-
Posts
264 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Downloads
Posts posted by korkenzieher
-
-
Relative affordability (at least then), weather, relatively light-touch regulatory environment, absence of Islam (or it would have been Malaysia), long-standing familiarity.
What keeps me here is the missus. If my relationship broke down, I would be gone tomorrow.
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
The way I look at it, since there is no way that I can accrue a right to stay, then this moving of the goal posts is a wake-up call on the precarious nature of retiring in the Land of Shake-ups. I would rather make the move now, say within the next 18 months, and on my own agenda, than be exposed to the risk of the rules shifting around me when I am a good chunk older and cannot quite so easily deal with it.
I could deal with this change, but the writing is on the wall for me, for sure. Rules could also be changed back either once they realise the impact this has, or once the election is past. But the simple fact is that I don't want my life in my dotage, to be subject to the whims of ill considered (or conceivably malicious) immigration rule changes, every time someone feels the need to impress his bosses.
- 21
- 2
- 4
-
7 minutes ago, sanemax said:
You use Thai Visa , which is similar to Facebook
Not sure that is true, maybe partly. While all social-media platforms share the vulnerability that FB has, not all chose to abuse that power. That said, politically (even financially) motivated moderation can push sites down that route in no time at all - sanctioned speech only - which is precisely why I read stuff on here, and no longer use the HH local forums.
-
I chose B because it is basically correct - friends and colleagues have been keeping up with each other for years using it, and for that it is useful But the 'echo chamber' / 'preaching to the choir' nature of many groups and news outlets, including mainstream, is IMHO absolutely insidious. And it is getting worse. Folk can (and do) isolate themselves from any dissent, proving yourself to be absolutely right about anything you choose; no conflict (diversity, opinion) allowed. Then some helpful soul at FB directs new feeds to you which are borderline insidious, with the only objective to get you emotionally engaged in some aspect of your (largely self-chosen) narrative. If not for the friends and colleagues aspects, I wouldn't look at it - and as it is, I don't allow it or messenger on the phone - only by browser from the desktop.
-
Option 5 might be better written as 'Consider whether still I want to'. I'm actively considering leaving, even though I have just got a new extension based on an Embassy letter. It seems to me that one might consider the 'writing to be on the wall'. It is getting hard enough to jump though the hoops now. God only knows what other changes may make it impossible, and at a time when changing tack will be much harder for me / us. Relocating has definitely become an option for me. If I stay - and it really has become an 'if' - then it will probably be the 800/400k method. But the simple fact that I cannot accrue any rights to stay here is becoming more of a barrier to continuing to do so.
- 1
-
19 hours ago, OJAS said:
So Hua Hin weren't, at the time of your visit, giving out the same info as they were giving out at the time of @HHTel's visit yesterday, as he reported at post #2172 in the attached thread?
There was no discussion about the available alternatives - but thanks for drawing my attention to that, as I have been expecting some information about a remittance basis being introduced at some point. I haven't heard anything about that anywhere else (that it is expected to happen). Note that he went to the BluPort office, not Hua Hin in Soi 39 - standards of English (and arguably, service) at BluPort are generally much better but they don't handle Non-Imm renewals there at all. I would trust the info though.
-
2 minutes ago, JackThompson said:
The rule is 6 months on the embassy-letters.
I just posted elsewhere - Hua Hin is planning to stop taking them in January.
Separately, I know the Embassy (UK) was asked by immigration to turn them around in 2 weeks because of the risk of exchange rate fluctuation, and that said that was impossible and agreed on 1 month. So I personally would not risk in this environment, trying to do a 6 month lead on a pension letter.
- 1
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
So, my pension letter came through in time. Thank-you, British Embassy...
Went up to Hua Hin immigration, which for a Monday in November, was spectacularly quiet and it took longer to do the payment than actually process the papers. In and out in a flash. Two things worthy of note.
The Officer chatted with another to ask if they were still accepting these (the pension letter) from Britain, and was told 'we stop at the start of January' (no specific date). So I said 'one month then' indicating that I had understood them - and got a sort of nervous smile back. So, Immigration is fully aware of the ending of the service, which you might expect to be the case anyway. But I was still given the full calendar year, which might be expected, but was still something of a relief.
