
nigelforbes
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Everything posted by nigelforbes
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It wouldn't be the first time that the North implemented new and sometimes unofficial policies, before the rest of the country, sometimes at odds with what Bangkok has said. From memory, things that get implemented here, also get implemented in the rest of the country later, why this is I don't know.
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Dont give them ideas
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I don't believe that. It is not a complex process and it can be done by individuals but many like me don't want to. I'm 73, I don't want to queue in Immi., I want to stay home or spend my time in other ways. When covid was rampant, using an agent made perfect sense for older people and it still does. Those of us who have been here for many years will remember the uncertainties of the visa visit....go home and fetch this, go fetch that and come back, make more copies of this, your bank letter is dated yesterday, it has to be dated today, start queuing in parking lot at 4 am for a queue number, explaining banking process to Immi. staff such as why a fixed deposit can't show a same withdrawal unless it's cancelled. This list of fun and games is a long one and come with bad memories. Phuket Immi. sent me back to Bangkok to HSBC to get a new bank letter because it was dated yesterday not today! Now all I have to do is pay my 5k and have my picture taken, it's a perfect fit for me and I can get on with my gardening.
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Thanks. I was offered a choice of something like four different ATM cards, each one a different price and each one having different insured values. Being a cheapskate I took the cheapest one which cost 300 baht and has no insurance. I suspect others could do the same thing plus that was the very last step in the process, long after the account was already opened.
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The numbers don't support your argument Mike. Even with all financial factors considered, the fiscal impact of expats in Thailand, on the overall economy, is negligible. Where expats do have an impact is in support and redistribution of wealth to poorer, rural, low income families where their quality of life is often improved. There are many different estimates, the one I like and tend to use for examples is that there is 150,000 expats in Thailand, working and retired. This is not to be confused with the total number of foreigners which is around 4 million, most of whom are citizens of neighbouring or other S Asian countries. Even if every one of them has an 800k Baht deposit in a Thai bank for visa purposes (which they don't, not by a long way), that's USD 3.6 bill., or about 0.7% of GDP (520 bill), in economics terms it's insignificant, even to the banks that are holding the money on deposit. Even if average expat spending is twice that amount every year, the total figure of 1.5% is still very small. House, cars and other capital purchases are one off or once in a decade events and don't change the outcome very much. Yes of course there are higher spending expats but it's the median that's important in this calculation. You need to look back and understand why the amounts linked to expat visa's were first established, it was because the country desperately needed foreign currency. At one time our impact was substantial, today it has waned to almost insignificance, I'm surprised that nobody has done anything to change the amounts for many years. The financial picture aside, the expat community is a wasted resource here which should be harnessed and employed to better effect, collectively we have so much knowledge and skills that could be used to better the country. But I suspect the cultural differences wouldn't easily allow that to happen,. most of us wouldn't know how to effectively work with Thai's and given the way they are bashed on these pages, not many would want to work with us I suspect!
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The Baht Thread
nigelforbes replied to nigelforbes's topic in Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments
The US jobs report came in hot and showed lower unemployment, the Dollar strengthened and the Pound fell, Pound/Baht came out the looser.....US equities shed gains as a result, Dollar up, equities down. More people being hired means stronger growth downstream, that means a stronger USD. It also means higher interest rates for longer, also USD positive. The Fed. has got a tough job on its hands. There's nothing good going on with the Pound, it's back to flirting with 1.20 again. The bottom line.....buying Baht with USD is getting more attractive, buying with Pounds is going to get ugly. There may be an opportunity this year for those wanting to repatriate Baht to Pounds. -
Escape Thailand’s air pollution – head south to Phuket and the South
nigelforbes replied to webfact's topic in Thailand News
Yes it's bad, yes it's unhealthy, I hate it as much as anyone, but understand a few of the constraints, just to help keep perspective. The entire regional economy is based on agriculture, clearing previous season growth is a key part of the process. Shan State has become the contract farming center of the universe whilst Laos produces a lot of agricultural products destined for China. We had more rain for longer, last year, than we've had for many years, everything grew like crazy. Many of the farming areas are mountainous and inaccessible to motorised farm machinery, most of the work has to be done by hand. Most farmers are subsistence level farmers, they don't have money to spend on costly environmental friendly solutions. Winds at this time of year blow mainly North to South. -
I'm not bashing the UK here, just making a point: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/28/dirty-air-affects-97-of-uk-homes-data-shows#:~:text=Virtually every home in the,of dirty air to date.
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I don't care. Bye.
