nkped

Then there are places that add items which they post on FB without printing new menus or putting them on a special board. Good luck on ordering one of them.

Yes on all three.

A little slow for lunch yesterday, but that's why they have A/C and Wifi.

Purchase charged on the card in baht. Usually, that will result in approximately the same rate as T-T.

Made a somewhat significant credit card purchase today and got 20 satang better than the T-T rate to the USD. I'm confused.

Hope they resolve it at 6 months before April.

This is a 43 minute interview which the U.S. Consul General did on the local English language 103FM. He had quite a bit to say about the changes in income verification documentation for retirement and marriage extensions. That is a bit spread out over the first 26 minutes. He said the Embassy has been negotiating with Thai immigration about how individuals can meet the income verification requirement and spoke with considerable confidence. Income affidavits will be accepted for up to 6 months after executed. Showing 65.000 baht a month income will still be an option. The method of showing the income will probably be bank statements showing deposits into a Thai bank account. A police order stating the requirements/procedures should be coming out in early January. He's seen the order. Supposedly, this will resolve the variation between different immigration offices. The combination of a bank account with less than 800K baht and less than 65K a month will still be an option. He said that there are 75,000 Americans who are long term residents in Thailand of whom 2,900 live in Chonburi province. https://youtu.be/a8KRUhc1qgA

Always had the suspicion that we weren't supposed to like it.

Got 32.65 to the USD on a credit card payment at Bangkok Hospital today.

I think I had seen some indication of this before, but today I confirmed you can now access your social security account from a Thai ISP and while reporting a foreign address. For sometime that had not been possible, at least when you reported a foreign address. You start at SSA.GOV and follow the link to my social security.

For those needing that last income affidavit-- The Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok is pleased to offer a full-day of notarial services. Date: December 20, 2018. Time: 0730-1400 Place: US Embassy Bangkok 95 Wireless Road, Bangkok There will be approximately 400 notarial appointments available. All services will be provided by appointment only. Please visit us here to make an appointment. Fees for notary services are $50.00 USD or 1700 Thai Baht per notarial stamp. To expedite your service, please bring exact change or consider paying by credit card to facilitate the movement of people through their appointments. Please arrive with your passport, a copy of your passport and documents filled-out completely, correctly, and NOT signed. Documents can be accessed through these links: Notary including Income Affidavits

That time again, so I went to the immigration website to do my 90 day report yesterday. I managed to get everything entered without too much trouble. I remembered that the drop down menu does not have an entry for US or USA but does have one for American. When I entered my email, Chrome tried to autopopulate my US address, but that's not immigration's fault. The receipt showed that I completed the process at 7:14am. Then last night, same day, I received an email sent at 11:45pm with the subject of notify.residence. It said, in English, "Notification 90 days is Approved. You can check status by visit www.immigration.go.th"

Still have a house in farang land. The utilities are paid automatically and I get the bills by email. A month ago, got the gas bill for October and thought it looked a bit low for a fairly cool month. Checked the bill from a year ago and the new one was over 25% lower than the year before. I remembered turning the the thermostat down before leaving in July but did I turn the heat on?? We're talking frozen pipes if I didn't. As bad as that would be I really didn't want to spend 60K+ baht to indulge paranoia. Got the November bill today and never thought I would be so glad to see my gas bill more than double.

Just a supposition, but I strongly suspect they laid this trip on to meet the demand for one last income affidavit. As to an early Xmas party, if I was working in Bangkok with station allowances, I doubt I would need to go to Pattaya.