BKKBike09

The guy fishing literally next to the sign saying "No Fishing" is a classic. Good on you for making trips like this and for posting about them.

Ah, but don't forget the Labour Party's splendid promotional video featuring AI animals, including a politician character (presumably Labour) portrayed as .... a lion! Great choice of accompanying music, too. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2025/jan/07/labour-party-deletes-tiktok-video-after-using-graphic-song-video

There are lions in Britain. Chris Morris made a film about four of them.

Incorrect - it definitely applies to mobile transfer limits on some existing accounts with Kasikorn. I've had a KBank account for 10+ years. No problem with transfer limits until a few weeks back. Again, incorrect - at least for Kasikorn. Customers can apply for a temporary increase to the transfer limit but it currently takes two days to process and no guarantee it will be approved.

I wrote a letter to Bangkok Post a few weeks ago about this 50K limit nonsense but they didn't publish it - so here it is. The real kicker is that (with KBank at least), a request to increase the limit takes two days to consider and may even be rejected. And this isn't an 'anti-foreigner' thing - applies to all, nationality regardless. Given the relentless drive by banks to push customers not to visit branches and instead to rely on the ‘convenience’ of a banking app, imagine my surprise to now be encouraged, by Kasikorn Bank, to use cash for large transactions. Just last week I had the pleasure of withdrawing, at my local KBank branch, several hundred thousand baht of my hard earned money. I then carried the weighty envelope across the lobby of my office building to the branch of another local bank, where I deposited said funds. At this point I should point out that it was not originally my intention to eschew a single, traceable, online interbank transfer. In the past I have used my KBank app, such as when, in March, I made a single transfer of several hundred thousand baht to complete a car purchase. However, Kasikorn have now decided that a rather modest daily limit of THB 50,000 for all online transactions is sufficient for my banking needs. When I queried this with KBank Call Centre I was informed that this is a new policy but that it was possible to request an increase, via the Call Centre, although this would require two days’ consideration and any new transfer limit would be valid for just 30 days. I duly submitted the request but, sadly, it appears Kasikorn feel I am unable to control my spending: the response to my request (two days later) was to inform me “the current daily limit is appropriate for the needs and circumstances of the user”. This was accompanied by the helpful suggestion “if you wish to make transactions exceeding the daily maximum limit through K Plus, please consider making multiple transactions gradually or visit a convenient Kasikorn Bank branch to complete your transactions”. Deliberations aside as to how any bank feels able to determine the “needs and circumstances” of a customer, a system that prevents transfer of larger sums via a banking app de facto encourages use of cash in payment for goods and services – a stimulus for the informal economy, to be sure, but counter to the government’s efforts to promote electronic payments as this facilitates tax revenue collection. And what happens should an unfortunate customer find him or herself in urgent need to pay a bill above their preset limit? It is not uncommon for local private hospitals to require a deposit prior to admission in cases where the patient is uninsured: if at death’s door, ‘making multiple transactions gradually or visiting a branch’ is unlikely to be practicable. Perhaps Kasikorn might, at the very least, adjust their policy on temporary transfer limit increases to make decisions immediate and automatically approved, even if only for 30 days, much as with requests for a temporary credit card limit increase.

Do they have the right to cancel your policy if a payment instalment is missed for some reason? Easy to happen if deducted from a credit card and the one on file has expired and you don't realise. Seems like you are saying that the June payment was not deducted, for whatever reason, and then when next one was due they cancelled. IE they didn't just cancel without anything else happening, a payment was missed first. Of course they should then contact you first to say "this payment failed; your policy is at risk if you don't pay up now" etc. And just curious - you bought a pick up 12 years ago and its still on finance! That's an impressively long payment plan.

Well, that would seem to be what is being suggested - this being from the original article: "A stark poster, distributed in France, forewarns potential crossers of the new removals. Displaying a person being escorted to a plane, it reads, "YOU NOW FACE BEING DETAINED AND RETURNED TO FRANCE IF YOU ARRIVE IN THE UK ON A SMALL BOAT," in both English and French. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, during the announcement with French President Emmanuel Macron, emphasised the repercussions for illegal entry: "You will face being sent back."

You were born in Ireland and brought up speaking Gaeilge as mother tongue? Because your written English is very ropey i.e. what do you mean by 'no pull factors'?

Are you from either UK or France? If not, one could argue that you don't have a dog in this race. That to one side and to be clear: are you saying UK should just accept however many illegal migrants make it to our country? "Welcome, one, welcome all"? If you're not saying that, then do you have any thoughts as to possible measures that could be employed to tackle this crisis?

No country can absorb the equivalent of a new small town every three months - qv. official UKGOV stats on 'irregular migration' by small boats. This is cut and pasted from the linked file. WEEK NO. OF ARRIVALS NO. OF BOATS 04/05/2025 1631 31 11/05/2025 290 5 18/05/2025 893 15 25/05/2025 918 15 01/06/2025 1195 19 08/06/2025 0 0 15/06/2025 1505 23 22/06/2025 2083 34 29/06/2025 703 10 06/07/2025 2014 32 13/07/2025 1375 23 20/07/2025 1042 17 27/07/2025 643 11 03/08/2025 1259 18 TOTAL 15551 253 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6896104ae7be62b4f06431d1/Copy_of_08_August_2025_Small_boats_-_time_series_v2.ods 15,000 is a small town the size of somewhere like Ripon in N Yorks.

