BigStar

What's not clear to you in my statement of exactly that? Which in fact it has been doing from the first lockdown and continues doing today. And not only in Thailand, as the article notes. It also mentions the hope for the return of international tourism. Problem?

She could, just as an old Thai granny could don a thong and swim at Jomtien, but she's obviously an outlier, as you should be able to perceive. Note the OP specifically but not exclusively references "families," the prime domestic tourism demographic. "Prime" would include farang w/ families, not mongers or backpackers, though YES they can be domestic tourists also. The OP makes no claim that ALL Thais will become domestic tourists on every holiday, BTW. Study different cultures. The Thai, or Asian, women traveling around alone to tourists areas generally have a business purpose for doing so, as economic beneficiaries of domestic tourism, esp. by single farang men.???? Your maid would tour around if she had a boyfriend to invite her and pay all the expenses. Go find her one and find out. Invite her family over and see what happens. Should the gov't encourage domestic tourism? Yes, and it has, just as in other countries where we understand such promotion perfectly. It's only Thai domestic tourism we just can't understand. Why's that? Still awaiting the answer. I'm still not seeing that you have any disagreement with or logical conclusion to make from the OP.

The 50-satang "scam" has been done to death over many years. Someone's always coming along to "rediscover" it.

Irrelevant example of one Burmese maid w/ no family here.

Last figure I saw from some years back had 35% of Thais as middle class. No, they aren’t all office workers and gov’t employees. I don’t think you have a clue, really. Why not just argue a point that’s actually in the OP rather than posture? Now that you’ve stopped pretending there’s no Thai middle class who spend during holidays, the next step is to give up the fantasy that the lower classes can only live day to day and don’t spend anything during a holiday, either. It’s all part of the condescending only farang have money narrative of such constant comfort here on the forum. OK, knickers-soiling time for our TAT: TVF. Lower class Thais also have disposable income. They spend it on the relatively inexpensive things they usually spend it on, and a holiday affords them extra opportunity to do so, just as it does for the middle class. Often this is accomplished by pooling the family resources. Saw a number of families doing exactly that today at the beach. For example (one of countless), somebody in the extended family’s got an old truck and the rest pile in the back and they all take a trip to a park, lake, or beach and spread out a mat. Might do some splashing around, fishing or *ha hoi, looking for mussels. Meantime they buy drinks and Sang Som, *som tam, snacks, noodles, maybe some cheap toys at the destination for the kids. Sometimes there’s a richer family member or a village patron to help out. They may stay overnight with relatives near the tourist area, but merely visiting relatives also means spending and revenue generation. Quibbles: Oh, maybe it’s not a truck but an old motorbike to accommodate 5 Thais. Maybe they ride the bus. Maybe they bring in the food and drinks, but they had to have bought them or the ingredients for the trip. Maybe they just walk around in the mall and eat cheap in the food court, or just buy some sugary drinks or snacks. In short, commerce happens because of the holiday. A vast number of small businesses from food carts upward survive by catering to the needs of lower, working class Thais. Lots of these exist in tourist areas, including temples. Vendors near large, well-known, highly regarded wats get PLENTY of extra business during holidays. So, does spending by the lower classes also “help” the Thai tourist sector? Definitely that part catering to the millions of low income Thais. Is that good? Yes. Just gon’ have to suck it up. Seems we just aren't going to be able to find anything in the least unreasonable or misleading in the OP. Our ace Economists’ “debunking” is so far all just blowhard misreading and Whataboutism. The main problem is that we don't like the OP. That idea of "help" is just SO distressing. Why's that?

And need them to pay the vastly higher expenses to be incurred. Incommensurate economies. Point still holds. To summarize and dispose of the usual straw men by our TAT: TVF, the article does NOT say, or even imply, that domestic tourism will “save” Thailand (oh, it’s still doomed, Golden Egg Layers long departed); will replace the revenue generated by international tourism; must ensure ALL businesses catering to international tourists even survive (and, if not, domestic tourism is therefore of course pointless); means that ALL Thais can stay at 5-star hotels; always generates at least X amount of revenue irrespective of time and circumstance (the infamous TVF Mausoleum Principle); if promoted by the tourist board in Thailand means “desperation” but NOT if by all the tourist boards of other countries and localities (https://www.visitbrighton.com/) . Now the article did dare presume to come out that knickers-twisting “help survive.” But so domestic tourism has in fact, even for some farang-patronized businesses. The tourist industry encompasses a wide spectrum from a noodle cart parked in front of Jomtien Beach up to the Centara Grand Mirage, which looked packed out during Songkran. Really, I just don’t see how the “help” by the domestic tourists much threatens the Ultimate Certain Doom. We can fall back (and have in the thread already) to every rainbow has its rain, every rose its thorns, and our much-beloved one swallow does not make a summer. Inflation, worldwide recession, currency devaluation, consumer debt, nuclear war, insane rises in visa fees (2003, the last nail in the coffin!), and total Thailand economic collapse look just around the corner just as they always have, don’t they? Surely we can all just kick back with a Chang and a condescending lip curl over that innocuous little observation offered up in the OP. Mere blip on the screen, one of many.

