smo

I finally "launched" my 1st usd transfer from my US bank account to my BKB account using OFX (OzForex.) After going through the initial profile setup, I clicked on "New Transfer" and immediately got a "Oops Something went wrong." So I called OFX customer service (friendly and helpful but prepare to tune your ears to Ozzie accent) who talked me through the process. However one more step still needed, a micro-deposit to reach my US account. Two days later ie today that happened so this morning I went ahead and wrapped up my transfer. Customer service called me on the phone immediately to re-confirmed the transaction, adding that the funds will be held by OXF for 3 business days before they could transfer it and the transfer itself would take another 2-5 days to reach my BKB account.
 
I'm curious to know if that's normal waiting time for a transfer done with OFX? From what I've learned on other threads, a transfer made with Transferwise would take less than 2 days from the time you click "Confirm" to when you receive notification that the money has arrived in your Thai account. (The reason I haven't used Transferwise is because I fumbled a bit during the setting up process with them and right now I'm still at the stage of waiting for their 2 micro-deposits to reach my US account.)

My where-do-you-live map consists of a big T (the main road and my soi) with an X (my condo) at one corner. Back to the main picture:

The talad nad on CW ground floor (including an open-air massage "salon"), plus Japanese bidet-style toilet seats (in "selected" bathrooms) ease the hardship somewhat...For more comfortable seating one can always rely on one of the numerous cafes on the B-floor, now if they could broadcast live the queue number from the L-counter that would be "heaven!" My biggest challenge has always been not get stuck in peak hours traffic either way in or way out; and last but not least, always avoid Mondays and Fridays and any week that has a holiday stuck to it (retirement does has its "privileges.")

After 5 years living here I found out this country still has new ways up her sleeve to say "Welcome to Thailand."

My building has mostly underground parking, plus one row of parking space on ground floor at the front. Whenever one of those cars parked there has alarm malfunction, the people who room front facing receive the full blast, yours truly included.

Last Saturday night my most dreaded nightmare came true. A jumbo pickup had its alarm go off at 10 min, 20min, 30 min,40 min random intervals starting after midnight through Sunday morning. Sometime between 2 and 3am I went downstairs and talked to the "night-portress" at the front desk. She nodded to everything I said, made efforts to contact the security guard at the front entrance. Not much they could do there, so she proceeded to contact the owner of the pickup. A female voice answered the phone, sorry they were out of town. In short, we tried, nothing could be done.

This morning I had a long-ish talk with the building manager. She has a farang boyfriend so between her English and my Thai, we could get the discussion going at some length. Basically she said, unlike where I come from (the US,) here calling the police has the same effect as not calling them, meaning, they will simply require attempts to be made to contact the owner or his/her kins to remedy the situation somehow. Tenant car alarm malfunction is beyond the building management's control, therefore their responsibily only extend to "helping" alleviate the problem or make it go away. If they so much as touch the car with one finger (metaphorically speaking) they'll get on the wrong side of the law... Then what about the poor,irate tenant who not only can not get to sleep but have not a moment of peace/respite the whole night? "I'm so sorry," she said. I tried one more manoeuver, "how about next time me checking into the hotel next soi for the night and you pick up the tab?". "Then what do we do if half of the building follow you to the same hotel. Are we going to have to pay for everyone?"

I was going to point out the fact that it seemed I was the only one protested, but caught myself in time -(ah hah, touche'.) I probably was the only one at the front desk haranguing the night staff at the front desk. Others must have remained in bed doing their best to abate the car alarm with their own snoring (or f*&^ing.)

Superhero movies are making out like bandit in the international market, along with low-budget horror movie (put a bunch of C-list actors in a haunted house and kill them off one by one, then you can count raking in 800 millions or more over a 20 millions or less investment).

Whether A-lister or B-lister is not relevant anymore. For me the era of fake news arrived way before Trump, it was the day when Vanity Fair (IIRC) profiled Johansson as "the most beautiful woman in the world." I immediately went to Costco and got myself a new pair of prescription glasses, though it would help but only made matter much worse.

On 5/4/2019 at 3:19 PM, soalbundy said:

On 5/4/2019 at 3:07 PM, Lacessit said:

Some of us are not slaves to punctuation.

My favorite headline is the body that was discovered in the woods by a tramp in a state of advanced decomposition.

wrong punctuation can cost thousands, I remember reading a story about a guy losing his firm because of a missing comma

On the other hand, an extra comma could be the reason why a panda walked into a restaurant, ordered a meal and before leaving fired a shot into the wall. (- "Eats, shoots and leaves.")

