lockman

If you call your bank ahead of time, they can raise the daily amount. I've done that on many occasions when building our house, but the transaction must be done inside the bank. Never had a problem, but it's according to your bank. That was the ATM card, or a credit card. Yes I have taken 5K via an atm card inside the bank.

Alternatively you can copy the passport, take there (on an appointment) and pay to have it mailed to you, or you can go back and pick it up if staying in BKK or close by. I've done mine at an outreach, addressed the (think Thai Post EMS) registered type envelope they had (you pay for that) and within a few days it was back (less than a week).The copies are just in case you pass a checkpoint and get checked. I think they also gave me a letter for that as well, just for that circumstance. And if you are upcountry around the Udon area, there is an outreach scheduled there at Udon Thani next Wednesday AM think 8-12..no appointment needed. Take US dollars as cheaper than paying in THB.

So ya mean if a friend and his family come visit and spend the night I have to report that? Someone who is NOT a tourist but lives here?

Tickets I purchase in Thailand have always been significantly cheaper than the same flight(s) purchased in USA ... and I've do this many times in the past ten years.

Not my findings. I used to purchase in USA from a consolidator, and always cheaper for LAX-BKK-LAX and still is, but same office in US cannot sell ??BKK-LAX-BKK for the same price (or most any decent price) on Thai Air. So mow mainly fly China type airlines and book online, as Thai is always way high unless you are a student and then it's cheap. So they would rather give a deal to a student and make less money that someone else...figure that out. I've yet to find any agency selling a decent fare inside Thailand to US, etc.

Used to miss many things, but after being here 5+ years, have most everything no. Villa has DR P and Mt Dew at times as well as US bacon and hot dogs, + most any American type cheese, provolone and Swiss, good for sandwiches and often some cheese (from USA) available at Makro, OK for cheeseburgers; Villa has corn syrup, so pecan pie available anytime with an oven. Decent cornmeal from Dons, will send by bus or post to you, rest easy to find. I get beef from Thai French, but AT the head butcher shop, so I see it first, good for prime rib, hamburgers, roast beef, etc. Only thing I miss much is a real good spirial sliced, or proper dry cured ham. That I'd pay extra for. And I'm way out by Mukdahan, so yea can find most everything. Mexican...just make it yourself is what I do. Can even make soft or hard tacos.

Only problem I have with food here is being overweight!

One thing nobody seems to know is any engine that is little used..IE a generator or mower, etc, gasahol separated MUCH easier and is extremely hard to stabilize. So empty - drain the tank, and run it dry. Been a problem in USA ever since they stopped regular gas, but there you can buy a gasoline stabilizer that's OK for a few months..here. so far not available. Otherwise, look for a gummed up fuel system, especially a carburetor.

Thai French beef does age the beef properly and is available throughout Thailand. Just buy that. Is in most Tops supermarkets, Villa, etc. I'm only about 15 KM from 1 of their butcher shop locations, so no problem. However the Hamburger from Sakon Nakhon is fine, but the stuff from Nong Sung isn't quite right, has too much of the tendon left in the grind. But the Sirloin, strip loin, etc is almost equal to US Choice.

Oh don't think the rural sector will help much, more and more larger landowners are buying small combines, while there are now sugar cane harvesters being introduced. Sure raise that minimum wage, which has and does result in more mechanisim and less employees, as well as cause inflation. The poor are who really gets hurt.

I don't know about all government hospitals, often I've just gotten the runaround there. Spent 3 nights trying to see a Rheumatologist; never saw one (they had 3) (whole lobby full of people, some waiting a week) but saw numerous others who were training but didn't know about my condition. Finally talked to a nurse who told me to go to a private hospital the next day as the professors would be working there. Govt hospital wanted to do a scan for 6000B. Went to private, 1.5 hours done and out. Knew immediately what I had, wanted an ultrasound to ensure no other problems, got shots and meds. Total bill was 1800B. 3 nights in hotel was 4000B. Now just contact nurse there to see if DR available, go and come back. Excellent care every time.

This government's catering to the rural and poorer folks to get the votes will surely back fire in time's due course. In the villages of Isaan, lots of farmers have a hard time getting anyone to work these days.

Agree totally, especially when many paddy owners are old folks 65 and up. Their children often are working elsewhere and they are faced with 300B a day demand they simply cannot afford, so you now are seeing people around me working 3-4-5 days slowing cutting their rice by themselves, threshing some out by hand and bagging that, put on a pushcart and wheeled home. Last year and previously 3-4 people cut, 2 days or so later 2 thresh. Now one and those who want to work have no work so nothing to spend. This sort of increase only hurts the poor and causes inflation afterwards.

However these ferries would be carefully watched and guarded against improper loading or excessive passengers. Just like the buses always are.

Well in all fairness, I'm nowhere near this area, but Saturday night it rained hard. Our field was flooded and some were some of the neighbors. It took about 12 hours to go down for them, about 4 for us as our paddy area is much higher. Flooded across some major 4 lane roads as well. Caused by heavy rain only. Some fields that were bone dry with dying rice are 1 foot deep in water. And our water had somewhere to go, unlike some along the highway where it went.

