GinBoy2

I had a bit of a different take on the wife. Assuming that this is a real marriage, regardless of the fact that he does seem to be a dick, she probably loves him and in the space of a few days her world is shattered. He's going to prison(?) and deported. I have no idea what it takes to get a foreign wife into Switzerland but I'm making the leap that it's time consuming and expensive as it is for most Western countries

So Bob, I gotta ask the glaring question. So if you leave are you going without Mrs Bob, if indeed you are married? If you are just going to up sticks and leave without her, I'm making the leap that maybe she is part of the reason to leave. When left I couldn't even leave my cat behind, she came too!

In some respects I sorta understand where he's at I was bored, and the more bored I got silly things would irritate me, or I'd blow things out of proportion. Thats when you 'should' know it's time to throw in the towel and walk away. Life is short and if something just ain't working for you, move on and try something different

Hmmm, well to concur with others, if a full scale nuclear war was indeed to happen, let me be at ground zero and vaporize me in a second. Regardless of where you were the ensuing nuclear winter would reduce humanity to some primeval state. We watch post apocalypse TV shows and movies as fiction, but after a real nuclear war pretty much what the world would be headed for

Thailand is a great place for you, until it isn't, but that's true of almost anywhere My wife is Thai, my son is Thai, we have a house in Thailand, but choose to now live in the US, and Thailand is our vacation, 2nd home destination, but not our home. We struggled at the end of our full time in Thailand, my wife was frustrated over lack of career opportunities, I was bored because I couldn't work, and finally our son said he wasn't coming back from the US after college! Everyone is different, and we make decisions on personal situations, we most definitely aren't all built the same I don't regret my time living in Thailand, but it ran it's course and I moved on. Now we enjoy our life in the US with our kids and Grandkids, and our annual vacation to Thailand to visit my wife's family is the perfect compromise

Well on the topic of 'how does he stay' doesn't it come down to two basic options He has no income, so... 1. Mommy & Daddy buy him an elite visa and fund him. 2. He applies for an Ed Visa, and Mommy & Daddy fund him while he earns poverty wages. Maybe I'm missing something, but seems like a spoilt brat kid to me.

Basically all Western countries are going down this road. Think of it as 'visa lite' It's not the horrendous application fee, no paperwork, no interview. 10 minutes sat at a computer is a small price to pay. ESTA for the US I think costs $20, and I'm sure the EU version won't be much different $20 on top of whatever you are paying for your trip is a drop in the ocean, and you know what, if that $20 weeds out one potential threat in a million, I'm happy to pay it

Well all I would say, unless you are ex military and have Tricare, just don't get seriously sick. We can bitch and moan about health insurance in the US. but Thailand is a rare insuance market and as you age, that premium is gonna skyrocket. Now I know i will hear, "I self insure" which means nothing more than I can pay out of income. So just don't get anything seriously sick, because that $2400/month will get sucked up pretty quick

I think male on male and male to female abuse tends to be physical Female to male abuse is very verbal and mind games, not so much physical but abuse all the same

Things change What I thought was fun 20, 30 years ago now not so much. I've lived in a lot of countries and enjoyed them all, until I didn't. I loved Thailand, still do but I got bored and wanted to work You have a passport to your home country, thats the ultimate bolt hole The problem arises when you have burnt all the bridges back to that bolt hole. Thats the genesis for the really unhappy expat

In our little enclave here in South Dakota, my wife has a group of friends married or in some relationship with a farang. Now many are young pups and you'd think they would be the ones who might get upset. But I pose no threat to them as an older guy, so me talking to their wife/gf in Thai, or Lao doesn't faze them in the least. Now if I was 20 years younger and talking to their sweetheart in a language they couldn't understand, well then I really couldn't say

I don't really understand the problem. Of course I'll speak to a Thai in Thai if she's more comfortable with that, if the hubby can't understand that's his problem not mine. If he can't understand Thai, well she's living 99% of her life speaking Thai, so the 1% I would have to say is meaningless.

