JensenZ

Just finished watching it from my balcony. It was the longest NYE display I've seen here - 15 minutes vs the usual 10 minutes.

Nonsense! I seem to remember Thailand locking down the whole country, for 2 years, destroying too many businesses to count and wrecking the economy. They were most concerned about the lives of Thais. You don't see most Thais are still wearing masks. Yes, this is a big problem with Chinese tourists, but don't bash Thailand just for the sake of it. For example, Thailand has 1/7th the covid death rate of the US.

I never woke up with the desire to hurt or kill anyone. You're talking about an extremely small percentage of human beings. Apart from some "bad eggs", we get on quite well. I was bragging to a friend in New Zealand about how mass killings are rare in Thailand, remembering the Christchurch massace back in 2019 - that was a few days before this tragedy. It is so horrific it's hard to discuss it.

Having gone into central Pattaya on NYE many times in the past, I would not recommend it. Putting up with the crowds and traffic is not a great way to start the year. I didn't know they had cancelled the fire works on the hill, but either way, it's a lousy night to go there.

I should apologize too for calling it a disco. I should have used the term "nightclub" as that is what they were called in my young stupid years when I used to go to them, in the 1980's. I suppose "disco" is very 1970s. "Club" on its own is too general. The "clubs" in Walking Street would more aptly be named "torture chambers", so high are the decibels. You'll hurt your ears even when wearing earplugs.

I don't think 2 hours will make much difference to road accidents and workplace accidents. Keeping drunk drivers off the road is really a policing issue.

The question should be what % of tourists who party want to party past 2am? Pattaya is a party town, not really a family destination (yet), so 4 am makes sense. Consideration should be given to noise disturbance of residents in the surrounding areas, so that not all places should have the same closing hours. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the legal closure time of Pattaya bars has always been 2am, yet some places such as discos in Walking Street didn't close until 6 am and most other places closed at 4 am. Most people can still make it home before sunrise LOL.

It's fast. Pay the fee, come back the next day for your extension. It's not even necessary to queue up. If that is not "expidited" I don't know what is. It's not a euphemism - it's a fact. Expidite: "make (an action or process) happen sooner or be accomplished more quickly.

You're wrong. The End.

No, I understand his point. You don't understand (also) what a bribe is. No one is bribing immigration officials. The service is sanctioned by immigration officials. They ask for a payment for their service. Inside the immigration office the fee is fixed and paid directly to one of the higher tier officers. (By the way, this is the only time I see immigration officers smile). Agents will usually charge more. People who pay it are paying for aservice which is openly advertised. If there is anyone doing anything illegal here, it's the people offering the service. You're not going into the immigration office with a fist full of baht, asking if an officer will please extend your visa. That's what bribery is. People who use that word in these forums are trying to make it seem worse that it is. It's innocuous and will only be stopped when the department decides to end it. I suspect that if "Big Joke" tries to end this, he will be met with a lot of high level oppositon. He could end up with more bullets in his car.

I know a number of people that probably have a lot more money than Smedley who use the expedited visa extension service as they couldn't be bothered with jumping through hoops every year. Perhaps Smedley is looking for a job as an undercover agent to help "Big Joke" clean up the Immigration department. He wants most of the people he knows that use the service to be expelled from Thailand. Perhaps he should change his name to "Snobley".????

You don't seem to understand what a bribe is. Bribes are not paid. You're not bribing someone when they are requesting a fee for a well-established service that is available.

Spot on. I'm a night owl myself and drink coffee in the early morning hours before bed. We all have our own schedules. It's a good thing Jack didn't spot me drinking coffee at 2 am - he might have freaked out LOL. I do online trading till about 5 am, so that's a good time for coffee, but poor Jack thinks that everyone wakes up at 6 am and goes to bed at 10 pm. You can drink beer any time of the day or night. Those old guys he spotted along the beach are cool. Young guys waking up at 6 am and going for early morning jogs - now that's weird in Pattaya. You can do that sh*t back at home.,

Bars are open at 8 am? Restaurants, yes, but not bars.... and you somehow managed to spot one old guy drinking a beer at every bar? Jack, let's face it, you're a busybody and virtue-signaling to an unhealthy degree. It seems like you're the one with the problem, not the old guys having a beer.

The OP is Australian and lived in Surfers Paradise for 20 years, right on the beachfront. He's also lived in Pattaya for 16 years. If you think short-time visitors and tourists don't buy milk, you are ignorant of the facts. Which exciting place do you currently reside in? Now you're desperately collaborating with your other Aussie mate, who started the whole "your life must be boring" topic.

