PeterRS

It may well be. I did include links which I think mentioned this fact and presumably some reasoning. It's just that I know little about the luxury market. I have foreign friends who bought an apartment in the tall Sukhothai Residences (across from the now dead Babylon) about a dozen years ago when real estate in that particular property was the most expensive in the city. Much more recently the far smaller building on the left at the top of Witthayu One 89 Wireless was regarded as the most expensive with prices for ultra luxury apartments selling at around Bt. 500,000 per sq.m. This now appears to have been equalled and in some units overtaken by Scope Langsuan. Look at any site dealing with Bangkok luxury apartments and you see that many have been and are still being contructed and sold with prices in the Bt. 250,000 - 300,000 per sq.m. range. I suspect many are snapped up by Chinese, Russian and other mega rich in countries where they might wish to hide their wealth. Some of these will no doubt be the people targetted by the ultra-expensive Thailand Privilege Visas. https://bangkokresidential.com/bangkoks-12-best-luxury-condo-developments-in-2025

Japan always had some crazy prices. I remember one time staying wth friends near Roppongi Crossing. Nearby was a booze shop. It was selling bottles of Dom Perignon champagne at prices cheaper than Duty Free at any airport! On a first visit in the early 1980s, I noticed in the window of an uparket retailer a bottle of Remy Martin XO brandy at ¥50,000. Expensive then at around US$200. By the time I ceased working there and returned to Hong Kong, that same bottle was in the same window at exactly the same price - yet in US$ terms it was over $410. I asked the manager why the price had not been brought down to around ¥25,000. He said that Japanese people perceived the value of a product and if he brought the price down it would be regarded as inferior! Odd!

Ownership of the Spratley Islands is disputed by several countries including China, Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. The islands are really not islands as such - more like ocean reefs, although China has built bases and outposts on several. But they are important both as major fishing grounds and more because of the reserves of oil and gas assumed to be below the surface. China's interest also arises because it is part of the shipping lane in the South China Sea with Taiwan at its north end. @jason1975 is correct that the last really major skirmish between China and Vietnam was in 1988 when 64 Vietnamese soldiers were killed. But occasional skirmishes still break out. The irony is that all the other countries are closer to the Islands with China being the furthest away. China's claim to them dates back to maps purported to have been drawn up 500 years ago, and also the 1945 Treaty at the end of the War in the Pacific which seems to have had a clause giving them to the government in Beijing. But since the Americans basically wrote that Treaty, it seems like this might be yet another case of American interference where it has only resulted in major non-American regional disputes. https://amti.csis.org/island-tracker/china/

With Trump pulling out of talks on reopening the Straits of Hormuz, the jet fuel situation can only get worse. Some airlines have already increased fuel surchares. Cathay Pacific started this last month. Since April 1 there has been a second round of increases. All tickets irrespective of class now attract an additional 34% surcharge. Round trip flights to Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa now have a US$500 surcharge. Inter-Asian tickets now add US$100. On long haul flights this represents a 174% increase in little less than one month. The carrier has also stated it will review fuel surcharge amounts every two weeks. Singapore Airlines has already raised fares but I can not find out by how much because the airline merges fuel costs into the basic ticket price. THAI has said it plans to increase by 10%-15% which seems pretty low compared to the hikes by CX. As I wrote yesterday, there are still some deals to be had with Qatar now offering limited business class seats from Bangkok to London at Bt. 99,000 for the next few weeks. But with Doha having the USA's largest air base in the Middle East and already targetted by Iranian drones, the chances of last minute cancellations must surely be quite high. 19 of 20 major airlines have already cut capacity. Lufthansa is cutting 20,000 flights over the next 6 months. United plans to cut 5% of capacity and the airline's CEO has stated that fares may have to go up by 15%-20%. Air New Zealand has slashed flights for May and June. https://milelion.com/2026/03/27/cathay-pacific-hikes-fuel-surcharges-for-the-second-time-in-two-weeks/ https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flight-cancellations-airlines-lufthansa-united-easyjet-jet-fuel-shortage-b2964033.html

I can't help wondering (useless exercise, I know) how much further the ¥ will fall against other major currencies. When I first visited 45 years ago, the rate was US$1=¥250. Over the next decade, the US administration worked hard on getting Japan to revalue its currency. By the time I went to work in Tokyo the rate against the dollar was about ¥159. By the time I left it was up to ¥121. It then hovered for quite a number of years reaching its all-time high of ¥76 in August 2011. Pre-covid it was around ¥110. Since 2022 it began its major decline. Great for visitors, though, as prices in the country are geared to the local population rather than tourists. And even for tourists, with the crash of tourism from mainland China, prices are amazingly low.

China has had major interests in Cambodia for centuries. They used the country as a buffer to the Vietnamese over whom they had ruled for a millenium and whom they basically hated. The latest border war between the countries took place as recently as Ferbuary 1979, although relations now are far improved.

Returning to old Noah, I've always though that if there was any truth in the tale it concerned the Bosphorous suddenly opening up resulting in massive floods into what is now the Back Sea.

