Is Thailand, in some ways, more advanced than your Home Country?



My home country in America, and my home state it Hawaii - specifically The Big Island. Recently I discovered Thailand is more advanced, in at least one area, than Hawaii.



I wanted to electronically transfer funds from a Bank of Hawaii (BOH) account to a friend’s BOH account. Guess what? BOH clients/customers can not accomplish this. BOH has NO mechanism in place to allow such a simple process/request. Is Hawaii considered a 3^rd world country? Should it be? I was somewhat shocked, but in a few moments reflected “That is Hawaii” (TIH). Well the facts remain: In Thailand an individual can electronically transfer funds between accounts and even to other banks. I use Kasikorn Bank here in Thailand. This can not happen in Hawaii.



Can you state an instance where your home country/state is not as advanced as Thailand?



Cheers,

Keoki

You just have a crappy bank.

Yup, you need to change banks in HI.

Unlike you I can not sing praises of the kakakorn bank. It's the bank with the rep for atms that process a withdrawal, but don't give you the funds and when you knock on the window to say eeeek, reply "Call help desk, sowwwy" and when you call help desk, they go "sowwwy call yo bank, ok" and then have the audacity to leave the processing fee in place for the money that never came. Of course you are knocking on the window and calling the help desk to say, your atm is jamming, maybe you should check it and the reply is always "we no have problem - is your bank, sowwwy" Never had the issue with any bank other bank but kakakorn.

The US banking system has been behind Asia as far as interbank and international transfers for some time. In 2001 I could walk into a bank in KL and pick up a form from the counter to transfer money to a Thai bank, a routine transaction. Try that even today in a US bank.
TH

Had loads of gripes with LloydsTSB in the UK. Haven't used them for a while so I expect they have moved into the 20th century now.

I think, and this is just my opinion without any research so if it is wrong... big deal. I think that the reason that Asian banks make it easy to transfer money is because, when compared to the USA, check writing never really took off. I don't know if it was a general distrust the locals had for each other or just everyone prefers cash. But if we think of the necessity to move money around, without a generally accepted check writing system, then the next step would be to have a convenient way for funds to be transferred. Hence, we are able to transfer money around Thailand from an ATM.

Is it more advanced? Yes! On the other had we hear stories of people not getting interest on their accounts. Is that more advanced? No. So I can say that yes, there are some things in Thailand that can be considered more advance than some other countries.




TheWalkingMan

QUOTE

Is Thailand, in some ways, more advanced than your Home Country?

No!

This post has been edited by neverdie: 2009-01-23 18:50:35

I think that in terms of architecture and mass transit, Bangkok is more modern than many large American cities. I find the Skytrain and the subway system in Bangkok much more modern and pleasant to use than the subway system in Washington, D.C. (admittedly a much smaller -- though also more important -- city). I'm trying to think of a city in the eastern half of the United States with so many modern buildings...or for that matter so many slums...as Bangkok. Having said that...are modern building built in Bangkok of the same quality as in the west...not sure.

In England in order to open a bank account, you must first send passport/driving licence(certified copy) and one utility bill. After about a week you get confirmation that you are SUCESSFUL and your atm card will arrive shortly, after another week you receive your atm card and then after another 3-4 days your atm number....in total almost 3 weeks to open a bank account. In Thailand, within 15 minutes you have a passbook, atm card and atm number with a fully functional bank account. If you want to transfer money, hey presto it arrives in another Thai bank instantly, compare this to England where it takes at least 3 business days, so with a weekend and bank holiday over a week to transfer some money.....The Thai banking system is centuries ahead of the archaic U.K. system

What interest rates are currently being paid in the U.S and U.K.......0.01%

Sunday & Bank Holiday trading i.e. On a Sunday, UK shops are only allowed to open for a maximum of six hours between 10:00 & 18:00. I've always hated Sundays. Christmas Day - virtually everywhere is closed. Last year it was wonderful wandering around the mall in Korat on Christmas Day.

I would imagine that many new Japanese technology's are introduced into Thailand well before us poor farang have the chance to experience them,...Japan is well ahead in lots of fields

My bank in Italy needs 3 working days to transfer money to another bank, and paying a some euro commission. Here is in real time, pay half euro.

My bank (KrungThai) is open also saturday and sunday. Forget it in Italy.

The car office (motorizzazione) usually need 2/3 months to issue a driving licence. (80 euro). Here one day (1000 baht)

New passport for thai, 2-3 days. Italy from 20 to 2 months, depending is holday season.

In Thailand people kick out Thaksim and his puppets, but in Italy the italians cannot kick away Berlusconi.

I can continue for pages and pages, but I don't want do complain to much of my home country...

This is only due to the greed of the banks, they keep a massive amount of money in their own accounts by making you wait for three days.

