connda

2000 THB fine the next time you show up. Go down and get it done and pay your fine. It can go to 5000 THB. Been there, done that. Watch the IO. They'll put on really, really serious faces. Fun to watch!

There are large swaths of Thai women who are openly looking for Farang (European descent) husband and are very vocal about it. At 30, my own Thai wife would not have given me a side glance. At 45, she was actively looking for pasty white men! And there ya have it!

Mims is the best place to find drug info but they have become total (expletive deleted) regarding access to the database (I used to have access). So, if you have a specific drug or category of drugs, that you wish to find the legal status, ask @Sheryl In the US they are open with information about drugs (e.g., drugs.com) but so many drugs are prescription. Here in the LOS, they are totally closed about providing mere commoners with information, but most drugs with the exception of narcotics, drugs that are narcotic precursors, and some odd-ball nootropics are all OTC. It might be easier to find the list of illegal drugs than trying to find which are OTC. Lunesta and Ambian - by prescription from a hospital. And expect to pay total dollar from the hospital's pharmacy. Not cheap at all. If you have sleep issues you will find other avenues (speaking from experience) from diazapam (be very very careful) which is available from smaller government hospitals (which don't carry Lunesta or Ambian) to using antihisamines (e.g., Hydroxyzine Hydrochloride), Melatonin, and herbal supplements. Talk with Sheryl (who has access to Mims) or your pharmacists (although talking to Thai pharmacists about drug categorization can be an exercise in futility).

Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra to be eligible for parole up for release next year month (December at the latest) In the meanwhile - cushy hospital digs that are afforded to all sick Thai commoner prisoners <not>.

Yeah. Wife got Covid and me shortly after. High viral load in the house - where can a guy go? Sort like chicken pox as a kid when your sister comes down with it - you're gonna get it. Wife wanted to go to the hospital where she was loaded up with med and sent home. I came down with it two days later. Positive antigen test. I stayed home - didn't see any reason to go to the hospital as I wasn't any more sick then with a typical 'flu.' It was over in 60 hours - two and a half days. In the past, I've had much worse bouts of influenza. So much fear and loathing over a nothing-burger. As you age and your immune system decreases, yeah, you may die of IAB or IAC influenza or SARS_Cov_nnn "flus" if secondary infections, like bacterial pneumonia, set in. For the vast number of humans on this planet with healthy immune systems, it ain't a big deal after so much fear-mongering.

"Get your masks of compliance on plebs. Fear fear fear fear fear." In the meanwhile, I'd like to see Covid compared with the current influenza going around. Or - are we calling the flu Covid or Covid the flu. In reality, and SARS-based infection is now essentially 'the flu" as far as symptoms go.

Which if enforced would cause the exodus of retired expats for sure.

As I have no other income sources from the US then Social Security and an approve pension, then Article 20 applies to me. Any effort by Thailand to derive tax income from my SS and pension plans would be in direct violation of the existing tax treaty. Thanks for the PDF. I'll save that in my tax folder for future reference in 2024. ARTICLE 20 Pensions and Social Security Payments 1. Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 21 (Government Service), pensions and other similar remuneration paid to a resident of a Contracting State in consideration of past employment shall be taxable only in that State. 2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, social security benefits and other similar public pensions paid by a Contracting State to a resident of the other Contracting State or a citizen of the United States shall be taxable only in the first-mentioned State.

Exactly. How does he plan to attract foreign investors by hammering all foreigners with a tax on income in their home country? This moron doesn't understand the benefit of foreign funds flowing into his country. The fool is about to throw ice-water on both foreign investment as well as foreign funds flowing into Thailand. And again - we're about to find out if the Tax Treaties between Thailand and G20 countries are going to be honored or not.

If double-taxed, I'd immediately be in a letter-writing campaign with my Congressional and Senate representative to review the US-Thai Tax Treaty and to call for sanctions on Thailand and Thais living in the US as Quid Pro Quo if Thailand stops honoring the existing Tax Treaty. Oh, and I'd also stop bringing money into the country other then the minimums needed to live here until the US and Thailand iron out the reasons as to why Thailand chooses not to honor the Tax Treaty.

This may a more apt title: Thailand’s DoPA cracks down on ‘political enemies’ in nationwide crime hunt Lawfare exercise

Lawfare at it's third-world finest. The use of the legal and judicial systems to go after political enemies. Hope BJ is squeaky-clean, not that it matters. “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” -Lavrentiy Beria, Chief of Secret Police under Joseph Stalin

They do. The last time I was there there were import and local spuds. The imports looked better and were cheaper. 38 to 43 THB / kg if my memory serves.

Everyone who buys anything is taxed. It's called VAT.

Thai health minister backs cannabis ban, citing surge in teen usage The teens aren't smoking ganja. Too expensive. They take cheap methamphetamine. 10 THB a pill from what I hear. "We have to ban it for the children!" Ok - teens drink too. Let's ban alcohol for the same reasons. And cigarettes! This type of authoritarianism is definitely Orwellian in nature. Huxley's vision of a dystopic future at least allowed for the plods to ingest "soma" for recreational enjoyment.

...until he does. ????

Nor is his soon to be adviser Tony Thaksin.

The CDC? The same people who said (with a straight face) "If you take the Covid shots, you will not get Covid." That CDC. Yeah - trust the experts. <not>

If cannabis was physically addictive, I would have gone through withdrawals back when I was smoking every day. Then I got into meditation. The meditation teacher said, "Stop the marijuana for a week." Ok - no problem. And it was no problem. No withdrawal; no cravings; no 'reefer madness,' nada! What we have so often here are members of the Neo-Frumpkin's-Temperence-Union telling all of us who have a lot of experience using weed in the past that "marijuana is addictive!!!" Let me be blunt. You don't have any idea what you are talking about. Please blow smoke up some other smuck's derriere.

Alcohol too. Probably second-hand cigarette smoke as well.

Virtually any argument that is used to support the call to make cannabis illegal, can also be used to support a call to make alcohol illegal and cigarettes illegal. And almost all use the argument that cannabis is "addictive." It is not physically addictive. Heroin is physically addictive, cocaine is physically addictive, alcohol when abused can be physically addictive, nicotine is highly addictive physically. Cannabis in not physically addictive. I can take virtually every "Cannabis Use Disorder" and pair it to "Alcohol Use Disorder." Do you hear anyone calling for a legal ban on booze? Nope. Neither do I. My guess is that those who are banging away to get cannabis made illegal again are probably doing so with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Hypocritical beyond words.

New Tax implementation on income from abroad, where would you relocate? I'm not going anywhere - and - the US and Thailand have a tax treaty. They are not going to tax income from US expats. They may make you go though the hassle of filling out more bureaucratic paperwork. If that's enough to make you leave, then how do you handle the 90 day, TM30, and annual extension paperwork without throwing your hands in the air and booking a flight to Mexico or Ecuador?

Although I don't use it, Lazada does have an Android app.

Same here. I never get an OTP via email. However, I shut off the VPN and I can log in. So for me it has always been a VPN issue. It's going to cost them business in the long run. They could set a persistant cookie that identifies you as having logged-in in the past, but they doen't seem to use the technology that is available to them. Log in, close the browser, open the browser, and you have to log-in again. However - Shopee does set a persistent cookie. Log-in, close the browser, open the browser, you're still logged-in. As I said, Shopee is now getting my business.