Anyway my favorite was "the flag was slowly hoisted to the top of the pole along with the fat lady singing the national anthem."

2 hours ago, MikeN said:

Then the paperwork went over to the senior officer for signature and double checking, and that's when things really slowed down. It took her nearly 2 hours to get through to my file, they really needed another senior officer on checking duty. Finally at around 4pm the other intern ( a ladyboy or a big butch girl?) came out with my passport. Luckily I've got a distinctive sticker on the cover of mine, because there is no way anybody could understand "her" attempts at foreign names !

Yeah, it happened to me too this year. The draw-a-map interview happened rather quickly after lunch, but then an almost 2-hour wait till the butch-kathoey intern emerged from behind the wings with my passport in her manly hands. In years past, I never had to wait for more than 45 min. And it wasn't for the lack of IOs going to the coronation. It appeared that those on duty were excessively more burdened by their main (I was going to say "side") business of taking care of the agents and their charges and lone farangs were put aside until that were done!

A Thai friend has a male manager who collects gun replicas (ie fake guns) I wonder what's the point, said friend says it's because real guns are prohibited here. That manager is the target audience of Wilson and Broccoli, and this century is still young.
Goodbye, Mr Bond. My "sympathy" to poor multi-millionaire Daniel Craig, his movie career long over. If I feel the itch to see what a typical Bond movie's got to offer. I'll dig out my scratchy Casino Royale blu ray( - or for thrill and nostalgia, On Her Majesty's SS.) From then on the series has the effect achieved with bigger settings, louder action, larger cast, more CGI ridden to make me snore ever more loudly.

15 hours ago, timendres said:

Last Friday, 6pm. MRT Phra Ram 9 to Sukhumvit. BTS Asok to On Nut. Caught second train at each station. Phra Ram 9 was busy, but the queue zero wait time. Asok queues coming out took less than 2 minutes. The Asok BTS station was very crowded, but I walked straight through, slowly, queue going in less than 30 seconds. BTS On Nut queue coming out 20 seconds. Both the MRT and BTS trains were packed, but not uncomfortable. No complaints.

I agree. Peak hour, big city, high-speed public transport, what do you expect? BKK has its act together in this department. With class. You can still breathe in a crowded train, with room to spare if you know how to navigate. Traffic on platforms move about efficiently. To those who complain, just watch youtube clips showing Tokyo riders got shoved into trains like ragged dolls. (Then let them ride a NY subway.)

3 hours ago, donnacha said:

The Thai roles will be played by Constance Wu, Lucy Liu, Maggie Q, Randall Park, John Cho, Sandra Oh, Margaret Cho and that hot asian chick from Battlestar Galactica.

The heroic protagonist, Prayut Chan-o-cha, will be played by Jackie Chan. Scarlett Johansson will cameo as love interest Hillary Clinton.

Don't forget the latest Asian cinematic pin-up who played Rose Tico in Star Wars the Last Jedi, she can play a grief-stricken mother as well as any of the above...As for the non-Thai part, if they cast Anna Kendrick (of Pitch Perfect fame) for the part of the female american navy ltnant who played her role in the whole saga entirely outside the cave standing on a soapbox in the rain and mud demonstrating the art of giving long flowery speeches about nothing at all, phew, then I'll watch it. But I prefer Uncle Prayut himself doing a cameo, that's alone is worth the price of subscription!

According to some posts here, has Pierrot not applied and got the new extension, he can still re-enter Thailand (and keep his current extension alive) before May 16, but since he has, then he could not? Think, just think, of the (il)-logic of that argument: One gets punished for being more cautious and taking care of things ahead of time. The assumption that a new extension kills off an existing re-entry permit only makes sense when said permit is mandatory with each extension renewal. If that were the case, most of Thai visa members here would have been up in arms simply for the fact that each of us would have to fork out an additional 1000 to 4000 baht for no reason, mais c'est pas vrai! (again pardon my French.)

Pierrot has till before the stroke of midnight May 15-16 to return and keep his extension (past and present) alive. If the clock struck midnight on that date and he has not shown his face at an Immigration arrival counter, then his extension will die an untimely death. He can DO NOTHING AND STILL GET IN at a later date, and be allowed 30 days of permit-exempt stay but then he will have to restart everything from scratch, totally doable inside Thailand. He can use his own logic to think this through or he can listen to people who seemingly make out of thin air laws that nobody has ever heard of. Oh la la!
 

