chalawaan

In other news, stir-crazy middle class Chinese people rushed out of lockdown in Beijing and Shanghai to Hainan Island beach resorts, only to be locked down (and then mercilessly gouged in additional food and accommodation fees) in Hainan! Xi is making sure that he makes even more of a Communist disaster out of China than his long-dead hero, (and the world's greatest mass murderer in all human history) Chairman Mao. ???? Any Mainland Chinese tourists spotted in Thailand for the foreseeable future are likely to be big time CCP Cadres or their close relations. I'm waiting for the first cold-war style high profile defections to start sometime this year...

The last of the "Hippy backpackers" grew up and got real jobs in the mid 1980s. The current "Zoomer" (Gen Z) backpackers are far more sophisticated drug users, as evidenced by the full moon party drug "menus". Weed is also used by them as a "come-down" from amphetamines, or as a potentiator of other chemicals, such as Acid, psylocybe, MDMA, Ket, etc. Also, outside of conservative propaganda, there's no scientific evidence that cannabis is a "gateway" drug.

The rule about public smoking of ganja, has a caveat. If the public place is set aside as a "reefer" bar, there is no restriction smoking weed in that bar, tobacco is still banned, because second hand tobacco smoke is far more carcinogenic than cannabis smoke. The only other current restriction is that if a member of the public makes a complaint to police, then they will take action under the public nusciance laws. There has to be an actual complaint before the law is able to take effect!

Ganja floating in the outside breeze is almost impossible to pinpoint unless you're very near the user, good luck with them public nuisance fines. I can think of far worse "aromas" in the world right now, such as the eye-watering assault to the senses from fetid Thai khlongs, or the nightly war-zone stench of burning trash in the Phillipines, with a special mention to the eau-de-cadaver fragrance of Cebu City garbage mountain that blows across the strait to the resort island of Mactan, what a wonderful accompaniment to a sunset beer! Then there's the reek of Indonesian Kretek, the clove-scented tobacco, that kills millions, even as they fly into a blind moral panic at the mere mention of cannabis! All olfactory reminders that there are far worse evils in this world to wake up to -and deal with; than a bit of herbal happiness.

Why are so many really bright people, like Khun Chadchart (PhD) and doctors refuse to accept the Science? Everything we consume has its risks. We get it. Demonizing drugs just because an arsehat like Harry Anslinger had a bigotry problem is a terrible way to run the world in 2022. If they don't like drugs, fine. Say so. Nobody is forcing them or thiers to take them. But quit the scaremongering BS!

The first time one could call a misfortune. The second seems more like carelessness. -Oscar Wilde

Just maybe... it will land back on Winnie the Flu's Imperial people's palace. Oh bother!

The perps are almost certainly going to be eating rice gruel by the end of next week. And when we hear the motive, some ridiculous love triangle, or a petty debt left unpaid, we'll just be left to wonder what the hell goes through some people's heads. There's evidence that children born before unleaded petrol was universal, and forced by poverty to sleep on a floor mat, near busy traffic areas, have a propensity to brain damage; characteristics being extreme violence in response to minor slights and wrongs. I wonder if this is part causation across Thailand?

Pattayas problem right now is there are too many thiefs; and not enough Indians. ????

People everywhere are over it. In NZ almost half the people at the supermarket are maskless. I still wear one, and I have always been a hand hygiene freak. But I really don't care what other people do, and I let them make their own health decisions. I cannot be anti prohibition on one hand then insist others obey the state on the other. I know Governments lie. Constantly. I follow the Science and I make my own bets. If masks come off here this summer, and I hope they do, I'll be one of them.

From a trickle mighty rivers grow. Edit: You and the doombrains on the border severely underestimate the popularity of all drugs in Thailand. Even as the green is everywhere already. Users will choose their drugs over visiting the minaret yodelling police state every time. That WILL add up.

A week is safe for a one off user, after that, all bets are off. Just stay away from these medeaval states, it's not hard.

Well, personally speaking, Malaysia just failed my schitt test. ???? They won't be getting my tourist patronage no mo.

If the dinosaurs had any hand in it, the future of education in Thailand is pear shaped. ????

Another reason to have the snip before moving here. Especially if you've done it all before (raised kids) anyway!????

I went with Cigna then reneged during the Cool-off period. Use a Thai insurer like Pacific Cross they're underwritten by the "big boys" anyway. Also, nobody who lives in Thailand needs Medevac! To where? An inferior hospital in Aussie? Think through every extra, and scenarios where it can be of value, or not, injury rehab is necessary, but not in every case, consider the reasons why actuaries price and limit benefits. Finally, be fatalistic to a degree. Get a DNR clause written up somewhere and witnessed by a JP. Have "DNR" tattoed on your chest in Thai and English. Figure out if you are willing to euthanase yourself if your prognosis is a few months of agony and death ahead. And figure out how to do that effectively. At least your loved ones can prepare to farewell a lucid person and won't have a pointless hospice care bill to pay. It's a tough call, and would mean some sorrowful and frank conversations, but the knowledge is out there and I am ready for that if necessary. Master of extremes, I temporarily (I hope) relocated back to my socialist homeland, so insurance is not my problem right now. I really don't know how to deal with it in my 70s if I return though. I guess if a hospital cost is big enough to break you in your 70s you quality of life will likely suck beyond convalescense, and then my voluntary self-euthanasia kicks in. Assisted euthanasia is legal where I currently live anyways.

