gearbox

The Thais can only blame themselves. They built a reputation of a country where everything goes. Would the scum dare to do this in Singapore? Chain them at the entrance of Bangla road, and give them 100 lashes Singaporean way. Put it on Tiktok everyone to see.

Good move by Sanchez. Flush out the parasites. Houses are for living, not for flipping.

Cheap labour in East Asia....this was the case many years ago. These countries lead in the implementation of robots, China is deploying more than half of the robots in the world in recent years. The reasons for their success is very simple - they study and work harder, and the governments have policies to promote this.

From the English speaking countries only the US still has some sort of functioning economy, albeit constantly deteriorating too. UK, Canada, Australia and NZ only depend on housing Ponzi schemes and importation of migrants mainly from India and the rest of the subcontinent. Close to 45% of the world manufacturing is now attributed to only 3 East Asian countries - China, Japan and South Korea, and possibly Vietnam joining too. They are increasingly churning out more and more sophisticated products and enjoying trade surpluses. You can't grow an economy sustainably with delivery drivers, bricklayers and lawyers.

My gf did both in Bumrungrad hospital around a month ago. Around 37k with 10% voucher discount. The equipment and level of service was similar to the Sydney North Shore private hospital where I did mine 8 months ago. I had a look around and most of the big private hospitals were asking similar prices. Depending on your home country you may be able to do it cheaper there.

Not likely, she looks like a molecular biologist.

I know about them, they have only 1 cubic metre available, and is relatively pricey at 1100 baht per month. The minimum I need is 2 metres length.

I was thinking about it, but I'm not sure how safe it is. I may not be around for months, it could be tempting for the people around to empty the room.

Indeed Australia is at the opposite part of the world. I would expect a topic like this one to be started from someone from a NATO country. Population there may face conscription to defend Greenland under Article 5.

Why would you withdraw cash over the counter? Unless it is many thousands use ATM. Some of the banks allow you to increase daily limits considerably.

How would this work... isn't Greenland in NATO? Aren't the other NATO countries going to protect Greenland?

At 76 I wouldn't worry too much....it will take probably years to get to effective worldwide taxation. The taxman can do little if they don't have info from overseas.

Nope....Google CRS. At the moment is too mirky but if the Thais determine you are tax resident they may require the CRS info from the Oz side, and they may need to provide it. However it is all new and would probably need years to be worked out. One thing for sure - the things are going to get worse, not better. The governments are out to fleece you.

I can work around the transfers but if they want to start taxing worldwide income irrespectively whether the income was transferred or not, I would have real issues. Too much uncertainty at the moment, the 100% fix is to spend less than 180 days.I live off money I transferred in 2022, but I'm planning to move to DTV, this would free my 800k in the bank to be used.

I'm in the same boat. AFAIK the private pensions like super are not covered by the DTA and are taxable...at least this was my impression after reading the DTA. Departing next month to spend 7 months in Oz then 2 months in Europe, this will prevent me being tax resident in Thailand in 2025. Planning to spend less than 180 days per year for forseeable future.

Bob's posts are much more genuine and entertaining.

Main thing for me is to store my bicycles and kayaks. Need to figure out whether is better to rent there or drive to Pattaya to put them in cheaper storage. No firm plans yet.

My BMI is good enough.... thanks for worrying. I travel mainly as a long distance bikepacker or kayaker, that has put me on top of the cardiovascular health for my age.

Where are these 5000 baht per month bungalows? May need one to store my gear if my relationship goes south.

Xi is the greatest Chinese leader in recent times. Surely he is going to inflict some pain for long term gains to his people, but they can't topple him, there are no elections in China. The greatest move recently was to clamp on the real estate speculators. I keep an eye at a few high tech areas and the Chinese are moving very fast ahead.

I live in Samui since 2018. For me the main attraction is the ability to swim and kayak in good waters, if you are not into this I would give Samui a miss. The infrastructure and traffic are bad, accidents happening every day. The quality of the visitors is going down every year, plenty of aggressive tattoed low life roaming around. Going anywhere is more expensive than anywhere else in Thailand, e.g going with a car to the mainland sets you back 1200 baht. The hospitals can't match the big hospitals on the mainland, like these in Phuket, Pattaya or the big regional centres like Hat Yai. Going out by air is expensive and sometimes a nuisance...I travel a lot and mostly in southern direction, have to fly to Bangkok or Phuket first. Everything is more expensive, probably the most expensive of all main tourist places. However if you are in good financial shape, don't move too much around and like to stay at quiet place near the beach, this is all doable and the life is good.

There are elections next May, I'll vote for any party which wants to remove American military presence from our soil. For defence, stop buying American junk and make a deal with Fat Kim. We have cash, he has nuclear technology probably at tenth of the prices we are paying now for defence. Have nukes, sleep well.

There are a plenty of people living in Thailand and posting here, there is pretty good information in specific forums, like the regional or visa related.

This thread degraded to US vs the world hate exchange. In 2024 I've spent 6.5 months in Thailand, a little bit more than the requirement to be a tax resident, but this year planning to spend 7 months in Oz and 2 in Europe to avoid tax residency issues. I was here on O-A initially, then converted to Non-O retirement, later this year planning to move to DTV as I would be spending less than 180 days here.

Moments will come when the government is short of money and may axe many things, including OAP. Money is earned first before being spent. Interesting times ahead.