CCTV on a government bus now? Damn, I better watch out whenever I go and position myself by habit on the back row of a sagging, exhaust-fuming red bus (for a variety of reasons, some possibly nefarious now that I've thought of it...) BTW the lady is not a "conductress" - she is the kapao tang ie the fare collector. The good news is that the new fare hike effectively does away with the money-changing of 50 satang. Whenever I boarded a red bus, I couldn't help imagining all the time and energy gone into the additional handling of that little copper coin!

2 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

Two years ago, I had permission to stay until June of that year, which I extended early in May, granting me permission to stay until June 2018.

I then received notification of a family bereavement, so returned to the UK for 5 days, but returning before the expiration of my current extension dated June 2017.

My re-entry permit expiry date was also June 2017.

 

I re-entered Thailand before expiry of my current permission to stay (June 2017) and was stamped in until June 2018, the date of my new permission to stay. 

The above scenario is the correct. So Pierrot if you replace all Tanoshi's dates with yours then tout ira bien (pardon my French.) Re-entry permit is tied to the expiration date of your extension, however once issued it has a "life on its own" (though its life never goes beyond that of the extension on which it was based.)  I'm pretty sure Pierrot will be ok if returning BEFORE his re-entry permit expires ie May 16. He has a valid permit to re-entry Thailand before May 16 2019 which means he will be allowed to come in before that date - and to stay until whatever his current extension allows which in this case is May 2020 (=YES to his second question.)

I can say this with some certainty since I have a French building-mate who was fooled by Immig IO to buy a multi re-entry permit even though his permit to stay has only one more month to go. I like to think re-entry permit is a kind of insurance to keep your extension alive. Once it expires and you happen to be outside Thailand, uh oh, you're dead (your extension that is.) This scenario will happen if Pierrot returns on May 16 or later (=YES to his first question.)

7 hours ago, sanemax said:

 

The hat and pouty lips remind me of Maria Schneider (gone too soon...) in "Last Tango in Paris."  A second career as fashion photographer or a portraiturist awaits (if it wasn't your first already.) Basically the ability to evoke beauty from just a few essentials (white skin, red lips, hat strategically adorned...) Something a man can hang up in his living room and fantasize - without invoking the wife's wrath...

Re eye contact when crossing the street in VN, 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 you (in my case as a visitor) to literally jump out of the path of a coming car, no matter I was 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.

On 4/23/2019 at 5:25 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

With U.S. domestic ACH transfers, you're typically are linking your sending and recipient account in advance in online banking using your receiving account's 9-digit ABA/routing number and your account number. And that's often done thru confirming of trial deposits that your sending bank deposits into your recipient bank account. ACH transfers are generally free, and once the account-to-account link is established, you typically don't have to reenter all the recipient info every time to do an ACH transfer.

Thanks TallGJohn for the details which help me determine, yes mine is ACH transfer since it involved a couple of trial deposits to get the gears moving.

15 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Regardless of what ends up happening with the eventual cutoff of domestic non-IAT ACH transfers going thru BKKB New York, the branch there has confirmed that they will continue to receive and forward Swift wire transfers that are sent to them for onward routing to Thailand by using the recipient info of your BKKB Thai account number (which includes both your TH branch info and actual account number together).

According to that criteria I think that my transfers are SWIFT.. but to find out for sure that they are is there some way I can verify that via my online banking (transfer history, etc.) short of a phone call to ask the bank directly?

On 4/19/2019 at 1:09 PM, jcsmith said:

Trump meanwhile never granted him an interview, and in the written interview the man with the greatest memory of all time couldn't remember 27 times... and gave vague and useless answers to numerous other questions.

Observe Trump's diction: very short sentences that get repeated 3 or 4 times over ("no collusions, no collusions, no collusions; it's a witch hunt..it's a witch hunt...a witch hunt.") Symptoms usually seen in seniors at the onset of dementia (or senility - whichever comes first.)

How old is Trump now?

1 hour ago, JackThompson said:

But, it will be hard to get rid of criminals, with an immigration system full of agents taking bribes for extensions, and enforcing non-existent rejection-rules at some entry-points for no apparent purpose other than to force people into the aforementioned bribe-able extensions.

Indeed. After my visit to Chaeng Wattana this past week for the retirement extension, I came away convinced that Immigration has deliberately made the experience by itself more and more unbearable just so people would throw themselves - and their money - into the arms of the agent-cohorts in order to simply spare themselves of the ordeal!

