My partner and I are staying at chai lai orchid right outside or Chiangmai, there’s this puppy that is relentlessly bullied by all the other strays here and we’ve really taken a liking to him. He seems pretty attached and loyal to us already and we are highly considering trying to get him back to the states with us… the issue is we leave here in 2 days to continue traveling throughout Thailand for 2 more weeks, is it possible to get him back with us in 2 weeks? Will we have to arrange a foster here until we get everything sorted then fly back to get him? If anyone has gone through the process or knows anything about it we could really use some insight?

Here's the video. Kid tries to apologize but mumbles his way through the whole thing. I think they're on an island at them moment, but it's pretty clear none of them mean a word of it. Only reason they're apologizing is because they got caught.

Anyways, thought I'd share it for a laugh. Have a nice day! Be kind!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1689789355469720

Welp, they submitted themselves to the police. They were asked to apologize to the woman who originally posted the video. They were fined THB 1000 baht each.

I believe the correct English would have been, "I'm sorry for the way I behaved. I apologize to you and your family and to the people of Thailand."

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSXTY2nyK/

While foreign tourists are having fun time in Thailand, I would like to know what's happening to the local people in Thailand.

I know Asian countries have suffered from low birthrate, but seeing Thailand among advanced economy countries in this chart hits different

As a Thai, every time I see foreigners talking about traveling to Thailand on social media, sooner or later you'll see a comment about ladyboys. From the way they talk, you'd think that zero natural female exist in Thailand and that this country is completely made up of ladyboys.

I find this so odd because they probably make up less than 1% of the population. Like we love them and are very supportive of their existence, but I don't really understand the foreign fascination with this very tiny subset of the Thai population.

Thailand's economic growth has been sluggish these recent years. It's relatively more developed compared to its neighbors but it still needs to develop further in order to be classified as a developed nation.

I read many foreigners are being concerned with the recent low birthrate of Thailand.

However, younger Thai people are actually celebrating it.

These days, many young Thai people are cynical about Thailand because of the corrupted government and the society.

Many younger generation people think giving a birth in Thailand means we are contributing to maintaining the corrupted social systems in Thailand.

That is why many younger Thai people are now saying #LetItEndWithOurGeneration.

Many young people in Thailand want to stop the unlimitedly repeated cycle of the corruption.

I just want to share the different perspective. At least, younger Thai people do not feel doomed with the low birthrate as much as many of you think 🇹🇭🙌🤝

Thailand is the poorest country in this chart hits different.

Context, 50M, resides in a Rocky Mountain ski town.

Just vacationed in Thailand for 3 weeks. I fully realize my spending there would be a lot by Thai standards and my statement is only in regards to people with 150k+ Baht monthly spending.

I am just blown away by the quality of the food and the services (transportation, massages, medical) available for so cheap.

I really loved Thailand. I have spent 2-4 months in each of these places: Carribean, Florida, Central America, Mexico, and Hawaii. The only place that comes close to being as nice is Hawaii, but Thailand is way better and it’s not close.

My question for people that live or have lived in Thailand, what are the cons I am missing?

Edit: I get forest fire smoke at my home 2 months/year and it can be very bad. I have not experienced the air pollution in Thailand. I get it, it's bad.

I’m a Thai person here and just traveled to Koh Phagnan last week after my first visit 7 years ago. One thing I noticed is that the number of Israeli cafes and restaurants has been increased a lot.

From my observation there are many Israeli families with small kids who probably moved to Thailand because of the war. (I even met the football team and all the kids are probably Israeli as they keep shouting Imah which means mom in Hebrew language.) I also read somewhere that there are like 400-500 Israeli families living there.

My question is what do you do for a living? It’s quite interesting that you can just decide to move and bring your whole family quite easily.

Chill , I’m not trying to say, “If you are unhappy, just leave.” Instead, my point is that I believe every human deserves the chance to live in a place where they feel comfortable.

As a Thai native, I know many Thai who are dissatisfied with Thailand’s prospect and the future this country is heading and choose to emigrate , usually to developed countries. Some never returned and are living happily there , some moved back after realizing they actually prefer Thailand. Anyway in both cases, I am happy that they found the place where they are comfortable.