There are a thousand reasons to hit your wife, but only one...You Just Don't! I have a really sad situation at work with one of my employees right now. Came to work horribly black and blue. Not the first time, and she still goes back to him....because he's 'sorry' I told my Boss, and she took her to Urgent Care, where even though she didn't want to press charges, the abuse was documented and recorded Domestic violence isn't restricted to any culture it's mainly some Neanderthal male thing which maybe lurks in all of us! But at least in the West it's accepted as wrong, and if, unlike my co-worker, the woman accepts the fact, the law will intervene. In Thailand not so much, I don't think Thai police would even dream of intervening

That was my thinking. In fact we were planning to come over to visit you before this little 'incident' After blood, that was it and i was getting on a plane asap Toi was totally freaked out after the last time and just wanted me to see a Dr in the US So here we are, yep same as last time, although caught super early compared to last time, and it'll get removed in the next couple of weeks

I'll describe how weird skin cancer can be. I've had this mole on my upper lip my whole life. When I've been completely clean shaven never been an issue, nowadays I sport some scruff. So it wasn't like I shaved the damn thing off, in fact we were sat on the couch watching TV in the evening and MrsG remarked, "You're bleeding" The mole literally had fell off and left the underlying legion.

I'm going to discuss that with the surgeon next week

Well this is an 'Oh Fu++k It' story. I'can't believe it after just talking about my previous experience. We were supposed to be in Thailand until March 15, until I had another skin explosion on my upper lip and headed back to the US on Monday. Went to the Doc and sure as shi+t they biopsied it and here we go again. Better location than last time I think, don't have to worry about drooping eyelids or the like, unlike last time. I'm having it done in the US, for insurance reasons. But as a cautionary tale, if you've had it once just keep on top of every mole or weird skin eruption, since I think it probably never ends and you are probably at risk for more The reason I reacted so quickly this time was from my previous experience and wanted, if it was what I thought, treated asap

I would agree with most of that, and in a lot of the country, Thai food is quasi Chinese take out. One of my daughters and my Thai son live in Denver, and we make frequent trips down there, not only to visit them, but stock up on food from the Thai & Lao grocery stores. But we also discovered what is probably the best Thai restaurant we have ever eaten at, Thailand or the US. My wife raves about the food, and everyone of her friends who have eaten while being down in Denver rave too. https://aloythai.com/modern-thai/

Well. if we're delving into the realm of street food, remember this. There is a reason in Western countries there are inspections by local health departments of restaurants, food trucks anywhere that serves food. That reason being, you can get pretty damn sick from unsanitary food prep. If you every watch a street vendor 'wash' the cookware or utensils it'll make you cringe So I love Thai food, but not from some roadside vendor

Both Chinese and Indian food have a rather unique way of adapting to local tastes across the globe. The names of the dish can be the same, but country to country they can be totally different

We eat Thai food every day. Mrs G doesn't deal well with Western food. When we are in the US I'll eat lunch at the airport restaurant then we eat Thai dinner at home. Right now we're in Thailand so it's Thai food breakfast, lunch and dinner

I've dreamt about this, and when I get home from Thailand I'm going to volunteer for my local heritage railroad https://www.1880train.com/

Well that was good. Generally in the US at least he would have been tie wrapped to the seat But I am surprised why, if the story is correct that this happened minutes into the flight, the Capt. didn't either return to BKK or divert to an alternate Either way the guy was an idiot, and I hope he didn't need a pee for the rest of the flight, because there would be some poor guy of the ground crew cleaning it up after landing. One last thought. Did he board without wearing a shirt? You can't do that in any airport that I know!

Older Western Guy, what possibly could be the attraction? I'm scratching my head lol!

Slightly off topic, but thank you for the reference. I haven't read 'Old Possums's Book of Practical Cats' for many years. But after your post I went back and reacquainted myself with some of those cats I loved so much when I first read the book as a young boy. Rum Tum Tugger will always be my favorite, but Gumbie, Shibleshanks, Mungojerrie, Rumplteaser, are all in my heart It was a good re-read