harsu

No, my info (from Sabun-nga) was wrong... I hear 50 Farang atended!

how was it? interesting? boring? food any good?

For me it was more an event to see and meet the people involved than receiving valuable information. It that regard it succeeded. The menu was rather limited but it was OK and served the purpose. I probably learned something but can not recall specifically.

To a large extent. I would agree with you. It was an opportunity to see who's who, meet people who don't attend the 'usual' events and to get some information about the health services. Most of the imp. info was obtained during the networking we all did between the sessions.

What was really important, and the reason I would go along to something like this again, was that we (Non-Thai long stayers) were specifically catered for, invited, and great efforts had been made to make it as accessible to us as possible - the majority of the day was in English. Japanese, Koreans, Laotians, Chinese, Cambodians as well as people from European backgrounds attended. So it deserves a 'thank you' as far as I'm concerned.

In our Community events thread, you might have seen information about a Health information day held last Tuesday, and hosted by the local Health Authority.

One of the topics that came up was how we can contribute to CR. and the Dep. Director of CR Regional hospital - the big very busy one in town - made the excellent suggestion of blood donation.

Not only does this help other people, but - it may well be critical for us as incomers as well. Why? Simply because, well over 90% of the people in N.Thailand are Rhesus Positive. if you are an incomer, with Rh. negative blood and need a transfusion, the local blood bank may not have any and may have to send down to Bangkok to get a supply. Not what you want to happen in an emergency.

Whatever your blood group, you will be welcomed. All the local hospitals - private and public - share the blood bank facilities and supplies.

if you are Rhesus negative and able to give blood you can help even more by being willing to give your contact details so that the hospital can contact you in an emergency situation.

This is a tremendously worthwhile thing to do.

How to give blood.

• If you have a known disease, or if you are over 60 years of age, you will have to get a letter of health from your own doctor prior to presenting yourself to give blood. Other than these circumstances, you just need to ring to make an appointment.
• The Phone number for the regional hospital is 053-711300, and ask to be put through to the Blood Bank. When you go to the Blood bank, it has a parking area you can use.
• The Thai Red Cross will give you an Honour Coin when you donate at 1,7,16,24,36 times!

If you know what blood group you are and want to be put on the emergency contact list, you could p.m. me and I will pass on your details to the Blood bank if you like, or , please, contact them directly.

"On the 19th July at Le Meridien, there is going to be an all-day seminar/presentation under the auspices of the ChiangRai Health authority. The aim appears to be to involve and inform 'long-stay foreign residents' about what the local health facilities provide.

The initiative is part of their broader remit to take care of all foreigners in the province - including refugees and immigrants, of which the majority come from neighbouring countries but may come from as far afield as North Korea.

The seminar is designed to inform foreign residents of the health services available in Chiang Rai and includes presentations from all the major hospitals and also some alternative health care hospitals. It is the first step in a process of being more inclusive in decision making and also providing a way of feeding back into the overseas community what services are available."

I think that's 19 Sept - that's when I was informed it will be anyway. If the info above is correct, I missed it, and wonder how it was...

There was definately one on the 19th July, as I went along. maybe they have another one planned for Sept.?

Many thanks to you all for your help and advice. To explain what we needed it for - a gentle sloping 3 metre bit of roof which doesn't throw off copious amounts of water, but needs remedying because it's: a, such a waste, and b, drips and splashes all over where we store the bikes, and for the front straight run of the car port where it runs off into the back of the pick-up converting it into a small swimming pool. Both areas are shaded for most of the day, so U.V damage is minimised.

The simplicity of the runs influenced our final decision after looking at your options. If we had a whole house to do, we'd get it made for us.

We went and visited the places suggested. Home mart had been re-vamped since we were last in there, and it had vinyl guttering and it had All the connections in stock!.. in total shock, we went ahead and bought the bits.

It was available in white or brown, make is Windsor.

3 metre run is 560B, down pipe (3 m) is 280B, With 5 of the 3 metre lengths, all the ends and connectors, things to hold it on the fascia, corner bit, downpipe hoppers, two downpipes, top guards,etc it came to 4,842B which seemed reasonable to us as it looks and feels substantial. Only time will tell!

