zackxx

23 hours ago, lordgrinz said:

 

I've kicked a few doors of idiots trying to hit me in a Zebra crossing, and smacked a few mirrors with a school bag, still no takers getting out of the car to confront me, the most I ever got was a curse comment out the window.  I'm waiting though, I want to make the news for ripping a Thai persons head off their body with my bare hands in the middle of a Zebra crossing. Please God, make my wish come true! 🙏

Good luck "educating" those Thais! You will only have another 71,801,279 more to go! And that's it really it isn't it -you have the ability to change your behaviour but trying to change the behaviour of others is an endless, and exhausting, story. That's why a public relations campaign is required to "mass educate".

The pedestrian crossing that Dr Waraluck "Kratai" Supawatjariyakul died on while hit by a policeman (out of uniform) who was riding a "superbike" is right in front of my Condo. Kratai used to live in the same building. That crossing now has traffic lights to stop traffic while you cross. 

Pedestrian crossings in Thailand do not have the same "road rules" as in western countries. Stand at a pedestrian crossing without traffic lights in Thailand waiting to cross and it's up to motorists to decide whether they want to stop or not. Overseas it is commonly compulsory, by law, to stop. And in Thailand, even if a car, or cars have stopped there's always the chance a motorcyclist comes whizzing though those stationary cars.

My attitude in Thailand while crossing a road in Thailand is always give way to motorists whether your at a pedestrian crossing or not. If you don't do this you may be the party to lose out, maybe with your life.

9 hours ago, blaze master said:

 

Is it really misleading though. 

Probably. The extent "digital nomads" will go to making fake claims/videos, lies, to get those view counts and therefore $$$

On 5/1/2025 at 8:22 AM, Gsxrnz said:

Bit of a gouge. 40 baht and 20 baht.

 

Try this - Rock up with your Thai license, and a stern DFWM look on your face, hand over the Thai price exactly, change your DFWM look to a toothy widemouth smile, and tell them in Thai you're a Thai person. Works more often than not and usually elicits a laugh from the ticket issuer,   

It's never worked for me and I speak fluent Thai, have a pink government Thai ID card and Thai drivers license. I have also worked in Thailand for 25 years paying Thai government tax (that gets used for maintaining national parks...) in all that time. Nope! I need to show them a Thai National ID card (บัตรประจำตัวประชาชน) otherwise I pay the "farang" rate.

Shocking behaviour. My guess is that the driver of the green-plate taxi thought the ambulance turned on their siren just to get though the traffic and this was not an emergency case. Many ambulance drivers tend to be fairly liberal when they use their sirens and it is not unknown for emergency vehicles to use "their privilege" to wantonly to get through heavy traffic in non-emergency cases. A case of familiarity that has bred contempt.

Living near 6 Bangkok hospitals within a 3km radius, nary a day goes by without me hearing a loud wailing ambulance siren that does not get turned off even when it is stuck in traffic due to a red traffic light. In other countries there are signs to prohibit use of sirens or make loud noises when near a hospital.

18 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

'Kin ridiculous Thai-bashing over-generalisation.   How come all the other buildings, completed and still under construction, didn't come down also if that were the case?

That only one  building in Bangkok collapsed may be partly due to the fact that it was still being constructed and that high rise construction in Bangkok is largely sound and buildings there are designed to withstand moderately sized earthquakes. Newly poured concrete never stops curing. It continues to get stronger as time goes on. It takes at least 2 months for concrete to reach a strength where you can start building on top of it, longer in very hot weather.

I've heard also that the collapsed building was designed and built by the Chinese "The Only Building to Collapse in Bangkok’s Earthquake Was Built by China"

1 minute ago, wensiensheng said:

Not sure if you read the article or not. You know, the bit which describes what actually happened, rather than your surmising what didn’t happen.

Oh I read it alright but knowing how things "get reported" is typically is not what really happened and/or is propaganda. I guess you're the type of person who believes EVERYTHING you read in a newspaper. yaaaawnnnnnn
"

Well I've seen plenty of Indians defecate in public in India but there is a lack of toilets there but at an airport no excuse by anyone at all! By-the-way he surely can multitask -urinate and play on his mobile phone at the same time.

Much of this air pollution is from rice farmers burning their rice straw after a harvest when the straw is dry - aka the hot season. Three rice harvests per year can be done in certain parts of Thailand. The ashes return nutrients to the soil. Rice farmers are generally poor so government edicts that make their lives more difficult are often ignored. Should the government collect the straw for free and compost it returning the compost back to the farmers for free? Thai Jasmine rice is a major export earner for Thailand.

18 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

id  like to see a  study of  how many of  those raised became gay themselves when older

I know homosexuality is certainly genetically related. I'll believe it's environmentally related when the science on it is done. Not holding my breath! 

Lao khao  เหล้าขาว (Thai) or ເຫຼົ້າຂາວ (Laotian) translated into English is "white spirit" and distilling  in Thailand must be licensed under the Criminal Activities Act which was introduced in the 1950s. This regulation was passed after a spate of lao khao of poor quality being produced, which resulted in methanol related poisoning. The methanol was produced as a by-product of the spirits reacting with tin and aluminium stills used. The metals were switched out with stainless steel when the Thai government took over all distilleries by 1960. Not sure what the story is in Lao.

