Tropicalevo

Sorry if I am in the minority, but if you are mainly living overseas and collecting pension increases then you are breaking the law. Why is this a worry to law abiding people?

I would dispute this 'result'. I suspect that one is a political statement to support the PM. I live on Samui and work in the tourism sector. 95% of our guests this year are NOT Chinese. Samui is predominantly Bangkok Airways (BA). Roughly 40 to 47 flights in per day. Probably BA's best earning airport. Most Guests are European with the French leading the pack. Chinese guests are mostly Hong Kong with a number of them being villa owners. Pre Covid, most Chinese guests (there were LOTS) would come in the low seasons. May/June/October/November. Whilst my small business does not reflect all of Samui, again, I am not seeing many Chinese visitors out and about.

Hmm. Not sure that it is totally accurate. Certainly a minimum number. As far as I know, no one counts the victims that die at the hospitals.

Not in my experience. I book online and show my Thai licence when I arrive. No surcharge. Some rental companies have a book showing DL's from all over the world. They look up Thailand and compare with the real thing.

What about during a power cut when there is no wifi? That happens a lot here on the islands. Mind you, not as frequent these days. It used to be every other day!

Looking at the responses above and in my personal experience, if it is a rental car and in Europe, I suggest that you get an IDP from your local office. Easy and not expensive. The rental company seems to be the issue.

In the UK I have only had to show my Thai DL at the rental desk.

Portugal asked for an IPD when I was there in 2020 - even for Brits. (A Brexit sulk I think.) I have both Thai and UK licence. Edit - that was for a rental car. I did not take my Thai car there.

That is not true for most people that I am stuck behind in the queues at BigC. They play with their phones for ages. Some eventually give up and pull out a credit card (yawn). I have cash ready (and BigC card) and out in seconds.

The other side of the coin though is that if Thailand were to be attacked, none of them would come to help. Not likely to happen, but whilst we are on conspiracy theories......

I would think that two a/c units on all night plus intermittent day use could knock up a 7,000 baht bill. Does that unit rate include VAT and FT charge?

I always pay cash and I always leave a tip. Keeping the art alive.

At least they were not asked for a hand drawn map!

It is not the waterfall that is the problem. It is the people that ignore the signs and they would also ignore the railings. We cannot keep wrapping people in cotton wool. Learning can be a painful experience. I see people risking death - daily. eg Americans, Europeans etc that only look left when crossing the road. Pedestrians walking on the road at night in dark clothes. (No street lights in our neck of the woods. The roads are very dark.) Folk driving scooters and at the same time, looking at Google maps on their phones. The list is endless. They will all learn - eventually. For some, it may be the last thing that they learn. Very sad.

And yet Thailand complains to South Korea when a couple of its citizens are questioned when they arrive there. Unbelievable.

When I was working in the UK, one of my customers was Amstrad. Their head of IT was Richard 'but call me Dick' Head. He was.

Or except the elderly who are polite and follow manners and etiquette. I am elderly - ish (72). I carry two phones and use them all of the time BUT not when I am in company or socialising. If I do happen to receive an urgent business call when in those situations, I excuse myself and answer the phone away from the group. Most of my elderly 'younger' friends do the same. The exception in our group are the couple who are 50 and 55. Always on their phones. Phone zombies when walking their dog with us. Sorry - I should have added - no wifi on the phones. They are communication devices. Not entertainment hot spots.

By young, I mean less than about 50 years old. I was at dinner in the local Italian restaurant the other evening with friends - table of 5. All of us were older than 50. No phones. Just eating, drinking and chatting. 70 - 80% of the other tables - hardly talking. Most on their phones. The previous evening, I was dining with customers, again no phones. 100% of the other tables were on their phones. The most worrying aspect of this scenario was that most tables had young children with them. Children on the phone almost all of the time. One mother was actually feeding the lad of about 10(?) as he was playing with his phone so he could not feed himself. No one was talking to their kids. I live on a tourist island and there were no Thais in either scenario. Just foreigners.

Wednesday.

Wow. That's only three years late.

It definitely was not a 747 that briefly touched down, took off again and circled to repeat the process about two more times (it was a while ago - poor memory). Probably a 737 back then. Was the crown prince really flying the plane that we saw? Us mortals will never know. However, it was a Thai Airways plane. I was in the 'blackout' on the road. A minor historic moment here on Samui. People hoped for cheaper flights after that but......the rest is history.

I know and thank you for that. But we are discussing the business, not a flight. Bangkok Airways.

Well spotted and thank you. I had not seen that one. Apart from some biased 'facts' the bigger problem with Dr Ravee Maschamadol's suggestion is that most tourist related businesses and local people that I know, do not want budget travellers. It is currently high season on Samui. It is reported that hotels are 90% - 100% full and at the highest room rates. The main roads are gridlocked at times and where I am, rental motorbikes and rental cars are as rare as hen's teeth. This is a normal high season for Samui. ie pre 2020. And do not start me on the annual water shortage here on the island. Do we really need budget travellers? The island is pretty full already. The big difference was Chinese guests. They do not want to pay high season prices, so they would come in low season. They do not care if it rains as they do not usually sit on beaches. Hotel rates, villa rates and flights are much lower then. Budget travellers will always come by ferry anyway. (300 baht per passenger) Before the Chinese discovered Samui, some hotels and other related businesses would close for 2 - 3 months in low season.

I think that the 'second airport' scenario was back in Thaksin's time as PM. It was a follow on from the "we want to hold a 'roving' cabinet meeting on Koh Samui." fiasco. Bangkok Airways asked him how many planes he needed and the reply was 'government policy, we only fly Thai Airways'. BA are said to have responded with 'Thai Airways will never land on Koh Samui'. Hence the second airport rumour. Strangely enough, a few months later, the Crown Prince (now HM King Rama X) asked for permission to practice take-offs and landings at the airport. He had recently received his commercial pilots licence. BA said 'of course'. He practised them in a Thai Airways plane! (The police stopped all traffic around the airport at the time, and made us all switch our lights off. So as not to distract HM.) A few months later Thai Airways had regular flights to/from Samui. They eventually realised that it was cheaper to code share with BA so now, no more Thai Airways flights. The back story is that a few cabinet members in the day, bought very large plots of land on the island, hoping for the second airport. Most of the plots that I know of are still empty.

Have you tried TOPS supermarket there in Pattaya? The one here does a wide range of tasty breads etc in their bakery. I would have thought that all of the big TOPS supermarkest would be similar.