BangkokHank

Of course the officer asked for the "facilitating payment" AFTER you completed the survey saying that you were not asked for a bribe. Then if you complain later, they can say, "But you said you were not asked for a bribe!" Something similar happened to me on a boat tour in Vietnam once. The boat rowers were known to really pester tourists for a "tip" at the end of the tour, which put a lot of tourists off. So just before the end of the tour, the rowers handed out a questionnaire that was essentially the same as the one you mentioned, asking if the rower had asked you for a tip. After saying no, the rower hinted, "Since I didn't ASK you for a tip, would you consider giving one voluntarily?" So I think the whole purpose of those questionnaires is to get a tip anyway - while making it seem like it was your choice to give the tip.

Also plausible.

According to Thai thinking, having a Thai wife would enable a man to live for less - because his wife can help him avoid being cheated/paying farang prices for things. A single farang doesn't have this advantage, so he needs more money.

If he had gone downstairs to pick p the food, how did this "woman" leave the building without passing him on the way out? Or did she go out the window?

It wasn't.

This is exactly the opposite of what we have seen in reality. Prosperity has in fact increased with the increase in population, as paradoxical as that may seem. And with increasing prosperity comes the ability to take better care of one's environment. Sri Lanka is a good example of this. Now that it's economy has been destroyed, its environment is going to be destroyed. Starving people think about survival, which means they will kill every animal on the island to eat to survive, and burn every tree for fuel with which to cook.

You don't happen to work for the Chinese Communist Party, or Anthony Fauci, do you?

If that's how you feel about your fellow human beings, you could always kill yourself. That would be one small step in the right direction.

Not in the US. Even if you entered the country illegally, you can vote (for the Democrats) and get lots of free stuff - paid for by the US taxpayers. So I would suggest that he get himself over to the US - pronto - and all his problems will be solved. (As long as he's not White.)

I don't think there is an English version of that site. I just use it to see the prices, which you can see by just scrolling down a bit. The current buying and selling prices are 29,450 and 29,550 baht, respectively. Just memorize where those prices are on the screen and you will know which prices to look at whenever you want to check the prices. They also have an app that you can use to check prices on your phone.

Right. If I were a burglar, I would go right for the safe too. That being said, I did buy a good, expensive Chubb safe - and had it bolted to the floor. So hopefully that will help. I would sure feel like an idiot if I had this good safe and I kept my cash and gold hidden somewhere else in my condo - and they found it there. Ha. I have heard that the best place to hide valuables here would be in a book, as Thais would never look inside of a book. Anyway, I'll keep thinking about my options and hopefully be able to outsmart the burglars.

Here's where I buy my gold: https://www.huasengheng.com They have a branch in the Seacon Square shopping mall on Srinakarin Road - and probably elsewhere as well, but this is the branch that I use. They are very reputable - and are always full of customers buying and selling both gold jewelry as well as gold bars. I only buy the 5 baht gold bars, which have their own logo, purity and weight stamped on them, so it's very easy to sell the bars back to them. They have a miniscule spread between the buying and selling price for these gold bars - a 50 baht difference between the buying and selling price on a ca. 30,000 baht price during the week, and a 100 baht difference on the weekends. So a five baht bar would cost 147,750 baht right at this moment, and if you were to sell that same bar right now you would get 147,250 baht (due to it being a weekend now.) The price changes by the minute according to the world gold price. I buy gold not to make money, but to try to preserve the purchasing power of my money during these tumultuous times.

I also had a problem trying to get a safety deposit box at my bank to keep my gold in. The bank where I have had my savings account for the past ten years told me that I would either need to keep a deposit of five million baht, or buy insurance for a couple of million baht - to qualify for a safety deposit box with them. So it would cost more for me to open a safety deposit box than the value of the gold I would put in it. I looked at the website at the above link, and at first glance it looked promising. However, there is one thing about this place that I find unsettling: They also offer (fairly expensive) insurance to insure the things that I would keep in the box. Anyway, I will visit them - and ask them if any customer of theirs has ever taken out this insurance - and had to make a claim on it. If their boxes are broken into often enough for their customers to need insurance, then maybe I am better off just keeping my gold in my own safe at home.

Maybe this is the solution, because I never pay in advance and I've never had a problem with Kerry deliveries of Lazada purchases. So no delivery, no money, and no problem for me. Well, no problem except that I don't get the item I ordered. But at least I'm not out any money.

Can't you cut them into smaller pieces and cook them separately?

Yes, exactly. In my previous message on this topic, I neglected to mention that this same trip that cost 201 baht with Grab and 126 baht with Bolt cost me only 100 baht with a normal metered taxi when I took one home from Mega when I had a lot of stuff to carry. Now though, I mostly take the bus, which is very comfortable - and runs from just in front of my condo right to Mega for just 20 baht.

I just checked the price to go the six kilometers from my home to Mega Bang Na right now with Grab, and it is 201 baht, while Bolt is 126 baht. Maybe that's why Bolt is not on the approved list.

That reminds me of a comment made by one of my past Thai girlfriends when I caught her lying about something. She said, and I quote, "What's wrong with lying? It's so easy." So if that's the general mentality here, we shouldn't be surprised when they lie.

He slowed down at first because he thought he had hit a dog, but when he realized that it was "just" a farang, he concluded that it wasn't necessary to stop.

I don't know. Did she? And if you are suggesting that others in the party were also involved, please provide evidence of that. Even then, I think it is highly unlikely that the entire Tory party was involved. Or are you saying that they were?

At your (condescending) suggestion, I referred to the top of the thread to find an indication of the topic, and what I found was a mention of one specific person who engaged in corruption, which you expanded to include her whole political party - which, strictly speaking, is beyond the topic of this discussion. You did this because she is from the party that you do not like. I then expanded the topic somewhat to suggest that there are corrupt politicians in every political party. Do you - or do you not - agree with that point? I don't expect you to answer my question because you would never admit that your fellow socialists are anything but pure and honest. So I suppose that this is the point at which you will try to get this thread closed - and possibly even get me suspended - for engaging in the crime of "bickering". That's what you usually do when you can't win an argument.

How COVID Became the Path to Global Financial Surveillance https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/18/cbdc-how-covid-became-the-path-to-global-financial-surveillance/

Were you not implying that your preferred party is somehow superior? In any case, you do not get to decide what is discussed here. But your attempt at censorshipary is noted.

Right, only one party is honest - and it just happens to be the one that you support. Ha.

I just hope that you - and others who think like you - are fully vaccinated.