5 hours ago, parallelman said:

On 7/19/2026 at 6:53 AM, simon43 said:

Termites can chew up 'edibles' with no visible evidence from the outside. I climbed a sturdy wooden ladder in Laos a few years ago, only to have it 'disintegrate' under me, due to termites having had a feast of the internal wood. Several broken ribs, cracked cheekbone and relief at still actually being alive, after falling onto concrete from 4 metres up....... Bast ards!!

Never understood the usage of wooden ladders. I don't feel safe on metal ones let alone wood that can weather and like what happened to you, termites. Termites are bad here, and those who use wood for houses are asking for trouble. My English school friend had them eat a whole ceiling away in a classroom. Nasty creatures.

On 7/19/2026 at 11:48 AM, Sir Dude said:

Storing money like this requires it to be wrapped in plastic or in an air-tight zip plastic bag... noob error for stashing cash.

H/D food vacuum bags .. then in a PVC pipe sealed ends 5 years in the ground .. no problem

Got a company to check-out my house when I found termites in a book that had stood for ages on the shelf. The gaffer told me he can find termites in any house in Thailand (100%). He said the most common place was the bathroom roof, as the termites needed water.

On 7/19/2026 at 5:12 AM, PhilipHabib said:

this happened often to the weed growers in Northern California who were cash rich but couldn't deposit it in the bank

they'd bury the money on their land only to find out it either rotted or got full of mildew when they went digging for it

Or forgot where we buried the buckets 😪

Best bet, wrap it in plastic and put a small bottle of orange oil in the safe (termites hate it) never ran into termite issue personally but with many older homes (if in fact she lived in one) being made with untreated wood I can see where that can happen. Hope she can recoup some of her money

3 hours ago, giants49 said:

Well that sucks. How did freaking termites get into their safe?

Would be crawling or teleportation.

My money is on crawling!

On 7/18/2026 at 11:21 PM, Nemises said:

That’s one way to make your money disappear without a trip to Pattaya. 😄

Yeah but the termites in soi 6 are better fun 😉

3 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Because some of the notes were destroyed and were not replaceable, some were so, on average, she gets less than she wanted as the bank rejected some of them

I had a 100 baht note that had a tear in the corner. I had both pieces. The bank refused to give me a new one. Granted, it wasn't a million baht, but come on. I wish this lady a lot of luck.

5 minutes ago, LivingNThailand said:

o, Liverpool Lou said:

Because some of the notes were destroyed and were not replaceable, some were so, on average, she gets less than she wanted as the bank rejected some of them

I had a 100 baht note that had a tear in the corner. I had both pieces. The bank refused to give me a new one. Granted, it wasn't a million baht, but come on. I wish this lady a lot of luck

I don't know what you mean by 'but come on".

Bug & waterproof storage.

Get a piece of blue plastic pipe, put your stuff inside.

Gently hammer 2 end caps on.

Her mistake was to use a safe made from wood.

This is strange as even basic cheap-o home safes are made from plastic, thin metal, and filled with concrete for fire resistantance.

How did termites find a trail into a closed safe? They seek cellulose to eat, and houses have plenty easily available.

17 hours ago, giants49 said:

Well that sucks. How did freaking termites get into their safe?

They knew the PIN, smart these Thai termites.......seriously, they are usually far from air-tight.

17 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

17 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

I don't know what you mean by 'but come on".

Disbelief or Exasperation: Expresses doubt or annoyance when someone says something untrue, preposterous, or unfair.Example: "Oh, come on, you expect me to believe that?