FriendlyFarang

They don't keep your passport. You apply for the extension before the 3rd, then you will get 30 day under consideration stamped in your passport. Then you apply for a re-entry permit, and can just fly out on the 11th, come back on the 15th, and when the 30 days are over you get your final extension stamp.

We should differentiate between sinsod that is just put there for show, and what is actually kept by the parents. I think especially under rich Thais, the money is nearly always only put there for show, and then returned, I doubt the rich parents would keep it. And even if they keep it, if somebody of a family with a net worth of a billion pays 10 million sinsod, this has no impact on his life, similar to me giving 100k to their family. They specifically explained to my girlfriend that the money is for the parents, and the gold for my girlfriend, so it's quite clear that they plan to keep the money. I do of course not know what they really think of me. Maybe they think that I have 100 million+ in the bank, or earn a few million a month, so 5 million wouldn't be much money for me, don't forget that I'm farang....

This thought also crossed my mind, so I asked her this already, she says she didn't say something like that. I've also been to her home a few times, usually wear clothes for a few hundred baht, we drive my girlfriend's car to go there, and they know we live in a rented house. So it seems to be based on "being a farang" alone.

Depends on the standing of the family I think, if it's a poor family, then what you say is probably true. My girlfriend's family is not rich, but they are doing just fine, so in my opinion they could easily get away by saying "We are doing well by ourselves, we don't want their money, they should use it to build their future and they will support us when we don't work anymore" or something like that.

Actually there was a bit sinsod talk in the past when I was present as well. Back then their words were more like "Give what you are comfortable with". Yesterday was just between her family and my girlfriend, without me present. If I would ask them this question I wouldn't get a straight answer, but I guess it's simply: As much as they can get. They probably assume that all farangs make a few million baht per month, and I should be comfortable to give them one month of my salary, or something like this...

At first I was thinking about offering 100k just to keep the family peace, but considering that they probably now have something like 5 million baht in their head, I guess they would never be happy with 100k, so I guess it will be 0 baht.

No, not the typical topic sinsod you might expect, I just wanted to share what made me laugh yesterday. My girlfriends's family talked about sinsod with my girlfriend, and the question raised was: "How many million baht sinsod will he give?" Not how much... but how many million... 555 They just failed to add "... and how many kilograms of gold?". I guess I just pick some money from the money trees that we have in farang land.

If the bikes are taxed it means they have compulsory insurance, which also pays if the rider is drunk or doesn't have a license: https://www.rvp.co.th/ClaimQA_en.php As you can see the limit is 30k if at fault, 80k if not at fault, so for you as pillion it should always be 80k. Just because you have it doesn't mean it's not rare. I doubt more than 1% of motorbikes in Thailand have first class insurance, so it's definitely rare.

That's the story that agents tell you in order to calm their clients. The reality is that the agent forges the banking documents, and the IO signs them off for a bribe. If <deleted> should ever hit the fan, the IO will claim that you personally submitted these forged documents, he didn't spot that they were fake, and he has never seen any agent. We have also seen evidence for this here on aseannow, due to small annotations next to extension stamps. Not all immigration offices do these annotations though. The annotation is the number according to document 12 posted in this topic: https://aseannow.com/topic/981135-laws-regulations-police-orders-etc/ If you got a retirement extension through an agent (the agent provided the money), and the extension stamp does have a small annotation stating "2.22" next to it, this means the agent used forged documents, because according to the stamp you fulfilled the requirements, including having the money seasoned. If an IO would waive any requirements, the extension would be issued under section 5, so if your extension has a small annotation next to it, it should say "5". Here a random Google picture, showing the "2.22" annotation, indicating that the applicant fulfilled all the requirements and nothing was waived:

Depends on which service the agent provided. If you satisfy the extension requirements and the agent just helped you to complete the documents, then it's legal. If you don't satisfy the requirements and the agent forged documents, bribed the IO etc, then it's obviously illegal.

The organization for which you volunteer should be aware of what is required, you are probably not their first volunteer. If they are unsure they can just call immigration, no agent required.

Leave before 90 days are up, then you are safe and don't have to worry.

Luckily my bike has cruise control, so I can use both hands for my phone.

A quickshifter doesn’t remove the most annoying burden of a clutch, starting/stopping.

Automatic any time. But for me it depends on the intended use on how important I consider having automatic: - Bangkok traffic, automatic is a must - In cities with less traffic or anywhere else, automatic is still nice to have, but something with an auto clutch like a Honda Wave is Ok, clutch is more annoying than having to shift gears. - On a bike mainly used for touring outside of cities, automatic is still nice to have, but has low priority for me

Most of them probably have a Thai spouse, so they can just their spouse's bank account, and their spouse's ID card when checking at a hotel. Actual limitations with an expired passport: - Can't renew their driving license, so when ending up in a police checkpoint they have to pay a fine for no license, but I guess many of them live out in the sticks, there are just no traffic check points. - Can't fly - Hospital visit might be problematic, but I assume this can somehow be handled.

He won’t travel abroad anyway, so not really important. Police never randomly asked to see my passport to check my permission to stay stamp, I would say the chance to be caught on overstay is nearly 0 if you never reported your current address to immigration. Thus I would expect that there are many people with decades of overstay.

I think it's quite similar to a hotel manager. So you should have experience in the hospitality industry.

She can definitely file a police report, and then the police will go after it, of course they work slow... You can just do it yourself in the settings, just Google how to do it if you don't find the option. Be aware that this deletes all data from the phone, so backup photos (might be automatically backed up by Google) etc. before doing it.

Before others here misunderstand it: OP is probably from Germany, where regular post parcels are handled by DHL, this has nothing to do with DHL express, and as he correctly stated himself already, here in Thailand the parcel will be handled by Thailand post. You can be lucky and the parcel just arrives at your home without you paying anything. If they want you to pay you will get a letter to your home, telling you to which post office you have to go and how much you have to pay. Then you have to go to the post office, pay what's due and then you get the parcel. If this letter doesn't arrive, you can also just check the tracking on the Thailand Post website. Once the tracking says that the parcel is at the post office and you have to pay duties you can just go there and tell them that they have a parcel for you, the letter is not required to pickup the parcel. If you are super unlucky (has happened to me twice, probably 100+ parcels) customs will keep the parcel and you have to go there, open it yourself for them to inspect it, and then pay them, but the chance for this to happen is small, they would also send you a letter informing you about this, or you can see it in the tracking.

This is probably not true, I guess she skipped details when telling you the story. She probably gave the caller an OTP code or similar.

Yes

As the previous poster said, get something like an Intel NUC, you can attach it to the back of the screen if you want. Way more flexible than an AIO PC, and probably cheaper too.

Toyota Alphard should offer the most comfort.

The link is in the Youtube video: https://adaptiverecognition.com/products/microcam-mobile-anpr-camera/