SbuxPlease

Sad that crypto was usurped by finance bros and then regulated into oblivion as a tool for commerce. It really did (does) give everybody sovereignty over their cash.

Good morning gents, I'm looking to arrange a company or representative office in Vietnam and doing my initial research on which law offices can get the job done with as little pain as possible. My goal is to use that as a means to a long-term visa for myself and family. I do have a legitimate business need for sourcing and research in the country for my American business, but admittedly could do a lot of that from here in Thailand. But ultimately I'm looking for the right pathway to spend a lot more time in Vietnam in the coming years and perhaps split between the two countries.

Annoying that while you're our at 3pm doing your grocery shopping you can't pick up a nice bottle of red to take home with that steak.

Definitely has nothing to do with drivers "knowing the laws". I'm sure the motorcycles whizzing through the crosswalks with pedestrians KNOW there is 2000 to 4000 baht "fine" if they are caught. But will they be caught? Absolutely not. And if they are caught, will the fine be that high? Also absolutely not. 999 times out of 1000 they break the rules with no consequences and that's all it takes. Just like every other official all the way to the top. "The rules don't apply to me"

Might give smaller alcohol producers and distributors a chance up against the bigger guys. But I think we know what when there is an opportunity for corruption, it is probably intended by design at this point.

Forgot to pay that Amazon cloud bill, eh? I'm sure everybody related to this project got paid except the lowly developer who gave up trying to flag his boss about this a year ago.

Things that are 75% done in Thailand - The sidewalk - The plumbing system in my building - The wires on the utility poles - The escalator maintenance - DTV visa implementation Things that are 100% done in Thailand ... Let's call it good and go have another beer.

There's at least one bureaucrat somewhere in immigration having an existential crisis about his precious TM6

I guess... c’est la vie. If the average Thai family isn't too worried in the first place, that more than explains the current state of affairs. We do spend a awful amount of resources and emotion in the west trying to preserve life.

Every now an then (evidently 26,930 times in the past 10 years), regular Thai families get a swift yet life altering punch to the gut to remind them that their regulators aren't regulating. I wonder if someday they will have had enough.

Oh my. What a tragic and horrifying event that almost certainly could have been prevented somehow.

Recently I saw this company's ads on social media and happen to be at renewal time with my current health insurance, so I'm currently checking them out too. The plans at Genki seem quite comprehensive, perhaps even covering scooter driving for unlicensed drivers and a lot of travel-related recreational activities like scuba diving. The limits are high. For some of their plans, they seem to resell a service from a company called "DR-WALTER". There was a thread on Reddit asking about them and the founder replied, so they appear to have a strong desire to maintain their social media presence and brand image. That will come into play if there's an issue - it will matter to them a lot of you call them out in public. Genki has 4.4 stars on Trustpilot, but it seems like DR-WALTER will be the company that approves and pays out claims so the experience there might matter most. DR WALTER has around 3.7 stars on Trustpilot, which is fairly high for this industry I think. The types of complaints people are bringing (I read all the 1-stars) seem to be mostly related to communication and payment speed. It sounded like some of those people were short on cash leading them to freak out. If the company eventually makes you whole in a reasonable period of time, then the contract is fulfilled. I was looking mostly for complaints from people who were denied a claim when they thought they should be approved, and didn't see much of that. I think I speak for most when I say that the #1 concern with any insurance company is whether they'll be there for you when you need them. Like you need half a million dollars to fix you up after a terrible crash or some kind of long term cancer event. Those are the situations that really wipe people out, and I suspect the kind of claims that insurers work quite hard to deny. I didn't really see any experiences with this, so time will tell. The plans are a bit more expensive than some, but I think I'll give them a try and see how it goes.

Expats with few ties to Thailand probably benefit from policies that keep the economy in the dump - things continue to be cheap, and there (possibly) would be fewer calls to limit long stay foreigners. Not sure Prayuth was that guy because long stay visas got more difficult and the price of stuff has really shot up.

Outrageous Anyways, this advertisement is not aimed at anyone in or near Thailand. It is full of tropes that American westerners will relate to which furthers Apple's advertising goals. The location depicted doesn't even have to be Thailand... They could have inserted any travel destination that's not Western and achieved the same result.

I know nobody has empathy for someone who's in Thailand illegally and selling drugs. But on the topic of the IDC, that place is truly a nightmare, and it's right in the middle of Bangkok. Some of you guys should go see it. There are women and children in there who were swept up from war-torn countries and just trying to survive who are basically between a rock and a hard place and have no possible way out. The IDC isn't like some bad hotel where you can just bide your time to get out. It's like a poop infested, disease-ridden, hot humid series of small rooms, each holding more people than can lay on the floor simultaneously, there are fights, there are problems with food and water being stolen, there's limited or no medical attention. It's managed by edgelord guards who seem to have lost all sense of humanity. Yeah, sure, there are scumbags locked away there who shouldn't come out. But... along with them are people who should be treated much much better but have no voice. The place is rife with corruption. Is truly heinous and I wish it was getting more attention.

