mjnaus
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Posts posted by mjnaus
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Have lived in Hatyai for close to 20 years. There are at least a few hundred teachers in and around town; but they rotate quite a lot. Some long stayers; busy stay for a year (or a few) before moving on.
Places like The Swan and The Post are not popular anymore, except for a handful barflies.
There are a couple of Facebook groups that will give you an idea of the number of foreigners and where they might hang out.
As for the dangers of living in Hatyai/Songkhla; you’ll have a bigger change of drunk Somchai killing you with his truck than you have of being affected by “terrorists” (when bombs that more resemble home made fireworks than actual explosive devices intent to kill or damage).
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26 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:
That is misleading. No Thai bank will reject a bank to bank credit to a customers account from another bank solely based on it's being over B50k ($1,375). That amount is insignificant and it would be ridiculous.
Even with very large amounts, there is no limit to the amount that can be credited to customers' accounts. Large (or unusual) credits in may result in the bank asking their customer for details of the transfer before it is cleared but the funds would not be returned to the remitting bank based on nothing more than the of the amount of the transfer.
Although what you're saying is most likely true; Wise does impose this limit. When doing EUR transfers to Thailand, it clearly states only Kasikorn and another bank allow incoming transfers of over 50k. All other banks don't. Now, whether this is something Wise arbitrarily decided to impose or if this is some Thai banking regulation isn't clear.
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15 hours ago, Postmaster said:
Bloomin eck you guys with big money. What's wrong with cattle class. How much food and booze do you need for a flight. You are all in the same plane and come down together if there is a catastrophe !
I don't think there's anything wrong with economy class. Business/first class is simply the more comfortable way to travel. Used to travel in economy class all the time back when money was tighter. However, when I started to be able to afford it, business/first became a no-brainer, especially for those brutal 12+ hour trips.
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If flying business class, Qatar is the better option, by far (QSuites, dine-on-demand, no 2-2-2 seating, better food, etc). If economy, the differences are minimal. If taking airports into consideration (for the layover), Qatar is the better one imo, especially if you can access the Al Mourjan lounge.
The only circumstances I'd ever consider Emirates again would be if I were able to get a good deal on a first class seat. Everything else, I'd take Qatar.
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15 hours ago, BusyB said:
It was last Thursday to be more precise.
Strange. This was not in place when I arrived several weeks ago or the month before. If this correct, maybe they’ve reinstated those checks? Wouldn’t make much sense though…
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On 9/7/2022 at 6:58 PM, BusyB said:
When I arrived a short while back just ahead of immigration I was pointed across to special counters, where masked staff behind screens wanted to see proof of vaccination etc.
This must indeed have been QUITE a while back, as this is definitely no longer happening right now.
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Seems like nothing is requested (proof of vaccination or a negative test) when arriving in BKK. However, quite a few airlines do ask for proof of vaccination. Happened to me with both Qatar Air and EVA; asked for proof when checking in but nothing asked upon arrival in BKK.
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An IDP is nothing more than a certified translation of a driver's license and is not required IF your original driver's license has English language on it (which most licenses have these days). Hence, IDP's are not often needed anymore these days.
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Not a single mention of a control group? If control is missing; how can this be taken seriously?
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3 hours ago, ezzra said:
Congratulation of the finalization of the sale of the house, however, had you consulted this forum or an estate agent you would have found out that bank's loan's approval can take many months and some time declined all together and probably more useful tips on selling properties in Thailand...
We have been through this process ourselves in the past and it took about a month and a half (about 10 years).
Also, as I mentioned in my post, I did dig through content on the forum before starting the process, however the signal to noise ratio wasn't doing me any favors; lots of nonsense and faulty information.
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When my wife and I started considering selling our home (just outside of Hat Yai, Songkhla province) I started by doing some research on this very forum. It quickly became apparent that there was, as usual, a lot of contradicting and often simply complete false information with regards of selling property in Thailand.
So I figured the information below might be of use to some other forum dwellers looking to sell their property.
