A Singaporean's guide to living in Thailand

[Froggy]

Breakfast with a colleague at Paholyothin Road - Thai Crispy Pork, one of the best in Bangkok

The shop

Staff preparing

Making takeaway

Cutting my order

Breakfast is ready

Soup

The meats - Sausage, Crispy Pork, Roasted pork and egg

Thick fragrant gravy

Over the rice is heavenly

Video

Thanee Khao Moo Daeng Roasted & Bbq Pork Rice
ถนนพหลโยธิน Samsen Nai, Phaya Thai, Bangkok 10400
02 278 3987
https://goo.gl/maps/eHiG4ebMhbSFwWLt5

 

[Eisenhut]

Ypu shouod talk about your financial status, what ypu want rental or citizenship and who you are going with. Then do you expect to stay overseas for life or what?

Finance not much. I want citizenship. Alone. Stay overseas alone

 

[yinyang]

Quaint (country) road stop, selling khao lam (rice in bamboo sticks) only @ bt7 (or $0.31).
Easy to open after pre-split and over charcoal

 

[yinyang]

Scenic pavilion restaurant with a a good view, aptly called Nong Rak Na.
Off main road to Cha'am

Khao kapi (belachan)

Kanom jin with shiokadoo peanut sauce

 

[waitifcuk]

Source : AFP.


PRACHINBURI (Thailand) — From spicy "happy" salads to soups sprinkled with cannabis shoots and deep-fried marijuana leaves — a Thai hospital restaurant has rolled out a weed-inspired menu which has curious customers flocking to sample its euphoria-inducing offerings.

Since becoming the first Southeast Asian country to legalise medical marijuana in 2018, Thailand has ploughed ahead on the extraction, distillation and marketing of cannabis oil — eager to capitalise on the multibillion-dollar industry.

The plant itself was finally removed from the kingdom's narcotics list last month, which means licensed providers — like hospitals — can now use its leaves, stems and roots in food.

This marks a return to Thailand's culinary past, said Dr Pakakrong Kwankhao, who heads the Centre of Evidence-based Thai Traditional and Herbal Medicine in Chao Phya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital.

"Putting cannabis leaves in the food is our culture," she told AFP Friday.

"In the past before cannabis was banned... we put small amounts as seasoning herbs and we also use it as a herbal remedy."
Read also
Singapore ‘disappointed’ by UN’s move to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug: MHA

Last week, the hospital's wellness centre, which has a restaurant, introduced a new menu of Thai dishes offering a different sort of kick.

In the restaurant's bustling kitchen, a cook batters marijuana leaves and fries them to golden crispness, while another sprinkles them in a wok of minced meat with chili.

There are very small amounts of THC in fresh plants, but to avoid over-consumption, the restaurant has a five-leaf maximum limit per customer, said Dr Pakakrong.

"If they have low tolerance, then they may choose the dish with just a half-leaf," she said, warning that those who are pregnant or with certain health problems should avoid the weed-infused menu.

As for other interested foodies, "recent research found that this small amount can improve mood, focus and also creativity," the doctor said.

She added that the restaurant hopes to expand its budding menu to include western fare.
Read also
MHA to review drug laws to combat rising threat of new psychoactive substances

For now, it draws a crowd during lunch, with diners snapping selfies while growing increasingly mirthful with each passing hour.

"Are we laughing because of what we've eaten? I don't think completely anyway," said customer Thierry Martino, a French jewellery designer.

"The cannabis leaf which (the dish) is cooked with gives a little bit of bitterness," he said, adding that his meal was "excellent".

Ms Arsala Chaocharoen says she's eating in the same way ancient Thais used to dine.

