Mark Nothing

Yes in my condo building the UK residents who bought in at 75 baht to the pound are all selling out. They are ageing now and don't like the changes occuring here. The long haul flights are a nuisance, they are no longer party animals, they need to be around constant affordable healthcare. They used to come to thailand for 6 months. Now they come for 2 weeks. If tgey come at all.

Another perfect example of social hierarchy at play in the land of smiles. Within this country thais have deemed themselves superior. Foreigners are conveniently inferior by default. Inferiors can not dictate anything to a superior without consequences. To reinforce the lesson the superior thais were required to enact immediate group justice to teach the inferior a lesson and ensure the social hierarchy's correct functioning. The actions of the thugs were justified by their interpretation of the social hierarchy system. Foreigners get themselves into unecessary difficulties by not understanding this hierarchy system is the very essence of thai culture. Loss of face occurs when social hierarchy is not followed. It has been instilled into them from birth. The reaction is automatic and uncontrollable until they feel the inferior has been adequately trained by group beating or even stabbing.

The validity of data provided by the cdc has just fallen below the credibility of a used car salesmen with a lot full of lemons.

One of my asian lady contacts stabbed a german during an altercation. He survived and pressed charges. No jail time. Just court hassles and fees. I asked her if she learned her lesson. She said yes, next time I will wait for him to fall asleep before stabbing him so he doesn't survive to sue me in court.

If free markets existed there would be smoker only airlines. This will likely just be used as an excuse to treat us even more like criminals with extra xrays, patdowns and confiscations.

Be careful in this heat. My brother visited thailand one year and he got a heat rash all over his body. It looked like poison ivy everywhere. And he experienced light headedness and dizzyness. It went away in a few days and he was ok.

I returned to my 18 year old weight and health by including a mental aspect in combination with diet and exercise. Your body responds to verbal commands. I ordered my body to produce the results required by twice daily affirmations. Something like "Please return my body to 175 lbs and with perfect health and vitality. Over and over. Day after day. Persistence. And it just happens by default. Very powerful results, without much effort. It also helps to identify stress/worry in your life and eliminate as much as possible. The weight accumulates much quicker when you are more hassled.

I removed all ability to speak and write thai language from my brain decades ago. Remember, if you can understand it, you have to listen to it being spoken everywhere you go. No, they are not talking about you. They couldn't care less about a foreigner. I ignore all thai language spoken to me and don't respond and do not ever speak it. But always politely. Life here is much better this way.

I would put money on seedy politicians working as a united team against the divided people to get their hands on the $trillions of tax kitty each year. Looks to me like the Democrats and Republicans are partners of convenience splitting the taxes among themselves. The caper is incredibly simple. Split the citizens in half politically, then get them rabidly arguing about about nonsensical issues like gays in the military or transgender toilets or what is a man. So no questions arise as to where the tax money and newly printed money has dissappeared to. I quit voting many decades ago and don't trust any politician of any party.

Even with a work permit games can be played. In my circle of contacts I knew foreigners working in specialty medical clinics with work permits. The employer used this as leverage to manipulate foreign employees. Boss would pay a fraction of agreed upon salary and when unpaid amounts got too high or foreign workers got too vocal demanding back pay, boss would cancel work permit and fire worker claiming inferior work provided. The unpaid salaries were used to purchase toys like cars and helicopters and hotels in resort destinations.

Thailand is a unique country in that it is based on a foundation of social hierarchy. Superiors and inferiors. They are constantly sizing up everyone and labeling them into a pecking order on the rungs of a ladder. So the social interactions are based on this pecking order. If the person is superior they are treated differently then an inferior. Foreigners do not have a position in this system so the result is you are inferior. Superiors do not admit mistakes to inferiors and will certainly never, ever apologize.

Henry Ford had a good quote about central bankers exploits plundering the people's money. "It is well enough that people don't understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before morning." It is the most profitable endeavor ever created. And this just makes it more profitable. Guess who gets to pay even more?

