rcjoop

It is better to use words other than “ow” for “want”, it’s one of those little clues which Thais pick up on when a Farang speaks Thai and indicates where he learnt the language or who / what level his Thai friends are.

eg.

“I want a beer please” is better said as “Kor beer kuat neung na krap”

“Do you want a beer?” = “Rab (or thaan) beer mai krap?”

“Ow’ is more usually used, or mischievously interpreted to mean, “want” with a sexual connotation.

Patrick

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Just finished my first AUA course in Chiang Mai so I know very little of the language yet, but this item was discussed and the difference in use was that Kor represented a choice of something not presented and ow was a choice out of a presented selection.

eg coming into a restaurant and the waiter arrives without a menu you ask fo it by kor menu krap and you select out of the menu with ow XXXX krap.

At least this is what khun Malee insisted upon

Joop

You're not the only one in that confused state, Blondie.

The one thing I absolutely know for sure about the O-A is that you don't have to pay customs duties on household stuff shipped over when you make the final move.

Right, George, dr. P.P. ?

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Now I am getting confused even more.

Am in Chiang Mai at the moment to prepare for retirement and asked this question at a couple of shipping firms a.o. Schenker, where the lady spoke good english and was certain only WP or thai wife would do, one year retirement visa was of no use.

Went to customs at the airport, was sent to 2nd floor of the cargo building and the manager there was also very certain that I would have to pay duties and that only WP or Thai wife would be of any help.

I think I just give up to get a real answer, it is also odd that I can find no reactions from people who have actually imported stuff on a O-A visa.

Joop

Gymkhana also close to town & the oldest. Any good??

I play at Gymkhana, I like it because I am a novice golfer and because its never to busy it means that I can play badly ,slowly.

Very cheap to compared with other clubs in CMX

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What I like about Gymkhana is that it is a walk-only course, not bothered by electric carts and guys jumping out, hit, jump in again and race away, it almost looks like work this way.

Play the course 2-3 times a week, am a high handicapper so it is fine for me.

Lanna is much larger, Green Valley even better but further out. Lanna and Gymkhana can easily be reached by tuk-tuk.

Joop

A public wifi network is usually insecure. If not using a secure site that uses SSL encryption your data are easy to read by anyone.

Using encryption by static keys as in WEP does help very little, many tools are around that automatically recover encryption keys, our students do it often.

AIRsnort is one of the many tools available free.

You can make the network secure (but not easy for public hotspots) by using 802.1X/WPA type of security and using PEAP or TTLS on top of this.

Basically these systems use a long encryption key of 128 bit and automatically rotate the keys so that not enough data can be intercepted to recover the key.

To transmit authentication data in PEAP and TTLS a secure tunnel is set up similar to when using a VPN server.

PEAP is part of Win XP , very few public hotspots use it.

Of course you must be aware of the dangers of spy software etc. but this is valid for all networks.

hi'

click on the link no pop-up blocker and firefox 1.0 passes it

francois

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No it does not pass, well it does pass if you configure firefox for enabling pop-ups and use the test for not-enabled, seems not the way to do it.

If you test with firefox and the selected test both disabled or both enabled it does not pass

Not sure how you tested, just downloaded Firefox 1.0 and it does not pass the test.

On the Mozilla sucurity site no patches available and on the secunia site it seems that Firefox and IE are both vulnerable.

http://secunia.com/product/4227/

If you're retired and bringing in your pension every month, that money is taxable. If you're earning any money, that's taxable

If you're retired it seems that tax on pensions is only liable in your home country.

ARTICLE 18

PENSIONS AND ANNUITES

1. Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article and paragraph 1 of Article 19, pensions and other similar remuneration paid in consideration of past employment to a resident of one of the States and any annuity paid to such a resident, shall be taxable only in that State.

2. However, such income may also be taxed in the other State in so far as it is charged as such against profits derived in that other State by an enterprise of that other State or by an enterprise having permanent establishment therein.

3. The term "annuity" means a stated sum payable periodically at stated times during life of during a specified or as certainable period of time under an obligation to make the payments in return for adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth.

This is taken from The Netherlands section, although curiously there is no Pensions and Annuities clause in the UK section. I shall investigate.

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This interpretation is not correct.

Pensions are taxed in the state of residence, an exeption is made for government related pensions, those are taxed at the source, see other articles.

The treaty does not say if incomes are taxed but determines which state has the right to do so but no obligation.

As Lop. pointed out it really depends on the tax treaty in place.

