khunPer

I'm still saving up, so I one day have enough to spend...????

I'm extremely happy, and I don't regret that I permanently moved to a parise island little more than 15 years ago...????

14th October Samui +11 new cases Phangan +2 new cases Koh Tao, no new cases

Official announcement has been issued. Coming to Ko Samui from 15 Oct as domestic traveller, only Covid Test (RT-PCR/ Ag Test not more than 7 days), or vaccine certificate is required. Children below 12 yrs are exempted.

Because that is how it normally works in Thailand, with lots of small commissions everywhere...????

Contact head-of-village, he will normally know what's happening in a village and if someone might be interested, and give him the usual 3% commission if he can sort it all out.

If you are 50 years old - or when you are 50 - considers extension based on retirement from an original non-immigrant O-visa, it's easy and only tie up 800k baht in a Thai bank account; just leave them on a 12-months fixed deposit, so you don't need to worry about topping up and maturing of funds, withdraw the interest annually so you have a clean 800k baht balance. It costs you annually 1,900 baht for extension of stay; and 3,800 baht for multiple re-entry permit, or if only travelling abroad once a year you can buy a one time re-entry permit for 1,000 baht; and about 300 baht for a confirmation letter and statement from the bank (best to use two accounts, the 800k baht fixed and your normal expenses account, and show both). If you're under 50 years you can use a 400k baht deposit and extension based on marriage until you are 50; the paperwork is little less when applying for extension based on retirement, and you are not dependent of a marriage. So far there has not been any requirements for health insurance or vaccinations for extension from original entering on a non-immigrant O-visa. However, it recommended to have a health insurance or enough funds set aside, if you wish to be self-insured. It has been mentioned in the news that the 90-days reporting might be terminated. Looked over a 20-year period, you pay 1,900 + 3,800 + 300 baht x 20 = 120,000 baht for extension er multiple re-entry permits, vs. 1 million baht for an Elite Card where you leave Thailand once a year and re-enters. You might be saved from 90-days report - if not terminated - if staying in areas where Elite Card has an office. The paperwork is not that complicated (I talk from experience), but you can use an agent or law firm to help you with paperwork. If there are any additional benefits connected to the cheap 20-year version, like fast track and airport transfer, you can buy them and probably cheaper than the price of an Elite Card.

The financial points on the list don't covers wealthy people, but us more normal folks, where money is something we talks about, because you don't have enough - don't forget that wealthy people don't talk about money that's something they have enough of...????

If I had the money - and didn't fancy Thai girls too much...????, which however also could be arranged if I had enough money - I might consider Singapore as an option, especially due to it well organized society and infrastructure...???? However, if I had that much money so I'm real wealthy, I would actually have a lot of choices all around the World, and if I begin to make pro-et-con lists, I'm not sure if I would settle in Thailand, but I could pass by now on then and enjoy a shorter stay in a 5-star luxury hotel - plus one night in Bangkok... - on my way to another luxury resort. Dreaming is sometimes a glorious thing... Down to earth I would think that Thailand more likely could gain one million retirees and global residents in the more modest range - i.e. those retirees that can afford 800,000 baht deposit, and invest in a home, condo or house with land from around 3 million baht to perhaps 30 million baht, under not too difficult conditions - and especially on-line workers, hereunder digital nomads, if they don't aim too high about proof of education and income level, those people might also invest in a home. That would mainly be people with enough money, but who wish a little better lifestyle than they could buy for same money at home, perhaps including some tax benefits, i.e. kind of economically migrants...???? The better off, including financially loaded playboys and like - and that is folks below, or far below, wealthy-level - already have the Elite Card options, which indeed is within range if you belongs in that financial level. There are some 10,000 of them now, but not easy to imagine them increase 100-fold in five years, even with some little extra benefits...????

I would not be so scared about vaccinated foreigners from low risk zones, I would worry more about the unvaccinated Thais, and eventual migrant workers that could be crossing borders...???? However, there might not come that many foreign tourists as long as there are restrictions, even mandatory wear of face mask can make numerous choose another destination for Christmas-New Year peak season and upcoming winter holidays in January and February, Western foreigners normally plan ahead and could be booking the holidays already now; but with Chinese I've no idea of their preference, they might come in millions..

Siam Bioscience has been added to the list of AstraZeneca AB manufacturing sites, so Thai AZ-vaccine is thereby recognized on the WHO EUL list...

Big Buddha Market in Bang Rak will be closed for two weeks until 26th October, a total of 50 Covid-19 cases have been located here.

Actually Samui seems to have the highest Covid-vaccination rate in Thailand, so if vaccine works, should we then have so relative many new cases? -Or are the positive new cases asymptomatic, or so mild (due to vaccinations) that it doesn't matter, i.e. we can live with Covid, just like we can live with cold and flu...???? Bear in mind, that even 17,917 people have died with Covid-19 so far, then 44,549 people in Thailand died from the flu in 2018 (WHO count).

I was vaccinated on a Sunday, together with a massive number of other people, so I presume Thailand do vaccination on Sundays...????