LED traffic lights with timers
Solar powered traffic signals in the countryside
Better roads, Yes really.

LED traffic lights with timers: Very Dangerous - with these there are motorists in all directions attempting to race timers all into the crunch zone, just wait for the green light, commence stopping on the orange - easy. Ohh and by the way in some cities in Australia they are using LED lights, just without timers.

Solar powered traffic signals in the countryside verses not traffic signals in the countryside.

Better roads. Australia is 14.95 times larger than Thailand, yet its population is only 32.08% the size of Thailands.....would you really expect it to have roads built to the same level. Having said that, whilst many of Thailands Highways may be better than in Australia, the rural roads are just as shitttty, it seems the rural people get the raw end of the stick in both countries.

Of course I didnt notice you talking about the road toll, thats definately one area that thailand is more advanced than your home country on....Yes Thailand kills more people on its roads. Get real Asiancup

This post has been edited by neverdie: 2009-01-24 09:09:25

Child care.

At 45A$ (1000 baht) a day per child, Australian childcare was notorioisly inefficient, unaffordable and - yes - child care staff worst paid of all workers categories.

"Was" is the right word - Australian childcare system has all but collapsed. People bringing grandparents or relatives from overseas to look after their kids or sending kids themselves.

One example, google would reveal millions:


"The Government provided funds to keep ABC Learning childcare centres open for a few months because it was a unique situation with more than 1040 centres, 120,000 children affected and 16,000 employees," she said.

Childcare union assistant national secretary Sue Liones said about 45 workers were affected by the CFK closures. "The Government can't bail out every single childcare centre.

"What we need is greater regulation in childcare and more control over who gets to operate childcare centres."

I think that in terms of architecture and mass transit, Bangkok is more modern than many large American cities. I find the Skytrain and the subway system in Bangkok much more modern and pleasant to use than the subway system in Washington, D.C. (admittedly a much smaller -- though also more important -- city). I'm trying to think of a city in the eastern half of the United States with so many modern buildings...or for that matter so many slums...as Bangkok. Having said that...are modern building built in Bangkok of the same quality as in the west...not sure.
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Oh yea, LOL I agree a/b mass transit. It's practically non-existent on the Big Island of HI. I was born and raised in Phila. PA, USA and the "el" elevated trains must be ???? 70 yrs old.

I wasn't asked about the road toll or the education system.

Have a nice day!!!

I wasn't asked about the road toll or the education system.

Have a nice day!!!

don't know if it qualifies as advanced but its certainly more convenient here for many things, such as vehicle repairs (fast and cheap) doctor/dentist visits (fast and cheap), etc

Extended Trading Hours
BTS/Skytrain fast and efficient, even at times when big events being held in Bangkok.
Taxis, motorbike as an alternative, inexpensive.

Can have an appt with Specialist/Surgeon, straight away, as opposed to waiting a month or more in my home country. Even if you have top health cover.
As an inpatient after an op, can stay in bed after the surgeon sees you (no wait) and lounge around watching TV, nice lunch. Have a choice as to when you want to leave the hospital, as opposed to being discharged immediately as the next patient on the waiting list needs your bed, even if it is still warm.

Kasikorn Bank efficient in getting a new ATM card, PIN, and bankbook, no posting out or delays. The ticket numbering machine they use here I think is also great, no great lines of impatient people pushing in front of you to be seen by a teller "because they have to get back to work" or whatever. No money missing to date! Bank at home takes days to respond to an email query, they dont work on weekends and then two days to clear the backlog (apparently) of emails.

My dentist has portable flat screen TV on a flexible stand and it can be adjusted so I can watch the tennis while having my fillings! This definately has the thumbs up from me.

I can't think of a single area where Bangkok is more advanced than a major city in my own country however some things happen here that impress me that would never happen in my country. For example at MoChit they have all these minivans waiting to take you to places like Future Park in Rangsit, someone always becomes the impromptu money collector and then hands it to the driver. I know Thai's aren't known for honesty but the fact they can do this without bickering or stealing always impresses me in some small way and there are hundreds of little things like that.

I also like the skywalk from Siam Paragon to Central World, not advanced but enjoyable in a a modern way.

This post has been edited by wasabi: 2009-01-25 00:17:06

well from a culinary point of view, in my humble personal opinion and experience, Thailand is more advanced than my home country (UK)

Also, as others have said, extended opening hours for most services, cheap taxis and a modern and clean public transport services (MRT and BTS). Not forgetting the long distance VIP bus services with aircon, food and refreshments included, lots of space, full recline making it easy to sleep, I would start using buses to go inter city if we had these in the UK.

The Thai MFA Passport office.

Arguably the most effecient in the world IMO.