Lorry

Which is, in a nutshell: 60 days visa free for the whole world (except for the kind of countries Mr Trump found a special word for), starting immediately Everything else is put off until June 2025 - there may be a new long-time visa, the DTV If you are on a retirement visa, watch September-December 2024, change may come.

I didn't know Russia is a western country. The DTV will legalize all the Russians here who are living and remotely working here already anyway.

Actually, personally I am not only concerned about prices (even if 35% of a ticket or a medium quality phone are real money). The less taxable remittances I have, the less bureaucracy with TRD. And that's the real problem about these taxes. There are people who really enjoy contact with Thai bureaucrats, for WP or PR or DL or visa extension or pink card or yellow book, whatever. I am not one of them. Just today the government promised us more fun with the condo tax. Thank you! (A friend who lives himself in his condo just paid his tax bill - of course, he could apply for an exemption, every year)

Could the DTV become an option for those who, because of the new tax rules, want to reduce their stays in Thailand to no more than 179 days per year? You could even legally work remotely (which until now was a grey area). It is not clear whether it gives you 180 days with every entry during the 5 years validity of the visa - or just one single entry (in which case it would be a joke) But make no mistake: you are not really living here with 180 days, you are visiting (exactly what the government wants). And after 180 days you really, really have to leave (or will you be able to just do a border run after 180 days? And effectively stay 5 years in a row? I doubt it)

Turned out not many apps are available in the play store for this TV. For example, the usual browsers aren't there. I read that many of them don't work well with TV, so I downloaded TV Bro, a PITA. Maybe tomorrow I will sideload Puffins, and OSM (maps aren't really available, either). New Pipe works well, VPN too, TV apps from home country soso. I have a 7 y.o. Philips "smart" TV in my home country, incredibly bad, and would have expected something better by now, especially from Samsung. With Philips, I just cast the screen. With Samsung - not sure yet. Thanks to everybody here, especially @recom273

The last time Thaksin did this he doubled the necessary amounts iirc So if you have 800,000 in the bank, please bring 800,000 more - taxable, of course

My bank still offers regular internet banking. And cash is still legal in Thailand. Mobile banking just has too many problems, too often. Not long ago, they restricted your banking apps so you could only have it on one device. Oh, and the whole face recognition, sometimes not working for farang. In the beginning of the year, they told us we cannot have too many SIM. Recently, Central told me my SIM belongs to a Thai girl... Now I had to call my bank to make sure they have my correct number. A lot of trouble. The idea is obvious, 1 person = 1 ID number = 1 SIM = 1 phone number

Yes Thx for all the advice!

If you tell them you want SMS in English they will send them in English from now on. Some of their staff, after having heard my Thai, changed their settings without my request so that from now on I got English SMS. If they change the language you will also automatically be directed to the English call center if you call 1175.

Correct

I read that. I don't see the spying cam, though. Does Samsung hide the spy cam inside the main screen? Is there any way to put tape onto it? Does the spy cam still work if I pull the plug of the TV?

That's what I am doing. Whith 4 remotes, it's a bit of a pita. 1 remote seems to be called "universal remote" by Samsung. It seems to be the real remote. 2nd remote I was told is for my 5 year old and my not-so-smart wife (how did they know?) 3rd and 4th are from true and look identical. Could it be that the 3rd remote was just given to the previous user of the TV, and I got the same again? Should I use the Samsung remote #1 or the true remote? How do they relate to each other?

So the true box is an android box? Thx, very helpful advice Yes, correct, I was very surprised about this With the true box, is the TV now a normal android device? I was thinking about a VPN (I should download it from the Google playstore, which I access through true's android, correct?) so can access channels of my home country (not UK, so not iplayer) I was also thinking of sideloading apps (can also load them from F-droid which I can load from the playstore), eg New Pipe = YouTube without commercials Google maps and OsmAnd might look nice on a bigger screen, same procedure, right?

Thx for mentioning this, I didn't know this. "Cashless" ends the fungibility of money. A dollar is not a dollar anymore. They can be marked, with all kind of restrictions. (Imagine dollar bills have handwritten/stamped restrictions on them:) Some dollars - some persons'dollars, or some regions' dollars, or dollars earned at a certain time or in a certain way - may not be used after midnight. Or may not be used to buy booze, or air tickets from LA to SF (can buy only other air tickets) or discounted air tickets - the possibilities are endless. Price depending on the person of the buyer is already routine (Apple users pay more as they have more money). In Thailand, it's called double pricing and unpopular with foreigners. Cashless, you won't notice it anymore. Fortunately, our governments would never turn evil. Canada, for example, is one of the most democratic countries on earth (I am not being sarcastic).

Not too bad. In my home country, the banks' computers take a break from about 5pm to about 8am. And, of course, on weekends. I guess the computers are unionized.

There are so many advantages of paying through apps. This is just another advantage: You will go to bed early, keeps you fresh and young.

You have obviously never paid anything at a shop with a mobile app. In case you ever want to try, let me tell you: most of these apps will, for security reasons, close after a relatively short time. As you don't know how quickly or slowly the guys before you will pay, you cannot possibly "have the app and camera scan already open". Nice try, but you gave yourself away.

I have 2 AIS SIM in 2 identical phones. One - only one - got a very long SMS from AIS with picture warning about some scam from people impersonating AIS. To read the whole SMS one would have to click on it, which I didn't do. Best delete everything from AIS immediately and never answer calls from AIS.

Thx

Exactly. Phone number as citizen ID

Postpaid usually needs WP. And bank statement of your MiL for the last 24 years, plus vaccination certificate of your dog, plus plus plus... It's not getting easier to get a postpaid number, it's getting more difficult. My postpaid number is 20 years old, but the same provider wouldn't give me another one because I don't fulfill the requirements.

I just asked my bank this same question. They said no problem.

All the others, who first must look where is the phone, then fiddle in their pocketbook to find the code to unlock the phone, then try all birthdays of the extended family to find the PIN of the paying app etc etc etc... ad infintum.... All these others are in my 7/11, obviously

We got a free, new Samsung "Smart TV". OS is Tizen, True installed a free True TV box and says now it's an Android TV. It does have WiFi, 3 HDMI, USB. We got 4 (four) remotes for it. We got no instructions, I found an e-manual (what's that?) on the internet, 257 pages. The engineers who produced the UI must have advanced degrees in user-unfriendliness and anti-ergonomics. The True lady who set up our WiFi was extremely taciturn. We succeeded in extracting the knowledge which button to press to watch Youtube. For the Thais, that was all that mattered. I still got her to answer which button to press to switch the whole thing on or off, and which button is regular TV. This is an incredibly dumb TV. Some functions I figured out by now, but mostly it's a black box. Samsung customer service 1282 is very unhelpful. The True lady said, I can now load regular Android apps from the Google play store. Is that true? The thing seems to have 2 layers: the Tizen OS which says there is no internet, and True's Android which does have an Icon for the play store and which does run Youtube. Where to start to learn how to use this thing???

Contrary to populat belief, this is really possible, I witnessed it today in our 7/11 (ok, it was maybe 45 seconds, but it was really quick, almost as quick as paying with cash). How was this possible? What was the secret trick? They were two people! One buyer, and her boyfriend who managed the mobile payment. He could prepare the phone when she was putting stuff on the counter, he could hold the phone - in the right angle - for the cashier to scan when she grabbed the bags, he stored away the phone unhindered by the stuff they bought. In a cashless society, one needs a partner.