Fat is a type of crazy

19 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Nope , in the 1980's you could get huts on the beach's of Koh Samui for 30 Baht a night , beach huts for 30 Baht per night and that was when a large Chang cost more than that and backpackers used to get the bus from BKK as there was no flights to Koh Samui in the 1980's

   There may have been few high priced hotels on Ko Samui for tourists , but there were more more beach huts available  for 30 Baht per night all around the island .

   There was always a market for sex tourists who enjoyed cheap prostitution , but back packers and tourists generally avoided that side to Thailand .

  Actually, Thailand being a sex tourist in the 1980s destination hindered Thailand's growth as tourists didn't want to go to a sex tourist destination holiday .

  Even this day, there still lives the stigma that people only go to Thailand  for cheap sex 

I was one of em. 1985. People didn't talk much about Thailand back then. Phuket a bit. Seemed exotic. Did the hill tribe thing and golden triangle. Flew to Bangkok then Surat Thani and then a boat and cheap huts. Nothing too expensive. Lots of backpackers. Rode bikes around Koh Samui. So I am still a bit sympathetic to those who fall foul of insurance dramas but this generation is or should be a bit better informed. Burma too. Went home and said they are actually fun. Better in some ways to Bali where most Aussies went. 

17 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Note that agoda.com and booking.com are owned by the same company but hotel availability/cost isn't exactly the same across both websites. The booking website shows the final price on the 'front page' so to speak whereas a few extra clicks are needed to get the final price on agoda. Some prefer that. Some prefer to think they are being scammed by agoda.

 

I haven't seen any significant differences on the final costs for the same room in the same hotel between these two websites beyond a few cents/pennies. There's absolutely no truth in the claim by some that the price they get charged by agoda is higher than the price they are presented with on the FINAL booking confirmation page and agreed to pay.

For what it's worth I would disagree a bit in that sometimes there are substantial differences between Booking.com and Agoda despite having the same owners. I find most of the sites owned by Expedia Inc such as expedia, hotels.com, wotif, and tripadvisor itself tend to have the same prices but hotels.com differentiates itself by its 10 night 1 free policy.

I am not sure why people are seeing different prices at different stages on Agoda because I don't. 

4 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

As a (small) hotel owners myself I would recommend this too. At my place it will be hundreds of baht cheaper per night if you book direct and its zero hassle doing so.

Sounds good but I have had a number of occasions where say, I want to book or extend a stay, and the hotel quotes a higher price and says book on an accommodation site if you want a better price. Most hotel prices on their hotel sites are more expensive than on the sites discussed. 

Just now, Hummin said:

My experience, hotels.com have priced themselves out of marked with often double price compared to agoda. 

Exactly. It's weird how much cheaper Agoda and some other sites are now. Hotels.com will price match though and give the further discount if they can find the same price at the other site. 

You can check your settings as Hummin said. I note on Tripadvisor for example you can alter the left hand options to either include tax or not. Getting the best price is getting tricky. If you search by tripadvisor or google or hotelscombined and link to agoda you'll get better prices than say agoda direct. Sometimes you can go by say tripadvisor then pick the cheapest option that takes you to a second comparison site. This then links to Agoda at an even cheaper price. 

Pre covid I'd find the cheapest price on whatever site and then call hotels.com which will match the price and, on top, offer one night free for 10 nights booked. The problem is that prices vary so much now that hotels.com may not be able to find the price you found as each search, and how you do that search, seems to now have different prices. They may not simply accept your screenshot. This would be for longer stays and nice hotels otherwise not worth the bother. 

30 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I know how you feel, when we have 17 year old kids sailing across oceans and giving speeches to World climate change meetings , kids should be home in bed by night time 

Following the flow of your argument it seems you think I am saying 17 year olds have no capacity to engage in the community at large, but I do think they can participate in intelligent discourse and can have well informed opinions, on a range of topics and issues.

But obviously all things being equal, a 17 year old would be particularly vulnerable to poor decision making when walking down a street with a killer weapon in a tense situation. Greta at 17 with an M16 may not be the best combination. 

Actually it's not normally legal at 17 but whether 17 or 21 or 80, having such widespread gun ownership and letting people walk the streets with guns is silly. 

Clearly the issue is with dumb laws that allow a little kid to walk the streets with a big gun. Silly America. 

14 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

I don't know what you mean by "SS arranged".    But I did write, "Makes my time in Thailand a lot more enjoyable.  "  

I go to different places than the ones that my wife and her relative/friends go to.  So the view is more pleasant.   My wife knows and understands.    My wife and I were in a mall here in the U.S. with a friend from work, an American woman.   Her friend saw me looking at some good looking Asian women as they walked by. 

As if I couldn't hear her, she asked my wife, don't you get upset when your husband looks at other women?  My wife said, no, he's a man.  That's what men do!

One problem with going out with the wife and friends is, usually it is to a restaurant, and they have a big feast.   I don't eat much in one sitting.  So I finish eating in about 15 minutes and then wait an hour or more in a restaurant as everyone else finishes. 

If you are out with your wife and her friends don't look at other girls. No one would like it. Embarrassing for your wife and her friends.  Bizarre. 

