NanaSomchai

45 minutes ago, Laughing Gravy said:

I knew there was a reason not for using these, besides they waste valuable time and leave a carbon footprint.

Also it's not limited to Facebook pages, twitter accounts, VK profiles and other well known blogging sites, nor it is limited to the UK.

Let me introduce you to Bjørn Lisd*rf, or simply Bjorn, is a Danish former YouTuber, live streamer, and internet personality.

https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Bjorn_TV

Basically this guy is married to a Thai woman whom he travels the World with, live streaming "worthless trashy content" from Denmark but also most notably the USA, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, all that while receiving a Danish Disability pension along with the equivalent of Universal Credit for unemployment.

During 2015 he was reported to the Danish authorities by one of his livestreaming competitors (presumed), shortly after the tipping, the Danish authorities carried a thoughtful investigation resulting in stripping him from his disability pension, his unemployment pension, but also forced him to reimbursed the ill-gotten funds as he was sentenced to 3 months of jail time for having committed a benefits fraud.

After serving his 3 months of jail sentence, as he got out the revenue service launched then a separate and second investigation based on the allegations that during these livestreams he was getting substantial donations and tips from it's viewers. While the amounts were ridiculously low (we're not even talking of 300£ per month in donations here), it was still considered as palatable income. Income which he failed to declare to the Danish tax office, so he was forced to pay some taxes on these donations with you guessed it... hefty fines and penalties for 1) failing to declare income and 2) overdue payments.

While this case may seem rather extreme, it should serve as a reminder that committing benefit fraud, pension fraud is never risk free and should you get caught, well... it rarely ends well.

In all and all, what prevails here is discretion, at all times.

13 minutes ago, KanchanaburiGuy said:

BTW, 

I collect Social Security from the US. I have it deposited in a US bank, and then simply do a Bangkok Bank ATM withdrawal once a month. Because more than half my income simply goes into savings each month, I don't worry about the little I could save doing it "better." 

The proper and safest way to do it in my opinion. Get your funds/benefits/social security/pension deposited in your account and then do transfers or ATM withdrawals at your own leisure.

Don't feed the governments. The less they know, the better.

13 minutes ago, KanchanaburiGuy said:

On the other hand, my Thai National wife is also entitled to receive Social Security, based on my account (she never worked in America.) She's entitled to approximately half what I receive. 

 

BUT! 

 

She is only entitled to that money while she's in America! When she's in Thailand, she's not! 

 

When she leaves the US, she's supposed to notify Social Security to stop her payments. When she returns, she then notifies them again, and payments will begin again the following month. 

Yeash, that's usually how it works everywhere else in the World. Countries just have different regulations.

In my opinion: Keep it quiet and carry on. Discretion is key.

4 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

This must only apply to 'benefit claimants' as thousands of retired UK folk holiday or spend time abroad in 2nd homes for over a month without telling the DWP. A pension is not a benefit!

Yet I'm willing to bet a lot of these expat-style pensioners are not telling the British government they have retired abroad and are keeping an address somewhere in the UK with good reason; following the law would most likely be detrimental to their entitlement rights as it has been hinted in this thread.

12 minutes ago, fredscats said:

 

What is the thread title?

Who cares what the thread title is, really.

The idea behind the post was to demonstrate that countries have different rules and requirements on how long can you receive funds without even being there.

Some being 30 days, some 60 days, others 90 days while the rest can be as high as 180 days, very often these rules/requirements may (or may not) enforced by respective countries and more often than not they also appear to apply to retirement schemes, state pensions, etc.

2 minutes ago, fredscats said:

Not applicable to SP    IN DWP regulations

I never said it was.

If you re-read again I clearly bolded and underlined the information I merely provided was unrelated to pensions but catering to other benefits.

As I'm not old enough to be eligible for pensions for a very long time, my knowledge on state pensions is albeit very limited.

And yes... I'm aware I am very off topic, the idea behind the post was to demonstrate that countries have different rules and requirements on how long can you receive funds without even being there.

42 minutes ago, khunPer said:

If you stay outside Denmark for more than 180 days - apart from certain conditions as stationed, working abroad for a limited period, or taking a sabbath year or two; all without giving up a tight connection to Denmark - then you loose a number of basic right, as not being living permanently in Denmark.

 

You are entitled to receive your Danish government pension (Folkepension) abroad, if you are entiled to that pension, however only the basic part of the pension, not the additions (tillæg). If you are single and are entitled to maximum additions, you loose about 40 percent of your pension, when moving abroad outside of EEC and a few other countries (see my other recent posting about more detailed calculations).

 

Those Danes keeping a relationship to Denmark - i.e. the 180-day rule - do it to keep their additions and rights to healthcare...????

