smo

Yeah, it was a lot calmer last month...Still the waves tended to be rougher in the morning. (red flags were already up.)

On 9/4/2019 at 11:14 AM, Pib said:

 

Below Medicare webpage should help/answer your question.  But best to ask Manila SSO to be sure since you haven't received the letter.

https://www.medicare.gov/sign-up-change-plans/how-do-i-get-parts-a-b

 

Thanks Pibs for the link and the advice. I looked up and saw that in my case since I've already got SS benefits months before age 65, I will be getting Medicare A + B automatically:

"If you already get benefits from Social Security, you'll get Medicare Part A and Part B automatically when you're first eligible and don't need to sign up. Medicare will send you a "Welcome to Medicare" packet 3 months before you turn 65. You'll still have other important deadlines and actions to take, so read all of the materials in the packet. (If you live in Puerto Rico, you'll only get Part A. If you want Part B, you need to sign up for it.)"

- and that I would need to sign up for part D if I want drug coverage. First thing first I'm going to email Manila also to inquire about the  "Welcome to Medicare" packet that I haven't yet received. Will keep you posted what happens next. (I recall we discussed briefly about this in one previous conversation...)

I'll be 65 next month October. Been receiving Social Security since age 62. IIRC, I think ubonjoe once replied to my inquiry (I can't find that thread now) that 3 months before my 65th birthday, Social Security office will send me a letter regarding registration (or what to do) with Medicare. So far I haven't received any such letter... Should I be concerned to contact SS in Manila? I'm total newbie regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance for any tip/advice you can come up with.

Impression of Chan

at the beach - we've been to Chao Lao beach only. The public transportation turned out to be almost non existent, the couple of taxis we saw are salengs driven by young housewives usually with kids, so I didn't think they would go anywhere but from one end to the other of the main drag. Beachside is ok, not better than Hua Hin! My one complaint is that the area has become a well-oiled money making machine, any bit of hospitality comes at a price even in off-season.

in town - much better time. A pedestrian town you can walk anywhere. But for the horrendous traffic, vehicles coming at you in all directions any time of day, now I understand why you would by pass the town center. Food are pricey somehow, compared to Bangkok. Maybe the living cost is elevated by the gems trade? The riverside could be tended a bit better, the old town remains delightful, the church a spot for respite - we got a chance to explore the sleepy one hundred year market in the back (nothing really) and the old folks neighborhood there which is more interesting. The food and produce at Talad Nam Phu are mind-boggling.
In all, worth visiting but own transportation is a must!

Thanks gomangosteen for the links, very interesting and pictorial. I definitely would not pass up the aquarium (which btw reminds me of the little one in my hometown in southern california) and the national park. We also found out that the Ekamai bus would route to Chao Lao beach twice a day so we are going to catch the early one at 8am tomorrow. And there are (public) songthaews serving the beach-town route, what more can one ask for? Our plan is to stay at the beach and make day excursions into town when the mood strikes. I wouldn't mind if it rains most of the time there's always plenty of things to do on the beach rain or shine (except hurricane of course;-) Will dutifully make a report post-trip and big thank you for all your helpful advice and pictorial spreads. Without your input I wouldn't have known about Chao Lao beach and the Tonwa resort, where we are going to stay.

(btw this year we have a harvest surplus of mangosteen so even in BKK I've been splurging on kilos of mangosteen daily!)

Hi gomangosteen, thanks again for the info and the nice pics. I didn't mean (taxi) mafia in a bad way, it's the term we use in Bangkok in regards to drivers who insist on a flat fee instead of using the meter, hence some haggling might occur. I'm surprised that you're not that interested in Chan city (this coming from me first time tourist who have heard/read all the neat things about, that's why first-hand experience is always more preferable)- but Chantaboon looks like a must! I would probably prefer that area to the rest and maybe we will have just enough time to hang out along the riverside coffee shop row there, then a couple of days at the beach is perfect.

Oh I want to ask you about the aquarium at Chao Lao beach: I alerted my muslim cook last night about the upcoming trip (just sounding grand, but actually my every night dinner soi food vendor): Chao Lao beach got a big thumb up from her ("water is crystal clear") but the aquarium itself got a thumb down, then again she was deterred from going in during her visit there because some local outside said that there're "only a few fish and that's it!" On the other hand she was all rave about the Pliu (spelling?) waterfall.

