ronnie50

Agree. Big-C Extra has some great imported products - mostly British sweets like club bars but also large Aero bars for 85 or 89 baht. That's quite a good deal really. They also have UK horseradish (Coleman's) and British tea and other biscuits. Their other chain, Tops Market, has some Waitrose frozen foods - but nothing that stands out, and a smaller selection thatn they used to stock. (I wish they'd bring back shepherd's pies)

There was another thread on this a few weeks ago. The new password you enter triggers an email to the email address the systme has on file. Is the email yours, or your landlord's? if the latter s/he must clik a link to confirm.

Better late than never.. I just got a message through my SCB App that, as of today, 22 Sept. 2025, the SCB branches will begin registering our faces for transactions. When you go into the messaeges in the App you can click on the details (there, it says the process started on 20 Sept., anyway, the message today says the rollout begins today (22nd). Bring your passport they said (and passbook I guess). It says you can go to any SCB branch to do this. To clarify, as account holders with an App, we already have our faces scanned - but only for the App. This new exercise is to allow us to transfer more than 50k at a time up to a limit of 200k.

No. I'm refering to military jets flying over national terrirtorial airspace without permission. Immediately shooting them down is not an SOP of NATO or Russia as far as I am aware. Nor is letting them fly wherever they want unchallenged. There should have been a third choice in the poll, that's all I meant.

You're missing an important choice in this poll: - Scramble NATO jets to 'escort' the wayward Russian military planes out of NATO airspace, open fire only if threatened and in self-defense. These kinds of violations happen all the time (arctic in particular). And that is the standard respose I believe.

The longer you rent the place, the less financial impact it will have on you once you leave (if they don't return any of the deposit). In other words, if you rent a 20,000 THB condo and the owner charges you 40,000 as a deposit, that you must pay upon moving in, plus first month's rent in advance, and you leave after one year - you're out a lot of money. On the other hand, if you keep extending the lease for 5 or 6 years, then move out and don;t get anything back - you're out 7-8,000 a year (or 500 baht extra per month). So that's the sunny-side-up way of thinking. And no confrontations (which, as mentioned often can be dangerous here). If you have a lease in hand, drafted through a reputable agent, it usually specifies a time period after you vacate the premises that the owner must inspect, make any repairs, produce receipts, and then return any balance. The law is very clear on this - and it's on your side as a tenant. For example the law (modified a few years ago) also makes clear the owner cannot use the excuse of some minor damage to pay for improvements to the place that were better than before you moved in. This is why time-stamped photos from your phone when you move in are evidence (as part of the inventory inspection). Other threads on here and elsewhere have more info on this. One reason that (some) Thai landlords/owners won't return a deposit is because they think the farang/foreign tenant is moving away from Thailand. So they can just wait them out (remember what the Russian/Ukrainian girl did to get even - which backfired on her at the airport?). But if you are not leaving the country, you have time and you should can make a police report, get a court date, and quite often (apparently) that's enough to scare the dodgy landlord to return some or all of the deposit. Why? Because they are probably doing other things they shouldn't - like renting out too many condos (I think the law specifies fewer than five - or it's considered a business, and they have to pay big tax on rent), so as a workaround they use proxies like extended family members as owners. For 30-40,000 baht it's easier for the dodgy landlord to pay it before they and family proxies end up under the scrutiny of the courts and police. Edit to add: In the contract where it says two months rent as deposit - that's actually against the law. While they all ask for 2 months, the law says a deposit should be only one month - another reason they don't want police or courts involved.

Indeed. I personally know of two farangs who had guns pointed at them following arguments with Thais. One was a visitor (a colleague) trying to buy some tourist stuff in Sukhumvit - an Italian guy (e.g. very Italian - loud and gesticulative - a bit too 'in the merchant's face', if you see what I mean.). The Thai merchant apparently had enough of this guy, pulled a gun out from under the counter ('a revolver), pointed it at the Italian guy and said 'GET OUT, GET OUT!'. The other guy, a British friend who was running a popular bar, had a run-in with a staff member. He'd been giving the guy a major dressing down for some reason - in front of the other staff (big mistake IMO) - the Thai guy left and came back with a handgun shouting and pointing it at my friend. The other Thai staff managed to cool him down and disarm him. So as you say - keep your cool, don't lose your rag. Be patient and things usually work out. Never let someone lose face in public is the general rule.

Or they are just killing time - like me.

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Might be worth asking while you still can (about pins and screws). Later in life, if you ever need an MRI you will need the know that or you won't be able to have one (and you sure wouldn't want one if you have any magnetic steel anywhere in your body).

