CaptHaddock

How is it caused by second crop rice farming? Do they draw so much water from the Chao Phraya that the river flow is weakened to the point that sea water reaches further upriver than before? Or is it an effect of rising levels of sea water due to global warming?

Or you can install Popcorntime and watch the torrent downloads in realtime, at least a large sampling. Since I don't fully trust popcorntime either, it's best to do so on an isolated, sandbox computer.

Does Thailand's lese majeste laws include foreign royals?

yes

What is the basis for this claim? Article 112 does not mention foreign royals nor do we hear of prosecution of cases on that basis.

I can't remember, but this has been handled on TV before, something about harming relations with a foreign country by insulting their royals.

I have read that here before, but it seems unlikely given that I don't find reference even to single case of someone prosecuted under 112 for insulting a foreign royal.

Humm, I've had 15 years of interactions with Thai street vendors and never been lacerated...and some bloke comes on a holiday and gets smacked in the face. I imagine he threw the F-bomb at them to which they didn't take kindly. Some people have to learn things the hard way.

"Imagine" is indeed the operative word in the absence of any evidence whatsoever.

Does Thailand's lese majeste laws include foreign royals?

yes

What is the basis for this claim? Article 112 does not mention foreign royals nor do we hear of prosecution of cases on that basis.

One big problem is they don't allow themselves an escape hatch - a bolt hole - when they burn out they are stuck in LOS

In general, Don't sell everything and move to Thailand is the moral.. keep a condo or a suite back home for if- when needed

Some expats cannot have this luxury, the at-risk ones sometimes off themselves as a result, feeling trapped in "paradise"..

This approach has never made any sense to me. Owning a condo back in the home country does not provide any additional measure of safety for an expat. It's a liability. It has to be managed, taxes paid, protected from damage, etc. What protects you both at home and abroad is having money. Selling the property at home does not prevent you from returning and renting a place for short or long-term.

They stopped the express service to Suvannaphum, but the local service still runs.

I can understand if the OP does not want to do his own taxes with TurboTax, but why would it be necessary to see the accountant face-to-face? There must be thousands of US accountants doing business over the internet to whom he could send his documents and then have whatever discussions are necessary via Skype. That way, he can look for an accountant in a relatively low cost-of-living area of the US and expect a somewhat lower fee for the tax preparation than from a big city preparer.

It's not so easy to emigrate to Canada as a retiree. Canada has a point system to establish qualification for landed immigrant status. It counts things like level of education, ability to speak both of the national languages of Canada, income/assets, and so on. Like most countries that accept immigrants they are looking for people who can contribute, which usually means working. Google "landed immigrant" to read about the criteria.

If the OP succeeds in immigrating to Canada he won't want to bother with US Medicare since the Canadian healthcare system covers everyone after six months of residency including pre-existing conditions. It is a far better system than Medicare. He will certainly get his Social Security.

Thanks, and you are no doubt right, but is there a way to confirm that?

If a company tries to weasel out of full percentage payment, their lawyers will likely look for legal loopholes, and I've read horror stories about that.

I suppose I could threaten to report them, at least on internet forums.

Also, not sure if forming an LLC while abroad will get me in trouble with the IRS.

I know there are ways around this, since many expats do licensing with USA companies. I would like to find a forum or book to help me, but the one licensing forum I used to consult has disappeared.

You are certainly right to anticipate problems that might arise from falsely claiming legal residence in KY and you should get a legal opinion from a qualified lawyer before proceeding. It's almost always easier to avoid such problems ahead of time rather than trying to fix them after the fact, even if you might get away with the falsification.

If the legal advice turns out to be that you do need to have established residence in a state in order to have a valid contract, then there are apparently ways to do that even though you reside physically out of the country, although I do not have experience with this. South Dakota is reported to encourage this practice and Florida may permit it. My mail forwarder provides a service to establish residence in Florida including a driver's license and voter registration, which they claim is legal. Neither South Dakota nor Florida has an income tax.

Let me know if you want the url for the mail forwarder.

I looked at the Line Pay site, but couldn't find any info on how a merchant opens an account, nor what the merchant fees are. Anyone know?

Is anyone using Paypal Here to receive payments in Thailand? My Thai wife needs a way to accept credit card payments. Paypal Here aspires to be a global service, but I don't find any announcement that they accept business in Thailand. My wife has US bank accounts.

To the OP,

What did you see exactly?

>>I do think Thailands situation is better than it was before and believe it holds promise for Thailand's future.

So, you think fascism deserves a second chance?

I am currently in trouble because I maintain a driver's license for the 2 weeks a year I visit my Mom on California. I also have a bank account for convenience.

I heard just having a mother living in California they claim shows intent to return.

Can I change my drivers license to an international license?

I heard there are now rules that people living overseas are not allowed to buy mutual funds or have managed accounts. Can only buy stocks.

Is there some reason that you steadfastly refuse to google up and read the tax domicile regulations which certainly appear on the website of the CA state govt? Is it anything more than laziness?

There are lots of differences: Japanese is harder to learn for English-speakers

I grew up speaking Japanese alongside English so I can't judge, but I know a number of Westerners who have studied both Japanese and Thai to a fairly high level and most of them found Thai every bit as difficult as Japanese, just in different ways. Even near-native command of colloquial Thai is a serious achievement.

The answer to the OP's question depends entirely on how he wants to define 'really'. By my definition, I've met maybe 30 or 40 in almost that many years here, and most are old timers who came here when there was a lot more motivation to learn. Some come to think of it, 1,000 or so total is probably about as good a rough estimate as any. (Of course now in Japan the number is probably 10 to 100 times that.)

Spoken Thai and Spoken Japanese are probably similar in difficulty for English-speakers, but once you factor in reading and writing, Japanese becomes vastly more difficult. You can learn the Thai writing system in a month. Just the basic 1800 kanji will take you a lot longer than that.

We had this discussion in another thread. The Foreign Service Institute of the US State Dept, which is in the business of teaching foreign languages to US diplomats, has a difficulty rating that puts Japanese at the top and Thai in the middle.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers

You certainly lucked out by having the chance to learn Japanese growing up. Perhaps you can even speak it without an accent.

What did you do to establish domicile?

I think even if I move, California will want the tax on my tax deferred IRA. Right?

In the past CA has claimed a right to tax tax-deferred retirement accounts of state residents after they moved out of the state. However, there was a Supreme Court case that was decided against CA. Since then, they cannot tax your IRA after you move out, provided, that they can't catch you on any of their other provisions that mean you are still domiciled in CA, such as "intent to return", etc.

My Thai teacher who has taught approximately 1000 foreign students estimated that no more than 10 have become really fluent in Thai, to the point of reading, writing and understanding jokes.

So, a lot less than 1%.

In response to the OP's question about foreigners who can really speak Thai, my guess, and it's no more than a guess, is that the number of fully fluent foreigners is on the order of about 1000 individuals. I base that on an estimate given in the 70's by Edwin O. Reischauer, Prof. of Japanese History at Harvard and US ambassador to Japan, of the number of foreigners who could communicate effectively enough in Japanese which he put at 1000.

There are lots of differences: Japanese is harder to learn for English-speakers, Japan is a major trading partner while Thailand isn't, etc. It could possibly be several thousand, but not ten thousand.

Is there a brand that is 2% Minoxidil? That is what seems to be recommended for women's baldness.

CH

That sounds like a great service and exactly what I want. However, my mail is UK based. Does your forwarder have a UK office?

No. US only, but google is your friend. Here's one:

http://mtei.co.uk/