Phillip9

If you don't adjust for population, of course the first world country with the most people is going to be number 1 at all of these.

I don't think any of these "elite" tourists are going to Pattaya.

Siem reap / angkor wat if you like temples and historic buildings

There isn't much English in Taiwan. Less than Thailand I would say. I found driving a little stressful, but not terrible. I've circled the whole island. In the countryside it is easy most of the time, but a few times I ended up on crazy narrow roads in the mountains. The east coast is quite scenic and mountainous with mostly small towns. Cities can be difficult driving, especially trying to figuring out parking without being able to read the language. Avoid driving to famous places (eg sun moon lake) on weekends and holidays--the traffic will be terrible. It's quite a nice country and definitely an underrated destination.

"You need hydraulic pressure to bring that gear down or up. So obviously the engine the left engine was running when they brought the gear and flaps up but then when they came in to land it was not running."

The really funny thing is that he repeatedly says that he thinks they didn't lower the gear and flaps because he thinks hydraulics failed. And in your previous post you just said "There's no way that this happened. It just isn't possible." in response to our comments stating we thought hydraulics failed.

Samui is not a good place to live without a car or motorbike IMHO. Grab is expensive and not as quickly available as in Pattaya. The distance between your home, restaurants, beach, supermarket, etc can be far. I would stick to Pattaya or Hua Hin if you want to live on the beach without your own transportation.

English must not be your first language. I didn't say I know about all criminals in the US. I just said I know about one.

Everyone that has been paying close attention I assure you that I pay very close attention to that felon and his crimes.

Not everyone. Not me.

Seems like just another troll making stuff up.

Most people are traveling on return tickets anyway, so the check in staff likely forgets to notice you are on a one way ticket sometimes. My experience is that even when flying the same airline from the same departure point, on a one way ticket, the check in staff only checks my onward ticket about 50% of the time.

The airline is required to check that you have an onward ticket. If they fail to do that, they can be fined and responsible for returning you home. If they check you have an onward ticket and you meet other entry requirements, they cannot be fined or responsible for returning you home even if immigration denies you entry for some random reason.

I think you have to active the sim while in the US.

I keep a google fi sim. About $20 a month. With any android phone you can get unlimited calls and texts over wifi. Very handy for keeping in touch with relatives and friends as well as bank OTPs. You can also connect to the local cellular network and use the data almost anywhere in the world. This costs extra but the data rates are the same as you would pay in the US. You also get a US IP address when you do this. I always use this when I do any online banking, so my bank never knows I'm abroad.

Never underestimate homo sapiens.

Thailand has a murder rate 20x higher than Japan.

Why bother eating vegetables if you are going to make them unhealthy by frying them?

The OP is asking about a 2 day trip. Even free spirits enjoy 2 days in Singapore. As long as he can avoid taking any drugs with him and follow normal rules of civility, he won't have any problem in Singapore. Singapore has the added benefit that immigration entry and exit, and airport security is super easy. Autogates at immigration and never any lines.

Really bad idea to show a marriage certificate or even mention you are married on visa exempt entries. Better to tell them you come to Thailand for the beaches or food or some tourist activity.

I can't understand how woke has anything to do with weed smoking. Woke is all about identity politics and cancel culture. It seems like some of you guys have just been trained to keep repeating these buzz words without even knowing what they mean.

Really tough to criticize the go around decision until we know the details of when the go around was called (before or after the first bird strike?) and what the pilots saw between them and the runway. Reports are that lots and lots of birds were in the area. What should pilots do if they have one bird strike but then see a flock of hundreds more large birds between them and the runway?

I read the opposite, but I'm not 100% sure. The aircraft external lights were off when landing, so we know they still had electric failure during landing, so I think it is likely that any backup electric hydraulic pump was also not working.

There are many countries now visa free to China. Not sure of OP's nationality though. You can obtain an evisa for laos to use at that border. It's a good trip. I've done it, but for a 2 day trip the OP asked about, definitely needs to fly both ways. Bangkok to kunming took two fulls days by train.

Macau and Singapore are both great modern cities with lots to do. Also consider Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or even China. I wouldn't call anywhere else in the region "developed".