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silver sea
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Posts posted by silver sea
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Use tea towel, T shirt or vacuum cleaner bags.
“There are good reasons to think DIY masks could be effective in tackling the pandemic, as they have been widely used in Hong Kong,Mongolia and South Korea-countries that largely have the disease under control.”
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“... the 'hipster beard' and 'designer stubble' dramatically reduce the effectiveness of surgical grade face masks because they stop them from sealing against the skin which allows airborne respiratory droplets to pass through.”
“Thick, textured styles including full beards and mutton chops, which are long sideburns that stretch along the lower jawline to the chin, reduce the effectiveness of breathing apparatus and should be removed before using any kind of mask.“
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I have just been into the small satellite immigration office in Hua Hin. By coincidence, my 90 day stamp was due on 6th April, but you can apply upto 14 days before and 7 days after.
i asked her about changing to an extension of stay. She confirmed that it was 45 days not 30 days before O-A visa expires. And you apply to the main Hua Hin immigration office outside of town.
I have read a lot of the posts about Thai medical policies being a sham. Certainly the basic ones don’t offer much.p, and as you say are intended to satisfy immigration rules only.
When applying for medical protection, I made it clear that I needed to be covered for serious road traffic injuries and dengue fever, where you have no choice but to have in house hospital treatment. I was assured by the insurance agents, who sent me numerous attachments of information, that these would be included in the policy. It cost 61,420 baht.
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5 hours ago, Peter Denis said:
Actually 45 days is the exception applied at certain offices, the rule is 30 days.
What is your IO?
My IO is Hua Hin.
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OK thank you. I didn’t realise that there was a 45 day rule that prevented you from applying to change your O-A to an extension of stay at an earlier date.
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Yes you are right it will be based on retirement not marriage. Sorry for not making that clear.
An alternative that someone has suggested is that I should wait until about 45 days before the O-A expires on 20th August and then apply to Immigration for an extension of stay (retirement). This would be about 7th July.
My insurance policy will be dated 18th March 2020. Immigration would only grant the extension of stay until 17th March 2021. The insurance brokers have indicated that the insurance policy date can be cancelled and then reissued with the date of around 7th July so that Immigration will issue me an extension of stay with a full 12 months.
I am not sure, because of the present crisis and the possible death rate, that I should wait until 7th July to apply to Immigration. My feeling is that the window of opportunity for me to sort out my long term stay in Thailand may soon close. I need to act now, but maybe others will disagree and advise me to wait.
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Currently, I have an old style O-A visa, which is on its second and final year. It was issued before last year’s new rule requiring proof of medical insurance.
During its second and final year, it will expire on 20th August 2020.
Photos of my visa and of the date stamps from Bangkok airport are below.
I was intending to fly back to England during next August. However, in view of the pandemic, and the way things are progressing in the UK, it is unlikely I will be able to fly into UK. Even if I am able to, it may be that Thailand may not allow me to return. All countries seem to be about to close their borders to other countries. This morning the UK government has announced a lockdown forcing people to stay at home.
So what should I do next?
The only one I can think of, subject to any other suggestions, is applying to my local Immigration Office (Hua Hin) for an extension of stay as soon as possible.
I understand that as I have an O-A, Immigration will require me to get medical insurance.
I have just had confirmation from Pacific Cross that they have accepted my application and payment and that my policy will be accepted by Immigration. I have not yet received the hard copy, but it will be effective from 18th March.
Can you confirm please what forms will be required by Immigration for an extension of stay? For instance on this forum above under Immigration templates, I notice that ubonjoe has listed TM7. I assume that is the form, although it seems fairly straightforward, I fill out.
What other documents are necessary please e.g. a copy of my lease; a formal letter from my local bank showing that I have 800,000; two passport photos; a copy of my passport id page; a copy of the medical policy.
Do I need a Thai police report from my local police station in Hua Hin and a medical report from a local clinic saying I do not have the usual illness of elephantiasis or leprosy etc? How much will either if these cost?
Thank you for any help and suggestions you can offer.
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1 hour ago, pikao said:
Not 100% sure, but I think it's the Netherlands where when you learn driving you're instructed (as the driver) to open the car door with your right hand. In Thailand (and others) it's the left hand accordingly. Try it and you'll see that you almost can't avoid to look back automatically. Have to get used to it though
Yes in BritEng, it is called “The Dutch Reach”.
But it is not universally popular with British drivers, so I would imagine that it may not catch on in Thailand.
