khunPer

April 13th, Sound Club, Chaweng Beach... If you haven't got enough water during Songkran day, then Sound Club's Miss Wet T-shirt competitions are back, last time it was held at the front sound stage. Sound Club's 2nd sound stage in the back has also reopened and plays mainly cool house music...

Some dates you might like to be aware of... Songkran: April 12th, Friday, normally some water-splashing begins in the evening in Chaweng Beach... April 13th, Saturday, the day where the whole island is fighting water war; normally Songkran is only one day on Samui... Full Moon Party dates at Haad Rin's Sunrise Beach on Koh Phangan... –in case you either might wish to attend or instead use the night in a less crowded Chaweng-nightlife: April 23rd, Tuesday May 23rd, Thursday June 21st, Friday July 22nd, Monday August 19th, Monday September 18th, Wednesday October 15th, Tuesday November 15th, Friday (also Loy Krathong) December 15th, Sunday December 31st New Year Party, Tuesday You might notice, that sometimes the Full Moon Party is not held the night with the full Moon, which is due to religious days, where sale of alcohol is forbidden from midnight to midnight. Therefore these dates might also be of interest, as you cannot buy or get alcohol served from midnight to midnight, where the nightlife will also be closed; i.e. nightclubs won't open and next night open from midnight: May 22nd, Wednesday, Wisakha Bucha Day July 20th, Saturday, Asarnha Bucha Day July 21st, Sunday, Buddhist Lent Day October 17th, Thursday, end of Buddhist Lent

April 12th 6pm, free symphony orchestra concert "Samui South Wav" at Phru Chaweng (Chaweng Lake) Tourism Association of Koh Samui: SAMUI SOUTH WAV is a free concert with zones for VIP and general public Let's watch and listen to good music to welcome Songkran to our Samui people this year. Come experience "Music, Waves, Wind, Magic of the Island". Show schedule... For more info, SAMUI SOUTH WAV's Facebook profile HERE.

You are on your own and needs health related insurance, no matter what visa or permission to stay – tourist visa or retiree – your have. If you stay less than six months you can normally use a travel insurance with repatriation to your home country. If you plan to stay as snowbird the METV (multiple entry tourist visa) gives you 2 x 90 days with a visa-run for re-entry and two 30-days extension on each 60-days entry. The retirement visa – non-immigrant OA – gives you one years stay on each entry, but requires more paperwork from home, proof of funds and a an approved health insurance. Not all countries issues that visa.

It's the same all over the free world, it's called free trade, so you'll see competing prices instead of only the highest price...

If you read the pinned thread, you'll find answers...

They need money for the 10,000 baht scheme...

Same place have some. Otherwise JIB in Central. You can choose main bord, SSDs (solid state drives) and graphic card. They'll assemble it for you and install OS after your choice, fx. Win10 or Win11. Power Buy (I think it is named) on the ground floor in central might also still have some desktops. Lazada is an alternative. I've bought desktops from there, arrives within two days.

Paper-recycling, none were interested.

Banana next to Lotus's use to have some good ASUS laptops with preinstalled 64-bit WinOS; I bought one there recently.

School fees might well be due to competition, as it's a fairly small island with 4-5 international schools, and a really good bi-lingual EP-school. It's worth to look at PBISS, and ISS (International School Samui in Bo Phut), if you wish the most expensive. The schools had football competitions (before Covid), changing between the leading international schools as host – at that time the EP-school also had an international section – so we got around and had a close look all the leading ones. Property prices are as always based on the three important factors: Location, location and location. It's a small island, so many properties on Samui have a good location and therefore relative high price both for buying and for rental. However, you can find reasonable priced properties both on sale and for rent, but not as many as in Hua Hin-area. In Hua Hin you might see reasonable priced property advertised as close to the sea, only 5 kilometers, on Samui it's 500 meters. Sea view-homes are also in high value, even that a beach is not within walking distance. Property prices are depending of life style and preferences for location; i.e., for example beach, shopping or view. You can find nice 2-bed homes – bungalows or villas – from around 25,000-30,000 baht per month in rent; or a small 1-bed apartment with sea-view for 70,000+ baht per month. However, it's possible to rent a small 2-bed beachfront pool-villa in the area of around 60,000 baht per month, when it's a long term agreement. At many locations some daily needs shopping is within walking distance; but not when it's with sea view up in the hills, there you need to include some kind of transportation in the budget, and the school bus might also not drive up there. Good sites for research, depending of choice of school, is Bo Phut-area (ISS), Chaweng Noi area (PBISS), and Lamai (Lamai International School (LIS) and Windfield International School / L’Ecole Française Internationale de Koh Samui. But I've recently seen a PBISS school bus as far away as Maenam, which might widen your choices for ISS/PBISS to include Maenam. However, I normally recommend to check anything physically before accepting a rental agreement and pay a deposit, even that Google Street View is a good help to get an impression of an area. Some excellent places you might also not find on the Internet, but instead from a local "For Rent"-sign or spoken word-method.

