PingRoundTheWorld

The cost of insurance is, again, passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices. Part of the reason the US healthcare system is so outrageously expensive is mega settlements for malpractice. While it's understandable the court wants to reward people who've been wronged - awarding $100mil to someone is dispropoprtional. Surgeons have to pay $30-50k a year just for insurance and even then in some fields they are afraid to practice. I'm not saying don't compensate them if they were genuinely electrocuted and suffered injuries - but demanding compensation for hurt feelings "fear of getting into pools" is ridiculous. If there were no actual injuries then it couldn't have been that bad and they are exaggerating for a payday.

The actual difference in fuel consumption between someone who's 50kg or someone who's 100kg amounts to a few hundred baht at most for domestic flights in Thailand. Under 300 baht BKK to Phuket. Under 200 baht BKK to Samui. So before you guys go spewing your "I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY SAME RATES AS FATTY" might want to actually fact check yourself. As for the idea to weight passengers before flights - what the actual ****?!? Will never fly Bangkok Air if they continue to do this. Hopefully this "brilliant" plan fails miserably and other airlines don't follow. They have no business nor right to invade our privacy like that.

The hotel did offer to pay the hospital fees. Could they have offered a little more? sure. Should they pay a huge settlement for hurt feelings? NO! When you make a business pay a huge settlement who do you think pays it? it's other customers who have to pay higher prices later on.

Sure- they could tax all bank transfers (though that would be literal suicide for the economy), but then people will just bring in cash. Sure- they can tax currency exchange (yet another financial suicide), but then people will just use credit/debit cards to pay for everything. Sure- they can tax all card trans....no, no they can't. Easily? nah.

Oh give me a break- we're not getting anything for free. Collectively we're bringing in a LOT of money into the economy - which keeps Thais employed (and paying taxes). We pay sales tax on our purchases which adds up to more than most Thais pay in income tax. We directly or indirectly pay other taxes on real estate etc. If you really wanted to go down and dirty - we pay much more tax than an average Thai does. Trying to tax foreigners on global income is going to fail miserably - they can't collect what they don't know about, and if they try to they're going to see a wave of expats leave or at least stay out of Thailand for half of the year and spend elsewhere. It's a lose-lose situation for everyone.

Trully shocking that an American would want "compensation" for what was essentially a non-issue. No injuries, the doctor bs about being electrocuted for 5 seconds is nonsense (they would've died), and their "fear of pools" can shove itself right up....

Harassing someone's girlfriend repeatedly even after being told to leave her alone is going to get your ass kicked in any country. This has nothing to do with nationality, aside from the sad fact that some foreigners in Pattaya have zero respect and treat every female they see as a whore.

They're not. China's economy is on the verge of collapse with real estate and finance giants essentially bankrupt. Hopefully this doesn't affect the rest of the world (too much), but the "China #1" dream (nightmare?) is not going to happen anytime soon.

About time Thailand has a government that actually cares about tourism - unlike the previous government who only pretended to care while tightening immigration rules and making changes designed to limit rather than encourage. Now hopefully they also extend nightlife operating hours to something more reasonable than 2am, or better yet - let the venues and patrons decide how late they want to go. Which will be more than made up for by collecting additional taxes. Tourists pay hotel taxes, alcohol taxes, VAT, etc - so they longer they stay, the more the government makes - far more than the extension fee.

And they can all burn in hell. Sorry, but we should have zero tolerance for this sort of crap. The type of guy who'd draw a nazi symbol on someone's head is the type of guy who'll stab you. Literally here. Ignorance is not an excuse and they know perfectly well it's inappropriate - they just don't care.

Yes. It is very common for indoor cannabis growers to add additional aircon units to control growing temperature. That's exactly what they did - they stripped all the furniture out and probably sold some and discarded what they couldn't sell, then they installed/added racks to grow in, and added aircon unit(s) to control growing conditions. The roof was probably not leaking when the house was rented, but stripping everything out probably damaged it, that- or they intentionally did it for whatever reason (needed for growing?). Looked at the guy's FB page. Looks like a nice/normal guy. While the name might sound funny, being called Benz is very very common in Thailand and nothing weird about that. He did go to the police a few days ago. Hopefully police issued an exit ban for the Ukrainian criminal and will make him pay or go to jail, preferably both, and preferably a ban on re-entering Thailand. He is a criminal because he broke many laws including theft, working without a work permit, growing cannabis without a license, recklessly destroying property, etc. While I sympathize with Ukrainians about what they've been going through - it is no excuse to turn to crime and hurt innocent people - Thailand does not need such people. No country does. He should be sent back to Ukraine. And speaking of Ukrainians - landlords should be very careful renting to male Ukrainians - they fled Ukraine so they don't have to fight, so the chances of them being upstanding citizens are quite low IMO. I'd say the same thing about Russians in Thailand, but actually fleeing a war because you don't want to oppress another country is a lot better than fleeing a war defending your homeland. The end.

