ThomasThBKK

2 hours ago, madmen said:

Dozens of threads, I hate Thailand and leaving for Vietnam where they will love me ????

I have a bit of schadenfreude right now, i warned so many and got nothing but backlash here.

Meanwhile it's thailand who comes up with new visas like the new digital nomad visa which might even pass this time.

Some people really need to wake the <deleted> up, if thailand would want expats to leave they wouldn't have tons of long stay visas options, they wouldnt have allowed tourists to stay here for over a year due to covid, they would be like vietnam...

And to the ones who think no one with money would come here, who the <deleted> do you think owns all the phuket, samui and co villas and yachts - broke people????

3 hours ago, fcbkk said:

 

Thank you and congrats, hope all goes well! Were you offered a choice re AZ?

 

 Then i'll try tomorrow i guess, likewise i have not been there before, hope the experience is similarly positive. 

 

Yeah they told me they don't want sinovac so they offer only AZ anyway. 

I used my 13 digit number from tax card BTW and can see the appointment in the mor prom app that Thais also use.

3 hours ago, fcbkk said:

 

Thank you and congrats, hope all goes well! Were you offered a choice re AZ?

 

 Then i'll try tomorrow i guess, likewise i have not been there before, hope the experience is similarly positive. 

 

Yeah they told me they don't want sinovac so they offer only AZ anyway. 

I used my 13 digit number from tax card BTW and can see the appointment in the mor prom app that Thais also use.

3 hours ago, fcbkk said:

 

Has anyone under 60 without chronic conditions successfully registered at their local gov hospital in Bangkok?

 

Trying to gauge if it actually makes sense to take the risk to go there in person, as my local hospital is near several clusters. All the online registration options are closed or for 60+ or chronic conditions only (and don't work very well). 

 

Many thanks

Yes I did.

At a hospital I never went to before.

My appointment is end of July but they say they will call me when there's spare doses in the next batch.

This is for AZ.

5 hours ago, elgenon said:

Talking to my Thai friends it seems a bit more than that to me. But that's my impression. ROI (rent) doesn't seems as important to Thais as it does to Westerners since they are banking it. Years ago I checked out selling prices for commercial property in CM. No way do the rents justify them as I see it from a Western perspective.

yes, rent is also way too cheap here.

It takes like 30-40 years for a new bkk condo to return your investment based on rent alone, if someone buys here than to speculate on appreciation, but then you have the income taxes when you sell which makes that not worth either. 

Land is so expensive which makes the condos/houses in those areas also very expensive per sqm, but the rent is still too cheap so make it worth it. 

The only thing that makes sense is to buy old stuff, renovate it and adjust the rent to a new renter, only works in good locations tho. 

On 1/2/2021 at 9:12 AM, elgenon said:

Thais, in general, don't buy property for short term gain or do they normally buy based on rent to be received relative to price paid. In general it's more about "banking" the property for the future. Similar to buying gold. So the price they pay is based on different thinking than many Westerners. So, typically, also more willing to hold on to the property than sell for what a Westerner thinks is the right price.

 

The reason they don't buy for short term gains is that thailand has horrible taxes on real estate sales, basically it count's as income and gets taxed as income. 

29 minutes ago, treetops said:

It's not just fraud protection.  If you have a ticket to fly with Thai Airways, for example, and they go bust, an unsecured creditor will lose their money.  A credit card provider however is equally liable to refund your money.

 

 

You can continue to buy what you want without discounts or savings and still accept the free money (or even get a product not offering such an incentive if it's a matter of principle) but there is no reason I can think of to do so.

This is the same with debit cards nowadays, they are all from Visa and Mastercard.

You can charge back, have fraud protection, get perks, discounts, whatever. Book hotels, Cars, pay online - all the same.

My Citibank gold debit card gives me free AOT limousine service and airport lounge acccess etc. Same as their Creditcards. 

Only difference is one substracts from bank account (or even brokerage account), the other gives you a credit line. 

If you pay your credit card back each month fine, i wouldn't count that as debt anyway, i am just too lazy to do it and do it instant instead.

But there's plenty of people with 10 creditcards that are all empty they struggle to pay back.... consumer debt slaves, or leased cars, iphones they pay monthly in expensive mobile contracts etc. - that's not for me and was really all i wanted to say.

