Mike Teavee

I'm preparing for a trip to the UK next week & so trying to prepare for what I will need when I come back. So far I have made sure that I have JPGs of my Insurance Certificate & International Vaccine Certificate (from Mor Prom), I understand that I will need to book an SHA+ hotel for the 1st night, is there anything else that I need (I already have a re-entry permit for my Non-Imm O).

For an online shopping Portal the Lazada website/app is a pretty poor experience. Before I switched to Postpaid, I used to use the mobile topup website (https://mobiletopup.com/?l=en) & then when I moved fulltime to Thailand, Bangkok Bank's mobile app to do my top ups, never had a problem with either. EDIT: I did have one problem with Bangkok Bank's mobile App, I once put the wrong mobile number in & ended-up adding 500 THB to somebody elses mobile!!! - Be careful when entering the number you want to top-up, there seems to be no checks/validation.

OP I think you'll find the price of rent in the PI to be more expensive than Thailand, especially around the Makati/Taguig/BGC areas. I rented a 1br studio near University of Mindanao (Davao City) for my Ex-GF & it was 25,000 PHP (Approx 16,000 THB), a studio in a ladies only boarding place near GMall was 20,000 (approx 14,000 THB). I do prefer the Southern Philippine Islands (Visayas) though, if I were to move there it would probably be Davao, Cebu or Bahol, Palawan is a tourist spot so would expect it to be more expensive. If I were on your budget, I'd probably choose Tagum (about 1.5 hrs north of Davao City, I used to have a house about 20 minutes further up in Kapalong & it was the closest "Town") or somewhere like Cagayan De Oro which I've heard is popular with Expats. I wouldn't worry about the lack of "Visible" P4P anywhere in Philipines, it's easy enough to find a willing partner whether it's paid for or longerterm (& so more expensive ???? ) Still say Pattaya is cheaper than anywhere but the boonies in Philippines, Udon Thani even more so...

Lol... assuming you're not joking, think of the Lionel Richie song "Hello" and how a Japanese guy might sing it... Remings me of the time I was on holiday in Tenerife and the hotel had a singer on who started singing "Yesterday" but it came out as "Jesterday" (Because of the way the Spanish prounounce the letter Y). To this day everytime I hear that song, in my head I hear Jesterday & wonder if it's some sort of medieval court celebration day...

I've noticed the same in the Wongamat area where there seems to be many more Russian (or possibly one of the Former USSR countries) people about, mainly young families. 4-5 familes have moved into my condo block (2 on my floor alone) so it seems they're planning to stay for at least a month, can't say I blame them given everything that's happening "Back Home" but can only imagine the financial hassles they're going to face if they can't use their credit cards / ATMs.

I was kicked off my GP's register about a decade before I became an Expat (at the time UK Gov had a mass cleansing of patients that hadn't visit their Dr's surgery in 5-10 years & he hadn't seen me in approx 15 years)... Plus I was living/working in Glasgow at the time so it wasn't like he was going to see me, but like @BritManToohad company provided private health insurance at the time that whilst I never used, still paid Benefits In Kind (40%) Tax for so never really thought about it.

This part depends on your circumstances, I 1st became a full time Expat when I worked in Singapore so had the choice of paying 40% (+ approx 11% for NI) to the UK or 11-12% to Singapore, no prizes for guessing what I decided. Apart from not being able to renew my UK driving license (this through choice as I didn't want to tell one government agency 1 thing whilst telling another government agency something else), I haven't lost anything through doing it yet as I'm 11 years away from getting my state pension, but have gained much more than I could ever lose in a frozen pension from lower taxation, not having to pay NI/Capital Gains Tax (On Share sales) or higher rate tax on UK dividends. I do still pay AVCs though as I believe in doing my bit for the country, but even here I'm winning for being Non-Resident (for Tax Purposes) as I pay at Class 2 rates so about £180 pa instead of closer to £800... As for the non-bolded parts of the quote above, well I still have my house in the UK & I was posted to Singapore by Barclays so still have all of my credit cards & bank/investment accounts with them along with accounts with Halifax (Lloyds now) & a mortgage with Virgin One (Now RBS).

Has nothing to do with living in Asia, it's all to do with whether the country has a reciprical social security arrangement with the UK or not & Thailand doesn't (whereas as already been mentioned The Philippines does). It seems that approximately 1/2 of all pensioners who live overseas have frozen pensions but this has little to do with living in Thailand as 90% of those live in Commonwealth countries (e.g. Australia, Canada India, Pakistan, New Zealand etc... where you.d expect there to be an agreement in place) Countries where the UK pension is frozen... http://frozenbritishpensions.org/the-problem/

I used Mor Prom (free until the end of March) to request an international Covid certificate which was delivered as a PDF via email from intervac ([email protected]) which ended up in my Junk Mail but fortunately I was keeping an eye out for it. If you need to go in person & are in the Pattaya area, the office is next to Naklua Fishmarket, (No need for an appointment as they accept walk-ins now), don't bother going if you don't have Mor Prom (on my 1st attempt I had copies of my proof of vaccination & passport but they wouldn't give me a certificate without my Mor Prom number).

Lol, I got the joke straight away (& have had that tune stuck in my head ever since) but thought only guys over 50 & from the UK would get it… Never knew that the Nolan sisters made it in/to the US

You mean UK surely as that’s about the only place where the Nolan sisters would be known (British, 56 & I’m too young to know them)

Very interesting documentary on Youtube (Can't quite find it now) that featured a place on Soi 13/2 (Soi Post Office) Pattaya that could arrange for "Man With Man Marriage"... NB I'm anti-marriage (as my long suffering gf will attest) so of no interest to me, but maybe of interest to others...

Sorry, wrong thread...

Just read that Macron had an urgent phone call with Putin... Wow the French have surrendered already!

Highly recommend Mister Prakan for their service (I emailed them at 12:30pm on Friday to say I needed a Covid insurance certificate for my upcoming trip to the UK, I had a reply in 5 mins to say they would arrange it for me & the certificate 30 minutes later). FWIW I'm also in my 50s (just turned 56) & on a Non-Imm O and I went for the "Visa Friendly" policy with Pacific Cross, I opted out of the Outpatient cover & have a 100,000 deductible and my renewal this year (done on the day before my 56 birthday) was 26,800 THB for 3.5 Million THB cover.

Problems started 3 weeks ago when Netflix told me they were unable to take a payment, this had happened 2 months before when Bangkok Bank we’re having problems with their online banking so put it down to that but after 2 days it still wasn’t working. A couple of days later I had no problem booking a hotel online with Agoda using the stored card details but now I’m not even able to do that & when I try using the details stored in Google it says the 3 digit security code is wrong. Anybody else having similar problems? I asked at the Branch & they said it’s something to do with only being able to use it on sites that use OTPs but this is clearly rubbish as I couldn’t use it on a travel site that uses OTPs either. At the moment I’m using my Citi Singapore cards, exchange rate is excellent & no fees so it’s more of an annoyance than a necessity - Is it worth the hassle to get a Visa Credit card, I don’t mind putting some money as a bond if it means I’m not messing around every time I’m trying to buy something online..