thaibeachlovers

LOL. That's basically what happened when they built Promenada shopping mall in Chiang Mai. Must have cost a very large pile of money to erect, and virtually empty of shoppers apart from the supermarket. Having the immigration there probably doubled the visitor numbers, IMO.

Pensioners?????? Most of Pattaya doesn't rely on western pensioners. IMO apart from the expats, Pattaya is a Thai city for the most part. I doubt tourism is significant outside the coastal strip. Tell me if you live outside the coastal strip and I'm wrong.

News flash- men and women have different priorities in life, which could be one contributing factor to the 50% + of failed marriages. Just because women can live happily without men it doesn't work visa versa.

You write as though you know nothing about Thai culture as it used to be a while back ( it's changing ), and impart western cultural values to Thailand, which is just wrong in so many ways. If you don't know what you are talking about, should you be commenting on a personal level on here? As for the category that in your opinion I belong to it's certainly no worse than the category I'm putting you in. Bye.

I'd never marry a supermodel and or a famous actress anyway. Waaaay too high maintenance. No problem being a toyboy as long as I got a lot of sex. If she gave me an STD I'd divorce her and make a load of cash.

I always thought it best to not see inside a kitchen of the many small Thai beach resorts I stayed at. I once had a glimpse of one and thought it better not to know in future. As one that grew up before sterility became a big thing I probably developed some immunity from ingesting germs with my food. The worst case of food poisoning I ever had in Thailand was after eating in a western style expensive restaurant that would have been expected to have a clean kitchen, and the other bad case of food poisoning was from eating at a well known fast food restaurant in a western country.

Avian flu was a unique event, like covid, not the norm. I was referring to the norm. I AM a nurse and well aware why masks are worn during surgery. The masks we used were not the cheap variety that Thais wear for pollution. You said "You say flimsy surgical masks offfer no protection" which you are making up as I didn't say they offer "NO" protection. They offer some, but not much as air can enter from the sides. As for Bkk, I specifically said "outside cities"- Bkk is, the last time I was there, a city. They didn't wear masks in Chiang Mai during burning season any more than any other time of year in my experience.

Don't confuse the small area of Pattaya from the waterfront to Second Rd with greater Pattaya. Every foreign owned restaurant and bar in Pattaya could close and greater Pattaya will carry on regardless ie the part that doesn't rely on night life.

Who runs Thailand is nothing to do with any of us, and never made any difference to me ( except for purachai ), so I find it puzzling that a foreigner would be "elated" by Thai politics.

IMO one had to be wealthy or desperate to rent date a bargirl on Samui back in the 90s. Much cheaper and certainly more choice if bringing one with you from Pattaya.

No reason at all, but it is western women that denigrate us western men for even being in Thailand.

I'll be sorry if they go out of business, as Thai was the only airline I'd fly that did Bkk Auckland direct. Hated stopping off in Oz and having to get off the plane, go through security etc.

I can't speak for SEA outside Thailand, but I never saw much mask wearing in Thailand outside cities where they apparently thought cheap surgical masks would protect against pollution. I fail to understand why anyone would claim Thais have a mask wearing "culture".

IMO it'll be like the flu- always there, but not considered a big deal by most. I've had the flu injection, and I don't go around worrying about it.

Given the woke claim that only white people are racist, in my experience the most racist people were not white.

You wuz lucky then. The times I was treated fairly by my masters and bosses were notable by their rarity. Most of the time I just tried to keep my head down and not be noticed. Also treated very badly by people I knew and didn't expect to screw me over. As for 90 day report- it's their country and they can do whatever they like. I was happy 90 day report ( and extensions ) were as bad as it got ie not very bad at all, compared to what might have been.

I left through choice, but only because after my marriage ended I couldn't afford the medical insurance. I did not WANT to leave.

Given I used to be able to stay on 90 day visa exempt with a ( visa free ) visit to Malaya 4 times a year of course I have seen it, but the requirements as set out on the official information were not onerous, and certainly easier than for a Thai woman to visit many western countries. What made the process exasperating for me were the stupidities the local offices introduced on their own initiative.

Other than Antarctica I don't know any other country I'd WANT to move to, and Antarctica isn't a country, so that's out too.

Don't know about the Thais, but I violently disagree with you. IMO Thaksin was the worst thing that ever happened to Thailand since the 1930s. You appear to believe Chuan Leekpai was corrupt. That's not how I remember him, and IMO that was the high point of modern Thailand. IMO since Thaksin was elected LOS has been on a slow but gradual downhill slope to some unknown existence, if the Chinese don't change things to something more to their liking. Just as one example of Thaksin's bad leadership, Swampy could have been as good as Changi, instead of the dump it turned out to be, for the usual reason.

Assuming you are a foreigner, and not a Thai, I don't get why you would be "elated" by whoever runs the country. You don't get to vote.

IMO they were probably created to correct a situation that existed then, but are kept now to remind us that we are "guests" that are only tolerated, and IMO not really welcome.

Might as well for all the good it's done. Oceans polluted to the point of extinction of fish, rainforests disappearing at an ever increasing rate, greed runs rampant in the exploitation of anything that makes a buck. Saving a tree here and there in wealthy western countries is hardly saving the human species from being polluted into extinction, IMO.

IMO it's always a bad idea to expect fairness in life. I have rarely experienced it from other people and very often not at all from officialdom. If a 90 day report is the worst thing that happens to you in your life, you are blessed, IMO.

Most countries are great, till one lives in them.