@Tony ********

yes it's a £40 annual once a year payment, everything is manageable with your 1p mobile online account, my phone is duel Sim, both UK and thai Sim cards are always active, when you dial the number as previously explained, choose to make the call from your Thai SIM, it seems with AIS you dial "003" to make calls, dial as previously explained, whenever possible make the call with your Thai SIM, try only to use the UK SIM to receive free messages, for banking purposes etc etc, only use the UK SIM when absolutely necessary, because the last time I made a call to a UK landline from Thailand, it was £1 a minute with UK sim, do a Google search "cheap international calls with AIS" can help you to understand better.

Order a 1p mobile SIM card online, get it sent to a relatives address in the UK, get them to activate it, and send it in the post to Thailand, it's now £40 for one year, it's free to receive text messages in Thailand, what network are you using in Thailand?? I use the true network, if you dial "006" first, and then miss out the + add the "44" miss out the first "0" of the number your calling to the UK, it's very cheap, I've done it myself many times.

@Alain **************

sorry I'm not sure about the new DTV, but it's a multiple entry visa, so I can't see why not, providing the country you bounce at, allows to leave the same day, but when I previously had an METV, doing border bounces with Lao, was very easy at the land borders, going from Mukdahan or nong khai, I just walked around in a circle and back into Thailand the sme day.

If you have gotten the DTV visa, I would think you can border bounce, in and out of any country.

100ml in hand luggage, as far as I'm aware, it's exactly the same for travel all over the world.

@Ron *******

I suppose it depends which route your going to go down, do you want to do it yourself?? Or are you going to use an agent?? If you want to do it yourself, and you have everything in place, money in the bank etc etc, I believe it's a very simple process, to apply for the initial non O, based on marriage or retirement, through the Thai e-visa website in your home country, before you come to Thailand, if you want to do the initial non O in the country yourself, some immigration offices, will make it very difficult or impossible to do it yourself, and they will suggest you apply at the thai consulate in Vientiane Lao, and then after 60 days, return to them for the 12 months extension based on marriage or retirement, if you decide to use an agent it is very easy, if your entitled you can just arrive on a 60 day visa exempt, and extend that for 30 days, that gives the agent enough time to complete the whole process, everything will be done for you. I'm no expert, that's to the best of my knowledge, if anything is wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

I had the same idea about supporting small local family businesses, until I approached a small motorcycle shop, and asked for a quote on repairs that I needed doing, and it was obvious straight away it was "farang price" I then went to the honda dealership, and was quoted a much lower price, that's a honda technician doing the job, with genuine honda parts, so go figure!! Some are Just greedy, that particular motorcycle shop, won't get any favours from me in the future, when they are just taking the piss, but to answer your question, from my experience, if something has a price sticker on it, that's usually the fixed price, but on the other hand if there is no prices on anything, it's usually negotiable, I usually ask the vendor "how for this" then go in with a lower offer, which he/she will generally refuse, and then meet them in middle price wise, they don't usually get offended by an offer, they will just say "no sorry cannot Mr" 😅

You have got a few options really, There is a lot of talking at the moment about the new DTV 5 year visa, so check that out, you could apply for that visa in your home country before coming to Thailand, or the non-OA visa based on retirement, gives you 2 years with a border bounce, and can be extended for 12 months at a time, or the non-O based on retirement, you can apply for all these visas on the Thai e-visa site before coming to Thailand, alternatively you could just apply for a METV, which would give you 8-9 months, with a couple of border bounces, and then do the in the country non O based on retirement at a later date, or even just arrive on a 60 day visa exempt, which can be extended by 30 days, and do the in the country non-O based on retirement, then add the 12 month extension of stay, your plans certainly seem doable, you lots of options 😉

@Christopher *******

I think going from Pattaya, they bounce at the Cambodian borders.

@Jim *******

they are a genuine visa agent, I've visited their office in the past, just to make enquiries, 85k baht seems expensive tho, even for a 5 year visa.