Stevemercer

I've successfully applied a couple of times this year, but have also had a few knocked back. The test is whether the applicant has good enough reasons to come back to Thailand (job, children, family, property, responsibilities etc), plus 100,000 - 200,000 maintained in a bank account for at least 3 months. It is also important she has a good reason to visit Australia (e.g. visit boyfriend for holiday travel etc) If she is married/close girlfriend, this will help. I normally prepare a 'letter of support' as to how the applicant will stay at my house etc. etc. There is also an element of luck depending upon who the assessing officer is. One lady knocks almost everyone back, the other seems to approve most applications.

Thailand will struggle on. Pundits have been foreseeing an econimic crash for years, but the Baht just keeps going higher (against everything except the US dollar).

Plenty of expats have a yellow book, similar to a pink ID Card, but it is not essential or even very useful. It saves getting a residency certificate from immigration for some things. Getting/renewing a drivers licence, for example. I often use the pink ID when checking in at hotels, rather than a passport (I know it doesn't meet the immigration requirements). I guess the yellow book and pink ID card (you need the yellow book before you can get the pink ID card) are just items to demonstrate you have some sort of commitment to living in Thailand. Maybe it will mean something at some future date as they keep fiddling with immigration laws.

I've been in Australia for the last 4 weeks. While everything is clean, and the people are friendly, it's no country for old people who are technologically illiterate. Cashless pay only in many places, everything is automated, credit card and mobile phones are essential. We stayed at a hotel in Sydney where you had to check in/out electronically and had to download an app to use the TV (the hotel was actually very nice and reasonably priced). Red light. speed and mobile phone cameras everywhere. You'd certainly be foolhardy to speed. I've always said that western countries like Australia are for the young, while Thailand caters for us oldies - you don't have to feel left out in Thailand..

Oh yes, I agree it is possible to exceed the rating. But I'm talking about the average driver. I can get 20 km per litre highway driving in our 2003 Hyundai Tucson diesel in Thailand (range of 1000 km on our 50 litre tank), but my wife is not a smooth driver and averages 12 - 14 km per litre. Most people will not get anwhere the WLTP rating. Sure, the vehicle is capable of it, but the average driver is not.

The real world range is always much less. Figure about half the range stated by the manufacturer for real world driving conditions and the average lead foot driver. I think I'll be interested in electric cars once the average battery size hits 100 KWh. This should be good for about 500 km in eco-driving mode. A 100 KWh battery will also make a good supplement to a household solar network. The economics of an electric car really makes sense if you can recharge it via solar generation. But you would really need a similar sized storage battery at home, to take full advantage, and quite a large solar array. Somebody has probably calculated how many solar cells you would need.

As you no doubt know, under Thai law your spouse is entitled to 50% of income and assets gained during the period of the marriage. However, unlike Western countries, you don't need a formal financial agreement to be registered detailed the agreed split before a divorce is granted. So the key question is whether your spouse understands and has agreed to your proposed financial settlement? If she is 100% with you, then you can go and get the Thai divorce. If she is waivering, or doesn't understand the financial implications, you might need to consult a lawyer to avoid problems. Most westerners end up keeping their key assets by waiting until the wife is desparate for a divorce (e.g. she wants to marry somebody else or is worried about her own assets (e.g. family land/house) being at risk). They might offer a modest cash settlement which the wife will grab because she wants money now, and doesn't think about the future. Once you have the divorce papers, that is generally it. However, if really aggrieved, your wife could engage a lawyer to seek a just financial setlement. This would be a civil case (e.g. she is 'suing' you) and the case would drag on and on with the most likely outcome being a negotiated settlement where you would give her more money. You could avoid this scenario by leaving Thailand. However, I assume yo want to stay in the country. So the best course is to offer up a reasonable cash settlement to your wife and go down to the local office to finalise the divorce. I don't know how you would complete the divorce in the USA, but the first step is to divorce in Thailand. I'm assuming your wife doesn't have the knowledge, contacts or ability to try and pursue a financial settlement in the States. In any case, this would be confounded (e.g. would not go anywhere) if you are already legally divorced in Thailand.

I have always had a preference for the Kymer look, so generally find those from Isan more attractive. Not so much those with Chinese heritage.

The original post is easy enough to understand. No wonder so many Thai students seem shy and reluctant to try and talk English with a farang. They are worried they will get it all wrong and the farang will just laugh at them or ignore them. From the number of replies attacking the original poster's English they have good reason to be shy! I think it is a common problem with your Thai-in-laws. They don't really know how to interact with you. So it is easiest to just ignore you. Your wife is torn between supporting you or her Thai family. Don't push it, or force her to choose, because it will end badly. Just get on with your life and accept the way it is.

Are you going to build your own house on your girlfriends land? In that case you will have a contract with the builder and pay them in installments as building milestones are met

People who say they don't get bored tend to have little or no imagination. They certainly aren't very good company for us types that suffer from occasional boredom, particularly when we are actually in a bored state.

Retirement is a huge step. Whether you retire in your home country, Thailand or elsewhere, it's a big physical and mental adjustment, particularly living on a fixed income. For many people it's a challenging time and being in a foreign country might make the adjustment harder.

Best wishes and safe travels. I'm sure you'll find plenty to amuse yourself in Japan,

Sure, some bald men look good, but they started off exceptionally handsome when they had hair. If you are just starting to go bald, finasteride will stop any more loss.

