kunash

March 21, 2011

thanks for replies. we will bring 1 or 2 in then, to the uk, and go through the red channel. better than a fine

March 21, 2011

will be taking my girlfriend on holiday to uk. i know the uk are quite strict on food items brought into the country, and rightly so, - can i bring into the uk a thai hot spicey sauce - one bought from big c, in a proper plastic bottle

March 20, 2011

is it ok to bring a bottled or packaged Thai sauce to the UK? This is for my girlfriend who is coming to the UK in 2 weeks.

Can probably find it in the UK, but will be easier to bring a bottle. Dont want to bring it in if it is illegal to do so (customs)

thanks

March 17, 2011

thanks 7, that is good news

March 16, 2011

my thai girlfriend is divorced from her husband, and has 2 children with her ex. she has legal custody of 1 child and is about to get legal custody of her 2nd child. we hope to apply for a settlement visa in august. my girlfriends 2 children will need passports. ( 7 and 9 ). do both parents need to go to the passport office? or how does it work pls?

thanks

March 16, 2011

Hi

having travelled around alot of asia, and south africa, i have found with relative ease, local art, which includes hand paintings, good quality local crafts, wood carvings, statues ( proper carved wooden or shell carvings ), and art made of stone. I really like local, hand painted pictures - not ones done by 'professionals' costing thousands, just ones that cost up to 50 UK pounds.

i have never found anything like this in Thailand. I am sure it is there. normally you just happen to walk by the shop by chance. i am not talking about mass produced tourist crafts or prints.

any ideas please, in bkk?

March 14, 2011

I will be staying at the IC, Hua Hin for a few days at the end of April, with my GF. I am really looking forward to it. will probably have to rent a moped though. Have stayed at the Hilton which is excellent

March 13, 2011

ah the lucky folks who dont have social medicine. here, u have to be legally married and under a certain age, otherwise its almost a no go. does thailand have age limits? here over age 45 it wont be funded and u have to go through a medical committee.single moms have to be also in a specific group in order to get funded IVF.

im almost 50 so now not even viable but perhaps had we know we might have thought of going that route...(hubby being thai would there have been some kind of different pricing or laws?)..

bina

israel

In the best hospitals of Thailand, a simple straightforward IVF procedure i beleive does not cost over 6000usd max. Doubt whether this price is comparable to UK as OP mentions. And no, they will not ask for your marraige certificate.The Thai law does not require you to be married to have a child. Having a child outside of marraige might be looked down upon in Thai society though.

i did phone a private hospital where i live in the UK. they told me it costs 5000 pounds +. the more complicated, and the more

medicine needed the more expensive and can go up to 8000 pounds. in bangkok we will be going to praram9 ( my GF changed her mind ) - this will cost 4000 pounds. jetanin would have cost 5000+ pounds. one ivf clinic we were quoted 8000 pounds or another clinic can be cheaper than 4000 pounds. all depends.

March 12, 2011

I doubt they will ask about your marital status. They will assume you are married. the technicalities are not something you need go into.

In fact not all Thai married couples have a legally registered marriage.

thank you Sheryl

March 12, 2011

Yes I have to admit ...dog walking can be problematic no matter where you go ......I ended up buying a pump action water gun ( Songkrang is just round the corner so there's plenty around ) I then boiled lots of chopped chili peppers and dried chili powder and simmered it for about one hour ...then let it cool and filter through some kitchen roll too remove any debris ....and then put it into the water pistol and aim for the dogs eyes and nose and watch them run ...a good water pistol has a range of about 10 to 15 metres so you can get/hit then before they even get near to you or your dog ....do this every day on your chosen dog walk route ...and after 2 to 3 days the local dogs soon get to know what's going to happen and leave you alone. .......

good idea. did this actually work for you? was your aim good enough to hit them before they got to your dogs?

March 12, 2011

My girlfriend and I will hopefully be starting IVF in May. We will see the doctor in 2 weeks, at the Jentinn IVF clinc, bangkok. I tried phoning them but their english and my thai is not good enough to talk. i am just wondering if anyone has experince of this, and whether you have to be married.

we will in fact be marrying, sometime in May / June in my gf's home town so it probably wont be that much of an issue. but would probably prefer to start ivf before marrying. i was also suprised to see that having ivf in the UK is only a little bit more expensive than thailand. suprised but glad as well, as we may need to carry on doing ivf when we are settled in the uk

on a side note: i am sure someone out there will know the answer to this, does anyone know what i will need to bring from the UK to marry in Thailand, a birth certificate, and passport.........anything else? i have never married before.

i have copied the following from a previous post, about how to marry

getting married in bangkok

Dear All,

I have virtually just return from Bangkok.I hope my personal experience will be of help to all who are planning to get marry in Bangkok. We have just got married and about to apply for a visa. I am a British national and my husband is Thai.

