khunPer

The only conflicts or discussion my girlfriend and I had, was about child issues. Where I was more Western-style, she was more Thai-way-of-thinking. Not so much about what might be dangerous – I'm rather into "learn by experience" – but rather setting limits. I might be a bit more old fashioned, but I wanted fixed routines and limits – as you mention by sweets – where a "no" means "no". The easy solution is to give in, I chose the "no"-way, which caused a few short problems and the the child – our daughter – quickly understood, that when dad says "no", it's "no". However, mom was always a second option, which was worth trying... Despite of that, it seemed like we have managed – our daughter is now grown up and my girlfriend and I are still together...

For a long-stay as retiree, you need a non-immigrant O-visa – can be obtained domestically if you enter visa exempt – and the financial resources of either minimum 65k bah per month or a bank deposit of 800k baht. You can find affordable accommodation almost all over Thailand. Daily need are also priced quite similar due to expansion of chain stores and competition. My best best advise is always to get around to potential good places after your choice, and check them out for a couple of week or a month. Furthermore, also check them during rainy or monsoon season. Up north, also be aware of PM2.5 air pollution-season. Where to settle is up to a personal view and life-style. Tourist destination can be little more expensive for accommodation, but have have other benefits worth consider. Personally I chose a tourist destination – Koh Samui down south – mainly because of I can easily get what I want of Western-style products and it's "all year summer", never too hot and never too cold. Furthermore there is almost always acceptable air; i.e. low PM2.5. Also, the mix of Western foreigners and expats, makes contact easy – there are by the ways quite a number of Aussies living on the island. The recommended 65k per month fits quite well for a budget for good living – of course depending of personal life-style – but you can manage on less, like around 40k baht a month. You can often find acceptable accommodation for 10k-15k baht pr. month – also on Samui – and manage with 500 baht per day in livings costs for food etc.; however, excluded spending for bar visits and what might follow from that. Health insurance and some budget for local transportation – bus, song thaew, motorbike rent or buy – also needs to be included in a budget. Hope this short info might help you, please feel free to ask questions...

Then you definitely should choose to stay in Chaweng Beach or Lamai Beach to save transportation cost to a McD...

A (very) small number compared to size of population and for example European countries like Britain with an almost equal number of citizens... New research from Shelter shows at least 271,000 people are recorded as homeless in England, including 123,000 children. Shelter's detailed analysis of official homelessness figures and responses to a Freedom of Information request shows that one in 208 people in England are without a home. Source link: At least 271000 people are homeless in England today.

You are entering visa exempt and granted 30 days of stay. The immigration normally won't check your ticket, but the airline might do it when checking in at departure. Your need an outgoing ticket from Thailand within the 30-days period to be safe. It can be a budget airline ticket to a neighboring country, like a ticket from Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur – short distance, different prices depending on week day – the price range might be in the area of$30 to $50.

It's a personal choice of preferences, but I would definitely choose "retirement extension of stay" – it's not a visa – as it's more secure and simple. Secure: Because you are not dependent of a marriage to stay in Land of Smiles. Simple: Less paperwork and documentation when applying for yet another year of extension of stay, and no need for a wife to be present. The only two downhill things in my view by choosing "retirement" instead of "marriage" are: 1) You need more money in a bank deposit – i.e., 800k baht instead of 400k bah for a limited period – or higher a monthly income of 65k baht instead of 40k baht. 2) You are not allowed to work as retiree, while you on a marriage extension of stay can obtain a work permit.

My long-time girlfriend has enough work by looking after a grumpy old man like me, so she don't have time to work. She however allows me having plenty of time on my own, so just as good if she was working...

You can adjust it or reclaim by the tax return form.

Wow, was the forum really down for a week...

Military coup February 1st 2021, it's more like civil war at the moment.

That's 116,000 baht a month after rent, or 3,800 baht per day in average. Depending of the price of ladies and drinks – and how much you spend for health insurance, food, electric, water, laundry, domestic help, transport and more – it might both be enough and way too little. Life-style is pretty much like a rubber band.

Looked purely from a CO2-climate change point-of-view, tax free sales should always be on arrival. If the 360 passengers on a wide body jet in average each carry 1 extra kg of duty free on the trip, the cost in fuel is the same as 4 average "stand weight" (90kg) passengers with luggage...

Once again shows that don't travel anywhere without a proper travel insurance. It's a sad situation, but difficult to get sympathy for folks saving the normally quite affordable insurance cost and expect donations, is something goes wrong.

Really amazing – OP kindly asks about recommendations for stay on Samui in a local Samui/Phangan/Tao-forum, and most of the post are about other places – wow...

