khunjeff

They've had the majority for decades already, and would be running the government right now if it weren't for multiple coups, manipulated constitutions, and massaged election results. I'm not a big fan of Thaksin and his bloc, and I think this particular diatribe was idiotic, but implying that they're only in the opposition because they don't have the support of the population is just factually inaccurate.

I find it bizarre that the Finance Ministry has somehow decided that it's the lead agency on an issue of energy/transport policy - in most countries, the legislature or executive would determine the country's goal, figure out how taxes impacted that goal, and then simply tell Finance how much duty to collect. But TiT. It may or may not help the environment as a whole, but it definitely helps with the street-level pollution that causes so many detrimental health effects among people - and they can, in theory, clean up emissions at a few large generating plants more easily than in millions of individual vehicles. But you're certainly correct that producing cleaner electricity should be part of this discussion.

That list of absurdly named province-specific "registration" sites is really ridiculous - "watch out", "save", "hug", "win"...and I'm sure each one has a big furry mascot to go with it...

Absolutely! Those barriers in general, and that one in particular, are always accompanied by flashing red lights and clanging bells when they're down - pretty hard to miss. Luckily, the barrier at that intersection is always lowered well in advance of the oncoming train, probably because of people like her...

"Can I get a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine during the same visit? Yes, you can get a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine at the same time." https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2021-2022.htm

This is one of the biggest problems that visa applicants have everywhere, and especially in Thailand: giving the answer that they think the officer wants to hear, rather than the real answer. It makes it appear that the applicant isnt being forthcoming, even when the real answer would have been completely harmless, or even beneficial. The case you're describing is probably more favorable, since there would be very little likelihood of the couple staying in the US (unlike going with a US citizen, who might be aiming to relocate to the US and bring his wife or girlfriend to live with him). In general, actually, any Thai woman whose husband or boyfriend (of whatever nationality) lives in Thailand long-term will probably be looked upon more favorably than one whose significant other lives in the US, for exactly the reason above - there just wouldn't be as much motivation for her to stay in the US rather than return to Thailand.

Moderna is the only vaccine that's being sold by private hospitals - all Pfizer and AZ shots are provided by the government (regardless of where they're administered) and are free.

I hope they have a more coherent plan than the one being executed along the canal near me, where they've been rebuilding a few hundred meters of walkway for over six years now, with no end in sight. Only 2-3 people are ever working on the project at once, but since they chose to demolish the paths on both sides of the canal at the same time, it's not even possible to cross to the other side to avoid the missing sections. This means long detours away from the canal if one wants to keep walking, which turns an otherwise pleasant experience into something of a complicated slog.

Ok, that seems like a strangely literal interpretation of the word "mining"...

The transfer is free, in that there are no fees involved - unlike your Barclays example, which would charge 3.99% for the exchange and cost 220 baht in unreimbursed ATM fees, this one costs zero. Visa makes a small amount of money by charging a slight premium over the midrate, as do all exchange services - that's how they make their money. There is NO transfer or exchange service that truly offers the midrate, unless they're doing so as some kind of courtesy to very large institutional customers. The closest you can get is exchanging USD100 notes at the green Super Rich headquarters across from Central World in Bangkok, where the spread is sometimes as low as three satang. But keeping large amounts of foreign cash is not very practical. And to reiterate to those who constantly claim that Wise offers the midrate, it absolutely does not. It tells you what the midrate is for informational purposes (actually the rate they quote is often even higher than the published midrate), but you can't actually get that rate, and you can't even approach it due to the fees that are taken out. Those fees aren't unreasonable, but they do mean that the reference rate is not an accurate reflection of what ends up in your wallet. I could say that I'll give you a rate of 40 baht to the dollar but charge a 25% fee, or tell you that I offer 30 baht to the dollar with no fee. As long as the fees are proportional to the amount being transferred/exchanged (as they are with Wise), rather than fixed (as they are with SWIFT), those two offers are equivalent, and my incredible offer of 40:1 is meaningless. Have a great day.

"Booking Holdings" owns Booking.com, Agoda, Priceline, Kayak, Momondo, and a number of others.

That sounds an awful lot like gobbledygook, considering that this is a brand new airport that has yet to see a single commercial flight...

I can't speak for Lazada, but I've ordered "seller's own fleet" items from Shopee where I received the merchandise just fine, but not from the seller's own (non-existent) fleet - the seller just listed it that way in order to offer free shipping without a code. Apparently if they do the shipping through the Shopee system, a shipping charge of at least 23 baht is automatically applied. Paying sight unseen would seem to negate the whole reason for using COD in the first place, but I guess she has her reasons ????

Not based on anything I have read. Once you have the QR code, you are good to go. This is where the government's awful message discipline is causing problems. As of now, you're quite right that the only official announcement has been that yes, QR codes that were already issued remain valid for entry under the program for which they were approved. But various officials from the Ministry of Public Health - from the boss on down - have been making statements to the press over the last several days to the effect that no one can enter under Test & Go after January 10, even though they have zero authority to make that decision. It creates a huge amount of confusion and uncertainty for everyone, especially the travelers who are scheduled to enter the country next week.

