BigStar

Getting defensive are we? I predict mod intervention soon.

Head under a rock? Been the goal of The Authorities for decades for the whole resort and a constant source of sneering on the forum. Hence all the beautification, notably that on Walking Street itself. It was of, for, and by mongers before it even became Walking Street and 'roidheads would be parking their rented Steeds and Harleys in front of Marine Bar, after suitable revving. Mongers don't care about all that gentrification.???? Fancy paving stones, whatta joke. And so our prescient Economists regularly predict the total destruction of Soi 6 and Walking Street and their transformation into quaint shops and restos, blah blah.

You sound ridiculous to me, too. Have we got that out of the way now? Ready to move on with more of the blaming the victim?

Might have expected it, and reasonably should have. As you yourself would, if you thought you'd been victimized, under Thai law. German friend of mine just got a police-mediated settlement from a Thai at fault for his injury in a traffic accident, for example. All your "Thai woman" is just a red herring, come down to it, and misogyny.

Of course you do. Now that you mention it, I've often thought Thai police should make much more extensive use of decoys and stings. Great example recently: get an Indian confederate to parade around wearing a big fake gold necklace. And to help make Walking Street more family friendly, much more of the same kind of thing can be done. In fact lots of families do visit Walking Street, regular tourists, tour groups, etc., though for the purposes of this thread we're going to pretend that ONLY drunk mongers go there.

Settlement is a common resolution for various types of crimes, NOT just those committed in red light districts, thus precluding charges and a court decision; police commonly mediate in the lower tier where lawyers aren't warranted. Here the perp can choose charges and a trial if he so desires. Most farang will prefer quick settlement. Commonly occurs in the West as well, BTW, though civil cases still require a judge to oversee. Divorce is a notable example many of our members will be familiar with.

OH. Suddenly you don't agree with yourself, put it like that. Love it.???? One convenience of ANF: posters always let you know when you've won.

But here police have investigated and reviewed the CCTV and have determined the woman wasn't perpetrating a scam. Indeed, her appearance would indicate she likely wasn't. Looks like she went clubbing, maybe met up with some friends--not that it matters. On the other hand, if farang were afraid of being scammed, they might well straighten up their act and avoid uninvited groping. Yeah, they could do that. We don't see much of this nowadays: The Thai definition of (illegal) prostitution requires enticement, BTW. Yah, we're always hearing all this paranoia about police scams perpetrated on farang. Sitting at the Red Cat the other day having a cool one, I enjoyed watching the police from Soi 9 pull over motorcyclists. OH--they pulled over Thais as well as farang, yet more farang were trying to get away with not wearing helmets than Thais. WOT??? Where's all that planting drugs on farang after spurious searches on Thong Lor? Fantastic money in that. WOT?? None. Over to you for the current examples.

Now she's got her pic splashed all over the media in a negative context. Not something she'd have preferred, as a Thai woman. It's the same even in the USA. Decades ago, my cousin was raped by her boss, for example, but didn't want publicity, needed her job, and didn't want to upset her marriage. Are you a Thai woman? How would you know how she'd feel about that? Nor did she know what the outcome would be. She said she wasn't looking for money but thought the perp should be punished, as indeed the law would require.

No, sexual assault has long been a crime in Thailand, nothing to do with any modern wokism. It may not always be reported, owing to victim shaming (especially characteristic of Third World countries). It may be "handled" by family members, boyfriends, etc. But here, owing to the courage and to the credit (expanded credit line soon, ha ha) of this lady, it's been reported, and since it IS a crime in Thailand, the perp has been arrested and will make restitution. Let the word get around among the gropers.

But what if this were then misunderstood, perhaps purposely, as <deleted> me, and you were dragged into an alley and <deleted> in the <deleted>, devastating your hemorrhoids. Police? But many here, including yourself, would agree that was your own fault--one way or the other. Never mind the crime. Suck it up. Unless a Thai did it--TOTALLY different. You poor innocent persecuted farang! Get that Thai! Actually if more farang would report their being groped by ladyboys--who profess not to like it--the police might take action. Detrimental to tourism. Other crimes? Would you report your wallet taken? Yes, it's a crime, and you didn't like it besides. Were you to blame for walking where gold necklaces have been reportedly snatched? Oh--you were. No police, then.???? No sympathy, either. Suck it up.