Last but not least, the rain! I don't really mind that - sometime it's a nice zen-ish moment to be forced to stop and take a breather and look around - but flooding would really hamper our footing, in every sense of the word...Again, thanks for taking the time for the advice and the visuals. It really helps. Wishing you a sunny day in Chan,

7 hours ago, gomangosteen said:

Chao Lao beach 16 July 2019

I wouldn't recommend swimming at this time of year, despite the small waves there can be a strong drift current

 

 

Hi gomangosteen, thanks for the tips, very informative and helpful. One of us is Thai so communication should not be a problem, and we plan to go for something comfortable, on a say, "budget-deluxe" range. Also as non-driving Bangkokians we will have to be at the mercy of the local taxi mafia, thus some price reference regarding this issue (how far for how much and go to/from where, etc.?) would help. To begin with we'll be arriving on a government bus from Ekamai and take it from there.

The Ton Wa resort's look and price are perfect...as I mentioned we have roughly a week to spend in the area and would like to spread it between beach chilling time and city exploration (eating and soaking up the old city charm) - Chan looks like a walking town so maybe we can cover it mostly on foot? Any recommendation for inner city accommodation? I am trying to decide between River Guest House (for atmosphere) and KP Grand (for a splurge, though their rooms don't look that "grand"...)

A mention regarding the sea, yeah, it does look rough, reminds me of Ko Samet where I dared not stay with the waves for longer than 5 minutes. Thanks for the nice pics! Btw we're thinking of making the trip next week, taking off this coming Monday holiday already.

We're an older but still mobile couple just wanted to get to some clean quiet beaches to relax (during this rainy season!) for a week and to visit Chanthaburi for the first time. Would like some recommendation for an area to stay where it's convenient to do both the above. Our budget limits us to under 1k per night for lodging and since we don't drive would have to rely on public transportation to get around. Thanks in advance for any advice you can come up with;-)- and have a nice day.

20 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

stopped by the dentist while shopping today....."happy smile plus" in happy land mall across from bangkapi mall.  cleaning/scaling/polishing is 500-1000 baht.  surface fillings 500 per location.  docs speak english.  open 10-8, call for appt.

is this the same place that you referred to in the other post earlier "there's another dentist in the smaller mall next door (use the crossing bridge at kfc/pizza hut).  2nd floor of the front section of that mall behind a floor full of cell phone stalls. "?

I know this area well as I go through it several times a week, but can't think of a dental place after the cell phone stall section. There is amazon cafe towards the back escalator and there's a paying toilet on one side... is "happy smile plus" somewhere around there? or is it in the back section of the mall connected via a "walking street" passage on the same floor. Anyway, I think I am gonna make a scouting trip with eyes wide open next day or so. In the meantime, could you post your impression of their services after you have gone there for cleaning this week? thanks,

Thank everyone for your helpful input, much appreciated. Dental work remains my perennial woe of expat life. All the more as with age, teeth decay readily and at a more rapid rate; at the same time I feel like a rolling stone going from one dentist's office to the next. So far I have two dental pillars from Phayathai hospital in Sri Racha (make my long trips to and fro BKK all worth it): Mor Kip (KittenKong's recommendation) for implants and Mor Noot for crowns - what more can one ask, right? The first one is impeccable, the second a total perfectionist. But they're specialist, not general dentist. ( Prior to finding these two I was for years in the care of one BKK dentist with attitude, no not the one who did my last scaling, whom for all intention and purpose I would use the kinder word of "ill-intentioned" - as opposed to "from hell" - recommended by one well-intentioned TVF member here no less... but that's another story.)

From above posts, seems like rates at big well-known, "international" dental places  keep going higher and higher to par or even more than rates in the US, with merciless "toppings" of course (I remember somewhere along the Thonglor corridor of time past the dentist smeared some gel, anasthetic maybe? along my gum line, an extra - because she asked if I wanted it - that cost 300 baht.) The work is usually up to snuff, but the price is sky-high (to me anyway.)

I just checked the doc roster at Ramkhamhaeng hospital in my neighborhood, looks like they have tons of dentists (half look aged and dowdy= years of experience?) so there must be a large dental department. This is where I'll go for my next blind date (at this point I no longer bother to choose wildly just because doc speaks English.) Curious to see if deep scaling would go over 2K... Again thanks to all for chipping in with your 2cts, ????

And could you tell where that was? I am thinking of going to Ramkhamhaeng hospital for my next cleaning....