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3 hours ago, saengd said:
I don't have a crystal ball so I can only guess at what it might be, just like anyone else can and I can be equally as wrong. Personally however my money is on GBP/THB remaining strong and I've no intention of taking the profit on my THB holdings, I would not be at all surprised if the pair reached 30 within five to seven years but much depends on how BOT manages the current overstrength and how the economy responds, longer term however it remains a good investment, for me personally.
Thanks for giving your crystal balls a polish.
When the polls closed on UK election night, and after the first results started to come in, indicating a Tory victory, GBP was 40.66 THB. By the next morning, it was 40.22, up from 38.00. So although the Tories’ win was big enough to ensure that a second referendum on leave/remain was unnecessary, there was not the big surge in the GBP’s value against the baht that had been predicted by the TVF Brexiteers over the last few months.
As has been said many times on these Forums, for TVF expats the most important currency relationship is USD - THB. Over the last three years, the referendum result has been factored in by the markets, and so there was not much movement in the pound on election night.
A Jeremy Corbyn Labour victory, or a hung Parliament, would have unsettled the markets in a big negative way, because of the implications for the UK economy.
Similarly, a hard Brexit, which could still happen, would also have a big negative effect on the pound’s value.
Below is a political prediction for 2020 and 2021 by the Observer’s senior political analyst, Andrew Rawnsley, which he wrote at the end of last December. Politically, he is a centre left, so perhaps a bit of a Blairite (Tony Blair), and who thinks that Boris Johnson is totally untrustworthy as both an individual and as a politician.
Andrew Rawnsley:
”The UK’s membership of the European Union will be terminated at the end of January, but that’s not Brexit done. We then enter a transition period while there are tough and complex negotiations about the future relationship with our closest neighbours and most important trading partners.
Boris Johnson says he can secure a zero-tariff, zero-quota free trade deal without having to commit to regulatory alignment with the bloc. The EU suggests it will never agree to this.
The Tory leader has further upped the stakes by declaring that the UK will crash out of the transition without a deal if there’s no agreement by the end of the year:
Will he really take such a big risk with the British economy, especially its manufacturers and the livelihoods of the voters in the Midlands and the north of England who helped him to a majority?
By the end of the year, either his bluff will have been called or he will betray those new Tory voters.
There will not be another referendum on independence for Scotland in 2020. The SNP will demand it, but without any real conviction that it can get one from a Conservative government that has set an adamantine face against the idea.
This refusal will suit the Nationalists. Current polling suggests that they can’t be confident of winning a referendum now, and a second defeat would surely kill their ambition for a long time.
The SNP’s true aim is to stoke Scottish resentment against Westminster to pave the way for a big win in the elections to the Scottish parliament in 2021. That’s the year with the potential for a constitutional car crash that rips apart the kingdom.”
If he is right in his prediction, then unfortunately, GBP is going to have a tough two years. Ex pats will count themselves lucky if GBP can maintain its current value during that period.
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1 hour ago, saengd said:
I tried hard over a couple of years to argue that it was more than a blip and sadly ended up with the label of the TVF poster who talked the Pound down.... when I said I was going "all in" to THB people said I was barking mad. At 60 to the Pound I forecast 40 +/- 5% and I was pilloried mercilessly. Fortunately for me I came out on the winning side of the deal and we hit 40 but everyone went very quiet by then, many had been forced to abandon retirement here and had gone home.....exchange rates and eligibility for my visa extensions were never a problem from that point on.
(Above quote edited/shortened by silver sea)
Out of interest, what is your prediction over the next few years for THB and GBP and USD?
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6 hours ago, tifino said:I'm waiting till there's more background; about gambling, and ex-wives...
Maybe you right, but here’s a different link to the same story, and there are clear, untouched photos of him. And in this version, he works 9 am to 7 pm (not 8 pm as claimed above) so he gets to go home an hour early.
http://thairesidents.com/local/81-years-old-still-working/
He looks a pretty smart guy, decent and honest, and still on the ball at 81 years old, so I’m not surprised the manager was willing to employ him.
If there is no mention of ex-wives, then maybe it’s because at 81, he’s outlived them all.
Anyway, I, for one, would be happy to believe his life story, as he tells it.
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12 hours ago, Bruntoid said:Life changing ? Really ?
Doesn’t say anywhere sex was involved
10 hours ago, Bluespunk said:What exactly do you understand sexual assault to mean?
4 hours ago, shy coconut said:Sexual assault has many forms, it doesn't have to be physical, it can be verbal for instance.
It is certainly not exclusively "going all the way" with someone. Given that none of the
victims knew that she was a female suggests that she kept her clothes on.
If I befriended someone, male or female and without consent gave their bottom a
squeeze, even if we were both fully clothed, that could be construed as sexual assault.
