Wrwest

At first thought ... Thailand attempting to use the VAT angle to avoid dealing with tackling trade tariff agreements (that being far more difficult).

Good observation as most homes here act as heat sinks ... takes a bit of time having that heat given off after the sun goes down and even then, night temperatures do not help that much outside the "cool" hot season.

Coming out of the cooler hot season, in our new 3 bed, 2 bath, one floor "bungalow" we also saw a higher electric bill. But we have had at least half a month with increasing heat. I had 4 Daiken air conditioners installed. 3 units for the bedroom were about 13K BTU, the Living room about 17K BTU. 2 air running at night for sleeping. Currently, living room, my office daytime. Bill came end of last week 2626 baht, 155 units used on bill. Under $100 use a month is doable on my 65K required monthly retirement income.

Just a footnote, anticipating retirement, I figured out my sustainable budget would be $2400.00 a month USD ($1750 of that from SS). Looking at my US expenses, all in, the car maintenance, insurance, medical expenses (not 100% paid even with Medicare), maintaining home, food, utilities, property and income taxes, general cost of living ... I determined a rusting trailer in Florida or Arizonia might be feasible. Might get by but it would be akin to living a bare Thailand existence. No, by retiring to a lower cost country I found I could maintain a working middle class standard of living. Myself, Thai Wife and Stepdaughter use the 65K baht I bring in every month but have a new 3 bed, 2 bath home, 2 cars, motorbike and the ability to do some travel. Financially considerably better off here in Thailand.

Thank you for this as I was disturbed about Booking.com being involved. I have used them regularly over the years throughout Asia and the USA and have found them consistently accommodating (sorry about that).

I'm thinking we have witnessed many interesting folks in history who, in the end proved none too smart ... or am I wrong (in the voice of John Goodman in, "The Big Lebowski").

There you go ... taking my mind off to reflect on the potential for AI. much more capable than many humans are capable of dealing with ...

As close as my understanding. "Intelligence can be defined as a general mental ability for reasoning, problem solving, and learning. Because of its general nature, intelligence integrates cognitive functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, or planning." - JohnHopkins Medicine

here we touch on differing understanding of "smart" book smart, street smart but then the question was on intelligence. Different words thus different spellings and definitions although I do understand, in general use and understanding ...

As air is the topic and my PEA Bill just arrived, I report in ... new house, I had 4 Daiken units installed. 3 about 13K units in the 3 bedrooms. About 17K for the living room. 551 consumption = 2,625.65 baht this month (March - April 24). About half a month now, 2 air conditioners on. At night, 2 bedrooms, after about 10:00am, Living room and my office. After 16:00 Living room only until bedtime. Bill this month as we enter the hot hot season, about 1200 baht higher than last month. On balance? Geez, less than $100.00 USD for electric ... Not going to break the budget ... any praying is not for lower bill but rather that the electric stays on ... and in my 13 years here, it rarely goes off and then usually for less that an hour.

Does it not depend on the length of holiday and the weather conditions you plan for experiencing. Sorry, there I go thinking again. Just thinking of our trip (me, Wife, Daughter) this time last year for one month to the states. Yep, 3 check-in bags just under 50 lbs, 3 roll-ons and 3 backpacks. Took the train CNX to BKK, van on return BKK to CNX.

Dunin Donuts ... buy 6, get 6 free!

Guess I am "abnormal" as I cannot afford business clas (like the vast majority ... are you from D.C?). My work around is an airline credit card which allows priority boarding. Thus, I get my overhead stowed in "economy" before the excess baggage takes up more than their one carryon bag space (in which, I agree with you..

As usual ... depends. I had Thai Attorney draw up both a will and Prenup (which he said would be attached to the marriage registration). Got to the office to register the marriage and the official said ... No, it is against Thai Marriage Law. Would not budge.

Just a small note as to USA Medicare. Fully retired civilians paying Part B monthly premium = no coverage outside USA territory (I think Guam is the closest). Fully retired military = global healthcare coverage (reimbursed through the Tricare system). Both groups are required to pay the Part B premium. While I fully support the military retirees earned benefit, I will continue to advocate for equal treatment. I'm thinking lower healthcare costs outside the USA. Of course, there are those betting we will not return for Medicare coverage so all premiums are "gravy".

And without question, extend the same to renting a motorbike!

Tongue in cheek ... does that translate into Thai? "Mr. Putin, Russian speakers in Phuket need your protection. The Chinese are working with Thai police to "help" tourists. You need to send such folks to help Russian speakers". Could just cut through the time evolvement and just annex Phuket ...

Quite understandable. I have always used an agency for this reason. while I am perfectly inline with qualifying for the year long extensions ... well, the agencies know of the most recent "interpretation" of the law/regulation, which personalities to avoid, if there is a new boss wanting to make changes, etc. Just worth the agency fee for my peace of mind. As to the 800K baht deposit in a Thai bank? Non-starter for me. My funds are invested in the USA and are earning me about $5,000 use a year. I am not willing to park a portion of those funds.

Look along the bottom. Some hav a lever to push and reset. Others, have to lift the cover and red reset button is pushed.

In this case a citizen Grand Jury decided there was enough evidence to warrant a trial. Next will be a citizen Trial Jury deciding guilt or innocence ... not a judge.

Reminds me of the Japanese saying I learned, "The nail that sticks up, gets hammered down".

Only thing I really miss, thinking of US 7-11s is the clean public bathrooms!

Agree but rather than calling it a "Shinawatra deal" I would call it a rebalancing deal after two separate coup d'etat removing the elected governments. I can only speculate but I am thinking part of the deal is the two Prime Ministers would be allowed to return and, those involved in the coups get immunity from prosecution.

Leaving out the terminology "filthy deal", I agree.

!3 years here in Chiang Mai. I have not studied the broader issue and so I can only relate my own experience having lived in L&H (Maejo), Condo and rental home at 118 & 121 area (Sansai), Phimuk 1 (Sansai Noi) and now Saraphi. Only real damage was observed in 2011 upon first retiring in July 2011. Those who were here will well remember August that year. Chiang Mai flooded with the Mae Ping going over its banks. High electric poles along 121 were brought down. L&H flooded, I had to go to a hotel for a couple of nights. Other than that, I have been pleased and a bit surprised after noting the electric wire "rats nests" throughout Thailand. Oh, my electric has gone off but my experience has been that it is restored in short order. It is, in my experience it is off, usually, the longest one hour. If the electric went off where I lived in the USA, it was serious and would last the better part of a day or longer. But then I lived on the fringe of "tornado alley". Ice storm in 2009 left most ofwestern Kentucky without electric the better part of two weeks.