gearbox

Read the reviews on Google maps and the fine print.

That's the case of most if not all travel insurances. You are required to nominate a country of residence to be repatriated to. If the insurer estimates that it will cost them more to keep you in the country of claim, they'll dump you in your country of residence and is your problem from there on.

https://www.optus.com.au/prepaid/traveller-sim Last time I saw a kiosk at the international arrivals in Sydney, I imagine there would be one in Melbourne as well. Otherwise head to the large supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths, there are always prepaid sim packages on sale. If you have a phone with esim you may be able to order and activate it online, the Amaysim prepaid sims can be bought as esim as well.

One thing I noticed in Albania is that there are almost no female waitresses in the restaurants. The families are protecting a lot their women, if you mess with a wrong family you'll wonder in which part of the world to hide. Wonderful country for short visit, but it is the most criminal infested nation in Europe, tons of brutal gangs controlling drugs and sex trafficking across Europe.

Yeah...give it a go. https://exit.al/en/albanian-blood-feuds-more-than-10000-revenge-killings-in-30-years/

Medicare is more than enough, for medical will cover anything wrt emergency. If your Thai partner is below 60, get Safewings or World Nomads insurance, from what I've seen the Thai providers coverage is too low for serious issues in Australia.

In case of medical emergency less than a month stay in Australia may cost you hundreds of thousands. Last time I saw prices in the North Shore Private Hospital basic ICU was around $5200 AUD per night.

The Chinese are at the forefront of the nuclear technology, the only Gen 4 commercially working reactor in the world is there. However the Thais are probably better off having wind farms in the gulf, and there are plenty of opportunities in residential solar too. The cost of the solar panels and wind turbines has gone down a lot.

Most of the worldwide providers won't insure 75 years old. From my research the Thai providers offer poor value for money. Can't you reinstate your Medicare?

This is quite possible, the Samui immigration resets the reporting date if an extension is approved. It makes sense, for the extension you need to submit the same documents, even more. As mentioned they may attach a paper in the passport with the next reporting date, although TiT, not sure if all offices are doing it.

Well that's in line with any paperwork handled differently at different immigration offices. I'm in Samui, and god forbid I never wasted half a day to submit 90 days report in person. All done online.

Absolutely not. I just got my 90 days report approved and I re-entered last October, have done already one 90 days report online after the entry. In fact I've never done 90 days report at the immigration, always did it online.

How old are you? If you are below 40 you can get good insurance with Safewings or World Nomads.

Glad you figured it out. Sometimes the airlines' points are pain to navigate and use. I had some points with Etihad expiring this month and I didn't need any ticket to book. Luckily they have an option to open a digital visa card, convert the points to currency and move to the card. I've put the card on Google pay and spent the points in Tops.

Comrade Gamma it depends on the point of view and the narrative. Deutsche Welle is a government propaganda outlet, they rather focus on the miserable state of the German economy. If you follow the real numbers China logged quite impressive trade numbers the first two months of the year. Now there is a bit of squealing from the usual suspects - "We want to manufacture goods too! They are eating our lunch!"

The Qatar avios bookings with partner airlines are "pseudo online", as one can't see which dates are available. I had similar to the OP experience booking one way ticket Samui - Singapore with Bandit Airways. The requested date was not available, after 4 days waiting had to request a different date. The tax for Samui - Singapore was nearly 2400 baht, quite steep. IMO it is better to use the support chat than calling numbers.

3k doesn't seem much for 2 offences. In NSW Australia for driving without licence the max penalty is $2200 AUD, or more than 50k baht.

I'm grateful that AirAsia exists. If one can plan well in advance the prices can be really good. Last year we had a few trips with my gf, one international from Krabi to KL. I paid 5200 baht for 10 individual tickets. In July I'm flying with the Malaysian AirAsia from KL to Makassar Indonesia return, that's 3 hours 30 minutes trip. I paid 7000 baht total, which includes 55kg of checked in baggage both ways, including sport equipment (my bicycle). I think this is an excellent price - try to move 55kg with a full service airline and your wallet will be a lot thinner.

Seems you have figured it out. The police is not there to police anything, have you seen a speed camera anywhere? They don't care if a motorbike or car is registered and whether the drivers have proper licences. It benefits them to have more accidents to "mediate", which results in mediation fees. In the mediation process it is important who has more money to be milked and who knows bigger khun. Why would they be pressing charges? What's in for them?

Another option is Amaysim, they have prepaid sim with PAYG $10 credit valid for 365 days. This can also be bought as esim (Aldi doesn't support esim yet) so in theory you may be able to buy it online and activate in Thailand, but check with Amaysim first, it varies across providers. Your phone must have esim support.

It is not...Aldi mobile PAYG credit is valid for 365 days.

Has anyone been in a road accident and settled the case in court? Seems that most of the accidents here go through "police mediation", with the corresponding brown envelopes. If a person doesn't have a driver's licence at all or drives unregistered vehicle would that be considered "person at fault" pretty much all the time? I think in Australia that is probably the case, but here it seems the driving licence is not important. A person I know has been involved in an accident, so with Samui being a war zone wrt accidents I better get to know more. Seem the chance if accident here is "not if but when".

It depends how the DTA is interpreted. From what I read if you are not Australian tax resident your super may be taxable in Thailand. If you are a resident in both countries there are "tiebreaker" rules to determine primary tax residency for specific cases, e.g pensions. Again, it seems that the only amounts taxable in Thailand are the one entering the country, so if you transfer nothing, nothing will get taxed. This is different from the Oz taxation, if you are resident you get taxed on worldwide income, it doesn't matter if you transfer it to Oz or not. I'm starting withdrawing super sometimes in 2025, to remove any doubts I'm planning to spend 7 months back in Oz.

Phuket - Bangkok is one of the cheapest domestic routes in Thailand. Prices can go as low as 100 baht (not including check in baggage) during sale times. Planes are not like buses, prices go up a lot if booking a flight next week.

Logic dictates that if one can't swim and doesn't have a life jacket flotation would be difficult... Looks like the guy wasn't alone, I wonder why the other one just didn't tow him to the shore instead of going to look for help.