Are you taking the boat from Langkawi to Koh Lipe? I have wanted to try that travel path. Let me know how it goes.

@Greg *******

I did recently deposit a check from my virtual mailbox. They have a form to fill out and then the check gets sent to the bank. It takes a bit longer and I am not sure how reliable it is, but the one time I did it, it worked.

Never less paperwork. Always more paperwork.

I live in Naklua which is adjacent to Pattaya. From what I understand Pattaya has modern internet which is not available to me. I have to go through some small company that resells some second-rate internet service. The service is sufficient to do video calls at 2:00 in the morning, I haven't tried during peak times but I would not be surprised if it had issues.

My phone works pretty good. 4G is actually better if its fast enough, in that, it tends to have fast up and down, while 5G has slow up but really fast down (video calls work utilize up and down).

Hence, you will want to shop around neighborhoods if internet is important to you. Internet is probably available everywhere and most of it is fast enough to do email. When shopping around know what you require.

Paying other bills... You can do it yourself or often times the people in the condo's office will do it for you for a small fee (30B). I find it easier just to pay them. Also, you can pay some/all of that stuff online, still find it easier to pay the staff in the office.

@Alan *********

Good health care, good prices, why wouldn't you come to Thailand?

@Greg *******

I went through that hassle with North Carolina. I think every state will be different. Basically, NC felt that since my mailing address was NC I needed to pay NC taxes. I raised complaint and they told me I could go to the other jurisdiction and request a credit. That was stupid advice but my taxes aren't their problem.

This year I moved to a virtual mailbox in Texas and have none of the state taxes deducted. The point really is the address on the W2 is key. Also, getting money from a government body is more difficult than paying them.

I may be able avoid federal taxes but that would require I pay taxes in Thailand, which requires work, which requires work permit, which require....

I will collect Social Security from the Federal government so I am content to continue to pay federal taxes.

If you have proper visa you probably can open a Thai bank account. I just transfer my living expenses to my Thai bank account monthly. I can not deposit checks to my US bank account, (you know photo of the check uploaded in the phone). My bank detects I am not in the US and they don't allow it. Virtual Credit Card is a service my bank offers but only kinda works in Thailand. Most of the day-to-day stuff will be cash based. I pay rent in cash, buy groceries cash, etc. etc.

Good look and watch out for sick Buffalo.

I just did the marriage visa. I used an agent and it was still a huge hassle. If retirement visa is an option for you, I would recommend it over the marriage visa. In fact, I think I would recommend visa runs over a marriage visa.

I have never heard of people getting kicked off of Wise. Are you sure? I would be concerned about phishing emails. Someone sends you an email pretending to be wise, ask you to login, then they capture your password. The bigger effect is that many people use the same password for other services so the bad-agent now has your password to other services you use.

@Richard ******

you dont have the wife anymore? I ask because I just got married, and marriage visa then the wife and I split. I think I am good for now but next year when I need to renew.

@Bill ********

I had to do that. I google'd then printed