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• Greetings from Koh Lanta
  • No reservations
  • The hot and humid hike
  • Snagging an amazing modern updated beach bungalow
  • Chillin’ in remote and sleepy Lanta
  • The food; lots of pics
• The Best Investment Option For 2022 to 2122
  • Everyone is an investor
  • The financial markets
  • Tax sheltering and deferral
  • Crypto
  • Entrepreneurship and Geoarbitrage for max gains
• The FTX Crypto Fraud is So Delicious
  • Overview
  • Andrew Tate makes a point
  • “Bankman” demonstrates that point
  • Sorry you’re bankrupt
  • The “CEO” who doesn’t use math
  • The laughs keep piling up
• Hit & Run
  • The Church of Texas at Austin
  • Moron cucked simps kneeling before assholes
  • It’s true about unmarried adult women in America
  • Children should be seen and not heard
  • Like the Fyre Festival fraud
  • IF covid CAN kill you…
  • Birth control
  • God bless the internet
  • Kamala is living proof
  • Just do it right, for God’s sake
• Pet Peeve of the Week

— Greetings this Monday. Yea, it’s supposed to be out your Sunday morning in America. What befell me My excuses are I was deep diving into the FTX collapse-fraud and also travelling still. Left Koh Lanta this AM, now in Ao Nang, Krabi. In this Newsletter I’ll cover my getting to Koh Lanta and a bit of that 4-day experience; the best investment you can make in 2022 and for the next 100 years; the FTX crypto fraud (so delicious); a bunch of Hit & Run; and maybe more…we’ll see when I get to the end. Also, this late Sunday edition might count as an early Wednesday edition to just get on track. Again, we’ll see.

Greetings From Koh Lanta

After the night in Phi Phi that kicked off the last newsletter, things went without a hitch for stage 2 of my no reservations travel. The speedboat ride was sunny, fun, calm, and short.

The island is about 30 km long from the bridge and ferry terminal up top to the national park on bottom. The grey dot is where I ended up staying at the Lanta New Beach Hotel, about 10K.

I didn’t know where I’d be staying at first and seeing where Long Beach began and that there was a lot of commercial establishments on the map there, I figured I’d just walk it…me and my medium-sized backpack. (The 60L stays home for these short outings.)

Well, once I walk the 5K in sweltering, 110% humid, 10.30 mid-morning sun, I was soaked in sweat and would have welcomed a bit of monsoon right about then. But what I was seeing was not roadside hotels but roads to the right going a few hundred meters down to the beach with signs indicating a place or two to stay. Without knowing how many of these I’d have to venture down, check things out, walk back up, continue down the main road, and do it again and maybe again and again…I decided to pull up Agora and am I ever glad I did because I got quite a deal that totally made up for the “room” I had to settle for on Phi Phi at twice the price.

Ready for the price? $8. that’s eight US dollars per night. I booked 4 nights for $32 then grabbed a scooter sidecar taxi to take me the rest of the way.

…I thought this will be great to do a lot of work on the blog, shoot some video, etc. I’ve just recently been using Todoist as I wrote about last time and have been organizing more and more into it. But it wasn’t the workfest I had intended it to be. There’s almost nothing to do here conventionally, and that’s what makes it enticing and alluring. That is, it’s a place to just enjoy the tranquility and beauty of—at least it was for me—and so that’s what I spent much of the time doing and work took a back seat for a few days.

I rented the motorbike for 5 bucks a day and scoured the island top to bottom and side to side. The roads are almost all pretty good to excellent and there’s little traffic, even passing through the enclaves of commercial activity.

The third day was particularly special with perfect weather, so I did the eastern side of the island all the way down, including a brief visit to Old Town where the island was first settled by Chinese and Arab.

Ko Lanta’s history stems from traders who came by boat from China , and from the Arab continent, originally using the island as a stopover point. In fact, Ko Lanta’s Old Town on the East coast of the island is still home to some of the first traditional Chinese long houses built here.

https://www.lantainfo.com/about_ko_lanta_history.htm

…From Old Town I continued down the rest of the way to the end of the road. Since there’s no connection at the southern tip, no way to go back up the other side. I’ve encountered this phenomenon on several islands in Thailand. Means of discouraging traffic? I don’t know.

But I took note of something on the way down that I wanted to investigate further on the drive back. This tiny sign, middle of nothing…i.e., no other commercial establishments anywhere close…that says “Baja Tacos.”

