Speedhump

Yes this applies also to roundabouts where many Thais just stop on the roundabout when they see a car approaching from the next entrance. My Thai lady says they just don't understand how roundabouts work, partly true maybe and could cause them to be rear-ended elsewhere in the world but its cause is being wary of the unexpected from other drivers (drivers like your friend). You need to remain aware that Thais drive this way (in fact any and every way!) and you shouldn't have a lot of collisions. 🙏🏽

From what me Thai friends say very few drivers will be carrying a gun but too many have one at home which they will retrieve if they have the chance.

This is a normal experience here.Yes I feel angry, my Thai partner gets more angry than me even. But I won't seek a confrontation, maybe her righteous anger helps me diffuse mine! I also drove for 13 years in the UAE and found that useless Indian drivers were actually more dangerous than the crazy locals. Anticipation is the key. Try not to get involved in deep conversations with your passengers too, keep most of your brain on the road ahead. 😊 My father was a British School of Motoring driving instructor 60 years ago and he instilled road awareness in my before I even a teenager. I don't find myself being in close shaves very often but its impossible to avoid 100pct IMO.

I'm happy that I can avoid excess weight by using my Android phone. 🙏🏽

"Thai food has always included plenty of sugar and deep-fried options, so that’s not new. Is it more dairy, cakes, and sweet drinks creeping into the average diet? " This is 90 pct of the problem. It starts with the sweet stands outside the school gates and goes from there. Plus fast food everywhere. Yes Thais have always had a sweet tooth, that's not the underlying cause, they love to eat regularly all day, that's always been the way, but its mainly food choices that are making a fat nation.

Phuket beaches are actually dangerous close to shore when breakers are very strong (red flag conditions,which so many people just ignore). Very uneven bottom and people trying to walk to shore are being pummeled off their feet by big breakers from behind whilst in quite shallow water. Sea and sand create a soup meaning you don't know which way is up until the following wave is already coming in, meantime the strong ebb of the last wave is sucking you away from shore and the sand bottom is like quicksand as it's all in motion. Finding your feet on almost liquid sand can be very difficult, and body strength is the important thing, not swimming ability. RIP to the several swimmers who have already died in the sea at Phuket this year.

Some people are both blind and stupid.

Ludicrous idea. Plus the worst abusers of alcohol are Thai themselves. How many drunken farang kill their neighbours, wives, friends etc. with guns, axes, and knives while boozed up? Traditional values indeed....

Why don't you strongly request that they do? Krungsri in Hua Hin do it without being asked.

I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was. As the song goes.

I've met Thais who believe this restriction is for cars only. Go figure! 😁

Ask any bar girl; your Western farang is usually bigger (yours in particular). The regular women I've dated say the same though. Poor lad.

Bottom advertising for top 🤢

Happened to me. My wife was walking our dog on green space opposite our house. Two very gentle Soi dogs had died mysteriously over the last previous two days, she saw another one that day and walked our dog away quickly, but our dog obviously ate something without my wife seeing it. Our dog was frothing and shaking within 10 minutes. Died even before we got to the vet. I wouldn't be able to control myself if I knew who it was. People who poison are themselves lower than animals.

This was not a scam, there was no deception involved, the girl acted in the full knowledge what she was doing. It was very nasty though.

You're just wrong because when a Thai gets into to a fight, there are always more joining in and they only fight mob-handed. And there's likely a gun available in the neighbourhood too.

Well I only spend on bar drinks, not bar fines, so not sure 😁

It's, simply that many people are racist which can be fuelled by feelings of financial jealousy. Not just in Thailand. In an alcohol fuelled situation a slight mistake or offense given by a foreigner which is not apologised for (as of course it should be) can lead to trouble. Also Thai men can be problematic with their refusal to admit when they are wrong and I challenge anyone to argue with that. Of course it takes a foreigner not to understand this too

Bar girls call you 'papa'

Half a Xanax is my son's solution. Business class used to be mine.

Most email programs allow you to back up your whole mail account to a file (if you have set the account to keep the data on your computer as well as on the server of your mail provider, using IMAP protocol and not POP for incoming mail) which you can export from the program and then import into the same program on your new computer. But if you don't want to learn this then send hundreds of emails to the same email address, after you have set up the account on your new computer. Remember to send with any attachments included.

They threaten this every few years and nothing has ever happened. I doubt this will be any different.

Some countries do. Japan only abolished theirs in 2010.

No country should have a statute of limitations on murder. This is premeditated obstructive delay and is barbaric. When the murderers return to Thailand after leaving until the statute expired, they'd better stay away from the south of Thailand.

Yes, it's not a renewal of the visa, but my previous lazy shorthand can in no way be taken as advice to others that a visa can be extended. They should always seek proper advice, not rely on a post in a forum by someone they don't even know, otherwise they deserve everything coming to them. Good grief. That applies to any online open forums, including 'latest expat tax advice' and the rest. As an example I never even leave the country without rechecking the latest regulations on re-entry in case they have changed since the last time I left (usually a matter of years). Ignorance is no excuse.