I just wanted to find out about the current charges of a deep cleaning (scaling) in Bangkok and viccinities. Last October I paid 2000 baht for a very good cleaning job though the dentist had to rely on her assistant to communicate with me in English.  I live outside the Sukkhumvit area so the language problem is to be expected though I would hope for better communication with my doctor; on the other hand the general living cost is rather low, therefore in contrast to which the fees I paid seem quite high. I have been to that clinic a couple of times and I noticed that they made me wait for a long time before presenting the bill, 20 minutes or more (even though only one or two patients were there) so I wonder if the charges were farang-adjusted and had to be phoned in from their headquartes (this is a small chain with heavy advertising geared to the farang market, including hotel accommodation referrals.) For reference they charged 1000 for a filling on 1 surface, 1100 on 2 surfaces, and 1800 on 3 surfaces. I had these 3 fillings over 2 visits. Any inputs? thanks,

Cut and paste from another concurrent tm30-related thread:

    On 6/26/2019 at 10:26 AM, smo said:

    Hi TallGuyJohninBKK -

    this TM30 business is totally new to me. I've been renting and living in an apartment in same building in BKK for the last 5 years. During this time I made one trip abroad (back home USA) in 2016. Almost always do 90 day report online. My last (retirement) extension was done this past April (before Songkran.) All went well without any mention of TM30 ever, same goes for past extension renewals.  I have read your detailed report in your new thread of your latest trip to CW which also includes a portion dealing with TM30.

 TallGuyJohninBKK answered -

The whole TM30 thing is new to EVERYONE in BKK, because, even though the law has been on the books for years, it was NEVER enforced against farang tenants here by Immigration, until starting sometime toward the middle to fall of last year (after you would have done your last extension of stay).

There's an online website done by Immigration for TM30 reporting that's mostly in TH language, difficult to use even with Google Translate because some portions won't translate, and is really geared toward Thai hotel and other housing owners. But you could register for it and use it, especially if you read Thai or have someone with you who does.

In the absence of that, for me, the easiest way to report is to simply mail the required documents into CW Immigration using the same address you'd use for mailed in 90 day reports, but just changing the top subject line instead to something like "TM30 Reports section". Other threads here provide that address and a list of the specific documents Immigration wants.

As for the landlord vs tenant issue, IMHO, this really ought to be a landlords issue and not one for tenants. But because of the way the language in the law is written, it can be interpreted as making the tenant responsible also. And if the landlord (who if Thai never deals with Immigration) does NOT comply, then Immigration at CW has decided to start whacking tenants instead via fines for not filing and refusing to do extensions until the TM30 is done.

 
Earlier this year, I reported myself because I wanted to have the TM30 paper receipt in my pocket when it came time for me to go to Immigration for an extension.  But one part I'm unclear on in this mess is, if your landlord reports you online, I don't think they get a paper receipt, and even if they do, they may not pass it along to the tenant.

 
In my case, my small-scale Thai landlord didn't know anything about the TM30 issue when I asked them about it last year. And they had never reported for me or anyone else in the past. So rather than leave the issue in their hands where I might not be sure just what's going on, I opted for certainty, told them I'd handle it myself, and not to worry about it, at least for me.

On 6/4/2019 at 12:47 PM, BritManToo said:

PP town was a bit busy for cycling, although they were allowed on the river walk.

Cycling was much better in Siem Reap, city bikes available every where, plenty of jungle tracks and quiet roads. Here's one I rented in January to cycle around the outside of the ruins, for $2/day, good enough.

 

Took it down some jungle tracks as well (when they didn't let me in on the roads without paying, Shhhhh).

 

The pics look excellent! That's what I wanna do too on my next Indiana Jones trip to SR. On my own bike and not roped to a tour guide. Some further inquiries:

1) "when they didn't let me in on the roads without paying, Shhhhh". Do you mean there toll charges/ or bribe/ or fine to ride on certain roads?
2) when you stop and go into a temple, who's going to watch over your bike. I know that in VN there are plenty parking lots for bikes/motocycles but I haven't seen in pics any such place around the temples in SR.
3) is the path in the bottom pic what you would call a "jungle track"? looks pretty good... or by jungle tracks you mean places where there's still uncleared mines...? is that still a concern? Thanks in advance for further details.
 

7 hours ago, seasia said:

They do not care, they will happily run you over.

 

I am currently in a 1st world country where they actually obey zebra crossings .

They stop for pedestrians.

Plus no motorbikes on pavements.

"They do not care, they will happily run you over" as well in another 1st world country. Here's my experience as a pedestrian during a home visit to the US a few years back:

"....I remember several instances I had to do that with (mostly) VNmese (car)drivers when crossing the streets in Little Saigon, California. Their eye contact means something else, an acknowledgement that you, the one on foot, realize the impact of metal upon flesh, therefore that tactic of a second is the time allotted to you to literally jump out of the path of a coming car, no matter if you were stepping inside the zebra markings of a pedestrian crosswalk. Then I started noticing something else, the local papers would post one or two pedestrian fatalities every other day. Usually it involved a senior, probably someone who was too slow or too weak to save themselves."

