connda

I had a doctor appointment at a private hospital in CM. 99% masking except for odd-balls like me although I had one in my pocket. I entered the doctor's office and he was wearing a mask. I offered to put one on and he said no. The nurse closed the door - and - his mask came off. Go figure. ???? My guess is that it's hospital policy for their staff. Everyone else? Fear in many cases (like my wife), social compliance in many others (like my wife). Thais are loathe not to conform as conformity is baked into society starting at a very young age. If enough people wear masks, others will wear them in order not to stand out.

Hopefully this is a sign of the start of the monsoons. It has been really dry in our neck of Northern Thailand and we can use the water even if it comes in deluges. Gotta refill the reservoirs before rice planting. They are going to be putting rice in late this year.

So this is just another China-bashing thread at the end of the day. Mathew 7:3 Btw - those "crabs." All shell and very little meat. Not quite like Alaskan King Crabs.

Interesting. People who would rather eat salad than steak are now low-lifes? That's a pretty broad brush as in your humble opinion all vegetarians and vegans would qualify as "low-lifes." Hummm ???? So those attending the annual Thai vegetarian festivals must all be "low-lifes." In some snooty circles where Michelin restaurants are their only choice of dining, the HiSos would consider everyone at a Sizzler to be "low-lifes." Something to ponder. Class and status are quite relative.

I eat until I'm pleasantly full. I don't eat until I'm gorged. And I tend to eat my fill of salad if they have a good salad bar - pleasantly full. Best value? What people looking to gorge in order to get the "their money's worth" are doing is strengthening their own internal greed. Gorging is a very animalistic, pig-like characteristic. I don't go to buffets to over-eat in order to get "value." I go to buffets to get a wide selection of foods that are otherwise not on my menu. For me it's about enjoying the diversity of foods, it's about enjoying the experience - not gluttony to get your "money's worth". However, I stopped going to dinner buffets in Thailand. Why? When the pigs belly-up to the feeding trough, the pleasant experience goes right out the window. The last Western dinner buffet I went to at a hotel in Chiang Mai was my last. I'm willing to stand in line cordially and politely and wait my turn. But it seems that the other 90% of the diners fall into the porcine category, literally shoving and elbowing to get to the front of the line. And no - it wasn't The Chinese. It was a very representative cross-section of ethnicities - farang, Thai, and others. I don't do Western style dinner buffets anymore. I will go to Thai dinner buffets as there is usually a wider selection of foods and a much more civil and polite atmosphere. People aren't clubbing each other to get to the roast beef because? There isn't any roast beef. I have made one exception for the Chiang Mai Expat Club breakfast at the old Riverside. People were generally polite probably because most people there were acquaintances and friends. That was always a pleasant experience.

To be honest, go to the ER in Maharaj and use the Thai government hospital facilities. Much cheaper than Sriphat and the care is top notch regardless of the BS that some private stakeholder will spew about government hospital services. I had a hernia repaired a Maharaj. It wasn't like the boutique hospital experience I had at Bangkok Hospital when I had Dengue, but it was as good if not better than any experience I've had in US hospitals. And it's all the same doctors. So my advice if you have a Thai-speaking partner and you have an emergency? Just stay with Maharaj.

Before that, take a Thai speaker with you and have them explain why they can't reissue a license plate that can be service at the Nong Hoi branch. Honestly, we have Chiang Mai plates on our car and we did all of our licensing at the Lamphun office when we changed from a Red Plate to normal plates. I haven't been to the Nong Hoi branch in a decade. I did change our motorcycle license from Chiang Mai to Lamphun when we moved here almost a decade ago. We were never required to go to Chiang Mai to make that change. I think they are just giving you the run-around 'farang.' A decade ago I would have recommended hiring my very assertive, non-Thai-like, Thai wife to run your problem by the Thai bureaucrats. She has a way of getting her way.

Go to any of the car rental agencies in Chiang Mai and request to rent a car with a driver. They will oblige. The driver shouldn't cost more that about 500 THB or a day's wage. I've done it before...very easy and convenient.

Korea.

You can buy cyanide but it's almost impossible to find ivermectin for my pets. Go figure.

Even the RTP do some of the crazy stuff I see all Thais do. The average Thai has no idea how to use a freeway acceleration lane. Instead they cut 90 degrees across 3 lanes of traffic to accelerate in the far right lane - slowly - in order to get to the next U-Turn-Of-Death that is a kilometer up the road, all the while driving at 50kph on 90kph roads in the 'fast lane.' Then speaking of road safety - The Thai U-Turns-Of-Death. They need to close them all if there is an underpass within 3 to 5 kilometers. There are horrendously unsafe especially when trucks U-turn by pulling out right in front of oncoming traffic with that "I'm Bigger Than You" attitude. Then 13 other cars pull out now that the freeway traffic is stopped and multiple rear-end collisions happen. There is no fixing this. Neither the Thai public or government really care.

Unless you're system is infected with a virus (or a few) then you have probably run into the limits of your hardware. Like others have said, take it to a tech shop and have it upgraded. However, with that said, you should also consider doing a "clean-install" of Windows (I'm assuming you are using Windows) and reload all of your programs from scratch. If you don't know how to do that, pay someone to do it for you. Or learn how to use Linux.