I have been searching for an electronic version of the Dutch-Thai tax treaty for a long time, but could not find it as it is rather old (1975) and only the recent treaties are online on Dutch government sites.

In the end I had a friend, who works at the min. of finance, copy everything in their library in The Hague and mail it to me. The day after she put it in the mail I stumbled across the link below.

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/7485.0.html

Here many tax treaties are online available. In the Dutch version there are some typo’s but the content is correct. There are three versions of the treaty and the English version will be used if disputes would arise and differences between the Thai and Dutch version would complicate things.

So much for high-tech Holland and low-tech Thailand

at the same time, putting up a welcome home sign is not something that Thai's usually do....might be lost on the person coming home, and most others actually.

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As far as I know it was for someone returning home to Europe after a longisch stay in LOS

Thank you

Hi,

Could someone translate the expression "Welcome home" into Thai, thanks

I still not see a positive answer concerning continuity after becoming 65yrs.

Is Sun Alliance guaranteeing the continuity or is it a maybe??????

May be Mr.Sulaphat can check this with his insurance company?

Thanks

Dutch, you will probably know this already but BUPA-Thailand will cover for life if you join before 60, but perhaps you passed this mark already so it is not applicable to you.

You mentioned that you were insured in Holland, my insurer (VGZ) has informed me that the policy will terminate when I move to Thailand next year. The only Netherlands based company I know of that covers long-time settling abroad is Zilveren Kruis with their “Wereldpolis” , excellent coverage with a high price.

I would be interested if you discovered other possibilities. You can PM me instead of posting if you think it is not of interest for the group. Joop

I want to get a gprs phone, been looking at the basic, camera-less, mp3-less Motorola C380 or Nokia 3120. Just basic phones.

Wanna use my phone to connect my laptop to the internet. One thing: one phone says it's gprs class 4, the other class 10.

Can't find an explanation of this and if it will affect me. Thanks

The class determines how many GSM speach slots can be used for data on your handset, see:

http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/gprs/class.shtml

I do not know what classes are supported in the Thai GSM systems.

Joop

so, I try to find the best place for me, and through my travels I have found that, currently, it is thailand.

if you know of another place where -

1) the weather is warm,

2) first run movies cost about 2 us dollars,

3) bowling can be found for about 1 dollar a game,

4) meals outside can be had for less than a dollar,

5) simple lodging can be found for about 150 dollars a month.

6) public transportation is available for about 15 cents a trip.

(...the list goes on.)

let me know. I'm all ears.

You seem to be interested only in items that can be expressed in money, can find that in many places.

Nothing about the country and the Thai people ?

Then on 16 August 2004, my friend received a fax for all services provided. This contained the total bill, which amounts to 46,000 Baht.

It is our understanding that Mr. XX is no longer being employed by the shipping firm and was never employed legally. What should my friend do?

The shipping company now states that they were forced to pay customs under the table (My God what has the world come to) and they want to collect on their bill. My friend insists that he will only pay for the estimate and the 10,000 Baht estimated customs costs, unless invoices for customs costs can be produced.

My friend will not rellease the name of the shipping company at this time nor the name of the farang that was working there.

Is my friend right? Or should he shut up and pay?

Just pay him,

I was quoted more than $4.500 for a container from the Netherlands to Chiang Mai, even if a lot of this would be the Bkk-CM part your bill still seems very low.

Joop

Will retire to Chiang Mai next year and contemplating how to live there, as I will be travelling the house will be empty from time to time.

Glad to read that no one seems ever to be robbed or been victim of burglary.

But please explain why there are so many gated communities with extensive security around, I would prefer not living in one of those but perhaps there are other reasons ?

Puzzled

Will retire to LOS next year.

When I get older and need more help I think it will be possible to hire it in Thailand as labour costs are still low. By that time some other expenses will have disappeared such as membership of the golf club etc. My pension will be inflation corrected so I see not much of a problem to engage some extra fulltime nursing care.

The real problem is a future with a mind long gone and a body stubbornly refusing to die and a disturbing percentage of us will reach that stage.

But perhaps we can beat these odds, for me I am so “lucky” as to have some heart condition so I gather my end will come quick and merciful for you others perhaps it is necessary to manipulate the percentages.

Start smoking 30 a day again ? or perhaps be that overoptimistic motorcycle driver ?

We’ll see

This gets asked a lot and there are a handful of choices available to those under 65 but have not seen any feedback about availability after that age.

