kinyara

On the basis I didn't have to is why I advocate initially trying online first THEN going in person if online is rejected, nothing ventured nothing gained.

My idea of a comfortable single life here in today's terms at 60 is owning my own property - 5 million baht, taking future market/exchange fluctuations of the biggest regular cost out the equation, guaranteed inflation increasing after tax annual pension income of 600k baht + a savings/investment pot of 18 million baht equivalent generating a low risk 4% 700k baht annually. A decent health insurance policy should leave a disposable income after a few other fixed annual costs of circa 90k baht a month, I can live a heathy lifestyle that suits me on a 1/3 of that so plenty to look forward to. With that set-up I'm not stressing about money, not interested in spending time and effort increasing it, but concentrating on maximising enjoyment out of what I have. Time and good health is the most precious commodity not the money.

My ideal sea view would be low rise overlooking a fishing harbour or marina where you can actually observe some activity of interest while enjoying a drink on the balcony. Just looking out onto a vast empty expanse of ocean which is typically what's on offer here isn't something I'd personally go out of my way to seek or pay a premium for. I have a spacious balcony in a low rise condo overlooking tropical central gardens, works for me relaxing reading a book or having a coffee, very peaceful.

No not that I have personally experienced. My advice would be to apply online 14 days before due date as permitted and the system will either accept or reject your submission, the worst that can happen on rejection is you have to go to the office in person anyway. PS - my first report online after receiving a new passport was also accepted despite reading misinformation that it wouldn't be accepted.

When is this actually happening ? I can't work out whether you're the most meticulous planner or the most indecisive potential retiree. Feels like you've been posting endless Thailand arrival scenarios for several years now. Aren't there refugees fleeing the Myannmar strife into the Mae Hong Son area, sure I've read some news reports to that effect.

I sympathise, people were saying the exact same thing this time last year. Non hotel staying peak high season level traffic having to report their own TM30's, nightmare scenario. I'm going to have to learn how to do my TM30 myself online for the future now that Immgration have instructed our condo office they will no longer accept them submitting on our behalf - major downer.

Good earner, the Malaysian weekend trippers regardless of what they get up to is the bread and butter of the southern Thai tourist economy.

Is that actually a thing in reality of any significance ? I say that looking at the average length of trip statistics of neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Cambodia which has always been 4-5 days, that suggests to me not and the border traffic is typically more short stay weekend tourists combined with longer stayers flying in to experience Bangkok etc.

They are ahead of you, 35 million is TAT's target for 2024 which includes 8 million Chinese.

All foreign tourists entering Thailand whether the entry point was through one of the airports or a land border crossing.

Must be highly contagious judging from half the crap I read on the forum.

No regrets, I'm in Jomtien which for me has the right balance of convenience, facilities and level of activity to make it an enjoyable and relaxing place to live. It's strange but even though there are a massive number of tourists continually passing through because I've been here a while and frequent the same places whether for food shopping, eating, socialising, etc it still feels like a small local area to me. If I fancy a city break, which I do every couple of months, I can hop on the Airport bus and be in Central Bangkok in 2 1/2 hours for the cost of a couple of beers - outstanding value and service. Best of both worlds and I do feel rather fortunate to be living here, the alternatives are a lot less appealing to me.

I have been and continue to be amazed at the collective hysteria, arguing and endless debate around an issue that has zero factual clarification. I find it much more relaxing in retirement ignoring the " what if's " of paranoid, scaremongering foreigners and dealing with any realities when they present themselves.

Not yet, but I'm really hoping/fearing this is not the start of a shift of their Pattaya Beach Road business model to Jomtien. I've never noticed drainage being a problem other than in a small section around the Immigration area in the occassional worst of worst prolonged downpours, certainly not that merits what they are about to start doing. Haven't seen a cost mentioned.

HaHa 😁👍. You've got to remember georgegeorgia is the guy who thinks it's amusing to remind his older work colleagues, friends and virtual strangers that their likely to die in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if he was blackballed by the Samaritans. I took his comment as a deliberate attempt to troll a positive happy story.

I pay Land Tax for my property, Tax on my car and VAT. I'm retired now but when I was working here on a top salary bracket I paid income tax and all other statutory deductions.

Yes, I experience the crumbling state of Pattaya's infrastructure on a daily basis, and given the billions that have supposedly been spent recognise the same systemic issues are at play locally.

If you are sure you want to live here long-term I see nothing wrong with buying your own home, I've always preferred being an owner rather than a renter as I'm in control of my own place. I rented my own condo out for 4 years when I was on work contracts and got 50% of my purchase price back but that was back when rental prices were double what I could achieve now, less supply and right company client, and my purchase price per sqm for my newly built unit was significantly less than today's market - 30k per sqm compared to 80k-100k per sqm typically these days from what I see. Buying an additional unit to rent is not something I'd recommend these days due to the supply level/rental rate and purchase price balance. I don't think any extra marginal unguaranteed return you might possibly get over safer less hassle investments is worth it. I took advantage of the high interest rates on offer in the summer and locked in cash in fixed rates deposits over 1, 2 and 3 year terms at 6%, I feel I sleep easier at night than if I were in the rental game here.

I gave up watching UK and World news during the Brexit debate/Trump era, the divisive negativity dominating the airwaves was the final straw for me. Now I scan the event based, not opinion based, daily headlines on my phone in the morning and that's it, I figure if an event is significant enough for me to want to know about it I'm unlikely to miss it on BBC News app or my chosen Twitter news feeds. I watch Channel News Asia as I'm interested in what's happening in the region and it's more relevant for me civilised actual news without the head to head politically based arguing that was seeming to dominate news programmes back home.

Congratulations, it's nice to start the New Year reading a positive story like yours.

Don't really understand the comments about Russian tourism declining, it's one of the few major markets that in 2023 has returned to 2019 levels, 1.48 million in both years. I read elsewhere TAT are actually forecasting 35 million dependent on an increase in the China number from 3.5 million to 8.5 million, leaving a 10% increase in non-Chinese from the 80% of 2019 level achieved in 2023. Should be fairly easy to see if that's realistic based on the Chinese numbers after the first 3 months of the year. 40 million is totally unrealistic in my opinion but I'm not actually clear who came out with that.

His party got 3% of the vote at the election compared to 38% for Move Forward and him and his cohorts end up in control of 460 billion baht. Both him and his de-facto boss have made their money in the construction business in no small part due to government contracts, in fact the previous Transport Minister, brother of de-facto boss, is under investigation for the awarding of billions of bahts worth of contracts to an alleged connected business. Quote from the article, " He said some of the major projects to be implemented by the Ministry this year include the construction of new civic centres ". Absolute tragedy for Thailand.

" A specific window for how long the project would last was not given by authorities but is expected to take months, although likely finishing before the high season of this year in November " That lack of certainty is an admission of their own incompetence. I think we can forsee how this will pan out, an unfinished building site next high season.

As far as Thailand's 2024 tourism level is concerned it really is all about China, everything else is small incremental increases. Other markets will tick along with increases tied to the introduction of additional airline capacity. If you don't like reading about discussion of the Chinese market I'd recommend switching off now.

Big loss of face for the regular commentators on here who have said all year that TAT's forecast of 25m-30m was not likely to be achieved. Now scrambling around resorting to their spurious factless second and third lines of defence, hilarious. Better luck next year chaps, hopefully you won't be wrong 3 years in a row as it must be embarrassing being proved so wrong by an organisation you continually claim is incompetent. 😂