gearbox

Who says the world needs a leader? Nobody needs you self assigned leadership.

I buy quite a lot of stuff from Amazon...around 2-3k Oz dollars per year. Mainly hardware tools like Knipex and Wera tools and computer gear. I'm a Prime member and everything is shipped for free to Australia, when I go there I pick it up and bring it to Thailand. Had no issues with customs here so far. Same stuff here costs a fortune.

Sihanoukville was not destroyed, it was rebuilt, and now has a motorway connection to Phnom Penh. The prices went way up and the low class scum staying there was priced out. I believe the islands so far are not touched yet, but I've heard there would be an airport on Koh Rong. Seems that Kep is the next in line for development.

The prices have gone up. I did the same with a normal bicycle, the rental was $1 per day.

If you take the route using debit cards for transfers the Wise card looks cumbersome to me. If you withdraw the max Krungsri amount of 30k with a proper debit card, the fees are similar to a Wise bank transfer of 30k. Here is the list of suitable cards: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/cards_with_no_overseas_transaction_fees I have ING (Visa), Macquarie (MasterCard), HSBC (MasterCard), NAB (MasterCard), Ubank(Visa). Used all of them so far except Ubank, all work great. They can also be used outside Thailand for ATM fee free and currency conversion fee free withdrawals. I'm outside Thailand for the last 2 months, I use them all the time.

It is in the article...needs to be frozen at -35c or -20c (for different periods). I've eaten a lot of raw sashimi, salmon, tuna, etc, never had any issues. In Macro they sell frozen sashimi grade tuna (looks like small bricks), I get some from time to time, put it in the freezer for extra 10-15 days, and make sashimi with it.

It is going to be hard for any country to compete with China, which has the biggest market and the biggest share of the world manufacturing. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202402/21/WS65d56abaa31082fc043b8503.html "Analyzing the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's recently released 2023 update of the TiVA database, the study found that in 2020, China made up a staggering 35 percent of global gross manufacturing production, followed by the US, Japan, Germany — China's share is three times the US share, six times Japan's, and nine times Germany's."

Hi sorry for the late reply, I'm in Indonesia now and don't check the forum often. You can get USM - BKK flights cheaper than 2700, last two times I flew for 2300. In fact the cheapest way to get them is if you have mileage points with a partner airline which allows Bangkok Airways partner booking, like Qantas and Qatar. I booked Samui - Singapore flight February next year for 6000 avios points plus 2700 baht fees, not bad at all. In regards to the pink card, you only need yellow book to get it, and this was quite a bit of effort. My gf did most of the work, there are a few forms to fill in, you need a certified translation of your passport to Thai, and a Thai witness to certify they know you for 3 (I think so) years. I did this during covid, there was nothing to do and the office in Nathon was quite quiet. Not sure what is involved now. The yellow book is accepted instead of certificate of residence for driving licence in Samui. If you have a Thai to help you, enquiry can be made with the office, otherwise with my level of Thai (next to nothing) I can't imagine doing it.

Correct, I'm in my second month of cycling, now in Indonesia, there are no extra requirements or payments to travel with a bicycle wrt travel insurance. I have an Aussie travel insurance with unlimited medical and medevac.

There was no extra cover requirement for cycling in tens of policies I've looked at.

As far as I know Truam Udom Suksa is the preparatory school for Chulalongkorn Uni and is considered the top public school in Thailand. Many participants in the international school Olympiads have studied there.

I'm not an owner of a company and not married to a Thai, but didn't have issues getting approval, producing only my pink card. In the end I didn't get it as I didn't have a CC with me to pay. Not a big deal as it turned out the card costs 400 baht and is valid only for 2 years. If purchasing tickets well in advance the price is probably better than using the card.

It could be hard to find the $5 sim in Aldi, usually they are out of stock. $25 is usually available. 1 week before you go check the Woollies and Coles specials online, almost every week there are prepaid sim specials.

South Korea and Japan don't engage in housing Ponzi schemes and fake GDP growth, these two require ever increasing immigration.

There are some but pretty sparse, there are a lot of rocks as well. You can see them from the Mae Nam view point and also on Google Maps. Water visibility is poor and very few people snorkel there.

I was kayaking between the Lomprayah pier at Mae Nam and Ban Tai beach, and noticed a lot of white areas in the water that I haven't seen there before. Seems that massive coral bleaching happened. Are Phangan or Koh Tao affected? https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/thailand-heat-coral-reef-bleaching-b2550015.html

I'm not from UK but was interested to see if the Brits have a state pension which is proportional to the contributions....seems it is not quite there. A person on £250k yearly income pays times more yearly contribution than a person on £25k, but seems both persons would get the same pension for the same number of qualifying years. Separately the people on jobseeker benefits get qualifying years without paying anything. There was a study in Australia claiming that the bottom 50% of the taxpayers are getting more from the government than they are contributing in taxes. The usual "I paid taxes all my life" brigade.

That's nuisance, I spent thousands of $ with AliExpress on all sorts of bits and gadgets, now it will cost more with extra paperwork. But is happening in many places, Australia introduced it ages ago, the so called "Harvey Norman" tax.

Here is your guide...pick up a country. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation From what I see Malaysia will tax remitted foreign income under certain conditions. The Philippines seems to remain the only comparable country around which doesn't tax foreigners who are tax residents. There are quite a few countries without income tax, and also many with only territorial taxes, but I wouldn't live permanently in any of them.

AFAIK the Australian banks will provide the CRS data only if the customer declares another tax residency in the KYC forms. I never declared any foreign country tax residency....and how would I know if I'm a tax resident if it is still 6th of June? I may decide tomorrow that I'm going somewhere else until the end of the year.

CRS data exchange....your interest, dividends, capital gains etc will be handed over by your home country.

I was actually surprised they were not planning to tax worldwide income, many countries do, one of the latest being Portugal from the beginning of 2024.

As the eternal TVF wisdom states, never bring to Thailand more money that you can afford to lose. Have always plan B and C.

Dunno about UK or US but in Australia if you are a Thai who is a tax resident you'll pay tax on your worldwide income, irrespectively whether the income is transferred to Australia or not. If there is a DTA you usually get a tax credit if tax was paid in the other country. If you are tax resident of both countries usually there is a "breaker" rule to decide which residency takes precedence.

The new 60 days visa exempt will come handy, two of these + extensions would cover the 180 days. If the worldwide income taxation comes in force I'll stop getting non-O retirement extensions and move my money outside Thailand.