LivinLOS

Sure but you can just park money in thb or buy a forward Fx contract if your trying to speculate on the currency.. Its a totally different subject. I was also here when the baht went from under 40 to gbp to 90 in a year or two

But the biggest number you miss here is capital gains appreciation / depreciation.. Every western property I have owned I have made (often large) sums of money on. Yes the entry cost is higher but the complete picture, purchase, maintenance, sale.. No comparison.

Point is.. its not really hiso is it ?? A basic mid range german car is not some extreme example of wealth, I am not talking about lambos and Ferraris (40 million etc instead of 150k gbp), etc but just a basic quality car something thats way under a million baht in the west.. I think its a rare retired expat that doesnt afford something like a 5 series or an E class at home prior to retiring here. You want to talk about costs.. So let emulate a proper like for like. Always makes me laugh when someone trades a merc in the west, for a PCX in Thailand, and then says its cheaper here.. And cars are just one example.. Look at high end audio, electronics, etc etc etc.. As soon as you want any non cappy plastic junk type item, its a shock how much more than the west it costs. I just happened to catch how much Bowers and Wilkins want for a pair of 801 speakers.. 1.7 million baht ???? Thats +- 80% more than the western msrp.. Why ??

I did post day before yesterday was in the top 10 deaths since the pandemic.. Deaths and ICU are rising in lockstep with cases, not at the same ratio as the unvaccinated period but still in a steep rise. And your still not addressing the elephant in the room which is Thailands ability to cope with higher levels of infection.. You seem to think Thailand is more like Israel or singapore and less like say.. India !! Thailand has no hope of reaching Israel's level of vaccinations any time this year.. Walk in shots for everyone... 3rd booster shots for all at risk.. without that safety net Thailand opening up and letting whatever happens happen, is just insanity.. Theres a perfect script for the overwhelming of the hospital systems, for a much increased CFR because of that, and a genuine disaster which they have so far avoided through the painful steps of lockdowns. Once Thailand has reached the vaccine levels of Israel maybe Q1 next year, then maybe they can think about emulating the same kind of relaxations.

Insurance for my 'storage' 5 series BMW in uk is +- 300 gbp a year fully comp.. This is a list which may be acccurate in what it looks at but its clearly designed to prove a point.. Cover a nice western middle class lifestyle.. his and hers german cars (nothing crazy Merc E class, Beemer 5.. Maybe a baby range or a SLK for the wife).. Add that to the Thai bill and what has it done to the balance.. Thats not talking major higher level sports cars or classics, in the uk I would likely keep a 911 or lotus or something like that for my weekend toy.. Here ?? I could buy a UK house and park one there just for the cost of it here. How much does the UK home you own appreciate ?? Versus how much a Thai home depreciates ?? Everyone talks about how 'cheap it is' to get a Thai home.. My western property has made me 100s of 1000s over a lifetime, my Thai clifftop villa collapsed (due to badly built retaining walls) half of it ended ended up 25 meters below the cliff and was front page of the phuket gazette.. Almost every 'thing' I buy is cheaper in the west.. Especially as there is nearly always enthusiast groups and active second hand trading in high end / high quality things.. Here they want 90% of new price on some decade old heavily used item.. High end audio, home theater, espresso machines, electronics, grooming products, purfumes, all costs multiples of what they cost in the west. Add in a lack of honest long term warrantys and a failure rate thats insanely worse than the west, that all adds up. Hell even clothes, shoes, supermarket shopping is cheaper in the uk for me than here. Whats cheap here is unskilled labour.. I have cheap gardeners, cheap pool cleaners, cheap laundry and cheap basic food preparation which leads to cheap eating out. Low skilled or no skilled things are abundant.. If you live in a 10,000 baht a month rental house with a honda city and consume no luxury goods grumbling about the price of box wine and are talking about lifestyle upgrades, then we are not having the same conversation. Go replicate a decent standard of living, a well made desirable high quality home, multiple high end cars, etc etc and tell me its cheaper. Theres a reason I am coming back this way business class with 60 - 80 kg of things each trip and going that way with an empty suitcase !! Its not because those things are cheaper here. Luckily I am not here because of its price, I am here for climate, lack of revenue oversight, weak enforcement of rules, etc.. But when everything of luxury costs 3x 5x etc the western cost saying its cheap is basically saying you dont buy luxury things.

