HatYai2

14 hours ago, ubonjoe said:

You will not be asked to show 20k baht on entry.

They have only been asking those entering with visa exempt and with tourist visas at airports and even those are rare.

 Do you know if this applies to the notorious Dannok border post? They seem most times to be a law unto themselves.

Thanks for the replies. I have had no luck yet. I will look at something else. I am not a power user, nor out to impress, and absolutely NOT going to pay the same price for a phone as a desktop or laptop computer.

HI

Can anyone advise if the Motorola Moto G5 or G5 Plus has been launched in Thailand yet, with pricing if known? 

In Hat Yai and online no one seems to know, so the usual happens they send you on a wild goose chase.

Many Thanks

Stay Away from Dannok (Sadao).

We came back after a two day shopping trip to Penang on 9 Oct.

We have Multi entry "retirement" visas. Luckily, I took the bank book and statements and money and proof of 10yr stay at my appartment. (Thanks TV)

Was asked 10 times "So where do you work? What are you doing? Where do you teach?" etc.

We paid good money for the visas and gave all the proofs of income etc. in February.

We thought we would be last back on our minibus to HY.

A British couple with a new tourist visa just issued in Penang had only B70000 on them, but proof of more.

They were held for 20 mins longer than we were!

Religion!

As Soutpeel says much like Thai politics. The ANC will lose in 10 years time, but to another black grouping.

Government officials and business leaders vote ANC because that's where the money is. The great unwashed will never vote for a white party. The ANC continues to play the race card, to garner votes from the uneducated because 'a vote for the DA is a vote to bring back apartheid'

They moan every day about the lack of services and incompetent officials. The day that they go to vote thought it's the same old story. A T-shirt and some KFC (or just a promise of it) and they vote ANC again.

Zuma has a tragically good grasp of his audience 'Only clever people care about (corruption)' and 'Corruption is only a crime in Western eyes, and since it is victimless it is acceptable '(in his case)

Bringing it back on topic - that is why Zambia's Guy Scott's situation is so silly but typically African. Never look for the best person for the job, before excluding all the non-blacks.

As for mismanagement, they inherited a working system and lucked into a commodities boom. Go there now (or worse still, go there once a year) and see the regression. When you get back here you see how minor the complaints about Thailand really are! (people on this forum talk about the Hub of Crime/corruption/bad driving...)

Thank again Ubonjoe.

If we return with a week to spare we need a reentry permit, and only get a seven day stamp?

I must decide if it will not be easier to just get another Visa in South Africa - this time a multi-entry rather than 2 entry.

If we can only get the extension of our OA retirement visa, in Thailand and within 45 days of expiry, then I have a problem.

We leave Thailand on 22 November and can only return in February, at most a few days before the Visa expires. (We have had our second entry on the first visa by entering before the 'enter before' date)

Help please.

Thanks ubonjoe

I have a retirement visa obtained in South Africa

Double entry. Issued on 19 Feb 2013

Enter before 18 Feb 2014

1^st entry in March 2013 departed for SA in Dec2013.

Thanks to TV, I learned that if I got back by 17 Feb 2014 I would get another year permission to stay.

Done. Now the visa will last until I depart in November.

Do I get the next extension in SA on the same basis as retirement visa or must it be arranged here before I leave? How?

Many Thanks

Thanks for your ideas. I must find a way, for even though we make a good 15-20pa return on out money there after Rand depreciation brings it down to low single digits then inflation bank costs etc (you get the picture) Already South Africans are half as wealthy as they were 10 years ago even with the investment growth. 2006 our first year here R1/B6.75.

I was curious so just looked this up.

Can you not use this? - http://www.standardbank.co.za/portal/site/standardbank/menuitem.de435aa54d374eb6fcb695665c9006a0/?vgnextoid=5f5eb2e17e35b210VgnVCM100000c509600aRCRD

"A single discretionary allowance of R1 000 000 per calendar year, for residents over the age of 18 years. This allowance may be used for travel, donations, gifts, study allowance, alimony and child support, wedding expenses, foreign capital allowance and maintenance payments, provided the amount does not exceed the limit of R1 000 000 per calendar year."

