TallGuyJohninBKK

But that doesn't mean Immigration can't keep trying.... The Thai government does love its paperwork....

Think I'll stay inside today... ???? https://www.weatherbug.com/weather-forecast/now/bangkok-bangkok-th

What website are you pulling that weather data from? I like the "feels like" feature....

"Even if I weren't getting paid, I would still be doing videos like this. I have other sources of income and I don't rely on YouTube to get by." Meet The American Missionary Turned Thai Prankster https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meet-the-american-mission_b_10134814 Do tell......

Seems like they're slowly getting out of the business of locally doing most anything related to actual US expats living here.... First they did away with income verification letters... Then they ceased issuing residence certificates, lately... And now it's the passport visa stamp transfer letters. And their announcement language isn't exactly reassuring when it comes to the issue of whether they've actually coordinated this with Thai Immigration. " If a Thai government office requests one, your cancelled passport and your newly issued passport will suffice." Well, WHY would a Thai government office be REQUESTING one (the Embassy stamp transfer letter) if they were no longer needed???

I follow a number of different Thailand-related YouTube channels, and the only place I've ever heard or seen of this guy is here on the forum. But then again, I guess my subscriptions aren't in the YT "stupid pranks" category, so perhaps that's why.

I believe you're absolutely correct... From what I understand, that's a definite no-no for Thai etiquette, the same as pointing your feet at someone or public shows of affection (their rules, not mine....)

Actually, I think they pretty much are waterproof... But the problem is, once they get wet, they're almost impossible to actually breathe thru... However, I wasn't/won't be doing anything to get wet... so that won't be a problem! ????

I was trying to figure out the SK calendar... When I walked home in BKK this afternoon (Wednesday), all the typical places on my soi had their big barrels of water out and buckets and hoses. But no one on my soi was throwing any water as of my 4 pm return..... I was afraid I was going to get caught out on the way home... Hopefully, folks will stick to the official calendar here and not start until tomorrow! I'm now prepared to ride out the next 5 days through Monday entirely and exclusively at home!

When I got home in central BKK this afternoon, my home air quality monitor indoors was reading about 50 micrograms of PM2.5... which on the AQI scale is an orange 137 reading, unhealthy for sensitive people... The levels have dropped off a bit since then.... I was wearing an N95 mask outdoors anyways, as I would be regardless, smog or no smog. Not so "lucky" up in Chiang Mai.... https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/ Some places purple, some places dark red, which registers on my personal "meter" as "time to get out of town!!!"

I don't have any particular problem with having a bank account at SCB... However, they definitely are NOT friendly toward doing counter advances, mainly because in my experience, they're one of the few Thai banks that use their own lower local exchange rate for those specific kinds of transactions. Worth noting, though: the ability to do a counter advance/withdrawal using a foreign debit or credit card, AFAICT, has little to nothing to do with whether you also have a local TH account with that particular branch. Whenever I've done counter withdrawals in the past at Thai banks, they did NOT happen to be branches where I also had a local account... just branches I found that were willing to do the counter withdrawal transaction.

Last I recall, TextNow made a change to their network whereby they supposedly would only enable bank sms SHORT CODE messages for folks on their PAID plans, and not for those on their free plan.

Thanks for posting that excellent -- and disturbing article... The banks' behavior in some of those cases is virtually criminal... A few lessons to be learned there.. 1. Dont keep all yr assets in one bank, leaving at the mercy of their whims.. Have multiple banking relationships... 2. The mega banks in the US are the WORST, and that's where those kinds of abuses are most likely to occur. There should be a federal law, if a FI decides to close a customer's account, they should be require to give at least some specific meaningful kind of reason, and have some minimum notice time to the customer before locking funds or closing accounts.

Ditto... Every time I do a new report, I create a Calendar reminder in Outlook for the next reporting deadline. The Immigration reminder emails -- when they arrive -- are just gravy. It would be better, though, if they didnt send out WRONG ones!!!

