kinyara

Unless you have a massive monthly pension to cover additional medical bills above insurance I don't see how this can be achieved practically without an element of concern/worry. As a single guy with no direct dependents I think it's sensible planning to sell my condo in later life and rent hopefully in the same complex which I feel comfortable in, running down the assets in Thailand so there is not much here for relatives to have to deal with. I don't mind leaving my maximum 800k to a trustworthy friend to distribute equally amongst a list of the condo staff and particular bar staff in my 2 regular venues that I've known for years. As we know a little goes a long way here to people earning sub 20k a month.

Looking at November's arrival detail larger long haul markets such as US, UK and Germany all experienced increases to levels close to pre-pandemic rates, goes against the theory that higher flight prices and other negative economic factors would stop people coming at similar levels to before.

They won't hit 2019 levels in 2024 with the continued absence of the Chinese market, however as the November 2023 monthly figure shows, non-Chinese arrivals were almost back to the pre-pandemic level. Nov 2023 - Non Chinese Tourist Arrivals 2.3 million Nov 2019 - Non Chinese Tourist Arrivals 2.5 million

You're in denial because the historical figures don't support all the personal and political complaints you have about the country. The idea that somehow the authorities go to the bother of altering arrival numbers monthly from over 100 countries for the last 20 years to fool a few disgruntled foreigners is the stuff of a deranged conspiracy theorist. Why don't they just add in a couple of million ficticious Chinese arrivals to make themselves look better rather than reporting the large shortfall currently being acknowledged ?

I don't think being in Jomtien as opposed to Pattaya will increase your chances of finding and building a successful long-term relationship, a 10 minute baht bus ride between either place doesn't remove the fundamentals which are the same anywhere, quite possibly harder here when you throw in language and cultural differences. Just curious how you are planning on managing your visa situation long-term in your 30's ?

A little bit of forward planning by bringing in enough money pre-Dec 31, 2 months before normal, to satisfy my annual extension timeframe and thereby not requiring any transfers in 2024, effectively means for me that any tax I would be likely to pay would be due in January 2026. That makes me relaxed about the situation, time for the dust to settle, the situation to be clarified/formalised/officially organised, and enough time to plan for viable future alternatives if I find the impact does actually have a significant financial impact on me.

Japan is an interesting one to me as the decline in their arrival numbers this year are probably the worst with the exception of China, yet we've heard very little about it from the authorities which is surprising given its relative importance. In 2019 it was the 6th largest market with 1.8m arrivals, this year to October it had dropped to 12th with a mere 0.6m. Not surprised to see the PM on a trip out there banging the trade drum.

Not supported by the arrival figures, Vietnam is running at exactly the same rate relative to Thailand this year as it was back in 2019 - 45%, which suggests to me they face similar problems such as reduced Chinese travel, higher cost of travel and general worsening global economic factors.

A few years ago I drove past the architectual business on Thappraya Road heading to the Pratumnak light intersection when the authorities raided it, quite a big story at the time as the couple were fairly prominent.. They were keeping all sorts of exotic creatures in the showroom and cages out back. A couple of hours later I was watching TV in my condo, 4th floor, and movement caught my eye to the left of me on the balcony 10 foot away from the sofa. Looked left and here is this massive monkey/baboon on the railings looking straight at me, luckily all the sliding doors were shut. I'm sure the timing wasn't a coincidence if you know the forested area running at the back of that road down to Thepprasit.

" Fancy a Chinese Leo ", imagine the fallout for tourism 😂

It's a perfectly sensible approach that I employ only when paying a 1,000 for something under 100, a situation where a 1 note exchange allows for the most significant loss, ie 900+ change. There is no need to raise your voice above normal polite conversation levels, I'm just looking for eye to eye or verbal acknowledgement, and my own approach is to say " Sorry I only have a 1,000 ", thereby not implying I think they're going to scam me. Personally I'd rather minimise the albeit remote prospect of an awkward situation afterwards by approaching it this way when paying. I would have thought a rogue employee in a 7-11 would get caught out quickly by their own staff , i.e. 2nd or 3rd time it happened, unless they were all in on it which seems highly unlikely.

That's just peachy, we were due to check on him next month but since he's already qualified for home release under the totally coincidentally newly introduced Dept of Corrections guidelines the matter is now closed. A lot of talk recently about the Democrats joining the coalition and getting the 2 vacant cabinet posts, I wonder who else is on that House Committee on Police Affairs other than the Chairman who is a Democrat. Going through the public motions perhaps but working to a perfectly orchestrated mutually beneficial outcome. Kind of reminds me of the rather predictable course the outcome of the election took.

