Etaoin Shrdlu

It isn't even the Raja Hotel anymore.  

Annie's is gone, too.

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

 

What I personally have got against the pink ID card in particular is that it doesn't include the single most crucial piece of personal information in our cases, namely the date when our current permission to stay in Thailand expires. Were it to do so I would be round to my amphur in a flash to check out the feasibility of applying for one (with fingers firmly crossed)!

For most foreigners with a pink card this is true.

For those with permanent residence, the pink card's first digit will be an "8", which is also the first digit on Thai ID cards of naturalized Thai citizens. In theory, this should inform that the holder of the pink card does not have an end date to his or her permission to stay in Thailand. 

So far, my pink card has not been used to establish my status as a permanent resident, but perhaps in the future it may. Thailand is changing.

8 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

So that guy was talking baloney, basically, when he spoke of arriving at the name in Taipei, about 50 years ago...

Should have known.

 

KLIM dates back to 1920 and was first made by the Merrill-Soule company in Syracuse, NY. Borden bought the company in 1927. 

29 minutes ago, GammaGlobulin said:

 

This time, you are 100% correct, instead of your usual 98.6 percent correct.

I learned that the imported milk, dehydrated, was far better than the local milk in Taiwan.

And cheaper.

I once knew the guys that started marketing KLIM, years ago.

They thought that Milk spelled Backwards was the simplest and most meaningful name available.

That guy had been in Asia for a very long time.

As I recall, he also worked at a very successful shoe design and marketing company with a branch in Taipei.

So, I am just saying that you are right.

 

Regards...

KLIM was produced by Borden back in the day. You know, Elsie the Cow. And Elmer, with his glue, made from casein, another dairy product. But nothing to do with Lizzie Borden, fortunately.

Once upon a time, in an earlier millennium, Borden was my client and I visited a number of their facilities around the world, including a KLIM plant in Denmark. Tall towers with hot, dry air evaporating the milk produced by contented Danish cows. Or maybe it takes wocs to produce KLIM.

But Borden eventually went belly-up and I don't know which company, if any, took over KLIM. Borden was a huge conglomerate with a large chemical division, but also owned Crackerjacks and many other consumer products. Strange that such an iconic company is gone.

Waiting for powdered bourbon.

On 1/19/2024 at 5:51 AM, Presnock said:

well,  When our daughter was to graduate from HS, accepted by US college, my wife applied for a tourist visa so that we could take our daughter back to the college and get her settled in since she had never been to the US.  We owned a house, fairly new car and I had retired here 20 years before and had spent almost all that time here in Thailand.  The Consulate decided that this was not reason enough to return to Thailand because my wife didn't work and we then decided on an immigrant visa.  This was during the Afghanistan evacuation so immigration in the US was backed up to approximately 500K immigrants and at that time, immigration was able to process less than 40K a month - it took 14 months for our request,

approved but by that time, our daughter was already enrolled in Thailand - the number one university and exactly the training that she desired so

liberal arts is liberal arts.  We made the decisions to just stay here in Thailand.  Much cheaper, better weather and much closer to our daughter.

But, maybe you will have much better luck and I wish you so.  GOOD LUCK!

Daughter going off to college in the US was also the reason my wife applied for a visa to visit the US. She had visited before, albeit on a single-entry visa, some twenty years before so it wasn't her first visit. During her interview she was asked almost exclusively about my status here, where I worked, etc. They asked her for my passport, which she did not have with her. Fortunately, she was approved.

Another thing to consider is Thailand's tax rules regarding permanent establishment.

If your employer has revenue coming from Thailand, it may become taxable in Thailand if the company has an employee or representative based in Thailand.

The Thai Red Cross accepts blood donations from foreigners and actually encourages donation, especially from those who have O negative blood. 

Expats and tourists with O negative blood and who need a transfusion face potential issues here since O negative is almost completely absent among the Thai population.

Just think of it as an offering that is intended to convey positive sentiments. It kind of exists in the same universe as advertising copy that extolls a product as being "better" without stating what it is better than.

Although it can be puzzling to try to determine exactly what a "good one" is, and may vary from person to person, I wouldn't waste too much time on it. I would be more concerned if someone parted with an "up yours!". 

6 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

Ah ok i get it now  you were applying for an IDP using a Thai Licence,  It's concerning that such things are even possible,     Are they accepted everywhere ?  I shudder to think That a Thai could  turn up in a country like the UK for example and just start driving, or even worse jump on a motorbike with no further training.  

Many countries actually accept a Thai DL without an IDP since Thai DLs use English. I think most people don't bother to get an IDP unless they are going somewhere that requires one.  

Some car rental companies in the US insist on an IDP because there are several states that won't accept a foreign DL without an IDP even though the US is signatory to the 1949 Geneva Road Traffic Convention. Not being legal in one of those states could possibly void the rental car's insurance, so it is potentially a big issue. 

1 hour ago, Bday Prang said:

Thats tough,  In the UK you would just go to the post office with your DL and £5.50       By the way  what's a red police book? have you been a naughty boy in the past?

Permanent residents are required to register with their local police station. When they do, they are issued a police book.  These police books have red covers.

3 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Dept. Of transport didn't accept mine as proof af address. 

It seems that nothing is consistent.

Last year I went to the DLT to obtain an international driving permit. In prior years they wanted a copy of my red police book along with the blue tabien baan and of course my DL. This time they turned away my police book and specifically asked for my pink card. 

