Airalee

It’s not just the visually obese/overweight that will cause a strain on the healthcare system but the high number of TOFIs (Thin outside, fat inside) that are hidden ticking time bombs. Thais need more protein and fewer fast carbs in general. Plus more exercise. How many Thais won’t even walk anywhere let alone do actual exercise.

That’s one of the places I will probably check out for a 3 month escape. Nha Trang also.

I really have no idea. I lived off cash in my savings account for years and am more concerned now with what might happen but has not happened yet which is tax on all income and not just what is remitted as I have sold some stock and also will have to start taking distributions from an inherited IRA that I have no intention of spending.

Thanks for the Quy Nhon suggestion. I did a little research on both Facebook and Airbnb for apartments. It appears to be about the same price ($340 is what I’m paying here in Danang). The only problem is that the round trip flight for my gf and I would be closer to $750 vs $240 so for 2-3 month trips it adds onto the cost substantially. It looks like a beautiful location/beach however. As far as a retirement visa goes, if you look at the FAQs on this visa agent site, it looks like there is a workaround by getting a 12 month business visa. If I didn’t already own a condo and car in Thailand I would definitely be tempted. https://www.getvisavietnam.com/vietnam-business-visa/

The way to do it is to get a 250k Dong (340 baht) hotel for the first 2 nights and then put your request in through the Facebook group while here and then meet the agent at the apartment (with the apartment manager) fill out all the paperwork, pay, get the keys and then you’re good to go. The manager handles the police clearance (same as a tm30 in Thailand I guess). It’s not a “pay in advance” situation where it could very well be a scam. I put my request in at midnight for a 2 month rental and had a dozen different agents reply within 12 hours.

Midwestern doctor has had lots of great articles. It’s usually commenters on various other websites that will link to relevant articles. Thanks for the link!

Thailand has these places called “laundry shops”….

Try reading the first paragraph instead of just the title

I think it would be great if we could schedule appointments with immigration for them to come to our homes for any and all necessary services. I’d gladly pay ฿1,000 for a CW immigration officer to meet me at my condo for my 90 day appointments, tm30s and visa extensions. It would actually be a great money maker for the government as they could easily pull in more money in revenue than the salaries needed for the additional “mobile immigration officers” On another topic….did I read you correctly that tm30s are no longer required when returning from a trip abroad if returning to the same address? (Owned condo in my case)

Did ze ever have a post that wasn’t political/leftist in nature for ze’s whole tenure here? Perhaps ze is now off the payroll.

Yeah…they’re still doing the “remitted” thing but sometimes one might have to remit in the same year. My biggest concern is being blindsided with the taxation of all income irrespective of remittance. One never knows how quickly that can be enacted. Things seem to change fast here sometimes (and then change back). That’s why I have preemptively left the country for a while. I’t would be nice if the gov could just be more open about it so we don’t have to depend on all of our own guesses.

Nothing like a POTY competition to bring out the attention whoring narcissist in people.

I’m under the impression that the high season here doesn’t coincide with Thailand’s high season as it has been raining (usually just a drizzle) about 50% of the time here with daytime temperatures in the low 70s. There have been very few tour busses and I assume that will pick up. The horn honking is definitely a thing but I’m not in the heart of the tourist area (My An) but just south in the Khue My neighborhood where it is much quieter apart from the ongoing construction. The traffic really isn’t close to being as bad (currently) as the city center but from what I have been told, foreigners aren’t allowed to rent/live in those areas and there are designated sections of the city where foreigners can live which seem to all be on the beach side of the bridges. The apartment prices are far less expensive for the same places that one would see on Airbnb US$3-400 in my area vs the $700 that I’m seeing on Airbnb. I got my place for 2 months via one of the many Facebook groups and was in a hotel for the first month while watching what people were offered via Facebook for $200-500/month. This has been my go-to place for western food (burgers) here and is a much better value than Thailand in my opinion. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298085-d15745277-Reviews-Bikini_Bottom_Express-Da_Nang.html For pizza… https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298085-d24191685-Reviews-Bello_The_Pizzeria-Da_Nang.html Mostly I just cook at home. I might check out a different area next year (will do Siem Riep later this year for a few months) such as Nha Trang or Dalat.

