@Gordon ***********

he must've just been trying to take out 39,000 baht, declined the atm conversion, and then the transaction was declined becasue the maximum thai atms will allow to be withdrawn is 30,000. Most only allow 20,000 I believe. Either way I don't see any way he would've known the rate his card would've given or how much it was in sterling, since it was a failed transaction.

I've never seen an ATM here where you request the amount in the foreign currency. The atm will also not display the exchange rate that your card will give, even after declining the atm rate. So I'm not sure how your friend could have known his cards rate for a failed transaction. Even if there were some atm or his banking app that did, all it showed is his banks card has a terrible rate. Once you decline the conversion the only money the atm makes is the 220 baht per transaction. Whenever I've compared my bank card rate it is as good a rate as it gets.

@Nongnuch *******

although technically true I believe, in practice it really depends on the document and who it is for. I was recommended a lawyer by someone who has documents "notarized" all the time and have had no issues. I used them for one recently and asked the place requesting it if they accepted thai notarizations. This place usually does everything by the book to a T and they ended up accepting it.

@Henrik ***

if you pay attention to any of these forums you'd realize that most people aren't as spontaneous as you must be. So many people plan every detail and still stress out. People also booked ahead way before all the booking sites.

@Henrik ***

I'd say most people aren't booking online or in advance because of the discount. It's for peace of mind that they'll have a room when they get there and avoid the stress of having to find one.

@Chris ********************

not once in my experience. Which was why I suggested to check online and if they won't give you that price then just step away from the counter and book it online.

It's a very difficult language to learn, especially with a different alphabet. Just look at the stellar job Google translate and Facebook do. The vast majority of their translations is indecipherable garbage. Add on top of that most expats live in areas where almost anyone they interact with speaks better English than they do Thai. Some places although written in Thai is almost like a different language. My wife can't even read or understand when spoken.

@Nicholas ***********

the fact that it's a different alphabet also makes it far more difficult. What little time i tried to learn Vietnamese was WAY easier becasue I could read and sound out words and learn sentence structure. Some people learn best by reading so a completely different alphabet adds another layer of difficulty.

@Neil *****

I figured they had to be. Can you imagine trying to sell insurance, which is extremely expensive in the US, and they won't even tell you in writing what is covered. There's even set things they have to cover.

@Brandon ***********

yes, that's quite different than you're original comment. Perhaps that's what you meant but the way it was worded made it sound like you were saying they simply won't tell you.