1. to get the affirmation. Print out the suggested wordings on the British Embassy website : http://ukinthailand.fco.gov.uk/resources/e...ffirmation-form

Please follow the wordings, word for word and replaces names etc as necessary. The wordings in the document , as I was told is what the British Embassy have in agreement with the Thai government. Thus if the wordings are different, it will not be affirmed. You have to print this out and apply in person to the British Embassy in Wireless Road. No matter how much of a hurry you are in, you can only collect this the very next day. Payment currently is 2750 Baht. ( Due to the weak pound) This was paid with cash but I believe you may pay with a credit card.

My greatest mistake: make sure if you are planning to marry, to enter Thailand with the passport you intend to get your affirmation from. I am of dual nationality and enter on a different passport. I did not think this was the problem but it started when we tried to get married at Amphur where they check the passport and entry stamped! This lead to further certification and more cost to prove that I am of the same person even when I have the exact same name on both passports!

Myth: you do not need to be in Thailand for 3 days before being able to affirm.

Truth: Affirmation can only be done when you are in Bangkok and not from England.

2.Collecting the affirmation: straight forward. You can collect from 9 am the next day. We have it translated in the shopping centre across the road and cost 300 Baht. It is very important to get your partner who knows Thai to check the spellings and wordings that is translated in Thai. THis is important as it will appear later in your marriage application at Amphur.

You do not need an official translator to translate the document. You can translate it yourself.However we found it was convenient and not too expensive and it saves us time.

The next step is to get the translation legalised.

I am thankful to "Mario2008" on the website who suggests the quickest way to

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Legalisation Division

Department of Consular Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

123 Chaeng Wattana Road,

Laksi District, Bangkok 10210

The best and quickest way is to use the skytrain (BTS). The nearest station is situated opposite the British Embassy , Phloen Chit station and it cost 40 bht per person to Mo Chit ( 16 mins). From there take exit 3 or 4 and get on a taxi to the Ministry. If there is no traffic, it will take about half an hour. Cost: less than 100 BHT. If you decide to take a taxi, this can be a couple of hours depending on traffic and can cost 200-400 BHT.

Go up to the 2nd floor. Remember to get a ticket from the ticketing machine and at the same time, a form from the enquiry desk. You will need the express service to get the affirmation legalised in a day. Wait your number, and then present the translated version, the British Embassy Affirmation , a copy of your passport and the filled form from the enquiry desk. Payment: 800 Baht. Take a seat and wait for your receipt ( you need this to pick up your document later). If you manage this before 12 noon, go for lunch in the canteen. The staff goes for lunch between 12 noon and 1 pm. They will ask you to return at 2pm for collection.If you arrive very early in the morning, it is very likely you will get it before lunch. If you need further legalisation of any documents, it has to be done here. Thus organise this and do it all in one trip. Our documents was legalised within 2 hours when we came early. Otherwise it can be 3 hours.

3. Going to Amphur to get marry. I was told by the senior person who signs the marriage certificates, that lots of the Amphurs in Bangkok are very reluctant to marry foreigner and Thai as the complexity of checking documentations. Thus lots of the marriages are taking place in Bang Rak ( Translated: District of love). They are very helpful.The most important thing is to get your documents in order and complete set of necessary documents.

For Thai national: They need 2 copies of their ID card, and house log.

For the foreigner: a copy of their passport, entry visa( must be valid and not expired), affirmation letter in Thai and English( stamped by the Embassy)

You need 2 witnesses, however someone at the office can normally stand in if necessary.

Although the office officially closes at 4pm, do arrive early as on the day we got married, there was 15 couples waiting by 3pm and they have to turn people away. It takes up to 40 mins to 1 hour to marry a foreigner/Thai as they need to check the documentation thoroughly.They will also need to hand type whatever statement on your affirmation letter on to the marriage documentation.This takes time.For a Thai couple, all their documentation are in the computer system thus they are quicker to be dealth with. We were the last couple that day and we waited till 17.30pm! The poor officer did not even have lunch that day.The payment is 40 Baht for the marriage certificate, you can also buy a special folder to put your certificate in for 450 Baht.It is not cumpulsory but we like it. There is also a rickshaw in the office for you to take pictures! It is nicely set up.While we were there, there was a foreign/thai couple where one of them has been divorced.It is necessary to bring the original official divorce document.If not , the woman will need to have pregnancy test to prove she is not pregnant.This is to avoid the complication as to whom the father of the child is, as I was told. If the woman is pregnant it is very likely the marriage will not be registered that day( if the official divorce papers are unavailable).You have to be divorced for 310 days before being able to get marry again.

