LomSak27

The Army has known where this rice is for ten years. They had their coup then decided, to let the rice rot. Perhaps the famers had already been paid, perhaps PThai or Yingluck could then claim a victory after the fact. Who knows?! It must be the climate & smiles, as I always underestimate the sheer nasty vindictiveness, so central to Thai culture. It still amazes me after all these years.

I recall ganja being easy to get in the 80's. When things got stuffed up here was when the BiB realized they could milk money from both ends; the sellers, so they could sell, then squeeze a buyer or two for cash with threats of jail time. Tourists were the prime target. The US war on drugs was against Opium out of the triangle, little or nothing to do with ganja.

A brutal, savage, some would say, heartless approach to the problem. Others say, you now have your answer. Thailand is a 'tough love' kind of place. Might as well put the cards on the table, come what may. If it all goes bad, easier to walk away right now than later. As always our hopes and prayers are with you. BTW They're in their seventies. In good health, spry? Lot of times oldsters can have accidents, unfortunate but they do occur. Hopefully it doesn't but just saying.

You have to remember where you are asking, and who is answering. We have a group on this forum who’s greatest joy is finding fault, or taking the <deleted>. It’s a cultural thing, they have nothing better to do. Too many people?! That would be 2017 – 2019, correct?! I did not observe that to be the case. 2017 BTW was likely the high point of Celestial tourism. Chinese tourist numbers had plateaued and were dropping before the Phoenix boat accident of 2018. Also, the ‘Lost in Chiang Mai’ movie which drew a lot of the tourists, keeps ageing. Kind of a fad and the Chinese have the money to go to other places. As for housing, not sure about house rentals, but it has been renters market in condos, apartments, guest houses for years. Okay there has been a virus but Chiang Mai way overbuilt BEFORE that. Likely money from outside of CM. You can look up on this site, December of 2018, you had 50 or more hotels up for sale. A glut, although they did not want to admit to that. That extended to other housing as I got this condo at that time, They kept lowering the price until I could not refuse. A Renters market which remains to this day. I peg up the dates Feb 15 – May 15, as the hot season, known as the smoggy season. Give or take, just three months, like it always has been. May 15 till Feb 15 is the rainy season and the start of the non-rains. Nine months of good weather. I have no problems with the rainy season, like it. I am also set to go traveling soon, like I did back in 2019. That seems a lifetime away. If you can afford it the smoggy season is a good time for a trip. I lived here from 01 to beginning of 07, I am supposed to say it was paradisical, a veritable garden of Eden. Yet, when I pull off my rosy shaded nostalgia glasses there are things, I miss but meh. You can say that about any city. I came back because it was still the best alternative. Huay Hin was the only real competition. I alluded to it at the beginning of this post. ‘Hordes of tourists’, backpackers, and or Chinese tourists?? That of course cannot be in the last three years, as there has been a virus, you might have heard of it. I recall it being said in the papers that western tourists were saving the 2019/20 season (before wuhan flu hit) because Chinese numbers has indeed fallen off. Is there more traffic? Sure like every other town in Thailand. I never get caght in traffic jams, likely because I know when and where they occur, and take other routes. Nothing but local knowledge anyone can develop Note – While I was living in the old city behind Thapae gate for months in 2018 as I had items shipped to me & finished paperwork. My hobby was to walk the area, the old hood and take pictures of the new ‘boutique hotels’ which had sprouted & were empty. I also took picture of the old backpacker places that had fallen on hard times and were deserted. That trend has only grown with pandemic and lockdown. Yep they continued to build boutique hotels during the pandemic, even after those 50 plus hotels were for sale in 2018, then no tourists arriving because of Wuhan Flu. Backpackers are a smaller and smaller segment of overall tourism, BTW. What you value, is how your choice will be made. Just base it on facts not on a bunch a hooy, people toss against a wall for kicks & giggles, here. Hope it all works out for you.

Two down (KSG, Promenada), one to go. When will Pantip Plaza be decommissioned?

Highlighting foreigners stealing is a staple of the Thai press. If only to distract the locals & how much theft goes on in the country, non foreigner generated.

