ChrisP24

Self-assessed at 5% probability...... But in fairness I imagine that is due to willingness to engage rather than lack of compelling topics to engage in. When I travel I usually am not there to engage or make friends, but rather to experience a place, on my own terms and at my own pace, as I enjoy solo travel. But on occasion I've met people who I hit it off with and have had some good conversation.

Sounds like you worked hard enough and long enough to where you didn't have to be a person of extreme thrift. I as well have (almost) always lived within my means, and am at a point where if I don't do anything stupid, can live very well for the remainder of my years. I'm exploring Thailand as place to maybe do that part time.

Yep. But the rest of it they'll just squander.

I'm planning a three-week stay in Jomtien, and am looking for a nice condo with a kitchen, preferably a high floor sea view and preferably near baht bus routes. I've looked at several online, and it seems that Copacabana fits the bill best. The only reason I hesitate is that several reviews mention the fact that the rooms are quite small. Any thoughts or experiences with Copacabana, and any recommendations on something better? I want to stay in Jomtien with an eye to maybe spending longer stretches of time there at some point in the future, and don't want further north, although Pratamnak would also work if close enough to transportation. My budget is pretty open for a short stay like this, and everything in the area seems affordable except for some villas which would be way too much space for just one person in any event. Thanks for any thoughts, info or advice. The other front-runners that I looked at were the Riviera, Acqua, and Veranda Residences, and the ones that I looked at and ranked below them (maybe wrongly so) were LuxSL, D Varee, Atlantis, Jomtien Complex Condotel, View Talay 7, Laguna Beach Resort 1, Beach 7 Condo, Jomtien Beach Condo, and Grande Caribbean.

Part of the rationale for mild prepping is so that if a short-term interruption happens, you yourself won't be a burden on the local infrastructure as it steps in to help those who didn't prepare. Not even two years ago there were people standing in line for hours in many Thai cities and towns for food handouts. I worked with some LDS folks for several years, and kind of caught the prepping bug from them just a bit. They call it self-reliance. Mostly it made me aware of durable food prices so that if something I wanted to stock went on sale I was OK buying up to a year's supply of it, at a discount. And now inflation has hit so the savings is magnified. During the pandemic when people were buying masks and disinfectant cleaning supplies at hugely inflated prices and long wait times, I didn't contribute to some of that as I already had masks and isopropyl alcohol in stock. My family also was able make fewer trips to the grocery store by virtue of having some things stocked so that we could make a once-a-week trip for fresh items. Prepping also made me a bit more aware of healthy whole foods, like beans! Beans and rice as a base with some fresh items added can keep you going for a very long time, and are quite nutritious and healthy compared to the highly processed diet that many westerners are accustomed to. Mainstream prepping isn't for an apocalypse, it's for short-term interruptions like a pandemic or local event, or even a personal event like unemployment or an injury that makes it hard for you to get out for a while.

This youtuber made a series of tent camping videos a few years ago, featuring campgrounds from various spots in northern Thailand. You might search his channel for camp or camping.

Maybe offer something modest like 30k baht, that they can keep, or alternatively something much larger with the agreement that all of it will be "for show only" as proof that you can take care of your bride, and you take it home from the wedding ceremony. And that support for the family will come after based on whatever criteria you want to set. A good family of course is worth supporting - - the elderly, the young with school expenses, etc. And they will support you in return in other ways, to the degree that they can. But for the freeloaders, nothing.

The buy-sell prices listed at the kiosk are what THEY are buying or selling for. The simplest wat to look at it is that they have to make a profit on the exchange, so of course there is a "spread" between their buy and sell rates. When they are buying they give you the lower rate (fewer of THEIR baht for YOUR dollars). When they are selling they give you the higher rate (charging YOU more of YOUR baht for THEIR dollars). For example, the rates right now at now at Super Rich: CURRENCY BUYING SELLING USD 34.75 34.85

Does your wife want to go? If she'd actually prefer not to, maybe she can just tell them she has a family obligation without elaborating. But if she wants to go on something like this that sounds like a fun outing, change of pace, and an opportunity to bond with co-workers in a way that should make work more enjoyable, then it seems over-controlling of you to want to hold her back. And being in a professionally-driven minibus is surely safer than being on a motorbike or in a small car. People can't have a good life just staying home with the doors locked, lights out, shutters drawn, hiding and hoping that nothing with any hint of risk happens.

