spidermike007

I could go on and on and on. The goons just do not get it. At all. Whatever happens, the numbers will be lower than before. Thailand's days as a tourist mecca are behind it now. They will have to live on scraps. None of the myriad of issues that existed long before Covid have been addressed, and the quality of tourist Thailand attracts has been declining for years. Nearly anyone in the industry will attest to that. Few tourists will be interested in visiting a Quaker state, built on a foundation of fake purity, stripped of its character, by fools who know nothing about anything. The recession that is likely coming next year will not help. But, a lot of Thailand's current economic woes are largely self inflicted. This exceedingly reckless administration engaged in multiple, highly selective economic shutdowns, that favored their cronies, and punished the masses. They also kept the nation closed off for far too long, and decimated tourism. Then they partially re-opened, with draconian restrictions. So, if you want to put the blame in the place it belongs, blame Prayuth and Prawit. Call it what it is. The Prayuth Decimation. They are the architects of the downfall of Thailand, the increased suicides, homelessness, crime, unemployment, and unhappiness of the people. Let us never forget. Though alot of nations shut down, Thailand waited far too long, and displayed a huge degree of timidity, when re-opening, with draconian restrictions and quarantine. That turned off millions of potential tourists. You do not just re-open after well over 2 years, and thing go right back to normal. Everything has changed, and Thailand is not the center of the universe. Perhaps, some of the officials are starting to understand that. So, how about making sacrifices? Thailand is a pale shadow of it's former self. None of the many problems that existed prior to Covid were addressed. None. Not one. And they have made alot of effort to pasteurize and homogenize and puritanize the place. The exact opposite of what most want. They want character. Thailand is NOT Monte Carlo, or Singapore. It never will be. Give up that stupid dream. Preserve the character, cherish the character, don't erase it! No humility has been learned. None.

It is all about a high quality of life, and milking every remaining day for what it is worth. I do not know how many days, weeks, months, or years I have left. I am so happy I am living here. There are many issues to consider. Going back to the US is not an option. I would not want to live there now, unless I was being paid over a million dollars a year, and then I would only do it for 3 years, and then leave. I travel back to the US often, and the prices and inflation are mind blowing. The cheapest lunch we have found was $30 for two. That is 1,000 baht, anytime you want something basic. A bag of groceries is 3,000 baht. A friend of mine is looking for an apartment to move to in LA, and really small, simple places are 70,000 baht per month. Nice two bedrooms are closer to 100,000 baht. Decent homes start at 125,000 baht per month. The cost of nearly everything has gone up dramatically. Runaway inflation? Thailand is still reasonable. It used to be cheap. Has not been cheap for a long time. But, it is still reasonable. I know people who pay 10,000 baht a month for newer 3 bedroom houses in nice towns. In major cities in the US? $2000-3800 a month. That is 120,000 baht! For me, it is about quality of life, and my level of fulfillment on a daily basis, which I seem to have here in abundance. A big factor here, is the relatively light hearted attitude of the people. You just do not find that in the US, where most seem bitter, disenchanted, unfulfilled, and heavy hearted. Some of us live very good lives here. Some of us have been fortunate enough to find an outstanding woman, who is delightful to be around, on a daily basis, always has our back, and is fun, smart, and lovely. For me, that likelihood of finding that back in the US, would be very low. So, that is a big factor for me. The second factor is just the quality of life. Sure, I miss alot of the culture back home. The theatre, independent film (which I can download here with no issues at all, and a super fast 1 GB fiber optic connection, at under 700 baht per month!), stand up comedy, live jazz, etc. But I have a lovely home that I rent, for about 10% of what I would pay in California, I live very well on an income which is not huge, have access to great health care, at a tiny fraction of what it costs in the US, and do not have to put up with alot of the aggravation that I had to when I lived back there. It is a very personal choice. I have friends who seem to be dropping like flies. I could be dead next year. You just don't know. I am not extravagant, but I live very, very well. A nice house, a new car every few years, new motorbikes for my gal and I every few years, a great art collection, plenty of good wine in the wine cooler, a new 77" OLED TV, a world class home theatre, plenty of international travel, etc. For me, it is a great lifestyle, that I could only dream of in the US. Well worth the expense and very easy to justify. Life is way too short. I used to have more issues than I do now. I worked on my attitude, which was getting in the way of appreciating Thailand for what it is, and was clouding my experience here. Used to stress over stupid stuff, as you can see from some of my past posts. Used to allow the politics to make me angry. Now it is not something I take seriously, just something I comment on, without anger or an emotional investment. Now, I just tend to laugh it off. Spent some real time back in the US recently, and it allowed some clarity and perspective, that I am very grateful for. Now, I just chuckle at most of the nonsense. Water off a duck's back, so to speak.

