StandardIssue

Who's going to Thailand to spend $250 USD a day for "quality" food and drink. For the regular Thai that's a months salary!! Somebody is dreaming

As is usual YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY in all business done in Thailand. One of the downsides to long term staying. I'll start complaining when they drop some bomb that existing accounts may be frozen if the holder doesn't make a regular report, deposit, withdrawal or stool sample. One things for certain. Things will continue to change and not in favor on the long stay expat. Has there been any good news lately concerning expats wishing long stay in LOS? I've not seen it.

I said retirement VISA --- extensions are not done at desk 5 Soi 5 immigration. Also I have not lived in country contiguously for 12 years. I can see why you might need an agent.

The Dragon lady at desk 5 Jomtien gave me a hard time once but I have made 2 retirement visas with her in the last 6 years and didn't need to give her any money under the table. Either way, one has to fill out forms. All the forms you need are in English. They are the same anywhere you go. I call BS. No way you did not fill out any forms. You can do it straight up and save the 19k Baht. Not a big deal unless you are too lazy to spend an hour doing the paper work. I REFUSE to do immigration business with an agent and I don't dare bribe an immigration official. It can be done straight up. I've done 5 over 12 years by myself. The rest of the punters can waste their money and be forced to use an agent for their immigration business. I"m not unhappy they are cracking down foreigners doing banking in country. There are way to many scumbags abusing Thailand for scams and crime. I have had both my Baht and Foreign currency account for about 12 years now. I don't dare close the accounts now as it is very convenient to have them for bringing money into country, immigration and getting cash when I need it.

Is the world also flat? USA didn't land on the moon? Trump didn't lose the 2020 election? LOL!!!

Who is finding this to cause widespread frustration? Perhaps only those how have NO CONSIDERATION for Thai people and their culture. A lot of Thais like this day off to practice religious traditions of merit making and visiting the temple. Who is frustrated about 1 day of not being able to drink at a bar or restaurant? I don't get it. No big deal to me.

"Tikhomirova is alleged to be sharing her cell with more hardened criminals, a situation that has raised alarms among human rights advocates." And we all know Russia is at the leading edge of human rights initiatives ... ah oh wait a minute now.. exactly what human rights advocates are raising alarms?

Ouch, me thinks Trump winning presidency and putting together a wacky administration seems to have given all the crazies a license to "come out" and show their true colors. Scary...

Wait, isn't Pattaya supposed to be the "sun drenched haven" ?? Thaksin should read the news more often.

This is has got to be close to a daily occurrence in Pattaya. Slow thinking and disgruntled punters get pissed out of their mind and cause trouble. Seems this never get's old to comment on 🙂 Move along, another in the endless parade of sots making their way to the join the dregs of the earth.

If anyone on the board is looking for help there are local Thailand "in person" meetings available. https://aathailand.com for meeting schedules and locations. Online meetings are available and are going 24/7 at anytime of the day or night 365 days a year ONLINE! https://aa-intergroup or local Thailand in person meetings https://aathailand.org

Thanks for the news. I'll be giving Pattaya a miss this next time round.

So, this is nice, but I IMHO I would not make the assumption that "we are all alcoholics". I'd take care in labeling someone alcoholic because they drank heavy for a number of years. Just because someone has a drinking problem or decides to quit after drinking regularly for years does NOT make them alcoholic. People who can quit on their own willpower, at least by AA's definition of alcoholism, are not alcoholic. They still have the will power or "discipline" to stop. They can do it on their own. Alcoholics are the ones who know they have to quit, try to quit, but go back to it no matter how great the wish or desire. This is alcoholism. The OP has not stated he is alcoholic, but rather specifically says he was a moderate to heavy drinker. The fact that he is able to give it up on his own tells me he is NOT alcoholic but a moderate to heavy drinker who decided to give it up There is a really good saying that you might here in quality meetings of AA. All alcoholics are drunks but not all drunks are alcoholics. Thorough study of AA literature outlines this simple fact. (read bottom of page 20 to top of page 21 in the AA book) Here they make the differentiation between moderate or heavy drinkers and "real" alcoholics. What I would say to the OP is this. If you find you cannot give it up entirely and drink again in trying to give it up then you are probably alcoholic and AA has an answer for you.

Despite what the history books say, moving to Cambodia is NOT the end of the line. Moving to Vietnam is. ChatGPT answer: Whether moving to Cambodia is the "end of the line" depends entirely on your perspective and circumstances. In Jim's case though it seems anywhere he goes he's going to wind up in a s#!t storm since his penchant for making really had decisions will follow him wherever he goes. Anywhere is the "end of the line" for Jim.

