spidermike007

Captain Chaos is so far out of his element here. And Mnuchin is an absolute moron. Between them, they are by far, the dumbest guys in play. Tiny Don is taking the long cherished relationships that have been built over decades, and roasting them in the fire of his deep hatred, racism, bigotry, isolationism, and ignorance. He is perhaps the most dangerous man on earth at the moment, and is an enemy to US National security. Get him out. Hopefully Mueller will be able to force this jerk to resign. Let us hope he has some very, very damaging stuff on this village idiot.

Notice how it is always an ex minister, who gets charged? Not that this will ever go anywhere. But, people who are currently in positions of power are always above the law. And and all laws.

I wonder if this is not at least part of the reason they are so desperately clinging to power. Ex politicians are subject to some scrutiny. Not much. But, at least some. These creeps who are currently in power have alot to answer for. We can only dream that one day some of them, will be charged. Personally, I would love to see them start with Little P. and Prawit. 

Any infrastructure project of this magnitude has to be a step in the right direction. Bangkok already has outstanding public transportation. The rest of the nation badly needs this. The current state of the trains is atrocious. I do see great progress being made on the Bangkok - Korat line. Good. Hope this progress continues long into the future. 

The lack of a coherent foreign policy, by this feckless, and fabulously incompetent administration is really starting to show. The fact that the State Department barely exists anymore does not help, nor the fact that around 40 ambassadors have still not been appointed, yet ultra conservative federal judges, are being appointed to lifetime posts, in record numbers. Captain Chaos has a primarily domestic agenda. Foreign policy is essentially an after thought, and it is done with the utmost belligerence, and lack of statesmanship. 

Tiny D. The art of I cannot make a deal to save my life.

A game changer? Hua Hin may be the most underutilized airport in Asia. Certainly in Thailand. They spent millions improving the runway years ago, then stopped using the airport altogether. For some reason airports like HH and Krabi seem to be getting less variety of flights, than usual. Someone in the aviation authority is really dropping the ball. Which is not surprising given the average level of competence (or lack thereof) of the typical minister in this fabulously incompetent administration. 

It was announced in the media, that starting in November of LAST year, Air Asia would begin flights to multiple destinations, leading up to 36 cities, after some time. What happened? One flight? One destination? Pathetic. Deplorable. Shame on the authorities. You clowns can do much better than this.

10 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

Always remember, if it is good, it is only going to get better. If there are problems, or The bottom line is this.

 

I disagree,

Relationships are never better than the first 10 bedroom encounters, after that the bedroom visits become less frequent, and the relationship slides downhill. Only the angle of the slide varies.

So sorry to hear about your life of romantic misfortune. Wow. Must be a tough cross to bear. Some of us have had the opposite experiences. Some of us have had the great fortune of finding someone very special, who enhances, sweetens, and improves every day of our lives, and has our back 24/7. Hard to beat that feeling. I can only hope it happens for you. After many years the sex is a very secondary part of the relationship. It is about companionship, humor, kindness, love, understanding, and having someone to share things with. Pretty nice, if you can find it. Of course having said that, if there was not much there to begin with, than I agree, after 10 times having sex, it starts to feel pretty empty. But then again, that was not much of a "relationship".

We have been allowed by a succession of incredibly weak, and toothless administrations, including the current one, to get away with charging whatever we want to charge, without regard to the laws. Now, the conditions that we have created have encouraged fair competition, in the form of these new alternative taxi services. We do not like that at all. The government needs to protect us, as they have up to now. We do not want competition. It will lead to lower rates. Lower rates are bad! We want more money. This is bad. We will misbehave! Nobody will punish us, especially not the weak army! 

We have been allowed by a succession of incredibly weak, and toothless administrations, including the current one, to get away with charging whatever we want to charge, without regard to the laws. Now, the conditions that we have created have encouraged fair competition, in the form of these new alternative taxi services. We do not like that at all. The government needs to protect us, as they have up to now. We do not want competition. It will lead to lower rates. Lower rates are bad! We want more money. This is bad. We will misbehave! Nobody will punish us, especially not the weak army! 

Of course they are extending the decree. Why? They have absolutely no ideas whatsoever, for a solution to this mess. Those five provinces were part of the Sultanate of Malay, in the 19th century. The land was seized in a battle. Never given back. No attempt was ever made to settle this. So, now you have ethnic Malays, living in Thailand, and being treated as pariahs by one administration after another. Zero creativity, and zero willingness to come up any solutions, or even to treat the local people fairly. Fortunately, the Thai government is not brutal, like the genocidal Burmese clown generals, and their racist puppet Ahn Sang Suu Kyi. But, they are not coming up with any solutions either. 

15 hours ago, Ks45672 said:

Seems like the bacon and cheese ones are now also made with "rice bran oil which is a very high quality oil"..... 

 

They may have a few extra flavourings but I don't think you would live a few extra years eating the plain tasteless ones.... 

 

Not as if chips are supposed to be healthy anyway, is it? 

 

 

If that ingredient list works for you, go for it. Personally I find it very scary. What on earth is wrong with plain potato chips. I find them delicious.

Controversial additives

The additives in question are from the following key categories: 

• Colours (code numbers in the 100 range) that add or restore colour to foods. 
• Preservatives (200 range) that help protect against food deterioration caused by micro-organisms. 
• Antioxidants (300 range) that slow or prevent the oxidative deterioration of foods, such as when fats and oils go rancid. 
• Artificial sweeteners (including intense sweeteners in the 900 range, and bulk sweeteners such as sorbitol, 420) impart a sweet taste for fewer kilojoules than sugar. 
• Flavour enhancers (mainly in the 600 range) that improve the flavour and/or aroma of food.

https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/food-warnings-and-safety/food-additives/articles/food-additives-you-should-avoid

19 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Of course he welcomes it!