Do you post to get advice on changing your socks as well? ???? Just do it. A Thai male wouldn't agonize over such trivia for a Bangkok second. Divide and rule!

Agreed. But, if it's virulent, then unlike HIV, it can easily run rampant in a outwardly conservative but openly permissive society like Thailand's. Also fear and ignorance about HIV has made it far more an issue than it needs to be for straight men, it is not at all easy for a straight male to get HIV from an infectious female. He would need to have a genital or oral lesion, therefore be a careless and somewhat unhygienic individual to begin with. That or a needle sharer or switch hitter. Monkey pox spreads with far more ease than HIV and this is why it's an emerging issue as the pathway is primarily sexual.

Why doesn't someone tell the silly paranoid locals that their chances of getting the pox from actual monkeys is about zero? ???? Anyway, monkeys that live near humans are a total pest and PITA! And they should be rounded up and released deep in a suitable national park.

If he was a habitual illegal drug user, no such "media caution" over his intoxication! Drunks are known to be frequently violent. Nice people can turn on a dime when drunk into a total POS. But yet again, the highly addictive deadly drug alcohol gets a pass. Such hypocrisy. No doubt weed would be blamed if any were found, without a blink of an eye. RIP to the victim. Chinese mainlander sons are often spoiled brats and never grow out of it.

I'm already in NZ. It's nice, clean, peaceful, BUT far from perfect, it's boring beyond belief! I miss LoS like crazy, but think it is best to sit it out for 5-10 years. By which time a LOT will have changed worldwide, good or bad. Who knows, but a lot. Maybe I or the Thai missus will be dead!? For now, she can follow me here and at least get a decent western wage, or start a food truck eventually, as her specialisation is street food. We have two properties in Thailand, one's hers outright. We equal-share a yuge condo in lower Sukhumvit we got for peppercorn thru a generous elderly relative, but it needs major work done before it's rentable. Everyone who ever moved to Thailand myself included, knew living from year to year with stroppy racist militants running the show is a gamble. I hope everyone muddles through, because if China and the west go to war, there's no way farangs in Thailand won't be impacted. Thailand/ASEAN will try to hedge it's bets, play neutral, but it's too strategic, the West, or China for that matter, will be having none of it! Good luck to all of us.

He conveniently forgets (likely had no idea) how good the Brits had it in Spain and Portugal and France if they had the means to retire there. Their kids (had they bothered to learn a second EU language -unlikely since many here are barely literate in their native English!) Would have the entire EU to freely work live and play in. All gone now. But hey, the phantom "scroungers" are gone! I knew a few Poles, etc in my time in UK and they worked their <deleted> off! Every one of them. Poles and Indians also flew in the Battle of Britain and stormed Normandy, these ignoramuses don't even know that! They're hard pressed to digest the Mail and Sun never mind detailed history. So they're condemned to repeat it.

But in the grand vision of Brexit, as sold by Farrago and freinds, the British would still freely come and go. The Gendarmerie, tamed since Waterloo, would smartly salute and wave through all vehicles sprouting a GB (LoL!) sticker. 'Allo? Dream on you silly English kniggits! Your muzzer was a 'Amster and your father smelled of Elderberries! ????

Dinosaurs? Please. Your lame stab at a rebuttal is embarrassing you. The Scots were halfway out the door long before Brexit mate. We don't hate the English, we just don't want to be run by Westminster any more than you want to be run by Brussels old chap! ????

I'm a British Citizen. I was born there as were at least ten generations on my mother's side, Dad was born there too, his side is part Irish, Baltic (Prussian) and Scandinavian, I know this through DNA, but those roots are lost in time. Brexit cost billions more than the EU membership ever cost, new trade agreements with distant lands worth 0. of lost trade with the EU. Small businesses going to the wall because of red tape costs the Tories are on record saying would never happen. Farmers crops rotting because all those foreign welfare thief's can't come over and do the jobs Brits won't, a vast channel truckport had to be built, with blazing floodlights keeping half the county awake at night, never mind the cost of that energy alone. All just teething problems! You'll lap up any tripe the Barclays, Dacres, and Murdochs of the world tell you. While the UK just sinks deeper into the ooze of some nationalist claptrap from the Churchill era. All you have left is the warm glow of going it alone. I hope it keeps you warm in the years ahead because it's going to get very cold outside. And this holiday tailback is just a foretaste. It's never getting better.