LivingNThailand

The duty for products coming from the US is a lot more than products from UK, Australia and New Zealand. I don't know the exact percentage amount, but if you compare similar Western items in a store like Villa Market, you can see the dramatic price difference. For example, a similar bottle of white wine might be 400 THB for an Australian wine and 700 THB for a US wine. Cheese, canned items, frozen items, is the same large difference. I used to import from Thailand, and the duty incoming from Thailand was 5% to17% on average, depending on product type. I don't know why Thailand doesn't lower the duty on US products so they can import more into Thailand to correct some of the imbalance. Seems simple to me.

Still flooding in October. Our worst month here. Nov, Jan & Feb only in Phuket. Dead after Chinese New Years.

Then move

Looks like touching the coral. ugh

Yes, I usually tell people to come to Phuket in May and June as the weather is nice, some rain off and on, and fewer tourists. It's been raining for two weeks, and it flooded by my house 2 days ago. Definitely different this year.

June 3 is the Queen's Birthday. So even if they pay you on the 3rd the banks are closed and the wire won't go through until June 4. FYI.

I hope someone can help. Today I tried calling on the new Skype / Teams app on my iphone. But I get this message (attached). I can hear who I'm calling, but they can't hear me. I've tried looking for this Smart search field in Settings but can't find it. I have the microphone turned on but can't find the Speaker toggle. Can anyone help? thanks. I have about $20 credit I'd like to use up, if I can figure this out. 🤯

Not to be mean.... but Good. The Chinese put us out of business with their government export subsidies into the United States. The Chinese government would pay the factories money to make up the difference in the actual cost of goods so they could undercut the USA. We couldn't compete with them.

Has anyone in the Thai government read anything about the current state of the Chinese Economy and the huge push for domestic travel.? Does anyone in the Thai government plan more than 2 days out for anything? I love living here, but I'm totally amazed by the lack of long range planning. Sure, you have to adjust for international incidents, but they Chinese push is gone....for now. Wake up guys. Why not do a 3, 5, 7 and 10 year plan for tourism? Clean up the infrastructure and build more schools and hospitals instead of throwing away a bunch of money on something that isn't going to happen. Rant over.

Not too bright. A 500 or 1,000 THB fee and off you go. Has happened to a few friends. Just a trip to the police station. Better than going to jail. In my humble opinion. 😇 BTW, I went to the bank one street over a month ago to get my immigration docs and the parking fee was 40 baht, 20 for Thais. 😅 Gladly paid to the local "meter maid".

Plane. you fly in a plane. A plain is a large area of flat land with few trees. 😂 Love that auto correct spell check.

Just like Central Floresta in Phuket. That side of the shopping center is filled with high end shops that are empty. The fun side of the shopping center, Central Festival with the mid level shops, is packed.

That's too bad. I have been to Da Nang and Hoi An many times. The first time was in about 2010. Very nice , low key and special. The last time probably 2019 before Covid.

But who is driving all those cars, trucks and motorbikes. Traffic is insanely bad. Is it just Thai people driving around looking for something to do? Nuts. I agree, low low season this year, I just wish the traffic would be comparable.

I think it's been quiet for quite awhile in Phuket, excluding Christmas/New Year and Chinese New Year. One of my Thai neighbors is a partner in a restaurant, and he was wondering where all the foreign tourists had gone, especially the Chinese. He's down 30-40%. I wanted to be a smart alec and tell him he should read the international news and not Thai news, but I kept quiet.