sabai-dee-man

Oh, boo hoo! It's called "sh*t happens"! Things change... sometimes in your favour, sometimes against. Being bitter about it just makes you look spoilt & childish. Anyone buying an Elite Visa has always had more money than sense anyway!

My first year in 2001 I did 11x 30-day border runs back-to-back. I wouldn't have the energy... or the confidence to put my life in the hands of those crazy van drivers now! LOL

Well, Vietnamese is new territory for them, so it's going to take some working out. Now, if they find a Burmese guy to link in, it'll be resolved in no time!

UK minimum wage is over ฿500 per hour for over 21s. She'd earn in a day (if 14hrs) what minimum wage in Thailand pays in a month. I'd like to hope she's been working hard and squirrelling away the money, and the £200k is just the bonus needed to kick-start her/their return to Thailand a bit early. Maybe he does support her, and she's been saving the vast majority of her earnings for a few years? Ever think of that? It does happen.

They're not all lazy cash sucking vampires. My ex-wife loved her job in the UK, and my current missus loves her job too. Neither of them had/have any ambition of being wholly dependent on me. Lucky me, eh? Or maybe I just don't pick 'em up in bars!

Agreed. I'd rather see them in Thailand than bolstering Russian forces.

You need a society that abides by the law, and effective law enforcement for that to have any effect.

Why?

There's no shortage of idiots willing to part with their cash for [any] religion.* *Yes, I know Buddhism isn't technically a religion, but Thai Buddhism is fake Buddhism anyway!

There isn't any prostitution in Thailand. The officials have declared this umpteen times after their "entertainment zone" inspections.

Ooh-er, missus! 😆

I don't think of myself as a "digital nomad", and like yourself, have been working remotely since it was ever even really a thing. I'm not offended, but I am irritated that those who don't have the aptitude to live a freer life, rather than slaving at a 9-5 under supervision and instruction for their working life, generally assume we're all lazy spongers! Work smart, not hard, has always been my motto. Almost all my friends hate their jobs, and I'd say the majority suffer their job. I genuinely love my job... I'm doing something I wanted to do since I was at school. I learned the skills, and I can do it from anywhere! I've encountered a lot of bitterness over the years, often from employees of companies I've worked with.

I paid the correct income tax, NI contributions, and private pension. Anything else I can annoy you with. Get a life!

Moronic response. I've been a digital nomad for over 15 years, spending 4-6 months a year in Thailand. I spent £12k between the end of December and mid-May, all brought into Thailand from abroad. You sound bitter of a lifestyle you could probably only dream of.

Yeah, not bad. She makes ฿500 out of it. The visa itself is ฿1200, but you're supposed (apparently) to stay 24hrs. There's a ฿300 handshake for them to process you in/out at the same time. YMMV on this, but I remember doing the Cambodia run with a mate in his car before, years ago, and him (stupidly) arguing with the immigration officer about. It's definitely a thing!

Get a Bolt taxi to Ban Pakkad for about ฿4k return, and next to the little coffee shop and convenience store is a young Cambodian girl who'll walk you through the border and back for ฿2k. Not particularly cheap, but at such short notice your options are limited. https://maps.app.goo.gl/VrMZevNqnVYRnz6Z9

You sound bitter. Jealous? I've been a "digital nomad" since before it was even a thing! I pay into a private pension.

I agree. I do agree with the x-number of Thai employees per foreign employee/director, but why should 51% be owned by a Thai?! Utter BS!

I've not had a visa for about 15 years, and stay 5-6 months a year over each winter. Never had a problem with extensions and border runs. I just got back to the UK about 10 days ago after arriving in BKK at Xmas. Last year was good, with the 45+30 setup, but 60+30 will be handy. A digital nomad visa will probably work out about the same as a couple border runs & extensions, but without the hassle of the white knuckle minibus rides! Bring it on!

Do you really think she would have access to that information?! Do you have any idea where all the CCTV cameras are where you travel, or even in your hometown where you spent most of your life, let alone where they face exactly and what they cover?! Give me a break! 🙄 🙄 🙄

They deal with a lot of (often dangerous) snakes, but I doubt a juvenile tiger is generally within their remit. I wonder how you would've handled it?!

I've driven in many countries around the world, and without doubt, Thais are the worst drivers I've ever had the misfortune to encounter!

I'm Buddha's son, and so's my wife!

Yes, exactly. He dabbled a bit on occasion "for medicinal reasons", but I came back at the end of 2022 to find him skiving off work and sitting in weed bars continuously. 6 months later the job was gone, 9 months later the house was gone. He couldn't even be arsed to rent the house out as an AirBnB. Totally lost the will to be a productive member of society. As for friend #2, he openly admits himself, smoking dope absolutely led him on to hard drugs. Believe what you want. It makes no odds to me.

I have three friends who regularly smoked weed from their mid teens. One kicked the habit in his late 30s, early 40s, and is fine, the second progressed to hard drugs, and thankfully managed to get clean about 8 years ago... but his brain is frazzled. He was my best friend at school, but we lost touch when I went to work and he went to college, and got in with the wrong crowd. Drugs totally f****d his life up. The third guy, here in Thailand, now in his late 20s, had a good job and had bought a nice house... lost the will, lost his job, and lost his house! Now lives with his mother in Issan, and no longer even chats with anyone. He's just stoned all the time. I'll pass, thank you. Doesn't appear to be as "harmless" as people claim.