DiDiChok

Why not simply enable the Thai mobile phone for roaming and use it in the same way as you do in Thailand?  Bank SMS messages are usually free.  You have to do that inside Thailand and it's *125*1# for 1-2-Call sim cards.  You may even be able to call the help centre to get them to enable it for you.

You are advised to check the date that your passport expires.  You used to be able to get more than ten years life on a UK passport by renewing it early.  Now, they are strictly limiting it to exactly ten years maximum.  After Brexit this will be checked and you won't be allowed to board a plane if you're not in the 'window' the passport is valid.  The 'Date of expiry' doesn't necessarily mean what it says!

To check your UK passport, see here:  https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/check-a-passport

I've had my SIM card for fifteen years now, well, not the exact same one but ones using the same number.  I've lost count of how many times I've had to register it.  They seem to want to do it whenever you have a new one or even ask a question about it.  Yet it never seems actually to be registered anywhere that anyone can access.  I suspect the usual Thai huge mountain of paper somewhere in a warehouse.  Yet the threats of being cut off for non-registration continue unabated.  I bet the criminals didn't bother working at the registration process as hard as I have.

I don't think that tourism will be harmed by the offbeat regulations.  It's part of the attraction of the place to me.  My opinion is that the Thais just don't like anything too efficient like computers that never forget anything.  Paperwork is good because things can get lost easily.  The military is ingrained into society and fits in so well with their mentality that bows to authority, that everyone agrees with everything while anyone is looking.  They all know that later on, you can simply carry on as you did before whatever crackpot idea got introduced.  It's lovely.  Think 'Prathet Thai' - Land of the free.

Problems start for us because of the farang mentality that requires 'rules to live by'.  Another problem comes from our mentality that says that when caught doing something wrong, you have to stop doing it.  So when we're stopped for riding a motorcycle without a helmet, we don't understand that once your details have been taken you can go on your way.  Thais have a system that 'nudges' you towards compliance - something that is only now being recognised as leading edge thinking in the west because it works.  Having a system that tries to 'fine' or to 'imprison' society's way out of a problem only makes more problems and can never work in countries that have low incomes.

So relax, and say to yourself "It's only a game, and some people have no sense of humour".  As soon as you begin to disagree with that, you've lost the plot and your sense of humour.

Firstly, I know we're not talking about Acer.

The new Acer laptop machines have a setting in their "Acer Care" program in the start menu where the battery charge can be limited to 80%.  Then if you want to leave the laptop plugged in for ever more, you can do so without ruining the battery by over-charging it.  When set, the charge level never rises above 80%.  There is also a "Battery conditioning" section that automatically does what previous posters have suggested, but without you having to twiddle anything to get the battery to fully discharge.

Maybe it is worth having a look in your start menu to see if your manufacturer has yet got around to implementing this function?

Mine's 18 inches (from the back of the chair) . . .

What's worse is that when you've signed up with the London Embassy eVisa service and start the application process, when you try to put your date of birth in, it doesn't let you enter anything before 1969.  London don't seem to answer the phone or emails, so you're left to work it out that you will have to apply to Hull instead.

In Hull, they send the documents you've emailed them to London for approval and when approved you have to travel to Hull in person to get the visa stuck into the passport.  For me, that's a really big trip to do in a day.  Somehow, I don't think the Thais like us any more.

Buddha bless the digital age we're living in.

From now on, if you haven't recorded your Thai taxpayer number with the Bank and are not a Thai national they'll just take the money.  Up to you to get it back if you want it back because you don't earn enough from Thailand to pay Thai tax.

Thank you so much for pointing me to that advice.  For me now, it's off to the Revenue office to get a card with the taxpayer reference code on.  Although it's only small ฿ in interest at the moment & not worth worrying about, when I keep the ฿800,000 or more in there it'll start to be significant and worthwhile claiming back.  I suppose the Govenment will make a bit of money from those who can't be bothered or don't understand what's going on.

Thank you for your valued words of wisdom.  Kasikorn Bank replied in Tinglish as follows:

Referring to your enquiry about the withholding tax payable, we would like to provide you with the information you have enquired: In case a savings account, the person who receive total interest earned from all savings account and all bank (except for Government Savings Bank and Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives) more than 20,000 Baht, the withholding tax payable will be deducted from an interest earned from deposits at 15%.

Moreover, if the person who request no send the information of savings account interest to The Revenue Department, the withholding tax payable will be deducted from an interest earned from deposits at 15%. If the total interest is not over than 20,000 Baht, they can submit a tax refund.

I suppose I'll have to get the tax note from the Bank and discuss it with the tax office. That would be an interesting and fun thing to try to do.  Maybe the "no send" bit is the cause of the problem.  Has nobody else any thoughts on the matter?

I am British and Interest on my Kasikorn bank saving account (held since 2008 with ATM card) is received around 22nd of June and December every year.  About two days ago the interest arrived but on the next line of the statement is a withdrawal for "Withholding tax".  THis has never happened before.  Having checked with two UK farang friends, their accounts have been debited similarly.

I haven't seen anything in the news about this and it still says on Kaikorn's web pages that interest under ฿20,000 is tax free.  Can anybody shed some light on this new practice?

Well, I'd say that you are connecting to your router using 2.4 GHz WiFi and that their laptop is connecting using the 5 GHz WiFi.  That's why theirs is so much faster than yours.  It could be that to take advantage of the fast speeds, you need to buy better equipment.  Connecting to the router using an ethernet cable usually provides a quick connection but I've seen some old 100 Mbps cards in PCs that slowed things down.  I replaced a 100 card in a PC with a gigabit card and the speedtest numbers went up.  But then, we had to put a new wireless PCI card in to speed up the WiFi and enable it to make 5 GHz connections.  You can sometimes upgrade the WiFI on laptops if you can get inside the case, but most often it's best simply to put your hand in your pocket and buy a new laptop.

