Prubangboy

Thoughts on my sitch. I remit $60K a year here. It's all dividend income, taxed at 15% in America. Thailand also has a 15% dividend rate. You can pay it as a flat withholding tax here, separate from the progressive income tax. After I pay Thailand their 15% ($9K), that payment can be used as a tax credit applied to my US taxes. This is per a US/Thailand tax treaty agreement (your home country may differ). I give Thailand $9K (15%), and then later I get a $9K rebate on my US taxes. Key point: It's the USA that give you the tax rebate, not anything having to do with Thai tax law. Thailand can tax whatever they like, it's your home country that will offset it, assuming their tax treaty says so. A Thai working in the states is on the opposite end of the same deal: He pays the USA first, and then he gets a rebate from his home country. My total tax increase is zero. Meanwhile, living in paradise, I am dodging state income tax back home. Finicky is asking about capital gains from selling stocks. Both countries have the same rate of 15% and the same double taxation agreement that allows you to deduct your Thailand payments from your USA tax bill. Interest payments -same deal here: 15%, same USA tax deduction. Problem for Me and for Thailand: Past the rebate threshold, I will now want to remit less money to Thailand. It will just pile up back in the states. There's only so many vacations outside of Thailand where I might spend it. If buy a nice watch or a MacBook, that's now much more likely to happen overseas.

What kind of drunken Chav life is this, following me around, sniffing my old man butt? Please, have some self-respect.

Most pathetically passive-aggressive impotent swipe ever. I sense the stench of the English. Crystal Gong show was only 300 baht, in your terms, the same as a lady drink. Don't postpone joy. Bang a gong. Get it on.

Nah, I like posts with prices. My eating out is no personal diss on you. Some people come here to get laid. I got laid at home. We came here to eat. Whatever your $$$-deal is, I hope you like it. But there are other legs to hump here like a demented German Shepard. Don't feel like you have to keep on humping mine.

I said what I did. I didn't say what you should do. How 'bout a nice rubber beer cozy to keep that Chang cold?

I did Qi Gong and the gym 2 days in a row, one after another. The Qi Gong def revs me up for the weights, but a lie-down afterwards is necessary. I read 2 self-published books by a guy who floats down various Thai rivers -pretty good. I just bought the biggest Marshall blue tooth speaker, so I've hitting the Blue Note Jazz label Ballard playlists hard. Food-wise, my wife is back from her Bluegrass Festival in the Blue Ridges and installing a hot tub in our AirBnb (already upping our bookings), so she's been hungry for our favorites. I ordered in a big mezz platter from always stellar Hummus Chiang, Mai for her return We also ordered in 200 baht pad from Ging Grie, our all-time fave Thai place around the corner (soon to be Michelin'd); also Tom Young Goon, stinky Issan somtam, and an order of black sticky rice -pretty much our go-to order. I took some grief here for eating 200 baht pad thai, but it's by far the best I ever had. It's reference-pad thai. We went out to Sushi Umai, which tops every Chiang Mai sushi listing (a deal for the quality) and to a new a/c cafe 90 baht place called JEAB, 500 steps away. It's only a little bit less good than Ging Grie. Sunday, we'll splurge on oysters at Mer by the Ping River -1,500 baht a dozen, but they are monsters. I really missed her, so we've been staring at each other hard for days. I went to a new-agey crystal bowl and gong concert today -if you can call an event where you lie down on a mat and let the vibes wash over you a concert. Prob a one and done. I really wished I hadn't quit weed. Lovely people, will def go back for a workshop or something. Tomorrow, we're going to Church. She wants to meet other older white women. I told her, you gotta fish where the fish are. It's a very liberal, inter-donominational church, so prob not too bad. And it's near the oysters.

They may have moved on. They were saying as much last year. I live hopping distance away, so I'll have look-in for you. But yeah, lovely and a bargain. Beautiful, very quiet soi to stay on. My own weekend thread has some Nimman Recco's. We eat out/order in every single meal from within a 5 minute walk of soi 15.

Accha, by the Nimman1 Mall is a big cut above the usual gravy-sludge. And the have S.Indian food too. 'Order in about every other week.

Strong Recco for Mr Laptop Near CentralW0rld (that's how they spell it). Exemplary service, great prices. Give him a call first to make sure he can do it. It's in a building way back from the street. You need a picture ID to be allowed on the elevator. My own verdict: prob not worth fixing.

Just did an expensive lung wellness thing at Bumrungrad. I'm good. Chronic bronchitis is a frequent problem for old potheads. Chronic bronchitis will def tend to lead to other problems. Most people who give up weed report the same as me. I'm not saying it's fatal; I'm making the very common sense point that inhaling smoke and holding it in is bad for you. How bad, how much? Who knows? I def feel better all around without it. I smoked more than you, and yet also made it a point to leave Chiang Mai for burning season -to protect my lungs. Logic is not a strength usually attributed to potheads.

Why can't people use the basic brains that God gave them and hit the return key to create occasional paragraphs? This fundamental stupidity underlies and explains the bigger stupidity. Agree as per above: the whole story isn't being told her and I detect a whiff of troll-dom.

I am 80 days weed-free and feel the best I have felt in years. I'm still coughing up grey gunk, tho. Weed put that grey gunk in me, and coughing it out can only be to the good. I never met a person who gave it up and regretted. Caveat: most weed quitters are back on it within 2 years. 2nd Caveat: Since I smoked more pot than Bob Marley (he died young, I kept on going) I would never harsh the mellow of someone bonging up by mentioning my new ability (not to mention new inclination) to read 2 books in a week and turn the treadmill up. Leave those degenerates in peace.

