grain

That came later, and only after Thailand received huge quantities of vaccines donated by OUR governments. In the early days of vaccine availability in Thailand it was Thais only. I'm the sole farang in our village and when the poo yai baan announced over the loudspeakers that they would soon be vaccinating and everybody should go and put their names down now, my Thai wife went and put her name down and she asked if she could put my name down too, but the poo yai baan said the vaccines were for Thais only and I can contact my embassy. I thought that was taking meanness to an absurd degree because if the whole idea of vaccinating everyone in an area was to curb the spread of a deadly pandemic, then leaving one person unvaccinated because of his race is madness and puts the entire community at risk.

I lived in Songkhla for 14 years back in the boom time when the oil & gas personnel were thick on the ground, we had a ball and it was one of the best times of my life. But sadly it's all over now. Since then I've dropped by a couple of times to take a look around, last time was September last year. As Stocky said they have done a few things to the old town, and there's still excellent seafood restaurants, I saw some bars, but all the great old ones - Skillet, Lipstick, Smile, Corner, Parlang - are all gone. So it's kinda quiet again, however, you could still have a good holiday there, maybe split your time equally between Songkhla and HatYai. I didn't go into HatYai last trip but I'm sure you could find some action there.

He could become PM in the not too distant future, and if so he'll almost certainly make life a misery for the resident farang. Tighter immigration regulations and requirements, higher bank balances and incomes could make living here impossible for the great majority of us.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I now have Wine installed and using some of my favorite Win apps on my Linux laptop, but as I investigate the native Linux apps more and find the ones most suitable, I think soon I can get out of Wine and those Win apps altogether.

Yes, good point, I did think of that but thought I'd streamline my post. Anyway, a description: Bandizip - to extract zipped folders, I already have installed Peazip for Mint, so this is not so necessary. Picasa3 - a very simple jpg editor, it's small, light, and does basic editing and some photo effects. I don't want to use a big thing like GIMP. PhotoFiltre - another very easy and small jpg editor. I do already have RawTherapee installed but if I could get PhotoFiltre it's much better. Tagscan - to edit tags on mp3 files, not really necessary as I have found a similar one for Mint. Ken Rename - to bulk rename folders and mp3 files. Format Factory - a convertor that handles music files and pic files. Can convert flac to mp3 and other formates. JDownloader - an excellent download manager, if you lose connection it will continue when connection resumes. HumanMedia Audio Converter - an alternative to Format factory, I use this to convert flac to mp3. PhotoRazor - can bulk reduce jpg files to smaller sizes for posting online. Again, I realize GIMP can do this but I don't want to use a huge program just to do one simple task.

Hi everyone, I've recently switched over from Win 11 to LMDE. There are a few apps I use daily on Win 11 and I'd like to find equivalent apps or as near as possible for Linux Mint. Any help is much appreciated. These are the apps I want Linux equivalents for: Bandizip Picasa3 PhotoFiltre Tagscan Ken Rename Format Factory JDownloader HumanMedia Audio Converter PhotoRazor

Agree, I also don't eat meat, I find it kinda puzzling when people happily eat lamb and calf and rabbit and other lovely cute little animals and then get into an uproar if someone else is eating dog or cat.

I've only been pulled over once and breath tested in Thailand. Happened about 15 years ago, I was driving along a road in Khon Kaen city about 5:00pm and this cop walked out in front of my car and waved me down, then when I opened the window he produced the thing for me to blow in. I am a drinking man but this happened at a time when I had decided to take a week off the booze, so naturally I blew negative and the cop told me I could go.

I need to get a COR soon to renew my 5-year DL in August, I was at Korat Imm this morning to renew my annual retirement ext, and while there I checked with the office about what I need to bring next month when I come for the COR: I was told to bring my PP, my wife's Tabien Baan, her ID and 500 Bt. BTW: last time I renewed my Thai DL 5 years ago I was living in Hua Hin then and the fee for the COR was 1000 Bt.

Beats me why either of them put themselves though all this stress. Both are old men, both are very financially secure, both could be chilling out with their families, enjoying their senior years in peace, relaxing, having pleasant holidays. Yes, I understand there's the lust for power, the greed for more money. Biden looks like he's only got months left, Trump maybe a few more years, yet they subject themselves to all this.

Heineken for me, it's consistently good quality wherever I drink it, even when in Australia I'll buy Heiny rather than any of the Aussie lagers. One of the criteria I use for judging a beer is how is it the next day? The hangover test. While I don't get sloshed and moderate my drinking these days, there are those odd occasions when I might drink a bit too much, I can handle a Heiny hangover, whereas Chang or Leo hangovers are much rougher. And a Sing hangover is something I wouldn't wish on my worse enemy.

