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I agree that 2 or 3 days is good for a Khao Yai break. I have the impression that it's a popular weekend trip for Bangkokians. I did it with a tour guide friend of mine who organized a private car and driver, etc. For 2 or 3 days I think Hua Hin is fine. But I can see where a week would get pretty boring unless you're there with some friends. I liked the night market which has many good food stalls and the one next door has lots of art and crafts for sale. I stayed at the D2 which was not ideal for visiting the beach. I think picking one of the places nearer the beach would be a better choice for sure. There are a few beach resorts that looked very cushy when we walked past on an evening beach stroll. I'd have to look at a map to remember names. If you haven't been out to Isaan there are some pretty interesting places out in that direction. I'm always fascinated by old temples, etc so I like Phimai quite a bit as well as Phnom Rung. I did that part of the country as a little 3 day trip where we based on Khorat and did day trips out from there. Lots if big national parks in the north if you're interested in that. Or even Chiang Rai. You might want to have a look at Paddy Doyle's YT channel for ideas of places to visit. He went to every province. https://www.youtube.com/@PaddyDoyle./playlists

this guy does similar sorts of videos

And I also see that Meta (aka Facebook/IG/Threads) owns a trademark for X for use in social media.

Maybe Ayutthaya? I think it's a pretty easy train ride from BKK. Sukhothai is also nice but I think Bangkok Airways still has a monopoly on flights. Those are both historic places if you like old ruins. What sorts of things are you interested in doing? Hua Hin is a nice beach town not too far from Bangkok. Khao Yai is nice if you're looking for nature.

The city is quite easy to get around. I stayed at an Airbnb atop the main railway station last time I was there which was quite nice. I also stayed a couple of nights at the (allegedly) haunted Grand Hyatt next to Taipei 101. I've stayed there a couple of times.

Hilariously Microsoft owns the service mark for "X" in this realm. He's really not much of a genius

I can't say that I ever noticed that. The one annoying thing was that you have to use two elevators every time you leave and come back since the lobby for the hotel is on something like the 23rd floor

Pick somewhere close to the BTS or MRT for easy travel if you want to go shopping on Sukhumvit. The Crowne Plaza Lumpini is well located and I always found it very comfortable.

what happens after 5 years in Indonesia? That seems kind of odd. That Thai visa requiring $80k per year in income seems like it won't apply to very many people.

that would seem to be a high-rent district

for a place not offering sex they certainly seem to be selling it with those photos

was that part of the whole UK football game meeting? Or the Dubai meeting with Tony? After saying they would never join with parties from the former junta coalition they will get a good bit of blowback. Ultimately it's going to be difficult to get much done. I thought the PT candidate said they wouldn't ditch MFP. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

exactly, they would have found a reason like the ridiculous notion about amending 112 somehow being a threat to the constitution and democracy

I guess these Senators really don't have any incentive to vote for anyone until they get to some old general or other. I wonder if PT creates another coalition without MFP, would MFP go ahead and vote for the PT candidate just to get things moving forward, as it were.

I think partly it's because no one raised any objections previously with respect to the media shares. After all he's been an MP since the last election so no one cared about it when he was an ordinary MP. I suspect that he probably didn't think much about it since the company has been defunct for years and his shares are so few, etc. But I agree that I had the same thoughts. It does somewhat point out the inexperience of the party though.

That's interesting. I've read that the current "bivalent" boosters only offer protection for 6 months or so. So I wonder why your doctor would counsel against another booster. I suppose given the lower infection rate most people are unlikely to get exposed at this point. Even with all of my shots I ended up getting infected back at the end of March/beginning of April while I was in Japan. But I might have been infected while I was in Thailand. Even my relatively mild infection still lingered for several weeks.

For sure if there's no new constitution nothing will be able to change

This is so stupid. All they had to do was wait a couple of days for the vote to play out. It's pretty clear that few of the Senators are going to vote for him. Everyone has already tipped their hands that PT is going to nominate the next candidate and essentially toss MFP out of the coalition. That's going to make people mad enough but using the constitution court this nakedly is just going to make it worse. I guess they're trying to make an example out of him (like they did with the predecessor party) so no one else will challenge the current order, but I think those horses have already left the barn. I am seeing more commentators suggest that MFP just needs to bide their time in the opposition and will win an overwhelming majority in the next election. But 4 years can be a long time and lots of things can happen.

One of my friends spent the last year or so traveling around Europe as a bit of a nomad since he is able to work from anywhere. He has Portuguese roots so he spent quite a bit of time there and really enjoyed it. I think his plan is to retire there. I expect to retire in about 2.5 years from now. I've been thinking a bit about what to do, especially if the political situation in the US keeps going to hell. But I guess every place has it's pros and cons. I'm probably more inclined to split my time rather than going all in on retiring abroad.

Semantic Error was fantastic. And JaeChan is adorable. For sure it gave his group a boost.

it's fairly transparent at this point. Clearly none of these recalcitrant senators has any reason to vote for Pita if they know some one from PT is going to be next in line for nomination. What is still up in the air is who will be in the governing coalition with PT in charge? Do the 8 parties remain with MFP included? I wonder if they will try to change the charter again to get rid of the current senate.

you guys have a lot more HK experience than I do... I found lots of incredibly handsome guys there. I always chalked that up to the melting pot nature of the place - sort of like Singapore another place with gorgeous people. But for me I'd pick Taiwan 10 times out of 10 these days given the current political situations. I really need to get back over there one of these days...

Mack's post down below is relatively recent with links to his informative blog

Here's a link to the story with video https://abcnews.go.com/International/thai-cave-survivor-reunites-rescuer-high-school-graduation/story?id=101294342

I didn't know that Adul Samon came the US to go to school. He just graduated from high school and plans to become a doctor. Rick Stanton was the commencement speaker at the graduation ceremony. If ABC news puts the video up online I will link to it.