Flight cancellations or major delays are one of the bugbears of regular travel. Thankfully, apart from those affected by weather, we do not see too many. Other factors can also come into play, though. I once missed a flight from Tokyo's Narita to Hong Kong because of increased security as a result of some bomb scare. All traffic into Narita was always closely inspected with passengers having passports and tickets checked. This happened to me when the security checks ahead of my bus were taking around 100 minutes instead of the usual 10. I missed my flight merely by minutes and then had to pay for overnight accommodation at an airport hotel. The worst though was on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to London in the days of the old Kai Tak airport. Scheduled to depart at 11:30pm, push back from the gate was delayed when an air conditioning problem had to be fixed. We finally taxied to the end of the runway, reaching there are 11:45. After a seemingly interminable wait, the captain advised we could not take off and would have to return to the gate. The problem was that HKG then had a curfew with no flights in or out permitted after 11:45. The captain said they had been negotiating with the authorities to permit a one minute delay, and were denied. So we had to go back through security and immigration, either go home or spend the night in a hotel paid for by the airline. We took off at 08:30 the next morning. The only benefit was that I was able to see the pyramids below in the late afternoon sun! Curfews are not uncommon at airports like Heathrow, Sydney, Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris Orly, Toronto and Schippol affected. But the possibility of fuel shortages is somewhat scary for those with travel plans over the next few months. I've suffered from that too. A flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne was cancelled at 2 days notice due to a jet fuel tanker drivers strike meaning the aicraft could not fuel up for the return. And again many years ago I was on the then longest flight in the world, Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Seoul. After dinner and a sleep, I asked the purser if we were close to Seoul. She pointed out that there had been very strong headwinds and the captain was not sure if there would be enough fuel to get to Seoul (gulp!) But added that a contingency refueling stop at Narita was being considered. Fortunately it was not necessary and the plane did not fall out of the sky!!

And how many stories in the Old Testament are likely to be true? When tales are a result of many centuries of being told verbally from one to another, the end result is usually vastly different from the original.

Qatar has just sent an email offering considerably reduced price tickets ex-Bangkok (about 20%-25% off from what I recall) to various destinations including London and New York. No idea if they work in the opposite direction.

There have been several cases just like this one where the authorities have finally withdrawn the airline's operating llicence. I used to travel regularly to Taipei on V Air which was a very pleasant low cost carrier. After two crashes, one just after take-off in Taipei by a Trans Asia aircraft (V Air was a subsidiary of Trans Air), the licence was withdrawn and the carrier ceased operations. In the Taipei incident, one engine was playing up on take off. The first officer then shut off the wrong engine leaving the aircraft with no power.

Let's note that it is not all one-way traffic - at least not yet. Yes, China is expanding its influence not only in Thailand but in most parts of the world. According to an article in The Nation in September 2024, though, from January to June that year Chinese nationals purchased 39.5% of all condo units transferred to foreigners in Bangkok. This represented 40.1% of the value of condo units sold. It did represent a downturn since in 2020 when the percentage of units transferred to Chinese owners was 61% according to the Bangkok Post. But then 2024 was when covid was slowly winding down. Bangkok developers made a considerable amount after building very small condo units of around 25-35 sq.m. This enabled Chinese to use the funds they could export annually from China by parking it in what was regarded as a safer country. The less good news for Thailand is that the Chinese are becoming fed up of Thailand as their preferred foreign tourist destination. It is now being overtaken by countries like Vietnam and South Korea. But the bureaucracy and paperwork make purchasing condos in those countries more complicated. So Thai developers with their tiny apartments may well find continuuing sales to Chinese. Let's also not forget that China is now one of the biggest investors in Thailand along with Japan. This graph from CEIC illustrates the level of Chinese investment in the country in the last reported 12 years - https://www.nationthailand.com/business/property/40041666 https://www.bangkokpost.com/property/2997234/chinese-condo-purchases-likely-depressed-this-year

Trust built up over a long period of time and communication. Many relationships are open ones at the outset or become open ones after a period of years. I realise that. But the suggestion throughout this thread that all Thai men are unfaithful pretty regularly is not always the truth. (My partner is not Thai!)

I cannot find the fascination some people have for this "sport" - if that it can be called. It ranks for me alongside the American Rodeo horse bareback jumping, as inane a "sport" as I can imagine. But then I suppose Spanish and Americans find croquet and cricket both boring and baffling/

As the Japan tourism industry continues to suffer from the ill-advised remarks by the right-wing Prime Minister on the Taiwan issue, an issue avoided publicly by all previous heads of government, the country's right wing militarists are delighted at the possibility that the Constitution might be changed. Written, it must be remembered, by the Americans and now part of Trump's ever-changing international interference as he wants this Constitution changed, Clause 9 states - “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes” But many Japanese are totally against such change, especially the nation's young people. Public spaces across Japan are being filled with demonstrations by peope born more than half a century after the end of the war in the Pacific. 22-year old student Gohta Hashimoto is now participating in the anti-change demonstrations which have been getting bigger and bigger. "Until now, I had never thought of the Constitution as something young people needed to fight for," he said. Another student, Yuki Hioki, said at a rally in Tokyo - “The Constitution enables us to stay out of America’s wars, including in this region . . . The thought that might change makes me really angry” With the country's economy suffering from the large drop in Chinese tourism and the ¥ sinking even further, the Prime Minister seemingly knows that she still has Japan's ageing militarists on her side. But if she now loses the confidence of the nation's young people, she will be in for a fight. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/22/japan-youth-pacifist-constitution-trump-iran