If you ban it outright, there will def be much less cannabis use, partic among Thai people. When I lived in England, where it was much less available, I smoked a lot less weed. The premise that the black market is immune to suppression is very specious. It's not 100% effective, but it's not wholly ineffective. You may seen weed use reduction as "no benefit" but many Thai people -who vote- disagree with you. The growing mood I get here is along the lines of: "We've catered to the whities too much for too long. MTGA." Make Thailand Great Again. It's amusing to see so many MAGA righties here arguing that's what's sauce for the goose back home is not -and can never be- sauce for the gander where they are currently enjoying a cheapskate paradise.

Loving this discussion, but banning cannabis is being pursued as a moral issue, much more than as a health issue. The government and a big part of the middle and upper class view THC intoxication as wrong to do. It may be hypocritical to view cigarettes and booze as OK, but just like in the states, among conservative people, most opposers are very comfortable with that double-standard. Constantly reiterating about that double standard is pointless. There is no desire to toss a new vice in the mix, and a lot of pushback against it. Weed is net/net bad for you. This is undebatable. Arguing that it's not fatal-level bad is a very weak argument. Likewise, huffily complaining, "well, it's not bad for ME, personally". I am 100% for full legalization, btw. This is a Buddhist country and Big B was def down on intoxicants. Likewise gambling. The concern about the young is genuine. I was surprised that weed ever got legalized. I won't be surprised if it's not in a year. I hear a lot about harmlessness in this chat, but can anyone point to a societal net gain from weed? Jobs? Mostly low paying, dead end crappy jobs. Tourism? Amsterdam is moving away from weed tourism and is still packed out, as would be Phuket. Money? For whom? Foreigners? The tax base? Short version: What's in it for the Thai Middle Class? They don't want their kids near it and they don't like seeing stores with cartoony leaves on a sign out front. How would you convince them otherwise?

Unless you got here yesterday, you should know that Thailand is the land of no-small-bills. It is your job as a whitie zillionaire -who has plenty of time on his hands- to have the appropriate change to simplify the lives of lovely, hard-working people who are working for 10 bucks a day. Under no circumstances should said poor people be expected to subsidize you, ever.

I'm looking to get out of the house and do something. And it's in The Old City, which I love, but barely visit. They have a tantric sex workshop too. I am so on that.

We're talking about a whopping $140 blow out while on vacation? For several people? Parties cost more in Haiti. Get a grip.

I just signed up for 35 Qi Gong classes here in Chiang Mai. It seems like Tai Chi, but with more emphasis on balance. It's like, if I lived in Paris, I'd drink more wine: I live in CM, so why not study with a semi-name Qi Gong guy? I'm going to shorten my gym visits to squeeze it in. Anyone here done any so-called spiritual exercise? Muay Thai qualifies. What did you get out of it? Bonus question: Anyone had any romantic experience with a yoga-enthusiast? Was it chill or hot?

Saraburi is worth a look. I did a search here about Nonthaburi (also worth a look) and found that several posters here had moved there, since they found Nonthaburi too built-up. Spent two days there. If you're home-centered and content with Pizza Express and Swenson-type options at the mall for whitie-food, def worth a check-out. A little too sedate for me; I'd opt for Nonthaburi. I'd pick Cha Am over Hua Hin, but again, it's the battle of small versus smaller (with smaller winning out for me in that case).

I don't really care if they do or they don't. If they are a net-positive for me in terms of selling produce cheaper or having a taco truck I like, or doing some bad job that no whitie will do anymore, or picking fruit so an apple doesn't cost $5, I say come one, come all -and feel free to have your separate ethnic thing. The melting pot demand is obsolete, nearing a full century of being hilariously out of date. We need the warm, able bodies since we're no longer birthing our own and never will again. My mother in law's Mex caretaker gets $200 a day tax-free, plus room and generous board (5 people are also living there and eating). She nets out at more than a bank assistant vice president who went to a good college. Crazily, no poor whitie wants to do that job for that money. If one could be found, Mamacita would be quickly drop-kicked back to whence she came by my racist, TrumpTrash in-laws. Mamacita looks around and isn't sweating it. Hell, my mother in law gave her a used Rav4 car. When she dies, she will easily leap to another gig. She's gone for good back to adobe-land in a decade at the longest.

Again, as a Yank: Thank god for the Mexicans. They assimilate easily, are christian, want to move back home as soon as they can, contribute massively to Social Security for my boomer-benifet. And: Mexican Terrorism: Not since Zapata.

Def give this book a read (warning: no psychometric analysis): https://silkwormbooks.com/products/way-thais-lead It's about the Thai concept of Face (as in: saving face). Synopsis: if you keep going out of your way to humiliate very poor people, you are making them lose face. And it's only a matter of time before one of them punches you in your's.

Laos -real estate that no one's ever going to fight over. So I'd guess I'd go there. Udomoxi -lovely in the spring.

In Nimman, Chiang Mai, the genie is way too out of the bottle for that to happen. I'm going to estimate pot stores at 5% of all retail store frontage, partic along Nimman Road. A couple of have closed due to ineptitude, and I notice that no one else has re-rented them. I almost never see a soul in these stores, even on the weekends. It's the hipster equivalent of putting an unemployable rich kid into a coffee bar biz to have something to do where he might shift a half a dozen cups a day. Forget the pot heads leading a torch-lit protest to Anut's house, won't someone please, please think of the landlords? Full disclosure: I was a drooling, slobbering pothead when I got here, but got too high and have since sworn off it for good. My desire to stop others from my dismal former fate is bumping along zero.

You're white boy summer has come and gone. White boy summer was 2021. Are you still upset about goofball white boy summer? Chill, Bro.