PingRoundTheWorld

You say that as if less tourists is a bad thing... the sad reality is that for us - expats - the more tourists, the worse it gets. Higher prices, more competition for everything, more crowded, etc. I love the low season for a reason...

Not to be racist, but my "sample" of New Zealanders I've met hasn't been exactly great. Some weirdo with Tourette who kept swearing at us, some angry white boy and his Maori friend who tried to fight me for no reason (we talked to the same girl or something), others who have hurled racist remarks at me once they've learned my nationality, and there's always the NZ rugby team who used to terrorize Roppongi bars every time they were in town. I have yet to meet a decent New Zealander. I'm sure they exist, but the ones I've met were rude and/or violent. So....anything that reduces their numbers here is welcome. Next please do Russian and Chinese. Indians can stay- they might be annoying but they're not violent and they don't push prices upwards, coexist lol.

That was your first mistake - downloading it. I mean, by now it's common knowledge TikTok is full of useless crap by useless people (no offense to the 0.001% who actually post quality content). It's basically there for people to post anything that can make them money, and other people to brain-numbly ingest it. Complaining about it is kinda like going to Patong and complaining that there are too many foreigners there. It is what it is.

Can you point anything in what I said that's not actually true? The truth is never ignorant.

Yeah, it could very well be a foreigner pretending to be Thai. It is indeed written too well. Would not be surprised as the level of self-hate and "I'm better than you" attitude with so many expats is off the roof.

It's alarming to see blatant racism out in the open. There's no other word to describe this opinion piece: it's clear that the author hates and looks down on foreigners. Probably some educated posh **** that will have no sweat off his back if the country loses all it's tourists - while millions of his "brothers and sisters" suffer in poverty. Next.

Absolute nonsense. It's actually easy to immigrate to Japan if you are skilled and/or speak Japanese. I've lived and studied there and have hundreds of people I know who are recent immigrants. Japan is desperate for immigrants to fill the aging population gaps. The problem is that in order for immigrants to work in fields like construction, hospice, or most other fields where there are shortages - they need to speak Japanese. There are many Filipino who study Japanese enough to work there, some Chinese, and Koreans - but we're talking hundreds of thousands - they need millions.

He is not wrong though. This WILL impact small manufacturers a lot more than it will the big guys.

Amazing how even elected officials are as dumb as a brick. The graphic warning labels have done absolutely nothing in deterring smokers - why do they think it'll deter drinkers? it will just be unpleasant, might even cover it, but **** no it won't stop me from drinking. They should spend less time telling people what to do and worry more about what they can do for the people. (hint: stop limiting alcohol sale hours, stop limiting nightlife hours, stop the ridiculous Buddha day alcohol bans, and in general **** off from interfering with how people want to spend their days or nights)

Um, sure they deserve it. Your chances of being robbed by a ladyboy are exponentially higher than a lady. Your chances of getting in a fight with a ladyboy over minor things is also higher. Plenty of other trouble you can expect from a ladyboy that a lady wouldn't give you. Not that all of them are trouble - sure there are some who are honest - but generally ladyboy prostitutes tend to be trouble.

Amazing how many people are commenting without bothering to actually look into the details. It wasn't "1 guy and 3 ladyboys" - that's just crappy reporting. It was 2 guys who brought back 3 ladyboys to a villa that already had 2 other guys, 2 other girls, and 2 other ladyboys. Total NINE people - not four. Blondie is on camera trying to stab him. Her "sister" is on camera running over one of them. Pretty sure that's a solid legal defense. Not to mention they have 4 other Thais (witnesses) there who weren't part of the brawl. There's no doubt the ladyboys instigated the violence as a result of being short-changed (in their mind). Even in their own version of the events they told police it started from that.

Now it's more clear: they arrived 2 guys and 3 ladyboys in the car, only to find out the other 2 guys already in the villa had 2 girls and 2 ladyboys waiting for them there. Most likely seeing them there and thinking the ones already in the villa looked better than the ones they brought, they decided to "shed" 2 of the ones they arrived with. Tried to give them 2k to leave, but the ladyboys felt they wasted their time and/or were insulted that they're being "replaced". And....ACTION! P.S. Amazing that they managed to trash the inside of the villa so badly in just a few minutes before moving it to the garden/road!

That does not look like self-defence to me. Chasing him with the knife trying to stab him is, well, not self-defence. Running over one of them with the car is questionable, as it looks like the driver was trying to stop the fight and run away more than she was trying to run them over (she could've reversed right over him if she wanted to, but didn't).

