ronnie50

Just to clarify though.... If one holds an LTR-WP, and is exempt from paying income tax in Thailand on foreign income, but has some interest on Thai bank income (let's say only 2,000 THB per year or so), and has no other Thai income, does that person still need to even file a Thai tax return, even if resident in the country a full year? I guess, no, just ignore the whole Thai tax thing?

I don't think any SE Asian country is very clean, at least not by Western standards (beaches, street litter, etc.), except for Singapore maybe. (By 'Western' I'd exclude dirty Paris and much of London and some other rundown cities in the UK - (someone should write a paper on the number of Mars bar and crisp wrappers collecting at the end of the average windy Tube platform, per capita, of course)

Agree with that (on average, of course).

Dunno. It's not that beautiful. I mean not any better than Thailand. Wasn't impressed with Penang. And KL and Putrajaya are boring. Standard of living might be a bit higher than Thailand, and English is spoken much more in Malaysia than Thailand - and the My Malaysia Second Home is a good initiative -- if you really want to live in Malaysia. I don't.

I can kind of understand the hesitancy. They want tourists - but maybe not long-staying foreigners. Keep in mind their history with colonizers (French) and the Chinese occupations and pogrums of Vietnamese men - an occupation/landgrab that was on and off for around 8 centuries. Then of course there was the 'American War' (Vietnam War). Can't really blame the Vietnamese for not wanting to throw open the doors to long-stay foreign visitors/retirees.

well I guess things can't last forever..Still, as far as the "major" Thai beach joints are concerned, Koh Chang is still the best in that category (IMO), despite its rubbish removal problems, etc., then Krabi is second on my list of main tourist beach joints. Phuket is a write-off now for me - not interested. Samui... went there one Xmas/New Year and it pissed down rain and flooded the place for a week. Won't go again. Of course both Thailand and Vietnam have many stunning smaller beach areas that are great.

I read somewhere that Geylang is no longer the red light area, is that right? I remember all the Chinese hookers on the street in Geylang - sort of lined up like troops out for inspection of the guard. They were interspersed with filipinas, but many of the Chinese girls were stunning. I guess that's at least 15 years ago...

The price of hotels is all western cities (G7) seems to be crazy now. Simply not worth it (to me). Japan still not too bad, but that's thanks to the deflation of their currency over the last decade or so.

Da Nang is a great place to base one's self for an extended holiday. And yes most things are cheaper - taxis (they have GRAB), food, drinks. Nice beach. Likely cheaper to rent a place on the 'city side' rather than the 'beach side'. But as a city, it doesn't really offer much as far as I could tell, but I was just a tourist. Only a couple of shopping centers, though I think that will change. Korean corporations seem to be the main foreign entities. In general, the people speak English better than Thailand, where only hi-so people, bar girls and those in the tourist industry can speak English (at a conversational level). Also, speaking of hi-so, and maybe because it's still a communist country, there is less snobbishness among the Vietnamese locals - who are pretty straightforward. Not so sure about living in Da Nang long-term. Hanoi or HCMC are probably better alternatives - hospitals, shopping, day-to-day things/amenities.

I think this needs some global context. For example, is foreign tourism to other countries also down? Or up? Or level with previous year? While Thailand might be crying the blues - and noticing the Chinese arrivals are down - maybe fewer Chinese are traveling out of their country to any destinations? Just to say more Chinese are going to Vietnam, or fewer global visitors are going to the USA doesn't really answer the question about international tourism numbers in general. EDIT to add the link from UN Tourism below which says global tourism 5% higher. But again, devil in the detail - how much has the global population grown since 2019 - some 6 years ago? https://www.untourism.int/news/international-tourism-up-5-in-first-half-of-2025-despite-global-challenges

Americans have been shooting at strangers and neighbours for 200 years. But the preponderance of rapid fire weapons carrying multiple rounds - both long guns and hand guns - something that's a more recent thing is why these shooting are seen more and more in the news. It used to be that a lone nutter with a revolver could cause a mass shooting that was limited in casualties by today's standard, whereas the nutjob in a Vegas hotel could take out many, many people with his rapid fire weapon(s) before he himself was taken out.

This answer that Chinese had names the other way around is stupid anyway (as well as wrong). Why would it matter in any case?

Yes we've had one for many years - maybe 20. Kasikorn too. But it doesn't surprise me if things are harder now, given all the other nonsense going on in the banking sector with foreigners. (Yes, wife is Thai). We also opened them for our kids when they were minors, with our names on the account as well. Of course anything out of the ordinary here takes 5 people 2 hours to try and figure out. 'Cannot' is always the easy answer...as almost everyone has experienced in daily life here. It's up there with 'mot' (out of stock, finished, etc.)

Yes I remember that 'my sacred duty' I think were his words (to avoid flooding of central Bangkok). Poorer areas on the other side of the river though were not part of his sacred duty I guess, and were inundated with many flooded out of their homes (maybe as a result of that action). There is, coincidentally, a Netflix mini series right now on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and how the poorer areas were left to flood and fend for themselves with no help for weeks.

I think you might be closer to the truth than you suggest..

Yeah, Cathay is the same. Really hard to ever use the points for a biz class seat. Same with Korean. In the case of ME airlines, there is intense competiton for customers and loyalty - it's a really crowded field now compared to 20 years ago - so maybe that's why they are a bit more generous in giving up seats for points.

Anyone know how many of the world's top 20 airlines have first class cabins (as a distinct product and in addition to business class)?

Yeah, the river is not rising there - because it's saturating the ground water nearby, as witnessed with the Sam Sen road collapse (now another part of that road might collapse in front of Boon Rawd Brewery - water leaking up onto the road from underneath).

I also started a thread about this in Thailand Visas, etc., One of the posters who went to SCB to do this said they 'taped' his passport to the table so they could take a shot of his passport using a tablet (bio page), then did the same (taped down again) on the visa/entry page. Did they do that to yours, or just take a photocopy of it on a zerox machine? I don't want them manhandling my passport like that and possibly damaging it. Can you advise a bit more about the experience? Cheers R.

Exactly. So all they need our passports for is to confirm it's us. Then take the f'ing facial photos! I really don't want them messing around with my passport. I'm not going in if they are going to start manhandling my passport. Anyone else have this experience of taping it to a desk and all that??

Thanks for the update. Good to know. It worries me a bit about them 'taping' your pasport flat to the desk. I've had to tell a teller to ease up a bit as he was handling my passport pretty roughly, bending it back and forth. The tape thing could damage it, then I'd be screwed.. Besides, they should already have a photocopy of my passport when I updated the new one. I thought they just needed our faces at different angles..

It's a good move. I've noticed, for example, that premium economy is usually unavailable on THAI (maybe always unavailable?), at least on regional flights - I was usually trying to book an onward long haul premium economy that included THAI via HKG, and found they didn't have that service.

In big older condo developments in Pattaya and Jomtien I think it's quite usual, although, yes, probably illegal. There is a big condo low-rise complex in Hua Hin I've stayed at in a short-term AirBnB style arrangement - those are illegal too in Thailand. But not only are owners buying for the purposes of short-term rental (usually 3 days+), but the Condo's juristic office even has a little window clearly signposted where you go upon arrival to collect the key and parking stall number. You never meet the owner.

I think it means for us too. That's why they say bring your passport (or Thai ID - I guess some foreigners do have Thai ID, though not many). Anyway, next time you go to a branch take your passport and bank book - it said any branch. You should have all the details in the App if you use it. Click on the messages - that's where much more info can be found. Should be at the top.

You probably should. Did you get the message?