Johpa

Why is anyone surprised? Thailand has long been the most southern Province (มลรัฐ) of China. Once Thailand monetized in the 19th century, after folks no longer paid taxes with corvée labor, the Chinese, long familiar with a monetary system and concepts such as debt and interest, quickly filled the gaps in the economy, including becoming the tax collectors for the government. Today the Chinese, working with the sympathetic Thai-Chinese community, can easily work within the Thai economic system and avoid the legal restrictions on other foreign nationals.

SInce when do elephants suffer from the weather? Better to help the elephants in the various camps by making donations for food. The elephant camp business, especially the "sanctuary" business,b is not particularly viable from a financial perspective and some of the largest are bleeding money. There are just too many pachyderms chasing too few tourist dollars.

Yes, invite the neighbors as luuk kop are quite the delicacy to many Knon Muang . At least it will greatly reduce the numbers and they will return the following year.

You can often find the GT-Rider maps at Mr. Mechanics in the big city or also up at the Xcenter in Mae Rim. They are an excellent complement to using online maps. When I pull out my GT-Rider maps those with only online maps always crowd around me asking where to get them.

I am not surprised by the number of Thais killed or taken hostage given the large number of Thais who work in Israel in the agricultural sector, especially on the Kibbutzim. As for the bigger picture, my own humble and worthless opinion is that both sides have long been, and still are, in the wrong. Pick a side and now you are now in the wrong as well. I highly doubt that a two state solution is viable only because the West Bank is simply not large enough to be a viable independent nation-state. A better solution, again in my worthless opinion, would to be to merge both the left bank and Gaza back into Jordan. Jordan is a "Palestinian" state as the people on both sides of the Jordan River share identical language and culture. Gaza could become the Mediterranean port for Jordan and with UN and Israeli financing the building of that port could employ many an unemployed Gazan and offer some hope to the Gazans. Unless the global community seeks out an alternative solution to the long standing horror of living in Gaza, dating back to the Egyptian occupation decades ago, the suffering on both sides will not end.

Try taking the back road to Mok Fa Waterfall off the 3009. Just after you connect with the 1095 is the Suan Mok Fah restaurant, a good lunch spot.

Both my kids were born in the US and both have Thai IDs and citizenship. They should be placed on the house list. Then they need to go to the Amphoe office, and yes sometimes it takes some tea money. And it also takes some time and repeated visits depending upon the Amphoe, but it can be done. You might need to contact your local headman or kamnaan to act as "phu yai" and grease those wheels as well.

Thais in the city tend to get married in the hotels which usually have pre-paid plans where they arrange just about everything. It is also common for the wedding party to rent traditional Thai garb. There is a small shop behind Wat Singh on Ratchamanka Soi 9 that does such rentals. A couple may visit a temple to make merit but it is not mandated for a Thai wedding ceremony.

Many of the "hill tribe" villages in the Mae Chaem area are Karen who are indigenous to the region.

Perhaps you are just relatively new to ThaiVisa to ask such a question as childish and asinine remarks have long been the norm. As for clever remarks, well those are few and far between.

Sounds similar to the case of the purported missing millions from the Mae Sa Elephant Camp bank accounts. Odd that a major bank would not have records of those withdrawals and perhaps even have video of the withdrawals as I doubt that amount of money was taken via an ATM, which also often have videos of transactions.