mfd101

Increasingly the experts (one in Oz yesterday, for instance) say that CV is going to be with us permanently and we're "ALL" going to get it.

Just like all the previous seasonal flus (which I don't think I've ever had in all my 70 years).

If they're right, then it's a case of Get used to it! Carry on with your life. Don't panic.

Once there's a vaccination, there'll certainly be a huge rush on that. Chloroquine is apparently looking helpful at the moment ... so anyone neurotic about malaria here is probably looking good.

6 hours ago, Flugg said:

The boys from Immigration came in the right moment

Yeah, they came together to save time.

I ordered something from Switzerland recently. Tracking showed that first it departed from Hong Kong for, wait for it, Germany. Thence to Bangkok, and finally to me in Surin.

Took 3 weeks to make this world-travelling journey and turned out to be useless anyway.

2 obvious measures needed, both hard to do. Here's your competence test, Thai Government!

(1) Closing the border 'completely' to everyone, as Cambodia moves to become a centre for spreading the disease. Not to mention probably Laos too.

(2) The small daily increases of 'confirmed' infection - 2 or 3 a day - suggest that increasing the Thai capacity for testing & confirming could do with a major boost. (No! No! We only find 2 each day. Only 2 out there!)

Quote from todays' 'Australian' newspaper: "In Iran, the deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi tested positive for coronavirus, hours after he appeared on television wiping away sweat and coughing, to insist that the Iranian government had the outbreak under control."

And the official government spokesman who was standing beside him as he coughed & spluttered was later appearing beside other government Ministers on other matters ...

Clearly Iran at least has matters 100% under control.

Mail from Oz (official letters from technology-challenged organizations such as banks) take anything from 3 weeks to 3 months to arrive here in south Surin ... but they do seem to arrive eventually (except for the ones I don't know about).

Every country in the world ends up disliking, despising, detesting the tourists who flood in and ruin what there was to see that was worth seeing ... and the more tourists keep coming, the worse the locals' feelings towards them.

Hypocrisy? yes. Contradictory? yes. Universal human traits.

And the more expats there are residing in a country, the more difficult it is for the locals to distinguish between expats & tourists ...

What's with all the shouting? The technology is new and evolving. It can suit some people NOW, most people NOT.

Watch it move over the next 10 years. In my case Oz is a good place to watch - huge distances between the 6 cities where 90% of the population lives, and vast areas off the main roads. There's the test of the new technology over the next 10 years.

1 hour ago, jackdd said:

Yes, seems this was scrapped, can't be purchased on a case by case basis when flying economy anymore.

 

But an alternative: https://www.thailongstay.co.th/promotion.html

They basically do everything which Thai Elite does, just for a fraction of the cost and not 20 years upfront:

Get the extension, a re entry permit, do 90 day reports and fast track.

If somebody has money to burn, sure go for Thai Elite ????

Does using this mob avoid the compulsory health insurance issue?

Part of the solution for recharging - perhaps almost the whole solution down the track, particularly in sunny climates - will be solar panels in the roof of the vehicle. Already being worked on.

I'm startled to learn there are as many as 520 charging stations here already. Has to be a good thing. In 10 years it'll be all electric everywhere, and recharge way cheaper than petrol or diesel.

All they have to do is keep the stations operating during monsoon blackouts ...

25 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

Hi mfd101,

You will most probably be interested in this.

>> I just PM-ed you a comprehensive Roadmap containing all details/options on how to switch to a Non Imm O - retirement Visa and subsequent 1-year extension.  Going that road there is no need for the @#$% thai IO-approved health-insurance scam, and that's the ONLY difference between the two as the requirements/conditions for an extension based on a Non Imm O - retirement Visa are further exactly the same as for an extension for reason of retirement based on your original Non Imm OA Visa. 

Obviously it is highly recommended to make sure you are well-covered health-insurance wise, so the money saved on not succumbing to the exorbitantly expensive thai IO-approved Mickey Mouse HI policies that meet the IO requirements, can then be spend on a decent international (or thai) policy that provides real coverage.

Thanks for that. I shall read with interest. My hesitation re converting from OA-derived to O relates mostly to possible later extension of health insurance requirement to O. And then hesitations about the process of converting - but I think your message will be particularly helpful in that regard. At this stage, with 7 months till renewal, I'm keeping all options open.

Thanks once again.

The issues are actually complex for someone like me (70, healthy, planning to be here till the end, OA retirement visa originally, now on annual extension with monthly 65K+ income stream, no health insurance but do have Thai accident insurance, not poor but not wealthy).

It's the health insurance threat that is potentially the killer (though I recognize that I should have some). Renewal coming up in October. At this stage I'm thinking of trying out the approved Thai health insurance for 1 year, or even 2 to see if it works for me. Alternative is elite 5 years. (20-year elite strikes me as silly unless you're filthy rich - too many risks associated with old age & living in Thailand!)

20/24 in the 'top' list are in Asia ...

Purely indicative, I guess. Where you rank could depend on the time of day the measures are made, and the local weather at the time (wind, rain ... ).

Just now, SCOTT FITZGERSLD said:

are you suggesting the thai should start offering educational and financial services to the chinese?

No. Just reminding people that 'exports' is not just things shipped from Thailand to some other country. 'Exports' includes services provided in Thailand to anyone who pays for them with non-Baht currency.

And after that, the pain-in-the-butt health insurance nonsense. If they could backtrack on that in the next 2 or 3 months, I would feel much relieved.

All we need to do is get a petition together and some publicity in Western newspapers ... Now's the time for action, with help from coronaV.

The current testing regime at border posts seems to be mostly farcical. Probably catches no more than, say, 10% of possibles?

Having a high temperature is likely to be a sign of something not right, so bears followup. And that's fine.

But NOT having a high temperature tells you nothing about possible viral infections that may manifest themselves tomorrow or in 2 weeks' time.

3 hours ago, webfact said:

while relevant agencies work to refill dams along the Chao Phraya River.

A long line of underemployed people passing buckets along ...

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The lower than usual water levels in the dams is due to unusual weather patterns, resulting in less-than-usual precipitation

And their plan for if it turns out to be the new normal is ... ?

The 'Australian' newspaper says that the many research labs in the Western world say that (1) the real number of infections in China so far must be at least 100,000 (and that's from labs whose mathematical modelling has tracked the increases pretty exactly as they happened and then, as data accumulated, made what turned out to be accurate forward projections);  (2) by the time the Chinese regime 'isolated' Wuhan, the infection had already spread to all major Chinese cities; (3) the Ro number appears to be around 2-3, which, if further data bears that out, means that corona is far less infectious than, say, measles (12-13) and is around the same as SARS (2-4), which - if I understand correctly - means that new infections will reach a peak at some stage soon and then diminish steadily towards zero.

A common phenomenon: Native speakers of Language X who think that that fact qualifies them to teach X to non-X speaking people.

Pity the poor kids. Mind you, most of the Thai 'English' teachers I've encountered here in Isaan can't speak a word of English, or are too frightened to do so ...