Tom Yum with fish As already mentioned som tum, and steamed fish, and most "yum" dishes are ok. Stir fried or steamed vegies There is lots of very unhealthy Thai food out there, so much deep fried things in the cheapest oils, also lots of fatty meats, and eggs, it's easy to eat 4 or 5 eggs a day in Thailand if you have a couple eggs on toast for breakfast, then a fried rice at lunch, and a phat-thai in the evening, and maybe some Thai cakes/sweets for dessert. Generally it's best to go for the steamed or grilled things.

My Thai driving licenses (car + MC) will expire this year on my birthday, which is in mid August. Is it better to renew before or after the expiry date? I seem to recall you can get a longer time if you renew after your birthday. I'll be renewing in Korat.

Been hot & dry here in Korat the past couple of weeks but it's been pouring down rain these past few hours, very welcome change actually.

I saw the same thing in Perth when I was there recently. They stay in Chinese owned hotels, eat in Chinese restaurants, shop in Chinese owned tourist shops that sell Aussie souvenirs that were made in China, and they ride around the city on the free CAT buses.

I returned last week after spending 3 months in Australia, I have a non-imm retirement ext + multi-re-entry visa. A week after returning I popped into Korat Imm and told them I was back at my usual address and if they wanted to update anything on their system. They took my PP but didn't require any other docs or any forms to be filled in, just did some updating on the computer and printed out a new slip which they stapled into my PP. I often go away to other provinces for a week or two holidays but never contact Imm when I'm back home, I only do so when I've been out of the country. And so far it seems that Korat Imm are happy with that approach.

They really are horrible things but not much, if anything, you can do about them, I've had several dinners at outside restaurants totally ruined by thousands of the damn things swarming around our tables. The frogs like them, they seem to appear from nowhere and have a feast.

They don't want you to get too comfortable, don't want you to settle in too much and start thinking you live here now and this is your home, all these silly little hoops they make you jump through keep reminding you that you're an alien and whether you're married and got 10 kids and bought a house and concerted to Buddhism doesn't matter a hoot, you're only here on a very temporary basis.

Well he did also say free/cheap healthcare, and it's a very valid point. If we are to be classified as Tax Residents and pay tax to the country, then we should be issued with residents ID cards to distinguish us from the other foreign non-residents/tourists. With these cards we don't pay the foreigner rates at national parks and historical sites, and we pay the Thai rates at government hospitals. That would be a fair system, but of course it ain't gonna happen.

It's not a simple case of good Thai girl Vs terrible Thai hooker, there are various degrees, there are lots of very nice, often well educated Thai gals doing bar work around the country, and then there are hardened whores with drug issues and histories of STDs working in Pattaya soi 6 and the Beach Road. I've known lots of TGs who did bar work and then married foreign guys, many went to settle in their husband's country and they made good wives, good mothers, good home-keepers, years later they are still together. I've also known some guys who got married to more hardened TGs and had dreadful times...their Thai wives gambled away heaps of their money, some would go off for extended periods with other guys they met. So there are many disaster stories out there, but also many happy success stories. As a general rule of thumb, the longer a TG spends working in the bar/nightlife industry the more men she has had, the more bad experiences she has had, therefore the more devious, dishonest and hardened she has become.

I've long been convinced that a great many, probably the majority, of Thai monks are useless, unskilled, uneducated bums who have nothing, have nobody, have no prospects, so they go to a temple and hey presto! They're a monk, a wise holy man that is instantly respected and revered, and cared for...free food, free housing, free toiletries, and have people groveling at their feet.

How is it known he was once a merc? Unless he's been sitting in Mr. Tong's bar spinning BS to the LBs.

Thanks for your reply, I guess I'll go back and try again, this time without my Thai partner. Do you happen to have a link to that Government accord which said 'No marriage necessary'?

I asked at our local amphur last year. I was with my Thai partner. I was totally ignored as usual and the official asked my Thai partner if we were married. She replied we're not married, she was then told for us to go get married then come back. Well, that ain't happening. I do know lots of guys who are living in other jurisdictions and are not married and have been issued with these cards and house books, so like everything else in Thailand it all depends on that person in that particular office.

I've lived in Thailand a very long time, and all over the place, I've had to move at least a dozen times due to unbearable noise. Some of the situations that have forced me to move from rented house and apartments that I really liked are: next door neighbor starting a metal work cutting, grinding, welding business in his drive way. Next door neighbor cooking and selling food in their driveway, including late night drinking sessions. Karaoke bars, funfairs, open-air cinemas, Ligae and Manora performances popping up overnight on vacant lots of land nearby. Anyway, I'm now living out in the rice farming boonies, it's lovely and quiet at night just as long as nobody dies, nobody is getting married, and no boys are becoming monks.