wasabi

A little while back someone on here suggest Phone2. I paid for the lifetime membership and it's been meeting my needs thus far. It has a few annoying quirks like the voice output freezes if your phone goes to sleep (with the android phone app) but that can be managed.

Are people still updating the TM30 every time they depart and arrive in Thailand (Internationally)? My landlord lets me take care of the TM30 myself and I've been doing that online but not sure if immigration even cares?

The complete disregard for road rules in Thailand is what keeps it in 3rd world status despite many other advances.

I was planning to go to Chiang Mai for a few days. Just the old city. I read taking 200 mg Doxycycline is effective for Scrub Typhus but not sure at what point I would take it though.

I have seen this so many times in Pattaya it does not seem newsworthy.

I'm in no way blaming the pedestrian but her lack of self-awareness for a person living in Bangkok can be deadly. The scenario where cars are stopped and obstructing the view of cars in another lane shown in the video is very, very dangerous here given that they ignore crosswalks and even speed up when the see you trying to cross. If I see an oncoming car has not begun decelerating as I cross the street I always assume they will not be slowing down and let them pass or run.

Just sell Pattaya to India and move on.

He was probably watching TV on a small monitor installed below the 7 amulets dangling from his rearview mirror obstructing his view as he scrolled through possible matches on a dating site with a phone in one hand. Thai taxi drivers are among the most distracted I've seen anywhere and I'm surprised there are not far more accidents of this nature.

Thai teens trying to act hardcore rarely ends well.

Like most protests this will be a band of useful idiots indignant over whatever the headlines instruct. They never produce only destroy.

Uber tends to be more reliable than Grab where it's available, but I'd choose Grab over traditional taxis in Thailand even if it costs triple traditional taxi's rate. The traditional taxi drivers only have themselves to blame for losing customers by overcharging, taking long routes and getting lost because they don't know how to use GPS or have three phones open and a movie playing.

With so many aesthetic clinics around Bangkok; utilizing Botox, lasers, fillers, nips & tucks one can go decades using the same photo!

Greta should have watched the video. She could have acknowledged the horrors of October 7th, and then claimed what is happening to the average Palestinian via the IDF remains unjust and a peace treaty is the only way forward. But she lacks the intellectual rigor to rise above being a global useful idiot who sticks to the script and has no desire to remove her binders. Claiming she was kidnapped and abused is narcissistic victimhood and a disservice to the actual hostages suffering in Hamas tunnels.

I am happy living in Thailand, but the word grateful may be more accurate. I was lonely and bored in the United States. Dating was a nightmare and everything was too expensive, and it's only gotten more expensive. I convinced my US Based employer to let me work remotely from Thailand in 2008 (Before digital nomads were common) and met my wife who's from Laos here. We ended up going back to the USA for a while but we're now retired in Thailand with savings that should last us a lifetime here but would only last a decade in most parts of America. In 2019 we were fortunate to get a pair of 2nd hand Thailand Elite visas which makes immigration and residence much simpler. I enjoy the food, massages, people and easy access to high quality healthcare here. Pollution and noise are my primary grievances but they are manageable. I wish I could afford to visit the US more often, but it's too expensive to do frequently. However, even if I could afford traveling there more frequently I'd still chose to live in Thailand as my primary residence. I've read a few articles recently about younger expats giving up on Thailand which they strangely blame on the behavior of other expats. I don't have many Farang friends here so I can't relate to that.

Motorbikes cutting in front of you after you've looked both ways and think it's safe to cross the street. Air pollution Food poisoning Unhealthy food water dripping everywhere Muscled up farangs who think I give a damn about their eye candy Thai girls. Thai Masseuses who try to crack my neck But it's still fun, I generally like Thai people and it's cheap to live here.

People may not like what Trump is doing but I see very little corruption. He says what he is going to do and does it. There is no Watergate scandal here, only fake Russian witch hunts, hyperbole and race baiting done by Democrats.

Vaccines are imperfect but the level of conspiracies surrounding them are far worse than any danger a vaccine possesses.

In addition to the usual suspects motorbikes are an underreported contributor to air pollution. While there are still too many trucks and buses spewing filth most cars on Thai roadways are no longer major sources of pollution. Motorbike emissions are still largely unregulated and contribute to noise pollution by intentionally being modified to make loud noises. Another issue is due to wanting to sit in air-conditioned vehicles and laziness many cars and trucks sit idling for long periods of time in parking lots and garages. I'll be surprised if air pollution improves meaningful in Thailand in my lifetime though I'd love to be proven wrong.

I've read in a few places that the website version of Skype dialpad may still work? Any confirmation of this?