The other thing, is that as he was checking the papers I just kept saying 'same, nothing change'; and then he said' still same Thai girlfriend', which shocked me to some extent. My Gf has accompanied me there on just one occasion - for my first retiree visa being issued - she has never spoken to them, and she never offered them her name. Yet they are aware of our social circumstances to at least some degree. I'm not sure that that is entirely appropriate, and it makes me wonder what other information is collated on us behind the scenes.
- 4
-
3 hours ago, giddyup said:
It's designed to force expats to actually prove they can meet the financial criteria instead of signing a possibly fraudulent stat dec.
Could be part of it - but really what do they care as long as you are not being supported, or needing support, or working illegally? The 800k is a safety-net deposit in reality.
Actually, I think what is happening is that slowly but surely we are heading towards retirement visas being issued on a remittance basis only. In other words, you will have to show on an ongoing basis that you are transferring that money into the country. Whether *you* feel it is necessary or not. And it smells like government has become desperate to shore up its foreign currency reserves to me. IMO an increasing number of people will take this as a sign to leave, whether they are financially secure or not. You are being *told* what you have to spend!
- 1
-
Except for the piece about jet-skis, I would think this is little more than an advertising piece, written in the first person by a copy writer who has been well briefed by the Tourist Police. Important as much for what he doesn't mention, as does, and aimed squarely at moderating tourist behaviour - with little to say about life here other than 'trust me, I'm an expat'.
- 2
-
On 8/31/2018 at 9:16 AM, HarrySeaman said:
Actually those box wines such as Mont Clair were (are?) "fruit wines", meaning that they are real wine that has been cut with fruit juice. This was done to lower the alcohol content and reduce the taxes.
Drink box wine and you just might be getting your grape juice.
That's not correct. Reduce taxes, yes, but not cutting with fruit juice. Wine boxes were described as alcoholic fruit juice, to get around the differential tax rates specific to bottled wine. The reason (cheap) wine went up so much is because that loophole was closed at the same time as the new tax rates were applied - so the jump in price reflects the normalisation of boxed product to the rates for bottled product, plus the new tax levels on wine per se. Certain brands even had secondary paper sleeves wrapped around the standard printed carton, to use the appropriate wording implying that they were not 'wine'. Are you seriously trying to suggest that the Mont Clair wine in boxes was not the same stuff as in bottles?
-
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
Mont Clair re-appeared on the shelves in Tesco, Hua Hin, about a month ago. A new 3 litre box for 1120 baht, has replaced the old 4 litre 800 baht box. So a price hike from 200 bht a litre to 373 baht a litre. A price hike of just about 87%.
Since then, because sales have been sooooooooo brisk at the new price (55555), the price has been dropped to 1009 baht (odd kind of number), a mere 68% hike over the old price. Wine was never cheap here, but here it seems is a obvious lesson in slaughtering the golden goose. Stick to grape juice!
- 5
-
Similar with fruit juices last year. About the time the wine prices increased, certain fruit juices spiked in price (notably, grape which is in any case an exotic fruit for Thailand). Wasn't sure whether it was to dissuade people from home-brewing, or because people actually *had* started buying loads of it (perhaps for home-brewing), so it made a good farang tax point. Either way, the prices didn't seem to stick. Within 2 weeks, there were 3 for 2 pricings which made it cheaper than previously. Oddly, dried goods - beans, lentils and the like - spiked too. All rather too obviously stuff that the Thai don't consume in any quantity.
- 1
-
The new Air Asia flight to Kansai does make Japan a realistic possibility. Some hassle to get to the quieter places but it can be done. Going ofr 2 weeks ourselves soon - mostly around Kyoto and Nara.
-
"Are expats more at risk of social network addiction?
Said the social media network to the addicted expat... WhoGAF?
-
Also consider: my 11yo mitsubishi, in spite of repeated cleaning, for about a year just kept making ice and a crunching noise we got was basically ice crystals falling into the rotor vane. Eventually, they had the thing off the wall (inside unit and outside compressor) had it in bits, and cleaned it pretty much with a toothbrush. Since then it has behaved. But that must have taken 5 visits for servicing.
