Woof999

They have an almost complete monopoly for the market in and around Pattaya and use it to their advantage. I've bought 3 bikes from them, all slightly above RRP and with only minor freebies. Could have gone further afield and saved a little money, but the savings wouldn't have been worth the hassle. Grin and bear it was my overriding thought when buying from them.

Equivalent of 1.5k baht per month. How does that work?

Take your real passport on your 1 month trip? Absolutely yes. Keep it on your person all the time when at a bar, the beach etc. Absolutely no. If a cop isn't happy with a photo / colour photocopy of the relevant pages of your passport and wont allow you to go to your accommodation on demand to get it then he's in the mind to sting you for something anyway. I'd rather pay a 1000 baht fine than lose / damage my real passport, regardless if the law says to carry it on my all the time or not.

I thought that myth was busted a while ago because the law states something along the lines of "all vehicles must be in the left most lane except when overtaking, after which they must change back to the left most lane". e it's not just scooters or bikes, but everything. If I remember correctly the BiB were perpetuating the myth by using it to fine bike riders.

Or search for "stainless steel tube" rather than "stainless steel pool pole" and you'll find products such as: https://www.thaiwatsadu.com/th/product/สเตนเลสแท่งกลม-NK-ขนาด-1-1|4-x-12-มม-x-6-ม-ผิวขัดเงา-60283737?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlPWgBhDHARIsAH2xdNed_Ig9qG-COS3XbEqeWj7hvw_3XDFWetdx0brK-X9juHgtaISLRQ8aAv31EALw_wcB

Probably not, because pool poles are generally not made of stainless steel. If you are desperate for one then you can probably re-purpose something else such as: https://www.coolpoolproducts.com/products.php?product=Polished-Stainless-Steel-Pole Or even better, buy a carbon fiber one: https://ultimatepooltools.com/collections/hyperpole-professional-pool-maintenance-poles

Hate for what?

Stop leaving the pole and the hose in the pool. The hose is plastic and will become brittle really fast if left in the sun all day every day. Pretty much any metal (including stainless) will corrode to some extent too. Plastic skimming nets and plastic brushes will also fail much faster if you leave them in the sun or in the pool. Aluminium poles are perfect. You can buy a 3 piece extendable pole that, when fully stowed is only around 5ft long and will extend long enough for most pools. The last one I bought actually came from Amazon US because I couldn't find one locally. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015E5PM6M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Not available right now, but you get the idea.

Apparently he was grilled for several hours.

A muzzle, preferably.

Was about to write pretty much the same. Using Bolt, I'd also choose a car. It will be a similar price to what an orange shirt (taxi MC) will want, but far safer and more comfortable. You might want to step slightly outside of the bus terminal though, to avoid conflict with the normal taxis.

No idea what he might or might not have been on, but his distended abdomen is consistent with insulin or HGH abuse. https://www.predatornutrition.com/articlesdetail?cid=hgh-belly-bodybuilder-gut

Is this the 15 minutes a bargirl might give you for 1 drink or the 15 minutes it will take my wife to get ready to go out? There is at least an hour's difference.

Other online sources such as https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21788944/horror-moment-tourists-bungee-cord-snaps-in-midair/ give the impression this wasn't agreed upon. ..and also suggest this is not the case. All alleged of course. I wasn't there, have never been there and do not know.

Should have said. I'd have lent you the 1 baht ???? All good, thanks.

Just out of interest, why do you do it this way rather than the local extension? I totally get that the local extensions can be a right royal PITA, but after a few of them I've found them relatively pain free.

Sounds awfully similar to the evidence on the voter fraud. Is that you Rudy?

You read my mind, but said it far more eloquently than I could.

I put 2 standard size (6" x 4" I believe) portait photos per single page of A4, with the A4 paper in landscape and the 2 photos spaced evenly so the gaps between them and the gaps to the paper edges are pretty much uniform. My IO requires 6 photos - each with myself and my wife but without any kids, pets etc. From memory I do: 1 outside with house number showing 1 sat on the sofa in main living area 1 with us standing in the kitchen by the sink 1 with us next to her wardrobe with her multitude of clothes showing. 1 with us sat on the bed 1 with us standing next to a sink in a bathroom If you're that worried about the house number, get a new one made. Not expensive and might help delivery drivers to find you faster too.

