Jingthing

Kids aren't flipped. They will grow up to be what they are based on their inner nature. Being exposed to the existence of queer people doesn't make a kid that will grow up straight queer. And vice versa.

The reactionary protect the children at all costs brigade almost never consider protecting LGBTQ children. They generally don't even acknowledge that they even exist.

My thoughts. Probably ill advised from a PR pov from central. The Pride for all signs were lovely. Obviously the Kids Pride thing will attract reactionary attention I'm assuming mostly from westerners. But the fact is there are many kids today that organically identify as gay or ladyboys etc. Not because they were recruited. Because that's how they feel. Obviously they may grow up differently. But regardless it is a positive thing psychologically for them to receive supportive messages from society that they are OK and valued whatever they are. That sort of thing does for a fact reduce depression, poor self esteem, and suicide in LGBT youth. But it was still probably not a great idea for Central to do this. Comforting messages of you're OK regardless can come from other ways and for the sake of LGBTQ youth hopefully do. Another thing. If a message is above a kids current understanding they tend to just filter it out. Like take a kid to a sophisticated movie with adult level themes most often they will just be bored.

It is still a higher number than it would be typical to assume.

Yes and not to forget they have correctly stifled an understable taboo and are once again sending tanks to fight Russia, but this time on the ANTI genocide side.

Exactly. But he was kind of implying that even though I'm obviously f-rang that the charge was based on destination not race or nationality. Do I believe that? Not really. But its an excuse that might soften what is really happening. To add to the fun going to 10 grams they raise the absurd price even more.

Sorry if modern people are parading around in Nazi kit, seig heiling, and promoting murderous hatred against the same historical targets they are still Nazis. Not in that historical regime but still Nazis. I would agree not to label non Nazi Identifying fascists as Nazis though.

I will add that definition of a holocaust survivor can be difficult. It is definitely not only death camp survivors. Also yes of course as they are all old now it won't be very many years until there are none.

Now this takes the hash cake! Getting a quote on Line for a from the farm order. I asked how much for shipping. I was asked where I live in Thailand. I was quoted a ridiculous price of 150 for 5 grams! I said that sounds very expensive shipping. I was told they charge more if shipping to a "tourist" area. Isn’t that hilarious? Not exactly double f-rang pricing but a funny variation on it. I guess it doesn't matter if the tourist area person has lived here for 20 years. I didn't dare ask if they apply that to Thais in tourist areas. So tip if you live in Pattaya. Say Banglamung. Maybe that would fool them.

About 200,000.

Hurry it up. We want there still to be a Ukraine to join. If genocidal war criminal Putin has his way the Ukrainianian nation will be obliterated.

I'm in the market for a new one. My criteria are -- reliability good service when there are problems reasonable speed (don't have any kind of job need for the highest though) able to download torrents / Kodi preferably without VPN (uh oh) Cost Cost is my lowest priority. Comments / suggestions are welcome

I'm all for legal weed including recreational use but it occurs to me the number of weed shops in Pattaya has reached a level of ridiculouslous that would be hard to believe if we didn’t see it with our own eyes! Many of them are quite large, in prime locations, with fancy signage. No doubt they're all selling buds at highly inflated prices with consumers having no idea if there is ok value in it. It's doesn’t take Warren Buffett to plainly see there is no way there is demand to justify all those shops in the tourism demographics visiting here. No doubt many tourists will try some out as they might in Amsterdam but compare the reasonable number of coffee shops in Amsterdam to the out of control absurdity here. Expats who like weed are finding lower priced alternatives online so they aren't supporting the tourist shops. So even if weed stays legal and hopefully so when are we going to see a massive shakeout of this glut? If you own such a shop, what are you thinking?

Thighland in the news again from U.S. politicians. Previously we had a politician mispronounce Thailand as Thighland out of ignorance. Now we have a report of a politician INTENTIONALLY mispronouncing Thailand as Thighland to see how compliant female dates are. If they corrected his pronunication, it was game over. Rather revealing behavior. Wonder why Thighwan doesn't get this kind of fun action? Now that the cat is out of the bag, the Thighland gambit is now useless. Perhaps, men afraid of assertive women can say Singerpore instead? Or Vietname? How about Bally for Bali? Feel encouraged to come up with your own date testers. Gov. Ron DeSantis used to pronounce Thai as ‘thigh’ to assess dates, former Yale classmate claims (yahoo.com)

