spidermike007

I may have said I am fortunate to have a good woman, but I would never suggest the lifestyle is superior to being single. To each his own. I was single for a very long time and enjoyed it. I get it. Good on you.

Along with four other foreigners worth over $10 million, likely.

Nancy Reagan makes the astounding leap from an occasional pot smoker, to strung out junkies. You are not part of the solution. Reefer madness!

Let us hope and pray. The reality is in a free and fair election, with or without the convicted heroin dealers help, Prayuth and his henchmen would only get one or two percent of the vote. Of course, if they used their 250 toxic and spectacularly corrupt senators to decide, game over. Thailand then moves one step closer to Sierra Leone and Burundi, and continues on the path toward poverty, desolation and irrelevance. The Giant Prayuth descent.

I prefer to bring in a few bottled of high end tequila. Lasts a long time. And I can make a variety of nice cocktails, or just sip it. Gorgeous stuff.

Many of us prefer Thailand. Security, food, infrastructure, etc. And the PI has alot of poverty. However, Thailand is catching up. The economic regression brought on by a highly incapable leadership here is moving the nation backwards. Many will blame Covid. But quality tourists were diminishing long before the Zombie Apocalypse and now homelessness, suicides, and unemployment are at previously unheard of levels. Thank you Prayuth. You have brought untold unhappiness to your people.

Of course thousands of hotels will go under, or be sold at heavily discounted prices. Many already have. We could call it the Great Prayuth inferiority. Trillions of dollars in infrastructure is on the line here. And the extremely timid authorities could not have done a better job of sabotaging a once vital industry if they had been making a effort to do so. Staggering malfeasance. A historic economic disaster, and Covid is only one part of it. A convenient scapegoat for sure. There is far more than meets the eye, going on here.

But, it is likely those are not full time ex-pats. Those are more like rich nomads. And it is exactly the lifestyle I would have, if I were worth $50 million. $2 million for a large penthouse is considered reasonable these days, relative to property in many other nations. However now, it is likely someone could negotiate 30% off that unit, unless he was prepared to sit on it for years. I would likely have four or five homes, or condos, and would bounce back and forth. I would venture to guess very few truly rich folks, would have an interest in spending more than 2 or 3 months a year here, for a dozen good reasons. There is too much else out there in the world to see, and most of it is far more civilized and more interesting that what is on offer here. Most of us, who choose to make our lives here, do it at least partly due to the relatively reasonable cost of living.

Good post. Sounds like you did your homework. Who knows where the housing market will go here, but single family residences seem to appreciate more than condos, as a general rule here, and the demand seems to be higher.

I agree. If they are able to bring a quick end to this, and if they are able to bring tens of millions of doses of the higher quality vaccines in, and restart tourism without any restrictions, their approval ratings might rise from 1%, to 2%. Regardless, if they get Covid under control, it is the end of them, and they know it. Millions will be out in the street. The economic devastation they have wrought will not be forgotten for decades. They will blame Covid, but we all know who is to blame. Gross malfeasance and horrific mismanagement, at every level.

Nearly every friend I have in the US is single. Why? Because for a man in the US, who is past the age of 50, unless he is willing to get with a woman at least his age, his prospects are dim for finding love, or companionship. Some guys like me, simply prefer younger women. Not kids, but women who are 10, 15, even 20 or 25 years younger than us. For a dozen very valid reasons. I could break them down, but why bother? The PC crew will jump on this and say it is not right. You should not be able to have this kind of life, without jumping over ridiculous hurdles! Means nothing to me. I do not do PC. Why be with a woman our age, if we do not need to? Nothing wrong with it, if it works for you. But It is virtually impossible for a 60 year old man in the US, Canada, the UK, most of Europe, OZ, or NZ, to hook up with a 36 year old woman, unless she is very fat or very ugly, or he is a centi millionaire, or is famous. Period. It just does not happen in this day and age. Here it is possible. Granted he will likely get with a woman of lesser means, who needs a guy who can provide some financial stability. So what? Who cares? Most women want financial stability anywhere in the world, whether they admit it or not. The difference is here the women are more honest about their financial needs and desires. I know a lot of men who have engaged in relationships with lovely, kind, supportive, humorous, and sexy women here, who are no longer lonely. We have very good lives. Fulfilling lives. Lives we could never dream of having back in the US, Oz, NZ, UK, Canada, or Scandinavia.

We live in different universes. I know one ex-sex worker who saved up 4 million baht, built herself a beautiful home on family land, that her and her folks live in. She also bought some land, planted 15 rai of fruit orchards, bought a mini mart, and is doing well. Stiffer penalties for Johns? Drive the industry further underground, so it is less safe for the women involved? That is a solution, or is that Nancy Reagan speaking? I know another who started a travel agency, bought a few motorbikes, and eventually built it up to 30 bikes for rentals. She now owns a nice house too. I know a number who have been successful. And I know countless people who enjoy an occasional smoke. Does this make them a drug user? Many are multi millionaire businessmen.

No. They are looking after their own millions, and perhaps his billions.

No, they care, they just do not have a choice. When you have traveled overseas, and seen that 10,000 baht bottle available in LA, NY, or London for $55, you tend to be annoyed and abused by onerous taxation by fools. But, what are the other options, if you like good wine? It is just one more nail in the tourism coffin of rich tourist dreaming, on the part of the comedy organization called the TAT.

