Mike Teavee

In the interview with Brian Flowers, he said that he had contacted friends who work in the NHS and been told that the waiting list would be at least 3 months because of the backlogs caused by postponed operations due to Covid19. They will triage/stabilise any kind of head injury immediately but given the choice of an operation to save him the sight in 1 eye Vs saving somebodies life he's always going to come 2nd.

As it's not a "Life Threatening" Injury, he'll have to wait months (at least) to get it done on the NHS by which time will probably have lost use of the eye & be seriously disfigured. Obviously having the operation in a private hospital will cost even more.

Sorry I should have said that it”s an MMA “Gym” not your normal weights & machines type place.

WIN/WIN for you & the IOs maybe, but it's a LOSE for us guys that keep the 800K in the bank as we now have to keep it there for at least 5 months & a minimum 400K for 7 months. But even more of a hassle is the messing around with Bank Statements showing it's been there all that time especially when you rarely update your bank book so need additional statements. I keep the 800K in the bank & use an agent because I can't be bothered keeping up with the latest regulations & would rather pay somebody else to do this for me (use an accountant in the UK to file my tax return for exactly the same reason) costs me an additional 6,000 THB on top of the 1,900 THB immigration fee but worth it to me as it makes my life easier & I like an easy life ????

Long story short, the attacker has been arrested & has met with the victim at the hospital where he has reportedly offered to pay up to 100,000 in medical costs which goes no where near what the guy needs (He has to have an operation to fix titanium plates inside his cheek to stop his eyeball sinking into his skull which will cost > 600,000 so looking more like 1,000,000 in medical costs). The next step was for all parties to meet at the police station to discuss it further but I haven't seen any reports of what happened there (If somebody has can they please share a link). As an aside, Brian Flowers (For those who don't know he's the co-owner of NightWish group which own approx. 25 bars on Soi 6, the Rage gym & Pattaya News) & wife have been helping the guy navigate his way through this so if anybody is interested in following the case it's likely that he'll post updates on his YouTube channel.

He's been outed in the Brian Flowers interview, Brian even showed his driving license with his full name, driving license & passport number (Skip to around 39minutes & 40 seconds in if you don't want to watch the whole thing). Seems he's had a license since May 2017 so not exactly a newcomer.

Same here, but I didn't know they could do it 3 months in advance. I did my last (Non-Imm O Retirement) extension 44 days in advance (maximum advance was 45 days) & at that time CW was only seeing people who's extension was due within 3 days but my Agent had no problem getting it done there & then. Costs 7,900 (Includes 1,900 immigration fee) & worth it to me as I want to make the process as easy & painless as possible. E.g.When checking that my 800K was in order the agent noticed I'd left too long between bank book entries and there was a consolidated amount in there which immigration wouldn't accept so took me to the Bank to get the appropriate statement pages I would need - Something I would never have picked up on & would have cost me an extra trip to CW. Next extension will be Jomtien IO & I'll be using Maneerat (8,000 THB) to do all the heavy lifting for me.

Unfortunately flight prices are a lot higher at the moment (my usual BKK-MAN flight has gone up by 50%) and (IMHO) have little chance to go down for the foreseeable future. One trick I can share is to use https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search to do your flight searching, this will allow you to search multiple departure airports & dates to find the best deal. Once you've found a flight , use skyscanner.com to search the different travel sites but always check the airlines own site & unless there's a big difference book direct as it usually makes any changes/issues easier to resolve. FWIW I consoled myself about the extra cost by telling myself that I'd saved the cost of 4-6 return flights because I haven't been able to visit for the past 2.5 years.

Given the "Special Promo" rate for opening is a minimum of 5,000 THB, I can't see them attracting many of the typical (non-Thai) Pattaya Tourists but I can see it being full with Thais for the 1st couple of months until the novelty wears off & they revert to the Centera/Pullman. It does look really interesting though so keeping an eye on the pricing/offers & if it drops below 3,500 will book a night there even though I live less than 2KM away.

Which immigration office do you use? I ask because a 90 day report (&TM30) seems to be mandatory at Jomtien IO to get an extension or a Re-entry permit & I can't remember if CW needed the 90day report but they did need a TM30 last time I did my extension there. If you don't have them, you have to sort that out 1st (pay the fine) & then go back to do your extension, too much of a ballache for me so I simply do it online OR pay an agent a few hundred THB depending. As an aside the new online system seems to be much better than the old one but I re-entered end of March so it remains to be seen whether it will work for me next time... If not, Maneerat did it for me for 200 THB last time I was having problems.

That’s the Laguna 3 (Maldives), spent 5 nights there in a condo hunting tour & its miles away from anything + no chance of a sea view. Beautiful place, awesome pools but you really need your own transport if you live there (on 1 site they claimed there were 2-3 shuttle buses to Tescos & Jomtien Night market, guards looked at us blankly when we asked about them).

