jacko

I didn't even think to try and bring a certified cheque. I did transfers to my Thai account once I had it established. I used SWIFT transfers, 3 or 4 of them to stay below my limit and to finance a house purchase. The transfer confirmation mentioned above I believe is Tor Tor Sam, used to be needed to send money back out if you sold the condo. Although some banks made it easier than others. More recently, Thailand has liberalized its currency controls and there is Dee money to send money out. Living here retired, it is all one way traffic though! Think about the commitment of buying a condo for yourself. They don't sell as easy as they buy, there is an oversupply. Renting may suit you better. As to the 800k in the bank to get the retirement extension, ways around that too. I am a bit negative on people moving here now, the climate is definitely moving the wrong way.

Still, with the EU regulations surely some opportunity for compensation?

Oh I do! I often wondered if it was just some scam perpetrated by the night porter and a security guard.... I would have been somewhat boozed up and impatient. Now the Montien I managed to get away without paying a joiner fee, although ID and sign in required. But that was when I was working in Pattaya. The Montien I believe got stricter in later years and at one point you had to have checked in together. I remember the Montien was fully booked and I had to move out for 3-4 days and ended up in a suite at the Dusit. No joiner fee there either. There was also I believe a factor of how you had booked the place... as said, a 'discounted' stay via a Bangkok agent and they were after bumping it up and made life difficult. I stopped using these 'posher' places as I hated the aggravation and arguments.

Well I wasn't suggesting traveling back and forth, but plenty of hotels in Pattaya even back then! Those with Joiner fees were usually in the minority. The now scruffy Lek Hotel was an example I used often. Adding 300 baht to the accommodation each night is a good bit of a hit. I seem to remember in later days the Royal Garden didn't have a joiner fee, although discretion was requested. After my first trip I knew where to go stay, although, as I say, I got caught twice where in my naivety I had booked Pattaya accommodation in Bangkok before traveling using an agent. Always got screwed somehow doing that. (Always stopped over first in Bangkok, it was good there too!) The Pattaya Tower were really obnoxious about it and I checked out despite having some days still paid for, The Merlin I sucked it up, although it was 500 baht joiner fee, fortunately I had only pre-paid 3-4 nights.. I had certainly stopped bringing Bangkok girls by then. Finding cheap accommodation was easy, I once arrived and went straight to my favourite beer bar with suitcase behind me. Phoned and got a room from there, had one of the girls drop my suitcase and wait for me on the bed. Good, good times, that make modern day Pattaya look pretty shabby to be honest. It was a fantasy. Getting women in Abu Dhabi was not likely, those around had golden bits, but heavy duty boozing seemed commonplace. I would usually do 2-3 nights in Bangkok, 7 or so in Pattaya, by then I was getting worn down by the heavy drinking and would likely have found a keeper, that would accompany me to Samui or somewhere quieter.

Well it is a long time ago for me and I had started working in the Middle East, so I had a bob or two and compared to Abu Dhabi where I was a sight cheaper for a beer, Back then I remember the flight was a major component and a reason many didn't go so far afield. And what crazy person was paying the hotel to take a girl back? (Joiner fee) Everyone used the Nana in Bangkok, no charge. First trip I brought a Bangkok girl with me. I got hit a couple of times in Pattaya for joiner fee, but I soon changed hotel. (Pattaya Tower, they were twats, and The Merlin, 500baht, now Hardrock). I was about 28 so rarely without company myself. I still remember it being a cheap destination, not as you make it. Most of the prices you quote there are still buttons compared to now! Sounds like you underfunded yourself, plenty of young lads in Pattaya running low on money, dodged a few myself!

Hang on there.... my early trips were about 1982. I too remember the low number of baht to £. It was far from dire! I wish I had taken notes but everything was dirt cheap. To the point I didn't even think about what I spent. The people were very happy to sell you things and hadn't developed a rip-off or greedy attitude. Seem to remember big bottles of beer in hotels at 25 baht, meals for pennies. A night out at beer bars and you couldn't spend 500 baht! Fried rice, a big lobster and a few beers about $20 in Phuket!

Any idea what they are doing with the passengers? To get moved to Thai, tolerable, BA, hell no!

Well with the Thai letters there I can determine them, I also have the ability to use my phone to help. It doesn't do gibberish. Bloody ex-school teachers! Can't put away their gown and mortarboard and condescending attitudes.

Well if that is the highlight of your day (making the katoey tellers smile) go for it. To me it is gibberish as I cannot determine which true Thai words you are trying to present, and it comes across as smarmy. I do better with Caps French.

My passport has never ever worked in those things and it makes me look like a dick. In LHR the immigration guy said it was the way I held it there, I kept schtum and let him keep checking my passport, although feeling inclined to choke him with his turban. It never works in Manchester either.