We built the house 10 years ago, in an older mooban, close to Hat Yai airport (a few km's outside of town). Designed it ourselves but built by de developer selling us the land in the development. We took out a mortgage of 2.5mil baht and added some of our own funds as well. The land plot was just a bit over 123 tarang wah which is almost 500 sqm. The house itself was about 180sqm, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, western style kitchen, plenty of storage facilities and a large garden. We maintained the house well over the years, however given the typical construction standards, it did start showing its age in places. We spent large amount of times abroad every year, but always have gardeners and cleaners over regularly to keep things nice and tidy.
We decided it's time to sell the property early this year (around April) and the first step we took was having one of those banners made up to stick on the front gate. In addition to mentioning the place was for sale, it also contained a QR code that linked to a simple website I put up with high quality pictures showing all the nice features of the home and the garden.
Within a few days we started getting some interest, mainly phone calls. Within a week we had some to take a look at the house and willing to discuss price. This was all a bit fast for us, as we were scheduled to head back to Europe within a week or so were thinking the house would be on the market for at least several months to a year or so and we'd come back next year to deal with the actual sale.
Yet, these guys were definitely interested and wanted to make a downpayment before we left so we'd take the property of the market. We finally negotiated on a price of 4.2mil (down from 4.5mil we initially asked) and agreed to a down payment of 200,000b while they'd apply for a mortgage. They'd have 3 months to complete their mortgage application. If the application wouldn't not be successful within those three months, we'd get to keep the down payment and we'd be allowed to put the property back on the market. All of this was handled by the attorney with official contracts.
So, papers signed and down payment received, my wife and I left back to Europe to wait it out. Time kept going by and didn't hear anything from the interested party of their lawyer. After a few months, my wife reached out and was told they were still waiting on the mortgage approval. Several more weeks passed and we started to get a worried about absolute silence. My wife's pregnant and the time frame in which we'd still be able to fly half way around the world and clear out our house was rapidly closing. My wife send another message to their attorney asking what's going on. He replied that it's taking longer because they had to refile the mortgage application under a different name (we assume the girl who initially applied didn't get approved).
All fine and dandy, but we couldn't continue to wait much longer. We decided to inform them that we'd be traveling back to Thailand in two weeks and if they'd be able to sort out finance by then, the deal was still on. If not, we would put the property back on the market and we'd get to keep the deposit (since the original time frame had since past).
Upon arriving in Bangkok last week, my wife reached out to the attorney who informed us that the mortgage was approved now and we could proceed getting the house in order to prepare for the official transfer at the land office a week later.
Last Friday, my wife and I, plus the buying party's attorney showed up at the land office around 8.30. At that time, it's already starting to get busy. You're given a queue number and than it's a matter of waiting until your number's up. When your number is up, the buyer and seller sit down with the land office rep who will process all of the relevant documents: the chanote, house book, ID's, construction permit (if there's a property involved instead of just land). If the seller is married, even to a foreigner, the spouse needs to be present as well (as he/she needs to sign some documents as well).
Verifying all the docs will take a while, about half an hour in our case. Once all verified, you're asked to wait until the updated chanote is ready. This took another 40 minutes roughly.
Next up is payment. Since the buyer is financing the purchase through a mortgage, there was a bank rep their from their bank. After the chanote is updated by the land office, it was this bank rep who picked up the chanote and came down to meet us (wife, me and the buyer's attorney). We were handed a cashiers check and after our approval the chanote was handed to the buyer's attorney.
There were some fees/taxes to be paid as well: transfer fee of 2% (either paid by the buyer or split between buyer and seller, we agreed on the latter), stamp duty of 0.5% and withholding/income tax. With regards to that last one, they consider the returns of sale of the property as income and hence it's taxed as such. The exact rules changed again recently and there's different sources online using different methods of calculating the final amount. In addition, the actual returns used to calculate the tax on are also vague; in our case the land office went with the registered value of just the land from when it was last surveyed (quite a few years ago) which ended up being roughly 2mil baht. Total fees for our side came to just below 90.000baht (property was sold for 4.2mil).
Hope this info is useful.
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1 hour ago, SAFETY FIRST said:
Some people don't believe that the world is round.
Then, of course, there are those who believe every fairy tale under the sun.