I often use the handicapped toilet at service centres and malls, particularly for dumps. They are usually in better repair becasue they get less use. I always put on a limp for the benefit of anyone watching.

Living in the tropics certainly ages a person quicker. All that extra sun, insect bites, humidity and associated fungi/bacteria etc. etc. take their toll.

We never got the 'construction' meter replaced once our house was built and paid the construction tariff (double the normal domestic rate) for nearly 5 years before finally querying it. PEA helpfully worked out that we had paid an extra 75,000 Baht over the 5 year period. I think we had to pay a 'bribe' of 5000 Baht to get the new meter installed in a timely way (they said it would take 6 months).

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Like others have said, I hope you can take it easy for a few months. I've had a few mates damaged in accidents who have quickly gotten back to their normal life-styles, only to suffer a heart attack or stroke from a blood clot that took time to work loose.

Our kitchen sink started draining slowly this year (despite periodic cleaning of the U-Bend under the sink). The problem ended up being a blockage in the drain pipe before it entered the concrete drainage pit. After digging everything up (as the OP has done) I could see that no water was flowing into the cement bore when the kitchen tap was on. I suggest doing something similar while you have the pipes all exposed to see where everything is going (or not going). Because of several 90 degree bends, I ended up cutting the drainage pipe in two places until I could get the hose in, clear the blockage, and get the water flowing back into the cement bore. I then had to use plastic sleeves to reconnect the pipe. Messy looking, but it is all buried again now. Another issue was flooding caused by the neighbours infilling at least a metre higher than us causing water to infiltrate through the top of the cement bores during heavy rain. I ended up digging a drain along our fence to keep most of the excess water away. Our house has three bathrooms and 6 of those buried bottomless concrete bore things (3 septic and 3 grey water), plus a kitchen sink and washing machine discharge. Unfortunately the kitchen sink and washing machine both flow into the grey water tank for the busiest bathroom. This tank is at the lowest end of our property and cops the most flood water as well. Meaning it is nearly always full during the rainy season and the surrounding ground boggy. The overflow now leaks out the top of the cement tank into the drainage channel I dug along the fence. Luckily there is enough gradient to take the worst of the overflow away from the house and into a depression.

Yes, Hamas knew the writing was on the wall following the 2020 Abrahams Accord when the United Arabs Emirate, Bahrain, Sudan and Morroca recognised Israel and normalised relations. Saudi Arabia is the next cab off the rank expressing willingness to normalise relations (pushed by the USA). Such recognition would doom Hamas to being a bit player as other Aran nations followed suite. Saudi recognition of Israel would be a game changer for the whole Middle East. Hamas is willing to sacrifice Arab lives to ensure Saudi Arabia doesn't recognise Israel and to keep the status quo.

I guess Hamas felt they had no choice as more and more Arab countries establish diplomatic relations with Israel and seek to normalise relations. Once Saudi Arabia is onboard, Hamas will be effectively cutt off from funding and negotiations. By striking Israel, and inviting massive retaliation, Hamas expects that Saudi Arabia and the remaining Arab countries will pause diplomatic negotiations (the Israel retaliation is bound to result in atrocities) leaving Hamas in the driving seat.

Maybe I am taking the question too literally. I am 64 now, in 2023, so naturally I don't want to give up 6 years to become 70 in the same year. Would I want to be 17 again in 2023, and gain 57 years? I guess so. But wait, if I was 17 again would I retain all my memories and experiences gained in 64 years? Or would I be starting again as a fresh-faced (more likely pimply) teenager who is a blank sheet? If the later, obviously the year 2023 holds no special significance because I won't have recollections or experience of past decades for comparison. So I'll make my own future with none of the expectations or prejudices I might have now. If the former, I'm not sure I want to live my life again. Of course, it would be a different life because external factors are so different now. If the question was would I like to go back in time to when I was 17 (with all the experiences and memories I have now), then the answer would be no. Sure, I could make my life different, and I would have an additional 57 years of life, but I already know the story and don't want to do it all again. I certainly don't want to go through all the same old externalhistory. But I would like to see the future and how things turn out. I don't place any particular significance on 2023 in comparison to 1970, 1999 or 2010. I would like to see a manned mission on Mars, flying cars for everyone, personal robots, genetically modified pets, maybe even clone myelf. So, yes, I would be 17 again in 2023. But I don't want to live my life again.

Yes, I had the same problem. I rang up the SCB help line and got an operator (in English) to walk me through the process to change the settings through my SCB application. Now my SCB ATM card works for international transactions

I'm not sure a usufruct (if possible) will help your situation because it would normally expire on your death. I would have thought that wills leaving the property to an orphanage may be contestable by the family. You would obviously need to appoint an Executor you trust to arrange the sale and finance transfers. However, this would be a long time in the future and circumstances may change. I wouldn't feel 100% secure that the family would still end up not getting the home. As another poster has suggested, one possible option would be to sell the house/land in the near future and move elsewhere. This would be a big decision for your wife because her family would see it as a snub (which it is). Besides, apart from the inheritance problem, you may both be happy in your current home and situation. I guess it boils down whether, in time, the knowledge that your in-laws may get the house/land starts to outweigh the happiness you have in owning and living in your current home. Maybe you should, quietly, start putting out feelers about selling and moving on in a few years time.