brian2322

Simply put, this place isn't made for pedestrians. That's why people drive their motorbikes distances that we'd normally walk in our own countries. I take bolt motorbike taxis or songthaews for anything over 200 meters. I also think the people who pretend they can ride a bicycle here are <deleted> as well, they just <deleted> up the traffic flow and cause more danger while inhaling <deleted>ty exhaust doing their cardio. I love using a bicycle and walking to get around major cities in the US, but I've adjusted to the reality here, it's dangerous to both you and others. In 20 years here it hasn't improved, and how would they even approach adding footpaths to these sois that can barely fit 2 cars going in opposite directions. When in rome... post on an expat forum and complain that it's not the netherlands...

I missed my 90 day report in December as well. I guess the email reminder system stopped working. I'll be leaving and re-entering thailand via Suvarnabhumi in April. I can't recall ever showing up to date 90 day reports when exiting/entering Thailand, is that something that would be flagged in the computer?

FWIW I find @JimGant contributions as useful as @Mike Lister and the bickering about who is posting disinformation or not useless noise. But I'm able to ingest information and think critically for myself. I appreciate the contributions and effort of the OP, but in other threads I've never found it helpful when the OP tries to rule the thread with an iron fist.

schadenfreude now. would you guys just die already?

Regarding global taxation, I'm guessing it's as big a deal to the Thai billionaires as it is to us. More so, maybe... Do they get to play by the 179 day rule as well?

Very enlightening link. Thailand at 1.8% of GDP vs. 9.4% in Philippines and 8.9% in Cambodia. For the Philippines I suspect most of those remittances are from Filipinos working overseas. Cambodia may be similar, citizens working in neighboring ASEAN countries?

"Not so. The target in all of this is well to do middle class and wealthy Thai's who have been exploiting tax loopholes and avoiding taxes. As much as farangs think they are the center of the universe here, they are nothing more than collateral damage, to start with, there are far more middle and upper wealth class Thai's than there are farangs in Thailand. Plus, farangs only need to be non resident for one year, during which they can import as much money as they want, free of Thai tax, that's only 185 days out of the country." I took your advice and found the above in the Tax Guide posted by Mike Lister. So I don't even need to stay out 6 months every 2 years, just 185 days and then decide how many year's worth of remittances I want to send. That's a relief...

I think you could limit your time out of country to 6 months every 2 years if you play around with the remittances. Last year I remitted enough so I don't need to remit this year and can "wait and see". Next year if the burden (mental/bureaucratic/financial) becomes too great I'll remit enough for 2026 and leave after 179 days. 1.) Stay in country in 2025 179 days, remit enough to live on for those 179 days + 2026. Not a tax resident for 2025 so that large remittance isn't taxable. 2.) Leave for the rest of 2025. 3.) Come back in 2026 and live off what was remitted in step 1. 4.) Stay for 179 days in 2027 and repeat step 1. Obviously doesn't work for everyone's circumstances (especially pensions/social security), and technically currently all my money is pre-2024 savings + investment/interest income. My fear is more around the bureaucracy and the FIFO/LIFO argument. If they try to do the global worldwide income approach (one comment from 1 person at a seminar that sounded like brainstorming) that's a different ball of wax. But remittances make it cleaner, you have more control over the tax you will owe. I'm on the elite visa FWIW, so I'm afraid that's a pretty easy list to parse if they are looking to just target higher net-worth individuals.

i'm in the same boat. used to get bricks off of shoppee, now i don't know where to get any.

I've found that my best results for edibles are with plain brick weed. Using decent weed or trim doesn't produce proportionately better oil/cannibutter. With brick I can use alot more weed which seems to be the primary variable in oil strength.

i'm curious- any idea why it is going bad? did they seal it with dental cement? i recently got a crown and it fit so snugly the dentist couldn't remove it to apply the cement, and I've read online that this can cause problems in the future...

