theboogeyman

I've probably went to the ACS around 5 times over 11 years like for passport renewal, notary, etc.  Yes, the ACS area is small and always plenty of customers, but I've never experienced rude staff.  All my visits were pleasant...staff were professional and polite....got what I needed in a quick manner....never took longer than 30 minutes between entering and exiting ACS.  

That’s true they’re very polite and provide good service but try asking them a question you can’t call them unless someone is dead, in the hospital, arrested, or assaulted and when you email them getting a straight answer is like pulling teeth. I have no use for them except for renewing my passport once a decade.


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Read the news

lol [emoji23] the local news. He hasn’t been seen in public for weeks


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What a load of BS

Okay then where is he? Why hasn’t anyone seen him in public since he “went on vacation to America”?


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Yes..... So strange....... "Big Joke"......... I replied to a post a week or two ago and commented about him...........
I farang friend of mine was talking to a group of 'his' Thai friends (businessmen/1 Lawyer) and over coffee something was mentioned about 'Big Joke'.... My friend said that the Thai guy said "He is DEAD"....... "They had him done-in"....... ever since my friend mentioned this to me I have been watching intently for any News about him -- and not seen anything since before he was supposed to have gone on his Holiday to America..... That is a long while back...... and he 'was' being followed by the news so regularly, even after his 'demotion'...... 
Has anybody heard anything current reporting any of his activity???

And just like I predicted suddenly the news media and this forum has conveniently forgotten about him because they’re not getting any answers.


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You are right.  The priority for the US Embassy is definitely not American citizens in Thailand.  Instead it's keeping good relations with Thailand....maintaining and expanding U.S. interests.  

Well it’s always been that way it’s that way with all our embassies around the world. US citizen services is a very small part of what embassies actually do. The foreign service employees who handle US citizen services are just a very small portion of the embassy staff and they’re very low level civil servants. I used have a job kind of in that area and I’ve dealt with most of the US Embassies throughout Asia. The Consular Sections of the embassies are the lowest priority. Honestly the embassies usually can’t even get their actual missions done most of the time either. In my former job most of the real work was done by people like me who worked unregistered outside of the embassy, but the Diplomatic Mission is a different story kind of.


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What was so good about them anyway? Did they have free beer and barbecue at the embassy outreach events?

 

I guess it’s nice if they come to you for something saves a really long trip to Bangkok I guess but I prefer to see them at my convenience. And honestly now that we no longer need those dumb income affidavits anymore THANK GOD I only need the embassy about once a decade for a new passport every 9 years since I always renew it a year early.

 

The embassy has really made themselves insignificant to American Citizens these days and now they probably have a great time at work doing very little. After I retired I almost got a job in the foreign services because I knew the right people to get one. I prefer total retirement instead.

 

 

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like your verified fairy tale of the Kuwaiti Dinar strength.

 

Naam I’m still waiting to hear your rebuttal to the facts I posted above lol [emoji23]. I told you, never argue with someone without knowing the facts next time. He was all talk earlier and now he suddenly got real quiet after I showed supporting facts above.

 

 

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Honestly who cares who needs them?  I’ve been here for 5 years now and I’ve been to zero embassy outreach programs and I never had a desire to go to one.  Now that we no longer need those stupid embassy income affidavits anymore THANK GOD, I’ll never go to the embassy again for about another 9 years until I have to renew my passport again.  If they were to close the embassy it honestly wouldn’t bother me.  Although they did put out some really good information about a month ago regarding international Direct Deposit of Federal Benefit payments.  

 

I’m taking advantage of it for my VA pension since I’m rated 100% disabled. But my regular Military Retirement Pay and my wife’s Retirement Social Security Pension Benefit payments will just continue to go into our US Bank.  My VA pension is more than enough alone I’m 21 years retired from the military and actually medically retired.  

 

Anyway the only use I have for the embassy is just renewing my passport once every decade, other than that nothing really.  Good riddance to this and their income affidavits.  ????

I am feeling very sorry for a lot of my mates still in Thailand, it just gets worse and worse. 

Yeah, I live in Thailand and boy do I feel sorry for a lot of your “mates” as well because if they’re from the UK or Australia they’re getting a really horrible Exchange Rate. But as usual the USD is doing great [emoji106] I absolutely love it here [emoji2].


