WinnieTheKhwai

Got some pretties at Kad Suan Kaew, now once I can walk in these heels w/o breaking my ankles, and once I can put on fake eyelashes w/o gluing my eyes shut...WATCH OUT, MEN!!!

Global House is on the ring road with all the tunnels, South of town. For example you'd go South along the Hand Dong road and then turn left at the Hang Dong Big C. Keep going on the ring road across the river, then it's on the left.

It may last a year. Even if termites don't eat it then other bugs & fungi will. With some repairs you can extend the life of it.

Get an iPod Touch in that case. 8000 baht and all the iPhone apps, and wifi. Just no phone of course. but great for mobile web browsing, email, watching video, etc.

^ Agree with that.

(Possible exception for the first and the last on the list though)

And it's interesting that the newspaper calls this 'Scandal?' when they were apparently fine with it when the PAD did it to pay for expenses for their supporters.

LOL. The feeling may just be mutual.

Thailand is definitely no longer the retirement paradise for us over 50s.

Many Middle aged and elderly Farangs came here because it was believed their pension incomes would go a lot further and could do much more here than in the West.

They wanted to re kindle they're younger days by finding much younger partners and social, where as in the home countries they would be put out to graze, feeding the ducks over by the pond.

This has really changed, falling victims of scams, especially by the younger partners, ever increasing costs of social and living expenses. Bank rip-offs with decreasing exchange and interest rates.

In the end they find themselves with as little freedom in Thailand than there would be back in the home country, not being able to afford the lifestyles they dreamed about during retirement.

Even if all that is true, then so what? Places get more expensive. Either suck it up or move, I think those are the options. And it's a bit harsh to blame bank's 'scams' for your currency going down the drain. Was your choice not to move it all into Thai baht while you had the chance. Seems just sour grapes to be honest. Still, I'm confident the exchange rate will go the other way again.

Sounds right to me.. you pay tax on income in Thailand. if you don't have income in Thailand (and you don't, because on a retirement visa / without a work permit you can't work), then there's no income tax.

Yes, it's puzzling. ISA was already waving a red flag at a bull (you know there's a pun in there just begging to be made), but full martial law will seriously scare business and tourists away and for no good reason. Possibly the military wants it, and Abhisit doesn't have much choice other than to accept?

Hearing the red shirts spin is really like visiting Cloud Cuckoo Land. Do you seriously think it is acceptable for the red shirts (as they said themselves they intend to) to block all the major roads of Bangkok indefinitely? Yes or no? If you were leader of a country, can you say you would allow that? If you say yes, I think you are a total liar. No leader would allow that. I know you want Abhisit to cave, but why should he?

You're talking about something that hasn't even happened yet. If it does, the government is expected to weigh people's rights to protest against the inconvenience caused, and may take action at that time. You're fantasising about the future. The last thing I read from the UDD mentioned that the protests would last for 7 days. Not sure how much UDD press releases you read, you seem happy with the spin that gets served by some newspapers.

Yes, it's puzzling. ISA was already waving a red flag at a bull (you know there's a pun in there just begging to be made), but full martial law will seriously scare business and tourists away and for no good reason. Possibly the military wants it, and Abhisit doesn't have much choice other than to accept?

If we keep this topic running long enough, eventually Thailand may too expensive.

The only thing the Red shirt achieve is more resentment and disapproval toward them by Thai people.

==> Bangkok people. Most Bangkok people resent them anyway, especially the ones with cars who suffer the traffic jams. That's kind of why they're rallying there and not upcountry at some stage in the sticks. If you want people to take note it's got to happen in Bangkok..

That said, I would agree that it would be far better for everyone if things stay peaceful and with a modicum of respect for the other side. There are serious concerns about agent provocateurs however, and the planting of weapons or explosives to frame Red Shirt supporters and create an excuse for draconian repression. I hope that too won't happen.

Bangkok Pundit had an interesting analysis and comparison. There are contributions to cover costs and possibly missed income. Same same for Sondhi and the yellows when they had their rallies. See here:

http://www.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog

Well, wait. First of all it's not an iPhone copy. It's MUCH smaller, which makes it look very attractive, like a small iPhone. It's very pretty, and the main menu is inspired on the layout of the iPhone.

However, it really is not a copy of the iPhone; all the apps are different, they're what you'd expect on a cheapo phone OS. The polished look really applies only to the main menu screen, as well as the external package.