Try https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/font-rendering-enhancer/hmbmmdjlcdediglgfcdkhinjdelkiock

As you can see from the responses here, it’s always an astounding earth-shattering conclusion to our forum members, no matter how many times they hear it. Genius and insight are relative, so here, being so unfathomable, it counts, even from a gov't official. Notice the article didn’t say “save”: that’s the typical straw man argument here. Only the great Golden Egg Layers, who built the entire Thai economy out of the jungles, could possible “save” Thailand. It says “help.” Does it help? Yup. TAT: TVF (AN) has always refused to recognize domestic tourism in Thailand, though members do of course in their own countries. There for example even Londoner day-trippers to Brighton are considered domestic tourists and are in fact counted in the official domestic tourism figures. In Brighton they buy a lot of the same goods they could buy in the same shops in London. Understandable, but we hold that THAIS can’t do that, would never do that--except that they really do, of course. No one doubts the economic benefits there, but—not here. Goods and services are produced and sold, hotels and restos occupied, and people employed who otherwise wouldn’t be. So we may attribute the reluctance here to admit the economic benefits of domestic tourism in Thailand to the usual ubiquitous bigotry, nanny-state economic ignorance, selective perception (Thai blindness?), and simple envy of the Thai middle class, who may stay in the better hotels or their houses & condos, including with extended family members, when they stay overnight, not in one of those farang fleabags around Soi Buakhao with the Golden Egg Layers. It's comforting to pretend they don't exist, even as they occupy the restos and spend in the mall shops on the weekends and holidays.

I think you can't be really sure until you go to a shop and check, maybe on your way to a food court. Be sure to ask about ordering if your size isn't in stock. Another point is that alterations are amazingly cheap in Thailand. The sewing lady near the market will fix you right up. No. Levis come in various weights, and the company really, really did take the Thai climate into consideration. Summers in many locations in the USA can be as hot and humid as in Thailand, BTW. But a lot of tourists from more northern climes buy Levis while vacationing in Thailand, including SHOCK! Chinese and Russians. Noticed Russians in the T21 shop pre-COVID, in fact. Sorry if this revelation causes widespread knickers-soiling here on the forum. The company never even conceived of that, of course. Can our Economists all agree now Levis are doomed to disappear from the Thai market soon after the 100 stores are opened and always empty? Another expensive disaster looming! Copy jeans: tried 'em, often wore them when I first moved to Thailand. How wonderful: Levis for B200! No more. Zippers, pockets, buttonholes soon wear out, stiff, seams irregular, age poorly, never as comfortable as the real thing. I've still got an old pair or two rotting in the closet, but I just never reach for them in preference to my authentic Levis or Wranglers. The best of the Thai brands like Mc Jeans aren't bad but don't seem to fit quite as well and, if not on sale, aren't that much less than Levis.

Anyone reading that article should also read the comments, such as Funded by an organization with an aggressive agenda for plant based food coupled with an aggressive agenda against consumption of animals, written by a member of that same organization, and actually just an agenda driven review of literature hand picked and then written/crafted to support the same agenda. One of the authors and researchers whom the article references even weighs in with Please note that these authors have never conducted research on low carbohydrate, ketogenic diets, and in my view have done a very poor job in giving a balanced review. The work Dr. Yancy and I have done on low carb diets is presented in an unfair, biased manner.