I didn't mention the Barclays transaction charge because I don't use their cards and know nothing about their fees or policies. But you knew that already. There are plenty of US-issued debit and credit cards that have no foreign transaction fees, and several US debit cards that also refund all ATM fees. (Interest is irrelevant - it doesn't apply to debit cards at all, and only applies to credit cards if you choose to run a balance, which I don't.) As for your comment "I doubt very much if there is any foreign debit card that will let you change money free of charge", I'm not sure what you're referring to. Each time you use any foreign debit card in an ATM here, you're effectively changing money from the currency of the original account to THB. (In that respect, Visa and Mastercard run some of the largest money transfer systems in the world, far larger than Wise.) As noted elsewhere, Charles Schwab and Fidelity in the US both issue cards that allow you to do that "exchange" with no fees whatsoever, other than the approximately 0.33% markup over the midrate incorporated into the Visa exchange rate. (And no, Wise does not give the midrate either once fees have been accounted for.)

The OP's income and funds are all in the US. He previously paid Lazada in Thailand using a US credit card that gave him a 2% cash rebate on purchases, plus converted the baht purchase to USD using the Visa exchange rate, which is virtually always more favorable than the rates given by Thai banks or by Wise (the actual Wise rate net of fees, not the headline rate). To pay via a Thai debit card instead, he needs to transfer USD to Thailand somehow, pay the couple of hundred baht for the local debit card, and then forego the cash rebate from each purchase. Saying that he'll lose 4% is probably an exaggeration, but he'll certainly lose money compared to his prior way of paying. Since he apparently has no baht income stream in Thailand, all local purchases that he makes here will somehow have to involve a conversion between USD and THB, which will always involve a cost. There's just no way around that.

From the article: "A good case in point is DOA’s Nakhon Ratchasima Airport, which cost two billion baht and opened in 1997. Over time, airlines like Thai Airways International, Thai AirAsia and several now-defunct carriers such as Air Andaman, Happy Air, Thai Regional Airline, Kan Air and NexGen Airways tried serving Nakhon Ratchasima Airport but found it unviable."

Apparently it picks up all coronaviruses The PCR test should be positive for people infected with omicron, yes, but I think what @Puccini was asking was whether the PCR test would also identify the specific variant when it gives a positive result, and to that the answer is no - additional tests need to be run on the sample. "Fewer than half of UK labs have the required technology to detect suspected Omicron cases. This means that in some areas, it may be detected more quickly than in others. Confirming that a suspected case is Omicron requires a full genetic analysis, which takes between four and five days." https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59460252

That's correct - all you need for entry into the US (and for transit in Singapore) is a professionally administered rapid antigen test with a written report - these usually take less than half an hour and cost under 1000 baht, so they're much cheaper and quicker than PCR. (Of course, a PCR result is also perfectly acceptable if you need it for some other purpose and want to kill two birds with one stone.) Also, the test doesn't have to be within 24 hours of the departure time, but just within a day of the departure date. So, if your flight leaves (for example) any time on Friday, you can do the test at any time of the day on Thursday.

From the report, it sounds as though these items were used by people who tested negative for Covid and thus were allowed to attend events. So in what way are they "hazardous", and how would they cause "further infections"?

I think you may be thinking about the requirement too literally. All that's required is that an American citizen depart the US with a US passport in his or her possession, ready to show to any official who might ask to see it (which they are very, very unlikely to ever do). There's no prohibition against carrying another passport or presenting one at check-in. The applicable regulation is the following: 22 CFR § 53.1 Passport requirement; definitions. (a) It is unlawful for a citizen of the United States, unless excepted under 22 CFR 53.2, to enter or depart, or attempt to enter or depart, the United States, without a valid U.S. passport. The Thailand Pass is just part of the entry documentation for Thailand that needs to be presented to the airline; it's not considered any sort of exit documentation for the US. As I mentioned above, using an American passport "to exit the US" under US law really only means having it in your possession - documents for entering other countries are a separate issue. There's no problem from the US perspective to using a TP reflecting the data in the Thai passport.

You are looking at the wrong section of that guide - you clicked "KBank Service" (which is their system for doing banking transactions at Thai Post offices, for an additional fee) rather than "K ATM". Please see the attached screenshot.

Correct. I was thinking specifically about ATM withdrawals, since that's the method I use personally, but the Visa/Mastercard rates also apply when doing counter withdrawals. Like many others on this forum, I use a Charles Schwab Visa debit card for most of my daily THB cash needs, and - since Schwab refunds all ATM fees - the effective rate (what ends up in my pocket, not the teaser rate) is almost always better than Wise. I say "almost", because Visa and Mastercard update their rates daily based on the previous day's FX rates, while Wise updates continuously as rates change - that can lead to a disconnect (in either direction) if rates happen to be fluctuating a lot.

It's still the same - 72 hours before the scheduled departure time of the first flight on your itinerary, even if that's a short hop domestic flight.

You still had to jump through the same hoops (i.e., applying for Thailand Pass and satisfying all of its requirements), but that provision allowed you to meet the Test & Go requirement of having been in qualifying countries for at least 21 days even if you were only taking a brief trip abroad. Since Test & Go is currently on hiatus, I don't think that the rule provides any benefit at the moment.