blazes

A game which, obviously, you yourself are playing.....

Al-lested? How long will he have to stay in his new little loom?

Nice clean beach he found. Anyone know where? Or is that classified information?

Why all the frenetic toing and froing in and out of the country? Is there a lovely hotty involved somewhere in your plans?

Yes, I too had to take a second look, but then I realised I had missed that the "woman" is Canadian. Say no more.....

Must be the only guy in Thailand who wears a collar and tie....but maybe he wears the tie for the sake of his old mum back home?

Complaint about "cheap jibes" followed by cheap pun. Beam and mote come to mind....

What a stupendously lonely life, Willy or no willy.

Just returned from an expensive border bounce (by air) from Penang. So now I have a second 45+30 at my disposal. But it cost me far in excess of the 1900 baht for a VE extension. All that excess money spent in a foreign country, thus denying Thailand of a little extra business. I would have been quite happy to pay 3800 baht (twice the extension fee) in order not to go to the bother of flying in and out of this country for no gainful purpose whatsoever. (Maybe put a limit on the number of times one could do this, but....) Or why not do what Malaysia does: 90 days Visa Exempt. That's it! Or Mexico: 6 months, no questions asked as long as you don't have a Colombia stamp in your passport

Flight from where, though? Moscow? Los Angeles? Delhi? or just Beijing?

Anantasila is the most relaxing hotel in Kao Takiab. Dining there is superb and the ambience, right on the beach, is top class. Also great for children. You can of course stay somewhere else in Kao Takiab but dine out at Anantasila. Blue Wave is a bit tired. Elevator can take a lifetime to arrive.

Amusing (in a macabre way) to see that Mexico occupies second place, when only last week the arrest of El Chapo's son prompted a vast and bloody and incendiary shoot-out by the mafia in Mazatlan, a fairly popular tourist destination. https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/mazatlan-mayor-reassures-canadians-and-other-visitors-following-cartel-violence https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/have-your-wits-about-you-travel-advice-for-canadians-visiting-mexico

A trifle naïve: since when has a dictatorship had to worry about an upcoming "election"?

This is correct, but let's not forget that the only reason we poochai can do that is the extreme poverty of most women here. I am daily disgusted by the CHEAPNESS of farang here. I go to half-decent restaurants, frequented by European couples, and can't help noticing how often they will leave a tip of 20 BAHT after a meal that probably cost 300 baht. Do these people have ANY idea how little 20 baht will buy for a poor Thai worker???? It's like leaving 50 cents after a $12 meal.....

Hold it, Mike: are you seriously calling Joe Biden and Fauci morons??? Better hope the FBI are not listening (or reading). It's simply not allowed these days to question the actions of our ruling classes. (Sorry, Mike, I apologise if you are not American; I made that assumption too quickly.)

I wonder what the wives gossip about in this kind of get-together? Maybe "loss of face" possibilities keep the conversation on the positive side.....

Quite frankly, it's not the discrepancy in prices that alarms me, but the kind of diet some of our expat friends are existing on....

You are quite right, but one glance at IvorBiggun2's avatar should alert one to the kind of answer you are likely to get from this person.

Where exactly are the "expensive delivery costs" in your narrative above?? You consider 400 baht "expensive" for the weight you describe as being delivered?? What would be an INexpensive cost?

Ta, squire. But I'm only here for another six weeks. Is there much fol-de-rol involved in "registering"?

No end to the effects of Chinese Covid: https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/oil-china-covid-brent-west-texas-price-51672228349?mod=mw_latestnews

anyone come across Cheshire cheese or Wensleydale? I'm in HH.

This whole thread is wonderful for its exposé of all the various arguments about Covid. When Trump insisted on calling the virus "the Wuhan virus" (later "the Chinese" virus) he was called a racist. (Also, Dr Fauci had assured everyone in Feb 2020 that this virus required no special antidotes, but no one held him to account for that lie - or was it a lie?) Then Biden started spreading the lie that it was a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and then we hear about (and know personally) many people who who have been sick with the virus after several vaccinations (my own very healthy son being one of them - after 4 booster shots!) So it goes....information withheld, brutal government power, misinformation, disinformation, the amassing of untold wealth for pharma companies (given immunity from litigation if nasty things happened as a result of the vaccine). Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.....( For the foreign language thingy: the more things change, the more things stay the same).

Don't forget that China owns the WHO.....ask Dr Tedros ....

This kind of whataboutery, while accurate in its depiction of a history of savagery, refuses to acknowledge what is the actual truth: that the history of mankind is littered with all kinds of debauched militarism. But don't you see that if I now respond by drawing your attention to all the savagery that has been committed in the name of America in the last 200 and more years, we are no further ahead in the task of creating a better civilization. In the midst of all the savagery, America produced an advanced technological civilization that makes us all "freer" in so many ways. At the same time, Russia produced a revolution that, whatever its later consequences, overthrew a repressive regime in an attempt to create something close to democracy. Russia also produced the likes of Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Dosoevsky, the Bolshoi Ballet......etcetcetc These sorts of "whatabout" arguments can go on for ever, but they may have the advantage of reminding people that politics is a complex and serious business. Happy Christmas.