Guderian

Another little trick I've noticed this store playing is that they often put up discount price signs on goods, and the new prices have not been incorporated into the checkout computer system. On three separate occasions I've had to go to customer services after checking out and explain to them that the price shown on the shelf is not the price charged at the till. With the usual resentful attitude towards a picky farang, they stump off and come back 5 or 10 minutes later, reluctantly agreeing that it's a mistake, and then give you the refund. If you see one of these useful discounts, take a photo so you can just show it to the people on the customer service desk if you end up being charged the wrong price, the cashiers can't do anything.

Around 15 years ago, I did a 40-minute flyover of Mt. Pinatubo in The Philippines from Clark, and the cost was $60. The plane was tiny, though, a trainer, so it could only take one passenger. A great experience, anyway.

That was the case 10+ years ago when the Thai second-hand car market was a fantasyland, but the used-car market is pretty much normal now. No problem at all getting a decent car for 150K-200K Baht.

You could buy a cheap, second-hand car.

I've lived along Thepprasit for the last 12 years and it's been a great spot to live, the fastest way to get to the beach or Sukhumvit, and not far from Jomtien or Pattaya as well as all the big stores on Sukhumvit. The last few years it's become a joke with the roadworks. It looks like the central barrier they're building will stop people taking many of the right-turns that are popular, presumably there will be the very dangerous fast-lane U-turn places instead. I'm just glad that I know all the back streets and rat runs so I can avoid the traffic jams, though they're a lot slower than just driving along Thepprasit would have been in the past. This is a fine example of what should be a guiding principle of government: if it ain't broke, don't try fixing it. Thepprasit worked fine, but I guess the crocodiles in City Hall saw an opportunity to pocket some money and so we now have to put up with this unholy mess.

My brother was given that in the UK last October, so it's hardly 'new'. I guess the hospitals here want to get rid of their stocks of the older vaccines, we should be grateful they aren't still touting Anutin's supply of Chinese vaccines, lol.

Perhaps the expensive air fares nowadays have something to do with it? A lot of people are just taking one long foreign holiday a year now, instead of two shorter ones.

That sounds like the Chanya medical clinic near the Machanu statue. It's still open, still busy, and still offers little in the way of privacy, lol. For many years, I used the clinics on Second Road by Walking Street, Dr. Sawadeepong who seemed more interested in options trading than he was in medicine. He closed down years ago and is probably making far more money just sitting by his laptop waiting for the right price. Then there was Dr. Chanvit, my favourite, opposite Soi 18. Sadly, she also closed down during the pandemic, but she had personal health issues. The clinic on Second Road on the north side of Soi 16 and the Marine Plaza hotel was still open the last time i looked, but that was a year or two ago when I needed to get a wax build-up syringed out of one ear. Dr. Olivier is still around, though I've never used him myself, but he's located on Thepprasit Soi 12 nowadays, by the TW condo/village.

...or maybe this one, lol...

No hotter than normal. My weather station has the shade temperature in the garden only just over 36° C at most, whereas in other years it's regularly recorded temperatures in the high 36°'s and even over 37° C on occasions. I think there are two differences this year. Firstly, it seems to be more humid than it usually is, which makes it feel hotter, of course. Here's a tool to convert temperature and RH into the 'effective' temperature or heat index: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/heatindex.shtml And secondly, I've never ever in 20 years living in this city known the air quality to be so dreadful at this time of the year. The city smells like an old ashtray every day now, it's revolting. I can put up with the air pollution in winter when it's not too hot and the humidity is low, and I can put up with the usual hot season temperature and humidity, but put them both together and it's insufferable.

Unacceptable behaviour in much of the country, but pretty common in Pattaya and a few other places, lol. Maybe your friend had spent some time in Sin City before and thought the rest of the country would be the same.

It's in the name, Tom Kha Gai (well, that's the transliteration used here), which means chicken galangal soup. Galangal: ข่า which is usually transliterated as khaa, with the low tone.

Reminds me of the same situation in Pattaya a few years ago, when some jobsworth announced that it was just natural sea fog that was causing the poor visibility. Never mind that all the meters reading AQI and PM2.5 were saying the opposite. Someone should explain to these guys that DeNial is a river in Egypt, not a policy option, lol.

I was in the V2V wine shop on Thepprasit this morning and the boss there was saying exactly the same thing.

Siamburi's has imported NZ and Aussie steaks and other cuts at prices that aren't ridiculous. When I lived in West Africa many years ago, one English couple used to buy the (pretty awful) local beef and hang it for a week or so in their storeroom in one of the wife's stockings. Don't ask me for the details, but I used to eat it and it was tender and very nice. If you're into that sort of do-it-yourself thing you could try it with the Thai beef, which is nothing like as bad as the African version was. The other alternative is to buy a slow cooker or Dutch Oven and cook a tough, fatty joint for 10 or 12 hours, until it becomes like braised stewing steak, tender and falling apart. I do this to make a stew and it's very easy, just needs a bit of patience.

You clearly haven't been keeping up with the changes over the last 18 years. I'd suggest you spend a few hours using Google to get up to speed with the current rules. There's a useful topic on this subject here: which also explains the best way to get in touch with the DWP up to 4 months before your 66th birthday to make the claim. I turn 66 next month and made the claim by phone around 6 weeks ago, with no problems and no more than a minute or two waiting to be connected.

Sounds like these "foreigners" may have been of the Chinese variety rather than the 'sweating farang' sort.

I'm sure that's what President Zelensky wants to do, too, lol.

Oh no! Does this mean he was telling porkies about the 10K Baht he will give every Thai in a digital wallet too? The GF has already spent it, she'll be mortified, lol!

Please engage brain before opening mouth, and actually read what was written. Why do you have a bug up your ตูด about 800K when nobody has mentioned it and it's irrelevant? People such as myself are simply paying an agent because we can afford it to avoid the hassle of actually going to the Jomtien Office.

They've simply decided to privatise the Immigration service in Jomtien. Incentivise everyone but the cheapest of Cheap Charlies to use an agent to avoid the Hellish experience of using the office nowadays, and the cops will make bags of money via their fees from the agents.

A massive unfunded boost to public spending will mean a huge budget deficit and that will drive the Baht down sharply. Oh please, Buddha!

This is why many of us are using agents nowadays, when we never had to use them pre-Covid. The place is a bad joke, but the more people use agents the more kickbacks the Immigration staff get, so you might say that it's not actually in their interest to improve the service level.

Cheaper down the road opposite the petrol stations at Talad Kwai, aka the Buffalo Market.

I buy these from Villa, not cheap at around 460 Baht/jar. I like to add extra jalapenos, too. The smaller (and much cheaper) version you can buy in cans stuffed with anchovies from Spain are OK, too.