suzannegoh

14 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

How does he/she manage to stay in business?

By being in a good looking building in an area that has a steady flow of tourists.  People do complain about it on TripAdvisor though.

10 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

I rarely dine at the already overpriced places that include such a charge and always leave a generous tip at places that don't include such a charge. If they include a service charge...then that is the tip. End of story.

 

I don't know where the money is going...nor do you. It is usually labeled as a "service charge" and it's assumed (in the civilized world) that it is going to the service staff...including the kitchen. Regardless where it goes...NOT my/our problem! End of story.

 

 

It’s fine it you don’t care where the “service charge” money goes.  It’s also fine if you don’t care about the working conditions at the companies that you buy products from.  After all, you can’t save the world.  But the subject of this thread is “where does the Service Charge money go?”.

2 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

By the OWNER...not the customer. The name itself is a "SERVICE CHARGE". I never leave anything extra when there is already a built in "tip". Just another way to rip off the employees and laying the blame on the customer (usually the foreigners), instead of where it squarely belongs...on the owner. Probably, most customers (tourists) feel guilty and do it. I don't.

It doesn't matter who is shafting the staff.   Surely there must be some limit on how much dishonesty and mistreatment of staff you're willing to overlook rather than taking your business elsewhere.

So its a 10% tax then. 

9 minutes ago, roo860 said:

Definitely the beach, always gets the thumbs up.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

The beaches, the temples, and the culture. That's what most people go to Pattaya for.

There's a highend veg restaurant in a touristy part of Chiang Mai that is upfront about the money going to the boss. They put a sign at the tables saying that the Service Charge is not a tip and that if you want to tip the staff you must leave money in addition to the 10% SC and 7% VAT.

It's very hard to keep track of what they offer. This tweaking of packages seems like a constant testing for revenue, but it's a nightmare for consumers who notice all the changes.

The article talks about PM2.5, which is has units of mcg, and AQI which they quote without units. What's the difference between them?

  The point is that you could be located in Chiang Mai but working on a computer ... programming, teaching, consulting, currency and stock trading, eBay selling, You Tube vlogging ... and if you are any good at them, it would be possible to earn a decent living.    Personally, China Mai is only good for the guaranteed 6 months of the year that is without smog.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Thomas J said:

I have T Mobile and it works just fine here in Thailand.  Phone calls to and from the USA.  I would suggest you download Viber to make calls back to the USA.  Only $1.99 for a month of unlimited calls back to the USA.  That is not true if you use T Mobile and use your cell phone. 

Or get a Google Voice number, install Hangouts on your smartphone, and calls to/from phones in the US are free.

Is the type of IRS account being discussed the same thing as EFTPS? I have that, and it works from Thailand, but I set it up a long enough time ago that I don't remember how I did it.

It might be OK for voice calls but read the fine print on T-Mobile's international data roaming.  I think that the international data roaming that is included for "free" in their subscription packages only operates at GPRS speeds.

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

True, true, true. Perhaps things have changed, but I didn't get paid enough to "go travelling".

I did solve the problem though, by joining the service when one really did see the world, and by going nursing after that, which gives opportunity for employment all over the world.

Maybe it worked out for you moving here young but I would have thought that most people who lacked the skills to earn a comfortable living in the West would also lack the skills to become a well paid expat.  My path is highly criticized by many farang here because most are very anti-corporate, but my qualifications at age 22 were not a lot different than a lot of today’s “digital nomads”.  At 22 I was a fresh engineeing grad and took a job with a big company in the States.  Then, working as an engineer based in the States,  I started to travel to Asia (including Thailand) on behalf of MNCs starting at age 25.  The trips were mostly "all work" but in aggregate they gave a reasonable dose of the culture and allowed me to make friends with locals who were my peers (rather than only meeting locals who work in hotels, restaurants, and bars).  I did that for about 15 years before taking my first full-time job in Asia.

IMO, focusing too much on the cost of living is a trap because there’s generally an opportunity cost in living in places where the wage scale is low.  One part of it is that in such places you are unlikely to find mentors who are older and have more expertise in your field than you do.  That can hold back your development.  Another part of it is that if you are going to earn more than the cost of living no matter where you are and you are working for local wages, then you will generally be in a position to save more money in more expensive places.  For instance, if your choice is earning $2000/month in Chiang Mai where it costs $1000/month to live or earning $100,000/yr in Silicon Valley where it costs $50,000/yr to live, which one will lead to a better life?  I say the latter, because after not so many years of living & working in the more expensive place you’d have saved enough money to retire young to the cheaper place.
 

Personally I think going and seeing new parts of the world when you're young is much more appealing than waiting until you are old and stale which is what most people on TV seem to have done. If you are young there is a possibility that you will enjoy life rather than being a miserable old fart.
 
Also if he is a true digital nomad with proper skills it does not mean that he will be getting the standard wages here.

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

I think they're talking about Chinese, not us.

No, they are talking about college educated people with a track record in industry.

I wonder if this might be inspired by Singapore, as the phrase “Foreign Talents” is commonly used there.

Traditionally in Singapore (as in Thailand) an expat’s visa and Employment Pass were tied to the company that you were working for, so if you were laid off or resigned you would have to leave the country.  To address that, Singapore introduced something called a Personal Employment Pass, that would be tied to the employee rather than the employer.  Introducing that made it much easier for expats to do things such as change employers while living in Singapore or to work independently as a consultant.  This new Thai visa sounds a bit similar to that.

8 hours ago, Paul944 said:

For 500,000 a month I would consider moving to Thailand for a while. Any job opening for an IBM and RedHat middleware specialist?

Generally its easier to land a position like that by getting hired by a multinational company in the West and persuading them to transfer you over here.  Then you can expect to get your US salary plus living expenses, and sometimes additional perks like annual flights back to your home country and extra vacation time. When I was working as an expat the perks effectively doubled your salary if you counted the cash value of the condo, car, etc.  However in such cases getting a visa was seldom an issue so this new Smart visa wouldn't mean much.   MNCs have always been able to work the visa approval system well enough to be able to get visas an WPs for skilled expat employees.

Hello, 

My friend and I are moving to Chiang Mai as we have heard it is a good place for digital freelancers to live and I'm curious to hear your opinions on what neighborhood we should be looking at? We want to be in a suburban area as we'd like to have some quiet when working, but still have access to the social part of Chiang Mai. We hope to spend under 10k baht per month on rent. 

Thanks for reading

3 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Try a can of that Cheers 4.5 % strawberry , STRAWBERRY , beer and then make a comparison.  

  I mistakenly bought one of those expecting it to be the Cheers 6 % red can good stuff and had to spit it out , literally spat it out , strawberry beer !!!!!!!!!!

I'd rather drink turpentine.

Vile swill.

Is this new law the Thai version of “Net Neutrality“?