Not seeing any cheap flights …

Just now, Yagoda said:

Oh dont get me wrong, I love International travel and new sights and experiences. Instead of seeing deer and bear, I get to see snakes and lizards.

 

But at the same time Im considering a one man motor home and heading cross country USA with no destination.

 

 

When I return with my daughter, I'll finally see all the states, and hunt and fish in them where I missed living there. I wsted years here not doing what I like to do, as there's no hunting here and the only good fishing is in private lakes and the ocean.

26 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

Germans are big on nature and hiking.

 

The only reason to visit the USA IMHO is Nature and Parks. Go to NYC just to see it I guess.

 

Poeple dont realize how big the USA is.

"Poeple dont realize how big the USA is."

 

Finally he said something that was true (assuming he meant to say people not people).

9 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

Finally he said something that was true (assuming he meant to say people not people).

Finally you recognized the truth. Do you think Biden was competent to be President btw?

On 5/15/2025 at 2:03 PM, SunnyinBangrak said:

I hear violent gangbanger travel across the democrats formely wide open southern border is in free fall too?

Excellent example of shooting oneself in the foot. Over react to a recognized issue and do even more damage to the positive travel. As an American I certainly cannot encourage those who I have met on 6 continents to subject themselves to having mobile phones/computers searched for anti trump statements. I would fear for the same if I re-entered in USA under this administration …

I am in the US right now and I can attest that it's still a very pleasant place to visit, there are so many areas of the US that are astonishing and gorgeous.

 

I do agree that quality of the life here has declined and I do agree that it's a difficult place to live if you don't own your house free and clear or you are not very wealthy. There is no question that the quality of life has dropped and it is stupid expensive now.

 

But visiting is a whole different story, if you have ALOT of cash to blow and you are not dark skinned. 

On 5/15/2025 at 2:07 PM, GroveHillWanderer said:

So you've evidently bought into the obvious falsehood that all illegal immigrants are violent criminals.

All it takes is for ONE to not be a violent criminal for you to be right.

 

However, ALL illegal immigrants are lawbreakers - by definition. Do you think it's OK for people to enter a country illegally? Are you in Thailand illegally? If not, why not?

 

 

25 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I am in the US right now and I can attest that it's still a very pleasant place to visit, there are so many areas of the US that are astonishing and gorgeous.

 

I do agree that quality of the life here has declined and I do agree that it's a difficult place to live if you don't own your house free and clear or you are not very wealthy. There is no question that the quality of life has dropped and it is stupid expensive now.

 

But visiting is a whole different story, if you have ALOT of cash to blow and you are not dark skinned. 

Its not difficult to live, poor people there are better off than most the world. Dark skinned thanks for outing yourself a racist. No better place for dark people than the US

On 5/17/2025 at 6:10 AM, kwonitoy said:

 

Anecdotal evidence

 

My brother and his wife have a winter place in Yuma AZ.

They sold it at a loss this last winter along with 14 other Canadian couples that sold their winter homes in that immediate area.

Never to return. 

 

 

Good they should stay in Canada and freeze their jocks off, freaking snowbirds in FL also.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

 

 

But visiting is a whole different story, if you have ALOT of cash to blow and you are not dark skinned. 

 

Typical astonishingly racist comment from a democrat 

 

Bet Hillary and her daughter are proud of you ...

 

On 5/15/2025 at 2:07 PM, GroveHillWanderer said:

So you've evidently bought into the obvious falsehood that all illegal immigrants are violent criminals.

It doesn't really matter what they are. They are ILLEGAL and that should be enough to kick them out.

Who the heck want to be stopped, the telephone/online activity chequed and then arrested and deported?? America is now turning into a "North Korean style" place, so do yourself a favor...STAY AWAY!!!  Their food is <deleted> anyway....😆

That's what Trump and his followers wanted.

Isn't it?

Their symbolic quote: US of A doesn't need any other foreign countries in the world.

They should rather be delighted as their desire took shape in less than 100 days after their guru took office.

56 minutes ago, black tabby12345 said:

That's what Trump and his followers wanted.

Isn't it?

Their symbolic quote: US of A doesn't need any other foreign countries in the world.

They should rather be delighted as their desire took shape in less than 100 days after their guru took office.

 

 

How surprising is that when even tourists are not safe walking the streets. Wouldn't go for free.

9 hours ago, hotsun said:

Its not difficult to live, poor people there are better off than most the world. Dark skinned thanks for outing yourself a racist. No better place for dark people than the US

I am the furthest thing from a racist. My implication was that dark folks rarely live as well in the US as white folks. Unless you are a subscriber to the Trump/Welfare narrative. And dark folks are not being treated as well by immigration in the US, as their white counterparts. 

8 hours ago, NickyLouie said:

 

Typical astonishingly racist comment from a democrat 

 

Bet Hillary and her daughter are proud of you ...