Truth of the matter is, every half decent hardware wallet comes with a recovery method in the form of a seed phrase which can be used to regenerate the private keys. I have lost hardware wallets in the past and it never was a problem. Losing both your seed phrase and the actual wallet is a different matter.
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34 minutes ago, KhunLA said:
She was a Chilean politician, granted, one of the better ones, but still....
... we have to A2D on anything else.
Saudi Arabia was on one of UN's human rights commissions also ... go figure.
Again, the concept of a body such as the UN is apparently lost on you. It's a silly and rather simplistic notion to judge UN representatives by the governments of their homelands... At the very least, wouldn't you agree that these people should be judged on the merit of their own achievements? Would you be so critical of Nelson Mandela, simply because he's from South Africa?
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12 minutes ago, KhunLA said:
Don't spin it. I stated 'Chilian', as their track record on human rights isn't the best. 'Kettle & pot thingy', IMHO.
You can't wrap your head around the fact that this lady is in China as a UN representative, not the Chilean government?
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1 hour ago, Adumbration said:
Prior to covid I would go on a surf trip each year. I tried all of the available dog homestays in my and the surrounding provinces. All of them were Thai owned and none of them were up to scratch. I discovered one of them just put my little bloke in a tiny steel cage like a battery hen for the entire length of his stay.
Another issue is his food. I feed him freshly prepared pork, chicken and seafood. He loves squid and king prawns. I also give him fresh veggies and fruit. He loves sweet potato, apples and mangoes. He will eat some high quality kibbles, but only if I hand feed him each piece.
Yep, finding the right place isn't easy. Took us a long time as well. But in the end, we ended up with honestly wonderful places. One is foreign owned and the other Thai, but both take care of our pets as we would. Definitely avoid the horrible deathtraps where they lock up the animals in small cages. Obviously, those places are not the ones we're after.
And it might mean having to look elsewhere in the country, but I don't see why this should stop you? Years ago, before we found the dog hotel closer to home, we had our German Sheppard in a hotel run by a Swiss guy on Samui. This way a 7 hour trip for us, one way. But it was, at that time, the only place we'd feel comfortable leaving our dog.
Fortunately, finding places like this isn't easy, but when you have one, it sure makes life easier. And there are quite a few of these places scattered around Thailand.
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I have been living in Thailand for about 20 years and have always had pets; both cats and dogs. Since a couple of years back, my wife and I have had to spend more and more time back in Europe due to my dad's health issues. It started with several months a year and during the past two years six months or more a year.
While I don't share your situation in the sense that I worry my wife wouldn't treat our animals right in case I wouldn't be here (she loves our animals just as much as I do and treats them just as good, if not better), I do have some experience dealing with the situation where our animals needed care in our absence.
We started off by finding the best boarding services we could find and ended up with places for both our cats as well as our dogs. This can take a while and is a matter of trial and error, but definitely worth the time and energy. Even though having places that like is by no means a long term solution, it will take the pressure off if you need to move fast. At least you know you will have a place where people you know can take care of your animals for a certain amount of time.
We found such places for both our cats and our dogs and we have left our animals there for up to around six months. These places have to be "right" though. The places we use have 24 hour camera access and in addition they send us daily updates, including videos and pictures, with regards to our animals well being. They will take them to the vet when needed and make sure they get the right level of care.
Having places like this will allow you the time needed to contemplates next steps, if needed.
In our situation, since we're now spending more time in Europe than we do in Thailand, we decided to move our three cats back with us. This comes with its own challenges and stress, but definitely worth it in the end.
We still have one dog left in Thailand, who is currently in our friend's doggy hotel. Unfortunately, this dog has health conditions that make it very dangerous to move her back to Europe (she probably won't survive the trip) and hence we had to make other long term arrangements for her. We could leave her at the doggy hotel and simply continue to pay for her food, care, etc (they have other dogs who live there permanently). Fortunately, we have close friend who are willing to adopt here.
I understand the level of worry involved when it comes to pets and their well being in countries like Thailand. Unfortunately, the average Thai person simply look differently at pets and animal well being compared to westerners. No point in arguing this, it's simply apparent. All we can do is accept that situation and then try plan accordingly.
