gearbox

https://www.internations.org/expat-insider/ "In 2022, close to 12,000 respondents shared what it’s like living and working far from home. Together, they represent a total of 177 nationalities and live in 181 countries or territories." The survey mostly targets people working in foreign countries in senior positions, not low class retirees living on welfare. UAE would be quite attractive in this aspect, AFAIK the tax rate is zero there.

https://m.thaiwebsites.com/tourists-nationalities-Thailand.asp The bar stool detectives are not doing great work...in 2019 Thailand counted 4 mil Malaysians and almost 2 mil Laotians tourists out of 39 mil arrivals. The methods of counting seems to be consistent. Whether these are full blown tourists is questionable, but the proportions are mostly in line with the pre-covid times.

Why profiteering....this is how capitalism works. There is big demand for their products, and that's pushing up the prices, this is how the markets work. A few years ago some of the big Australian gas companies were at the brink of default due to low petrol/gas prices. Some had to raise extra capital to stay afloat. The view from the public was "they took the risks, they should bear the consequences". Now that the tables have turned, all the quasi capitalists became quasi communists and are demanding the companies share the profits.

Not sure what hoops the OP is talking about. Most tourists enter visa exempt only showing their passport, stay 1-3 weeks and go back. Can't be any easier.

Last time I travelled on the Southern line the train was late around 4 hours...to the point that I had to find a hotel willing to check me in after 12 am. It is what it is and it did the job but among the best in the world....lol.

"Michael Bridge" clearly hasn't travelled on the Thai trains and has no idea what he is talking about.

There are thousands doing remote work from Thailand and pretty much none is on working visa. All sorts of visas are used, pre-covid the usual visa run would do ok.

This ranking is a bit misleading - it is about the people doing remote work in their own country, not people moving to another country. I'm yet to see anyone moving to do remote work from the German beaches. In terms of people relocating to another country to do remote work for better lifestyle and low cost of living Thailand would rank very high.

Phuket and Samui attract different type of Indians - mostly families, not uncommon to see 3 generations travelling. Many are quite well off and spend way above the average tourists.

Quiet these days...but it has everything. Good place for beach lovers.

That sounds like Logan, Ipswich or any other wasteland west of Gold Coast. 48k baht would be pretty much only the rent in Gold coast or good Brisbane suburb.

You should be ok...tell your wife or gf to get a job.

The OP is a retiree. Who in their right mind would retire to Bangkok? In the heist and other movies the protagonists retire sipping cocktails at a tropical beach.

Get your pension paid to Australian bank, then use Wise to transfer to your Thai account. If you have Aussie ING debit card you can avoid the 220 baht fee subject to certain conditions.

Maybe in relation to the extension...like 800k turning up a few days before the extension is requested.

Your mistake was to apply too late. TiT, rules can be interpreted differently by different IOs and different provinces. Expect not to be able to make it through in one shot and to be turned back to bring something else. I'm a Bangkok bank customer and got my extension with the 800k baht method producing only 6 months statement, plus bank book. However as the bank book had the last transaction a week ago, I was told to go back and deposit 100 baht and update my bank book, to show the sum is still there. Had around 1.5 mil baht in the account and it was pretty obvious the account had normal activity. Next year I'm sure they'll turn me back for something else so will apply at least 2-3 weeks in advance.

Why that would be treacherous? India owes you nothing. If it is not in your interest to take Indians jus don't give them visas. However looking at the Sillicon valley innovators it is clear to me who creates more value for US, and that's not the low class emigrated to Thailand.

If you don't mind eating cheap food at home both Tesco and Big C cook food daily and discount it after 4-5pm. Nothing fancy but you can buy fried rice, some soups and some fried/barbecued things as cheap as 15-20 baht a dish. It is safe and cooked in controlled environment. I buy from time to time Saba (mackerel) from Big C as a side dish for a Leo.

It is all relative. People should know their limits and stay well below them. The limits can be raised with skills and training. In rough seas just knowing to swim is not enough, you need swimming with "thrust" to be able to get out of rips and other dangers. That involves pretty good freestyle swimming. My purely speculative measure would be if you can do 100m freestyle between 120-150 seconds you would be ok to get out of a rip and come back. The rough monsoon seas in Phuket and Samui would be regarded as pretty calm in Australia where one can get thundering waves and fast rips. They won't warrant red flag there. Last year I was at Kata beach and swam to Ko Put and back easily, this is close to 2.5 km return. Of course not to be attempted during rough seas.

I'm currently in Europe but around a month ago Lubd in Chaweng had advertisements for "free pool" placed on the beach. However music blasts there all the time and also from the next to it "The Elephant", it doesn't appear to me as a kids playground place. The beach in front of it is very shallow and safe, so it could be the parents in the pool and the kids in the sea ???? Cocktails on promo at sunset.

It depends what you want to order. Nice thing is the vat+duty calculations so you know what exactly you are paying. I was shopping there for carbon kayak paddles, good choices and prices until I saw the shipping charges.. On the other end small items like DRAM sticks won't incur prohibitive shipping charges. E.g I ordered from there 2 pairs of swimming goggles, great quality and price, all in all the total price was very competitive.

The rip does not drag you down. If one can swim kilometers and knows how to get out of a rip it would be ok.

That's been discussed here many times, in short it is illegal. You can get away with some non-visible activities like bookkeeping or something at the back where nobody sees you, but facing customers and being seen working is asking for trouble. Your competitors may notify the police and you may get fined, asked for bribes, blackstamped etc.

There are no such prices in Chaweng, and it is very rare to see food carts on the Beach road. 40 baht will buy one roti with banana and vanilla. A family of 4 from Europe would probably pay 2500-3000 euro only for airfare to stay 1-2 weeks in Samui. The last thing they would do is to waste one of these expensive holiday days looking for 40 baht meals...

Indians treacherous? They still remember who murdered and stole from them for centuries. Two years ago when I was in the Andamans the statues of the Indian freedom fighters tortured and murdered there were still standing tall. Indians are well aware that they are invited into the Quad in order to be thrown under the bus when needed, so good for them to be looking after their own interests.