grain

I've only ever done my retirement extensions at Chonburi and Korat, both always required me to get the letter from the bank, which is signed and stamped by the manager or assistant manager. Both offices also want to see the bankbook.

many a slip between the cup and the lip mate. but whatever, if someone wants to do it at the airport that's fine. ????

Mine actually has 1 mill. It stays in that account. I have another account with SCB with a card for all the other general transactions. The 1 mill yellow bank account serves 2 purposes: it's there for my annual retirement ext. And it's also my "if the sh!t hits the fan" backup money. It's not for ringing the bell in soi 6 bars, or having at week at Koh Samui.

You'd think that would be sufficient. For the life of me I really can't understand why I can't update my passbook and present that for the IO to see that for the past 12 months my money has remained in the bank and the balance has never dropped below the required 800K. There was so much paperwork for my last extension there must have been 2 or 3 trees worth of paper.

Sounds like a good idea, move your funds over to the yellow bank.

Yep, read the post it's all there....????

leaving an important step like your re-entry stamp to the very last minute has always seemed like a risky thing to me.

Years ago when I ran with Songkhla H3 they had a searchlight (I don't know what model or power is was) but they carried it in the beer truck, then if it was dark and some hashers still hadn't returned to the A site, they'd turn on the searchlight and shoot this big beam up into the sky, you could see the bloody thing miles away and instantly knew the correct way to get back.

I only use the 800K in the bank method. I never touch that money, other than taking the interest off, but the balance never drops below 800K year after year. I made no advance notice, just went to the bank as they opened the doors at 8:30, I was first customer in and went straight to the counter, gave the gal a little printed slip that Imm had given to me earlier, and that listed 3 things that were required. So a couple of letters/docs were prepared for me on the spot (I didn't really take much notice of them) it all took about half an hour and I was off to Imm.

The yellow bank. Krungsri/Ayudhya.

I just renewed my annual ext (at Korat) a few days ago, at the same time I got a single re-entry as I'm making a trip out in a couple of months. It didn't take any longer and cost 1000Bt. Pre-pandemic every year when I did my annual renew I always got a multi-re-entry permit at the same time, as back then I was making frequent holidays to Cambo/Lao/Nam. Hopefully I'll get back to that lifestyle in 2023.

I was in a bank yesterday in Pattaya, a woman had her number called, she was rotten with flu (probably covid) she was sniff, sniff, sniff with her runny nose, and cough-cough-cough. I would have been the next number. Dammed if I was going to stand up at that same counter when she was finished....and have to touch the counter and use the same pen. I just got out of there. I'll do my banking another day. But what the hell happened to self isolation???

I know the guy well, he's 77 but very fit, he does 10km runs, even longer, pretty well daily. Not many people would have been miles in front of him, most of the group would have been way behind him. What happened was he slipped on some loose rocks and had a spill and got some minor injuries. Still, the rest of the group should have noticed his absence and as I said above, they should have had a head count before departing the island. I'm sure this incident will bring about a couple of new regulations for the group. A similar group who hold regular walks/runs at Hua Hin stipulate that everybody carries their mobile phones and have the mobile numbers of a couple of others from the group, on their phones in case of mishaps like this.

There's no tour operator or staff. They're a private group of friends who hold regular fitness/social walks. The 77yo Aussie is not a Pattaya expat, he's a tourist who just got there a few days ago, so it was fairly easy for the rest of the group to not notice his absence until later. However, I suspect in the future they'll be having head counts before heading home.

He was pimping Thai gals in Pattaya, and he made no secret about it, he was constantly boasting about it on social media.

There was an incident several years ago when he went into Pattaya Police Station and filmed him shouting and swearing at the Thai police. At the time I wondered why the hell haven't they arrested and deported him?

Very good advice here, thanks Hugh Cow. I was actually thinking about something like a multi split, a double, there's a brick wall separating the bedroom and loungeroom so a double split - one for bedroom and one for lounge would be excellent....with the compressor out on the back balcony (all the units with AC have the compressors on their back balconies, that's how we can tell who has AC...just look up at all the back balconies.) All this info I'm getting here is valuable. BTW: everybody who is giving me info, I'm copying your posts and saving all your info in a text file for easy access later.

Yes, once I have discussed matters with the AC installer and decided what we are going to do, I need to submit a plan indicating where the compressor will go and some other details to the strata committee, I talked to them about this a few years ago, it's all fairly straight forward, probably 2/3rds of the 32 units in our block have had ACs installed over recent years. However, what you say about noise limits is useful, and a quiet compressor is going to be a big factor when making the choice.

My bank is approx 5kms from Korat Imm office. At 8:30am I entered the bank and requested the statements/letters for immigration. Got what I needed in 30 minutes (200Bt fee) then drove to the Imm office. I had to frig around there a bit as I was short a few photocopies, but went to the shop across the road and got those copies. At 10:25 exactly I walked out of the office with my retirement ext renewed to July 31, 2023, plus one re-entry visa, as I'll be making a trip to Australia in a couple of months. And my 90-day report done for the coming 3 months. So everything was done within 2 hours. Total cost 3100 Bt. My only complaint is the ridiculous amount of photocopy pages they require, What I provided them with today resembled a novelist's manuscript.

Good advice, thanks bluejets. My brother's son actually has his own AC business, and he'll be the first one I'll be contacting, hopefully he'll be able to do the job, as I'm sure he won't take advantage of me. Either way he'll advise me, but the purpose of my post here was to get some details, so I'll have a clearer idea of what's involved and what I want. And yes, I understand installation will be a big part of the overall cost. I spoke with an AC installer a couple of years ago and he explained that an AC installed in my unit must run cables from the 5th floor down to the ground floor, where the meters and RCAs are.

Well I carefully went through every forum possibility prior to making this post, looking for the most appropriate place to make this post. I did see Home Country Forum....but the sub heading reads: Pensions, regulations, laws, etc. that affect expats living in Thailand. The closest I could find was "The Electrical Forum" so that's where I put it. But if it's an issue then perhaps a mod can assist and move my post to wherever the hell it should be.

Thanks Lacessit, very helpful reply. I guess I'll be looking for a split system, Reverse cycle, inverter-type AC. And yes, bedroom will be best, apart from sleeping 8 hours a night, I usually spend 2-4 hours a day lying on the bed with a laptop or a book, so at least half my day will be spent in the bedroom. Melbourne winters...yep I had one of them once, 1972. Freezed the balls of a brass monkey.

Thank you, very helpful link.

I don't see why. I'm just giving information. If I didn't state that fact then people replying may post links to ACs that are on sale in Thailand, or recommend models that are not available in Australia.

Good point because they may well be suspended for a brief time then reintroduced, if you happened to enter the country during the brief time they were suspended then you could get some grief at annual visa renewal time.