spidermike007

Thank you. A voice of reasoning, in the Thai wilderness of self delusion. For some reason, over the years I have noticed that alot of Thais in a position of authority, think that wealthy foreigners are either stupid, impulsive, or easily duped. I have often asked them, how do you think they made their money? Do you think it is easy for dumb people to make alot of money? They do not have an answer for that. DUH! Most of my wealthy friends are smart with their money, they tend to do alot of diligence work, when it comes to investing, and they are alot smarter than these fools give them credit for. Probably alot smarter than the fools trying to scam them!

With that face, he is trying to sell something. He looks like a refrigerator or a used car salesman. Probably used Mercedes or BMW, but definitely used.

I take exception to that. The vaccine effort was likely one of the worst, amongst the top 100 nations in the world. A spectacular failure. And the shutdowns have been highly selective, and punitive to all but the super rich owners of the canning plants, the construction sites, and some others.

This pandemic has badly affected hundreds of millions around the world. At least in the US, many got assistance, rent relief, and they could not be evicted for long periods of time, however they ended up racking up tons of debt in the process. Homelessness is now skyrocketing, due to the housing market continuing to enjoy a fake stimulus, that will end in disaster, quite soon. And lack of employment. Here, there are millions out of work, and with the exception of one rather bold economist who recently forecast that the economy here would take years to bounce back, and end up being worse than 1997 (as I have been saying for awhile now), few seem to be admitting how bad the damage is, how high unemployment is (perhaps as high as 40%?), how badly this has shaken investor confidence, how many Thais are now homeless, how thoroughly wrecked the tourism is, and how ill equipped this administration is, to deal with these rather extreme issues. I know several foreigners who own bed and breakfast spots, restaurants, and bars. Most have closed. One is hanging on. He tells me he is breaking even, and even though the hours are long, he is not willing to let a business he has invested so much into, shut down just yet. Nobody that I know of is getting anything meaningful in the way of assistance, from this spectacularly stingy, and short sighted administration.

You are a funny guy, and your posts are articulate and well thought out. Keep it up! As far as the drama goes, I admit to being somewhat extreme in my criticism of this regime. However, they deserve it!

Excellent news. I have no problem with absolute defiance of a toxic and extremely corrupt government, when the shutdowns are highly selective, and favor their cronies, and punish the common Thai. Defiance is what is needed at this time. Civil disobedience can be a very good thing, at times.

This is either unbelievable hubris, or the fabricated, rose tinted projection of a real estate huckster. A close friend told me that his girlfriend works as a senior level manager for one of Thailand's biggest developers. She told him that they have reduced their building by 90% of what it was pre-Covid, which was around 100 developments a year. She said they are laying off staff, and that they could not lease, or sell anything within the commercial or residential side of things, that was at a price point that made sense. Demand is way down. The Chinese market is nearly gone, Russians and others are very hesitant to commit. And the long term tourists are gone too. So, who does that leave? Wealthy Thais, many of whom see the market collapsing, and would rather wait and see how all of this shakes out, and ex-pats, many of whom are smart enough to be shopping for bargains right now. The economy is going remain devastated here, for a very long time to come. And the longer this goes on, the more people are going to be affected by it, and the more desperate some will become. For the wealthy it barely matters. But, there are many middle class who have money invested, and there are alot of Chinese and Russians who bought, and cannot even visit Thailand. Some of them will want to unload their properties. Wait. The condo market is severely overbuilt. And demand is low, for all but the top buildings.

You mean these guys actually solicited the help of foreigners, paid an outside expert, and admitted they do not know everything? Imagine the level of desperation that would compel them to do such a thing?

Well then, I double down on the toxic water thing. A drama queen, huh? I do not think I have ever been called that before. Let me digest that. Sounds like a fun designation. LOL.

There is no question Thailand has been moving in a backwards, regressive direction for a long, long time now. As much as I like to rant about Cha Cha, this trend started long before his toxicity and rot came along. The place is moving towards lower income, African nation status and will likely be surpassed by Malaysia and Vietnam in the next couple of decades. Amazing Thailand.

From what I am told you get a retirement type visa and claim to be retired, with no income other than savings and investment income, which is the bare minimum for a visa. And you use the ATM's to pull out alot of your monthly cash. No income tax ever needs to be paid. Have friends doing exactly that. Why would you want to pay income tax, if you do not have to? Always do anything you can to defy the authorities, to whatever extent possible. It is so much fun.

