Gaccha

@ubonjoe Am I right in thinking the online will not work unless within 14 days of the end of the 90 days but if by post must reach them before 14 days?

...If so, then there is never a way for me to check if it now works, since I always prefer mail to traveling to Chaengwattana area. Right? 

I'd say three alternatives. Your limitations are that you live in a non-Finance Tier 1 country so many finance companies, especially in Europe, will be reluctant to handle your money. The problem is money laundering risks. 

But there is hope! Thanks to the Web 2.0 revolution there has been a huge increase in FinTech. There are always risks but the examples I give are only well regarded companies... but still do your own due diligence.  Three suggestions:

1. Move money to Singapore. Put it in a FinTech company based there. And invest in a package designed for you (a computer follows an algorithm of investments to match your exact risk tolerance, i.e. very low) or else choose different ETF options. 4-5% should be pretty easy. Example company: "Endowus". 

2. Invest in FinTech in Thailand which allows non- Thai investors and allows investments in non- Thai companies. These are very rare but at least one FinTech arrived last year. This will offer the same as Singapore but I suspect it will be worse tax implications and obviously Thai regulation is not up to Singapore standards.  Example: "StashAway". 

3. Buy the stable cryptocoin USDC (it is backed by US dollars and is the second largest US dollar crypto after USDT) and gain "interest" on it by lending it back to the seller. The interest is around 8% but this can be increased by gaining high VIP membership. The FinTech is Zipmex. This is the highest risk but still seems pretty secure. The USDC has a giant market cap and Zipmex are a multinational. 

All of these could be opened within a day or so! And all could be done without walking out your front door. Just download the apps. Be ready with your passport, a recent bank statement to prove address and Dee account/Kasikorn App to shift the money to Singapore if you choose that option. 

You are very lucky. The options for expats used to be abysmal. They would often tie their savings to insurance company operated funds which performed poorly. 

There was a puritan flair up in the early 2000s including a sudden crackdown on magic mushrooms in the early 2000s.

At that time, both Japan and the UK fully criminalized them after years of ambiguity; Japan allowed the sale of dry mushrooms but not the consumption and the UK allowed the possession of wet mushrooms but not their storage. 

Since magic mushrooms are laughably safe (far safer than marijuana) it has always amazed me. Luckily, the low-information-voter "soccer moms" who supported these crackdowns because "who will think of the children!?" are fading out of history.

It is still surprising to see a military junta para-democracy go along with a liberalisation. 

Bangkok is not good with keeping to some basic conventions on inner city station names. Besides the rule of not giving them near- identical names, they also fail with the rule of not giving the same location two different names ("Sukhumvit MRT" and "Asoke BTS").

I like intense tastes and I drink black (no sugar, no milk).

Best cheap is Moccona Select. I buy it by the bagful. 

For quality, Robert Timms Smooth (available at Foodland and Villa). Imported from Australia.

For a burnt taste, UCC Sumiyaki. Imported from Japan. 

Forbes magazine points to research of the anti-COVID effect of CBDs, although the article fails to describe the amount, exact type or method for it to be effective. But it suggests it can even prevent COVID. 

Although HSBC did close down their consumer banking arm, there are (or were a couple of years ago) two ATMs on the ground floor of their HQ, south of Lumpini Park. 

Fascinatingly, there is actually an App. It is called 'Police i lert u' and it does have a way to report a crime. I have the App but never used.

It even has an emergency real-time facility to chat with officers, and a way to upload photos and documents. You press an emergency icon, the police are alerted, and your phone sends your GPS digits to the officers.

I've noticed I'm logged out, so I'd be in big trouble if there was an emergency. 

I had difficulties too. It turned out they had got my birthday wrong and my passport expiry date. This prevented the App route or ATM route from working. Ended up waiting at the bank for 2 hours (they're crowded) to get it fixed. 

Ring them again and tell them your personal info again and they'll say if there's a mistake on their side. These mistakes had existed for years but I never noticed because the info was never used by the bank. 

Amusingly, once you get the booster (the 3rd shot), the printout sheet for the government database has a new blank yet ominous "4th shot" row ready to be completed. I suppose I'll look at June 2022 for that. 

I also discovered, that the hospital staff can now -- finally-- correct errors in the database. My passport no. was confused with my social security no. . I had tried to get this corrected without success several months ago. 

I sent by post this time (as online has stopped working for me since July). 

When should I start worrying that I haven't heard back?.... 

Imax Paragon is the only analogue Imax in Thailand. But since around November 2019 onwards, there is a roughly 0.3 second audio lag. 

To my amazement, even some native English speakers don't notice it, but to me, it is extremely annoying. Lots of Thais have complained about it. I found the only way to watch the movie was by staring away from the person speaking; obviously this is not an ideal premium experience. You can do this yourself at home: download GOM player (or other decent players), set up the audio to lag by 0.3 and see if you can handle it or if you kick the TV screen. 

According to the staff, this is a known problem which will require a specialist engineer flown in. But because of COVID travel restrictions they said it was currently (as of early November) not possible. 