I think you're right, it's the increase in news on the topic. Boots on the ground in Pattaya for a couple decades, things were far more violent before social media/camera phones took over. I used to see a 5-10:1 group of thais beating up a tourist at least once a week, but I think due to the increased likelihood of serious consequences because of videos posted to social media, it's dwindled to a trickle. It's a big deal nowadays when there is a brawl on walking street that makes it to social media.

bumping this topic. are there any regular basketball games anyone is aware of? I remember there being a pickup game at a large indoor basketball court on the dark side but I can't remember the name of the place. I also played on the top floor of the building across from the old original tony's gym on 3rd road once, haven't been there for years.

I've always been able to go to the shop where I bought my motorbike and they would handle the registration and insurance for me. I've owned the bike for 6 years and after 5 years they said they couldn't do it for me anymore, and were unable to provide details on what I needed to do. I understand I need to get an inspection. I've talked to the staff at my condo and someone offered to do it for me. I don't mind paying them a few baht if it will make things run more smoothly. Has anyone done this before? Any ideas what documents I need to provide? I assume: green book copy of passport copy of visa? current registration/insurance I did do a search, I thought there may be a pinned topic but I didn't find one. If I do decide to do it myself, is it as simple as dropping it off at the inspection station with the required documents and will *they* deal with the thai bureaucracy for me? TIA

i've done the BKK-SFO flight on China Airlines at least a dozen times due to the quick layover (it's the quickest flight to the west coast US I could find) and the price (sub-$1000 RT last month). There is a tram where you need to switch terminals, and you need to go thru security again. There are agents there to guide you, and at least one of the flight attendants on the BKK-Tapei leg will speak thai. Once the flight from SFO to Taipei was significantly delayed (1.5 hrs or so) and they didn't hold the BKK flight for us. They put us up in a hotel for 12 hours or so and shuttled us back to the airport. So that's 1 in 12ish. Otherwise they will hold the connecting plane for short delays. After my last flight I won't do economy again on China Airlines, the seats seem to have gotten smaller, and the food/service has definitely declined. I'll at least do premium economy or business if it's reasonable. Hope this helps.

I made an appointment with the highly recommended dentist on Klang that I've been seeing for years. The appointment was 2 weeks out. When I arrived on time, there were 8 people in the waiting room, noone at reception, and 3 more people arrived in the 10 minutes I waited. Seems they had overbooked by quite a bit. I went to Pattaya memorial dental clinic, booked an appointment 5 days out, and was seen by the dentist at my appointment time. I think I'll stick with the hospital dental clinic moving forward. Not sure what the price difference is (paid 10k baht for a zirconia crown?), but I don't like waiting for an hour+ after my appointment time.

This is similar to what I do. I wear simple reading glasses on top of my contacts for reading rather than having separate "normal" and "reading" glasses.

it's a new upcharge. i paid an extra $150 on china airlines to fly to the US next month so that i could choose my seats.

There are a few bars in the area but no, not really.

My understanding is that if you look at all of the condos in cozy beach, peak towers is as close to the beach as they are *currently* allowed to build hi-rises (there are others at a similar distance to peak towers but none significantly closer). You could confirm with your lawyer.

I rented at the Peak Towers for a couple years. It does get some pretty strong winds during storms, so I would definitely be concerned if they built more floors than they were allowed to. It's got beautiful views on the beach side. My only input is probably generic for hi-rises, there aren't enough facilities for the number of people that live there. There are 2 pools with a total of ~20-30 chairs and a smallish gym and 30ish floors with ~10 units per floor. So when residency picked up post-covid it was difficult to get a seat at the pool or use the common gym. However, this is likely the case with most hi-rises. I moved to a low rise and am happier here with the ratio of residents to facilities here.

I've been having a really hard time with the FDA customs requirements for getting contact lenses sent here. I had to abandon 2 shipments when the amount of hoops to jump through became too onerous. Those were both sent via DHL. (FWIW the prescription I need is not available in Thailand anywhere). Have any of you shipped medications or anything else that would normally trigger the FDA clearance process using the WeShippingUSA service?

I just got my confirmation an hour after posting...

I registered for an appointment on Friday but haven't heard back from them, has anyone gotten an appointment confirmation?

They don't renew passports. They handle transferring the Visa and confirmed what previous posters mentioned that it's not necessary until my next extension/trip abroad.