There are many beach/sea view option available in the 3k to 6k baht range, even nice beachfront bungalows or rooms. It's merely a question if you wish something more than looking at the sea or being in front on the beach? One thing to consider is transportation. If you for example fins an great place to stay by Maenam Bay or Bo Phut Bay, but wish to visit the nightlife often, you should rather consider Chaweng Beach. If you however, are looking for excursions like daylong boat trips to the marine park or neighbouring islands, or daytrip on Samui, there will normally be a pick-up service included at your hotel, and you will be brought back after the tour. In such a case, could a little more remote from nightlife destination – which can still have plenty of good restaurants and some cosy pubs – like Maenam Bay or Bo Phut Bay and several other places, be excellent options. You can use Google Street View to "walk the beaches", and when you find something of interest you will find a link to a website for further information. If you tell little more in the group here, about what you are looking for, you might get some useful suggestions for places to stay.

Unfortunately I'm never bored and spend too much time with ASEAN NOW, so I need to be very busy with all the other stuff that I have to do during a day or week. However, when it comes to web-sites I spend time to follow news, where the ASEAN NOW's news-section gives me an excellent overview of what happens in Thailand, and the forum section keep me up to date about visa, stay and other activities of interest for farangs – like suggestions of what to do, if getting bored... I also use Facebook quite a lot. Both for contact with old and new friends here and around the World, but also to get news-updates in my feed together with a few groups I follows of interest. If the feed is chosen right, Facebook is actually an excellent way to follow thing of interest in one place, even communication through Messenger has replaced most of previous e-mail contact.

The short answer is: No, not anymore... I never cared much about Xmas. In my younger days I would volunteer to make Xmas a good evening for homeless and lonely people, that was a happy experience for both them and me. Later, my girlfriend's family cared a lot about traditional Xmas, so I had to join – Okay, just enjoy it, then it's actually all right, and the food was always good. When moving to Thailand I had Xmas lights and (artificial steel & plastic) Xmas tree, so my daughter could experience Xmas – she actually enjoyed it – also the gifts that Santa brought; my CCTV did snap him, so of course Santa is true... Now she is studying in Europe, so no more Xmas tree and lights – I have plenty from shopping malls and high end resorts around me, so I can just go there if I need some Xmas-"soma"; referring to Brave New World – I'm very happy with my not too much Xmas...

You will need to start all over again. When your present extension of stay expires, so do your legal stay. Therefore your re-enter will be on new terms like visa exempt or with a new e-visa/visa from a Thai embassy. You can for example enter visa exempt and change to non-immigrant type-O domestically in Thailand.

DHL.

90 trillion, wow... But, don't forget that Thailand has a low score in PISA-tests, also for math... "In PISA 2018, Thailand ranked 68th in reading out of the 79 PISA-participating countries and economies, 59th in mathematics and 55th in science, ahead of only Indonesia and the Philippines in the EAP." Source link: Thailand PISA 2018 - Final - World Bank Documents.

Perhaps a more duty free price in the airport should be first attempt to increase sales. The products there are way overpriced; for example the so-called duty free Thai booze is way cheaper in a domestic 7-Eleven shop... However, it's not only in Thailand, but rather a general issue that duty free airport shops are overpriced. In my Scandinavian home country the rule for the duty free airport shops is that their price shall not be higher than in the domestic high street shops...

Just FYI: You can buy a standard power-of-attorney Thai-form in a paper shop for a few baht (under 50 baht). Get it filled in – preferably in Thai language – together with signed photocopies of all parties' identification papers (i.e., ID-card and/or passport), which might also include a witness or two. The land office will normally accept that – it's been used in some of my property deals at two different local land offices.

The smallest pool circulation pumps are 350 Watt and will often run 24/7. So it's pretty easy 0.35 x 24 x 30 = 252 kWh or units per month x 4 baht minimum = 1,000+ baht. You might need a larger pump, so more likely 2,000+ baht in power consumption. Chemicals etc. are fairly cheap – normally less than 1,000 baht a month – and with a bit of healthy exercise as free benefit, you can do the maintenance work yourself...

There are numerous quality pharmacies in Thailand, might be different chains in different parts of the country. If you do a bit of Google-work, you can check if there are identical brands of the medicine in question – it might have to do with if the product is still under patent or not – brands with equal active ingredients will have same effect.

Your forgot "tax resident", which in principle is all staying for 180 days or longer in the Thailand during a calendar year. Until now nobody really cared about tourists as tax residents – as long as you didn't work in Thailand – or retirees with retirement pension coming in from abroad. From January 1st this might change, but we still lack details about how taxation of foreign money transfers shall be done.