shdmn

They are a bunch of bitter expats who want to blame all their problems on Thailand.  These people would be unhappy no matter where they go.  Of course that doesn't stop them from constantly threatening to go somewhere else, as if anyone will miss them if they do.

Most (all?) EVA/China air international economy seat configurations are now 10 across rows.  It used to be 9.  I think they may try squeeze in more rows as well.  Some other carriers are still 9 across for a similar price.  I won't fly EVA anymore because of this.  I really notice the narrower seat on a 12 hour flight and I am not a very big/wide guy.

Seatguru.com can help you figure out seat configurations for various airlines.

On 7/19/2022 at 9:39 AM, chacha boom said:

Without vision, there's not much to see.  Why involve yourself with things you dont understand?  

Transferring funds around the world with bitcoin is superior to any "regular" services, if you know your way around.  Regular bank transfer to thai banks takes a day or two i would assume, AND carries fees.  With bitcoins, you can run to ATM in minutes.

Wise transfers often happen within minutes.  Are you going to try tell us that Bitcoin invented money wiring and international ATM transactions now and nobody else is doing that?  ????‍♂️

How much are you paying for those bitcoin ATM withdrawals.  Fees are often 10% or more.  Never mind the fact your money is tied up in Bitcoin which has gone down around 50% in the last few months.

How many Bitcoin ATMs are even in Thailand? A quick google search says 6, in all of Thailand.  Only one in Pattaya, and what are the odds it's out of money or not working?  Of course that could have changed and there are none now for all I know. 

Why use a plethora of existing services that work well with banks and charge almost nothing when you can do it with bitcoin instead and almost certainly pay a lot more in fees and exchange etc.

About the only reason I can see for someone wanting to do this is if the money comes from questionable sources and/or was never reported for tax purposes.

On 7/16/2022 at 2:16 PM, kiwikeith said:

... he's unvaccinated same as me, it's his second infection as well, the Thai wife got it again as well, she's double vaccinated. My son got a bad cough with flem for over a week, then the wife and I tested positive, both of us slight cough no flegm and were not sick, maybe slight fatigue one day and running nose with sneeze, but over it very quickly not even as bad as the flue, that's 2 adults and a childs story, we presume it's B4/5 as B2 we had 10 weeks ago and B4/5 is what is circulating in NZ at present, but they only issue you with a pack of rapid antigen test kits and of you go home and test yourself, most of my sons school friends tell him that they have it as well and it's school holidays at the moment and their parents don't want to report it, as then your locked at home for 11 days, this seems to be the norm with many of my friends and nobody seems worried, except the very elderly with other problems are still at risk. 

Nuff said.  ????‍♂️

On 7/15/2022 at 1:01 AM, Enjoylife1 said:

Thanks for your reply but i do not understand what you mean by "You cannot obtain a non O-A in Thailand"

 

Its sounds like you are saying that the easiest way is just to arrive on a tourist visa?

Yes, the easiest way is to arrive on the 30 day waiver and then get the 90 day Non O in country imo. 

Getting a visa agent to do the Non O in country makes it even easier.  They can get around the 800k requirement without you having to use your own money.  I know guys successfully doing this.

17 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I dropped my Samsung J7 once in the condo and it died screen cracked all over and went black, after that i decided to avoid Samsung, Motorola and Xiaomi both much better value

So you dropped a phone and the screen cracked so you concluded it must be the manufacturer? Last time I checked, glass screens have a tendency to break when you drop a phone, doesn't matter who makes them?  I have dropped my Samsung galaxy S8 probably about a dozen times.  No cracks, still works.  Not once did I think that is because Samsung has sprinkled this particular model with magic fairy dust.

On 7/10/2022 at 8:51 PM, bkk6060 said:

Thailand I think is still the best place for diversity and overall  retirement experience. 

Bottom line, I think many of these countries don't care about having the "hanging out" expats.  Pattaya is an example of so many rinse and repeaters.

Stay in cheap rooms, wake up at noon, eat a cheap breakfast, go back and take a nap, go out to the bars and drink until closing.  Rinse and repeat. Must be 1000's of them here doing this, same old faces everyday.

If you keep seeing the same old faces every day then you are also one of those same old faces.

On 7/10/2022 at 5:01 PM, georgegeorgia said:

Many expats now explore Vietnam as a retirement destination 

No retirement visa is available for Vietnam.  Before you could stay up to 6 months (1 year for Americans) and do border runs every 3 months.  Right now you can only stay for 30 days without a work visa or being married to a Vietnamese.

On 7/10/2022 at 4:03 PM, BritManToo said:

I'd say PI, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are about the same for loose women.

Saigon was the worst place I ever went for women walking up and 'cold selling'.

I couldn't even sit in a park or coffee shop without some lady trying her luck.

Oh the horror.  I better not ever go there if women will be offering themselves up to me. Must have been a nightmare!

2 hours ago, Kinnock said:

I've travelled throughout Asia, including Vietnam and Philippines, as well as in US and Europe, and not had any issues connecting to local networks.

 

Years ago I had issues in Korea and US, and had to rent a local phone, but not had any problems in last 5 years of extensive travel.

That is not what I asked.  Just about any phone will connect to just about any network using GSM or 3G.  Doesn't mean you can connect via LTE and especially 5G to get the higher data speeds.

OP highlighted a lot of negatives but there are positives too.  Most people can speak passable english so that's a huge plus. Also more similar culture to the west compared to elsewhere in Asia. Booze is pretty cheap.  Accomodation can be cheap if you get a long term lease of a year or more.  So it's just short term accomodation that is not such a great deal compared to Thailand.  Lastly, the girls love westerners and don't seem to care too much how old you are. 

