khunjeff

Unfortunately, these procedures only work if the passenger numbers are small, in which case they're probably not needed. If there's a normal pre-virus rush hour crowd, this process would result in tail-backs of waiting commuters stretching for blocks from the station entrances. If the trains, platforms, and concourses were full to overflowing before, there just isn't any way to magically introduce 1.5m of space between people just because they would like it to exist. All of the train systems have avoided buying extra cars (bogies, in Thai parlance) for years in order to save money, and so there is zero ability to expand capacity to reduce crowding.

1 hour ago, garygooner said:

You are kidding right. Pretty much everyone knows you can buy animals there sadly, in hot crowded cages, including dogs, cats, rabbits & exotic animals like birds, turtles, snakes and monkeys. 

Yes, but they're sold as pets, not for eating (other than the white mice that are sold as food for snakes).

11 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

Wouldn't that also mean that those that remain were already happier and those that aren't have left? For example I left albeit well before this and am glad I did. So I don't think you can conclusively say that one is more than the other. I assume most will be happier with the decision they made whether to stay or go and that led to that decision. 

 

I wanted. to leave and happy I did

 

I wanted to stay and am happy I did.  

 

6 of one half a dozen of the other.

Quite right. I was trying to say that people who chose to remain here are mostly glad that they did so, but you phrased it better than I did.

11 hours ago, JohnBarleycorn said:

 

I must admit that it does feel a bit weird, now having committed myself to remain here, under any circumstances, until international flight services reopen.

I'm not quite getting your point. Although international flights are definitely way, way down from normal levels, they haven't closed down by any means - there are flights operating every day, and you and I could fly back to the US tomorrow if we felt like it. The tickets aren't even particularly expensive.

Your post uses words like "trapped", "marooned", and "stranded", but very few people here actually fall into those categories. A handful of countries around the world really have cut off all flights in and out, and their nationals are well and truly stuck here. The vast majority of foreigners here, though, either reside in Thailand long term, and so would not really think about returning to their country of birth just because of the virus; made a conscious choice to ride out the crisis here, because they felt it was safer or more comfortable than their own country; intended to stay here for an extended period from the beginning, and are "stuck" only in the sense that they can't extend their stays by leaving and reentering the country; or refused to write off the ticket for their cancelled return flight and buy a new one on a different airline, whether out of stubbornness or excessive optimism that flight schedules would quickly return to normal.

So, are foreigners mostly glad to be here rather than in their own countries during this pandemic? Yes, I think most are. But are they marooned here? Mostly no.

5 hours ago, fxe1200 said:

It is not leasing, as you have to pay the complete regular market price of the property up front. You may call it Fixed-term tenancy or tenancy for years, though even then the payment normally is on a monthly basis. Actually is is buying, and returning the property for free after these 99 years. And as such it was defined in the respective Mexican law at that time.

No matter how someone chooses to label it, it's not ownership if you're legally required to relinquish it after a set period of time - that's basically the dictionary definition of a leasehold.

As for the price, yes, the cost of a 99 year lease would usually be almost exactly the same as the cost of buying freehold, but the resale value of the lease would gradually dwindle to nothing as the decades went by. Even a 30 or 40 year lease costs almost the same as an outright purchase, but the value starts declining quickly after the first few years of the lease term.

You're correct, though, that for many people - probably most - a 99 year lease would be just fine, as it would let the purchaser and (almost certainly) his or her children live out their lives on the property. And a 999 year lease would satisfy just about anyone!

1 hour ago, fxe1200 said:

It would be an easy thing to allow foreigners to buy land. To avoid foreign infiltration, the government could limit the ownership (and that of its heirs) to 99 years. After that, the land and whatever is on it, would go back into the hands of the government. 

That's leasing, not buying.

25 minutes ago, Pib said:

That's strange.  I have and use a Schwab debit card also.  I always use Krungsri or TMB ATMs since they allowed 30K pulls....have never been offered a DCC transaction like you are being offered when using my Schwab debit card in those ATMs.  But I will admit it probably been a year since using my Schwab debit card in an TMB ATM because I've just been using a Krungsri ATM for the last year since it a little more convenient/closer than the TMB ATM.

