Fishfish Snakesnake

Western visitors are rarely aware of the vital relevance of this matter to local people in SE Asian countries. Here in Indonesia, it is taken quite seriously; there were multiple murders of purported sorcerers a few years ago in Banyuwangi, the port city in East Java where you take the ferry to Bali. I personally know two expats who had been threatened (Japanese woman's bad marriage / bad divorce and abrasive loudmouthed Yorkshireman planning to ditch his wife and head off with a cutie). The woman was riding along with me in a car and laughed "My husband tells the boys that he cannot help with their school fees and I should pay them - but I know that he has already given Rp. 5 million to a dukun santet to harm me". Early 40s, slim, healthy - then her son called me up one Saturday morning and said "My mother can't wake up." One month in ICU with a massive stroke before dying. Ditto for the guy, except that he just ended up paralyzed down one side of his body. In both cases, santet was mentioned - strokes being a common result of a purported attack. Roll the eyes, sneer and laugh it off at your own peril. Bear in mind that these societies are thousands of years old and there is much hidden knowledge and practice we are not privy to.

That comment brings to mind the horror story of entrepreneurial Chinese dredging cooking oil out of a drain and "recycling" it into their cuisine. A couple of years ago. Cue the meme: "They'll eat anything with four legs except the table ... anything that flies except airplanes ... anything under the seas except for submarines..."

Just a note to support your plan to purchase. I bought a refurbished T470 around 6 years ago and have been hammering out work with it (business reports, IPOs, etc.) maybe 7 hours a day on average since. Changed the power supply twice - cheap repair. I bought it on the recommendation of an IT website stating the Lenovo had the best keyboard of its class. I purchased the unit on-line, with a fairly limited dealer warranty, which was a risk in case there was a catastrophic fault that did not emerge for a while (as happened with a despicable Apple iMac 24, whose multiplicity of faults put me off that brand permanently). Go for it.

The Chinese do not coddle their criminals. Little woke compassion for those accused and convicted (excuse the tautology) (pretty near 100% conviction rates). It is ironic when they are busted, as they have already most likely coughed up a goodly amount of "protection money" to certain lax authorities to avoid capture ... but you can't pay everyone off, and the long arm of the law that was not loaded with gold will be doubly ready to collar you.

I have been impressed by the change in receptive attitudes, which I interpret as "the western visitor has passed his 'sell-by' date". In the early 1980s, when first visiting a new town (Prachuab Khirikhan comes to mind) I was in the habit of trailing high school kids to their school, and when confronted I asked to speak to the English teacher. They always welcomed someone to lighten classroom drudgery and I was invited to do a little show'n'tell for the students, who in turn treated me like a movie star. This way I got steered to the best cheap lodging, good eats and even appealing hiking trails. In short, friendly young westerners were considered charming novelties. I would never consider doing that today. No one would be interested - not when TikTok is much more amusing, and farang have a bad rep as well. An era has certainly passed. From all reports, people are acting tired of each other's routines and are certainly not as entranced by foreign faces as was the case historically. The 1970s were great fun, and part of that was undoubtedly the paucity of westerners (long after the VN War - the American GI invasion had subsided). Show me somewhere that the flood of arrogant, loudmouthed, suspicious, penny-pinching tourists has not defiled, and I'll award you a commendation. Even the ever-polite Japanese are feeling the effect of "over-tourism". I also blame the internet (easy target - I know).

My understanding is that there is a class of "excitement junkies" known as "mafia groupies" who like to hang around them ... and the wiseguys tolerate them ... until someone pulls a mean prank, or the mafioso decides to shake one down, or a groupie looks ripe for the picking (involve you in narcotics, either as an unaware smuggler or collateral damage). An artist pal in NY recounted to me how he had helped a young girl on drugs get straight, and her family was most grateful. Her father was a made man and expressed his thanks to my friend. Nevertheless, people in the know advised him to politely accept nothing from anyone connected to that element of society and to keep a prudent distance. There is absolutely no upside to associating with them - for one thing, you might easily wind up in police files, as a potential drug mule or other type of associate. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the same thing applies to the Thai underworld.

Advice here from a very heavy user - since the early 1990s - surviving by editing English-language text for clients in Indonesia . In my experience, Asians in general, with the possible exception of Japanese, handle items like cell phones, motorbikes or laptops roughly. They do not give their personal instruments the same kind of TLC that we grow up learning to do in the west. If I happened to set a camera down hard, or carelessly on its lens, my old man might give me a good hard slap, and I would have earned it. I learned early on to handle electronics very thoughtfully, like living beings, and avoid sharp kinks in cables (for instance) or setting down heavy items on cell phones (while packing or traveling). A second-hand laptop may have been dropped on a corner but not cracked, or dropped and its case replaced ... but it has damage inside, and an intermittent short that cuts out the LCD screen. Major manufacturers give one-year warranties for a very good reason: personal computers are treacherous little devils, and will often let you down for the oddest of reasons. Final note: I've never gone wrong with Lenovo. Astonishing reliability, although I had to replace a power supply once four years ago (cheap). Not that fancy or fast a unit but reliable, as my laptops are workhorses.

Thanks again. This is not at all my area of expertise but I thought I should do my best as I was asked, as someone familiar with life in LoS (at least in former times...)

Your prompt response is most appreciated, 'save the frogs'. I feel at a loss in this matter as I've not partaken of the magic vegetable since the early 1970s, after smoking up half the ditches in Mexico. I'm still hunting for a location where my stricken pal can reside while in Thailand (and with easy access to the killer-weed). If he continues to go downhill that would include overseeing the usual messy bodily functions, I presume, as well as serving food and fun. I was simply wondering whether any enterprising "medical tourism" operation had set up a facility based around therapeutic cannabis.

I'm a long-time orbiter of LoS, and worked for STOU from 1984 ~ 1986, while living in Rak Si (we called it "Roxy") in a nice old terribly hot wooden house run by a couple we referred to as "The Witch" and "The Zombie". Visits to the Kingdom from 1969 ... last trip there with an old pal and his family in 2024. I moved to Indonesia in 1988, and have been a Communications Worker as well as ESL "Edutainer" here. Only a lurker on the aseannow site, as I seem to have little in common with the majority of contributors. One of my old ESL teaching pals, a California stoner in his late 50s operating a surfing camp in Krui, West Lampung (Sumatra) has recently been diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer and it seems to be spreading rapidly. I suspect he's down with the "turbocancer" derived from the "safe&effective" bioweapon clotshots, but have kept my mouth shut. He's in a wheelchair and suffering, as the medicos here are miserly with painkillers. He has asked about Thailand because he knows my history, and I am thus writing to seek possible leads to a facility where he can stay stoned on grass while whiling out his remaining days (not long, I'd surmise). I hate to say "hospice" but that is essentially what it would be. No sterile hospital setting, thanks - we have plenty of those down here. Any suggestions? I know that there was a discussion of retirement homes for wealthy foreigners (wrinklies death watch), but have heard nothing about a facility that would take care of you and keep you zonked on mary-hoochy.