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Gilligan In Drag

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Posts posted by Gilligan In Drag

  1. It really disappoints me when everything goes just as my pessimistic mind

    thinks it will, all I ask is for a few surprises, even if they are nasty ones!

     

    The whole decriminalization fiasco was almost certainly the product of complete incompetence

    and utter lack forthought. Of course they will eventually get back around to fixing

    such a mistake and they will make it a criminal offense again.

     

    I don't undersatnd the assertion

    you hear again and again, "Ya can't put toothpaste back in in the tube!"

    Yes you can put toothpaste back tube. Period.

     

    Think about it. You put it back in the tube the same 

    way you put it in the first time. Maybe you personally cannot put toothpaste back

    in a tube, and i cannot, but thats only because we are not willing to invest say 10,000,000 bhat

    in a toothpaste tube filling machine. These people are in the toothpaste business,

    they not only have that machine, they have a whole damn factory.

     

     

    The other completely predictable one is that now that you have Thaksin

    back in charge as police state commisioner, grabbing people's milk and cookie money

    as he needs it, with him as your guy,  his drug wars and vice crack downs come as part of the package,

    his drug war was an important piece of his whole

    modus in the early 2000's, I'm sure he was quite pleased with it as he took it to outrageous lengths,

    I can't imagine you can have a Thaksin government without a drug war

    or other crusade on some other minority group like the Muslims in the south,

    its like his hobby to do those kinds of things

    and he can;t very well start attacking gay people or something in this day and age as much as I can imagine he'd like to, so

    might as well start attacking potheads as the appetizer, before you go after maybe say the entire Thai middle class.

    haul off an order the police to shoot any middle management type for being an alcoholic or drunk in the office something

    and then as the main course put the workers in prison camps and blame them as being a health hazard to tourists 

    as they had the lowest rate of vaccination against latest covid strain. "Sorry we'll have to send them to the ovens."

     

    That MOve Forward guy seemed to have a boyscouts attitude, "Potheads bad! Go to prison! Not to the ovens though..."

    But you feel sorry for him they wouldnt let him be the guy to do that.

     

     

     

     

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  2. I would not trust Thai doctors with my eyes, in fact my cataract is as a result of using medication prescribed

    by a Thai government university hospital doctor/opthamologist. I was alerted to the problem and warned off the medication by a third party by a pharmacist in Bangkok who was aghast regarding the medication

    I was asking to have refilled. He told me it was a ridiculously strong and dangerous medication to be using for my

    problem, he asked me with visble concern in his tone,"Who asked you to take this medicine? is this your idea or something? I said no I was given it for blepharitis by an eye doctor and due to go back to see her in a few weeks. His widened, "how long have you been using it, two weeks, three weeks?" I said "Four months." he nearly jumped out of his skin, "Oh my god man! STOP! DO YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR EYESIGHT!"

    He kept asking me, "Are you sure you are still under the doctor's care and advice  I said yes she keeps having me come back again and again, he

    said sounds like shes running an experiment on you and you need to stop using this medication and never go back to her office, Stop now!"

     

    My eyesight indeed was quickly degeneratingand I told him about it and he said surely its the medication. "That is the most disgusting thing i hjave heard all day, nobody uses that medication except for very serious conditions that won't clear up otherwise.

     

    i went to check with another specialist a Bangkok Hospital opthamologist who told me I now had a cataract and that the medication was a good cadidate for what caused the cartaract. She did want to get involved I don;t think and said she had never heard of the medication I was given and recommended I get surgery.

     

    The husband of a friend of my wife, has had his lenses in his eyes  replaced and advised me "Don't do it.

    You'll be going in and out of the clinic to fix this fix that for the rest of your life, they trashed my eyes.

    They did a terrible job with the surgery and there's has been on and off complications for years"

     

    I think I'd rather go blind, utterly fed up with the medical profession.