There’s a fuller report in the Guardian.
And here is the report in the Daily Mail:
One of the charges admitted was penetration. Maybe that was with a finger or a toy.
The victims are children aged 13 and 14 years old. They were also vulnerable; they had already suffered abuse and bullying and had low self esteem. They thought that they were in a relationship with a teenage boy who cared about them. When they discovered it was an adult woman, of course they would feel confused and that it was a “life changing event”.
Gemma Watts is 21 years old, and has no previous convictions, and yet she was jailed for 8 years and the judge made her “subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told her she would be on the sex offenders' register for life as well as being barred from working from any children or vulnerable people.“
This sentence is a reflection of the seriousness of the offences and the age and vulnerability of the victims.
Remember these are 13 and 14 year old children!
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35 minutes ago, legend49 said:but Phuket police say they have him banged to rights
Can any TV reader explain this phrase???
Here is some info on the origin of the phrase. I have simply copied and pasted comments from two sites. The links to the two sites are given at the bottom. Hope this helps ????The answer is in Eric Partridge's book "A Dictionary of Catch Phrases American and British":
BANG TO RIGHTS! 'A fair cop'--a justifiable arest for an obvious crime; underworld, since before 1930. Hence, a police and London's East End catchphrase by 1935 at latest, and a fairly general slangy catchphrase since c. 1950. Note Frank Norman's engaging criminal reminiscences, "Bang to Rights," 1950. For the 'bang' part of the phrase cf. 'bang on!'; 'to rights' = rightfully.
BANG ON! was a bomber crews' catchphrase of WW2 and it meant that everything was all right; in the nuances 'dead accurate' and 'strikingly apposite', it was adopted by civilians in 1945 . . .
Ir seems to have started as an americanism, the earliest recorded use of the phrase being in a publication called Life in Sing Sing. Sing Sing is, of course, the nickname of a famous American prison. The idea behind it there is that the person was caught in the act of some misdeed.
We find the same sense of 'bang' when we use phrases such as 'Bang in the middle' or 'It hit him bang on the nose.' There, too, there is a suggestion that it was exactly right, just as being caught in the act means you cannot possibly deny it.
BANG TO RIGHTS! 'A fair cop'--a justifiable arest for an obvious crime; underworld, since before 1930. Hence, a police and London's East End catchphrase by 1935 at latest, and a fairly general slangy catchphrase since c. 1950. Note Frank Norman's engaging criminal reminiscences, "Bang to Rights," 1950. For the 'bang' part of the phrase cf. 'bang on!'; 'to rights' = rightfully.
‘Bang to rights', which is what the question is about, is definitely first recorded as an American idiom in the Sing Sing item I referred to earlier and that was published in 1904.
'A fair cop' was first recorded in Britain in the 1890s and it was in common use long before the 1930s.
Although the two phrases clearly have similar meanings, V S Prasad they're not the same thing. And I actually used the words 'bang on' as an illustration in my earlier answer, too!
Sources:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question570902.html
https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/10/messages/907.html
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13 hours ago, Max69xl said:
It's no problem to get a Certificate of Residence at your local immigration office. It's free at some offices,and from 300 to 500 at others.
Hello Max69xlWe have already had this conversation! ????
See your post #50 on page 4 of this thread:
and my reply post 81 on page 6:
https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1141521-kbank-not-opening-new-accounts-for-non-asean-people-unless-on-a-o-retirement/page/6/#commentsTo repeat: I was using the basement of the shopping mall at Bluport in HuaHin where all the banks have their offices. There is a small Immigration office there too, but it does not issue certificates of residence.
To get one, you have to go to the main Immigration office, which from Bluport is a round trip of 30 kms. You are there for about 2,5 hours and you have to pay them 500 baht.
I know this because I had recently obtained a new 5 year motorbike licence, which also required a certificate of residence.
Why go through all that ‘rigmarole’ and pay 500 baht as well, when I can just ask another bank a few doors from Bangkok Bank? Which is whyI I went to Krungsri Bank. They do not require a certificate of residence so the 500 I saved I used to open my account.
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4 hours ago, puchooay said:
Don't you think it would be the same in an English speaking bank? Say a Polish guy with minimal English skills walked into HSBC in UK. Every time he asked a question no one understood him. What would happen? Likely they would try to get him out the door.
Easy solution. You live in Thailand so learn to speak Thai. Stop relying on your partners to do the job. Thai people in general will not question officialdom. I wonder how many expats have failed in opening a bank account because their Thai partner would not question the bank employee? Probably many. Same as the guys that get ripped off at immigration. Wife says to husband " Nice immigration man says 2000 baht and everything OK". Expat is none the wiser so pays up.