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Getting a similar letter from your embassy is a workable alternative. Yet another alternative is to walk into a large branch and tell them you want to open an account, for what reason and that you intend to fund the account with 5 mill. can they help. They will fall over themselves and bend rules but you don't have to keep the money in the account, you can ship it back out later. Last one.....the banks usually want you to have a residents account whereas a non-residents bank account is far easier to open and there are no restrictions on the transfer of funds in and out of the country, you can transfer as much as you want, when you want. Restrictions on a non-resident account is that it wont earn interest and you can't deposit THB into it, otherwise it's the same as the resident account. Outwardly, it looks exactly the same, Immigration wouldn't know. You might want to try asking what the bank requires for you to open a non-resident bank account.....I had one for many years.
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I really do not know why I'm bothering to debate this issue. Your post has done nothing more than reaffirm to me at least that the heat is transferred to air which is something I think we all knew at the outset but you said was "neither true nor consistent with fact"! Of course the heat doesn't go back into the tile, it can't. Anyone who has been inside a roof void or attic that has a radiant barrier installed will know it is a very very hot place, mine is frequently in the 40's, if not higher. If I didn't have four very large gable end vents and an equal amount of air intake at the eaves, the temperature would be hotter and the floor insulation would be defeated in a few hours. As things stand the bottom one foot of air in the attic is cold because it reflects the incoming cooler air through the eaves boards. Hot air doesn't just escape from the roof void through spaces between the tiles, not unless there is an equally sized source of incoming air at a lower level to allow that to happen - air out equals air in. Anyway, I'm done here, you can beat this up some more if you want but the sad fact is that we've gone full circle, back to the what I said at the outset before you popped up.
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If the heat (energy) is not directed back at the roof tiles and it is not transferred into the air, I don't see a third alternative hence it must be one or the other. But honestly, for the purposes of this discussion, does it really matter? If we were designing Enterprises heat shield I can agree it would, but....!
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A previous description of an inversion layer was incomplete and misleading plus questions were asked that went unanswered. For those who wish to understand, the following may help, it is a combination of slides material that I have added to for clarity. No discussion (from me), just clarification of an earlier exchange. Any further information can easily be obtained from the internet, there's lots of material out there on this subject: NORMALLY - Air is hottest, closest to the ground and cools the further away it travels from the ground. WHAT - Inversions are stable air masses where this condition is reversed and cooler air is near the earth's surface and warmer air is on top. The normal process of cooling resumes with distance from the top edge of the inversion layer WHY - With an inversion, air near the ground cools more quickly than air aloft. This is most likely when the sky is clear and the wind is light/calm. Cooling will occur the most readily in low places (such as valleys sheltered from the wind). Chinag Mai is a basin surrounded by mountains. WHEN - This often happens in the late afternoon/early evening (before sunset) and lingers into the next morning (after sunrise) for a few hours until the suns rays heat the air and the ground, allowing it to rise. Since warm air rises, air under the inversion cannot escape because it is cooler than farther aloft. Smoke and pollution get trapped. THE SIGNS - Clear skies, no clouds. Calm wind, less than 3 mph. Closer to sunrise or sunset. Dew present. Horizontal smoke patterns. Ground fog in low lying areas. https://www.weather.gov/media/lzk/inversion101.pdf
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Garbage!!!! Either you have not transacted inside a branch for a long time or you used a pink card to open your account. If you have been inside a branch and you have not been asked for your passport, I don't believe you because there have been numerous discussions about this subject over the past few months. If you have been asked for your passport I can believe that you may not have noticed that your visa was being checked. I bank at Bangkok Bank and UOB and both require my passport before I can even update my bank book! Bangkok Bank even has signs at teller stations stating that passports will be required. As for the rest of what you wrote: no, I'm not up in arms, I'm very supportive of what the banks are doing, I think it's the right thing to do. And I never said I thought I was a permanent resident, I don't know where you pulled that one from!!
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Why do you think that? If you refer to the oil price, I agree oil will increase but that should manifest itself in increased fuel surcharges, not increased ticket prices.
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TM30 is not recent, TM 30 has been around for a long time. Do I have proof? Yes, I asked my bank and the manager reaffirmed it was an Immi. requirement. Later I wrote to the CEO of the bank because I was annoyed, he said enough words to confirm that was the case, without actually saying anyone was responsible....you know how those letters go here.
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There's no bashing there, a poor choice of words on your part. I was simply pointing out that pollution is a global problem, not something that is unique to Thailand.