wasabi

I have never needed to transfer funds from Thailand to the United States but I was surprised to see wise.com only allows you to transfer money from the US (and other countries) into Thailand. I could do a wire transfer from my Bangkok Bank account to one of my US Banks but the exchange rate would be poor which becomes problematic for large transfers. What do people with Thai Baht use to transfer larger amounts (500,000 THB and up) from Thailand to a US bank?

There are likely already threads discussing this but I could not find them.

Well I arrived in Thailand last week. What was the additional health screening process? From what I could tell only a thermal scan screen that I walked past with no conversation about it whatsoever.

Thank you for all the replies.

I'm bumping this up since I am traveling to Thailand in a few days and no one has specifically answered. Has anyone very recently arrived in Thailand and experienced the latest health screening process? If yes what is it?

20 hours ago, BonMot said:

Thanks. No idea why you'd fly via Manila tbh. The entire country is a disaster. Most likely fishing for freebies. Nothing in philippines is done better than Thailand so forget that the screening is better. Could just be the general idiocy of the nation. Maybe you changed airline? On a code share? Maybe some arcane US security stupidity?

 

Everyone, just stay the hell out of philippines it is an extremely broken nation.

Philippines Airlines had the cheapest business class flights. Both legs of the flight itself were fine, but the Kafkaesque experience in their airport made it not worth it and I won't repeat. 

I flew out of BKK to LAX April 29th. All that was required was a negative Covid Test within 1 day of flying out. Note it is within 1 calendar day NOT 24 hours. I got the test at Bangkok Hospital in Bangkok. I was asked for the test results at the check in counter in BKK and again in Manila airport several times at random points where I had a stop. There was also a bizarre checked luggage analysis for all foreign passengers. I say bizarre because I checked the bags in BKK all the way to LAX but they yanked out every suitcase and brought us to a small windowless room to manually open and rummage through each one which took several hours. It was very confusing and hectic in Manilla, and I will not transit in that airport again. If you thought Thailand has too many outdated bureaucratic procedures try The Philippines.

I have Global Entry and it was very easy to enter the US. I am returning to Thailand June 4th and already got my Thailand Pass.

The addition of a health screening process is something I've only seen in the past week. So visitors prior to that may not have experienced whatever it is. I also expect it will now include Monkey Pox screening.

I've seen various sources lauding the continued simplification of Thailand Pass. Ideally it goes away completely but till then I am glad they are chipping away at it. In its current incarnation what is meant by "Travelers are required to go through the health screening process at the airport?"

4 hours ago, DrDave said:

No, the subject of the OP is that treatment in a Thai hospital is not always cheaper than treatment in foreign hospitals - specifically US hospitals. The example in the OP was treatment plan and cost at Thai hospitals versus a particular US hospital. The OP has US health insurance, which covered some or all of the cost for his treatment, which backs up his opinion.

 

My point, as a follow-up to the OP's US hospital experience was that if uninsured, the price quoted and/or billed by a US hospital may be far higher than what you actually pay. Uninsured American expats may want to take this into consideration when deciding between treatment in a Thai hospital versus a foreign (US) hospital. Additionally, there are government-sponsored programs that can lower the out of pocket costs for the uninsured, which should also be taken into consideration when making a choice.

Yes I do have US Health insurance based out of Florida and found a Florida ENT Who would accept my insurance and do the surgery. However there were two problems. 1 my insurance has a high deductible so I still would be on the hook for several thousand dollars but more importantly he had the same outdated surgical method as the Thai doctors. In the end paying out of pocket for the Austin Dr was the most cost effective and in line with what I wanted out of the surgical experience (minimally invasive) For me the lesson is to shop around perhaps in Thailand and other countries. In the past I just assumed the Thai price was cheaper and didn't shop around. I think this was true for a long time, but not any more, particularly at private hospitals. Though yes, great deals can still be found in Thailand.

On 5/13/2022 at 8:12 AM, josephbloggs said:

Exactly the same.  I just did it for the first time as I'm going to the UK.  Was expecting it to me a nightmare after all the moaning you read on here.........then you realise most of those moaning have probably never even done it.

It was really pretty simple, fill out some info, upload a few images.  5 minutes max.  Really not that big a deal.  And like someone else has said if that puts you off then how the hell do you manage to book a flight or a hotel?

