Mike Teavee

Pattaya (Wongamat), my basic costs are: - Rent - 28K pm - Utilities (Electric, Water, Internet, Netflix, Mobile) - 5K pm - Health Insurance - 2,500 pm - Groceries - 30K pm (2 people, eat 95% of meals at home) = 65,500 pm, I'm comfortable with this as it falls well within the budget I'd set for myself when I took early retirement (If I couldn't have afforded the budget I set I would have carried on working until I could). If I had to live on 50K pm it would be something like.... - Rent 10k pm - Utilities 3K pm - Health insurance 2,500 pm - Groceries 15k pm - Eating Out - 5K pm (to make up for less grocery spend - It is cheaper for me to eat out though I doubt as healthy). = 35,500 K pm which would leave 14,500 for other things - Not my idea of "Comfortable" retirement but perfectly doable if I had to.

What is the process for reclaiming the withheld tax? I've never bothered before, but 1 of my UK Banks is making noises about being registered somewhere for tax so I finally got around to doing it a couple of weeks back so might as well try to reclaim the tax I was paid in June (Bangkok Bank normal Savings account). Do I reclaim the tax I've paid now or do I wait until January & reclaim the tax that I've paid in June & December (I got the impression from the girl at the revenue office that I needed to wait until January then had until the end of March to reclaim all tax paid)? From this thread I've learnt that I should go into the Bangkok Bank to get my Thai TaxID registered which might mean that I only need to reclaim the tax paid in June. As an aside, I've taken a large chunk of the money I had in my Savings account & put it into a 6 month fixed term deposit account, does this change what tax is likely to be withheld in anyway? Thanks

As do I... But doesn't it annoy you (even a little bit) that you (& I) spend money on insurance & when we go for a holiday outside of Thailand we have to pay 300 THB towards cover for people who can't be 4rsed to buy insurance when we come home? Again, the 300 number is irrelevant, make it 30,000 & it still wouldn't stop me from visiting my family in the UK but to me it's the rewarding of Bad Behavior & Punishing of Good Behavior. that's the problem.

Yes but me & 100,000s of people who buy insurance are also chipping in 300 THB towards your 500K cover & that doesn’t sound ok to me. It’s not the 300 THB (less than 0.3% of the price of the flights) that annoys me, it’s the fact that Bad Behaviour (people not buying insurance & expecting somebody else to pay towards their problem) is being rewarded & Good Behaviour (people taking responsibilities for themselves) is being punished. Either make travel insurance compulsory for everybody or let everybody sort themselves out, don’t ask people to pay a fee because others won’t take responsibility for themselves.

Yes, Plus the one at Hard Rock Hotel near Sentosa. They need 2 Casinos as the Uncle's (Taxi Drivers) used to tell me that if they were unlucky in 1, they would go over to the other one.

Apologies if these have been mentioned before... Terminal List https://www.imdb.com/video/vi418169369/?playlistId=tt11743610&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi Old Man https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5645432/ Black Bird https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4301160/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The fee is irrelevant given the cost of flights, hotels etc... BUT to me this rewards bad behavior (i.e. People who travel without Travel insurance) & punishes those who do buy it & don't need the cover that this fee provides. So will the cost of travel insurance polices to Thailand be reduced now & will the insurance companies be able to reclaim any money from this pot for any claims they have paid out on?

Just as an aside, the Published/Rack Rate is not the highest that a hotel can/will charge, I was in London on the day of the 7/7 bombings & couldn't get back up North so had to pay 5x the published rate for a room (Britannia at Canary Wharf, <deleted> hole) & 3 times as much when I had to be in Moscow for work during the week of the Man U / Chelsea Champions League Final (At least that was at the Savoy ???? ) Hotels (& Airlines) will charge what the market will pay, the Published/Rack rates are just a guideline.

I doubt it will ever come to it but If I needed to apply for a Visa to visit any Schengen country then yes it would most definitely be off my list.

Ahh, it's been a while since I've been (probably 10 years) & back then you had to get a Letter of Invitation (from an Agency who didn't know you from Adam) to be able to travel, as I said we were knocked back at the Singapore Airlines check-in desk.

But you've been to Vietnam, where you have to get something in advance (even if it's only a letter of invitation). On my 1st attempt to go there (2008) I got to the check-in desk at Changi & the girl asked me where my visa/letter of invitation was, I had no idea I needed either (typical British passport holder ignorance) so we got knocked back, fortunately my mate was PPS with SIA & I was Diamond with SPG Hotels so flights re-arranged (cost us $10), hotels cancelled/rebooked & we're on the next flight to Phuket ????.

