JensenZ

Maybe shopping in Thailand is a lot of trouble for you because you need an IQ upgrade. Shopping has never been any trouble for me in Thailand. What happened in Japan? Did they send you packing?

The tablets are too light to perceive the difference in weight from an empty box. It's quite strange that you can't comprehend that. The box and leaflet insert weighs 9 grams. The 4 tablets and foil weigh 4 grams. Are you suggesting the OP should be able to distinguish 13 grams from 9 grams by picking it up in his hands, and that he should have known that the box with tablets should weigh 13 grams and not 9 grams? The OP is a human f***** gram scale LOL If you shake the empty box, it sounds like there's something in there due to the folded leaflet.

That's exactly what I was paying 400 baht for. Now I'll have to try to get a better deal.

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186k a month is nowhere near enough income if one is paying 70k for rent... A person living upscale like that would likely be spending at least an extra 3000 baht per day on quality food, dining, electricity, transport, and sundries. If he's into fine wine and imported luxury food, even more. You don't live in a 70k apartment and eat on the street every night to save money. We're nearly out of cash now and haven't got any pussy yet. Assuming the OP wants quality pussy every night and goes for top-tier delights, the long-time girls can easily cost 5000 per night or more (and still want to leave as soon or as early as possible), without even factoring in lady's drinks. If he likes to party with the girls and drink heavily, 10k a night is a modest ballpark (including tips) and not excessive in those environments. The drunker he gets the more he'll spend. I've been out with some heavy-drinking Aussie friends who notched up a 10k bar bill in a gogo in 2 hours, not including any takeaways. If the OP ventured out like this only twice a week (he'd probably need a few days to recover after each night out), and managed to only spend 10k per outing and not tip the girl another 1 - 2k, that's another 80k a month. Let's call it 100k with some tips. So where are we at? The 186k is gone on basic living expenses. Another 100k for entertainment. I would suggest he'd need at least 300k to get started with such a lifestyle. Even if he roughed it in a cheap condo, he'll still be short of cash. It sounds like a lot, but when you start partying, it won't take long to spend. If the OP wants to party like there's no tomorrow, I would start at 500k a month to be comfortable, and he could even burn through that with no trouble. If he starts to develop some feelings for some needy "girlfriends", his costs could skyrocket.

I've lived in Pattaya since 2005, and ride bikes here. I've never been irked by foreigners riding bikes. Maybe I was one of the foreigners who irked you at some point during one of your visits LOL. Expats who live here and ride motorcycles generally end up riding the same way as Thai riders. They go up one-way streets, sneak here, sneak there... it's the best way to get around. It's the only way to get around. There's no such thing as an orderly traffic flow in Pattaya and you need to go with the flow. The expats learn from the Thais how to ride here, which is a special kind of crazy. It works and it's fantastic! I'd say you have some sort of weird dislike of foreigners because there is no major problem with foreign riders in general, no more than with Thai people. You should get out to areas where there are fewer foreigners to experience the difference - you'll find it's the same. The one exception is tourists on bikes. Sometimes they look the wrong way and ride on the wrong side (if that's even possible LOL) because they drive on the right in their home countries and you cannot adjust to the opposite side riding on a short vacation. You see the problem more with pedestrians, who are looking the wrong way when they cross a street. A brief beep of the horn sets them right, but in Pattaya, patience goes a long way.

This is the problem. The victims are peacefully resting. It's the families that can't sleep until some form of justice has occurred.

I'm sorry that you're so confused. If you consider only bikes with over 1000 cc engine capacity are real bikes, then I understand your confusion. You'd have to be a bit daft to think anyone would jump on a brand-new GPZ1100 for their first and only bike.

Maybe they got away with it many times before, as they would not expect many foreigners would take the matter to the police for 300 baht of Viagra. They called your bluff and lost because you weren't bluffing. Good for you! In Pattaya, I can buy real Thai-manufactured Sildenafil at 400 baht per pack (4 x 100mg tabs). What did you get? It couldn't be the real Viagra brand at that price.

I was just trying to keep it simple. The bikes that go fast without too much fuss and Harleys that make a racket LOL.... but yes, there are many subcategories. My last big bike was a GPZ 1100, back in 1983, so I'm out of practice.

I would separate big bikes into 2 categories. Sports bikes and Harleys. I've been riding all types of bikes for 50 years, so I'm somewhat of a bike enthusiast, but there is still one big bike I dislike. It's a Harley, which has more bark than bite, designed to get the attention of anyone within 200m... and not in a good way but by pure ear-numbing noise pollution. Sometimes it's like being attacked when someone suddenly opens its throttle behind you to overtake. In contrast, I enjoy the sound of a superbike accelerating into the distance with the mild and pleasant hum of advanced technology. They used to have a Harley in the condo next door to my townhouse. As soon as the owner fired it up, our whole building would start to rumble, and that was just when it was at idle. Of course, other bikes with modified or removed exhaust baffles are not pleasant either.

