capriole

Small correction, the greek feta is not made from cow milk but its a mixture of sheep and goat milk. What you are looking for is a white cheese from mainly Denmark or France. But looking at the prices 963 baht for 1kg from an online shop in thailand I wouldn't blame you for going for the alternative, even here in bahrain is cheaper! ????

As a rule, DNS set in Windows (with static IP etc) overrides a router's DNS. However, some routers intercept the Windows DNS making the router DNS take priority but this is pretty rare.

I had the same issue two days ago, I sent an email to support with the Cloudfare error ID and my IP address describing the issue (blocked in login attempt) and they were pretty fast to respond. Today I was able to login with no issues. 

14 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

This was a great initiative by CRA but such a pity they ordered Sinopharm which seems to be as useless as Sinovac.  The Seychelles and Bahrein have had bad experiences with this vaccine failing to curb their outbreaks even before the Indian variant emerged.  Bahrein ditched it in favour of Pfizer. 

That is not correct, Bahrain together with UAE were the first countries in GCC that trialed the Sinopharm vaccine last year and as a result it was the first vaccine they approved for emergency use. Currently they are using 4 vaccines (Pfizer, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Sputnik) and they have already started issuing a booster dose for people (like me) who had been vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine six months ago.

The peak they had was mainly due to family gatherings during Ramadan and Eid and secondly  due to people from countries that were in the red that used Bahrain as a stop-over/transit place (staying one week or 14 days depending on the regulations in the destination country) in order to be allowed to travel to UAE/Saudi Arabia and other countries like UK and US. 

6 hours ago, sirineou said:

As with every place there are a few negatives.

Fuel is expensive, electric rates are (I think) the highest in Europe, But  for the most part the negatives are balanced by the positives. My brother has retired there, and lives a comfortable life on about a $2000 a month   pension. He has a big property in Agion in the Peloponnese , a few minutes from the beach, and he pays about 600 euros a year property tax.  If I moved there I would rent for a while, rents are very cheap, 

Anyway, now that I am retired, and have the time, I will look into it when I go there this summer. I would go now, but I want to make sure I can get back without quarantine. that's why I keep saying end of summer, by then I will have a better idea what's going on with covid in Thailand.  

I do know the prices well as I am greek too, my brother lives in patras ????. As I said before if you have a good pension or other funds available then it is a very nice place to be,  actually it might be a good time for people to move now as the government has introduced new laws to attract foreign retirees to make their base in Greece with some good perks and tax discounts. 

7 minutes ago, sirineou said:

If it was not for my Thai wife, I would move to Greece in a heartbeat . Nice climate, great food, I speak the language to the point where if I don' t talk too much I can pass for a native.  and because of my parents I can qualify for a Greek passport.

It is an EU country , so for most Europeans it is easy to retire there, but even if not, an investment of 250K Euros in Real estate (about 280K after tax) will get you permanent residency.  Nice dry summers, a little bit of winter to get your ski fix, . We are going there end of this summer and I am getting my Greek passport, all I need is to produce some documents that I already have. Then we will see. 

You listed the positives of Greece but not the negatives with the crazy taxations in property, solidarity taxes to name a few which you will have to pay as a resident. Other than that I agree with you that Greece could make a perfect retirement place specially if someone has the funds. 

2 hours ago, SymS said:

I'm not sure they understand who "digital nomads" are... Most of them are self-employed, and not working for publicly listed companies with 50m+ USD in income...

Most likely they are confusing digital nomads with telecommuters hence the listed companies etc. Many companies have changed their policies in the last couple of year due to Covid and started allowing employess working remotely. My company is one of them where they closed down the local office and switched my contract to a telecommuter from office based employee. That changes allows me to work from wherever I want for prolonged periods of time as all I will require is a decent internet connection and my laptop plus a couple of monitors to make things easier.    

On 5/8/2021 at 11:26 AM, richard_smith237 said:

 

Same here.... I will travel to the Middle East for work next month. As soon as I get there I plan to get the Pfizer vaccine (which residents can get for free) - I figure this will be before I have the opportunity to get the vaccine in Thailand. 

 

But, I see most foreigners in Thailand will have had the opportunity to receive at least the AZ vaccine within the next couple of months.