"End of the day this is not my country."  Ok OP, we hear your existential threat cry.  But you're not in Kansas anymore. This is Thailand, doing 10k daily run "on the pavements" is 100% suicidal. I just hope my spending a few minutes writing this post will possibly save a life (that of probably a newbie expat), that's all.

6 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

So then, in that example of landlord reporting, what happens when you the tenant go to Immigration. You won't have any documentation. But will they look up in their system and confirm that your landlord has meet the requirement? Or, will they fine you anyway and require you to go to the adjoining section and report yourself???  It would be great if someone who's had their landlord report for them online can clarify on that point.

 

Ok things seem to have settled (I hope) rather quickly for me. I now have my TM30 "slip" courtesy of my building manager. We had a long productive talk this afternoon: around March this year the Immigration officer came on-site and told her that the building needs to get up-to-date with its large farang clientele ("we're cosmopolitan aren't we?") He gave her an appointment to come to CW to set up online registration. Since then she has been doing TM30 registration on line for which ever renter's need. There is a large wave of Japanese renters coming in recently and she has done quite a few of these prior to them making the trek to CW.

She asked me for my passport and made copy of my current extension, then she went on line and after a few, printed out my slip. ie a printscreen with my name and passport# in the big window (in the top small window is her username). I've seen these type of documents from the various threads I've been perusing the last couple of days and this seems to be an acceptable form (as long as your name shown up for the online process that's good enough to translate to your being registered, the dates being today date btw). An alternative to the receipt that you get if you did it by mail (after what appears to be a long wait for most.)

3 hours ago, smo said:

4 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

As I have Tabien Baan (Yellow), which also has the registered address and a Thai ID card for foreigners, that was obviously acceptable to Immigration.

 

The Tabien Baan is not proof of ownership, merely registration of the address, but all Thais must be registered in a Blue book, although not necessarily where they are actually living.

Thanks Tanoshi for the clarification and all the additional info. Though I begin to get lost between blue and yellow book, but I do get the gist of difference between house ownership book and address registration book. Enough for now, I'm going to see the building manager and catchup on my tm30 status, thanks pal.

Ok things seem to have settled (I hope) rather quickly for me. I now have my TM30 "slip" courtesy of my building manager. We had a long productive talk this afternoon: around March this year the Immigration officer came on-site and told her that the building needs to get up-to-date with its large farang clientele. He gave her an appointment to come to CW to set up online registration. Since then she has been doing TM30 registration on line for which ever renter's need. There is a large wave of Japanese renters coming in recently and she has done quite a few of these. She asked me for my passport and made copy of my current extension, then she went on line and after a few, printed out my slip. ie a printscreen with my name in the big window (in the top small window is her username). I've seen these type of documents from the various threads I've been perusing the last couple of days and this seems to be an acceptable form, beside the receipt that you get if you did it by mail (after what appears a long wait for most.)

31 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

As I have Tabien Baan (Yellow), which also has the registered address and a Thai ID card for foreigners, that was obviously acceptable to Immigration.

 

The Tabien Baan is not proof of ownership, merely registration of the address, but all Thais must be registered in a Blue book, although not necessarily where they are actually living.

Thanks Tanoshi for the clarification and all the additional info. Though I begin to get lost between blue and yellow book, but I do get the gist of difference between house ownership book and address registration book. Enough for now, I'm going to see the building manager and catchup on my tm30 status, thanks pal.

20 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

In my case, I reported myself back in Feb. for TM30 and got the receipt back in the mail.

If I understood correctly, the TM30 form is for house/building owner to file. As a perennial renter, I wonder how I can just show up at CW "B" counter and register myself since I don't own anything real-estate wise?

Anyhow, I just learned from another tv member that for self-filing, you can be filing both as the housemaster and in case of renter, as "possessor of the residence" (you rent therefore you possess) as stated in the headline of the TM30 form. In other words you can fill in the blanks with your name as the person filing and listing/reporting yourself as "alien" on page 2 and then signing the whole thing off as well.

Is that how you did it? (And yeah by post seems to be the much better way than showing up as number 355 at counter "B" on a weekday afternoon...) thanks for the verification.

3 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

my Passport, Yellow house book and my Thai ID card for foreigners.

