Sigmund

Hopefully he is not one of those bitter and sour farangs who never made it in their home country and think they can come to Thailand and feel superior just because they are white caucasians. Usually such people can end up sadly broke, get drained of their cash by the friendly neighbourhood barstool beauty.

Hope no more new drafts will come up on how to further harass foreigners on visa issues and immigration harassment with new TM forms and other useless, costly and time consuming requirements.

When I read reports of all the pedophiles amongst the priests of the catholic church, I have some dobts on the topic.

Fiberglass is the best but rarely used in Thailand.

The big inversters abroad want to invest in coutries with good and reliable fast train networks. It would therefore be urgent to male the fast train to connect Bangkok with all the popular destinations in Thailand.

No scam should be applauded. No scam should be tolerated like those by some dishonest taxi drivers at Suvarnabhumi airport who refuse the meter or add absurd toll fees and other extras. This gives out a horrific image of the country. Such taxi scams may seem superficial at first, but can have deeper consequences and deter many investors big or small from bringing money in Thailand.

Avoid Emirates as they have doubled their prices and quality of service has strongly deteriorated.

They closed them down as there were to many AN members posting anonymous comments from those cafés????

Many supermarkets are doing this all over in Thailand and in Europe. They have down graded well known brands, The quantity is less, packaging the same but of course price is higher. All this mess started since the Ukraine war, the absurd US sanctions and the opportunists in the retail services who found a good way to cheat.

A good reminder that all that is farang or light skinned is not always worthy of trust.

If you get caught with drug possession pal, you cannot claim you were not warned.

Similar arguments have arised in some housing developpments. House owners usually farangs, often not in Thailand, get abnormal electricity or water bills to pay each month directly to the developpment managers. Such cases highlited issues of overrating due r to faulty meters or reckless settings of the automated garden or plant watering systems. Sometimes just to clean the space in front of the house the developpment staff would connect their water house in a tap inside a private unoccupied home. Always keep an eye on your property especially if you are not always in it.

The swanky shops in Hua Hin for furniture can overcharge. If you feel the cost is more then back in your home country, chances are that the price is cheating. Ikea is very good in Thailand. Home Pro not bad but avoid using their handymen who have bad comments all over social media feedback. Bunthavon is very good also. If you can, try checking for suppliers in Bangkok province who will accept to come do your work in Hua Hin. They would be cheaper, more reliable and less spoilt by expats/retirees who just pay and don't care/compare in HuaHin. If possible avoid using the staff in your house developpment as they tend to overcharge for the smallest thing you may ask for. Don't forget to have the electric setup fully checked, Even in brand new luxury house developpments in Hua Hin, the work can very badly done and not finished. Of course, this is not always the case in HH. Not everywhere obviously, there are also good villa developpments. But one hears of such problems in many fancy developpments. Try getting a developper to admit work was badly done or even getting them follow up on the snag list. Once you have paid, it's bye Mate. Back home in the UK it can also be the same situation with some crooked real estate developpers. so this happens everywhere I guess. Facebook in Thailand can be a good alternative for names of reliable service suppliers from other retirees-expats, provided you use obvious common sense and instinct.

A office colleague's computer went dead during charging when in a rented brand new pool villa house in Hua Hin. When he went back home the customer service in the shop said it was due to a mains electric problem during the charging. Always be careful in these rented homes in Thailand tourist areas as their electrical standards are obviously badly done and thus a hazard. I'd feel safer renting a hotel space.

When one sees how horrible people become by excessive and daily drinking of booze, why need more zombies or jerks who over consume cannabis ? Normal social drinking now and then with due moderation is great but that's not what the point is here. Tackle the drinking issues first in Thailand as there are far to many young and old drunks, local or farangs, all over the place. Drink alters judgement and makes the drunks agressive individuals. Any age group, nationality or social status would be concerned by people destroying their lives and making life hell for others due to their excessive consumption.

Wonder if the housing developpments will obey the law ? In most pool villa house projects in beach towns, you get and pay the electricity from the developpers who of course charge higher rate then the government supply. It may be sensible to check if they don't continue to cheat you despite the price dropping on the water and electric prices they bill you for your house. Contact consumer protection department if you feel they are cheating. Or else name and shame them in social media once you get back safely home of course.

