Furioso

No kid should have pressure like this at such a young age. It isn't healthy. I would let my wife know that it's more important to have a happy, healthy, stress free childhood then an overambitious race to the best university, prestigious career. Man, if one unreasonable parent is running the show then it's NEVER going to work. The one reasonable parent MUST take charge and if they cannot then IT'S OVER. Ideally both parents should be on the same sheet of music, but that's never going to happen in Thailand.

are those single speed pool pumps? If so, that would explain the high elec bill.

18,000 USD for a 3 day stay is insane.

Before I left the U.S.(Las Vegas) last year I sold my car to a older guy, who was definitely well off but we talked about getting screwed by medical/dental/optical costs, along with inflation in general. I won't delve too deep but they basically lie to your face and in a somewhat sneaky/sophisticated way charge you 100's over what they initially advertised. Seriously, they'll get you in their chair and try to charge you 600 USD for a "special" teeth cleaning, which really isn't necessary. 600 USD for eyeglasses too, if they can get away with it. I mean, it never ends and they don't take in consideration if your poor or desperate, they're practically screaming "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY YOU STUPID CUSTOMER!" Anyway, this older gentlemen who was buying my car was a great guy, very energetic, had 2 kids in their late teens/early 20's. I offhandedly said "Don't let these jokers win, just beat them at their own game". He looked at me, furrowed his brow and said "how can I do that?" I said "take a vacation to Mexico once a year, take care of all your needs then". Well, he about had a heart attack, he said he's been to Mexico a few times, even once to have a veterinarian look at his 2 shizu's. He said how great they treated him and his dogs, he never thought about teeth cleaning, eyeglasses, medical checkups, etc. Of course in his case he can probably drive to Mexico in one day..but as someone mentioned in this thread, India isn't too many hours away by plane. Medical is definitely cheaper there. Heck, I get the feeling here in Thailand that all the Thai's get their medical for free, subsidized by falangs paying millions of baht which is way, way over freaking priced. My point is, look for other opportunities to take care of your health needs. Sure, there's always a chance you have an emergency here and have to go to the local hospital..but you can do almost everything else someplace else.

EDIT: My previous post was wrong, here are the new calculations, which I hope are not wrong. I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 17637 lbs. 17637 lbs. = 8000 kg. ฿102 for 1lb of Durian. ฿225 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/17637K lbs. = $2.90 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/8000 kg. = €5.81 for 1kg of Durian.

EDIT: My previous post was wrong, here are the new calculations, which I hope are not wrong. I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 17637 lbs. 17637 lbs. = 8000 kg. ฿102 for 1lb of Durian. ฿225 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/16K lbs. = $2.90 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/7250 kg. = €5.81 for 1kg of Durian.

Wow, thanks for the info, 17637 is a lot different than 16,000. Recalculating! Recalculating!

I'm going to break it down: 1.8 million Baht = 51K USD 46.5 EUR 8 Tons = 16K lbs. 16K lbs. = 7250 kg. ฿114 for 1lb of Durian. ฿248 for 1kg of Durian. 51K USD/16K lbs. = $3.2 for 1lb of Durian. 46.5 EUR/7250 kg. = €6.4 for 1kg of Durian.

I've already dealt with these strips on Thepprasit..and, there are several other street constructions ongoing near my Condo. It's amazing/frustrating as every single of my once awesome shortcuts are now blocked, sometimes forcing me to take 5km detours. As of now there are little gaps in the Thepprasit medians, which I think makes it a lot more dangerous.

Yes, don't let them eff you. Pay as little premium as possible right now and save for when it really does get expensive.

Honestly I would go with this 31.5K plan, a 12% increase over the 28K. You're in good shape, probably won't need to use it anytime soon.

16,000 tons at 1.8 million baht? Isn't that like 3 USD a lb. or 7 Euro a kg? seems very high, my math must be wrong.

A lot of Thai's are unhappy, and rightly so they're getting effed..HARD. I'm thankful to be here, I try to make it a little easier on them. Lot's of helpful suggestions in this thread. They may not like falangs but if you wear your mask they will at least respect you.

I've had this happen, mostly when I lived in S. Korea. I used to take the bus to Incheon airport every 3 months to renew my Visa. A lot of times Koreans wouldn't sit next to me..then one day the bus was full so a Korean had to sit next to me lol. Another time I was in the very back and the bus was completely full except for a seat by a foreigner. Oh yeah, I was watching this situation like a hawk! We came to a bus stop and the Korean had to sit next to that foreigner. And to my absolute amazement, he sat with his legs dangling over the arm rest, where his back was to the foreigner and his legs were dangling into the aisle! Finally, a friend of mine reminded me I'm a foreigner, the media bashes us foreigners. The people easily become brainwashed that we all have diseases, a cough, a cold, the flu. I do take countermeasures, however. I try to leave a good impression, I crack a joke, or ask an innocent question..something they don't get very often. I also wear a mask, I think this really helps as well. Finally, if I'm out and about alone I notice they're very wary of me, much more than if I'm with a friend. I call it "The Curse of the Lone Wolf". A man, alone, he's got to be up to no good.

