asiacurious

We should care. At least I know I do. And you're right - both can catch and spread. Thing is, the vaccinated person who catches it (whether or not they have symptoms) will have a lot LESS of the virus in their bodies (and therefore will spread a lot less) than someone who is unvaccinated. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/vaccinated-workers-shed-less-covid-virus Note that things changed a bit with the Delta variant, which isn't a surprise because the vaccines all had lower efficacy, though that was likely due to a mix of changes in the variant and passage of time from when the original vaccinations were administered. Yawn. I'm boring myself. All of this is old news. In a perfect world, everyone in the world gets vaccinated. That's really the way to slow down and eventually stop new mutations/variants from evolving and spreading.

Ah, so you didn't get a dead version of anything. The Moderna vaccine doesn't actually contain any dead virus.

If you want to take an experimental vaccine every six months, go ahead but without me. It's not experimental at this point, and of course I'm going without you. Why would I bring a total stranger with me?!

So you got Sinovac or similar, but not Moderna or Pfizer?

True. They can work really well for ailments that really only exist in the mind. Against real viruses that kill? Mmmm.... not so much. (Not at all actually.)

Yeah, you're right. It's a bit nonsensical. They should simply require everyone to be vaccinated. Problem solved.

They could always require people to purchase only policies issued by companies in Thailand. Or the government could charge a Covid Health Insurance Fee to every non-citizen arriving in the country. Forget about the 300 baht Amazing Thailand fee they've been trying to charge - now there's a 3,000 baht Healthy Thailand fee. Just like insurance from a private company, those fees could be used to pay for the medical care of any foreigners who need hospital care due to Covid. If they're going to continue with requiring any kind of insurance, this would be the easiest way to do it, though once the government starts taking in money that way, they're likely never going to want to give it up.

And Tesla loses over 12% of it's value.... https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-loses-126-bln-value-amid-musk-twitter-deal-funding-concern-2022-04-26/

Three shots? From what I've been reading from various virologists and immunologists, it should be more like like 3 shots within the previous 9-12 months. The efficacy of vaccines against current the current covid variants appears to wane over time, and there is a very good likelihood that today's vaccines will be substantially less effective against future variants. Just like regular passports which have a period of validity and expiration date, there should probably be expiration dates on how long any given shot should be considered valid.

Morchana vs Mor Prom vs Thaichana.... FIGHT!

What are the limits on things other than alcohol (1 liter) and tobacco (200 cigarettes or 250g total all kinds)? The only thing I see is this: So is that 20K baht worth based on prices in Thailand? Or 20K baht worth based on price actually paid when purchased? A piece of cheese that cost $20 US could be worth 3X that here. Of course, a big chunk of that increase is because of the tariffs paid by the importer. Do those tariffs go into calculating the local worth of goods? I guess my question is, does anyone have any experience with how they actually calculate the worth of goods imported? And will keeping receipts for purchases help with proving their worth?

That's what I thought at first. METV FTW! (I'm a big proponent of that option, though the need to leave and re-enter every 60 days can get tiring after a while. Best for people looking to stay for a year or so, or those who are a little short of a retirement visa.) The OP later responded to replies with... Hmmm.... A few years? TH is like home? Sounds like he already feels a certain way about staying longer term, and if he stays 3 years I'd wager there's a good chance he'll want 3 more after that. Then another 3. He's only 41 and hasn't asked about work visas, so I'd guess he has the money to support himself without employment. If not, a job w/ work visa is a better option. The 20 year elite for 1,000K baht might seem a bit extreme but in my mind - and yeah, maybe only in my mind?! - it's seems a better choice than the 5 year elite for 600K baht suggestion that I was responding to. But if really only for 1-3 years? METV! I posted this in another thread a couple days ago, but I thought it might be helpful for the OP here. I've set the start date to January 1, 2023 which makes it really easy to see exactly how the METV works....

Wouldn't the 20 year Elite Superiority be a much better deal? 5 year @ 600K = 120K baht per year 20 year @ 1M baht = 50K baht per year. I know the OP only needs 9 years until he can get a retirement visa, but those 11 extra years on the Elite would save him from needing to deal with any of the retirement visa stuff. If he's the kind of person who would do agents, that's 11 years of savings from paying them. And if he's a do-it-yourself kind of guy, he wouldn't need to bother with depositing money here until he's in his 60s.

