Capt Rob

On 9/14/2018 at 6:38 AM, simple1 said:

She was highlighting deaths and mistreatment of asylum seekers held Offshore by the Oz government with the phase usually reserved for members of the military "Lest We Forget" on a day allocated for the memory of military service people. She made an error of judgement, removed the comment and apologised the following day, yet was hounded for days by Oz PC politicians from the Right.

 

Some Australians  from the Right claim its within peoples rights to be offensive, but when not adhering to their PC POV, obviously not so - astounding hypocrisy. As my Thai wife can inform, anyone claiming racism is a minor issue in Australia is completely incorrect.

Yassmin is undoubtedly a talented young woman but she still has someway to go in her knowledge of Australians - she has repeatedly knocked the Australian way of life and wonders why, as she claims, to be 'one of the most hated' - 

"In a country like Australia, people are very happy to accept you as long as you toe the line," she said.

I personally do not see this as a true criticism - As a guest in a country I have some observations as how it can improve but I would not bank on lasting too long if I took up a public platform.

Fine young men from Australia during various conflicts have given much to secure this still admired country and denigrating someone's ancestors, although seemingly endemic, is not going to achieve much approbation.

The preciousness about PC is seized upon by many who oppose tolerance and real equality, victimization claims equally are in a large part an artifice, as evidenced daily in sport, politics, etc.

On 9/12/2018 at 8:32 AM, PremiumLane said:

and yet here you are, being outraged ? 

Does not sound like outrage - more like fatigued resignation

On 8/25/2018 at 9:57 AM, theguyfromanotherforum said:

 

Nah, I'll stick around and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

Gotta do the obligatory Thailand flounce.

Great post - you would have known that you were going to press a few folks buttons with such a denigrating description of Thailand.

Still that said I have found it interesting to read responses and I am only on the first page!

With health issues it would seem that you have limited choice and I suggest you might have built your case around them - reinforcement/confirmation - something most of us have done.

Equally you are challenging the reasoning and values of other 'farangs' living here.

Sure there are many issues here to address, chiefly the plight of the folk at the bottom end of the food chain and failure to address the issues which are glaringly obvious ( road toll, corruption, critical thinking etc).

My Canadian friends including the non-French speaking ones, tell of the PC madness and their embarrassment with their government from the top down( google Jordan Peterson for some definitive words). Australia equally has some PC obsessed folk as does Europe generally - all of the forgoing will tell you nothing I suspect you do not already know.

You were a guest here of the Thai people at large so I think your words to describe Thailand are wanting.

Fusion Thai is available at " Gusto Site " clean and not too expensive with good service - opened a couple of years back - a small band at night

1 hour ago, jgarbo said:

Your tiny fight against the plastic plague is futile. It will only help your silly self-esteem, believing that one little person can make a difference. A real difference obviously must be governmental. But at least for now you have a shiny halo over your head.   

Your stance on plastic is laudable but . . . . . . . . . here is a link to the 'Spectator ' worth reading 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/revealed-the-truth-about-plastic/ it is an informative read even in this information overload world.

Not aware of increase in arrival / departure tax being allocated for medical needs ?

I understand the sums which would result - presume this amount included in ticket price.

Where does it go ? general revenue ? Very little transparency in Thailand - filling a financial hole is a never ending task.

If you balk at the cost of paying high age related premiums for health insurance you need to put a similar amount aside for health costs only

42 minutes ago, gk10002000 said:

education and work.  I agree.  I have been broke, jobless and homeless, after 40 years of hard work even my family abandoned me even though I had never cost them a dime, never did anything illegal, etc.  Oh well.  I survived it, put my nose back to the grind stone, worked hard and long, arguably got one big break on a long term contract and I took advantage of that and socked the bucks away so that now the investments pay nice dividends and interest.  I remember after my first trip to Thailand my desire to be able to live there should I choose.  I looked up the retirement income required (65,000) baht or about 2,000 USD per month.  That became my near term goal.  A few years later I remember checking my portfolio and saw I was getting 24,000 a year, or 2,000 a month.  It felt so good.  Then a few more years and I passed, 3,000 a month, then 4,000 a month.  Now the monies feed on themselves and there it is very reasonable to believe I can live quite comfortably on that, and I am not even counting this year's and then the upcoming future Social Security.

 

   I really was down and out.  Had been just plain stupid, but I always had an idea and a plan.  And I was lucky I had my BS and MS behind me and my Air Force experience, so with a little luck I was able to move forward and get work.   What did Ben Franklin allegedly say:  "If you think getting an education is expensive, you should try not getting an education and then you will see how expensive that is"

 

  I think the survey numbers are reasonably accurate.  But what they don't tell is how many of those people are really long term livers in Thailand.  I mean, many could be low level young english teachers just giving things a go, or things like that.  They are not retirees per se.

