JackGats

I thought this kind of predicament would be typical of the EU (because of EU compliance regulations). I now see the UK is even worse in this respect. I find it incredible that a UK bank should question your status when you are in fact paying taxes in the UK. I mean would they (the UK or the bank) be happier if you didn't pay taxes in the UK? If you have a savings account or a broker's account, you could show the bank the Thai withholding tax on interests or dividends. I asked my broker to link my dividend slips to my Thai TIN but he gave me the typical Thai answer "no need to do that". As though I would be asking if there were no need.

Next referendum: rejoin the EU and join the Eurozone.

Minimal wages are the worst job-killers in any economy. Wages should vary according to supply and demand and nothing else.

There we go again. You see, for most people Covid is a thing of the past (maybe thanks to the vaccines or without them, who cares). But for antivaxxers, Covid will never end, they will go on and on about it until the cows come home.

500 baht ever other day? VT6 cleaning cost 300 baht/hour if my memory served me right. And was unavailable when the cleaning ladies went back to Burma for a fortnight. Weekly is not enough in Central Pattaya. I remember my balcony getting covered in soot within 48 hours after cleaning.

It all depends whether you ride a bike. If you do the sky is the limit. If you don't you need to pay for a central location. VT6 prices mean nothing if you don't know on which side the condo is. If it's on the Naklua side the view is depressing, with the Hilton and the Central festival mall. Plus, from 11am on you live with the noise caused by the Central Festival aircon machines on the roof. The VT6 pool is too cold during the colder months (not enough sun exposure, pool not in contact with the ground). This year I decided not to rent any condo. I go from hotel to hotel and take sightseeing trips outside Pattaya from time to time. Some people tell me I'm wasting a lot of money paying hotel rates instead of renting long time. But unlike in a hotel, in a condo I need to pay extra for, and worry about, cleaning. Changing places frequently makes up somewhat for not riding a bike in terms of seeing different places.

I've also wondered what would happen if an uninsured driver hits me as a pedestrian or if I get wounded as a passenger in a bus or songtaew. With every health insurance claim my Cigna foreign insurance asks "was it an accident? yes or no". Supposing it was, my insurance would never be able to recover any costs from the Thai side that's sure. I foresee possible nightmares there, with my insurance requiring me to provide police reports or to litigate against the other party, or maybe alleging I had no business riding in an uninsured, unofficial jalopy such as a songtaew.

Careful there, you get quoted a price that doesn't include the tolls !

I got an inDrive in BKK. I proposed 105 baht from Sukhumvit 11 to Ekkamai. I got a 150-baht couter-proposal, which I accepted.

Just an update. My online reporting has been rejected. Only the agency will work for me I'm afraid. Point taken. I'll never bother to deal with immigration any more if not through my visa agency.

In most countries in the world such bribe-taking would not even raise an eyebrow. What does this say about the EU or EU countries?

OK. I did it from the hotel where I stay. So it hinges on the hotel doing their job of reporting guests as they check-in.

Much, much worse in Bangkok. I couldn't get a single Bolt to come to this area (Sukhumvit Soi 11). And not a single taxi here accepts to use the meter. A taxi I bargained down to 100 Baht to bring me to the Makkasan Airport Link maliciously dropped me in the middle of nowhere (a fish market). I had to pay a tuk-tuk 350 Baht to get me out of there. The hotel has a shuttle tuk-tuk to Nana BTS but surprise surprise, the shuttle is "out of order" they said. The hotel has a "transport service" but this only serves to add another scamming layer (I was quoted 2500 Baht for a death trap minivan one-way ride to Hua-Hin!). Bangkok will never see me again, not even for a single day, if I can help it.

Automatic is a safety feature. It's something less you need to pay attention to while driving.

Ok, I thought the rule was if it's a first reporting with respect to the original visa, not with respect to the latest extension. If the latter is the case, online reporting is nothing for me as I never stay long enough in one year to have more than one reporting on the same extension.

I've just received an autogenerated email that says "we have received your information sucessfully" after I went through the online procedure. However, I did nothing more than fill in info about myself, after which a TM47 was generated and (I assume) forwarded to immigration. What seems to be missing here is the uploading of passport page and visa page. Of course they have all that in their system under my passport number as I've had 4 extensions so far, but the info on the internet I had read always insisted you needed photocopies/copies of the whole shebang. Has the 90-reporting reduced to filling out a TM47 online? If this application gets rejected I'll travel back to Pattaya and drop my passport at the agency who did my two previous 90-days. I'm not even sure I am entitled to do this online in Bangkok now considering I only did this through an agency in Pattaya in the past.

Better have boats picking up people along the beach at intervals. The beach was never any good to swim anyway and it is crowded with boats as it is. Ferry Jomtien-Pattaya-Naklua.

My cholesterol, especially the "bad one", is sky-high. Same as my mother (genetics, not diet). I also have some ominous lipoprotein that is abnormally high. I decided not to take any statins. By nature I'm skinny and not muscular: if I take statins what will be left of me? Plus, cholesterol is essential to testosterone synthesis, and that's something I don't want to tamper with either. Statins also carry a higher risk of diabetes so that is also to be brought into the balance. I am 63 and my cholesterol was found to be sky-high over a decade ago. So far no complaint. I take sildenafil 200 times per year. P.S. Posters who go on about diet and eggs would do well to revise the science about where body cholesterol comes from IMO. If I've understood right only one third of blood cholesterol comes from the diet. The other two thirds are manufactured by the liver and are not amenable to be reduced by dieting.

True but I think it doesn't mean a thing because the sample is too small. Statisticians would say it is not statistically significant (either way, ie younger fatalities having been vaccinated OR majority of fatalities not having been vaccinated).

This is funny because after I'd been using my Bangkok Bank account for two years without online banking, I went to my Bangkok Bank branch to apply for an online banking package. I was expecting a protracted verification, but they told me "you already have online banking". They made me go into Google Play Store to download the banking app, after which she looked the other way while I entered my PIN. I walked out of the branch all set up. I never thought it would be this easy. However, if you haven't dealt with European banks for years (I can't speak about the US or Australia), you may not realise how kafkaesque they have become over the last 5 to 10 years.

Banks in Europe have become a nightmare. No one to talk to anymore, helplines that keep you on hold for ages. I love Thai banks, where among other thinks I can talk to a bank employee any time I want. And if my card remains stuck inside the ATM in Thailand they'll open the ATM for me and give me back my card. Try that in Europe.

That's why it's better to stick to cash on delivery. You then have to deal with the hassle of them coming just when you're not at home but it's better than chasing a refund. By the way, the Lazada app is lousy with addresses. It can sometimes "force" an unintended address. I was staying in Pattaya at a LK Hotel. Somehow the app had contrived to register the address of another LK Hotel (there are several LKs in Pattaya).

I don't know. I don't even listen when I hear a content mentioned. The proof of the pudding only comes in the eating. It's my fifth trip with these and the buzz was consistent from one time to the next. Strong enough without becoming unpleasant.

It's one of signs of a real addiction, doing your drug first thing in the morning. When you see a doctor in order to quit smoking, one of the main question he asks the patient is "do you light up right after getting up?".

What colour is your urine? If it is darkish (dark yellow) that means you need to take in more water, never mind in which form.