SbuxPlease

This is a sophisticated crime if true, most people wouldn't know how to pull it off.

So many white collar crimes go unpunished, I'm impressed the FBI bothered to track this guy down in Thailand.

At 2am on lower Sukhumvit the drinks just flow on the streets and keep going at the little bars that get set up for the world to see.

Who's to say what timezone their body is accustomed to. Your 4am may be their 4pm. God knows there are precious few other activities in this city.

Not to mention the local groups who station at the 7-11 steps getting wasted on Sangsom until the wee hours.

A rule change to allow the bars to stay open would at least keep them inside and out of view.

Not sure a 2am rule has or will ever solve any known problem except to breed corruption. Just like the 1pm to 5pm hours when you aren't allowed to buy alcohol during the day. 

I was into BTC quite early, 2011. I loved it for the ease of sending money outside the obnoxious banking network. I still love it for sending money to international suppliers and colleagues who universally hate Paypal and all the controls around bank wires.

The volatility made me a lot of money over the years.

Had I never sold my first purchase, I'd buy an island somewhere and then a second island so I could take vacations from my first island. But alas I sold along the way thinking I'd already hit the jackpot. Oh well.

I still love BTC as an irreversible transfer method. But I no longer see it as any kind of investment that's worth the time. If you buy and hold, you're gambling.

The future of BTC is as a payment mechanism. Regrettably, bank cards, credit cards, QR codes bank transfers, and cash are pretty freaking good and BTC doesn't really beat them yet for the vast majority of daily transactions, and it's still way too complicated for the average person. So BTC will remain niche indefinitely.

What I read into this is that there's at least 1 guy in immigration who thinks all this hoopla could be done online and save everybody a lot of time.

I hope he's successful and the old guard doesn't block the path.

2 hours ago, VinnieK said:

Ever thought of moving away, to more idyllic locations?

Like ,100s of miles away?

Recently thinking about it every day????

We use didww for Thailand sip trunking. Previously used CAT. Ours is for business, but you can easily buy one number. Then you can terminate into any VoIP system you like and even pay with an international credit card

This topic comes up here periodically and the general consensus is the Thai laws do not help the foreign parent much, but in cases where the Thai parent/mother is harmful to the child (drugs, alcohol, abuse, etc.), there is a pathway available.

Expect to spend a million baht or more with a top notch law firm and a year or two to gain custody. There was a thread a while back on Thaivisa about an American using Tilleke & Gibbons law firm whom I believe has a divorce/custody niche.

A more favorable pathway is, as another poster mention, play the long game. If it's not working out, just accept this and think about the ways you can incentivize the mother to want to stay in Bangkok. Can you rent her a condo nearby? Can you give a weekly budget that she has to pick up from you in cash? All this may be a whole lot cheaper than the alternatives if you can swallow your ego.

You know her best, and might have some idea about what to do. It's tempting to go nuclear at this stage, but those stories are always so ugly.

My Thai colleagues get it too - they see the waste and inefficiency, but also think it's "normal" and "no one could ever change it", and "not my problem". When you can get a day off work just to visit the DLT, it's suddenly not so bad (if you hate your job and work for "the man").

So, like us farangs, they complain a bit but accept it as an unchangeable system.

The only thing that could really change this is enough of the population traveling around the world and seeing various other ways of doing things and deciding that it matters.

But, you have to understand that the ones who can travel like and "get it" will move to live in another country anyways.

The dual pricing irks me because it feels like a type of racist discrimination - something many people have a moral objection to in my home country because of some various beliefs and rights that the country (tries) to stand on.

If we put up a gatekeeper outside Times Square who charged $150 after judging a visitor's citizenship/ethnicity and deciding they are the wrong one - even if you've lived in the US for 10 years - (everyone else no charge) they might feel a bit hacked off too.

In any case, the other benefits still outweigh this particular thing so I'm still here. 

Isn't this kind of best case scenario for the RTP? I mean, now they don't need to investigate anything, nor solve any crimes. The dead guy is a foreigner. The criminals are now outside Thailand. It's someone else's problem now, as they say.

My previously "pro government" friends are now talking about their annoyance with this stuff openly, unlike a few years back. They seem angry at the condition of things and would say they believe their government let the people down when they could have helped. This is a pretty significant movement for the "middle" of Thai politics, at least as I can understand it.

I think the woke Thais who have connections outside the country are pretty fed up and sophisticated/wealthy enough to enact some movement now, and wouldn't be surprised to see more start to happen.

Don't forget the security problems at launch of the vaccine registration system!

When it first went live, there was a major security breach that leaked a lot of medical data combined with personal ID.

I'm not sure if they tested much before launching this system (seems no), but maybe waiting  a couple weeks is worth it. ????

I jogged at the park today. Saw a few other regulars who have been jogging next to me just outside the park on the sidewalk for the last month in there too, so back to life as usual for the moment.

22 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

Thailand has currency control laws.

 

Selling BTC you bought in another country is money laundering, be careful, do it anonymously with localcoins, not on an exchange.

 

All exchanges here ask you to tick a box when you register saying you won’t do that. If you absolutely must, do less than 2M baht per day.

Is there a specific reason for 2m?

On 5/2/2021 at 1:13 PM, Heng said:

Or only sell your crypto in countries with no capital gains taxes.  

 

I like to look at the mammoth US cruise industry as to how to best take advantage of global tax and labor laws.   

I think this is the way. Get it wired to you from a buyer/exchange abroad

A lesson I've had to learn in my 5 years in here is that what we'd consider the "right" or "proper" way in the west is just not relevant information. The landlord-tenant "law" in Thailand, especially when foreigners are a party, is just not all that helpful unless you can hire a Thai lawyer at a Thai price who actually wants to fight for you (note: you can't . Unless you're married to a Thai or have an accommodating GF.)

Landlords are a special bunch in Thailand, even the farang owners. Perhaps many feel a superiority to the rest of the people based on their ownership and they generally know the cost for you to fight them exceeds whatever you'd get back. I've had the most luck when I push back on the initial deposit request, giving only 1 month instead of the very common 2 months. Having negotiated a number of leases for my businesses and friends, I've only had to walk away from a few deals because of that demand. When they don't hold this over your head and know you can walk easily, I think they work a bit harder to keep you satisfied.

5 minutes ago, thailand49 said:

????

You are running a business and asking this type of question!  You should have an employee policy stating conduct of behavior, number of vacations with sick days per year paid. A level of enforcement for policy violation based on your post not only is your employee out of control the reason you got none look in the mirror.

Thai labor law guarantees unlimited sick days, did you know that? So long as the employee can provide a doctor's note.

I too have had this problem. Do you use a carrot or stick to solve it? Unfortunately Thai labor law doesn't give you too many sticks. So use carrots instead... give them a low salary and tie bonuses and incentives to using minimal sick days, always arriving and leaving on time, meeting every objective, etc.

Maybe too late to change the comp plan for this case, in which case cut your losses quickly as he's abusing you and maybe souring other staff as well. Unfortunately this is the state of things in the Thai labor system.