I lived on Samui for nearly a decade. I knew people who bragged about being fugitives, I knew guys who had friends that were fugitives from the law. Samui was considered one of the best places in the world to stay if you were wanted by the law. I don't know if that reality still exists to this day, but it sure did for a long time. The police are your friends on Samui, as long as you have cash. They are some of the most corrupt in Thailand.

He might have taken his eye off the note for a moment. It is natural for people to become distracted. He could have then pocketed it, slid it under the counter, etc. That does not take magic skills. Sleight of hand is an easy trick.

If you are absolutely certain you gave them 1,000 baht note you do not leave the store, you stay in the store for hours if you need to, you call the police, you call your friends, you make a scene, you raise your voice, you do anything you need to do to embarrass them, and shame them into submission. Believe me, you'll get your change. In Thailand sometimes it's necessary to make a lot of noise and to create a huge degree of loss of face and embarrassment, in order to get people to do the right thing ,believe me I've done it many times, it works.

You are giving alot of credit to a man who definitely does not deserve it. Along with Cha Cha he nearly single handedly destroyed the Thai economy and tourism. And you really think he is sincere about this? Let us confer in 6 months, and see what this friend of yours has done to improve traffic safety.

It most certainly has something to do with the inability to visualize. Neither the future, nor the hypothetical. What will happen in this scenario? What about this? What about that? What are the inherent risks involved in piloting my bike, car or truck onto the safety lane of a major highway, in the wrong direction, with big trucks coming at me at 100kph? Or onto a lane of a major highway, with oncoming traffic going 120kph? Is it worth sacrificing my life, or my ability to walk for the rest of my life? How will my death affect my kids? Hold on, what about the lives of my wife, kids and sister who are in the vehicle with me, and I am responsible for their safety. Wow. That would be a big loss. An entire family. Maybe I should act like an adult, and be prudent and careful. What if I waited four seconds for the highway lane to be completely clear, rather than just barge into it now, and risk everything. I don't think many Thais ever ponder thoughts like this. Why, I can't imagine. It is likely something we will never understand about their nature. I often like to say the best way to understand these differences in attitude and intellect, is to realize Thailand is NOT a foreign country. It is a distant planet.

Glad to see King Vlad admit he has had his butt handed to him by the Ukrainians, who he grossly underestimated. He has shown himself to be infinitely less intelligent than many of us assumed he was, and It has been a severe humiliation for this genocidal, multi billionaire thief, dictator for life, liar and serial killer.

The "not let me go anywhere without her" alone would be a deal-breaker for me. I have no tolerance for possessive women, nor jealousy and when my woman and I got together we had many conversations about this and established over the years a very independent lifestyle where we spend significant amounts of time apart. With friends, we take trips separately, and there's never a complaint. We both love it. If it's not working get out, the sooner the better, don't waste another day of your life.

Tell it like it is. And never forget, despite all the boasting to the contrary, 17 of his businesses have failed in the past few decades. Some at huge losses. Trump Steaks, Trump Shuttle Airline ($120 million in losses between 1988 and 1990), GoTrump, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, Trump University, Trump Ice, The New Jersey Generals, Tour de Trump, Trump Network, Trump Magazine, Trumped!. Many businesses that licensed his name went bankrupt, or went out of business. And he had between four and six major bankruptcies (depending on the source), including the Trump Taj Mahal (which he spent $1.2 billion building, and was $3 billion in debt within a year of opening), Trump's Castle, Trump Place Hotel (which was very successful prior to Trump buying it in 1988, and he managed to put it into $550 million in debt by 1992!), Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts ($1.8 billion in debt by 2004, bankrupt in 2009) , and Trump Entertainment Resorts. There are likely others. And this does not take into account the 3,600 lawsuits he was involved in as of the time he took office, the vast majority of which were filed by small contractors against his companies for non payment, or total default. Many of these contractors were crushed. It is part of his M.O. Are these failures and traits the result of being a narcissist? You bet they are. Then he failed miserably as president, and was likely the 43rd worst ever. God forbid he get's re-elected. All bets are off, at that point. I only wish he had a better opponent.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin yesterday urged TAT executives and domestic offices to reignite tourism expenditure. Huh? Is he really powerful enough to change the world, re-invigorate the depressed economies, stop a recession, lower airfares, erase the huge mistakes that Anutin and Prayuth made by keeping the nation shut down for far too long, enrich the local population that lost thousands upon thousands of businesses due to the Prayuth Decimation, and change all the things that were plaguing Thailand before Covid, that NOBODY ever addressed? That would be a very impressive feat. Perhaps this guy is a superhero after all.