45 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It's a question like: Do you walk or do you own a car or use taxis from time to time?

It is possible to walk to many places. But it's convenient to have also other options.

Credit cards don't have to cost any money - if people use them wisely. It's nice to have them.

 

And just in case anybody needs to pay a big bill (i.e. hospital) then it's definitely good to be able to say: Don't worry, here is my credit card.

 

I just got a 2nd credit card. The first time I used it I received right away 5% discount from the shop. I like that and it cost me nothing.

This has absolutely nothing to do with credit cards or debit cards, you can do the absolute same with a debit card.

The only difference this day is that one substracts money from your linked bank account and the other gives you a line of credit instead.

Why would i not be able to pay my hospital bill with my debit card? 

It is better to do the land transfer to a 100% thai owned company and transfer the shares later, Thai landoffices hate to deal with foreigners.

Yes you can own 49%, yes you can be director and have the most voting rights but no they will likely block your land transfer if you directly set it up like that for the sole reason to ruin your day - so do it later.

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sometimes it is conflicting and I understand there are also variations between provincial land departments.

yes, they make this up as they go, they don't care about the law. And there's not much you can do if you want a fast solution except acting like they want.

29 minutes ago, WineOh said:

I’d rather spend my money on something that is actually worthwhile. 

Who cares? None of your business how people spend their money or time.

11 minutes ago, pattjock said:

So destroyed and tainted KPN name, the people who knowingly broke clear laws or the police that upheld the law?

Right, not much to destroy left, but the whole island depends on tourism.

They just skrewed themselves, i couldn't care less. Most of these people seem old and got arrested on the art market, wearing masks, before 9 pm. 

Your holier than thou attitude sucks as hard as thai cop corruption.

Of course this all doesn't apply to thai hisos: 

40 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

There are two Thai Elite Visa’s - the S.E. Visa and the P.E. visa (I don’t know that they each mean).

SE = Special entry

PE = Privilege entry

SE is based on Tourist visa and thus limited to 90 days for every extension, PE visa is it's own kind of unique Visa (there's a ministerial regulation issued for it). 

It was issued under Section 17 of the immigration act and is more like a club membership: 

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In certain special cases, the Minister, by the Cabinet approval, may permit any alien or any group of aliens to stay in the Kingdom under certain conditions, or may conditions, or may consider exemption from being conformity with this Act.

Here's the whole regulation: 

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Announcement of the Ministry of Interior

On permission for certain types of aliens to stay in the Kingdom in a special case

                  

 

Whereas it is expedient to allow an alien who has received a special membership card ( Thailand Privilege Card) to enter the Kingdom of Thailand in a special case

 

By virtue of Section 17 of the Immigration Act, B.E. 2522 (1979), the Minister of Interior With the approval of the Council of Ministers on November 12, 2555, therefore issued the announcement as follows

 

Article 1  The alien who has received a special membership card ( Thailand Privilege Card) from the date of this announcement is effective to enter the Kingdom of Thailand in a special case. Under the conditions and are exempted, it is not necessary to comply with the Immigration Act, B.E. 2522 in the case as set out in this notification.

 

Clause 2 The  person under Clause 1 shall have the right to receive a Privilege Entry Visa from the embassy or consulate abroad. Or from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or from the Immigration Office Valid for five years unlimited times throughout the life of the membership card, with a visa fee waived.

 

Article 3  When the person under Article 1 enters the Kingdom The immigration officer shall have every permission to stay in the Kingdom for one year. Who traveled into the kingdom unlimited times

 

Article 4  permission to stay temporarily After the expiration of the period of permission under Article 3, the immigration competent official shall have the power to continue to stay for one year. By submitting an application according to the form and paying fees as prescribed in the Ministerial Regulation

 

Article 5 [ 1] This announcement shall come into force from the day following the date of its publication in the Government Gazette.  

 

 

Announced on 22nd February B.E.

Jarupong  Ruangsuwan

Minister of Interior

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Maybe someone on with the P.E. Visa can clarify:  You get a 1 year Visa stamp each time (I think) and have a 1 year permission of entry, i.e. stamped in for 1 year, you have to apply for an extensions of stay after 1 year (at the same time get a new visa sticker)

No, you get 5 year visa but you have 1 year stamps, normally you never stay here for so long to even need an extension but well covid.

