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The Bangkok Governor inferred what you stated above. Source from the Pattaya News article posted below: I have since learned that over here in Pattaya that the local terrain soil is sandy and not clay-like, like what is found over in Bangkok - hence why we had way less damage here. It probably also explains why Bangkok is slowly sinking ?? 🤔

I believe that you get to type in the % that you want to tip.

Apologies - I did not really know where to post my post. I just placed it in the Gay Thailand section, as I was not sure where to put it. For future potential events like this is The Beer Bar a better place for these types of natural events? I was experiencing this earthquake from Pattaya but I did not want to put it into the Gay Pattaya section, as I felt that this event was impacting ALL of Thailand. Please advise?

Peter - did you feel anything during the earthquake in your condo? I am over here in Jomtien (Pattaya) and I definitely felt it and watched my suspended condo lights and curtains swaying - shown in the video at the top of this thread. Your condo did not sway?

Would you get on that Bangkok train? 1743154485769.mp4

Imagine swimming for your life in this rooftop pool in Bangkok? and what about the condos that are directly underneath this rooftop swimming pool.... 1743147475677.mp4

A high-rise building under construction in Bangkok's Chatuchak district collapsed due to the quake. in the below 2 Twitter (X) feeds you can see it collapsing. https://x.com/120119_/status/1905515797234991340 https://x.com/nongmeaw33/status/1905511502435791007 https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2989866/quake-in-myanmar-felt-in-bkk

Can this cause a post earthquake tsunami? Or only if the earthquake epicenter is underneath the sea?

That was scary. I was chatting with my Thai boyfriend and the curtains and lights in my condo room started swaying at 1:22pm today. https://www.khaosod.co.th/breaking-news/news_9694098 Here is a 6 second video of the lights above my bed swaying....scary... 20250328_132732.mp4

I agree. If our U.S. Treasury, via the IRS required 1040 annual tax filing, adds 15% to the employer stated wages for tax purposes - then why can't the wages be restated as existing wage + 15% --> and the IRS stops adding 15% to their income subject to taxation. Perhaps the restaurant lobby does not want to accept this financial burden? I have no idea - it has been this way since I was born....

and wait, the amount that you should tip has gone digital, in the sense that you are made to feel bad if you only give 30%. From the below screen shot, you only get a "thank you" if you give 100% I remember the good old days when the suggested tip was: 10% to 15% of the bill, or, what we used to do in New York, back in the day - take the sales tax multiplied by 2 and leave that as the tip - which in my youth came to around 14% to 15%. As my mom was a waitress her entire life - she hated when customers gave her less than 15% - because when she had to file her IRS annual tax return to the U.S. Treasury, for this class of worker, the IRS would automatically add, I believe 15%, to their employer reported wages, as "tips assumed to be received and consequently taxable...". So, perhaps this helps to explain this intense tipping pressure. But 30% to 100% (as suggested in the above restaurant payment system) in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous. I wonder how many people chose the "Custom" option ?

Excellent post @a-447. Earlier this month I returned from 62 days in the Philippines - mainly in the Cebu metropolitan area. I had a similar experience but with a cheeseburger. I ordered a cheeseburger and the waiter took my order and brought my request to the chef. He returned sheepishly to tell me that the cheeseburger is not available today because there is no cheese. So, I asked if I could substitute the cheese for something else and I was told - oh no sir, the chef has strict rules that he can only prepare the meal according to the approved plan. I asked, is the person who approved the plan for the cheeseburger here? He replied, oh no sir, that team is over in corporate in Manila. The only concession that I could get was to have my cheeseburger downgraded to a normal hamburger - which I accepted. As I was with my adorable Mr. B, my local Filipino tour guide, I told him that I would run across the street to 7-Eleven to buy some cheese to put on my to-be delivered hamburger. A look of horror came over his face and he pleaded with me not to to this and to create shame to the pre-approved system. So, to keep happiness and harmony I declined to go to the nearby 7-Eleven. After 62 days in the Philippines I see a STRONG parallel with the Japanese indoctrination process that you wrote about in your above post. The result on the Philippine nation is that nobody will take charge of a situation and/or improvise - as it is not allowed. Mr. B. told me that Philippine employees can be fired and/or punished (wages are garnished and they are sent home without pay) if they do not follow the pre-approved (often rigid and inflexible) scripts - which are prepared by managers who also cannot think outside of the box. And this was not the only incident during those 62 days - a more serious incident, which I reported in my Cebu trip report here - relates to a self-inflicted incident created by a Metro Department staff strictly abiding by a poorly written managerial script, which went off of the rails, because nobody was allowed to think out of the box...

