connda

I have a new car too. I paid cash. No monthly payment. Why would you want to be indebted here in Thailand?

Just found Thaivisa in 2020? "...many years?" Ok.

Suvarnabhumi

Thais love to be subjugated.

Looks like your worship the God of Ukraine.

So? Nope.

I can't wait for someone to tell me there is "Nothing After Death!!!" Really? EXCELLENT! I hope so. But. (Here's my faith speaking). You are probably wrong. THERE IS NOTHING AFTER DEATH!" Wonderful. I hope there is only - nothingness. Just Emptiness. Understand? Probably not.....................................

Only if you think Buddhism is a 'religion.' I'm a "Buddhist." A devout Buddhist at that. But in my perspective? Buddhism IS NOT a religion. Religions are based on Faith. Religions are based on a belief in a transcendent "God" who provided the faithful with their due. Buddha was a man. He provided a philosophy and a technique to transcend what you hold on to as "reality." You either understand or you don't. Now. Are there "Gods" in Buddhism? Yep. Absolutely. But Buddha's not a God. Yet there are deities in the Buddhist cosmologies. Some of the 'gods' are "Buddhas." I'm sure I just ripped somebodies mind out of their socket. There ya go. Welcome to the conundrums, riddles, and paradoxes of the Buddhist as a so-called, "religion." You're a heretic!!! Only if you are a believer in a religion which labels "non-believers" as heretics. Here's the ultimate conundrum - Understanding first-hand (NDE and deep meditation), and yet, embracing something that calls itself a "religion" and yet I have no "religious FAITH." Nope - I've experience in what is referred to as "religious FAITH," which was derived from introspection. Big Difference. Nope - I'm a Buddhist who doesn't attach to any Buddhist theocracy (because there is no theism in Buddhism - speaking from direct experience). And yet? If you have engaged in a whole lot of years practicing meditation........ You might understand. Or not.

Nope. I was a Theravada Buddhist decades before I came here. Coming here aligned me with my religion. But - I'm not a Thai Buddhist, although I've been a Theravada monk in Thailand, and although Thai Buddhism is based on the Theravada tradition. But it is NOT the sole Therevada Buddhist tradition in Southeast Asia or the world for that matter. Not that Immigration give a hoot. They don't.

Then it is a stupid purchase. Buy what will work, outside of the US. Then stop complaining. "I can only buy what I want in the United States." Then stay in the United States. Do you now understand why Eurasia and the Global South are moving away from Uncle Sam? Sanctions kill free-markets. Wake up.

Fyi. If you can afford an $8000 laptop, why are you worried about paying duties? Sorry - just channeling the 'cheap charlies' among us? <laughs>

Something I've noticed over the last 15+ years living here in Thailand. The Thai government pledges to protect tourists; tourists get assaulted and killed; every year for the last 15 years. Nothing changes accept the lip-service. Understand now?

If you are currently out of Thailand, then just bring it in in a laptop bag. It's a carry-on laptop. If you're here in Thailand and are shipping it in - then your gonna pay duty more than likely. Custom laptop? This is a global world. Unless the components are "sanctioned" by the US, I don't really see why you could not assemble a spec'ed custom laptop right here in Thailand. If you can't obtain the parts in Thailand, then ship the parts you can't obtain and obtain the part that you can locally. Yeah? Which you'll probably get around if you reinstall a "clean" install of your operating system.

So "Business Class" is now Economy Plus?

My son bought me four different types. The Rose tasted like a wine cooler - it got tossed like immediately. Didn't try the Weizen as I don't like wheat beers. The Dunkel is so-so - very malty if you like malty...I don't. Then the Lager - just another lager with a mild aftertaste. Unfortunately I like a little more hops-bitter taste. I'll stick with Leo. Dang - the only thing he didn't buy was the IPA. Which I might be interested in if it actually tastes like an IPA. We'll see the next time I visit his home.