"They've put the cannabis leaves in my noodle soup and this is actually an old traditional knowledge of Thais," said the 32-year-old pharmacist, before digging into her "joyfully happy spicy salad" — a dish of corn-battered leaves served with chili sauce. AFP

 

[rushifa666]

Finance not much. I want citizenship. Alone. Stay overseas alone

Not possible. You can go on month by month pr yearly visa. If you want to get a job, then learn shit like welding and go australia lije a singaporean son did. Degrees are worthless. They got more than enough

 

[rushifa666]

Finance not much. I want citizenship. Alone. Stay overseas alone

And citizenship you need to buy a house usually. And even though that is cheap in thailamd still a considerable amount. If marriage fake or real needs contacts and gpt risk.

 

[Froggy]

Many people have Monday blues but I got rid of it by whipping up a good breakfast today

Breakfast

Pork liver with ginger and chinese wine

Stir fry choi-sum

Steamed minced pork with pickled cabbage

The cooking process

 

[Leitaisor2002]

Is there a critical mass to get this new section going?

What critical mess. I got a primary 6 education friend who make it at Bangkok. He has thai chinese wife n 3 sons with amg mercedes, volvo and a land private house after 40 yrs of hard work. I took 20 yrs at kyushu. Both of us are in the 60s this year and both of our kids are in the mid 20s. We have 1 thing in common. Wife is the key player of family. So get a very good wife first with good background. Last very important when you make it it's for your children future not very much for yourself. Immigration paper for both sinkies never end like many other sinkies who have quitted. All 1 way ticket out of sinkie land

 

[yinyang]

Thailand sold itself as a paradise Covid retreat. No one came
PUBLISHED : 18 JAN 2021 AT 10:51
WRITER: BLOOMBERG NEWS

A deserted beach is seen on Koh Phayam, Ranong’s most popular island, in November 2020. (Bangkok Post file photo)

It’s hard to imagine a more luxurious place to spend two weeks of quarantine than the Anantara Phuket Suites & Villas, where visitors are pampered in private residences that can have their own pool and courtyard.

Yet more than three months after the resort and more than a hundred like it reopened to extended-stay travellers in an attempt to revive Thailand’s battered economy, foreign arrivals have failed to meet even rock-bottom expectations. Just 346 overseas visitors have entered the country on average each month on special visas since October, according to the Thailand Longstay Company, which helps facilitate the programme. That’s well below the government’s target of about 1,200 and a tiny fraction of the more than 3 million who came before the pandemic.

The tepid response to the country’s highly publicised reopening illustrates the difficulties facing tourist-dependent countries as they try to shore up economic growth while also protecting citizens from Covid-19 before vaccines become widely available.

The government had hoped to lure retirees escaping the European winter and others who could stay for an extended period. They would have to go through quarantine, but that could be done in the comfort of high-end resorts in a country that had been relatively unscathed by the pandemic. After two weeks, Thailand would be theirs to roam for as long as nine months.

The lack of interest is adding pressure on policy makers, who have struggled to accommodate both industry players calling for relaxed quarantine rules and public-health experts warning against putting people in danger. All the while, as the beaches stay empty, many tourism-related companies are going out of business. To make matters worse, virus cases have jumped in the country.“It’s really challenging to balance the demands of the tourism industry and locals,” said Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, president of the Phuket Tourist Association. “I understand how hard it is to be stuck in a room for 14 days. I’ve done it. But the safety of the people gets priority because tourists come and go but locals live here.”
In 2019, the kingdom received more than 1.8 trillion baht in tourism revenue from about 40 million visitors. The industry contributed about a fifth of gross domestic product before the pandemic, compared to about 10% globally.

But six months without any foreign arrivals followed by months with just a trickle has battered the sector. At least 931 registered tourism-related companies closed last year, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of data from the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Business Development. The real number is probably much higher as many tourism businesses aren’t registered in any database.
On famed southern resort islands, the situation is particularly bad. Take Phuket, which got about 90% of its tourism income from foreign visitors before the pandemic. At Patong, its main tourist town, a once busy street of bars and nightclubs lies empty. Bangla Road is lined with shuttered businesses, with chairs stacked on tables and chains barring access. Dust gathers on the barstools and countertops. The few places that are open have barely any customers.

