melissarossi199

I'm sitting here in Florida -- in shock -- reading somebody asserting prices are better in U.S.!!! Perhaps for cheese and wine and tomato sauce, but outside of that, all I think of whenever I go out here is how ridiculously overpriced the U.S. is. Going to the hair salon, which rang in at about $3 in Chiang Mai, is $25 here; the manicures I had for $5 are five times that; I wouldn't consider having a massage in the US -- it often runs into the hundreds of dollars.

The contact that is currently broken and lost in my eye is going to stay there until it comes out on its own as it would cost me $100 at least to have a doctor fish it out here -- when I went to Ram Hospital, it cost $20 to have them get it out, and that included the eyedrops. From the dentists to the taxis to going out to eat, the U.S. astounds me (in a bad way) with the costs, and let's not even get into rent.

So I don't know who posted that or where they are shopping, but trust me -- even with the baht being strong to the dollar, life is so so so much more affordable in Thailand than the U.S. or any place else I've been to -- and I've been to 43 countries.

One related factor that is adding to political instability, imho, is that the judicial system appears to have been greatly empowered by the 2007 constitution, and likes flexing that newly-found muscle. Obviously a powerful justice/court system is a crucial part of the checks and balances formula, but the courts' frequent disbanding of parties of late further shatters any attempts at political cohesion. The cases that are prioritized and the rulings may be construed as somewhat favoring the anti-Thaksin camp. That Sondhi was recently found guilty of defaming Thaksin, whom he'd charged was anti-monarchial -- but Sondhi's sentence was suspended -- and all he had to do was send out press releases saying "Ooops" was but one example. And that the PAD airport takeover of 2008 is only hitting the courts now is of course one basis of the double standard claim. (Yes I know "backlog," but it sent out the wrong message.)  Not that I'm criticizing the rulings, which I recently discovered here on thaivisa is illegal. I am however concerned about the clout of the courts. It seems like they might need to be fine-tuned to fit into the balance.<br>

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