The one in back is not an eye..... And you can actually get it canned now.

Don't forget that exchanges have an inventory. They start the day with a bunch of physical baht, and end the day with (hopefully) less baht and (hopefully) a bunch of physical foreign currency that they have to exchange the next day for baht at that next day's exchange rate. So when the baht is rising, they make the spread plus an extra profit. And when the baht is falling, they make the spread but have a loss that they can either 1) choose to roll forward and recover with the next day's rate, or 2) change their rate during the day towards what they think tomorrow's rate will be for them when they (replenish their inventory (buy more baht). And some exchanges have more than one day of inventory on hand, so might be more inclined to keep their rate the same for the whole day, especially when the baht is rising. That makes them more competitive, and they can afford to be more competitive. But I think a simpler truth is that some of the mom and pop exchanges without a lot of nearby competing stalls just set rates once per day based on what they paid for their current inventory of baht when selling each foreign currency. Kind of like why prices between gas stations can vary so much based on what they paid when their underground tanks were last filled.

With due respect, soldiers in modern armies don't just sit in the barracks waiting for war to break out. They train, and the training is hard and as realistic as possible. It is a hard life with long days when in garrison, and longer days (and nights) when on group field exercises or in individual specialty schools. Add to that the separation from families, frequent moves and deployments, other uncertainties that place long-term planning factors outside of their control to a degree that civilians don't have to deal with. And the risk of deployment to a combat zone. All with relatively low pay, less than many of them could earn in the civilian world, especially those who have advanced in rank (the pay increases typically don't match what they could achieve outside of the military). Letting them go home for a holiday to be with family, during a year when we can afford them the time off, is the least we can do for them. Maybe ask for volunteers in exchange for extra pay. The already low pay and isolation due to already-strained family ties will ensure that enough of them will be willing to sacrifice the holiday for extra pay. Might even be enough to keep them busy/fulfilled and reduce the suicide rate that normally spikes around the holidays in the military (more so than among the same civilian age group).

Hmmm

I make homemade firestarters using old cardboard egg cartons and parrafin, but you can substitute old candles/candle stubs for the parrafin. The trick is to cut up the egg carton lid into strips and roll the strips into coils to place into the lower egg receptacles, and then pour in the parrafin or wax. You can also use laundry lint or sawdust, but with laundry lint it's hard to isolate cotton, and the synthetics like nylon give off fumes. Wax infused with sawdust also work great, if you buy one of those fake fireplace logs and cut it down into small pieces, one log will yield many firestarters. Keep them in ziplock freezer bags because they can get kind of sticky in the heat or even if stored at room temperature. These will both give you around ten minutes of safe, robust flame (without any whoosh), which is plenty to get a wood stove fire started, even if your wood is damp or oddly shaped. There is also a product out there called fatwood sticks as fire starters, a google search will tell you about them. Also (and not joking), keeping a small (16 oz.) inexpensive self-striking propane torch around will give you years of potent firestarting, plus has some other handy uses as a bonus. And.... also not joking, if your wood is dry and sheltered inside the stove (so zero breeze) and you have some fine tinder and kindling so just need a bit of help getting the tinder ignited, then many processed snack foods work surprisingly well, especially puffy cheetos. The oil in the snacks produces a rapid intense flame that is actually a pretty good firestarter in the right conditions - - much better than the match used to light the cheeto or other snack. Try it sometime!

Thanks Neeranam for your posts, you certainly take a lot of heat, but thanks to some info you posted some months ago, I added a crypto cash back card to my exchange account and have made a bit of money from that, actually a worthwhile amount too, just by shifting daily spending (and a couple of monthly bills) over to the card. I converted all of my (very modest) crypto holdings to dollar-equivalent a couple of weeks ago, including a small amount that was in Solana. The reason was to simplify the accounting and tax reporting, all of the non-stablecoin crypto that I held was from mining, and it is truly a bear to keep track of tax basis when you're receiving small amounts in multiple coins daily or every few days. So the short story is that I sold it all, thus harvesting some tax losses, and plan to put the same amount back into just BTC and ETH in late December after more than 30 days will have passed so I'll avoid running afoul of the IRS wash sale rule. My own (amateur) opinion is that as capital begins to flow back into crypto, BTC and ETH will lead, because they are the most widely recognized with largest market capitalization. Of course some others will do better but I am not informed enough to want to try to pick which ones, nor do I trust the vast majority of information out there.