Amazing the difference 65 baht worth of ribbons and tin pins can make! Bizarre that they actually take themselves seriously. Sometimes I want to actually ask army, air force, or police officials just that. Do you guys actually think you are doing important work? Doesn't the fact that this administration is such a joke, and the laughing stock of planet earth embarrass you?

And there is a reason why they call you the last of the big spenders.

Being able to divide one's time between different spots, weather dependent on timing of the year, is a truly ideal lifestyle. I would avoid the hot season here, and stay during the rains, or in December, January. Then, off to different horizons and goodbye Thailand, for awhile. And you are likely correct in assuming most of the ex-pat community here cannot afford such a lifestyle. Me included!

Fantastic. Spectacular coast, brilliant Adriatic waters, nice people, interesting food, alot to see. And close to so many great areas. Dubrovnik is a bit overrun with tourism, at least it was before the apocalypse. But it is a gorgeous city, with amazing architecture and alot of history. Thailand offers nothing to rival it. Nothing. There is alot to see over there.

The West coast has some nice beaches, and some very nice Andaman water. The Gulf coast is horrible for swimming. Sub standard on so many levels. The runoff from the industrial estates upcountry and from Bangkok is tremendous. One has to venture south to at least Pranburi, before you can swim without being in very toxic water. Further south it is ok, but visibility is not great, and in areas like Samui and Phangan there is alot of sewage discharge. In the ten years I lived in Samui, I might have swam 5 times in the sea. Preferred swimming pools. The few tests I have seen of water purity were very scary. Not to mention swarms of jellyfish, including some boxer jellyfish, which can be deadly. More than half of the cases were unconscious. There were six fatal cases (46.7 %). The wound characteristics had an appearance similar to caterpillar tracks or step ladder-like burn marks. https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-016-1931-8 Box jellyfish killed two people off Thai beaches in 2015; the latest being the death of a 20-year-old German woman on Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, in October. Just as alarming, however, are the 11 other, non-fatal attacks in and around Koh Samui and nearby Koh Pha Ngan in recent years. https://iamkohchang.com/blog/box-jellyfish-in-thailand.html

I would guess that 80% of all ex-pats, if you did a survey, would say the standard of living here, is amongst the top two or three reasons they are here. Without the affordability factor, Thailand offers a very limited amount of appeal for ex-pats. I do like most Thai people. And the food. Not much in the way of culture though. And if you consider the air, the poor quality of the water, the traffic hazards, and the govt., well I could go on. If I were wealthy enough, I would choose to be here no more than 2-3 months of each year. There are countless spots that would be very appealing as a traveling nomad. Croatia, Turkey, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Sardinia, and many other spots.

This is by far some of the most ridiculous drivel I have seen in a long time. Do they even know what Samui looks like at the moment? These are images I took during my past two trips there, over the past 12 months. The beach roads in both Lamai and Chaweng. Granted, the whole island does not look like this. Maenam has fared a bit better, and so has Bank Rak. However 1,000's of businesses have closed. It looks a bit apocalyptic. 7th best? More like 607th best.

I totally blame Prayuth, and the biggest joke. Immigration has gotten worse under their tutelage and their arrogance, and their insufferable xenophobia knows no bounds. This whole thing leaves a bitter, sour, nasty, foul taste in one's mouth, and the stench can be smelled for kilometers. Thailand is moving backwards on so many levels, I do not even know where to begin. I believe at this point, that if Brittany Spears were to declare her candidacy, she would beat Prayuth, hands down. That is how much he and the army are despised, at this point. Tens of thousands of ex-pats have already left. Enough already. They have gotten sick of the constant nonsense here, and left. Immigration is like a moving target. It appears increasingly more obvious that the authorities do not want us here, and the level of toxicity on the part of immigration, and the government is annoying. Also, this administration is ridiculously incompetent and incapable of improving anything. They are the very definition of regressive. So, they want to get rid of most of us, and substitute us for wealthy ex-pats. It is not going to work. Why? We will defy them and stay. And the wealthy ex-pats will not come within a 1000 km. of Thailand for over a dozen very good reasons. They are just dreaming. They still think Thailand is the (COTKU) center of the known universe. They could not possibly be farther off the mark.

