connda

In Northern Thailand where I live, once it starts raining and though most of High Season is usually really nice. By February it usually has all gone to hell and we begin to wait for the rains to happen again. Now Bangkok? Different story. If I remember right they tend to get inversion layers in the atmosphere which traps the smog in during High Season cooling. So - it depends.

I gotta pair of those but I don't wear them. The edges and strap rubs blisters into my feet. I just go for plain, old Gambol flip-flops. I probably go though a couple of pair a year. But each to their own. I could see how some people might like those.

A heart attack after age 70 is nature's way of saying, "It's time to go." However, some people want to live to be in their 100s. Gawd, the thought of being packed into an aged, broken-down, decrepit, meat-sack body. Kissinger has handlers to help him walk around. No thanks. A heart attack is a relatively quick way to go, and we all are going to go.

Try mailing it in then. Better than visiting in person.

Agreed. Put in on your calendar to submit the form 15 days before the due date, and then if it doesn't show, wait until the last couple of days before heading to Immigration. Usually it will show up if you give them that 22 day lead-time.

PI. I'd take them up on their SRRV visa for members of the US military.

That's about the size of my bird's outdoor aviary.

As far as shoes go. Yeah, I agree. I put a pair of trainers on for about 5 minutes. Nope. Probably ain't wearing shoe again in this life-time.

Nope. Haven't been to Pattaya since 2007. There's a reason for that. Pattaya of 2007 wasn't the Pattaya of 1986 that I enjoyed and where I had fun.

Well, at least he didn't have a gun. The Chinese tourist are probably not going to hear about his "axe arsenal" on Chinese news or social media.

Yep - I've received that too. Simply deleted the post as I was clueless as to why I got that message. Spam filter? Over 21K posts you'd think that the system would "know" me by now. And I got a Captcha challenge today as well. Strange daze days.

Well that posted. Perhaps we could get a list of what the upgrade changed? That's pretty normal when web applications upgrade their services.

Let's see if I can even post this. I've had some weird stuff happen today. I had one post display "This post is hidden until approved." Ok The post contained the word, "I'd get a new bag," and a link to a James Brown song on Youtube. Next I got a Captcha challenge. Never had that happen before. Then my post didn't post and it required me to log on again - even though I was logged in. So I'm confused. I'll now hit the "Submit Reply" and cross my fingers. In 3-2-1...........

Good for you. I'm not. I haven't been drunk in years. I'm happy with a couple of beers on occasion and a pleasant buzz. But? To each their own.

Sort fits the 15 minute city paradigm. 15 minute villages. We'll come full circle back to the 1960s when most villages walked, those better off had a bicycle, the rich had a motorcycle, and the wealthy had a car (or a few).

It will be interesting to see how the underground economy will develop after the populace is hung out in the sun on digital tenterhooks for the capitalist vultures to feed off of the scraps of flesh that may still remain within a raped and emaciated economy. "You'll own nothing and be happy." / "Happiness to the people." Same same - not different at all.

This is the official roll-out of CBDC with all the bells-and-whistles to come - on a pre-determined schedule of course. Notice that just like during the Covid plague, there will be "essential businesses" who will be allowed to play, and then everyone else who are not part of the scheme. The "essential businesses" players become the receipts of a massive wealth transfer (10,000K happiness to the voters scheme worth a half a trillion THB compliments of a Thai printing press system of digital debits and credits manage by the Thai central bank). Non-players? So sad, too bad. "Wealth will" (not) "trickle-down to non-essential businesses and entities who are outside the scheme and are deemed non-playing-entities," the plebs will be told.. Of course, prices for just about everything will skyrocket to soak up the excess money supply of digital banking ones-and-zeros flooding the banking system. Happy to the indenture debt-slaves people.

Translated: Only "connected" special people can participate in the grift scheme initiative. Fyi. Prepare for massive inflation in Thailand in 2024 - 2025. You can bank on that prediction. But the exchange rate should be a real winner for expats.

Nothing that I haven't seen in Bangkok.

Do stupid stuff, win stupid prizes. Enjoy your stay followed by deportation.

Human hatred will put an end to it all. Give it time. We're on the brink. "Holding on to hatred is like a man who wants to hit another and picks up a burning ember or excrement in his hand and so first burns himself or makes himself stink." -Buddhaghoṣa, 5th century Buddhist scholar

I don't even need to read the comments.....I can hear the Western expat's screams of indignation all the way up here in Lamphun (but I'll read it for fun - maybe I'm wrong and then I'll delete this). Let see...... <a few minutes later> Yep - I called it. Out of 51 posts there were perhaps 2 that were informative regarding the ICC, 4 that were neutral commentary primarily about the ICC, 1 commenting on the meeting as being an exercise in diplomacy......which leaves about 44. So taking a napkin calculation over 85% of the comments are pretty much anti-Russia/anti-Putin. Add mine to the "diplomacy is a good idea as well as Thai-Russian diplomacy as there are positive economic ramifications for Thailand to maintain friendly relationships with both Russia and China. As usual, I'm in the minority (less than 5% positive comments). Diplomacy is always a good idea.

Interesting but I wonder...how cost effective? However, it beats the heck out of the 'carbon capture' schemes where CO2 is pulled out of the air and pumped into the Earth crust. At least you get something for your efforts as opposed to - quite literally - funneling a few hundred billion into the ground.

If they come on a Non O-A then they have to have insurance. But at 80 years old you can't get insurance. Catch-22. If you wish to live as a family of expats, make plans to move to another country.

They should be happy that the still are endowed with life so that they can worry about how they will pay that debt. Also - there is an object lesson here. Paying large sums of money in order to secure a job is sorta like paying large sums of money because a romance scammer tells you that for only 200,000 THB you'll make 20,000,000 THB. Really. If you want to spend that sort of money on a game of chance, book a flight to Mexico City, hook up with a coyote service, cross the wide open US border, get a free phone and a bus ride, and get taken to a sanctuary city where you'll be hooked up with social service, entitlement payments, a job, and eventually a green card.