zig

Same here. I am about the same size and it seems impossible to find long chinos in Bangkok, not even in online shops. I just ordered ones from US Amazon.

I wonder what punishment is then allowed for staff being late? It is clear that corporal punishment is not and should not be the way, but monetary punishment also does not seem to be allowed. It would seem that the only way then is sacking the staff but then again you might be left without any staff soon. Somehow it reminded me of story a while ago that Thai police was forcing errant drivers to do sit-ups and pushups instead of monetary fines and explained that many drivers preferred that to paying the fines.

They managed to do this in Georgia back in 2004. It was deemed that the entire police force was too corrupt to reorganize. They fired most of the existing police force, hired new recruits and reduced the police force size by half. At the same time they started offering much higher salaries for police, thus attracting more qualified candidates. It was largely deemed as the most successful police reorganization exercise worldwide and police corruption decreased tenfold.

Grab is often 50-100% more expensive than taxis in Bangkok, i.e. compared to taxi meter price. Bolt can be cheaper or around the same as taxi but impossible to get during traffic hours. Bolt is ok for off-peak hours or in some more remote areas of Bangkok though.

54% import tax seems to be correct but, as your quoted article states, there are multiple other taxes added on top of it, i.e. 160bt per bottle excise+local tax + 10% consumption tax for better wines + 7% VAT . Still, even considering all these, I also do not understand how the wine prices here can be averagely 3-4 times higher than in Europe too. And not only on good wines but on cheap ones too. Furthermore, the 54% import tax should not even be applicable for wines from Chile and Australia. Either way, one can hope that proposed reductions in import tax and excise tax shall result in some reduction in prices eventually.

I have a Carlton too. Around 25 years old and still in good shape.

I would think that in most of the world they do convey the right of the way. Even in Thailand the regulations state that the drivers must stop when anyone crossing on zebra and the fine is 4,000 Baht for not stopping. Unfortunately, in Thailand it is largely ignored by most drivers and almost never enforced. Some drivers with whom I have spoken here do not even know that this is indeed the regulation. I know in many countries in Europe you will be heavily fined even if you do not stop when a pedestrian is standing on a kerb next to zebra with an intent to cross. In which countries do not they give the right of way?

I use Xiaomi Mop 2 Pro. It is quite fine for regular vacuuming and mopping but as some posters said it will not clean as well as maid or yourself so occasionally someone will still have to do it by hand if you want to maintain a clean place.

Yes, it is usually a fixed price but if the selected car type is Taxi then in Bolt app it just shows an estimated range of the fares, e.g. in article it states that it was in 300-400 baht range. It used to be then that you paid what was shown on the meter in taxi plus 20 baht for booking. But now few times I have noticed that even in taxis they do not turn on the meter anymore but the fare is calculated by Bolt app instead. At the end of the ride you are expected to pay whatever the app has calculated.

It might be nearly impossible to find out what should be taxed and what should not be and what the formula should be. The savings or investment accounts might have thousands of transactions over great many years. If you transfer some of it to Thailand and the government wants to tax it, how can you possibly prove that this amount comes from some particular period of time of your earnings abroad and that it was already taxed at some specific rate?

It is a common misunderstanding that the drivers get only the amount quoted as the delivery fee. No driver would work for 9 baht. Grab adds extra incentives for drivers from the commission Grab gets and even for very short rides the driver usually gets 20-40 baht.

The same - a screening and a some spots frozen at Bumrungrad recently. 7,000 Baht. It was done in 10 minutes or so.

My expectation was to reach the destination. I guess it was too much to expect. I finally had to book another flight with different airline and Jetstar refused to reimburse me for the ticket. Never again

Considering that a lot of time is actually spent stuck in traffic, these newly announced fares would probably make the cost of an average ride some 20-30% higher. I wonder how Mr. Wirat Phimphanit, an advisor, can say that the fares would not increase by much. Either way, I agree that a raise is long overdue since the fares have not changed in many years.

Indeed, prices of some other items in the list have increased too. And the article says that it is an extension of an existing freeze for one more year. It would seem that this is just a populistic announcement that is not being enforced in any way.