retirement destinations. Too many nutters.

It's easy to keep a straight face when one is paid handsomely to fudge, they just laugh all the way to the bank instead.

Perhaps your software does not enable an ability to cancel the pop-up, mine does. Summary for you: Change of Immigration law there means if a retiree does not cough up USD 200,000 on deposit in an Indonesian bank, they are required to leave after 180 days. I quote: "The real catch causing uproar among existing and prospective expat retirees is that the new visa is supposed to replace the current retirement visa – the KITAS (KITAP for longer term). The retirement visas have been in place for years, allowing people over 55 to use their home nation’s pension or savings to settle in Bali, get a long-term home lease and hire staff to service it. The only caveat is that you have to show proof of having the money to sustain yourself, have health insurance and a guarantor, usually organised by a local visa agent. KITAS/KITAP holders also cannot work or earn income in Indonesia. Although it allows holders to work, the new Second Home Visa has other restrictions. To qualify, a deposit of approx. $200,000 is required to be made into an Indonesian bank, and to remain there for the duration of the visa (five or ten years). Alternatively, a “luxury home” may replace the bank deposit as surety. The definition of “luxury home” is unclear, and it only applies to certain types of leases. There are also many restrictions on foreigners owning property in Indonesia."

The Russians are good at war when defending Mother Russia. They are also good at sacrificing their troops in the pursuit of overwhelming by numbers. Immediately the current war started, Ukraine mobilized everyone. Men of military age were forbidden to leave the country. Since the Crimea annexation, Ukraine has been equipping and training their military for the next conflict. The results are there for the world to see. Russians don't really know what they are fighting for, Ukrainians do. Russian morale is at rock bottom, the partial mobilization resulted in hundreds of thousands of Russians leaving to avoid conscription. The Ukrainians have exposed how weak Russia really is. Equipment that gets blown up or left behind on the battlefield. Is there any country that would buy a Russian tank or helicopter now? The Ukrainians disrupted logistics wholesale, leaving Russian tanks without fuel, and soldiers without food. They have fought far more cleverly than the Russians, whose only remaining strategy is to target energy infrastructure and civilians. They used to say General Winter was Russia's best general. Ukrainians are just as used to winter as the Russians. Your post is disconnected from reality.