bkk_mike

No it's not. This isn't for check-in. It's for immigration. It would presumably mean no exit stamp in your passport. How important that is for you is a different matter.

Have a Deebot X2 Omni that I use at my flat in Hong Kong. Just tell it to clean when I go out if I think a clean is needed. Just need to leave the internal doors open for it to do the whole flat. You do need to make sure there's no cables dangling though (one day I came back and it hadn't finished cleaning as it had gotten tangled in the cable for a fan). And it doesn't handle steps so I still have to mop the bathroom because that's got a step as it's a wet room. But that's just a wipe round after a shower occasionally. But even when all I have to do is press a button (and occasionally empty the dirty water container and fill the clean one), I still don't mop every day. At the house in Thailand, we pay for a maid to come once a week. But then the house has two floors and the robot vacuum/mop doesn't handle stairs.

Rental income in Thailand would have already been taxable for people living here.

Remember Iceland is the country where the bankers who screwed up in 2008 were jailed.

North Satellite terminal at Hong Kong, and the satellite terminal at Heathrow Terminal 3 both use moving walkways. Hong Kong uses a skybridge, and Heathrow an underpass. (Just listing ones I've actually used).

Between this and the UK freezing my pension if I don't spend most of the year there, I can definitely see me doing something like 5 months of "winter" in Thailand, 7 months of summer in the UK - once I retire...

I once did one of the kids renewals in Bangkok when my wife was in London. She had to go to the embassy in South Kensington to sign a form to say she was OK with the new passport being issued. And the passport office waited for the physical form to arrive from the embassy before issuing it. I.e. My wife couldn't even DHL it to me. It was sent to the passport department by the embassy directly. Bangkok main passport office in Lak Si, but it was around 2005... I think it was rather unexpected for the foreign parent to come to the passport office and the Thai parent to be abroad. I don't know if they'd have been as unbending with the rules with a male child, but my daughter would have been 5 as it was her first renewal... Possibly complicated by the fact that she was born in the UK, so her original Thai passport that we were renewing had been issued in London.

Not wearing a helmet Makes you look stupid. Couldn't agree more. Only idiots ride around on a motorbike without a helmet on.

90% of rare earths may be mined in China, but it's not because it's the only place with them. It's because it's willing to put up with the environmental impact of mining them the less expensive way.

https://nomadsembassy.com/thailand-digital-nomad-visa/ It's not a visa on arrival as you need to prove income for the last two years, etc.

You can get a visa as a digital nomad. For which you don't need a work permit. As (by definition), you're not working for a Thai firm.

I remember, after paying the tax for myself, being volunteered as a good samaritan for a couple of other people on the same flight who didn't have their departure tax. They swore blind they would pay me back once they got back to the UK. - I wasn't altogether surprised when they didn't though... But yes - better if it's in the ticket prices, so it's not a shock to people as they leave the country - and other passengers aren't guilt-tripped into helping them out.

Last time I tried to get a government gateway ID in Thailand, they kept giving me a website where I had to enter the authentication code that they posted to me within 30 days of requesting it... The problem was that the mail was franked second class, so although it got sent internationally OK, it went by boat, so that by the time it arrived it had expired. I only ever managed to get the ID in time when I made a trip back to the UK and got it sent there...

I know a place where they actually did create the "Technology Integration Team". Obviously they'd changed the name before anyone (who mattered) realised what the acronym was.

Do they still have the ~10kW restriction (nominal) on the panels for grid-tied systems? (I'm guessing that's why your system is 10.6kW) Personally, I think I'd want to get more panels than that, biggish battery, and an EV, and try and be as close to off-grid as possible. But our house in Bangkok was built in the 90s, so I don't think the insulation in the walls is particularly great, all the windows are single-glazed, and some of our aircons are ancient. Size of the battery would obviously depend on the choice of EV as some do vehicle to load, and some don't.

I was thinking - that's not a Porsche. Looks more Japanese. (Nissan?)

