connda

As I stated above: "regarding self-preservation on Thai roads: when a 50kg electric scooter meets a 1200 kg car - the car always wins and the scooter driver ends up dead or injured." The same applies to people driving bicycles who believe they have "the same rights to the road as a car or truck." Of course they do - until they get hit.

From our friendly ChatGPT: "In Thailand, at an unmarked intersection, the vehicle approaching from the left generally has the right of way. However, it’s important to note that traffic rules can sometimes be interpreted differently by different drivers. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to approach intersections with caution and be prepared for unexpected maneuvers by other drivers. Stay safe! 😊" So, Khun Swiss farang's left side of his body got smashed indicating he failed to yield the right-of-way to the vehicles on the left. Which goes to show - people driving electric scooters on the road aren't licensed to drive on Thai road no less understand the extreme dangers of doing so. I'm just amazed because the accident is so avoidable. Dude on the scooter should be yielding to anything bigger than him in the first place just out of self-preservation. Regarding "Justice?" "Justice" in this case is that Khun Swiss farang is at fault for his own accident and should pay his own bill - i.e., failure to yield to oncoming traffic on the left at an unmarked intersection. My guess is the the car's driver's insurance company will sort it out - well - if the car's driver is insured as of course, "This Is Thailand." Needless to say that the unlicensed EV scooter isn't insured at all.

First - Correct me if I'm wrong, but in Thailand or in left-lane countries, those on the "Left" in an unmarked intersection have the right-of-way. (That looks like Lamphun where there are two roads paralleling a train track. Both roads have stops lights that are turned off making all intersections "Unmarked Intersections." Regardless of what the law is or who will be at fault - I personally drive with EXTREME CAUTION at those intersections and will give way when in doubt) Corollary 1: You don't need a drivers license to drive a scooter, so you don't need to know the rules of the road. Corollary 2: If you don't know or care about the rules of the road - you can get killed. Second - regarding self-preservation on Thai roads: when a 50kg electric scooter meets a 1200 kg car - the car always wins and the scooter driver ends up dead or injured. Corollary 1: If driving on an electric scooter - drive with extreme caution and give way to larger vehicles. Corollary 2: I can't believe for a second that he didn't see the larger vehicle coming and instead chose to drive out in front of it - or - he didn't look which makes it his own fault. Third - personally I would drive one of those three wheel electric death traps on the open road. Are they even licensed to be driven on the road? I've never seen one with a license on the front or back so my assumption is "No." Corollary 1: The electric vehicle should be licensed. Corollary 2: The people driving them should be road tested and licensed to drive one. I don't have much sympathy. My guess is that both drivers are at fault. The scooter driver for not driving with extreme caution, and the car driver for being a typically aggressive Thai driver.

Can't wait for the howls of angst from the "Western Farangs Who Hate Everything Russian" especially when Thailand enters BRICS.

Lean Pork Tenderloin vs chemical-ladened (we promise it tastes like pig) fake plant-base slop? Yeah - this plant-base **** may appeal to some of the Lefty Eco-warrior type in BKK...but for the other 60 million people in Thailand? Meat markets aren't going out of style in my life-time. Not in Asia. "The billionaire class will force governments to outlaw meat for the commoner scum." Right - you do that at the risk of social discord and social uprisings. Oppression works until it fails. Remember: Liberté, égalité, fraternité

They are bound and determined to cram this down the throats of consumers who prefer to eat meat.

Nice to see the Russians giving rude and aggressive Westerners a good name.

Depends on your eyes. Most people? No problem. People with extreme myopia? It can be a problem. If you have extreme myopia, consider getting laser photocoagulation before getting cataract surgery.

Just curious, but a question for those who had a retina reattached here in Thailand - What was the cost?

But? However? They probably won't be. TIT. It's less of a hassle to shake-down farangs too stupid to consider the driving laws, regulations, and licensing requirements in the foreign country they visit.

Honestly? There should be a law that is enforced where after tourist are pulled over by the BIB for driving without a license, they then send a cop to the rental agency to fine the renter for renting to a customer without proper license. It would save a lot of farang fools lives who come to Thailand without any driving experience, especially on M/C, and then pull out and think that they are bullet proof.

The exact same price any other customer would pay. Want extra money, sugar? Perform extra services. That's sort of the nature of P2P. And no - I haven't always been married and monogamous. I have traveled the world. Soooooo.... Cue the Beach Boys.

Formula 1 racing: by the rich, for the rich.

~ ฿360,000 for the exchange rate challenged. Suzuki Celerio. Excellent city car and yet I've also toured Thailand in it. Superior gas mileage.

House Speaker? Not for long.