Soi Bangla in Phuket’s Patong area is disinfected to stem the spread of Covid-19 in March 2020. (Bangkok Post file photo)

“When there are no foreigners, the area is just empty,” said Rungarun Loiluen, who works at The Kitchen, a restaurant and bar at the end of Bangla Road. She’s one of eight employees who kept their jobs from about 30 before the pandemic, albeit with fewer working hours. “There’s barely anyone walking down the road.”

On the next block over, Hotel Clover Patong Phuket has slashed its prices by as much as 75% to attract domestic travellers instead of its usual clientele of American, Russian and Chinese tourists. Still, it ran at about 10% occupancy in December, a period that used to be overbooked, according to Jessada Srivichian, the hotel’s country financial manager.

Despite the government’s efforts to help tourism businesses, such as subsidising the cost of hotel rooms, meals and airfares, domestic tourists who usually travel just on weekends can’t fill the gap left by foreign visitors. Even though only about half the country’s hotels have reopened, the average occupancy rate is only about 34%, Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said in an interview in December.

“I’ve been in Phuket for 20 years and have never seen it this quiet,” Hotel Clover’s Jessada said. “We need international visitors. We’re not thinking of making a profit but instead focusing on minimising losses, because as long as there’s a quarantine requirement, people won’t come.”
The government should consider waiving the two-week isolation requirement for visitors from regions of countries with no local infections for more than 60 days, Vichit Prakobgosol, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, said in late September. He was hoping to have the rule relaxed for visitors from some parts of China, Thailand’s biggest source of tourism income. But no such deal was concluded.

“It seems impractical to double the duration of a trip to satisfy the local quarantine requirements,” said Ron Cooper, an American photographer and business consultant who travelled abroad for leisure several times a year before the pandemic. “Add to that the cost of staying in a hotel for two unproductive weeks -- not a very attractive proposition.”

Thailand’s approach contrasts with other tourism destinations that have been less cautious. The Maldives reopened to overseas tourists in July without requiring a quarantine, although a negative Covid-19 test is needed. The archipelago has seen more than 172,000 arrivals since then, according to Maldives Immigration data. While new infections increased in the aftermath, they’ve since declined.

“It was bold, daring to open up the Maldives with all the risks attached to it,” said Dirk De Cuyper, chief executive officer of S Hotels & Resorts Plc, whose December occupancy rate at Maldives properties was 70%. And that might be bad news for Thailand, he said. “Many travellers won’t buy into quarantine, particularly when other countries are opening up and they have no quarantine rules.”
But most Thais opposed the reopening plan and are unlikely to want relaxed quarantine rules, partly because local residents live close to the resorts, unlike in the Maldives where properties are often isolated on their own islands.
“If I had to choose between health and income, I’d choose health,” said Wiparad Noiphao, a fruit and vegetable vendor at Banzaan fresh market in Patong. “We have to prioritise safety.”

Kamala Beach on Phuket in September 2020. (Bangkok Post file photo)

As a compromise, the government’s Covid-19 task force discussed shortening the quarantine period to 10 days. But that has yet to be implemented because of concerns about new infections. The government has also approved six golf resorts as quarantine centres.
“Any modification to the original plan would mean higher risks,” said Thira Woratanarat, an associate professor at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine. “There are many examples of free international travel that led to a resurgence,” he said, giving the example of Europe. “We should wait until the global virus situation has improved.”
A resurgence of the virus has also weakened the case for easing quarantine rules. Thailand has seen Covid-19 infections more than double to more than 12,000 in less than a month. An outbreak that began in seafood markets and migrant communities has spread throughout the country. The government curbed travel in some high-risk regions but has so far refrained from imposing a broad lockdown. It has also extended its travel-subsidy program.

