TallGuyJohninBKK

Yikes! Purple readings above 200 AQI are pretty rare even for Bangkok... Usually at its worse, the local levels during the bad times of the year tend to get up into the 170+ range at worst. https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/phloen-chit-road/

I got a large (high capacity) new Carrier AC system in our living room a couple months back that's supposed to have a PM2.5 filtration element (apart from a large Honeywell HEPA purifier I have and use in the room). Thus far, if the new air con unit running makes any difference as far as PM2.5 levels are concerned, I can't detect it. I'd be up sh** creek if it wasn't for my HEPA units.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health "Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risk to health. By reducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma. The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually. Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is estimated to have caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019. Some 89% of those premature deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and the greatest number in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions."

But you have to find and replace the pink colored filters periodically. Not sure those particular ones are so easy to source in Thailand. A regular, well-fitting N95 face mask -- like those worn for COVID purposes -- will do a fine job of keeping out most PM2.5 pollution, which is the most important thing to avoid.

Continued exposure to high levels of PM 2.5 air pollution, overall, tends to shorten your life.... whether you realize it or not. And the problem right now in Bangkok is predominantly the drift of pollution from agricultural burning, both in Thailand and adjoining countries. Vehicle pollution, construction pollution and other sources contribute. But at this time of the year, it's the agricultural burning that sends the pollution levels skyrocketing.

If you're breathing in these current levels of air pollution -- specifically PM2.5 particles that are so tiny they can pass thru your lung tissue and directly into your bloodstream -- you're harming your health, regardless of your age or sensitivities. And whether you realize it or not. There's a reason when the levels reach this high of red-coded pollution, the accompanying label is "unhealthy for ALL"! https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/phloen-chit-road/

Another bad air day Thursday heading into a bad air night tonight. Expect more of the same Friday/tomorrow: As of 8:30 pm tonight: https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/phloen-chit-road/

In my experience, I was talking about the 90 day report and TM 30 receipts as being sometimes yes, sometimes no. They usually seem to want the home map, period. In my last visit last September, the IO handling my paperwork did NOT ask for either the 90 day report receipt or the TM30 -- even though I had both available with me.

I should have added above, for those using the 800K baht in a Thai bank deposit as their means of financial proof, the additional item being an Immigration-specific deposit verification letter from the Thai bank holding your deposit, dated no more than 7 days prior to the date of your Immigration appoinment. The larger Thai banks each have their own pro forma letter style for this purpose. You just tell them it's to verify your deposit for Thai Immigration, and they'll typically know what they need to provide. I mentioned the bank letter above in a prior post, but didn't repeat it in my documents checklist post above....and I should have.

Was watching the latest video last night by one of the more popular/younger expat YT video bloggers in Thailand, who mentioned he's been here long-term on Thai language school ED visas and got grilled by Immigration on his most recent return arrival coming into Swampy. He recounted being questioned in Thai by the IO, and being asked to count to 10 in Thai language (which I hope is not Immigration's way of ferreting out language school fakers). In the end, the YT blogger indicated he was allowed back into the country...to continue his full-time occupation (which isn't attending Thai language classes).

I'm sure the local tourists are waiting with great apprehension.... Take care of, indeed! In other news today.... "Thai Rath reported late yesterday that the chief of the Chonburi provincial police had ordered that a senior traffic policeman at the Muang Pattaya police station be transferred to inactive duties at HQ after allegations that he extorted 30,000 baht from a Chinese tourist or tourists." Full story: https://aseannow.com/topic/1285137-pattaya-senior-traffic-cop-transferred-after-allegedly-extorting-30000-baht-from-tourists/ Elsewhere in the world, extort someone and you'll be facing criminal charges. Here, the local authorities extort someone, and they get transferred to a different job.

