JackGats

I meet the requirements as a pensioner, but as with covid, the requirements regarding heath insurance are childish. I have worldwide coverage until I pass away, but I don't see my health insurance certifying my coverage is "at least 50k USD". Do the Thais understand how health insurance policies work? I get a percentage refund which differs according to the nature of the expense (dental, medications, vaccines, doctors fees, hospital, operation, ...). The percentage may be as high as 100% and the total refund in one year may be turn out above 50 USD should I be seriously ill or have an accident. But there's no way my insurance is going to certify "we shall pay 50k USD on demand to any Thai hospital that needs the money". It simply doesn't work that way. Does it say whether you recoup the application fee if you get rejected?

Delivery men would make unintelligible phonecalls late in the evening so that they have a phone call record to make believe they tried to deliver. After the phone call the Lazada app would show "delivery attempt was unsuccessful due to customer rescheduling" or some similar jibberish. I now think Lazada is a numbers game. Place 5 orders (with payment on delivery!), expect to actually receive 3 within the next two weeks. Don't stay at home day after day waiting for deliveries unless you want to have a nervous breakdown.

KC Grande Resort is ideally situated but as I see it is still at 140 euros a night right now. Erawan on White sand beach is my regular Koh Chang Hotel. Not right on the beach (80 metres from the Beach) but therefore better internet and better value for money overall as you're not paying for front beach view. Ask a room facing away from the street for zero noise. You're close to White Sand walking street. On Klong Prao Beach a couple of good resorts are ruined because of the racket caused by Chai Chet resort nearly every night. Flora I Talay is somewhat far enough from Chai Chet for the noise not to be deafening but the only good rooms are the very expensive ones with front sea view. The other, cheaper rooms are bunkers. I liked my stay at Anna Resort before covid. You need a car or a motorcycle here because you're near a stretch of the main road where there's nothing. The hotel is on a river so they give you kayaks to paddle by yourself to the beach (Klong Prao), which is fun.

Price of a train ticket from BKK to Chiang Mai : Thais 200 Baht Foreigners 2000 Baht.

Meanwhile no culling of soi dogs because religion forbits harming animals (in plain language: "because there's no money to be made in culling"). What about setting up dog fights with betting? That could take care of the dog problem.

Men's rights activists have been overwhelmingly against loan forgiveness because they see it as yet another free lunch for the wymmyns.

So did the people of Hong Kong, alas. But if the Falklanders had to pay for their keep, cut off from the South American mainland, would they remain there? From what I've read they are the most expensive citizens for the UK treasury, second only to the royals. Note that becoming citizens of undemocratic Argentina (while possibly keeping their UK citizenship) wouldn't have been so bad. The men there could then even entertain a chica from time to time and not get prosecuted for it like in the UK where being said to have fondled the breasts of a 17-year old "child" 20 years ago is enough to get you a life sentence.

If I'm not mistaken the reason the UK wanted to hang on to those islands was because oil reserves were suspected nearby. Now those islands are only a dead loss. If I were the Argentines I'd let the UK pay until the cows come home to maintain the life-line.

There were still some breakfast buffets before Covid at reasonable prices. Now they are no more. Everywhere the same cotton wool bread toasts, the same floating sausages, the same nondescript ham, the same uncooked eggs, no more bacon, no more tomato beans ... These days I breakfast off some fruit from the market and titbits from 7/11.

I stopped using Shopee after I saw their offering minoxidil foam (US brand) at prices far below US price. For the product to be legit, the price in Thailand should be the US price plus a percentage due to import. Lazada also had several merchands for the same product but the prices were realistic.

What I don't like about Google translate is that Google seems to have stopped developing it it. Translations are no better than they were, say 3 years ago.

I am not seeing many customers on Soi 6 during the afternoon. As to traffic being congested, road works have a lot to answer for. Bolts are difficult to get hold of in central Pattaya but that may be due to intimidation by the green-and-yellow thugs. If you order a Bolt ride that circumvents the Beach Rd/2nd Rd/Soi Bukaro area you will get a ride at acceptable rates.

Hasn't it been 21 until now? Or is 21 the minimum age at which girls are allowed into strangers' rooms in hotels? Anyway it stands to reason that there shouldn't be a different age for "prostitution". Legal age should be the same for all types of human endeavours, and it is already unacceptably divorced from biology as it is. This leglislative creep regarding "prostitution age", age of consent etc. aims at 1) entraping men and 2) protecting the street market value of the femihags' ageing pussy. It purports to protect girls but it doesn't, quite the reverse, as many nubile females are forced to go on living as children, thereby losing precious years out of their already short shelf-life. On the other hand they can have a field day as jailbaits and extortionists under femihag guidance, but I'm sure not all under 20s are happy with this.