I had never been offered DCC either, until maybe 6-8 months ago - I don't remember exactly. Since then, the screen comes up every time.

15 hours ago, nchuckle said:

Wondered about chromecasting as I also cannot get that aspect to function on iplayer or other uk

This is a limitation of Chromecast, not of any particular streaming service - Chromecast simply won't work if you're trying to cast from a device that's connected to a VPN. 

15 hours ago, nchuckle said:

I presume without a vpn Netflix won’t let me watch in thailand on a uk account,because that would otherwise solve chromecast issue.

No matter whether you have a UK, US, or Thai account, you can still access Netflix anywhere, but you will get the local content. So, there's no problem using a UK Netflix account in Thailand, but you'll be seeing Netflix Thailand unless you use a VPN.

13 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

It just does my head in when I see people asking if they can send money to Netflix or other places, I just downloaded the whole of the very latest Netflix  TV Series HOLLYWOOD.  which came out 2 days ago.

It's true, you can download anything, and I use that option when there's something I want to see and it's not otherwise available. With Netflix, though, the price is cheap enough, and there's enough content that I'm interested in, that I don't mind paying for the convenience of being able to watch things instantly, anywhere, on any device, without going through the hassle of downloading (and possibly searching for subtitles). If the price was high, I would probably do exactly as you're doing.

14 hours ago, Pib said:

You sure your card issuing bank doesn't charge an approx 3% foreign transaction fee on top of the TMB approx 3% DCC markup which totals up to 6%.  That's many card-issuing banks do is still charge the foreign transaction fee simply because it was a foreign transaction done in "any" currency....doesn't matter that the foreign bank did the conversion....what matters is it was still a transaction done in a foreign country.  End result you get whacked twice...once by the foreign bank doing the DCC and once by your home country bank charging the foreign transaction fee.

I'm using a Schwab debit card which absolutely does not have a foreign transaction fee. When I say that using the DCC rate means paying $60-70 more, I'm referring to the difference between what is displayed on the DCC choice screen (where they tell you how much you will pay in your own currency) and the amount that ends up being actually withdrawn from my account when I've declined the conversion. So yes, the huge fee in this case is entirely on the Thai side.

12 minutes ago, overt2016 said:

Will that apply to apartment building owners? or will they continue to ripoff their tenants with flagrant disrespect of the law???

In theory, owners of more than five housing units (which would include apartment building landlords) can't charge more than the actual utility bill for water and electricity, plus up to 25% more for maintenance of distribution infrastructure within the building. In practice...

I'll be curious to see if I receive this discount or not.

As a comparison, 267,258 people were deported from the U.S. in fiscal year 2019. How many press conferences did ICE and the Secretary of Homeland Security hold to announce those actions? How many vinyl signs were printed?

On 5/5/2020 at 1:05 PM, Pib said:

Never accept such an offer.....officially it's called a Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) transaction which means your are not getting the higher card network exchange rate (i.e., Visa/Mastercard) but the ATM owner's rate which is usually around 3% lower than the card network rate. 

I had also thought that DCC was usually a 3-4% ripoff, but in recent months - on TMB ATMs, at least - it's been more like 6-7%. I always withdraw 30k THB at one time, and their "generous" DCC offer has consistently been 60 or 70 USD more expensive than declining the conversion and letting Visa do it. That is an absolutely insane markup, but I'm sure lots of people take it without realizing what they're doing.

1 hour ago, Canuck1966 said:

Makro is a wholesaler for caterers, retailers and other businesses

...and it isn't a shopping mall, despite what The Nation seems to think

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Card-issuing banks will have different times when the new day  begins for ATM withdrawals/reset of daily ATM limits. And time changes during the year like being on daylight savings time can make a difference.

