BangkokHank

There's no (extra) money in it if things work as they should. Remember: This is Thailand. It's always about the money, and specifically, about transferring money from the farang to the Thai.

Because we're morons - idiot.

Everything is legal when you change the laws to make whatever you do legal.

I get it now. Ha. It's what we would call an "inside joke".

That's kind of amazing. Ha.

My responses in bold above.

Ah, yes, I am aware of Manali, but I've never been there as it's a bit difficult to get there. Maybe someday though. Anyway, thanks for the reminder.

Can you explain why? You might just save me an unnecessary trip someday.

As I'm sure you know, India is a big country with varying conditions throughout. The air quality in the mountains was always fine when I was there.

I have been escaping from Thailand during the hot season for decades now. Using the air conditioner is not the same as being able to walk outside in the cool, fresh mountain air. Over the years, I have discovered many places in Asia to escape to. Alas, none of them are in Thailand. My favorites include Mussoorie (in the Himalayan foothills) and Ooty (in Tamil Nadu), both in India. Both of these places have perfect weather in March/April, (cool, and little to no rain) and both of them are resort towns with plenty of hotels. The good thing is that those towns, although they are resort towns, are not in their high seasons during Thailand's hot season. So they experience their best weather of the year in March/April while the hotels are not full - and are therefore more reasonably priced than in THEIR hottest season. Darjeeling and Nainital are other options, although I haven't visited them yet. During this year's hot season, I will be going to Dalat in Vietnam, which is easier to get to than India, and even cheaper. It is possible to get a decent hotel there for about 600 baht a night. Twice I went to Nuwara Eliya in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, and last year I spent the entire month of April there. I also once visited the highlands of Myanmar during Thailand's hot season, but I wouldn't go there now due to the political instability. And once I went to the highlands of Taiwan, which is also worthwhile - but a little bit far away. So to summarize and conclude: Your wish to avoid the hot season is understandable, but I'm afraid that there is no place in Thailand to do this - at least no place that I know of. However, there are several suitable places more or less in the region, some of which I have mentioned above, and perhaps more that other people can add to this list. (You can check the temperature and rainfall of just about any place on the internet these days. I go for places that are between 15-25 degrees Celsius with little to no rainfall.) If Dalat works this time, then I will make it my go-to place for future hot-season escapes. (I have been to Dalat a dozen times during my seven years of working in Vietnam, but I have never been there during April, so I'm not sure how it will be.)

Yes, you can carry any amount into Thailand. But if it is above a certain amount, it has to be declared. I have a friend who once entered Thailand with $100,000 cash that he didn't declare, and the Thais confiscated it all.

Do you mean they don't ask you to remove your laptop from your backpack when you go through security? They almost always ask me to.

They always make me empty by pockets before I go through the scanner.

It must be a good feeling to know everything. I envy you.

They can't see everything. For example, they can't see laptops (apparently), which is why we have to remove them from our carry-on bags and have them x-rayed separately.

I recently returned to Bangkok from Vietnam. While I was in Vietnam, I exchanged a little more than a thousand US dollars into Vietnamese dong (VND) for everyday expenditures. And because Vietnam is a rather low cost country, I went to the bank and changed my bigger VND banknotes into smaller ones. The result is that I had about five hundred relatively small denomination banknotes with me when I left Vietnam. (I kept them because I plan to go back to Vietnam again next month.) When I was going through security at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City, I had put all of my VND banknotes into my carry-on backpack. After passing through security, I was stopped by a security officer who said to me, "Show me the cash in your bag." I thought to myself, "Whoa, their x-ray machines can detect cash!" Presumably he thought I was moving large sums of USD cash, which would have been illegal had I not declared it. I showed him my money, and since the total value was not very high, he let me through without any problem. The point of this post is to make people aware that the x-ray machines at airports are definitely capable of detecting cash. In all of my years of traveling, I had no idea about this, as this is the first time that I've traveled with so many banknotes. So if you were thinking about trying to move large stacks of banknotes without declaring them, say to avoid taxes, then you should assume that your cash will be detected by the airport x-ray machines. Just a warning.

It's the same in my neighborhood on Srinakarin Road. I've never seen the traffic so bad as it was today.

At Rama 9 Park just before sunset on 12 Feb 2024.

You have to consider that in addition to all of those family members you mentioned, she also has to support an expensive, lazy boyfriend - with whom she laughs about you when they're in bed together. If I were you, I would give her 5,000 per week - on the condition that she visits you every weekend. No honey, no money.

Yes. I'm not "vaccinated", so I have nothing to fear.

If you cannot recognize a joke, I feel sorry for you.

Yes, it was obvious. But I saw it as an opportunity for a bit of wordplay, hence the "ha" at the end. Wasn't that obvious?

Well, which is it? Is she single? Or is she married to you? Ha.

Almost exactly the same for me. The only difference is that it was 29 year for me instead of 30. Ha. I went there once - in 1995 - and I HATED it. I vowed never to go back there again, and I haven't. It started with the taxi from the airport, who stopped at an expensive hotel on the way to my destination after trying to convince me that MY hotel was full. I found the people there to be unfriendly (I almost got in a fight with a drunk local), and it was just generally unpleasant. Even if they paid me, I wouldn't go back there again.

With friends like Israel, who needs enemies?