NativeBob

International schools? parks? Communities? Wrong! Bangkok is uber polluted city, so go to the Air Quality map and start from there. I lived decades at Rachada area and can say it was the biggest mistake health wise, although I loved my house and neighbors. I should move to Jomtien as all smart farang did/done. Don't mind a filth of Pattaya but the morning sea breeze is something! While lots of friends are staying at Cha Am/Hua Hin areas. And Bangkok's floods ....

How about those are battery run? How about I'm not interesting in well-being of street vendors and their prosperity, I just made a point that cashless payments are quite affordable nowadays and surely prevent from "funny money" fraud, however [obviously] these are not going to happen soon? How about those who grow and those who sell are different folks? How about the extremely low hygiene yet bloody high levels of "boosters", antibiotics and borax to increase their profits? Even some "thai marketing" tricks like "free range chicken", "halal meat" etc? How about looking at calendar? Its a XXI century out there, year 2022. Things changed since Vietnam War, yet Siam seems stuck into some sort of time schism of eternal 70-s "Charisma" loop.

666 Nope, I don't want it, mate. My point is that in 2022 the price for POS with SIM is quite low and the convenience is obvious. Its a solution of the "funny money problem", just like literacy few centuries ago. There are still illiterate folks around and I really don't give a <deleted> about every single fruit vendor to be able to read, but well ... POS terminals help a lot in daily life.

Although not a breaking news, rather old story when farang paid to taxi driver with expired cruseiros banknote of 500 value telling either it was Deutschemarks or some other fancy European currency. Worked like a charm, was even posted on few lifehack boards. Same goes for 10 baht coins that look, weight and "bling-bling" just like 1 euros. Back than backpackers at Khao Sarn were changing those in bulk ))) And the "Black Dollar" story! Don't You just love Thailand?

good one. Not luk-kruang, not Canadian, Aussie etc, but authentic Thai.

Not paying any taxes she should not complain. How is it difficult to apply for POS terminal and accept cards instead of cash? But no, they rather got f***ed themselves with funny money but still stay "black".

Back in heydays of NASA Disco and that Discotheque on Sukhumwit, Emerald Hotel and the ugly big building opposite Fortune Tower we used vitamin K to calm down after 4 days 3 nights parties on vitamin E. But than came square faced PM Shin and whole fun was gone. #IfYouKnowWhatIMean Some ppl are weird, just like those kids who get high on Ultram. [avail @ 1 THB in good drugstores]

Only Chinese can party on sedative drug used by vets.

According to my experience some referrals would be helpful. One dude got reference letter from the governor of ****** province and that smoothed his path to PR. But as I heard it was an exceptional case. Everybody I knew who worked in Thailand for decades, had properties, kids and companies - all failed.

No-no, I reckon police bust at the Phuket villa 2 guys rented for THB250K/month - it was pure luck they didn't find cocainum that time. The middleman who rented that villa to them was a snitch and he expected % . the elite police force came on 2 trucks total about a dozen up S.O.B. to bust 2 young guys on charges of illegal content of adult websites they [allegedly] owned. The whole bust look so immature, even childish. No witnesses, no court orders, nothing was introduced/presented. Finally their boss tried to extort money "pay $20K and leave Thailand end of the week" - got banana instead. Elite force my <tuchas>! PS: they [kids] even recorded/taped everything of their iPhone.

and it is named after some very sarcastic monkey character. figures ) talking about arrests: there are literally hundreds if not thousands extradiction requests from US, many are against folks from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia and the rest of ex-USSR.

took about an hour to transfer money to Bangkok Bank through P2P crypto exchange. I'm surprised how many thais are participating in crypto exchanges.

the key word is "Windows" most likely re-installing, upgrading or making backups on Windows system. Can be different if she wasn't that tech-savvy and the version was pirate (most in LOS). So when policemen asked him "Why did you kill your wife?" He could easily claim on Microsoft.

So true. Been there years before "tzunami" (underwater nuke in fact) every Chinese New Year and loved everything about Phi Phi: reggae in the dark, all sorts of cocktails, girls, bungalows starting from 200THB, fish steaks, not so many people and lots of small almost empty beaches. and monkeys. It all changed. Not interested anymore.

what do those farangs sign?

I am not sure what is your point of "true story"and why you have to question any information you bumped into. However, that happened sometime in 2004, and I had a simple border crossing to activate second entry of my dual business visa I got from Penang, MY. Things were much easier those days ))) Please feel free to comment someone's else post.

Generally those imm. off's always irritate me - airports, land check points and chaengwattana building. There's something the way they behave like they hold your fate in their hands and they can deny you anything. And by doing their job they doing you a huge favor. for XX years never see anything of value from them. Bad taste, bad judgement, greedy and corrupt - stark difference from the european counterparts. Saying that brings few memories from Bulgaria airport. Outstanding a**hole. Once in KL airport I forgot about airport tax and obviously had no cash. Amazingly imm.officerette (lady) helped me out. Aranya-Prathet - nightmares. 50+ something freakish IO told me that my visa was not valid and stamped "canceled" all over it. I had to fly in through Dong Muang, cost me more than I thought about a single day visa run. Jomtien office is the "best" example of whole immigration department. 5 minutes of visit would give a complete picture.

I doubt this is the Bangkok Bank position on freaky sanctions. Rather some girl/agent/manager found the way to reap hefty commissions by selling insurance. And account at the Bank is the side dish. Good for her. Thailand didn't join the anti-Russia's sanctions, however Tony "the coce-head" Blinken were cruising in Asia to sow some of his <deleted> to locals against Russia and (Ooopsie!) China.

Is it Udomsuksa school in Bangkok, Lardprao 92? That makes school in Pattaya a branch or affiliate or some frenchise? The Bangkok's one is just horrible both so-called English program and some uber -advanced English program.

I still remember thai dude from that Govt. building at Chaengwattana promising thai citizenship to whoever wanted at THB1.5M. He claimed he got connections, but couldn't provide a single reference. Funny )

What vaccine? Today there's sixth or seventh version of coronavirus, yet most vaccines were based on first two strands. Freaking lunacy.

Although there was a moment when I wired money to very funny dude, who said thank you and didn't release his assets to my account. The worst moment this year so far. Turns up he was just funny, not evil minded, but that joke almost gave me heart attack. [Quite large sum and not my money was there]

Yes, @Dart12 It took me quite a hassle and research to spit it here for like and smile. May I keep it this way? Otherwise I could post direction to his clinic with Google Maps picture and coordinates. Nah, too easy )

That doctor I mentioned told me scary stories like girl coming to his clinic with a nose in the bag on ice, boobs hardened due to low quality silicon, second hand implants from crematorium etc. Basically anyone can open "plastic beauty parlor" in Thailand and reap helluva money. Not worth to risk life.

Rule #1: references! You must get a hint from trusted person who went to exact doctor. Rule #2: its a doctor, not a clinic, who does plastic surgery, and in general you can encounter a genius and retarded student in the same clinic/hospital. Example - Bumrungrad, Chula, Rama IX. Rule #3: failure will devastate her. Successful surgery will turn her into addict. A doctor I used to work with was so good that he intentionally overcharged some crazy thai women who begged "please do something else, doctor!" A great doctor, I hope he is still practicing. My advise: talk her out of it.