Adumbration

Yes.

What he said. New Wave 125 last year at local Honda dealer: Photocopies of passport face page, and current visa or extension Residency certificate I was not asked for copy of rider's licence Be aware that the bike will be given to you with red plates on it, pending the arrival of your plates (and green book) from Bangkok. Mine took about one month at which time you will have to take you bike back to the shop to change out the plate and collect you green book. Check the book to confirm that your name is spelt correctly.

Nearly one million years ago I used to teach electromagnetic theory. The other day I was working on my speed boat. The son of the Thai guy who owns the boat birthed next to mine was there cleaning it. I knew from previous discussion with his dad that this lad was in his final year of study and training to be an electrician. The father has done a good job on this lad. He is a nice and polite boy and not a kratom drinking hammock swinger like most of the youth around here. I speak good Thai and so I started to chat with the lad about his studies and his plans once he is finished. I also mentioned that I used to teach lads like him back in my home country. I started to scratch ohms law in the wet sand next to our boats, and transpositions of it, and he had never seen it. More over, he knew what Volts were, but had no idea regarding Amps or Watts. But that is obviously not a problem. Because electricity here is different from the electricity in Farangland.

In my first year living here full time I met a girl online. She was an absolute hard ten, smart as a whip, and had a high paying job with a major Thai company working in Thung Song district. I was living in Phuket at the time and so rode my Harley over there to meet her for the first time. Despite viewing numerous photos of her via email, upon meeting her in person I was rather shocked at how stunning she was. The plan was to go on a dinner date and she told me that she knew of this restaurant in the jungle that had private candle lit salas. Perfect I said...let's go... The rule is to never eat seafood at a restaurant that is more than one hour from the coast, however I decided to order stir fried squid. I could not see whether the restaurant was busy or not because the salas were set apart in the jungle. My beautiful date had very decent English and things were going great. I was excited. Then the food arrived. All of the dishes were lack lustre at best. But something was very off with my squid. It was not rotten but it just did not taste right. The sala was only candle lit, so I turned on my phone flash light to inspect my meal more closely. There was not any squid in my dish, only pieces of boiled egg white cut into strips to look like squid. I did not even mention it to my girl and ate the entire dish like it was the best food on the planet. I was not going to let anything torpedo that date. Over to you....

Which one?

I am lucky I guess. I have been to 65 countries and never lost anything to thieves. India was the worst of all places one million years ago. On two seperate occassions at different hotels I awoke to find a thief in my room (my GF was with me also). I bashed the guys senseless on both occassions. I surface travelled from Australia to the UK as a kid. Me and a mate were on a crowded overnight bus in Sumatra and the driver asked us to put our backpacks up on the back seat because there was not room where we were sitting. Upon arriving at our loseman the next day we discoverd that the locked zippers on our backpacks had been prised open, and then replaced. But the joke was on them because we were both dirt poor housing commission lads and our packs had nothing but underwear, towels and a few raggedy bits of clothing. Neither of us even had a camera. We could not afford one. Back then I always wore a body belt with my cash and passport inside. I was way too poor to get robbed and my worthless family could not bail me out if it did happen. I have travelled with a body belt my entire life...and still do so nowadays...notwithstanding that, perhaps, I can now AFFORD to be robbed.

Or you driver's licence. Retarded the lot of them.

I have never applied for Thai tax ID. I already pay tax on my Thai share dividends and on my bank interest. It is witheld at the relevant rates. I am here to avoid paperwork so for me I just let them have it. Only thing they could tax me on is if I transfer money in from abroad. But how would it be even possible to determine if this is income (taxable) or just savings. This whole thing is like most Thai government (new ideas). They have zero competency to implement and so it will just fall by the wayside. Just like land taxation, helmet laws, drunk driven....et al...

Hmmm. Living in Thailand and 14 years with the same lady. Perhaps you have failed already?

My success at Immigration confirms my proposed strategy regarding taxation. I will be doing absolutely nothing in relation to the new laws, unless and Thai authority tells me to. My only interaction with government is Immigration year in year out. I already have enough money here to last me about a decade. I will not transfer a satang more here until the smoke clears. I was going to buy some more houses and land. But that is cancelled now. So too is any new vehicle purchase.

Just reporting back as promised to bump this thread. @sirineou I did my non O extension this week 45 days early. Exactly the same documents as last year. No mention of tax issues whatsoever. Also did a residency certificate. Only changes this year was that they had 3 cute young university girls on work experience in the office. I managed to make one of them blush. There was some arrogant Russian plonker there who was unaware of the online booking system. He barged in front of everyone and ranted to the head IO. That two people had been served before him. The head IO made short work of him as expected. In all my visits to this office I have never seen a single Russian customer. Most of the people waiting this year were Russians. Must be a *hitload of them here now. They are migrating up my way now is search of affordable (or available?) accommodation now that Phuket is full up.

Ask an ugly 37 year old bar girl how much to stay with you for one month. Then pay the girl you have in mind the same amount. Sounds like you not only need care but you are lonely and fishing for a relationship. Starting a relationship off with a monthly payment is destined for failure... Just so you know.

How much can you afford to pay?

Elon Musk

Living the dream. Retired and discussing pineapples.

I have more than twice that amount in cash at the moment. I don't think that I am insane. But I could well be.

Hmmm. 13mthb.... So you are one serious illness away from broke.

move

As a final point....if you really love were you live there is no need to go on any holidays. I have not travelled for years now if you preclude my occassional trip to Phuket.

If you google the coastline north of Khao Lak and south of Ranong you will see there are lots of wilderness beaches were you can free camp. Great stretch of Thailand. There are also lots of Rivers and waterfalls in that area were you can also free camp....and fish if you interested. I have stayed on one of these rivers in the bush for days on end. Catching fresh water fish and then BBQing them on open fire for GF and doggos to eat. Just a short drive down to the beach to give the dogs a run. Make sure you check you dog nightly for ticks. Lots here on the west coast all year round.

Leaf resort on Koh lanta is fully muslim but I have stayed in their beachside bungalows with my two dogs. Great place. Be careful of poison baits on the beach however. You can also beach camp. Buy a decent tent and a portable loo. I have also done that for over two decades here with my dogs. The love it. Especially sleeping alongside you in the tent.

Yes, I call BS on this story also. Waterpipe would be a maximum of 1.5 inches. Easy to plug off sufficiently for the bilge pumps to keep on top. And as another poster has already mentioned, why was there not a shut off valve? Captain and crew were morons, asleep on the job, or both.

This was always the long term plan. Legalise with nebulous legislation. Then when everyone has skin in the game, recriminalise. No intent to shut everything down, just to open a floodgate of teamoney from those already invested.

Nim Chimpsky was more entertaining.

My car is nearly 40 years old. I do all the work on it myself. I have owned it nearly 20 years. I have offers to buy it most days when I take it out. I have absolutely no intention to buy a new car in Thailand. Too much tax, poor mechanics, and risk of being hit by someone without insurance. With the new tax laws I have also stopped remitting any money into this country. So absolutely no chance of me buying a new car now.