Bernietravelling

„And many of these nouveau-tourists are monied, allowing them, in some cases, to circumvent some of the paperwork required by others, aided by corrupt lawyers, officials and agents who ‘smooth’ over visa and business applications.“

Well … following different Farang chat groups, also for so-called „expats“, I get the feeling, those asking most for agents and circumventing paperwork, are the newbies from:

                             USA !
 

So - why should we expect, the Russians aren’t doing the same ?

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

It's impossible to know that.

yeah … but one could make an educated guess

(eg. by taking the length of Russian borders into account, by comparing the Russian progress in Ukraine by the depth, they would have to cover on NATO territory, … )

And even those, who nevertheless still forecast a Russian attack,

cannot possibly know that.

it’s called North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not Pacific Treaty Organization!
 

… if the US Neocons want to start World War 3 with China:
Do it on your own!

Only 400 companies ??? 🤣

That is one of the best jokes this week !

55555

well, that should be easy ! … I would suggest, to look into :

- all the music bands, a lot of them with Flipper accent

- the endless number of Indian restaurants (where, despite a big number of Indian tourists, there are so many devout of customers that an inquiry about the -real- business model might be interesting…)

- however, I assume, all the Indian staff in the big Indian discotheques on Walking Street has a work permit😉

On 3/7/2024 at 2:18 AM, sirineou said:

I am not from  Jomtien so I dont know of any but If they have them in Khon Kaen where I am I am sure that there must be some in your area, 

But if you wanted to get started on the basics, why not an online beginners course? 

But I did a google search and found several 

https://www.google.com/search?q=thai+clases+in+Jomtien&oq=thai+clases+in+Jomtien&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigAdIBCDU1NjRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#rlimm=11922439377144589514

1) to get the tones right, you need a Thai teacher to correct you

2) @sirineou was asking for experience ! And especially in the Pattaya area, this is a very valid question, as there are quite a number of „schools“ operating more as Education Visa „enablers“ - instead of teaching Thai.

On 12/23/2023 at 7:17 AM, PETERTHEEATER said:

An English language report from another source says the ferry was hit by a high sea state including 3 metre high waves which flooded the lower deck causing engine failure.

Also, that navy divers would inspect the vessel.

well… “high sea state including 3 metre high waves” - amazing Thailand 

Nobody in the North Sea, Baltic Sea, Biscaya would even talk about that wave height !  Sailing with a small 27 feet sailing boat in 3m waves is no problem (so long as … you know, what you are doing and the boat is well maintained).

(Even with a significant wave height of 2m - which would be applied for the 2nd lowest CE classification for boats: C in coastal waters - you have to expect one or the other 3m wave.)

15 hours ago, VinnieK said:

I wonder how these millions of Sino-thais got to live here in the first place 

well - learning a little bit about Thailand‘s history might help … ????

On 10/22/2022 at 5:02 AM, hotandsticky said:

 

 

Same for British Airways.

… you should the see the FinnAir flight attendants first 55555

On 10/25/2022 at 3:32 AM, Iron Tongue said:

5-year closure?

So this Chinese national wouldn't think of reopening it under a different name or anything like that?

 

He has already experience in that …

Before, that Club was called “Bone Club” and was closed, as far as I remember,  also for 5 years.

It then re-emerged again as One Club.

I assume, the next name will be “Ne Club”:

… Bone Club - (B)one Club - (Bo)ne Club … ????

The “Zero Baht”-tours are quite well known.

However, with the current invasion of native Indians and the TAT concentrating on India as the next “1 billion plus” country to replace the China tourism,

I am wondering, if Chuwit’s focus on Chinese with his Zero Baht envelope is not blocking the view on the (Indian) Elephant in the room…

Good to learn that even a short string of RNA 

can develop some intelligence! ????

So - the virus is capable to differentiate, 

if it is in a cinema or public transport 

and decides, to only infect in these places? ????

8 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

The problem there is Thai's don't want to lose face, so it will be the usual, "up to you" response, whereas I would like to question them as to why their policy is to wear a face mask, are they disease qualified experts, the government has no mandatory policy, what puts them above the law.

 

In other words, I like to have answers to my questions answered, most of the times, people can't deliver, and when and if it comes to well if you don't like it, you can shop elsewhere, to which my reply would be but of course, that is a given, but no before I have your name so that your boss, owner knows exactly what you have said and have created, because it is not only me that you are sending away to shop elsewhere.

 

As you can see, I like a bit of a challenge as opposed to bending over at someone's policy that would have very little substance in holding up why that policy was implemented. 