If you do not recall having ordered something COD, then you send him on his way. See ya!

Deputy Prime Minister Anutin emphasized the importance of safe driving under the theme "Drive Safely, Thailand Without Accidents." The objective is to prevent and reduce road accidents during the festive season. Is ridiculosity an actual word? If not, it should be invented to describe this spectacularly insincere, and ineffective so called leader. Nowhere else in the world have I seen people consistency take the kinds of chances and risks in the road, that they take here, with their families in the car. Nowhere. When they could have waited four seconds to make the uturn or turn onto the highway, and have a completely clear path, they instead choose to take a tremendous risk. It is beyond comprehension. I see it all the time. My eyes do not lie to me. This rarely ever happens to me in the US. If I decide to cut you off on a highway, when you are going 120kph, and I am making a u-turn, and there was plenty of room behind you for me to make a safe turn, is that an error, if it results in a horrific, fatal accident, and I take the lives of you and your family? I don't make the kind of errors that result in bad accidents, much less fatalities. Why? Because I am very, very careful on the road, and very, very respectful of other drivers, their lives, and those of their families. That is a choice that results in NOT making very many terrible mistakes. Sometimes an error is wearing white after Labor day in New York City. And sometimes an error is having the hubris to invade Russia, knowing the winter is imminent. In many nations people drive with common sense and reason, partly because there is a deterrent. Here, neither the police, nor the highway patrol are willing to patrol the highways. Nobody, and I mean nobody takes these guys seriously. There is absolutely nothing in the way of a deterrent here, and the local governments, the central government, and the police do not take traffic safety seriously. Not even one iota. The safety of the public means less than zero to the small men in charge here. Nothing. They show that on a daily basis. They will not do a thing. Why? They do not care about the people one iota. Not the common people. Not the average pleb. No way. Never have cared, and may never care in the future. It is all about protecting the elite, the super wealthy, those that are connected, and those in power. The rest of the population? They do not matter. The ex-pat community does not matter. And the police will not get involved unless an accident has already occurred. There is no prevention. None. The idea of getting the police more involved, is an interesting one, and it would be an effective one. But, the issue is money. They are grossly underpaid, and until the government steps up, and spends the trillion baht on updating the police equipment, and paying each cop a living wage, it is not going to happen. Until then, they will just work the franchise. The only way to survive here on the road, is to be patient, have eyes in the back of your head, drive with caution, and always, and I mean always watch out of the other guy. Chances are, he does not have much driving skill, nor patience, nor reason, nor common sense. You cannot be too careful on the road here. Especially considering that the toy police offer no traffic safety, prevention, enforcement of the law, or concern toward the prosecution of very reckless drivers. Those of us with driving skill, and a strong desire for not only survival, but the avoidance of terrible injury, are constantly scanning the road, in front of us, beside us, and behind us. There are an exceptionally high number of reckless fools on these roads, and it is the only way to preserve our lives, and those of our families, and friends, who may be driving with us, and depending on us. When I was growing up, we took drivers education courses. They showed us horrendous films, of semi trucks plowing into cars, and literally obliterating everything in their path. They also showed us graphic images of head on collisions. 120mph impacts. Even as a young kid, it made quite an impression. It was horrific, and it was hard to get those images out of your head afterwards. But, it left a lasting impression, and when I started driving, I understood it was serious business, and that it was a very dangerous thing to do. Also, I had the benefit of my lovely Mom, as my instructor. She spent countless hours in the car with me giving me tips, advice, and teaching me driving etiquette, courtesy and respect toward other drivers. That was priceless, and I doubt many Thai kids benefit from that kind of guidance.

If I'm not expecting a package I will insist on opening it in front of the delivery driver, if he says no then I simply turn him away. See ya.

A friend of mine is married to a Burmese woman who comes from a very wealthy family and he tells me that the top 50 or 100 Generals in Burma are multi-billionaires and that they've been making a fortune off of mining, timber, smuggled gemstones and drugs for generations now. There's no doubt that the current regime is enriching themselves to no end on the same. Hooligans, thugs and mafia chieftans. That defines the army and the government. Same here?

Sheer insanity. Such naivety. There is a whole subculture in this world, who absolutely refuse to work for a living, and instead like to prey on those who are vulnerable, naive, dumb, and easy victims. It is our responsibility to be careful, prudent, willing to do some vetting, some research, some due diligence, anytime we part with cash. Especially online, or on the phone! Dealing with Ebay, Lazada, Amazon is one thing. You have recourse. But, dealing with Facebook vendors, Instagram, Youtube, dating sites, any other social media, or some Joe Blow who calls you on the phone, the scammers outweigh the real deals. People get taken every day. I get junk emails offering me at least $100 million a month.

