BangkokHank

I smell a Nigerian in there somewhere.

I'm doing exactly the same thing. Technically they should not tax the money I remitted to Thailand this year because it was earned in past years. But how do I prove that to them? So I'm also opting for the "better safe than sorry" approach by spending less than 180 days in the country this year.

I am doing that as we speak: Right now I am sitting in a five-star hotel right on the beach in sunny Nha Trang, Vietnam (for $50 a night), serving my time outside of Thailand in order to avoid paying taxes on the several hundred thousand dollars that I transferred into Thailand this year, as well as the couple hundred thousand dollar capital gain that I have made so far this year. So the Thai economy has lost the money I would have spent in Thailand but am spending in Vietnam instead - due to their misguided attempt to confiscate a chunk of my hard-earned money. And on the subject of spending money in Vietnam instead of Thailand, there is a good hospital here where I'll have a procedure done for $200 that I would have paid $2,000 for in Bangkok. So it looks like an all around loss for Thailand - and an all around gain for me. Serves them right if you ask me.

The scammers were in India. Did he not notice their Indian accents?

I had too - until recently. I actually found a flight with Vietnam Airlines that was 15% cheaper when I booked it through booking.com - much to my surprise. That being said, for the same upcoming trip to Vietnam, my six-week stay at a hotel, if booked through booking.com, would have cost just over $2000. I then asked a friend in Vietnam to go directly to the hotel for me and ask the price: Less than $1,300! And no advance booking required, as the hotel said they were nearly empty, as it's their low season. So my strategy going forward for longer stays in places where I don't have a friend who can go to the hotel to ask the price for me, is to just book the first night or two at any decent hotel, then to walk around and try to negotiate a deal for a longer stay.

It seems to be more of a mommy problem than a bad haircut problem.

How do you figure that? Communism is Jewish. I am an anti-communist anti-Semite.

I found an Air Asia flight on skyscanner that I wanted to book, so I went to the Air Asia website, and the flight didn't even appear there. So I ended up booking a flight with Vietnam Airlines instead, which presented a different issue: Normally it is cheaper to book flights directly on the airline's website. But this time, I found the flight for cheaper on the booking.com website. Before this experience, I didn't even know that it was possible to book flights on booking.com. And how can they sell the tickets for cheaper than the airline itself? Like 1,000 baht cheaper on a 6,000 baht flight. Just to make sure that I had an actual booking with Vietnam Airlines, I went to their website after booking the flight with booking.com and entered my flight details. And sure enough, I was in the Vietnam Airlines system as having booked the flight. So that was a relief.

And - he's another tool of the Jews who installed him. Just like pretty much every politician in the US.

This tells me all I need to know about him:

I think you already have all the proof that you need - that she DOESN'T love you. Without even knowing you, I think you can do better for yourself. Heck, even being alone would be better.

Would you approve of the same punishment for the Israelis who were actually behind 911?

Thanks again very much, Sheryl. I will heed your advice and apply for the e-visa. And if that somehow fails (which I don't expect), then I will go for the visa on arrival as a back-up. Then after a month in the country, I will renew the visa for a further 30 days. I am already looking forward to the trip. Thanks for making it easier.

Great Sheryl. Thanks so much. I will just need to extend my original visa for 30 days (to make it from mid-November until the end of the year). So I think I will just go for the tourist visa on arrival (as I still have a lot of empty pages in my passport). Will I need to show a return ticket when I arrive there - or to board my flight to go there? I plan to arrive in Phnom Penh, but I don't know where I will fly back to Bangkok from - either Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. So I would rather not book my return ticket before I go there, if possible. Speaking of which, can you say anything about how to divide my six weeks in Cambodia between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap? What are the pros and cons of each place, mostly regarding food and accommodation? Does one of the places have notably better restaurant options than the other? And/or better/cheaper accommodation options? Thanks again very much Sheryl.

I plan to spend 45 days in Cambodia later this year to fulfill the requirement of spending fewer than 180 days in Thailand in order to avoid being a tax resident ihere for this year, as I brought in a fairly large amount of money this year that I don't want to pay taxes on. I understand that I can get a 30-day visa on arrival in Cambodia. I also understand that this visa can be extended for another 30 days inside of Cambodia. Can anyone (who has done this) confirm that this is possible? And if it is possible, how and where can I do it? And is there anything that I need to be aware of in this regard? Thanks in advance.

