MangoKorat

Maybe because you're an existing customer, I don't know but their website now says the maximum age for insuring motorcyles is 65. I e-mailed them about that - maybe 3 months ago. Still waiting for a reply.

Oh dear, they are likely to lose their navy - again!!! Reagan sunk it, does Trump have the bottle?

It never is when you know how. There just aren't hoards of birds targetting you there.

My comments weren't aimed at you personally, only that things seem to have changed since you called it dull. Not everybody wants the Pattaya lifestyle, Nan is real Thailand. If I didn't already have a house in Pak Chong, I would seriously consider living in Nan - its one of the most beautiful areas in the country and the biking roads suit me personally. The city is well kept and the night market is very popular. There seems to be plenty going on in Nan.

I have no idea what things were like in 2018 when the above quote was written but its not quite true now. Granted, its Thai style (thank the lord) but I guess it depends on who you are and how much work you're prepared to put into it. There's a smallish but vibrant bar/nightclub/restaurant area along Pha Sing - for location use the Hop Inn Hotel. If you want company then you're going to have to work at it, don't expect young lovelies in Nan to fall over themselves to 'pull' a fat middle aged foreigner like they do in Pattaya/Bangkok. Nan is a place where old foreigners learn they are not really a 'hansum man'. I was there last night and had a good time - I'm told there are a few other places but I don't have time to check them out this trip - back next month.

Sorry, I don't understand your reasoning at all. In every country I know, the left wing fight for the poor - or at least claim to. 'Millions of people flooding onto a country increases the size of government, drives wages down, drives housing costs up, reduces the quality and availability of social services, overburdens public schools which forces up the cost of education, while at the same time reduces the quality of education.' Why would the left wing love that?

Eh? I don't deny that the rich benefit from illegal immigration but why would a socialist leaning person love the poor being hurt. Does left wing in the US mean the opposite of what is does everywhere else?

Well that's the way of the world. I'm not saying I agree with it, in fact I don't but its how it is. We have a similar problem in the UK - the government has been limiting the number of seasonal agricultural workers which is causing problems for the farmers. I used to say that food is far too cheap, if paying decent wages means higher food prices, so be it. However, I had a conversation with a local farmer about it and he said that if he increased his prices, the supermarkets would buy from abroad. I think its complicated, there's no one answer but the supermarkets, certainly in the UK hold a lot of guilt for the situation. They screw farmers down to the boards on price - especially on dairy products where many farmers are getting out. They sell milk for example, at ridiculously low prices and when they are challenged about the prices they pay farmers, they say its public demand. That's BS, I've never seen placard waving housewives outside supermarkets demanding milk at the current prices. Asda, one of the biggest is now selling whole milk at 68.2p per litre (30 baht). Yes, milk isn't normally an area where immigrant workers are involved, I'm just illustrating the problem using a price I know. (interesting that the UK public will pay around 400 baht per litre for beer) So the causes are probably the same in the US. During Covid the UK government started realising that food security was an issue and said they would introduce measures to safeguard the UK food production industry - seems to have been forgotten about now. Until farmers are able to get a decent price for their products, they will look at any way they can to keep costs low. I don't think your temporary workers suggestion would solve much - people would enter on that visa and simply disappear.

Are you able to register a house + yourself online now - without first visiting your local immigration office? I've been a bit lax this trip but as I'm likely to be applying for a visa, I'd better get everything right. Last time I registered for TM30 (quite some time ago) Korat Immigration insisted that I go to them for the initial registration. Its around a 220km round trip for me, I'd rather avoid that if I can.

Another populist policy - call anyone who doesn't agree with you, a leftist, lefty etc. etc. Another flip by Trump? Well I never................................

Agreed. Although I know nothing of the situation in California, its not too difficult to work out what's going on. Trump is the world's No.1 populist, that's how he got where he is. His economic measures have done far more harm than good and will probably create more trouble medium to long term. From what I hear on the news, from the mouths of US citizens, prices in the shops have actually gone up, not come down. His ridiculous 'Tariff War' is already creating inflation and when the full effects filter through, there is a very good likelihood of it rising further. The man has no idea what he is doing. Far from making 'America Great Again', he's made a laughing stock of the country. So, what do you do when your policies are a mess, when you are told that your supporters are starting to question your methods? What do you do when the polls suggest you have the lowest approval rating a 90+ day president has ever had? You re-enforce your populist policies, pick on immigrants, tell the people that thousands of foreign criminals and mental patients are pouring over the borders (and eating their cats and dogs 😁). Blame already settled illegals for much of the crime.................bla bla bla. Its called 'deflection' - a policy used the world over by politicians who in reality, would do or say anything to gain/stay in power. In an recent TV interview I saw, a US farmer was quite clear that if he was not able to use immigrant labour to harvest his crops, he would have to pay a lot more to attract US workers or they would rot in the field. Either way, prices would have to rise. Great job Donald!