Probably miscommunication. Did the Arabs know they had to vacate the court if they lost or was it just assumed they understood the Thai team's rules? And what team were using the court first? If the Arab team then why follow the "rules" of the Thai team that came later? I doubt both teams arrived at the same time.

3 hours ago, hereforgood said:

Is it something you actually need? I've lived here in Thailand for 21 years worked the first 15 years. I have bought Vehicles bought condos open bank accounts and all kinds of other similar things never once have I needed or been asked for a yellow book or pink ID card. I am also still covered by Thai Social Security medically and don't need or haven't been asked for them at any of the hospitals or medical facilities either. Not sure what benefit you get from them.

No you don't actually need a Pink ID card but it can be helpful. How? 1. You can get the cheaper Thai price at some establishments. 2. Use the Pink ID card as ID for your Thai bank accounts as the this ID is valid for 10 years whereas your passport (and passport number) change when your passport is full and you get a new one. Saves the hassle of keeping all your old passports for use as ID when dealing with a Thai bank in which you opened an account with years ago with an old passport.

As for the Thai Social Security for those that paid into the system when they worked here, you elected what public hospital annually you would prefer to be treated by for "free" if something happened to you. Upon retirement in Thailand you can elect to A) receive a Thai pension paid monthly or, B) retain all the hospital benefits that you had when you worked in Thailand by paying only THB432/month. Hospitalization is also "free". So it serves as very cheap health insurance. Note that it will be a Thai public hospital and not a private one.

19 minutes ago, Peterphuket said:

The comparison is a bit off. If the plane runs out of fuel.....

Fill in the rest yourself.

Or a skydiver could fall into an airborne hot air balloon basket?

The skydivers will hit the ground before their plane does, even if it does run out of fuel. Planes can glide right? 

So when the skydivers hit the ground, aka the value of these fiat currencies becomes valueless, the value of gold will skyrocket up.

14 hours ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

 

Well said, @timendres.

Thank you for taking your time to explain that.

 

And what frightens me is there is no safe haven.

Not financially.

Not in location.

At least, I don't see any safe haven.

Yes physical gold is money (also physical silver) whereas all those fiat currencies you mention (and all fiat currencies used in the world) are just that: 'fake money", currencies (not money).

The rising "price" of gold in a fiat currency, like in your chart, just shows the value of that fiat losing value, or purchasing power, over time rather than the gold increasing in "value". Never save in a currency,  but in real money.

A simple analogy is a plane full of skydivers: the skydivers represent currencies that bob up and down relative to one another after they jump out of the plane. Gold on the other hand is the plane that follows a level course. Eventually all the skydivers reach the ground, like currencies with a value of zero.

Countries all around the world are doing this to reduce their costs and increase their tax take. Counties like New Zealand are incrementally increasing the number of years one must live in NZ before being able to retire at 65 and get superannuation.

It was just 10 years since one turned 20 years old and will be the same for those born on or before 30 June 1959. But if born from 1 July 1959 - 30 June 1961 now it's 11 years, from 1 July 1961 - 30 June 1963: 12 years, 1 July 1963 - 30 June 1965: 13 years, etc.

They should do an incremental increase in Thailand too so that those at 54 years old, thinking they are turning into the current Thailand retirement age of 55 are not suddenly told you have to work another 10 years.

2 hours ago, VBF said:

May I correct you.......

 

Pedestrian crossings on Phuket  in Thailand  are simply strange patterns painted across some roads.

Better? 😎🙄

Partly correct. As a disabled person living in BKK I can't cross streets that quickly and cars will often stop for me when they see me waiting at a pedestrian crossing. The trouble is, as I'm crossing the street on the pedestrian crossing, a motorcycle will zip between the stopped cars and miss me by inches even when I have my wits about me!

4 hours ago, shdmn said:

They can match it up with the stamps in your passport, so if you were to get a DTV from Cambodia your passport would need to have stamps showing you were there at the time it was issued.

Except that nowadays many countries, including Thailand, have automatic departure passport control lanes like at Suvarnabhumi where Immigration Inspections will be accessible to visitors with foreign passports and you don't actually meet with an immigration official who puts a stamp in your passport.

This has become an issue for countries like Lao and Cambodia who use to always check arriving passengers for the departure stamp in their passport of the country they just left.

5 hours ago, stix40 said:

Who would sign up to that 

Placing your self on a government database 

Wife says 

ไม่ ขอบคุณ

Mị̀ k̄hxbkhuṇ

Exactly! But the THB10,000 giveaway is the cheese used to lure unwary and poor people into the trap. It's a step towards a CBDC that banks (and governments) around the world are pushing us toward. With a central database it's much easier to control people.

https://www.ft.com/content/9194ca11-7788-4a1d-a6cc-cffea18d0c9d

On 6/30/2023 at 2:40 PM, ballpoint said:

If possible, could you post a scan of the Non-O visa they placed in your passport when they changed it?  Unless they did so, you are still here on an extension of your original Non-B visa.

Just to clarify, I needed to be on a Non-Immigrant Visa (any category) before I could apply for an extension of stay. In my case I had been working in Thailand for 25 years on a Non-Immigrant B (business) visa and wished to extend my stay here after I retired (aged over 50 years) so needed to apply for a Non-Immigrant Retirement visa.

The attachment I post below shows that I am now legally in Thailand on a Non-Immigrant Retirement visa.

Well they might start with making it easier for expats to send THB to overseas accounts (Paywise?) and allowing us to trade on Thai based crypto exchanges like Bitkub.