CrunchWrapSupreme

Not much in the way of bars out here in the Issan sticks, my friend. Some Thai bars, yes, the ones with a few cement posts, steel sheeting, and Leo banners thrown up, which farangs don't go to. Nearest farang bar is in the changwat capital an hour away, which I sometimes pop into when the wife and I spend the night for a festival. But even then it gets 3-4 customers at the most, and I mostly just chat with the owner. The pickings out here have been slim. I'd say the farang exodus from Issan occurred about 5 years ago, when I last remember the bars being busy, as well as by confirming with photos I check on Google Maps. I'll see a bar marked somewhere on the map, once bustling with some happy old geezers 5 years ago, which now is usually a vacant stall near a market. Around that time a number of things occurred. Those embassy income letters got cut off, as well as several currencies collapsing against the baht, namely the Brit pound and the Aussie dollar. My connection with farangs in recent years has been with coworkers, which is limited as farang teachers out here tend to keep to themselves, some occasional chit chat at the Lotus, and mostly when we were all in line at the hospital for our Covid jabs. In these connections I've learned we're mostly of modest means, scraping by with our pensions, online work, or teaching. Heh, all these tycoons and their wheeling and dealing on AseanNow are an elusive bunch, I just haven't managed to run into any. I guess they're all down in Jomtien, that glittering capital of the financial world.

I wanted one, but the wife said too small, and she was right. We like trips from Issan to BKK and it'd be cramped with family. Stepped up to the Swift, but didn't have $18k USD in cash laying around, so financed for 20k baht down, under 8k a month. 2 years now, perfect car.

The loud music is likely to be: At homes: new housewarming party, wedding, funeral. The richer, more esteemed, more well known the people are, the louder and longer it'll last, sometimes a week. In parks: municipal exercise program, holiday event, corporate sponsored (e.g., beer) event. One of my first jobs was teaching at a thesaban (municipal) school. The boss lady at city hall often called this farang in to help with translations, notices, and, heh, answering lovely letters from the newly arrived farang community. They often complained about the loud music. I simply told them to enjoy this portion of the wonderful cultural journey they embarked upon, one of many that'd be sure to come, here in Amazing Thailand™.

Too many farangs in Jomtien. I reckon that office is getting sick of them. I would be too. Come up here to Issan. It's usually just me and one other farang in there. They always quickly stamp or sign my stuff, very politely, no hassles nor shakedowns, so they can get back to their somtam and gossip.

I applaud those of you who somehow managed impressive financial straits. Retiring early, landing fat pensions, passive income, digital nomad gigs, whatever. But from those I've met throughout my journey across Thailand, I found that's definitely not most of us. I've posted about this before, but figure it's worth mentioning again. My income as a teacher has been about $2k USD. $1200 from a public high school, and the rest I make online. It's barely enough for the married life. I'm lucky I've got the wife's parents' place to stay with no rent, but am expected to help with utilities, grocery shopping, the occasional things that come up, and we have a car payment. We try taking road trips on my school holidays, some occasional eating out, but nothing extravagant. That $2k a month goes quick. Sometimes it's less if there's a slower month with less students online. We're both only 45, and can't save for the future, plan for retirement, buy land or build a house, or do the traveling abroad we like to watch on YouTube. For that we must get out of Thailand, and get more out of our next 20 years of work. My MA in English and decade of teaching experience should be worth at least $60k in the US. My wife's hospitality experience should net her $20/hr. Yet it's not that easy to just hop on over. I just sent all my materials to the US for a teaching license, and found that it was rejected, with them nitpicking over this and that. I have the credentials, experience, references. Absolutely absurd with the massive teacher shortage they're facing, and the fact some US school districts are now accepting teachers with no creds nor experience. So I must now try tying those loose ends up again, and sending out apps for other gigs. But on the bright side, seems green card sponsorship has been reduced to $23k (monthly income, or cash in the bank), and with your Thai marriage cert (5 years for me so far), I've heard some Thai wives are spending less than 5 minutes being interviewed at the US Embassy, then simply get their visas. Which might happen to me, once I get my future career options squared away.

Look up TransXPeru on YouTube. You'll be amazed.