I assume you mean she told you to watch your cholesterol levels, not cholesterol intake. Sugar intake, of course, but then she advised eating more fruits. You don't say what guidance exactly she gave about that. Her take on cholesterol is surely outdated. You might take a look at a recent very readable book by Malcolm Kendrick, a Brit, and therefore totally credible. He speaks at length in a podcast here. The triglyceride/HDL ratio is one of the best indicators, and low carb diets are particularly effective in keeping it low--far as diets go. You'll get the same standard advice from any doc untrained in the subject. Losing 13 kilos was all very much to the good. But that mild fatty buildup in some tissue, whatever that means, had around 60 years to build up and very few have managed to avoid any by that age. Before you lost the 13 kilos, might that have been strong fatty buildup in more than some tissues? I dunno where she got that age limit, haven't seen that urged by all the usual enemies. Surely some of the many docs supporting Low Carb Down Under are over 60 themselves. I'm well over that and been following low carb for a couple of decades, been great, kept me healthy and off all meds. And I dunno, nor did she, probably, exactly what you were eating. Now I'm not going to get drawn into a useless discussion here with the mighty TVF Starve 'n' Sweat Chorus. Only a very few here know anything about low carb/keto; most have a lot of misconceptions. But, to focus, all fruits and veggies aren't the same. Low carb/keto merely restricts you to low carb fruits and veggies. I mostly stick with berries, have some daily.???? Frozen, from Makro, are cheap. It'll be argued that blood glucose spikes aren't an issue in healthy people. But everyone started off in life pretty healthy. Now, in the USA, 88% aren't in optimal metabolic health and 50% have prediabetes or diabetes. You've enjoyed lots & lots of spikes already. And you've been significantly overweight, suggesting some degree of insulin resistance. Better to stick w/ low glycemic foods, which happen to be low carb as well. But only if you're serious. I'd hate to diminish anyone's love of just being themselves. And if you're serious and consistent, fats are quite OK. Me, I'm having fine pork chop tonight, with veggies of course. And low carb has always recommended "whole foods," long before formal whole food diets and the Whole Grains Council recommended whole foods--which no one dares call fad diets.???? Fiber is another non-issue arising in recent attacks. Add in a few tablespoons of ground flaxseed if that worries you for some reason. I've never followed keto or had any reason to. Seems like too much work anyway. But I can highly recommend low carb as part of a healthy lifestyle.

I’m all for contributing to the welfare of impecunious Thais, but for me this method would mean extra time wasted in a relatively uncomfortable environment. I filled in the forms years ago on my computer, so they’re all neatly typed. Can’t believe people sit down and fill them out w/ a pen year after year. No wonder the whinging. I even include the Overstay Penalties and Acknowledgment of Terms and Conditions. All neatly typed with my phone number added. Once a year it takes me less than 30 min to scan a couple pages of the bankbook then run off a new set of the forms and the passport file also containing a copy of my pink card; fill in the dates; and sign. I spend another 20-30 min at the bank updating the last page of my bankbook and getting the bank letter. Pro tip: ask the bank lady to make you a copy of the last page of the bankbook showing that last transaction on the day. She’ll do it and it’s free. Save your ink: sign it right then with the bank's pen.???? And this pile, all in order, stapled, paper clipped, is always quickly accepted by Immigration with nothing to add. Should be, nothing’s changed but the dates and the bankbook transactions. Good, may that continue, but the IO does in fact check. See @chilly07's experience below. Refund not mentioned.

Went for another retirement extension today. Relatively short queue today at 1 PM. Waited 10 min in the queue and once inside I waited 10 min at Desk 8 for my number. Besides the two usual IOs, man and woman, an additional young guy was working Desk 8. He was similarly thorough, pleasant, and professional. Took him little more than 5 min to check my papers, pport, and bankbook, take my pic, and give me the ticket to pick up the pport on Friday. He didn't give me that annoying notice to return to show my bankbook again after 90 days. In fact, I’d included the notice signed already w/ my papers, but the IO took it out and handed it back. I dunno if that's a break extended to everyone or just the cool people, but it was welcome. The extra day for processing surprised me. Must be all that back office work processing agents’ submissions. Didn’t bother me. On the way out, the queue outside was empty. Not that many people waiting in the 90-day report area, either. All in all, another perfectly satisfactory experience, very smooth. Stopped by the TQ on the back for a cold one, a ritual I can recommend after any visit to Immigration, and found business surprisingly good given the situation. I think it’s gonna make it.

You had mentioned it earlier in a thread quite some time ago in which someone asked about getting a treadmill or somesuch. No doubt you were joking about the clothes hanger bit.???? Which was useful. Still, there's a point here, as you know. We don't need no qualifications here, of course. We all born knowing.???? In fact, should someone foolishly mention any qualification, it will often lead to a round of sneers. You may, however, check the qualifications in the sources I gave you. They look pretty sound to me. Suppose they're only 80% correct. Good 'nuff?