Ok, Mr. Dingdong, let's put this into perspective. You suggested my life is boring because I started a thread about milk. It was an interesting topic as it highlighted a major pricing anomaly at a major outlet in Pattaya, one at which many members here shop. Then you clicked on a thread, one of which you admittedly had no interest in, to suggest the OP must be bored posting a thread about milk. Not only did you click on it, but you replied 6 times. One must ask, who is bored? Obviously, the OP will reply in a thread more frequently than anyone else - so full marks for pointing that out. I don't post twice a day. I post infrequently and often don't come here for weeks and sometimes months, so your little statistical analysis is irrelevant. It's probably the first thread I've started in a whole year. There's always a problem using averages in statistical analysis. I have one excuse - my 92-year-old mother died yesterday, so chatting about milk is a distraction. What is your excuse? Let me break it down. Your life is meaningless as you adequately demonstrated here today. My life also has no meaning, but I don't get bored, ever. Even writing about milk is an activity that I can enjoy. Try to enjoy your meaningless existence. Maybe next time you'll find a thread about orange juice so you can accuse the OP of having a boring life. Maybe I'll start a new one about the price of jam, which has been soaring lately, or about peanut butter. You'll have no end of fun. Good day sir.

You're definitely a "dingdongrb" as your name implies... It's Sunday and you're replying (4 times so far) to a one week old thread about milk, and you claim that I'm the one with a boring life? Look in the mirror dude. You're trolling threads you have no interest in, with no goal other than to bait. Can You not find something more intesting to do? You must be bored out of your brains in some rural Aussie town, dreaming of a better life.... but there's no need to be annoying git.

It can be a big problem. I had a friend who was reading about conspiracy theories all day and night. After I proved a few were wrong, he stopped comunicating with me. It gets to the point where they lose track of reality and everything is a consipiracy.

You claimed that Warren Buffet's tax savings "paled into insignificance" his donations to charity. He mentioned he has donated (by 2021 when that New York Times article was published) he has donated $41 billion. This year, according to reports I've read, he's up to $48 billion now including a $4 billion donation in June, 2022. Donations this large are always public knowledge and would be well documented. So if $48 billion is paled by his tax savings, what level would be considered to be "pale". 4%? 1%? Assuming maybe 4% is paled by comparison, his tax savings would have been over $1 trillion. There's no need to look it up. What you said is impossible. He's giving a lot more away than his tax savings, and you proved it.

Ok, now it's your turn to show the evidence. Do you have any proof that shows that Buffet saved more than $41 billion in taxes through his donations to charity. It would need to be an amount that "pales into insignificance" the palty sum of $41 billion.

I don't keep telling you anything about your envy. Why are you feeling that way and why are you so butt hurt over it? I once mentioned that many are envious over his wealth, and I stand by that. You took that personally because it's probably true. I did say I'm not envious. I mentioned "awe". Do you understand the difference between awe and envy?

I need to get his tax records to prove to you how much he saves on taxes? I don't care what you believe and it's not important. The important thing is that he gives a truck load of money to charties - more than any other mega rich person. If your theory was correct, then the richer people like Musk would be giving away twice as much as their tax burden would be twice as big. (in Musk's case).

I asked you why you thought I considered myself a "cut above"? Instead of answering the question you keep regurgitating more nonesense about Musk. You can keep repeating that cr*p all day long - doesn't make it true.

We can let Warren Buffet answer that: "Buffett says that philanthropy can be a powerful tax shield, if donors want it to be. Buffett’s donations, he said yesterday, resulted in only 40 cents in tax savings per $1,000 given. The reason his tax bill is so low, he said, was because he earns relatively little in wages, amassing most of his wealth from his holdings of Berkshire Hathaway stock, which isn’t taxed until it’s sold." He recently gave away $4 billion, so that would be $1.6 million in saved taxes. I hope that helps. "Buffett says that he has given more than $41 billion to charity over the years. He announced $4.1 billion in donations yesterday. This comes weeks after a ProPublica exposé based on confidential I.R.S. data revealed how much the richest Americans paid in taxes. The article noted that Buffett paid $23.7 million in taxes from 2014 to 2018, a period when his wealth grew by an estimated $24 billion." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/business/dealbook/buffett-philanthropy-taxes.html#:~:text=Buffett's donations%2C he said yesterday,t taxed until it's sold.

Please show me the comment I made that gave you the impression that I'm a "cut above". That's total garbage, again.