Has anyone with good eyesight, good hearing and of sound mind, noticed if it has now been corrected? 

Listening to that, it is rather rare and a pleasant treat.

That skit is around Advanced-Beginner level but she's speaking a little slow so it needs to be adjusted to 1.5x speed on YouTube settings to be more realistic.

It's a shame she gives the explanation beforehand in English. It's crucial to pick up from the Thai, the gist of the skit.  

All in all, very good of her.

32 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

I have been making reports online for myself with no difficulty for years. However I now get the dreaded "see immigration in your province" message. I left the country in July and returned in September with COE. I can only surmise that when I entered they either failed to enter the information into the main database, or made an error in something when they entered it such that the system now cannot find me based on entry date and TM card no. ? The site is not down, as under "check status" I can easily call up all my past reports. Also don't think it is a browser issue for same reason.

 

Anyone else who entered on a COE have this problem?

Nurse Sheryl,

July was the exact time in between the error occurring and the manual rectifications started to occur. So although it might be the process of entering the country that caused you problems, it seems more likely that any data change/omission in July-ish screwed things up....

... and as I've found out, it makes no difference if you manually complete 90 days: your data remains stubbornly pre-July on the system. The only way it updates is after a visa extension or some other big update. 

I'd be interested to know if you re- enter the country in a month or two whether that will resolve it. 

You have to distinguish enforcing it from it being on the books. The enforcement began in earnest around 2006. Hopefully another user will recall the exact year.

For the first time ever in 10+ years I did the mail option. It seems to be more relaxed now (I'm sure they used to require posting the original passport). And they told me at Mong Thani to ignore the +7days requirement (even Day 0 was ok). 

The online is messed up since my extension (as it is for loads of other people) back in July.

My question: does the mail option resolve the database issues in the same way that completing the form at Chaeng Wattana whilst doing an extension (though not at Mong Thani) seems to do? Or am I doomed to mail extensions until July 2022?

My App shows a 120+ days "overstay" now.

I just joined around 3 weeks ago. Since the change of Thai money laundering regulations ('know your customer') in September the requirements have become extremely onerous. But having said that, I was able to do it entirely online by scanning and sending a large number of documents. I was not sent any card, just something by e-mail as acceptance by Dee.

And all indicators suggest their database is still wrong with my info.. Their app places me as "overstay", despite me already attending in person after the database failed back in July.

I want to do the post option but only if the online definitely fails in by Day 0. My understanding is they now allow a 0 Day post (I think it used to require +14 days). What's the actual position on this?

The very process of creating the Wordlist (for Anki etc) creates memory of the words. Don't jump this step.

•Only add words you personally read or hear or a friend suggests.

•Never add words "by reverse" (looking up in a Native to Thai language dictionary) because you'll learn rare/outdated/unused words or words with a certain nuance lost without context (i.e. only use a Thai-Eng dictionary, not a Eng-Thai dictionary for adding words).

At least until last week, 'closed caption' subtitling was unavailable in Thai. (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

This is what is known as A VERY BIG DEAL.

It allows anyone making a video on YouTube, who switches on the option, to have a computer generate near-perfect word for word subtitles. Previously it was only available available to a small group of languages (e.g. English and Japanese).

Of course, Thai subtitlers have always been able to add their own subtitles, but they had to make them themselves. I follow several.

Infuriatingly, Thai dramas are normally only given English translation subtitles, which are not especially useful for Advanced Thai learners (the learners, as Advanced learners, will know the words just not pick up in rapid conversation. By Advanced, I mean 7,000 word+ vocabulary).

The ability to check what you're hearing is extraordinarily useful and the basic act of listening to natural dialogue repetitively and then checking against the CC is crucial to language acquisition.

We now have to wait for the big Thai channels to switch on this option. Enjoy!

I don't think we can rule out the prostate medicine. Exactly what medicine? Doctors have started to use SSRIs (ie anti-depressants) off-label for it as they have some anti-inflammatory effect. These SSRIs have a good chance of causing dizziness. What's the medicine? 

Like several people above me on this thread, my visa extension was in July.

I think they, like me, will have chronic problems for 90 day reporting because July was in-between the meltdown of the database and the remedial action of performing 90 days at the moment of visa extension at Chaeng Wattana (my memory is this was first reported on this thread in mid-August).

My suspicion is this will continue until the next visa extension for all July-extenders. 

I use CBD35 via the internet. They are reliable, reasonable and ridiculously quick to deliver the items ordered (next day or so). They sell 3 reputable American brands. So they are costly but not adulterated. I use CBDistillery 'Relax' tropical fruit gummies from Colorado.

For the benefit of other commentators on this thread. CBD is legal to purchase, THC is not. However, all the CBD will have trace elements of THC (around 0.3% or lower).

The health benefits of CBD are remarkable. THC also provides benefits but it treats different issues and has some serious risks (people with certain genetic predispositions are vulnerable to paranoid schizophrenia and so on). CBD's basic function is anxiety reduction.