Even now they can't just say "You WILL be detained and returned to France". What's all this "you now face" piffle: make it unambiguous and add a picture of a detention facility with caption 'Step 1' and then picture of being escorted to a plane captioned 'Step 2'. Illegal migration has to stop.

Kudos too to Big C for now stocking Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. And while it pains me, on one level, to congratulate CP Group, they've done a belter with a new (to me) fresh milk that's on shelves in most supermarkets. It actually tastes like proper milk. Goes great with cereal and improves tea no end.

Dare you to say it to his face. That's a Chinese thug. The tattoos give him away. They can be incredibly psycho. "The tattoos give him away. They can be incredibly psycho" - that also describes some ladyboys ...

You're lucky - I don't even have that button. This is the message I got this morning after submitting a request for a temporary limit increase (via the call centre)! How the <deleted> do Kbank know what my "needs and circumstances" are? Bunch of useless Ku#t฿. Not that I have any particular feelings about it.

If it's just old age (15 is a decent age for a cat) and there's no underlying health issue(s), which is what you say, then Nature will take its course. As you say - "if". Somewhat easier these days than it used to be, but there are still those that won't do it despite an animal being in extreme pain / distress. I got my favourite cat to 14 despite him having renal failure. He got an extra two years of good quality life thanks to daily subcutaneous IV of fluids. I got very good at doing the IV and the cat didn't mind at all. But after two years he went seriously downhill in a matter of days; terrible to see but had already agreed with a local vet that when the time came they'd euthanise.

Thanks but I have other accounts; also Thai nationality, so opening an account is a simple procedure. It's ridiculous that KBank have decided a limit of 50K is appropriate for a customer's daily electronic transactions but are quite happy to give that customer 500K in cash over the counter no questions asked. Back in March this year I bought a secondhand car: traded in my old one leaving THB 380K to pay. Settled there and then with a single transfer from KBank, but now would not be able to do that. Pushing people to use cash is, in part, just encouraging tax evasion. I'm sure the car dealer would have been very happy to take 380K in off the books cash rather than a traceable electronic transfer.

UPDATE: requested increase to 200K (only valid for 30 days, remember) ... waited two days and then received a message saying bank had considered request and current limit (50K/day) "was appropriate" (เหมาะสม 'moh som'). WTF - what am I? 10 years old? Mentally incapable of managing my money? I would post screenshot but a) it's all in Thai and b) Kbank security settings won't allow screenshot. So it's off to Kbank today to close that account and take a half-mil in cash somewhere else. Under the bed, perhaps?

Exactly - every customer is treated differently and nationality is irrelevant - it's not only foreigners, but also Thai nationals who are affected. I was told yesterday (5 Aug) by the call centre people that the decision is based on pattern of account usage: I've had a Kbank account for more than 10 years. Use it mainly as a savings account so paying in more than paying out, but in last few months made several transfers to other banks for amounts well over 50K. As of some time last month (July) can only send 50K A DAY. Have been told I can increase the limit upon request via call center but new limit will only be valid for 30 days then will revert to 50K/day. No current way to make a higher limit permanent. I complimented KBank on their work to encourage money laundering and tax evasion, as it's perfectly okay to go to a branch and withdraw say 250K in cash, to then be used in ways that are much harder to trace than electronic payment ... fools. Many small businesses are very happy to be paid in cash. Nothing to do with phone number / passport - see above. I have Thai nationality and same phone number for 25 years.

Surely the best approach is moderation. I'm not going to stop eating ham, salami, bacon - just don't eat pounds of the stuff every day. Balanced diet and above all just don't eat more than you need to (which is often easier said than done). Portion sizes have generally also become larger over the past 30-40 years.

Cook a lot when 'back home' but in Thailand it's a real case of "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". Too damn hot here. Plus I like things that aren't so easily available in Thailand or are really expensive (sausages for toad in the hole; streaky bacon for flavour in risotto; swede; leeks in a cheese sauce mmmm) ... One good thing about cooking in Thailand is that it's still mostly gas; UK and most other western countries are moving to electric for everything. I hate those f##king induction hobs; gas is so much more controllable (although electric ovens are good).

Things really started to go wrong for Andrew once he left the navy in 2001. By then he'd pretty much squandered all the credit he earned (deservedly) for his in-theatre service in the Falklands.

BYD sure do love slashing prices to build market share! As I've said before, I think this is a big dis-incentive to buy new EVs here right now - but great for anyone looking for secondhand. And thank you Thai government for keeping electricity prices so low (not sure how many billon USD EGAT is shouldering right now in subsidy costs!)

Problem compounded by defamation laws, which make media unwilling to name the "renowned hospital". If I was one of the patients whose personal and medical info had been leaked like this, I'd be minded to sue the hospital. Doubtless hospital would then offer a basket of fruit and chicken soup as a compromise.

The official RTP online reporting channel is a gmail address ... so very Thai! Surprised they don't have a Line account for it as well.

Ah, one of those occasions when a picture's worth a thousand words ... (some mistake surely, Ed.)