Eneukman

doolish, I spent 25 years dealing with the estates of people who had just died and the DSS in the UK WILL reclaim from the estate any money that they decide the claimant wasn't entitled to. How wold they know that someone was living in Thailand? Simple, they ask to see the death certificate. I came across a few cases in my time where someone was claiming Income Support to which they were not entitled. The good news though is that the DSS have a limited timescale within which to submit a claim. In one case, they were so incompetent that this period expired so I simply paid the money over to the beneficiaries of the estate. Slightly off topic but in a similar vein, the Inland Revenue will examine your estate after you've died to see whether there were any sources of income you weren't declaring in your tax return. One UK resident had £250,000 in a bank account in the Channel Islands and failed to declare the interest on that to the authorities. I had to go back and prepare tax returns for the previous 6 years (not easy when the only person who actually knew everything was dead!). If the person had been alive, the Revenue could then have gone back a further 6 years and so on. However, as he had died, they asked me to ask the beneficiaries if they would be willing to make a voluntary contribution towards the unpaid taxe for earlier years. No prizes for guessing what the answer was! Alan

Retirement is coming along very nicely, thanks, Owen. I was actually only in Vietnam for 4 days and have since been to Malaysia (now way was I going to spend Songkran in Pattaya ). I've no idea what IRA's, Roths and 401's are but assume that they are some sort of investment vehicle. The FTSE 100 is doing well at the moment at just over 6,100, which must put it close to the highest point for 5 or so years. Last report I saw today, it was down slightly but nothing to be worried about. My concern is that the FTSE (as well as the Dow) has risen too fast and that there will be an over reaction in the opposite direction at some point. Alan

I don't know to be honest but my guess would be the same as yours. Whilst inflation just now is low, (I have been told that my bank pension is being increased by a massive 2.2% to compensate for inflation), as Owen has shown the amount you are being denied does mount up after a number of years. Alan

Following on from bazle's post on the NHS, some of you thinking of retiring to LOS may not be aware that if you live in Thailand (and a number of othe countries as well) that once you get your State pension at 65, you will NOT get any of the future cost of living increases. I don't qualify for a bit over 14 years so it's not an immediate problem from my point of view but in my opinion this policy stinks. After all, by living outside the UK, look at what we're saving them on health care costs - no annual check ups etc etc etc. Perhaps we should arrange for a flood of letters to land on the Prime Minister's doorstep every day for as long as takes for the government to rectify matters and give those pensioners already living here, their due rights. Alan

Rex, From what I've heard, the Thai Immigration authorities will want to see your account in Thailand being used to finance your retirement here. If they see money being deposited one day and being withdrawn 2 or 3 weeks later, they may very well ask you to provide evidence of where your day to day living expenses are coming from. The suggestion here being that you are not really retired but are working illegally in Thailand. Having retired to Thailand 10 months ago, I would say that a cash requirement of 1,500,000 baht is excessive. My regular monthly outlays amount to a bit under 80,000 baht (a quarter of which goes on rent) though this does depend on how often I go out seeking an overnight companion. Alan

I haven't suffered seriously from jet lag on many flights to S E ASia. I have a glass of wine and a vodka on the flight as well as drinking plenty of soft drinks. I try to switch to the local time immediately and set a pattern of going to bed at a reasonable hour and getting up at a reasonable hour in the morning. Also, when I got back to the UK, (in the early hours of the morning), I would stay awake for as long as possible and go to bed as close to my normal bedtime as possible. Doing that meant that by morning, I was more or less back onto UK time. Alan

I've invested a fair amount of money in the UK stock market. What concerns me more is not so much the fact that the market has risen, giving me a nice profit on some of my holdings, but rather that the market has, in my viwe, risen too quickly in too short a space of time. Then, when the next stock market craxh comes, it will over-react in the opposite direction and fall by far more than necessary. Alan

Just for information. I opened an account with the Bangkok Bank on Pratamnak Road using my hotel for my address and with only a 30 day stamp in my passport. I think they will open accounts with as little as 500 baht, (I deposited 2,000 baht into my account). Alan

I'll need to have a look at the menu when I'm next in. Where is their restaurant, by the way? Alan

One point about whitespider's comments. It is my understanding that your passport has to be valid for a minimum period of 6 months from the END of your stay not from when you arrive. So, if you're coming for a 3 month stay, ensure that your passport is valid for at least 9 months from when you arrive. Regarding the airport departure tax, it is due to increase to 1,000 baht when the new airport opens. (whenever that may be ) Alan

I'm not sure which photos you're meaning but I suspect it may have something to do with the way the pictures have been re-sized for the internet. I use Adobe Photoshop to reduce the file size of any photos I want to post on the internet. This reduces not only the file size but reduces the dimensions to an appropriate size as well. If the physical dimensions of the photo are too big, that would cause the image to appear fuzzy. Also, if you try to zoom in on a small area of a photo that has been re-sized, it will very quickly become fuzzy simply because of the smaller file size. Alan

The seperate queue is meant to be restriced to members of the Pattaya Ex-Pats Club (and possibly the Pattaya City Ex-Pats Club). The minimum deposit required is 100,000 baht and to qualify for the higher rate of interest the funds must be left in the account for 10 months. I think you can withdraw funds from the account at any time but will only get the higher interest rate on funds that have been in the account for the full 10 month period. Alan

