DFPhuket

This site shows updated bank interest rates. A one year fixed deposit at most Thai banks remains at 1%, quite a bit lower than the 3% I'm getting in my US online savings account.

The key is to make certain roaming is turned off. I have dual SIMs (Thai eSIM and physical US SIM) and generally leave both turned on. Like you, I get OTPs for banks, etc. and I find that's easier. I'm not charged for incoming text messages and in the odd case that I get a (spam) voice call, I just decline to answer it. With roaming off there are no extra charges for leaving the SIM on. I assume this is the same for UK SIMs.

There are no issues getting into Thailand but it’s impossible to guess what the requirements might be to get back to China. Who knows what the length of a quarantine (and the quality of the quarantine) might be in the future. That would be my main concern.

I've come through Phuket airport 3 times in the past 7 weeks. There was never a wait of more than 5 to 10 minutes at immigration even though sometimes there were a couple of flights that were unloading passengers at the same time. The fingerprint scanning begins as soon as you walk to the counter and takes about 5 to 10 seconds per hand. There were plenty of booths open.

This site is updated daily and gives the currency conversion rates for a number of Thai banks and money exchanges. You can change the currency and indicate whether you are converting notes or completing a bank transfer using the dropdown menus at the top. It's a very handy tool.

After all of the overnight rain, I didn't risk trying to drive over Patong Hill. Even it was open, I don't trust whoever it is that decides whether it's safe or not. I took the longer route via Chalong and was pleasantly surprised that the traffic wasn't too heavy at 9 AM.

I know that Patong hill is open to motorbikes going both from Patong to Kathu and Kathu to Patong. But what is the latest regarding cars? I need to drive from Patong to Kathu and back tomorrow morning, but I've not sure whether it's now open one direction, both directions or neither. Has anyone driven it in the past couple of days?

While QR payment has rapidly gained in popularity, you must have a Thai bank account for it to work. It is a failure in tourist locations like Phuket where only the locals can use this method.

A friend of mine is the manager of a 4/5 star international hotel in Phuket. He told me occupancy continues to climb and they are already fully booked for many nights starting in mid-December through January.

I fly internationally into Thailand about once a month. I'm almost always asked for my outbound/return flight by the airline at check in (since it's an immigration rule and they are responsible for you if you are denied).. At that point I point out my multiple re-entry permit and all is well. Several people I know have successfully used https://onwardticket.com/ to show an outbound ticket. It cost $14.

I got my original APEC card about a dozen years ago. The validity of the card is 5 years or until your passport expires. My card was due to expire in 2023 and so I just renewed it this month on the Trusted Traveler site. My new one (being mailed to me now) will be valid until 2028. I've made about 10 trips in and out of Thailand so far in 2022. As immigration queues get longer, the ability to use the diplomatic/APEC counter has been very beneficial.

Here is the official APEC website. I got mine working as an international consultant at the same time I applied for and received my US Global Entry card. Buying and using a fake APEC card and handing it over to immigration when you're entering a country doesn't seem to be the wisest of ideas to me.

I actually don't remember what the error message was before I cleared my cache. I just tried logging in to the website t's still working today (a couple of days later) and everything seems ok. I also have the app on my iPhone and it is working as usual.

Using a different browser seems to solve a lot of these problems. The "na-na-na" only seems to happens to me in Chrome when is set to automatically translate to English. Try Firefox or Safari.

I have an APEC card and used that lane pre-Covid, but in the past months the normal lanes have been just as fast. In my 8 international departures in 2022, I've not seen a immigration line of more that a couple of people when departing.

I've also been having Vanguard login problems. I've tried logging in with a VPN, different browsers, etc. but nothing worked. I decided to clear all Vanguard cookies in Chrome (go to settings > privacy and security > Cookies and other site data > see all site data and permissions) and enter Vanguard in the search box. It showed 29 cookies and I deleted them all. After that, when going to the Vanguard login page and entering my credentials, it worked as usual (I was using a VPN). Perhaps this will help others.

I'm a retired mental health professional. My suggestion is to try to find a psychologist or therapist as the first step. The issues seem more situational and helping her identify the problems and her thinking around them would be a good place to start. Psychologists also charge less than psychiatrists. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who, at least in Thailand, tend to use a medical model and seem to very quickly offer medications as a way of mitigating the symptoms. Medications are certainly appropropriate for some mental health issues and some people, but I wouldn't start there. A psychologist or counselor would begin by talking about what's going on in her world and seek better understanding about coping strategies she might use. In my experience, there will be a better outcome if the counseling is done in the client's native language. Unfortunately I don't have any specific recommendations for a Thai psychologist.

I also recently renewed by mail. You are provided clear instructions and if you follow them to the letter it works fine. You're told to use registered mail and when I dropped my passport off at the Phuket post office I was given the tracking code and could follow the progress. It arrived at the embassy the next day. When the passport was back, the embassy provided a tracking code so I could watch as it made it back to me. All very easy.

I have found Food Panda to be a lot easier to use and prefer it for food delivery. All of the information on it is in English, while lots of information on Grab is in Thai. I have my credit card in my Food Panda account and automatically pay when ordering. Then I follow the progress on the app and walk out to meet the driver when it shows he is a minute or two away.

Google maps “knows” Patong hill is closed and will suggest going via the Kamala or Karon routes. Obviously there will be a significant increase in traffic so I’d suggest looking at Google maps before you go. Enough people use the app that it is usually accurate with live data on jams and travel estimates

Tim Newton has a new video (posted around noon Sunday) showing several of the flooded areas. The heavy rain last night in Patong is as bad as I remember during my 7 years here.

InDriver works fine for me. The design looks a bit different (not sure when that happened) so you might want to check to see if you have the latest version of the app.

While he did the actual stabbing, the Royal Thai Police is a co-conspirator for allowing a guy with a history of drug and other problems to join the force. They then did nothing to remove him when other issues were reported.

A Bolt driver who dropped me at HKT airport told me that if caught picking up someone via the Bolt, InDriver or Grab app, he would be fined 2,000 baht. That's what scares the drivers away from coming to pick people up at the terminal. Instead they ask passengers to walk to the road where it's "legal" to pick them up. Not exactly a tourist friendly airport or process.

I bought a new Nissan last month and used my SCB bank app. First, make sure that you go into settings and edit the maximum amount you can send. For SCB the maximum transfer limit can be up to 5 million to another person's SCB account or 2 million to third-party account. The dealership had a QR code to scan so there were no concerns about mistyping the account number. When scanning, the app gave the name of the company. It was then simple to get a one time password (OTP), and finish the transfer. I don't recall if they took a picture of the confirmation or asked me to email it to them. The whole process took about 3 minutes.