lexilis

I am an old guy who has not flown anywhere since before COVID. Recently I went to Bangkok from Chiang Mai for a week. Check-in security scanning at CNX was normal, or at least as I expected it to be. Bag scanned, no problem, went right through. Coming back at BKK it was different. They scanned my bag, then opened and searched it, and then may me take out and throw away a can of shaving cream and a tube of toothpaste from the travel kit. "Too big" they said. They were "normal" sized. I thought that nonsense was over years ago, at least in Thailand. Is that (post-9/11) rule still the case in Thailand? Then why the inconsistency between BKK and CNX?

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The Italian restaurant "Enoteca" (near Ruamchok Plaza north Of CM) has an excellent selection of deli meats and cheeses. Does not deliver AFAIK.

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I agree with DB's comment above. But also the main difference between a debit card and credit card secured by a fixed account is that when you use a debit card the charge is taken from your account directly at time of purchase. When you use the secured credit card the charge is added to your card balance which you then pay off at the end of the month or (whenever) like a normal credit card. The fixed account which secures the card never comes into play unless you fail to pay off the balance which will cause the card to be cancelled and then the fixed account is used to recover the funds.

A few months ago I noticed that SCB was offering a pre-payed "credit" card (MC or Visa I think) that they advertised as "guaranteed" to work anywhere in the world, as "good as cash". This is different from a card that is secured by a fixed account deposit that you cannot touch (I have a two of these that have worked fine locally for years). I interpreted this to mean that if you are Denmark or Upper Volta or wherever then "approval' for a purchase is done locally -- they just check if you have that amount of funds still available on the card. It does not have to go back through the normal computer approval cycle. The "normal" cycle (like with the fixed-account secured cards) which goes back thorough the Thai bank and then to a MC/Visa clearing algorithm probably hosted in India. The "normal" approval cycle can fail because the charge (in, say, Upper Volta) is not consistent with your charging history as well as other reasons. At least this is my understanding. I am thinking that my next trip to the US next year I will get one of these pre-paid cards as a safety measure in case my other cards don't work.

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