-
On the 'fruit mixed' subject, this is my understanding:
The tax on *WINE* was different to that on alcoholic fruit juices. So some enterprising (mainly South African) producers labeled up their wine as alcoholic fruit juice - the fruit being grape. That bit of getting around the tax law was spotted and changed.
So in effect, it means that the 'correct' rate for wine has been applied to the alcoholic fermented grape juice, and then the duty rises applied to it as the wine product it is - leading to the eye-popping increases we've been witnessing.
My solution is to buy the grape juice and convert locally :-) - however, the price of grape juice has also risen. Whether that is due to that potential loop-hole being plugged, or many others are doing it, affecting supply, I can only guess. (Added to that, the Mont Clair 10 litre box, is pretty good value on a per glass basis and while still of modest quality, it is a better wine than it was a few years back).
-
The (some...) hotels might want the Chinese - but the bars and restaurants, where the real bucks are spent don't. And I would also expect that boutique hotels, not in the 'high value tourism' (55555) segment could pretty much care less.
- 1
-
3 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:
I opened it and completed it. Are you saying you opened it multiple times or that it kept somehow popping up?
I got it 3 times - completed it the first time. Second time I started it, thinking maybe it was a different survey / supplier, but soon twigged that it was the same. 3rd time, just ignored it. It use different browsers and PC's so in fairness, if they were using tracking cookies, that might be expected - but if they were doing it based on ID, then they should know they've served it up already.
-
10 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:
I completed the survey. What's the problem, questions too hard ?
I completed it - then got it again... And again. There's a point at which you say 'go away' - or use Anglo Saxon to that effect.
- 1
-
I think there's some price gouging too - after all, Thai buyers of wine are few and far between, so this is ultimately a tourist tax. Prices will probably fall back into line with reason - price elasticity isn't as high as Thai like to believe it is. Likewise, a few weeks ago, grape juice (a constituent of wine... ahem ) shot up from 49 baht to 76 at most stores locally (Bluport, Villa, Tesco). Now it is 69 baht but buy 2 litres, get one free, making the net price at 46 baht - 3 baht lower than it was before the exercise started. People just stop buying the stuff and move onto something else. Meanwhile, the shops are probably congratulating themselves on their marketing strategy. . The main food plaza here (Hua Hin) has absorbed the price rises so far for the most part (beer particularly) , and they are busier than ever, which is just intensifying the pressure on local bars - I'm simply not prepared to pay (up to) 130 baht for a bottle when I can get it for 60.
- 1
-
Thus far, I have only been hassled by one account provider out of 4 - and it is the only interest bearing account. I have asked them to revert the account to non-interest bearing (I was only receiving something like £1.30 per month!), and it seems that that is the red-flag issue - where do they tell the UK that I file for tax on that £1.30.
Hoping it goes away in the new year...
-
I had a lot of grief yesterday from a big Green bank in the UK, who inherited my CI based account from HBOS in 2008, about this particular issue. It seems as though the solution - so far at least - is to switch the account from savings to current. If there is no income generated on the account, then it is not flagged for having a tax liability (or reporting requirement), or so it seems. After a couple of extremely heated and frustrating hours of phone calls with their international section (why *exactly* I am expected to return information to a jurisdiction in which I am not resident (25 years+), and do not have a bank account, [ the one under discussion was only opened after I left the UK]; is *completely* beyond me). So I called the branch and simply asked them to stop paying me interest. Girl said it would be processed within 2 days, and I should stop receiving the letters. I live in hope (though not expectation!).
-
On 24/11/2017 at 2:58 PM, Jedsada3 said:
This was the first time out of 5 that they asked me a map.
A mate has to give a map every time but he has an extension of stay based on marriage. Mine is (and always was) based on retirement.Yes. House visits by Imm Police were a 'norm' for marriage visas, basically to check that the marriage was real and that you were living together. My own visa, like yours, is retiree, and this renewal (17 Nov) is the first time I have been asked to produce one.
Hua Hin: Chinese change strategy - creating "Chinatown Hua Hin"
in Hua Hin and Cha-Am News
Posted
Chinese investors may be in the game - but I don't see individual chinese buyers, so far at least. THe 'Chinatown' area is a couple of Km inland from me. White elephant written all over it.