Ponbkk

The almost "two years" originally referred to, that seems to have generated confusion, is probably the original poster's obtaining a reentry permit near the end of his enter before date.

Multiple O-A's have accomodated me, among other particulars, for extensive periods back in the USA and I have done so my entire retirement here so far with only ever having to make one trip to the Suan Plu office,

Wadda ya know!

I have had to make a change and the arrival is now going toi have to be one day AFTER the "Enter Before" date.

I suppose there will be no excuse?

Thanks for all the advise!

I wonder if SCB has a correspondent in the USA?

On the personal banking incoming wire question.

Agreed. Cannot matter which one, either into savings or checking. I'm going to try the other personal account next time and will let ya all know if I run into anything.

For the institutoion account advertising using savings or checking for something like registration fees

I got some further information on the suggestion to advertise only the savings account:number (not checking) to others when making public where to foreign wire funds (even interbank deposit) for institution purposes. I list it here for any criticism ...

1) giving a checking number opens you to international fraud as that account can be drawn on internationally,

whereas only authorized officers inside the country with ID and the book can withdraw or transfer money from the savings;

2) generally the savings keeps the big balance (interest) as it is just sense to fund the checking only the little necessary.

Thank you all for our comments.

I manage both personal Bangkok Bank checking/savings account and one S.C.Bank institution's checking/saving. I can transfer easily between either entitiy's checking and saving so interest rate is not an issue below ...

I've only sent a couple incoming transfers from USA to to my, I believe, personal checking account over my many years in Thailand. Is there any difference between sending incoming wire transfers to my checking account versus my savings account? I can do either? I would expect incoming fees to be same.

For the institution I was told to use the savings account (meeting registrations, donations) if the account number would be advertised outside Thailand. Is this agreed?

Well, my last passport looks like Swiss cheese. I watched her go nuts with it at the Embassy.It couldn't do all pages at once. Maybe the "rm and a leg" we now pay for services there will have resulted in some new equipment. 

Thank you all for the advise! It looks like I'll make it according to the plan

(and thank the Embassy staff as well :-))

Pon (Paul)

My O-A visa obtained last year has an "enter before" date of Aug 24, 2014. Upon my planned entry the night of Aug 23rd I expect to get one year of permission to stay until Aug 22, 2015 (give or take a day).

I have a USA passport.

1) While in Bangkok I should apply for a reentry permit if I intend to leave/reenter within my permission to stay?

2) In the hypothetical situation that my flight on the 23rd could be 3 hours late then i would arrive on August 24 at 12:03 am (00:03). 

Would that violate the "enter BEFORE Aug 24"???

I have a feeling that I would in fact BE DENIED THE USE OF THE VISA if I were to arrive late and after midnight. Does anyone know for sure???

3) My USA Passport expires May 15, 2015. Will I be denied the permission to stay beyond May 15, 2015? 

Am I correct: that I cannot get a new passport now (I am in the USA now) as that will invalidate my visa?

 (I know that they punch hundreds of holes into your old passports now - my last passport is in shreds!).

The plan is to get the new passport in Bangkok before applying for the reentry permit. But then I do not have my exit materilal? 

Any advise is appreciated.

The restrictions that you cancelled BUPA for are standard on all policies.

You have to be paying far more for your US coverage. Get a policy here and you could get travel insurance for when you're in the US.

It seems someone should complain somewhere on the 'global' restriction.

I don't mind paying into the system more than necessary once and a while but when ur then just spit out and told to go to a website on short notice then it is time to reconsider all alternatives. Thx for your feedback.

Can you believe it?

(the Fed website told me I had to go to my state website)

1) The STATE told my insurance company they had to cancel mine (almost for 8 years) policy among certain other 'select' categories,

2) the insurance cancelled me as of 12/31 with a 12/9 letter,

3) since I didn't register on the STATE website before 12/15 my state registered selection (same insurance co./policy) can't become effective until Feb 1,

4) my insurance co. told me to FO about staring Jan 1, (ins co. also said something about being 'accepted') - the STATE made it this way, they say,

5) the auto-,message on the STATE phone line says to wait until after Feb 1 and if the insurance didnt bill me by then to contact the insurance company myself (don't bother the STATE).

All this because a "tax" was levied???

Doesn't make sense that people can be pushed around like this, left without health insurance.

I'm being lied to somewhere? Any ideas?

If it happens tomorrow the only question will be "why did it take so long?"

It's not happening tomorrow. 13th.

Good news that (THX) is but it is not what I was referring to.