    • Like 1
  3. And Merry Poppins is just the tip of the iceberg. Your just getting started with yer Merry Poppins and Dick Van Dyke and his top o' the morning to ya atrocities, and so It starts there and proceeds and before you know it you're in Shark bar on Soi Cowboy where the unspoken rule till after the fact of having ordered a drink is that a drink is actually two drinks, buy two and get only  one  and you have 15 minutes to drink it and get out or be charged for two more drinks and so on every fifteen minutes, but you didn't know that until you read about it 6 months later on Stickman. So what am I now, buying lady drinks for myself? Is that why I've  come all the way from my turnip patch in Nova Scotia so that i can buy myself lady drinks? And then do something else they don't like, the first one being showing up anywhere near the bar in the first place, you should just leave them alone at the gogo bars in Thailand, theres plenty of supermarkets and great socks selections in the department stores in Thailand to spend your time on than to have to go to Soi Cowboy and they also have temples you can go to so leave the, alone stop imposing your culture and privilidge on them they want to be left in peace and quiet. So where was I? Oh yeah, do something else they don't like at Shark bar  such as reject the two Pillsbury Dough girls who invited themselves to sit down  with you initially and call someone else over who at least doesn't look angry and like they got run over by with the ugly rolling pin stick twice two many times for a drink logically leaving the only thing left to do with you is  charge you for nine drinks,

    buy 9 get one and you can't drink it till you cough up the 3000 baht. We don't have any change and Throw 2 thousand more baht at them as a tip and the bouncers put you in  a head lock and drag you out and you're good to go. But its OK, that happens to everyone now its just a misunderstanding that happens repeatedly fo 6 months to everyone who goes in there a failure of the bar staff to communicate, to learn quickly  and they'll soon be putting it on the menus that you're under the gun as soon as you step in or so they tell me on Stickman!

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  4. I would guess the real intention is to help the big alcohol makers in Thailand create more barriers for smaller producers and importers of alcohol.

    As an importer you'd have to slap a label on the imports yourself. The upshot is people with little money to

    spend on alcohol are left the lowest quality stuff which is even more of a health hazard and encourages drinking for

    the sake of getting drunk only because it isn't enjoyable in any other way. But that is win for the alcohol companies because

    they likely invest in pharma and health care industries and piuck up more big money that way.

  5. What complete crap the op is. Hey Wanchai, why don't you get a  job!

    Or hey why don't you become a politician, you sound like one! Or here's a modest proposal, stop the thumb sucking and bed wetting and why don't write next week about how Thai people should vote for you because you are here to save them from these racist mysogynist draft dodgers! Draft dodgers?!  Oh, I suppose they should just go and be slaughtered on the battlefields of Ukraine to help the Black Rock Investment group up their 13% direct control of the Ukrainian economy, right?! As MP and leader of the new Wanchai Hates Foreigners party you propose to Thai people   just round up the scumbag draft dodger foreigners and put them in re-education prison workcamps, just like in North Korea that'll learn 'em! Out of the draft dodging frying pan and into Wanchais's Infierno!

  6. Not to dismiss the reality of this, as some kind of new thing, I suppose it depends on where you are from  but my spidey sense is

    telling me this is all  not going to come to anything.

     

    How long will it take them to actually enforce these rules, though I am not very well read on this issue,

    I haven't seen anything mentioned about how they plan to make this work. Are they really prepared to get the banks in on this, which I think they will have to, are they going to provide reporting forms in English, which they should if the idea is to start taxing foreigners. How many foreigners will just give up on paying taxes if they can't read the forms? Are they really going to send you a return if you overpaid?

     

    They are proposing to tax people who have very little income, about 3 thousand dollars a year is the starting point it looks like and you'll be paying them 150 dollars on that. If your income is 3 thousand dollars a year, you likely don't have 150 dollars lying around. And as you go up the scale, if i recall correctly,  the percentage you owe increases very steeply, so I think even people earning a barely living wage will be hard pressed to pay the amount, its like 30 percent if you are making say 12,000 dollars a year. Again, on that kind of income, you won't likely be able to cough up 3,600 dollars. So have they got the fully armed with automatic weapons tax officials like the have in the United States to bust into your place and seize your asset, yes, thats singular, asset, as in a phone or a computer, if you don;t pay? I can't see that. Seems they will have to start working very closely with the banks and immigration, literally taking the amount before any money transfer arrives in your account. Thais don't like cooperating others if they feel they have significnt position or authority such as head immigration or head of a major nbank. I wouldn't think government officials would be trusted enough to be allowed near a bank and access to its files and operations as may ne needed in the case making the banks become arms of the government as tax collectors.