Ultimately related to cardiovascular condition, not age per se. That condition can and usually does degrade along with other biomarkers as people age, to the delight of the medical and pharma industries. The rate of inevitable decline into morbidity is the issue at question--or should be, IMO. So one can maintain, and enjoy, a condition more typical of youth for a longer time, say a decade or more, by a healthy lifestyle or choose to treat the symptoms via beta blockers etc. and prolong the period of medication and, ultimately suffering that often begins in the 50s nowadays.

Me, I need no meds and take only a few vitamins, protein powder, and creatine (recommended). So I had to look these up. ‘Course, I’m a year younger than you, after all. Correct me if I’m wrong. Amlodepine – needed to lower otherwise high blood pressure. No wonder your BP’s only slightly elevated and check it morning and night. Sorry, but that indicates worry. Mine’s around 108/70, and I check it maybe once every couple months if I happen to think about it . Normal blood pressure is defined by pressure below 120/80, whereas an optimal and healthier blood pressure is closer to 110/70. --Optimal blood pressure helps our brains age slower Bestatin – needed to reduce worry over high cholesterol. Baby aspirin – previous stroke or heart attack? Micardis, Doxadozin – also antihypertensive drugs that may affect BP. Your RHR seems quite low for your age. Is that natural, or a side effect? Always been that low? Mine’s been around 53 for the last 40 years. And you’re somewhat overweight but aren’t worried about that. I’d suggest the worry about LDL is misplaced relative to what should be more worrisome: the high triglyceride/HDL ratio. A low ratio of triglycerides/HDL means a low risk of heart disease even when LDL is high. If you have a high ratio, you have higher risk even with low LDL. Triglyceride/HDL ratio is strongly related to insulin resistance. --Low Triglycerides–High High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease And so that’s why I keep my ratio below 1:1, latest .71. --Alan Watson And you see where you are at 3.3. This study used 3.5 as a cutoff: --Triglyceride–to–High-Density-Lipoprotein-Cholesterol Ratio Is an Index of Heart Disease Mortality and of Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Men And related it to diabetes. Not coincidentally your FBS suggests prediabetes, another worry. Note that even people without diabetes, in the top quartile (fourth) of fasting insulin, had about double the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, --Plasma insulin and cardiovascular mortality in non-diabetic European men and women: a meta-analysis of data from eleven prospective studies I’d suggest you get an OGTT, as things may be worse than they seem. Evidence implicates insulin resistance at the root of many lipids issues (and more). In one study, a single glucose tolerance test predicted major coronary heart disease events over 22 years. A normal score on a fasting glucose test or even an HbA1c doesn’t actually confer a high degree of certainty. In fact, one can be insulin resistant years before tests finally reveal that the ol' pancreas can no longer deal with all the glucose. Dr. Sarah Hallberg makes this very point at her TEDx talk here. https://youtu.be/da1vvigy5tQ?t=161. (Sadly, Dr. Hallberg lost her 5-year battle with lung cancer on March 28, 2022.) Somewhere between 16 – 25% of normal weight American adults are insulin resistant without even knowing. More than 80% of those with prediabetes don’t know they have it. Common sense would dictate that it’d be better to avoid the cumulative effect of glucose spikes and stress to one’s pancreas in the first place. More details on this unpalatable kickers-twisting subject in some other thread. Ironically, just as an aside, higher TC looks better than lower, come to the all-mortality rate: Well, folks tend to think getting older means you inevitably have all these lipids issues (metabolic syndrome) and need to start running to docs and get on the usual meds starting in your 50s or 60s to deal the symptoms rather than underlying causes. Not so, lifestyle can make all the difference. For anyone. In fact those worries could be mitigated and ended, mortality compressed, via the ol’--wait for it--diet & exercise. A low carb diet’s particularly good in this respect, with cardio and resistance training. So that’s the help. It'll have to do for now--from me; no doubt our Nutritionists will be along soon with their own expert assessments.???? Parenthetically, I’d up the tea and coffee by another cup a day, hit the dark chocolate daily (Hershey’s Natural cocoa, Lindt 85%), and get in the sun (UV > 3, around noon) for around 15 -20 min a few times a week, shirtless. I find regular walks on the beach helpful, fine scenery out there. Yeah, sun, steak, and steel, as P. D. Mangan says. And sex, my Thai gf always adds. So cute. We'll probably have a recommendation for apple cider vinegar soon.???? Never did a thing for me. BTW, there’s also the issue of blood clots in the sedentary, notably those sitting around watching footie. Oh—aspirin, right? I wouldn’t. New research found that the risks of daily aspirin begin to outweigh the benefits starting at age 60. Specifically, the risk of aspirin causing potentially life-threatening bleeding in the brain or gastrointestinal tract increases with age. --Daily aspirin no longer recommended for some Clot risk needs to be taken seriously, though, as you know. One of the easier issues to prevent, fortunately, without any of the risks of aspirin. Maybe stop using the treadmill as a clothes hanger. I congratulate you on your honesty and candor, @KannikaP, after an initially somewhat misleading post. Too often in these threads we have smug epicureans waddle in clutching a totemic bottle of Chang and a strip of street Kamagra to pooh-pooh the need for any dieting or exercise. But they also refuse to reveal--and to stop taking-- the meds they depend on to keep them still alive. Now we did have a case recently of swaggering beer and sex turning into—fasting, LOL. Not surprisingly, some will show up in the Pub later on confessing despondency ("somber thaughts") and in the Health forum seeking advice before they . . . vanish . . . .

