sandyf

Villages don't come any smaller than where I live. There is more to Thailand than what you see.

You are delusional, no embassy in the world is going to provide assistance to someone without a passport. Try looking at the bigger picture rather than your paranoia over passports in Thailand.

A friend of insisted on paying the official amount in USD, despite being asked for THB. Had to wait for 5 hours to get his passport back, that was at Poipet. I used to go to Ban Laem regularly, a lot easier now they have improved the road. The "agents" always asked for the visa fee in THB plus their fee for doing it, could normally knock a third off that. Used to be very quick, passport back by the time you come out of duty free.

Invariably there is a reason, and unlikely to be "odd". Posters however seem reluctant to give much detail. A year or so ago they introduced an interest bearing account so I put some of my GBP balance into that. Sometime later I got a message to say I had to confirm my tax residency, no big deal.

It wouldn't matter how much anyone read of what was an "ill informed" post. You talk as though there has never been previous initiatives of a similar nature. With the experience of the WTT and 50/50 schemes many of the fraudulant practices have been eliminated. It can never be a 100%, but those vendors that bend the rules do so at a risk and they raise their prices for doing so, only a small part of the overall picture.

Being in any foreign country without a passport would be a risky business for most people.

Not really, bit of a trek to the nearest railway station.

This is the most likely cause, and no amount of oil will cure it. I have replaced he capacitor in most of my ceiling fans. The general spec should be the same but not necessarily the value. It is the value that determines the speed and many are multiple values in a single package. The first one I did I couldn't get an exact equivalent so I just put in a single value capacitor that equated to the highest speed.

Maybe you should have a look in the 20 baht shop.

The following day.

Maybe not on the beaches but there were thousands at IconSiam when I went a fortnight ago. All waiting for the evening river boats. We were the last one out and I must have seen about a dozen go before us CP Princess alone had 7 go out that I saw and they can carry 5 - 6 hundred passengers. First interaction I have had with tourists in a long time, never again, too old for the crowds and the noise.

You mean like this. On my house the pads are a metre below the floor beams.

Exactly. Until immigration say otherwise there is no relationship between immigration and personal taxation. Even people on extensions may not be in the country for 180 days, the paranoia is getting out of hand.

That is not quite right. The reduced number of deposits only applies in the case of a very first extension, not the first extension from a new visa. Been there and had the rejection on that point.

Doesn't seem out of order to me. My May bill was 554 units and that was 2641 baht. My bill used to show the unit price but that is no longer the case, think it stopped when they changed the format to a combined bill & receipt.

I would disagree. In 2014 my annual bill was 18K and it remained close to that amount for 8 years, sometimes below, last year it went up to 21K due to the covid subsidies coming to an end. I anticipate a bit of an increase this year due to additional facilities outside that were used for several months by family and workmen during renovation work for cooking, hot water, etc.

I retract my previous comment regarding Thanaleng. I wasn't aware that Khamsavath was a brand new station, only opened in October 2023. A bit surprising as the new HS station is not far away. Being brand new there is no reason why there couldn't have been both Thai and Laos immigration facilities at the station avoiding any need for immigration check in NK. I went on the Eurostar a few weeks ago and both immigration are side by side, just the one queue is a real bonus.

The time I went with the wife and nieces, I got my visa in NK the day before crossing the bridge.

Indeed, we had a close call with the bus. I was with my wife and her 2 nieces, one of them didn't have a passport so the 3 of them went through the temporary pass control which had quite a queue. I had to plead with the bus not to go without them. The woman from the bus took me back through immigration to find them and she took them to the front of the queue, all a bit fraught. There is a border post at Thanaleng station and I suspect that is what will be used, a bit like it was at Pedang Besar on the Butterworth train. These days they are going to want the ability to do a luggage check. When I went to Pakse on a bus we had all to get off with our luggage at the border.

Yes I meant after covid, was running last time I went to NK before covid, didn't bother with it as it only went to Thanaleng. Took the bus from NK bus station to Vientiane bus station. Last year when I got off at the new HS station was told it wasn't running, only buses to Vientiane bus station and the border post at the bridge. Looks like the new service goes a bit nearer the town.

Thanks, the article gave no indication which station was going to be used. When I came back last year from Luang prabang there was no passenger train over the bridge.

The gazette is a website and items are posted Mon to Fri. Generally speaking about 100 items a day, only 5 so far today. https://ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/#list-tab

More to do with the other end, I think the train will stop at Thanaleng, as far as I am aware there is no station in the town.

Depends where you want to go. There used to be a train from Nong Khai to Vientiane, but it just went across the river, think you did immigration on the Laos side and then you had to make your way into the town. That was stopped before covid and don't think it ever resumed. The new service may be of benefit to some. If however you plan on getting the HS train the station is some distance out of the town and you would be better off getting off at Nong Khai, a tuk tuk to the bridge and then the bus from the Laos border post to the new HS station. You could be across the bridge in the 40 minutes the train is sat there.

First mention of tax in the thread, your words, an unsubstantiated claim, obviously aimed at scaremongering. "Seems this is related to ... TAXES." Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia