jaywalker2

So he wants us to load up on copper, is that it?

It wasn't a mall, it was a standalone store with the usual vendors. If I remember correctly, it moved when the expressway was built because it was located where the expressway entrance is now, It hasn't been around since the late 80's or early 90's anyway. At that time, there was no BTS, no Homepro, and only a couple of Japanese department stores. The Wittayu area around Sukhumvit contained mainly a bunch of cheap outdoor Thai restaurants and translation and photo services for embassy customers. The roads were filled with stinking garbage and the traffic was horrendous. I have fond memories of the early Foodland and I shopped there often when I lived in Thailand back in the 80's. It's too bad it's deteriorated to the extent that it has.

What are you talking about?

Foodland gets a little busier when the Arabs are in town. I go there a couple of times a month mainly to buy cheese and butter (butter 227 gms for 89 baht!), But it's a tired and unattractive store with a poor selection so unless you live in that area, I don't know why you would use it. Tops on Soi 17 has been surprisingly empty as well lately , though it's a better store than Foodland. Usually, they just have a couple of cashier lines open. Even the food court has been empty on the few occasions I've gone there. I do most of my shopping at the Chitlom branch of Tops as well. It's a bit expensive but there's a bigger selection particularly of fresh fruits and vegetables. The imported food prices are ridiculously expensive though and I don't know who's buying all that American junk food. The store is always crowded , the service is good. the employees helpful, and everybody speaks a little English. So you get what you pay for I guess. The Villa at the end of Lang Suan is new and nice and shiny. They had 400 gm blocks of decent imported European cheddar for 229 baht, which was a good deal and one of my main reasons for going there. Two huge price increases later, it's now 279 and I stopped buying it on principle. Villa is still the best place to buy wine though. They have a good selection and you can find decent wines in the 400 baht range (and not Mont Clair). It's the Big C at Ratchaprasong that gets the most traffic though. The meat there tends to be about half the price of Tops Chitlom and their fresh vegetables are quite reasonable too, as a rule. You have to fight your way through the Chinese tourists though. I suppose a lot of people are doing their shopping online these days as I often see the delivery truck from Tops at my building. Lower Sukhumvit, on the other hand, just doesn't have much to offer except for an ever growing number of weed shops.

The reference to is do is spending the holiday alone. To correct the sentence, you should say something like: Many elderly will be alone on songran just as they are for the rest of the year.

He was being sarcastic in order to highlight the bad grammer. Obviously, the elderly can't be alone on Songkran the whole year, which is what the sentence implies.

So who are they going to be forced to vote for, Prawit or Prayut proxies?

Looks more like a fertility ritual to me.

It's not just a Thai phenomenon. Depression and anxiety are rising all over the world. Birth rates are plunging, young people aren't having sex, anti-depressants are commonly used. At the moment, the world is not a happy place.

This is the place I went to. You could call and ask I suppose.

They prefer mail-ins but will process in person applications.

The embassy refers to it as a passport renewal.

I went to renew my passport today at the U.S, embassy's Citizens Services. There was hardly anybody there and the whole process took about twenty mintues. It was odd because all of the appointment slots had been booked until the 27th and I only managed to get one by checking the ACS appointment system everyday looking for a cancellation. What I also noticed was that the U.S. embassy no longer issues residency certificates, so if you're an American your only option now is immigration unless you can find an agent to do it.

If you have Google photos, you can download from there. Same with Google Drive. You can upload to Google Drive from your phone and download from your laptop. Or you can email the picture to yourself, open it on your laptop, and send as attachment. But if you're applying online there should be an option to upload the photo somewhere.

The demonstrations against Thaksin in Bangkok were massive. The middle and upper class hated him and, yes, they celebrated when the coup took place. It didn't take long though for them to realize the mistake they had made. I had thai friends who marched in those protests and defended the coup. Later, they told me they were never going to get involved in politics again.

I like the way he pretends he had nothing to do with the previous coup. And I never owned any watches either! Vote for me if you don't want another coup because I'm the guy who'll launch it!

Came here because it was cheap and an easy place to live. One of the few places you could go to where you could step off the plane, rent an apartment no questions asked, and managed you visa situation easily, Both those conditions have changed then but they have everywhere else too. So the question becomes where else are you going to go? Mexico? Guatemala? Chile? the Phillipines? At my age, I don't look forward to starting all over again.

Is it my imagination or are the crimes becoming more frequent and horrendous?

I agree that it really depends on the branch. I have an SCB account. The small branch where I opened it was known to be foreigner friendly but getting anything done there was always a hassle. Now I go to a much bigger branch close to my house and they have always been very helpful. By the way, even Thais can have trouble opening a bank account. I have had Thai acquaintances who had been told they have to buy life insurance if they want to open an account. Or they were told they can't have a safety deposit box. If the branch thinks you're not that well off they don't seem to have much interest.

They sent me an SMS six-month promotion. I just visited the AIS shop to renew it.

I'm on a plan with AIS that gives me 1 mbs of unlimited internet for 60 baht a month. With that I can access Line, send emails and pictures, and stream music so it's good enough for me.

They're main focus is on maximizing their profits, let's put it that way

Okay, let's get it out in the open, did the wife slit his throat or the boyfriend?

if he's a samurai

As I mentioned, references to any source that is not linked to the government or the corporate media is not permitted on this forum. But there are several metaanalyses of the dozens of RCT's and observational studies on Ivermectin if you choose to make an effort. There is also an excellent webpage that provides real time data on all of the therapuetics being used to treat covid. The Oxford-Mahidol study was published in elife. Ever heard of it? I didn't think so. The Ivermectin study was launched at Oxford in 2021. The results, I believe, have been delayed at least twice. No indication of when they will finally be released. The same thing happened with the Together trial. The release of the Ivermectin trial was delayed 8 months without explanation. When the results were finally released, the methodological lapses were so bad, over 100 doctors petitioned the New England Journal of Medicine to retract the study (which none of the major seemed to have reported on) I would have a lot more confidence in Oxford if after having pledged to donate the rights to its vaccine to drugmakers all over the world it actually sold exclusive rights to Astrazeneca in a deal brokered by the Gates Foundation. It receives enormous funding from big pharma and has a clear conflict of interest. I have no idea if Ivermectin is the wonder drug for covid that its proponents have claimed. But I do find the censorship, government interferance in the doctor/patient relationship , the failure of organizations like the CDC and the NAID to offer any guidance on treatment of covid other than the flawed vaccines, the threats made against doctors by hospital administrations, proposed legislation to discipline any medical professional who contradicts the government narrative, to be inexcusable. To understand how absurd the situation is, Satoshi Omura, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on Ivermectin along with William Campbell, mentioned in a conversation on youtube that Ivermectin does have antiviral properties and he believed it was effective in treating Covid (which led the Japanese government toa approve the drug for covid treatment). The video was of course deleted by youtube for spreading misinformation. The saddest aspect of this fiasco is the demonization of Ivermectin which is probably the greatest wonder drug since penicillian. It has now villified as "dewormer" and only fit for animals.