spidermike007

He is worth well over $100 million from five books and the TV show, which was great the first four or five seasons, then it fell off a cliff. The longer the series went, the crappier it got. It was spent after four seasons. 

Why not spend a little time trying to crank out another book, for $20 million or so? Many have been cooped up at home for months, making nothing. Is this supposed to be sold as some kind of hardship?

How is your wife being pressured? In what way is it affecting her life? If it were me, I would double down, and start writing more posts in Thai, about how they are attempting to pressure you into removing the post. Thievery is first nature for some, but facing the consequences, is another thing altogether. Pay the piper! A restaurant that practices gangland dining is not worthy of support. Do everything in your power to shut them down!

In my case, I always argue the bill before paying. Show them the menu, and pay what you think is right. I have been to Japanese restaurants in Bangkok, by myself, ordered three dishes and one beer, and been charged 5,000 baht, for 18 dishes. They refused to change the bill. I made such a scene, the manager got involved, and it still took five revisions of the bill for them to get it right, and it took an hour. I was screaming, and so was the manager. It was like war. It was obviously a clip joint, accustomed to dealing with very inebriated Japanese with deep pockets. I do not play that game. The manager was so incensed that I was not willing to go along with their scam, she followed me out, and cursed me out in the street. It was very amusing. 

This is all second nature to Trump. He cannot stop the slide into oblivion. He absolutely insists on being on the wrong side of history. He has assured his own defeat and his own fall into a lifetime of obscurity and irrelevance.

Who needs an opponent when you are shooting yourself in the foot daily? Go, Don go!

Somehow the title of a leading Thai ecologist conjures up a potential lack of credibility? Or is it just me? 

If he spent his time lecturing his own people on how to care for their environment, perhaps we would have some pristine beaches to visit. Or, maybe that is part of his job description? 

He blamed the slippery conditions rather than any fault of his own. 

Alot of Thai people are very immature for their age. And many women and men are emotionally undeveloped, and really just 13 year olds, who look like adults. There is something about this society that does not allow most people to grow up with an understanding of themselves. I think face has something to do with it. The utter refusal to take responsibility for one's actions and the unwillingness to "own" a situation, and man up, when you screw up. That and the inability to question people, and situations. And the subsequent lack of curiosity. It is all a perfect storm, when it comes to preventing alot of people from becoming well developed human beings, with communication skills, and the tools needed to conduct meaningful relationships, beyond the surface. 

Who cares what people think of you? For those of us with high self esteem, it just does not matter. Sure, close friends and family. But strangers on the street? Who gives a rat's butt about this? It means nothing what they think, nor what they say about you. Nothing, less than zero. They count for nothing. They are just people, and people you do not know, nor will ever see again. Face is rife with self doubt, and by subscribing to this weakness, and man or woman is made a far lesser person. 

Where does one even begin to comment on a post like this? First of all a Thai ecologist somehow seems like an oxymoronic job. Second if he has written over 100 books, who has read them?

And third, if you want pristine, and clean beaches, try these locales. I somehow do not think the world class description he uses for Pattaya's beaches, can quite match up to the environmental pride shown in some of these areas.

Tikehau Island, French Polynesia. Can't decide whether you want white- or pink-sand beaches? ... 

Dreamland Beach, Bali. ... 

 Fulhadhoo, Goidhoo, Maldives

Ypao Beach, Guam

Seagrass Bay, Laucala Island, Fiji

Matira Beach, Bora Bora

Ipil Beach, El Nido, Palawan Island, Philippines

Bathsheba Beach, Barbados. ... 

Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. ... 

Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda. ... 

Harbour Island, Bahamas. ... 

Tropic of Cancer Beach, Little Exuma, Bahamas

Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos

Lindquist Beach, St. Thomas

Palm Beach, Aruba

Santa Maria Beach, Los Cabos

Blue Beach (La Chiva), Vieques, Puerto Rico. ... 

Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI.

Devil's Bay, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Maipio Valley Beach, Big Island, Hawaii

Honopu Beach Kauai, Hawaii

Any mention of any beach on the Gulf Coast of Thailand, within the same sentence as paradise, is mere hyperbole, and an outright lie. In my opinion the best beaches on the Gulf lie between Pranburi and Ban Saphan Noi. There are a few nice beaches on Koh Phangan too. But in Pattaya? A total fabrication. Pure fiction. Political and tourist related nonsense. Let's get real. Who are these people anyway? 

9 minutes ago, fredwiggy said:

The official death toll is 5395; 2280 of them foreign tourists. To this have to be added the missing, whose number has been differently estimated as between 2845 and 4500, about 1000 of them foreign tourists (Wechsler, 2005). The missing have been presumed dead since the end of the retrieval operations...................

Murders > Per 100,000 people	9 Ranked 48th. 53% more than United States
Murders with firearms	20,032 Ranked 3rd. 2 times more than United States
Prisoners	213,815 prisoners Ranked 6th.
Assaults	38.8 Ranked 47th.               Many foreigners are robbed or pick pocketed here every year. I felt safer in the USA by far. There at least when someone commits a crime, you can't pay your way out of it as easy as here.....................THAILAND HAS been ranked as one of the 20 most dangerous countries in the world for tourists, with high rates of crime and violence and low reliability of police services, according to a recent survey. ... The violence that flared in Thailand's deep South in early 2004 took more than 6,800 lives.............This country is nowhere near safe for foreigners, especially foreign girls who are sold here.

