Jump to content

Ashto

Member
  • Posts

    81
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Ashto

  1. On 1/6/2019 at 6:56 PM, Crossy said:

    I get medical from my employer, but I also get Thai "30 Baht" (I forget the proper name) which I can continue for a pretty nominal fee when (if) I retire (and coverage never expires due to age).

    I’d love to know more about this. 

  2. 3 hours ago, MadMuhammad said:

    With the right resources and a little bit of commitment it took me approximately 40 hours to learn to read and write the Thai alphabet and read basic words.

    Once I got my head past the initial ‘that’s chicken scratch’ and understood script is just another way to right letters it really does start falling into place 

    I’d be interested in having a go. Can you indicate what were the right resources for you?

  3. I’m an occasional visitor to Kantharalak and it’s hinterland. I’ve enjoyed reading the contributions here and the good humour of Awa and the commenters. 

     

    I hadnt heard of the Asoke Community in the Kantharalak area. Is it easy to find when you’re there?

     

    cheers all

  4. 23 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

    I wonder if South Africa is the only nation where this could be done with an easier entry for the Thai. I'm surprised there is even one. Very enlightened of them. 

    There is a specific visa for non-national non-residents seeking temporary entry to New Zealand  for the purpose of marrying, but I don't if that's as hard to get as an ordinary tourist visa.

  5. 1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

     

    It's news to me, good news, that S.A. does allow marriage between two non-nationals. Canada does not anymore. 

    New Zealand permits two non-national, non-residents to marry there. But of course you have to get a visa. And working class Thai has its challenges. 

  6. Superrich has a reputation for offering a more favourable rate for large denomination bank notes than the trading banks. 

     

    The trading banks quote their rates rates each day on their websites so you can check against others.  Here's KTB today https://www.exch.ktb.co.th/ExRateKTB/ExCounterRate.do?action=currentRate

     

    I had it recommended to me to send your transfer in your local currency to the Thai bank and let the Thai bank make the conversion to baht. I've found that my local bank is always less favourable than my Thai bank so I always send my currency to my Thai bank as suggested. 

     

    I've  always found using my local cards, current account or credit card, to be the most expensive way to convert my local currency into baht. 

  7. On 17/06/2017 at 1:19 PM, ubonjoe said:

    It will be a 5 year multiple entry visa that can be renewed when it expires and then another 5 years if you meet the requirements for renewals. Only money in the bank and insurance will needed for the renewals.

    I have read the translation of the announcement in the royal gazette.

    You can reduce the 3 million to as little as 1.5 million in the bank after one year if used for certain purposes. The 1.5 million will be needed for the renewal.

    I'd be very grateful if you could provide the link to the translation of the Royal Gazette. My online search has found only a Thai publication with no English version:-  http://www.mratchakitcha.soc.go.th/

     

    ive also found the official government news website but this news appears not to be important enough to be mentioned on that site:- http://www.thaigov.go.th/

  8. The Thai government has good information regarding the numbers of foreigners on retirement extensions, numbers of entries and exits by those holders per annum, numbers of foreigners multiple entries visa exempt and on visitor visas, and numbers of Thai elite visas. It's all computerised and running statistics is a moment's effort. 

     

    The government will have a pretty good idea of the likely take up of this visa (putting aside policy requirements like health insurance) and I suspect they know the numbers will be inconsequential to the Thai economy overall, including the banking and insurance industries. 

     

    Where incompetence comes in is in relation to the policy matters like insurance. This has the hallmarks of a bureaucrat having a brainwave without thinking through the implications. It's possible that this requirement, and the police report requirement, are the thin edge of a wedge and these will appear in due course in other visas such as the retirement extension.

     

    Every country in the world is concerned about the increasing cost of providing health care to foreigners (increasing tourism is the driver of this) and is struggling to find policy solutions  to the problem. So far there has been huge resistance from the tourist industry in every country to the imposition of a tourist health levy at the border. This levy is effectively the government health insurance suggested by a number of posters.

     

    Another solution which has been adopted by a number of countries is reciprocal health cover for emergency treatment. This works only between countries which have similar levels of health care eg the UK and Australia. 

     

    One poster had had an interesting suggestion that this new visa is a way of meeting a recent US demand for reciprocity of visa duration. If so, it's clever as it offers 10 years but on unattractive terms. 

    • Like 1
  9. It's a situation which has caught others before. You can marry or have a civil union in New Zealand without being resident, but you can't unwind it there unless resident.

     

    In countries such as Thailand which don't have civil unions there's no provision for unwinding civil unions made in other countries. 

     

    Therefore, if you tend to move about the world and you are heterosexual, it's better to choose marriage as every country in the world has marriage so you can get divorced in any country you're living in. If you're gay, then you can get divorced only in countries that recognise gay marriage, so you may want to choose civil union as more countries have gay civil union than gay marriage.  

     

    The underlying problem is, of course, that most of us don't want to contemplate the end at the beginning!

