JensenZ

The point I was trying to make is that against a basket of currencies, (the DXY index) all major currencies have weakened against the USD and the baht is stronger against some and holding steady against others. There's no point in them harping on about the USD exchange rate. The rest of the world is in the same boat and will continue to be as long as the Fed continues with a monthly increase in interest rates.

I've got one better LOL. There was a Thai woman wearing a mask in the park tonight at about 8:30 pm with no one around. I passed by her within a few meters - I think she panicked. I can understand this in crowded shopping malls, but this was absurd.

About 10 years ago in Pattaya, they put dozens of traffic lights at zebra crossings. People didn't stop for the red lights and they ended up turning most of them off, so there's no chance they'll stop for zebra crossings. I noticed recently they have turned some of them back on. There's only one way to cross a road in Thailand. Look both ways and cross when the road is clear. That will never change. This can be a problem for tourists from countries that drive on the right, as they are used to looking the other way when crossing roads.

The THB floats against the USD and all other major currencies. This article is nonsense. The baht is quite steady and even gaining against other major currencies. I'm getting about the same baht per AUD as I have for years. The GBP and EUR have lost ground to the baht. The DXY (USD index) is at its highest since 2001. People are buying USD due to interest rate hikes and consider it a good store of value.

I lived in Cosy Beach for over 6 years. Over that time there was only one dog that regularly chased me on one of the backstreets. Motorbike chasers are not really a problem. You can speed up and lose them, or just stop and then they stop in their tracks. It's only a game for them. Being on foot is more dangerous.

And it should be noted that in Pattaya, everyone is quite easygoing about your mask status. Thai people don't seem to care if you're wearing one or not. The only strange looks I get are from foreigners if I am wearing one.

In Pattaya, you can enter unmasked in Central, Big C, Lotus's, Friendship, and Terminal 21. Those are the only shopping malls I have visited. There has been no problem since July 1. I carry one in my pocket just in case an establishment still has a requirement. Hospitals require one (did in September, but not sure about this month).

I noticed my neighbour wearing a mask in my condo foyer yesterday. I jokingly asked her if she was still afraid of covid. She said no, I'm just not wearing makeup LOL. Pretty much everyone in the building (myself included) has had at least one bout of covid. It's pretty hard to escape covid in a condo lift if you're too lazy to use the stairs. I don't normally wear a mask myself, but I'm quite happy if everyone else still wants to. From that perspective, I'm guilty of being a mask fan.

These dogs only exist because Thai people feed them. What else would they eat if they weren't fed? There would not be enough scrap food around to feed them all. Every soi dog you see has a defacto owner who loves and cares for them. Thai people value life, so in that respect, they are very civilized. They would consider the life of their "pets", aka soi dogs, over the inconvenience caused to foreign tourists. It's the Thai people that cause the problem in the first place, but who are we to tell Thai people what they should or should not do? These animals need to be considered part of Thai culture. They are not going anywhere no matter how much foreigners complain about them.

I've been in some scary situations. The most dangerous is quiet dead-end sois that don't get a lot of through traffic. Don't ride or walk into these late at night if you don't know where you are going. Most soi dogs are placid. It's just the alpha male of the pack that causes the problems and gets all the other dogs excited.

I live in Pattaya full time, and sometimes I think the number of dogs in my area has reduced. It is not so. During breeding season they stay off the road and retreat into the bushes. I've been told they sometimes do a roundup, but I don't think it's true. Just outside the park on Pratumnak Hill, outside the tourist police office, there's a very annoying, noisy, and aggressive pack of dogs. A few nights ago I ran after the alpha male with a stick and some Thai person yelled at me to leave their dogs alone. Protecting aggressive dogs outside the tourist police station is a bit much. I suppose I know who to charge for any rabies shots. I frequently walk in this park at night. Late at night, the dogs feel they own the place, so it's important to show the alpha males who is in charge when I'm there. Once they know I'm a potential threat, they never forget and run away when they see me. For all the dog lovers, apart from a light kick in the jaw one time, I have never hurt any of them. A lot of the dogs are really cool and I can walk right past them without them even walking up (if they are sleeping). It's just the odd alpha male that needs to be put in their place.

It's definitely the wrong idea to be expecting tourists, who have come here to enjoy a vacation, to become pseudo taxi cops for the greater good of Thailand and tourism. It's the last thing tourists should or would be doing. The police need to fix this. It's their job. Standing, plain clothed, at busy taxi ranks would soon net some rogue taxi drivers. If they were serious about it, they would be doing it, but all just talk to make tourists think they are doing something.

