Gary

I certainly wouldn't miss the Russians if they ALL leave. They are strange people.

I have always been amazed at the number of people buying these super lightweight very high priced bicycles. They save a couple of kilos with the alloy frames. It would be better for your health to simply lose a couple of kilos of body weight. Bicycles have a chain with front and rear sprockets. How can there be any difference in efficiency?

Good renters are scarce as cheating renters are more common. Typical renters are likely to try to use their deposit for their last months rent and then leave the owner stuck with utility bills, missing and damaged items as well as general neglect of the apartment or condo. I seldom use my condo but refuse to rent it unless I would know the person VERY well. Even then I am hesitant. The extra money from the rent is nice to have but sometimes not worth the headaches.

A months rent for a deposit is pretty normal.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.naver.line.android

I think that the bottom line is if you want a hassle free retirement extension, just put the 800,000 in a Thai bank. After you have your extension, you can live off that money until three months before the next extension. Top it back up and you are set for the next year. A support extension (marriage) only needs 400,000 but That type requires you to jump through a lot of hoops. I couldn't live off 400,000 a year so that would not be very convenient anyways. Face it, if you can't come up with 800,000 baht you really shouldn't be here.

When I lived in Jomtien, I had no problem with the US Embassy proof of income letter for my retirement extensions. When I moved upcountry, the Immigration office in Chiang Khan, didn't like the letter and forced me to jump through all sorts of hoops, including a trip to Bangkok to have it legalized at the Laksi government translation office. The boss there came right out and told me the letter means nothing because some people lie. I went ahead and made the 800,000 baht transfer from my US bank and have no problems since then. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the proof of income letters will not be acceptable in the near future.

An elderly man in Florida had owned a farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back that was shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, and some apple, and peach trees. One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond and look it over, as he hadn't been there for a while. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, 'we're not coming out until you leave!' The old man frowned. 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.' Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed my alligator.' Some old men can still think fast.

Our government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports. Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people. Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary. Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back." So they laid-off the night watchman. NOW slowly, let it sink in. Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration? Anybody? Anything? No? Didn't think so! Bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember! Ready? It was very simple... And at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. Hey, pretty efficient, huh? AND NOW IT'S 2012 -- 35 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE! (THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?") 34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports. Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy. NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? Hello!! Anybody Home? Signed....The Night Watchman

I haven't been down to Samet for quite some time. All I can tell you is that if you don't bring something very nice with you that will keep you nearly totally occupied, you will be bored to death.

Years ago myself and a small group of the Thai engineers used to go bar hopping on payday. They always made fun of me for picking the ugly girls. They always chose very tall girls with white skin even if they were ugly. I'd bet the winner in this group of beauties was very tall but certainly not ugly.

it was BoA that got my money back. I got an email from AliExpress that they have frozen my account until they investigate. I had three live chat sessions with them ASKING them to investigate. I had ten unanswered messages to the seller asking what was going on. After the seller has the money, it appears that you are out of luck if you have any problems. The seller has his phone back and I have my money back, NO thanks to AliExpress.

I'm not sure. The transaction is called a bank transaction. I would bet it was BoA because I was on active chat three times with AliExpress and they claimed that they could not help me because the seller already had the money. It damn sure wasn't the seller because I did get a recent message from them. They said to be patient and they would ship the phone soon. That was after I told them that I was going to dispute the charge with BoA. Of course I have no tracking number.

Update - I checked my credit card balance today and was happy to see The amount of $321.56 credited to my account. I have heard nothing from AliExpress or their crooked seller. Thank you BoA!

My android phone has a data on and off. I don't want to kill my battery or make the ISP rich. It is always off unless I am actually using it. Phone calls and messages work with data on or off.

As for myself, I don't trust any company or ISP. No way would I ever put confidential information in a phone. Call me paranoid but it is my opinion that all the information in any phone can be extracted.

Several years ago I bought a phone off eBay. I received the phone and it was locked to a Canadian company. The seller apologized and told me to send it back. That was also the end of the story. No exchange and no refund. That was the last time I bought anything off eBay. Shortly after he ripped me off he was banned from selling through eBay. That did me no good. I lost my money.

Since Hongkong Hi5 mobile is a preferred seller and they have obviously cheated me, I really would expect AliExpress to at least try to help me. Since this seller already has the money, AliExpress says they can do nothing. I think that is bullshit. The seller is still selling and likely still scamming customers..

I had a glowing recommendation for this company. I had over fifty orders and was satisfied with all the orders. Now I retract that praise. The most expensive item I bought was a $321.56 Samsung S4 refurbished phone. The difference with this order was that the phone was tied to AT&T. It wouldn't work in Thailand. I was unable to change to a custom ROM because AT&T saw fit to lock the bootloader. The seller agreed to replace it so I sent it back registered mail. This seller is a preferred AliExpress seller. The seller had been paid for the phone and now has the phone back. End of story, no replacement, no refund and no replies to my many emails and messages. AliExpress refuses to help so they may be in bed with the thief seller. I paid for it with a credit card so I disputed the order. I have no idea if BoA will get my money back or not. Somehow I think I am screwed. If you buy anything from AliExpress, forget about warranty or replacement, AliExpress is not to be trusted.

I have decided to keep it because it is worth far more than I can get for it. I am in Jomtien now and driving the car makes for a far more comfortable trip than a truck. Thanks for the interest.

I'll tell you a little story. Years ago I used an agency called Thai Visa in Bangkok. This is not to be confused with the forum. They would easily get me a one year visa for a reasonable sum of baht. The one year visas came out of Australia. The last time I went to that agency, it was boarded up and had a big padlock on the door. I then had to go to a Thai immigration office. The officer looked carefully at my passport stamps. He asked me where I had been getting my visas. I didn't lie to him. He told me that my stamps were valid, BUT, they were not legal because I didn't get them myself. I was lucky he let me off. As I was leaving he told me that if my passport goes anywhere that I had better be going with it. Any other sort of one year visa is illegal.

That's how it sounds to me. I think the expat 80 baht beer is history.

Yesterday I did my 90 day report. I had to sign a paper called acknowledgment of penalties of overstay. It reads the same as posted above. Some say that it is law already and others say that it will not be law until sometime in August. I would hope that for the sake of some unfortunate overstay victims that there will be a couple weeks of amnesty to straighten out their visas. I know of one person who lost millions of baht through his naive trust of Thai people. If he is forced to leave Thailand and not be able to return for five years, there is no doubt in my mind that he will commit suicide if he has time to do it. I have no sympathy for people who come here without the means to support themselves and to be able to stay legally. HOWEVER there are some circumstances that would warrant special treatment.

Unfortunately the fact of the matter is that if someone can't afford to stay legally in Thailand, they shouldn't be here to start with. Thailand is a third world country and unlike the US, they are not going to treat destitute overstaying farangs with kid gloves.

Some of the members here may remember a US company called Macro Chem. They had a cream that would give a nearly instant erection. Myself and some of the other guys here on the board invested heavily in the stock. I had thought that stock would allow me to retire early. The early tests of the cream went well. Then disaster struck, it failed the FDA tests. The FDA said that the product caused a burning sensation in some of the test volunteers and that was the end of the Macro Chem. Of course the stock went into the toilet. My early retirement plans went in the toilet too.