That's a big part of the Putin agenda.

Promoting the divorce of the USA and Europe. 

A big reason he worked so hard (and succeeded) in getting "trump" n office in the first place. 

True that. But the one who is really encouraging the divorce is Tiny Don. He has done everything in his power to alienate Europe. And he is getting outplayed yet again. Hopefully, Putin and the European leaders, will be successful in holding this treaty together, and they will do it without the participation of the US. By the day, Tiny Don is making America not only less great, but also less relevant. And that is probably a good thing. The US has had horrific foreign policy for at least the past 20 years, and they should be less relevant. As an American, I can say that I am hoping the Europeans are able to save the treaty, and make the most dangerous and unstable man on earth, less relevant in the process. Most of us already realize how incompetent, and how illiterate Tiny D. is. The Europeans have known that from the beginning. 

Donald - the art of I cannot make a deal to save my life.

No need to worry. He will be gone from the scene within 12 months. Mueller is going to bury this charlatan huckster.

Hopefully they will be able to put Weinstein behind bars, which is where he belongs. With his power and money, he could have had millions of willing women. The need to prey on those that were not interested is simply a pathological sickness. Put him away. His fellow inmates will show him alot of kindness, tenderness and support. They will "back him up". 

Now, the nitwit in chief says the summit might be back on. Kim flattered him again, and that is all it takes, to get this 13 year old to respond favorably. Wow. Talk about instability. Talk about a loose cannon. Tune into the next episode of the Tiny D. show. 

Nearly all Thai women prefer lighter skin. It is considered prestigious, to have a man with light skin. They consider westerners to be insane for sitting out in the sun, to get a tan. Bizarre and incomprehensible behavior, as far as most are concerned. So, the answer is that they would prefer that you do not have a tan. 

15 hours ago, hhinhh said:

Well if you look at the distance between the airport and the king's summer palace there are not many more questions to ask.

Well, that is just it. I heard the great man did not like the noise. But he is gone. And more than likely the palace is not being used. So, what gives here? And the planes could be diverted in a northerly loop, or easterly loop, so noise would not be a factor. It just does not make sense. On any level.

It would appear by the replies, that alot of posters here are not aware of just how lucrative the customs positions are. Just like the police officers with any rank, a mid level customs officer actually purchases his rank, for a significant amount of money. I have been told five million baht is typical. These are franchises. They are major family investments. If it were not for social media, this would have just been another in a series of thousands of shakedowns. This happens daily. Of course, the fact that these travelers were sharing 6 bottles amongst 14 people should have been taken into account. More logically, they should have spread the bottles out, one per bag. But regardless, this was a shakedown pure and simple, and fortunately the criminals in customs were called out.

If these guys are brought before their superiors, they will be told to be more careful, and not get caught, as it upsets the distribution of income all the way up the food chain. 

2 hours ago, yogi100 said:

 

Of course it's not true how silly of me. There are thousands of these wealthy tourists everywhere in Thailand and every day I meet several of them. My hotel is full of 'em. They fly in on their private jets or arrive in the Gulf of Thailand on their fabulous Sunseeker ocean going yachts.They think absolutely nothing of spending 500 quid on a meal. But as you say the wine situation is terrible and the lack of fluency in English of the locals is an international disgrace.

 

Seriously I think you're either talking out of your rear end, bragging in an attempt to give an impression that you're some sort of high flying billionaire or having a wind up. No one, not a single individual I've ever met in the LOS has that sort of money to spend. If they did they'd be holidaying on the French Riviera or the Bahamas

Amusing reply. Reminds me a bit of the people prior to Newton, who used to claim that gravity did not exist. First of all, I have no interest in bragging. What you or any other stranger thinks of me, means less than zero. Second, I do have some wealthy friends. None are billionaires, but a few are centi millionaires. However, none of those friends visited, while I lived on Samui. For your information, there are at least three resorts, like far more, that charge between 20,000 and 70,000 baht per night, for their villas, and there are countless private villas on Samui and Phuket, that charge in excess of 30,000 baht per night. A good meal at one of these hotels is in fact 6,000 baht and up. The fact that you have never met any of the folks who stay there, means very little. They exist. So do those properties, such as the Banyan Tree, the Four Seasons, the Conrad, and several others. My friend who came, arrived with his wife, and his two kids. He told me (I asked) that they vacation twice per year, average two weeks each time, and spend about $70,000 to $100,000 on the trip. He makes $12 million a year in London, so he can afford it. And he wants only the best and is willing to pay for it.

However, I believe that the number of these types of tourists have declined over the years, as Thailand has not done a good job of taking care of them, the TAT has done an atrocious job of making sure their trips are as good as they can be, and the services are substandard, so they tend not to return. That was my original point, before we got sidetracked. However, there are thousands of villas in Thailand in that price range, and I seriously doubt they remain empty, as you more or less claim.

Banyan Tree pricing, low season-

View Price Breakdown

I am going to ask one of the most obvious questions, about Thai airport, that one possibly can. Why on earth are they not using the Hua Hin airport? They just now started one flight from KL, to HH. One flight. I had read in the press about 6 months ago, that Air Asia, had signed an agreement with the airport authority, to operate up to 36 flights a day out of that airport. Nothing ever happened. Now, one flight a day? 

We all know what the excuse used to be. That no longer applies. So, is someone knuckle dragging? What gives? They spent a fortune expanding the runway a few years back. Then nothing. Even the Kan Air flights are discontinued, though I think that airline may have failed. Too bad. It was a nice little airline. 

Anybody have any factual information about this? It would seem that regional alternatives to the big airports in Bangkok would be encouraged. Or, am I making too much sense here?