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It is the same Russia that has invaded or taken control of territories of few neighboring countries, like Chechnya, Georgia and Moldova and has invaded Ukraine multiple times since 2014. The same Russia that has doubled their military spending just in last four years. The same Russia whose top government officials repeatedly and publicly threaten to attack and annex other neighboring countries. There are quite a few tiny neighboring NATO countries that Russia could easily annex in a day or few (and it has threatened to do it too) and then see how NATO would respond, if at all.

I recall that some years ago there was a similar story in Thailand with someone finding a money bag and keeping it at home. The police found the person within a day or two. The person claimed that he/she was planning to go with the bag to police later when he/she had free time. He/She was still charged with the theft by police. So much for finders/keepers law in Thailand.

All these drug seizure statistics are publicly available. The curious fact though is that the fentanyl border seizures started reducing significantly since November 2024, i.e. few months before Trump took office 😄 You can filter the data in the below site by the type of drug and the region and see the graph. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/drug-seizure-statistics

I did it there last year. It was organized well enough although it still took like 4 hours (including lunch time in between) to finish all the tests and receive the results. I thought the review by doctor was quite good. She explained in detail all results that were out of the optimal range and suggested the follow ups too.

I would take this with a grain of salt. I just recently heard of one school where some teachers without work permits got caught and deported. I have no idea though if it happens often or was just an unfortunate coincidence.

Indeed. I often have this suspicion that many of the traffic jams in Bangkok are caused by terribly ineffective traffic lights management. On occasion cars are forced to wait few minutes at every traffic light which can easily add 15-20 minutes even for short trips.

It might have to do with the government led campaign AGAINST zero-dollar tours and low cost Chinese tour companies in Thailand. This has been going on for years and the claim has been that such companies have unfair advantage against Thai-owned tour companies and do not contribute much to Thai economy anyway. I recall that some years ago a number of such Chinese companies were forcibly shut down and their assets sold without even a court decision reached yet. So, I guess this might be another reason for much less Chinese tourists nowadays. You reap what you sow.

Indeed, there was some statistics quoted in Thai media that the actual average tariff rate that Thailand charges on US goods is just 9%. It does not leave much room for negotiation. However, for example, for wine they have many different fees and additional taxes that are applied on top of the the initial tariff. It might mean that the actual average tariff rate is much higher.

Curiously this has been proven to be another lie promoted by Fox News and Trump. Imane Khelif has been born a woman and has always been a woman. She has never changed her gender and there is nothing that would qualify her as a man. She might be masculine looking but that is true about many women in sports.

In some religions priests are allowed to get married. It happens much less then.

There have been numerous reports that Russia has used such weapons in Ukraine already on multiple occasions.

This is MRT line so they will be running underground

The fact that he was actually purchasing another gold necklace in this store at the time and had paid for it too makes his story somewhat more credible. I find it quite strange though that this part was omitted altogether in the original story.

I have never truly understood how this Bolt Taxi fee calculation works. I have booked Bolt Taxi option a number of times and it usually shows some fee range, e.g. 190-290 baht. Then taxis actually never switch on the meter and every single time I have ended up paying the highest quoted fee, i.e. 290 Baht in the example. Does not seem to matter if there is more or less traffic and there is no explanation on how the calculation is supposed to work in the app itself.

About three years ago my Samsung TV stopped working after 8 years of service. Their technician said that it would cost 10,000 Baht to replace the board. Bought a new Android TCL instead. For TCL the problem now is that the response seems to be getting slower and slower, and it needs restarting occasionally. Seems to be some Android problem. Will have to do some research on this soon as this is getting annoying.

I agree. It is quite good and have also Dunkel and IPA varieties. You can still buy it at Villa Market.

Out of curiosity I checked the listed selling prices of your mentioned units. Similar sized units in those buildings are for sale for 57-85M. Thus the annual rent thus is only 3-4.5% of the value. I have rented here for many years and my experience is similar that usually the annual rent has been in the range 4-5% of the value of the condo.

Indeed, some years ago it used to be possible to buy booze at 30% cheaper than in the city so I sometimes bought while waiting for luggage. Nowadays, the prices are about the same in duty free and the city. They have also stopped selling the cigarette brands that I liked and which I could not find in Bangkok. There is no point for them to exist anymore.

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?