LatPhrao

555 - and you can add to that Taxis inside Bangkok that won't use their meters.

But, but, but... I stay with the Thai people around me in Bangkok. Wear a mask.

What is the requirement or procedure when making the Visa extension based on retirement when the original Non O and Visa was successfully acquired through an agent for a fee? 800K deposit done on behalf of but not done by the visa applicant from external funds. And when seeking new extension a 65K / month external funds transfer has been sustained with a prior one year history.

Are they insane?!! Half a million a day going down with Covid, morgue packed with Chinese. Vaccination resistance in China. The high probability China is now an incubator of new strains! Sounds like the opening scene of a horror movie heading for the gates of Thailand!!!

I am currently receiving shipments of my personal effects via Fedex. Fedex handles the import and every box of very used and personal effects is being assessed 30% Thai Customs on CiF. I am here on a long term 'retirement' visa. I accepted this at first but would really like to know who / where to lay claim and receive back the duty charges. I have long suspected that Fedex and Thai Customs are complicit in this rip off. Fedex claims U$100 for 'freight', that's an automatic U$30 on top for each shipment.

Coups, overturning democratically elected leaders and owning the Judiciary to get away with coups have consequences. Ongoing forever and ever apparently!

No place to run, no place to hide when you're a parasitic mass murderer of Ukranians and international pariah for war crimes committed against innocents in Ukrainia, and shamed and resisted by other countries around the world (unfortunately not Thailand, because 'tourism'!). Wouldn't want to be revealing a Russian passport in hand when traveling anywhere in the world during these times. And it's a state of shamefulness no one's going to ever forgive or forget. You are unwelcome!

Thank you for clarifying. I had another question on the re-entry permit, at Suvarnabhumi or other airports. In order to get to the permit desk, do you need to be checked in with ticket for boarding or is it possible to just go to the re-entry permit desk and request same? I was turned away today from entering without a ticket/boarding pass at Suvarnabhumi.

"At the immigration office where you live" OR the Survanabhumi airport, right?

I was just at Survanabhumi airport trying to get a re-entry permit. Have flight on 23 November. But I was denied access because I didn't have a boarding pass to enter. Was I at the wrong place trying to get to Immigration or you really need to have gotten checked in for your flight?

Well noted your ignorance of winemaking, marketing, sales, exporting and importing and yet again the total absence of anything to back up your assumptions, insinuations and pronouncements. Enjoy your wine drinking, travels and story telling. Breaks the ice at parties.

There's nothing to say cheaper end wines, especially from hot growing regions, can't have higher alcohol levels. Certainly some due. The OP wondered about the lower alcohol wines at the cheaper end. I provided a knowledgeable rationale. Again, you missed the mark. And I'm not looking for an argument with a tasting room tourist. I won't embarrass you with my credentials.

In the case of cheaper wines you should put it down to where the wine came from, the growing region and the grape varieties. Grapes grown for high production are harvested at lower sugar content. That translates at fermentation into lower alcohol wines. 11?% to 12.5% Wineries bottle the wines and sell them at lower prices, like we see at 399 thb.

With all due respect I truly wish that I could find, in your reply, information that substantiates 'fruit wine is a reality'. Unfortunately it seems a bit of dabbling in the usual vague, unsubstantiated ideas, not facts, that abound on the topic. A professional winemaker / winery would know exactly what was in the wine going into the bottle. If there were government requirements at the export destination they would know them precisely. Apparently they don't exist at Thailand, never published. An eye dropper of some fruit other than grape added, as good as a tanker load. The marketing/sales/ label designer on the other hand - with sales motive would have the responsibility of juggling verbiage (fruit, wine, aromas or flavors of a fruit), based on available Thailand government and market info, in order to get their product past Customs and whatever alcohol beverage agency. Wine labels at the 399 thb level can be single use, with fanciful names and bottled and shipped in quantities to meet the buyer's needs. E.g., a single wine importer distributor at Thailand. It is possible to work with a winery for 'private label', shipping as a full pallet (56 cases - 12 bottles per case) These terms, and many more, are used by wine tasters, wine writers to describe the aromas and flavors found in wine: passionfruit, pineapple, black fruits, blueberry, blackberry, plum. Put them on a wine back label...voila! fruit wine. The Vietnam story I believe was a bottling facility in Vietnam that imported (unadulterated) French wine in bulk, bottled and labelled it in Vietnam to meet the Thai market requires, and took advantage of the tax break available by importing to Thailand from an Asean country. I would not be surprised to find Thailand wine companies doing the same, bringing in wine in bulk and bottling it here. Wine drinkers in Thailand can rest assured, I believe, that the cheaper "fruit wines" here do not contain anything other than the fruit known as grape. They may or may not be to our taste, they are coming from big wine regions, producing at high volume, from lesser quality microclimates which affects the quality. On the other hand some good every day table wines. Cheers