As I said above, I was surprised at the length of the grace period but at the Pattaya Ex-Pats Club the other week, one member reported that he had no problem renewing his first licence 3 months after it expired. No problem so long as you don't actually drive in the intervening period. Alan

I've been told by various people that you need to allow your 1 year licence to expire before renewing it. She must have been attracted by your magnetic pesonality. Alan

I don't know if there is such a thing as a timetable for these buses The red and green buses are only operating in one direction as far as I can tell (along 2nd Road) though I did see one red bus go in the opposite direction, but that was just after they started operating on that route. (The yellow route isn't operational yet). Bus stops can be found at various points along their route but the reality is that they will stop virtually anywhere. Just flag it down as you would for a baht bus. The fare has been reduced to 20 baht from 30 baht. Alan

I got my first licence last week. No major problems though ALL first time applicants now have to undergo various tests - 1. Colour blindness test 2. Reaction time test 3. Depth perception test 4. Peripheral vision colour test. The girl at the counter completed the forms for me so all I had to do was to sign my name where she indicated. When you go in, you take a ticket with a number on it but you need to know your Thai numbers as they are only called out in Thai! I was aware that if you let your first licence expire you would then get a 5 year one though it's surprising to learn that you're allowed 1 year in which to renew it. Alan

Is that September this year or September nexty year? Will the new airport be handling domestic flights as well as international ones? I certainly wouldn't want to be flying in or out of Thailand in the first few days after the new airport open (oops - forgot it is already open after Thaksin flew in a few months ago ) Alan

Same with me. I opened an account with them with just a 30 day stamp in my passport. Alan

After doing the biz, a girl says to me "Me no man 9 years". I think (hope) she meant that she had been divorced or separated for 9 years. Alan

When my job was outsourced and I selected Nationwide for my choice of banker (long before I knew about this web-site), I very quickly opted for on-line banking. It ia so easy to keep a tab on the balance of all your accounts so that my statements etc go to my brother's address. Before retiring to LOS, I opened an account with Nationwide International and set up an arrangement with them to enable funds to be remitted direct to my Bangkok Bank account (albeit with 60 days notice). I retired here at the age of 50 so I was one of the youngest holders of a retirement visa when I obtained mine. Before I left the UK, I made enquiries with the Department of Social Security about the possibility of making voluntary National Insurance contributions tom protect my state when (or IF) I reach the age of 65. I start paying this next month and it's not that expensive. As far as remitting your pension to Thailand every month, I don't really think that that's a viable option. You would be paying a fee every time. What I do, and I accept that this may not be a option for everyone, is to remit funds once a year and to live off these funds for the next 12 months. I'm fortunate in that I'm not on a restrictive budget and my income is sufficiently higher than my expenses to give me a good safety net. Alan

You're preaching to the converted here. I would like to thank the Bank of Scotland for outsourcing my job and forcing me to find an alternative organisation with whom to bank as I would not otherwise have opened an account with the Nationwide. Actually, I didn't have to move my accounts away from the Bank of Scotland but I took the view that if they didn't want me, I sure as fuck didn't want them. All I ask is that they keep paying my pension and increase it by a margin more closely linked to the increase in their profits (as HBOS) rather than by the miserly alleged inflation rate. I hate banks too - and I used to work for one of them. Alan

Just a general comment on the cost of drugs in Thailand versus the UK. Prescription drugs in the UK cost the patient the same regardless of whether they cost £1 or £50. If your drugs cost £1 you are paying over the odds, but if your drugs really cost £50 you are saving a huge amount. I suspect that the true cost of the asthmatic drugs are a lot higher than the £6.50 charge. I had to pay £13 every 2 months for my blood pressure pills. Here in Thailand, I pay less than a quarter of that, which suggests that the National Health Service were making a mint on my prescriptions! Alan

I think you're maybe mishearing some of the words as the words for mother, bad, here, dog, and fish definitely don't have an "R" in them. I can see why you think some of these words end in an "R" though. I don't think pom chop pet, aroy is very grammatical - but I know what you mean . pom mai chop ahaan pet. Edited in - The Thai for food is, as I'm sure you know, aahaan. The Thai spelling is อาหาร The final letter ร is the Thai equivalent of the letter "R" and is pronounced "N". I'm by no means an expert on the Thai language but I did take lessons for several months and can read basic Thai. An on-line dictionary, which you may find helpful is - http://www.thai-language.com/dict/ It gives you the correct tones though I'd be wary of the transcription method they use unless you have someone who can speak Thai fluently. That goes for any transcription method used by anyone, including myself! Alan

I've had to do something similar a few times. It protects the hotel from those people who book and then don't bother cancelling when they change their mind or find somewhere better. Alan

The Pattaya ex-Pats Club had a speaker from the British Embassy on Saturday though he didn't work in the Visa Section. Complaints about the rudeness and unhelpfulness etc of staff in the visa section were raised and he more or less acknowledged that the service provided could be better. It seems that that particular area is under review so with a bit of luck we may yet see an improvement - though whether it is before or after the new airport opens is anyone's guess! Alan