Another part of the site suggests you can send money electronically so.........1m rand is the best part of $100k or 3m baht?

I seem to be starting each post with "The problem" It is not can is be done. It is at what cost. B3/R1 is bad enough without two or more banks taking a piece

Can you TT the rand (sent as rand not changed before it gets to Thailand)and do you have a Thai bank account? If yes speak to your Thai bank and ask them what TT rate they will give at that point and see how it compares.

The Rand is so volatile that a swing of 5% in a day is not unusual. I was hoping that I could open an account here and then link it to my SA account to transfer via internet banking. I have been procrastinating since March and have not yet opened an account. My Thai is the famous nit noi. TV have narrowed it down to Bangkok, or TMB, or Kasikorn, or SCM, or... each with pros and cons. I was hoping to find some way that money would not go via a corresponding bank but Citi did not buy Nedbank and Absa is part of Barclays but they are not here, Standard chartered is in both, but SA do not answer emails I have sent them. Aeon only have an investment arm is SA. ...

SuperRich http://www.superrich1965.com/ will exchange Rand for Baht, rates on their website

Do you have the facility to make wire or SWIFT transfers from your SA bank to your Thai bank? Has to be the easiest option and not expensive at this end.

XE.com currently gives a mid market rate of 3.14 baht to the ZAR. Current cash rate on SCB web site (http://www.scb.co.th/scb_api/index.jsp) is only 2.2 - yikes! vs. Superrich at 3.1.

SCB do not show a TT rate?

If you want to TT a larger amount the other option may be to change into $US or another currency in South Africa and then TT it.

That is why I thought of asking Thai Visa members if anyone has hit on a better solution.

Thanks I will do more asking around in SA next month. The bank makes so much money they will never volunteer the info

Have you looked at some of the threads in the banking forum? Whilst not SA specific they may help.

If you asked a mod to move this there and highlighted any specifics that were different when transferring from SA rather than elsewhere you may get more help........

Hi thanks for your response. I have been reading the banking related threads.

UK, USA, and European members have branches of Bangkok bank or other ways to get money to LOS cheaply (even carrying in cash)

SA does not have that luxury. Our currency is not easily exchanged here (as far as I know – or is it?) So our choices are limited and different, unless someone knows a better way.

Thus my question.

(I have been on TV for about 3 years but forgot my previous username/ email/password – thus a newbie)

Many thanks

While I realise that this is a topic with limited interest, I think that many South Africans living here now have similar reservations about raising a country specific question where, as usual, we are in vanishingly small minority, I for one would like to find the cheapest easiest and most reliable way to get money from SA into Thailand’s banking system.

At an exchange rate hovering @3.16 to a Rand, which after Absa and Mastercard take their share I am lucky to see 3to1, any insights and advice will be appreciated.

'Amb Marks also plans to bring steel industry investors to Phuket, Gov Maitri said.'

This puzzles me. I was not aware that Phuket had a steel industry or even plans to start steel manufacture.

South Africa is the world leader in the steal industry

Putin added that it was "hard to overestimate" Mandela’s personalrole in establishing good ties with Moscow.

Most communist-terrorists had good ties with Moscow in those days. Maybe we should all celebrate international kill whitey day? That's the song Mandela was filmed singing, about killing the whites, right? He got his first-world State handed to him on a plate and, thousands of butchered white South Africans and a failing economy later, he got his dream and will no doubt die a happy man. Good riddance.

The ‘machine gun’ song was/is regularly sung by our illustrious Zuma. “Kill the famer…” by any number of our non−racist black comrades. For the rest you are correct.

Mandela (Madeba) has done nothing as the elder statesman to admonish or advise.

His excuse?

Everyone is subservient to the all-knowing ANC, which infallibly determines policy.

He is just a pliable geriatric, wheeled out to rubberstamp and legitimise all and any.