I wasn't asked for mine so clearly the I.O. doesn't need to scan anything and you DO NOT need to show it. I presume it comes up on their screen as all your other information does. I haven't seen anything stating you should print the approval. On the actual downloaded approval it states 'you MAY choose to download OR print a copy of this and retain it for the duration of your stay'. Note MAY, not MUST.

You'd need to ask them, not me.

You don't need to find it on anything - phone or otherwise. Once you've received your approval, you're on the system.

Completion of the M6 motorway is going on 6 years late. The Bangkok - Korat High Speed Rail system is due for completion in 2030 (already revised) and judging by how they are getting along with that, there's no chance of them making that timeline. From what I can make out (from a materials supplier), the main problems with both those projects have been funding. No doubt a good proportion of it disappeared, say no more on that subject. And they're going to prepare an F1 circuit in 3 years? Dream on! The 16 million for the 'intial study' will come in handy though.😉

That was not my point and well you know it. Nowhere did I say it was legal, you were claiming that the other poster's content is BS - it is not.

I thought the whole point of 'digital' was to reduce paperwork. I didn't have a copy of mine so it must have shown on the system. You should have received an approval by e-mail.

us Its not BS at all. The DLT don't inspect vehicles, a private company working for them does. If the vehicle passes its test, a certificate is given which you then take into the DLT office and tax your vehicle for the next year. Grease the right palms to the right extent and you can get just about anything through. Aftermarket pipes are illegal in Thailand - how do you think all the bikes with them on get through the test each year? No they don't take them off and refit the original for the test. Plenty of my mates get their bikes through every year. I've even seen a guy produce a VIN number on a piece of metal with a VIN stamped on it for the masking tape pencil rubbing that's required. T.I.T. or didn't you realise?

I've been travelling here for 22 years, often 8 times per year. I've arrived at all times of day and night and the only times I had any delays even approaching how they were yesterday was a few years ago, just before they increased the amount of booths. You also have to factor in that airlines like Qatar appear to have done a deal with the airport and all (at least every one of my last few) flights now arrive at the new 'terminal' so you have to wait for a bus to arrive, take you to the train, take the train, bla bla bla. All of this adds time - I didn't count that part before but a guess would be that I didn't get out into the arrivals hall until an hour and ten after landing.

It was never mentioned at either Heathrow or Doha.

I didn't find the application process 100% straightforward. The district and sub districts didn't match those given and reconfirmed by my hotel. In the end I just selected a random district, then a sub district from those in the drop down - nowhere near my hotel. Wrote the hotel address correctly and it was then accepted - I suspect many will have this problem. If you do, I suggest you do the same as I did or you'll be there all day trying to make it work.

Flight arrived at 15:35

I talked to a few tourists on my flight to Bangkok today and none of them had heard of TDAC. I can also state that none of the e-mails I received from Qatar Airways had any mention of TDAC on them. If I wasn't a member here, I wouldn't know about it either. So, in what I write below, I am not passing any comment on what caused the problems today, I'm simply reporting on my experiences and observancies today. I had already submitted my TDAC application and received notification of approval. I saw no area where those who hadn't submitted a TDAC application could do so - however, having completed mine, I wasn't particularly looking. I saw very little signage relating to TDAC - again, I wasn't really looking. As I entered the immigration area what I did see was the longest queues I've seen for many years and remember, there are far more booths than there ever was. I didn't see any people in those queues get sent back to complete anything - so either they had all completed their TDAC applications or they were being allowed to do them at the booth. Judging by the amount of time some people were at the booths, I'd guess the latter was the truth. I had a slight limp from a cramp attack I'd had whilst travelling and a kind young man pulled me out of the queue I was about to join and put me in one of the 'priority' queues. Even being in the priority queue, it took me around 45 minutes to get stamped in - since the immigration 'upgrade' its never taken me longer than 15 minutes. I can't truthfully state that TDAC was the reason for the delays today but something caused them.

50k per month non married (to a Thai national) 40k if married to a Thai national.

Not quite as simple as that. Cash is an asset and yes, cash you can prove you had prior to marriage is yours but if you decide to buy something, say land, with that cash, although the original amount paid remains yours, any uplift in value becomes joint property. Likewise in this case, his wife can sell the land and keep the cash but if she buys something with it, he would be entitled to half of any uplift in value of that asset from the date of purchase. However, as many Thai property deals are conducted at shall we say, prices that are less than is actually paid, proving how much an asset has been sold for can be very difficult. The above was explained to me by my Thai lawyer during a divorce.