Ultimately, the country won’t fully reopen until vaccines are widely available, government officials have said. The government plans to offer the shot developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd to frontline health workers and those with underlying conditions before the end of February. From May, it will give one by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford, aiming to inoculate at least 33 million people, about half the nation’s population, by the end of 2021.

Questions remain about how international tourism will function as more people become vaccinated worldwide. Vaccine passports are seen as a way to get people travelling again, but whether and how they will be implemented is still unclear. It’s not even known whether vaccinated people can transmit the virus.

Taking all this into account, the Bank of Thailand estimates that even in 2022, overseas visitors will still fall well short of the 40 million in 2019. It projects that 5.5 million people will visit this year and 23 million in 2022.
The economy is estimated to have contracted 6% in 2020, the biggest decline since the Asian financial crisis. It’s projected to expand 3.5%-4.5% in 2021, according to the National Economic and Social Development Council.

Despite the hit to the economy, the Phuket Tourist Association’s Bhummikitti says Thailand’s cautious reopening plan was the correct option, and the embattled tourism industry has little choice but to wait for vaccines to take hold.
“We can’t close our borders forever, and we can’t let people in without strict measures in place,” he said. “So this controlled, gradual reopening is the best approach.”

 

[Leongsam]

What critical mess. I got a primary 6 education friend who make it at Bangkok. He has thai chinese wife n 3 sons with amg mercedes, volvo and a land private house after 40 yrs of hard work. I took 20 yrs at kyushu. Both of us are in the 60s this year and both of our kids are in the mid 20s. We have 1 thing in common. Wife is the key player of family. So get a very good wife first with good background. Last very important when you make it it's for your children future not very much for yourself. Immigration paper for both sinkies never end like many other sinkies who have quitted. All 1 way ticket out of sinkie land

What the fuck are you on about?????

 

[Leitaisor2002]

What critical mess. I got a primary 6 education friend who make it at Bangkok. He has thai chinese wife n 3 sons with amg mercedes, volvo and a land private house after 40 yrs of hard work. I took 20 yrs at kyushu. Both of us are in the 60s this year and both of our kids are in the mid 20s. We have 1 thing in common. Wife is the key player of family. So get a very good wife first with good background. Last very important when you make it it's for your children future not very much for yourself. Immigration paper for both sinkies never end like many other sinkies who have quitted. All 1 way ticket out of sinkie land

What critical mess. I got a primary 6 education friend who make it at Bangkok. He has thai chinese wife n 3 sons with amg mercedes, volvo and a land private house after 40 yrs of hard work. I took 20 yrs at kyushu. Both of us are in the 60s this year and both of our kids are in the mid 20s. We have 1 thing in common. Wife is the key player of family. So get a very good wife first with good background. Last very important when you make it it's for your children future not very much for yourself. Immigration paper for both sinkies never end like many other sinkies who have quitted. All 1 way ticket out of sinkie land

What the fuck are you on about?????

The fuck is no migration is as easy as it is written here. Housing, education, healthcare, survival skills, community. You sinkie name in Thailand is not welcome. You got to change to watafukan faran as post office mark your parcels, mails etc

 

[rushifa666]

The fuck is no migration is as easy as it is written here. Housing, education, healthcare, survival skills, community. You sinkie name in Thailand is not welcome. You got to change to watafukan faran as post office mark your parcels, mails etc

The people youd find who give excuses are those who never ever leave. Not the people to take directions from

 

[tobelightlight]

What critical mess. I got a primary 6 education friend who make it at Bangkok. He has thai chinese wife n 3 sons with amg mercedes, volvo and a land private house after 40 yrs of hard work. I took 20 yrs at kyushu. Both of us are in the 60s this year and both of our kids are in the mid 20s. We have 1 thing in common. Wife is the key player of family. So get a very good wife first with good background. Last very important when you make it it's for your children future not very much for yourself. Immigration paper for both sinkies never end like many other sinkies who have quitted. All 1 way ticket out of sinkie land

That is your view of life. Not everyone has the same view as you. Everyone has diff background and diff leanings towards life. my view of life is why need a wife and why want to involved in the hassle of even have children.