Like the Pattaya Meter-Taxi's that have NEVER used their meters since they were introduced many years ago. They only move by negotiated fares, and they are not cheap.

They don't consider anything but the USD. The baht has not depreciated, only lost ground against the USD as most other currencies have. I'm getting around the same exchange rate for AUD as I have for years. He uses the 50 baht exchange rate during the Asian financial crisis for reference. Well, that was a case of a depreciated baht. It's now a totally different scenario. Looking at the 1-year currency charts of major world currencies, the AUD, CNY, INR, MYR, and CAD are trading at close to the same level as the THB (compared to a year ago). The EUR, GBP, JPY, and NZD are trading significantly lower. The CHF and SGD are slightly higher. The PHP is trading lower. The economists in Thailand live in a bubble. There is no benefit to trying to strengthen the baht. It will not work. Japan just tried this last week. It would be a very temporary fix before it slips down again. The US Fed is committed to increasing the interest rates over the next year - every month. The DXY (USD index) closed at 113 on Friday, the highest level since early 2001 (the record high was 120 in 2000).

I'm not celebrating anything, but I'm still glad I didn't get vaxxed. I suffered no inconvenience as a result of not being vaxxed. Save your pity for someone who actually needs it.

A good example is the Royal Funeral and the days leading up to it. Hundreds of thousands of people queuing up to pay their respects at Westminster Hall without masks. No servicemen were wearing them. Crowds of people along the streets with few wearing masks. I didn't see anyone at the funeral wearing them - 2000 plus in one building. Even the royal family wasn't wearing them when greeting mourners, and they were even shaking hands with them. Even the King, who has had covid twice. Even the original mask tzar, Biden, and his wife weren't wearing one.

In Pattaya the mask situation is becoming quite relaxed... probably due to the number of tourists getting around that don't wear them. Masked and unmasked coexist quite comfortably. I'm quite happy if they keep wearing them forever as it keeps the environment cleaner for me. My wife always wears one, but that's fine - she doesn't have to put on all her makeup and it gets her out faster. Slowly I'm seeing more and more Thais sans masks.

Having spent a lot of time in gyms in Pattaya over the 17 years I've lived here... I can say with certainty that the idea of going to a gym for most Thai people is sitting on a machine while chatting on their mobile phones, and very slowly doing their sets, in between chats. Of course, there are acceptions, but not many. At least they can tell their friends they visit a gym.

I wouldn't walk around the streets, even with good balance. Why don't you walk in Chaloem Phrakiet Park (Pratumnak Hill)? The trails are well paved and well-lit at night. It's open from 4 am until 10 pm. I walk 5 - 10km in the park every 2nd day at around 8 pm. It's much better than walking on a treadmill, which is unnatural and quite a bit different from real walking. There are a lot of stairs in the park too, to increase the difficulty of your session. I use the Goal-Fitness free app to measure the distance I walk and the free Health App (Apple). It measures your walking steadiness, your walking asymmetry, and double support time, which are very useful to see if you're still walking like a younger person, or an old man. There are no obstacles on the walking tracks, so your lack of balance should not be a problem.

Finally a sensible answer. There are no pipes big enough to drain that much water quickly enough to prevent flooding. Some years the streets hardly flood at all. This month it happened more often than usual. It's better than having empty damns, like in 2020. If not for covid and no tourists, there would have been very serious water shortages. Better we have water and suffer a few flash floods from time to time.

Absolutely. It was just making a tiny incision to remove some fluid. It was for my wife's toe - I could have done it at home.

They are way over the top expensive. A minor surgical procedure to a toe was taken care of at Memorial costing under 5000 baht. At PIH they wanted to do this under general anesthetic for over 20k.

There's a lot of this getting around and it's easy to find, unfortunately, it is an underground product and not a pharmaceutical-grade product. Multi-use vials are for veterinary use. There's a risk of contamination when using multi-use vials. Now that I got that out of the way, you're paying too much. I can find a very good supply for 750 per 10 ml vial.

There never was a dislike. Why do you need a dislike icon? If you don't like something, just ignore it and move on. There's no need for you to upset people by expressing your disapproval.

You can put in as many pipes as you want, but you will never be able to drain that much water quickly enough to prevent flooding. What the pipes might do is drain it faster so the water recedes faster. That's all you can hope for.