4. We are at the stage of applying for a spouse visa.The other necessity is to get a TB test, as he is going to be in the UK longer than 6 months. The test is necessary even though he has been in the UK previously on work permit for years and have been registered under the NHS.

The TB test is straigtforward. You need to go to :-

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) :

Kasemkij Building

8th Floor, 120 Silom Road

Bangrak, Bangkok 10500

Tel: +66 2 234 7950-5

Fax: + 66 2 234 7956

Email: [email protected]

Attendance is by appointment only and the full test fee of 2600 Baht must be paid in advance.

What you need to do is to pay the fees at IOM, then you are given 2 choices of Hospitals to go to: Phayathai2 or Bangrungrat Hospital. At the hospital, they will take a chest x-ray and in 15 mins, you will get the radiological report. You will then have to take this back to the IOM and a certificate will be issued. This should take you only a couple of hours. We did it in a morning. No sputum test necessary unless if the chest x-ray shown otherwise.

Our next step is to apply for the visa which he will be doing in the coming week. Up to this point, we have not use an agency. The process is straigtforward as long as you are willing to do all the legwork.We believe it is a test of our teamwork to a marriage.

I hope the above information is helpful to all those people out there who wishes to get married in Bangkok. Thank you to all who have help me previously.Good luck to all who are about to go through this!

March 5, 2011

Does she EVER eat falang food while in Thailand with you?

well, i cooked her a spaghetti bolognaise once, she ate it, and loved it, but she did have to have some chillies with it

when she is in the UK in april, we will be going out for pub lunches, and eating out in London. and going to Toby, and harvester, and hotel meals and home cooked meals.

Get her to take the small packets of chilli powder and small packets of fish sauce when eating out and if she needs to spice things up in the food she can put it in the food.....no big deal

good idea, will do that

March 5, 2011

Does she EVER eat falang food while in Thailand with you?

well, i cooked her a spaghetti bolognaise once, she ate it, and loved it, but she did have to have some chillies with it

when she is in the UK in april, we will be going out for pub lunches, and eating out in London. and going to Toby, and harvester, and hotel meals and home cooked meals.

March 5, 2011

She will be much happier if she can get the food she is used to even if she does enjoy what you normally eat, think if you lived in Thailand would you eat just Thai food?

i would be quite happy to eat thai home cooking in the UK, and go out to a thai restaurant once a week. but i would also like my girlfriend to enjoy good old english food.

and when i am in thailand i eat an english breakfast every day and one kfc a week. the rest is thai / chinese

Didnt realise KFC was good old English food...

At the end of the day its up to your GF, she may eat it, she may not.....you dont know until you get there, forgive me, but this thread is starting sound like its about what you want her to do.... not what she wants... please tell me I am wrong but what happens if she doesnt like "good old english food" and wants to stick to strictly Thai ?

no idea, it is up to her what she eats as you said, all i am asking is for people's experiences

March 5, 2011

She will be much happier if she can get the food she is used to even if she does enjoy what you normally eat, think if you lived in Thailand would you eat just Thai food?

i would be quite happy to eat thai home cooking in the UK, and go out to a thai restaurant once a week. but i would also like my girlfriend to enjoy good old english food.

and when i am in thailand i eat an english breakfast every day and one kfc a week. the rest is thai / chinese

March 5, 2011

My girlfriend will be coming to the UK in April for 3 weeks, then hopefully will setlle here later this year.

i am curious to hear from people who have brought their wifes to live in their home country. Does your wife mainly eat Thai food, or is she quite happy to tuck into a roast dinner, or lasagne, shepherds pie, etc ( i am talking UK food as an example ). my girlfriend like chilies with everything, but i hope she will like English cooking. i know Thai food is easy to prepare and i would like to have a mix of Thai / English, but i would hope my girlfriend will like to eat English food.

March 4, 2011

Hello, In May my girlfriend and I will be starting IVF, in bangkok. we will spend our time between bangkok and her home town, but as IVF can take 5 weeks to complete, we will spend a lot of time in bkk. we are looking for a 3 star hotel, which is clean, and has internet in the room, and close to restaurants and most importantly close to the ivf clinic. it needs to be cheap, but still quite a good standard

we havent chosen the clinic yet, we will do in March.

it is either

Jetanin Insitute For Assisted ReproductionJetanin 5 Soi Chit Lom

Lumphini, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

02-6555306

or

Praram 9 Hospital

www.praram9.com - 99 Soi Saeng Chaem, Bang Kapi, Huai Khwang -

can someone kindly please suggest 1 or 2 hotels near each clinic

OR if the clinic are close to each other then that would be ideal, are they close to each other?

March 3, 2011

i have copied this from elsewhere, i do not know the author, pls substitute the UK embassy for your own embassy.