JackGats

Bank account numbers like IBANs are between 22 and 34-digit long, against the puny 10 digits of my Thai number. This implies the Thai account number has few if any built-in redundancies and checksums to prevent mistyping. Is this any ground to worry when making substantial transfers? I mean one digit wrong and I might never see the money again.

Transfers from abroad and from my broker's account. I did one update (not at the Bangkok Bank office where I have my account) and it just "updated" all at one go, without showing intermediate stages.

My savings book showed 550k eight months back, then 1.3 million on the day I applied. It didn't show I'd had well over 800k on the account for more than 3 months.

Beware you have the paperwork showing the 800k have been on your account for all that time. I found myself having to shell out extra money to the agency facilitating my extension because I had not been in Thailand in the few months before my extension renewal. Consequently, my savings book didn't show any updates during the run-up months. My mistake for not paying the bank to issue me with a statement of account covering the last 3 months, instead of just a letter stating the account balance on the day I applied for renewal. This was all the more annoying since my account had not dropped under 1.3 million for over 8 months.

If I understand right what we need from the hotel is a certification on the same page that the whole package (transport + PCR + one-night say) is booked and paid for. We need the certification on ONE AND ONLY ONE PAGE because the TP system doesn't provide for the uploading of more than one jpeg image. Am I right?

In may layman's experience MRI was more for imaging harder parts, like bones and cartilage.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere "please provide in hardcopy" and "in English or Thai language". Nothing about QR for sure. I'm talking about the pre-flight test, which is not really part of the TP process is it? Maybe you mean the booking of the test to be taken after arrival.

I once bought kratom from a Dutch source when it was still legal in Europe. Black sticky paste. Gulped down the disgusting whole lot. Had to lie down all night. Surprisingly strong opiate trip, however marred by nausea. Opiates don't agree with me because of puking & constipation.

Actually I got turned down twice in one of the King's Castles, then a third time in the other one. And mind you, the Mamasans waved down the girls all right, but the no way. For some time I thought maybe I was too old for this game, but some months later I was in Sao Paulo where the quality of the line-up was insane even compared to the top BKK gogos, and guess what? Zero rejection there, all garotas more than happy to do business with me.

Which is better, Pattaya 80% dead like it is right now, or Pattaya 200% full like pre-covid in high season? I remember in high season going down for lunch at Central food court at half past eleven in order to be able to get a seat. I nearly had a fight with Indian guys once as they were blocking the last available seats for one of theirs. As for dinner, it was difficult to be welcome in popular eateries later than 5pm. Also, remember the nighttime noise until the small hours + the air pollution. I recall getting turned down 3 times in a row at Patpong's King Castle (1 and 2) by girls who didn't want my money. It was Christmas time and they probably had even bigger (Asian) payers lined-up. All was not well pre-covid either.

I see. Another thing I don't have to upload! Coming from the CEO process, I took it for granted uploading the visa/extension was a must. I hope the system can handle the J&J vaccination (1 dose only). Luckily the EU certificate has only one QR code regardless of the number of jabs.

But isn't the question whether you want to risk TP rejection because your insurance does not cover the remaining time of your visa/extension? I'll be three and a half months away from my due date for extension when I fly to Thailand in January. Faced with the choice of insurance for 3 months or insurance for 6 months (insurances usually go in 3-month spans), I think I'll go for the latter.

Good to know. I've got 2 million Baht coming soon from an inheritance. I have a bank account in EU country B and the money is coming from a solicitor in EU country A, but I've heard that even in such a straightforward case EU banks have software that can flag me a money washer and block my account. So I was advised to have the money transferred straight to Thailand.

This rather new site is a gem for those who like me feel they'll remain stuck in intermediate no man's land for ever. Her chatty soft voice is addictive. Hardly slowed down at all, yet no rattling out either. Transcripts are available in copy and pastable format (unlike many youtube vids where you see the Thai script for a fraction of a second but no way to copy it onto Google translate for analysis). https://thaiwithgrace.com/conversation-question-listening-practice-5/

That is my understanding. That is also why it may be judicious to time your return to Thailand as close to the due date for extension as you can.

The Turbohaler releases minutes grains of active product, it's a bit like inhaling dust. An alternative would be a Butesonid aerosol. I remember buying one in Thailand.

So it is better to crop the QR code than to upload the entire certificate? This means the Thai embassy or Thai immigration are equipped with QR code readers linked to the EU data-bank.

Have they fully reopened? I remember there used to be an entrance to their buffet from Central festival. The best hotel buffets in the world were those in Jakarta during the first decade of this century. Remember Mariott or Shangri-La Jakarta? A gargantuan buffet for 20 dollars, and you could gorge there every day of the week and never eat the same thing twice. How they could break even was a mystery. I assume there were few "freeloaders" from outside like me and most customers were hotel guests.

Two months up, two months down, two months up .... Same in Europe, Asia, everywhere. Regardless of vaccines, lockdowns, variants, travel bans ....

If it keeps the Chinese out I'm happy. I hope it will not keep ME out though.

Evolutionary psychology has an explanation for our inborn preferred landscapes, for example why we surround our houses with lawns and prefer to keep the forest at a distance. (In a nutshell it's because Sapiens' brain evolved in the plains of Africa). Not sure Thailand is lush. The Thai landscape strikes me as dried out (in spite of the excess rain) and hostile. And it is hostile if you consider the critters that lie in wait. That is the downside of the tropics as opposed to the subtropics. You would be surprised for example at how much more pleasant to the eye the landscape around Kampala (Uganda), or the landscape in the lower valleys of the Andes are, compared to Thailand. If only those countries were as liveable as Thailand!

That's not a bad idea at all if you are over 50. I was thinking of having my mother over in Thailand next autumn. A 90-day non-0 would be a good way of being able to stay more than 2 months. Two months seems a bit short for the business class ticket to pay for itself.

Most countries (and certainly EU and North American countries!) are happy to have you as a taxpayer even if you understay the 183 limit there, except in the case where you are poor and only want to remain a resident of your country in order to avail yourself of Social Security or the National Health Service. In the latter case, since they can get no tax from you because you earn too little, they'd rather not have you at all.

I got burnt with Curevac. Vaccine stocks are a gamble against great odds IMO.

That's the way to go TAT, on you go, please do plough on! (regardless of any African scare).