Shouldn't be your (Thai?) wife ID card as she's the owner of the house. I'm just wondering why beside your passport, your Thai ID card is also needed (and I don't have one...;-(

25 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

that's because the Act states the House master, the owner or the possessor are responsible.

As the tenant, you possess the residence. 

Therefore as the headline of TM30 states "notification form for housemaster, owner or the POSSESSOR OF THE RESIDENCE where alien has stayed" I can self-file ie filing as "possessor of the residence" and reporting myself as "alien." In short the only thing I need from the building owner is copies of the building BLUE BOOK and the owner's THAI ID? (as renter I've already possessed the rental contract."

*** please ignore whatever graphics may show up - failed attempted to upload tm30 form headline from its pdf form.

2 minutes ago, Tanoshi said:

Who owns the apartment?

Copies of;

Passport

Tabien Baan for the residence.

ID card of the Thai owner.

Rental contract.

The building owner owns the apartment I live in (it's not a buy or rent option) everybody rents (uniformly built units).

Sorry for being so newbie ( having never owned any piece of real-estate anywhere on earth or the moon for that matter) but a Tabien Baan is the ..... for the "residence" in this case? Thank you in advance for the clarification.

On 6/15/2019 at 8:09 PM, DFPhuket said:

I had my account registration approved this week and with the hint of "use Safari" I was able to finally get my registration to go through. I tried multiple times and ways with Chrome and I always got the "Import data in sequence 1 is incorrect"; with Safari it was accepted. I only filled out the required sections (in red) and left everything else (e.g., visa type, port of arrival, etc. blank). After clicking save, I did not get the usual error message. I then went back to the first screen you see after logging in and clicked the "Search TM.30", searched for entries today, and my name/details appeared. 

 

Here's what worked for me:

1. Get yourself registered. I own my own condo and uploaded my official looking ownership documents and passport. The final approval came within a day. I did all of that in Chrome. 

 

 

Thanks DFPhuket for a very clear and helpful report,
One detail- what if I don't own a condo, but rent an apartment in a building? What would I need to enter for registration. My passport info of course and then what is needed of the building owner? At this point I don't even know if any TM30 has been filed by building owner regarding me as tenant. Up until now TM30 is something I only have remotely heard of, but never dealt with directly. All my past dealings with immigration have been without any hassle/mention of TM30.

Thank you in advance for any advice you could give.

13 hours ago, Sambora said:

Guys,

 

Just another quick question... having logged my second TM30 record now, things are working well.. however, I came across this article here in Bangkok Post (https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1700888/thailand-immigration-controls-getting-tough-with-guests) where it says:

 

  

If I understood correctly, the TM30 form is for house/building owner to file. As a perennial renter, I wonder how I can just show up at CW "B" counter and register myself since I don't own anything real-estate wise? Ditto for "self-filing" by post or online. It's possible there's confusion on my part between "filing" and "registering," if so can someone enlighten me on that? Thanks.

 

 

11 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I don't think TM30 reporting compliance is required in order to do a successful 90 day report in Immigrations' ONLINE system.

 

I don't know if TM30 compliance is required if you just went to BKK CW Immigration ONLY to do an INPERSON 90 Day report.

 

But I'd say it's pretty clear at this point that proof of TM30 compliance IS being required at BKK CW Immigration when folks go there to apply for a new annual extension of stay. And I believe, 800b fines for those who have not reported as required when they go to do the report there.

 

Hi TallGuyJohninBKK -

this TM30 business is totally new to me. I've been renting and living in an apartment in same building in BKK for the last 5 years. During this time I made one trip abroad (back home USA) in 2016. Almost always do 90 day report online. My last (retirement) extension was done this past April (before Songkran.) All went well without any mention of TM30 ever, same goes for past extension renewals.  I have read your detailed report in your new thread of your latest trip to CW which also includes a portion dealing with TM30.

So, I looked at the TM30 template and it's a form for the owner of my building to file with immigration, in this case CW. On page 2 my name and pertaining info should be listed as a person living there. Is it possible that the owner has taken care of TM30 himself and I've been reported as living at this address as far as CW is concerned? And if not, what should I do to start the process. Of course to begin with I will ask building owner to do the TM30 report, all goes well he should get the  receipt back. Then I should ask for a copy of the receipt and include it with other documents for my next extension? Would that be enough or whatelse?

Thank you in advance of any tip/advice you could give, and also thanks for your very detailed and helpful report on your latest CW visit. In the meantime I would check with the building manager about my TM30 status. There is also a TM30 proxy form for "self-filing" but I am not going there yet, I guess last resort if the building owner haven't done and doesn't want to do the TM30 filing himself.