  10. 28 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

    Chulalongkhorn, hands down. Rama IV road near Rajadamri.

     

    There is an after hours clinic on the 13th floor of the OPD building where you can see specialists by appointment, only a couple hundred baht more than the very crowded public channel and well worth it. It runs from about 4 PM onward and also Saturday mornings.

     

    You cannot, however, make appointments other than in person.  And even the after hours clinic, is  crowded. But nowhere near as bad as the public channel plus you can directly access a senior doctor rather than having to run a gauntlet of medical students and interns first.

    Thanks, much appreciated. 

  11. 1 hour ago, robertson468 said:

    With, or without Medical Insurance, I would recommend the Public Hospitals and ask for a Private Ward.  It is far, far less expensive than the Private ones who principally are profit making organisations.  I don't blame them because that is the nature of business.  Likewise if you have to take medication, and you are attending a Private Hospital, ask for the prescription and take it to a pharmacy.........much less expensive

    I've found the discussion very helpful, thanks to all. On the question of using public rather than private hospitals, can anyone suggest good public hospitals in central Bangkok, ie within a few kilometres of Sathorn?

  12. If a person publishes on Facebook a statement which is defamatory of another person and a third person clicks "like" to that post, the like click may have the effect of republishing the defamatory statement by publishing it to a new audience ie those who see the second person's "likes".

     

    Republication of a defamatory statement is a defamation in its own right and the person defamed can sue for that defamation. 

     

    This is the law law in all common law countries and likely in Thailand also.

     

    If you think a statement you see on Facebook is possibly defamatory it's unwise to "like" it. 

     

    It is important is where your audience is when they see it. That's where the defamation occurs. That could be many countries if your audience (the people who see your "lies") are in many countries. The person defamed could sue you in each of those countries if they chose.

     

    On the question of criminal conspiracy under the law of Thailand I have no comment. The civil liability I've detailed is enough to make one cautious about the "like" button. 

  13. 4 hours ago, JackThompson said:

    You were coming in Visa Exempt or on a Tourist Visa??

    With 6+ Visa Exempts in your history, the alert might pop-up in either case, but there are special rules specified in recent Police Orders, which restrict entering Visa Exempt far more than entering with Tourist Visas.

     

    The "180 Day Rule" refers to an old Police Order which only ever applied to Visa Exempts, and is No Longer In Effect even for Visa Exempts.  Any IO who attempts to use that as justification for denial of entry is either ignorant or not telling the truth.

     

    Because ...

    ... does not equal "living in Thailand."  "Living in" means you don't need to leave every 90 days or less. 

     

    Spending a lot of time here is not in any way restricted by law or police-order if Tourist Visas are used, but is No Longer Permitted using Visa Exempts.

    Where can I find the Police Orders restricting visa exempt entries?

  14. A couple of points.

     

    1.  The problem of landlords not being able to resist screwing the tenant on the exercise of a right of renewal in a lease existed in England too. A law had to be passed preventing the landlord from charging a premium for the exercise of the right of renewal. A right of renewal, of course, is different from the grant of a new lease. A landlord can charge a premium on the grant of a new lease. That's why having a right of renewal in a lease is supposed to be, and now is in England, a very valuable thing. 

     

    2.  The question of whether foreigners, resident or not, should be permitted to buy freehold or leasehold land in a country involves many fascinating economic and social issues and any country that presently doesn't permit such ownership should be slow to grant it till the issues have been well thought through and discussed by the citizens of the country. 

     

    Many western countries are presently experiencing excessive price appreciation of their real estate because foreigners are permitted to buy it and are doing so as a way of stashing their cash in safe havens. These foreigners include those from Eastern Europe and China. If Thailand permitted foreigners to buy their real estate they could expect to see prices rise significantly and possibly out of the range of many citizens. 

     

    3.  The enforceability of contracts is crucial to the stability and economic success of a country. This is what is known as the rule of law. There's is considerable prosperity visible in Thailand so there must be a reasonable level of rule of law where very large projects are involved.

     

    The "little man" may be another matter. I've not had to engage with how the enforcement of contracts works here and bow to the experience of those who have. I offer this observation however. I have extensive and lengthy experience of the operation of the rule of law in England, Australia and New Zealand and can say that even in those countries, which are considered among the best in this way, it's distinctly possible to finish a dispute feeling "screwed".

  15. If you're driving from Buriram to Ubon, you're likely to drive through Sisaket province. If you take the route through Kantharalak you'll be close to a temple as old as Angkor Wat, Preah Vihar which is on the border with Cambodia:-

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preah_Vihear_Temple

    If you stop in Kantharalak for the night the Prasopsook Ville hotel on the Main Street is good:-

    http://www.sataheep.com/prasopsuk-ville-hotel-in-si-sa-ket-045-635-157-270936.html

    Expect to pay around 500 baht with ensuite. 

×
×
  • Create New...