Generally speaking, in my opinion and experience, all rehabs in Thailand (and all over the world) are glorified detox centers and are basically an expensive introduction to AA or NA. All of them will encourage joining AA or NA once the stay is concluded and you are "on our own". Some of them will even start a "patient" on the 12 steps and have them do some of them while in "treatment". An inexpensive way to go about getting recovery from alcoholism (if the man is indeed an alcoholic) is, under a Doctors care, get detoxed from alcohol and then follow up by attending strong AA meetings. (Strong AA meetings are ones that encourage doing the 12 step program with a sponsor who uses AA literature to guide a man through the 12 step program to recovery from alcoholism) Your friend has to be willing to do all this though. If he is not willing to ask for help or work towards recovery than there is not much that can be done. The old adage applies. You can't help someone who doesn't want help. Desperation and eagerness to get recovery is pretty much essential to recover from alcoholism. It doesn't happen, for instance, by only going to AA meetings. In good AA meetings we say meetings are helpful but meetings do not bring about recovery from alcoholism. Doing the 12 step program does. If your man is willing to go to meetings, get a sponsor and do the 12 steps with him he can recovery from alcoholism.

Click bait for AN. Just because some unnamed source comes up with a chart like this doesn't make it valid or hold any truth. I find this chart to be wholly inaccurate and generalist in a very narrow minded and uninformed manner. To make any kind of general conclusions like this is in any accurate way, share or form would require a study polling millions of caucasian people. Obviously this kind of study has never been done. Quite frankly this is just Internet BS from someone claiming to be a source of reliable information. It is not.

The politicians more than likely know exactly where the majority of this money will be spent and, if they were smart, made preparations to make investments in or setup business to take advantage of this influx of cash into the economy. The gap between rich and poor is huge here and ever widening in most parts of the world. The rich here run the country as is the case in the majority of world societies.

Just give it a good home before you leave and find yourself a poor Soi dog here to take care of. If you do wind up pulling this off I think you will regret it long term.

Any hotel in Pattaya or Bangkok has been ok with either me showing my Thai ID or a copy of the front page of my passport which I keep in my wallet. Apparently this is sufficient for the TM30 report they make to the Thai immigration website. My Thai ID has my passport number on it which is what is most important. The TM30 immigration website does not require a scan of the passport. I believe some hotels make copies just as a formality to keep on record.

I sent them a note and they got back to me saying this: Thank you for contacting ACS Bangkok. You may obtain a current valid passport while a new one is being processed. You will receive notification email as soon as new passport is ready. Whether it will my punched passport or some kind of temporary document I don't know but according to them I'll be leaving with a valid passport. They will then email me when my passport has arrived and I can visit again and pick it up.

This gal has self dignity and life skills? She has an only fans page and is more than likely already a sexcam girl. She has "adult" content YouTube videos. She actually "by the way guys please check out my OF page" LOL. She sounds like she is European. Not from USA. Can't quite place the accent. Her profile says UK but I think she might be from elsewhere originally. Anyways, not worth the time

You're welcome. I know talking about the news reports here can be a bit risky but news media outlets sometimes tend to reach pretty far to present content and, IMHO, this is one of those reaches. The coverage here can be pretty decent but at times seems to be articles filling a quota. In this day and age generating content seems to be the real challenge for anybody who is trying to make a living on social media or other onliine media. So, generating may, in some cases, mean actually inciting events rather than reporting events. I recall the old 70's film "Network" .. I'm mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore!! Or even worse that Movie "Nightcrawler".

Well, sure. Just one look at Jomtien beach on a sunny day confirms this LOL!!! .. And they don't mind wearing bikini's LOL

Yes, just view her profile on youtube. Not too hard to do a little research. onlyfans.com/goddessbeautyy

Yea, who cares about the opinion of this wanna be influencer, OnlyFans girl ( onlyfans.com/goddessbeautyy ) Anything to generate content. She's probably pissed off that nobody is giving her the stare downs she gets while walking the local mall back in the West. I find myself totally ignoring the USA white women who visit Bangkok, Pattaya and other places I visit in Thailand. For instance, on the BTS, I don't really have any reason to look at most of them while there are 10 hotter looking Thai girls standing about. The western (mostly American) white woman demeanor also bothers me. They are usually with their white boyfriend or other girlfriend talking loudly while alternately holding their phone in their face. Nothing attractive to me at all. I left USA because of the entitled balloon women walking around like they deserve everything. Completely unattractive to me. I am from CA but have property outside of the state now. In this particular state a good 75% of the women are quite overweight. Just disgusting. On the other hand there are some very pretty eastern european white women visiting Thailand who appear to have a different attitude and demeanor then these western gals.