 

Total denial to say dark skinned people are not treated differently as Americans and as visitors by the current Trump visitor policies. Not racism at all. That is a very woke reply. 

5 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I am the furthest thing from a racist. My implication was that dark folks rarely live as well in the US as white folks. Unless you are a subscriber to the Trump/Welfare narrative. And dark folks are not being treated as well by immigration in the US, as their white counterparts. 

Same is true just about anywhere in the world.  At least in the US, POC have hel about anywhere in the world. At least in the US, POC have held virtually 

i will bnot be visiting anywhere in the USA including Hawaii for the next 4 years that Trump is in power.

I will not be buying anything made in Anerica as well. Remember it was the American population that voted Trump into power.

On 5/17/2025 at 1:28 AM, fredwiggy said:

And some don't realize that the US has everything anyone could want, all in one place.

It also has one thing that many don't want - Trump!!

23 hours ago, NickyLouie said:

 

 

 

I am not an American.

And fortunately, in Thailand.

So I am in a safe distance from that economic hazard caused by someone in the Oval Office.

On 5/17/2025 at 7:41 AM, Yagoda said:

Oh dont get me wrong, I love International travel and new sights and experiences. Instead of seeing deer and bear, I get to see snakes and lizards.

 

But at the same time Im considering a one man motor home and heading cross country USA with no destination.

 

 

Please go - we can only hope you have no internet connection in your motor-home!

1 minute ago, PaoloR said:

Please go - we can only hope you have no internet connection in your motor-home!

Oh no, I will make sure I will. got to make sure folks like you have a chance to learn something

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/terrified-excop-jailed-and-deported-during-holiday-to-us/news-story/f48a5e5f7337df29dcd3679336bf6031

 

A case that many on the forum can likely relate to, Australians can visit the US on a ESTA (visa waiver) but that ceases once they marry a US citizen. There is a logic to that, and this former police officer tourist seems to have made a genuine error. Before some hardnut steps in and says she was just trying to sneak in, from the article:

 

Quote

Mrs Saroukos has visited Hawaii three times in recent months under the ESTA visa waiver program to see her husband, a US Army lieutenant she married in December 2024 after a whirlwind long-distance romance. The couple met through a dating app and quickly knew they wanted to be together.

 

I think what's shocking is her treatment. Rather than being turned around at Passport control, and told to book a flight home, she is stripped, held in communicado with hardened criminals, presumably to teach her some sort of "lesson" about small print (Americans won't actually know what its like to fill in the online ESTA. The ESTA form doesn't actually ask if you are married to an American. The applicant is somehow supposed to know that foreign nationals who could apply for an immigrant visa are not allowed to apply for a non-immigrant waiver).

 

We hear this repeatedly, the heavy handed nature of US officials. A colleague from Australia arrived in the UK to start a new job at a University, only the University messed up with the paperwork due to a bank holiday. Border Force was going to return the semi-comatose Aussie to Australia, but a few phonecalls generated a pragmatic approach; he was released into the car of an Oxford academic, and spent the next couple of weeks sunning himself in the garden, while the paperwork was worked out. In the UK, we'd say the officials "used their Loaf", to judge a situation. There seems to  be lack of common sense, or common sense is not permitted because everything is target driven (compliant and frightened tourists making mistakes are easier to round up than  hardcore gang bangers who might shoot back).

 

Not always like that; a friend who is a consultant surgeon in the UK and Malaysian national, was going through the Indefinite Leave to Remain (he's married an English lady, has two great kids). He had been invited to KL as Best Man at a wedding. If you need to leave the UK during the ILR process, you are supposed to ask for permission, whicn is normally only given in exceptional circumstances (death of a parent etc). He thought, logically, no harm in asking. There was harm in asking, because he got a Deportation Order back, 10 days to settle his affairs. It got sorted out at great expense to him.

 

Seemed to have been at least one good person in the system, according to the Australian woman.

 

Quote

 

Upon arriving at the prison around 3.30pm, she was fingerprinted again, ordered to strip naked, squat and cough, and handed prison issued briefs and green outerwear.

“When they finished with the search there was a male officer standing outside who looked confused. He asked me why I was here to which I told him what had happened,” she said.

“He told me, ‘Wow. You should not be here right now, you have Trump to thank for that though.’”

 

 

On 5/18/2025 at 10:03 AM, spidermike007 said:

I am the furthest thing from a racist. My implication was that dark folks rarely live as well in the US as white folks. Unless you are a subscriber to the Trump/Welfare narrative. And dark folks are not being treated as well by immigration in the US, as their white counterparts. 

You live under a rock. 

On 5/19/2025 at 4:45 AM, PaoloR said:

Please go - we can only hope you have no internet connection in your motor-home!

 

All he needs is Starlink.