I fully understand, where you are coming from. … And normally, to make people think, would be the right way.

However, from what I observe, it’s interestingly the better educated and richer Thais, who are still sticking to the old Covid narratives.

That guy at the front door is most likely a low salary employee, just “following the orders” of his managers.

Had recently a similar experience in a famous venue in Chiangmai, where they even requested an ATK …. 55555

IMO it didn’t make any sense to discuss with the bouncers, but stated loud and clear, what I thought and spending my money elsewhere.

However: I made also sure to let the story known to others, who are connected with the owner and that our group spent that night ~10,000 somewhere else.

That won’t help !
 

Instead of the cans and chairs,

they will just park their <deleted>in motorbikes - or even an old bicycle - in front of the shops …

On 10/1/2022 at 3:08 AM, 4MyEgo said:

This is somewhat confusing, one minute it says, masks are still being recommended, and some venues and services based on "business" may still require them, BUT....the mandate has been dropped for months, AND it's a personal decision, NOW if someone wishes to wear a mask.

 

So, if I rock up to Makro or Lotus or Central is some dipstick going to try and tell me that they are above the law and ask me to wear a mask  to go in ?

Easy: Vote with your feet.

And state loud and clear, that you’ll spend your money elsewhere.

1 minute ago, Bangkok Barry said:

It's just one of the things about Thailand that I'll never understand. In a country where saving face is so important, even more than life itself on occasions, we regularly have someone come out with absolute nonsense about something they clearly have no proper understanding of and haven't thought through, making themselves look like fools. It happens several times a week. Baffling.

Well, that’s not limited to Thai government, isn’t it ?
 

eg. the EU commission and German ministers coming immediately  to my mind

- I’m leaving comments regarding US presidents to the US forum members … ????

1 hour ago, SheungWan said:

Shorting is no more gambling than going long. Asian governments doing their King Canute routine are an inviting target. 

Well … at least, most guys, who do shorting, don’t call themselves

a “philanthropist”,

like George Soros does ????

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

caused the death of 5,827 Ukrainian citizens since the war began on February 24th

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Yes, Thailand shame on you importing this nations tourists. Elite showing their true faces again to the world.  Still I guess they look at it as 'its only a 5th of our road deaths, so whats the problem ? ' 

I assume, then, you are also a fervent supporter of the idea,

to block US tourists from entering Thailand ?
 

~ 500.000 civilians dead

… alone from US led Iraq wars and their aftermath …

One of the many lessons learned during Covid:

Do not book through an agent or consolidator, to save a few quid, which is an neglectable amount compared with the total vacation costs.

Buy directly from the airline website.

If things go wrong - and nowadays a lot of things are going wrong -   you will pay multiples for the small savings, hanging in the waiting queue of an consolidator’s call center and additional fees.

Well - and Scoot ? … that’s an additional question …

4 minutes ago, realfunster said:

relatively astonished at the inactivity of bystanders as disorientated people stumble quite far out of the exit door actually on fire with no assistance given....

I would assume, a lot of the bystanders were also under shock…

Add in to that:  First Aid is not necessarily a priority in TH.

Not comparable to most of Europe, where you have to attend a First Aid course to get a driving or boating license and have at least a small First Aid kit in every car.

7 hours ago, transam said:

Dodgy wiring, inflammable insulation, no extinguishers....????

 

Health and safety inspections..............Wos dat................????

Forget the safety inspections …

Many of those venues operate “under the radar” long into the early hours, covered by paid “protection”.

That’s also one of the reasons for the thick, Cheap Charly, combustible sound protection.

On 7/18/2022 at 7:23 AM, SAFETY FIRST said:

Confiscate

Impound 

Seize 

All their assets 

 

Check all their belongings, tax them heavily. 

 

Chop, chop 

 

You seem to forget, that a only a small minority of countries voted in favor of sanctions. AFAIK, in Asia only 2: Japan and South Korea. Apart from those only USA, Europe (except of cause Russia and Serbia, Belarus) and Australia, NZ …. a tiny part of the world population.

What would you have said, if in the course of Afghanistan, Lybia, Syria, Iraq, …, others would have confiscated the even more expensive super yachts from Jeff Bezos or Larry Ellison ?

IMHO it’s less a problem of paper versus digital …

It is more a question of streamlining processes. An overcomplicated process with too many senseless steps, checks, cross-checks and confirmations is still a bad process, if digitized without change.

Add in the typical Asian love of micro-management. Don’t empower your staff, don’t trust them, control every tiny step - otherwise you might loose your „power“ and get redundant ????