Top three incentives. Make some sacrifices. Lower luxury taxes and wine taxes. Then offer the kinds of services rich people want. Helicopter travel (the useless army would have to give up nearly exclusive use to the air) and high speed rail. The rich Chinese you want have 30,000 km of it. What do you think they think, when they arrive here and see that you have zero km. of it? Proud of yourselves?

I agree. With the lack of tourists, and the tens of thousands of ex-pats who have quit Thailand for good, one would have thought it might have been an opportunity for immigration and this administration to develop some humility. Wow, was I ever wrong. I think the primay issue is they are either incapable or learning and adapting, like ancient dinosaurs, or they are simply too arrogant and out of touch to do so. Recently returned from immigration, after renewing my marriage visa. The upside to this visa, is that only 400,000 is needed as a deposit, and it does not have to stay in the bank, once your visa is granted. The downsides are: The hurdles you need to jump over, in order to get a marriage visa are stupid, ridiculous, unnecessary, draconian, wasteful, and silly. I understand the need for them to verify that you are a legitimate couple. Upon the first application. But, the dumb requirements should not relate to renewals. You should not be required to show fresh images of the house each time, copies of the marriage papers, the house documents, either come with a local Thai witness, or bring a signed affidavit from a local Thai each time, provide new maps to the house, and dozens of other requirements. I just do not even know what to say about the process. I felt like a street dog by the time I left. After hours of paperwork, copy after copy after copy, each page having to be signed, and then being grilling by the surly officer, I literally felt like a rabid stray dog. The level of disrespect that immigration shows married couples here, and foreigners in general, is totally uncalled for, beyond the pale, and inane. The copy woman, the guy sorting our papers, they were all nice. But, the officers? Such sourpusses. The woman who was helping us was so difficult to work with, when she finally rejected us over the tiniest thing she did not like, after nearly an hour of reviewing every document with a microscope, so to speak, and said no, I responded by saying yes. I a very loud voice, I said YES, you are going to do this. YES, you are going to do this right now. YES, you are going to stop saying NO to me right now. This ends now. She looked at me and did not know what to say. I asked for the manager. The top brass came over, and we had it sorted in 30 minutes. Took nearly 3 hours. And as usual, it will be a month, until I have final approval. Is it worth it? NO. It is my last marriage visa. I will go back to a retirement visa next year, or leave the country, before I subject myself to that abuse one more time. They inevitably like to throw in something, to increase the difficulty of the process. Frankly, I think at least some of this comes from the rather extreme level of xenophobia and the toxic racism of the army. It filters down throughout the government. I do not think they want us here. And making these procedures difficult is one way of expressing that. Do not even mention how easy the retirement visa is. I understand all that. Fortunately, I feel very little of that racist sentiment from the non governmental Thai people. So, here is my suggestion. You qualify, you are not a criminal, and you have the money in the bank. We really need you. So, we will start visiting your home for a new visa. Only one page will be required, for you to sign, and we will give you multiple entry, five year visas, from now on, on the spot! For free! To show our gratitude, and eliminate all the dumb paperwork.

What is it like being married to the 1% who still support this guy? I cannot find a single soul who does anymore. Some die hards did, until he blew the vax effort and the response to the latest waves. She needs to get out more. My heart goes out to you.

And is there any reasonable expectation that this mental midget could distinguish between ancient Khmer, and the end of the Ayutthaya period? Very unlikely he has studied any history, other than military academic, highly doctored war stories.

Why doesn't he just go into hiding? Does he not realize the level to which he is despised, at this point? Does he not understand all credibility is lost, and the nation would be safer and more stable, if he never opened his mouth, except to scarf down his lobster tail, Beluga caviar, and 2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne?

Thank you. A voice of reason. I do agree about the US going downhill. And I do agree what despite the spectacularly toxic regime here, life is still better than back there. It is also about not wanting to be around uber feminist women, who have rejected the best quality they have, and that is femininity. That is such a turnoff. Getting a sweet smile from a lovely young waitress here can be such a thrill, even though it is innocent, it is heartfelt and kind. In the US I am treated like a 90 year old with leprosy, by anyone who is younger and attractive. I do not have to worry about violence here, and in the US there are alot of maniacs willing to take a life for nothing. I do not have to deal with bitter, sour, disenfranchised people, and a cost of living that makes no sense on any level. I could go on and on and on, but I will spare you all.