This is an extreme result of the social hierarchical system when there is disagreement on who is the superior player. When the two parties, after a dispute disagree on who is superior in the pecking order, one side can go off the deepend to proove his superiority. This is the unfortunate result. The machete weilding thug had to proove his superiority by chopping off the inferior's arm. Inferiors are not allowed to dictate anything to a superior. Even where they can or can't have a smoke.

She is back for an encore performance. She was in the wrong and started the problem. I would suggest she respect the property rights of those legally authorised to be there and not intrude on private property as unpleasant consequences can occur, even for those deemed superior in the social hierarchy ladder. I have party houses below my condo which are a real nuisance. Playing music, loud talking, splashing in the pool, leaving debris everywhere, usually into the late hours of the night. But I live with it as I only have a rinky dink elcheapo condo. But if paying 1 million baht a month, I could understand the reasonable expectation to not have intruders affecting the renters rights.

My local breakfast restaurant just had a similar occurrence. A customer left without paying a 150 baht bill. Then a few days later the knucklehead tried coming back and ordering food. The waitress requested the money for the last time he stiffed her and also to prepay for the new order. He put his tail between his legs and departed. There was no need to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Police not called. No calls to media, as they would likely laugh at the nonnewsworthiness of the story. No immigration action or calls for blacklisting. Many decades ago I worked as a waiter and every year there were customers dining and dashing. They were not welcome back.

Another one sided story. Miss innocent's side. When they are in attack mode, armed with a knife looking to kill, you should be prepared.

Impossible. I was under the impression that a politician's top priority is serving the public and putting his personal interests below those of his constituents.

The dominos of suffering fall swiftly when you realize God does everything by design for good. When you reframe each situatiin in life from this perspective, a new life results.

I tried your idea a few years ago and it was way too noisy and humid. There was no noticeable difference in air coolness either. It was a total waste of money. A rotating fan and mosquito net around the bed works fine. But it takes a few days to acclimate to the tropical heat.

The answer you are looking for is one you likely don't want to hear, as it will burst your bubble. This contempt you experience is due to you not abiding by the pecking order system which is the essence of their culture. Everything revolves around this. They expect you to follow this system if you are a resident, but 2 week tourists get a free pass. When you don't, contempt is the inevitable result. And foreigners don't have a slot in the pecking order so by default you are inferior to every single person in thailand. And they expect you to act accordingly. It doesn't leave much wiggle room for those with self esteem.

I have been stopped at many police checkpoints over the years and police are usually polite and courteous waving me through with no problems. But one event was very troubling. A belligerant aggressive policeman yelled at me "You drunk. You drunk. You drink whiskey. I smell. " It could have turned nasty very quickly. I sold my car and quit driving shortly thereafter. This New Zealand story doesn't make sense from a face saving perspective. What kind of untrained, incapable policeman allows a pedestrian to disarm him. The Thailand I know would not plaster this degree of incompetence in the media. They would keep it very quiet.

It took me a year to get the votes required to install toilet paper dispensers and soap in the communal toilets from the committee. I had to install a crying baby ring tone on my phone. But owners kept calling. Only join the committee If you have a quorum of owners on the committee who will vote for your projects so you can enact what you desire. Otherwise you will have to listen to those who require 5 years research and discussion from blocking your every move.

Not one male thai friend ever. Not even close to having one. It is a closed system and foreigners are not allowed on the playing field. They don't befriend foreigners because in the sysem they know foreigners don't exist. So there is no reason to befriend them. But if a foreigner steps out of line, multiple attackers will converge to instantly reinforce the pecking order justice to proove the all important hierachical status.

My experience does not reconcile with this story. I inadvertently dropped my el cheapo smartphone in a bangkok taxi while being dropped off at my hotel many years ago. We agreed on a next day bangkok taxi ride and he showed up at my hotel too smiley. I was looking around the back seat for my phone and told him what I was looking for. He told me a 1,000 baht finders fee or he will keep my phone and pawn it.