The newer versions of 5 GHz WiFi (802.11ac) run really quickly and give you gigabit speeds, but not many routers and not many laptops and PC's support it in full yet. Those saying that "WiFI will never be the same as ethernet" are entirely, totally and absolutely wrong.  Take a look at 802.11ax and what the WiFi Alliance is proposing and get out from under that rock!  Do some research on Wikipedia, use Google, find out about WiFi numbering, the list is endless.

In answer to your query about 'pain', all the software being discussed is based around there being one Google account for that device.  Using other accounts consecutively will result in problems updating software from the Play Stores and will affect the functionality of many other Google features.  I've helped too many of those who simply think that 'It will be all right' until things start going wrong and the device has to be wiped and everything set up again from scratch properly.  Their backups usually don't help them much as they had stopped working properly ages ago when the multiple accounts were first introduced.  Just because a device with multiple Google accounts does everything you want at present, that does not mean it is advisable for the unwary to do so.  In my opinion, I am merely giving a 'Here be dragons' warning that you may take or leave as you wish.

For me, I too find there are a few problems with ATMs.  Now the £/฿ exchange rate is so low and the "Visa" limit is £500 in the UK, I'm limited to that much in Thai Baht.  When the exchange rate was higher, I used to get ฿30,000.  Then some machines only issue 20 notes, so asking for ฿15,900 to get change was all right (15 * 1K, 1 * 500, 4 * 100) but you couldn't ask for more unless you had all 1,000's.  The newer machines seem to be able to output many more notes  Then some Banks have their own card limit and that restricts what you can get.  As I'm with Kasikorn, their accounts have settings too - Oh, and if it worked yesterday, that doesn't mean that your card will work today.

The good thing about the rules in Thailand is that there are plenty to choose from.

I've just read through all the posts on this topic and there is something that simply hasn't been mentioned and which is really important.  That is "re-infection".  When I am staying in Thailand and get the runs, I always adopt what I call my Thailand rules.  I wash my hands after using the toilet and dry them on household paper towel that is then thrown away.  Any ordinary towels are only used once before being put in a hot wash - and a laundry using hot water can be hard to find here.  One careless slip and you can reinfect yourself for another few days of angst.  No more handling any ice with the fingers or drinking from wet glasses that have just been swilled.  It all matters.

On the rear of the visa application form from the London UK Embassy appears (in somewhat confusing English) the following words:

"SINGLE" means single entry.  You can only use a visa once.  If you wish to leave and re-enter Thailand while your stay permit is still valid, You need to apply for "re-entry" at port of departure to re-enter Thailand otherwise your single visa and a stay permit will be invalid.  "Multiple" means multiple entries.  You can seek entry into Thailand multiple times.

I'm trying to understand why and when you could use a re-entry permit with a tourist visa.  Is it something like if you'd used say 10 days out of your 60 on a tourist visas, that you can preserve the 50 for when you come back if you've got the re-entry stamp and you are still within the three month original validity of the visa?  Has anyone ever taken advantage of this pearl of wisdom?  Has anyone tried to get a multiple re-entry permit for their tourist visa for some strange reason?

Ideas about this statement's meaning and use anyone?  Here's how the wording appears on the form:

I know that for Thailand their charge is 0.55% plus £1.50 for the ฿.

Me too - I had this and the shop I go to told me to get a new SIM card.  After that, no more problems.  A friend had the problem too, and we found out he'd had his SIM for fourteen years! New one solved all his problems.

Yes, flatbed, flatbed and flatbed is what I want.  I've looked at all the other offerings and don't like any of them.  Once the Thais have grown taller like the Japanese have maybe Honda or someone else will make something suitable for sale to us taller people.

I've just bought my third Honda SH300i here in the UK and think they're wonderful and would be well suited to Thailand's roads.  I would very much like to buy one in Thailand but can only find the SH150i model which would seem to be gutless after you've been exposed to the larger model.  Ideally, I'd lke to get one in Chiang Mai if it was at all possible but it seems as though you'd have to import one with all the costs and problems that would arise to make it uneconomic to do so.  It's the fact that it's a flat bed scooter that I like most as it can be piled up with shopping - you know how the Thais like doing that.  Does anyone know if it's possible to get one?

6 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Upon return, some are asked to show 20K Baht.  You should definitely have this.  Most go through with no questions asked, but a small percentage of those who have the money and a valid-visa have been denied-entry, when/if the IO decides they have spent "too much time" in Thailand.  Others have been forced to buy tickets to their home-country on-the-spot, dated within 60-days, then let in.  Others are only interrogated on/off for hours, but eventually let in. 

 

. . . . .

Well, it's only a throwaway point but I am sure that tickets back to the 'Home Country' for most people cost at least ฿20,000 so I don't understand how it can be said that you haven't got the money yet you have got enough money to buy a more expensive ticket?  Tickets are 'e-tickets' these days, contact-less payments are normal and credit/debit cards are widely accepted.  I suppose it must be down to inscrutable Asian logic.

Forgot to attach the photo!

4 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

Is that barrier cream something that's sold in Thailand? Am very interested in this. Do you have a Thai brand name or translation for "barrier cream." I'm worried the gals in Watson's are going to think I'm looking for KY jelly.

Go to https://www.lazada.co.th/

Enter the search term "Barrier cream"

Choose from the 106 products currently available to suit your needs.

In the UK I use one from Rozalex called Dri-Guard which is more of an industrial one, suited to motor mechanics.  £7.25 for 450 ml.  I suspect that some of the cosmetic ones wouldn't be so good but you'd have to read their leaflets to find out.

Use of this stuff is really very common knowledge to engineers.