John Drake

Last year at Chaeng Wattana, I merely provided a photocopy of my bank passbook for the past year. I thought I read of others doing the same? So photocopies no longer work?

It's just accident insurance, not health insurance. I have 500,000 baht accident insurance. It costs 9900 baht/year. So this would actually be a bargain. Wish I could buy my yearly accident insurance through Immigration for a similar price.

Got a better mandatory for you. As so many health issues boil down to people being obese, diabetic, with high blood pressure, or all three, why not just make mandatory that no inbound visitors display or exhibit those conditions. No fatties. No diabetics. No people with high blood pressure. It's mandatory you be in fit physical condition to enter Thailand.

A booster every four months. Everybody in a permanent line to get shot up at least three times per year.

Okay. So keep the 300 baht charge and take away the insurance so the "I've already paid for mine" crowd will stop complaining. Happy now?

Okay shifted from the Social Security thread. What am I paying $27 to $50 shipping on? Here are some titles: Peter W. Rainier, Green Fire Michael Keon, The Durian Tree David Dodge, How Green was My Father, How Lost was My Weekend, The Crazy Glasspecker, 20,000 Leagues Behind the Eightball, Shear the Black Sheep, The Red Tassel, Carambola Norman Lewis, A Single Pilgrim Lawrence Klingman, His Majesty O'Keefe I look for a lot of obscure stuff that at one time was quite popular.

Just wish this were applicable to yearly extensions for the same monthly rate. After all, this is one area where retirees are a better risk than younger tourists--accidents. Overall, this does seem a fair policy to employ.

Because they are rare and out of print. I'm more than satisfied to download a Kindle copy or go to Z library. But they don't have what I need all the time. I use them for research purposes and publishing articles. Most of the time, that means going to ABE for the hard to get stuff.

Seems a lot of people have already spent 300 baht worth of their time or more complaining about an insignificant 300 baht tourist fee.

I order a lot of books from the US and UK. Shipping from the US now runs between $27 and $50 per book and takes four to six weeks for delivery. Shipping from the UK is still the equivalent of around $6 and takes less than two weeks. This is the case consistently.

Innovators? Did an Indian create Twitter? Microsoft? Google? IBM? Adobe? They create little or nothing but work their way into management through obsequious behavior until gaining power, then show their real face. How much innovation and improvement have Indian CEOs made since being in place, other than doing stock buybacks, fattening their salaries, outsourcing jobs back to India, and censoring speech. I don't trust them in any "Quad" and wouldn't have them, no matter what. The US should reorient towards Pakistan the way it used to and shut off India entirely.

Would be nice if there was a pinned post listing all the immigration offices and how many days before expiration an extension can be applied for.

I'll do so. It was already on its way out of the country the next day, two days ago. I've sent this form via registered mail before. Of course, that was before Covid has made the rickety US Mail even more so.

This guy has already got himself into trouble in his previous two postings by interfering in the politics of the countries.

I make my own. It's still expensive.

I freely admit to following the Thai lead on this matter. I have no intent of being a pioneer. Makes perfect sense to me to follow the practices of the people who live around me.

I can't believe this guy's first act, even before he is confirmed, is to create friction, especially over the question of gas and oil. Should shut his yap. If he or the US were to start running arms to anti-government guerrillas in Myanmar, that would be something I could support. But stupidly getting on the wrong side of the country you've just been sent to is idiotic. No matter which side they are politically, just about every Thai is going to favor access to Myanmar oil and gas.

Hmmm. I must have suddenly become Thai. I think the mask mandates are largely useless. And I don't wear one when walking the streets in and around the village. But every time I walk into a store, a mall, come to a area with many vendors and customers on the side of the street, or get in a taxi, on goes the mask. There is no point in antagonizing the people you live around. They want the damn masks. So I oblige while in their company.

Fat chance.

It may make a difference when the 300 is divided up into various destinations, especially on a mass scale. But for two Americans coming here, they will see "tourism fee" and that it costs both together about $16 and disregard it. What do I hope to come from this? The dismissing of those high profile stories about a tourist in the hospital with multiple hip, leg, and arm fractures and complaints about Thai hospitals paying for it. Now, it's "covered" according to their own rules. If the patient doesn't "pay," it's the system's fault, not the foreigner's. Heck I wouldn't mind if they made the idea applicable to year long extensions. Tack on another 3600 baht in "insurance" to the 1900 baht for extensions and leave us to fund the balance of our medical care as we see fit.

Is this report on US inflation from Xinhua, the official press agency of the PRC?

Back in the US where I'm from, people are paying $4.59 for one Big Freak'n Burrito and $6.59 for an order of Mucho Nachos. Things cost so much there that 300 baht is going to seem like chump change.

I'm not happy with either group. If I could select a nationality to give preference to it would be Mexicans.

Yes, saw that. But maybe this will make them stop yakking about health insurance for retirement, as most of the really horrendous accidents seem to occur with younger daredevil tourists. Guess this leaves 90 day visas uncovered too.

Actually, this sounds okay to me.