Wait until they will implement an FSD (Full Self-Driving) system, perhaps it would be called, FSF (Full Self-Flying) system, like what is commonly found in Tesla cars.

I have failed to make myself clear. So, I need to tell a personal story which resolidified this collectivism belief into my brain by that former Chinese Malay boss. Often here in Jomtien I eat alone - I am ok with that - no problem. Of the 3 Thai boyfriends that I have had to date - they found this "eating alone" behavior strange. All of them told me that in the Thai society to eat together as the collective is the ideal eating situation. They also told me that during their child rearing years that when they were bad - they were disciplined by being forced to eat alone - to be forced away from the collective. So, in my mind, this is a clear example of the preference for the collective over our Western comfort with the individual. Did I miss something ?

Interesting to hear you say this. When I worked for a very large international organization - in our Budapest office - one of our many managers that were sent to us to manage our team - she was directly from Malaysia (Chinese Malay) and she constantly DRILLED into our heads that us Westerners needed to be sensitive to our Asian clients, as she kept saying that their culture is one of collectivism and group think and that we should not confuse it with our culture of individualism and individual thinking. Then when I moved to Thailand - what I have observed is large groups of various Asian nationalities meandering the streets of Thailand either in large groups or in bus caravans with a tour guide. Whereas, the Westerners that I observed were rarely in large groups or in bus caravans with a tour guide.

18 April and 19 April will be the WORST days for Pattaya's Songkran festival this year 2025. If you are coming to Pattaya on 20 April then it should be ok - but the city may look a little bit worn down - as the 20th is the day after the peak mayhem day of 19 April.

Interesting dilemma when the Asian norm is "collectivism". But the above statement implies that "individualism" applies when making his "own choice" in the man that is going to satisfy his (Asian) sexual desires. It is nice to learn that "individualism" has a place in a "collectivist" society.

I was hoping that you intended the renaming to: The BIG One as in the size of their appendages 🍆🍆

so not only in Pattaya (PFC), but also in Bangkok (BFC) ? I believe that these types of tragedies are much rarer in BKK than in Pattaya ?

and is also a nice way to not feeling the pressure to have to keep up with the Jonses - oops - I mean KFC - Mr. Stamina!!!

Exactly. I am so embarrassed to even post this additional postponement. Perhaps trying to get the many massage shops that are involved to pull off this event --> are like trying to herd cats? 🤔

What I do is I accumulate the coins in a jar - I have a seperate jar for the 10 baht coins as they are very useful here in Pattaya (i.e. Bahtbus). Then 1 time each year my cleaning lady takes them to 7-Eleven and gets paper bank notes back. I give her a "reward" for this extra service. The last time that we did this it was around 3,200 baht in coins. Not bad. I could use it for massages 🙌👐 🍆💦

and you are CORRECT: I had hoped that you would be wrong - but I am the eternal optimist...... not even a close vote.....

On 11 March 2025 an update was posted in the MIMA PARTY LINE group that the party has been postponed from Saturday 22 March 2025 to now be: Saturday 03 May 2025 Below is the announcement, as was posted in LINE with the associated Google Lens translation: Related associated LINE chat after auto AI translation was applied: April was considered, but due to many Songkran festivities they decided to postpone the first ever MIMA PARTY to Saturday 3 May 2025.

Sorry guys - I forgot to post that the MIMA party has AGAIN been moved to a new date: 3 May 2025. I will update the MIMA Party thread now.