CR forum is the best for advice. Thanks again

Not about elephants... but if your children are quite young, they might like the little zoo off the old Chiang Mai road . Head towards Mae Lao, and where the road does a sharp right hand bend between Km marker 20 and 21, go straight on onto the minor road, then follow the signs. Free entry, the birds are the best bit, some gibbons free roaming on an island, massive iguanas sharing this too. Some of the cages for the bigger animals wouldn't score highly against modern Euro zoo standards, but it's a nice pleasant place to visit. Buy bananas there to feed the hornbills and the porcupines, and if you take some dry dog food then the otters, porcupines and green parakeets will be your friends for life. Sultanas/raisins hit the spot with the soft-billed birds. There's a little cafe for drinks and snacks.

Thanks very much everyone, we'll check out Home thingy again, then the hardware shop Kandahar suggested near Den Ha first of all. If we can't see what we need, we'll maybe need to p.m for phone numbers - though T. is very taken with the idea of blue water pipe.. We'll let you know what we find and any prices. Ta.

I happened upon one of these a while back. Can't recall the name that I was told that it was. I almost ended up in a fight for my life though. I had been walking around in the same general area for some time, just looking at different things and not aware that the thing was in the area. When I finally realized it was there, I was within about two feet of it and it was very aware of me. I froze, remembering that you are not supposed to make quick movements, as that can be perceived as a threat. Being so close, I had to decide whether I would be allowed to move away without inviting a strike or if I should actually make the first strike- "a good offense being the best defense", kind of thinking. I kind of tested him out, to see if he would tip his hand, so to speak. I leaned a bit left and then a bit right, but as I did, he moved his head right in time and motion with me, almost imperceptibly, but movement all the same. As near as I could tell, he pretty much had me in his sights and he was as capable as I of striking first. I decided to go first, hoping I could strike hard and fast and then retreat out of reach as he tried to avoid the incoming threat.

Not wanting to telegraph my move, I slowly raise both of my hands, moving them farther away from my body as I raised them. He would have to divide his attention between the two and hopefully, that would give me the advantage I needed. I also started cocking my head from side to side, just to add one more bit of movement for him to inventory. At last, I realized that he was thoroughly involved in trying to monitor my decoy movements and as long as I chose the correct hand to strike with, things would go my way. Wanting to add just a bit more confusion to his situation, I slowly raised my right foot, eventually bringing my knee up almost to my chest. It was time to strike.

Then the tour guide came by and told me to move along to the next cage, which was a turtle display and that was kind of cool to see.

Excelle

nt, had us all grinning.

On a serious note, like scea. posted, not nice to have one around. Clean tidy gardens are a must here. I have a lovely photo of my mother - then in her late 70's -holding up a 5ft long spitting cobra encountered in her kitchen which got bashed to death with some broom that was at hand. Her gardener had walked in behind her when she called out and dived headfirst out the window. Much the most sensible thing to do, I would have thought discretion rather than attack was the plan. Does anyone have any advice about what is the best thing to do if you come across one?

I happened upon one of these a while back. Can't recall the name that I was told that it was. I almost ended up in a fight for my life though. I had been walking around in the same general area for some time, just looking at different things and not aware that the thing was in the area. When I finally realized it was there, I was within about two feet of it and it was very aware of me. I froze, remembering that you are not supposed to make quick movements, as that can be perceived as a threat. Being so close, I had to decide whether I would be allowed to move away without inviting a strike or if I should actually make the first strike- "a good offense being the best defense", kind of thinking. I kind of tested him out, to see if he would tip his hand, so to speak. I leaned a bit left and then a bit right, but as I did, he moved his head right in time and motion with me, almost imperceptibly, but movement all the same. As near as I could tell, he pretty much had me in his sights and he was as capable as I of striking first. I decided to go first, hoping I could strike hard and fast and then retreat out of reach as he tried to avoid the incoming threat.

