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In a naive attempt to discover what that mysterious reason might be I used the messaging function on the HMPO website to ask why we had to undergo the inconvenience of two trips to VFS or the extra expense of hiring an agent while, as you say, it's possible to apply online from many other countries. The reply came back as follows: "Thank you for your email about applying for a passport. Unfortunately, not all countries follow the same rules. Regards, His Majesty’s Passport Office" I can't decide whether the person who wrote that is stupid or just doesn't care - probably both.

Quote from the 17th Century:- "......before any payment can bee had one muste give half as much for bribes; truly a verye greate knaverye, the like whereof is not used in all the Indies,..." - from the description of the first East India Company visit to Bangkok in 1612 on the vessel "The Globe". Corruption is part of life here, they imbibe it with their mothers' milk. Edit: That's the London East India Company. The Dutch were here already, and the Portuguese before them.

Banchang, Rayong - still quite intermittent.

Go for it. I'd be terrified of going back to Miseryland and having to cope without the superb healthcare I've had (and paid for) here. Just make sure you keep a good wedge in the bank and don't blow it on buying land and motorcycles for some girlfriend and her family.

I'm glad to escape the cold. Good luck in whatever hellhole of a care home you're consigned to - unless you're filthy rich.

Why? The name originates from Roman times, when it was known as Aquae Sulis, as they harnessed the natural thermal springs there to create a spa, which still exists. Or is this some cheap gibe at the cleanliness of Brits?

The snag with changing off employment is that your permission to stay lapses when the work permit is cancelled. Whether you can put your application in for retirement whilst your WP is still active, I don't know, but a dozen years ago I got my WP cancelled at Chonburi then the Non-B at Jomtien, then was given a retirement extension at Rayong the following day, at the cost of a fine for an "overstay" - so it can be done in-country, but you have to get your ducks in a row.

I don't know if it's the same make, but I saw one of those with the ridiculously fat tyres in a cycle shop in Rayong, just after Homepro on the main road going into town. 35k Baht. It looked as if it's been in stock there for some time.

As a Brit, given the abysmal quality of the politicians who have degraded our democracy in recent decades I wouldn't be dogmatic about the way China chooses to govern itself - and when the citizens of the world's leading democracy have to choose between a shambling geriatric and a slightly younger narcissistic sociopath anyone arriving from Mars might wonder which system will deliver better results in the coming century. I'm also not surprised that the Chinese don't seem to like us very much. Disregarding earlier centuries and such as the Opium Wars, there are more recent examples. In the First World War the Chinese Government offered to send Chinese labourers to the Allies, not as combatants but for all the support work needed - digging trenches, laying roads and railways, extending the harbours at Calais and Boulogne, etc, and cleaning up for over a year after the end of the war. Over 90,000 went, and worked for a third of the rate paid to a private soldier. There are several thousand Chinese war graves in Northern France and Belgium. Their Government hoped that this contribution would get them influence at the Versailles negotiations, in particular the return of the German concessions in Shandong province, but they were ignored and the concessions handed to Japan! France allowed some of its workers to settle in France, but the Unions would not countenance any Chinese being allowed to cross to England, and all those who had worked for the Brits were repatriated. History repeated itself in the Second World War. There were numerous Chinese seamen who enlisted with the Merchant Marine and sailed on the Atlantic convoys. They were based mainly in Liverpool, and some got married and started families. After the war they were quietly rounded up and deported. There were wives and children who never knew what happened to their husbands/fathers, and thought they had just bu88ered off. I was staggered to see a film about this recently, and some woman going to Singapore trying (unsuccessfully) to trace her father. I don't buy into all this critical race theory rubbish and the breast-beating about colonialism, but I think it is sometimes instructive to "see ourselves as others see us" as the great Rabbie Burns put it.

If you really need an alternative, I have used OFX - https://www.ofx.com - for the last 14 years. Originally I knew them as UK Forex, but I am sure they operate in the USA as well. I just transfer funds when I need to top up my Thai accounts or when the exchange rate looks relatively favourable, and they quote for Thai Baht on the spot for whatever amount of GBP I am exchanging. The rate may be slightly less favourable than Wise, but there is no transfer fee. After I've paid them from my UK account the funds show up in my Thai account in 24 hours, unless I deal on a Friday, when it might be Tuesday before the money arrives. They use a correspondent bank in Thailand (which I think is SCB), so if showing income in your Thai account as an international transfer is important, this would be a problem for you; it doesn't bother me. SCB syphon off about 200 or 300 baht before the funds reach me. As far as verification of identity is concerned, it was quite easy at the beginning because I was still registered as a voter at the address I had left in the UK. I had to re-confirm with them a few years back, which involved a phone call and a couple of emails, otherwise everything is very straightforward. It works fine for me, but if I had to prove monthly income international transfers I would probably use WISE.

If the sender declared the contents of the parcel and included any medical item, the parcel will have been stopped by Thai Customs. Importing medical equipment of any sort without a licence is a no-no, as I found to my cost many years ago when I ordered a support boot on Amazon (in those days I hadn't discovered Lazada). I think it was DHL in BKK who contacted me and offered the options (a) appoint a licensed agent to conclude the import (b) return to sender (c) have the item destroyed. I didn't want to accept the hassle and cost of a or b for a relatively inexpensive item and wrote it off. In the fulness of time you may or may not be contacted by the Thai Post Office, who in my experience have become notoriously unreliable since Covid. I wouldn't have anything of value sent to me via the postal system.