No, I believe that the number of people wearing masks are continuing to decline despite the government's efforts to whip people back up into a panic, and this is a very good thing.

PT made a deal with the army. It is that simple. He will be treated very well. There should be benefits when you sell out your party, betray your supporters and the nation, and surrender your soul.

Don't do it. Not worth selling your soul for the power. PT had already lost all credibility over the sellout.

Glad to see he is working on the really important stuff, and keeping the nation safe and prosperous. The genius of this man knows no boundaries. He is a saint. Even better than Cha Cha. They only select top quality people for positions of leadership here.

Good on them for following this up and creating bad press over this. They were not denied treatment because they were a foreigner. They were denied treatment because they did not have a 500,000 line of credit on their credit card, nor the funds in a bank account that was connected to their smartphone. Private hospitals ask for a guarantee if it is a serious injury or illness, and you don't have an excellent health care plan. It may be illegal, unethical, and immoral, but it happens. Bad press can be a good thing. Nothing changes here for the better, without alot of egg on the face.

The so called barracks they are referring to is likely a 2,000 sf suite, with a 77inch OLED, a home theater, a cook, maid, and high end latex mattresses. Real punishment. You support us and sell out your heart, soul and party, and we will take care of you. After all, we are the army and we are above any and all laws. You can't even write a critical article about is, without getting locked up. Ha!

Carabao malt is considerably better than the Chang, Singha and Leo swill. Will be switching to that. Seems like they have just a little bit of pride.

You are wrong, and in your naivety, you give the guy far too much credit. Name a few instances of convictions of those he so boldly pursued. Bet you cannot.

Smart idea, for once. 1. None of the issues existing before Covid were ever addressed. Typical Thai style. These goons in charge won't take responsibility for anything. 2. Many economies have been devastated, and Thailand's tourist base of primarily lower income Indians, Chinese and Malaysians were hardest hit. 3. Thailand cannot and will not attract wealthy or even affluent tourists, for a dozen good reasons. No sacrifices are being made, to make Thailand more appealing to them. 4. Thailand is a nation in reverse. It is moving backwards, and represents the polar opposite of progress on countless levels. It is simply NOT becoming a better version of itself. The environment, traffic and public safety, horrific law enforcement, corruption, air quality, etc. Add to that heinous luxury and wine taxes, and you have an environment wealthy tourists avoid like the plague. 5. You cannot shut down the entire tourism industry and much of the economy for over 2 years, engage is highly selective shutdowns, which favor your cronies and big construction companies, and corporations, while punishing the masses, decimate the nightlife, hotels, restaurants and countless related businesses, engage in a very poorly planned vaccination program, create a climate of fear and panic, and then just expect because you open your doors again, millions will flood in. The world does not work like that. 6. Thailand is NOT the center of the known universe. It is becoming less relevant by the minute. Tourists are forgetting Thailand. Thailand needs foreigners 100x more than they need Thailand. 7. The very things people were coming here to enjoy, have been diminished. Less nightlife, less color (due to the pasteurization and homogenization of the place), fewer resorts and restaurants, and alot of visible decimation of the economy. I could go on and on and on. The goons just do not get it. At all. Whatever happens, the numbers will be lower than before. Thailand's days as a tourist mecca are behind it now. They will have to live on scraps. None of the myriad of issues that existed long before Covid have been addressed, and the quality of tourist Thailand attracts has been declining for years. Nearly anyone in the industry will attest to that. Few tourists will be interested in visiting a Quaker state, built on a foundation of fake purity, stripped of its character, by fools who know nothing about anything. The recession that is likely coming next year will not help. But, a lot of Thailand's current economic woes are largely self inflicted. This exceedingly reckless administration engaged in multiple, highly selective economic shutdowns, that favored their cronies, and punished the masses. They also kept the nation closed off for far too long, and decimated tourism. Then they partially re-opened, with draconian restrictions. So, if you want to put the blame in the place it belongs, blame Prayuth and Prawit. Call it what it is. The Prayuth Decimation. They are the architects of the downfall of Thailand, the increased suicides, homelessness, crime, unemployment, and unhappiness of the people. Let us never forget. Though alot of nations shut down, Thailand waited far too long, and displayed a huge degree of timidity, when re-opening, with draconian restrictions and quarantine. That turned off millions of potential tourists. Remember?