Banana IT on Sanphawut Road

He didn't want anyone telling him NO. He only hired YES men, and now he's at the bottom of the ocean, 1,600 feet near Titanic wreck.

I understand, I have a similar problem finding an obscure replacement item. Since Lazada seems to be a bust, would you consider contacting AliExpress(or some other website, or even a local car dealer) to see if they respond?

This is a red flag. Maybe try to find a legit seller.

I'm not positive but trying to buy "gas strut replacements for pick-up trunk lid" for an older vehicle might be more difficult than other, more commonly ordered items on Lazada. Sure, the item you want is listed and looks legit but the seller simply may not be able to get that item anymore. For an item like this it might be a good idea to contact the seller first, before going ahead and making purchase.

I find when the Thai's are loud they are funny. Sometimes I have to walk away(quickly) if they go on too long. I lived in Korea a long time, honestly they can be loud but it's not very bad unless they are angry, then run. I was in a nice restaurant in Asan, S. Korea when 2 guys came in, sat at a table and they were very loud, just talking to each other non stop..for over 2 hours! I thought they were American's but later found they were 2 Canadian English teachers. Overall in my experience the Chinese are the worst, followed closely by Filipinos. Further down the list are Thai's and Americans/Canadians. On any given situation all of these can be nightmares enough to force me to flee!

I'll go to the show as long as Cleese brings his chap Chapman with em'.

What the heck, it comes in sharkskin too?

If I'm choosing between EV or ICE TODAY I am choosing ICE every single time. However, it has to be something like a Prius, a small car that is very practical and gets very high gas mileage, especially since I'm extreme at hypermilling.

Part 1: Money/Greed: Well, they are struggling way worse than we are. To deal with the greed I make sure I get some interesting insight/conversation or a laugh before I make the purchase. For instance, today I went to my favorite Big C as I had to buy a King bed set. I've never really been successful at buying bedding, always screwing it up by getting the wrong size, too heavy/too light, wrong color, too cheap, too expensive, etc. So, I trudged my old carcass to the back of Big C, trying to decipher what a 6 is, will it fit? Thankfully, the bedding lady(what's her official title?) snuck up behind me. I did have one trick up my sleeve. I had typed my old King comforter dimensions in my Color Note app( a must for any Andriod owner, unless you have a better one). She was in full sale mode and I was more than ready to play her game. I said "what's all included in the bed set? She took one off the shelf and explained 2 different sized pillowcases(4 total), 1 fitted sheet, & comforter/blanket. what about this size? She asked what sized bed? I said King, then showed her the info(in CM) typed in my Color Note. She said it must be a 6, I totally believed her and yes, this is the first day of my life I know a 6 is the size for a King bed. I even now know that a 4 and 5 are Twin and Queen, respectively. Then we got down to colors, anything with white was OUT. We pulled 3 different sets off the shelf, and plopped them over the sheet display. I rubbed my chin in deep thought, all the while thinking these are the 2,500 baht suckers, I've NEVER paid that much for this type of thing! But I've got savage allergies, the old bed set has to go, TODAY. 2,500 baht? Steep but it is less than 100 euros, can't complain too much. The lady was doing great, honestly I could NOT walk away without buying something from her, plus this is something I really needed. I'm thinking, she's got this job and she has to deal with customers like me? And she's doing it with a mask covered smile on her face. Would I get anything close to this type of service back in my home country? F_¢k NO! All 3 of the bed sets looked great, I gave her the option to pick for me, she was very hesitant, really such a nice lady. Somehow we veered to the really stunning blue and the deal was done. I grabbed one of the other 2 and started to return it to it's original location and she tryed so hard to stop me lol. I guess storing is just another component of her job as well. All in all it was a fun encounter, kind of unexpected but thankfully I live in a country where a store really does have people that work and assist customers. Was I obliged to buy? In my book yes. When I got home and threw the old shi+e out and replaced it with my brand new Studio One Denzel bed set, I was very happy with my purchase.

US and Europe are huge economic powers that have civility and stability. Yes, I know the war in Ukraine but just proves Russia has been trouble for way over a century. The rest of the world? Australia and Japan and that's about it, and they're close allies to US/Europe.