 

Not too much to worry about other than the risk of a major outbreak in Thailand and lack of availability of beds for those with serious symptoms. First they have to stop giving hospital beds to those isolating without symptoms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure about Saudi Arabia or UAE but in Bahrain you are eligible to get the vaccine only if you are a resident (holding a local ID) otherwise you can't register for it. In the beginning of the vaccination program they were some lucky people who were able to get vaccinated while on tourist or business visa but they have catch up with that fast and stopped it. 

I am using this plantotrics headset for work and private calls, its comfortable for longs calls and good sound quality but not the cheapest

1 minute ago, Geoffggi said:

That sounds way to easy, not much scope for fleecing the tourists ...............LOL

That is a different concept which as we all know Thais have mastered very well ????

8 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

I cannot see how this will benefit Thailand as it is the rest of the world that need to adopt a means of registration for a passport/certificate for travelers to come to Thailand. Then Thailand to drop it's quarantine restrictions.

5 hours ago, hioctane said:

US is expected to have enough supply to vaccinate adults by May... Get moving Thailand!  Figure out a way to make vaccine passports happen. The Middle East is already testing a version. Maybe Thailand can just piggyback off it.

In middle east this is already a reality, in Bahrain where I work I have the vaccination certificate available in two forms one in digital form that comes within a goverment application on the phone and the second in the standard booklet that shows all the vaccinations taken.

Just open tiktok with the #dubai #bahrain #thai hashtags and see what you get! Many ladies plying their trade and I would argue that around 80% know whht will be "asked" of them. Quite often their bubble of easy money is broken quickly and then they will throw the story of being mislead, forced etc so that the local embassy will get involved and they will get out without having to pay their "expenses" to the agents/shops. 

19 hours ago, techietraveller84 said:

Soon, there are going to be a lot of counterfeit vaccination certificates out there. Wonder how Thailand is going to determine what's legit and what isn't?

 

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/travelers-using-counterfeit-covid-test-results

Not easy to counterfeit the QR code which is part of the vacination certificate issued, easy for Thailand to verify those from each country's issuing authority.  

On 1/27/2021 at 3:37 AM, Geoffggi said:

Do these type of passports actually exist other than in TAT eyes? also as has been pointed out by Tropicalevo the word could should be replaced by will if any sort of credence is to be associated to this post 

I don't think they are really talking about real passport but most likely they mean the certificate issued by the country's relevant authority (for example in bahrain is the National Health Regulatiory Authority) like the one we get here in bahrain where I reside. 

10 hours ago, Seeall said:

perhaps a 3rd nut will grow after a few years?

Anything between a third nut or leg could be considered a bonus ????

13 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

How can they vaccinate if there are no vaccines available in Thailand?   Where do you want them to get vaccine?  Other countries have the manufacturing capability or were developing and financing the vaccines so they have priority.

 

European Union pop. 450 million ordered 1.4 billion doses 

United States pop. 330 million ordered more than 1 billion doses 

Canada pop. 38 million ordered 358 million doses

United Kingdom pop 63 million ordered 350 million doses

Australia  pop 25 million ordered 140 million doses (after CSL 50 million does order cancelled)

Covax purchasing group (Thailand is a member) pop. 5.3 billion approx. has ordered  2 billion doses

(Expected to rollout end of 2021 ongoing to 2023)

 

Thailand will get after the countries who took the risk and invested in R&D get their vaccines.

 

Do you think there is a lesson in this? Maybe instead of buying new submarines or mercedes benz fleets or mia noi holiday, that paying salary of medical researchers, and paying for laboratory and manufacturing capability is a better investment in country. Maybe time to put tax on Chinese tourist to help offset cost of Covid19?

 

 

 

Someone would think that with thai govermement being the sidekick of the chinese they should have been already getting the chinese vaccine (see sinopharm) but for some reason (finances?) they choose not to do so. Here in Bahrain where I live the goverment already made the vaccine available to public (citizens and residents) free of charge, and since two days ago people now have the choice between the sinopharm or the pfizer vaccine. I already had my first dose (sinopharm)  on the 23rd Dec and waiting for the second one on the 13th Jan, haven't expireicend any side effects at all so far.  