Blah blah blah. Who cares if it's "right" or not - the incoming government will be able to function, as opposed to the outgoing military government or a MFP-led government. It's not like PTP are a minority party - they literally only won a few less seats than MFP - totally legitimate for them to form a government if that government will be broader and more stable than what MFP could come up with. MFP's mistake was reaching for the stars while ignoring the moon and everything in between - they've taken the position of a spoiled child that insists on either winning or not playing at all. If they compromised on some of their more controversial policies like NOT pushing for lese majeste law reform (save that for later) they could've formed a government, but showing their political inexperience they were left out of the game completely - a matter of their own doing. Some might blame PTP for doing a U-turn and forming a coalition with the military, but realistically that's the only way they could've formed a government, and now they have plenty of leeway to execute policies - the military cannot block good policies because MFP would vote for them too if they align with their beliefs, and some policies MFP won't agree with will be supported by the military parties. Have their cake and eat it too. ???? Anyway, I'm excited to see Thailand get back on the path of a non-military government that actually executes for the people and not just the elite. We'll see.

Just a lot of hairdressers and shop staff who might need "taxi money" at the end of the night... Granted, talent is not a hard requirement - but it is appreciated. ????

Imagine being such a little b**** that your ego gets all bruised up just because a random woman yelled "Hey!" at you. Unfortunately he's not wrong about not being afraid of police - 500 baht and a wai, and off he goes to do the same thing all over again to another person. I'm not of the "you should never raise a hand on a woman" camp - but this was clearly a case of picking on someone smaller than him because he could - the guys nearby should've kicked his ass, not just stop him from assaulting her.

The other way around- take away this and other websites, and the freelance talent will return to the streets/Nana Plaza/clubs. It's actually alarming how bad the (foreign) Bangkok nightlife scene has become post-Covid. There's near-zero new talent in nightclubs - no doubt due to the early closing times. It used to be that bar girls went clubbing after work - now they just go home because clubs are closed. ???? It's gotten so bad that clubs are actually hiring younger girls to show up. Not enough good looking freelancers around anymore. I guess they've all moved on to Pattaya/Phuket?

Makes total sense when you consider: 1. It is harder for them to get "normal" jobs. 2. They have higher a sex drive than women. 3. Men are generally less picky than women. Sex is sex. 4. A large percentage of them suffer from additional mental illnesses. I don't see anything wrong with a ladyboy choosing to work in the sex industry - up to them - but when they start robbing people and other forms of petty crimes that's when they become a real problem and a menace.

I think it's just a matter of numbers. There are idiots in every culture, but Pattaya is currently flooded with Indians (and Arabs) so it would make sense there are more incidents involving them. Probably more to the story - maybe he gave the "lady" his phone because he was interested in meeting later and worried this detail would come out if there was an investigation. You'd be surprised how many guys would/do secretly hook up with a ladyboy if they thought no one would find out, but if any of their friends asked they would vehemently deny it. ????

That's just luck. If any of those skateboard swings connected the officer would've been in the hospital now. I get that they just wanted him out of their hairs, but they should've arrested and prosecuted him so he can be blacklisted from returning to Thailand. He'll probably just come back and continue being obnoxious, because he thinks he can get away with it (which apparently he can).

Ohh yeah, I was confusing the two about the bridge. The rowdy weekend hordes however- similar in both.

Drunk or something else like meth would make a lot more sense, and even then it makes no sense - sounds like this was a deliberate attack on the temple for whatever weird reason. Another day another nut.

Another day, another attack by trannies on beach road. No doubt it's the same group from the other day, or their friends. Sounds like they tried to rob the guy (steal his phone), he resisted and they attacked him. Police really should do something about this group as this is clearly a pattern and they've lost all fear of repercussions. Jokes about Indians aside, this is a serious matter and walking on beach road should not be dangerous.

Most likely the brother is unemployed or does not significantly contribute, despite being older and probably graduated high school already. The father sending home only 1000 "occassionally" also isn't surprising as he's likely spending most of his salary on himself. Thailand is weird like that - the women are expected to take care of the family even if they can barely take care of themselves. Kinda shocking and brings us back to reality of real costs/earnings here that she's only making 100-200 baht a day. An entire family living on under 10k a month.

Visiting Dubai was eye opening. During the week things are relatively calm, but every weekend there are swarms of drunk violent Saudis who cross the bridge to do all the things they can't at home. Seen many fighting, getting dragged out of venues, and otherwise being obnoxious and can't handle their liquor. I guess Dubai puts up with it with heavy security and policing (every inch of Dubai is under CCTV surveilance and laws are very strict), but I'm not sure Thailand is equipped or have the right mindset (strict enforcement) to deal with this kind of menace.

I speak Japanese fluently and studied Korean for a couple of years. He is not speaking either. This sounds like Chinese.

"Foreigner". Just say Chinese. If he wasn't I doubt the officers would've shown such restraint. While I'm all for police restraint - in this case they gave him way too much opportunity to attack and harm their fellow officer. Wouldn't have been hard to subdue him from behind - gotta wonder why they never even tried. The rise of the Chinese here does not bode well for Thailand. The "rich" ones that Thailand so desperately seeks bring nothing but trouble - like this fine specimen, as well as all the criminals and druggies rounded up before the election (funny how they stopped busting them post-election, huh?).