Three days a week I take a 75 mg so-called "heart aspirin", for two reasons... One is that it thin the blood a little to avoid blood clots - for example a stroke - but the dose is low enough to avoid risk of internal bleeding. The other is that studies have shown that Asperin - or rather acetylsalicylic acid - is so far the best medicine to prevent certain types of cancer; of course you also need a sensible healthy lifestyle. The studies use the 75 mg dose - higher dose didn't give better protection - and they didn't find increased risk of internal bleeding. The cancer protection for certain types ran from about 10 percent and up to around 60 percent. I also take a daily 1000 mg vitamin-C tablet, which is said to be good both for general health, strong immune system, and some cancer protection, and furthermore, a few times a week, a combined "Centrum" multi vitamin and mineral tablet (the normal one, I don't feel old enough yet for the "Men 50+"-tablet)...???? A bit of coconut oil should also be good to protect against dementia, and should it not be the case, then it doesn't do any harm to intake a little coconut oil almost daily, for example just use it when preparing food. Same with vitamins, when you don't overdo, and vitamin-C you just pee out, if get too much for the body. The fairly low dose Asperin I'm not afraid of - perhaps it's also good for potence, I have no problems so far, so I better don't stop take it...

13th October Samui +39 new cases Phangan, no new cases Koh Tao, no new cases

Hopefully not a co-ax cable, it's outdated and slow "Token Ring" network. It will be a normal LAN RJ45-connection out from the fiber router, and that cable can easily carry 1 Gbps date (Giga bit is not the same Giga Byte, one byte is 8 bit). Often the router will have a build in switch with a number of LAN sockets for output. This is what my 5G router from TOT looks like (it's about o year old, so new models might have 5 wifi-antennas)... The white box at bottom is the fiber inlet, with a small (yellow) fiber cable to the 5G router with the antennas. From that are the output LAN connections. I have an additional switch, the black device, as I route wired LANs to six different locations in my house. 300 Mbps is RJ45 LAN out...????

Unfortunately I live on a tropical island, so my skilled electrician would rather take a fishing trip than a trip to Bangkok - and Bangkok is a huge city, so an electrician in one part might not move to another part for a small job like plugging in an UPS - I've installed my 12 pieces of UPS myself. It's very easy, I put the power cable from the UPS into a wall outlet, and put the power lead from the electrical device to be protected into one of the 220V undisturbed power output sockets at back of the UPS...???????? Be aware to buy a UPS with the right capacity, i.e. for example 500VA or 1000VA, depending of your item(s) power need; a typical PC requires about 300W-350W and a flat screen about 150-250W depending on size. If using both a powerful PC, screen and printer, you might need two UPS, one for the PC, and another for screen and printer (I use that). I bought my UPS from different sources over the years, but my best buy was online from Lazada, I'll share a link HERE of what I bought - 1000VA equaling 530W - but do browse through both Lazada and Shopee, there might be other excellent offers, or you can find one in a local shop....????

From my experience with Toyota and buying a new car... - The contract states first class insurance is included but it doesn't specify a length. I assumed the length of the insurance would be the length of the original loan like Mercedes does but now they're saying it's only 1 year. What is the norm with Toyota when you get a loan and they include insurance? Is it for 1 year or for the duration of the loan? Only first year insurance is normally included, you pay for the additional years - Mercedes is probably just adding the cost for additional insurance years to the price of their car, which is in another price range; remember nothing is "free" - I choose the same insurer that I used for my old car, and got a discount for my additional years. - When I brought the car in for the first service they said only labour is included for free and I had to pay for the oil. Is that normal? I would've thought free service meant the service was completely free. Yes, that is correct, normally you get an agreed number of years free labor on service included, but not parts and oil etc,; except if it's something broken under warranty. - I purchased the "AirLumba" massage seat option which the brochure showed two buttons for (both front seats) but they only installed it on one seat saying I needed to pay extra to have the 2nd seat. Anyone know if that's correct? I wasn't given an option to buy the option twice when I bought it so I assumed it would be on both front seats. I didn't buy massage seats, so I don't know, but normally there is a small tiny print in brochures saying something like that shown images might be different from actual product. Edit: PS, I've been extremely happy with both Toyota's service, and the actual product, i.e. the car...????????

I would say "no"...????

Even that we could wish for (much) more tourists, 100,000 a month is a sensible view...????

The problem might however not be that huge. There are probably not be a tourist exodus to Thailand when reopened to vaccinated tourists, as long as there are several restrictions - including covid tests on destination; most airlines already requires a negative Covid test within a certain number of hours to allow boarding - and especially European tourists will not be happy to a holiday wearing mandatory face mask, they were demonstrating against wearing such a device, they have many other attractive vacation options without any restrictions. Some tourists will come for sure, but I dont think they'll be that many that the "screening and monitoring systems" cannot cope with them.

12th October Samui +10 new cases Phangan, no new cases Koh Tao, no new cases

There are sometimes shared timelines in Thai language in the Thai news forums, but I've only shared a few timelines when I saw them translated to English. Also some clusters have been named, like for example "Black Club Cluster". You can find some of the timelines in this Facebook news-group HERE (Koh Samui Update News), or search for the official site from Surat Thani government, you might need to do that in Thai language.

It's income tax, there is no heritage- or gift tax in Thailand, I never found any. It might be a question of being legal guardian. When not married, you only have parental rights at all, unless if there is either a DNA-test - I think it's going through a court, other posters have mentioned that - or the child is seven years or older, and both child and mother confirms at the Amphor-district office, together with you, that you are the father. The Amphor office will issue a Khor.Ror.11 certificate as proof; I used the amphor-method for approval of being father of my half-Thai child. You might still need both parents acceptance, just like when applying for a passport for a minor. If you need any servitudes on property bought in the name of a minor - that could usufruct or habitation right - the servitude needs to be declared before the title deed is transferred to the minor, as it might be between extremely difficult and impossible to declare a servitude on property owned by a minor.