TAT tells porkies is one of the Foundational Principles of ANF Economics. That's why we're lucky to have TAT: ANF to set the record straight, which, happily, requires no figures, merely the prescient Eyeballs. Or Ears: an important new Indicator has been revealed in this very thread: the sound of takeoffs at the CNX airport.???? Yet the real TAT's figures are accepted as gospel if they're negative, as they were in 2020's "Drastic" losses to Thai tourism with 1.57 TRILLION baht hit, admits tourism minister. No sneers there, no indeed. TAT had it exactly right in 2009 and 2014, too! Amusingly, though, negative news exposes a contradiction in TAT: ANF's supposed objectivity and (cough) raises some doubts about how accurate its Eyeballed non-figures really are. Negative TAT figures mean -to savor the deliciousness of the loss to the fullest extent, -stick the pointing fingers into all the pies, -chant the rosary of usual complaints (affirm jet ski scam), and -enjoy kicking back with a few Changs, tokes of good weed, then belly up to the keyboard to peck out The Only Solution: To avoid a complete economic collapse, those idiots at TAT need to take immediate steps to encourage the return of the Big Spending Golden Egg Layers via unrestricted, perpetual, free tourist visas, baht devaluation to THB100/GBPeso, bar fine price controls, and proper Thai servility at all times in the presence of any Golden Egg Layer. Ah. But then to enjoy this full Monty, the TAT: ANF now has to accept the official TAT figure from the previous year--though irrefutably discredited at the time by the Eyeballs. And accordingly does so: now 22.77 million foreign tourists did visit in 2019 and did spend all that money TAT said they did.???? The Eyeballs now notice quite a big difference, and so Thailand's not doing enough to match that figure.

Great idea, I sometimes do this. Works really well for redirecting your thoughts, and you've made progress finishing that book you haven't managed to get around to. Ambient noise is another good method. Lots of this on youtube: rain, streams, fireplaces, Star Trek engine noise . . . .

So far all that construction in BKK and along EEC, for example, is detrimental to the societal commons but has been a great source of employment and spinoff. We'll see. Can you wait? But foreign investors, unlike Thais, of course--including those investing abroad in such ANF Economist-approved locations as Vietnam--actually do know something about investing, and they project returns. Somehow, despite our sounding the alarm, they didn't get the memo about the Thailand Perpetual Downward Spiral. Our ace Economists, on the other hand, immediately projected the bankruptcy and failure of such projects as Big C Extra and Central Festival Beach Road. So we have to wonder what our Economists now know, again, that the big investors don't.???? Beyond the expertise and pay grades of typical news reporters and web content writers. Or the actual interest of ANF readers, who mainly just want to self-aggrandize and gain cred by shrewdly suggesting "something fishy." If the contrary is proven, the reaction will be merely silence, as from the Tunnel Flooders or from victim blamers when confronted w/ video evidence that a farang was, in fact, responsible for a bad traffic accident. Hence it's not worth the time arguing with all these trolls. You can google up some more technical reports, such as have been derived from Thai sources, but they may be paywalled.

Yawn. Classic barstool Eyeball Economics consistent with the cluelessness of your first post w/ regard to investment in 2021. I remember @tropo laughing, more than a decade ago, at one of those typical Surveys verifying the Pattaya's Imminent Doom conducted by a poster walking around and talking to poor-mouthing bar owners. Many businesses have reopened and are recovering. Fact. Yet you haven't managed to find one, LOL. A lot of new ones have opened as well and are surviving. All are not guaranteed to achieve their pre-COVID success. COVID happened; pain and displacement has been and will be the result. Who do you think doesn't know that? Did you just learn it? Does repeating the known and obvious, over and over, do something for your psyche? Is that phony hand-wringing helping anything? Another cherished principle of ANF Economics is the Mausoleum Principle: unlike in other countries, a Thai(land) construction/development/business establishment must last eternally, like the Great Pyramids, maintenance-free. If not, then it means the entire Thai economy is collapsing. It's that old Doom Porn we love. Some old buzzard can't fill out his online tourist application and it means the collapse of the tourist industry!???? Deflection to the painful effects of COVID, felt worldwide, and virtue signaling, doesn't validate your original post.

There's a lot more and much more specific, but I don't feel the need to google for you. You can sit on Beach Rd. or in a mall or in restos and see all the independent travelers for yourself IF your perception isn't, ah, limited. Yes, the zero dollar tours were banned, assets seized, and still are banned. However, TAT: ANF also refuses to believe that and repeats the same BS about "shopping only in Chinese shops." None of our ace Economists is aware of the bus loading zone at T21 where hundreds of Chinese tourists (pre-COVID) disembarked daily for shopping expeditions. Of course, none has ever seen a shopper of any nationality in a mall, so whaddya expect. It's all laughable, really. Much of it is just bigotry.

