BangkokHank

That was me. I sent it to you by mistake. I meant to send it to "Will NOT B Good". Sorry for the mix-up. Just meet me at the mouth of the soi with the cash at noon and I will pick it up. Again, sorry for the mix-up.

The fact that millions of people around the world still use Wikipedia as a source simply shows that there are millions of scientifically illiterate, gullible people who are prepared to believe any old nonsense with a pseudoscientific presentation. Wikipedia has been totally discredited as a source for truthful information. https://swprs.org/wikipedia-and-propaganda/ From this article: Many Wikipedia manipulators are editing articles almost all day and every day, indicating that they are either highly dedicated individuals, or perhaps operated by a group of people. Moreover, articles edited by these personae cannot easily be revised, since the above-mentioned administrators can always revert changes or simply block disagreeing users altogether. Many of these covert campaigns attempt to promote establishment and industry positions and destroy the reputation of critics. Because of its influence, German watchdog group WikiRadar described Wikipedia as “one of the most dangerous websites on the internet”. Particularly affected by this kind of systematic and covert manipulation are Wikipedia articles about political and geopolitical, commercial, societal, medical and some historical topics as well as biographies of non-compliant academics, journalists, and politicians.

You can buy the tickets on this website: https://12go.asia/en Enter your route and dates, and it will tell you what options are available on that date, if any. I used this website a few months ago to book train tickets in Uzbekistan, and it worked just fine. As for the trains in Vietnam, you can find information on this website: https://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm Actually it was from this website that I learned about the above one for booking/buying tickets. I wish I had known about it earlier. It would have saved me a lot of hassle buying my train tickets in Sri Lanka last year. Good luck.

I just renewed my Non-Immigrant O ("retirement") visa yesterday at Chaeng Wattana 40 days in advance of the expiration date.

So you're saying that this doctor, who is followed by millions of people around the world, is wrong about EVERYTHING - even coffee? Your ridiculous statement says a lot more about you than it does about him. P.S. - Am I correct in assuming that you are "vaccinated" for COVID? Sucker.

I only just learned of the concept of shade-grown coffee a couple of days ago in this article that also talks about the health benefits of coffee, especially for older people: https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2024/February/PDF/coffee-beneficial-to-middle-aged-people-pdf.pdf

Are you currently living in Thailand? If so, there will be tax implications for transferring your money to Thailand - in addition to exchange rate considerations.

Not yet. Where can I find one? https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2024/02/21/the-primacy-of-anti-semitism/

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.