eumenades

Yes. And hardly any knowledge of the basics in economics.

Yes. Hungary and Czechoslovakia too. And what was the 'former glory'? All satellite countries remember best is the oppression.

A lot of this stuff just weirds me out. I spent a week on a Russian ship and got on well with all of them. But, for some reason, Thailand seems to get the worst of them.

As Clockwork Orange droogs will tell'em!

Fine. Time for some 're-acculturation'.

Ditto.

It is a pity I am not around in these situations. (I am 6ft tall and weight best part of 200 lbs.) The Russians need to understand that Thailand is a culture based on 'kreng jai' (politeness) and cooperation. Anybody here in for some 'total immersion'?

Best answer, so far.

I have always used the Chinese medicines available in Yowaraj. Very effective, but talk to the doc - not the lady at the counter.

A lot of the mods went to college and studied marketing, no doubt. (Let's see if this one gets through.) My apologies to the Testosterone Sundowners, but this stuff gets analysis in contemporary sociology. And it is worth reading. "The individual is thus both a receiver and transmitter of current values dominated by a multi-million pound advertising industry, itself embedded within a corporate media structure and governed by an indiscernible few. Those at the top have vested interests in the propagation of preferred consumption lifestyles—i.e. those which guarantee increased spending and profits in a ‘work and spend’ culture where consumption is the driving wheel of an economy which, in turn, benefits those with the most power and control. 1 Yet personal values and self-esteem are managed by the advertising industry which now, through its financial force majeure, determines news coverage and program content in the US nationwide media, ironically insisting ‘freedom of choice’ still being regulated by ‘consumer sovereignty’. But these assertions are misleading, as we shall see." from : Consumerism: seduction via the current media - book chapter John Graham Wilson. https://www.academia.edu/34010793/Consumerism_seduction_via_the_current_media_book_chapter

Just substitute 'Ukraine' for 'Vietnam' and share some happy memories!

Ah! "recieved at Laksi (Bangok International Mail sorting office)" So, that's where we go to sort our mail from officials with their feet on the desks eating look-chins!

Sounds like one of those crumby airport bookshop novels.

Postal reception in Bangkok is pretty lousy. I have a large envelope from the UK posted 17th January still in transition. But where?

"Testosterone fading into the sunset." I love that phrase. Especially when it was always a substitute for reading books or dopamine.