Acharn

I renew my visa in Nakhorn Sawan using the income method. The local Immigration Office wants a twelve-month statement. I use Bangkok Bank, and they give me a printout of ALL my transactions for twelve months for ฿200. They also demand copies of my bank book for the twelve months. Seems like overkill, to me. Oh, and don't forget to make copies of the tabien baan and the owner's ID card.

Errr... the age thing wasn't illegal until December, 1996. I remember the before times very well. Used to be a lot of 16 and 17 year olds in the Thermae. Even the occasional 14 year old. I'm not so sure about removing a minor from her guardians, but I imagine they're very well-to-do. I don't expect we'll ever hear the facts of the case, nor its outcome in the courts, nor the reason they decided to prosecute now.

We pay our electric bill at an office each month, so I don't know the correct URL for PEA, but any official Thai government site is going to end in "...go.th." This is obviously a scam.

I've gotten all my mail here in Thailand for over forty years. It takes longer since 9/11, but usually gets here within two or three weeks. I just got my U.S. social security tax form today, faster than the last several years. Bank of America sends my credit cards to me. So does my credit union.

Ladies of negotiable virtue.

I've done my own extensions since 1982. At the time I didn't know there were agents. In fact, since Prem was Prime Minister at the time and he was death on corruption, I doubt there were. Anyway, since then it's always just been so easy to do myself I never thought of using (paying) an agent. When my first wife died in 1995, the Immigration Office was very helpful. At the time, I was a year too young to qualify for a retirement visa (income problem). They advised me to do border runs for a year and then get a non-O visa and extend under the retirement provision. Now that I live in Nakhon Sawan the IOs are just as helpful.

I've never been there, but I'd recommend Surin. When I used to hang out at the Thermae, the best looking girls always seemed to be Khmer ethnic from there. Buriram was well represented, too.

I'm so old I remember the winter of 1993, which was the Year of No Winter. It not only got as hot during the day as during the rainy season, it did not cool off at night. On the other hand I also remember the winter of 1982, when I was living up on the Korat Plateau. On New Year's Eve it got down to 4° Celsius and I was glad I had my Army cold weather gear (I had just retired that year). It doesn't look like this winter is going to be particularly cold, but I've learned I have no weather sense in Thailand.

My wife had a six week stay in a government hospital in Nakhon Sawan. Among other things, she had an endoscopy performed, during the third week. Total cost would have been ฿30 (for the whole six weeks), but in the fourth week a private room became available for ฿100 a day. You can beat the price if you're a Thai.

When my first wife passed away in 1995, I was allowed to remain in the country until the end of my current extension. There was a dual income requirement, then, and my income wouldn't qualify for a retirement extension for another year, so my immigration officer recommended I do border runs until I turned 60. In those days you couldn't change your visa type inside the Kingdom.

The Poh Teck Tung Foundation is a private foundation, not the police. Maybe "the conditions" at the dock made it impossible.

Well, I found that, during periods of celibacy, I had to masturbate every day. Since that practice is frowned upon, I wondered if all those other guys staying celibate do the same thing.

You may not have known them, but there have to be lots of customers to support so many prostitutes in American towns and cities. I've long wondered how so many men could stay celibate so long -- maybe I was wrong.

Well, no, there's no rush, but putting your family into bankruptcy for an extra couple of weeks in the ICU seems unacceptable to me. Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm faced with it, but I'm 85 now and I've been living since I was 19 with the knowledge that I might die tomorrow. I'm an alcoholic and stopped drinking alcohol when I was 40, but didn't stop smoking until I was 75. Since I'm in reasonably good health, I believe I'll tell my niece and her husband not to give me extreme care, although I don't really know if I'll still feel that way when I'm in the ICU. I don't take care of my health and I don't have a social network, so I really shouldn't be living now. My family was not long-lived, except for my maternal great-grandfather, who served in the American Civil War and lived to 105. I really don't know why most people are so frightened of death. We all die someday.

We were playing that the loser paid for the game, IIRC ฿20. We were having fun, so amicability was possible. Actually, now that I think about it, I only remember one or two incidents where things got serious. May have been the bars I hung out in.

I've really never understood this attitude. I think a large majority of us either pay for it or use our hand. I'm socially inept, myself, plus I have inhibitions that make me unable to speak about sex with women. I never learned how to tell a "normal" woman that I wanted to take her to bed, and I lived for many years content with masturbating. Then I lived in Bangkok and spent a lot of money on it. Certainly many women (not only in Thailand) are able to make a living because so many men are like me.

In the United States, beginning players are warned that the rules vary everywhere. You need to talk to your prospective opponent before you start playing to make sure you're following the same rules. Most bar players are willing to compromise. I remember at one bar on Soi Nana an English customer, playing 8-ball, used a snooker tactic of barely nudging the ball so he hit the object ball and stayed there. Most (not all) American players are used to the tournament rule that either a ball has to be pocketed, or else the object ball, the cue ball, or some other ball has to hit a cushion. Otherwise it's a foul and you can put the ball anywhere on the table. After a bit of discussion it was agreed the English guy (who was more used to Snooker) would be deemed to have made a legal shot if he agreed to follow the 8-ball rule afterwards.

No, as far as I know I'm only getting the regular, single dose. I'm 85 and don't worry that much about it.

Yeah, that's what my hospital in Nakhon Sawan charges me every September.

I used to know an American guy. Don't know how old he was when he arrived here, but he was living in Thailand as a teenager. I knew him in his late twenties and early thirties. He was involved in movie making in southern Thailand back in 2010 when I lost touch with him. As far as I know he's doing all right financially. Of course he won't have American Social Security, but he might have Thai citizenship and get theirs. Hard to say. We don't get what we deserve, we get what we get.

I suppose others before me have recommended this. Try Melatonin, 3 mg. I bought mine from Lazada, but any pharmacy/drug store should have them. It's a supplement, not a sleeping pill. Your body makes it naturally, but makes less as you grow older. Tourists use it to reset their body clocks after travelling across several time zones. I haven't used it in a couple of years. It helped my body adapt to the new level.

OK, I did a quick search on Duck Duck Go, and all I get are headlines about his appointment. How/where do I find out who his brother is? I'm pretty sure it's not Thaksin or Prayut.

Seen some good advice in this thread. For me, the thing that convinced me I was an alcoholic (besides health problems) was a test from Alcoholics Anonymous. It takes a lot of self-discipline. For ninety days, depending on how much you normally drink, every day drink two of your favorite drinks. No more, but no less, either. If you don't feel like a drink, you have to force yourself to drink two. If you can do that for ninety days, you're not an alcoholic. If at some point you drink more, you are. I was able to see, without trying it, that nobody could possibly pass that test. Of course, I was wrong.

Yeah, I'd say three to four small beers a day, with an occasional blow-out, is moderate drinking. If you never get in trouble because of your drinking you're not an alcoholic. If you're an alcoholic, eventually you'll know it. One symptom is blacking out -- continuing to drink and interact with people, but not remembering it the next day. In my case, in thirty years of drinking I never remembered going home. Sometimes worse.

Errr... Russia has not been Communist for over thirty years. China's Communism is not for export, and I'm not sure I would even call them left wing any more. The U.S. Dollar is doing fine for now, but I remember just a couple of years ago when it was ฿28.5 to the Dollar. I'll be glad if the baht stays at this price for a couple of months (or more), but I expect it'll soon return to 32.