When I was doing my conversion from METV to Retirement, I have to admit the research was quite confusing. Lots of little questions I had that weren't really answered anywhere. And a bunch of other questions that had different answers from different people. Yep. That's the tricky bit. But it is definitely possible to do it yourself. Bangkok Bank seems to be the easiest. Some locations in Bangkok will do a bank account if you're here on a tourist visa AND you're already over 50 AND you bring in all of your retirement visa application paperwork and tell them you're applying but you need the bank account. They might hem and haw a little ("we really aren't supposed to") but if they don't say outright that they can't do it then they will. Adding that you want to transfer the money into a fixed term account with their branch will help (probably because they have sales targets they have to meet).

Google is your friend. Youtube is also your friend.

That should be the tagline for the whole site.

I'll note again - I had a METV and was NOT visa exempt. Maybe it was just that particular officer giving me a hard time, but the warning was given. Checking my old passport, the METV was issued at the end of February and I entered Thailand the first time in early March. In early May I took a trip to Cambodia (I love Siem Reap) and it was on my way back to Thailand via the border crossing at Poipet that I was told not to cross by land anymore. Only flights. To clarify, it was my first re-entry into Thailand that year and the first re-entry on that METV. And I was specifically told that I could not cross in by land again. They actually pulled me into an office where I sat waiting for about 20 minutes before the IO came in to talk to me. I had to hop on a motorcycle taxi - which I hate - with my big back pack no less (awful) to catch the blue bus back to Bangkok before it left. Maybe it was just an IO having a bad day, but I never went through that border again on any kind of tourist visa.

I think SETV can lead to entry problems. If I recall correctly, back in 2018-2019 they started limiting visa exempt and SETV entries to 2 entries in any calendar year. I used several Multi Entry visas back to back (with 1-2 month breaks in-between each) before I qualified for a retirement visa and the one time I had a problem was when I was entering by land from Cambodia. I was warned not to come back by land again. "Flight ok, no problem. Come through here again and we deny entry." Needless to day... I never did go back via land. That's when I discovered/realized that flights were actually quicker and cheaper and I could visit a wider variety of places during my exit and re-entries.

If you can get it, the METV is definitely a good way to go. As DrJack mentioned, you can effectively get 9 months out of a 6 month METV. A lot of people can have a hard time wrapping their head around how this all works at first and what the timing looks like, so here's a complete breakdown of the timing. PM me if you want me to plug in hypothetical dates for you in those first 2 boxes.

So it comes down to money for you? If you got it, spend it? Pft. Lots of people who can afford to use agents choose to do it themselves because they prefer to be self-reliant. A lot of people eschew the "throw money at it" attitude towards the little inconveniences of life. Of course, there must be enough people who don't share in this view as there is no shortage of agents who are happy to relieve them of their "burdens" and baht. That said, if you're working 40+ hours a week then taking the time off to deal with immigration may not be a luxury you can really afford and using an agent might simply be the right thing to do (for you and the company).

RIght - no fees. But then their exchange rate isn't as good. Just now I did a "what if I transfer 1,000 USD" and . . . - Wise will give me 33,522.84 THB - Ria will give me 33,056.60 THB But do you? There are clearly stated fees up front, and then there are hidden fees that are never stated. I think Wise is so popular because they don't play any hide-the-fee games.

I second this. Great pharmacy. Probably the best in Bangkok.

You'll get even better results if you search google and use: sunscreen site:aseannow.com because it limits results to ONLY those that appear on this site....

It's based on location. You can see this without even logging in. Look in the upper right corner on the page. Click the change and try a new postal code. As others have said, when you log in they know the exact shipping address. Before you log in they're just guessing based on the data they're getting from your browser/internet provider...... If I use the Chatuchak postal code the shipping is 64 baht.... If I change it to a postal code in Pattaya shipping goes up to 120 baht.....

You're the one in control. He can't go to your bank to take extra rent. He can't stand behind you at an ATM and force you to hand over extra cash. All he can do is demand you pay him more and then wait until the end of the lease. Until then? And he can go cry in his soup. That is... as long as you keep paying the rent as the lease requires. But if you breach the contract (do something in violation of the lease, like you don't pay the rent on time), then he CAN take action against you, including possibly evicting you. So just keep paying the rent and doing whatever the lease requires and respond to his demand politely but firmly. You can say you're happy to negotiate a new rent when the lease ends, but for now you'll keep paying what your current lease calls for, thank-you-very-much.