Nope. I was definitely referring to the entire Prayuth administration. They make the EU look like a gleaming, streamlined group of stunningly competent, efficient and honest officials.

Notice how many foreigners are on this list. So, who are the Zombies now?

Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha today delivered his remarks on post-pandemic economic recovery in a video conference for the opening ceremony of the 18th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) held in Nanning, China. 1. I will resign. I now realize I am holding the nation back, and I admit to totally blowing the vaccine effort, not seeing this coming, and being completely unprepared. The Thai people do not deserve the destruction, sabotage and willful neglect I have saddled them with. 2. Phiphat will resign too. He is in way over his head, and the revival of tourism is just too important. We need someone with experience. We admit he was a bad choice. 3. Anutin will hand in his resignation. Officials from all over the world have advised us we actually need someone with a background in health and medicine to deal with a pandemic emergency. This never occurred to us. It came as a big surprise to hear this advise. Expertise? Makes sense. Why didn't we think of that? 4. We may actually decide to start fighting corruption. I know I promised this 7 very long years ago, but I mean it now. We simply have too much egg on our faces, and the world has been laughing at us. We cannot allow ourselves to be the laughing stock of the world, with heroin dealers in positions of leadership, and serial killing cops in top positions. Even I consider that to be a bit much, and you would not believe the things I have witnessed.

It is a desperate effort to make a terrible leader, who is very weak, feeble, unpopular, and failing at everything he does, and diminishing everything he touches, look strong. It is an optical game, intended to deceive the remaining 1% who still support him, believe he is capable. That is all it is. And why have the canning factories not been shut down? We could all live without juice for a month. They have been an absolute plague, with regard to the spread of Covid.

Fairly harsh stuff. So, every gal who looks for a man to support her, and her family, in an attempt to raise herself up from a life of poverty, is a hooker to you? And anyone who relaxes with a blunt of ganga, or partakes at a party is a druggie? How about medical cannabis? Same judgment level?

Not true. There are a pinhead of very wealthy people here, with low self esteem, little sense of self, and they are spectacularly desperate to impress others. And they are the ones who pay stupid prices for these vehicles, watches, motorbikes and toys. They care about the luxury tax, but if your level of inadequacy is such, that you need to impress, you have little choice here. Sales would be five times what they are, if they halved the luxury taxes. More jobs, a higher GDP, more actual taxes collected due to volume, and everyone wins. Same applies to fine wine. But, it requires actual adults in the room to make decisions, that have inherent wisdom and vision. That is lacking here.

According to the professor, the contagious nature of the Delta Variant and the close proximity that people are now operating in means that it is inevitable that there will be a spike within the next two weeks. “With this sort of thing, the spike is usually higher than the previous peak so we can be looking at 30,000 cases per day by the beginning of October because people are just not careful.” So, let's give it a few weeks, and then we will know if this was standardized fear mongering, or if this guy actually knew what he was talking about. My guess is he is wrong. Lockdowns do not work, especially a Thai style lockdown, which is totally selective, and therefore totally ineffective.

Well, you do make a reasonable point. I do not know about France, Germany or the UK. In the US, the leadership has been poor for decades now. They are not able to attract the best and the brightest to public office anymore, as the job is just too toxic, and so is the environment. Most of the people with some noble intentions, tend to stay away from it, and it tends to attract people like Trump, Bush Jr. Clinton, Pelosi, McCarthy, McConnell, and other low end, low rent, low ethics types of contenders. However there is law and order, there are some environmental safeguards, foreigners who live there do have legal rights, and in general, the place is not run by dinosaurs, completely lacking a vision of the future, and who are only in it for the sake of extracting as much illicit cash as possible.

Quite expensive, lower quality in general, but more passionate, again in general. Yes, there is plenty of action, but nothing like here. At least before Covid. After? Who knows?

I was referring to his career, and prospects in the NFL. College does not last forever, unfortunately for some of these guys. And many a college star has disappointed at the professional level.

Most wealthy people tend to be smart with their money. They simply will not pay stupid money for stuff. The ultra rich are different. But, no ultra rich people would even consider Thailand as a destination, unless they had work here. The luxury taxes have been discouraging high end tourism here for decades. It is policy that is so dumb, so shortsighted, so non-visionary, and it badly hurts the economy. If wine duty was 80%, you would have a thriving wine industry here, five to ten times the size of the current industry. So the state income would be made up on volume, and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be generated. Instead the protection of a few local wineries continues, due to some politicians passing the anti import wine bill years ago, and accepting the payoffs that came with that braindead decision. Same applies to luxury taxes. Ferrari would sell 100 cars a year here, instead of 5. The designer stores in the malls might actually have some customers. Brain dead policy, by brain dead men, who think Thailand is the center of the universe. Earth to Thailand. This place is not only not the center of the universe, it is barely the center of SE Asia anymore. The tiger of SE Asia has become a whiny, sickly, anemic, hungry, disease infected alley cat. And the nation is moving backwards at a breakneck pace, towards true, poor nation 3rd world status. Sure, many other countries are benefitting from all of the mistakes Thailand is making. But, they are also trying much harder, and are far smarter with their policies. They deserve the gains.