CygnusX1

Yes, I realise that, hence my point about the need for something as fundamentally different as the alleged lack of recursion in an Amazonian language to refute Chomsky’s idea of universal grammar, rather than relatively minor differences such as French’s notorious tenses and irregular verbs compared with Thai’s simpler verbs.

Struggling to learn Thai has made me more sceptical of Chomsky’s claim that all human languages, however different, share the same underlying grammatical structure. There’s a very entertaining book, “Don’t Sleep, there are Snakes” by Daniel Everett, about his life with a tribe of Amazonian Indians, in which he claims their language lacks recursion, which he thinks is a counter example to Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar. I find it curious that certain sections of the far right seem to be gravitating towards Chomsky’s bat **** crazy extreme leftist view of the United States as being the source of most of the world’s evil.

As I’ve said here before, I’ve always found the Russians who have been dominating Jomtien Beach during high season to be perfectly decent people, despite their utterly evil president. Mind you, as the only Russian language I know is “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Russian”, they could well be praising Putin to the skies, but I think they’re only at the beach as Thai sunshine is better than winter in Siberia. Very few Russians when I was last there a couple of weeks ago in low season, because there were very few people of any nationality. I think the controversy over the number of Russian tourists will soon be moot anyway, as the massive expenditure on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is going to destroy the incipient Russian middle class, who were just beginning to be able to afford regular overseas travel.

Hope payment by QR codes will always remain optional, because I’ve never scanned a QR code and would have no idea how to. It’s just plastic or cash for me.

My point is that 50% above the normal fare was still crazily cheap by the standards of most other countries. I also always give baht bus drivers in Pattaya 20 baht instead of 10. They work so hard and earn so little. Thailand is a great bargain, travelling in Europe right now, and paying a couple of hundred dollars a night for hotels that would be more like 40 a night in central Bangkok.

I’ve never used Uber, beyond my technical ability, but Uber would have been less than $A25 for same distance in Australia?? For that distance, and with that amount of traffic, from my experience I’d estimate that an ordinary taxi in Australia would have been around $100. I’ve paid $60 in Australia for a taxi for a distance I could have easily walked without luggage, and I’d never consider walking to Suv airport from Phrom Pong! I’m in Europe now, and am doing my very best to avoid taxis unless absolutely necessary, whereas in Thailand they’re a practical and cheap form of transport.

Last week I caught a cab from the Suk Road tourist area to Suv airport. I happily accepted the driver’s offer of 500 baht, knowing it was around 150 more than a metered trip, and gave him a 100 baht tip in addition. WAY cheaper than a legally metered taxi in Australia, and I received a 1 hour free Thai lesson as a bonus (taxi drivers hoping for a tip are always very complimentary of my rudimentary Thai skills). Bangkok taxis and hotels are one of the world’s great travel bargains.

Sport them? Do you mean something like dropping them all in a large cage and letting them fight each other to the death?

Presumably, even if you were normally in Thailand the whole year, if you made sure to be there less than 180 days in the particular year in which you purchased the condo, you’d pay no tax? Anyway, in the light of the tax changes, it would be a very bad idea to buy a condo, I’d certainly not have purchased mine in the current environment of uncertainty.

Be careful, it’s 180 days, not 183. And safer to plan 175 days, to allow for unforeseen circumstances such as cancelled flights. Have already set up a spreadsheet to carefully count my days.

Just be aware that you’re unlikely to see the Himalayas from anywhere in Kathmandu itself, due to air pollution. Need to go on a short trek at least. Otherwise, you’ll just be seeing a dirty city with a few temples, and lacking Bangkok’s ‘nightlife’.

Until last year, Citibank was the exception. For many years, I used my Australian Citibank card to withdraw cash at Citibank’s ATM at Asoke, and there was definitely no ATM fee, also with a very fair exchange rate. Sadly, Citibank has now sold its operations in both Thailand and Australia to local banks.

There’s no way that can be correct. Surely once sufficient evidence was shown to police that you’re the actual owner, which wouldn’t take long to get, the illegal occupants would be immediately arrested for trespassing on another person’s property.

I was under the impression that after, say, 10 attempts, the phone would be irreversibly locked, and could only be used again after a total reset that would erase all data on the phone. Serious question, as if I’m wrong, I’ll be seeing if I can change the 8 digit numeric codes I have on my phones to something more secure.

“unless you choose otherwise”. You have to be careful here, for the ATM I used a couple of days ago in Bangkok, the outrageous DCC rate (dynamic currency conversion) was set as the default, and you had to specifically opt out to receive the proper rate. Your home bank may also levy a rip-off exchange rate (big 4 Oz banks), so it pays to arrange an account with a bank at home that uses fair exchange rates.

When I arrived at Suvanaphumi airport to have my 1 million baht 20 year elite visa affixed to my passport, I was driven to Immigration in a golden electric cart, with the attractive lady driver furiously blowing the horn to scatter the hapless plebeians threatening to impede my August progress. After the formalities at Immigration, I made my way to the far end of the ground floor of the arrival hall, to wait with those same plebeians for the next available bus to Jomtien, and have continued to do so on all future trips.

Well, I’ve owned a condo in Thailand for 5 years, together with a 20 year visa, and with a formerly planned 200 days in Thailand and 80 or so days in each of Europe and Australia, Thailand was going to be effectively my home more than anywhere else.

I’m in that category, but was too late to vote. Will be spending around 175 days of each year in Thailand instead of planned 200 or so. More of my money to be spent in Europe and Australia, less in Thailand.

That's one fast tuk-tuk!

I know I've said this before, but taxis in Thailand are so crazily cheap compared to Australia that I have no problem with drivers not using the meter (as long as the negotiated fare is reasonable of course, and I've never had a driver demand an unreasonable fare). It's been my experience that all drivers use the meter when I've caught taxis from the airport, in which case I give a good tip - to the airport, not so many.

Great photograph of Koh Samui. Never considered going there before, but I might now.

I agree with other posters here on Foodmart. For such a small supermarket, it has an amazingly comprehensive selection of Western food, everything that a fussy eater such as myself needs. I’m in Australia now, back in Jomtien in a couple of weeks, and am looking forward to Foodmart’s precut pineapple pieces, so much better quality than the whole pineapples I buy in Australia. I don’t think it’s more expensive than any other Western oriented supermarket in Thailand. What I can’t understand is how the place manages to handle all of the occupants of those thousands of condos, especially in peak season.

Yes, I’ve noticed that in north Jomtien, near Pratumnak, although there are still heaps of dogs, none are aggressive. Maybe someone in authority has been quietly arranging the removal of the problem dogs.

After carefully reading the article, I can find no reference in it to the massacre of 1200 innocent Israelis of all ages. Instead, it describes the October 7 atrocity as “The attack, which involved firing multiple rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, occurred amid simmering tensions and ongoing violence in the region.” A clumsy attempt to falsify history. As such, the article is the very antithesis of “neutral”.

As I read that, my brain automatically ended the sentence with another noun, before I got to “clothes” on the next line.