Klonko

If OP will have invested the hundred of hours serious training required to become proficient, he hopefully also will have learned to avoid conflicts. But probably he will have damaged joints, ligaments and muscles before such time, unless the training is more geared to general health and fitness. While you recover from injuries within days at a younger age, it may take weeks at retirement age. I invested more than 1000 hours to achieve a halfway decent level, but I stopped with martial arts when I realized that I would need to invest double as much time just to keep up my standard.

My top two priorities are access to top health care within an hour drive and air quality. Unfortunately, this excludes the islands and the north. Settled for Sattahip area because of my wife's social network.

I married my Thai sweetheart because

• I love her, and so does presumably she
• Evidence money is not her main driver
• She will be entitled to my pension
• Schengen visa a formality
• Main domicile in Thailand
• Divorce would not be costly
• I had  a good marriage with my late wife

I was lucky to meet my wife. I rather live alone than compromiseing.

Opposite to us newly built house empty for more than one year. Price inreased by THB 200k and sold. Good location and wealthy developer. Thai must be under real financial pressure to lower prices, else they just wait.

Better reliability of Mercedes was > 20 years ago. Japanese cars are more reliable. Globally.

But a Mercedes may be more likely to pass police checkpoints unstopped.

Are our home countries more welcoming to Thais than Thailand to us? How much easier is it in our home country to get a visa for a non-married partner for living together? Would many people not be happy if their home country avoids selling out land to foreigners? Sometimes I wonder if some people's expectations to Thailand are coming from a colonial mindset?

(1) AFAIK once TM30 has been submitted for my permanent residence, it remains valid and does not need to be resubmitted after traveling in Thailand or abroad upon returning to my home. The TM30 form contains passport number and visa type, but not the visa number. Do I correctly interpret that a new TM30 form must be submitted if I get a new passport, but not when I get a new visa of the same type in the same passport?

(2) Owner or possessor can submit the TM30 form. I have a 30 year lease registered in the Chanote. Does this make me a possessor or just a tenant?

Couldn't find Moderna booster (after 2 Moderna shots in summer 2021) near Pattaya for me (non-Thai). Today,we made a successful 4 ½ hour roundtrip to Kasemrad International in Bangkok. THB 1650 per shot.

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I was looking at an MG ZS EV. The only issue would be that we tend to do a lot of longer trips

Unfortunately, MG's long range version has a ground clearance of only 11.5 cm which makes it less suitable for rougher Thai roads and driveways. Same problem with Tesla's Model 3.

You meet the people you deserve. Having mostly bad experiences reflects on one's own personality and behavior. Good people are everywhere, in high society, Isaan and Walking Street. Presumably with a higher probability in Isaan.

AFAIK the QR-code is checked  resulting in a green or red light. Going forward, this will require documentation of all 3+ shots in one app. I usually only go to restaurants while traveling. At home we cook ourselves because my wife prefers  my cooking to restaurants.

In Italy and France, you need to show the QR-Code to get access to restaurants.  Swiss and  Thai app are both accepted. People have been refused without app/QR-code because business owners do not want to verify vaccination/tests in detail. Different from airports where  personell is more familiar with the documents.

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Why do you need it on an app? Don't you have a paper certificate detailing your vaccination (date, type etc)?

In Europe, venues such as restaurants may ask for the certificate on an app. I have all the papers but not translated into all the languages spoken in the countries I am travelling. Imagine you would have to prove vaccination in Isaan with  certificates in English.

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May we ask why you feel the need to import foreign vaccination records into Mor Prom? Is there some benefit?

I need a certificate with full vaccination history in Europe. Adding a Thai booster to the Swiss app may be more difficult than the other way round. Bureaucracy can be more difficult in Switzerland than in Thailand e.g. , my wife is not allowed to spend more than 90:days per half year in Switzerland/Europe for vacation purposes. 

I got my 2nd  Moderna shot on July 30, 2021 back in Switzerland. I plan to get a booster shot in Thailand in January and possibly a second booster in Switzerland in July. How do I bring the vaccinations into the app? I have the Swiss certificate (EC compatible) and the yellow International Certificate of Vaccination for the initial vaccination.

Prices in Thailand do often not follow traditional economic patterns. New house across listed at THB 3.6m empty for two years, price increased to THB 3.8m, now about to be sold.

39 minutes ago, earthscar said:

If you haven't picked up a Sous vide machine yet you haven't lived. it changes everything when it come to cooking. I still like to use the meat probe for some of my other dishes but a sous vide machine ups the game from everything from burgers, steaks and everything in between. 

 

as a novice cook it was one of the first kitchen gadgets that made me really consider making home cooking a consistent thing.

I had a sous vide with (important) vacuumizer back in Europe and I loved it. However, I consider low temperature cooking in the oven (with built in temperature probe) to be as tasty. Or simmering meat in a heavy pot for 2 hours.

I tried the virtual credit card from True but  could not use it to book flights. Many car rental companies do not accept prepaid credit cards. Booking flights online with my preferred airline requires a credit card.  Paying with foreign currency credit cards in Thailand goes with unfavorable FX rates. Therefore, without working income, I ended up with the above mentioned credit card from Bangkok Bank against fixed deposit. I would be interested in respective  experiences with other Thai banks.

I assess the reliability of a media source by looking at articles on subjects where I deem myself to be knowledgeable. I pay subscription fees for two leading newspapers, one more progressive, the other more conservative, providing me with a diverse selection of information and comments. In addition, I glance through media such as Foxnews with their forums to be aware of the conspiracy  fantasies of an unfortunately sizeable movement.

My Thai teacher told me not to worry about the tones, but to use the proper syntax and to add sufficient context information. Among native Thai speakers, much more context is added while speaking which additional context may be deemed unnecessary for indogerman languages. With the proper syntax and context, a  ไม่ cannot be a ไหม, ไหม่, or ไม้.

Where can I get a walk-in antigen test in the Pattaya/Sattahip area? Bangkok Hospital offers PCR tests, but why not save money. I will have to do an antigen test with result the same day my flight is departing for Europe.

THB 30k is a reasonable price as quality ceramic fluid is very expensive. I have applied ceramic protection on my car and motorcycle back in Europe and it works well, especially on the motorcycle which I have to wash myself. For the car, I think I would not do it again. And in  Thailand, having your car washed regularly is inexpensive.

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1. There were outbreaks in some prisons but not all. Prisons without outbreaks seem to have separate douches, while prisons with outbreaks have central water dispensers for multiple inmates to be used simultaneously. They are now refurbishing the bathroom facilities. Could be a similar issue for workers’ camps.
2. Apart from Bangkok area, hospitals (Chonburi) are not running over capacity anymore and the outbreaks have hopefully been contained.