OK, here goes. Until recently I hadn't ever bought a pint of ice cream in Thailand. The reason being I like Ben and Jerry's but I find the price here to be obscene. I would even be embarrassed to pay it at a counter but of course it could be delivered. I remember paying as little as 2 bucks a pint on sale in the US but here it's generally 350 baht and you don’t see promotions. Yes I know it costs more than 2 bucks in the US now but still much less. Yes I'm aware it's a good thing health wise to not frequently be eating pints of ice cream. Anyway recently I broke down and bought a pint of Buds of San Francisco ice cream. Mocha Almond Fudge it was. While they absurdly promote their brand here with a very old review saying it's the best ice cream in the world I know it to be of mediocre quality. But it's been so long. Maybe I would like it more now. Nope. Still not wonderful at about 150 a pint here. Not worth the calories. So the ice cream hole I was trying to fill wasn't satisfied. Moral of the story. Just spring for the freakin' Ben and Jerry's! What's your favorite BJ flavor? I guess maybe Cherry Garcia for me.

Guestimate of course. Includes street food of course. Includes drinks with meals but not bars. Just for you, one person. Prorate if you're paying for more people. Does not include groceries for cooking at home.

Many of us already figured this out. There was a similar member report on the same subject many months back. The subject is at Jomtien immigration office (not sure about Chonburi office or the few other offices doing this) expats doing their annual retirement extensions based on a bank method (800K, probably combo too) are given a page ORDERING them to come in after 90 days to show proof they are still in financial compliance (still have 800K in the account and never under one baht). It's rather intimidating but in reality you DO NOT need to actually do it. How do I know? It wouldn't be prudent or diplomatic to share all the details or name names of exactly who I spoke to, now would it? But it was definitely something that I learned from a reliable source and I think others should know, take it or leave it. So you can choose how to react to this information. This is the information. There is no consequence to ignoring the report. Doing it or not is entirely UP TO YOU. The reason the order exists is so that if you don't comply with the actual balance requirements throughout the year your next extension will be denied, and the order is stictly a CYA move so that if that happens, you won't have a leg to stand on to protest that. Summary: The minimum balance requirements are real. You MUST comply! 800K two months before extension appointment 800K three months after extension granted 400K for the rest of the year up until 800K two months before NEXT extension appointment The "show money" order is not actually a rule you must follow. It's something they do the drive the message home that you must comply with the ACTUAL balance rules. So you can ignore the order but you can't ignore the balance rules. Also: The 90 day "show money" rule whether you choose to do that or not (again you do NOT need to) has nothing to do with 90 day address reports (which are seperate and you DO need to do those). While I don my flak jacket, I hope that most of you will take this shared information in the spirit it is given. To be helpful.

I was aware for a long time that there is at least one agency that will assist UK nationals with passport renewals. But I never heard of such a service for USA nationals. Yes I know you can do it yourself, but what if you want a service to do it, that would not involve worrying about dealing with the mailing and receiving yourself or going to Bangkok (multiple times)? So I thought some people might be interested. My passport is OK for now but it's nice to know there is help available when the time comes. My last renewal was done first in Pattaya when embassy staff visited occasionally but they stopped doing that long ago. There really is no point posting that nobody NEEDS this service. Perhaps not but I can assure you some people WANT this service. So UK and USA passport renewal service available here: Home - Thai Girlfriend Visa from the top visa company in Pattaya - Key Visa (keyvisathailand.com) Note well: The US service is not listed on the link but I know it is offered because they owner recently discussed it on a youtube video. Does anyone know the fees for these services?

Keeping on the theme, how about Portugal? Portugal continues to be high on the list of welcoming, high quality, more or less "affordable" expat destinations. They have a quite organized visa program for this. I had some interest in Portugal but a while back determined that my pension was inadequate to quality, but have recently read some items that maybe it would be OK. I'm not sure if the policies have liberalized or I've just read misinformation (before or recently). The process must start in your home country not Portugal. It takes a long time. Whether the Portuguese embassy in Bangkok would process non-Thai expats for this I don't know. Some difficult things with it is that you must have an address in Portugal to be approved (not sure at which stage) and having a Portuguese bank account with proof that you can flow in your funds is showing up in enforcement. In other words not only proof of finances but proof that you can get the funds to Portugal which sounds logical enough but you'd obviously need to be in Portugal to open a bank account. As far as cost of living, my general impression is that in general Portugal is not as cheap as the usual Asean places Thai expats are looking at. Particularly with housing. But of course like anywhere it's one thing living in central Lisbon and another living in a non-touristic smaller town. English is widely spoken especially by younger people, but I think you would need to learn the language to progress to higher residency or citizenship status after five years. Personally I find the Portugal Portuguese language to be much less fun than Brazilian Portuguese and also weirdly it sounds like Russian. Yes I have been there long ago driving a lot of places around the country even to the interior but I didn't make it as far north as Porto. I did make it to Coimbra though. Porto is landing on lists now as one of the top expat destinations in the world now for both retirement and digital nomads. Non E.U. people would need to buy private health insurance. While much less expensive than U.S. based private insurance, people would have the same worries about issues with age and preexisting conditions. My personal feelings about Portugal are mixed. It is Europe and Europe on a lower budget The food and wine are great. It's a smaller sized country which has its advantages. It's closer to the USA than Thailand by far. The negative part is more about my emotional reaction to the place that can't really be quantified. Visa info. https://www.globalcitizensolutions.com/portugal-d7-visa/ https://www.d7visa.com/portugal-retirement-visa/ So have any of you considering moving to Portugal. Have you lived there before?

