josephbloggs

7 hours ago, it is what it is said:

pay by cash, it's much quicker than faffing around with the QR code payment system

Pay by QR, it's much quicker than faffing around looking for the right money or waiting for the cashier to count your money, calculate change, then get the change, then count it twice, then hand it over and wait for you to put it away before they can serve me. Not to mention all the germs that money is coated in.

Such nonsense posted in these threads. If you like cash, use cash. No one wants to convert you to cashless - we don't care - just do what you prefer. But don't make up stupid stories to try to make cashless sound slow or inconvenient, just use cash if you prefer it and save us the boring posts.

54 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

2025 BYD Shark plug-in hybrid truck coming to Australia this year so if it’s a RHD it might be coming to Thailand as well.

It claims fuel consumption of 7.5 litres per 100km – similar to a four-cylinder diesel – in hybrid mode, and up to 100km of driving range on electric propulsion alone, but more power, and quicker acceleration than a twin-turbo petrol V6 Ford Ranger Raptor.

 

The Shark is larger than a Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux – but smaller than a Ford F-150
 

The Shark is fitted with a relatively small 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, but it is paired with two electric motors – divided between front and rear axles – for a combined power output of "more than" 316kW.

 

 

 

That looks pretty cool - nice interior too (for a truck). I think a PHEV makes sense for a truck at this point.

Amazing - the people who have adopted cashless payments much prefer the convenience and speed - no waiting for change (which always needs to be counted twice), not carrying around annoying coins etc.

The Luddites who say cash is king weirdly always seem to be stuck behind people who don't know how to use their phone properly - how unfortunate they are, I wonder why I never get stuck behind these people?

It reminds me of the EV vs ICEV debate. The people who have moved to EVs absolutely love everything about them and would never go back to an ICEV as they are far superior in many ways. But the ICEV stalwarts who would never try an EV make up many reasons why they are worse - reasons that the EV owners can attest are not issues at all.  Such parallels with the cash vs cashless debate.....

Some people just hate change and for some reason get riled when other people move with the times and prefer the newer technology. If you love cash, use it. Don't make up scenarios about people getting stuck with their phones for "five minutes" in front of you - it's nonsense.

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

No they don't 

I must have been imagining the sign I saw when I was filling up the other day then.

25 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

No

Yes they do.

1 hour ago, mistral53 said:

They are actually made right under our nose........ 😇

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/875062623872419/permalink/1202662411112437/

It's a Toyota bz4x, not an MG4.

6 hours ago, BigBruv said:

But now we all 'follow the science'

Says following science like it's a bad thing. Better to follow the fairy tales?

13 minutes ago, Martin71 said:

I am a born and bred Londoner, and was last back there in January...G _Money is 100% correct in who are the main culprits... 

 

And what experiences are you basing your opinions on ...?

If this was directed at me - not sure as you didn't quote anyone - I would say knife crime is rife in the lower income areas of London particularly. I have family who live in north London and I stay there whenever I visit the UK. 

You are (whilst being too scared to say it) implying black people are at fault, whereas it is lower income areas that have the problems and they are majority black. One could ask the question why black people are more likely to be in the lower socio economic areas, or we could be like you and just blame the black people for the crime.

You and G Money blame black people, I blame the Tory government who have caused social disparity and created low income "ghettos" where crime is rife and cut public funding to the police so they can't patrol those areas as effectively as they used to.

11 minutes ago, G_Money said:

Not quite the same.

 

My opinion is a certain demographic under the age of 30 is doing most but not all of knife attacks.

 

Read the news.

Have you ever been to the UK? What experience are you basing this opinion on exactly?

13 minutes ago, G_Money said:

 Best to have a side arm with a Concealed Weapon Permit and shoot to protect ones life,

Oh God, we have a MAGA Trumpist in our midst.

8 minutes ago, G_Money said:

Of course you have the evidence it isn’t.

 

Please, do post it.

The onus of proof is on the one who makes the claim. Can you support it?

If I say all left handed people are mentally retarded you could challenge me on it and ask me to prove it. It wouldn't be on you to prove they are not. Same with any outrageous claim.

24 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

I'm planning - well, beginning to think about - a 3-week trip to France, Austria & Italy next May. Accompanied by my Thai b/f. Will he - on the current arrangement, still likely to be in place - have to apply separately for each Schengen country? or just once for all 3 (or more)?

As Khun Jeff mentioned it is just one Schengen visa and that allows you free passage within the member countries. But when you apply you must apply to the country where you will spend the most time. 

4 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

I wonder how many people in the EU/Schengen still think that having no borders is really a good thing?

Most of them.

23 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

From what I have seen posted by people who have actually been there, the main advantages are the people speak English, and long-term visas are a simple process.

Against that, food is awful, and personal safety is a real issue.

Yep. I visit maybe twice a year for work, and for short trips it is fun. Great nightlife, great people, very fun loving (similar to Thai in that respect).