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15 hours ago, JeffersLos said:
I wouldn't have a dog because they're dirty and annoying.
So are humans. I guess that means you have no friends either?
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Either Qatar or Eva (if they're flying again, which I don't think they are yet?). Second choice would be Emirates, but make damn sure you're not buying their <deleted>ty 2-2-2 business class config.
European carries are garbage compared to their Asian and ME counterparts.
If flying Qatar, try and get a QSuite config, or their newer 1-2-1 config. Transit in Doha is fantastic; no waiting/lines and some of the best lounges available.
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On 5/24/2022 at 9:14 PM, habuspasha said:
It's a welcome alternative to a very long walk followerd by a very long line at immigration/transfer.
The only potential lines at Doha when transferring are at the security checkpoint. However, when flying business class and moving through the priority queue, there's never a line. Last time, flying from Bangkok to Amsterdam, we did not have to pass through security at all. Zero waiting, straight into the lounge for a shower and breakfast.
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I went and got a job at McDonald's
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Again, the 180 staking period is ONLY required in order to get the benefits. You can unstake at any time if you’re willing to give up those benefits.
As for the ponzi discussion… there’s nothing that indicates that crypto.com
has a need to tap into staked funds to pay out rewards. Why would they? They own the currency and can mint at their leisure to pay out rewards. Downside being inflation and dilution of CRO holders. Still not an ideal situation however, at a fundamental level, not all that different from my Amex card paying rewards denominated in the most inflated currency in human history. As long as existing investors aren’t paid by investments of new investors… not a ponzi.
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Nope, there is no “lock up” period. Go and read their website again. You can unstake at any time. By doing so, you forgo any further card benefits, that’s it.
And indeed, I didn’t know about the announced cashback rate reduction. Fair enough. However, this is hardly a shocker; the reduction only kicks in after the 180 day staking period. At which point you can simply unstake and stop using the card, or accept the 1% reduction in the cashback rate (all other card benefits remain in place).
Everything crypto’s a ponzi these days, eh? You do understand crypto.com can mint whatever tokens they need to pay out rewards? At the worst, holders are being diluted. But crypto.com has zero need to pay out rewards using staked CRO, so I fail to see how this would qualify as a “ponzi”?
Something else you apparently have difficulty wrapping your head around is that unstaking does not equal exchanges your CRO for fiat or other currency. You can unstake and continue to hold CRO for as you as you please. Additionally, you have no clue at what price anybody has purchased their staked CRO. A year ago, its price was about half of what it is today. Anybody who initialized their stake then is still looking at unrealized profits at this point.
Finally, I couldn’t care less about the the cashback rates. Even 0% I’d be a happy camper as I simply need a solid card to spend crypto with. I bought CRO at a fraction of what it’s worth today, so even unstaking now and cashing out would leave with a nice profit.
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I guess some actual fact checking shouldn't get in away of a nice, uninformed drivel post?
If you would have bothered, you would know that there is no "lock up" for the CRO staked to get the card's cash back rewards; the staked funds can be retrieved at any moment. Doing so will simply negate the cash back and other card related benefits, however the card itself remains functional.
Furthermore, Crypto.com hasn't made any changes to their cash back percentages, at least they haven't during the period in which I have been using their cards (the past 6 months or so).
Why some people feel the need to <deleted> all over something they haven't got a clue about is beyond me. Aren't there some actual issues in your life you'd better spend your time and energy on?
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For a more nuanced, less sensation-seeking and better informed article on what went down with the Bored Ape's Otherside NFT drop: https://decrypt.co/99256/bored-ape-creators-slammed-nightmare-ethereum-nft-land-drop
If anything, what happened is a perfect illustration of a well functioning blockchain and extremely poorly executed NFT smart contract.
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Is a stablecoin a suitable way to get cash out of Thailand ?
in Cryptocurrency News
Posted
I tried this a year or two ago.... however, I ran into trouble purchasing stable coins on local exchanges due to rather low liquidity (apparently not too many Thais trading stables, at least not back then). I was looking to buy DAI or USDC and was only able to buy a few hundred to roughly 1000 per transaction. Turned out to be a major hassle so I gave up.
In the end, went the swift transfer route.