kinyara

I think you're asking the wrong people, get the vibe we're more of a Bamboo Bar ageing groover demographic than the Hip-Hop club homies of Walking Street.

Pattaya's mayor who appears to be making the decision was voted in by an election held in May this year.

I'm not in a position to or intending to do it, but what are the significant benefits to citizenship here ? I understand security of stay but is there anything else, I haven't found life too challenging here on non-immigrant status.

I've got a friend who used the agent route because he couldn't meet the requirements, when he came into some money and was able to it was just a case of paying a one-off fee, something like 10k, to get on the straight and narrow so not always a dead end.

One thing that can't be faulted is your honesty and openness in relaying progress and the problems you've faced, can't have been easy especially against the usual chorus of negativity. Hopefully the New Year brings you better fortunes with the project.

Maybe I got lucky with Jomtien immigration office but my first 90 day report online after receiving my new passport was successful. I had done the transfer of stamps from old to new prior to submitting the report of course. Always worth trying it first to see if it rejects or accepts.

At 69 with a healthy monthly income I'd get about enjoying yourself rather than overly focussing on any worrisome issues. As the great Bob Marley sang - " Don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright ". In fact 3 little birds will probably pitch up at your doorstep regularly if they hear you've got 6k a month.

It's a worrying thought we could only have 4 more years of your uplifting posts. ????

I think it's because the guys that live here are the chilled out ones content with their lives, given the lack of jumpers in the last 3 years I draw the conclusion they are unhinged tourists dreading going back to where they came from after a few weeks in paradise.

Mr 10,000,000th arrived on 10th December, which given the official published numbers means they've averaged 71k a day since Nov 1st. With 21 days to go another 1 million is odds on.

20 million in 2023 even without the Chinese seems realistic given the monthly rate they are now reaching. Easily achievable.

I wouldn't want to look stupid in their eyes advising anything other than the Elite Visa since it is specifically designed for their situation. What on earth would you advise ?

TAT don't produce the figures, that's not their responsibility.

Poor old Rooster, a Spurs fan as well. ????

In fairness to England they beat Iran, Wales and Senegal, and scraped a draw against a team that can't even get the name of the sport correct. Fantastic World Cup for them.????

Yeah I've got both an older 8" Huawei and the newer 10" with keyboard which I prefer to use when travelling for simple photo editing rather than carrying a larger heavier laptop. For the price I think they are great value and have proved totally reliable. The software related restrictions imposed on the company make them less attractive these days but the staff at Banana IT, who are always brilliant in my experience, set up the necessary app workaround for me so I can have access to the key apps. I'd probably look at Xiaomi in future at a similar price level.

Got to be an element of natural wastage, older people I know directly or by association from a long time here seem to be passing away on a fairly regular basis in the last couple of years. I've just seen someone post on a Pattaya facebook page that Darren the owner of Key Visa here in Pattaya has died which is a big shock, I'm sure a fair few on here will have used his services over the years. Very sad, nice, professional, helpful guy.

I wonder if the popular alternatives will actually be eligible by the time the election happens or will the Election Commission have found some spurious grounds for taking them out the equation.

Jingthing, think about the vaccination process and the numbers that were going through Central, Pattaya being one of the main centres for expat residents in the country.

You'd be surprised how few retirees are actually here and how irrelevant the number is in the overall scheme of things. You surely saw that in Jomtien during Covid, you could almost recognise all the expats you saw on a daily basis. I read an interview with the Head of Thai Immigration during Covid and he commented on how the number of retirees had declined in the last few years, I'm sure the figure he quoted was only 60k nationally, it really was surprisingly low.

Why give him the victory when he is on the retreat ? It yet again shows how weak your government is and its lack of moral compass. I'm afraid that one individual who placed herself in the firing line because of her own misdemeanours, is as usual because she's a high profile American being given a free pass over and above the far more heinous crimes of a worldwide terrorist that your country spent years and millions of dollars bringing to justice. It's nothing to do with Putin, focus on your own country's lack of backbone.

A guy America sought for years for being involved in the global supply of arms directly involved in killing their own citizens, no doubt spending tens of millions of dollars to eventually capture him funnily enough here in Thailand, and bigging up his eventual capture in an almost Escobar news scale. Versus a sportswoman who knowingly took her own illegal drugs into a foreign country. Way to go USA, you never fail to disappoint with your victories.

Absolutely brilliant, it's so funny to observe an obvious loophole becoming too big to ignore given the sudden influx of thousands young Russians, coinciding with the dodgy Chinese operators. Legitimate old codgers of the world can relax, the heat is off, we will survive. ????

Barely a coherent and intelligent observation bar two, good news stories about a gradually improving tourist market is clearly the home to the bitter and uneducated to vent their spleen.

Funny you mention that, cough cough ????