rickudon

12 years on marriage and only home visit was the one 12 years ago. But then i'm not a yank, so not at risk...

No. The land was stolen from the previous occupants. That was a done thing in the past, but not acceptable in the last 100 years or so.

I use Krungsri bank to do a counter withdrawal at least once a month using my credit card. No fees (it is a Mastercard). Other banks have declined to do so or want to charge a fee. I usually take 50,000 baht a time. Never tried for more.

Last 20 years have seen more problems than solutions. Sliding into Dystopia - think Trump, more wars, degrading environment.

If not in Udon for 15 years, the road infrastructure is vastly improved. Also UDtown created which is a large open air shopping area and entertainment/ food area, next to railway station.

We got 6 hours of rain in Udon Thani Tuesday night, at least 10 cm. First rain in 3 months

I am off in a hour or so to Pick up my marriage extension in Udon. Only issue i had was it took 2 MONTHS to approve (approval is done in Khon Kaen). Was also a bit late last year. Now i can buy my ticket to visit kids in UK.

I initially came for the fishing; women were a lesser consideration. But quickly got hooked up on my second visit to my Thai wife. If not for her and daughter maybe wouldn't have stayed,

15 years ago, i survived hot season in April without air-conditioning. During the day, sat in front of a fan. Uncomfortable, but survivable. At night, lay naked on a bed in front of a fan with a wet towel and a bowl of ice and water to hand. Next year, put a AC in the bedroom. 2 years later. put one in my day room for the afternoons. I am older now and would struggle to survive without aircon in afternoons and night time. Aircon goes on when temperature hits 32 Centigrade indoors in the day, evenings and night set to 28. if less than 28, no aircon. When i lived in Australia 45 years ago, 32 C was a cold day in Northern Territory!

A hundred years ago Israel didn't exist. Palestine was an administrative region from Roman times, through the Byzantine period and later the Ottoman empire. , Prior to the Romans a large percentage of the population of the area were Jews, but they were just one of many ethnic groups. Partially due to Roman expulsions after the Jewish revolts few Jews lived in Palestine thereafter. By 1800 only 3% of the population were Jewish, the rest Muslim and Christian Arabs. By 1914 the Zionist nationalist movement who wanted a Jewish homeland saw the Jewish population grow to about 14%. After WW1, the Balfour declaration and the start of the British mandate, Jewish migration continued to slowly grow. However conflicts over land grew, as wealthy Jewish migrants bought up Land, causing Arab revolts. to stop this, The British capped Jewish migration. WW2 and Hitler resulted in a massive inflow of migrants, so by 1947 Jews made up 30% of the population. Irreconcilable conflicts between Jews and Arabs resulted in The British terminating their mandate and the future of Palestine was referred to the newly formed UN. However they decided to partition Palestine giving 50% of the land (including the most fertile) to the minority Jewish population. This totally unfair division led to war as soon as the Jewish state of Israel was created. Since then, continued Jewish migration has led to the gradual expulsion of Arabs from the parts of Palestine that Israel controlled. Over the last 75 years, the rights of Arabs have been restricted, Arab economic growth strangled, and laws became more oppressive. This has led to near constant state of war between Jews and Arabs, which has spilled over into Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Israel is now de facto trying to annexe the West bank, which has already seen 50% of its land seized by Israeli settlers. Wherever settlers establish themselves, Arabs are forced out. Israel is a cancer, and if you feed it, it grows. We all know what you have to do to a cancer to survive.

I agree that keeping more than one bank account is sensible. Personally i do not use Thai Banking apps or internet banking, I just use the banks to keep money for immigration purposes. All my accounts do not require an annual fee; only a fee for a new ATM card which is not every year (and was only 200 baht last time i did this). I use my home country credit card to make cash withdrawals when required, at the bank counter, again no fee required or charged by home bank (also saves on Thai ATM fees and avoids getting card eaten by ATM). Thai ATM cards only used as last resort. The bulk of my money is kept in home country banks at much higher interest rates than any Thai bank gives. I also maintain several Home country accounts as some banks have been known to close accounts if they know you no longer are resident in home country. It is not just Thailand getting harder to open bank accounts as a foreigner. My wife couldn't get one in UK when i tried 2 years ago.

The exporters do not pay the tariffs, the importers do. And where does the money come from? Higher prices from the consumer - Yanks pay!

The rest of the world is busy making trade deals with one another, as US market is deemed 'unreliable'. Long negotiated trade deals that have been discussed for years are being signed - UK and India, EU with Mercosur and India; also Canada and UK have had fruitful negotiations with China, relations warming. So soon trade with US will be waning. The empire will crumble. Amazing what one man can achieve in one year! China is very happy to be the new boss.

Brexit was a idea, but totally lacking a plan for it. And no-one has ever explained how it could work. There was an assumption that the EU would surrender everything UK asked for. When negotiations started, David Davies turned up with about 4 pages of items to be discussed; Barnier had a couple of heavy volumes of issues. Absolutely abysmal planning. But that was Brexit, everything you ever wanted, but no plan and no understanding of the implications of leaving the EU would mean.