Billions for "friends and allies." Pennies and lip-service for US vets and the "working homeless" and the Gen-Z "near-homeless" who are now a common sight in all US cities. Imagine if you can - $95 billion USD to take care of the homeless issue. How about $850 billion earmarked for US infrastructure upgrades instead of corporate welfare for Team America World Police and the Military Industrial Complex annually. I'm a "boomer" and an anti-war US veteran. And Major General Smedley Butler was 100% correct - "War's A Racket." The beneficiaries: Corporations and Arms Manufacturers The victims: US cannon-fodder veterans, the foreign recipients of US "Freedom Bombs" and Democracy JDAMs, and the US taxpayers and average US citizens who are recipients of "Freedom Inflation" as the political class creates money out of thin air to make transfer payments to Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, and the rest of their Super Pac corporate and NGO donors who make a mockery of US democracy. As we said during 'Nam: Fighting for Freedom is like ****ing for Chasity. Nothing has changed in the last 70 years. A society living on a "War Economy" like the US does creates money out of thin air and export death. It doesn't have to be that way - the US could retool, recreate a manufacturing base, and export products, and work on balancing its trade deficient. Instead, Janet Yellen and other corporate proxies go whinging and crying about how Communist Party of China is more of a successful market economy than the United States. So what is the US' answer to that - start a war with China. If you can't beat them economically - then overthrow their governments and kill their citizens. That's been the freaking US model since I was born. It's empire and it always fails in the end. For those who study history, but who studies history in this dumbed-down world anymore? The US neo-cons and neo-lib war-hawks are screaming for a multi-front war with Russia, China, Iran/ME/NA, and North Korea. Gonna tell ya'll a secret US and Canadian peeps: The Pacific and Atlantic won't protect the North America when they finally provoke WWIII in order to bring "Freedom And Democracy To The Axis Of Evil." Nobody "wins"; everyone loses. So wave your little flags and cheer for the death and destruction of "your enemies." Best of luck with that when regional war turns into global war.

If you see squares you all good. If your seeing warped surfaces you may want to find an eye doctor asap.

Billions and billions and billions send overseas to "help Americas friends" to "battle the Axis of Evil." Trillions of USD to bring Freedom And Democracy to Iraqi, Syria, and Afghanistan. In the meanwhile back at in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave Thank you for your service US vets - now ****-off and die. Sincerely yours, The USA

My car cost $10,000 brand new and gets in-excess of 50+ miles per gallon. Why would I want an expensive EV? Right off the bat my saving are $32,990 and I'm not sucking off of the teats of a government who is using taxpayer money to essentially subsidize its wealthier than average citizens to purchase over-priced EVs.

Big layoffs ahead in the automotive workshop sector - hold on to your hats! Here's what is more likely. Those automotive technicians will begin to work for independent automobile repair shops specializing in maintaining ICE vehicles as that sector of used car repair will outstrip demand for EV by a whole class of Thai citizens who will never be able to afford to purchase no less maintain EVs. Think big cities like Chiang Mai. Where are they going to put the acres of charging stations required to keep commercial vehicles, like Songtaews, running. Who's gonna pay for the extensive expansion of what will become an overloaded grid when the Thai government can't even built a few kilometers of bullet-train track in a timely and affordable manner? Then you have to spend your working hours changing a vehicle instead of earning money. Then like Hertz auto-rentals, the maintenance requirements for EV are going to negatively affect the bottom like of all companies with EV fleets as compared to their competitors who maintain ICE fleets. But then you'll say, "The government will force them to transition." Ok - at the potential of causing massive social unrest by disenfranchised citizens who no longer can afford to drive. I don't see EVs taking much of the market in this highly nationalistic, developing nation with many of its citizens still living in third-world conditions where coal-fired ageing electric grids simply are not dependable as they aren't right now. Thais are up to their eyeballs in debt. So riddle me this: who is going to extend over-extended, debt-ridden Thai citizens more debt in order to ditch their ICE vehicles and buy brand new EVs. Or pay for the massive increase in insurance costs as a minor fender bender becomes a 200K to 400K THB repair job. Average Thais won't be able to afford to repair their EVs so who will pay for the loans needed to repair what would be minor damage to an ICE vehicle? "But we need to 'save the planet'." I'll buy that nonsense when I see the Obamas, the Gores, and the Bidens ditch their beach-front properties and private jets due to melting polar ice caps rising the sea levels. Until then? 🐃💩

When EV spin meets the realities of "maintenance costs" and lack of demand. Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars Reuters, Jan 13, 2024

I remember recyclable glass bottles. Plastics are pushed by petrochemical corporations who make them. If government really wanted to address plastics, create laws to ban plastics in favor of recyclable glass. Won't happen though - too much corporate money flows to government "lawmakers" to make sure it never happens. Mussolini had a name for this type of corporatism where corporations pretty much control governments and government officials benefit from the largess of corporate funding - all at the expense of the average citizen who are thrown an occasional bone from off of the public-private banquet table.

Nope. Don't need it. The pneumatics work just fine without it.

Come back, do a few weeks in a hospital suite, exit "on parole without a monitor" but keep you neckbrace on for a couple of weeks, and Bob's your uncle - Freedom for the uber-wealthy.

I can sympathize. I had situations after the death of my daughter that quite literally would find me waking up screaming. I went to a shrink once here in Thailand who was worthless. Buddhist meditation (Forest Tradition) is a better avenue. I haven't had one of those "wake up screaming" dreams for a few years, so something in me has healed. But chronic insomnia is a constant issue although my problem is initially getting to sleep. Once asleep I tend to be able to stay asleep other then "old man" peeing issue, but I usually fall back asleep easily enough. But I take melatonin nightly and make sure the room is as dark as I can get it as for me it tends to work although it still takes me upwards of an hour to an hour and a half to get to sleep. If I absolutely need to get to sleep and wake up the next morning without a sleep hangover I'll take 10 mg of diazepam (prescribed by a doctor). But I use diazepam rarely and prefer melatonin. Although it has a rather long half-life, I don't wake up groggy at all. I shy away from short-term benzos like Xanax as they can rebound and cause drug induced anxiety. Regarding breath meditation. It's worthwhile to practice as you can eventually focus entirely on the breath and let thoughts arise and pass away without dwelling on them. I use that technique to fall back asleep after I wake up at night. You'll find you mind what's to attach to thoughts, but you can get to the point where you remain with the breath and your mind becomes Teflon, and then watch as the thoughts turn into hypnagogic imagery and the next thing you know you're asleep. Just a suggestion.