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like your verified fairy tale of the Kuwaiti Dinar strength.

  

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-strongest-currencies-of-asia.html

 

Okay well I didn’t want to embarrass you but you just kept on pushing it so here it is as of March 2019, kind of hard to argue with verified facts when it’s right in front of you now huh. And no this is NOT from the Bangkok Post this is an actual real reliable source from the World Atlas. This data is current. Try other sources of information besides what the local government tells you. [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

I am sorry that Thailand is in such political turmoil right now though, it’s a shame. But anyway I told you so.

 

I told you Thailand ranks 20th in Asian currency this year just click on the link and scroll down. Even Turkmenistan’s currency ranks higher than Thailand ouch lol [emoji23]. The baht is “rising fast” according to the Bangkok Post LMAO [emoji23].

 

This is less than two months ago:

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-strongest-currencies-of-asia.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Not to mention that the current Thai government is in crisis but their local news media still continues with the whole everything is fine act when at the same time they’re on the brink of another potential military COUP. The current government’s only real power they have left is being able to control the media and to manipulate the appearance of economic growth. But most Thai people I know are smart enough to see through all the BS.

 

 

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The baht has been weak for years but currently in Thailand they have very hotly contested election results right now and the current Prime Minister is desperately trying to hold on to power so there’s naturally been a lot of fake news stories generated from within Thailand to bolster pro government propaganda and trying to convince everyone how wonderful the economy is and even going so far as to attempt to manipulate their currency. The current USD Exchange Rate says it all just the fact that the dollar has been slowly creeping back up. If it wasn’t for the currency manipulation the USD to Thai baht would probably be at about 33 baht to the dollar right now at least but it’s still just below 32 but climbing. Strange how the Exchange Rate has been bouncing a little bit up and down since the election especially when the dollar has been picking up a lot of steam.


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show me any currency including non-asian ones which appreciated vs. USD, GBP and EUR like THB. rank 20th = my butt! 

It’s a verified fact it ranks 20th


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the Kuwaiti Dinar lost ~20% vs. Thai Baht during the last three years.

 

In case you haven’t noticed the local media outlets in Thailand are not the most reliable lately. And currently Thailand is on the United States Treasury Department’s bad boy list for currency manipulation. Regardless the Exchange Rate tells you all you need to know the baht is still weak against the USD and the Eros. I guess you can say that the baht has gained a little bit of strength over the last ten years lol, that’s hardly “rising fast” lol.


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It’s actually staying about the same and it declines a little bit once in a while honestly no the baht isn’t rising fast in fact it’s not really going anywhere. It’s risen a little bit over the last 10 years I guess you could say that lol.


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31.58 right now against USD.........EXPLAIN how that relates to rising fast

In fact it hasn’t really budged in the last few years at all except to decline a little bit once in a while. Bottom line the OP is wrong period. I just didn’t want to be so blunt about it.


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31.58 right now against USD.........EXPLAIN how that relates to rising fast

Well that’s actually the point it’s not actually rising fast. The baht ranks 20th in all of Asia lol.


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Were you not the one crying about paying 100 baht for a beer in a gogo bar not too long ago?[emoji848]

WHAT!!! Who paid 100 baht for a beer in a go go bar? I believe go go bars are mostly just in Bangkok. I pay less than 100 baht for my favorite kinds of imported beer here in Korat. 120 baht max depending on the restaurant if it’s Corona, Guinness, and a few other kinds. 80 baht for a Beer Lao if I remember right. Although there is one fancier place that I remember was charging 200 baht just for a Corona I don’t know if that’s still the same because we haven’t been back there for a while. Right now I’m down with the flu or influenza so I don’t even want to think about anything else except water.


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Actually the current Exchange Rate was 31.56 baht to the USD but apparently it just bounced back up to 32 again. The Exchange Rate is supposed to be doing a lot better this year and it’s looking like it will either do better or stay about the same. The baht to USD Exchange Rate still has very optimistic projections.

 

Although whenever I’m at the bank once a month I always look back at the Exchange Rate board and the Eros and the USD are always doing the best. Whenever I read that world currency exchange rate board at the bank I always just thank God that my money is not the Australian Dollar or the British Pound.