There’s nothing but jungle everywhere. On the one side of the road, it’s jungle going up and on the other, jungle going down to the sea. As I approach, I see what I didn’t see before. There’s six motorbikes parked on the side of the road. Well, now there’s 7 and I’m headed down the path to see what’s up in terms of tacos…here…of all damn places. It’s 14.00 on a Saturday afternoon.

Turns out the place is widely known of, only open 2 days per week, and i was lucky enough to stumble into one of them.

I have this thing I love to do that I’ve been doing for a while. Only when it’s 5-Star in my judgment, I write a review via Google maps and try to make the proprietor feel proud.

Here’s my review of Baja Tacos, that’s #206th.

Well damn. Having lived in Mexico (tip of Baja, actually) previously, imagine my shock to drive past a place named Baja Taco in a remote part of remote and quiet Koh Lanta (I live in Rawai, Phuket).

Then I see 6 motorbikes parked out front and who can say no to that at 14.00 on a Saturday afternoon?

Ditto what other reviewers have written here. Superb and authentic…especially the salsas.

I opted for 1 steak taco and 1 fish taco.

Must check it out and if it’s a sunny day, the drive is delightful from about anywhere. Very chill driving here.

In other food news, I had some really good meals at three other really good places, Diamond Cliff Restaurant, French Bakery, and The Irish Embassy.

I’ll finish this section with a special one from the last two mornings.

Yesterday, I saw really good reviews of this small place not far from where I was staying, Peak Café. It was just breakfast and I didn’t really think of snapping a picture. But I was really impressed with a few things about it so even though I was pressed for time with the minivan picking me up for the 3-hr drive to Ao Nang, I went back and ordered the same thing again just to get a photo and write the nice Thai lady a strong review on my phone during the drive.

Another great restaurant on Lanta to review. I only do 5 Star. If it doesn’t merit that, I pass.

This place is extra special and because of superior attention to detail in 3 things in the context of breakfast.

The eggs are eggs and were cooked right with warm and mostly runny yolks. Perfect for sopping up with great bread, which brings me to the 1st of 3 great details. It’s made in house and is wonderful, particularly for Thailand where bread is not much of a thing.

2nd is the homemade jam. Raspberry. Just excellent. Such a nice touch where even in high end places you’re served the ubiquitous processed strawberry jelly in a plastic, hermetically sealed pot.

3rd is the bacon. Years ago I tired of the thick sliced, applewood smoked bacon that was all the rage everywhere in the US. I went to thin and crispy and if smoked, hickory is the preference.

Well, let me tell you. This is thin and crispy done to perfection and the consistency slice to slice is notable.

Standard is 150b with 2 slices of bacon. An extra 50 gets you 4 slices.

All in all amazing. I went yesterday and forgot to picture it and so even though pressed for time with the mini-van ride, I went back for another round of the same and in order to get a photo.

I also did a rambling-ass video about the island for other perspectives for those interested. I was riding high and recorded this:

The Best Investment Option For 2022 to 2122

— Enough to cover anyone’s lifetime

Just over a week ago I was asked a question about investing in today’s climate, so I did a video and intended to write a more detailed post in the next day or so, then procrastinated until last Wednesday, and then I was off on another pack-the-backpack spontaneous travel thing, as documented in my last newsletter (free by email).

If all things work together for good, then this delay surely worked out because I now have a whole new laugh to mock, involving a 30-year-old losing people’s billions of dollars.

Yes, it’s a laughing matter.

Sorry not sorry. How many times is shit like this going to happen before people stop chasing just another turn on playing the lottery? I can’t count the times over the last few years I’ve been told about various too-good-to-be-true-or-lasting deals, where you supposedly get a lot of free money. “Money,” I should say.

You know, just because something has better maths doesn’t mean it’s good maths. Lots of stuff is better than shit and that’s not saying much. I’ll speak to crypto and its latest lost-billions fiasco down below. The quote I use in the headline image will tie into that, primarily.

…Everyone is an investor. The difference amounts to what’s the nature of the investment. When people say they invest in stocks, bonds, funds, real estate, startups, et al, they’re just using common lingo to make distinctions, which is fine. But, there are many things to invest in and what I intend to do here is draw the most critical and wide-scope integral distinction you’ll ever consider.

You might be left wondering why you never looked at it like that.