 

I saw a very recent post where a guy was trying to use his Schwab debit card to do two $30K withdrawals since the Schwab card has a daily $1K limit....he was trying just before and after high noon Thailand time when he thought the daily limit reset would occur....but it didn't work for him to complete the 2nd withdrawal.  He called Schwab and the rep said Schwab's switchover time is 3am Eastern Time, which with the US currently on daylight savings time that would be 2pm Thailand time.   

Thanks - my card is from Schwab, so that's actually very useful to know.

10 hours ago, HannahD said:

If you are using a US issued card with a bank set daily limit the changeover time from one banking day to the next is usually midnight in the US. For example: in the winter while the eastern US is on standard time the changeover is at noon Thai time. Visit the ATM a few minutes before noon then again a few minutes after noon. (Naturally you can't do this everyday! And if your bank is in another time zone adjustment has to be made.)

I tried this once or twice a couple of years ago, but it didn't seem to work - I couldn't do another $1000 withdrawal until 24 hours had passed. It's entirely possible that I screwed something up in the timing, though.

8 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Save some bus transfers then . Can only be a good thing. Don't get the negativity. 

I agree, it's a lot better than a kick in the head! The problem is that poor reporting - and not just on TV - has made many people think that this particular project will help with congestion at immigration (it won't), or that it indicates that the disputes about the location of the second terminal have been resolved (they haven't).

1 hour ago, allane said:

I am not American, and don't use a home-country account, so I stand to be corrected on this. US $1000 + service charges is presently more than B 30,000. Try withdrawing a slightly smaller amount.

Your math is off, based on current exchange rates. As of right now, 30,220 baht (the maximum withdrawal of 30k in cash, plus the 220 baht fee) comes to about 936 USD, which is well within the OP's limit. 

As an aside, when the exchange rate was much worse a couple of months ago, I noticed that my US ATM card - which also has a daily withdrawal limit of $1000 - didn't seem to include the ATM fee in the daily limit. I had at least one transaction where the 30k portion was just under $1k, but the fee part caused it to go over that limit, and it was still processed with no issues.

To answer the OP's original question, and to expand on what KhunBENQ said above, you can get 30k in one pull from the ATMs of Krungsri (yellow), TMB (blue/white/red), CIMB (red), and Citibank (blue), though the last two don't have many machines.

17 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

Why have not been charged by police?

Surely they had no legal right to even pick them up in the first place?

 

The military has always maintained that their members fall only under the military justice system, and are not subject to police jurisdiction. In some past cases where the police tried to detain active duty military members for crimes, the military has gone into the station and forcibly removed the suspect from police custody.

9 minutes ago, patrick1968 said:

you sure about that all types of visas ?

The order refers to foreigners who were admitted on visas (including visa on arrival) and visa exemptions. No exceptions are mentioned.

15 hours ago, lee b said:

My real question is this, I have heard that when Thailand reopens the borders there will be a 7day exit period. How will this be possible if other countries haven't opened up by this time?

 

How do you think diffrent countries will go about reopening borders?

 

Do you also believe the 7 day rule really exists, and if so will it be cancelled if we still cant go anywhere, or will the overstay rule hit us ?

The part of the decree that talks about a seven-day exit period only pertains to nationals of neighboring countries with border crossing cards. Once borders with each of those countries reopen, their nationals will have seven days to cross over and return home without penalty.

For visitors who entered on visas or visa exemptions, the decree says that once the situation has returned to normal, those people will have to address their situations (i.e., extend or depart) "within the timeframe specified by the Immigration Bureau". Although some immigration officers at some offices have (according to TV members) unofficially speculated that that timeframe will also be seven days, we have no idea at this point.

So, we will need to wait for (1) an announcement that the situation is considered calm enough that people will have to deal with their visa issues (presumably at a time when airports and land borders are operating somewhat normally), and (2) another announcement of how long folks will have to address those issues before overstay or other penalties kick in.

25 minutes ago, connda said:

That 'official English translation' is essentially unreadable legalese.  

The original Thai version is also essentially unreadable legalese, so I guess the English translation is accurate!