The month of October is a school holiday, and most of us teachers just come in for a few days of it. But on our contracts it usually says we'll get half a month of pay. I had one finance office call me in, and the nice lady there with apparently the new iPhone, more gold, or more plastic surgery in her eyes, said "Oh, we see you clocked in for only 5 days. Well your salary divided by 30 is the daily rate, and that times 5 days, well that should be your pay. You can give the overage back to me." Haha, I couldn't believe how blatant she was with it. I said no, we're not going by days. I get half a month. Says right here on the contract I took pics of on my phone, that perhaps you didn't think I bothered doing. And that was that.

Canada just finally had enough of this nonsense. Ask anyone who's tried to deal with property in Hongcouver for the past decade or so: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/01/business/canada-bans-home-purchases-foreigners/index.html Same needs to happen to San Francisco.

I got an MA in English, the MURICAN PGCE. ???? Took me three years in the racket that US universities have become. Couldn't stand the attitudes teaching in BKK private schools, so came back out here to Issan. Salary cut, but well worth regaining my sanity.

I'm a Democrat. I like the guy. Nice guy, impeccable career and qualifications. That being said, man he's old, and has been looking worse and worse in public appearances. Time to hang it up, Joe. Thanks for the memories. His time during the Obama admin was great. His roast of Sarah Palin in the VP debate, legendary. But that was 15 years ago. Several newer generations have been since waiting in the wings, ready to take the stage.

Opening a bank account in Thailand: "Can I open a bank account?" What they say | What they mean "Passport (and work permit)?" | YES "Go get embassy papers" | NO "Get a paper from your employer" | NO "The manager's not here today" | NO Ridiculous questions about where | you lived and worked before | NO

I know jabs like those above are usually meant to be in good fun, but they do get a bit old, especially when you don't know if the guy's really just poking fun, or looking for a cheap shot. "Did you come here for a wife or a mother?", "Does she put your underwear on for you too?" Yeah, yeah. Fellas, I get you all want to be the big man around here, swinging your gut and whatever else around. But even after 10, 20, 30 years here, we're all still beginning to scratch the surface of this complex culture, which unless we were born and raised here we'll never really get into. Is the farang less of a man because he lets the missus deal with it, especially an issue upon which his continued success in the country depends? Nope, I'd say he's very wise. So, from the farang who thinks he's going to stomp into a Thai office, ready to give them what for, the result you'd then see posted on AN would be: 1. "Yeah, I totally showed them who's the boss and got what I wanted." - Not in a million years. If you do see this, it's a lie. 2. "I totally got ran over and should've let the missus deal with it." - Most likely, but you won't see it, as of course they won't admit to it. But having taught in Thailand for close to a decade I can confirm that #2 is the fact the most common result, having heard of and seen teachers take up their beefs with mgmt, stomp into offices, then were gone the next term. But as you certainly can't get your missus to deal with your employer, best thing to do in that case is just keep your head down. She can however, work behind the scenes dealing with those in the community with connections to the employer, which if you have a good wife like mine, will have done.

Heh, do they mean domestic or international tourists? If the latter, it's awfully short notice. I don't think many would book a flight now. Most have already made their Christmas and NYE plans. If they mean the former, well, as we saw during that govt subsidized hotel discount thing, in which hoteliers booked up tons of fake guests to rake that in, there really aren't that many cashed up domestic tourists. Especially considering that other headline, balking at having to pay more than 300 baht a day.

I'm not white, but easily pass for it, the same way many farangs can't tell the difference between the different Thais and their ancestral origins. Indeed, out here in Issan one tends to get a lot of attn being the token farang, given there's not many of us around here. As OP stated we often get dragged into photo ops, and as teachers we annoyingly get called to join special events, even if we won't really be participating, as of course we must be there for the photos. As OP stated about the restaurant, our presence adds credence to the value of whatever it is we're involved in, or at least photographed with, as if to say oh wow look, this is of international standard, I suppose.

The past few tests I've had, the doc asks a few general health questions, checks weight and blood pressure, marks and signs the right things on the right form, and that's it, without drawing blood. I heard the syphilis test itself is a joke, the type they're testing for isn't transmissible, or something like that. Just be sure you get a doc who knows what's needed for the WP.

