mfd101

Better safe than sorry.

You probably won't need the cash or the papers you mention when you return, but - given that you live here & have family & possessions here (your life!) - it's not going to cost you anything to have the funds & papers at the ready in case you need them when you reenter Thailand.

Cuba 1953. Personally I'm looking forward to 1957/8.

What a load of rubbish. The unemployment rate in Thailand is so remarkably low because the 10 or 20 million unemployed or UNDERemployed Thais have no idea that there is in fact an unemployment registration & benefit, but of course not advertized and almost certainly in any case so low as to not be worth getting out of bed for ...

Anyone who visits a rural village can stand on the side of the road and point out 20 or 50 young & older adults with nothing to do except sit around all day, gossiping & horsing around & looking lost.

Low productivity is the name of the game. Keep the poor poor and you have an endless queue of cheap labour.

My almost-extensive experience of DENTAL treatment in BKK is that it's better than in Oz and around half- to two-thirds the price (caps, wisdom removal for my b/f, fillings ... ).

Because they are organized (in BKK) in clinics with several dentists, each one specializing in a particular area, you get in my experience a more professional job done than you would get in a one-dentist suburban practice in Oz.

Several of my Canberra friends continue, as they have for many years, to save up their dental jobs-to-do, then fly off to BKK for a week or 2. If they're a couple, the difference in dental price just about pays for the air fare & hotel.

Yes, it's very difficult to change, even in a country like Oz with a strong egalitarian (one-class) culture and, according to OECD figures, one of the 2 or 3 advanced economies with the highest level of redistribution of funds from rich to poorer.

Despite all of that, Oz is not all that much ahead of the US in inequality measures.

On the World Bank Gini index, Thailand rates slightly worse than the UK for inequality & somewhat better than the US.

Yes, read the history books - a magnificent woman, an astonishing life. The video looks good.

19 minutes ago, allane said:

I do appreciate your update re no need for a new TM 30. We will be travelling abroad and returning within the next 3 weeks.

Fine, as long as you understand that what happened today does not necessarily have to be identical to what happens in 3 weeks. It's merely offered as a guideline, but the lines are flexible ...

Having said that, I should have added in my post that, as part of the checking of my retirement extension papers, I & my b/f as witness were invited to sign copies in English and Thai of the edicts of last Dec & Jan. Which indicates their full understanding of and compliance with those rules, and mine too. I thought that was a good indication of professionalism at KC.

Successful. Took 75 minutes. KC is a small office but increasingly busy with more staff than I've noticed in the past. Very cheerful atmosphere today and happy outcome for us.

Did 65K monthly method. No sign that 800K in the bank was the only method. My financials were slightly scrambled because of change of rules in January and I didn't get fully under way with TW & Smart transfers until Feb. But my evidence from 2018, together with copy of last year's Oz Embassy affidavit (suggested by someone here on TV) & my Oz superannuation statements for 2019 was sufficient to leap thru the hoops. No question re foreign transfers, though they were pretty-well lined up in my bank statements & bank books (BKKBk FTT).

Did my 90-day report at the same time.

Issue of TW30/28reports (total absence of, ever) didn't arise, most relevantly in relation to our last foreign trip (Vietnam in April). No request for gate photo or map (they know where we live & are hard to miss). I had done 3 or 4 copies of everything I could think of. Most handed back untouched early on in the process - will use the relevant bits again next year! Only 1 copy of anything kept by them as far as I can tell.

Will probably stick with 65K method from now on as (1) I have the balance right now between TW transfers for TI & using my Citibank debit card for equally cheap but stress-free & immediate atm withdrawals, and (2) our fears about their 'policy' stance proved groundless. I think their mention a few weeks ago of 800K related to having a TOTAL of 800K thru the year, not the 800K in the bank method. So should be No Sweat for the future.

Cheers

She was beautiful and magnificent.

Horace said it 2000 years ago: Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.

Th skies and not their minds they change who flee across the seas.

As Nouvel Obs commented yesterday, he was better at getting in to power than at exercising it. No economic vision for France. Just hot air.

As one could, of course, say of all too many politicians everywhere in the world.

3 minutes ago, Selatan said:

Unlikely for Thailand to be stupid enough to let Laos and Myanmar link up to China by rail and grab most of the tourists and trade if itself doesn't want to link up. Imagine the horror that one day Thailand have to import Chinese goods via Laos and Myanmar!

Thailand has no land border with China.

As usual in this country, the financials are wonky, the economics are not understood, and, as for the engineering, ...

In his personal life of course a slime. No female was safe within 20 metres of him. It only took 10 seconds ...

Slippery & corrupt in his politics too. And a do-nothing President for 12 years.

Price range is unchanged since I bought the SP model in mid-2016.

4 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

If they are complying with the memo sent out by head of immigration you should not have a problem getting your extension.

You could make a trip out to get a single entry non-o visa and start all over again if it was denied. It would be considered the first extension since it would be for a new 90 day entry from a visa. The first extension only requires a couple of months of transfers. 

OK, thanks. I'll check out the details on single-entry non-O. Meantime, fingers & legs crossed!

I'm gathering all my papers together in preparation for renewal of stay on ground of retirement, at Kap Choeng (Surin) on 4 October. Age 70, Oz, O-A visa in 2015.

Using 65K method (monthly income) - I have bank book of monthly transfers going back to December, and have ordered up the requisite bank letter & statement of FTT transfers. All other papers in shape. But am getting nervous as (1) I don't have 12 months of the regular transfers though I can easily show that I have been bringing in some 120K a month for several years (it just doesn't show up as FTT before last December because of the much cheaper method I used - Citibank card at atm); (2) there was some suggestion from Kap Choeng in July that they will look only at 800K in the bank, though unclear whether they meant all at once or over a year ...

Anyway, we are proceeding as planned according to the new (Dec/Jan) rules for monthly income. Question: What are my options if my application is rejected?

Obvious first one (that I might well adopt) would be return to Oz for a new O-A visa, which would have the advantage of no sweat for following 2 years.

But I haven't a clue what other - perhaps easier & quicker - options I might have, preferably without leaving home (ie Prasat)!  Thanks for any useful advice.

Rome fiddles while emperor burns.

I assume that either the Solicitor-General or the Attorney-General has to sign off on any royal decree before it goes to HM-in-council for approval?

Perhaps the tumbrils will be setting out for Tyburn in the next few days ...

35 minutes ago, Estrada said:

All the government needs to do is to complete the KIng Rama IX master plan (JICA), build the Rom River Dam and the super flood way to divert the extra storm flow away from the Chao Phraya River to the sea. The current super drainage tunnels (up to 6m dia) need to be diverted to the sea, not into the Chaophraya in Bangkok which just make the flooding worse by adding to the Chaophraya storm flow.

Right. And I expect that will work extremely well as the sea rises ...

The point of course - for those that think this is just about the politicians - is that it's just about the WHOLE of Bangkok that is going to drown, permanently, over the next 20 or 30 years.

I don't think it's going to be 30 or 50 years till the combination of rising seas and sinking city produce their effects. More like 10-20 years. Which means that planning should be getting under way now, aiming for building to start somewhere north and high in say 10 years.

'Planning'? Oh, you mean do some things now that aren't needed for 20 years? Um, no can do.

(1) Green tea might obviously have different physiological effects from strong black tea with milk & sugar.

(2) There may also be a cultural/social aspect eg tea drinkers might on average have lower alcohol intake ...