Here's what I use as my personal documents checklist for retirement extensions at BKK CW: --Completed TM7 form printed on a single sheet front and back. Your color photo pasted on the back side, and your phone number hand written at the top of the back side. --Financial documentation as required -- min. 800K Thai bank deposit balance with original bankbook and signed bankbook photocopies of pages covering the past year, OR --65K in monthly foreign transfers into a Thai bank, OR Embassy income affidavits for those who still have or can get one. Hand-signed portrait-orientation photocopies of the following: (they want photocopies, they don't seem to like printed scans): -- Passport face page -- if you've obtained a new passport any time after your most recent actual visa, the front two pages of that where Immigration has copied over the visa and stamps info from your prior passport. -- Most recent visa or extension stamp pages -- Most recent arrival/entry stamp pages -- Airport departure card front and back -- Hand-drawn or printed map showing the location & address of your home. (and sometimes requested, sometimes not...best to be safe): -- Latest 90-Day Report receipt -- Latest TM30 receipt Money to pay the 1,900b extension of stay fee.

Here's the most recent report I did for Sept 2022, which includes links to the prior one for 2021. https://aseannow.com/topic/1272406-2022-trip-report-for-retirement-extension-via-thai-bank-deposit-at-bkk-cw/ Re the OP's comments.... BKK CW will usually allow retirement extensions anytime up to 45 days prior to your current permission expiring. Regarding bank letters to document Thai bank deposits, those can be dated up to 7 days prior to your application. BUT, your bank passbook itself has to be updated with activity on the day of your Immigration visit before you meet with the officer. OP, you can download the PDF files from my prior posts of the several misc. forms that Immigration wanted filled out, apart from the basic TM7 extension application form. But for some time now, the front info counter at the entrance going inside the offices at BKK CW is handing out, upon request, paper copies of the TM7 form and the several other misc forms they want completed. Personally, I prefer to have mine all filled out and completed at home before I ever set foot inside Immigration, as filling them out there only prolongs the length of one's stay there, which I always try to make as brief as possible.

The AQI forecasts are suggesting we've got at least several more days of this...at the current red/unhealthy for all levels: https://www.iqair.com/th-en/thailand/bangkok Now's the time, when outdoors or away from HEPA air purifiers, to break out those N95 face masks, folks! ????

BKK (#11) and CM (#12) are nearing the top 10 in worst air pollution among monitored cities in the world today, right along with similar garden spots in places like China, India and Pakistan. https://www.iqair.com/th-en/world-air-quality-ranking

A picture (or two) is worth a thousand words.... ???? Now: And here's the comparable map for last Dec. 1:

I always get a sad laugh when I see Thai news reports continually referring to air pollution and its most dangerous component (PM2.5 particles) as DUST, as if it's the same kind of stuff you sweep off your bedroom floor. It's NOT routine dust. It's air POLLUTION... And that's comprised of all kinds of different components, including PM2.5 particles, which aren't just "dust" (and actually tend to be far smaller that typical dust particles). When the farmers burn their fields and the smoke rises into the atmosphere and travels hundreds of miles, usually from the north heading south, it's not DUST that is being produced by the burning fires..... But the result is nonetheless evident -- unhealthy air everywhere! https://aqicn.org/station/thailand/bangkok/phloen-chit-road/ PM2.5 pollution mainly is NOT a naturally occurring phenomenon that either gets better or worse just with the weather. It's mainly a man-made phenomenon primarily the result here in Thailand of industrial pollution, vehicle pollution, agricultural pollution and burning, and construction activities, among the main contributors. "Airborne particulate matter (PM) is not a single pollutant, but rather is a mixture of many chemical species. It is a complex mixture of solids and aerosols composed of small droplets of liquid, dry solid fragments, and solid cores with liquid coatings. Particles vary widely in size, shape and chemical composition, and may contain inorganic ions, metallic compounds, elemental carbon, organic compounds, and compounds from the earth’s crust. " https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/inhalable-particulate-matter-and-health

Does your meter measure AQI or micrograms of PM2.5, which are entirely different scales and numbers? Most home PM2.5 meters tend to measure PM2.5 levels in actual micrograms...

With the episodes above relating to the UK, I'm guessing that Amazon customer service is specific to the country / Amazon country website where the order was placed. I've never dealt with Amazon UK. But over a couple decades, I've probably bought thousands of items from Amazon U.S., and rarely have had any problems. On the very few where there was a problem, Amazon generally has been pretty good about coming to a fair resolution, especially if you avoid their Philippines based CSRs and instead insist to speak with a rep, or even better a customer service supervisor, based in the U.S. -- which you have to specifically request if you find yourself speaking to a PH rep. In general, though [not commenting on Amazon here], I've found that the quality of online/phone customer service overall seems to have suffered considerably over the duration of the COVID pandemic... Dunno why... if it's because of staff turnover and new, inexperienced people in the jobs, reductions in staff, who knows what.... But I find myself have to fight and insist on speaking to supervisors much more often these days than I had to in the past when front-line reps prove to be useless.