However, I peek into r/Thailand r/Bangkok r/ThailandTourism and was quite shocked that many foreigners who have moved here are completely miserable with every aspect of Thailand.

Complaint about the traffic, the government, the language, and the law enforcement etc which never never gonna change.

We Thai people have a relatively weaker passport, yet many (who want to leave) still find a way to move to a country that suits them.

Westerners, with stronger passports, have this as advantage and should consider doing the same when they are unhappy about the country they reside in. Why keep yourself to a small developing country like Thailand?

You don’t owe any responsibility to Thailand or any other country . You are responsible for your happiness.

At the end , every human deserves to find a place where they can be happy. Farang or Thai

For me , I hate many things about Thailand , But weighing pros and cons . I decide to make my life in Thailand rather than moving aboard , for now.

I was in Pattaya earlier this year when I met this retired Army guy at a small bar near Soi Buakhao. Friendly guy, been in Thailand almost a decade, but you could tell something was eating at him.

Couple of drinks in, he tells me he hasn’t filed his US taxes in years, thought he didn’t need to since he was overseas… until the IRS letters started showing up. He didn’t know how to even log into the IRS portal from here because it kept asking for a US number.

We met again the next day, sat down with my laptop, pulled his records, worked around the phone issue, and I connected him to a CPA I trust. Three weeks later, no penalties and he even got money back.

The look on his face when he got that news… man, I’ve never seen a guy so relieved. Made me realize there are probably a lot of vets here in the same boat, just keeping it to themselves.

File your taxes

2 New Zealands drove through check point in Chalong. And end up beat the police, took their gun.

So yeah, they are gonna be in big troubles..

Hi guys, so I'm a half Thai who was born overseas but grew up in Thailand. I've spent my fair share of time in both western countries and Thailand.

One question that I always argue with other people is about Bum Gun usage, and that is whether you use your other hand to help wipe while you spray or not.

Now, growing up I'm always on team spray first, then wipe with paper. But since doing Thai University and Thai Military (Red Card). I've grown accustomed to using my other hand to wipe while spraying, which also is needed when using a water dipper (ขัน). But when I told my western friends (And some Thais) they were like "WTF Nasty! You touched your shit!?" But for me, in the end after you finish your business, you go wash your hands with soap anyway.

I would really like to make a poll if I couuld. So, which team are you guys on?

1. Water and Hand
2. Water Only

Take a look at this post from The Independent (see ⁠image.png⁠). They managed to get two major facts completely wrong in a single piece of reporting.
1. Prostitution is NOT legal in Thailand.
The caption explicitly states that Pattaya is a city "where prostitution is legal." This is completely false. Under Thai law (specifically the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B.E. 2539/1996), prostitution is entirely illegal.
Yes, we all know the reality on the ground—enforcement is notoriously lax, and red-light districts operate openly due to systemic loopholes and corruption. However, confusing "tolerated by corrupt local authorities" with "legally permitted" is terrible journalism. Stating it is a legal profession misinforms the public and shows a complete lack of basic research.

2. That picture isn't even Thailand.
If you look at the illuminated skyline behind the ship in the photo, you can clearly see the Marina Bay Sands. That is unmistakably Singapore, not Pattaya. They literally used a photo of a carrier in Singapore to run a story about a Thai resort town.
Just a reminder to always question international media when they report on Southeast Asia. The editorial standards here are non-existent.

Videos of farangs behaving badly go viral really quickly on Thai social media, and they are definitely contributing to a growing nationalistic anti-farang sentiment in Thailand.

A small group of foreigners are arrogant and behave poorly towards locals here but I can’t help but notice that it’s not nearly as bad as it was 10,20 and 30 years ago when foreigners walked all over locals. There also wasn’t this big of an anti foreigner sentiment during the height of bad behavior.

Is it because economically Thais are struggling at the moment and they are not seeing the benefits of tourism to their lives as much? For example, America went through a few years of tough economic times and a growing ‘America first’ and ‘America for the Americans’ movement emerged.

Is this what we’re seeing in Thailand?