That was one of the most bizarre replies I have seen in ages. Did a gen Z kid design It? 

With that attitude, I sure hope you do not have to live here! Personally, I have never felt safer anywhere in my lifetime. The US is spectacularly dangerous these days, and I never feel safe there. 

The dreaming continues. These ministries consider Thailand to be the center of the universe. The world cannot live without Thailand. The level of superiority within Thailand and Thai society on so many levels is obvious. The world sees that, right?

No. Wrong. The world can live without that which Thailand has to offer. And the world is a different place, post Covid. Tourism was already in decline here based on occupancy levels over the past couple of years. Now? The industry will be decimated for a long time to come. 

Will Japan continue to invest here? Who knows? Will Chinese investment pick up? Probably. Will that be a good thing? Probably not. 

The fact is Thailand could be doing a dozen different things to make itself more attractive to both tourism and investment. But, all the things it could do, to make itself a better version of it's current self, would require sacrifice and vision. Not something this army led govt. is capable of. Major tax breaks, drastic lowering of luxury and wine taxes, allowing ownership of land and homes by foreigners, relaxation of inane visa laws, ridding the administration of xenophobic ministers, beginning a program of hiring based on merit, improving traffic safety, paying attention to the air and the environment. The list goes on and on and on. 

Will any of this happen? One can hope. But, it is unlikely as this administration is one of the least progressive on planet earth. They love projections, prognosticactions, declarations and platitudes. But when it comes to the nuts and bolts, and practical improvements, they are absolutely lost in space.

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

Official corruption is rampant in Thailand. It ranges from bribery to outright police collusion. The interplay of drugs, prostitution, political paralysis, corruption and collusion, a culture of impunity, international tourism and trade, traditional Buddhist tolerance and tendency to ignore problems has led to an increasingly multifaceted and complex crime epidemic in the country. Juvenile delinquency has also been increasing in recent years.

In November 2015, the New York Times reported that in the fiscal year ending September 2015, the national police have seen a surge in thefts, burglaries, and robberies, more than 75,557 thefts and other property crimes in the fiscal year, 10.5 percent higher than the previous year. Violent crime was up 8.6 percent during the same period. ........A lot more than you think goes on here, including more human trafficking than just about anywhere on earth.

Well, the best part of all this is that 99.8% of it is Thai on Thai. Which makes the place incredibly safe for us ex-pats. How many ex-pats have you heard of, who have been subjected to violence, theft or murder? Very few. I feel infinitely safer here than I do in the US, on a dozen dofferent levels. 

8 minutes ago, meechai said:

555 yeah if things really get cooking & the out of work Thai's really start needing food/baht we will see

which one looks more like zombie land especially to a nice ripe falang

Nah. Most Thais are not blood thirsty like Americans. Petty crime here is so much lower than back there. 

Talk about deliberately reaching for the bottom of the barrel. Woe is Thailand with men like this in positions of influence. 

42 minutes ago, drbeach said:

Too early to know. One would think that by then, barring a "second wave" where the entire world is once again under lockdown, Thailand will have fully opened up sometime in that period. After all, European countries are in the process of opening up to each other (and this includes the UK and Ireland, outside of Schengen) and starting next month some European countries such as France are said to open to non-European countries too (Portugal already has, to the USA, Canada, Latin America). This means, no more quarantines and no testing either in most cases (some exceptions exist, such as Iceland).

 

Doesn't make any sense that such a highly tourism dependent region like SE Asia isn't desperately trying to re-open as soon as possible...SE Asia, including Thailand, is much more dependent on tourism than most other regions of the world, including European countries with a strong tourism sector like Spain (where it accounts for 12% of GDP, still significantly less than Thailand and Cambodia, for instance).

 

My advice is...stay put and keep yourself up-to-date on the latest developments. If Thailand isn't open yet or hasn't announced a firm re-opening by mid-September, you either need to remain in Thailand or you leave for America but don't expect to come back anytime soon. You'll have to choose between where you prefer to stay for the long-term, Thailand or the US.

Good info. Thanks. And if I have to choose I will pick Thailand over Zombieland any day of the week. 

Not allowing them to open is pure sadism at this point. People need to work. I don't remember the army offering to pay their rent. Covid is gone from Thailand. 

Can't walk around or talk loud in a bar? Who makes this stuff up?

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

Hey, come on!  Didn't you see him drink water out of a glass with one hand?  Absolutely NAILED IT!  Obviously put a lot of prep into that, give him some credit.

 

It's not nice to bash people on health issues, but this guy has put so much effort into keeping his medical condition concealed you know he has something to hide.  Also, he has been so vehement in attacking others on health issues he has waived any consideration of civility.

 

 

He is fair game for bashing on any topic. He earned that with his venom, hostility, hatred, division and utter lack of honor and decency. 

22 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Don't even ask what they are for. . . 

They are for men who wear alot of makeup, do bizarre stuff to their hair, and look alot like women. I hear good looking, straight guys who don't adhere do not even get so much as a glimpse from this crowd. 

17 hours ago, CraigInBangkok said:

thats a shame Mike, I was going to sponsor you for $49,000 ????

I will take it. Shall I send by bank info? Any restrictions on my visit?