The onward flight is usually required by the airline at check-in as if you are refused entry it's their responsibility to fly you back to where you came from. I have never heard of Thai immigration asking to see one, I have been asked to show one at Immigration in Singapore, Malaysia & Hong Kong when I was travelling my Filipina GF but never for myself. @NoDisplayNameDoes this mean you entered without having to complete a TM6 (I know there was talk of suspending these but yours would be the 1st report I've seen of somebody entering without one).

If there for 1 week or less we would catch up with her mates (usually at the mall) in Davao City & spend 2-3 days in Kapalong to visit her family. Any longer & we’d do the above + a side trip (often to Samal but also to other islands further afield, on 1 trip we drove all the way up to Surigao City to visit her grandparents, nice place). but you are right, there’s little to do in the Philippines outside of visiting beaches which is probably the main reason I chose Thailand instead. Some great Korean & Japanese food in Davao though ????

You are 100% correct in that nobody said hotel prices go up (including me), what was actually said was that foreigners shouldn't get a discount & there is everything wrong with sending that message out if you're trying to encourage tourism... If I didn't live here I wouldn't visit on principal if that becomes standard practice. NB This is completely different to Thai's getting a discount in National Parks which I agree with as it's their park(s), but a hotel is a privately owned business.

I'm guessing this is more about the Visa on Arrival fees (2,000 THB?) that people from places like Indian & China have to pay & it wouldn't be the 1st time they've waived this. What really makes me laugh is 1 day they're openly (it's in the international press) saying that they're going to charge tourists a higher rate for hotel rooms & the next day scrapping a visa fee that shouldn't be there anyway.

By the statement "Cebu doesn't have beaches"! - I take it you mean Cebu City (Which is like standing in Phuket Town & saying Phuket doesn't have any beaches). Some of the beaches on Cebu (Island) are stunning go over to the other side (e.g. Moalboal) & there's loads of beautiful beaches, hands down Philippines beats Thailand for beaches (& babes). As for the Philippines not being safe, Davao is (or at least was until the mongers discovered it) one of the safest cities in Asia. but if you've only been to Angeles City you're going to think the whole country isn't safe. I dated a Filipina for 8 years, have been there countless times & visited >20 islands over that time + built a house in Davao but I chose not to retire to the Philippines not because of it's faults (food sucks!) but because I felt Thailand was a better choice for me... I still do but if I ever change my mind it will probably be to move to the Philippines (& it will be to the Visayas so either Davao, Cebu or Bohol).

IMHO lucky escape as the LK Metropole wasn't very nice the last time I stayed there (had to run the taps for 5 minutes because the water came out like brown sludge) - Again, this was during one of the lockdowns so the rooms probably hadn't been used for a while.

I remember paying approx. 920 for 1 night (including breakfast) & am pretty sure it was during the 2nd lockdown (we were on our way from visiting GF's family in Rayong to Koh Chang & stayed in Pattaya 1 night to catch a mini-van) but I just did a quick check on Agoda & you're absolutely correct, it is 1200-1700 pn at the moment. Great hotel & (IMHO) worth an extra 200 THB but not sure it's worth an extra 700 (If it were me I would stay at the COSI hotel in Naklua at approx 750 THB pn & use the saving on Bolt taxis).

2nd the recommendation for Areca lodge, very nice hotel & can usually be had for approx. 1,000 THB (Includes Breakfast).

Have seen them advertised on the Baht Buses, here's there website with location etc... https://damini-money-exchange.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

Wrong link Will (Though I do have Girl in The Picture queued up on Netflix to watch at some point so thanks for reminding me). Try this one https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jul/05/ghislaine-maxwell-the-making-of-a-monster-review-well-never-fully-know-what-made-her-do-it

Weird how your mind works but I woke up this morning with PE's "He got Game" running through my head... (Well the verse "Damn the Game if it don't mean nothing" - Far too much Red wine last night) Which made me look up the closing verse... Which led to this It's going to be a long day... Pass the Red ????

But Dad!!! Joking aside, will she be able to support herself if you're not there? The reason I ask is that it might be an idea to set her up with an income stream, one that's doesn't require much effort on her side to manage but is not so easy to turn into cash Thinking maybe a fund portfolio that pays regular income as I'm sure most of her family (& possibly her) won't understand that the fund can be cashed. You might want to consider what happens to the funds after your partner goes if that's important to you.

Oh go on then, you've twisted my arm, we'll swap him for Ronaldo as long as he takes a pay cut... (I'm joking, there were rumours that he was in talks with Man U but a player like that is not going to play for a team that's not in the Champions League, even Ronnie wants to leave so he can play in it). Joking aside City are too much of a well oiled machine to have a disruption like Neymar mess things up & what superstar would want to play for Chelsea (Except Ronaldo, as he wants one last CL swan song). Neymar will stay at PSG on a massively increased salary or move to one of the Italian Clubs for even more money.

Great cover version, & reminds me (I don't think) Chuck Berry hasn't been mentioned yet...