KarenBravo

Unsmiling Russians. I asked a couple of Russian acquaintances about this and why did Russian tourists hardly ever smile. Apparently, it's a cultural thing. They believe that if you smile a lot, it makes you look like a vacuous idiot.

Yes, I tried once and nothing happened. Anyway, Phuket is a small place with three offices that can do 90 day reports. I'm about 20 minutes away from the main immigration office, so if I have problems, I just show up in person. Would be useful if you lived in Nakorn Nowhere.

Applied online in the morning and got the approval later that evening (Phuket).

No. The first 90 day report you ever do, must be done in person so that your details can be entered into the immigration computer. From then, you can do the 90 day report online. If anything changes, like a new passport, address or you come back to Thailand with a different TM6 card, then you must go and do the first 90 days in person again.

The graph shows strengthening of the Rouble. A week ago, you needed 139 Roubles to buy one dollar. Now you only need 96.5 Roubles to buy a dollar. I think the -29.712% refers to the dollar, not the Rouble.

Really? Recommending air-con in a tropical country? How novel.

Oh, I don't know. His imaginary friend called Everard was good. The joke name went over most people's heads.

Chiang Mai livability? Aren't you forgetting burning season that turns the air toxic? For a while it had the worst air quality in the world. https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30383081 I'll put down your "fact" as an alternate fact. Kellyanne Conway would be proud of you........

Righto.....

Seems to me that the same rules would apply in the same company (Barclays doesn't operate the same as Thai immigration). Can't you have it sent to a UK address and then have it couriered to you?

Yes, I remember the rumours. They were around at the time I wanted to buy some land for a house, but best of all, it gave me an excuse not to get officially married. The rumours were just rumours and it was never put into action. This was in 1999, only one year after GFC which Thailand started. I suspect that the construction company big-wigs, who were hurting, convinced the government not to add to the pain.

I'm accusing the person from Barclays that you contacted, being 'mis-informed'. Maybe it's because I bank with them in Jersey and their clients are nearly all expats.

That's not true, they (Barclays) have sent at least two to my address in Thailand. They then send the ID card two weeks later.

It was a rhetorical answer and didn't need a response.

One person could say that Mr. Somchai is great, whilst another person may think him terrible. What makes things difficult is that Thais are the most tolerant people in the world.........they are also the most inconsiderate.

If it makes him happy to stick three letters after his name, then what's the harm?

You may want to change the Nan score. I know two ladies called Nan and both are great.

Have met good and bad people in every Thai province I've been to and that's quite a few. I think many posters will answer that the nicest people are in the area that they live. There will not be a consensus, which makes the question rather pointless.

Khartoum, Sudan.

One minor downside to this wet weather, is that the explosions of colour from Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Allamanda and a few other flowering plants is rather subdued this year.

Just a quick aside. Monsoon refers to wind direction and has nothing to do with rain, though usually one brings rain (SW) and one usually brings dry weather (NE).

Not really. The SW and NE monsoons are driven by seasonal temperature differences between east Asia and the Indian ocean.

I really can't remember a wetter dry season than this one. Usually, by mid-February, my lawn is brown and crispy. This year still green. Dipped the well yesterday to see how much water I had and it's 1.5 metres higher than usual at this time of year, though this could be because of the dearth of tourists. Usually at this time of year, every tenth vehicle on the road is a water truck. So far, I've seen a total of two in the last month, or so. I'm lovin' it.

They send you a form by email with important fields blank that you cannot fill in on the application. Usual total rubbish.

So.....just go to the embassy and request them to arrange a charter flight home. Brilliant idea!