If you take the 20 year PE visa you get 4x20 year visas or well,  or more than that depending when exactly your passport expires etc.

I think the XO visa is similar, you get a 10 year visa but you still get 1 year stamps. There's prolly some conflicting law which forbids entry stamps over 1 year or something like that. Same as the law that forbids tourist visa category to be more than 90 days, and why they had to issue new regulations for the PE visa. 

3 minutes ago, LomSak27 said:

The EU has an advance purchase agreement for 80 million doses with Astrazeneca. by the end of March, now they say  they can't do half that amount in that time frame. It's not a matter of just going to another 7/11 and buying a batch. Likely pfizer has made agreements with countries and their production is already spoken for.  

Pfizers also has production issues. And manufactures in the US too.

Astra is originally a swedish company but not sure how this natioslim bs even matters here, pfizers vaccine was funded with 550 mio from germany but it's not like they demand to use it alone...

There's something really messed up in peoples head if they assume countries should just keep the whole supply for themselves just because a production plant is based there...

All the vials made for these vaccines are produced by Shott AG in germany, which belongs to Carl Zeiss glas - careful what you which for, not that someone pulls some <deleted> on you too...

The EU are useful idiots as always, too damn nice but the UK, and the US also seems to grab as many vials they can find, it's seriously <deleted> up.

19 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

What? Why surprised? Everybody needs a valid permit to stay in all countries in the world or a citizenship. Why would thay be different for Elite Visa holders? Does he consider them, standing above the immigration law?

Surprised as they have to tell some people.

You must have the IQ of a toaster to overstay your visa extension, man it's really not possible if you have working brain. It can happen for some days that u mixed up dates but months....

He's just mocking their stupidity

7 minutes ago, Dart12 said:

what visa is that if its' ok to ask?

yearly extension on all visas costs 1900 THB including elite visa, thus making his comment utterly useless. Like many of the other comments here.

Must be hard to understand for some that the TE visa is very cheap for many who earn their money offshore and save a multiple of the amount spent on the visa because they live here for various reasons (taxes, RE prices, food prices...)... 

12 minutes ago, smedly said:

where exactly are they going to get the vaccine from ?

 

lazada

Order it from the manufacturer like everyone else in the world?

1 hour ago, tomazbodner said:

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are built on new technology, while other vaccines are done on tried, old technology. This new technology is very promising and may offer solutions for many diseases that are untreatable today. That's a big step in science. But, the challenge is not whether these vaccines work. The challenge is, with each lasting just a year, what happens when you get your 5th annual shot - will there be any serious consequences then? Auto immune responses are obviously most serious ones.

 

As such, as much as I welcome new technology, I'd prefer not to be a guinea pig for companies that tried and failed to get approvals for it until emergency struck.

 

So would I take Chinese vaccine? If Astra Zeneca's one wasn't available, yes, I would and prefer it over Pfizer or Moderna, of which last one hasn't made any vaccine before this one... like.... ever.

That's only half of the story, there's 4 different techniques used and there's even more in vaccine that didnt pass trial yet...

BioNtech/Pfizer & Moderna - mRNA which leaves your body within days, it simply tells ur tcells how to protect from sars cov 2 spike protein

AstraZeneca & Sputnik V - Vector Vaccine using adenovirus to carry modified spike protein which makes your body produce its own vaccine. Cheaper to produce but also slower to produce as mRNA

Novavax, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline - protein subunit vaccine, using nanoparticles as a base covered with genetically engineering spike protein. They use baculovirus in a moth to produce the spike protein 

Sinovac and Sinopharm - uses an inactivated virus -- one of the oldest methods for vaccinating people. Whole batches of coronavirus are grown, "killed" and then made into vaccine.

So no, will never use the chinese stuff, it's tech we no longer use in the world, would take russian Sputnik one over this.... If you think that mRNA vaccine is the most invasive i also have some bad news for you.

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As such, as much as I welcome new technology, I'd prefer not to be a guinea pig for companies that tried and failed to get approvals for it until emergency struck.

This is rubbish, bioNtech founders produced tons of cancer threatments this way already and sold their company, they also worked on flu vaccine for pfizer with mRNA tech. 

There aren't many vaccines based on this (but other stuff) because it was never financially feasible before to produce, not because they didn't pass trials.