Tropicalevo

Starting to tighten the belt after all of the giveaways? Any cutbacks here will only hurt the poor.

The Thai governments are not innocent in these cases. The people need to know that there is something to live for and that their lives are not hopeless or a waste of time. For many young Thais, they see a future of hardship and poverty, all exacerbated by what they see on social media. This is in part reflected by the increase of suicides in Thailand. Self harm is often the first step towards suicide. It is often a silent cry for help. https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/suicide-prevention-in-thailand--a-whole-of-society-approach Where there is little or no hope, people turn to drugs and crime.

Both are possible. The offence would be the Thai version of 'vehicular homicide'. (I cannot remember the Thai name.) Yes, the victim can sue for damages. Lawyers tend to drag things out (more money for them) and the trial could take a while.

Sorry Mr Suding, but it is still not attempted murder. The fact that the driver, in his inebriated state, did not see the victim when he was reversing, does not show intent. Very sad for the two innocent victims. Definitely needs more than 200 grand.

So we have six paragraphs of waffle and poli-speak which roughly translated means - "I have not been in the papers recently. I need a photo-op".

More of this please - everywhere. Often and regularly please.

In your dreams Bangkok. There needs to be a robust and reliable public transport system in place first. One that ALL people have access to. Not just the semi rich. Thailand is broke and cannot afford to build one.

All of the above are excellent recommendation. HCMC is one of my favourite breaks from Samui. The most important one is the water puppet show. I doubt if your family have ever seen anything like it before. Brilliant. Sadly, it is dying out as a cultural event. Tik Tok etc kill everything. Lots of youtube clips, but showing them would spoil the fun. https://vietnam.travel/things-to-do/vietnam-water-puppets I do the 'foodie tour' on the back of a motorbike with a local guide. I usually stay in a local AirBnb. So far, brilliant hosts.

And I suppose that you believe that Hitler and Elvis are neighbours, both living on the moon.

The girlfriend was the teacher.

This scam probably started in the government land office or similar. The caller knew the address, name and telephone number of the house/land owner.

So they could be prisoners of Hamas. Many of the prisoners were sent to different locations. Even Hamas does not know where they all are. Talk about government double speak!

So, the Tourism Ministry trying to tell Laos 'let the Chinese into your country for free so that we can have more zero baht tourists.' Defies all logic.

The PEA of course. They are the customer, not me. I guess that the developer gets the credit for the 'rebated' electricity and sells on to another villa. But know you have me thinking???

This may not answer your questions but it shows what goes on. A friend come to Thailand every year for three months. He 'assists' at a local International school. ie he sits with the kids, one on one and they read to him from an English book. He corrects their pronunciation, explains words and so on. He does this for one or two days a week and sits somewhere away from the classroom. He is not teaching. He is listening and helping. He has done this for many years. No WP needed.

No - it was not the PEA. We asked for more information etc. The developer called the PEA. (I could not as I do not have an account with them.) It seems to have been from a scam centre in Burma, hence the music. But is was a native Thai speaker. The phone number does not exist any more.

Had an interesting one the other day. Phone call from the PEA saying that they would be coming to change my electricity meter tomorrow at 11:00. A bit of telephone 'ping pong' trying to get more details. Asked the guy for his name and his manager's name and why change the meter? (I have solar panels and turn the meter back during daylight.) Guy said that he did not know why, but they would be changing 15 meters at the complex. (That is about the number of houses that also have solar panels turning back the meters.) Then the killer question. "But why is the PEA doing this. We do not get our electricity from the PEA and they are not PEA meters?" Our electricity is provided by the property developer - who also did not know what was going on. We checked. Did not hear back from the 'PEA'. No one changed the electricity meter. At one point, we were put on hold. My business partner said that the music was a Burmese song. My concern is - where did they get the private phone number and the house owner's name from. No idea where the scam would have happened because we stopped it at the beginning, but I am sure that we would have been asked to download a 'PEA' link at some point.

I have come across many snakes here on the island, but the one time that I saw a big king cobra frightened the bejeezers out of me. I made no attempt too remove that one.

Well done to the two meter readers.

Amazing that there are still such low-life's around to treat people like this. Disgusting.

Don't they look a lovely couple.

Lots of legitimate companies use Fakebook as their website. (But I do not send them money.)

Many officials run, or are involved in, business ventures on the side. I was a tad amused a while back when the army were asking for a bigger budget and the response from the Finance Ministry was 'concentrate on your golf courses etc and make the money there'.

Well done khun Phasuk and the college.