You might want to look at the early reviews of the MG4 in the UK. (That's called the Marvel in China, and is right hand drive). i.e. It definitely means it's going to be available in right hand drive, and the MG4 may even be what it gets called here. I will admit I'm more interested that Tesla has started hiring staff in Thailand. If they build out some charging on major routes, and import directly from their factory in China (meaning zero import duty), that could be a real game changer. Solar is a no-brainer in Thailand for home charging (for those with a house at least).

If it's enough to pay off the mortgage - Retire earlier. (I currently intend to retire when my mortgage is paid off - as I have enough in my pension already to retire once the mortgage stops needing to be paid), If it's a little more than that - fly business class rather than economy If it's more than that, buy my kids their own places. After that - you're into splurge money. First class on the plane, 5 star hotels, Travel the world rather than just living in my current houses. Get a private pilots licence and my own plane.

The airline is "Scoot". I admit actually suggesting it as an option to my student daughter for a cheap flight to Bangkok. Now that they're no longer flying from the UK, I'm glad she didn't want to schlep out to Gatwick.

Flew to Thailand last month. Airline checked my vaccination status, but that was it. No testing - just proof of vaccination. And I only had to show it to the airline at check-in. One thing I would say - Heathrow is definitely not set up for everyone having to use the check-in counters so that the people doing the check-in can check your vaccination status. Allow plenty of time. We got there with close to 3 hours before our flight, and didn't have time to shop in duty free - because of the queue at check-in, followed by the queue at security. If you're not vaccinated yet - that's your own fault.

You mean, like the following countries... UK - Air Passenger Duty - highlighted as the most expensive in the world - Although the actual tax on a long haul flight out of Russia is higher than one out of the UK, the UK charges more on average... USA - International Departure Tax + International Arrival Tax (separate from their domestic Passenger Ticket Tax) + Customs User Fee + Immigration User Fee (and more - nobody nickels and dimes people like the USA). Australia - Passenger Movement Charge Dominican Republic - Airport infrastructure fee + authority fee + departure tax Bahamas - Airport facility fee + security fee + departure tax Germany - Air Transport Tax Norway - Air Passenger Tax Qatar - Airport Facilities tax Greece - (fee from specific airports only - those operated by a German company - Fraport). Italy - Passenger Tax Jamaica - Departure Tax + "Tourism Enhancement Fee" Spain - Aviation Tax Fiji - Departure Tax Note: I left off other countries with a tax, but where I couldn't find out it's actual name - Russia, Austria, etc.

I'm sorry, but when was the last time you booked a flight? The price is already calculated before you enter your passport details, so everyone is going to be paying it. - At least if they're booking a trip to Thailand, Thai national or not...

Lucky you - it put me in hospital (back in 2020 before the vaccines came out). The vaccines definitely seem to help as my identical twin got Covid last month, even though he's vaccinated and had the booster, and he was ill, but not enough to need a trip to hospital. Admittedly he was stuck in a hotel used to isolate people with Covid until two days after he stopped testing positive (rules of the country he was working in at the time) so he got plenty of rest while he was ill... If enough people are vaccinated, the mask mandates are probably no longer necessary. The question is are enough people vaccinated in Thailand?

And that's when you switch to charging your car from your solar panels. They might then introduce road pricing, where you pay for the miles they detect you drive - but do you ever think they'll charge EV drivers MORE than fossil fuel cars when they do that...

It's not the NEW world of work. I was working remotely from Bangkok 20 years ago as a contractor. I knew other contractors working remotely from Spain before that. It was harder in the days when Thailand just had dialup - needing a second phone line for a start... if I had an occasion where I had to go to the office, usually for a few weeks or a month, I had to log in on Saturday just after flying back, to give the connection the weekend to synchronise the email to my PC (and getting signoff to use my own PC was "interesting" - and eventually permission was removed). Ironically now, I'm in the UK on ADSL (with starlink as a backup connection), where in Bangkok we have fibre to the home. I haven't been in the office once for almost two years because of Covid, but HR won't let me work from Thailand nowadays as I'm an employee.