Sorry to hear that. People who pull the “complain to get a discount” game suck. Stories like yours are why I won’t Airbnb my condo when out of the country.

this should clear things up a bit https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/thailand/individual/income-determination

it’s not a “maybe” Go to Facebook market place and do a search for “6 month” there are places. Look on hipflat. There are places. Talk to agents. They will have no problem finding you a 6 month lease. or…just make an offer on one of the thousands and thousands of empty units that are asking for 12 months and you may find an owner who is willing to take 6 months just to get a warm body in there as it’s better than sitting empty. FWIW….I’m currently on a 2 month lease in Da Nang and own my condo in BKK.

Hmmm 🤔 Remember HAARP? Did anything ever come from that? There used to be all kinds of speculation as to what it’s true purpose was.

I did notify the host and as I stated in my example of the washing machine, cable tv and no light in the bathroom….nothing was done. So, when I saw the mattress it was time to contact AirBnB. I think giving the host a week to fix the first three things was fair enough. Wasn’t going to deal with asking for a new mattress.

Go over the vaccine injured social media from the start of the pandemic with a fine tooth comb. Break the vaccine injured down into 3 categories. Category 1 If their social media posts show that they were opposed to the forced vaccination and skeptical about the safety/efficacy and they were in fact injured by the vaccine…compensate them. Category 2 If their social media history shows an inkling of support for the vaccine, such as proudly displaying their vaccine status with an “I got my Covid vaccine!”, then they get nothing. Zero, zip, zilch. Category 3 If their social media history (posting on forums etc) shows that they denigrated, coerced, insulted, cajoled….whatever…..any person who was vaccine hesitant….either directly or indirectly….then not only should they not get any compensation, but they should be forced to pay out of their pocket for the compensation for the Category 1 vaccine injured.

It would have been better if the sweater was my size 😅

Sure. I wouldn’t doubt that oil and gas executives fly private jets. Now let’s do super yachts and who owns/charters them the most? Leftist climate emergency preaching tech executives and celebrities vs Oil and Gas executives. Go! After that we can compare supercar collections and real estate portfolios. 😁

The last Christmas I even celebrated was in 1990 when I came home from university for the holiday. I had bought my mother an answering machine as she was frequently out of the house. Upon opening it, she scoffed and said “I’ll never use an answering machine” She then presented me with my present. My parents had just returned from a trip to Scandinavia and she got me a Norwegian wool sweater almost identical to the one pictured below…in her size…not mine. She knew I wouldn’t like it so she kept it for herself. Pretty pathetic that she’d buy her son a woman’s sweater (maybe it’s a man’s sweater in Norway but certainly not in Southern California)….but I guess it was better than the year that she gave the all the children Trident chewing gum and large plastic paper clips. I kept the answering machine

Back in 2015 or so I stayed at an AirBnb in Bangkok (reserved the room for a month) and upon arrival, the cable tv, washing machine and the light in the bathroom didn’t work. The owner kept dragging their feet and would have the building chang come and “look”…but nothing was fixed. After a week went by and it was time for me to wash the sheets on the bed, when I took them off, there were blood and urine stains literally all over the mattress. It was awful. I took pictures and then decided to contact AirBnB and asked to cancel. The owner fought it but as AirBnB had photos of the mattress (which they agreed was unacceptable) they refunded the remainder of my stay but not the whole thing. I was completely ok with that. I find it hard to believe that a guest can stay the whole time and then complain on the last day of their stay and get a full refund as the article interviewee claims. Maybe things have changed since my stay but I just can’t see where AirBnB wouldn’t have just said “you should have notified us as soon as there was a problem”.

I also just checked my condo in Bangkok. The developer has a sign at the front desk where the condos identical to mine are asking 59k/month for just a month and 49k long term. On hipflat it is 45k. Real market value is about 30-40k. AirBNB is 100k at the discounted monthly rate.

I’m looking at the same places in the neighborhood I’m currently in on AirBnB right now and they are 50-100% more than renting directly. Better to grab a 250,000 Dong (340 baht) hotel for a couple days and then use Facebook. That AirBnB convenience gets expensive.