LaosLover

Whenever I went to Ko Chang and an old guy and a young Thai woman would check in next to me, I would either change rooms or change hotels. Because loud fighting would soon commence. They want you to go away too. Asking someone who's not really that into you -at all- to spend 24 hours a day with you is a bad idea.

Do you think that China will invade Taiwan? When? Me: No. And never.

a bunch of symbolic strutting from China with flyovers etc. They also threatened to shoot down Nancy's plane. And yet, and yet, they did not. US and China are rivals, but also interdependent. The day the China tells us what we can and can't do is the day they learn a hard lesson. Do we tell them what to do in Africa etc? No. Xi wants a third term, this is just playing to the cheap seats.

Have grazed about half of this pile of rage and sentimentality. But to answer the question: To get her on my health insurance. Love her, have been transformed by her love for me, would have married her just because -but the ability to help a beautiful person not suffer in great pain is the greatest achievement of my life. This is a quintessentially American reason, but I am surprised that no one had a purely practical reason to get married. She's 59, WHITE, has a little weight on her. If anyone wants to stop talking to me over that, I understand. Best sex I ever had, crazily into me, peerless integrity. Can't wait for her to join me here in Chiang Mai in a few weeks.

I read in The Economist that W.Europe gets a lot of its oil from Russia and it will be hard to replace and cost a lot more. And then we'll see how resolved and how committed the West is to Ukraine. The temptation to force a deal on Ukraine will be steep. So: Believe them -or you?

Relatedly, a joke from my childhood. Lawrence Welk (an old band leader) once said on TV: "And now a salute to World War Eye".

How can you announce the start of WWIII and then not actually start it? Likwise, China's empty threats of consequences (unnamed) for Grandma Nancy going to Taiwan. Putin will be back in the catbird seat when Europe needs heating oil. We'll find out how well Nato hangs together then.

It would take me months to have 4 separate conversions (I talk to my wife every day) with 4 separate people that are actual conversations. By the time I accomplished this Herculean task, I would have completely forgotten about the first conversation. To get anywhere near that huge number, I'd have to include conversations here (tragic? agreed!). I do chat with Sparktrader a little bit. He's a great guy. But so far, his influence on me remains elusive.

At those prices you could have been doing Paris Hilton.

The Buddhists say the opposite, that you're good at heart but that goodness is buried under a pile of defilements.

I was married 3 times too. One died (a good one), one went to drugs (divorced), the 3rd will take me all the way to the grave. I met her at age 56. I had given up. You can change your life. You can be loved. I hope your trip gives you what you want -tho it would def be helpful if you knew what you wanted. Do you want a series of short term hookups or a permanent relationship (well, as permanent as these things ever are)?

It's def ok to want stuff and be restless. It costs a ton of money to live like Henry David Thoreau -who went home to his mother for dinner every night. Simple living is not inherently better than materialism. A more useful phrase to live by is To Thine Own Self Be True. There's a new conceit that wanting experiences makes you a deeper person than wanting stuff, but the drive is exactly the same. You could even go against the grain and point out that at least you get to hold on to the stuff and it provides you with more lasting pleasure than fleeting hot air balloon rides in Pattaya. Hot air balloon rides are obv a euphemism here.

The problem is never sex, it's disrespect. If people don't respect you, their love is worthless. If people respect your money but not you, that's still not great, but still a giant leg up from someone who doesn't respect you at all -which would be a distinct thread running through a lot/most of the personal stories of most guys here.

The name of that pub on Soi 13 is The Sportsman. Must also compliment them on their arctic AC. IN BANGKOK. Because a lot of Thai cities have entertainment districts off of streets called Sukhamvit Road. Also on Soi 13 are Red Lion and German Beer Garden branches. It's a pretty good soi over all with 2 cheap Indian restaurants and one (very good) high end one. Did go to the new Cheap Charlies, but it felt like going to CBGB's in Las Vegas. Glad that collection of tangled old wood still remains, tho. I gave them a small wooden bust of an Indian head and it made the transfer over to On Nut. I miss that classic sign in the tiny bathroom: No Sh!++ing, only P!zzing. It was a true travelers crossroads back in the day, when the idea of travelers having a crossroads was a thing, before everyone just started staring at their phones.

It's very impressive for an hour and a half, but it really is in the @ss end of nowhere.

One on soi 13 off of Suk like 5 minutes down on the left side. Decent Guiness, all the stuff like talent and quiz nights, Red Top newspapers on offer to peruse with your drink. They have a good menu, but better to order a curry in from next door. After Cheap Charlie's died, it's been a very decent alternative. Another vote for The Red Lion in CM.

Seeking Alpha is a good site for articles about high yield stocks. It's a bit of a vanity press in that most of it is written by people who'd like you to buy their newsletters, but the data is sound and the discussions interesting. You can get a free trial. Morningstar Dividend Newsletter also gives you a free peak. They offer a medium risk model portfolio of stocks and makes conservative buy and sell recco's backed by easy to follow quantitative analysis. You'd come in at around 5% with their picks. If tanker and mining stocks are such a sure dividend play, why do institutions and pensions never buy them?

Great to see you back, ThaiBeachLovers.

That Woke is even a thing to worry about is a great, great sign. We now have enough affluence and are entertained enough to death to the point that we can actually afford to simply make up problems -that will never touch our lives one iota due to barely existing- just to enjoy the bracing pleasure of faux-outrage. Our lives are now so coddled and force-fed that we have to invent things to feel angry about. Didn't we all fly here like god's in a throne in the sky (credit: Louis CK)? Gratitude is hard work, resentment is easy. And then the vain conceit that you know what's going on. You've done your own research. They're trying to get you to wear a dress up the road, and you're not having it -am I right?

Repubs are all about transexuals, critical race theory, gays because they have no plan to govern and haven't since Reagan (who let's face it, was no genius). They're just a collection of single issue voters on stuff like guns and abortion. The red states are the poorest, the dumbest, the most oxycontin-addicted. They subsist on transfers (handouts) from the blue states. Without the out of date electoral college, they would barely exist. Anyone identifying as right is a low information voter who feels hard done by, but can't explain why. He thinks Ladyboys are out to "destroy his way of life". When they have a plan of national healthcare, infrastructure or anything at all useful, I'll give them another look in.

A. very tiny % of the left want's gay zebra crossings. And that will never really happen. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the right wants to end access to abortion (that happened). Your likelihood of encountering left wing madness is zero.

I intend to live in a high rise apartment for New York City chump-change, eat mega-shellfish for a pittance, and enjoy every single human service (except that one) for about 20 cents on the dollar. And THEN, when I vaguely know what I'm talking about with Thai politics, I'm going have an opinion about it. And no one can stop meeeeee.

Mostly, I just read guys here who are happy to be having sex with someone thin. And then occasionally they ask something like, 'where can I get good posit notes, the ones that come in colors?'. Not getting the pro-democracy bias here at all. So OP, are you pro-current Thai Gov? Or is this generic complaining about how people you don't know are (possibly) are saying something you don't like?

If you liked Surin -without elephants- then you're pretty Issas-friendly. You can easily kill 3 weeks with your itinerary. You're going to have a great trip.

Why not just pound out all the stops in Issan? Is the CM add on to make sure your whole trip doesn't suck? Embrace the suck. Get down, go native. Khorat is more of a likely choice than CM. And they have the walled city thing there too, but not as nice as in CM.