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As of December the Laos train has been up and running: Portugal to Singapore by train

I had to reverify my Schwab checking account on Wise yesterday. Same account that I have been using with them for years. The verification page wouldn't load, kept getting a spinning circle. Finally reconnected using VPN and was able to reverify my bank account and the transaction went through in the normal amount of time.

We had 9 cameras installed at our house plus all of the equipment by a local shop in Chiang Mai years ago. We have had absolutely no problems with it and can go back and replay any video from the past. All of the hardware came from Hong Kong Telecom and may be available for DIY installation. I'm pretty sure I've seen their equipment being sold on Amazon. And obviously our installer acquired all of it in Thailand. The cameras and equipment turned out to be better than I expected. Their apps for macOS, iOS, and Android that I use work well plus I assume they have a WIndows app. The best part is that their service is excellent, actually better than any similar service that I've used in the US. Oh yeah, we have the AIS Fiber 999 Baht per month package and it keeps up fine with all of the video. I can easily watch all 9 of the cameras at the same time on a large monitor when I'm back in the US.

A company I used to work for has an office in Lviv and I am still in touch with about a dozen former colleagues there. Two major customers of my current employer also have engineering offices in Lviv. For all practical purposes all three of those offices are currently shut down. I've been given the following URLs by friends from Lviv that some people may share some interest in: How you can help Raising funds I can only reach the second link using a VPN.

Have you inspected the cookies in both Firefox and Chrome and compared them? In my experience a 403 Forbidden error is usually due to a blocked cookie but another possibility might be a corrupted cookie.

Parking garage level 2. Go to the NW corner where all of the chairs are.

We're in Chiang Mai. There are a lot of places here that sell granite countertops but we just hired a kitchen cabinet shop to buy and install the countertops.

You might consider a 60 cm total backsplash. 10 cm matching the countertop and 50 cm of tile above that. That gives you more room than the fairly standard 45 cm between the base and wall cabinets. Also I suggest using 25 x 20 cm tile so that you have 2 full tiles for the 50 cm space. I think the larger tile looks better for backsplashes plus it is easier to clean. We just replaced the countertops and added this type of backsplash to one of our kitchens. This really doesn't cost much and improves the look plus protects the walls. Tile, thinset (mastic?) and grout at Baan and Beyond were about 500 Baht and labor was 700 Baht.

I've been repairing my really comfortable office chair over and over for years but the result of my efforts are somewhat short lived. I'm very much interested in knowing the name and location of this shop. Can they also reupholster? I got some stretchy covers that work fairly well over the seat and back but it would be nice to get them rejuvenated.

I'm not retired yet but very much like the Côte d'Azur as well. Kept an apartment in Nice for some time plus have a number of friends that live/work nearby in Sophia Antipolis. I've been thinking that Juan-les-Pins might be a nice place to spend 3 to 6 months out of the year.

Not sure how available they are here in Thailand but one could consider buying a used MacBook Pro. In particular I would suggest a Mid 2015 Retina MacBook Pro and install a new battery. Installing a new battery is not so bad if you know what you are doing. However, it should be pretty easy here to find a shop that can do it for you. In the US you can get one for around $500 with decent CPU, RAM and SSD. These are pretty powerful laptops for being 6 years old plus they run the latest version of macOS. Also they don't have the silly touch bar or a butterfly keyboard.

Has anyone been in contact with Sumalee recently? It's been a few years since I've seen her it seemed like she may have had some health problems.

I just remembered that Wells Fargo was one of the institutions whose 2FA no longer works with Google Voice. I'm sure the other one will eventually come to mind.

Awesome lists on github ????

We've had mixed luck with our bum guns. I think a lot of it has to do with family or guests dropping them on the floor. I know my son's girlfriend has done this twice. She has also broken a shower spray head by dropping it. I have nice Karat guns in my office toilet and in the master bedroom toilet. However, they do not swivel. In fact I've never seen a swiveling bum gun. Can anyone point out a specific model where the gun swivels? I would definitely like to try one out.

I use a Nokia Android phone and I set WiFi calling in the network settings, no special app. T-Mobile WiFi I don't recall off-hand the 2 institutions that no longer work with Google Voice. I switched my contact number for them and forgot about it. It is even possible that I have cancelled one or both of those accounts by now. However, it may well occur to me who they were and I will post them if that happens.

I have been using Google Voice since it was Grand Central long before it was acquired by Google. It works most of the time for getting verification codes by text or by voice. However, in the last two years it stopped working for a couple of my financial institutions. Their websites indicate that they are sending texts or calling the number but nothing happens. I keep a US based T-Mobile pre-paid number going for $100 a year (includes 1000 minutes that I rarely use). I enabled WiFi calling on the number and it seems to work fine for 2FA. Not sure if this plan is still available to new customers. I signed up for it around 20 years ago. T-Mobile also had a $3.00 a month plan for a while that may still be available through an MVNO. That would be cheaper assuming it allows WiFi calling to be enabled.

