General Reports

[Turgid]

Tripadvisor takes action regarding Thai hotel responsible for jailing American who posted harsh review of the hotel. https://www.yahoo.com/news/thai-hote...153324553.html.

[Tomasb]

What would Thailand be like if the King was forced to divest half his wealth with 20 b going to his citizens / subjects?. He would still be one of the richest men in the world and perhaps then would enjoy a certain amount of respect in his country. Just saying.

There are 70 mm Thais so do the math.

https://www.ft.com/content/251d8aea-...6-2df0176e0f8f

The king's money: Thailand divided over the $40 bn question.

The role and wealth of the Germany-based king is under unprecedented scrutiny amid national protests.

[PedroMorales]

Chinese tour / Triad gangs control the Chinese tour buses, bring them into Chinese shops etc.

All countries have to adopt a tourist model. The USA has cheap shopping, Disneyland stuff, rock / Hollywood tours, Las Vegas and so on. Different strokes for different folks.

Bhutan has two: very rich folk like Liz Taylor and Queen Elizabeth (who spends zilch and does not monger), and poor NGO volunteers. Next to no one else. Nepal has Everest "climbers" and riff raff.

Thailand has beaches, food, lots of shopping. I still use watches I bought thee in the last century.

You are saying they should ditch that so a handful of rich Chinese can walk Pattaya and Nana Plaza on their own, and that their Chinese women can have entire shopping malls all to themselves. One thing then is for sure. We will have plenty more love struck clowns writing here about the love of their life they left behind in an Isaan knocking shop.

On the upside, there should be a great rice harvest this year, with all the extra hands returning from the brothels.

My last trip to Thailand was 32 days and total expenses were about 320,000 baht, which included everything. There was absolutely nothing I wanted that I didn't get. Spending an extra 80,000 baht would not have increased my enjoyment. I have simple tastes. Im not the target tourist. But, if it was required to spend 400,000 baht to gain entry, I would do it.

In February I met a Chinese business owner who rented a beautiful villa for his wife, young daughter, and babysitter. He also rented a beachfront room in a fancy resort so he had a place to escape family and bring as many as 5 bar girls for evening recreation while the family stayed at the villa. Everything first class. I'm sure that he spent over 2,000,000 baht per month for the family and babysitter. He is the target tourist.

Two of my non-P4P Thai girlfriends worked in fancy hotels and resorts (4,000 to 8,000 baht per night places). Both of them commented that their Chinese customers were the big spenders. These are target tourists.

I also see a good number of Chinese who do bus tours and stay in simple hotels. I doubt those people spend much money. Clearly not the target tourists.

This is so ironic that the Chinese have become the rich tourists Thailand is hoping to revive their economy. All I ever heard in my years of living in Thailand are how cheap the Chinese from China are and how they don't spend anything.

[HorseTrader]

The Chinese tourists are expected to spend 400 k in their 1 month stay in Thailand. I'm not too impressed if they are not including the 14 day quarantine in the 1 month stay because that's about how much I used to spend as a weekend millionaire tourist before. Now if they are spending 400 k baht in 16 days then I'm impressed. That would work out to 25k baht per day. At 500 baht per Beach Road FL in Pattaya that's 50 sessions per day! That would be 8 gogo girls per day at 3k each. I only maxed out at 4 gogo girls at the same time, 8000 baht bar tab at Sapphire, and a couple of Kinnaree sessions during the day. These Chinese are making me look like chump change.

This is so ironic that the Chinese have become the rich tourists Thailand is hoping to revive their economy. All I ever heard in my years of living in Thailand are how cheap the Chinese from China are and how they don't spend anything.

My last trip to Thailand was 32 days and total expenses were about 320,000 baht, which included everything. There was absolutely nothing I wanted that I didn't get. Spending an extra 80,000 baht would not have increased my enjoyment. I have simple tastes. I’m not the target tourist. But, if it was required to spend 400,000 baht to gain entry, I would do it.

In February I met a Chinese business owner who rented a beautiful villa for his wife, young daughter, and babysitter. He also rented a beachfront room in a fancy resort so he had a place to escape family and bring as many as 5 bar girls for evening recreation while the family stayed at the villa. Everything first class. I'm sure that he spent over 2,000,000 baht per month for the family and babysitter. He is the target tourist.

Two of my non-P4P Thai girlfriends worked in fancy hotels and resorts (4,000 to 8,000 baht per night places). Both of them commented that their Chinese customers were the big spenders. These are target tourists.

I also see a good number of Chinese who do bus tours and stay in simple hotels. I doubt those people spend much money. Clearly not the target tourists.

[Banana Boi]

The Chinese tourists are expected to spend 400 k in their 1 month stay in Thailand. I'm not too impressed if they are not including the 14 day quarantine in the 1 month stay because that's about how much I used to spend as a weekend millionaire tourist before. Now if they are spending 400 k baht in 16 days then I'm impressed. That would work out to 25k baht per day. At 500 baht per Beach Road FL in Pattaya that's 50 sessions per day! That would be 8 gogo girls per day at 3k each. I only maxed out at 4 gogo girls at the same time, 8000 baht bar tab at Sapphire, and a couple of Kinnaree sessions during the day. These Chinese are making me look like chump change.

