CygnusX1

I’m at Suvanaphumi right now, waiting for a flight back to Australia. 5 minute wait at security, 4 minute wait at Immigration. Huge choice of food, Subway and Dairy Queen extra large Blizzard my favourites, and way cheaper than at an Australian airport. One of the world’s best airports in my opinion, only Singapore’s Changi is better thanks to its huge array of free attractions.

The ones at Jomtien beach don’t ask if I speak Russian, they just launch into rapid Russian, so I’ve had to memorise the Russian for “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Russian”. However, as I’ve said before here, I have no problems whatsoever with them, they seem to be decent, ordinary people, unlike their president, and are definitely not noisy. The only guy who was noisy at the beach this afternoon was a very non-Russian looking black guy who was playing that horrid rap non-music at high volume, but I’m not about to make generalisations about black people from that single case.

So, do you object to my presence as a long stay tourist, given that you’ve said tourists shouldn’t be staying in Thailand for much longer than the typical period of annual leave given to workers?

While I’m not an expert on the technicalities, posters on this forum have stressed that it is indeed a tourist visa, as it forbids any kind of employment, and is useless for anyone aspiring to achieve residency in Thailand.

Since you don’t seem too fond of long stay tourists, what do you think of my 20 year elite TOURIST visa?

Google “Mary Tyler Moore joke”.

Looks like you’re jealous of retired people, who aren’t constrained by the amount of annual leave they’re permitted to take for their leisure travel.

No, 1700 baht’s roughly $A74, and if that was for a full litre, it’s more expensive than in Australia. Dan Murphy’s has a member’s special 70cl for $35, equals $50 for a litre, normal price $44, equals $63 for a litre. Anyway, as the B52’s imported, it won’t be benefiting from the tax reduction.

Label on mine’s a bit different - it does say “Chairman’s B52”, to give it a bit of exclusivity, and it’s missing the “Imported”, just “‘Product of France” in much smaller text at the bottom. Yes, I think the Kahlua I saw would have been around 1700 baht, one of the few things here more expensive than in Australia (chocolate’s the other one).

Actually, taking a closer look at the label, I realise I’ve just told a lie - it says “Product of France”, unlikely as that seems, given the price. Brand is “Chairman’s B52”. Apologies I don’t have the computer skills to post a picture of the label. Don’t remember the exact price, might have been around 500 baht? for 70cl.

The only alcohol I drink is a dash of Kahlua that I add to a milk shake. I was appalled by the Thai price, but quickly realised there were locally made coffee liqueurs that were crazily cheap, which I think taste just as good. Looks like they might be even cheaper now.

I’d guess that most farang living here for most of the year would still be using the passport of their country of origin, not many would have a Thai passport, for which you’d need Thai citizenship? So this would severely undercount the number of farang effectively living here, though maybe not technically expats.

How do you define “part of year”? For each year, I’m planning on spending 6 months in Thailand (just under 180 days!), 3 months in Australia and 3 months in Europe (just under 90 days). Does that mean I’m a perpetual tourist everywhere for the whole year?

No, not heard of it. Seems to be like Chat GPT? I’ve heard that the problem with Chat GPT is that it confabulates if it doesn’t know the answer to something, instead of just admitting that it doesn’t know. I’d assume that Google have taken steps to ensure that Gimini can’t be used to spout abusive material - are you saying they’ve failed in that regard?

I partly agree, but am extremely reluctant to employ censorship, except for existing laws on defamation etc. Your suggestion of a warning is a lot better - feel free to post that the moon landings were faked in a Hollywood studio, but expect to have a comment added by a fact checker. Who these fact checkers would be is the issue of course. It’s worth noting that the idea that the COVID virus was accidentally released from a lab was flagged by many experts as disinformation, but is now regarded as a real possibility, though still unproven.

Maybe he’s a seriously competitive participant in a competition to see who can invent the most outrageous troll post, in which case respect - there’s no way I could have ever thought up something so utterly insane.

Not my Jomtien condo (VT5) - maybe a bit too expensive for the average Russian tourist? Not that I’d mind if my condo was filled with Russians. Jomtien beach does seem to be heavily Russian, but I have no problems with them at all, they’re a great deal more respectable than many tourists here from Western countries, just ordinary people. Not their fault their president’s one of the most evil, murderous psychopaths on the planet. There seems to be a lot more women than men - single women, small groups of women, the occasional single woman with a kid. Maybe wives of men serving in the army being rewarded with a subsidised holiday?

Could see 6 islands from my balcony in Jomtien this afternoon, including the top of Ko Phai, the island behind Ko Lan. Makes such a difference, but all except for Ko Lan will disappear as soon as the wind shifts back to the NE, and on really bad days no more Ko Lan either.

If you do a web search you’ll find references to a reputable study that indicates that Viagra may reduce the chances of Alzheimer’s disease.

26.5 degrees all day and night, except for 24 when playing Beat Saber. Sleep under single sheet. Those hotel duvets are a nightmare, choice of either sweating beneath a layer of insulation suitable for a Chicago winter, or freezing with no cover at all. I always now take a small sheet and light blanket whenever I travel.

I like (Australian) Chinese food, but I just rarely eat out at restaurants, even when I’m travelling, unless I can’t find an open supermarket. Not really interested in food generally, prefer to save money for other things, and food I make myself is healthier. Subway in Thailand’s an exception, because it’s healthy enough by my standards, and cheap, half the Australian or European price.

Almost never, except when dining with a friend or relative, and chicken fried rice in that case. Subway once or twice a week (I can say “everything except cucumber” in Thai!). As an extra special treat once every couple of months, dinner at Pizza Company (pan fried super deluxe). Otherwise, everything made at home.

At least in Pattaya (Jomtien) today, the wind changed from the north east to the south, which has improved the AQI from unhealthy to moderate, probably about the best we can expect for this time of year. I can fairly reliably guess the wind direction from my place even without opening the balcony doors - if the island of Koh Larn’s barely visible or invisible, there’s no wind or wind from NE, if the outline of the island’s well defined, the wind’s more from the south. Still by no means clean air - even on better days, I’ve not seen the sun set beneath the waves for a month, it just disappears into the murk.

So what should Biden have said to Putin to dissuade him from attacking Ukraine?

So, a long way of saying that Ukraine should surrender. So if Putin decides to invade Lithuania next year, the Lithuanians should just surrender to avoid so much death and destruction? Where do you stop? Ukraine’s leaders were anything but perfect, and there was much corruption, but you can’t even compare them with Putin’s evil.