Having a cop friend or private investigator run a report is a good idea, or even a law firm or other company with access to a public records search. In the U.S., agencies and companies with access are subject to an array of "fair use" restrictions to ensure that they have a legitimate reason to run the info, but if the person is requesting it on themselves there is no problem. Before retiring I had access to a couple of these public record search tools through work, and of course it was common for people with access to run background checks on ourselves and on co-workers if they asked, just to see how much info was there. It's surprising how much can go into one report, for example all of your past addresses, cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, all of the vehicles, boats or trailers that have been licensed to that person, professional licenses such as nurse or pilot, bankruptcies, judgments, etc. in addition to the criminal info. For me there were a couple of speeding tickets from the 1980s that never made it onto any of the reports, I'm guessing that info from minor events from before such data was being electronically compiled and shared was not worth the effort of having someone manually enter it. But also I was surprised to find that a lien had been recorded against me in 2005, it was for around $600 by an HOA on a property that was for sale for almost a year, I had moved out of state and had neglected to keep track of when the annual HOA payment was due. The lien got paid directly out of closing when the property eventually sold, and I had never noticed it. There are some national online companies that purport to run background checks, but I've never used any of them. Maybe some are legit but frankly they look kind of scammy to me. It will be best of course to try to run your report through the same system that will be used for the visa application. Are you using an agent? If so they will know and possibly they might even be the ones to run the report -- I'm not sure about that. This site: Thai Elite Visa | Apply Now | ThaiEmbassy.com says that "the agent will work with the Thailand Elite Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Immigration Bureau to do immigration and criminal background check. The process may take 1 month for most nationalities and up to 3 months for special countries." An agent can also advise you on whether something that minor from that long ago would be any cause for concern.

Regarding planning after reaching an advanced age, one joke I've read says that at some point, even the act of buying bananas that aren't ripe yet may be overoptimistic......???? But I just ran a profile of an 80 year old male through a life expectancy calculator and came up with 94 as the 50/50 point. So yes, an 80 year old should definitely be making plans, and I'd even wager that the more positive and optimistic the plans are, the more likely he'll live to see them.

Love the map of the (narrowly averted!) wild tiger incident. On the garage roof, maybe if you do it yourself your way, then for the next 50 years it will remain your space as it will be "too unsafe" for your wife's motorbike, stored items, etc.

Ok then maybe as a misguided attempt to stay somewhat hydrated after that first morning shot......

Maybe because they've already had breakfast, but it's still a bit too early for whiskey?

Umm, thanks for the very nice supportive post. He's under stress, and understandably so.

I thought love was only true in fairy tales Meant for someone else, but not for me Love was out to get me That's the way it seemed Disappointment haunted all my dreams Then I saw her face, She's a Retriever! Not a trace, of doubt in my mindI'm in love, I'm a believerI couldn't leave her if I tried Aaaa-ooooooo!

Looks like you can (and have) gotten by just fine without one. That said, I use my built in over-the range (OTR) microwave pretty much every day, mostly to heat leftovers or rice (from the refrigerator - - lasts several days in there), or occasionally some prepackaged food designed for microwaves like instant noodles. For re-heating Thai dishes a microwave will take maybe 90 seconds vs. your 5 minutes, plus you can heat in the bowl or plate you eat from, so that saves you from using a pot or pan that will have to be washed. So of course you don't need one, but I'd bet that if you get one you'll find that you use it quite often, because for some things it's just so much faster and more efficient/convenient than anything else. And as an added bonus they almost always come with a digital clock and countdown timer. ????

Scottish Humor: "Aye lads, let's have a wee dram and share some jokes." Irish Humor: "Aye me old muckers, let's pass the next bottle and share some jokes."

BostonJoe appears to be alluding to the reality being along these lines>>>>