Etaoin Shrdlu

It does not take very long to develop good shaving technique and the cost savings and shave quality will make the effort worthwhile. Get a good shaving brush and some shaving soap and it will make your morning shave even better. There are a couple of online stores based here in Thailand where you can order soap and brushes, or you can buy some when you're out of the country and bring it back. There are also YouTube videos that explain and demonstrate good shaving technique. I use a Feather AS-D2 razor as my daily driver, but have others including vintage Gillettes. Good luck and enjoy shaving at its best.

If your flight gets cancelled after you've checked in and gone through immigration, then the airline will likely step in and either try to put you on an alternate flight or put you up somewhere until they can do so. This happened to me back in the 1980s and I was put in a hotel overnight near Don Mueang Airport. I think THAI kept my passport until boarding the next day as I had already gone through immigration. Not sure if this is still the procedure today.

Security is before immigration.

The could be fungus gnats.

Motor insurers in Thailand do give the option to insure on the basis of named driver only, for which they typically give a discount on the premium. This may or may not be the case in other countries, but for the OP's purposes that is irrelevant. Thailand is a bit of an outlier in motor insurance anyway because true third party liability insurance is not mandatory. The Por Ror Bor scheme is a no-fault medical expense, death and disability scheme, somewhat similar to personal accident cover, with very low limits and no cover for claims by third parties for damage to vehicles or medical expenses above the small limit provided. Make sure you're also satisfied with the TPL limits as they are often fairly low. Read your policy to see what is says about authorized drivers. If still in doubt, contact your broker or the insurance company and get their response in writing.

Modern multi-blade cartridge razors are real money-spinners for Gillette, but don't give any better shaves than the Fatboys, Slims and Superspeeds Gillette made in the 1950s and 1960s. A pack of Feather double-edge blades, which many believe to be the sharpest, are readily available here in Thailand for less than five baht each when bought in a box of 100. Other brands of blades, such as Dorco, can be had for less than half that. Very easy to get at least three shaves per blade and often five. I understand that Mach 3 blades cost more than 100 baht each. Do the math according to your having schedule and see how much money you can save by going back to DE razors. The savings quickly cover the cost to buy a high quality, modern DE razor. Today's Gillette cartridges are a triumph of marketing and are great for Gillette shareholders. Less so in most cases for consumers.

I looked into this a year ago and came to the conclusion that the only way to have a document notarized that would be accepted in the US without question and without leaving Thailand was to have the PoA notarized by the ACS, which is what I did. As far as I know, It is not possible to enter the US Embassy/ACS compound in Bangkok without an appointment.

Ubik

You probably won't be able to get a US-based insurer to sign the Thai Immigration Department's form. The form requires the insurer to state that their insurance complies with certain requirements, the details of which are not spelled out on the form. Few insurers would be willing confirm something that isn't clearly specified. This is a somewhat clever way of forcing most applicants to subscribe to a Thai insurance policy without explicitly prohibiting the use of home country insurance.

Upon further reflection, I don't think this scenario is likely to occur. Instead each policy would probably contribute up to its limit of liability and not result in a shortfall. But that does not mean there aren't potential issues with having multiple policies covering the same risk.

A red flag for money laundering is when someone overpays or over-transfers money and then requests a large refund or transfer back out. Probably best to transfer in just enough money to purchase the specific condo you have in mind.

Quite possible, in which case it would be best to find a competent broker to seek to arrange suitable cover. I really wouldn't recommend trying to do things like this on one's own or through an insurer's agent.

Sometimes sales staff (and especially agents) are not very aware of how the claims department will actually pay claims. Ask the agent to provide you written confirmation that you can stack the limits of multiple policies to achieve what you want. Ask the agent to get that written confirmation from the underwriter.

