brian2322

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.

I have an elite visa and am about to renew my passport. Does anyone know how long I have to transfer the visa to the new passport? I would like to go ahead and renew the passport now, but wait until early next year to transfer the visa when I leave and re-enter the country. Does anyone know if that is possible?

The doctor just gave me the numbered prescription. I was able to find the power and within 5 points on the cylinder and axis for the astigmatism in the Coopervision Proclear Toric XR brand. Anything is better than the +6.00 (I am > +8.00) no astigmatism correction lenses that I'm making do with for now. Yeah I would just order 1 box of each to see how they feel. I've been wearing contacts for a very long time, it's just that my prescription exceeds what is available in Thailand. My guess is in the end I will just have to return to my country for the order, but I'm interested if anyone has successfully ordered contact lenses online and gotten them through customs.

I received a prescription from Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital recently where my contact lens prescription was over +8 with astigmatism. The doctor said I should order contact lenses online because that high of a power of toric lenses is unavailable in Thailand. I have previously had to abandon a contact lens order that was shipped by the company via DHL at customs because I didn't have the necessary paperwork. Specifically they are asking for a doctor's certificate specifying why I need the lenses. I emailed both customs and the hospital to ask for an example of such a medical certificate, or if my BHP-provided prescription would suffice, but noone has responded. Has anyone successfully gotten contact lenses ordered online successfully through customs? Failing that, does anyone know of any eye doctor that is able to order high power toric contact lenses in Thailand? I thought BPH was my best bet but they seemed oblivious to the customs issue.

topic derailed

It's in addition to the 1900 normal fee. Basically no more "free" immigration services, everything is 2000 baht. Just an FYI, don't want to get into a value argument.

Do they return the old passport so that you can transfer your current visa to the new passport?

I recently did the 500k baht upgrade for an additional 15 years. Apparently now I have to pay for the "Elite Personal Liason" service (them handling stuff at immigration). The first one is free, after which I have to pay. The first one is apparently affixing the new visa. I asked about doing a 1 year extension at the same time (to save a trip to immigration), and the cost is 2000 baht for the 1 year extension. I'll just pay it cuz I'm "wealthy" (joking). But that was a surprise. I suppose anything (changing visa to a new passport, etc.) is now going to cost at least 2000 baht (in addition to the 1900 to immigration). I think most people also know that the car service is also cancelled once you do the upgrade. So the upgrade is definitely a downgrade to "now you just get a visa, no more services". Just an FYI.

it would be nice to just keep it factual. where are they playing, are they playing after dark, etc. then if you want to go, you know where to go, and if you don't, you can avoid it. cosy beach area is respecting after dark rules, what about elsewhere?

has anyone been to lk metro or walking street after dark? are they still splashing or not?

is there still an insurance requirement?

I think the discount to 50k baht is to compete with the elite visa. Elite at 600k for 5 years is 120k baht/year. Probably worth the extra 20k/year to not have any additional requirements, but is it worth an extra 70k/year?

To follow up for posterity, I ended up using DHL. Once I received the tracking number, I signed up for shipment notifications with my phone and email address. When the package arrived in Bangkok, I received a link with the customs fees which were about 10% of the declared value, so it's possible they increased the declared value and that was 7% of their calculation. I didn't receive any breakdown of the calculation, just a flat fee I needed to pay. I used the link and paid the fee, and the package was delivered the same day to my condo. I think as @BMW Overlander mentioned, DHL has in-house customs, which I think did help smooth the process. The duties weren't too outrageous either.

Thanks. So if I have to go to pay them, I guess I should just have it delivered to their office rather than my condo so I can pick it up when I pay?

Someone will be sending me a secondhand laptop from the US to Thailand. They spoke to DHL and were told they are unable to prepay any customs/import duties. My main concern is any delay in receiving the item, it is time sensitive. 1.) Where will I pay the customs fees? Can I pay at the local DHL office, or will the laptop be held in some other location? I'm in Pattaya. 2.) Is it *ever* possible to pay these fees up front? I know when I order off of Amazon they charge me customs fees and everything seems to be prepaid and the item arrives at my condo with no further action for me. This is the flow I was hoping for with the laptop. 3.) Would things go smoother using FedEx? Any suggestions to speed/smooth the process are appreciated. TIA