gearbox

The ruble is nearly at 5 years high against the baht...

You can't be innocent in many cases in Samui. When I did my last retirement extension in June, I was given an extra piece of paper to sign. I didn't read it carefully, but it was all about overstays and consequences. Didn't have to sign this an year ago, and it is quite possible all Non-O in Samui may need to sign it in the future. So you can't play innocent as your signature has acknowledged you are aware of what would happen if you overstay. I guess they probably don't bother much with the "normal" tourists entering on visa exempt, they usually stay a couple of weeks and head back.

You need nothing, it is back to the pre covid times. I flew with Qantas from Bangkok in October, the only thing I needed was my passport. The planes were packed both to/from Australia.

This topic is about ED and Volunteer visas. Teachers are here with work permits. ED - students, WP - teachers.

Probably escaped a while ago. There was another 4m captured last year in Surat Thani. And if you read the Internet they are extinct here....

Welcome! Samui is meeting you with a lot of rain now ☔

If that's the "Fisherman's village market" stretching from Coco Tams to the ring road, it is quite popular. I was there a few weeks ago and it was packed. The reasons are obvious - the tourists have less money, it is good value to drink 99 baht cocktails while entertained by decent live music. However I spent a few weeks in Phuket and Bangkok very recently, and Samui looks outright dead compared to these. Heaps of seemengly well of Indians and Middle Easterners in Bangkok, lots of Russians in Phuket. Looks like due to high airfares and high inflation there is a change of tourist flows coming to Thailand, and it doesn't look favourably to Samui. If China opens and there are direct flights the business may pick up.

Would be way cheaper to upgrade your Acer with a SSD drive and extra ram (if you have an extra slot and the memory is not soldered) Your performance requirements are quite modest.

Once you declare yourself retired, you can set up a pension (income stream). Withdrawals have to be no minimum than the percent set for the specific age groups (the minimum is 4% per year). Myself I would keep my super invested in Australia, in retirement phase the taxes on super earnings are zero, hard to beat this anywhere else.

RIP. The Khangsar to Tilicho lake is a difficult side trip which a very few trekkers do. There are not enough details what actually happened, but some sections of the terrain are very steep and is fairly difficult to evacuate from there. Seems they were on a guided tour, but there won't be any mobile reception there, and only the most expensive tours like World Expeditions may have satellite phones. The key preparation for high altitude trekking and mountaineering is to have enough time and not trying to fit the trip in the annual time off work. The steep narrow trails require good concentration, therefore high altitude acclimatisation. People are declared missing there every year.

From what I've seen the petty crime in Thailand is at pretty low level. There are way more lowlifes in Australia.

I found Boots in Central Festival to be price competitive for the stuff I usually buy (NSAIDs). I generally avoid pharmacies which don't have bar code scanning at the checkout, often farang prices are applied on the spot.

Seems that these days it may be better strategy to buy cheap tickets on sale early, and cancel/forfeit them later if no need to fly. I'm flying from Sydney to Phuket soon, bought one way ticket with Jetstar in June for $175 AUD. The same tickets now are around 1k. Insane prices for November. What is more interesting is that my flight is not cancelled the usual Jetstar way, they must be flying full planes to Phuket.

1 mil baht is not too much money if the interest is reasonable. Maybe she can try to refinance with lower interest?

There is Central Festival in Chaweng.

Mate your bar is too low...6 months to live and only 10k USD? Add at least one zero behind. Have you heard about the inflation going on?????

I would get a 3 months visa and go to Nepal to walk the mountains. As mentioned in one post above, changing just the geography and keeping the same routine won't help you much "finding yourself". You may need to experience something way more different than your previous highly structured life in a nanny state. Walking the high mountains in Nepal will give you a whole new prospective of life. You'll see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. You'll see some of the toughest places on earth to live, with some of the toughest people on earth living there happily in piece with themselves. At 5000m and above you'll find that a hot cup of tea tastes better than 25 years old single malt. You'll experience a lot of physical tiredness and cold. Oh and by the way they have temples with the most incredible views, you can try to stay there and see what a proper tough life is. I'm pretty sure after 3 months you'll depart from there much physically and mentally stronger, also knowing quite a bit more about yourself.

I cycled and walked that road many times. It is quite a busy road and accidents do happen. Never witnessed road rage though. There are always people around there, hopefully the police would find witnesses to find out how this started. Looks like a road rage case to me.

https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/china-chip-ban-a-us-exercise-in-extreme-self-harm/ This is one of the most respected experts on China. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_P._Goldman Hopefully the Chinese won't catch up too quick, as the only tool left for "containment" at that point will be war.

Most IMAP/POP clients have settings whether to keep the email on the server, and if keep for how long. The "other person" needs to reconfigure the client they use.

Roller bladder is an equal road user? He is more pedestrian than motorist.

Yep the home countries should ban their citizens to get retirement extensions ????

I've been to most of them, from a tourist point of view, in regards to natural beauty I would put Lombok at number one. Different story for permanent living.

Best island in Thailand for one month....100% Koh Phangan. Koh Lipe is better in regards to beaches, but IMO is not a "one month island". Although if you want to spend a bit more money you can always hop for a week to Langkawi, the alcoholics paradise. Bike rental is a bit more expensive than Samui, rent a bike from Samui and go with the bike to Phangan...it was 200 baht bike + driver with Raja ferry 5-6 months ago. Depending on the time of the year the islands in the Koh Chang area may have sand flies, or "midges", as Queenslander you are probably familiar with the issues...

Samui No 2 after Phuket: https://travelandleisureasia.com/asias-best-awards-2022-top-10-islands-in-southeast-asia/