Good to read of someone picking themselves up after a stuff-up or so - one thing is true if you say you can or cannot you will be right.  Some folk I have met here have quite modest incomes, but do manage quite well

On 3/12/2018 at 1:30 AM, chickenslegs said:

I'm from the UK.

What do I miss from home (apart from family and friends) ...

 

French bread and cheeses

Affordable Aussie/NZ/etc. wine

NZ/Aussie lamb chops

Jersey Royal potatoes

Belgian beer and chocolates

Proper Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi curries (English style)

Chinese (Hong Kong, Cantonese) take-aways

HP sauce (now made in the Netherlands)

Guinness

 

Some reasonable renditions of HP and take away curries at the Sausage King, Chiang Mai, Big C on Superhighway has some Oz wine at bearable cost but you can experience French   for similar outlay.

3 hours ago, connda said:

Have a dash cam and first-class insurance and let the insurance company fight it out.

Dash cam will get you a 5% discount on your insurance premium - which might well be the insurance company's attempt to rein in claims 

3 hours ago, worgeordie said:

In your first post you said you heard a couple of booms ?

If 10 in a row,must likely big fireworks at a funeral or other temple festival.

I hear them around where I live,low big boom,boom,boom.rattles the windows.

regards Worgeordie

 

Almost certainly construction related. A > small controlled explosion to remove sheet/large rock ahead of foundation/pipe excavation or,    B > small controlled seismic explosion to create below ground profile.

18 hours ago, KneeDeep said:

 

 

I'm not falsely accusing anyone. You posted an affiliate link. Of that there is no doubt. Someone might click on it, register and fund the account. The referrer benefits from that.

If you don't want to be seen as a referrer, don't post referral links.

Post clean links. Then no one can accuse you of surreptitious behaviour.

 

If you really want me to read carefully what you write, then I'll also point out that Paysera is not a bank at all, as you claim.

It's a Lithuanian company that has a licence to operate as an electronic money institution from the Bank of Lithuania.

 

My first post on the subject was on Friday, not Saturday.

Perhaps you should calm down. You are getting yourself into a tizzy.

 

 

 

 

 

Just come back to this thread as exchange rates are as close to my heart as my pocket - checked the Paysera rate for AUD to THB and it is displaying well down on Transferwise without the fees.                Fees seem a little unclear from my quick read ( 7 euro s ? ) Whilst this may be cheaper than Transferwise's fee the rate was poor. suggest using " monito " which will give one a comparison over the better ones ( small base ? )

14 minutes ago, HuwGro said:

Two very good services I use online - transferwise and worldremit

Ditto the above - also use a comparison service " monito " ( google it ). Have noticed that Superich have expanded there presence of late if one needs to exchange cash at close to transferwise rate.                            There is a company called Instarem which operates out of several countries - difficulty for Thai bank transfers is the need for an approved country to operate from and receiving OTP via phone in that country - rate good and fees nearly half that of   Transferwise.                                   

 Some folk use a friend in 'accepted countries' to transfer for them.

UK Spectator magazine did an excellent piece in March 2018 >  https://spectator.co.uk/2018/01/revealed-the-truth-about-plastic/

Europe consumes almost 60 million tonnes of plastic a year. If all this packaging were instead grown in fields, it would take up 40,000 square miles — nearly a tenth of all arable land currently under cultivation in Europe. And what about the carbon emissions from biodegradable plastics? They tend to decompose straight to methane, a greenhouse gas measured to have 20 times the potency of CO2. If our main concern is climate change, then we’re actually better off using plastic made from petrochemicals — either recycling or burning them once they have outlived their useful lives.

Amongst other things it pointed up the adverse effect of paper bags and that cotton bags needed to be used 173 times before it became responsible for lower carbon emissions than plastic.

I commend the article from the "Spectator"  for anyone seriously concerned about pollution ( and generally, most other articles within its pages )

4 hours ago, realenglish1 said:

Very common for Thai girls to do this  They have 3 or 4 guys on the hook and live off this

It sounds like your son is one of them

 

Proceed with caution

Some years back a friend who operated a very popular bar in Pattaya revealed that it was also common for girls to be receiving support from multiple 'guys' who believed that the girls would not work at the bar, or if they did ( 'to relieve boredom' ) they would not accept to be 'bar fined' ! He found it somewhat entertaining when one of the suitors came home ahead of schedule and the girl would exhibit great dexterity.  

