connda

Equals longer waits at immigration.

Yep. https://aqicn.org/city/chiang-mai/

It made me throw up 5 minutes after taking it. I took Tylenol and was over it in 4 days. My wife took it. She was over it in 4 day, but had a lingering cough for about a week. Neither of us took the shots. But? Natural immunity. ❤️

And there's the answer! Perhaps. Is Schwab expat-friendly as in allowing the Schwab app to be loaded on a phone with a Thai SIM / telephone number?

That makes me feel better.

Yeah. I just downloaded the Transfer Stamp To New Passport Form from Thai Immigration downloads. I've been here 17 years and I'm on my third passport. Pretty sure it's safer to take the new passport and both old ones. I'd do the transfers the same week I get the new passport.

Yeah, I never expected that. I'll just be happy if they approve it.

Yeah, I just absolutely missed it. An aging brain in non-action. <laughs> Well, I'll just put the marriage extension package together and head to Immigration next week and see what shakes with my I/O. Worst case is they issue a 2 month extension and I immediately turn around and mail out the US passport renewal. But - hopefully they'll just allow the extension to the passport expiration at the end of Jan 2025. No such luck. US passport. Mail and pray. 🙄

Thanks for the info. Mods you can close this.

Dang. I just noticed that my passport expires at the end of January 2025. My current visa extension ends March 1 and I'm in the process of putting together a marriage extension package. In my head I thought the passport didn't expire until late March 2025. I'm just curious. Will Immigration require the passport to be valid up to the date of the next renewal (which should be March 1, 2025) - or - will they grant the extension up to the date of passport renewal? They didn't say a word about this last year during renewal Anyway, just wondering what sort of a hassle I'm going to face. More stress.

I usually place a single image of my passport pages on a single sheet when I used to go to a photocopy shop to get passport copied. I have a scanner/printer so I can put multiple pages of my passport on front (i.e., pages 1 and 2 - 3 and 4 on the front / pages 5 and 6 - 7 and 8 on the back). That will make less of a stack of paper. Has anyone run into problems with their Immigration Office doing it this way?

And? It hasn't even gotten bad yet. Wait for another 30 days.

There is nothing new under the sun about this. Are we suppose to be surprise? 🙄

Has anyone had success depositing a check in a Thai bank that is drawn on a US bank. If so, what did you have to do?

We are not 'visitors' or 'guests' other then in the sense of Thai immigration law. If I was a foreign woman married to a Thai guy, especially if the foreign woman had his child, then she'd be eligible for citizenship. Thai immigration does not extend that to foreign men married to Thai women. It's the Thai Immigration laws that keep foreign men married to Thai women just 'temporary guests' after 15, 20, 25+ years of marriage while living in Thailand. Foreign women married to Thai men? For a women with a Thai child it's citizenship in one year. Other women the path is three years to being allowed to gain citizenship and truly plant roots. If the same was extended to me after being married and living here 16 years? I'd have firm roots planted too. But? Thai immigration digs up the roots of foreign men married to Thai women once a year and tosses them on the ground. Then ya gotta replant. It's the way it is. Does it suck? Yep. Can you do anything about it? Nope.

Thanks for posting that. It's instructive for farangs who have not encountered a Thai funeral.

Skillful - Taking the foreigner aside and discussing the differences between Thai and Western cultures. Unskillful - Getting as angry and worked up over a misunderstanding of cultural norms. Why get angry? We Westerners who have taken the opportunity to integrate into Thai culture know both sides of the story. It is what it is.

You are absolutely correct. You read something in my post that was not there. It was a party on the 100th day after the death. Not at the end of a 100 day party.

It's available at government hospitals. At least in our Ampher. But then, the head-doctor is a personal friend. Fyi. All it did was make me throw up immediately after taking it. So? I took nothing other then Tylenol. 4 days with a mild flu and finished. No shots. No drama. My wife took it. Results? 4 days of a mild flu and finished. She had a lingering cough for about a week after. Just saying.

Be warned - Thai Defamation Laws are a criminal offense. Just saying...

Been there (laughs). We didn't even try to sleep before midnight. The speakers where Huge! 📢

This is a typical Thai funeral. Most villages have "funeral funds" that the villagers pay into every time someone dies. Over a life-time, that can amount to a significant amount of money. The pay-out to the families of the dead in our village is 200K THB. Most families blow the entire amount on ornate caskets and canopies as well as the three day Ngaan Sop (festival for the dead). At the funeral grounds, if there is a gas crematorium, after the casket is placed in the oven, the canopy is placed on a cement structure which looks like a foundation for a building. It is then burnt as well. I've got pictures somewhere. Watching these events really give you insight into one key aspect of Thai Buddhist culture. "Life is not certain; only death is certain." So here in the Land of Different Cultural Practices Than The West, well, it's just different. So embrace it. It is sure a healthier perspective than the morbidity of Western funerals.

Up to 100 days. Jing!

Of course. It is a major cultural event. Having photographer is not unusual at all. Especially during the time that the Buddhist laity present the Chanting Monks with gifts like robes. It is part and parcel of Thai cultural and Buddhist tradition.

As I said. Westerners have a perverse and illogical fear of dead-bodies and death in general. Look at a body as nothing more than a rotting log. It's "light's out, there is nobody home." Reflect on that and you can see that open air cremation in a different light. The modern gas crematoriums are repetitively new devices. Open-air cremations were the norm historically in the past. Really. I find the aversion farangs have to this as amusing. TIT. As the old saying goes: "When in Rome..."