 

 

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“The Baht is the strongest Asian currency this year as reported by Bangkok Post today.“. Oh that’s definitely not true currently the strongest Asian currency is the Kuwaiti Dinar.  The Thai baht currently ranks number 20 out of the 48 countries in Asia.  So it’s actually not doing that well at all.  The USD Exchange Rate is still a little up and down but not that bad just not as good as it used to be.  I was surprised that the baht is doing better than the Japanese Yen which is unusual, so the baht is doing slightly better but best in Asia, no not even close far from it.  The fact that the baht currently ranks a little better than the Japanese Yen right now tells me just how temporary the baht’s minor success really is.  

 

And by the way the Chinese Yuan ranks number 14 above the Thai baht which currently ranks only 20 in Asian currencies.  

 

Basically the baht is having a little bit of success but it’s grossly over exaggerated the Thai baht ranks number 20 out of the 48 Asian countries.  

According to this they are bonkers. There was about 38 million tourist in total last year. Thus the number of hospital visits and unpaid visits are for all the tourist and not only longstayers. They thus want longstayers to have cover while the real problem is the normal tourist. Just another day in an uneducated world where people without any logic and commonsense have the power to make the lives of other hell.

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It might be easier for tourists to get away without paying the bill. Although I still don’t get it because you can’t check out of the hospital without settling the bill or even pick up your medication without settling the bill. It’s not like the states where you can deal with the bill later, in Thailand you can’t leave the hospital without settling the bill first. If you walked out of the hospital without taking care of the bill first they’ll have the cops looking for you.


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http://www.tricare-overseas.com/beneficiaries/resources/provider-search/search-results?region=PAC&country=Thailand&location=TOP Remote - Bangkok%2C Thailand&radius=any&units=1&searchBy=location

 

 

My TRICARE covers my wife and I for Bangkok Hospital in Korat as well but a lot of times I just pay the bill out of pocket unless it’s something really expensive then I’ll pull out my overseas TRICARE insurance card. I’m 100% disabled and medically retired after 21 years of service so my healthcare is pretty much totally free of charge even overseas. Where I live in Korat Bangkok Hospital by far provides the best medical care.

 

 

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“The requirement was introduced because foreign expats have piled up unpaid medical bills of more than Bt300 million since 2016.“ How is that possible?  I go to the hospital all the time and you can’t check out without first settling the bill one way or the other.

 

Both my wife and I were both in the hospital last night because it looks like we both have the flu or influenza.  It’s really bad so bad that we went through 6 days of Codepect (Codeine) in one night last night.  But we still have plenty of antibiotics and other medications left over.  They also put some Brown Mixture in there too which contains Opium personally I think Brown Mixture sucks and is useless you can get it over the counter.  Although that Codeine works like a charm but even that’s only temporary.  I guess just continue taking the antibiotics, drink a lot of water, and rest.  If we’re still feeling like crap tomorrow I might go back to the hospital and ask for more Codeine.  Honestly for me it takes more than just one 10 milligram codeine tablet to make a difference.  I have a tolerance to that stuff.  I don’t know it might be slowly getting better now because waking up this morning wasn’t as painful as yesterday morning.  

 

Anyway when you're in any Thai hospital you can’t even pick up your medication until after you’ve settled the bill so I truly don’t understand how this is possible.  

 

This is what I was talking about in another topic about foreigners paying their bills here.  As a foreigner here in Thailand if you’re a deadbeat foreigner who refuses to pay your bills this is what happens you can potentially screw it up for everyone else.  

 

Luckily though this doesn’t effect me because I’m retired here at 45 years old on a marriage visa extension for the last 5 years.  And since I’m retired military and a 100% disabled veteran I have free healthcare insurance so this will never effect me.  But those of you who refuse to pay your bills you’re just screwing it up for everyone else that’s why they are making rules like this and this is probably just the beginning.  Now I see why they started actually enforcing the income verification rules to get rid of as many of the deadbeat foreigners as they can.  

Probably hadn't settled up with a bargirl but True aren't going to call the BiB.

Well the reason why I found out why he was taken away in handcuffs was because I was at the mall later and I saw him being paraded through the mall escorted by the same two cops who I saw take him from his house in the first place in cuffs to settle up on a bill he had outstanding. I don’t think it was true it was one of the other companies in the same category. I’ve also read reports of people being denied entry because of outstanding debts and people finding out that they had arrest warrants because of outstanding debts.


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