There were usually ways of getting VAT free rolex's.. I used to have a good way.. Hell I think I have the card of the rolex shop in T5 heathrow which would be worth a try for next trip.

had a bottle or 2 of soda water to wash them down.. They are bitter but not as awful as my wife and her family made out..

Just so we are clear.. This is what you think Thailand should copy ?? The worlds highest per capita infection rate !!! And yes, before you say it.. Hospitalisations, ICU and deaths all up also.. And you believe Thailands medical systems would be able to cope like Israels ?? Given that Isreal is almost 80% double jabbed and Thailand is ?? 10% ?? Given Israel has one of the worlds best medical systems, the best researchers, most genomic sequencing and monitoring etc etc.. Thailand is in any way comparable to that is it ??

And the baht has got a lot stronger in the last 5 days ?!?!

Have to say.. I really dont notice any effect.. None.. Wife said 1 - 2 leaves.. Chewed a couple nothing.. Was busy and didnt keep trying.. This morning must have chewed 8 or 10 leaves.. Nothing I could detect as a stimulant buzz at all.. Possibly a little bit of a flush out (bowel) like most stimulants bring on but that was the sum total of anything. Compared to the 10 or more espressos I drink each morning (another reason I thought this might help.. Cut back on that) not a damn thing.

No there were 10s of sellers.. Including saplings and seeds... now none.. They cant all be sold out.

Because Box jellys are a rising issue with warming waters.. They were not sighted a couple of decades back, very very rare a decade back, and hence its a rising problem.

I just looked and yeah, lazada may have purged it all.. Strange now its legal and had it before..

Facebook lazada.. I looked the day when it became legal and it was obvious that it was already listed in Thai before.. Leaves, teas, and trees.

3 weeks after a 1st shot of sinovac..

As is typical of a clan based society where you are culturally ingrained to always forgive your clans transgressions.. Salim / Yellow / royalist can see no wrong doing, or at least only justifiable actions needed to maintain decency and control.. And Saam geeb / Red / Youth can see no justifiable actions or rights at all.. Its the same cases of blind loyalty and tribalism that seems to constantly come up in societies that function and clan based structures and mentalities. There seems very little introspection, or changes of heart. Theres only power and who wields it.

The perfect example just had its record high cases today !! It also had near record high deaths in the top 10 days ever since the start. How is that the perfect example of how to handle it ?? This idea that because they are vaccinated people are not dying is simply not borne out by the facts.

and shoes. walking in markets can be a challenge... Things set up for 5 10 and under..

The do it to each other.. A thai will charge a Thai with a non regional accent more.. etc etc.. Localism and clan based thinking is rife.. The concept of equality or equal treatment is not in the culture..

And Isreal has gone back into lockdowns... Increased restrictions.. Vaccine passport required for access to businesses.. The very example you want to use, is telling you the opposite of what your suggesting.

just open up.. what could go wrong ????

Try being an employer in the west !! I had 80 cross border workers in 2019 my labour cost is +-50% higher 2 years later..

There is a huge volume of evidence that drunk people take greater risks, dont use masks or distance, and that drinking bars and nightlife are all major sources of infection yes.. If you choose to be ignorant of those well demonstrated facts, thats your issue. As Thailand is incapable of policing the difference between selling alcohol and people getting drunk, this is the obvious conclusion.

The point being all those who keep saying.. 'focus on serious cases, ICU and ventilators and just open up'.. Have you looked at the stats for serious cases and ventilators.. Have you looked at the hospital occupancy (not isolation the actual hospital) they have risen in direct lockstep with the rises in cases. ALL of the data points for Phuket are rising.. And yet the proponents of 'open up let it rip' most of whom have a vested economic interest in that process seem to ignore the fact that Thailands superficially nice medical system is not systemically strong, and without an effort at reduction in all classes of cases liable to collapse under strain. Should Thailands path had gone like India the farang howls of how have they messed it up so bad, would be heard globally. Thais understand how fundamentally weak the structural systems, medical care, supply chains of medical supplies, etc etc are here.. Westerners seem to think these things have a resilience like developed countries do. That is a mistake.

4 people died last week.. how much focus does that need ??