Sell the good, big buds, and soon you too could be Mr. Big:

Heh, it's worse as a teacher in Thailand. As you might've heard, a small percentage of what most Thai teachers do is actually teach. A much larger portion is hanging around each other's offices to chit chat and gossip. I think I liked it better when I barely knew any Thai, because now that I can understand them it's all so asinine. Mostly just the latest about what certain coworkers or students are doing, totally meaningless as nothing ever's done about it, and bragging about whichever new expensive thing they're going to buy, or trip they're going to take, which they certainly can't afford on their salaries, yet do so by adding to their debt. "Could you please go away or quiet down, so I can do my work?" Uh-uh. I otherwise like this job and would rather hang onto it. Thus, I've found the solutions to be: 1) headphones, 2) learn their timing so that you can make yourself scarce before the chattering arrives. Take your laptop, and go hang out at the nearby coffee shop. Leave some stuff on your desk so they'll know you'll be back, and didn't just take off early.

Yup. My wife's sister and her BIL live out on the farm with solar cells, pump, and their tractor. He was recently in the hospital for a few days. FIL had to go sleep out there every night until he was better.

Covid is ending, Thailand is reopening for business, they're desperate to recover from their losses. Great time to jump in. YAKUZA AND TRIADS BATTLE FOR CONTROL OF BKK. I love it. I miss the Hong Kong action flicks of the 80's and 90's. Looks like they're back, now in real life.

Some of you might've seen this actress in a recent Nescafe commercial dancing and singing: "Wan noi, aroi mak!" (It's a little sweet, but very delicious). She was also quite famous some years ago for sliding down a plastic slide to demonstrate Sabina's "doom doom" (the sound of bouncy, accentuated bosoms) bra.

I teach English online and got this Arab guy the other day. He spoke very broken English, but I managed to glean from it and help him to put together: "It's too hard to start a business. I have to hire people, and pay them, and make them sell things. I think it would be better to buy, you know, Google, Apple, Amazon. You can buy them when they're cheap, and then when business grows, you can sell them at a higher price and make money. You don't have to go out and work, you can do this at home. This is what I want to do." Heh, man. I just helped him with the English, I wasn't about to get into a debate over why it's not that easy, and if it were then everyone would quit their jobs and be doing it. I'm sure he'll figure it out.

Mmm, Scorsese's from a different time, at a different level. Filmmaking, storytelling, art. Most of the "content" these days? Hardly. Switch the brain off for an hour or two of a visual assault of CGI, flying bullets, car chases. The same old "plots" and "characters" if you can call them that, awkward superheroes, cheesy one liners, sexy eye candy, madmen bent on world domination, and the bad boys who come around. Yeah, I can see how the "content" begins skewing this way when its ultimate purpose is to fill another of the thousands of slots on yet another $10/mo subscription service. Seen any of the recent commercials for AIS and True on Thai TV, and their streaming services? They always feature a deluge of movie titles sliding across the screen, as a family on a couch or people staring into their phones are awestruck. Heh, just what are all those movies, and are any of them good? Doesn't matter. They all put something flashy on the screen, and there are a ton of them.

Oh dear. The Thai Rath News Show every night, serves up plenty of: 1. Overloaded pickup blows out tires. 2. Yaba loaded pickup driver plows into roadside vendors. 3. Yaba/drunken teens on motorbikes battle it out in the streets. 4. Perverted taxi driver makes advances toward passenger. 5. Jealous wife attacks mia noi. 6. Drunken govt officer "Do you know who I am?" 7. School director feeds the kids scraps and pockets the difference. 8. School director picks the best M4-M6 girls for his business or personal ventures. 9. Someone perpetrates or falls for ridiculous online scam. 10. And the all time classic, "Can I try on these 3-4 gold necklaces, I just can't decide...", then makes a break for it.

It looks like ETS administers AP exams, but don't know if these are applicable to both the US and UK. I went to one of their testing centers to take an exam for a US teaching license. I went to the center at KBU Prometric Testing Center – Kasem Bundit University (Romklao Campus), 2nd Building, 6th Floor. Cheers.

Heh, face saving coverup. No way she was that dumb. Likely the real reason was: 1. Investment scheme with high return 2. Romance scam 3. Supposed fine for some wrongdoing, which she'd then have to admit to