 

[yinyang]

Miserable year for retailers
National
Jan 21. 2021

By THE NATION

The Thai Retailers Association estimates the retail index in the first quarter of 2021 will contract by 7-8 per cent, while it could contract by 4-10 per cent or more for the whole year.
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“The projected contraction could be worse if there are no factors that stimulate economic recovery later this year, such as the ready availability of a vaccine, the government’s tax-break measures and soft loans to SMEs,” association chairman Yol Phokasub warned.

Earlier this week the association reported the 2020 retail index plunged from 2.8 per cent growth in 2019 to a deficit of 12 per cent – its first ever two-digit contraction.

“The Covid-19 crisis has heavily affected the retail industry,” Yol pointed out. “It is estimated that the industry has lost around Bt500 billion of its total value of Bt4 trillion because of the pandemic,” he said.

“The association has estimated that we have already passed the lowest point in the third quarter of last year, when the durable goods sector [electrical appliances, construction material, telecom products], recorded 15 per cent contraction due to lockdown measures at department stores, while semi-durable goods [clothes, leather products, cosmetics] suffered up to 40 per cent contraction,” Yol said.

“In the fourth quarter, the situation started to improve following the government’s ‘Shop Dee Mee Kuen’ [Shop and Payback] scheme that has driven the growth of semi-durable goods to an 18 per cent contraction.”

 

[yinyang]

 

[Froggy]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Tu...10&pub_date=20210122120000&seq_num=6&si=44594

Thailand targets Thanathorn for questioning king's vaccine maker
Former opposition leader latest to be slapped with lese majeste charges

Opposition politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit said Thursday the lese majeste case against him was "politically motivated" and insisted on his innocence in a news conference. © Reuters
MASAYUKI YUDA, Nikkei staff writerJanuary 21, 2021 19:45 JST

BANGKOK -- Former Thai opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has become the most recent target to face the kingdom's draconian lese-majeste law for disputing the government's COVID-19 vaccine strategy of solely relying on domestic production by a biopharmaceutical company ultimately owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Thanathorn said the case against him was "politically motivated" and insisted on his innocence in a news conference on Thursday. Thai people deserve to know the truth of what is going on with their vaccines, he said.

The Digital Economy and Society Ministry filed the royal defamation charge as well as a violation of the country's Computer Crime Act against Thanathorn to the technology crime suppression division of the police on Wednesday.

The move came only two days after the 42-year-old billionaire ran a live online broadcast that questioned the role of Siam Bioscience in producing coronavirus vaccines in Thailand. Thanathorn made 11 critical remarks about the monarchy.

As of April 13, 2020, all but two of the company's total of 48 million issued shares belonged to the king. The two were owned by an air chief marshal and a police colonel, respectively. The Crowne Property Bureau, which manages King Vajiralongkorn's assets, used to hold most of Siam Bioscience's shares, but they were transferred to the king's direct possession sometime between April 20, 2018 and April 29, 2019, according to documents obtained by Nikkei Asia.

The government has accelerated the use of lese majeste since November, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the government "will intensify its actions and use all laws, all articles, against protesters who broke the law." At least 54 activists including minors have faced the charge in recent months, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Some protest leaders are facing multiple lese-majeste charges.

Prayuth's cabinet approved plans to purchase a total of 63 million doses of COVID vaccines. Of those, 26 million shots have been assigned exclusively to Siam Bioscience to be produced domestically using a recipe from AstraZeneca shared through a technology transfer deal.

In the broadcast, Thanathorn did not explicitly criticize the awarding of the deal to the company. Instead, he questioned Siam Bioscience's experience in vaccine-making, and said the government was relying too much on a company with limited credentials in the area.

"It's too late before they realized that most of the vaccines have been bought out," the politician said in the broadcast. "I have to ask whether the government is prepared to handle the risk of putting all hopes on a single company."

