JensenZ

There's no need to quote sources as this is an informal discussion and the information is very easy to find online. If you believe vaccinations are good for you, that's your choice. You're lucky you had a choice as many didn't and lost their jobs if they didn't want to be vaccinated.

You have to realize a large percentage of traffic is tourists who would not know how to plan their routes to any specific location on Buakhao. The people who plan their routes will certainly travel further to get to their destinations, adding to traffic density, and the tourists will be running loops to find their destinations.

It's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard of. You would have a lot of traffic traveling a lot of extra distance, looping around to get to their destinations. That means more traffic on 2nd and 3rd roads, and Pattaya South and Central roads which are already parking lots for much of the day.

Not true at all. I find it's easy enough to complain about something not right at all the restaurants I visit, and get a "sorry sir" response with no hard feelings or loss of face. The problem is with the management and how they train their staff. Talking about breakfast buffets (I prefer my eggs runny), I complimented the egg chef at a hotel buffet just last week on how well she made the omelets and I scoffed down at least 6 of her perfectly fried eggs. There might be a few things to whinge about in Thailand, but in general, I find restaurant staff are pretty good in my experience. Occasionally you get a bad egg, but it's not the norm. If you find the staff disagreeable at a restaurant, it's time to find another place to eat.

Yes, I'm missing the "clear all notifications" too. I came here to make a post about it but the OP beat me to it. I use it a lot. Please bring it back.

It is a huge inconvenience if you've never had to do anything other than hand in the passport for a quick process. I do it for my wife as well, which is now a double inconvenience. I didn't come here to argue with people who use different offices. I posted here to inform people who live in Pattaya/Jomtien. As you don't live in Pattaya, it's not your concern.

Here are my reasons: 1. I live close to the immigration office. 2. It never took more than 5 - 10 minutes. 3. Didn't want to mess around with online reporting due to many reports of its unreliability. And lastly, seeing as you mentioned it - I'm into "self-flagellation". Reporting has always been an orgasmic experience.

Yes, I know, that's why I indicated the office in the subject title. This is a big change and inconvenience for us.

That's the way I've been doing it for nearly 20 years. This is new since I did my last 90-day reporting.

No, I mean everything. Previously you just hand in your passport and 10 minutes later 90-day reporting is done. Now you have to fill out the TM47 and provide all the photocopies.

I don't know when this started, but 90-day reporting just become a lot more complicated.

It's supposed to make you feel safe.

If the police just started cracking down on crime, what were they doing before October 17?

From a marketing point of view it might make sense. If they want to sell condos to foreigners, floor 13 might not be popular. I'm not superstitious at all, but I wouldn't buy a condo on Floor 13 as it would make selling it more difficult. At best I'd have to give a discount. It would be more difficult to find tenants if you wanted to rent it out. Floor 13 is commonly skipped at hotels around the world. Floor 14 becomes the new Floor 13 LOL.

The drunk foreigners are minor problem compared to all the drunk Thais driving/riding at night.

Sure, plenty of nice female company, but only if kept at arms length. Actually, the truth is that generally that's they only time they are nice, unless of course you're loaded.

You don't have move away, just politely decline, or totally ignore and say nothing. They really aren't a problem unless you decide to insult them, which is most likely the case in this incident. Ladyboys don't spontaneously attack people for no reason.

Sounds like you might be the problem in relationships - always blaming the women? It should be noted that the Philippines is a matriarchal society. Filipinos grow up in matriarchal networks, where women make decisions about most things including money. Until they have you hooked, you wouldn't know it. They play a passive-aggressive role that often goes unnoticed by hapless foreigners until it's too late. Most of them don't really prefer foreigners and they are just a means to an end. Old weathly foreigners are highly prized.

Only shops that don't price their items in fractions of baht (satang) will refuse to accept them. The 7Elevens love them and will take as many as you've got.

What a waste of time - don't accept them in the first place. I've told cashiers a number of time over the years to give me a clean note when they handed me a bad one. You only get bad ones as change from a shop, so simply opening your eyes avoids the problem.

I have always refused to accept banknotes in poor condition. It's common sense really and the fault of the person trying to use them. They should have refused to accept them in the first place and avoided the problem of trying to pass them off to someone else. Thai banknotes are usually in very good condition and anything I accept should be too.

They don't have to try to bring in hezbollah... there has already been an exchange of missiles.

I have a more pessimistic view on what is likely to happen. Recently word from Iran was that if Israel starts a land invasion, it will cause an "earthquake". Iran has missiles capable of striking Israel. A land invasion will start soon. The US currently has one carrier strike group stationed off the coast of Israel with another arriving in a few days (I believe it takes 8 days for a carrier to travel from the US to the Eastern Mediterranean). With the US heavily engaged in Ukraine, and possibly soon in Israel, there's a perfect opportunity for China to invade Taiwan. This is how world wars start.

Yes, coming into Summer there now. Mean daily high -15C. Mean daily low -26C

Hamas are ok with it. Their attack on Israel was well planned, and they knew exactly how Israel would respond. it was part of their master plan and the death of their own people was part of it.