The restrictions that you cancelled BUPA for are standard on all policies.

You have to be paying far more for your US coverage. Get a policy here and you could get travel insurance for when you're in the US.

It seems someone should complain somewhere on the 'global' restriction.

I don't mind paying into the system more than necessary once and a while but when ur then just spit out and told to go to a website on short notice then it is time to reconsider all alternatives. Thx for your feedback.

If it happens tomorrow the only question will be "why did it take so long?"

Given 'Obamacare' in the USA I am reviewing options for medical insurance. I have coverage for myself in the USA. While not perfect for my situation, it will probably be extended now at less cost than it was last year! I don't see any reason why things would change in Thailand since years ago and over January 1, but I hope to get a fresh perspective here on what expats living in Thaiand are experiencing with the 'ObamaCare' changes there (or maybe even here).

I dropped my BUPA insurance in Thailand many years ago and obtained twice as costly US based insurance. This was because in the coarse of my last year with BUPA in Thailand they had sent me letters specifying that:

1) their Thai insurance now specifically EXCLUDED any coverage for any and all STDs (that would be HIV and a shot for NSU and all else),

and

2) the "Global Policy" would NOT cover any costs for health care in the United States (to where I travel at least 3-4 months a year). Howvere they were careful to note that the payment of 2500 THB to a Thai beneficiary would still hold if I should accidentally die or dismember myself while in the USA).

anyway,

For foreigners now living in Thailand with Thailand based "Global" health insurance are your policy restrictions still consistent with the two restrictions noted above???:? Are there any other restrictions that a foreign person should be aware of?

Is anyone considering dropping Thai insurance and obtaining US based insurance which is a lot less for many situations than it was last year. I believe that US expats overseas are not required to get US insurance? For thoses that fill out a 1040 still every year I wonder how that is going to work out??

Someone inquired what language to use in their foreign (outside Thailand) wills in regards to the existence of a Thai will covering their assets in Thailand. I've come across a recent example and the language used by the attorney in the US will (which covers US assets only) in regards to Thailand is:

"My property and estate located in the nation of Thailand, if owned by me at the time of ... , shall be devised, given, and bequeathed pursuant to a LW&T made in the nation of Thailand and executed in accordance with the laws of Thailand."

The opinion of the attorney it would cover expenses from the US estate for an executor or representative to fulfill the execution of the estate in Thailand.

If I make out a Will in Thailand to cover all my Thai assets and I make out a separate Will in the U.K. to cover all remaining assets ...

You've done your job. make sure both legal reps and your respective heirs know of the existence of the respective wills. They'll be settled separately.Trying to add language like that to either might only complicate things.

Are assets outside both UK and Thailand? Your UK will might not cover those!

Unless, for example, I know that some Canadian provinces will honor American wills for the disposition of Canadian vacation property. I doubt that anything like that exists between Thailand and other countries.

Thank you for the very informative lead post to this thread!

Looks like a landslide to me! Of course, that's from a scientist.

So it seems the Govt indeed has no plan of their own and will rely on plans presented.

They are checking the full moon charts.

Use something like this for a start page

http://news.google.c...hp?hl=en&tab=wn The hl=en&tab=wn on the end is the key to that

then find and select Google SSL (no filtering) as your search provider.

With this I get none of those issues

Thanks. I was so used to /ncr that I forgot that '=en' switch (that I use in my GMail bookmark that logs me out just in case) ...

https://accounts.goo...plcache=2&hl=en

(of course I think GMail is EN regardless).

and for Opera users (other browser search prefs can modify, %s is Opera internal - gets changed back when u update browser):

Tools/Prefererences/Search/Google/Advanced ...

http://www.google.co...channel=suggest

working so far:

https://accounts.goo...viceLogin?hl=en

http://maps.google.c...ps?hl=en&tab=wl

https://www.google.c...settings/?hl=en

of course, for the newbies, kinda difficult to get them to change bookmarks, so STILL an issue (and as devices move more toward becoming appliances, which they should not).

.

It's getting worse and more confusing with all the different devices, and old tricks like the 'no country redirect' seem to be purposely rendered ineffective. 'Google in English' links, when they even appear in English, are often useless when switching among, say, search to analytics. Are u in swahili-land and forget which one is 'log-out' from ur credit card enabled account? Thus Google's policy of serving pages in the local language seems an affront not only to your freedom but your personal account security as well. And getting colleagues to cooperate using Google services is very difficult as some levels of users are quite intimidated by this. And a lot of other internet portals are being 'led by the pack' as usual. Don't bother thinking setting your Google account to your country of choice helps at all. My browser chosen language gets ignored. Don't travel?