Right. Always ask. Old dental crowns are always a hazard too in my case (I mean really old ones - like 35+ years - where steel was used under the gold/porcelain). The conventional wisdom is to 'ask your dentist' what materials were used in the crowns - but at least one of the dentists for my crowns is now surely dead. And I can't remember where I got the other two (1980-1990). Almost certainly a few contain some kind of metals the MRI magnet will pull on or heat up. Maybe there is some kind of 'faraday cage' for one's mouth at the MRI room 🙃

In Thailand, it's quite common to be prescribed meds that have been de-licensed or banned in other countries, particularly the US. Also, like you say, you can get home and then, with time to research the med you've been given, you find out that it is either contraindicated with other meds you are taking, or is an 'off-label' Rx that isn't proven for your condition. I usually ask the doctor what med s/he is prescribing and google it right there in the doctor's office and either accept it or reject it on the spot.

Curious to know if these screws and pins the surgeons use to repair compound fractures and limbs are made of magnetic metals that mean they can't ever have an MRI (not just in this case, but more generally, globally). Do you know the materials normally used? All titanium, or a mix?

Thing is so do 70 million Thais every time they buy something from 7-ELEVEN or Big-C. So foreignes are nothing special. I don't think the government cares about how much it gets from foreigners paying VAT. They want more money from richer foreigners, they just haven't figured out how to do it yet. What's becoming clear though in the recent year or two, is they don't want the country to be a 'retirement' haven for low income foreigners. My guess is the pressure will continue to build to get rid of them, and put up barriers to prevent more of the same arriving. Thailand has no real plan for retirees other than the LTR for WPs and the almost extinct but various Thailand Elite card iterations. Look at Malaysia (My second home program). That's a carefully thought out plan to attract retirees. Wouldn't be my first choice as a country, but it is an effective draw.

Mauritius and Seychelles a bit of a surprise as retiree spots - tourism yes - retirement? There is racial and religious tension in the Seychelles and for older people, they need good medical facilities. I doubt those two are up to expectations or needs.

There's Portugal - and the there's the Algarve (where many would want to be - and it's lovely there). But the prices are being pushed up, not just by Brits retiring, but by others from EU countries like Germany, with the freedom of movement as an EU member. The Portugese have been complaining in the last 2 years about foreigners pricing them out of the housing market almost anywhere in the country. Portugal used to offer tax free for retirees but finally caved under OECD pressure. I think the outcome was a flat rate of 10 or 15 % on global income. Lisbon would be fine too.

Good review. And thanks for the YouTube tip. Someone else said they also found it on one of the video channels.

Noted. I never tried to use Kasikorn web access. Other countries still have Web banking don't they. UK, US, others. Some just added double-factor authentication to get around the increasing security issues. Don't know why Thailand couldn't follow suit.

CBC's are very useful for younger/middle-age people, but a full blood panel is usually better, though rarely ordered here in Thailand. For older people, a liver function test should be ordered alongside the CBC as should a kidney function test. The simple creatinine figure in a CBC, on its own, isn't very informative without an eGFR (flow rate). Also, the simple creatinine test can mask any protein leakage into urine. The only way to find that out is to do a 24 hour urine test. Again, something not normally offered, and a doctor would need to assess the patient further before ordering the latter. Older people often become anemic - but doctors here tend look only at Hb for an indication of that (the first item usually at top of the CBC) - when in reality the elder person could have normal Hb, but lower than normal red blood cells (RBC), which are often overlooked and can be a sign - even on their own - of a deeper problem. At least all of these tests are easy enough to get in Thailand as everything is connected to the hospital where a doctor works - not so readily available in many Western countries, as a doctor must order them from his/her 'office' not in a hospital, then the patient must wait a cuople of weeks to find out the results. Here in Thailand you find out within the hour usually.

I find the guy a bit of a 'worm'.. I'm waiting to see one pop out of his ear.

Yup. They tend to be in one of two places - for the most part - Chiang Mai septegenrian 'Nam vets and some others who like living in one of the worst polluted towns in the world, or the 'younger' crowd still living in their mother's basement in Texas.

Yeah, not much they can do maybe. They did replace some storm sewer pipes (dig up the smaller ones and repalce them with bigger ones). But only in a few certain areas. It helped a bit. But to replace them in all areas prone to flash floods from heavy rain would cost billions I think. There's still no sanitary sewage system either - and probably never will be. Meanwhile, at least, they are picking up the pace of burrying the phone/cable/fiberoptics in Bangkok.