Badger18

Thanks guys. I found some dried tulsi so will give that a whirl, though obviously it's not the same. I can get the fresh stuff online but there's a delivery charge equivalent to 400 baht and I'm too cheap for that.

I have privacy issues (or is it just paranoia) with voice recognition and Google assistant etc. etc. so have all that disabled. In a way this may have benefited me, bc it meant I had to use my phone keyboard for text messages. Actually the reason I know that ๆ is a giveaway is that locals told me that's how they knew I was typing my messages rather than speaking them into my phone. ...but yeah absolutely, for the non-paranoid that would be a good way of doing it.

Is that OP's problem though? I didn't get that impression. Could be wrong of course. If it is the problem, this doesn't seem like a great solution, because you are just replacing one semi-familiar spelling system with another. If I want to check a spelling I will just guess and see if it comes up in a dictionary, or else put in the English term and see what comes back as the Thai equivalent. I wouldn't have said that Thai spelling is that bad. Yes there are cases where there are a dozen potential spellings but not very many, plus most of those spellings - though possible in theory - are going to be pretty unlikely. Your figure of 30% seems high to me. I'm not saying it's wrong but where did you get it from?

I'm not currently in Thailand and can't get hold of gaprao. What's the next best thing? I can get hold of most Indian ingredients (but not "tulsi", which is apparently their name for gaprao).

Seems like a word out of Dickens or something but I am looking for someone to make clothes to my spec with my material. I know of one lady and she's very pleasant but then she takes forever. She also gave me pointy collars like an Elvis impersonator. Any recommendations for someone who could turn a couple of casual shirts round in a week or so? I'm not really thinking of the guys who pester you around the nightmarket bc they seem to be all about suits.

One way to tell that someone has used Google speech input / speech to text is that there are no ๆs, so I doubt their Latin text input supports those characters. Seems like there's quite a learning curve to this system... wouldn't it be better just to learn the Thai keyboard layout?

This makes no sense as sandbox still requires proof of vaccination... can't seem to delete it though.

I'm fully vaccinated and have a flight booked for 29 Nov. I haven't made my Thailand Pass application just yet. It semed better to give it some time for teething troubles, plus they're probably / understandably going to prioritize departures earlier in the month. I'm not 100% confident that my Thailand pass application will go through because I only have a CDC card - no passport number on the card and no QR code. I was thinking if they knock it back I'll just switch to the sandbox, but now I'm not sure there'll be time. It seems they're not looking at the applications until a few days before, and it could be that all the (half-decent) sandbox flights / hotels have gone by then. Does that sound likely, and should I maybe book a sandbox hotel now and not bother with test and go?

เหนือ is also a word. If you get her to say it a few times you should be able to figure out whether she really is pronouncing เนื้อ with a rising tone or whether it's just that a high tone doesn't sound quite the way you thought.

It's now or never unfortunately, just have to decide whether it's worth the risk. Did QT come down to 7 days in the end? I had to do 14 days last time. Not the funnest experience but not really that bad.

Does anyone know where I stand if I want to enter Thailand after 1 Nov from a country that's not on the list of 10 or 27 they've been talking about, or whatever list is eventually published? I had planned to go to India or Sri Lanka and then travel on to Thailand but am getting stressed that I won't be able to do that. Let's say your departure country isn't on the list. I don't think that means you can't enter Thailand at all, just that there are stricter quarantine / sandbox requirements. Is that right, and if so will the sandbox still be up and running or is it old school quarantine for 14 days, or what?

Cheers guys

I don't know if the new visa they're talking about will ever become a reality, but if it does I'll be interested in buying a place within striking distance of Chiang Mai. Ideally I'd like to be up in the hills, so the nearest area would be Doi Suthep, but I think that's mostly national park. If you up towards Mae Rim you can branch off left and get into hillier country. I think there are some residential areas up there that might be worth looking at. Does that sound about right? Are there any other areas that are up in the hills but within an hour's drive of town? Maybe out towards Lampang or Doi Saket.

I've previously come across a rule of thumb that, for a self-build project, roughly a third of the end value is in the purchase price of the plot, roughly a third in the building costs, and roughly a third is the value added. Not sure how valid that was back in the UK, but is there any similar rule of thumb for self build in Thailand?

Last time I entered Thailand all SETV applications had to be processed in your home country and I think there was some uncertainty about the CoE and whether people travelling from a third country were supposed to get it locally or from their home country. A lot has changed since then - what's the score these days?