If you come alone, confident that you could handle the gauntlet on your own, first off the wait would get longer, much longer, which translates to the chairs in the waiting area be filled most of the time. We all know that immigration waiting room, especially that at CW is not exactly the place for inner-contemplation but more like Chatujak weekend market - pity for the decrepit old seniors and handicapped folks who were visibly having a hard time hanging in there. During my short time presenting myself at the IO's desk, not a moment, no I take that back, not one second went by that she wasn't approached by one agent or another, whisperings - one even got down on his knees so he could whisper closer to her ears- lowered glances, discreet head-nodding, handing of little notes. Papers were flying from one desk to another as the IOs were repeatedly getting up from their desk running back and forth doing the same things among themselves. The idea is to make the independent, agentless farang feel that see, you're not the main focus here, instead we feed you crumbs - topped with all the unpleasantness that civic life can offer and that we can think of.

Consequently the IO's work got sloppy: a) I did not get the bank account guideline sheet that many reporting here have received b ) I did not even get the blue receipt when I paid the 1900 baht; I mentioned it before leaving the desk and she waved me off with a "later..." Only when I went back out to the waiting area did I realize that now there was no proof that I have submitted my passport and bank book, that I have been seen by anyone nor for that matter I might as well have just come in from the street. So given the chaotic atmosphere on display here, my whole file could possibly disappear and I would have nothing to show for! After 2 hrs plus of waiting (used to be 30 - 45 min) after being "seen" by the IO, the intern came out and returned my documents. The blue receipt was quarter-folded and stapled into a page of my passport, something that has never been before.

3 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

I think it was Jomtien immigration. I have seen the same info with a report date 3 month later at the bottom of it that was done there.

Good to know, ubonjoe ... So if they did not gimme the report back order, that means all is kosher? I am thinking about update my bankbook every 3 months with 800/400k  balance just to be on the safe side, do you think that would be necessary?

3 hours ago, anfh said:

Just for info, i did retirement renewal this week and got this form, have to return to show bank book after 90 days etc. I told them i would be going to UK before that, they told me i MUST return with bank book as soon as I return to Thailand . 

Was this from the Chaeng Wattana office in BKK? Because I did mine there this past week also and did not receive this "order." Nothing different from last year, write your name here and sign there - except for a request to "draw a map" of my soi (here's the main street and here's my soi, that's sort of non-sense). The intern who returned my passport and bankbook wanted to make sure that I'm the one whose pic is in the passport and that all was clear on my part about the new extension date. Same as it ever was.

When it comes to the 90 day report, I always do it online.

21 hours ago, KneeDeep said:

 

Has it already run out or will you pay another 3500 baht + VAT to get 2 Mbps more?

It's running out next month and I would want to upgrade when the time comes.

13 hours ago, rhodie said:

 

Working all ok and confirmation sms from AIS below -

1/4/19 1:56 PM Mao Mao 3,500Baht (Included VAT), you can enjoy unlimited Internet at max speed 6Mbps valid for 12 months.

 

* As others have said the sim must have been registered before February 2019

Hi, could you give the code to dial to get this package? I have an unlimited marathon AIS sim that costs 2500 for 12 months but only at max 4Mbps. Thanks,

My trundling-down-a-neighborhood-soi songthaews are those Subaru compact conversion numbers, they charge the whole not 7, but 8 baht, talod sai (whole journey) serving soi Mahadthai which connects Ramkhamhaeng to Ladprao (though other adjacent sois do that too.) I call them "boutique" songthaews, at the service of a very specific niche of clientele demographically speaking.

Ah, the wonderful world of public transportation one finds in BKK, if only one dares. Combining air (as in AirportLink/skytrain), land (as in underground/bus) and sea (as in khlong boat) travel, I can get into town for under 1 hour any time of day.  In dire circumstances, as in wanting to get to the other side of khlong San Saeb but too lazy to walk up the bridge, there is the African-Queen torpedo  manleg-powered concoction that will ferry you clickety clack across for 2 baht each way.

Perhaps I can help clarifying about the date(s) on the bank letter. I went in CW for my retirement extension today. For the 800K option, I went to Krungsri downstairs to get the letter, which entailed paying 100 bath service fees for the letter + 100 bath deposit to create a transaction for the day in my bank book.

When I returned to pick up the letter half hour later, I noticed that the balance stated is as of YESTERDAY, whereas the date on the letter is of TODAY. I checked with the teller and she said it's okay, it's done like that for everyone, "they will accept it!" (she meant the officers, as far as my Thai comprehension goes.)

And surely they did.