IgboChief

54 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Well I just googled cicada chimney and they look nothing like that, certainly look more like earthworm casts????????????????

well, look again: https://www.magicicada.net/cicada-huts-holes-1?lightbox=dataItem-ikvryk6v

6 minutes ago, Nojohndoe said:

My wife says a big type of  worm

I thought that too but have been proven wrong: we have actually compost areas with earth worm (up to 50 cm beasts), but not a single chimney there.

Also, I dug a few up and found the nymph.

1 hour ago, rwill said:

Do you have dogs?  I don't use chemicals on my lawn because of them.

Does the dog help me to mow?

Good Morning,

opening a Current Account and getting a (cash covered) Credit Card on a Non-O Visa without a Work Permit is possible. Just did that in Chayaphum yesterday at the Bangkok Bank Branch.

Following tips might be helpful from my personal experience, although won't guarantee the success:

1) Siam Commercial Bank and Bangkok Bank seem to work best

2) Always talk to the Branch Manager directly. Do not even bother talking to staff, they will be scared and only respond "mai dai, mai me, mai ben" etc.

3) The Branch Managers seem to benefit from "money deposited into the branch", so bringing some money seem to help. (e.g. anything above 500k in Isaan)

4) Interestingly the Credit Limit was no issue at all, as long as it is Cash Covered (he gave me 500k happily at the condition of establishing a 500k fix deposit, automatically rolling over at interest of 0.5%). To my knowledge Siam Commercial Bank asks for 1.5x the Credit Limit as Cash Deposit.

5) You will need a lot of time and patience. I spent almost 5 hours at the manager's office just to get all the paperwork done. Tedious repetitions. Could have been done in 10 minutes with a scan of the passport and form based printing.

6) Speaking Thai and having some banking knowledge certainly helps, I also had the Yai with me, who is a very resolute big madam who just steam rolled our way Thai Style. She did all the heavy lifting and I only signed papers.

For what it is worth to mention: I made bad experiences with KrungThai and Kasikorn, but that may vary from place to place. For example, Kasikorn did not want to roll-over my existing(!) fix deposit when I had no work permit, only to find out that they could not even close that account because they had not enough cash in the branch. Big egg in their face.

Lesson learned: it all depends on the branch/manager and to me each branch seems to be a franchise company rather then a local banking unit.

Good luck and cheers!

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But it's still disturbing to see how many people over there are willing to destroy democracy for that <censored> Trump.

They 'd rather burn down the whole house only because they hate it to live in the basement.

All people are to blame about this situation: the expendables as well as the people, who allowed this big rift to widen only for a few more percentage of margin.

1 minute ago, Jeffr2 said:

I'm a staunch conservative who doesn't like Trump and left the GOP years ago.  William Buckley style of conservatism, not the current form (religious, gun rights, conspiracy theories, racist, etc).

You are not alone but for me it always depends on the topics:

About Immigration, freedom of movement and residence, military and (anti-) religion and education I share a lot of progressive ideas.

Not so on economy, taxes, healthcare and welfare. I do not feel well represented by the typical two blocks.

Well, being superstitious and believing in Karma, there is a lot of good news in here: If Rudy and Donald got it and recovered, than I surely would survive it.

12 minutes ago, koolkarl said:

Yesterday, a part of Bangkok had

an aqi reading of 900 !!!

Sorry, but that must have been a meter hanging over a burning trash can.

Even Lagos does not exceed 600 during harmattan and grid blackouts.

13 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

So this will be called the QOA Visa, or Quarantine on Arrival before enjoying our Covid free vacation.

You are a genius, Sir!

Just combine that idea with the typical queues at the immigration counters and strictly man only 1 booth per day for 2 hours. Et voila: the passengers will have finished is quarantine before even stamped in.

Two things coming to my mind:

1) I think it is natural, that each leader will run a "us first" policy on this one. But the Trump broke so much China before, that everyone calls his actions out now, even when he does something with common sense. This is what you get when you worked so hard to attract all the justified criticism on yourself.

2) On the more serious side, from a pandemic point of view: Was it not much better, to achieve an equal distribution, of lets say 50% vaccination ALL over the world soonest than vaccinate 80% of one single country with much effort only to keep new infections popping up eternally from travellers?

Is it really better to focus on a few single countries while other (developing) countries fall apart?

Am not sure about this, the world is tightly connected these days.

3 minutes ago, Hi from France said:

Apparently for you all, Boris is honest, and we should trust his word

Uhm, either you are not French or you need to look up Perfidious Albion.

1 hour ago, Hi from France said:

I have no doubts that the brits are by tradition honorable and true to their word

Perfidious Albion. Europeans agreed before the word "Europe" was established.

I am sure of course, that they did not do anything to deserve their centuries old reputation.

2 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Classes are often canceled for activities.

So true, and it is ALWAYS the maths or English class. It is never the Boyscouts, Thai Fairy Tale (a.k.a "history") or the morning gathering.

That said, not all hope is lost: there are a few really excellent private IB schools. Sent my daughter to PTIS in Chiang Mai and she is really happy there and she gathered amazing skills and confidence. It is a better school than I could have provided in Europe.

47 minutes ago, Tug said:

What on earth would lead a person to think immigration is or ever was unregulated that’s untrue heck it took almost 2 yrs to get my wife’s papers back in the early eighths trump and his tody Miller should have no more chances to screw this up they have damaged enough lives allready let it get worked out under the new administration yeiks!

Allow me to rephrase: It is certainly regulated, but it is getting abused and some of the regulations are in-effective and only loosely enforced (in Europe).

22 hours ago, scorecard said:

My first thoughts:

- Did most/all of these people have any tests before departure for Thailand.

 

And/or did they need/present a CEO document at check-in before boarding?

 

- Does this mean the aircraft (in fact many aircraft) are not being cleaned properly before passengers board? 

I think I can answer your questions based on my own experience after taking 3 different Covid Tests:

1) the test comes at a cost of appr. 150 USD (which is prohibitive for the most people)

2) the test is somewhat difficult to obtain: only at certain locations, valid for only 48 hours while the lab will need 24 hours for the results (which  makes it prohibitive to depend on it, when you have arranged so many things at your own cost in advance)

3) the result comes as a PDF which is easily altered and edited. No stamp or signature. No distinct form, every lab has its own format (which makes it very profitable to provide such documents for 10USD at any road or copy shop all over the world)

There is NO WAY to verify a Covid Test document. They take just any sheet of paper.

At the Thai Immigration, they pulled my 9 month old German Covid Test and accepted it (although I flew in from Africa). After telling them in Thai, that this is the wrong paper and it is old and there was a recent test, they just responded it would not matter and stamped me through.

As far as I can see there is no indication of any terrorist motive.

It looks like a very sad incident caused by an heavily intoxicated senior with mental problems.

Please stop speculating about "Islamist militants".

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

The whole point of her talking about this, is she has been out of the spotlight for a few weeks, back in it now, she is very happy, on the front pages again.

A miscarriage is  a very personal private matter not to be splashed all over the media.

Sir, I always appreciate your commends a lot as a great read. But on this one, I beg to differ: Your opinion stigmatises any woman and family going through this. I think it is a traumatic event, comparable to torture. You have done nothing wrong, you lose what is dearest to you and you feel alone and ashamed, maybe guilty. Everyone has a right to deal with such a trauma on its own. Some may prefer to be silent, some may need to talk about it. It is a very private and sensitive matter and there is no right or wrong, just personal decision.

However, I truly believe that talking about it helps other affected woman and families. Let them know, that they are NOT alone and that it was NOT their fault. Assure them, that unfortunately it is part of our life and that it can happen to anyone.