Bupa, AIA and believe Sun Life seem to be main suppliers.

My guess is that most persons in later years pay cash and if money is tight use the very reasonably priced public hospitals. Not ideal but if my understanding that customers do not have lifetime rights or renewal with insurance plans perhaps the only way. If anyone knows one way or the other on renewal after age 65 am sure many would be interested to learn.

As long as you aren not over 60/65 when applying it is possible, see the mail I got from BUPA-Thailand

Joop

Thank you for your interesting in our health insurance. The maximum age to join us is 65 years old. We are not provide health insurance for customers who's over 65 years old. Sorry to inform you that in Thailand there's no health insurance for people who's over 65 years old.

For BUPA, if the customer join us before 60 they can extend for live. If they join us after 60, they can extend till 70 years old.

For your information.

Best regards

Phanida

rcjoop,

Don't worry,that amount looks fine.I think many would like to be in that position.

Everybody sets its own bar.

Where are you planning to retire and when if I may ask?

Dutch,

I will retire in Chiang Mai, hopefully in the second half of next year.

Will be in Chiang Mai for 3 month starting mid-december this year to have the last reality check and look at some parts of greater Chiang Mai to get a feel of how it will be to live in specific parts of the city.

Probably will have some more questions about living in Chiang Mai but will post them in the appropriate forum, Joop

Without going into detail,I would not retire on a annual income of Euro 30.000,-

At the end it is simply a question of calculation.

I had KPMG calculating the possibilities based on the personal facts and they more or less confirmed my own observations.

Hmm Dutch now you have me worried as I intend to move to Thailand and live on an income of 30 to 40 k€ a year and had the impression this was enough for a comfy life.

Here on these forums I often see remarks about living on 40 kBaht a month with ease. However I never saw an actual budget so it is hard to judge if my assumptions are correct.

My monthly budget in Baht is as follows and please comment if there are unrealistic elements in it.

Rent: 15 to 25 KB, electricity, phone, water 7 k

Transport: car depr. 6 k, insurance, gas etc 6 k, honda dream 1k

Insurances, mostly health: 8k

Food etc, eating out, domestic/garden help 25 to 35 k

Clothing, appliances repairs 8 k

Entertainment, golf, vacations 20 kbaht

Totalling 105 to 120.000 Baht a month

I was hoping to live an easy life without worrying too much about money, can I ??

Thank You, jking6827 ! I got at last an answer. Sorry, but these "pimsleur"- cassettes can only be bought on line inside the USA, and I am living in Thailand.

It would be very interesting to hear, what You think about the "Rosetta Stone"- method after some studying...

Olaus

The Pimsleur tapes are also available in MP3 format, total file size > 250 Mbyte.

So if you have a broadband connection, you can PM me for the download site in europe

Please don't assume anything without checking. In your own country your pension will not go far and you will be considered relatively poor, and therefore taxed very little. In Thailand your pension money will make you "rich" by Thai standards, and therefore taxed highly.

As I do not know the details of his income that would be rather hard to do. I do know the max tax rates can be very high in Europe and believe the Dutch max rate is something over 50%. The Thai max rate, as I recall, is lower.

This is a common misconception about Dutch tax levels, those are actually rather low and perhaps lower than Thai income tax.

For a taxable pension/income of € 29,543 you pay only € 1212 in taxes. What is costly is the amount of social security and health related premiums those amount to 32.4% of this gross income (until age of 65), but upon moving to Thailand you no longer have to pay for those.

If you earn (much) more then it might get costly as after € 29543 taxes jump to 42% but you no longer pay extra for social and some health insurances.

Wonder what income tax you pay in Thailand for a taxable income of almost 1.5 mil. baht

Have not seen anyone post definitive information on health care for those over 65 so do not know if it available or not.  Reading of one companies pay scale a few years back did not show any rate above that age.  You should be able to find several providers with a Google search.  Bupa Blue Cross seems to be the most popular. 

You should be aware of age restrictions. According to Bupa you get guaranteed coverage without an age limit if you join them before the age of 60. If you join later you get insurance till the age of 70.

See part of mail from Bupa:

Thank you for your interesting in our health insurance. The maximum age to

join us is 65 years old. We are not provide health insurance for customers

who's over 65 years old. Sorry to inform you that in Thailand there's no

health insurance for people who's over 65 years old.

For BUPA, if the customer join us before 60 they can extend for live. If

they join us after 60, they can extend till 70 years old.

For your information.

Best regards

Phanida

Joop