This is so ironic that the Chinese have become the rich tourists Thailand is hoping to revive their economy. All I ever heard in my years of living in Thailand are how cheap the Chinese from China are and how they don't spend anything.

[Sky Ryder]

Having accelerated China's punishment before elections he now takes aim at Thailand.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sus...022212941.html

How is this going to impact US mongers'relations with personnel in their favorite destination?

My suspicion is that IF it actually goes into effect, it will be reversed in less than a month or so.

I hope everyone who has an interest has lots of popcorn, the next 60-90 days will be quite the show I expect.

[Berrys66]

https://www.ft.com/content/251d8aea-...6-2df0176e0f8f

The king's money: Thailand divided over the $40 bn question.

The role and wealth of the Germany-based king is under unprecedented scrutiny amid national protests.

[Banana Boi]

USD dropping like a rock vs the Baht. It dipped under 31 baht yesterday. It's currently at 30.5342 baht and dropping. Per XE.com, the lowest it's been was 29.28 baht in April 2013.

US elections fiasco is shrinking the dollar worldwide.

Since the topic is not Pattaya specific I am replying here.

It's not just the USD. The Thai baht continues to rise against other countries.

[PedroMorales]

It seems the Thai king is running out of Bavarian road and he might be asked to bugger back home to Nana Plaza. It seems the colour coded revolution cannot be too far away. God knows what is happening in the shadows but I fear a big blow up is on the way between the red and yellow shirts. It makes a change from EPL football.

[Run Mann]

Here is links to a danish story (there are plenty in English but you should learn a second language https://ekstrabladet.dk/flash/livsst...ailand/8352884) telling us Pornhub, one of Thailand's most popular sites, is blocked.

Please note on the Danish site there are women protesting about the ban. Why are Thai women protesting against Pornhub being banned?

Get a VPN like SurfEasy and you can watch PH from anywhere.

https://www.surfeasy.com/us/en/

[PedroMorales]

Here is links to a danish story (there are plenty in English but you should learn a second language https://ekstrabladet.dk/flash/livsst...ailand/8352884) telling us Pornhub, one of Thailand's most popular sites, is blocked.

Please note on the Danish site there are women protesting about the ban. Why are Thai women protesting against Pornhub being banned?

[GettingFedUp]

Lots of newly built condos sitting empty now so there will be no wait. I almost bought one of these condos 4+ years ago that said something like 20 years residence Visa if you buy the new condo. At that time the condo in Jomtien was only about 4 million baht but it was way too small for me. I recall that it was priced about 1 million baht above market value.

I should have said "off plan". A lot of the empty newly built units that sensible people might live in (so not any of the Lumpini development 25-28 sqm boxes) are actually being resold by the developers on behalf of the speculators who bought off plan (for a chunky commission on the resale). These speculators are largely from a large, populous country to the north, the units aren't under foreign quota and dodgy Thai nominee companies were used to buy them.

Understand that most developments here don't even break ground until they have sold 50-70%.

As to a 20 year residence that can only be sales puff. Residence status is permanent in Thailand (and difficult to get). Maybe they were offering the top level Thai Elite (4 times 5 years for 2 mil) as the sweetener?

[Banana Boi]

the condo association will only want this to apply to new-build, so the buyer will have to wait for the development to be completed (if it ever is) to get in.

Lots of newly built condos sitting empty now so there will be no wait. I almost bought one of these condos 4+ years ago that said something like 20 years residence Visa if you buy the new condo. At that time the condo in Jomtien was only about 4 million baht but it was way too small for me. I recall that it was priced about 1 million baht above market value.

[GettingFedUp]

The Condo Association is trying to push a program where anyone who buys a condo worth 10 million baht receives residency status in Thailand.

Which at present means that someone outside Thailand can queue up for repatriation flights and pay for quarantine based on buying a new condo sight unseen for $300 k+. Of course the condo association will only want this to apply to new-build, so the buyer will have to wait for the development to be completed (if it ever is) to get in.

I'm trying to understand these proposals.

Another translation would be "we have got no buyers, we want a bail-out".

[LittleBigMan]

Having accelerated China's punishment before elections he now takes aim at Thailand.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sus...022212941.html

How is this going to impact US mongers'relations with personnel in their favorite destination?

It isn't going to have any large affect since Thailand had already made it choice as to the side they want to support although haven't come out in public to say it but their action surely has for some time! Personally living here I've been in support of this move for sometime and has even written to the trade commission as to why. Take Trump out of the conversation it is something that should have been done years ago and the delay of 2 plus years something they learn from China and the art of war. One only has to go to a place like Food land look on the shelves and see why they should have been on the list years ago plus even before the trade war China had already made arrangement with a number of large Thai companies to circumvent the USA Action by shipping products into Thailand then package it under a Thai company to get around the tariff going into the USA.