Cameroni

I was paranoid about this. I told the local Visa associate girl I will come to pick up my passport in person in Pattaya. We exchanged Line details and agreed to meet when the passport was ready. When Immigration finalised the visa/extension in record time I was told "It is done" by Mr Big. Mr Big also told me that my passport had been sent from Pattaya to himself in Bangkok. He had not been informed by the local Visa associate girl in Pattaya that I had arranged with her to pick up my passport in person with her in Pattaya. The Visa Associatge girl, terrified of Mr Big, just sent him the passport. When I contacted her "But we agreed that I pick up the passport" and explained I now had to stay in Bangkok 2 more days (the time it took for the passport to travel from Pattaya to Bangkok) she just replied "We don't trouble with the agency". Mr Big must be a dangerous man. So fast forward 3 days later, it took not one but 3 days for my passport to travel from Pattaya to Bangkok because Visa Associate girl had omitted to put Mr Big's address at the post office. When Mr Big finally received my passport I was already back in CM. Mr Big then arranged for my passport to be dropped by Grab (!) at the reception of a well known hotel where one of my associates then retrieved my passport into safety. I was sweating blood sweat and tears knowing my passport was being sent via Grab and Thai Postal service. I am still amazed it was not lost. If anyone does this, make it very clear to all parties you will pick up the passport from the 1st point of contact to avoid your passport going on a Chevy Chase vacation.

Great to hear these success stories, really appreciate the feedback. Just out of interest, why did you change from marriage visa to retirement visa?

Interesting. It is still a small price to pay if you do it yourself. I think the extension done by the agent will get cheaper than the first application, but it is still going to cost more than a medical certificate.

You can't order beef in Thailand. You just can't. Pork is fine. Chicken is fine. Beef, no es bueno. Unless you order in a bona fide Steak house, then yes, otherwise, don't order beef steak.

Unexcusable of course, but Duke's pizza is not bad. These things can happen. I have to say Duke's ribs are not the best in CM by a long shot, but the Pizzas are not bad.

Thanks, this is exactly what I was wanting to hear.

I am 100% confident he can. However, my concern is if he ever retires or his company goes down. Talk about irony.

I rent a car in CM for 8000 Baht a month. I did the maths and with depreciation and running costs it would cost me the same if I bought one. So I will continue to rent. It's convenient, flat battery or tire and the guy comes and fixes it at no charge.

They use my CM address in Pattaya. My TM30 is for CM.

I went to Pattaya because I had iron-clad trust in this agency, because they got me out of a jam before. But I could do either, go to Pattaya again or use CM. I thought Pattaya was cheaper, they charged 35000, but then I had to do a second Pattaya trip that cost 10000 on top, because the Bank changed rules. So not much saving to CM, but I really trust this agent.

Yes it is amazing what you can get in CM these days, but I was just in Bangkok and there is even more choice there. This is why I love Thailand and think it is better than Philippines, Vietnam etc. You can't get there what you can get here.

It was Pattaya, so yes, a backwater province.

Let's say the agent goes under, I guess I could just use one of the other agents if I had to extend/renew? I am in Chiang Mai but I applied in Pattaya.

In Chiang Mai if you crave Western bread, ie French Baguette, you are blessed with "L'Opera". They have bread better than in France. If you crave Burgers, "Rock Me Burger" has burgers better than America. Mix Restaurant next to One Nimman has awesome steak, but it costs of course. For quality Chinese Tolou delivers like in the West. At San Kamphaeng walking street on Saturday's you'll get a quality Chicken Doner from a Halal Muslim guy for 60 Baht. Churros too. Why Ribs make superb ribs in Chiang Mai. Rimping Chiang Mai sells good fresh Bagels if you get there on time. Mega Bangna in Bangkok has Shakeshack. Basically you can get anything in Thailand. Just a question of price.

So I followed the advice of the resident visa guru here and obtained a retirement visa. My initial euphoria was that everything was now sorted out. But is this really the case, what problems have you encountered with the retirement visa? I understand it has to be renewed, you have to do 90 days reporting and you need permission to leave and re-enter. I am also concerned if the agency I used goes under or disappears how that will affect things. Anyway, have you found any problems that surprised you with the retirement visa?

By all accounts many Greenlanders are welcoming their new American overlords already.

There would not be any fighting to speak of. Like in WWII Denmark would roll over with minimal resist ance, they surrendered in less than 6 hours then to the Germans. Against the US military the Danes would most likely not even put up any fight. The US already has a military base in Greenland, it just needs to enlarge its presence. There is nothing anyone could do to stop it. You seriously believing that Britain or France would fire missiles into the White House and thereby risk the total destruction of their countries to aid Denmark shows your brain is terminally divorced from reality. What did Britain and France do in the Ukraine war? Go in blazing on the Kremlin did they? No, they understood, as indeed did the US, that it is prudent not to risk your own nuclear destruction. As for your nonsense that imperialism is dead in 2025, maybe ask the people of the Donbass, Palestine, South Sudan or Muslim Mindanao what they think about that.

Actually that's exactly what happened with DeepSeek. It may be the case it has managed to cut costs and compute, but we do know that it is built at least in part on the shoulders of the giants: it uses Nvidia chips – albeit older, cheaper versions - and utilises Meta's open-source Llama architecture, as well as AliBaba's equivalent Qwen. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2jxvn0r51o They copied Meta's open source. And by all accounts DeepSeek is not as good as the US competition, for instance you can't ask it questions about Tiannamen Square. It censors itself when it comes to Chinese topics.

They need the resources as well of course. Also once the ice melts the US will have a better passage to Europe and Asia via this region, so there are plenty of reasons why the US would want this territory. It is clearly part of America if one looks at the map.

It's the path through Iceland and the UK, which the Russians could use to infiltrate the Atlantic. That's why the US has to control this pathway into the Atlantic.

The Chinese market has collapsed, Porsche has announced a 28% drop in sales in China.

Yes it was. Yah, we pretend Denmark, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands or Netherlands are countries on paper, but we all know they are not. Just tiny, insignificant provinces that failed to become real countries. It's best to ignore them really.

Because by size alone the US is a real country, add in the economic and military influence, there can be doubt that the US is a significant country. The same does not apply to Denmark.

It's just a way to get around. It's hardly space exploration, is it? It's basically the equivalent to making horse carriages in 1810.

A late comer, admittedly, and culturally somewhat deficient, however, one could hardly doubt the economic and military importance, size or influence of the USA. The USA is a real country. The same does not apply to Denmark, Montenegro or Luxembourg.