10 minutes ago, 2009 said:

That's right.

 

Everyone is speculating that he went to Thailand for sex. That's what this whole thread is about.

 

All we know is he enjoyed holidays here and sent money over regularly. Maybe he was going to temples and making donations.

 

What's the problem?

The theory being that she is a human being with feelings and it hurts to see someone who you were intimate with for many years, maybe not physically in recent times, turn their back on you and look for fun and excitement and life elsewhere. It hurts. We don't know whether she drove him to it but even if she did the best way for him to deal with it is stand up and be a man and either separate or talk to her and see if they can come to a mutually acceptable compromise. At minimum try and build a lie that doesn't drag her feelings through the dirt. 

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

So, 183 days outside of Australia sees you automatically be deemed a non resident for taxation purposes, and the Australian pension you receive is deemed to be an income derived from Australia, and the non resident tax rate is 32% from $1 to $120,000, and this would be of little concern to you.

 

Why is that? 

I have made the case as to the steps required for it to happen and noted that at each step it becomes statistically less and less likely e.g. that they would tax the age pension in this manner and that rules would not be grandfathered. My conclusion is that if I were in those circumstances it would be well down the list of my concerns. 

48 minutes ago, KhunHeineken said:

Why would they care? 

 

If those pensioners were informed, through the media, "The government is ensuring Australian pensions are spent in Australia, to benefit the Australian economy, and create jobs in Australia" would they like a headline like that, or still vote it down, even if, and that's a big if, it became an election issue?

 

Even Jacqui Lambie, with her patriotic slant on politics, would be for it.  

 

I suppose the question is, what's more important to Australians inside Australia, money in the Australia economy, or Australian citizens living overseas. 

 

Who would you bet on to vote which way? 

 

My bet would be on people inside Australia voting for anything that benefits Australia and the Australian economy, as they would see expats as a minority group, which we are, spending money to support foreign economies, and creating jobs in foreign countries.

If I was a pensioner and living in Thailand this issue would be way way down my list of concerns. 

1 hour ago, KhunHeineken said:

I wasn't commenting on a positive or negative effect. 

 

I am simply saying, there is a common belief that if you stay under $10,000 then an AUSTRAC notifications will not be triggered.  This is not the case.  Eg. try donating $5,000 to your favorite mosque, on a monthly basis, and see what happens.    

If you are in Australia and donate to an Australian mosque it would not show up on Austrac. Payment from Australia to overseas Mosque it would but would likely require Centrelink to happen to look up your details i.e. it would not be likely to trigger something automatically at Centrelink.  Both affected by gifting rules if discovered. 

I have a work ipad that is terrible for this site. It's not just the ads themselves but it jumps around as it adds more and more ads. You go to pick something and you pick something else because of the constant jittering around. Or you touch something on the side and takes you to some horrible google sponsor site. Pretty much unuseable. On my laptop no ads at all. 

Like most long running animation series, and along with Family Guy and the Simpsons, the best days of South Park are well behind it. No subtlety or humanity anymore. Normally the most obvious and banal of observations. I stopped watching a while ago to be fair so it may have improved but not based on the supposed highlights that pop up on Youtube from time to time. 

On 2/21/2023 at 9:08 AM, KhunHeineken said:

As posted, try making several transfers of $9,999 and see what happens.  It still triggers notification. 

 

The whole AUSTRAC discussion is off topic. 

 

A member pointed out that AUSTRAC tracks transfers over $10,000.  Another member disagreed, stating AUSTRAC informs no other department of such transfers.  So what is the purpose of AUSTRAC?   

To clarify I am fairly sure it is as follows:

0ver $10,000 cash banked - reported on Austrac

Funds transferred e.g. wise or for purchases made   - reported on Austrac regardless of amount

The $10,000 overseas is where you are taking say cash, travellers cheques if they are still a thing, money orders etc overseas, or sending by mail, etc.

So sending $9999 by Wise has no positive or negative effect positive in terms of notification. 

1 minute ago, Hummin said:

Isn't that depending on which side you are on and seasonal wind? Maybe Australia avoid the belt of garbage far out there by yourself.

I have heard there is a fair bit in some of the north west islands coming from South East Asia which is really sad. Most beaches on the east coast, and much of the west coast where there are cities, have little or none to my knowledge and I can confirm in the south east where I am there is normally none. 

Having said all that I like to watch the youtube videos of apartments in Pattaya and the life there looks like it could be fun. Nice to get away from a long winter though concerned about too much heat, excessive traffic, and pollution but hopefully not too bad.

I lived for years near a pretty beach in Melbourne but rarely swam there so if it's a bit dirty not a game changer and can take a break somewhere a bit nicer as you say.  

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

You're not seriously suggesting that Australia never suffers from sh!te washed up on it's beaches?

Nothing like in Thailand. Most beaches have none. 

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I don’t know if you're American or not but any American with even elementary knowledge of American presidential politics would understand that when Biden runs for reelection not even one competitive democratic candidate will oppose him.

That might normally be the case but these are not normal circumstances. This is unprecedented. He's not Bill Clinton in 96 or Obama in 12. There is a constant question mark hanging over him. He'll be 82 and he's struggling now. Come on man.