Lacessit

Having spent 14 days in COVID quarantine in a provincial hospital, your second comment is blatantly wrong. The ward had no cleaning staff. Test equipment was not sterilized between patients, who had to provide their own soap and bedding. No insect screening, mosquitoes and flies had free reign. I am starting to wonder if you only open your mouth to change feet.

I have no such anxiety, my GF loves shopping in secondhand stores with her friends. What baffles me is how they can spend 4 or 5 hours in there, and come out with nothing, or less than 100 baht in purchases.

The OP seems to be unfamiliar with the concept of bait and switch. Which happens all over the world, not just Thailand.

Apology accepted, a misunderstanding of my post. I apologize too.

Thanks for the confirmation you've lost the plot. Do you have someone to "take care" of you?

I am making no assumptions, just applying a reductio ad absurdum to a somewhat fatuous post. There are more ways to be polite with Thais than a wai, and I don't see why I should adopt the practice just because you say so.

Likewise, I know you have impaired cognition, unable to recognize sarcasm.

Agree. Refusing to shake someone's hand is either extremely rude, or an indication of not wanting to have anything to do with the person. I don't think Thais get upset when I don't wai, they probably just think farang.

You know this how? Ah, I see. You polled a statistically significant sample size of Thais, and they all told you they appreciate the effort. And you believed them, because Thais are always truthful, and never tell an interlocutor what they think said person wants to hear.

I am polite to others, that is the way I was brought up to be. Although some posters on ASEAN do make that quite difficult at times. Without knowing the social status of Thais, and whether I should be wai-ing first or second, it's simpler to not do it. Life is complicated enough without such trivia. I am not interested in social status anyway. I have been with some very humble and poor people, and rubbed shoulders with very rich and powerful people. At the end of the day, everyone has to sit on a toilet. I have made the effort to learn the Thai language, which I regard as more important. Is there anything more ridiculous than a farang who does not want to learn Thai, offering a wai to Thais? I shake hands in my country of origin. Thais are not used to doing that, every handshake I have had from a Thai here is like gripping overcooked spaghetti. I am not protesting about adopting cultural mannerisms, I simply don't regard them as significant to me. I adopt the parts of a culture I find useful.

It would be rude behavior from a Thai. I am not Thai, and consider a nod or wave sufficient acknowledgment as a response. IMO adopting a wai to fit in is a waste of time, and is not going to work anyway. I'd bet many Thais sneer inwardly when they see a Westerner do it. I am always going to be a farang, better that I am true to myself.

Elite Smile had a clinic at Pantip Plaza, I don't know where they have moved to. 55,000 baht per implant. Very professional, and their equipment was state of the art. I had three implants there, still rock solid after 8-10 years.

I speak Thai well enough to communicate with Thais.. I have no desire to assimilate, it's more appropriate to say I am adjusted to Thailand. Be polite, and learn to ignore acts of egregious stupidity.

Don't see too much avoiding of farangs on ASEAN threads.

A classic illustration of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Thanks for the laugh.

There are facts and logic behind what I post. Your posts are good examples of vacuity, coupled with a know-it-all mindset. That's why the approvals lag your posts by a good margin, and will always do so while your posts remain annoying.

It's his specialty.

Thais do not regard lying as such, more protecting themselves and the listener from an uncomfortable truth. It goes back to the days when the bearers of bad news were beheaded. My GF is a very good housekeeper. I guess it is different when Thai women are in a rental property, it's not theirs so they don't care about it.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

So I am not alone in noticing this attribute.

IMO Sparktrader wants to get his post count up, that's why most of his responses are brief. Attention-seeker. Asian businesses work on a consensus basis. However, there will always be an alpha male all the rest defer to when it comes to a final decision. Sometimes an alpha female. 500 baht is definitely a try-on, I'll bet most were donating 20-100 baht. It would not bother me if Thai co-workers did not talk to me, their topics of conversation are usually food, who is bonking whom, and money. In your shoes, I would simply go about my work, and ignore them. Believe it or not, more effective employees do get noticed.

I remember a scene from the movie "Under Siege" when Steven Seagal used a microwave to create an explosion in the ship's galley. I use a susceptor of half a cup of water when heating a pad filled with wheat. I forgot the water once, result combustion. I applaud your son, curiosity and experimentation seem to be quite rare nowadays. My favorite was the catalytic oxidation of ammonia, quite spectacular. My science teacher forbade further experiments, I think he was worried I might start making nitroglycerine.

I read most of Dickens' books before my teens. I remember that phrase, perhaps in the edition I was reading the proofreaders corrected the article. "An" should always be used when the following noun commences with a vowel. Rooster may be correct in his quotation, I am grammatically correct. I don't always take Google as gospel, as I have found it to be wrong in fact on a few occasions.

Certainly governments like digital transactions, it makes monitoring and control so much easier for them. It's also why they don't like bitcoin, as being outside the currency fold. Whenever I go back to Australia, even the smallest shop now has card readers, cash is a rarity.

If you made money in crypto, someone else lost. As Kenny Rogers said, that's why it's called gambling.