...etc., etc., Sir, your prose style makes it difficult to understand the substance of your beef with Immigration, and in an earlier post you alleged that they had doctored your passport. I accept that you can't reveal more detail of your pending court case, but I do agree with the point I think you're making in the section I've highlighted. Money in the bank obviously doesn't prove income, and there is a flaw in the system, because if someone on a retirement extension is landed with a large bill, say for medical treatment, which must be paid during the seven months of the year when the account balance must be at least 800k then that person must find the money from somewhere else or else he will not qualify for another extension. In that sense the money in the bank offers no guarantee of someone's ability to support themself, and it opens the door for agents to employ the workarounds with which we are all familiar. Your faith in the Thai legal system is touching, and I'm not sure whether to wish you good luck. If you did succeed in your mission to cleanse the Augean Stable that Jomtien Immigration allegedly is, the consequences might be unfortunate for quite a lot of people. Edit: It's 5 months for 800k, then 7 months for 400k

What? I'm fine with the Kindle app.

I saw this come up on Al Jazeera this morning and thought "Oh no, not another Pattaya sex tourism exposé shock horror", but it was a disturbing film. Whether the abuse of children is as rampant as alleged is open to question, but any such abuse is too much.

Thanks. In fact I run a balance above 800k and draw cash every month, also update the book every month, so I'm not expecting a problem. To be on the safe side I will go to Maptaphut a week before my next application, show them the book and ask if they need a statement as well. If they do, I'll order it from Bangkok Bank.

Their current requirements are here:-- Personal Access Account | Skipton International Ltd I'm surprised to see that apparently new customers have to stump up 25K GBP, as it wasn't anything like that when I opened my account, I can't remember how much I put in to start with. If that is in fact the minimum opening balance I guess that might be prohibitive for many reading this. The minimum balance to earn interest is 10k. They are very good to deal with, all done online once the account is up and running. I found it very easy to set up because I did it in person at St Peter Port when I was visiting my sister, who lives there.

OP, you might consider opening an account in the Channel islands or the Isle of Man whilst you still have a UK address and bank account. Then later on, if your UK bank does close your account you can keep your funds there and link to your Thai account. Some expats in Thailand have had their UK bank accounts closed, others including myself have not. 4 or 5 years ago as a backstop I opened an account with Skipton International in Guernsey and keep a substantial amount of my savings there. They are now paying 4.5% interest for instant access. I will be 80 next year and will sell my UK house when the tenants leave. If I deposit the proceeds in Guernsey I will make at least as much as I have been from rental income after the agents and their rapacious maintenance contractors have had their cut. I want to sell to save my executors the bother of disposing of the place when I die, which is probably what you should do.

I think you have to keep changing the deterrents, it depends what you're able to rig up. I've been having problems with a colony of pigeons roosting on a neighbour's house and on my roof, where I have solar panels (I have seen them getting under the panels because the tiles are curved and provide a space for them to do this). I rigged up 3 long poles with toy windmills on them, which were quite effective for a while, but they got used to those. I then rigged up a kite on one pole which seems to have really scared them, and they scarcely come round at all. I kept having to re-mount it because the string I originally attached it to wound itself round the pole, so after about 4 attempts I got it flying on the end of an old hacksaw blade and a swivel fitting from my old fishing tackle (see pic). That was fine until the frame gave way, so now it's just a flopping rag, but the pigeons don't seem to like that either. Well, the kites only cost 25 Baht, and I've got two more. I'm winning this battle, but no doubt the war will continue.

There isn't much point. They did it for one year at Rayong Immigration and then gave up. The latest gambit appears to be insisting on a bank statement in addition to your passbook (unless, perhaps, your passbook shows transactions every month, though that remains to be seen). All the time they fret about compliance with their requirements whilst turning a blind eye to the blatant abuse that is possible by paying an agent to arrange a fabricated account.

Perhaps they meant Laem Charoen Beach

I did this in-country many moons ago, but it was a bit of a work-up because you can't be "retired" when you still have a work permit. In my case this involved getting the WP cancelled at the Labour Office. As soon as the WP was cancelled, the permission to stay lapsed, and I had a frantic drive from the Labour Office at Chonburi (my employment was based in Pattaya) to the Immigration Office at Rayong to make the retirement application the same day. The IO there said he couldn't cancel the Permission to stay, which was issued in Jomtien, I had to go there first. Bright and early the next morning I was at Jomtien, where the IO did the necessary in a couple of minutes, and said, "They will fine you 1000 baht overstay at Rayong". Back at Rayong they reckoned it as a 2000 baht 2-day overstay, all official, written up in a book which I had to sign, but then proceeded to issue me with a retirement extension, no problem. Best of luck.

Thanks very much. I heartily agree with that comment.

Thank you for the update. On the matter of insurance, can you give any feedback on the current thinking of those with whom you discussed this? My feedback to you is that having lived here in retirement for nearly 14 years and approaching my 79th birthday, I have funded all my medical costs while I have been here and have a substantial fund to do so in my remaining years. There's no way I could get insurance, and I guess I'm not alone. I just ask you to bear us in mind in any such discussions, and resist proposals to impose an insurance requirement on those of us who have been paying our bills and intend to do so in future.

No.

Indeed. Unfortunately our Government Departments are not really very joined up, and your tax coding is based on the assumption that you are paid the annual state pension increases. More than once in recent years I've phoned up to get my coding rectified. Some years the increase has been so small that I didn't bother, and as I've had to submit a tax return every year because of rental income the overpayment is automatically repaid. But with the "triple lock" and high inflation it has become more important for everyone to check their notice of coding.