bkksteve123

Keep in mind, that area (Chang Khlan) is prone to flooding. If you have vehicles to park, I would avoid.

Sounds like you and your wife are in agreement: no free money for relatives. Which is great! So what's the problem?

Agreed. I doubt many people are discouraged to travel here because of the fee itself. It's the hassle of applying for a visa, preparing the paper work and spending an afternoon applying for a visa at an embassy, and another trip to pick it up. Sure, if you live right next to the embassy no problem, but most people don't. For example, my parents are retired, and would like to spend 45-60 days here in early 2023, but they will not bother getting a TR or going for an extension at immigration, so they plan to keep it under 30 days. To boost arrivals and spending they should make the visa exempt stamp 90 days.

Not far off. I think around 4.5 THB per unit is the average for me. So can expect a 10-15% increase. Not the end of the world

The high humidity makes it feel colder than when it's 16C in Europe. I live about 15km from you towards CM and lately the mornings have felt very chilly. No heating inside also makes it not so pleasant to get up from bed and shower. The usual shorts and t-shirt outsit is simply not enough until around 10am. I'm enjoying it though!

In Chiang Mai I heard fireworks for the past 2 weeks, finally it stopped (I don't mind, but the dogs were driving me nuts)

Very sensible and I agree with this. I have the same mask policy as you i.e. full face helmet = no mask, plastic bucket on head = mask on chin, exercise/jogging in a quiet area = no mask.

Here's an idea: only open bars where staff are fully vaccinated, and only allow fully vaccinated customers to enter. Is this not what you've been working towards the past 1.5 years? If you're not willing to do that now, what hope is there that we ever return to normalcy? There has to be some middleground for entertainment venues as has been for other sectors. COVID will be here for the foreseeable future. It's not much worse than other diseases and vaccination rates are getting high enough in Thailand. I think we've all had enough at this point, it's exhausting. People scared of catching COVID and dying from it, please, do not go to high risk events or bars. Let the rest of us live our lives.

Did the drive thru last week at Immigration next to airport. All you need is your passport, no copies needed. You drive your car or scooter next to the drive thru booth, they hand you the form to fill out. You drive away and fill out the form, then drive back to the same booth and hand in passport + form. All in all takes about 20 seconds if you have the form already filled, if not, do as above and takes 5 mins at most.

The local goverment officials would love to open the bars and get the money rolling in again, but they are not allowed to by the CCSA. Maybe 1st of December, but I suspect it will be babysteps i.e. restaurants first, then extend hours, then bars can open.

The visa requirements and renewals are a pain, but surely shouldn't be the main reason for leaving? Get an Elite Visa if you have the money. As for the TM30 and 90-Day Report, you can just skip that nonsense if you wish, and pay a fine once per year or so. You won't be thrown in jail or denied renewal, it's merely a fine (around 2000b). Not bad for saving 3-4 trips to immigration. And yes, the Thai government is....a joke. But is it really that much worse than anywhere else? Especially other developing nations? I think we're nearing the end of the COVID-19 nonsense restrictions, after that things should get easier. What is it that you're looking for? I agree that Thailand simply isn't as much fun as it was 10 years ago, sadly. But it's not only Thailand that has changed, the entire world has changed. Everywhere you go people will mainly be staring at their phones, that's all. What will actually be different in Mexico or Ecuador? Thailand still offers the same nice weather, friendly people (in general), safety, good healthcare, decent infrastructure, overall value for money and some of the fun factor it did 10 years ago. Thailand is a very safe country where you can walk the streets at night completely drunk and probably nothing bad will happen to you. You can forget your keys in the motorcycle ignition for a day and the bike will still be there. You can drive around the country into the smallest most remote villages and not be murdered because you didn't stumble into a cocaine lab run by cartels.

It was supposed to be 30 000 - https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2206455/suvarnabhumi-to-welcome-30k-passengers-on-monday

December probably, unless there's a new outbreak of youknowwhat....it's possible that restaurants can start serving sooner than that (mid-November), but I feel like the government is not in a rush to allow it.

Thai girl. Met in a bar. Works as a masseuse. That right there are three huge red flags! Kidding aside, sorry to hear about your situation. There's really not much you can do unfortunately, unless she wants you to take custody of your daughter. But she would most likely rather use your daughter to milk money from you in the future. That's the only leverage she has, and she sounds like a real piece of <deleted>.

That true. Some gave discounts, many did not. I suspect the greedy landlords (who do not understand opportunity cost) are holding out, expecting the same old offers to come in as soon as Thailand reopens. They will be disappointed, maybe they will face reality and let the market tell them what it's worth, or just stubbornly keep it unoccupied ????