Jacques Clouseau

It's not that bad. Not yet. Maybe after the first wash it will be ! Nevermind. It was only 380THB :)

You really gotta be a moron or a top-notch entrepreneur to open a bar in this city. Navigating the industry must have been difficult enough in the past but since covid and inflation, it must be ridiculously hard to make a decent return on your investment. I don't drink very often but I got myself a beer yesterday in a bar along beach road. 85thb for a small Leo.... lol I don't even wanna know how much a drink is in beer bars or gogos these days. Probably as expensive as in the Europe. Plus ladies harassing you for special f-you drinks... :)) There's a guy on Youtube. Can't remember his name but is channel is called Everything Pattaya. The bleak take he has on the industry and where it's headed probably has some truth to it. Many entertainment venues have become too greedy for their own good. I remember 10 years ago, going at Nana Plaza with friends and getting fck up for something like 1000 thb. Nowadays it wouldn't be possible. Well... To be fair I haven't tried but I wouldn't be surprised if I had to spend 2000-3000 thb for the same kind of fun these days. The times, they are a-changin' !

Alright! So I went to the Export Shop and found 34x34 Dockers pants. That will do. Thank you for the tip. I appreciate it. And thanks to all of you who participated here !

You said it yourself: it's a business. The goal of a business is to make profit. Why do you want me to make things up? Let me remind you that you are the one who posted a graph pretending their business was booming when really it is stalling at 5000/year since 2019. Or maybe you didn't notice it was cumulative data? In that case, it's an honest mistake. Frankly I don't really care. If their business is doing well, good for them. It's better than the alternative. The only thing is so far you didn't provide data to back that up. Doesn't mean you're wrong btw. But it justifies my skepticism. No I didn't. I said I suspected it wasn't making enough money. A business like that not being profitable is almost impossible as they don't have to invest a lot of money up front to make it work. I read a little bit about it yesterday after our chat and it seems to me we're talking about a service that requires very little investment. That being said it's not because you're not losing money that you are reaching your objectives. That elite service is part of a larger strategy to attract big money in the country as its population is ageing quickly. I don't know if you've noticed by the social stability of the LoS is falling apart and the gov hasn't come up with any good strategy to tackle the problem. I suspect Pita was in the game to try and push serious reforms in this specific context. I'm not idealizing him (he is probably corrupted to a degree) but at least he is realistic about the future of his country and the urgent need for reforms. Of course it's my opinion. What else it is supposed to be if not an opinion? I can only try to form an opinion based on the information that I have - part of that information being what you provided yourself. All have seen so far is a lame marketing strategy trying to make people believe that being an elite member is such a great premium deluxe once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you shouldn't miss because your life depends on it. My butt! Sooner or later reality is gonna kick in and Thai authorities will start to belly dance to have you come spend time in their country. Social and demographic trends don't lie. On the one hand Thai people are fed up of being cheap slaves to foreigners and on the other the ongoing population collapse of the country won't stop. You know what your problem is ? You don't know how to contextualize. You gotta understand the big picture of what is going on in the wolrd right now. You understand it and you understand that cities (because it's really a city thing) will compete globally more and more to attract fine people. How well do you think Thailand is gonna fare in this context? Especially now that they've decided to take the illiberal way against the will of their population and against the "recommendations" of the West... Could be true, could be marking bs. Hard to know. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Yeah... I guess that a way of seeing it :)

Not at all. I think they wanna make as much money as possible. As your graph shows, they've been unable to increase the number of eligible people applying for a couple of years now. So their only way to make more money now is to increase their prices (hoping to not lose too many future applicants in the process). What your graph shows is roughly 5000 people added each year since 2019. I would be cautious with recent numbers because of covid. As for speculations about their bright future... This is Thailand. Yes. Very possible. It doesn't mean their scheme is a success.

Copy that.

Yeah well you shouldn't :) A good website is supposed to offer a seamless experience. People shouldn't have to go through this, especially when they're already logged in.

This graph is cumulative. It states "members by fiscal year" and not "new members by fiscal year". And "active members" not "new active members". My understanding is that they've been stuck at +5000/year since 2019. Now who are those 5000 people? The term used is "members" not "holders" so I wouldn't be surprised if that 5000 figure was the sum of holders and their families. If that's the case, it would mean that the real number of new holders each year is much lower than 5000. In other words, their scheme doesn't work as expected. They don't make enough money.

It's a strange move. Usually when what's on offer doesn't sell, you lower your prices, right ?

Instagram influencer-like cynism. haha. What a terrible human being.

Can you back your claim up ? Where does that information come from ?

Actually the limit is usually set by the context (and sometimes, depending on the country, by the law). You can't do the same kind of jokes at home with your kids, with friends, on a forum and at work. Well... You can but you could face serious consequences - like getting fired for example. As for comedians, they are getting paid by their audience for a kind of on-demand humour. That's a whole difference story of course. Louis CK could get in trouble for NOT being offensive.

3000 rooms for a 6km2 island. That's 500 rooms per km2. Each room 2 people that's 1000 people per km2. That doesn't take into account locals and people on day trips. People better come with their sandwiches if they don't wanna spend the day queuing for food :) My thoughts to all hotels and restaurants staff. Stay strong !

I feel you. However I don't think Thais should be ashamed. All those politician morons should be. Don't think they are though. Not too much. So it would be a shame to see the victims ashamed. I would feel sadness, bitterness and resentment for sure. But again I agree. All this nonsense is damaging to the reputation of the country. And I don't see how this could end well...