Well the Yahoo number broke under the 39 baht/GBP barrier yesterday, which would certainly put it there in the old bank booths. I might do better with Transferwise but if I SWIFT some money over it isn't going to be good. I see it recovered a bit, something upset it yesterday, possibly the discussion that whoever Boris thinks he is, there isn't a new EU deal going to get served up. Got an electric bill behind me, a somewhat cheaper one than normal (in baht), but nevertheless its about £100 for the month. I haven't hit the GGBs for a spell, may do it this coming week, but a non barfine night out usually costs me 6000-7000 baht. I don't see the girls being sympathetic in the slightest to the £'s demise. It actually makes me more irascible when confronted by their games. Hide the coins, bring the change very slowly in the hope he leaves, blatant scrounging. If I give a nod to a LD request and a 200 baht thimble of water appears I could explode like a NK missile! I could well be looking at the time to call it a day too, I drink too much on a night out. I don't see the price coming down in the GGB of Pattaya, the rents will go up, the price of booze will go up, girls expectations will go up. When prices start to put the Japanese and Koreans off we will really see a drop in bar numbers, they will all end up like the Russian places. Supported by true 2 week millionaires only. The 13% tourism isn't made up of a lot of sex tourists Yogi, it is mostly hordes of Chinese. I wonder if my Mrs would believe I was in the UK if I actually flew the other way?

I hope the incessant trailers will stop now on Ch 4! I remember seeing the film, and reading the book back in 1970. Very funny book. Is it a drama series or comedy?

I am not doing Pattaya any favours by posting this, people will stay home instead! Don't ask me why it says Thursday!

Optimistic. Since everyone arriving or leaving will have to do this extra step I doubt it will speed things up. How is it used, it will ensure you and your passport are the same person. Getting a new passport will not hide past indiscretions. Those of dual nationality who switch between passports can be linked. Data will likely get shared around the world.

I wouldn't believe it either, a certificate of residence from immigration is very likely. Look to my posts about a year ago. (When I did mine)

Just saw this on the UK news , the equivalent of a police drone wandering the parks. Just thought it would soon end up with the ducks in most UK parks! https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Huntington-Park-Officially-Introduces-HP-RoboCop-511472201.html Huntington Park will introduce the newest member of their team, "HP RoboCop," at a city council meeting Tuesday night in an effort to provide additional surveillance for the safety of the community. The K5 robot model will be officially introduced at City Hall, but has already been hard at work patrolling Salt Lake Park.

Be interesting to see how it all works out with the old flooding issues round there.

I accept the by far major component is, as you say, but to ignore how the US $ buys fewer baht too is to leave out a component. I do post the exchange rates regularly. People are getting fewer baht for their Euro, their Oz$, NZ$, Yen and Korean Won. It seemed to start the end of last year. There is an appreciation of the Thai currency, it is in the news here. Fiscal Policy Office director Mr Sovich Rojanavanich attributed the steady appreciation of the baht currency to the inflow of capital for investment in short-term debt instruments .(Today) I do hope you are correct. I have not sent money into Thailand to live off for some time hoping this Brexit shit would be 'resolved'. Others I have talked to agree that Sterling should recover quickly and are 'bullish' I think the term is. Although a No-deal could send it the other way surely! End of bloody October, and even that might not be the end!

It is all of the above. The baht has strengthened, sterling has nose dived, dollar has weakened. Hard to get a reference with currencies, but to assume the USD is fixed and nailed is simplistic. To say that baht has remained between 31-33 for some years now is misleading and actually wrong. Baht strength is in that recent time frame. For many years it was held and steady at 33/$. At the end of 2015, due to political reasons in Thailand it rose to 35.5.. For a spell after that it more or less held its own until the beginning of 2017, and since then baht has strengthened relative to $ to a sub 31.5 . (12% is quite some movement for a currency that previously was locked to USD). Incorrect to say it is sod all to do with baht strength, perhaps dollar weakness is another way to put it.! Recent events in the Persian Gulf and all.

You can do better. Fried hot dogs instead of proper sausages, yeuch! Anemic looking toast , and is that other stuff supposed to be bacon? And a half (not whole) slice of boiled ham that saw a frying pan for 30 seconds. And salad? I think Retox have little to worry about. They appear to at least not skimp on the Equal low fat sweetener, at The Expats Club they only put 2/per table, but some of the Dad's Army there are thieving buggers.

Oh, and as to exchange rates. Transfer your Sterling to SCB this morning, you get 38.80125 baht/£. Use Tranferwise, you get 39.07. The 39 barrier likely to be breached at TT soon!

A lot of money pouring into Thailand, big development plans in the pipeline. Roads and trains from the North, high speed transport links between port facilities and industrial cities. Eastern seaboard major projects. China will own this place soon! And another strange circumstance, Thailand has a healthy balance with exports being 2/3 of GDP and growth at around 4% with low inflation. It sits on a lot of foreign reserves rather than a mountain of debt. Thailand had a trade surplus for the first 4 months of this year. Doesn't Thailand make most of the vehicles sold from down under to USA. In 2015, the production of cars in Thailand was 1.9 million cars with 800,000 cars sold domestically and 1.2 cars exported. There were also 1.8 motorcycles produced, with domestic sales of 1.6 million and exports of 350,000 units. It isn't the basket case a few sitting in quiet soi Buakhao barstools complaining of WS prices might think.

There is Drinking St near that end of Soi 2, but last time I was looking around that area, not so many bars to be found. A long way from the busy beer bar complexes of old.

I have certainly used my AIS phone as a hotspot or to stream TV, but as you say it soon eats up your data allowance at full speed then it gets choked. I see little choice other than look for a Bolt-On package that gives a serious amount of fast data. Or get to that bar!

That I can believe.