As a 'wine guy' extremely galled by the Thai government's duties and taxes that makes wine, common and grand, preposterously priced in Thailand - I've researched what I call the 399 thb shelves for wine. It is a cheap exercise you can do on your own with friends - buy a half a dozen bottles or more and conduct your own wine tasting to find one or more that suits you. They do exist, decent drinking wines at 399 thb or so. My pick for red is the 2019 Eclipse Solar Red from Southeastern Australia - a blend of Shiraz and Cabernet that is full bodied, smooth and easy drinking. Do not however recommend their white wine - poured my trial bottle down the drain, undrinkable. And, 'a word' about 'fruit' wine. Beyond the perverse prices for wine coming from all parts of the world, the powers that be in Thailand created a false category of wine, cheap wine, that must suggest on the label, insinuate or state, that the wine is not pure grape wine but includes other fruits. (I don't know if there's a connection but wine in China was intentionally made this way - until they opened their markets and imported wines of the world.) Wine makers and exporters / importers have been able to get lower taxes/duties on their wines coming into Thailand if the label indicates or suggests 'fruit' added. THERE IS NO FRUIT ADDED. The text on the label that mentions fruit aromas or flavors is enough to get it into the lower tax class. There is no Thai government definition of how much or any type of fruit added. A drop? A liter? Nothing. I always imagine a winemaker standing over a 5,000 gallon tank of wine with an eye dropper - dripping in some fruit juice. Ahhh, fruit blend wine destined for Thailand shelves! Label says 'fruity'. What this 'fruit' wine idea does do, is to offer the winemaker, exporter, importer, distributor, retailer an avenue to bring in vin ordinaire wines and get them on the shelves for the equivalent of U$10 or so - still twice the price you'd find on a non-asian wine shelf - but cheap enough and there's plenty of good for drinking table wine in the world. So, eat, drink and be merry! and occasionally spring some baht for a wine of good provenance and quality, so you don't forget they are real and worth the extra to enjoy 'em. Cheers!

I also live very near the Yellow line. But seeing activity below the line on Lat Phrao road. They appear to be, slowly, removing and repairing the barriered areas. And a BTS train was sighted recently traveling on the overhead line. They have a month plus before their projected December date of trial runnings. We certainly live in hope! If nothing more than to return the still blocked roadways that turn Lat Phrao into a never ending traffic jam, both directions.

There is the nonsense!

Because it protects one from getting infected AND SPREADING IT TO OTHERS. Even the dim who lack understanding of how transmissable diseases work.

This is the fundamental purpose of wearing a mask. PROTECTING OTHERS. And Thai people care to protect their families, their parents, their aunts, uncles, cousins. They are 'lovely' in this regard. They are also distinct from people who do not care except their own discomfort and selfish lack of concern about others. 'Wearing a mask helps stop infected people from spreading disease to others. Evidence also suggests that masks may offer some protection for the people wearing them.' It is not about you! It's about others.

Right! and he has chosen to conscript and news reports are of Russians trying to grab the last airline tickets to get out. Sorry TAT, the Russian tourist ploy looks dead in the water. They're not coming.

Praise be!!! Won't use the meter and demanding more than? Calling 1155 and a license plate pic coming up, all over night time Sukhumvit. With pleasure.

And what would the new rules on insurance requirements be for non-O and extension from that visa? Is it possible to duck/avoid altogether the insurance requirement?

What are the 'new rules' of October 1st as it applies to a non O visa?

Okay, you leave using the agent, you go to obtain a new non O. You have over a year's history of banking foreign transfers into a Thai bank account of 65K thb. Does that meet the financials criteria fully when obtaining a new non O?

Wow!