3 hours ago, tee1eel said:

Thanks for all replies. Apparently he got a really good insurance policy. But I just had word from the guy who owns the bike that was rented and trashed, that the poor lad has passed away! Omg, so,so sad .  Now the police are saying that the case is closed, in Thailand if the person dies, that's it. You have to pay for the repairs yourself. 

This isn't correct.

Insurance follows the vehicle, not the driver. If the vehicle was insured for voluntary third party liability cover, that insurance should respond unless other exclusions apply. This would be true even if the driver passed away as a result of the accident. 

But that said, it may not be worth pursuing the issue. It's only a couple of fence posts and some chainlink fence. 

When you wrote "bike", did you mean bicycle or did you mean motorbike?
Based upon the description of the damages, I assume you mean motorbike.
 

The primary source of third party liability cover for damage to your property would be the insurance covering the motorbike, not the tourist's travel insurance. If the motorbike is only covered by the government-mandated Por Ror Bor scheme, there is no third party liability cover for damage to your property.
 

But It is quite possible that the motorbike is covered for third party liability under a voluntary policy, so the tourist or owner of the motorbike needs to provide you with details of any insurance that may cover the motorbike and the owner should notify the insurance company of the incident.

Travel insurance policies often don't provide third party liability cover for damages arising out of the use of motor vehicles by the policyholder. Still, you should also ask the tourist for details of his travel insurance, but it may not provide thitd party liability cover.

He would fade if the Evangelicals figure out that the blizzard and frigid cold weather being sent to Iowa by God during the Republican caucuses is a sign of His displeasure at their choice of political party.

Kiatnakin Bank may be smaller than the large Thai banks, but it does carry a decent credit rating by TRIS: https://ir.kkpfg.com/storage/updates/credit-ratings/20230418-kkp-tris-59-2023-en.pdf. But bear in mind that TRIS ratings reflect a company's comparative strength relative to other Thai companies and is not an absolute rating of financial strength. It specializes in auto loans, which is possibly reflective of its history as a non-bank finance company going back several decades.

Here's the company's account of its history: https://bank.kkpfg.com/en/aboutus/our-history. You can see that the bank isn't afraid to disclose that Kiatnakin Finance, one of the companies that combined to become today's Kiatnakin Phatra Bank, was one of the 57 finance companies that "discontinued" business operations in 1997 due to the financial crisis that started in Thailand that year. 

I don't think that Kiatnakin Phatra presents an inordinate amount of risk, but don't know how consumer-friendly it may be or if it offers high interest rates for relatively small FCD accounts.

Foreign currency deposit accounts are not protected by the Thai government's deposit protection scheme.

7 hours ago, zlodnick said:

My wife is a dual citizen, (US THAI), and a USSS recipient.

 

I read somewhere that USSS is tax exempt, EXCEPT, if the recipient is a Thai citizen.

 

Is there somewhere I can see if this is true?

My read of article 20 of the US-Thai DTA that specifically deals with social security, leads me to believe that anyone who is a US citizen cannot be taxed by Thailand for social security payments even if they also have Thai citizenship.There is no carve-back for Thailand to tax US citizens who also hold Thai citizenship in article 20.

Article 21 of the DTA deals with pension payments made by other governmental jurisdictions (federal, state, county city, etc) in consideration of past employment by those government entities. These pension payments are not social security payments, so I think that the carve-back in article 21 enabling Thai taxation on these payments to those who hold Thai citizenship is solely for these non-social security payments.

But that's just my opinion and I'm not a tax expert. Take a look at the DTA yourself and in particular articles 20 and 21.

38 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Well, KTB is a state-owned entity also so it could have come from either.

Yes, It could be either. Or perhaps there really isn't a restriction.

But other functions within the Paotang app are probably restricted to Thai nationals. I'm thinking of the purchase of securities or mutual funds, taking out personal loans and the like, so perhaps this would also apply to lottery tickets. But I don't know.

Let's see if a foreigner who has purchased lottery tickets with the Paotang app will advise.

40 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

If they've got a Thai ID and are registered in the app they can!  Foreigners are not barred from purchasing tickets just because they're foreigners.

Ok.

From what I can gather, the online tickets are only available via Krungthai Bank's Paotang app. If there are restrictions on foreigners purchasing online lottery tickets, and I am not saying that there are, it would seem that such restriction likely would come from KTB and not the GLO. I do not know whether KTB imposes such restrictions, but apparently the person whose post I quoted originally must have been told this was the case. 

So perhaps the issue isn't whether foreigners are not allowed to purchase lottery tickets by the GLO, but whether KTB imposes limitations as their policy. Or perhaps the poster I responded to was given incorrect information. 

Perhaps a foreigner who has registered with KTB's Paotang app and purchased online lottery tickets with it could advise.

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

The post to which you responded also claimed that " prize winnings are not permitted to be paid to foreigners" so not unreasonable of me to presume that your response applied to that.

The full sentence that sparked my post is "Digital ticket sales to foreigners are unavailable and of course prize winnings are not permitted to be paid to foreigners, from KTB."

I know that there is no bar to foreigners purchasing physical lottery tickets from vendors or from redeeming winning tickets. I don't know whether foreigners are indeed barred from purchasing online tickets. Do you know?

29 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Sales are not banned to foreigners.

Tax ID numbers are not a requirement to buy tickets or to claim winnings.

Bank accounts are not needed for winnings except for the largest prizes.

The post that I was responding to stated that foreigners were not allowed to purchase online lottery tickets and I was speculating as to the possible reasons. 

Are foreigners allowed to purchase online tickets? Or is the post to which I was responding incorrect?