JackGats

Not quite the same. A pre-loadable credit card (with vanishingly small limit) is a credit card, with 5 000 USD credit if you load 5 000 USD on it. It can be used for car renting (deposit blocked by the renting company) and will not get rejected by hotels that also want to block a deposit. Such a credit card has only advantages compared to a debit card. If fraud occurs with a debit card the whole account is exposed.

... and ARE in Thailand? If that's true you cannot schedule an appointment from abroad, then buy your ticket to Thailand? You need to buy your ticket, then schedule an appointment (send them the entry stamp on your passport?).

So it would be possible to get a secured credit card in Thailand? I mean a fully-fledged credit card that allow pre-authorisations for car rental and the like? Why don't banks issue credit cards with minimal limit (say 1000 Baht) but with the facility to preload the card. The money you transfer on the card then becomes your credit. Problem solved, and the customer gets a real credit (ie not debit) card.

No car rental in Europe with a debit card, never mind whether Master or Visa. Dunno about buying a plane ticket online with a Thai Visa or Master Debit.

We have no dog in this fight.

They live in tents lives.

Yes.

Leaf used to chew areca nuts (aka "betel nuts"). From what I understand it's the leaves that are "betel", not the nuts. The leaves do not come from the tree on which the areca nuts grow. Why those leaves are used and not any similar leaves I don't know. If you experiment with areca nuts go slowly and be careful not to burn your mouth with the lime. It's a dirty drug in all senses of the word. It can ruins you teeth in no time. Gives a buzz like a line of coke but lasting only 5 to 10 minutes. Definitely not worth it as a habit but worth trying once because of its cultural and historical significance.

Lol, I also have a one-page form I can download and yes, it has a starting date but next to "end date" there's a blank. That means of course that I am covered for life but I'd much rather this were spelled out rather than left for the Thais to guess what the blank stands for. The more I look at that blank the more it looks like there was an end date but I edited it out with a PDF editor, aaargh! This is just one example of the difficulties were are facing. I'll send the thick PDF "Guide to cover" to the BOI if I can upload it. If they take the time to peruse it surely they should realise this is about as good as health insurances can get.

Why not instead give Ukraine long-range cruise missiles to retaliate in kind every time the Russians hit Ukraine? Every Russian missile hitting Kiew or Ukrainian infrastructure should be followed by a Ukrainian missile hitting Moscow or Russian infrastructure. The Russians will never stop if they feel immune in their own country. The prohibition to hit Russia imposed upon Ukraine is why this conflict drags on and on.

"The mother described how her child, who was said to be 17 when the payments began, turned from a “happy-go-lucky youngster” to a “ghost-like crack addict” in three years." A 17-year-old "child" blackmailing a grown man with the help of parents. The extortion Society. P.S. Would The Guardian come to the rescue of an accused man if he wasn't a member of a sister leftie woke organisation like the BBC?

I now realise my Cigna plan works like a "government" plan and not like a private insurance. The "policy" (contract) is with the entity paying my pension, not with me. Premiums get deducted each month from my pension. In fact it's the same health insurance I had during my working years and premiums are partly paid by my ex-employer. And indeed, it has a website with a thick PDF entitled "guide to cover". I'll file this guide with my application. The plan also has a clause saying anything I pay out of my own pocket - because of ceilings pertaining to some kinds of treatments - in excess of a certain percentage of my monthly pension, gets reimbursed. This clause is a bit hard to get one's head around, but I hope the BOI will have the patience to do so. It basically implies that in a single year, I never pay more than about 3000 USD out of my own pocket for medical treatment, come what may. I think it's better if I click point B (valid social security benefits), otherwise the BOI may want to make a beeline for the magic 50k USD figure and they will find it nowhere.

I see. "Social security" here means a government health insurance scheme. Strange isn't it to distinguish between government insurance and private health insurance. What difference does it make? It comes down to what the insurance policy says, ie coverage in Thailand or not. Also, point A insists on "50 thousand USD" and point B doesn't. So if you are covered by a government "social security" scheme, the 50k USD become irrelevant? I have Cigna world-wide coverage but I'm not sure Cigna will accept to print the magic figure of 50k USD on their certificate. Committing themselves to paying out a lump-sum jackpot to any Thai hospital where an accident happens to land a patient is not the way health insurances work. Following a bad accident or some cancer, I may end up costing my health insurance hundreds of thousands a year. On the other hand if I crash on my motorbike without a valid driving licence or if I treat myself to a stroke by smoking meth, my insurance will not pay a penny. Incidentally, whatever certificate I get from my health insurance, should I file it first on its own and see what happens, or should I go double-barrel and file the self-insurance 100k statement of accounts at the same time? I think it's possible to click both options at the same time on the form. The statements of account will cost me some money as they are not in English and will need to get translated.

So that's what this enigmatic sentence mean (point 2 B.)? I wondered how "benefits" could be an alternative to insurance. Benefits are revenue, insurance is an entitlement. Why didn't they write "Thai social security coverage"?

Plus, the pool is often an "infinity" pool. When I read "infinity" I think "undersized and shallow". Few high-rises have pools worth using. Squeezed between wings, getting sun 2 hours a day, no contact with the ground to give it some warmth during the colder months.

This is a small incident. Worse is when you help someone in a big way and they later turn on you. I got a woman from Uganda out of immigration jail in Thailand. I visited her and brought her food in jail week after week, negotiated with prison staff and police, paid her deportation ticket back home out of my own pocket. When I later visited her in Kampala with a view to settle in Uganda, she turned on me after finding out I wanted to go out with local women. She became hysterical at me, telling to everyone who wanted to hear that I had "used" her to get a Ugandan visa. Eventually I had to leave Uganda asap. My reward for saving her from rotting away in a Thai jail possibly for years. I now better understand why the rich, who could afford often to help people, reluctantly ever do so.

Impacted ear-wax can come unstuck all of a sudden and worsen hearing as long as it's not taken out. Ahead of a cleaning by an ear-specialist, the wax can be softened using something from the pharmacy or vegetable oil like olive oil.

I've seen people on hotel sites leave 5 stars, then go on sharply to criticise all the same. So it's up to the discerning reader to know what's going on.

This loan forgiveness plan was yet another transfer of wealth from men to women (women studying for Mickey Mouse degrees). You borrow money, you later pay it back, period.

Why so much talk of mental illness and drugs? Female hypoagency again. There are at least as many sociopaths among women as among men. Couple this with female entitlement and impunity (rampant in the West, but probably not unknown in TH either).

The French rejected Eric Zemmour (because of his poor looks?). Now the cowardice has come home to roost!

I thought "sea wasps" were something very different and much more harmless.

Some testosterone gets converted into estrogen. To counteract this, an aromatase inhibitor should be taken together with the testosterone.

Do we have a stake? More democratic, ie weed back into the narcotic list? Misandric anti-sex laws? There isn't much "damacracy" has done for me up to now anywhere, except criminalising my fun.

I like to see pupils in uniform. It can be useful, like warning traffic it's time to slow down. It also deprives the anti-cannabis lobby of an excuse as weed shops will certainly not sell to pupils in uniform.