Guderian

If you lived near the Imagine 79 Chinese show on Thepprasit Soi 8 you wouldn't think there were fewer Chinese coaches in town.... 😞

Really? That's the first time I've seen that scary number, no wonder they're desperate for yet more tax. The UK is in a pretty poor position fiscally, yet its interest payments "only" account for some 8% of expenditure, the Thai figure is almost double that. To make it worse, the return on gilts is presumably higher than the coupon paid on Thai government debt since the central bank base rate here is much lower than it is in the UK, so the Thai government debt stock must be seriously large. Still, when you borrow 400 billion Baht to bribe voters, that's what ends up happening. They need to get their spending under control, not try to tax the life out of the economy.

Great, thanks, it seems like the way to go. I'd wondered for years how people who get free accommodation manage to prove their address, and now I understand.

OK, thanks, the blue book would certainly be the simplest solution by a long way.

OK, thanks. I'll take it along with me in case they decide that my 6-month-old TOT bill is too dated, and they don't like my Sophon cable TV bill. It can't hurt to try. BTW, which office are you using, I'm in Pattaya so it's Jomtien, the acceptable practices often differ between the various Immigration offices.

Please explain how that works, since the blue book is only for Thai names and, without your own farang name listed in it, it doesn't prove anything at all as far as I can see.

Very difficult to get in Pattaya, it's been discussed many times there. How hard can it be simply to get an official document with your name and address on it once a year?

Here we go again, with Thaksin's extra-judicial mass-murderers let loose...

It's for the annual retirement extension. My TOT internet bill has always been accepted in the past, but the most recent one from NT is six months old and I'm worried that the IO may decide it's too old.

I just got the six-monthly bill from Sophon Cable TV here in Pattaya. That's a well-known and long-established company here, and the bill has the current date plus my address on it. I wonder if Immigration would accept that?

Like many people, I own a house via a company, and for the last 13 years I've just used the latest TOT bill for my internet and landline as proof of address for Immigration purposes. I've never had any problem with that, it's worked like a charm. The water and electricity are in the company name, so those bills are no use. I know you can take a copy of your chanote or whatever and use that, but the TOT bill is much simpler. However, since NT took over TOT, they seem to be reluctant to send out monthly bills any more, instead sending text reminders to pay it online. Is there a way to get NT/TOT to send you a bill? If not, then what is the best means of providing proof of address to Immigration if you own a house via a company? I suppose I could try and get the PEA to change the billing address from my company name to my own, but I've no idea how difficult that would be. I bank with SCB, but I haven't had any paper mail from them for years. Is there some other officially recognised bill or document with your name and address on it that can be used instead, or is the chanote the only other way?

Thanks for the extra info!

Any more info on the actual location of this 'public park'? Soi 7 is quite a long road, running from Thepprasit to Wat Bun 2/8. The only public park I can think of along there is the Pattaya Youth Centre Stadium. As you can drive through that from Soi 7 to eventually get to Jomtien Second Road, it sounds like it would be a likely spot for some youths to carry out a motorbike snatch and run.

They haven't even found the cash to pay for Thaksin's & Srettha's last populist initiative, the 400 billion Baht digital wallet scheme. Where's all the moolah coming from to pay for this new wodge of vote buying?

Something tells me that there's not that many British pensioners relocating to Thailand to escape the gloom and cold who will be able to meet the financial requirements for the LTR visa...

A shame, I've been on Skype since it started in 2003, in the days before smart phones and social media apps it was the simplest and cheapest way to keep in touch with friends on the other side of the world. Like many people now, though, I only use it very occasionally to call my UK bank or the DWP or HMRC, so the idea of paying 325 Baht/month for a subscription makes no sense. Is there a recommended alternative for people who only use a dedicated VOIP app very occasionally?

A bit OT, but it gave me a smile... lol

Yes, that's pretty much my take on matters too. A bottle of bog standard Moet used to be around the 3,500-4,000 Baht mark, but now you can get it for around 2,500 Baht. Also Taittinger and Bollinger are available at under 3,000 Baht a bottle. Given that these wines cost around 50 quid a bottle in Heathrow duty free, the local mark-up and tax is much less than it used to be. My go to fizz these days is the excellent Breton Fils, especially the rosé which is an great buy at around 1,600 Baht a bottle.

@jas007 and @Upnotover Many thanks!

I’m feeling lazy this year and thinking of sending an agent to get my annual retirement extension from Soi 5. Only that service, I have the money in the bank so there’s no need for the dodgy agent-loan facility they offer. The last time I did this it cost 8,000 Baht, including the 1,900 Baht Immigration fee. So far, I’ve asked for a price from two agents (Karen and Always Pattaya) and the quotes have been for 12,000 Baht. I told them that it’s just the paperwork I want sorted, no loans or anything else, which I recall used to cost quite a bit extra, but they say that 12K Baht is the going rate now. Did the IO’s in Soi 5 increase their fees by 50%? The agent I last used has disappeared so I don’t have that option anymore. Has anyone found an agent lately who’s still willing to do the annual retirement extension for 8,000 Baht or thereabouts, or are those days long gone now?

In my experience, there's plenty of things worth seeing and doing in the country that are either free or charge everybody the same. Just avoid the government-owned or -run scams.

The cops were obviously well prepared. I've seen small versions of the long pole with a steel curve on the end to hold a snake down by its neck, but they must carry Jumbo farang-sized versions around nowadays!

Arriving at Heathrow T2 last August with a new UK passport I was annoyed to find that - yet again, as it had happened repeatedly with the old one - the e-gate facial recognition system didn't work so I was directed to go and queue to see a human being (only one on duty) at the arrivals counter. If it had just been me, fair enough, maybe my passport was dodgy or my face too weird for a computer to be able to process it, lol, but no, I reckoned that around 20% of passengers were being rejected, all of them with UK passports. I got chatting with my neighbours in the long and winding queue, and several of them were pretty irate as they also had brand new passports and were frequent flyers, so this nonsense was a regular event for them. I only hope the Thai system works better than whatever it is that the UK Border Force are using but, given the poor history of customer-facing Thai IT projects, I wouldn't bet on it.

Google Lens is certain that it's an example of Anisoneura aluco... https://pictureinsect.com/wiki/Anisoneura_aluco.html

Try Meat Stuff on Thepprasit Soi 8... https://meatstuffpattaya.com/