nigelforbes

I like them, I usually get what I need without too much drama. My first experience with them wasn't great, I went with my wife to request a one year statement on her business account. The local branch had the statement printed which showed our address of ten years before so we went back to get it corrected. Staff there, all the way to manager level, did their very best to avoid having to reprint the statement and accused my wife of failing to notify the bank of her change of address. We pointed out the account was opened new when we moved to our home nearby but the system had somehow picked up her previous address from a prior account. A quick check of their paperwork showed this was true. I sat in the meeting listening and watching as all of this unfolded and attempts were made to shift the blame, it was an amazing experience. Eventually my wife got what she wanted and we've never used a rural branch since. It's all about location location location.

Thanks for the recommendations regarding ENT, if anyone has a recommendation for a decent family doctor or General Practitioner I'll be happy to hear that also? I'm not interested in going to Hang Dong.

Hot money is flowing out of Thai equities on rate increase concerns in March, over USD 0.5 bill since 1 February. That outflow saw the Baht weaken by one baht against USD, now recovering slightly.

Pollution from the burning season is starting to get a bit thick right now, if you have other choices that may be better and leave CM visits for the September thru January timeframe when the weather and air are ideal.

Russians bring black market USD with them from mother Russia and exchange it here, RUB/USD is the most popular pair involving RUB. Yes, the rate is much improved over what it was.

An occupation doesn't require remuneration, as in volunteer.

Could, I wrote could!

Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 38 could see any farang who has a house, arrested and deported in 24 hours.

I also have worked in banking in the West for many years but I accept that Thai banking is not at the same level of sophistication as the US or UK, at least their customer service and systems are not. I also bank with BBL who like all banks here, fall down in one area or another. My other bank here is an abomination when it comes to statements and letters, I end up holding banking 101 training courses every time I need one. Those things said, I love BBL to death because for 15 baht per month, they send me an SMS telling me every time a transaction takes place on my account, and they tell me my balance every time also. So I think this all about trade offs, my advice would be not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Speculation etc, oh, ok then!

This is only because you don't have a view to express, other than that old manipulation chestnut, which is the equivalent of promoting flat earth.

I think I'd be embarrassed to be a news reporter, talking about the so called strength of the Baht against other currencies and and saying I did know why it was so. Perhaps he should read the Baht thread!

Chartchai's column in the Post this morning makes excellent reading yet again. He argues that all the good things that have happened to the economy in recent months are nothing more than pent up demand and that the future looks less rosy. Tourism numbers however should continue to increase, whether to 23 or 25 million in 2023 seems like a pointless debate....the numbers are on the up and revenue from tourism, the EXPORT OF SERVICES, is good. But exports from manufacturing are vital to the economy because the country is (overly) dependent on exports, over 70%, compared to a global average of only 28%. If his hypothesis is correct and exports do turn lower, that points towards a possible balance of payments gap, unless inbound FDI rides to the rescue. But with the interest rate differential being so large, I'm betting that wont happen, in which case a weaker or flat baht may be on the cards. As always however, what happens to USD and the US economy remains the key. Read Chartchai's column, it's well written and very informative.

"According to Idige Rantanen, all passengers did not take any photos, but were seated properly". Er, who took the picture in the article?

@Sherylwill almost certainly reply to you. In the meantime, the bag of frozen peas was not a joke, it does work.

It's difficult to advise you without knowing more, which arguably Sheryl in the Medical and Health forum can do better than anyone else. If you have known spinal problem such as disk issues or stenosis, that's one thing. But if you have muscle problems resulting from poor posture, the advice I gave earlier seems appropriate. There are also plenty of physio options available which include hot and cold pads and ultrasound, they might be worth a shot initially since many spial doctors will try and send you down the road first anyway. You don't say that you're in pain so I would guess it's not a disk issue hence seeing a spinal doctor may not be ideal. There's also the Chiropractor option which I've used in Phuket successful so you may wish to consider that. The question now is, which of those roads do you want to go down? If you insist on seeing a spinal doctor, orthopedic surgeons are easily found at Bangkok Hospital.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good ENT doctor in Chiang Mai, outside of the major private hospitals? A four year old thread on the same subject recommended Dr. Chalermpong, can anyone recommend? Thanks

A can or mossie spray works equally as well, get as close as possible and spray for twenty seconds.

Ice pack, not heat, buy a bag of frozen peas. Change your seated posture. Get out more, exercise, limit PC time.

110 sick buffalos, bar girls for the use of....check.

I didn't say or suggest any of those things! I only said that the previous poster didn't know why the checkpoint existed or its purpose hence he isn't able to speculate that it's sole purpose was to extort money from foreigners in "touristy" areas.

Yes indeed the DI is a basket of currencies. But if you think the cause of USD DI strengthening to 115 was a direct result of YEN weakness, you need to do some research. May I suggest you start by looking at the one year USD/GBP, USD/YEN etc graphs and compare them against the DI over the same period. https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=GBP https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=JPY Look, I don't really want to have a debate with you or anyone else about the DI, blockchain or many of the things that you seem to want to touch on. I'm going to leave you to get on with whatever you want to say and then perhaps later, when things have settled down a bit, we can get back to the subject of the thread. Thanks

This is the US DI, it is an index that measures the extent to which USD has been bought or sold, against what is not really of interest to the DI. https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/dxy

SWIFT is not a settlement system it is a messaging system that is then followed by the things we are trying to discuss, international settlement! Member banks send secure messages to each other to describe a particular transaction. That results in funds being debited at one bank and credited at another. The process of balancing the books between the two banks is what international settlement is.

The Dollar Index soared in value because investors and banks were buying USD, that is very clear. Can I just reaffirm with you the scope of the thread which we want keep fairly tight? It's focus is THB and in particular its relationship with USD and other major currencies, that's why it's called the Baht Thread. At present we're trying to bottom out how how BOT's Foreign Currency Reserves benefit, if at all, from international tourism in Thailand, that's why we're trying to understand the global interbank settlement process. If we could stick to that as the core discussion, for the time being, that would be good.