As weird as it may sound, I have a weird hobby of collecting citizenships just because, well... it's a hobby, here are a few things I can tell you about:

These are pre-retirements, not pension related:

Portugal: Must live and be settled permanently in Portugal to receive any forms of benefits, if you leave the country for more than 30 days, you become ineligible for any state provided benefits. You must report you have left for another country. Benefits are paid monthly by the 21th of each month.

Spain: Must live and be settled permanently in Spain to receive any forms of benefits, you may be allowed up to 2 months per calendar year of leave, if you are out of the country more than 60 days over the span of one calendar year, your benefits are stripped. Not reporting is considered as committing fraud. Benefits are paid monthly by the 15th of the month.

France: Must live and reside permanently in France to receive any forms of benefits, must have a resident permit to claim benefits, you are allowed to be out of France 90 days per year, but must return and fill taxes in order to retain benefits eligibility in France. Benefits are paid monthly between the 5th and the 7th, by law the funds must be available in your account by the 7th, so if the 7th is a saturday or a sunday, you'll then get paid by the 5th instead.

UK: Must live in the UK, be either a UK citizen or fully settled status (which you acquire after 5 years of full residency) to get any benefits. You must also demonstrate a second right to residency (working, self employed, jobseeker, etc). Also if you leave for more than 30 days you must report to the Department for Work and Pensions. If they can demonstrate you have left without telling them, you are considered committing fraud. The DWP has acquired a bot software from an Israeli firm which scrapes facebook pages, twitter accounts, VK pages, search metadata, etc to gather evidences whether you are a law breaker. Also UK benefits are weekly (over complicated for no reason, makes no sense).

Switzerland: Must live in Switzerland, have the Swiss citizenship, be a permanent resident at least 180 days per year to be eligible for benefits, with that being said each "part" of Switzerland applies it's own rules along it's own subsequent set of rules, so it depends on where you are registered, Geneva is known to have the most relaxed rules, if out of the country more than 180 days over a rolling period (not calendar year), benefits are stripped.

Belgium: Must have a registered address in Belgium any P.O. Box or charity where you can receive mail is sufficient, you don't have to live there by law, you may be eligible for benefits after only 1 month of staying in Belgium, given non citizen living for more than 90 days in Belgium are subject to mandatory self-registration at their local city hall/town hall. Once they are fully registered they receive a Belgian resident card which then can be used to access other states benefits. Presence requirements are not enforced as far as I've been told since there is no control/very little checks.

I am not sure about the rest of the World, but it is knowledge being passed around:

- Other countries easy to get benefits and retirement pensions from are: The Netherlands, Sweden and soon Scotland.

- Other countries hard to get benefits and retirement pensions from are: Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland.

I wish I knew more.

5 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

 

 

 

Looking at that map the only things I could think of (minus Turkey) were:

- Drinkable tap water.

- Clean and Green renewable energy.

- Decent animal/pest control programs.

- Rule of Law.

- Proper unbiased judicial system (state provided pro-bono lawyers, chance at a fair trial, possibility of appeals, etc)

- Nearly non-existent officials and civil servants corruption.

- Well trained police forces.

- High standards healthcare.

- Sensible retirement/pension programs for its citizens/residents.

I don't really have a conclusion to my post other than; When you can live in the relative safety and comfort offered by a blue colored nation, why would you even want to live in a red colored one?

I just don't get people sometimes.

4 hours ago, Isaanlife said:

The world is in complete chaos and war, and all greedy Thailand can think of is tourist dollars.

 

Sick, sick, sick behavior

Money, money. money...

Thailand: Money number one.

1 minute ago, WEBBYB808 said:

I think the OP is solid.  All the things he must have shared with the village  in the past, all the fun times, or any times, meals he broke bread with them.  And they couldn't,  or wouldn't  have a heart to do this for him?  It's not a matter of paying it's a matter of extortion.   It's a matter of being neighborly.

They wouldn't have done it for me, yet they should have done it for the dog.

Indeed it was extortion.

Thailand Money Number One.

Just now, EVENKEEL said:

It's not the thb amount, it's the fact that a value or money was even discussed. I've lived in Isaan and for all the bad things that come to mind, they never would have charged for this. Of course we would have taken care of the people but they would never have asked for money.

This.

10 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I agree nobody should be asking for money for this and I know if it was us, my wife would have taken care of it and actually did... no issues... when our first village dog died, I had carried him up to my office so I could sit w/him all night. My wife was upset too and I don't know who helped her w/digging a grave - everyone had sympathy for me as they knew I was crying and then finally fell asleep. They later showed me where they buried him. I am sure that the thought of $$ never crossed their mind... 

