BigStar

It's a good thing that CSI: ANF are confined to their keyboards and aren't in charge of real investigations.

NCA definitely has buses going to Rayong at very frequent intervals, starting early. Good luck getting a schedule out of them. If you just show up at the station, you'll probably get a bus within an hour.

Quick Google gives this outfit: https://counsellingthailand.com/ Which seems well-staffed and established. Do it.

You mean, like the Brits, except without the money.

Russians were prominent among tourist groups some years ago before the rouble collapsed. Many already have properties here. They know Thailand well. And I see mostly families and couples among them.

We typically postulate an accomplice. Classic CSI: ANF forensics, taking into consideration all the evidence.

Narrow stereotypical few. Not particularly characteristic of Thailand at all, but common througout Asia. Tokyo's Akihabara is a classic example. Our ace Western-trained forum Economists have never been able to figure out the model and have posted the same ignorance and puzzlement for decades.

A month or so ago, the 1st floor and the phones floor were busy. The old computer shop area, not so much. All the malls have JIB and Banana now. The pirated software and movie DVDs are no longer needed. Specialty shops, like security cameras, repair shops, still have some business. Quite change from the heyday. It was really welcome when it started up--no more need to make the journey to Panthip.

Maybe the wives enjoy a holiday in Thailand as well and Pattaya is a relatively nearby popular (with families, as well) beach resort w/ a large variety of attractions, restos, and malls? Maybe they love their wives and feel some obligation, which I suppose could a mystery for you. However, I've seen farang couples in bars choosing a lady to take back to their hotels. Better broaden your outlook, I guess. No real mystery here at all.

Exactly. One of those old myths that refuses to die and gets repeated for Thai bashing purposes.

It's too bad you can't do that retroactively. We should allow for the operation of the Hawthorne effect.

But we hate that idea. Even if she is, she should be locked away, no?

Paying for sex by mutual consent isn't illegal in Thailand. It's illegal for a woman to actively entice or solicit payment for sex. That, now, is prostitution. But it's a little more difficult to prove, and police seldom go to the effort to collect real evidence and make an arrest. I don't know of any such case that resulted in a conviction in a court, nor do you. So, nothing to worry about.

Be wonderful in the US.

And contact their embassies? Probably not.

Could be paranoia by the locals and greatly exaggerated. Police couldn't prove a supposed foreign taxi driver was actually picking up customers, but fined him B1000 for no license. ???? But you're ignoring an elephant in the room. Tell us about all those developers and property owners complaining about selling their properties to Russians. How about the food & drink vendors, supermarkets, malls, 7/11 operators? WOT? No complaints about making all that money?

Oh, we been cueing it for months. Yet here they are not overstaying but extending visas. WOT? But ah, that sweet anticipation . . . .

Did you agree or not?

When there are no "quality" tourists, we sneer. When there are, we sneer. Can't win. Yeah, they get tired of those boring old farts pretty quickly and become too old to boom boom with them. Or she's happy to get him out of the way. Thai wife of a friend of mine discreetly helped pay a bar girl (she charged extra) to spend time w/ her intolerable old man so she wouldn't have to.

Actually, you started living in Pattaya in March 2019, and that Oct claimed you were going back to Chiang Mai the next month, in Nov. The travel bans didn't begin until the following April, so you weren't really stuck. The bans were lifted last July, so again you've had plenty of time. Yet you signed another lease in Feb. I dunno. We seem to be seeing here an inauspicious lack of foresight, planning, goal orientation, time management, and execution very much at odds with the entrepreneurial spirit. Maybe it's the lack of access to real co-working space. Starbucks, gimme a beak. Anyway, no ace dynamic entrepreneur and digital nomad should be cruelly locked away from riding his bicycle and thriving in his beloved natural habitat by--of all things--the petty consideration of a mere lease. You and bicycle can be in Chiang Mai next week. Enough with the excuses and running around looking for cheap testosterone enanthate. Let's have some action.

One confirmed today who was only 4 min away and was leaving his location. Took me about 3 min to get downstairs, by which time Bolt was sending me a "looking for another driver" message. It didn't find one, so I cancelled and rode my motorbike instead. Lesson: look for a Bolt far ahead of the time it's really needed.

Loads don't amount to the 40 million in 2019. As you say, normal tourists (and the vast majority are normal) are just that.

Not at all, though there's much more. I happened to run across it today as a new study in Agingdoc1's Twitter feed. I pay more attn to science than anecdotes. Who knows what really happened? If one was practicing IF, or even low carb, but say a few hours before the probability of a bonk, he "carbo loaded," then he probably wouldn't have bonked; and thereafter continued as usual. But I gave you a reddit forum where you can read contrary anecdotes. Nor does supposed improved running performance necessarily justify high carb diets. In one study, 30% of middle aged runners tested out as prediabetic.

I've never seen Chinese, Indians, and Russians, of all the millions, showing much interest in bar girls.

Oh, we always think TAT's numbers are wild, unless they fit the narrative. The 40 million of 2019 was greeted with the usual chorus of sneers from TAT: ANF. Then COVID came along and TAT: ANF completely reversed itself and accepted the 40 million as totally credible so they could enhance the drama, hysteria, and prophetic doom about the death of the Thai economy and last of the last nails in the coffin. Years ago the construction of Suvarnabhumi was announced in advance of those wild prophecies coming true. It was of course greeted with the usual forum chorus of sneers and jeers. Thailand Already Had One, and One's All That's Needed--foundational economic principles, as all's simply static. No growth in tourism would ever support it. Our vast number of Brown Envelope Bots swarmed and buzzed happily throughout the construction. Then, when it first opened, TAT: ANF members visited to find that, sure enough--it was almost deserted! HA HA HA I pay no attention to TAT: ANF's judgements about what's wild and what isn't. They have cynicism and no figures. TAT does have some figures that turned out not so wild after all. I say, wait and see. Meanwhile, I'm happy to live my life in Pattaya.