NotEinstein

Online 90 day notification requires the 'stay visa expire' completed so if you apply close to that date, that is the date now given, not 90 days after application. This means that one has to do a 90 day report in person on or soon after the renewal date, assuming the IOs don't do it for you (Chiang Mai don't after the 30 day waiting for a Wife/Family visa renewal)

Yes, was there yesterday doing the 'walk thru'

No TM30 issues, probably because we had an online account and, as they requested in September, I made a new account and registered myself on it, along with the German volunteers staying in our residence, so over-riding my return from overseas at the end of August. Some are having issues and getting fined though >

Marriage extension today. Previously reception accepted paperwork when having an appointment, but now they insist that the paperwork is check outside first, which means queuing up with those trying to get an inside queue number, or, as we did, poke the paperwork at the officer that was luckily not doing anything. This year they wanted 2 sets of 2 photos outside and 2 photos inside the house - luckily I had 2 pages printed of last year's photos with us. Once accepted inside it took the advertised 20 minutes.

Was back there for 6 weeks visiting family until end August after 8 years. I didn't see any violence, although a train I was on couldn't stop at one station as the police were 'dealing with an incident'. Apart from the big move towards cashless and the big jump in eastern Europeans there, not a lot had changed. To be honest, the level of violence in Thailand is way beyond the UK if watching channel 32 Thairath of an evening is anything to go by.......

OK, but many of us did register online and have re-registered. A friend went to CM Imm. yesterday specifically to preempt needing a new receipt for his extension renewal (he registered online) and gave up because of the queue he saw. He asked the information desk but didn't get an answer either way.

So are we required to obtain a new TM30 paper receipt from the new database, or is the old paper receipt still acceptable for extensions etc? The alleged queue at the TM30 office suggests that they want a new printout.

They introduced a new database and instead of migrating the data, they requested to all online users, mainly hotels, to re-register and then add all residents.

Anybody extended a non-imm O since the new TM30 database was launched last month? I understand there is a huge queue at the TM30 office - are they making everyone get a new printout before processing, or just forcing those that haven't to re-register?

It is quite common for 'recently cleaned' air-cons that then exhibit issues, such as 'turning on on their own' to be due to a trapped cable - there are Thai videos about this on youtube, so the wife tells me. Worth opening and having a good look with this in mind.

prejudiced view - racist! on average 60+ people die on Thai roads every single day - fact! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

While I wouldn't venture out on the roads here on a bicycle, there are many that do, but then, they live here, know the score and are aware accordingly. Check out channel 32 or 34 - there are always examples of horrific Thai driving..........

While nobody is premeditatedly murderous, many motorized road users end up being so, mostly due to poor driver training and attitude. I regularly see groups cycling south along the busy road next to the river with pickups and trucks flying past, and wonder why they think the inhaled pollution and risk to life and limb is worth it.

This is surely quite a common problem, and yet the gutter fitting guys don't offer what would be a very simple and cheap addition for them to install for more profit. Whenever we needed gutter repairs, contacting local guys always ended up with them insisting that they fit a new section, to make it worth their while. I gave up and bought scaffolding......

I use a simless phone on wifi for bangkok bank and barclays, as well as shopee.

I renewed my licence a few months back, taking the Thai version of the online test which had videos of a couple of Thai lads explaining the obvious - there were English subs. The answers to questions after each video were really obvious having paid attention and using google translate. I didn't get any wrong, but a wrong answer would have been indicated. Has the test changed recently from the two guys more interested in eating than getting started and showing poor driving such as only one hand on the wheel and turning to chat with the passenger?

If you are a farang kee nok, you can do as I did and DIY. https://globalhouse.co.th/product/ปืนใหญ่--ตาข่ายสี่เหลี่ยม-SQ221-ตาห่าง-12-นิ้วx90ซม.x10เมตร-i.0722004700228 cut into 3 x 30cm lengths and get up the ladder.....

How did you attempt to call them - landline, mobile, skype, another web-based service?

Never have paid - have been torrenting for 15+ years. I've noticed that the number of seeds has dropped dramatically for non-new stuff on thepiratebay etc. The registered user torrent sites are still going strong though. We prefer to watch non-Hollywood. Korean, Japanese, Chinese, as well as French and other European films have the other cultural angles to make things different enough to not be so formulaic and shallow.

I'm reminded every time we have a fai-dap (a couple of times a month on average) just how fragile this ridiculously complicated system is. Add in all the potential holes in the very many systems involved that hackers are beavering away at and it seems crazy, until I remember who is pushing it.........

I went through the wringer of contacting HM Government about pensions recently. While you can get significantly cheaper call rates with skype (I actually used the 0800 freephone numbers and got transferred, so free), if you don't have a smart phone, the method I used to call cheaply to the correct number for overseas callers was to setup a mytello account https://app.mytello.com/en/ and add the needed number - then you just make what is then a local call to the Bangkok number allocated. The mytello charge is 0.4 baht per minute. Very easy from any phone you register on your account.

I went to Chiang Mai Immigration office a few days ago - none of the staff were wearing masks that I saw and only a handful of Thai ladies on the customer side were masked up.

The SanDisk 32GB Ultra Flair I use is 135 baht..........

https://www.jib.co.th/web/product/product_search/0?str_search=ssd sandisk&cate_id[]=

Horses for courses. I like to keep my systems efficient and cost effective. I take daily database backups to my old-school hard disk based NAS and have some more 32GB Ultra Flairs configured and ready for a failure. Obviously much cheaper than SSDs, which are of a larger capacity.