It wasn't even really my dog to begin with and yet it hurt like hell, in fact it still hurts to this day, so in your case I can only imagine the pain you have felt at the time, allow me to empathise.

And indeed asking money for this is straight up extorsion, it is plain wrong. I'm baffled at the volume of posters in this thread who lack the common sense to understand and comprehend something as basic as this.

10 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

But then, I had lived w/the family for many years at that point and had assimilated a good bit. Though I cannot imagine any point at which they would have done differently... They are really nice people..

Yeah I had been there for a year tops, I don't speak Thai and they were not fluent in English either, I could only guess that didn't help one bit.

10 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

And so for me, your use of the word "Thai style" has a bad connotation. For me, "Thai style" has been mostly a very good thing. What they did to you is terribly wrong, beyond the $$ just to let a dog rot away like that is disgraceful.

I'm sorry it "offends you". What they did is terribly wrong, when I come to think of it after all these months, I begin to wonder if I somehow hadn't bonded more with the dog "nan" than with any of these villagers.

10 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I was lucky as my wife was there to guide me and I had several good Thai friends to help me understand the cultural differences. Having things explained well and w/o a bias was unending help. 

 

It sounds like your wife should have been more helpful but I would ask, where was her anger coming from? What family member was in her ear? 

Probably her father, a good for nothing drunkard. Might not have been the "best" wife either, but I'm digressing.

Thank you for your heartfelt post.

This thread has run its course. /thread

Thanks to those who posted sensible heartfelt comments, the intent behind this thread was to share my story of my experience in Thailand (at least bits of the final year) while disclosing the reason why ultimately I was left with no other options than selling and leaving.

Again my motives are mine and solely mine, in the very end I sold what I could, recouped some of my losses whereas possible and applicable and to this day I have very little regrets of leaving the Kingdom for good.

I wish I could recommend visiting or retiring to Thailand to anyone (not on these forums obviously, duh) but I actively advocate against it for different reasons obviously, mainly tied to politics, not related to my unfortunate dismissal.

Again, this thread should serve as a mere glimpse of what my life experience in Thailand was at the very end, your mileage will most likely vary, the next time you see me posting, you'll be able to comprehend which angle or should I say which POV I'm from.

As a few closing words, I'd like to state that I used to love Thailand, 10+ years ago, I fell in love with the place, the girls, the energy, the vibe, with a lot of things, it was puppy-love at first sight but as the time wore on, I caught on that Thailand is nothing but a fairy tale (again according to me).

Thailand is its own place and, in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.

/thread

1 minute ago, 1FinickyOne said:

I had 2 dogs die in my village - they were not strays... definitely my dogs - both were buried for me... nobody asked for money... 

There we are. You have no idea what (at least this part of) your post means to me.

Nobody should be asking money to bury a loved deceased animal (unless you are a professional and do this for a living).

They were clearly trying to extort me in an obvious moment of distress. Thai style.

Thanks for chiming in.

4 minutes ago, Chris.B said:

Clearly, Thailand is not for you! I think your ex-wife seems a bit unreasonable.

 

I got some dog bowls for 20 baht each in the 20 Baht shop in Lotus. ????

 

20 baht?! See, even paying 45 baht each shows how they have no problems double pricing a foreigner... oh well, at least these bowls served a good purpose.

15 hours ago, crouchpeter said:

What surprises me, (or perhaps doesn't), is the vitriol coming from the haters and losers on this forum. This man is telling a story about his experiences in Nakhon Nowhere, and it's like he's pushed the button that activates the "inhumanity" gene.

I wasn't even "fishing" for sympathy or anything.

The "beauty" of Thailand is that everyone that comes here has either a positive or a negative opinion of the place, lots of people have lots of stories to tell about the place, the food, the culture, the sights, the girls, the Thais, the scams, the politics, yet no one is an expert.

I merely (and I use this word with parsimony here) merely wanted to share MY experience of what life in Thailand was and how it ENDED for me and now I'm being denied of even that, being called a liar, that my post is BS, etc, etc.

3 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

The Thai apologists are out in full force here.

I believe we are on the edge of insanity.

15 hours ago, NotReallyHere said:

"Take advantage"?  It's not their fault the dog died while you were away.  There was no planning on their part to cheat you.  You have no idea what they would have charged you if you were present and wanted them to perform the service.  Do you really think filling one dog bowl would be enough food for a 14 day trip away?  Your poor planning is responsible for the death of the dog you proclaim to have cared about.  It's amazing to me that you can be so dense.

 

"...only because I am a foreigner"?  You have no way of knowing what they would have charged a local.  Complete guesswork on your part.  And then you state that charging you 30 THB would also have been "morally and ethically wrong".  Sorry, but you did your wife a big favor...