Schwab has a domestic division for Americans that requires almost no funds to open an account. They also have an international division that provides the same card, but last time I checked, had a min. $25K USD deposit to open. https://international.schwab.com/brokerage-account "Charles Schwab countries: United States, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Guam, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan (Province of China), Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands. If you are a resident of any of these countries, you can open an account with Charles Schwab and invest in U.S. stocks." https://www.stockbrokers.com/guides/best-international-brokers

A Thai citizen doesn't need to bring/have a passport to get married. Their Thai ID card serves that purpose. Bringing the housebook can't hurt...but I don't believe my wife was asked for it earlier this year... The one thing about Thailand is... the rules and requirements have a great potential to vary anywhere from slightly to significantly from office to office / amphur to amphur, especially when it comes to Thai-farang interaction things. There are many khet (amphur) offices in Bangkok. And we only checked with a couple. But the ones we talked to all seemed to be in the mode of come in now, present your papers, we'll check them, then we'll give you an appointment 1 / 2 / more weeks down the road to do the actual marriage registration complete with required witnesses and interpreter. I've seen lots of reports here of people avoiding all that... myself included.... in distant past, pre-COVID times... But I haven't seen any/many that I can recall recently relating to Bangkok where it was quick and easy at the local khet office, like it used to be.... Bangrak was one of those khet that told my wife a couple months back we'd have to come in for the long, elaborate process I described above... Ironically, that was the same khet that first married us originally without all the drawn out nonsense about 10 years prior.

All things being equal, I think he'd probably fare better with BOTH sexes if he wasn't reliant on a mobility scooter (if he has any choice in the matter)... Unless of course, if he's an exceptionally cunning linguist, or has some other overriding qualities. ????

Other strange part is... as various posts here have attested, Immigration lately seems to have been having problems with NOT sending out email reminders in advance of people's reporting dates -- something they had been managing to do pretty regularly at least during the past year or so. I LIKE getting their emailed reminders -- just not two weeks after I've already done a valid reporting update, and not reminding me one day ahead of a prior reporting deadline that no longer exists! ????

Yep, I'll agree with that. My wife certainly is in the former category, and definitely not in the latter.

I don't know this for sure... but my guess by way of explanation is... my wife grew up in a relatively poor family. They didn't have much spare money, ate very simply, and she told me lately of growing up 35+ years ago and her Mom giving her literally a baht or two per day to buy food after school for her and her younger brother. Perhaps that upbringing led to her thinking as to what was important her life.

yep... just one among many of my accounts. I just told them the original expiration date had been extended for another year, and they were fine. End of story. I don't know what they would have said or done if I had told them my DL had expired. We never got to that point. PS - Trying to recall, I don't think they literally called me on the DL deal. I think we were talking on the phone about some misc. banking piece of business, and the rep for whatever reason during our conversation raised that topic out of the blue and asked me about it.

Funny thing... My Thai wife (who doesn't drink alcohol) has always had her own career, and worked full-time, progressing with some help from me and her own initiative to have a pretty good salary by Thai standards these days.... In pure monetary terms, she could easily get along without me and the way we have agreed to share our expenses. BUT, there's one thing that's non-negotiable! She wants her (often Thai) food (home is fine, delivery or restaurant OK too) and me to make the arrangements and provision for that... As long as she's well and simply fed by me, she's happy with everything else.... Strikes me as a bit strange, but I'm OK with that bargain! ???? Re the OP, I guess my general point is, different people can have different things that are important or attracting to them. We don't live in a one-size fits all world. And sometimes it takes getting to really know someone in order to understand just what those important/attracting things are.

Odd... I did my 90-day report online about two weeks ago, and got my confirmation receipt/next reporting date notice back in email 3 days later, so all is good. Now today, I get an email from BKK CW Immigration reminding me that my next reporting date is coming up tomorrow (the original reporting date prior to my most recent report two weeks back). Maybe they've started their Song Kran celebrating a bit early this year???

I think there's some variation on that point. Within limits/reason, I think some regular Thai women don't mind a man who's somewhat chubby, as that's perceived as a sign of wealth and willingness to be a good provider of food. On the OP's broader question, I think some segments of Thai women always are going to be welcoming to older, wealthy expat guys who may not be in the best health, and may not be around for too long... ????

I've seen some US FI's with international wire xfer fees as high as $50 to $60.... $35 or less would be a good deal in the broader marketplace... FWIW, Schwab I believe offers clients who maintain sizable balances with them a certain number of free international wires, last time I checked.... A couple of my other FI's have discounted rates between $5 and $15.... but none of those are the U.S. mega banks where you're likely to get fleeced...