theblether

90 baht a pint

Blame @George it wasn't me

Who are you?

I'll take responsibility for many things, but the AN server behaving like a frustrated toddler is not one

BUT - TO BE FAIR - plumbers are cheap in Thailand. Not qualified?, but cheap. @spidermike007

I supply and fit them with carpets and laminate flooring, £1400. The fitters earning £400 from that, hey can do two a day standing on their heads. I only earn £480 per flat, a minor tragedy.

Oh, aye. I forgot to mention that brand new flats are being alloated to local pensioners, one bedroom, 70 Square metres - £350 a month.

I'm just waiting on the guy that moved ti Thailand because the plumbers are cheap to show up on this thread.

Broughty Ferry, Dundee - right now

Broughty Ferry, Dundee - right now

Scotsman lying on his death bed, the end is near. "Is my wife here?" "Yes, dear" "Is my son here?" "Yes, dad" "Is my beautiful daughter here?" "I am, dad." "Then why is the light on in the next room?"

Worthless post. Count yourself lucky I promised Mike I'd be quiet. 😇

With apologies to Mike - As I often say I ration how many times a day I reply to utter clowns on the Internet. You're in luck, I have one clown token left. Official government announcement coming up: https://thailand.prd.go.th/en/content/category/detail/id/48/iid/293120 Specifically, in case you struggle with reading, this section - 2) Lowering health insurance requirements and expanding the list of countries eligible for long-term non-immigrant visa applications; That proposal went down like a ton of bricks with immigration. I'd like to educate you further but that would involve me using one of tomorrow's clown tokens so I won't bother.

There's a bizarre argument raging between immigration and the foreign office. The FO wants visa standards liberalised, including bizarrely and quite frankly unbelievably, health insurance requirements. Immigration are strongly objecting. Lost in the fog of this battle are the implications of reducing long stay visa categories and the first review of financial qualification standards for years. No one knows what's coming down the line, my advice to avoid pouring money into the country until the review results are announced is valid. Now, silence from me. I promise.

Thanks, love you too. However, I'm not scaremongering although I accept I've said enough on the topic. I'm one of the few that's been all over this for a decade plus. It's imperative that people understand how quickly and brutally things can move. However, I'll go quiet after I reply to John.

It's a death announcement. It's a description of his passing and the emotional commitment and state of his friend. Give it a rest.

I've always been a proponent of the snowbird lifestyle. The world is a big and beautiful place. Far too many people stack the cards against themselves. Pumping every last penny into any country where a change of policy can leave you unwelcome and bereft is wild. Heathrow Airport has a charity organisation on the premises mopping up the damaged who have been evicted from their "dream" life. It's been at least fifteen years since successive Thai government policy has targeted long-stay farangs. We have all been warned. Well warned.

I'm sorry to hear that and I witnessed a few dire stories including extraordinary attempts by IO to extort bribes from vulnerable people. I tend to limit what I post on the forum as some of the real life stories are jaw-dropping. Some forum members will remember the imbroglio re the vlogger to which I refer. It was a poor episode in the life of this forum. However, many more members will know to what extent your "connected police brother-in-law" runs for the hills when the conservatives appear. Clearly that happened during the coup when there was a mass ass-collapse when the military turned up. Lesser known to we Westerners are the times conservatives clip the wings of the uppity. I've seen major hotels ordered shut as the owners crossed the wrong people. But, hey - according to many farangs they don't know what they are doing. Don't be kidded. As you know from bitter experience, when they make a move they are brutally effective. In fact, you could say at times, cruelly effective.

The article is a death announcement, not a criminal investigative spiel. The relevant part was his distressed friend staying with him to the end. All praise to a genuine friend. I was disappointed by the passive aggressive vibe in Hua Hin last Christmas. I was the innocent party in a couple of remarkable incidents. HH used to be a sleepy backwater and I loved it. The worst thing they ever did was put the ferry on from Pattaya. It put HH on the radar of a brigade of weirdos. My police mate from CM who worked in HH said the cancellation of that ferry was celebrated at the police station. "Not normal farangs" as he put it. RIP to this gentleman. An utter tragedy his life was cut short by a lunatic.

