I get my cash for everything from my SCB account via ATM. The problem is, I usually get either 2,000 or 10,000 at a time, and it all comes in 1,000 baht notes. Now, 1,000 baht notes are fine at 7/11 or similar stores, but if I present Aek at Two Guys with a 1,000 Baht note for a 30 Baht ice tea, he gets all squinty-eyed with me.

After much careful thought (not easy with somebody of my vintage), I have come up with what I consider a trick play to outwit the forces of evil that manage the ATMs here in LOS. I'm sure this is not particularly 'tricky' for those of you who are smarter than I, but if there's somebody out there that is not smarter than I, here is what I have learned:

1. enter your PIN as before
2. instead of accepting the 'canned' Baht outputs on the left side of the screen, press the button on the lower right corner that says something in Thai and the word English. (Note that I'm using an SCB machine here; I have no idea of other banks' machines use similar scheme).
3. When you get an english screen, (there may be another button-push or two before u get to this screen) it will ask you to enter the amount of cash you want. Just enter 900 Baht!!
Magically, you will get either a 500 Baht note and 4-100 Baht notes, or you will get 9- 100 Baht notes.

It took me a long time to realize how easy this is.

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