On 7/8/2022 at 4:51 PM, BritManToo said:

You're just on the wrong place. Get on the bus to Barretto, Olongapo, nice beaches and restaurants. 

Barretto is pretty much a dump too imo.  It wouldn't be so bad if they put in a bypass road.  All those big vehicles constantly going through belching diesel just totally ruins the peace and tranquility of the place for me.

I don't mind the city of Olongapo so much.  The freeport area around the marina is nice enough to walk around.  Also nice up in the hills where it's a bit cooler and away from any potential flooding.  It can rain quite a bit in rainy season though, so July/Aug is a good time to go somewhere else.

17 minutes ago, bendejo said:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

When that mutual enemy is vanquished is the time to be very, very weary of your "friend."

 

As for Ms Cheney I see her as the force behind the committee, she's going at it GOP style: you did it, we know you did it, and we're gonna nail your _ss.  Those addendums she puts at the end of the televised sessions is making an impact that gets their own commentary in the media, with her few sentences making as much news as the rest of the session.  That is what I mean by GOP style.  Democrat style is wringing of hands and saying "ooo, they're not supposed to do that!" and go back to sitting on their thumbs (don't ask for samples, just  look back over the past six years and see for yourself).  Like the GOP renegades in the Lincoln Project who took on DT in 2020 put it: we're doing it because the Dems won't.  When a Dem emerges with a such a show of spine they are culled by their own party, one way or another.  Bring back Al Franken!

I do wish Garland would resign and someone who is active becomes AG.  I suspect he, too, is afraid of the  GOP, just like Comey and Mueller; I am not any sort of insider, but I suspect this cowering is part of the DOJ culture.  I suspect that the committee sees it in a similar way, and they are holding back passing info on to the DOJ because it just might get compromised.  As for having an understanding of the inner workings of the US Gov't never forget who Liz's father is.   

No one is afraid of the Democrats.  Adam Schiff?  Even his dog is not afraid of him, when I hear him speak I anticipate he's going to go into a sales pitch about life insurance.

 

As for the coming GOP presidential primaries expect a first-class dog fight.

 

 

Republicans are the enemy, not Cheez Whiz Ceausescu.  He's just some sideshow clown.

53 minutes ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

Look pretty public to me ????

CGC: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/CGC

TLRY: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/TLRY
 

ACB: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/ACB
 

OGI: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/OGI

CRON: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/CRON

HEXO: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/HEXO


 

They are not crown corporations owned by the taxpayers which is what you implied by trying to call it a failure of Canada.

Their stock prices did not really crash imo.  They were being overvalued by rampant speculation to begin with, so they are back down to where they should be now.  That is just basic market dynamics.  Not that unusual for a new business opportunity. 

6 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

Yes.  You are missing the 2 x 30 day extensions of the 2 x 30 day land entries.

Ahh ok.  PiTA getting those 3 extensions though.  You could be sitting around the immigration office half the day.  Or pay a premium to get an agent to do them all.

3 hours ago, sanuk711 said:

That Xiaomi K50i is amazing--- they compare it to the new iphone & & it beats it in every dept --- about 9-- 11K but you can get a lot cheaper if you decide to swap internet providers.

It's not out yet.  Also, according to the preliminary specs I found it's got an IPS screen, not AMOLED like the 11.  IPS screens make it harder to see anything in daylight.  Of course any specs available right now are  irrelevant so not even worth talking about it.

60+30 extension +30 on arrival border crossing visa waiver x2 is 5 months, not 7.  Or am I missing something?

5 hours ago, ozimoron said:

On Wednesday, writing for MSNBC's ReidOut Blog, Ja'han Jones outlined how the House Select Committee on January 6's hearings are empowering litigants going after right-wing extremists with a 19th century law designed to neutralize racial terrorists.

 

"The MAGA movement is no different from other bigoted, fascist movements we’ve seen in our nation's past. It should be dismantled and destroyed, and the KKK Act might be the best way to do that."

 

https://www.rawstory.com/kkk-act/

SCOTUS will just strike that law down if that happens.  They are nothing but another political arm of the GQP now.

5 minutes ago, ThaiVisaCentre said:

You can look at some of their publicly traded Canadian cannabis stocks which have massively crashed in the past 3 years (almost all are down 70%+).

• CGC
• WEED.WT
• TLRY
• ACB
• OGI
• CRON
• HEXO
• RIV

Hopefully Thailand is smarter, and does not overly invest ????.

 

Canada's prices are very low because of multiple reasons, and they are having oversupply issues, 

With countries to continue to legalize cannabis I expect Canada to continue to struggle, and they may lose their positioning as the largest exporter.

Those are all private companies.  It has nothing to do with Canada per se but thanks for the laugh. 

8 minutes ago, Kinnock said:

Samsung A73 - Dual Sim version.

 

Will it also work in Philippines/Vietnam?  I would like a dual SIM with 5G that works in all 3 countries.  It's harder to get 5G support in all 3 than for 4G/LTE.

Finding phones that support all the bands I want is the hardest part.  Specs for all the different country variants are not always accurate or easy to find in one place.  

I wish there was a website where I could type in the countries I want it to work in and it will come up with all the options and what bands it supports.  Yes, I know there are a few websites that kinda sorta do that but they are not always up to date and accurate so I don't always find them that useful.

Prices will come down eventually.  It took Canada a few years but now legal prices are forcing the black market to lower their prices to try compete.