Within a few weeks, if the conservatives have their way, many of you will be calling your airline for a one-way ticket. That includes some of you who think you are secure. I've said it before on this thread. This tax issue is a sideline. Go back and read what happened when health insurance was imposed on O-A visa holders. Many were uninsurable due to age. I knew a retired lawyer who ended up paying around 170,000 baht in premiums. I'll say it again - do not make any financial commitment to Thailand just now. The review results are imminent and as a wealthy, Thai fluent expat of 30 years standing told me yesterday, things are looking bad. I don't want to name him, but a well known expat vlogger who was invited into immigration before the last imbroglio ( black listing for overstay ) has gone quiet. Immigration asked him to announce the new policy explaining the does and don'ts last time. His silence just now is a concern. Edit to explain. The last time he made the announcement this forum blocked his thread until they verified who he was. A couple of days later they released the info he had provided. Be rest assured, among the hundreds of worthless vloggers, there's a small coterie who are watched and trusted by immigration. He is one of them.

Let me add one more thing. Some of you can't see the wood for the trees. The drive to bring in mass Chinese and Asian tourism is a direct attack on the sex trade. As one tour guide said to me years ago "all the Asians want to do is look at temples and shop." They are the perfect tourist profile for Conservative Thais. So if you ever think immigration policies are slanted against Westerners who were gifted Liberal policies then effed them up? You are correct. The damage has been done. And Conservative Thailand hasn't forgiven.

Do not delude yourselves. And many of you do. Your "enemy" is not the government of the day. Your enemy is the ultra-conservative core of the Thai civil service. It is they who have been puppeteering successive government immigration policy for at least 15 years, trying to undo the damage caused by immigration liberalisation after the Tom Yam Kung crisis. I said "delude." Policies follow the same pattern - they get trailed to guage reaction - then they get brutally imposed. As far as Conservative Thailand is concerned the post Tom Yam Kung immigration policy was a disaster, encouraging a surge in sex tourism. These people don't give a flying "f**k" about Isaan farmers daughters. They do give a f*** about being embarrassed by idiots whose first reaction about Thailand is "ladyboys, paeds and every woman is a hooker." If anything, every government tries to mollify the worst tendencies of the ultra-conservatives. But as one of my pals put it when he was being escorted to the deportation flight. He had the bright idea of offering a bribe to airport immigration police to free him. The reply, in perfect English... "Your fantasy is over." When conservative Thailand makes an appearance, you'll get the fright of your life.

I agree with the broad sentiment of your comment but here's the brutal truth. Successive Thai governments have targeted long-stay in the country. The review that's coming up is long, long overdue and I regard this tax situation as secondary for a simple reason. A lot of you commenting on this thread quite simply won't be in Thailand if the review follows recent patterns. Some of you will leave because you won't qualify to stay. Others, and possibly the majority, will leave because they are sick of the persecution, even if they qualify to stay. Let me be clear - I don't know what's coming down the line, however, it will be astonishing if there is not a new mandatory insurance policy. There will be ways around it, but not at zero cost. Some of you will be forced to purchase a worthless "levy policy." Even the levy policies have limitations. However, the word of the day is PERSECUTION. The last couple of times that expatriates left in waves wasn't so much cost increases, it was the interference in regular lifestyles. The damage done by the TM30 DEBACLE was unbelievable. People rightly felt persecuted for having the cheek to travel around the country on vacations. You were under threat of LEGAL PENALTY if you failed to report to the TM 30 office within 24 hours of returning to your home province. This is not the Thailand we signed up for, and while that policy has been effectively withdrawn, the PERSECUTORY UNDERTONE has remained, including the scandalous springing of mandatory insurance onto O-A retirement visa holders. This taxation proposal is just part of a long litany of bad news for retirees. Get ready for a mass exodus, and if you are on the edge of purchasing a condo or making some other major financial investment into the country, I suggest you wait as what is coming down the line IMMINENTLY may also see you heading for the airport.

All people need to know is that the requirement for mandatory insurance was sprung out of the blue on 0-A holders, with some people given as little as one months' notice to comply. And the vast majority of people using the 800,000 baht method are not 0-A holders and have their cash deposited in a Thai bank.

100% a foreign currency grab, virtually all deposits were placed in Thai baht with Thai banks. You were the exception that does not disprove the rule.