NanLaew

Not at all sure about that Bob, I was a proper hoon in the early 80's. Even got myself banged up in Pattaya in '84.

You haven't read any German-language forums then. Or Swedish.

A man choses to marry a woman for what she is. A woman choses to marry a man for what he can be. 'twas ever thus

This.

It wasn't me.

Since there's no specific visa for 'buying a condo', the TR is the probably the OP's best only bet since the visa-exempt is clearly a bust. Then it will be a case of doing the rounds of the banks, sifting out the 'cannot' repsonses and hoping to get lucky eventuallu. Or maybe cut to the chase and get an agent that says they can do it lined up before the next trip.

To sleep with 2nd hand prostitutes? The same as you can do in Bangkok? Yeah, sure. If that's what you want.

So will you be getting the "minimum requirement" 60-day visa ahead of your next trip? Thailand's not unique and if you want truly mind-blowing, dumb-ass, illogical, bureaucratic paper-shuffling dealt by serially unhelpful government and bank oxygen wasters, I reckon you can't beat Brazil. It was easier for me to rent a 4-bedroom villa in the diplomatic quarter of Havana, Cuba than to try and get condo squatting rights in Fortaleza. Good luck on getting the ducks in a row for your eventual condo purchase here in Thailand.

For the effort of a telephone call you will get advice regarding their requirements better than spending hours in a branch Q system and being denied. My success resulted from making the phone call inside the branch while with a staff member who said cannot do. If you make the call from home you will at least have an answer before wasting time looking for a branch that might accommodate your needs Many thanks for explaining the mechanics of the procedure. When was the last time this was successful?

Do you have your phone manufacturers technical specification that supports your thinking that it is "able to process (filter/forward) packets" at same or better rates than a bespoke SIM card modem? Or a Google Pixel 6 Pro, or a Samsung Galaxy S22 or an ASUS Rog phone 5s?

Don't forget to use a decent speed tester. There was a rather heated debate on another thread that proved that not all speed testers are created equal and the following one came highly recommended. TestMy.net

And I have eight buddies from the US, a couple of Canadians, an Aussie, a Swede and a Kiwi who used to visit as often as three times a year and only stayed away when covid rules prevented their travel. They come to enjoy themselves and they still do. What's this fascination with trawling for bad news stories that seem to resonate in your affirmation echo chamber?

I'm not sure if I need the additional expense of buying two items. He's a part-time, casual gamer who hasn't professed any need for a PlayStation. Once he's graduated and off to work and earning, he can buy his own. The Acer Nitro 5 is a decent gamer AND school laptop. One of the guys I work with runs programs that are extremely heavy on number crunching and also requires high resolution graphic capability. He ended up buying an ASUS i7, 17" gamer laptop. He's not a gamer but fellow workers like rib him about the fancy styling of his 'I'm working, not gaming' laptop.

Then maybe the second part lke what VPN are you using? Where's their server in relation to 1) you and, 2) the host of whatever you are attempting to access? FWIW, my experience of connecting via VPN from anywhere to anywhere has been typically slower and not just here in Thailand. However, I have never tried any connections via TRUE be they VPN or direct.

So how does a telephone call to head office magic up a new account? Do they open it over the phone? You still need to go to a branch to do it, right? Do you tell them 'Your head office said you must open an account for me with "name same as passport and address in English"' and they just jump to it? The same folks that said 'cannot' previously? Your post is light on the mechanics of the process plus it doesn't have a date of when the last of your 3 account openings was so easily done. The banking rules and regulations have been tightened up over tha past few years.

Fruitloops (not the cereal either)

Suerely where no man has gone before, no?

So God was into recycling then? That'll get the green vote!

China claims sovereignity of the Gulf of Thailand. Even though Cambodia and vietnam block it if from being remotely near. Even China would struggle trying to justify that @Gold Star said "most waters". While we acknowledge your O-level in geography, try not to take his obvious tongue in cheek comment so seriously.

Agreed, 7 was decent while 8 was another 'Vista moment' best avoided, 10 is solid (now). I upgraded my office and lad's gaming PC's from 7 to 10 about two years ago, everyone happy, especially game boi. I subsequently upgraded my 12 year-old work laptop from 7 to 10 and was pleased that it also sorted out some intermittent hardware issues (bloody drivers!) that had plagued the machine after about 3 or 4 years of those infernal Windows updates. Since I built both PC's around 2011/12, I'm not going to waste time going to 11 but the lad's getting a new gaming laptop for his birthday this month which will come with 11. I replaced my old laptop with a new slim and svelte 11 machine last December. Really, really happy with it and the weight-saving over it's predecessor.

They do? Since you seem to know a lot about this, if the passenger van (from the same company) gets hit by another vehicle on the wrong side of the road, are all bets off?

Under specific circumstances VPN's can increase speeds for certain services. ISP's sometimes throttle, or artificially slow down specific types of of traffic; for example, several major ISP's have throttled streaming entertainment like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.. In most instances a VPN will slow down your internet since it is fundamentally a rerouting rather than a short cut. However, the amount your speed is affected depends on the circumstances (see above). How fast your native internet was before applying a VPN, which brand VPN you are using and how far away you are from your VPN server can all play a part in your internet speed experience.

This generalization societal analysis is based on what? Research? Or simply an obsession with the 'bad news sells' English langauge media stories that attract clicks on internet forums? Plus a light dusting of xenophopbia.

Humans can be inhuman everywhere, smiling and otherwise. There. I've generalized for you.

The dangers inherent of a generation that's inceasingly getting too far up themselves.