To go a bit deeper into the issue with contributory insurance, there can be problems when more than one policy is arranged to try to "stack" limits if the policies are not written in a manner that allows this. Let's say I arranged five PA policies with identical wording each covering medical expenses for a limit of 100,000 and I had an accident and I incurred 300,000 in covered medical expenses. Each insurer could take the position that their policy will contribute proportionally towards the claim. Each insurer would agree to pay 20% of the limit of liability under their policy since each insurer is one of five covering the same risk. Since each insurer has a limit of liability of 100,000, each would pay 20,000 towards the claim. In this scenario, the limits were not stackable and each insurer participated on a proportionate contributory basis based upon their limit of liability, not the amount of expense incurred. One would then only collect 100,000 towards their 300,000 claim in spite of having arranged five policies each with 100,000 in limits. I'm not saying that this is how Thai insurers always approach such a scenario, but I would suggest that a prospective policyholder consult with his or her insurance broker to make sure that their policies won't do this. Some policies may specifically prohibit stacking limits.

If two or more policies are covering the same loss, there are a couple of things that would need to be looked into. First is whether one policy states that it is primary coverage, if it is silent, or states that it only pays if all other insurance has been exhausted. If it is primary, it should pay first. If two policies state that they are primary or are both silent, then one needs to look to see if one is a more specific type of policy. A motor policy with PA benefits would probably be considered to be more specific for a motor-related claim than a standard PA policy covering all types of accidents. There are other scenarios such as when two or more policies pay on a contributory basis. It is usually best to avoid situations where policies pay on a contributory basis, because it may cause gaps and shortfalls if the policies are not almost identical, although there may be times when contributory policies are desirable. The above does not apply to accidental death or dismemberment benefits under PA policies where multiple policies may pay these types of benefits without violating the principle of indemnity.

Yes, after a certain age we become economically uninsurable. That's why many countries turn over the oldsters to the government for medical insurance coverage. Even the US, that bastion of capitalism, does this.

PayPal may have had other ways to perform KYC, but perhaps none were within its capabilities or made financial sense for the relatively small amount of revenue it would generate. It could also be the case that the Thai government mandated the current procedure. PayPal may have been an outlier as it is on-shoring almost all of its Thai accounts and possibly has issues that other, more established financial service providers won't have. But I suspect PayPal won't be the only company that causes us stress as the NDID scheme is rolled out.

Here. 13th is Rama IX memorial day. The 14th is an extra day given by the Thai government.

I think this is a major part of the issue. I don't think Paypal has the infrastructure to do the kind of KYC and perhaps some record keeping that the Thai government is asking for.

The usual definition of a bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits and makes loans. I'm not sure Paypal fits this definition. I think it is a money transfer service since I don't think it makes loans. I'm not sure if it accepts deposits in the legal meaning of the term.

One area where personal accident coverage may provide benefits that medical insurance does not is in the area of lump sum payments for specific permanent injuries or disabilities arising from an accident such as loss of a limb, loss of eyesight and similar and also a death benefit. Most medical policies will only pay covered expenses for medical treatment and some other related things. A typical medical policy won't pay a lump sum benefit for loss of limbs, eyesight, death, etc. Adding personal accident cover to a medical policy adds these benefits if they are the result of an accident.

It would be very unusual for a medical insurance policy to exclude coverage for otherwise legitimate medical expenses because they were the result of an accident. Some may exclude expenses arising from accidents involving hazardous activities, however. Medical policies cover accidents and diseases. Accident policies cover accidents, but don't cover disease. Having said that, there may be rare exceptions, but they would not be mainstream insurance products.

Here's a bit more info on the NDID scheme: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202203/thailands-ndid-partners-with-mastercard-to-connect-digital-ids-internationally and this: https://govinsider.asia/transformation/thailands-vision-for-a-self-sovereign-digital-id/

Still haven't received a 7161 for my daughter's SS payments so far. My 7162 arrived early July.

My guess is that the Thai government is forcing this, perhaps indirectly. I can't imagine Paypal coming up with something like this on their own. It is probably being done to force the informal economy to use banks for payment processing since the government already can closely monitor banking transactions. Perhaps current laws aren't sufficient to allow regulators or other government departments to monitor transactions that don't involve a Thai bank. Putting a bank in the loop may give such oversight. Could also be outsourcing KYC to entities with more resources and credibility with the government.