I've scanned through this thread so I may have missed a few things but I have gone through the process of buying Thailand Elite Visas second hand. The description of the versions above is accurate. There were multiple versions of the visa so transfer agreements may vary but I was told that the original lifetime versions of the visas cannot be transferred to another person for life. I saw the OP states otherwise and I'm not saying he's wrong, only it's different than what I was told. Thailand Elite is eager to get rid of the lifetime visas because they are money losing for them but perhaps there is a tranche of the oldest ones where it is possible to still get lifetime, but that would be the SE version. This was my experience in 2019. A Russian couple was selling a pair of lifetime Thailand Elite visas. They did not speak English and were having trouble selling the visas so the price had dropped a few times by the time I contacted them. My wife and I agreed to buy the pair of visas for 1.5 million THB total as shown in the original ad below. That includes the sellers fee and Thailand Elites fee. At the time there were other single versions of the TE visa being sold for double and triple what we paid for 2 TE visas. I was very skeptical this was real but a trip to the Thailand Elite office in Bangkok confirmed that it was, so I hired a Russian translator to assist and we got it done. At only 6 years in the visas have already paid for themselves and made our time in Thailand much more pleasant making this the single best purchase of my life. Unlike the LTV we still have to do 90 day reporting which I typically manage to do online, and unlike the LTV we may be subject to additional taxation if and when Thailand ever figures out what they are doing in regard to that. But these are minor concerns for me and my wife and we have no regrets. Initially we were offered a pair of 30-year SE Visas but were given a one-time opportunity to switch to the newer 20-year PE visas which we agreed to do. Why? In spite of the 30-year visas having more generous perks and an extra ten years it has to be extended every 90 days. I don't mean the 90-day report. I mean you have to go to immigration and pay 1500 THB each to extend it every 90 days. Thailand Elite will not help with this process if you are a holder of a transferred SE visa. This 90-day extension can be circumvented by leaving the country every 90 days, but we didn't plan to leave the country that often. Secondly the pair of SE visas required a primary member. If the primary member died the secondary member would lose the visa. We thus accepted the offer to switch to the 20-year PE visa which came with Thailand Elite support and yearly extensions. It was equivalent to the EUP version of the Thailand Elite visa that no longer exists and comes with massages, golf, hospital checkups and unlimited airport transfers in BKK, Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Koh Samui for both domestic and international flights. I've noticed a subtle erosion in the quality of some of the benefits, but they are still nice to have, and the primary reason we got the visas is long term living in Thailand, not the perks. We are both "primary members" So if one of us passed away the other won't lose their PE version of the visa. We have the right to transfer them once more, but have no plans to do that and I'm not sure if the next person would be entitled to 20 years or the remaining years. Probably just the remaining years. Covid hit within days of receiving our visa and the country locked down, so it was a miracle we opted for the PE visa and did not need to go to immigration every 90 days. Also all TE members were given an additional 6 months added to the vis aduring Covid (because many people were stuck outside the country and couldn't use it) so it ended up being 20.5 years. I have wondered if I came across another pair of Thailand Elite visas for sale if we could "stack" them. Meaning I'd buy it now and it would become active when our current ones expired (15 years from now) If that were possible, I'd be interested in buying another pair for the right price. I realize one or both of us might die before then but it'd be awesome to keep this up an additional 20 years.

What are the odds Thailand would ban US tourists in response? Has this ever happened? I have no interest in debating geopolitical affairs and focus on trying to get along with people in my neighborhood here in Bangkok. But this flare up has me wondering if they'd ever try to boot Americans out of Thailand? My wife and I (US citizens) have Thailand Privilege visas. We visit the USA every few years but if I had to choose one country to live the rest of my days it would probably be Thailand.

I haven't seen any noteworthy updates to Skype for a few years yet millions still use it. Why not keep it on life support and continue raking in a few hundred million a year? I've searched and found no viable VOIP alternative that allows you to purchase unlimited calling to cell phones worldwide for a reasonable price. A combination of GoogleFi and Wifi calling may be an option. But wifi isn't always available when you need to make a call.

My final conclusion is it'd be less eventful to walk around Bangkok with a star of David necklace and a Keepah than discuss being Jewish in chat forums such as this.

This is my sole complaint about Thailand and why I cannot definitively say life in Thailand is better than my life in the USA. The air pollution is a problem for most of Southeast Asia. I've found areas with high concentrations of motorbikes are the most problematic. Car emissions are significantly lower than years past but motorbikes are still largely unregulated and spewing constant filth. Construction, crop burning and factory emissions are the other usual suspects.

Damn you're right. That was a serious typo that unfortunately I can't correct. Some of the responses have made me think of my wife's experience. She is Laotian and typically mistaken for a Thai person which works to her advantage in Thailand. We were just in Vietnam and nearly every Vietnamese person thought she was Vietnamese. This was less advantageous because they'd start rattling off some Vietnamese which niether of us can speak, though at least it was met with friendly smiles. The one time I was harassed for being Jewish was while I was walking on the Sky Bridge near the Erawan shrine with my wife. I had a short beard and somewhat longer sideburns at that time. Nothing that comes close to Hassidic Jews but that may have made me stand out enough for the two Arabs to exchange words with me. Every other encounter has been minor and the replies in this thread make me think they largely have been some type of misunderstanding or paranoia and I shouldn't worry about them.