connda

Which is why the wife and I go to Cha-Am.

Thai "highway patrol" are for escorting VIPs, not for pulling drivers over and citing them for moving violation which is unheard of here. And if anything? The cops drive just as bad.

Saw it on FB. It shows a number of typical Thai driving antics that lead to accidents. Slow truck in the right (fast) lane which won't move left. Hyper-aggressive drivers. Road rage. Complete inability to read the road ahead of your own vehicle... And - BAM. It could have been worse.

You mean someone who owns a Status-Symbol-On-Wheels. Waste of money.

Just curious, but using your logic (considering you're in Utah), how can you accept sharing American women with migrants and foreigners? See, in the US that immediately gets you labelled as a racist, and rightly so. So, are you promoting racism in Thailand? You can't understand why Thai guys aren't more racist? Amazing Americans.

Easy - there are more women than men in Thailand. Go to your average village and you'll see a whole load of ageing spinsters looking for a husband. So the answer is: Thai guys don't want them.

If the "global youth" could afford million dollar beach-front properties on the ocean like the Obamas, the Bidens, and the Gores, then they probably would be jet-setting (like the Obamas, the Bidens, and the Gores) and enjoying a nice beach-front BBQ with their billionaire buddies (and don't think for a moment that the little curmudgeon Greta isn't part of The Club). Instead? Most of these kids have no future, they aren't going to own a house unless they inherit one from mummy and daddy, and for that matter most probably can't afford an EV without going so far into debt as to be unable to pay the student loan debts no less eat broccoli and kale at $10/pound. So? Why not sit on the road blocking traffic and clamoring about how the Obamas, the Bidens, and the Gores beachfront properties will be underwater by 2030 (expect those properties will be high and dry as none of them could obtain property or title insurance if "the melting of the polar ice caps flooding the world apocalypse" was really going to happen - but don't tell the kiddies that - ignorance is bliss).

If your name was Jane Average - Commoner, then "Yes." The UK legal system would hammer you. When your name is Greta Thunberg - Darling of Corporate Climate Activism, then "No." Her corporate and NGO sponsors will lawyer her up and paid whatever is needed to get her to her next scheduled event.

@george NortherRyland has a point. If you live out in rural Northern Thailand (Lamphun, Lampang, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, etc) provinces and have any interaction with the locals, then you know the really ugly truth about the wide and pervasive burning of forest lands in the mountains surrounding Thai villages out here. There are at least two major reasons Thai villagers burn - one is to clear forest undergrowth and stimulate the mycelium in the forest floors in order to gather Hep Thop mushroom (which can fetch prices upwards of 600 THB/kilogram or more) as well as other mushroom species. Drive down Highway 11 heading south between Lamphun and Lampang and you'll see bunches of roadside stands selling mushrooms. That trade is built on the back of forest burning. The other reason is to gather red ant eggs for Kai Mot Dang salad. The people gather red ant eggs kill two birds with one stone and just let their fire burn for reason number 1. This is all economic. Oh yeah - everyone in the village knows the forests are being burn, but nobody knows who is doing the burning. "Shhhhh, be very very quite - shhhhhh!" The Big Ag issue is also a real issue. It depends where you live. Yeah, in the rural villages everyone knows that they can't burn their fields at this time - get caught and get fined (sound of a hand being slapped with wet bamii noodles). This comes down from the village heads and above. But in places like Mae Hong Son where Big Ag hands out seeds and supplies so that local can plant corn on completely deforested mountains? Perhaps a different story. "Car drive by. Throw out cigarette. Whole mountain of corn stubble burn. Not my fault." Then you have to ask yourself why the Thai government allows entire mountainsides to be deforested for growing corn in the first place. And we don't have sugarcane here yet, but given the talk between Thai ministers and Big Ag, they are rubbing their hands together in glee thinking of all the profits and revenues from growing more sugarcane to burn in cars. And with more sugarcane will come more crop burning at the Alter of Big Ag: Privatize the profits; socialize the costs of health damage from killer PM 2.5 air pollution. As others are pointing out though, right now? Most of this is forest arson. The government pays lip service year after year and on rare occasions arrests some patsy to show what a great job they are doing. But at the end of the day, there simply isn't any enforcement. And there is no "teeth" in the law if someone is caught. They are talking about throwing people in prison again for smoking ganja, but get caught burning forests and get a hand slap and perhaps publicly shamed. No "teeth" in burning laws - well unless you are burning a joint if Srettha and friends have their way at the end of this year. Burn a joint in 2025 and go to prison for a couple of years; burn down a forest? <shrug> So it never ends.

A single account is only insured for 1M THB.

No. First the ban would not be enforced any more than the anti-arson is enforced. There is wayyyy too much money to be made in the mushroom trade.

Burning plastic and "Zero Carbon" seem to be in polar opposite directions.

You missed April 1st by 5 days. Try next year.