     

    Maybe things have changed recently, but I seem to recall a lot of talk about the Thai Tax organization, literally a family mafia, the Wongsawats having difficulty collecting taxes from most people. A good chunk of Thais do not respect tax authorities and rightly so. If you work for the government or as an employee of a registered business OK yes, your employer will have a motive to do tax collection for the government, but most people are rather lose ends and it is purely voluntary. Yer village papaya pok pok stand will not face any consequences for non-compliance. They may have the means to stop street vendors in Bangkok but theres another 40 million people at large outside of Bangkok.

     

    I'm suspicious that all of this is so that we don't completely forget who these people are. People on here say they are doing the right thing by paying, maybe if you are wealthy, otherwise I don't think so. You are not being left with enough to live on suddenly. You are depriving your family in lieu of handing a large chunk of your income to people who clearly are not benefiting the country and who themselves are not in any basic needs that you taxes will provide. For Thais, Education is not provided for, money for the old and disabled is a bad joke at 600 baht per month, health care for the poor is terrible, my step daughter has a serious condition, they say they  will provide her meds, but they are often out of stock, and she would have a problem if she didn't pay out of pocket half the time. So I have a hard time believing, suddenly, the whole shabby mess has been whipped into shape and welcome to the machine, you will pay your tax whether you can or not, and no stone will go untaxed in Thailand.

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  7. The way I understand it is, If your country has a tax treaty with Thailand, and many do, you still only owe tax in  your country if your country like the United States taxes you regardless of where you live. I don't owe th US anything because I make less than 70 thousand per year, so now it looks I'll have to pay Thailand taxes, unless paying no taxes because nothing is owed is considered paying taxes which I  am sure they are not so generous as to alllow that.

  8. Thailand must be getting obese, getting their snickers in a snot about fatso pants!

    Its simple dumbo, if you don't like it then with a flubbery heave to make your own elephant pants

    ya buncha Sponge Bobs! But noooooo, afraid of that, no easy fat bucks in any o'that so ya leave it to the

    Chinaman! Its your own fault Tuskar, no peanuts for you!

    • Confused 2
  9. On 1/23/2024 at 10:18 AM, ChipButty said:

    Have a look at this web site https://belbev.asia/bottled-products/ 

    I filled out their form about a year ago, but they never answered.

    They are probably only interested in doing business with bars and stores

    which is what I'd like to know, where are these shops and stores

    because i will buy beer from them, these beers on this site

    are nowhere to be found anymore.

    • Like 1
  10. 11 minutes ago, Morch said:

    Problem with all those imports are expiry dates and handling. When you crack them open, disappointment is not uncommon.

    As for sources, I don't know - used one of the websites above one with mixed results. A couple of the local upper scale restaurants seem to have a line of supply though, so there must be a dealer somewhere. Not cheap, though.

    Yes, I agree that sometimes they are bit old by the time you get to them. When Wish Beer was good I got almost entirely still good tasting beers, but I don't think there was a fifty bottle order that I ever made that didn't have a few bad ones, as in not stored properly and a bit off.

     

    Did you use the Oak Wine website I mentioned? They seem too good to be true and I hesitate, not to mention the nearest bank is 30 minutes away and thats the only payment they accept is a cash transfer. Still if I knew they were good I'd buy a few cases of stuff I haven't had in ten years because no one in Thailand will sell their beers despite for some people, those beers being the best in the world. I know, its a matter of taste, and you ask most Brits about Belgian beer and they respond something like "Yuck! Treacley crap!"

    • Haha 1
  11. 1 hour ago, BenStark said:

     

    Leffe is available at Makro and other supermarkets

    I mentioned in my post that I was aware of these beers and they are OK, Makro does not carry Leffe Ruby and Cuvee or any of their others, but yes I pick up a couple bottles of brown and blonde everytime I go to Makro or Tops up here in Roi Et. Villa used to have 4 types of Leffe and now only the blond and the brown. I think my point is I am looking for a way to get access to a wider array of ales and darker beers, such as was once available.