The Russians I see in Jomtien do not look like draft dodgers. Most are couples, rather well-off, many with child. Isn't the West believing its own propaganda about Russian men fleeing conscription en masse? That would be great if it happened, but does it?

They already have in practice. Anyway consent means nothing any more in such countries as the UK. Consent is now what the local fem says it is. Question: if any woman aged 45 could have her way, at what age would she set the age of consent? Answer: at 44.

The problem with neighbouring countries is that police could make you pee days after you landed. I know it can happen at road blocks in Indonesia. I'm not sure I want to visit Indonesia from Thailand any more. What about random testing at stopovers?

Search for "pigeon deterrent" on Lazada and you will find some contraptions, usually reflectors or reflector tape. I don't know how well that works. What about fish harpoons? I've never used one. Diclofenac is toxic to birds.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like Amazon. Different shops, different deliveries.

Good, now let them reinstate full redeeming of miles! I have over 130 miles on Thai Airways, only to find out I can redeem them on practically nothing, ie domestic flights + very few international destinations and then economy only. I bet the business class seats are reverved for VIP courtesy tickets. During Covid, it was foolish of me to continue accrueing miles on RoyalOrchid. Any other Star Alliance frequent flyer program would have been better.

Google "glycemic index" and you will see that "contains sugar" is not equal to "contains carbohydrates". I avoid packaged food in Thailand whenever I can. It is difficult to avoid added sugar in fresh food though. For example what about the green and red curries flavoured with coconut milk? I suspect they contain added sugar, ie not just the natural sugar content of coconut milk. Sugar is cheap. Also, everywhere Thai consumers go "หวาน" with a broad smile on their face, as though this were something to celebrate and not a national health disaster worse than meth.

I don't understand what this is about. Is this "cannabis bill" a back-tracking on legalisation? Or is it a endorsement of legalisation? In this article I see cannabis linked with 1) near plane crash 2) meth use 3) death of a Thai citizen in the UK 4) death from the H5NH virus. Other consequenses of legal cannabis, like the war in Ukraine and the Earth quake in Turkey, are missing.

Thailand is not the only country where realdolls are illegal. If I'm not mistaken Canada is one of them. Expect the fems to go ballistic when the technology becomes mature. This is the real challenge to women's stronghold on Society. The wymmyns will probably get their way as usual, ie prohibition. I visited a realdoll brothel twice and I urge any man with an enquiring mind to do the same. The rate at that brothel in Germany was 70 euro, which was as expensive as a short time with a living working girl. Booking the doll in advance from an online roster was required. The main take-home point from my visits to that brothel was that the feel and look of the dolls are awsome, better than the real thing. Alas, getting the doll in the required position was a nightmare. Those dolls are heavy and not nearly versatile enough in terms of positioning. The technology has a long way to go yet. When I entered the brothel my doll was waiting for me in a sofa. The manageress on duty told me I should carry my date into the room myself (sweep her off her feet like Clarke Gable in "Gone with the wind"). Wow she was heavy! I nearly broke my back even before I started.

Whenever I buy critical things, like dietary supplements or OTC meds, I compare the Lazada price with the international/US price. If the price is too good to be true I don't buy. For the kind of things I buy, Lazada has fared better by this test than Shopee. Hence I buy from Lazada rather than from Shopee. The biggest pain in the neck is when you have delivery guys who phone you each evening for days on end to say "will come tomorrow". I only do COD. If something goes wrong, I prefer Lazada to hang on to some limited cash of mine rather than to my credit card.

I think this is a sensible new regulation. Songtaews stopping and beckoning you to get on board though there are no seats left are a nuisance.

My 3 previous yearly extensions were done in Pattaya. Last year I tried to report online but the website rejected my application outright. This year I applied online from a Bangkok hotel using the hotel as my current address (as I should if the reporting is to make any sense). I did this after checking with the hotel that they had reported my stay to immigration. The application was accepted but I got a rejection within days. No ground was given. A couple of days before the deadline expired I went to the Chonburi immigration in person whence I got my reporting confirmation within 45 minutes. I shall not waste my time with the online reporting ever again. I shall 1) go in person and only 2) to the immigration office where my visa extensions hail from.