If you live in Thailand learn the language,the culture and how to handle these kind of situations. That is the way I have been handling things for over 20 years. Never had a problem.
If you have been in Thailand for 20 years, then you have lost touch with England, and indeed the way HSBC works.
I bank with HSBC, and I was in England last August. I went into my local branch in town, because I needed help setting up the new logging on system with their app. I was assigned a young account manager, who turned out to be Romanian. She spoke good English and probably several other languages as well.
HSBC, at local branch level at least, is very customer friendly. If a Polish guy with little English entered the bank they would probably have a Polish speaker on the staff. They certainly wouldn’t try to get him out the door, but would do everything they could to help him, including, setting up a phone link with a Polish speaker at another branch.
England is multi racial and multicultural now. You wouldn’t recognise the place if you have been away for 20 years.
In Thailand, things are very much as Sheryl describes in her well written post above. I don’t speak Thai and I dress in shorts and T shirt, but I have learnt that smiling, being polite and patient takes you a long long way. I am non threatening and relaxed and this helps to relax them and even to ask their colleagues for help. Sometimes I have to keep repeating the same things but that’s ok, because I am never in a hurry; I just keep smiling.
Sometimes it is a non starter, because for instance Bangkok Bank would not allow me to open an account without a certificate of residence. That’s ok, no problem. I went to KBank, which has different rules, and opened one there instead.
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3 hours ago, Max69xl said:
So, 500 baht was to much for you to open an account at Bangkok Bank? The Certificate of Residence from your local immigration office is actually ONE out of several official documents needed (together with the passport) for opening a savings account at Bangkok Bank. The price for the certificate has nothing to do with the bank, it's up to the immigration office. Some issues them for free,some charges 300 baht and some are more greedy. If you know how to use internet, then check out Bangkok Banks website (in english). You'll see that Bangkok Bank is the only official thai bank where you don't need a wp or a retirement visa to be able to open an account. You could have asked for a certificate from your embassy/consulate, but it's probably more expensive than the 500 baht certificate from immigration.
Hello Max69xl,Thank you for reading my post and for your comment.
No you are right: 500 baht is not too much to pay for a certificate of residence, but I knew that it was not necessary to have one to open a bank account.
I would add that on that day I was in the basement of a shopping mall called Bluport in HuaHin. In that basement are all the banks. Immigration also has an office in that basement, but it does not issue certificates of residence. Instead I would have to go to the main Immigration office which is now about 15 kms from Bluport, so a round trip of about 30 kms.
Only a fortnight before, I had obtained a certificate of residence from Immigration because I needed my 2 year motorbike licence had expired. I applied for a 5 year one. The DLA when they issued the licence, retained the certificate. Once you’re at Immigration, it takes about 2,5 hours to get the certificate.
I have lived in Thailand since 2012, and I have learnt that the Thai way of doing things in Thailand usually works. I used to feel frustrated but I have learnt to trust the system and to follow their rules and regulations. Go with the flow.
But why go through all that ‘palaver’ of getting a another certificate of residence from Immigration on the other side of town, when I knew that the other banks did not require one? I simply went to KBank two or three doors further down, and opened an account with them. Easy peasy. I was happy, on that occasion, to gave my 500 baht to them, rather than to Immigration.
I only tried Bangkok Bank, because I had seen ages ago on a thread that my fellow resident in Hua Hin, and ThaiVisa Celebrity, NCCC1701A, had recommended them and so was happy to follow his advice. They were very helpful, polite and apologetic. No problem ????
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4 hours ago, NCC1701A said:No one wants to hear this but I will say it again in case at least one person here will listen.
Always dress like you are going to a important business meeting when you go to the bank.
Thailand is class and status driven society and you are constantly being judged.
This is not directed at the op.
Sorry to disagree with you, NCCC1701A, but I live in Hua Hin too. I went to the basement at Bluport and visited KBank and asked to open an account, and also explained that I had an account at SCB and wanted to transfer monies back and forth.As I sat down, I apologised for my attire: flip flops, T shirt and shorts. I explained that I had a pair of trousers but I had put on too much weight and so could not get them on. Unlike NCC1701A, I don’t do much exercise or eat as much high quality food, so I am a bit of a podge, but I “have a good heart”, or so the Thai ladies tell me.
The lady behind the desk who was attractive, smartly dressed and about 46 years old just smiled nicely and said “no problem”.
She was helpful as we plodded our way through all the form filling and the setting up of my internet account, which I opened with 500 baht.
Now NCC1701A might say, she was only being polite because she was Thai, and that under the surface she would have been offended that I hadn’t made more of an effort to look professional.