I would never dream getting ripped off in some tailors shop around Nana or Ashoke BTS. Was in India this year and got high end tailor shirts made in New Delhi for US$ 20 each. Bought 10 pieces. The fabrics, cut and tailoring was beyond international standards - real top class work (look out for the shops in an hi-so area called South Extension). The worksmanship and cloth outclassed much of the best shirtmakers in the west. The suit fabrics were costly but cheaper then Bangkok and never saw such fine material, choice of colours and mainly the silk wool. I am never going to pay 40 or 50 bucks or more, to get tailor made bespoke shirts in Bangkok or anyplace else.

Bully arrogant attitude of a brit bank, that reflects unfortunately the attitude of the brits often.

Make visa issues and life more simple for the retirees who spend. Any retiree who owns property in Thailand even if a small place, will always end up in spending more then any 2 week stay tourist. Make the banks be more foreigner friendly to open accounts for foreigners or tourists and stop asking for those absurd residence certificates or certified photocopy translations from embassies for each and every formality - mainly in some DLT offices where the staff can be rude, not speak a word of english and invent new documents to show. Even if the website says someting different. If not, the people will just leave the country with their good money as the retirees all over thailand contribute substantially to bring in money.

Disactivate the search history of google under google maps menu. Do not connect with your account on google when surfing. Use VPN whenever possible. Have multiple accounts on Google and desactivate public to see the history of your comments.

I always remind myself of the golden universal mantra of intelligence, Never judge by race or colour or similar. Get to know the person, chat a bit and then get your opinion. I have have great interactions, relations with Indians or Chinese who once I got to know them, they were the nicest, polite and most decent people I ever met (and were rich too .-) . You will have horrible, uncouth, rude, ugly and unreliable people from any country, should they be black, white, green or whatever.

Depending on which immigration office or mainly DLT office to attempt to get a thai licence, it can be a nightmare if you do not speak Thai. So an agent can help and sometimes, they have "contacts" at the office and with all respect to the law, your process speeds up. Remember, .the laws/administrative requirements in Thailand are often made up by the chap behind the counter and his/her golden wings and they can.. I said can.. be highly rude and impolite sometimes (without any generalisation). Using an "agent" who has the right connections at the place can highly improve the immigration red tappe and hassles.

Never understood some europeans who obviously did not make it back home in Europe, come to Thailand, get married or start a relationship with a thai lady, but continue to say impolite and nasty things against the Thai¨s. (and sometimes against other foreigners too). Do you think your partner is a fool ? She can understand and at the first occasion, she will cheat behind your back.

K Bank is far more foreigner friendly, depending on the Branch. But Hua Hin seems to have many banks that are stubborn and ask for far to many absurd documents from foreigners. Except the Bangkok Bank branches in HH that seem quite farang friendly. Bangkok is different and many banks are used to deal with foreign visitors and do not make a fuss.But not always a good idea to open an account in a citiy and live in another. They are still in the dark ages so depending what you will need, you will have to go to the branch where the account was opened to get the job done. On reading all the hassles of Thai immigration for retirement, it seems that if you go to Thailand say for 4 or 6 months in winter, you will be spending all your time just chasing the inefficient banks and the over zealous immigration red tape. Why remain in Thailand ultimately ?

If he is out of the game, it may make things easier to change regarding the absurd immigration requirement and all the harassment just to get a driving licence. Stop those absurd TM28, TM30's and 90 day reporting. Improve the online systems and have more user friendly instructions in english online. Have more english speaking staff at immigration offices in Provinces and cities Hua Hin or Phuket. Stop asking for those absurd residence certificates/proof of residence documents from immigration, when people can present a blue book or a lease agreement. Even to open a bank account in some Banks, or to get a Thai driver licence they just start to invent absurd rules as they are afraid to deal sometimes with falangs. Of course people will come up and say "but it all went fine for me bla bla"....great. But that is not always the case if you have not rented a girlie for a month to be your gf/translator/accountant ???? and will accompany you to deal with such admin stuff that is time consuming You don't like it so leave it ? Well if that's how they see, tourism will drop, the retirees with big pensions will leave elsewhere as the competition is high in Asia or even India now getting into the race to woe rich retirees from the west.