So: looks nice, it's good either as a gimmick or as a cheapo basic phone, BUT it is in no way similar to an iPhone.

Nowadays, I go there for ice cold beer and free, fresh popcorn.

Going there for the FREE popcorn about sums up the class of clientel CMS has now days....it's not worth going there to pay for their food!

Um, that's the traditional class of clientele for Chiang Mai. The snobs are the relatively recent arrivals. :rolleyes

Anything you could possibly need in life is at Kad Luang.

domestic flights almost empty

international flights as usual busy

Was in a very full flight to CNX this afternoon. People still need to get around, and by road is a bit iffy with all the checkpoints.

What do you mean 'another'?? I was in the BKK office on Friday. No issues at all. Back in Chiang Mai now (30 minutes to the airport) but would have no qualms whatsoever to do anything in Bangkok on Monday. Traffic issues aside of course, but you can monitor that.

Taxi cost is pretty high for you.. you could move, or get a bike or cheap car.

Out of interest, let me try, with a focus on cutting costs. (Advance notice to the usual suspects: This is not typical for me, I do have options thankyouverymuch.)

> Restaurant meal = 300 baht is you're lucky.

I do enjoy nice restaurants, but stopped doing so in combination with a party night out. I might spend that when just going to dinner, and then typically with the family. But then there's no serious drinking or other vices afterwards. Note that cost is not the only factor in this; a big meal followed by big drinking is a great recipe for great weight-gain. So on a drinking night, I go VERY easy on the food, to the point that it basically doesn't add cost. I might buy something from a passing vendor and then share it with the company in attendance. So then it serves a dual purpose of getting a little food in, AND doing something nice for the crowd that doesn't come in the form of a 100 baht drink.

> Hotel room = approx 900 baht

Sure you can spend that, or much more. I probably would when spending only a night or two in a place. For longer stays you can obviously spend FAR less. On occasion I like to reconnect with a traveller past, and then you find that there still are MANY guesthouses left that didn't go 'boutique'. Anyway with a house or apartment you don't have that as an expense for a night out. Unless of course you refer to shorter term accommodation. In that case find someone with a room.

> Female company bar = drinks, bar fine, lady = 2000 baht

You could go for non commercial relationships, though to be honest that doesn't save cost in a significant way. If you work on a list of acquaintances then you'll find that expenditures DO drop significantly. You do then need to add a couple hundred baht a month for a cell phone.

> Petrol if living out of town = 200 baht

That's pretty far out of town. I'm about 10kms out, 15km/liter, so about 20 baht to get into town? Note that this doesn't make sense in combination with a cost for a hotel; if you're staying in a hotel then presumably you can find one in town..... So in addition to exploring sufficiency-partying, I think you need to work on the math/logic as well.

Not sure if you live in Chiang Mai, Neverdie, but 4000 is quite a fancy room around these parts. Unless the point of your post was just to be nasty at a fellow forum member?

Perhaps you should spend less on the ladies and just concentrate on the alcohol.

Well, that's a choice right. You could do either. For example on any given night you can significantly reduce spending on either fancy accommodation, fancy food, fancy alcohol or fancy company. Where your priorities are, there your expenditures lie as well.

I could go into detail on how to reduce costs any of those 4, but what they all have in common is that reducing costs tends to mean going more 'Thai', which presumably is why we're here in the first place, because we like Thailand. So people who truly love Thailand won't have trouble reducing costs, if only until exchange rates get better.

Some posters sure get close to hatred for poor people, calling them uneducated, or (far) worse. Even without profanity, the underlying sentiment is that they're not worthy of voicing their opinion, are bought and stupid. They can deny this all they want but the key thing is that the rural poor themselves perceive it that way.

It would be really nice if everyone could muster some respect. Solutions to bridge divides happen when respect for other viewpoints is shown.

It's here:

http://www.uddthailand.com/

I said perceived because it relates to a general concern about speaking your mind. When people have to be careful about speaking their mind on topics of democracy and the government, I see that as feeling intimidated.

The code question when speaking to people in Bangkok yesterday seemed to be 'aren't you afraid of the red shirts?'. Then I answer something like having many red shirt friends, or that I hope Thailand will become a democracy and fair society to all. Red leaning people take that as an endorsement and start talking more freely.