32 minutes ago, DUS said:

 

I don´t disagree in principle with what you are saying above but was surprised when you said that GBP 400k should be considered the bare minimum for a 60 year old. I don´t know about the current life expectancy of Australian men but even at 50k Baht per month your 400k GBP minimum would last for almost 30 years. Yes, I know, I´ve ignored inflation in this calculation and health costs are always an unknown and potentially financially disastrous factor in anyone´s budget plan but still, I find 400,000 Pounds or over 17 million baht too much to be considered the bare minimum. Anyway, that was just a thought when reading your post.

 

As for the OP, I agree with the what´s been said on this thread so far: 100,000 Pounds after building the house etc will not be enough if you cannot supplement it with additional income whilst living over here.

 

Good to see a helpful debate going on. There are of course many reported successful relationships forged in Thailand but uni-formally not coming of such a low investment base. The good natured sage advice offered here should be accepted as such, still good to remember, that even successful relationships are a work in progress and it pays to have an exit strategy that allows for survival.

2 hours ago, glasswort said:

If these people are known to be criminals how did they enter the country and, apart from the obvious reason why are they allowed to remain?

The elephant in the room - I have difficulty in accepting that the various malefactors from what ever country are not put up on a Interpol ( or other ) watch list if they have recent form in violent/ serious crime. 

That being the case, it would seem axiomatic to the immigration police job /duty description to have a closer look and set in place a follow up on known criminals. I understand that folk travel on fake passports but this once again is check able although with some time constraint.

16 minutes ago, jorgenweihrauch said:

out of the country after jail - and never allow him to come back 

Imagine not a problem for this gent - a new passport? No problem

Very droll ' Rooster ' - 2017 round-up of not so newsworthy events is appreciated and it appears that I have missed nothing in my efforts to be Thai relative and a HNY to you

On 12/26/2017 at 9:40 AM, ezzra said:

Gone are the days where seafood in restaurants was easily affordable,

nowadays, seafood is not cheap, unless you go to some ports where

the fishermen are coming in from the sea with their catch of the day,

otherwise, buyer beware and informed before ordering.....

In Chiang Mai there is fresh seafood available for reasonable prices - probably around 350THB / head for two people and great tucker! Still maybe not over the holiday period when CNX fills up with folk from BKK and elsewhere

20 hours ago, Jip99 said:

Less than the daily average of 65.

 

 

24,000/365.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38660283

 

 

A riveting article to read ( amongst many such articles ). A couple of poignant phrases which summon up the national attitude " Unless it is happening to them " and " people get excited for awhile but when all the fuss dies down . . . . . " > Thailand is not unique in this regard but top of the list bar one for fatalities. Given to believe that people who expire after being removed from the accident scene are not included in total numbers.

A cogent post which should be required reading for all visa applicants.

It is all part of the learning experience and if you have never been exposed to the 'wallet with legs' effect, it can be a heady experience.

A quiet word to a new friend may be spurned, but can be be seen as a random act of kindness by most.

12 minutes ago, ebean001 said:

Charging more may help but not by too much. The answer is

Biodegradable Paper Bags

 

They need to replace plastic altogether. do you really think the drink guy will charge you for the little plastic bag that holds your drink cup? No...he will eat the cost or charge you 5 b more.

Biodegradable Paper Bags are available. Countries need to use them to lower the coat.

I do not know anymore on this subject but I did read it takes 180 days for the bag to degrade.

 

 

A good post but but further to it   : -   telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/24/seafood-eaters-ingest-11000-tiny-pieces-plastic-every-year-study/

Which means that we fish/ animal consumers will eventually ( perhaps already ? ) experience some difficulties from plastics.

On 10/2/2017 at 7:10 PM, sinbin said:

 You are suffering from anxiety/depression. I suggest a visit to a Psychiatrist and get help. Seriously. Been there done that.

An interesting topic and perhaps topical in that we have a recent public spectacle of an older chap losing it in a car/traffic event.

It may be that counselling might help but, you have reached out and so far the replies have all been constructive. Which is help in a true sense as we all have to deal with the issue.

Think the path we all take may reasonably expected to differ but not greatly. If you do not have serious underlying health issues, would recommend exercise/gym which will offer connection with like minded people, setting a rest time each night and avoiding depressing movies/TV, diet is another consideration together with eating times. Sleep patterns for older males can be intruded on by the 'dreaded' BPH - this you can google for a fuller explanation.

Good luck

3 hours ago, Thechook said:

They end up in rivers in Australia

Reports and photos of them being parked in trees etc both Melbourne and Adelaide