He could have just done his two years way back when and this would be water under the bridge. He wouldn't be the first Thai politician to serve a sentence as finding ways to send political enemies to prison seems to be a hallmark of third-world and developing "democracies."

You'd be surprised to know the number of Thai men - who are ordained Thai monks - because of the income potential and not out of any spiritual reason. This is outside of the Kammathana Forest Tradition and perhaps the Dhammayut Tradition which are a small minority of monks who abide by the Vinaya rules of Buddhism and don't handle money. The majority do, however, handle money. There really needs to be another Thai Buddhist reform movement like that implemented by King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the 1820s. Personally? I'd like to see Thai Buddhism put through another reformation period.

There is Big Money in Thai Buddhism.

On an income of the equivalent of $1000 USD a month? Eventually the loan becomes toxic.

Consider that Thai banks offer such low rates, I'm really surprised that there hasn't been more capital flight as money move to were it receive a higher interest. Then the BOT ends up in a liquidity crisis. All I know is that eventually this ends badly for those of us who are net savers/investors as we'll all be handed the bill. And, for those who are on these long-term visa schemes where your dropping large sums of money into low-interest Thai bonds? Look out.

With the exception of a home mortgage you apply these rules. Rule Number 1: Pay cash. Rule Number 2: Read Rule Number 1 again.

That fact that lenders extend loans to those who can't service their debt will end up to be the lender's problem in the long-run.....and then the government will step in and rescue their banker/lender friends after which the bankers/lenders will issue themselves massive bonuses and the politicians will get campaign contributions, and the taxpaying public will get the bill. The reason there needs to be regulatory controls on banks and lenders is because they can't regulate themselves. But regulation never happens as politicians are lobbied to make sure it doesn't happen. It should be law that lenders can not issue loans to individuals or businesses that are so over-leveraged that there isn't a chance in Hell that they will pay their debts, no less go bankrupt if their income streams are interrupted even one month. Why - because the banks/lender are then over-extended and the WILL go after bank deposits followed by demanding government bailouts. What should happen is that those committing fiduciary malfeasance, i.e., deliberately issues loans to people who can not pay, should be held accountable - as in being thrown into prison. This is a social problem exacerbated by corporate, financial, government, and personal greed. And in the end it's the taxpayers and bank depositors who get screwed.

Tends to happen when you don't wear seatbelts. Getting ejected out of the window on impact isn't that uncommon. "Live and learn" ends up as "Die and learn", well, for those left to learn that is. And my guess is that the majority of Thai drivers don't wear them.

I've visited a couple of times and it's a nice place. If I wasn't anchored in Lamphun province, I definitely consider Udon. Another under-rated place in Nan. Both are beautiful areas. But Udon is much more NES farang friendly.

The USB-C to 3.5mm Audio is a good idea and I'll buy one of those for sure, but the drawback is that if your battery is low and you need to charge? Well you can't listen via headphones and charge at the same time. Can you make any recommendations on a brand/model of USB-C to 3.5mm audio dongles and a supplier (Lazada etc.) I've read a couple of articles like this one which analyzes Bluetooth audio. (Mods if for some reason this link isn't allowed please just edit it out...thx). https://www.lifewire.com/what-to-know-about-bluetooth-3134591 The fact is I don't listen to too much music and the head phones are primarily used to listen to audio books, so top-end audio quality isn't my end-goal. So with that said, I'm still planning on purchasing a Bluetooth receiver - so I'm still looking for recommendations from anyone who has experience with these gadgets (I don't). The other thing that Bluetooth may be useful for is playing my guitar. I usually don't connect to my amp as I hate the cords stretching across the room. But using a transceiver at the amp (Fender Mustang LT25) to use with my headphones via a dongle would be cool. It would also be cool to connect my guitar to my amp wirelessly. I've never really looked in to wireless audio before, but it seems to have its purposes and advantages even at the expense of a little loss in quality. I really do dislike all of the cords laying all over the room.

It seems my new Samsung doesn't has a 3.5 mm audio output jack which from what I'm reading is becoming rather standard. Now you either buy a set of headphones that connect via a USB-C connector, or go Bluetooth with either BT earbuds or a BT receiver with a 3.5mm audio jack. My own choice would be a Bluetooth receiver that I can plug my standard audio headphones into, or connect to my external speakers which are not Bluetooth. Any recommendations on a decent quality Bluetooth audio receiver?

It's a system that is founded on 'teaching' unquestioned compliance to authority and nationalism. What any educational system needs to be founded on are the three R's: Reading writing and arithmetic followed by STEM - Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics. Those subjects require analytical skillsets that can't be learned via rote repetition with an emphasis on 'respect for your betters.' Yet, that's pretty much what Thailand has.

In our neck of the woods they normally don't start planting until June. Maybe later this year as it doesn't look like the monsoons are going to start until June this year. However the sources I read say that the monsoon should bring at least 96% of "normal" rainfall this year. I hope so. All of our local catch basins are as dry as I've seen them. This super dry, hot air is evaporating a lot of water out of these mini-reservoirs.