We in primary school now? Show of hands? Yeah, that'll help. ???? Let's try to think for ourselves, shall we? So you didn't look at all the other experiences in the reddit discussion. Here's the reddit support forum w/ 86k readers and maybe 150 online at any time. Windows 11 Where you'll find (cough) more than one experience. Besides things that often don't work well for many people (Bluetooth), and the myriad annoyances (right-click), calendar, one overarching complaint relates to the further general dumbing down of Windows, such as with the taskbar, requiring more clicking and bother to get at a setting. For example, the swallowing of the Control Panel into the Settings app that started in Win 10 is worse in Win 11. 'Course if M'soft didn't continue, then fans of the dumbing down and critics alike will complain of an inconsistent UX. Which it still is in 11, just not as much as in 10. Not to say that Win 11 doesn't improve some things. There's an older review in The Verge, summarized here, that lists out a good selection, but Win 11 ends up with 10 Pros vs 13 Cons, even counting the improvements in Start menu. Unfortunately, I don't see any Pro I'd find particularly useful and didn't think some Pros are really Pros for me. For one, being herded to the App store and, if not now, eventually needing to login to get an app as part of M'soft's new business model.

Colostomy bag was in a discussion on Ars Technica, if you want to find it. Funny and appropriate. M'soft finally got some of the message. Onward and upward! The redditor is the OP in the thread I gave the link to. Wedding_Worth is his username, if that helps. Just left-click on the title of the reddit thread, and you'll be taken right there. ???? Funny, the OP himself described a problem w/ the taskbar. In fact the taskbar has other problems of which you're blissfully unaware, IF one wants the full functionality available in the Win 10 taskbar--which I'd want. We might call it a downgrade. But hardly the only problems users have w/ Win 11. The uptake for Win 11 has been surprisingly slow, but part of that is of course the TPM. Which I suppose can still be worked around, but why bother. ???? Go read some experiences. I tried Win 11 for a couple of days until it crushed itself to become literally unusable (minor windows update resulted in all USB ports not working anymore). I had removed the Bing part oft the search via Winaero Tweaker and that made it a lot more usable than on Win 10. Now I'm back on 10, waiting for 12.

Reddit has an extensive discussion w/ over 400 comments here, covers it pretty well. Is windows 11 worth upgrading to? What’s have you all decided to do with regards to upgrading? Started by a redditor who confessed: I updated it as curiosity got the better of me and I thought how bad could it be… It lasted two hours before I reverted back to windows 10! Seems the Start menu has been improved somewhat over Win 10's, which has been compared to a colostomy bag. I'd still use third-party apps to get it and the taskbar (major source of complaints) really useable again. Not seeing any reasons for me to "upgrade" yet.

Suggest OP look at Aliexpress. They've got quite a few HP keyboards, probably batteries as well. I bought a battery for my laptop there, very reasonable price.

Seems to me that @Jingthing bought one some time ago. Maybe he'll check in.

Slight elevated BP. Could be something is bothering you. We could help you more if you'd provide these numbers: RHR (resting heart rate), FBG (fasting blood glucose), HbA1C, Triglyceride/HDL ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and a list of the meds you're taking.

iHerb: 21st Century, Sentry Senior, Multivitamin & Multimineral Supplement, Adults 50+, 265 Tablets x 2 = B716, throw in a few other things to get the flat ฿135.00 shipping for orders ฿1,350.00+, cost of Sentry + shipping falls to B779.

That most pros take supplements of some kind.

Probably greater than the odds of intellectual conversation in English with an expat. Or in Brummie or Geordie.