But, you know, a funny thing happened. I was the only customer, and I had noticed that the other cashiers had been listening to our conversation. As we were finishing, the lady supervisor, another attractive Thai lady, came over to the desk and said that the lady who had been helping me was called Jenny and she was now single and would be interested in me. Jenny blushed very cutely, and we all had a good laugh. It was a fun experience for all of us.
So even though I am more Archie Leach than Cary Grant, with only 500 baht to my name at their bank, they had genuinely not been offended by my appearance.
When I first came to Thailand in 2012, I was dressed in shorts, but I noticed that all the Thai men wore cargo shorts or trousers. I asked a Thai lady friend about this because I wanted to know whether I should buy some trousers. She said not to worry because I am seen as a tourist. In other words, I guess, you could say I am “a civilian” and therefore the rules are not applied so strictly.
But I am sure that my late father would have followed NCC1701A’s advice; having served in the British Army, he always took pride in his appearance.????
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20 hours ago, EricTh said:Not a big deal, just go to the other banks like Bangkok Bank. Bangkok Bank always welcome foreigners.
19 hours ago, PaulHamon said:Don't want different banks to much running around for everything, especially on stupid rule that makes no sense.
I agree with EricTh: just go to a different bank and open an account there. With internet banking you can transfer money between accounts, even if they are different companies. No fee. No running around. Easy peasy. You can do it on your iPad, while the wifey is frying up your breakfast.I live in Hua Hin and use the banks in the basement of Bluport. The only one that was difficult was Bangkok Bank: they wanted a Certificate of Residence from Immigration, which would have cost 500 baht so I took my business elsewhere.
It makes sense to open another account with another company anyway, because later this year (August),all Thai banks will be reducing their liability to clients, were the company to go bust, to 1,000,000 baht per account holder (not account).
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On 12/25/2019 at 4:26 AM, Emeraldisle said:
I worked in UK when I was young. English people treated Irish like <deleted>. Now you all want Irish passports. We don't need you as Irish citizens
In addition to other replies to your post, the Irish had full voting rights in UK elections, but maybe you chose not to vote. You were happy to take the money though.
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1 hour ago, webfact said:
But after she failed to pick up the phone he got suspicious and decided to visit the "mansion" room that he shared with her two or three days a week.
Kind of suggests that it was a ‘semi detached’ relationship-
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3 hours ago, Chazar said:
good time to increase the 800-400k requirements then.............coming soon from a dicktator near u
They don’t need to, do they? The financial markets are doing it for them with the strong baht.
when I first came to Thailand I got 50 baht to the pound so 800,000 was worth £16,000
Last Friday night, 800,000 would cost you around £20,000.
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9 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:
He has made it quite clear - We should all be reporting 'Law Breakers'...... anything else he will contradict himself and the corner he has backed himself into with his 'black & White', 'Right and Wrong' lack of 'real world' thinking.
If it was a friend anyone who is considerate and cares would got for option (c) try and advise them to sort out their situation, otherwise (b) its not really our business, they are not hurting anyone.
I agree that in his view that is what “we” (as in you and me) should be doing, but I was just giving him a chance to say whether or not he would definitely report someone himself.
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3 hours ago, Matzzon said:
What is the stupid and morbid concentration on how they describe things? What is relevant in that?
What is relevant here is that another overstayer bites the dust, and will be according to the law deported and blacklisted for his arrogance and refusal to live by the rules.
Nobody have asked anybody to spy! Where are you getting that from. People are just asked to report what they know and suspicious circumstances. Same like in any country regarding any kind of criminal offense. But, of course, it sounds much better to explain it like you just did, because then you can put the blame on the Thais instead of the people that is commiting the offense.
Out of interest, Matzzon, if you became aware that a farang of your acquaintance was on overstay what would you do? And assuming that they have not committed any other offences or crimes.
(a) report them to the authorities?
(b) do nothing, because it’s not your business?
(c) try to persuade them, maybe over a period of time, to hand themselves in before they are caught out?
I would add that I am not trying to ‘bait’ you. I am just interested to know what your next step might be.
Can’t find face mask to buy? Then make your own!
in COVID-19 Coronavirus
Posted
Here is another article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/04/04/benefits-of-wearing-face-mask.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200404Z2&et_cid=DM495102&et_rid=843506215
“Even wearing homemade masks can offer protection, and as they can be made from materials that are readily available, they shouldn't carry the stigma that you're taking a mask away from a health care worker in need. Researchers with Cambridge University tested common household materials for their effectiveness as masks by exposing them to different sized particles.”