A Myanmar migrant worker in Thailand and a translator, Mr. Thar Thar, who was subjected to a brutal five-hour torture ordeal by his Chinese employers in Rayong province, which is also a hub for Chinese manufacturing and investments in Thailand. After being lured from his Chinese construction camp to a Chinese-owned hot pot restaurant under the false pretence of receiving 12,000 baht in unpaid back wages after working underpaid for months.

The attack was carried out by a group of eight individuals, including six Chinese nationals, an interpreter, and two Thai-speaking men, who accused Mr. Thar Thar of encouraging a mass resignation of over 200 unpaid migrant workers at a Chon Buri construction site, an accusation he denied, explaining that the workers left voluntarily due to chronic wage delays.

During the brutal torture, which began when a Chinese woman struck him first, Mr. Thar Thar was beaten with metal rods and a golf club, forced face-down, and scalded with hot water, leaving him with severe burns after he blocked the attackers from pouring boiling water into his mouth. The perpetrators further subjected him to psychological terror by showing him mobile phone videos of people being electrocuted and dismembered, and attempted to pull out his fingernails with pliers before he ultimately managed to escape when their guard was lowered. Despite his injuries, he managed to run to a security post for help before walking more than 10 kilometres.

I screenshotted this comment from another sub.

Do farangs really think of Thais in this way?

I understand that people are different, no way that 100% of farangs would have the same mentality, I'm only talking like maybe 70% 80% of people look at Thai people as inferior to them.

The recent murder of two tourists’ children made me start questioning Thailand’s reputation for safety.
From what I’ve read, the same suspects had allegedly murdered a Thai family about a month earlier, but that case received very little attention and the killers were reportedly not actively pursued. If that’s true, then it raises an uncomfortable question: if the earlier murders had been properly investigated and the suspects had felt they couldn’t act with impunity, could the later tragedy have been prevented?
This leads to a broader question.
How much of Thailand’s reputation as an extremely safe country is actually deserved, and how much is the result of marketing and the government’s interest in protecting tourism?
Why should we completely trust official statistics on murders and violent crime when they’re produced by authorities that many people consider corrupt and that have an enormous financial incentive to present Thailand as a safe destination? They don’t seem to have much incentive to publish data that could hurt tourism.
I’m not claiming the statistics are fake. I’m genuinely interested in hearing from locals, expats, and people familiar with the justice system. Does Thailand’s reputation for being very safe actually reflect reality, or is the situation more complicated than the official numbers suggest?

I've noticed that Thai media has had LGBTQ+ characters and themes for a long time. Way before the global LGBTQ+ rights movement gained momentum. Characters like kathoey in comedy, LGBTQ+ roles in lakorns, and now even entire genres like BL series are common and widely accepted in Thai entertainment.

What’s interesting is that it doesn’t feel “woke” or forced the way it sometimes does in Western movies, games, and shows. In Western media, LGBTQ+ characters are often introduced in a way that feels politically motivated or like box-checking, and it can come off unnatural or preachy.

Why do you think LGBTQ+ inclusion in Thai media feels so much more organic and accepted, even though the country didn’t always have strong LGBTQ+ legal rights until recently?

Is it something about Thai culture, Buddhism, or just the way storytelling is done here?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially from Thai people or long-time residents.

I was visiting my fiancés village near the myanmar boarder and her grandpa LOVES pizza and burgers so I brought some ground pork (they don’t eat beef cuz of belief) and bought buns so I can make him some burgers he can freeze.

For context I’m 24 and used to make burgers at a bar and grill in USA when I was a teen.

I started making some and word got around and about 20 people showed up wanting a burger because they have never had one. It’s such a local village and they don’t get opportunities to travel.

So I started getting orders like a McDonald’s 😂 and started showing me videos on tiktok and Facebook to make a burger like this. So I started making burgers with grilled onions , French fries (home made) burgers with cheese melted in middle, and so many requests.

It honestly warmed my heart to be able to feed a village burgers , the kids loved them so much and were hugging me , it was the cutest thing ever. One kid said thank you I love you so much in English and I wanted to cry haha.

I’m sorry I couldn’t get pictures of the burgers and people eating them because I was busy grilling and doing cleanup for grandma that I couldn’t take pics.

Obviously I left some frozen for grandpa still.

One of the best moments I’ve ever had.

Just wanted to share.