I've been living here for 18 years – Koh Samui – since I was 56, and I had my daughter in an international school. IMO you best choice would be a non-immigrant O-visa based on retirement for you – 50+ years old – with annual extensions of stay. It requires either a cash bank deposit of 800,000 baht in a Thai bank account – which is the easiest solution – or a monthly transferred income of not less than 65,000 baht. The paperwork is not more complicated than you can do it yourself. For your partner and child's mother, a dependent visa for her daughter studying, attending a Thai international school. Most, if not all, international schools will help with details and paperwork. To my knowledge a capital or deposit of 500,000 baht is necessary. There can be huge price differences for international schools, ranging from around 150,000 baht per year and up to more than one million baht per year. So the number of schools and their prices within an area of interest might be important for the overall living costs; also distance from home to school and availability of school bus service. As you mention Koh Samui as a potential destination I can reply my experience living here with a child in international school. There are at the moment four English-Cambridge curriculum (IGCSE) international schools and one French. The most expensive (Bo Phut) is in the range around 450,000 baht for a year (some extra payments might apply); while the others (Chaweng Noi and Lamai) are in the range around 250,000 baht per year (also with some extras payments). Only two of the schools offers the higher levels, IGCSE-certificate and Cambridge A-level. One on the schools "PBISS, Panyadee British International School Samui) furthermore offers Cambridge STEM. It's possible and easy to change school – we did that that, as by that time there was one more international school on the island, which is now only bi-lingual (EP, English Program) with Cambridge curriculum and native English.language teachers, but not international certificate. EP with Cambridge-curriculum is a possibility for Thai P1-P6, which equals international Y2-Y7, as you don't need a certificate for primary school, but the Thai school year (May to April) is different from the international school year (September to July), so there will be some long holidays when changing. We chose to do Cambridge IGCSE and then my daughter continued – at the moment – in a foreign European boarding school for IB (International Baccalaureate), as that diploma should give better possibilities for studying than a Cambridge A-level. You are welcome, if you have questions.

It's not toilet paper – look in Thai's toilets, do you find it there? – it's a tissue roll, so perfectly acceptable on a table; just get used to it...

It's depending of the province you live and the local immigration office. According to the police order you don't need to make a new TM30. However, where I live – Surat Thani-province – the immigration office don't care and wish a new TM30 every time someone leaves the province. When applying for extension of stay you might be asked for a receipt or copy of you TM30 registration. The immigration officers might check online in the database. I've been out and I followed the police order, but last October, when extending my stay, I was told that I've been abroad and did not have a TM30 registration after returning. Extension of stay-application refused until I has a new TM30-registration. It's easy today to register TM30 online, so better do it too much, rather than ending up coming back later a start all over again in the queue-line for extension of stay-applications.

It's depending of the immigration office, they are not equal.

Yes, you have, if the girlfriend makes a last will.

1 million baht according to the news stories shortly after the incident. 1 million baht is also the common compensation for death, for example is that amount mentioned in insurance policies.

You need the R.O.21 (Income Tax Payment Certificate) and the R.O.22 (Certificate of Residence), both for the said year in question. As the R.O.21 states, you need to be tax resident with a registered TIN (Tax Identification Number) and have been submitting a Tax Return Form, which can be with a 0 baht receipt for tax payment. Without those forms for the given year, you cannot expect to get your withheld dividend tax reduced to 15 percent. Tax Return Form in Thailand needs to be submitted no later than the March 31st the following year.

Unfortunately young girls gets old, if you keep them long enough...

IMO, her visa should be revoked before her next period...

Nope, I've been using budget tickets that cannot be changed, fee or not; they are lost if not used on the booked flight. We just try to help you with answers to your questions; just buy whatever ticket you like.

You can apply for a 60 days tourist visa and in Thailand apply for a 30 days extension of stay, which gives you a total of 90 days. If you apply for METV – Multiple Entry Tourist Visa – you can take a short trip to a neighboring country after 60 or 90 days in Thailand and return to a new 60 days entry and a 30 days extension. That can give a total of 180 days with one re-entry. It's my understanding that when you find a job you'll need to apply for a non-immigrant B-visa abroad and re-enter on that visa. I'm not sure if you can change from a tourist visa to non-B visa inside Thailand; perhaps others can answer that or you can find a thread in the forum with answer.

It's the shop owners rules, just like a house owner's rules; simple as that. If you don't like their rules, shop somewhere else, where you don't need to remove your shoes; like convenient stores and shopping malls, there you also can find pharmacies and a lot of other shops that let you keep your shoes on.

Second hand car are (often too) expensive in Thailand. It's better to buy a new with full warranty, if you worry about quality; it will keep a good price for a number of years.

Yes. Therefore, don't BUY leasehold condos or something sub-leased. There are earlier cases where people have lost their investment, some even their luxury house investments. Your contract will be with the leaseholder of the original lease, not the real land owner; so, any claim would be against the leaseholder than haven't paid the landowner.