One of those cherished TAT: ANF myths that refuses to die. For years now the majority have been independent travelers and that trend looks upward. An estimated 60 percent of all Chinese travelers prefer to go abroad without a tour group, which is a welcome development for Hansar—which focuses exclusively on visitors not in tour groups. --https://jingdaily.com/independent-chinese-travelers-go-boutique-in-bangkok/ Of those surveyed, 71 percent would like to travel to Thailand and, in a notable shift from the Chinese group travel which had dominated the country’s inbound market in the past decade, 83 percent would choose independent travel versus group tours. --https://skift.com/2020/04/24/thailand-tourism-looks-to-china-to-start-down-path-for-pandemic-rebound/

SHOCK! It appears that some were able to find ways, obviously not ace ANF Economists. Gotta love their oblivious pronouncements. Total foreign investment in Thailand was $2.48 billion in 2021, a year in which trade, commerce, investment and other economic activities slowed because of global coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, foreign funds continued to move into the Kingdom, and Thai economists and government officials are expecting an even better result this year as more countries recover. --https://thaiembdc.org/2022/02/08/u-s-was-2nd-largest-foreign-investor-in-thailand-in-2021/ Relatively useless for our Economists, true, as a negative number would enable those lovely ah HA! chortles and gurgles in confirmation of the cherished Thailand Perpetual Downward Spiral narrative. 73.64 billion baht is, however, relatively useful for Thailand, OBVIOUSLY. I've seen some of that investment at work, too. The only symptoms of desperation I've seen are from posters desperate to disparage Thailand's recovery from the COVID disaster. It's very discomfiting, as COVID was supposed to be that last nail in the coffin driving Thais all back to work in rice fields and live in trees, making our Economists feel all vindicated and superior. But now--OH NO! Things are coming back and adapting well to the new global realities. Now, what else can we find? Hee.

Wrong. Shirt-wise, most of the Brit sheep love those checked collared shirts that look like they came from the East End Thrift Shop. With cargo shorts, often smartly topped off with white socks and sandals. Killer. I only wear shorts on the beach. Mine isn't. I wear it longer, part of the overall nonconformity, I guess.

In Pattaya a large percentage of the old farang would look better and give off a pleasanter vibe if they simply wore one of the face diapers for aesthetic reasons. A Dunning-Kruger effect in attractiveness seems in operation among many of our posters and probably helps explain why, to their bafflement, women didn't enjoy sex with them. Unattractive people tend to be unaware of their unattractiveness, and attractive people underestimate their attractiveness. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/sjop.12631

Needs a crackdown on foreign drivers, obviously. In proportion to their numbers, they drive worse than Thais. Saw a bunch of them pulled over the other day for not wearing helmets and then failing to have proper driving licenses.

Be under sixty and work a year or two for a Thai company/institution in which you're enrolled in Thai SS. Upon leaving, retain the insurance and keep up the monthly payments, about B450 a month. Just got a free comprehensive eye exam from an ophthalmologist/retina specialist yesterday. All good!

Let the blaming of the victim begin.

No, as my often-contrarian posts on the forum show, I’m a distinct individual in most ways. I take into account a wide range of opinions, ideas, and practices as I make up my own mind about things. I annoy posters by challenging the bigotry and cherished beliefs such as Chinese don't spend, only farang have money, TAT just tells porkies, fools buy real estate, Pattaya's dead, and shopping malls only launder money. I dare tell users they can ignore the demands of our IT experts and continue using Win 7 or an HDD if they really want to.???? For example, I get a close shave daily using a traditional double edge razor and kit. At home I exercise with a TRX suspension trainer knockoff, resistance bands, and treadmill. I also may exercise at a gym, but I’m always the only one lifting using lighter weights and one set per exercise of super slow reps. And I’ve stayed on a low carb diet for years, which has really paid off. A notable exception concerns Thais. Since I’m a foreigner living here in their country, a fact of which they’re quite aware and relatively sensitive in such a homogenous society, I make an effort to roll with flow and give them a good impression according to their own standards of politeness. That's partly self-serving to help make my own life easier, and it does: all my interactions with Thais nowadays are quite pleasant, even enjoyable for both parties. But I hope a favorable impression will carry over somewhat to farang in general and compensate for some of the idiocy they may encounter or hear about.

Yes. No, very different. Little comparison, really. You'd need to travel all over Thailand for attractions concentrated in Bali--and more unique to Bali. Besides that, the tourist experience offered is of a much more international standard while preserving local color. I don't know about the rest of Indonesia, but Bali has its act together. Nobody thinks any Thai island really has, and complaints are always legion. I'd never care to go back to Phuket, for example. Bali, in a heartbeat. 55 Best Things to Do in Bali (Indonesia)