Thanks, you for the post. Extradition excites people in the expat community & Thailand. It is almost as if countries cannot send criminals to other countries if they don’t have the golden “Extradition Treaty”. What twaddle. Countries can do so if they want to, extradition treaties have nothing to do with it, and sending criminals sans extradition treaty, happens all the time. The Thai press does encourage the idea, though. Nothing they love more than to talk about what could happen .. they could extradite … they might extradite … extradition is a possibility … Wow! This might, possibly, maybe, could, happen. They love to get pseudo serious with those headlines. How many years did they talk about extraditing the T Man?! Yep, they could extradite. They never did. Currently you have the infamous 'Pink Heifer' case, they could extradite … if they could find him, but they don’t want to do either so nothing better than distract with endless yacking about it. The women from Michigan is seriously small fry, nothing better to crank out the headlines for the masses.

In 2011 when Republicans pulled this stunt it ... "cost the government billions of dollars and damaged the nation’s international credibility." However it sent also sent Republican poll ratings plunging which ended it. So much for actually caring about deficit spending. This is a game played by Republicans. They want to force Biden to make cuts in Scocial Security, Medicare, etc., things they do not like. Given the hard core republican crazies now in Congreess, it could get ugly as bankrupting the US would not bother those feather heads one bit. Still they have months before it gets serious.

Banks have been doing that for a long time in LOS. Imagine a naive backpacker. A cash advance on visa card. They make two receipts, flip the numbers and add zeros. Lucky the original receipt was kept which showed 100 US had been advanced, in baht, not 2,500 USD !! I doubt Visa ever got their money back, by the way. NOTE - Attorney says this was a 'misunderstanding', and after 38 years, the bank, branch location, cannot be specifically recalled due to premature senility & alcohol abuse, .... hmmmmm Ok.

This white collar scammer, Mr Coker was unlucky in his choice of countries to flee too. Lucky for his victims, it could have ended differently. The US also holds a very low opinion of Euro justice ----- well deserved in this case. Michael Mastro, found refuge in France. He made a fortune swindling old people, then skipped. Happily he is now remodeling a Chateau. "They were arrested in 2012 in Lake Annecy, in the French Alps, and faced extradition hearings. After several months of house arrest, they were freed in June 2013 after a French court denied a request for their extradition back to the United States, finding that while they stole the life savings of elderly people, they themselves were too elderly to (potentially) be incarcerated." Mastro's bankruptcy has been described as the largest personal bankruptcy in the history of Washington state. Prior to the bankruptcy, the Mastros moved many of their assets, including a $15 million home in Medina, Washington, into an irrevocable trust based in Belize."

Need to have the right chip for a Cherry 2000, not easy to find. 'Get one of those fired up it's like slamming an octopus.'

The Tom & Dee couple next door are having a fight ... again.

The problem with stories, they reflect the flavor of the day. History is far more interesting than any conspiracy theory could ever be. When JFK was president, he would joke to cabinet members, he finally was going to get to play golf at private Boston clubs. Boston’s power structure, like Americas, was White Anglo Saxon Protestants WASPs. Irish Catholics need not apply, no matter how rich. No Kennedys allowed. BTW JFK was a good golfer, far better than Eisenhower. However, most Americans at that time did not know he played golf. Golf was seen as rich mans pastime back in the 50/60s. Not something JFK wanted known.. Old man Kennedy was no wall street insider, he was the ultimate outsider. He knew all too well of the banking panics of decades before which had wiped out many. He had a high distrust of banks, wall street and the WASP Poobas who ran it. He made money on it, but was just as comfortable pulling money out if he thought it a scam. By 29 it was.

From the people who warned the nation about the dangerous Italian Variant, after the National Stadium Boxing clusterpuck. Unfortunately no 'Italian variant' existed in those early days. Following the playbook; Anutin with his dirty farang comment. The Wuhan flu needed & still needs to be reframed, thought of as a western virus. Not one of Chinese origin. Especially as the Chinese are about to return and what news we have out of the Celestial Empire, indicates serious waves of infection sweeping that country. Move along, nothing to see here.

Old Joe Kennedy is spun into a lots of 'theories', his greatest move conveniently forgotten. 'While most investors watched their fortunes evaporate during the 1929 stock market crash, Kennedy emerged from it wealthier than ever. Believing Wall Street to be overvalued, he sold most of his stock holdings before the crash and made even more money by selling short, betting on stock prices to fall.'