And with a stroke of the pen, 30% of all mobile banking accounts will suddenly break? 🙄 I'm totally sure the banks and phone companies are ready to handle the customer calls and visits tomorrow. According to the article there are 30 million "horse" accounts out of about 107 million online mobile bank accounts. Jimminy Christmas... If a fraudster can open a bank account with someone else's ID they can surely do it with a SIM card too.

When it was declared that weed would now be legal in Thailand, I swear that very night I saw a dude sitting on my soi selling out of mason jars. Within weeks, there were fully stocked shops opening their doors. The market has always been here. The market will always be here. The taxes, however, may switch from the government's coffers back to the policemen's coffers.

Strangely... not always. Have you ever walked past a shop in a super busy area that is selling nothing interesting, looks untended, has cheap prices, dim lighting, or maybe it's just boarded up most of the time, and yet the rent in the are seems like it would cost a fortune? Those places are often owned free and clear by people with generational inherited wealth who have no business acumen or any particular skills of note. Metaphorically they don't need any money but grandma needs something to do. Yet for some reason, being a landowner - in that area - is more important to those people than perhaps cashing it out and putting it to a better use so they will never sell or rent to an enterprising person who'd like to have a go of something there. There are a LOT of "businesses" like this in the LOS. No need to make money, the family already has enough. No need to worry about the customer, they are just annoying. No need to work hard, why bother? Never really saw anything like this before.

My blood pressure must have fallen by 20% once I finally stopped frantically asking "Why do or don't the Thais do it MY way" (insert whatever your way is here). I'll be straight, it took me from my 2nd year here until about my 4th until I realized my problems with Thailand were me problems and I was only causing myself stress. For those expats who come from continuous self improvement, time = money, and hard work is a life well lived type of cultures, we no doubt are aware of ways of doing things that by many objective measures are better, more efficient, or please the masses to a greater degree. If only the Thais would adopt our ways of doing things, imagine how different they could be. Obviously this is a pompous take - the Thais who are in charge and empowered to change the place are universally aware of how it's done elsewhere and aim to keep things as they are. What most of us can do, however, is use our impermanence as expats to float about wherever we want by patronizing the places that see things our way.

Seems like such an event would likely improve conditions (more or less) for those retired or expats with foreign income. Some industries might even prosper - such as tourism companies that have mostly foreign customers and Thai baht expenses.

I think the photograph on the front of this is a bit old - from what I remember the guy seen is the husband of the Thai owner of a large visa agency. I think they found something like 100 cannabis plants upstairs (this was before it was legalized). After some negotiations he was released and the visa agency re-opened.

I think your embassy would issue a renewal passport without any mention of your current immigration status. If the person you talk with at the embassy notices your overstay they might explain what you need to do to handle it. I highly doubt they'd "tip off" Thai immigration. As others have mentioned, after you renew you're now just a typical case of an overstay, which Thailand is quite efficient at handling. Bring your 20k to the airport and go. They'll stamp your passport, ban you for a while, and you'll be home free.

Cost of living in Thailand year round is going up. If there's even an ounce of enforcement on this scheme, I suspect many are going to measure that tax (and the PITA of filing a tax return) next to the cost of spending the other 181 days in other places.

It's interesting the main suggestions are basically like: -don't get yourself into this situation -use some form of physical intimidation It's like the "law of the jungle" theory where the more intimidating party or the one who has less to lose will always win. As foreigners a lot of us probably take for granted coming from places where the legal structure is dependable and that alone keeps people playing fair. It's hard to imagine how a society could ever hope to grow up without that dependable system, because of course people will consider resorting to violence if they have been deeply wronged and there's no other pathway to make it right again. In the American system we have a small claims court for small money amounts where lawyers are not permitted and the rules are accommodating to people who aren't experts with the law or process. This all makes it fairly easy to get in front of a judge quickly, force the other guy to show up, hear your case, and get a judgement. For cases where landlords don't return deposits or Joe the Plumber doesn't dig the pool he promised it's all pretty efficient. Even if Joe can't pay today, the judgement follows him until he can with increasing interest accumulating along the way. In fact, you don't even need Joe to pay up directly as you can present the claim to his bank which can be ordered to give you his money. If Joe has a provable habit of operating this way the judge can even order Joe to pay a whole lot more as punishment. I think all together this keeps the "Joes" of the society at a minimum, making life better for all. I have to believe Thailand has something like this too but perhaps it is inaccessible and lesser known. I feel like foreigners aren't always welcome to use the same remedies as locals.

Yeah this is the kind of comment I was looking for. I guess the condo association decided it's worth it to pursue even if only 15-25k. Maybe the lawyer didn't ask for too much to write up the complaint and go argue the case with the judge.