Prayuth slammed Thanathorn's claim on Tuesday. "It's all distorted and not factual at all," he said. "I will order prosecution for anything false that gets published, whether in [traditional] media or social media."

According to a government database, Siam Bioscience registered a total revenue of 157 million baht ($5.3 million) for 2019. Its total assets were recorded at 4.5 billion baht.

President of AstraZeneca in Thailand James Teague attends an agreement signing ceremony for Thailand to provide potential COVID-19 vaccine at Government House in Bangkok, November 27, 2020. © Reuters

The charges did not discourage Thanathorn from voicing his doubts. "Why is the government doing so much defending in the name of a private company? Is it actually admitting that a special privilege has been granted to this private company?" he posted on Facebook after the Digital Economy and Society Ministry filed the complaint.

This is not the first legal challenge faced by Thanathorn. He formed his own pro-democracy Future Forward Party in 2018. In general elections in the following year, the party won 81 out of 500 lower house seats in Thailand. Its progressive campaign to cut the military budget and pursue bold reforms created many enemies, especially among the establishment.

In November 2019, Thanathorn was stripped of his status as a parliamentary member by the Constitutional Court, as he failed to entirely relinquish his media shareholding before running for office. The court later ordered his party to disband as it was accused of receiving illegal funding from the leader. Pro-democracy activists took these developments as legal harassments, and took to the streets to protest the overreach of the government.

The lese majeste law, or Article 112 of the criminal code, is the most draconian of its kind in the world. Defendants face up to 15 years in jail per offense, with consecutive terms possible. Anyone can make a complaint of lese majeste to the police.

These recent charges come at a relatively quiet time for Thailand after a year of much unrest. Since mid-December, large protest groups have refrained from holding mass rallies due to the resurgence of COVID-19 in the kingdom.

But angered by the government's recent actions, a small group rallied at Victory Monument in central Bangkok on Saturday, asking onlookers to write their own protest messages on a 112 m blank banner.

The demonstration soon met a violent crackdown by the police acting on the government's ban on political gatherings brought in on Dec. 26. Before the banner was confiscated, one of the supporters wrote "the COVID-19 is just an excuse," implying that the government was using the pandemic to impose restrictions in Bangkok to quell the pro-democracy movement rather than to stop the spread of the virus.

"Slitting the chicken's neck to frighten the monkeys" was how one royal observer described recent developments. On Tuesday, a Thai woman was sentenced to a jail term of 43 years and six months for lese majeste charges over her actions in 2015, luridly displaying what the law is capable of.

Royalists have been encouraged by King Vajiralongkorn's unusual long stay on home soil to go on the offensive. Since his accession to the throne in 2016, the king had spent most of his time in Germany. But over the past few months, he has traveled around Thailand, occasionally mingling with his supporters.

On Wednesday, prominent royalist Warong Dechgitvigrom announced the formation of a pro-monarchy political party called Thai Pakdee. "Today, we stand up and fight for the entire nation's revered and beloved institution," he said, referring to the monarchy.

Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a pro-democracy politician and co-founder of the dissolved Future Forwad, quickly responded to Warong's move on Twitter. "The formation of a party that advocates the protection of the monarchy, whether by good intention or in the name of destroying others, only brings the monarchy into the political sphere," he tweeted.

 

[yinyang]

 

[yinyang]

 

[yinyang]

Chonburi masseuses back in business as outbreak eases
National
Jan 27. 2021

By THE NATION

Chonburi’s massage parlours and beauty businesses were allowed to reopen from Wednesday after the Covid-19 outbreak eased.
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The move came after massage therapists protested at Chonburi’s city hall on Monday, calling on authorities to lift the longstanding closure order on their workplaces.

Chonburi authorities proposed the issue to the government, and on Wednesday cancelled the order covering massage parlours and spas. Also permitted to reopen from Wednesday are hair salons, beauty clinics, and tattoo/piercing shops.