gearbox

Whatever the call centre operator told you is not true. I just went and tried to book directly though the Eva web site, for "Economy Basic" ticket it is written clearly - "Seat: Fees apply".

What what?? Looks like you are from some part of the world which doesn't have "budget" or "low cost" airlines.

It is good there are people flying business class, otherwise they'll raise the prices for the economy tickets. I fly economy only when I can't fly budget or is better to use my frequent flyer points. Entertainment is crap anyway, and there is no chef on board. With the budget airlines it is very cheap to move a lot of luggage like 50 kilos. The only gotcha is you need to have a jacket in the cabin, they ramp up the aircon initially to force people to hire blankets, after a while it goes back to normal.

Many airlines started charging for seats, Qatar, Etihad etc.. Some like Singapore Airlines have now "economy lite" class with only cabin baggage included.

Seats used to be extra charge only with budget airlines, now the so called "full service* airlines started charging as well. I pretty much never pay for a seat, just ask nicely during check-in and most likely you'll get seats together or isle seats. Relying on the online check-in usually produce worse outcome, seats are auto allocated by the software.

Google the crime map of Australia.

There is also low income tax offset, which effectively lifts the threshold a little bit.

https://www.expattaxes.com.au/tax-free-capital-gains-on-australian-shares/ However nothing beats holding assets in super in pension stream where everything is tax free and the franking credits can be claimed back. For the time being anyway...

So the Russian interference in the US elections was legit then?

It is up to the Americans which party they would choose, none of your business.

Hopefully it is true, but usually this is not how the double tax agreements work. You are not exempt, but pay the difference in the tax rates. As both govt and private pensions in Australia are tax free, there is a difference between the Thai tax rate in the appropriate tax bracket, and the zero tax rate from Australia. I always pay the tax rate differences for dividends earned in foreign countries which have double tax treaty with Australia.

"The program will begin January 1, 2024 and apply only to tax residents in Thailand meaning tourists and short term workers will be exempt. Also exempt will be those who have been taxed in a foreign country that has a standing Double Tax Agreement with Thailand. " That seems relevant only to people who are tax residents here. I don't have Thai tax file number and don't submit at all tax returns.

Thailand has more than 10% of animals of the world. https://www.goway.com/travel-information/asia/thailand/nature-and-wildlife/ That said walking in the jungle requires more preparation and experience than walking the Euro trails. Mountains are not that inspiring compared to Europe, but the Himalayas are quite close. The sea has plenty of species and is generally safe, there haven't been any reports of shark attacks, and crocodiles are very rare.

If you have a FB there is a group called "Bikepacking Australia", plenty of interesting info there. Another option which seems to get popular now is doing it with ebike. Someone just posted about his journey from Perth to Adelaide on ebike. I'm a fan of the muscle power, plus it is far easier to fly with the bike.

Are you saying that the western tourists went to Thailand specifically to support the tourism? I "supported" Macro during the pandemic but somehow they think they don't owe me anything ????

My gf told me it was an argument between Grab and taxi drivers, and the Grab driver was shot dead. The Samui taxi mafia protecting the ripoff prices.

Nope, raw sashimi is made from frozen fish, and there are requirements for how long the fish needs to be frozen, it is something like a week at -30 degrees Celsius. If you cook the fish the sashimi won't be raw anymore. In Macro they sell in the frozen fish area blocks of frozen tuna sashimi from Indonesia, pretty good.

Good to her if she did do medicine in a Thai uni and managed to pass the medical exams in Oz.

Hmm.... what is your wife doing to get paid 40k per month?

Each to their own...I wouldn't trade 2 years for 270k. After 60 life is carpe diem. Money is worthless if I get sick and watch all day in the backyard how the bamboo grows.

A friend of mine went back for an year and got a job as Uber driver, he rented the car from Uber, around $300 per week, and the earnings were enough.

Whatever when quoted is 100% true, the hurdles are there so it doesn't become outright entitlement. I'll never qualify for OAP unless some global turmoil of big magnitude happens. This "right" is denied to me.

Yes the 2 years rule is a stupid one and shouldn't be there. Also the other complicated rules like deeming, assets tests and so on. The OAP should be retrofitted to resemble the US social security payments - get OAP proportionally to the taxes you paid during your working life. Worked ony 2 months in your whole life? No problem here is $20 for the month, now <deleted> off! "Paid taxes all my life!"...hmm let's see how much you have paid, that'll be $800 a month. Unlikely this to happen in the land of the quasi-communism, way too many voting freeloaders there.

I don't have to go back for 2 years to claim any govt money, but if I had to, I would buy good quality bicycle and panniers, and would cycle around Oz for 2 years.

It is hard to figure out which countries are effectively participating in the exchanges and if you call the govt hotline they won't give you a list ???? However the only way to take money out of Oz without the govt knowing is to put them in the pocket. Everything is captured, including Wise and PayPal transfers. However afaik the ATM withdrawals are not reported yet, but how to withdraw 300k or a mil with a card? At the Oz side the banking software may flag it as suspicious transactions requiring special report to the govt. After they collect data from anywhere they can legally do, complex data mining and data matching models are applied, including network analysis. The desk officers at Centrelink may not look too smart, but the govt has massive computing power in the background which continuously evolves.