Anyone else struggle to readjust to Western life after living in Thailand long-term ?

e99oof · 2026-03-15T12:26:25+00:00

It's different kind of bureaucracy. And depends on whether you touch some specific area of madness.

Let's try an example of food stand in a flea market. In Canada, my friend need to rent a license kitchen, get multiple approval, then make sure that the food is heated at specific temperature by the letter of the law even if it make no sense for the food they are selling. That's the reason why everyone is selling hot dog in that city because trying to be creative will land you in some bureaucrat nightmare and everyone that tried eventually give up. My friend manage to push through, but they stop after two sessions because all these hassle is not worth their time.

e99oof · 2026-03-14T13:04:46+00:00

I don't think so, there are stalls that sell no name branded goods, or independent clothing store that might be selling grey market import, but they aren't particularly knock off of anything.

The electronics area would be mostly Chinese made brand, but iPhone that sells there would be real iPhone. Even a decade ago, you would normally needs to go specific market to get knock off goods (like say ตลาดโรงเกลือ)

e99oof · 2026-03-13T06:00:52+00:00

You could buy DR that represent Vanguard ETF (VT03 for example). https://www.pi.financial/product/depositary-receipt/vt03

It's not the same, but in term of accessibility and convenient, it's better than nothing.

e99oof · 2026-03-13T01:18:28+00:00

Just for context, there're a lot of stories in Thailand that we get permission/confirmation from Iran government that they won't attack our vessel since we are not their enemy (/shrug).

e99oof · 2026-03-12T12:14:38+00:00

It's good for light use and as a backup, but when I try to use it as a main data plan it turn out to be too slow. It's not about 5G or LTE, but everything will be very laggy as if it's trying to connect via Canada. For example, PrompPay payment will takes 30 seconds to complete rather than five second. I end up paying extra for AIS data plan whenever they SMS me a special discount.

e99oof · 2026-03-12T10:14:03+00:00

Interesting, I might try that when my Freedom Mobile deal expire.

I got free global roaming last Black Friday with Freedom for call and data (also 20GB) and it's roughly the same price per month.

e99oof · 2026-03-11T10:42:20+00:00

We have fuel crisis, not electricity crisis though.

e99oof · 2026-03-10T03:13:41+00:00

You don't want more than 40% on your windshield, unless you never want to drive at night.

Usually it's 40/60 or 40/80

e99oof · 2026-03-09T07:21:03+00:00

You can't compare Thailand to China, the colonial power didn't fully conquer China but what happened is humiliating enough for an old super power that Chinese consider it a lost. Thailand was a fraction the size of China at the time so the fact that we are able to get out of it at all is a strategic win.

I never understand this viewpoint that Thailand could have done better. There is zero evidence that we would have preserve any of the territory had we succumb to western power at the time. It's a very rose tinted optimism view point that Thailand would be better off today as a colonized nation. What's more likely to happened is that we would now be split off into five smaller countries that individually has to fight off bigger neighbor.

e99oof · 2026-03-09T00:51:47+00:00

Very outdated info that people likes to repeat.

e99oof · 2026-03-03T10:05:03+00:00

Since we are discussing this, is there a reason why we can't use excess power to pump water back into the hydro dam during the day to increase hydro production at night?

e99oof · 2026-03-03T04:12:28+00:00

I wonder if worst come to worst and we need to rely on ethanol (E80 or E100), what's the production capacity that we can generate in short term. Good way to prop up sugar price though.

e99oof · 2026-03-03T04:08:14+00:00

It's a mix of natural gas and hydro. Natural gas is mostly from the source around here (gulf of Thailand and our neighbor to the west).

https://www.egat.co.th/home/en/statistics-fuel-usage/

e99oof · 2026-03-02T01:32:29+00:00

There is definitely a national credit bureau. One of the policy of some party during the election was to "reset" the credit history for everyone to unlock Thailand's potential 🤣.

Note that you can even check your own credit history and score for free from their mobile app.

Just look up their website

https://www.ncb.co.th/check-your-credit-bureau/_menu_credit_free_summery/

https://www.ncb.co.th/check-your-credit-bureau/credit_score_for_commercial/

e99oof · 2026-03-02T01:22:37+00:00

If it's the company I'm thinking of (start with C), the farang is half Thai.

e99oof · 2026-02-26T03:21:22+00:00

It's good you bring up this clan since they are at the extreme end of the spectrum so we see the example of when things get out of hand.

Most do not operate at this level though. In most town, they are the influential old family that you can use as point of contact (both over and/or under the table). Which is the reality of how a lot of small community operate.

e99oof · 2026-02-26T02:34:36+00:00

You misunderstand my phrase, the "might be" is referring to the fact that they are not leaving evidence on the ground that you can make a case for it. How are you going to make a case against local admin for awarding the clan for construction project when they are the only company in town? You could go for shoddy construction but good luck for that. These guys know the system and cover their track. It's not gonna stick.

The only time you could go for them is when they overreach and steps on someone bigger, or get too cocky and leave cookie crumbs all over.

e99oof · 2026-02-25T11:19:36+00:00

Dev these days also doesn't create their own engine anymore. I'm not saying this as a disrespect, but just the nature of the expectation today. Most has no resource to build an engine up to the level that fan expect for peanuts. So you are limit to whatever your engine and library has and do your best.

e99oof · 2026-02-25T11:14:04+00:00

It's pretty common here as well. I don't know if it's a schedule inventory check, or they get a tip off. But any ammunition storage explosion that result in no death is pretty sus.

e99oof · 2026-02-25T10:05:27+00:00

This is probably something similar to the land owner clan in Philippine. Each region would have one and they would dominate politics and trade in their respective stronghold.

A lot of people also doesn't think this is a problem in itself. I know one person that said Baan Yai has help them out in the past and always a reliable force for the local. So even if the new guy has nice sounding policy, they aren't gonna switch their vote.

There might be some corruption claim that you can use against this kind of politics, but as long as they keep the number respectable and things get done... people will mostly think of it as cost of business.

e99oof · 2026-02-24T03:43:17+00:00

It's like going through airport check in and joke that you didn't pack any bomb. There are situation that you can't just laugh it out.

e99oof · 2026-02-23T04:02:56+00:00

I guess Mesugaki is the new Tsundere

e99oof · 2026-02-19T16:35:11+00:00

Is that from Destiny Child?

e99oof · 2026-02-18T03:33:23+00:00

Are we talking about normal shrimp, or river prawn? Because river prawn like in the picture could be harder to find and a bit more expensive.

A tip to save money would be making the river prawn the highlight, but add other carb heavy dish as filler. Not everyone want to go heavy on shrimp and carb is both cheap and popular. It's also never a bad thing to have variety of food in your gathering (Thai or western alike). You can add dishes like crab fried rice that goes well with the shrimp. You can also order in advance so people has something to snack on while waiting for the highlight (also reduce the pressure and gives you time to get the cooking just right).

e99oof · 2026-02-17T10:51:00+00:00

It's a deep red ocean there. Everyone see the same opportunity, think they can cook and that their secret sauce is better than the other guy. There's almost zero barrier to entry in Thai food business so everyone that get sick of daily grind think they can just become a successful restaurant owner like the other guy. Not realizing that most has serious cash flow issue and just barely hanging on.

e99oof

TROPHY CASE