Lorry

Many. Not allowed to buy a SIM, not allowed to get a contract for SIM or home internet. That's pretty normal. Of course, you always find a workaround. But do you want to use these workarounds for banking. Public Wifi can usually be used by foreigners - but again, for banking? And you can always use your home country SIM and pay roaming fees, but have to mortgage your house first. I would think that Thailand is the exception where every foreigner can buy a SIM. But I may be wrong, I don't have statistics.

In Thailand, rarely. In home- country, it's usually down. Oh, in many countries I go I am not allowed to use internet as a foreigner. Not everywhere is Liverpool.

There is a website where working girls do (sometimes) publish their preferences. It's common to see "no Indians". You hardly see "no Arabs". The most sought after ethnicity is Korean.

Thx for a useful post (as opposed to a certain guy). So, if you live in a condo or apartment, where packages are just dropped at the office/ reception/ front door without notification, this Check Before Pay service (which is discretionary anyway) won't be of any use for you. It's very useful if you are staying on the farm.

It's people like you who think the US (or Russia, or China) can stop nuclear winter, who will bring us WW III

With "further reading" I meant read the whole article. Maybe not clear enough for you, or maybe too much reading for you.

As air quality yesterday was visibly worse than the days before, and aqicn and BP confirmed it, I just checked IQ air stations around Watthana. 5 government stations report AQI between 55 and 71. They are the yellow ones on the map. Many non-governmental stations report 11- 27, all green. (Some of them publish pictures of their stations, they are indoors) What's the explanation for the discrepancy? Measuring indoors and outdoors maybe?

Artikel in the BP today explained that now the buyer has a right to open the package. After further reading it becomes clear that you have the right to open the package after you paid the money. Very funny. You do not have the right to open the package before you pay. So nothing changed. If it is the way Gottfrid said (where does he know this from?) you now have a third party involved and if you want to get your money back you have to haggle with them. First line of defense will be "farang cannot".

You will be forced to carry your phone always, everywhere. Edward Snowden reminded us, that every smartphone is a bugging device, a tracking and spying device. The only way to avoid the bug in your pocket is leaving it at home. But once the phone is needed as wallet (and as keys for home and car), you don't have this option anymore. You are under permanant surveillance. And if whoever controls your device (remember: that's not you) ... well, pagers and walkie-talkies come to mind. You think that's ridiculous? Hizbollah would have thought so, too, a month ago.

I think so. But to be honest, I haven't seen any discrimination towards me as a foreigner in my (limited) dealings with the TRD so far. Last time, the motorcycle driver who brought me there and me got the same treatment (200B late fee). Difference was, I got a receipt, he didn't.

I agree. But I will make sure that I have some documentation, if asked. What documentation TRD actually wants and accepts, is anyone's guess. If it's a tax certificate translated, certified, and legalised by various embassies and MFA, "signed by 2 directors", my solution is probably leaving Thailand. The Siam legal guy said "you will get a tax certificate" in your home-country - 555. Pensioners here have for decades unsuccessfully tried to get a Thai tax certificate - it won't be easier in my country. What I found disturbing is that TRD has thought about credit cards at all. I find it rather imaginable. My tax adviser in my home country even told me, they would probably introduce a WHT on remittances. I don't believe this, but I mention it to show how tax people "think". Agreed. BTW the Siam Legal guy also explained, that the new rules are not law. The law is ambiguous (this has been discussed on AN at the very beginning of all this). He said, if the law is ambiguous it should be interpreted in the way most favorable to the tax payer. He thinks, if the new rules are challenged in court, the tax payer would win.

The Siam Legal guy was asked whether using a foreign credit card in Thailand would be a taxable remittance. He said yes, and his teacher thinks so, too. This teacher is a professor who is also a judge at the tax court.

Just a reminder: mutual funds cannot be used as 800,000 for visa extension

With SSO, you choose one hospital as your hospital. You get a list to pick one. Many are full, so the choice may be limited. But there are many good private hospitals on these lists, like Camillian, Vejthani, Yanhee. You won't get the same service as a private patient, but it's much preferable to many government hospitals. The problem is really availability. (Dental coverage is as described above.) If you can get in, SSO is by far the best investment you can make in Thailand. You can keep it lifelong, even after employment (may need to convince SSO staff that even a foreigner can stay, there are threads about this) 30 baht is for rice farmers, the lowest rung in Thai society. SSO is for city Thais. Civil service is for civil servants. Private healthcare is for people with money. You will be treated accordingly.

It is ok

You do not produce O2, plants produce it. It's then in the air. In your lungs, the O2 from the air moves into your blood, and your pulse oximeter measures this oxygen in your blood. Maybe you knew it anyway, and just used a technically incorrect verb.

Thx for a staightforward answer. Honestly didn't know that.

Very stupid, indeed. One of those very stupid people is a retired German law professor, criminologist, former minister of justice. You can watch his account on YouTube. Fortunately, this would never happen to you, as you are much smarter than this very stupid guy.

In theory, yes. In reality, I have seen a package sender "Micky Mous", Adress of sender "Changwat Pattaya" without street address, ZIP 1234567, package actually came from Bangkok. (I changed the details)

Similar experience here. Lazada not trustworthy at all, money lost. Solution for me: only buy cheap stuff online, under 1000. Or from a real company that I have used for years already (Illy). But even this isn't 100% safe (Thai Airways)

Hm, thinking of it, I once watched "Freddy (?) the Eagle", so maybe there is some snow. I stand corrected. Thx

In the UK??? They do it on the continent, because of ice and snow. I thought there is no snow in England, maybe some sludge. Am I wrong?

Could you please explain how the climate of the UK affects the life of a vehicle?

It's about avoiding surveillance. Since Starbucks started tracking every single cup of espresso I buy, I don't go there anymore. I consider my espresso my private life. Plus: If Starbucks wants to collect (and sell for good money) my data, they should pay me for them. Data are not cheap.

You will get very close to the estimate. It may not be 2.0000% like on a term deposit, there will probably be a different number in the second decimal. This is a fixed-term (automatic redemption after about 6 months, they are always a bit flexible about the maturity date) fixed-income (fund holds only a certain set of fixed-income papers, in this case Japanese government bonds, see the fact sheet, they won't buy or sell) foreign (fund holds only Japanese papers) fund. These funds are very safe. They usually hold papers from Qatari banks, big Indonesian banks, big Chinese companies, stuff like that. It's all short-term paper, will mature soon, so very little risk - they are always currency-hedged. Return is usually a bit higher. Risk is usually given as 4/10 (because foreign). In this case, they only hold Japanese government bonds, so even safer, 3/10, (the risk is that the Japanese government will go broke within 6 months), but less return. Return of these funds is always a tiny bit more than a fixed-term deposit, and tax-free. But they always run only a short time (6 or 12 months is typical), and then you have to get active again. For a well-off Thai (minimum investment is typically 500,000) who pays income tax and who would not be able to claim back the withholding tax, this is a way to get a tax-free return even on rather high sums invested.