Topics

• The Financial Markets
• Tax Sheltering
  • Story: How My Company Was Penalized For Giving Away Too Much Money
• Real Estate
  • Vacation Rentals: The Sure Big Bucks in R/E!
  • Potential Investment in R/E With Vacation Rental Level Income
• Crypto
  • FTX Fiasco (LOL)
• Entrepreneurship and Geoarbitrage for Max Gains

Since the video is already public, here it is, to be viewed as a scant introduction to this post. If it’s only appetite wetting, feel free to get more. It doesn’t cover much on vacation rentals and almost nothing on crypto, for example. It sets a tone, though.

Check out the remainder of the post; click here.

The FTX Crypto Fraud is So Delicious

…You need to understand the FTX debacle even if you have no investments in crypto.

FTX, based in the Bahamas, held about $16 billion in customer assets but had lent about $10 billion of those funds to Alameda Research, a trading firm also run by Bankman-Fried and headquartered in Hong Kong, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Alameda, in turn, had lent out billions of dollars, with some loans secured by FTT, a cryptocurrency created by FTX, according to a Nov. 2 report from CoinDesk.

The value of FTT crashed as FTX faced $5 billion in customer withdrawal requests last weekend, which left FTX facing an $8 billion shortfall, according to Bankman-Fried. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, had said it was selling its $500 million in FTT based on reports of FTX’s loans to Alameda.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/you-need-to-understand-the-ftx-debacle-even-if-you-have-no-investments-in-crypto-11668184909

…C&C NEWS ☙ Sunday, November 13, 2022 ☙ ALICE IN CRYPTO LAND.

Unregulated crypto was nice while it lasted. Meet Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, the youthful nouveau-riche “founder” of a bizarre Ponzi scheme concealed behind stacks of opaque buzzwords and constructed on a mountain of lies, political shenanigans, deep-state hanky-panky, and of course Ukrainian mega-fraud.

Late this week, the unkempt 30-year-old went from boasting about his $15.6 billion net worth to having “no material wealth,” in about two days.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/c-and-c-news-sunday-november-13-2022

It’s all fucken funny.

Now, check that Rand quote up top again, do some looking into this FTX thing, and notice how it was promoted by the money-is-evil crowd in the new parlance of the times…‘EXCEPT if your motives are clean and you’re doing all this just to help people.’ That’s the new money laundering.

Here, watch this. Andrew Tate making a point in a rather crass manner, but a solid point nonetheless.

Get that? Think of that Rand quote once more and also consider this. Who’s able to steal the most money? Is it the “honest” thieves who simply point a gun at you and tell you the truth….your money or your life? There’s no pretense. He’s a thief and he’s going to steal your money. Or, is it the dishonest parasites claiming to be actually helping you, others whose well being you care about, and all the pet social issues?

Who is able to steal the most and it’s not even close?

OK, NOW watch this for the full-circle dot-connection.

Finally, this, a must watch for what it exposes as to the entire sordid mess that is the crypto space in terms of promotion and hype:

You like crypto? Good. Set up weekly auto buys for Bitcoin and Ethereum using Coinbase, and when your accumulations get to a few thousand bucks, move it to a paper or hardware wallet and secure it like you would gold and silver coins. And just keep doing that. There is no need to combine these accumulated amounts into one wallet (one private key). You can have both unlimited separate paper wallets and unlimited private keys on a hardware wallet.

Before we move to the next section, there is just one more clip you must see. This is the 28-yr old chick in charge of a $20 Billion investment portfolio.

No problems, though. They were all just trying to make a lot of money to give away. Earn to give!

…The laughs just keep adding up. Millions upon millions upon millions…

Hit & Run

…It’s true.

…I LOLed.

Pet Peeve of the Week

The fucking assholes who bring their thick-coated, cold-climate-bred dogs to tropical hot, humid Thailand.

Like…SIBERIAN huskies.

SIBERIAN!!! Not SIAMESE!!!

Some months back I met this Thai chick in a restaurant and we went out a few times. She had money. Nice house, car, schooling in England, married to a US Air Force F-16 pilot for a time.

…And she had 6 dogs. Told me they’re so hot all the time she keeps them in the house with A/C and her electric bill is 6000 per month. That’s like $175 US, but that’s a lot for Thailand.

Dummy.

OK, that’s a wrap. Let’s see if I can get it out on time next time.