I bought a new electric water boiler from a Lazada vendor some months back. What arrived, as soon as I opened the box, looked like a factory seconds unit that had been poorly assembled with big, uneven gaps in the assembly seams. I never turned it or tried to actually use it, since I figured that would make the return even more unlikely. But I couldn't find a clear basis under Lazada's rules to justify the return. In the end, after consulting with them, they advised to use the "item not as described/advertised" basis. After some back and forth with the third party seller, they finally ended up agreeing to accept the return. But Lazada kept assigning the return pickup to the wrong area office for my home, which meant the courier ignored the request, and thus the whole return process dragged out to almost a month. Not fun.... but I did finally get my refund.

I didn't see if we had a related news thread on this news re JD.com planning to exit Thailand soon.... (A couple of forum searches find nothing...) China's JD.com to shut e-commerce sites in Indonesia, Thailand JAKARTA/BEIJING, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China's JD.com (9618.HK) is to close its e-commerce services in Indonesia and Thailand, retreating from Southeast Asia after a bruising year for China's retail and technology sectors. JD.com will end its services in Thailand from March 3 and in Indonesia from the end of the same month, its local websites showed. Both units will stop taking orders on Feb. 15. (more) www.reuters.com/technology/indonesian-unit-jdcom-discontinue-all-services-end-march-jdid-website-2023-01-30/ Will leave Lazada and Shopee as what I believe is being called a duopoly...

The first time around, if I recall correctly, it was the local home country foreign chambers of commerce and business groups that helped advocate for getting the mRNA vaccines donated here... and calling attention to their governments back home about the inequity of the original mRNA vaccines being available to their country nationals back home, but not to their expat citizens living abroad. In the case of the U.S., I believe, that cause was helped at the time when it was revealed that U.S. Embassy/Consulate staff here had all been offered/given the original mRNA vaccines by the feds, at a time when American expats here remained without. AT present, however, there doesn't seem to be the same urgency as there was the first time around, and the update of the newer bivalent vaccines has been low even in places like the U.S., where it's only about 15% of the population thus far, and that skewing heavily to the older age groups. And yet, from the reports I saw this week, still more than 500 Americans are dying every day on average from COVID.... But it just doesn't seem to get attention or focus anymore..... sadly. World: "At a WHO executive board meeting today, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said, the world is in a better place entering the fourth year of the pandemic, but he aired concerns about increasing deaths, with more than 170,000 reported over the past 8 weeks." https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/who-covid-still-emergency-inflection-point U.S., per the CDC: "The current 7-day [daily] average of new deaths (537) decreased 4.9% compared with the previous 7-day average (564). As of January 25, 2023, a total of 1,103,615 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html

For Americans registering a marriage here, the Embassy/Consulate form still requires the person to list BOTH a U.S. address and the names and addresses (not phones) of two references in the U.S. I think the references can be almost anyone, but you do have to list two "someones". Obviously, they don't contact them prior to issuing the freedom of marriage affidavit, since they issue those on the spot. So I have no idea what practical purpose listing those is supposed to serve. Nor for that matter, the sense of requiring a U.S. address for an American citizen applicants who may have been making their full-time home in Thailand for many years, even decades, and perhaps not even traveled back to the U.S. for many many years.

I ran into the same "wait wait wait" answer at the couple of Bangkok khet offices we checked with lately, including Bangrak. So we ended up going thru a visa/translation service agency here in BKK, for a fee of course, that will handle the required translations, MFA certifications and then arrange and facilitate the trip to their chosen khet (amphur) for registering the marriage. When we did our divorce late last year, we went on our own to Bangrak and were told completing the process with them likely would take some weeks. Then with the agent, we went to a different khet office and were in and out on the same day we first inquired of the agent and presented them with our various documents. So if getting the marriage done sooner is a higher priority than spending some added cash, then there's certainly ways to get that done more quickly -- although our agent told us that MFA for translations also these days is requiring advance appointments and their turnaround might run a week or so.