  12. 6 minutes ago, Bday Prang said:

    Nice one,    I think many will also quietly continue here as they have done for centuries,  My brother in law , a police inspector, confirmed a long time ago that he considered   "Lao" to be the best 

    The people who traditionally have valued and developed the world famous so-called Thai stick, Mango Thai and Lao Gold as they are known today and among many other lines are the Phu Tai and ethnic Lao of Isaan and they hail from both countries, however Thailand has had more exposure to other regions and farmers have mixed the more inbred and unique lines they still keep in remote parts of Laos with probably indicas for better yields and faster flowering at the expense of quality of the effects. Still incredible weed has been grown here for centuries and still does, just not avaiolable in your average shop in Thailand. But You can still grow your own of those varieties. There's a pot landrace preservation society called Zomia that also sells other lines that Angus doesn't carry and they also have excellent photos of various southeast Asian drug varieties that are still grown and seeds of which they sell from Thailand, Cambodia, and India. They are based in Bangkok as well, but looks like they will have to close up and it will all disappear again and you'll have to go into the hills of Nakorn Si Thammarat yourself and get your own seeds of Grandma's Tanaosri Red Star or Meun Sri!

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  13. 1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

    Nice comment and I totally agree,,   Ps what are you smoking and can you get me some  

    Haha! Strictly Lao and Honduran  sativa! Get yourself a couple seeds from Angus who sells very reasonably priced amazing landrace and heirlooms from all over the world and probably about 15-20 different Thai, Burmese and Lao lineages, The Real Seed Company and Quick Seeds are run by him. Thailand will be stupid about all of this and illegalize pot but they wil carry on not making a fuss about it in Laos.

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  14. I find it hard to believe this is offensive to that many Thais, theres a certain type looking for any excuse though I suppose.

     

    The media is maybe overdue for a Thais are offended by a foreign movie or other entertainment that has to do with Thailand kind of furor like The Hang Over II or a Lady Gaga concert being cancelled because she mentioned fake rolexes

    or that old Yul Bryner movie that shall go unnamed because of forum rules.

     

    Too bad a story isn't run how some tourist hotels run by Thais do not admit mixed race guests particularly Thai women or Asian  with non-Asian guests. Thais offending Thais and Asians with racism and it creates a lot more hurt than a silly video. Its happened to me and my wife and once a freind was here on holiday with his Chinese-American wife and they were turned away from several Khao San Road guest houses.

    They say they are worried how it looks to the other guests. Another reason I don't holiday here even though I live here

     

    Considering how universally disliked Indians seem to be in Thailand, this is pretty mild payback, it really is no money no honey if you are an Indian tourist I can imagine. They should make their next video and call it Thailand Really Luv Me Jing Jing! And I Love Thailand Long Time Too Mutt!

     

     

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  15. She got elect-oh-cuted! Yeah, elect-oh-cuted numbah 1 oafuhdonist who almost die on holiday in Thailand  by duh elect-oh-cute poll and by the pole on Instahgram, ya, very good! Very cute! Yeah Thailand have electro polls too before but they cancelled by cute people don't want a general electoh-cutions, because they want to be numbah 1 cute people who say, why we need electro polls, you just buy some batteries and run solar cell and wind powah, why already you serious about dangerous electoh-polls and high voteage wires!

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  16. I might drink a bit more, but what i want to to drink is unavailable. You cannot order beer

    from online anymore, and you have to do that upcountry if you want anything more

    than a Full Moon IPA or Chang or Leo. It's illegal unless you join some club, and even those are run out of Hong Kong

    so no care for anything but making a buck. I like the  cheaper and what I think are much better  European beers than trendy craft beers and thats the only alternative to Chang-Singh-Leo as far as beer. The Thai craft beer people make beer as boring as Chang-Singh-Leo, I'm sure they wanna be them.

     

    Really kind of a tragedy beers like Schneider Weisse's Aventinus, which was easily available in supermarkets

    like Foodland can't even be had from online beer clubs that seem more interested in selling other types of alcohol.

    The Thai craft breweries selling lager, wheat beer and IPA have pushed off the shelves even

    standards like Duvel in my supermarket, the latest casualty to the war on alcohol. Other fine Belgian beers like Triple Karmelite, all of the trappist beers,

    the Kasteel line of excellent beers much better than "craft" beer thats often easily twice the price and more, these are all nowhere to be found anymore.

    I was even in a famous craft beer bar in Bangkok, I asked the bartender about whether they had any Belgian beers she just gave me this cold look

    and walked away without saying anything.

     

    There was also one OK wine that somehow dodged the series of taxation increases on wine which was available at Lotus, It was Australian and went for 380 a bottle but disappeared up country about 4 months ago never to return. So I don't just buy something else, I just simply don't drink then. I think the distributors think they can accpet some kickbacks from the major companies and push everyone into drinking Chang-Singha-Leo, not me.