3 hours ago, oMega69 said:

That just for the METV , Visa application.

 Not according to the list provided by the embassy, these are the requirements for a Tourist visa

They don't only ask for the money in the account but aslo for a non objection letter from the employer, why the heck should I let my employer know where I want to go for a holiday? ????

It does sound like a standard scam email. You could verify this by moving the cursor on top of the link or button in email (DO NOT PRESS THE BUTTON OR LINK) and then right click on the button or if its a link you should see the corresponding web address. 

If it is not part of the Bangkok bank domain its most likely an attempt to either get your personal information or an atempt to inject/install malware in any device you might open that link.

For clarity are there any departing from your country cash declaration limits? In the USA leaving with 10,000 USD or more requires you to declare it.  The one account I heard from one person that did that in Los Angeles California at LAX was that few of the TSA officials there had a clue as to how you do that.  And if you show up with luggage, you have to go to a different part of the terminal, get or deliver the form, etc.  No idea how one would then get or keep a copy, as I am sure the officials (probably more than one) would want a copy.  Maybe you can get it online in advance and fill it out, but that didn't seem to be the case as they wanted the guy to sign it there.  And I know the TSA mentality being what it is, and depending on some jackass's mood you may get a lot of questions

Hi guys, just an update regarding my question. As I wasn't sure of the outcome I decided to do the transfer via a bank transfer if/and when required as the seller is having some cold feet. However we did stopped to customs on our way in and enquired about the possibility of bringing the money in cash and what is required in terms of papers to prove that the money are legit. To my surprise the customs officer said that they only count & registered the amount of money and of you go and further proof of fund sources is not required.

6 hours ago, Sealbash said:

The legal customs requirement is to declare funds over a certain amount. Anything brought illegally across the border is smuggling. Are are looking for advice on smuggling funds across the Thai border?


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

You lost completely my point I am not asking advice about avoiding to declare the money (that is the objective from the start!) all I am asking if anyone has done and if they had run into any problems with customs officers. So where do you see the smuggling is beyond me!

6 hours ago, HampiK said:

It's quite simple. You walk into the red part of the customs and tell them you want declare the money.

Then you have to show them your money, they will count them and write everything in a big book where you have to sign as well.

After that you will become a slip where it states, that you brought the money into Thailand. 

For your security I would bring the paper from your bank where you had the money from (a withdrawal document).

 

And I not sure what will happen, when you exchange large amount as for example superrich, as they also want see your documents for exchanging money. So if you exchanging 80'000$ but you never had declared any money on arrival, this could become somewhere a red alert on some computer system (maybe not I am not sure how good the systems are connected or if for example superrich has to report money exchanges).

 

The main reason to declare would be:

- for bring it out of Thailand again

- for can use to buy something in your name, when you  need the FET

- You are on the safe side, when they would check your luggage. If they check and find the money you can say goodbye to a big part of the money (if not declared).

Hi Hampik, 

Thanks for replying, thats  great information. My worry was the customs officers and them asking for a bribe but as I haven't seen that being an issue (so far no-one mention that they had a problem like that on the way in) it seems that is a standard process. Also as you are mentioning declaring will help with the money exchange as even in Bahrain they are asking the bank withdrawal slip for the exchange to USD.

9 minutes ago, stament said:

It's risky, you could get robbed 

 

What flight are you on....?

why you interested to give me a lift? 

25 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

It's my understanding that (unless the procedure has changed) upon declaring over 20k and filling out the form, you are to receive a copy.

 

Very important that you make sure you receive one.

 

The person who told me about that said that he didn't receive a copy and didn't know he was supposed to.

Upon leaving Thailand he explained that he had brought it in.

They asked for a copy of the receipt. When he didn't have it, they asked for a bribe.

When he refused, he ended up spending several months sleeping on the floor getting bitten by insects in a Thai prison.

Thanks Jimmy, but you are saying that your friend had a problem taking back some of the money he brought in and which he declared if I understand correctly  but in my case I will not be taking the money back, but still I would like to get a paper stating that we declared X amount as that might be needed also in the currency exchange office, plus it gives a sense of security.