The government borrowing money to just give away to people to spend will have a net detrimental effect on the economy. But I think the government knows that. This is not about stimulating the economy. It's about roping people into a dystopian Central Bank Digital Currency system.

I just completed this quiz. My Score 40/100 My Time 58 seconds  

Vietnam is also my favorite country for visiting these days. After living there from 2015-2021, I moved back to Thailand when my job there ended (due to COVID). But I've already spent two months in Vietnam so far this year (a month in Da Lat and a month in Nha Trang), and I'm about to go back for another 90 days on the 90-day eVisa (which cost just $25). It has very friendly, welcoming people - and the hotels are great AND cheap. And transportation is also cheap and efficient. What more could one ask for?

I first came to Thailand in 1995 to work on this project. (I was the guy who made the cash flow and IRR projections for the various toll rate and concession length scenarios.) Basically, the Thai government agreed to certain conditions in order to get the Tollway built. Then, after it was built, they reneged on their end of the bargain - to the significant detriment of the investors. (Granted, some of the conditions demanded by the investors were quite unrealistic and the investors should have known that they would not be able to be implemented.) Anyway, private investors don't build tollways just for the fun of it. They expect to make a reasonable return on their investment. And if they can't raise the toll rate according to the agreement, the other option is to lengthen the concession.

I agree with Henry Ford's assessment of the foremost problem facing the world.

These are two different things, one of which is real - and one which isn't real.

So the visa allows one to stay for 180 days, extend that for another 180 days, and then one has to leave the country and then come back (with no need for a re-entry permit) and start the whole process over - with another 180 days, extendable by another 180 days - and all of that for a total of five years? Is that interpretation correct? If so, then what's the catch?

You missed your calling as a diplomat.

I did my 90-day report this afternoon with an appointment for 14:00. Here's how things went: I arrived at Immigration at 13:15 (45 minutes before my appointment - on the basis of it being better to be early than late - and I came from far away by taxi, so I had to allow for the possibility of traffic, etc.) I first went to the information desk and got the TM47 form, which I then filled out. Then I got in one of the three "normal" queues where they hand out the queue numbers. When it was my turn, I showed them my appointment confirmation (which had my queue number: 1128 - my appointment time: 14:00 and the counter at which I would be processed: 66 - the same counter mentioned by @bamnutsak above.) But it turned out that people with appointments should go directly to queue number 4, which I then did. (It's right next to the other three regular queues. I had never noticed it before because it is for people with appointments, and this is the first time that I had an appointment.) At that queue number 4, after showing them my proof of appointment, they gave me a little laminated card that said essentially the same things that were on my queue confirmation: my queue number (1128) and the time (14:00), and the counter number (66). Counter number 66 is the first counter on the right as you go in the direction of the 90-day reporting room for people without an appointment. At first I overlooked counter 66 and went into the big room where the masses of people were waiting, but I saw that the counter numbers there started at 67. So I went back out and found counter 66. I took a seat in front of counter 66 at 13:30, and for a moment I thought that I might even be waited on early, as there appeared to be only three people ahead of me. (Queue number 1125 was being processed when I sat down and I was number 1128.) Alas, it doesn't work that way - otherwise it would mess up the whole timing. Each "customer" is allotted 10 minutes for processing. If a person is processed in less than the allotted time, then the officer deals with another person who is in a different queue - perhaps people who have to pay a fine due to being late? Anyway, in the end, my number was called at exactly 14:00, and it took exactly three minutes to process me. Conclusion: Even with an appointment, I still ended up being there for 45 minutes - due to my getting there early so that I would not miss my time slot. Now that I know how everything works, I think I could cut that wait time down a bit by going a bit later by the BTS, where traffic is not an issue that needs to be taken into account. Despite my 45 minute wait, I think the people without an appointment had to wait longer - perhaps even much longer. The total trip, door to door, from my home to immigration and back, took four hours. An absolute waste of time and energy, any way you look at it. But, well, it's the price I pay for being able to live in Thailand.