Leaver

And if the restaurant planned on closing soon, so repeat customers is no longer a consideration? Why not make a quick baht before closing down? 20k baht makes for an expensive beer over a lunch. Covid aside, why paint a target on yourself for the BiB?

So it's the same as the ones getting raided then. ????

Probably need to book a holiday to somewhere else. ????

I'm sure your restaurant "is different." ????

And what was stopping the owner / staff calling their friendly policeman to stage a raid in which the owner gets a commission out of the 40k baht that you and your friend will be forced to pay?

They very well may push expats that are teetering on being able to afford to live here to dip into their 800k for insurance, which then makes them use an agent as they are now under their 800k, and when their money runs out, several years later, and they are past their used by date for Thailand, they are forced out of the country. That makes for more customers for agents and bigger money for corrupt immigration. They need to catch up on lost funds, due to covid. No money grabs here will surprise me in the future. There will be many.

Helps if you don't paint a target on yourself.

Soi Pothole was just an example. Soi Post Office was another example I gave. Point being is, 25 bars could have been bought for cheap, with cheaper rents, and longer leases, on a struggling soi, but with a good location, and the Nightwish company could have made it their own soi, whilst watching Soi 6 struggle to pay their rent and compete with them. It would have given the Nighwish company a lot more flexibility, especially price wise. Instead, they are stuck on the wheel of passing higher rents onto customers, all the while whilst Soi 6 style bars are popping up around the Baukhao, LK Metro, Pothole Tree Town area.

Yes, I know that, but I believe that was due to the company (Bryan) deciding to go "all in" on Soi 6. 25 bars on Soi 6, with high very high rents, or 25 bars on Soi Pothole, for example. Which location and rents would have stood the company in a better position long into the future, regardless of covid?

I have no doubt some bar owners are in on the scam here, and said so in another thread some time ago, but why do you think the customers are "hoodwinked?" They know they are breaking the law. They take their chances. They are not naive tourists, they are expats. They would know if it's not the bar owner in on the scam it's one of the staff, and if it's not one of the staff it's the moto taxi guy out the front, and if it's not the moto taxi guy it's etc etc etc etc. Why risk being fleeced for 20k baht or more, just for a few beers? These open bars are just a honey pot for extortion. Enter at your own peril.

Been the only show in town for months, and no doubt will continue to gain in popularity after Pattaya really does open.

Yes, but what Plan B country have you chosen, and have you been there before?

Do you have a Plan B to Thailand?

I disagree. A tourist change the country where they holiday to, and an expat can change the country where they retire to. We saw a big shift in the tourist demographics here over the years prior to covid. Western tourists tourists numbers were down. When western tourist numbers are down, that means future western retiree numbers will be down, as it was a holiday to Thailand that advertised the destination to westerners as a retirement destination. Whilst tourism numbers over all were up on the back of Chinese, Indian and Russian package holiday makers, I can't see Mr. Lee from China, and Mr. Patel from India, and Mr. Ivanov from Russia, retiring here in the same numbers westerners have in the last two decades. There's also the ever increasing higher cost of living here, which many may view as simply unaffordable, rather than a rip of. Either way, they don't end up "doing business" here and "move on" to another destination, thus, Thailand loses them from their economy.

Or don't mind being ripped off.

Have you got a decent VPN? If so, try downloading the same movie with the VPN on and see how long it takes.

As others have suggested, they are single crash protective equipment. They lose their structural integrity after a knock. I don't even leave mine in the sun, as the UV compromises the materials.

They have a fair indication of how much covid is in the community by testing the sewage at the treatment plant.

How long before they make insurance a requirement for getting the annual extension???? Only a matter of time.

Certainly an economic war zone here at the moment.

True, but it's certainly not proving to be the veil of protection the world was led to believe. I read the other day that the virus is still mutating in fully vaccinated people, which means it's possible the current vaccines will either have reduced efficiency against the virus to the point people are no longer protector and / or the current vaccines become completely useless to any new variants. I don't think we are in the last chapter of covid book just yet.

Or, perhaps it's a bad investment, or perhaps they are stupid. Time will tell, but hard to judge a housing market when there is no town planning, and it's a free for all to build, build, build. How can the market rise when hundreds of new condo's come onto the market each month?

That's exactly the situation that has evolved. Working people pay their taxes, and politicians throw that tax money at people on benefits to buy easy votes. So things just keep getting worse, as benefit become more generous, the taxes rise on working people to pay for it.

Did you actually offer to sign a 6 month lease, or the advertisement says 12 months and you didn't bother negotiating?

Yes, it seems that way, which may come came to bite them. 70% appeared to be acceptable in 2020 when the virus was first discovered, but now with Delta, and subsequent variants, 70% appears to be too little of the population vaccinated.