If your out in the provinces your ignored to a large extent. Personally I love to be able to walk into the place when someone on the phone was extremely impolite and said I as a paying subscriber was stealing their signal. May take to box to someone tomorrow and tell them where to put it.

Well this "upgrade" has been the worst. Monday even trying to get someone on the phone was terrible. 5 days later..still very poor service. One of the problems I see is too few service "providers" in many of the outlying provinces. And for someone to say "we offer sincere apology for problem" after 5 days just doesn't cut the mustard.

Well my box quit working..trouble is it's a legal authorized True HD box, however the "service" provider that was foisted on me by BKK has screwed up the serial numbers and sim number so it won't work.

I'm about to tell UNTRUE to TAKE this BOX and stuff it.... and so far BKK has been zero help

Well to me it should be somewhat central as Isaan is a big area. Much as I hate to say it Khon Kaen is a more likely choice, numerous hotels, main highways, Airport with daily flights and centrally located for most people. Think about someone in NKP going to Korat and the same for Korat to Udon, just to far.

Well, while I agree there is a drug problem, if they ban it, what about someone who actually needs this? My wife has on occasion an allergenic reaction, Now if I see this in time, I make her take some benadryl right then, But if that isn't done, a trip to emergency may be needed, I get about 20-25 pills once a year at present. There are actual needs for some meds.

and meantime over in big powerful rich America over 44 MILLION americans have ZERO health insurance...good luck getting some treatment for 30 baht...even if you have health insurance there will always be lots and lots of fees...

and yes i know that american health care standards are much higher BUT...would you rather have some not so great health care or have NO healthcare?

Try suing in Thailand for poor health care. That's the real problem in America.

It lost 98 officers, this month, who were promoted to commissioned officers and transferred to other departments. Another 127 officers will be away on training later this month for a month and return to the division afterwards.

Does anyone ever plan anything?

Why do so many dual nationals choose to come into Thailand on their foreign passports? It's totally illogical, and only leads to problems such as this one.

Well for many years my wife entered and exited on a US passport as they said her old one was invalid. We eventually got that fixed as someone at Amphur years ago marked her out in Red = you are dead. Once we got that corrected (a fun day) and a new ID card, suddenly she could get a new Thai passport.

I've found that the easiest and best way for me to transfer money to my Bangkok Bank account from the US is to use the ABA routing number for their New York branch with my account number. It takes a few days to post here in Thailand but it is free to make the domestic transfer from Bank of America.

It's not free unless maybe you have some type of special account I'm not aware of. Being a BoA customer myself (but soon to be a former customer) and when seeing above comment I thought to myself has BoA, which many also refer to as Fees-R-Us, just dropped their external bank transfer fees. But no, they are still the same. BoA still charges a $3-$25 per transfer to an external bank depending on the delivery/transfer speed selected. See below snapshot I took from my account just a few minutes ago regarding their external bank transfer fees.

Now a $3 for a 3 day transfer is not bad considering how many banks/credit unions charge a lot more; but there are also many banks/credit unions that do not charge any fee for an ACH transfer like USAA, Schwab, State Farm, Capital One, etc. I just need to close-out my BoA account since the new bank accounts I opened last year have worked so well and have fewer/lower fees....and two of the new accounts even came wih no foreign transaction fee Visa debit cards (to include reimbursement for ATM fees if required) where BoA charges a foreign transaction fee of 1% fee + $5 per transaction with no ATM reimbursement. BoA served me well while living in the States and the $3 ACH transfer fee ain't bad, but there are other banks out there which have lower fee structures. Yea, BoA is no longer in good graces with me simply because of their fees and all the negative press (probably well earned) they have got over the past few years. But a person never knows, maybe they'll get religion and do a turn around...or not.

However if you do this as a bill pay it is "free" at most US banks. Don't associate a transfer with a bill payment. I "pay" myself via BKK Bank with my account number here. No charge from the bank, small charges from BKK bank but cheaper by far than other methods, and usually a higher rate VS. ATM

When I first starting coming to Thailand regularly, there were 44 THB to the $. my friend, that was stationed at the US base in Udon in the early 70s told me there were 2 THB to a nickel so that works out to 40 THB to the $. The lowest point for exchange I remember was about 2005-2006 when there were about 26 or 27 THB to the $. Naturally, that's when my house was under construction.

Actually in the early 1970-73 the Baht was pegged to the USD at 20.8 and there were a couple occasions when you could not convert for a couple weeks as it was "floated", and re stabilized from 19-21 Baht to USD and was fairly stable until the 90's Asian Financial Crisis. Your friend may have got a good deal during that floating time as some people panicked and were crazy swapping but not at any legal currency exchange.

Absolute nonsense. How can a major travel hub such as BKK operate with just one airport..!!

London has 6 airports, New York has 3 and they are not enough.

This guy is an idiot..!!

Well when I flew into BKK and had to traverse the city to continue on.....I said never again. It's silly to have 2 airports that far apart with no real connection between, and further money to refurbish DM would be wasteful. It would be different if they really needed the space due to amount of flights, but they don't. Makes far more sense to spend the money on a new terminal at the new airport.

If the police simply fined each and every driver 3-500B that entered the crossing improperly including motorbikes; it would soon cause a behavior change IF they did it constantly.