Vegetable gardening (pride in what you can eat) and fishing. When tired or too hot, have Netflix and Trolling on Asean News - soon realise that morons outnumber the intelligentsia online - no wonder the world is in such a dire state.

Brexit was an obvious disaster, as shown by the fact the pound dropped by over 10% overnight. As for immigration - we swapped EU migrants, who had some semblance of right and wrong, for the flotsam and Jetsam of the developing world after Brexit. I guess most brexiteers would be unable to give an example of any company who benefitted from Brexit. As for voting for it, 48% didn't. It is amazing how many fall for charisma, Bull<deleted> and lies. Oh sorry, I forgot about the USA!

Strange that the IDF manages to violate the 'ceasefire' on a nearly daily basis. They have also moved the yellow line markers so where yesterday, it was relatively safe to walk one route, today you will now be shot. And still people believe that what Israel says is always true. They lie and suppress the truth frequently, e.g. any evidence of successful rocket attacks in the brief Iran-Israel war. Israel will say they successfully intercepted nearly all the missiles, but over 40,000 claims for missile damage to property have been made by israeli citizens. Ok, maybe some of the claims are fraudulent...... still, someone is lying.

Last item of mail I received from the UK was about 3 years ago. Have had a couple of bank cards that never made it. I now get all my mail sent to a UK address where a relative scans it and sends to me online. Also postal rates have shot up over the last few years. I do get an occasional hand carried item brought by a relative.

ICE might give the wife a free trip back to Thailand....

Only one of those locations (other than rural) I would consider is Hua Hin - but even that is more of a holiday place than a place to live. Udon Thani isn't perfect, but it has most of everything. I live one kilometre outside the city. away from most of the pollution large towns and cities get in Thailand; but have easy access to all its amenities. It has good travel links (airport, train station, roads), plenty of shopping choices, many restaurants (have an excellent one only 200 metres from home as well) and an all-in-one entertainment centre in UDtown (live music for free, good quality food court, shopping and pretty amazing landscaping). Adequate hospitals and schools. Live in the village with farm and fish ponds 100 metres away, same distance to lake full of red water lilies. Farangs have been part of the community for a long time, never had a problem with the Thais. Very little "Farang price". And the cost of living is good. There may be better places to live in Thailand, but they are not on that list. For me, Bangkok and Pattaya are definitely out, and islands to expensive and tourist traps.

Trump is a bully. if you do not stand up to them, they walk all over you. In my life, i knew 3 bullies. I did stand up to them; at school, 2 bullies attacked me, but only ever once. I did loose a fight, but i wouldn't give up, he walked away, not me. 3rd one was at University, a big ex-prison thug was harassing a girl at a party, and no-one was stopping him (he was big). So I told him to stop. I got thrown through a door for that; but 2 days later he came up to me and apologised, saying He respected what i did, i was the only one who tried to stop him. The UK and European countries need to grow some balls. If he ups the tariffs, sanction him back. It might be expensive, but better some pain now rather than a lot later. I think the UK should repossess the Turnberry golf course, hit him where it hurts, personally. I will boycott as many USA goods as i can if the tariffs go up. No more Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, KFC; i do not care if my daughter complains, she has got to learn that principles matter.

Israel has always been an Apartheid state. Maybe Apartheid light until October the 7th, but it has now morphed into a search for a 'Final Solution'. Rather ironic that it is being done by Jews.

I practically never use ATM's. I use my foreign card to do a counter withdrawal at Krungsri (no ATM fee, no risk of eaten card). Otherwise i do contactless payments at supermarkets. Only been skimmed once, by a car dealer nearly 30 years ago.

Reality - it is nearly impossible for the Thai tax authorities to know whether money coming into Thailand is pre 2024 savings or not. Also for many of us who are retired (and more so if married to a Thai, kids) the tax free amounts are quite generous and we would have little tax liability; plus DTAs may exempt even more money. And if you take money out of an ATM with a foreign card even harder to trace. New tax rules were meant to be implemented last year, but have not been so far. Have to wait for next government after the elections next month - and they may have different ideas. Also some big holes in the tax net - like sending money to a Thai wife or bringing it in when not a tax resident. The idea that provincial tax departments (who currently seem to know little about DTA's ) are going to want to audit our finances is unlikely - too much work. For now, wait and see seems the better option.

They may teach some English in schools, but their is no follow up to get children to use it - English books - in Libraries etc., nearly non-existent. No English radio programs. Practically no TV in English (they dub everything, because most Thais struggle to read Thai subtitles!). Thai as a written alphabet is too complicated - in nursery schools, they teach the kids to learn ABC first as easier. Time for Thailand to swallow their pride and adopt western alphabet - easier for them, easier for foreigners and also would make learning other foreign languages easier. The Thai alphabet should be just an academic curiosity.