Not wanting to telegraph my move, I slowly raise both of my hands, moving them farther away from my body as I raised them. He would have to divide his attention between the two and hopefully, that would give me the advantage I needed. I also started cocking my head from side to side, just to add one more bit of movement for him to inventory. At last, I realized that he was thoroughly involved in trying to monitor my decoy movements and as long as I chose the correct hand to strike with, things would go my way. Wanting to add just a bit more confusion to his situation, I slowly raised my right foot, eventually bringing my knee up almost to my chest. It was time to strike.

Then the tour guide came by and told me to move along to the next cage, which was a turtle display and that was kind of cool to see.

Excellent, had us all grinning.

I'm being lazy and asking for information rather than getting in the car and driving around.

Does anyone know where I can find guttering in town? I don't remember seeing it in Home Pro or SaHaPaibon(!) or in any of the smaller building places. I need something that will cope with waterflow coming off a gently sloping roof. Any ideas? Thanks, in advance, for your suggestions.

I seem to remember a vet telling me once that some (NOT ALL) dogs have an extreme ear sensitivity to the thunder. Perhaps it actually even hurts their ears.

There are a lot of atmospheric changes that we tend to be unaware of (unless we really concentrate) when a thunderstorm approaches, that dogs seem to remain more sensitive to.

The atmospheric pressure changes, the air becomes ionised - it smells different ly, there is frequently a change in the wind and clouds - even electrostatic disturbances.

All these things get picked up by the animals long before we notice -they're not usually being distracted from the natural world and they have much better hearing and sense of smell than us. Many dogs seem to be disturbed by storms, and other loud noises- hounds and herders are reputed to be amongst the worst affected, but the reaction of owners definately can contribute as dogs will pick up and react to their fears.

And -I suppose - if you are a dog just sitting there, even if you've become aware of these changes, and there is an almighty bang, the earth shakes, you're not going to think - 'Ah, this is related to that other atmospheric phenomenon I saw a few seconds ago- that flash of light that burst upon the night sky in a westerly direction, lets start counting and work out how near the storm is'.

Probably a society that shows fear of storms will end up with dogs that don't like them either.... or maybe Thai dogs don't like getting wet.

My two hounds are completely unconcerned by any phenomenon unless it involves the prospect of food, or is of sufficient speed when it crosses their line of vision that it says to them 'chase me'. Not even a twitch of the ears during the recent earthquake until we dragged them outside by their collars.

The 7th International Art festival was opened to the Public today at Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park.

Running from today until the 15th August, it exhibits art works by a large number of international and Thai artists completed in the workshop period they attended here just before the exhibition opens.

It showcases works from artists from USA, Japan, Korea, South Africa,Sri lanka and many other countries, all of whom are invited to come and join in the experience here in CR. The art works are currently on display in the main display hall of the gardens. Entry today was free because it coincided with the celebration of the Princess Mother 's life that is held in the gardens each year - but it usually costs non- Thai 200 B to go into the park. It has some of the best manicured and laid out gardens here, mixed with traditional or reassembled Thai buildings, lovely lakes and a huge sala and is a must to see if you get the chance - never mind the added bonus of some wonderful art.

The gardens open until 16.30 each day.

P.S. It's not just pretty pictures of flowers - there's some great abstracts and a wide range of styles and subject matter on display.

There is a good one in the new row of shops directly opposite Sammakhi School, not sure of the name but it has translation service on the door/window.

I don't know if this information will be relevant for the original poster, but -just in case someone need to use this service - there is now a Legislation service set up by the Thai Passport Office in Chiang Mai.

They are the only Passport office outside Bangkok which is allowed to provide this service.

They will carry out certification of true signature, certification of Thai government documents, certification of translation of documents - (and will carry out this translation from Thai -English, and many other languages). Costs appear reasonable, and the time scales sound good - some language translations take more time than others.

They are next to the main Passport Office in Provincial Hall, Chotana Rd., C.M.

Phone (053) 891 535-6

Fax 053 891 534

Sorry. You don't actually get the newsletter, you get the notification that it is published for that month, highlights of what is going on for the current month and the link to the newsletter website.

