connda

Just made a trip up to Chiang Mai for my wife's dentist appointment and then returned to the rice fields of rural Lamphun and home just after lunch. The roads were actually not bad in the least, especially the highways. It was one of the more relaxing drives I've made recently. Made a quick stop at Lamphun Big C which was nuts. Just needed to buy a few essential to get us through the next five days and then headed for the exit. So now - staying home and staying off the roads until after the 16th. Sawatdee Bpii Mai ya'll.

In 17 years here in Thailand I've had food poisoning twice. Both times after eating at internationally known chain restaurants. I have never gotten ill eating Thai food either from restaurants or street vendors. However for the "influencer?" Do stupid stuff, win stupid prizes. In other words, eat raw and supposedly fermented meat dishes, win a few days glued to the toilet with the sh**s. As my mama always said, "Stupid is as stupid does."

And you wouldn't see it in Singapore either. Thailand wants Quality Tourists without providing a Quality Tourism Location like Singapore does.

Find a different hotel. FYI, I normally let my wife do check-ins and when we use to travel I can't remember a time where I was asked for a passport. A Thai issued DL IS official identification. A pink card is not.

If a handful of Thais in North Hollywood get caught doing stupid stuff, if any US citizen insinuated that all Thais needed to be watched, vetted, and surveilled it would be called - Racism. Rightfully so. So when Thai Netcitizens start calling for authorities to put the screws to all farangs because a few bad apples? That too is racism. So what to do? Identify the idiots making trouble and deal with them. Don't paint with a broad brush and start calling for mass crackdowns on all foreigner. "But but but - we only want Quality Tourists in Thailand!!! Grrrr!!!" Well start by doing something to create Quality Air, and Quality Taxi Drivers, and Quality Service Employees, and Quality Infrastructure (like Singapore) and then maybe you'll get your Quality Tourists.

And I thought the Chinese had the corner on that particular behavior according to many AN OPs. Guess not. 💩

10-30-20 fertilizer

Doesn't work and never will work. The profit incentive simple overrides all attempts at negative reinforcement. The answer? Something akin to the Portugal Protocol. This requires active intervention, medical treatment, and follow-on. Instead of throwing users in prison, they are treated in medical facilities. The other thing to do is to stop treating drugs like Ganja any different than the drug alcohol. Regulate it, tax it, and stop throwing users into prison. Then concentrate on highly addictive drugs: heroin and methamphetamine and their analogs. This entails treating addicts and actually creating enforcement mechanisms to stop the supply of the base ingredients and precursors as well as targeting drug labs and trafficking - but doing so without making those products essentially illegal for actual medical use - like palliative care. But what are you going to do. There is too much corruption in the system and too much money at stake. So the status quo remains the status quo. What do you expect when high ranking officials within a government - themselves- were once tossed into prison overseas for drug trafficking. Do you really believe that zebra change their stripes? The system is bent and nothing changes until the dinosaurs die off or are removed from positions of power and a new paradigm is adopted.

Had a non-commissioned elisted been responsible they would be in prison for a long time. But an elite officer and a gentleman. Retired, no doubt with full benefits and honors.

Hear that sound <slap slap slap>. That's the sound of someone's hands being slapped with wet bamii noodles.

Ahhhh - my bust. I stand corrected.

I'm sure that there is a lucky lottery number somewhere in those cracks.

Worldwide Freedom Via 2000 lbs MK-84-JDAM-Freedom-Gliders. They bring Freedom and Democracy to entire schools, hospitals, and apartment blocks in the Eastern Mediterranean and lets God tally the election results.

I choked my own chicken today, but now that I've read bob's post, I guess I'll need to hire a Thai citizen to do it. Think I'll ask bob's juristic girl to do the work. 🐔

bob - are you telling porkies. 🐷

The question is: Why are you waiting for the last minute? You have 15 days before your due date and 7 days afterward. If you can't get it done within those 21 days, then get you 2000 THB fine ready.

Party lines Playing with a BB gun outside without worrying about getting shot by the cops Marveling at the diversity of shore life like crabs, mussels, clams, and oysters in Puget Sound which no longer exist Being able to tune all of my cars and adjust the values back when they had points and condensers, timing lights, etc. "Girls were girls and men were men" (I've transitioned from "Meat Head" into Archie Bunker), "we just need a man like John F. Kennedy again...... Those were the days!" (Gen-Z: "Archie Who???")

We had a good rain with wind last night, but still sad to wake up this morning to see the mountains still obscured with "killer air" smog, although it is better than the last few days (Worst Air In The World Awards being handed out to Chiang Mai). Hopefully more storms means more bad air scoured out of the valleys. We can hope.

Which is why we remodeled our home to be relatively air-tight and we run air filters from March until whenever the hell the rains show up - often the end of May. We go out seldom. I pity the neighbors in the beautiful open-air teak homes. <cough cough hack hack wheeze>

Hey, I might be better tomorrow are Northern Thailand is finally getting widespread rain. TMD screenshot taken at 9:30ish PM.

My bust. I actually meant the Lamphun Makro. There is no Tesco down here. I was surprised but I've watched the stocks of olive oil, canned tomatoes, and cheese dwindle to next to nothing. But? If Nakhon Nowhereville has them I'm assuming Makro CM probably is stocked. Rimping too. They just tend to be pricey.

The guy's a rich foreign so he's being dragged though the mud. A case of a Hiso Thai kicking a foreigner (or Thai) would be memory-holed by now.

I've lived her 17 years and "Yes" you can and it's done more often than not. A good example is in traffic accidents cases where the person who injured or even killed someone due to negligence or aggressive driving (road rage) can come up with a settlement to offer the victims family. Then no charges are filed. It happens a lot. Is it fair? No. Those who can pay get off free as bird (the rich, wealthy, and connected). Those who can't go to jail, i.e., poor commoners. But is it common practice? Yep - it is. Welcome to Thailand. Chime in again when you've lived here a decade or so and after you have a couple thousand posts. You're applying Western standards to an Asian country. It doesn't work like that here.

Thai doctor offered bribe to drop lawsuit in Swiss scandal Bunk. She was offered an out-of-court settlement through a third-party intermediary. There is nothing illegal or corrupt about doing that at all. In most legal jusiritictions it's the preferred practice as opposed to clogging up the court systems when the litigants can settle out of the judicial system. Bribery is attempting to influence a person, like a government official, for personal gain and is an act of corruption. A settlement offer is attempting to resolve a conflict monetarily and is often standard practice - even here in Thailand. How do you think so many grievances get settled without any criminal charges being files - even when someone is seriously hurt or even killed. Out of court settlement. But - this is a dirty foreigner so if he does exactly what most hiso Thais would do in his position - it's a "bribe." No, it's not. This is a settlement offer. If the guy's intermediary had approached a judge or prosecuting attorney and offered them money to make the charges go away - that's a bribe. I don't feel anything for the guy who kicked her - but really - stop the hyperbole. My guess that in this defamation sensitive country, insinuating that a settlement offer is a bribe (corruption) in order to disparage the person offering the settlement could be construed to be defamation.