I find it hard to believe there was actually a deal agreed upon. Why would they offer to pay 3 ladyboys 4k each when they already had 2 girls and 2 ladyboys in their "party"? Makes no sense. More likely what happened is the Brits invited them thinking it's just a party, the ladyboys misunderstood it as hiring them and made up a rate in their heads, and when the Brits saw them only one looked appealing so they asked the other two to leave and gave them 2k (1k each). Arguably fair compensation if they were only there a short time and didn't have sex. Perhaps they should've made it clear and tell them the one who stayed will get additional money, but ladyboys being ladyboys don't wait for explanations - they went for the wallets and all hell broke loose. I don't think we'll ever know what really happened there, but I highly doubt the ladyboys' version is the truth. It usually isn't.

This happened at least 2-3 years ago. "News".

You mean, he got UNLUCKY to "win" her heart. Imagine having to spend any amount of time with this nutjob - he did, he finally had enough of it and bolted, presumably.

The crazy never settles down. It only goes to sleep and wakes up when you least expect it. From experience...

You don't invest $1mil (or whatever amount) in a single asset class. You spread it between different assets like stocks, ETFs, high-yielding real estate, etc. Some will go up while others go down, but overall in the long run if you invest smartly you'll be up.

In which case (the ones trying to avoid Ramadan/fasting) trying to entice them with "mosque tours" is not the right approach either...

Millions? Just how many gay people do you think exist in Thailand?? and out of them what percentage would actually consider marriage AND have a partner who would too? I have no problem with gay marriage, but I don't think it's an urgent immediate national priority. I don't know if that's part of the law, but talking about "recognizing all genders" is worrisome because we know how crazy that turned out in the west. Thailand ladyboys are at least sane - they know they are men - no illusions like the psycho ones in the states who look like a man in a dress, insist you address them as "ma'am", and will attack you like a man if challenged about it.

TBH I am not familiar enough with the Pattaya market to give an opinion. I've lived in Bangkok most of my time in Thailand and only recently rented a condo in Pattaya which seems to be a lot cheaper, but less oversupply than Bangkok. If the express railway thing they've been talking about happens and the trip shortens to 45 minutes then I can definitely see prices increasing in Pattaya. As for lady/house/car - no desire whatsoever. I grew up in one and owned one back in the states. It's too many headaches and too many insects for my liking. I'm perfectly fine in a box in the sky, and if said lady isn't, well, the door is over there.

Owning your own condo isn't cost-less. You are still paying in the way that instead of making a return on that money you are getting nothing, so if market rent for your property would be 20k a month you should factor that in (at least) the monthly cost. Either way you'd have to compromise on where to eat and drink to keep a budget of 35k/mo. Probably cheaper bars and such? I'd be happy to understand how this math works honestly. So in other words - don't do anything fun and like can be very cheap? Even if you "just" date "normal" girls dates cost money, women cost money. You pay for it either way - just maybe not as much and not as transactional. Unless of course you're dating sugar mamas who aren't blessed in the visual department but willing to compensate for that by sharing the costs... (I'm not joking, I have a friend who used to date older/fatter women because they paid for his condo etc. I think he stopped that by now.. hope at least)

While I agree with your previous points, and most who don't spend much do so because they don't have that much to spend - these points are individual choices. I could easily afford a car if I wanted to - but what would I do with it?? I don't go anywhere during the day, everything I need is within walking distance, grab, or a few minutes by taxi, and when I go out at nighttime I better not take a car and drive drunk. The only realistic use I might have for it is for the occasional trip between Bangkok and Pattaya, for which I'm more than happy to pay ~1500 to have someone else drive. As far as rent vs buy: Thailand ROI in buying is extremely poor compared to what else you could do with your money. My apartment in Japan gives me 8% ROI, why would I buy a Thai condo when I can rent it for around 3-4% of what the purchase amount? and that's not even counting common fees and other expenses you have to pay when you own. Appreciation is very little to none and in many condos negative due to poor maintenance and oversupply. Maybe the market will change in the future, but at least at this point I have better uses for my money than putting it in the walls.

I think he is determined to prove himself worse PM than his predecessor - as hard as that task might be. Almost every plan he pushes is populist and bad for the country.

It's quite sad when someone on a proper visa (METV was designed specifically for long stays) is worried about being let in. I don't know if things have changed since then, but back in 2019 I had two back-to-back METV visas - never any issues or questions just stamped right in. I did make sure to stay a few weeks out between every entry though - not just a short visa run. A week is probably ok but if you made it 2 or 3 it would "look" better. I'm sure they look at how long you're out of the country between each entry and a genuine tourist pattern is preferable.