There is some value to living in the moment. Few of us know when we will pop off and we could leave any amount of unfini

You've already mentioned the only piece of wisdom that I can give, but it's worth repeating anyway. Slight oversize is well worth the additional initial cost. It can help cool a room faster, but can also mean the compressor works at less capacity, possibly benefiting in longevity, but definitely helping with noise. One of my compressors is on the outside wall just behind the chair I spend most of my life on. Since I replaced and oversized the AC in this room it has been noticeably quieter. Finally, as I'm in a single position in this room for most of the time, angling the fan vertically and horizontally so that it points continuously towards my desk means I can increase the AC temp from around 23C to more like 24 or 25C. It feels noticeably cooler while saving money. Not directly related to the OPs question I know.

My first question would be, why Thailand? I'm a software dev too and the talent visa requirements are quite onerous and restrictive. If I wouldn't qualify for a different type of long term visa and Thailand wasn't specifically my first choice destination, there might (probably would) be other destinations I'd look at too. Are you looking to invest and setup your own software company in Thailand or work for an existing company. If the latter, have you already started on that process?

Similar to yourself in many ways. In our youth and childhood we are open to all sorts of ideas with proof no more than an elder or perhaps even a peer telling us it is so. I, like many, was forced to attend church in my youth. I disliked it for most of the reasons that others do. It was a chore. It was older people talking about things that meant little or nothing to me, singing ridiculous songs (some quite catchy) with words that were wishy washy and adoring of something that I felt shouldn't be adored without question, that contradicted much of what I saw in life. However, I was afraid of this God that was all powerful, was judgmental and would hold me to account and damn me forever if I did not accept him. Only a little later in life I opened my eyes to the evil that was the religious god. How evil, bitter and spiteful that god must be. How sheeplike his followers were. How easy it was for them to fully embrace the god of the gaps. Some would be so stupid to speak trash such as "so if you do not believe in the bible, then how do you know not to kill?". Anybody that cannot see the hypocrisy of that statement and utter blinkered view, to think for one moment that the bible is the only point of reference that is able to tell me right from wrong, while at the same time telling fairy tales of god doing the exact opposite. The bible and religious gods are, in my view, perhaps the worst concoctions in human history. However I believe that you and many others here are no more religious than me, so away with Noah, Adam, Eve, the resurrection and everything else related. In my youth and throughout my 20s I experienced many things that others don't usually at such an age (certainly not to the extent in my life). The death of family, the death of others very close to me, the betrayal of those in a position of trust. I also experienced huge positives... doing wrong and coming clean to those that might have cast me aside, but believed in me, saw through the errors to someone with ability and potential, those that nudged me in the right direction and directed my energies to places that would really make a difference. I also had 2 very near death experiences, 3 if I include cancer that could easily have ended me. These all occurred at an age where I was open to all sorts of possibilities. I saw that in my youth I and most others believed in our immortality, lived live only day by day, were happy in the rat race, doing the same things as everyone else in the hope of getting the same (lame) rewards as everyone else. I wanted more. I was old enough and wise enough to realise that there was much more to life, that I should look past what is only physical, should embrace the possibility of there being other ways to live a full life, to be open minded enough to consider almost anything. That in turn created a huge shift in my own mindset. It didn't change everything I thought it might change... I actually work harder now than I ever did, but towards goals that I truly cherish and in a way that I enjoy and am motivated in doing. It also made me so much more empathetic to the view of others - even if it doesn't appear so in this thread. It made me truly believe that faith, even if it takes a much different form than my own (faith) can be truly powerful. That if someone else had faith in something totally contradictory to my own, and it helped them lead what they believe is a better life, then all power to them. Right up until they tell me that their knowledge in life holds more value than my own and that I have not lived the fullest of lives without their experiences. I find that to be about as arrogant a viewpoint as can be. Reading more of what you write, I don't think we're that dissimilar in many ways, you with total belief in the more supernatural side of spirituality and me being happy with unanswered questions. Maths and physics were always my strongest subjects. I use their frameworks every day, both in leisure and (totally) in my work. Both (and wider science in general) have never let me down, have never lied to me and have never pretended to be something that they are not: for example the answer to everything right here and now. I am still human though. I still find it easy to laugh and make light of that which I don't have answers to... but I'm getting better, slowly. The longest post you'll ever see me write.

Our village has it's designated snake charmer. One mention of a possible snake and he's round like a shot. Seems to be good at it too. If there's a snake, he'll find it. Perhaps your neighbourhood has someone similar?

Her ticket can be to anywhere international. Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Vientiane etc.