 

The only reason why I quoted you is to prevent you from editing your... your... "work" so the others get to read it.

What a true gentlemen!

15 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

But people see you for what you are too. You ruined your relationship with your community by refusing to cooperate or take advice. You ruined your marriage and upset your wife by ignoring local  customs. You refused to pay to have your dog buried and left it bloated, rotting and maggot ridden for days..

 

Disgusting post. Specially the bolded part. How clumsy of me to hope other villagers would anonymously have done the right thing in our absence.

And again it wasn't officially MY dog, it was the entire village's dog as far as I'm concerned.

6 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

By moving to a small village, you def jumped into the deep end of the poor and uneducated pool.

I can see that now, based on my previous encounters and based on the tone of some posters here.

7 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

We have compassion for the dumb and broke wherever we come across them. We also keep them a little bit at a distance.

Sadly not possible in rural village life.

8 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

Your future would prob be much brighter in a bigger town with more access to Westerners and western values -and possibly a more westernized partner. You sound like a person who enjoys Thailand, but maybe not full on, undiluted, all of the time.  I'm def somewhere similar on that spectrum.

I have my eyes set on Saigon life at this very moment.

They seem more educated even though generalizations always suck.

9 minutes ago, LaosLover said:

Much empathy for your loss. I too have been a dog hater who fell in love with a dog.

That's the thing, I am not a dog hater either (even after being bit as a kid), I merely consider myself a guy who tried to do the right thing (tm).

Thank you for your empathy. Much appreciated.

2 minutes ago, 2long said:

If the OP married and quickly bought land for an Isaan lass and had dealings in Pattaya, then assumptions can be made.

We had 2 properties in Pattaya, both have been sold by now. As for the assumptions, you're entitled to do your own assumptions, I guess.

3 minutes ago, 2long said:

I am a dog lover more than you can imagine, and I agree with the OP's feelings. I also understand that the OP couldn't bury the dog from so far away.. although I'm not sure Isaan to Pattaya is 790km

Nakhon Phanom (plus 5km to the wife's village) to Pattaya, 795km.

4 minutes ago, 2long said:

As others have already mentioned, this can't be the only reason for divorce and leaving Thailand. Either there's plenty more (marrying an Isaan girl and having dealings in Pattaya ring alarms bells for me), or maybe the whole thread is fake and a cry for attention from a self-proclaimed prolific poster.

Sad that I have to justify myself but yet we are. Wife was met in Pattaya, she worked in a mall (day and evening).

Would you like pictures of our wedding?

15 hours ago, NotReallyHere said:

My goodness!  You keep going on and on about Thai "greed"...

 

We're talking about 3,000THB / $100!  Peanuts to perform a very unpleasant service on your behalf.  You should have considered yourself lucky.

 

Excepted to me it never was about money, it could have been 30 THB, 300 THB, 3000 THB, 30000 THB, it's still the same; it's morally and ethically wrong to take advantage of someone in a such moment of grief let alone they were pushing it only because I am a foreigner.

15 hours ago, ChC1 said:

You are the one to blame. It is entirely your fault.

Holy Moly that one hits like a truck.

15 hours ago, ChC1 said:

2, You are totally wrong in dealing with stray dogs

Here in US, and some part of Europe, the correct way dealing with stray dogs is to call the animal control, they pick up the dogs, check for diseases, then it will either be exterminated or send to an animal welfare shelter where it may find a new owner.

Not a chance of freezing in hell anyone would have cared for that dog, it was already in very poor shape as I explained in my post, fleas, mange, etc, clearly that dog would have been exterminated.

15 hours ago, ChC1 said:

3, Asking family or friend to take the risk of infection to bury a dead dog without compensation is cruel for your own family and friend.

So here is the thing, you want your family and friend to voluntarily help you remove the dead dog, which could be infested with diseases or parasites.

The poor thing died of old age, nothing else, geeze, how could it have been infested with parasites to begin with.

I'm sure however 8 days later when I picked the decaying corpse it was infested, I wore plastic gloves, used a bee mask, a large trash plastic bag to carry the corpse over, at no point my skin came in contact with the decaying body itself and I buried it in a hole behind the house.

Two years later I'm still here and still (physically) fine.

15 hours ago, ChC1 said:

4, You are the culprit yet you blame Thai culture for your own failure

You ignored your wife's warning and take the responsibility.

Yeah okay, not even worth reading to the end at this point

Your attitude is horrendous.

Just now, Sametboy2019 said:

Some absolutely ridiculous replies on here to justify selfish, inhumane and greedy behaviour by the locals. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Where and when does the greed stop?