But overall the city is a turdhole and dangerous (although I've never felt unsafe to be fair). Traffic is terrible, infrastructure (public transport) almost non existent. Worst airport in the world. Worst food in Asia - even the western restaurants are awful. Taxis are horrible. The internet is terrible, decades behind Thailand! Guns everywhere, fast food restaurants everywhere. Banking is terrible. Everything is in cash (you see money trucks all over the city). And the accent is very irritating. 

On the plus side it is cheap (well, price of beer is anyway), as mentioned the people are great, the girls are fun, it is easy to communicate. But to me it doesn't feel very Asian, it is too American.

Good for a visit, no way could I live there. Bangkok is decades ahead in every respect.

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

It's sad regardless. 

Must be a horrible way to go.

Just now, mark131v said:

 

More waffle!!

 

this is all that matters wrt Koh Chang and their heavy handed use of gagging laws to coerce and bully and I know that they have damaged their business and their economy. They should have grown a pair and dealt with it like a grown up instead they damaged their business beyond repair hence having to rebrand

 

Hotel in Thailand That Jailed American Gets New Tripadvisor Label - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Jeez, it's like talking to a brick wall or someone who doesn't know how to read. They made several attempts to talk to him, they offered to meet and discuss, he refused all of them and kept posting. 

They made every single effort to deal with it like a grown up. Only the man child (who likes waving guns around in bars) put his fingers in his ears and went "I can't hear you".  So who was refusing to deal with it like a grown up and who was the bully? After all of that and his refusal to speak or deal with it like an adult they took the only recourse left. And they didn't take it lightly.

You are absolutely deluded in your defense of him and refusal to even contemplate that he might have actually slandered them (repeatedly) and refused to back down or talk.

But yeah, Thailand third world (tingle tingle) and all that.

56 minutes ago, mark131v said:

 

Waffle, waffle, waffle

 

You wasn't there and neither was I but there's three sides to the story his, theirs and the truth what you don't do is smash a peanut with a sledgehammer and then whine when the world takes notice 

 

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They resorted to a third world gagging law in order to silence criticism whether it was valid criticism or not is besides the point 

If you run an hospitality business you take the rough with the smooth, prosecution of a customer is the actions of an idiot....

Ok, it's not sinking in, I'll try one last time. Let's go step by step.

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You wasn't there and neither was I but there's three sides to the story his, theirs and the truth what you don't do is smash a peanut with a sledgehammer and then whine when the world takes notice 

No, I wasn't there. But I have read many reports and they weren't contested. I have also seen his posts. They ended up using a sledgehammer because conversation, negotiation, asking nicely over a period of time didn't work, he just refused to talk and kept posting slander.

Quote

They resorted to a third world gagging law in order to silence criticism whether it was valid criticism or not is besides the point 

See above. And you're one of those that's gets a tingle out of calling Thailand a third world country, stands to reason.

 

Quote

f you run an hospitality business you take the rough with the smooth, prosecution of a customer is the actions of an idiot....

Yes, you take a bad review on the chin and try to improve. I am tired of saying it but I left a bad review of this very resort on TripAdvisor. Did I get sledgehammered? Did they sue me? No, they replied and thanked me for it as it was constructive and referred to genuine service issues during my stay that they could use to improve.

You do not simply suck up a dedicated and sustained campaign of slander, accusing your hotel of slavery - no one would.

Got it yet? It wasn't a single bad review, it was repeated campaign of slander and the perpetrator refused all offers of dialogue. At the end of the day the hotel had no other recourse and they do not make make the laws. But glad to hear you would let it go and watch your business go down the drain thanks to a violent bully spamming all review sites with lies.

Read the facts, don't react to headlines and think a single bad review got him in trouble - far from it.

23 minutes ago, mark131v said:

 

No you're wrong, period!

 

Opinions are like <deleted> we all have one but the fact is the hotel in Koh Chang is still losing business to this day even if it's only my business! I hope the Phuket restaurant also suffers for its heavy handed use of a corrupt gagging law 

 

What the hell has Koh Samui got to do with it, wakee wakee!!

So imagine you own a business and you're doing well, then one day a violent and aggressive man comes in to your restaurant with his own alcohol and gets angry when the staff inform him there is a 500 baht corkage fee, then he gets more belligerent and the manager comes out and waives the fee to placate him (so he bullied his way to "success").

Then a few days later the man starts leaving nasty reviews saying all the staff in the hotel hate the manager, the hotel is guilty of modern day slavery (none of these "reviews" are about the actual experience). He does it across many sites repeatedly and, I repeat, accuses them of SLAVERY. You contact him and ask him to take them down but he refuses. You ask again but he refuses and keeps going. Meanwhile your business is suffering.

Let me get this straight, you would happily let this go even after trying all civilised forms of communication. You would accept having slavery attached to your hotel for all eternity even though YOU DID NOTHING WRONG and you resolved a bad situation peacefully and sensibly by waiving the fee that applies to everyone else everywhere in the world because you were bullied in to it and other guests were getting disturbed.

The hotel doesn't make the laws but they took the only option left to them. They even said at the time they don't agree with the harshness of the law but they had no other recourse to protect their business as this guy was on a one man crusade to bring them down and was refusing to talk.

Don't confuse the people who make the laws with the people trying to protect their business against unjustified and vindictive attacks.