Got mine today. I'll be doing my first Decarb cycle and coconut-oil infusion tonight with the various buds I've bought in the past but have not smoked (as I said, I really don't like smoking but over the last year I've tried a number of different strains in order to find something that isn't harsh on the lungs. Never found any so now those buds will be decarbed and infused. This should be fun.) @YaiJung Thanks for the recommendation!

I was maybe 10 years old the first time I saw a colored TV. In an Officer's Club on a SAC base (with a thermo-nuclear bull's-eye on it) before the Cuban Missile fiasco during Sunday Night Bingo. The O-Club bought a color TV for the lounge and I remember when NBC rolled out Walt Disney's The Wonderful World of Color. I was pretty amazed and I can remember it clear-as-a-bell some 60 years later. Yeah - I'm glad I was born when I was born. The eve of technological wonders. Yet? My parents rationed TV. I was urged to "go outside and play" which I did - a lot- as well as read. Back in the day an age where there was only 3 major TV producers and a handful of local stations, all picked up with various antennae arrays on the roof of your house and on the TV set itself. "Modern" was having the roof antennae controlled with servo-motors so you could adjust the antennae angle to pick up the best signal. "The Internet" was a DARPA dream-project back then. Those were the days!

The new and improved Western militaries. They'll end up defeated on the battlefield by embracing fictions as facts. Again, it's a self-licking Ice Cream Cone. The problem will resolve itself over time as realities can only be bent so far before they break.

I would really like to be a "fly on the wall" in the discussions that have led so-called "world leaders" and their billionaire-backers to embrace this utter nonsense. And I do mean "nonsense" as in completely lacking any basis in reality. Any male who is bleeding out of a lower orifice needs to see a doctor, not be encouraged to believe that they are somehow now a fertile woman. But hey? If the Canadian federal government wants to be the proximate cause of men failing to correctly determine that they may have a seriously devastating health problem because the Canadian federal government is promoting and actively encouraging a fantasy in the name of "progressiveness and far-far-Left liberalism." So be it. It's a self-licking Ice Cream Cone. Although I'd really like to understand what the billionaire and leadership elites are attempting to accomplish, personally I believe the problem will solve itself in the long-run. I see the end of this in a series of civil suits where men who were shoving tampons up their butts because they were "menstruating" find they need to sue the government because they didn't have the sense to understand that biological males don't bleed down there naturally, and if they do, they probably have a life-threatening health problem. "But the Canadian government said that men menstruate." Yeah - of course they do. What would you like on your headstone? Yeah - trust the experts.

What "new rules" as, from what I can ascertain, there hasn't been a peep from the Thai government regarding how they plan to implement this plan. Personally I wonder if they even know. We'll find out after January 1st 2024. If they end up hammering foreign funds transfers into Thailand and disenfranchising foreign capital from moving into Thailand? Perhaps they'll revisit their initial plan. Everyone can wring their hands and sweat this issue, but honestly, you and everyone else isn't going to know the full effect of this decision until about Feb 1st 2024. In between Jan 1st and Feb 1st? Listen for screaming and wailing from the expat community.

Who remembers Mr Ed, F Troop, Daniel Boone, Batman, Get Smart and more .... The same people who grew up with black and white TVs which still were running on vacuum-tube technology. <raises hand>

Mods - you can close this as I thought SCB is now disabling the ability to withdraw cash using an ATM card in order to force users to the mobile application. Perhaps not. It may have just been the ATM's inability to correctly read the card although the error message was truly odd. Thanks.

Found this on Youtube. Somchai is your uncle. I'll give it a try the next time.

Tried a different ATM once I got to Chiang Mai. It worked. I'm not sure if it's a card reader problem or a feature. Kbank worked no problem. Odd message though from the SCB ATM that rejected the transaction. The message made it sound like the card I have will not work. I'll try the ATM I used on my way back home and see if I get the same message.

Don't know how. I'm open to suggestions or a "how to do a cardless withdrawal" tutorial.