Soft Power = Big Budgets = you know what, headed by a Shinawatra. A nice couple of jolly boys outings to Japan an Germany for the entourage to kick things off. Nice work if you can get it.

Forgive me for being sceptical the Office that can't even manage the construction of a section of pavement to an acceptable standard is going to be able to solve the slightly more challenging problem of air quality. As far as I'm concerned locally their modus operandi of continued civil vandalism for zero public benefit contributes to the problem.

We're almost at the stage, January 2024 onwards, where you can actually measure country by country arrival growth or decline between comparable months of the post-pandemic years, i.e. Jan 2023 vs Jan 2024 forward. We've had 6 pages of the usual individual theories sprinkled with personal bug-bears which are all very predictable, it will be far more interesting and relevant to me at least whether and to what extent arrivals wise they actually translate into reality. Will Thailand be able to grow individual country numbers from 2023 to 2024 against a challenging world economic backdrop, if they do then that suggests to me foreign tourism is far from in the death spiral the majority on here seem to think it is.

Can't wait to see his miraculous return to health when he is officially free, the next farce will be arranging the smooth return of Yingluck and I wonder how long they will wait to facilitate that one.

I only do a physical printout when I'm going in at extension renewal time, download the approval file to a usb dongle and pop into a Kodak shop close by.

I haven't been to other tourists towns/cities recently but I think that's a very fair reflection of the state of the infrastructure in Pattaya these days. Walking around the daily obstacle course of appalling pavements or stuck in a baht bus on the central circuit as yet more holes are dug up and filled in for no practical benefit always designed for maximum high season inconvenience, I question the level of tourism they deserve for the state of the public services they provide.

A quote from the lady in charge in the article, " Foreign tourism will become 27% of Thailand's GDP by 2027, and the country must move to become less dependent on foreign tourism from now on ". Given, that as I understand it, foreign tourism in recent years has hovered around 10-12% of GDP, and in light of the difficult issues she has highlighted they are currently facing, I find that expectation utterly bizarre. It may be she got her figures mixed up but with some of the other things I've read from her so far, notably the PR disaster re Chinese police assisting tourists, I'm beginning to think she is out of her depth. " She hails from a family with ties to public service, her father being the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, make of that what you will.

It's been reported before that it is the lower end price sensitive tour group end of the Chinese market that is most affected by their domestic economic squeeze and higher cost of travel, I think those groups are historically more concentrated in the resort cities like Pattaya and I'm certainly not seeing any evidence of an upsurge in Pattaya since they introduced the visa concessions. Perhaps what you're seeing in Bangkok is more of the independent travel segment of the market. I hardly think Thailand would understate their arrival figures and they've so far given no indication a large increase in overall Chinese numbers is happening currently.

When I worked in Thailand I was on 300,000 a month tax free with 2-3 months annual bonus, other than the additional cost of renting a serviced apartment in a hotel during the week for 35,000 rather than face a daily 130 km round trip drive from my home, my spending wasn't any different to the way of life I lead now on 15% of that figure. I think it helps that I recognised fairly early on that becoming overly immersed in the nighlife scene was a waste of time and money for me and not the key to future happiness. Good luck spending whatever budget you want, you'll be welcomed with open arms or more appropriately in your case open legs by the recipients of your largesse, I just hope for your sake you have something to show for your lifestyle choice a few years down the line.

Jomtien office. When I got my new passport over a year ago my first online report with that new passport was accepted so I would indeed try it online 14 days before due date first. Nothing was said to me regarding a new TM30 either when I was transferring my extension of stay stamp to the new passport, HOWEVER the issue was raised when I went to renew my extension of stay in May, 6 months later. When I asked why they needed a new one since I hadn't left the country they said it was because I had a new passport !!!. I didn't do it then as the queues were horrendous and I was leaving the country a week later, so just did it via my condo office when I returned.

Simply not the case. At the start of the year the clearly stated target was a range of between 24-30 million, fairly broad and acknowledged by them to be heavily dependent on the level of the Chinese recovery. Whilst they did downgrade the likely figure from China from 5 million to the now expected 3.5 million as it became clear they were staying away, the overall figure has stayed consistent in the mid-point of their target and has been reported as such.

Garbage article from one of these online advertising sites pretending to be a news outlet, TAT's target last year was 10 million and they exceeded that.

No idea where you read that as it was widely reported they reached 25 million on December 3rd.