Really? I don't appreciate any bad driving behaviour by any people of any colour. Why do you have a specific dislike of "Farang"? To the OP: If you want to relieve the congestion of traffic on Pattaya roads, relieving it of a few big bikes you dislike is not going to help - you need to get rid of cars, tour buses, and Baht buses. You might as well stop whinging because congestion is only going to get worse as tourism ramps up to full capacity in the coming years. Currently, it's Road works along 2nd Road causing most of the congestion. The council decided to start the road work AFTER covid when the streets were starting to get busy again.

I don't have any problem with sweeteners, but I like to add my sweetness to the level I prefer. Here's the problem with sweetened (and flavoured) whey protein. They select a standard sweetness (and flavour) for a specific standard serving size to be mixed in a standard volume of liquid. If you want to use more whey or less liquid to mix it with, it will be too sweet (or the flavour too strong), and even the standard level of sweetness (and flavour) for a suggested serving might be too sweet (and/or strong). You might want to add some fruit (blended), which will make it even sweeter. Another point - at some point, you might get sick of the taste of chocolate or whatever other flavour you've purchased, but you're stuck with it for the whole container. With unflavoured, unsweetened whey, you can flavour it and sweeten it any way you wish. It's the only way to go, and cheaper too.

Yes, I got quite a laugh reading about how the price of gold is different in Thailand than anywhere else. They certainly don't understand the gold market. You can buy 99.99% pure gold in Thailand. Current Gold Price 96.5% (baht measurement) hit 34,000 before closing on Friday. Spot Gold hit a record high of $2075 about 3 hours before close, closing at $2072. What makes Thailand special for gold trading is you can buy and sell it anonymously, and you pay a low commission. It's just about as easy to buy and sell as getting milk at the local 7-Eleven if you live in places like Pattaya. Most people waste money buying jewelry, but you can get bars at any gold shop, with lower commissions and no manufacturing markup.

It's not all doom and gloom. I stayed at the 5-star Gems Mining Pool Villa in Pattaya 2 weeks ago, for 2 nights. They were doing very well, even with room rates over 7,000 baht per night for their cheapest rooms. Our room was over 10,000 per night. The breakfast room was quite busy.

The whole world has to pay the cost of Covid and the massive devaluation of most currencies due to QE. Payback started last year with massive inflation the world over and still has a long way to go. I suggest the real estate market is next to fall. Everyone has to pay back all the free money people were paid not to work.

That's a very rough job, running the air conditioning tubing along the base of the balcony rails. It must have been an afterthought to save installation costs. They couldn't find a better place, like on the ceiling?

That's only a forum member's opinion. The problem with a court action is the timing would not allow compensation for tourists as court actions can take many months. A visit to City Hall with a good lawyer would probably get things moving. I would think that someone at City Hall would be sympathetic. In reality, it's more than likely that a 61-year-old Belgian tourist would have travel insurance.

Sure, but making sure footpaths are clear of hazards, like spikes, loose paving, holes, etc is not difficult to achieve. All they need to do is a thorough inspection of all "completed" jobs. It's what you'd do if you were paying someone to do some construction work for you, but the council is using taxpayers' money, so they don't seem to be as invested in the quality of work done.

These street vendor motorcycle sidecars full of food are a road hazard even when they don't pull out unexpectedly. Many of them are sporting vats full of boiling water and other loose cooking items and implements that can go flying. They often slow down unexpectedly when items in their carts are shaken loose by the wind and they need to secure them. Fortunately, most Thai people have a lot of patience with them and give them a wide berth.

I agree, and it's also a pet peeve of mine. They use a ridiculous number of adjectives and adverbs. It's not reporting, but storytelling. The reader should decide how fast, well, and good tasks are performed, not the reporter. They wouldn't get a job writing for real newspapers.

You don't see too many billionaires in prison to compare notes with. Even if Thanksin doesn't have a billion $, he has plenty of rich family members to pick up the slack. I'm suggesting that any very rich prisoner would get special treatment.

Ex-PMs convicted of crimes and jailed (or in exile) - Ex-coup leaders become exalted beings, yet people like you cheer it on. I can imagine how this would go down in your home countries. The only way to become a hero in Thailand is to be a general and responsible for a military takeover of an elected government. In most civilized nations, that would be called treason, but in Thailand, it's a badge of honour.

The first responsibility is the council which should be overseeing road and footpath safety in their city which attracts millions of tourists (and pedestrians). They need to ensure that contractors always consider safety issues when doing work in public areas. It's not difficult really. You (the contractors) pay the medical expenses or we find a new contractor. They could appoint safety officers to inspect all work done on roads and footpaths and issue fines for non-compliance. If it happened to me, I would start with a personal visit to City Hall. Of course, if the tourist has full insurance to cover it, that's the end of it.

And despite all precautions taken, accidents happen. It only takes a momentary lapse of concentration. In this case, shoes might not have helped as you can trip in any footwear.