Prubangboy

Agreed, it's down to: -spice level (I like it medium) -sweetness (minimal) -spice (I like a dash of 5 spice powder in with the cinnamon) There's a place down by the old night market where the gimmick is that they pour the coconut milk into the chicken stock at the table. I think it adds about 10% flavor-wise, but that may be down to placebo effect I suspected the much-hyped Islam Kao Soi was getting good reviews just to bend over backwards to like something muslim. True: subpar crispy noodles, and just too sweet. In the old city, around the corner from Wat Yu (and not far from NOOM N. Thai Cuisine) is an old temple restaurant with an original and beautfifully patina'd old wood interior. Vegan Khao Soi with shredded tofu that almost passes for chicken. 40 baht from the steam table (they're done by 2 PM). Google for Ming Kwan Vegetarian. There is no English language sign.

Mae Sot is a medium-good Mae-a Mayanmar mashup, the uniqueness of which is def overstated. Nice waterfall (zzzzz). A bit of the old teak left standing. Mae Sariang is just a poor village, prob the most under-achieving Mae. If one wanted to study indigenous Islam among tribal people, well, that prob would not be you. The Mae you want is Mae Hong Son. That's a Mae where you can kill 3 days. And see long neck people for free, drinking coffee. And then you could take your long-suffering GF to Pai, like she actually would prefer.

Been 4 times in the last year. Very good. A must for visitors . Try the beef Khao Soi. Get there at 11:30 AM and there is no line. Khao Soi Nimman another good 'un. It's gets dissed on Youtube for having air conditioning and hanging ferns. Ging Grai on Soi 11 off Nimman Road is my fave Thai restaurant in CM; we order in at least once a week. Solid Khao Soi. The absolute best Khao soi I've had to date is the vegan version at Good Souls in The Old City. I was sceptical, but that broth is perfect. 'Don't even miss the chicken (tofu and mushrooms instead).

That somtam isn't going to pound itself.

Georgie, did you ever feel like you were tossing a hot dog into The Holland Tunnel?

Tried Mex City. Pros: very intellectual (lots of bookstores), cheap food, greener than you'd think. Cons: Not a lot of English spoken, a bit rough when you leave your little zone, about 30% more $$$'s than Thailand. -When Thailand opened up post-covid, I went direct to Chiang Mai. It was always my first choice.

To quote my idol, George W Bush "Why do you hate freedom?".

You gotta stop thinking of the $$ impact you have on the nice local people adjacent to you and think in terms of the macroeconomic. An expat is much less spendy than an average tourist. Few are springing for the 150 baht durian ice cream cone, but yeah, we're big, big consumers of bottled water. When I think of it, my landlord is a fellow New Yorker, 80% of the dining I do is in non-Thai owned places. My biggest $$ contribution to Thai people is 1) Grab Cabs 2)Weed.

Agreed, it cost money to chase down these tiny amounts. A haircut on remittances is very unlikely to happen.

And yet, you list no vitamins. Maybe double check on that increased mental clarity claim? 99% of the world thinks "taking vitamins" means taking the pill form. As long as I'm here, how did you arrive at this diet/vitamin formulation? This sounds like medium-extreme intermittent fasting. What are your thoughts on that approach?

It is indeed a mean ol' world full of low-morals opportunists. All of the world economies have a lot of problems. Thanks.

I gotta dig up the post from the guy who did the math on expat remittances and found them to be about .01% of the Thai economy. This is like a wino outside of a casino saying he's keeping the doors open there because he bought his pint at the 7/11 out front.

Yeah, the word for that is resident. Specifically, tax resident. Just like where you come from, just like the world over. As to the rest of it, it is self-evident that people who live here 52 weeks a year use more services than 2 week visitors.

Can you give an example of how someone's total tax bill might decrease under this scheme?

'Would love to hear more about your tax research in Columbia, which does not have a tax treaty with the US. But Thailand does. So it's super-likely it will follow along with US rules on taxable income.

You seem to think Thailand cares if you stay or go. So will there ever be a moment where Thai people are rueful and regretful about losing say, 10,000 low end expats? And will we ever be privy to that sweet schadenfreude? Or is this just some feverish revenge fantasy confined to your own head? I gotta go with: No, No, and Yes.

They'd miss the cheap labor Myanmar people a lot more than they'd ever miss us. We are but mere hood ornaments on the engine of the Thai economy.

As a former Infrastructure policy specialist, I can assure you that your modest contribution via your bill to capital projects is very minimal. Pretending that your few modest fees, $22K in the bank, and local spending is even close paying your way here borders on the zany. You had a free ride when they semi-needed you here. But like artist types who one day wake up to find a dentist living in the loft next door, things change.

If you flush your toilet, you're using their infrastructure. Stop lights? That costs money. This is the usual pretending not to understand loser blather. Your whiny "not sure" gambit is the tip off that you know you're a freeloader. And I thank you for your late entry "I'm a big spender here and the Thai's owe me" obligatory AN post. While you may indeed be rocking your world in Roi Et, all expat remittances are not even a rounding error in an economy this size. Again, the fearless seer, Swissie, foretold this all long ago. Hopefully, he will pop in here with more painful truth.

Again, thanks for pointing this out. Real life examples with real life math are always light on the ground here.

It's a mean ol' world and the Con side is doing a very good job of winning, despite a huge demographic disadvantage. Respect. Someone told (Saint) Obama that he needed to talk tougher. Replied O: "Nah, what I needed was more votes".

Nah, people don't want to pay for non-nationals, in every place in the world. It's a human nature kind of thing. Just like Thai people don't want to pay for your share of infrastructure and government service usage. Yes, it's nice that you stuck $22K in a bank account (assuming you even did, and didn't use an agent). But what have you done for them lately?

That's on a $25K annual remittance as per the table in this thread. If it comes to pass. Many people here don't like that and are engaged in a war against arithmetic, I guess to go along with the war on Christmas. When you lived in the UK, were you happy to see Non-Doms taxed? Did you, like most people there, want them taxed even more? Well, welcome to shoe on the other foot-land. Swissie, one of our deepest thinkers, had a good thread called "The Doors Are Slamming Shut". He meant on low income retiree's options world-wide. Poor places will def be looking to expats to pay up,

Controlling Laos is like inheriting a broken clock. China will have trouble getting paid back on their various schemes. Who isn't in default is the real question.

Not to derail a good convo, but I was a government analyst. This flavor is heavily big government/moderate left of center. Not a single conservative was in my grad school policy analysis program. They have no interest. They have no actionable policies. Reality and problem-solving has a liberal bias. Hillary -the laser-focused super-wonk, is our sexual fantasy. The deep state is real. Fear us.