LaosLover

This is like, Don't go to Italy, just eat at The Olive Garden. Like I said, I lived in the actual sticks (30 minutes to Walmart/McDonalds). I doubt I will again. But tales of rural bliss are interesting to me and I am very grateful for your generous and information-rich reply.

Who knows? I just had my first glass of longan juice ever. Brought one home to enjoy with some Old Monk Rum, which I found at Maya Mall Rimping. That's a 900 baht rum for 575 (from India, supposedly 7 years old.

Watermelon, over-ripe pineapple, so-so banana -this is the breakfast buffet trio at a 600 baht a night hard mattress place. Aim higher. I just left a dozen years on top of a Blue Ridge Mountain. It's great to hear from people here living the equivalent, Thai-style. But it will take a long time for me to want that.

I just bought a big fresh Longan Juice next to the Nimman1 Mall. It was 40 baht. Price in Udon? Availability? This thread is for educational, not trolling purposes. No way am I moving to Udon to save $1,000 a month. Or even $2,000, if it came down to it. I'd prefer to be in Silom spending more than in Nimman, but my wife will be impossible to pry out of here. Endless vegan restaurant choice is now a quality of life-must have for her. We had Japanese fermented food twice last week. Of course, we could pop a head of broccoli into the microwave and then baggie it up with a little rice wine vinegar ourselves Off to Sushi Umai. Ta-ta.

Not a diss to call it the sticks. There's a famous show biz headline about rural audiences rejecting country-themed movies: Hix Nix Stix Pix.

In NYC, they tried charging for chips and salsa in a Mex place, under the libertarian logic that if you didn't want chips and salsa, you shouldn't have to subsidize those who do. Libertarian problem: No price diff between free salsa places and libertarian fantasy model places, as always. Today: Free Chips and Salsa in 95% of restaurants. If you want to charge for something that is customarily provided for free, it has to be super-premium. I'd pay extra for small-batch ketchup that been aged in a barrel or something. In the UK, Pubs offer premium tonic in a little bottle to go with your gin. In Manhattan, you can spend $20 for a very nice bowl of bar nuts -we're talking only 35% peanuts. It's nearly impossible to find a Mex place that doesn't want to do table-side guacamole for you. Up-charge options seem popular with the young. And restaurant margins are tight. This is the future.

I can see how rent would be cheaper, but you'd be more inclined to need a car. Are Tops Store prices any diff? Are Chain restaurants? Is healthcare at similar standard to CM? Do you save money just because there's nothing to do?

I worked in private banking. He could call someone up and find this out. Too much non-specific detail to not be a troll. And laying it on too thick with the nannies bit. Please think of the nannies. As to the other troll, too much posturing and ultra-light on the details. A ton of red herring nonsense about Dengue. He could give information.....Eff off. Just terrible. I take the time to give my actual experience as a good intention and it's just for drunks and liars.

If my rent, utilities, phone, internet, and health insurance take $1,100, then I'm on 1,000 baht a day, not including visa's. I would call that more of a good but not great life, with not much margin for problems.

Despite my reasonable and generous intentions, I have wandered into a love spat between 2 retard trolls: Pretend-Elon Musk and Pretend-Laos Expert with no facts.

There is no such thing as a visa agent in Vientiane. I asked. How would this person make a living, given the tiny amount of people who want such services? No agent to help you with your Thai visa either. Only one travel agent in town to help you book the train. I just read a lot of pub bore, old hand poetry about romantic ghost towns (VT is seriously shut down) and sniffy waving away about mosquito abatement. He never caught dengue fever, therefore YOU are safe.

Only if I found the right kind of super-powerful amulet to go with it. I wonder why you never see an amulet on a gold chain. Maybe it's a man of the people kind of thing.

bliss residence soi 31. nice gym, partic the dumbell set.

Just back from Vientiane, a total ghost town. The part of Vt that you might enjoy is about 6 short streets. If you're at the tax shelter level, you will find the amenities lacking. Med-wise, Bangkok Hospital has opened a branch there. Because of Chinese interest, rents are similar to Chiang Mai for a lot less quality. Residency means a business visa. You'll def be paying some key money for your visa. Nannies? No prob. Teachers? Plenty of qualified old whities to do the job. These poorer countries have really cut back on mosquito abatement due to less tourists. My wife caught dengue fever in Luang Prubang. As per my name, I'm in love with the culture of the place. But you're not, and should give it a wide miss.

'Spent a week there and then extended. It has a little bit of a low-traffic downtown to wander in and that lovely park with the temple in the middle of the pond. One of the only places where the night market food is as good as going to a restaurant. They still have the guesthouse above the bar-concept going, a solo travel plus. Above average mix of Thai-ophile white people. Anyone doing muay thai there instead of in Pattaya is def a Thai-ophile. Some meditators due to the Achan Chah connection. I was surprised at the number of whities there who were NOT there just to placate Noi. Your reading versus mine of Ubon is like the old Buddhist joke: Wherever you go, there you are.

In Thailand, only a very drunken man walks around with his head up. When I was healing from a broken ankle, I asked the doctor if I could finally take off the ace bandage. He said, "Yes, but wait until you move on from Sukhamvit Road first". I love the proliferation of small, wheeled barriers that businesses just plunk down with no fear of the law. They want to grill up some chicken thighs and that lane is going out of service for a few meters. Random traffic cones are a thing a beauty too. These decisions are consensus'd by the street dwellers and conceded by the government.

You were faked. It's at least $12 a small cup. Mine was $20, 20 years ago. Prob more civet-style. Whatever that means. Wagyu beef is another highly elastic descriptor here. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee and Hawaii-anything are also over-rated. 'Have not yet found a Thai coffee that tastes as good as a Starbucks or Lilly netspresso pod yet.

Reading between the lines, prob $3k-ish in my building. Maybe $4K if they like to take a lot of trips and have hot and cold running girlfriends. I'm the middle due to eating out a lot.

That settles it. I wouldn't do it, but I occasionally pop into a tin shack place and I see it being done a bit. No one seems to care. I saw this happen at a Shan noodle dive too. Tip them like it's a corkage fee. I'd toss them a hundred, what to you throw them?

Like a more rounded Columbian. Not worth the premium price. Had it in the famous place in Kyoto. A lot of theatre with them reverse osmosing it up through a chemists globe. If you like that, try coffee from The Bolivan Plateau in Laos. Very similar, lots of crema. Hard to find outside of Laos. The Slow Coffee Bar at the weekend market in BKK will do you up a big cup for 50 baht.

If this is ever me, please put to gun at the base of my skull and take me out, execution-style. -Or....or have I wandered amiss of the true spirit of Are You OK-Day? When you get older, you get more solitary. You have to build inner resiliency for that. And have a plan to be less lonely. Pot bars are good for me. As a non -judgmental, non-sex creepy boomer, my knowledge of the classic rock era is actually a help, not a hinderance. They like Pink Floyd but never heard of Steely Dan? Let's YouTube that up. Traffic in an 18 minute jam is also popular. We need to hear more about the bookstore cafe owner who survived through Covid instead of Mr Mope. Is he OK? Please ask on my behalf.

I thought "I ate Buffalo" was a euphemism for being bi.

Toby and Gwen: Do you want to meet up and smoke pot today?

-Will give this a proper read, but great writing. Lived, social history writing here is a gift of this board

Thanks for your comment. Here in Chiang Mai, the mixed race American returnees are new competition to older tourist monopolies. With a smaller tourist money pie, I'd expect friction. But so far, I see none.