Not a big fan of dogs in Condos but they do allow small ones (& cats) at the Riviera Wongamat so would assume they'll also allow them at the other Rivieras (e.g. the one in Jomtien if that's where you're looking to live). They have to be registered with the office & staff are very strict with owners about keeping them on a leash/picking up after them so it's never really been a problem. My advice would be to get a good agent (For Wongamat I would recommend Som at Ocean Properties https://pattaya-ocean-properties.com/ ) who will be able to tell you which Condos allow Pets.

I love the Japanese Golden Curry Extra Hot sauce & buy it 6 packs at a time (bargain at 82 THB, it's 120+ elsewhere) along with 6 x 2ltrs of Korean Bulgogi sauce at the Makro on Pattaya Nua so hopefully they'll continue to stock it ???? OP Not a fan of the Ayam baked beans & often struggle to find Heinz BBs so I've switched to Watties which are a great substitute & can be found in most supermarkets.

Last night I asked the GF why she didn't just book a Bolt Taxi from the airport (She's booked them for local trips many times) when she found out that the Bell Bus was no longer running & she said the same thing about not liking long distance taxi rides especially when she's in the car on her own so I've booked her Nam's taxi for her trip to BKK Airport next week & she feels a lot safer knowing it's going to be a relatively new car with a Lady Driver - 1,000 THB (including tolls).going, 1,300 coming back. If all goes well then I'll use them when I fly out to visit her the week after but for anybody visiting/living in Pattaya/Bangkok, the Bolt app is a must have... So cheap & easy to get around using it.

Download the Bolt mobile App onto your Phone... AppleStore: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/bolt-fast-affordable-rides/id675033630 Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ee.mtakso.client&hl=en_AU&gl=US It's really easy to use, last time I took 1 from the Airport (actually BS Residence Airport hotel that I was using for my Test & Go) to Wongamat Beach, it was 1,200 for the Taxi + another 70 THB or so if you wanted him to take the expressway which is about the same as other offerings (Limo Pattaya, Nam Taxi etc...) but with Bolt you're usually picked up in minutes so it's great for last minute bookings. A taxi from the Rank will probably cost around 1,500

Was at Pattaya Nua a couple of weeks ago & the office was still closed. GF ended up getting the train to Ekkamai then the bus from there back to Pattaya Nua, why she didn't just get a Bolt taxi is beyond me but the OP mentioned he would rather use the bus so that's one option.

Another Netflix documentary... Monsters Inside - The 24 faces of Billy Milligan... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15287836/ Am assuming the movie Split https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/ & the sequel Glass https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6823368/was loosely based on Billy... Mesmerizing stuff...

(On Netflix) Binged watched "Conversations with a Killer", John Gacy https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2159854105/?ref_=tt_vi_t_1 & Ted Bundy https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9425132/ But "The Confession Killer" (Henry Lucas) left me speechless... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11307176/

I have insurance (Visa Friendly Policy from Pacific Cross) & was easily able to get a certificate from them that covered me for up to $100,000 for Covid, my mate was having problems getting the information/certificate from the company he works for in Thailand so bought the policy as a "Throwaway" just so he could get the ThaiPass & get back to work/home. IMHO 650THB isn't worth worrying about when you consider the overall costs of the holiday.

The policy I referred to is valid for ages 1-85 https://partner.fwdgi.co.th/en/fwdgi/corona-virus-inbound-insurance?utm_source=tqmbroker Eligibility 1. Age between 1 - 85 years old 2. This insurance policy does not cover who infected or suspected of being infected "Coronavirus (Covid-19)" (including complications) that exist before 3. Limited purchases 1 person / policy 4. The applicant must be a foreign person and wish to purchase insurance for use in applying visa to Thailand follow as immigration required only. 5. Waiting Period of 14 days or negative PC-R Test within 72 hours prior to inception of policy. I would suggest that it's only purpose is to meet entry requirements & would recommend having a more inclusive Insurance Policy but appreciate this isn't always an option practically/financially for guys > 75

when the requirement was $20k you could get a 30 day policy (which is all you need to meet entry requirements) for 650THB so I doubt a family of 4 spending >100k THB on flights alone would balk at spending an extra 2,600 THB I believe the “barrier” is the hassles in getting the Thailand pass, make it automatic & immediate & lots more people will visit

Yep, THB is at a 5 year low against the SGD$ so I closed out my Citibank Singapore account & got 60,000 THB more than I had in my budget spreadsheet… Oh wait, we’re we talking about USD$ ????

You're absolutely right & the rule was put in place in Jan 2022... I thought it was an upcoming rule because there's now a pop up when you're sending money to Thailand (irrespective of whether it's >50K) that (I'm pretty sure) wasn't there prior to last week....