Anyone dealing with this ? Anyone have some simple ways to get around it?

So how much (%) of last year's billions of cubic meters of water was from the sudden discharge of water from overfilled dams?

The fake rolex watch thing is about as dumb a joke as buying real Spanish Fly in Tijuana in who could be so stupid as to really think it is a Rolex and this scam on stupid tourists really doesn't represent the general trademark issue at all.

I got my Acer 501 this week. The price seemed a good deal (look on the back side of the price sign) so I wonder if a new model in their new line (I see a 510 in the USA) is comig. I was a bit hesitant, and considered the Samsung. But in terms of old issues the 501 is preloaded with Android 3,2 and is up to 3.2.1 now and I will hold them to telling me it will upgrade to 4.. I have a USB NTFS drive mounted which is CONSIDERABLY larger than the 64 Gbytes memory (32Gb + 32 Gb micro SD) and it is indexed serving files over the wireless. I've played a number of 1080 files flawlessly and only noted a little stuttering on a '4K' movie I downloaded from Google. I've paired more bluetooth devices with it already than I have been able to pair with my Dell Windows 7 PC. The ICONIA supports things like HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps that you might be surprised (check the age of reviews of it). 3g! (Some reviews now hail it as the first with ATT 4G - I won't be using a SIM for a while). Elegant, slick, a better deal than the Ipad 2 in many respects. It's "massive" extra weight/thickness is insignificant and could just save it from sliding off an airplane seat tray some day.

I suppose I might pay too much at the SONY store, but does anyone have a GOOD idea where in Bangkok I can get the "micro hdmi type d cable"????????>

I hope my walk all over Panthip looking for a "micro hdmi type d cable" tomorrow will not be as unsuccessful as last weeks walk all over looking for a 6 (5.1) 0r 8 (7.1) channel audio switch. Anyone have ideas on that item either? I'd prefer for 3.5audio cables but can do the RCA input/outputs.

We are now in a low tide trend but the river is high because of a surge.

My apologies as I read my post(s) yesterday I should have said "the river is high now due to the flood waters (water table) +1.5 m plus the surge (+40 cm) approx.

Isn't the "water table" underground?

Yup, it's above the ground in bangkok right now.

I fancy a long-tail boat to paddle its way to my balcony with a cocktail, few refreshments and other amenities to boot as I relax and watch the sun set.

Someone in this morning's deluge of tweets saved me some googling ... (thank you whoever u were )

http://www.weather.gov.sg/wip/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PUB.1023.17&p_p_id=EXT_13&p_p_action=0&p_p_state=pop_up&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&_EXT_13_struts_action=/nea/aviation/last24hours/last24hours&_EXT_13_if=ai112322.jpg

Thus a typhoon does not appear to be hitting the Viet coast right noiw. Whew! Does the FROG know what one is?

We are now in a low tide trend but the river is high because of a surge.

My apologies as I read my post(s) yesterday I should have said "the river is high now due to the flood waters (water table) +1.5 m plus the surge (+40 cm) approx.

The tide table could be theory (timing, certainly) or measured averages (level) or combo. The deviation will be due to atmospheric 'surges' down or up , and the excess water coming into or not into the system (water table - high when fllooding!!!!). I think this river just maintains its own level at the water table, it's very flat here.

But the atmospheric surges aren't generally known until a couple of weeks before at best. Certainly not to the extent of knowing the high/low tides to the minute.

Certainly. If they were part of the tide tables (i.e. levels based on measurements) their effect would be almost randomly dispersed in the tide level predictions as they do not correlate with the tides timing.

OK, thanks for the explanation. However since the navy tide chart page also shows the actual river level 50 (or so) kilometers north of the sea, they must take into account the effect of these surges. Or am I missing something?

The tide charts are determined a long way in advance (years?). Weather changes day to day.

They might be able to predict the tide day to day in the same way as they predict the weather, but if it's anything more than a week it would just be the standard tides without taking into consideration any weather effects.

The tide table could be theory (timing, certainly) or measured averages (level) or combo. The deviation will be due to atmospheric 'surges' down or up , and the excess water coming into or not into the system (water table - high when fllooding!!!!). I think this river just maintains its own level nnear the water table, it's very flat here.

Let us not forget the representative from the meteorological department stating 1 hour after the boxing day earthquake that to send out an alert over it might scare away tourists and they could 'lose face' with the Taksin governmant.