Would I rather I didn't have to do it?  Of course, and I expect pretty soon you won't have to.  Was it difficult or troublesome?  Not in the least.  And the insurance cost me a whopping 650 baht.

where did you find insurance for 650 THB?

***update found the site with the low cost insurance using FWD insurance which was accepted.

1 hour ago, josephbloggs said:

Exactly the same.  I just did it for the first time as I'm going to the UK.  Was expecting it to me a nightmare after all the moaning you read on here.........then you realise most of those moaning have probably never even done it.

It was really pretty simple, fill out some info, upload a few images.  5 minutes max.  Really not that big a deal.  And like someone else has said if that puts you off then how the hell do you manage to book a flight or a hotel?

Would I rather I didn't have to do it?  Of course, and I expect pretty soon you won't have to.  Was it difficult or troublesome?  Not in the least.  And the insurance cost me a whopping 650 baht.

where did you find insurance for 650 THB?

10 hours ago, Maha Sarakham said:

A lot of options, Florida has been rapidly developing over the past 5 years or so, you might not even recognize it anymore.  The restaurant/culinary scene seems to be exploding and big investment going into a lot of the bigger cities and its infrastructure.  That said, hard to top Bangkok if it wasn't for the bad air.

Any particular Florida cities you recommend?

23 minutes ago, Maha Sarakham said:

Florida is a very nice and less expensive alternative to California.

I've considered this but overwhelmed by all the different city choices. A college town would be nice. Somewhere with a downtown, safe, relatively affordable housing. I was looking at this list but never having been any of these places it's hard to know what to think. I have been to Miami, Orlando and Cocoa Beach. All okay places but not top for me to live.

1 hour ago, Enzian said:

My official residence is Berkeley CA where 90% of the time the air one breathes just came off the Pacific ocean 30 minutes before, and the average daily high 10 months of the year is around 20 Celsius. So I'm here for the social life (in every sense), and for the times I can't be in Europe. I can take the heat, but don't like it. I can't smell the air, but I know the danger and just accept it.

My wife and I lived in Berkeley off and on for 10 years. It's our top place to live, but unfortunately we never bought a house or condo there so it's became unaffordable. We are now living in Bangkok because it's convenient but the air pollution is horrible. We've tried to find other cities to live in Thailand but nothing seems to fit the bill. Pattaya is okay but it has plenty of air pollution too. Main benefit is you can't see it as much if you are near the sea.

I've also considered moving back to the USA but not to California but not sure where yet.

Just drop USD/THB back to 45.00 and we can call it a day.

4 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Putin and Jinping are buddies now. Putin will wait until the Olympics are over before invading. At the same time Jinping will make a move to take over Taiwan. This, in their minds, will make both their attacks more likely to succeed.

 

If this occurs, life could he hell for the expat in Thailand. Expect China to not stop with Taiwan and continue taking Laos, Thailand, etc. Be prepared to jump ship and head back to your home country or wherever you feel safe.

Taiwan is an economic treasure trove. The people are culturally similar to China an invasion is going to happen, just a matter of when.

Laos may be communist but they and Thailand likely have very little economic value to China. An invasion would be a messy headache. We are not talking about the Third Reich with genocidal aspirations we are talking about economic reshuffling and logical border expansion.

I underestimated the impact Covid will have so I won't do the same here. That said it's anyone's guess. I think the stock market (most but not all stocks) will continue dropping until what is going to happen and how quickly it will be resolved is more clear. Oil will continue to rise. If no war or a brief skirmish it could be a great buying opportunity but if things escalate could worsen already strained supply chains and best to sit it out. Someone else mentioned China is watching closely. I would hate war to happen anywhere but the reality is Ukraine is not that important to the global economy. Taiwan on the other hand is critically important for Microchips worldwide. China is surely aware of this and also dependent on microchips but I can't guess what they are willing to sacrifice to reclaim Taiwan. A cyber or military attack could have severe and lasting consequences. The world may become a very different place, just like Covid changed the world if that happens. I can't see the US defending Ukraine or Taiwan on a military level so the question is does either country really care about US and European sanctions?

I have 70% of my money in Dividend producing stocks, none of which will be disrupted even by war so financially I will be fine. But the other 30% is in growth stocks. Those have already taken a hit but would drop more. I considered selling on Friday but I am in a position to ride it out and have always failed at market timing so for now Let it Ride. I hope this turns out like Bay of Pigs brinkmanship ending peacefully, but the world is very different now.