rabang

My understanding is that you don't need a confirmed flight ticket for the visa application. Everyone in the embassy knows it is risky considering the possibility that the visa is not approved. Here is some general info I found: https://www.axa-schengen.com/en/schengen-visa/flight-itinerary

I like to visit Việt Nam but after a few days I feel like I have got enough of the place. It is just too rough around the edges. Just walking around is massively stressful with all the motos running around so you have to constantly stay alert, at least in Saigon and Hanoi. Some places like Da Nang are less stressful thanks to proper sidewalks. And yes, people can be a bit tense. No fake smiles over there, don't know if that is good or bad, it's your choice. Thailand is far from perfect as we all know but it feels much easier and more benign than VN.

Many people have been conditioned into believing that anytime you feel even the slightest amount of hunger you should eat something. I sometimes hear people saying how they must eat even 7 or 8 times a day or more!

There are certainly many affluent Russians too. I saw an article claiming that last year 40% of foreign condo buyers in Phuket were Russian. Not all of them are though. The demographic I saw last time I visited Pattaya four years ago didn't give an impression they could survive an extended period with their savings alone.

It would depend on the definition of a war and involvement in it. I can say that Putin has started or participated in at least five wars during 22 years. However, whataboutism is not an argument, even though it is a classic Russian trick.

The EU land borders are technically open but very few can get through / are issued a visa.

Back in 2019 there seemed to be quite a few of them waiting outside the Thai embassy in KL. I just passed by and didn't go inside and this is only a vague impression/memory so I might remember some things a bit wrong. There definitely can not be that many who have the funds to survive for long in Thailand and they can not work locally, unless doing shady business or working illegally for other Russians.

Germans could have brought some civilization to Russia if they managed to capture Moscow. The Nazis just made a mistake of being so obsessed with exterminating jews and other minorities. I wonder if they would have been a better option than communists taking over half of Europe.

Still better than Soviet style communal living I guess. Privacy is an unknown concept in Russia.

Sir, congratulations, you have just won the whataboutism price of the week.

Can't really blame Thais if the thinking among westerners is as superficial as in "Russian speaking people in Donbass must feel themselves Russian".

Russian history of constant wars, especially during Putin's era, is a pretty good indicator of what might happen in the future. Plus Putin's hopes of returning the borders of the old Soviet era Russian empire.

Ok, here we go again with another advocate of the Kremlin talking points. Any submission to Russia will only make them rearm themselves and prepare for another try. Russia is already at a war with the collective west, in their own minds at least. How does that not place other countries under threat? Have you forgotten all the assassinations they committed on British soil?

I was thinking if I should call it a new cold war but I think it might sound a bit cliched. Even though there might be paralells times have changed in many ways. Different eras, different situations.

You can't escape Kremlin trolls anywhere nowadays. Russia is being militarized, becoming more and more totalitarian each day and preparing for a long war. This might be only the beginning. Expect possibly decades of war and hostilities between Russia and the West.

Which is why I don't dream of retirement and don't hold it as some sort of a goal, though I have to say I am also not a wage slave. If I was I might feel differently.

Land of Mask Fashionistas? LOL, I mean LOMF.

The greyness effect of the European winter is very true... and I felt it hard especially two years ago when I had to take a break from travelling during winter for the first time in many years but I have got more used to it now. This year I didn't have the same urge anymore as in the past although I might still travel this winter before the arrival of spring. There are grey, overcast skies aplenty, but the air is clean, depending on where you live. In Thailand since at least 2018 the sky was more and more frequently grey for a completely different reason... Also Europe offers many advantages even in winter time over Thailand. I think the key is to keep yourself busy so you don't have so much time to keep on feeling miserable about weather.

I have been using Tailor on Ten over the years, but my most recent experience is from 5 years ago.

Just go and read the typical fearmongering ramble from about a month ago. People should be ashamed. As any sane person would expect the arrival of Chinese didn't make the world to collapse. Not that I like the Chinese tourists but that is not the point. This (hopefully) last covid craze once again was off the charts.

The country is going to need some solutions or it is going to become a huge dump.

It is getting repulsive already. People from even more crowded and more polluted countries don't mind.

Biggest load of whataboutist BS I have read here for a long time and that is something. Putin is a total dictator who has started several wars in 20 years and is trying to reconstruct Soviet Union.

Exactly, their main motive. Fleeing Russia does not mean they are against the current politics.

Not if they do it only for selfish motives like avoiding the draft. I mean supporting the war but asking others to do the fighting is anything but respectable.