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Nurse!

Thanks for reporting back, good to hear it was an enjoyable trip. How was Betong, it's a very long time since I was there last, though I doubt it has changed much in twenty-five years. 

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14 hours ago, Khon Kaen Jeff said:

Lol. It's funny how the world has changed now, grown men meeting for coffee.

You should actually look at the history of the coffee house. They were places of debate and intelligent conversation, cradles of the enlightenment. There's much to be applauded about grown men meeting for coffee, though I suspect the standard of conversation in a modern day Starbucks wouldn't be terribly enlightening.

Jasper

15 minutes ago, The Fat Controller said:

Check for your individual currency

For sure. I would guess the more popular / widely traded a currency is, the more competitive the bank rate will be. But in my case, being paid in SGD, Transferwise is the winner. I check what the option via the bank will be and I have an account with OFX, but they have never bettered Transferwise on the SGD/THB rates.

3 hours ago, JimGant said:

Yeah, nice for smaller amounts of money. But because of their percentage cost formula, to send larger chunks becomes non competitive. Example: to send $30,000 to buy, say, a new car -- I'd pay my bank $45 for an International wire, plus 500 baht ($16) on the Bangkok Bank receiving end. TransferWise would charge me $204! The break even point seems to be around $7000; this would be even lower for those who get international wire fees cheaper than my $45.

That depends on the x-rate the receiving bank gives you.

Transferring from HSBC Singapore to Krungsri via Transferwise always works out better than using HSBC to Krungsri direct.  The Transferwise fee is fixed at 0.65% once you're above 25K SGD. Going via HSBC there's an upfront charge of S$10 for the wire charge, plus an addition S$20 taken by 'intermediaries' (opaque charges). Moving S$10,000 early this week going via Transferwise I received THB220,286, the fee was S$66.67. If I'd used HSBC and and the Krungsri rate I would have received THB217,944, so a loss of THB2,542.

The X-rate Transferwise gave was THB22.1765 the TT rate offered by Krungsri that day was THB21.84.  That discrepancy is magnified as the size of the transfer increases but isn't offset by the increasing gap between the fixed fee and % fee. So for example if I'd opted to move SGD100,000 that day instead of 10,000, via Transferwise I would have received THB2,203,235 whilst via HSBC and Krungsri it would have been THB2,183,345 a difference of THB19,890.

Been using them for over a year; quick, easy and transparent. 

12 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

using the headlights of the car in front as a guide.

You might find other traffic fairly scarce!

17 hours ago, dabhand said:

Other options could be to drive down the east coast to Tak Bai (cross to Malaysia via a ferry) or Sungai Golok.

The Golok route, coastal road, is the easier journey, but then crossing into Malaysia you're in Kelantan, and getting anywhere from there is a pain as you're the wrong side of the hills and the road quality is not as good as west coast side.

Rover

The only way to find out is go see for yourself.

Personally, I like Malaysia. I worked there for three years in the 90s and have been a regular visitor ever since; I have some good friends there.

1 hour ago, PatOngo said:

Obviously it's not a sustainable eco chamber! Sounds like it resembles a beach!

Echo chamber surely

1 hour ago, Gweiloman said:

So basically stay on the main highway and not go into Yala town?

I think you'll have to go via Yala town, to pick up the main road (410) to Betong.

There are army checkpoints all over the south, even Hat Yai has checkpoints coming into town, they just become more frequent and more attentive the further south you go.

Progressive