On this page April International Thailand it states "We can accept applications from people 65 years or younger." This seems to be the case for all of their Asian plans. On all of the sites I've found for April International the drop down box for your age when requesting a quote the last selection is 61 - 65 years. As April International has policies that are guaranteed renewable for your lifetime I would consider signing up when I am 70 even if I am still employed but when doing searches I keep getting redirected to their April International Asia web page. I'll report back if I can find a link to get a quote for age 66 to 70.

My understanding is that April International will not accept new customers above the age of 65. Please correct me if I am wrong. I'm a US citizen currently employed by a EU company. In particular it would be nice to know of any international medical insurance (non US) that will accept new customers over 65. As I am still employed I have international coverage through my employer. However it cannot be converted to a personal policy. If I retired now I would expect to pay about $700 a month total, $170 for US Medicare and another $500 or so for global (non US) coverage. Pre-existing conditions include diabetes and hypertension. Is anyone aware of any international coverage policies based in Thailand that allow new customers over 65 and cover pre-existing conditions? I'm aware that a few from Europe that may fit the bill.

Note my followup post. I was able to get the Non-O 60 day extension the following day in about two and a half hours. Just had to get past the volunteer and information window person who were not aware of the extension.

I got the Non-O 60 day extension in Chiang Mai. I had been here for 18 years on retirement extensions until COVID showed up. I may have done one 90 day report in all that time due to constant coming and going but I can't remember for sure. It now occurs to me that since my 60 day extension was for a Non-O 90 day visa that I should have done a 90 day report at the same time. Do I assume correctly that my 90 day timer was not reset by getting the Non-O 60 day extension? In any case it seems like it's pretty easy to do at the drive-up window in Chiang Mai. Do I need more than my passport? Is there a form for this?

We have a steel frame roof with concrete tile and a reflective foil under it. We also have StayCool laid on top of our suspended drywall ceilings. We have two forward facing gables so what I did was have fans installed at both gables facing outwards. I have two switches wired to each fan. One switch is wired through a thermostat and the other wired directly to the fan. That way the fan can be switched on or off or under thermostat control. Last but not least we increased the number of soffit vents in our eaves. The original plan only had about 20% of the eave area vented. We changed that to 80%. The vents are just wood slats backed by wire screens. With the large amount of soffit vents we seldom have to use the gable fans but on really hot days the fans help as well.

Just to clarify, we asked every person we could find in the tent about the 60 day Non-O extension but no one seemed to know about it as all answers we got pertained to the one year extension. This is not a COVID extension being referred to here either. We showed up around 2:00 PM the next day and this time waited for our queue number to be called in the tent. The guy checked our documents and asked about banking details, map, etc that are not required for the Non-O 60 day extension. I managed to convince him that these were not required for a 60 day Non-O extension and he sent us into the building to the information window. At the information window the young woman did not understand the Non-O 60 day extension either but a man that was probably her supervisor took over and explained to her how the Non-O 60 day extension worked. Basically there was very little time spent at this window and all they did was re-order our documents and staple them together with a new queue number slip on top. Our queue number was TF18 and it was 2:30 PM when we left that window. They were processing queue number TF12 at that time and only window 6 was processing TF (Thai Family) queue numbers. I'm guessing that most of these were one year marriage extensions as they seemed to take at least a half hour to process. However, they did seem to be processing them in parallel. Several couples were sent away to get more documents or copies. That seemed strange as I thought the people in the tent outside would have caught this. Our number was called up at 4:10 PM. The interesting thing is that the woman at window 6 assumed that the reason for wanting the 60 day extension was to season 400,000 Baht in the bank prior to applying for a one year extension and warned us that we had less than a week to get the money in the bank and that it could not be a joint account. We did not disillusion her and it only took about 5 minutes to get the extension approved and stamped in my passport. As our intent was not to season money but to just get a 60 day extension it got me wondering if seasoning money is the normal purpose of the Non-O 60 day extension. It makes sense in that only one 60 day extension is allowed. Maybe using the extension for another purpose is a loophole.

Much appreciated. Assuming TM7 form is required in blue ink. It asks for a reason for the extension at the bottom of the first page. Wondering what will pass muster for that. Oh yeah, 4x6 cm photo with blue or white background?

Thanks, my understanding is that I need the following: Copy of main passport page Copy of passport page with Non-O entry stamp Copy of Non-O spouse paper eVisa Copy of TM30 slip Copy of wife's house book Copy of wife's ID card Copy of marriage certificate Did I leave anything out? Assuming my wife needs to go with me as well.