grain

For about 15 years when I lived in Pattaya I had KeyVisa do my annual retirement ext. Everything was kosher, I had the money in the bank and all my docs were in order, it was just that I couldn't be stuffed dealing with Pattaya Imm and having to stand in line and maybe get the runaround, so I paid an agent. About 6 years ago I relocated to Korat and found it was very fast and easy to handle it myself. So the answer to OP is sure, if for any reason you don't want to do then pay an agent.

It's was only 3 years ago and the Thais at these tourist hubs were sleeping on the pavements on flattened cardboard boxes and lining up to get a free box of rice and a bottle of water, and they were moaning away...Oh when will the tourists return. Now they're punching tourists in the face and stomping on their heads.

My dad was a poor Scot who struggled his whole life to put food on the table and a roof over his (and our) heads. Probably the greatest thing he taught me was to live within my means, to budget and keep within that budget, and if you want something you save up and pay cash, and if you can't afford it then you don't get it (the only exception to this philosophy being buying a house). So I became an excellent money manager, and have spent the majority of my life debt free. I've never owned a credit card, but have a couple of debit cards for use when paying online.

Photo I took in 1987, this was at Koh Samui, from memory it was near BoPut.

Great song, they really were an incredible band, I saw them live a few times back in the 1980s, and had several of their albums. They were immensely popular in Thailand back then.

One time driving in my car in a small NE city there was an old lady on a crosswalk in the middle of the road obviously having difficulty crossing, being a gentleman I stopped at the crosswalk and smiled at her and gave a wave sign with my hand indicating for her to cross, then as she walked past the front of my stationary car she almost got whacked by some Thai flying through on the outside. So it hit me then that I almost got that old lady killed by giving her a false sense of security, I should of just driven straight through the crosswalk like every other driver, at least she knew how to deal with that.

Hang about, give me time to return. 😁

Dunno about that, couple of years ago I was at Danang, great beach, didn't see any surf there but beach was clean, water was clean, didn't have any stupid hawkers all over the beach, no dog<deleted> either, that a big plus in Nam compared to Thailand, you don't see mangy mutts everywhere, cause the Viets will catch and eat the bastards. 😂

Taking the micky out of Catholics or Christians is easy, but for a real test of balls try taking the piss out of Islam. So if Trump dressed up as an Imam or the Prophet Muhammad, that would be really something. Be fun to see a fatwa on him too.

Like Fried Rice with Crap How about Crap Fried with Whore Dust

It's actually baked into the culture. Thais see signs in Thai listing dual prices at temples and gov run places like national parks, so they don't think it's a wrong thing to do, they think it's the correct thing to do. If they don't overcharge the foreigners they're letting the team down.

I agree with many of the above sentiments, but how Albo and the ALP are running the show is still a better option than that horrible Dutton. Obviously the bulk of Australians felt the same way. Warts and all it was better to stay with the devil we know than that horrible Dutton. He was the worse leader the Libs ever had in their entire history, and probably the worst political leader in Australia's history. He was so bad he almost decimated the Liberal Party.

He always made me think of an executioner. If capital punishment was ever reintroduced Dutton would be the man for the job. If they ever remade the movie "Braveheart" and were casting for the guy who chops up William Wallace at the end, then Peter Dutton would be perfect for that part. He'd probably win best supporting actor. 😂

I agree, with a better choice of leader, someone with charm, wit, charisma, and a solid vision for the future they could have won this in a landslide, as Albo was definetely on the nose. Quite frankly Dutton frightened too many people, he still had that QLD copper mindset and persona.

Dutton must be the worse thing that's ever happened to the Libs in their entire history, not only did he lose this election, he did so in a massive landslide giving the ALP a huge majority, he destroyed his own political career at the same time, and wiped out a whole bunch of future Lib leaders. Talking about a big-time loser. Good riddance.

A farang from the UK, not allowed to work in Thailand, not ever going to get an benefits or any support or free housing or free medical. Entitled to absolutely nothing. All he'll do is spend spend spend. And they get uppity about you coming in too often to spend your money and get ripped off, and pay the foreigner price. Just imagine running a business along those line. A man walks into a pub and gets stopped at the door by the bouncer. "What do you want?" "I want to come in the pub. Have a meal and have a few drinks" "No you're coming here too often. I saw you in here a couple of days ago. And you were in here last week too. Sorry you're coming here too often now. We don't want you coming back here and spending your money." 😄

All this is terrific info, as I already said we've driven in many times in the past but not since the pandemic, and it was my intention to ask here in this forum for up to date info just prior to making the next trip (mid August) but I'm getting all the facts now. There's no way we'd stay longer than a week, we're not touring Cambodia, just going to SR for my birthday, and will probably make another visit to Angkor Wat. Usually we stay in SR about 5 nights then drive back to to Thailand, nonetheless I'll probably put 30 days down, but any ext won't be needed. Prior to going I'll do the details with the website, and print it out as you suggest. Coming back to Thailand I'll need to do the TDAC as well. Guess I'll use the hotel's wifi for that. Thanks again, all your info is very much appreciated.

Great thanks, I musta missed it before.

You mentioned this: "Cambodia has developed a new customs system, whereby you create a login, fill in your vehicle and personal details and use the website or app to create a customs record including providing details of entry and exit." So I guess this is done online. There's a website one goes to? Do you have a link?

OK sounds good, I'll use Chong Sa-ngam.

OK, good to know but surprising.

BINGO! 😁 They been talking about this 300Bt fee for ages now, but they didn't know how to apply it. If they charged every foreigner upon arrival it'll be a total nightmare with arrivals lined up for hours paying in cash, offering foreign currencies, using expired CCs. They could just tag it onto the airfares, but then Thais would get hit with it too, and what about the land arrivals? So they finally solved the problem with this TDAC. And that's why you can't be a foreigner and select Thailand as your country of residence. After the payment comes in they'll probably make it mandatory to have paid and received the QR code before departing, and no QR code, no boarding flight. The airlines will have to go along with it or else they'll be responsible for any passengers refused entry.

I guess it depends where one lives and what shopping is available nearby, in our case we live about 50km from Korat imm, and we're out in the boonies, nothing much around us or nearby, just small M&P shops, so every 3 months I need to do a 90 day, we're happy for an excuse to drive into Korat City, it takes me 5 minutes to do the report then we're at Makro, Lotus's, and other big shopping centers to stock up on all the goodies that aren't available near us. But of course is we had a big shopping center close to home then driving 50km to do a report would be a pain in the butt.

Thanks for this write up, very informative. I also have driven into Cambodia many times over the years, but not since the covid pandemic. I'm planning on again this coming August with my Thai GF. Naturally my car is owned by me and registered in my name. We live in Korat and want to go to Siem Reap, so the most convenient entry & exit point for us is Chong Chom/O'Smach. As I just mentioned we'll be returning to Thailand the same way, so no hassles there regarding wanting to exit via a different customs office. Are there currently any fees/charges at all at Chong Chom/O'Smach? I recall last time we drove in and out the Thais never charged us anything, but the Cambodians managed to squeeze a few $USD from me. And how long do you think the whole entry thing will take until we're off down the road heading for Siem Reap? In the past it was generally about one hour.

That's why I always do it in person, just don't trust their IT system, and if there's any error or slipup at their end they'll never admit fault, it'll always be the foreigner's fault.