JackGats

Ketamine. A dirty, crappy high. And a dangerous drug to boot. Why is there in Thailand such production of crappy drugs (ketamine, meth, GHB, benzococktails ...) ? Are clandestine labs manned by high-school drop-outs?

I had the same problem. The Royal Orchid website had a button to upgrade a Star Alliance flight with miles, but no button for redeeming miles with respect to a Thai Airways flight. An absurdity.

An eye for an eye: the principle is sound. However what tends to happen is lynching crowds starting to demand the death penalty for victimless crimes (drugs) or tabu breaking involving no violence (pedophilia). Also, the death penalty would be reserved for males, female offenders being deemed born victims, however heinous and barbaric their crime. In countries such as France or the UK it's all that can be done for women who murder with premeditation to even spend a single day in jail! So on the whole, the death penalty, however sound in principle, ends up being a mess.

Negative income tax, another name for handing out money in exchange for no work. Economies work by paying people to work, period.

This Thai tax certificate requires you to be in TH for over 180 days during the tax year with respect to which the tax certificate gets issued. As I understand is issued for a particular year, typically "last year" or the years before that. That would mean getting a tax certificate each year for the preceding year. It is a hassle.

You mean dividends paid by German firms on German stock? Because if it's dividends on US stocks, the W-8BEN form doesn't require any tax certificate. It only requires a Thai TIN. Maybe the easiest way is to pay the full 30% tax on dividends other than US ones.

Kratom tea, for a good night's painless sleep.

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them

Can't speak for this year but I was there last year in late August and it was eerily quiet.

I don't think this is typically Thai, quite the reverse. Countries like France, Germany, Belgium ... have this vital interest thing explicitly written down in their tax rules. Such devious flexibility means they reserve the right to ensnare people into their tax net who make it a point of staying less than 180 days. At the same time, those who stay over 180 days are toast, for how can you stay over 180 days per year and not have your "vital interest" within the country? It's a win-win for the tax man. As for the Thais, they have repeated on several occasion that tax residents were people who stayed more than 180 days.

Now what is this "center of vital interest in Thailand" thing? I thought the Thais made it clear they were going by the 180-day rule.

Apt analysis, though the baht might find some support in the demise of the digital wallet.

Could it be that the Thai elites were not happy with his taxation plans? Come to that, I wasn't either.

Booking and Agoda are part of the same company, only Agoda has its head office in Singapore. The point of this I think is that Agoda is not required to play by EU rules. Agoda jacks up the price at the last click. Agoda refuses to charge in Thai baht if you pay with an EU credit card, so instead of getting the good Visa exchange rate, you get the crappy Agoda exchange rate. IMO Booking runs Agoda as a non-EU compliant subsidiary.

Not sure about that. Often the price on the hotel's website is higher than the price on the booking platforms. Also, if you book through the hotel website there's no cancellation policy except once you pay the money is gone.

Hillary Clinton was winning in the polls until the very end, remember?

This is not strange. Idiotic men from the US will fight to the end against "the vaccine" yet they will have long relinquished their sexual rights. It's not ok for the government to push for covid vaccination but it's ok for a man to go to jail if he says to a woman in the street "I give you one hundred and we have some fun in bed together".

I'm more concerned with another part of me on cannabis.

Is the fact that capsaicin from red chillies can rid you of worms also a myth?

No wonder you don't find it, it's called Dulcolax.

What is sad about all this is that they should be sitting down to implement a few safe crossings for pedestrians in Pattaya rather than try and devise ways to speed up traffic. In Pattaya you may stand 50 meters from a 7/11 but you might as well be one kilometer away. Of course the whole of Thailand is like this but Pattaya sets out to attract crowds of people who don't drive and there are zero provisions for their road safety. Even the few meters to hop into a Songtaew can get you injured or killed. It's surprising motorbikes do not ride inside restaurants and bars. Maybe that's because the curb is too high.

One way means speeding and more serious accidents. Two-way was what made it only moderately dangerous for pedestrians.

If you use your foreign credit cards 180 days per year outside Thailand, problem solved.

Yes, some here are still maligning Prayut. They are eager to get taxed on their worldwide income and happy that their hard-won retirements visas are made a mockery as every nationality except Farang get showered with free 6-month extendable visa waivers.