This is a new concept in restaurant review threads. I hope y'all enjoy it and participate. Pattaya I think is a better food city than many people know or think. Time to spread the word, in a short and sweet way. Suggested Guidelines: Make it short! (and sweet) Emphasis on reasonably priced restaurants! (most of us are not made of money) Emphasis on less than famous restaurants! (most of have heard of the Sizzler) Emphasis on new "discoveries" to you, not necessarily new restaurants! (if its new to you, it may be new to us too) Emphasis on places with at least some good dishes! (seeking pleasure here, not pain) Emphasis on places that offer something a little bit "different"! (green curry isn't different) Include a link if you like! (this is the internet after all) Try to indicate location! (location, location) So the idea here is a running thread with perhaps "twitter-like" quick HIT and RUN reviews on a variety of places you've experienced and would like to share. As opposed to threads about one restaurant, or threads on one food type like pizza. I will start with THREE of my own Hit and Run mentions to illustrate the concept. I think in general doing ONE at a time (one post, one mini "hit and run" review) is probably better but I wanted to get the ball rolling with three. *************** Ons Moeder Dutch Restaurant, Jomtien Menu is in Dutch. Daily three course meal -- 280 baht Many classic Dutch dishes. Try the super thick pea soup! Some say the best Dutch food in Thailand, I wouldn't be surprised! Dutch hangout, you might not feel that you fit in if not Dutch but its worth going for the food. Near the inner Jomtien beach police box area http://www.ons-moede...aya.nl/map.html http://www.tripadvis...i_Province.html **************** "The Place" Israeli Restaurant Menu in English and Hebrew and maybe Thai (I forget) Hard to find Israeli specialties: Shakshuka served with bread (this is very similar to Mexican Huevos Rancheros I kid you not!), Hummus with spicy meat, Hummus with organ meats, Baba ghanoush, Full platter dinner meals, Homemade soups such as chicken or lentil I think probably the best Israeli "place" in town and yes of course an Israeli tourist hangout Soi Boukaow, not too far from Pattaya Tai https://foursquare.c...a52fadb3461eb25 ****************** Umanchu Okinawa Food Also has Thai food. Okinawa food has different dishes than standard Japanese. Featured Okinawa dishes: Bitter gourd with pork and egg stir fry / Okinawa soba with pork belly style pork (both offered in small sets 200 baht) Prices moderate, portions on the small side. Good clean flavors. Only a few tables and they are outside! Across the street from the Montien Hotel, 2nd Road http://en.wikipedia....kinawan_cuisine http://www.foodpanda...anchu-(Pattaya) _________________ The idea NOW is for you to add YOUR own hit and run snippets about places YOU would like to mention and share. My "vision" for this thread is just a bunch of posts only with these mini hit and run restaurant mentions, but I understand people are probably going to want to COMMENT on the restaurants other people have mentioned. I guess we'll see how it goes (if it goes at all).

Some of you may have noticed that I am one of the top posters here; I mean in VOLUME. Believe it or not, that wasn't really my goal. In fact it is rather embarrassing. I am totally in the closet in my actual persona being "Jingthing" and such. I don't attend Thaivisa gatherings and I've never told a soul I am Jingthing. But it has occurred to me at this point, I may be FAMOUS among expats in Thailand. Now I know not all expats read this site, so I am assuming this "fame" if it really exists wouldn't go beyond readers of this forum, correct? But there ARE lots of forum users. Do you think I'm famous? Do expats talk about me (mostly dissing I assume) when they meet over beers? And most importantly, please advise on how I may be able to make LOTS OF MONEY on my fame (if it exists)! If you have serious proposals on the money question, feel free to PM me with the particulars. Cheers.