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  17. 4 hours ago, Guderian said:

    I've been using Dr. Anna Jaruwan at Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya for around 15 years and she's excellent. Unfortunately, her clinic here is only for one day a week now, but I assume she's spending more time at whichever hospital she mainly works at in Bangkok. She has treated many people in Pattaya and I've never heard anyone say a bad word about her. I know one guy who was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and he swears she saved his life. If you can find out which hospital in Bangkok she mostly works at you would do well to book an appointment with her. Or book an appointment in Pattaya and enjoy a few days by the seaside at the same time.

     

    Her background and experience are explained in this article from the Pattaya Mail:

     

    https://www.pattayamail.com/451/who.shtml

     

    Yeah, I concur, regarding Dr Anna, she's excellent, though I've only ever seen her once, and didn't have anything very complex, I just had some new growths all over my back that I wanted to have checked and i didn't want to run the gauntlet/crap shoot and be unlucky again and get an insane probably fake doctor mad experimentalist at Bumrungrad, I've had problems with that for other issues. Though to be fair I got a good skin cancer doctor at Bumrungrad for something that was starting to get out of hand and 8 years later no issues.

     

    Anyway, Dr Anna, removed a bunch of non serious skin tags and other crap from my back, and my impression from that visit was she really is the picture of intelligence, thoughtfulness and seeming integrity that you want from a doctor. Quite good at expressing herself in English and understanding too. I've only ever been to her once but I'm sold on her, if I ever have any issues again I'm making a bee-line to her office and I pray she lives a works for quite awhile longer, there are very few like her out there.

  18. On 12/7/2023 at 11:34 AM, Liquorice said:

    Your under consideration stamp will state, "application of stay is under consideration of the Immigration Bureau. Applicant must contact this office again in person on XYZ"

    If you've not heard beforehand, then contact your IO on the given date as instructed.

     

    If your local IO accepted your application, then I've never heard of a case being refused by the regional office ........requested further documents, yes, but not a refusal.
    Your application is under consideration for as long as it takes to approve, and whilst under consideration you cannot be on overstay.
    If an extension application is refused, you should be given a stamp allowing 7 days to leave the Country.

    Thats good to hear Liquorice, thank you for attending to this thread, with Ubon Joe having passed away, glad to see others are showing similar kindness and care about the expat community, I truly appreciate it. But, yes, I was wondering about that, who has the majprity of the power in making the decision to extend our stay.

     

    I had an additional problem as well, my go to office date is for a Saturday when I'm pretty sure they are closed, I finally called to ask about the Saturday come to office date and they told me the visa extension had already arrived. Perhaps they called by couldn't get through or it all fell through the cracks. Oh well...sure glad there wasn't an issue and that I'd have to go to Savanakhet and get a new multi, bummer you have to show them 400k now. A recent report confirmed that, but at least it does not have to be seasoned for 3 months (our Immigration branch office only, most offices its 2 months, people need to ask their branch office and not assume it is the same everywhere). The report on this forum from a few weeks ago said he topped up his savings account only a few days before going to the Thai consulate in Savanakhet. Also, he said that's only for multi entry non-O spouse, single entry 1 month spouse non-O's only require 20k, but if I was you I'd read around on this forum and double check. All the best everyone, take care.

  19. 2 hours ago, Liquorice said:

    I usually apply 45 days prior to my current permission of stay expiring, but the under consideration stamp is dated for 30 days after my current permission of stay expired.
    I tend to be notified my application is approved a week before the date on the under consideration stamp.

    The extension stamp is backdated to the extension renewal date.

    Yes, as do i, but this time they told me to wait until the day my 90 day reporting time had arrived which was 2 days before my stay expired. I explained I'd feel more comfortable to do it before and they said no, wait.

     

    Thinking about your reply actually I now understand it. It is not a relief actually, I'm at the end of the consideration period and yes I understand I will not be on overstay during that time, the issue is that time is just about up and they still haven't contacted us. I don't assume they will approve my application as you seem to. They never promise to contact us at all but the they have the last three years. What they do say everytime is "Come to the office on the day the consideration period is finished." I have often wondered what happens next if i don;t get the extension and the consideration period has ended. I may soon find out.

     

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