So they are going to ditch frigates and submarines for lunar launch vehicles. <laughs>

A few weeks back I made a comment about this coming Songkran that people probably wouldn't be able to see Doi Suthep from the west side of the moat. Today driving in from Lamphun, wife and I crossed the fly-over bridge by Airport Central and - no Doi Suthep, no mountains, just brown haze. Not even an indistinct outline of a mountain. Nada. Hai bpai. "Welcome to Chiang Mai tourists!" Cough cough cough. "Play water, have fun!" cough cough hack wheeze. Back in Lamphun now where the AQI is significantly better, but still horrible. At least I can see the mountains down here. Wife said CM is back at the top of the World's Worst Air. Congratulations Chiang Mai. It's good to be Number One!

And the whole paradigm will collapse in a heap when the first X-Class Coronal Mass Ejection takes out the grid in Northern latitudes, like Sweden, and the cashless segment of the population can't make business transactions. Not "If" but "When." Hopefully it isn't a Carrington Class event then everyone's grid goes south and making business transactions electronically may be the last of anyone's worries. And humanity's survivors will be the most agrarian societies still without electricity and running water. Personally, I'd like to see a major-but-localized CME-induced grid event just to wake the collective fools up.

Haven't been to a buffet since the Covid madness when everyone was forced to wear a mask to dish up food. Do they still require mask-wearing to go through buffet lines?

Oh look! EVs that nobody but the upper 1% can afford (or the highly indebted Somchai and Sumalee average who attempt to keep up with the Sretthas and Thaksins) In the meanwhile, as the same 1% create laws to force the real common-folk to ditch ICE vehicles and to purchase EVs (the only reasonably affordable being from China), the already highly indebted Thai public as well as banks with over-extended balance sheet make another 1997 highly probably.

All I'm finding is Natrol and that is priced into stratospheric silliness (in excess of 1000 to 2000+ per bottle). Melatonin was affordable if not downright inexpensive as a sleep-aide. Not anymore unfortunately. Oh, and get your shipments before May when the Thai government hits consumers of imported products, like iHerb, with a 7% VAT.

Way cool. Thanks!

Do you have a link?

Such will be the plight of any populace party which dares to raise it's head and challenges the status quo. Well, unless Gen-X and Millennials become a majority in the Army, and then they can do it the "old fashion way."

A little drinking music for ya bob: THE SONG OF THE TEMPERANCE UNION Away, away, with rum, by gum, Rum by gum, rum by gum Away, away, with rum, by gum, The song of the Temperance Union. We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band On the right side of temp'rance we do take our stand. We don't use tobacco, because we do think That the people who use it are likely to drink We never eat cookies because they have yeast, And one little bite turns a man to a beast. Oh, can you imagine the utter disgrace Of a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face? We never eat fruitcake because it has rum, And one little slice puts a man on the bum. Oh, can you imagine the pitiful plight Of a man eating fruitcake until he gets tight? A man who eats fruitcake lives a terrible life. He's mean to his children and beats on his wife. A man who eats fruitcake dies a terrible death, With the odor of raisins and rum on his breath! We never drink water -- they put it in gin, And one little sip and a man starts to grin. Oh, can you imagine a sorrier sight Than a man drinking water and singing all night? We never eat peaches because they ferment, And a peach will ferment at the least little dent. Oh, can you imagine a sight more obscene, Than a man getting tipsy on peaches and cream! Beware of plum pudding, the kind that they light. They drench it in brandy so it will ignite. The thought is revolting to temperate folk, For people go blotto inhaling the smoke. We never touch coffee; it makes our eyes gleam, At least when they add Irish whiskey and cream. Oh, can you imagine a fate more unkind Than sluggin' down coffee and going stone blind? We never drink milkshakes 'cause they're made with malt, And one little slurp makes your brain somersalt. Oh, can you imagine behavior so rash As bartop gymnastics with a frothy mustache We never play jumprope 'cause jumpers take hops, And once they start hopping, they hops 'til they drops. This vile degradation starts out as a game And grammar school innocence turns into shame. We never have backrubs because it's a crime, And we will oppose them in song and in rhyme. For an alcohol backrub is worse than straight gin When you think of the liquor absorbed through the skin. We never use Brylcream 'cause that's got bay rum, And too many rubbings can turn your head numb, But if there's a thought that'll leave you in fits, Just imagine the millions of paralytic nits. Now if you go hiking and get sores on your feet, Don't use rubbing spirits as a means for to treat, 'Cause it seeps through the pores of your feet by osmosis, And you end up by having ten drunk little toesis. We never eat cornflakes because they have malt, And we can't imagine a much greater fault. Oh, can you imagine a sight that's more droll Than a woman at breakfast slumped over her bowl! We never dance Morris -- you have to drink ale, And respectable people, who see us, turn pale. Oh, can you imagine the staggering sight Of a man who drinks ale, dancing ''Saturday Night?''

<insert smoke-blowing emoji here> (cough cough cough)