On the 19th July at Le Meridien, there is going to be an all-day seminar/presentation under the auspices of the ChiangRai Health authority. The aim appears to be to involve and inform 'long-stay foreign residents' about what the local health facilities provide.

The initiative is part of their broader remit to take care of all foreigners in the province - including refugees and immigrants, of which the majority come from neighbouring countries but may come from as far afield as North Korea.

The seminar is designed to inform foreign residents of the health services available in Chiang Rai and includes presentations from all the major hospitals and also some alternative health care hospitals. It is the first step in a process of being more inclusive in decision making and also providing a way of feeding back into the overseas community what services are available.

Additionally the province will also be introducing a new initiative to promote Health Tourism, which includes the renovation of Hot Springs, a Sunday Walking St, Homestay and more.

There is more information on the website that Kandahar mentions and who to contact if you wish to attend.

P.S It's free and there's lunch and refreshments included.

An environmentally friendly cure for

fire ants has been announced by Walter Reeves on his Georgia

Gardener radio program. Testimonials that it REALLY WORKS

are coming in.

Simply pour two cups of CLUB SODA

(carbonated water) directly in the center of a fire ant

mound. The carbon dioxide in the water is heavier than air

and displaces the oxygen which suffocates the queen and the

other ants. The whole colony will be dead within about two

days.

Besides eliminating the ants, club

soda leaves no poisonous residue, does not contaminate the

ground water, and does not indiscriminately kill other

insects. It is not harmful to your pets, soaks into the

ground. Each mound must be treated individually and a one

liter bottle of club soda will kill 2 to 3 mounds.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break"> <br style="mso-special-character:line-break">

The more environmentally aggressive amongst us could always try a CO2 fire extinguisher.

I can see how this system and the speedthai or whatever it's called could work, and would help people who already have a decent Thai spoken vocabulary but being able to read the words aloud isn't a lot of help if you don't already know what these words mean.

I agree. "What does that say?' asks my family. It says '........'. ( family look very impressed with me). Next question, "What does it mean?' .. and I haven't a clue. My vocab. knowledge trails far behind, especially with the type of language used in formal notices. Still, any progress is progress.

I am the very first to admit that my linguistic skills are mediocre. Having spent considerably more than 8 hours learning the Thai script and -only now - starting to feel more confident about how to read it, identify pseudo clusters etc, never mind hear a word read out by my teacher and correctly write it down, I feel slightly miffed. Can anyone really learn to read and write it in eight hours (plus homework, presumably.)?? Must be a very good teaching system?

Tennis balls!!

Believe me , you won't want one of those solid rubber balls when your dog drops it on your foot (it weighs a ton)! My dog has one but we have to hide it from her. As well as my foot and the cats head, there's lots of other things to damage.

Not really any help in your search for solid balls --

Back when we lived near the coast in Scotland. we picked up from the beach something that turned out to be our dog's (a lab./collie cross) absolute fav. toy... a hard plastic fishing net float, about 30 cm in diameter, and though hollow,weighed about a kilo and had a handy bit of thick rope left attached to it. He carried it everywhere if we let him, running around with the rope in his mouth, float banging him repeatedly on the mussle, whacking it against anything in it's trajectory path. Now you can do serious damage with that. We eventually had to hide it, and only let him have it when he was out in the fields.

A kidde is The device to get whipped cream. E.g. Svenssons and Buds use them in their icecream store. I used to have one in Holland and sometimes miss it when baking cakes etc.

I don't know that what I've seen is exactly the same - certainly not that manufacturer, but there are whipped cream canisters dispensers (rechargeable by little gas canisters) in a local bakery supply shop last time I looked. This is a great small shop for sourcing all sorts of baking equipment - and it sells lots of flours etc at about half the cost of Big C. Butter is also about 10B cheaper there. Nice people too.

I don't think there is an 'obvious' name outside the shop but it is easily identifiable.

It is on the left hand side of the Thanalai road. Go past the Suriwan(?) tea trading shop -as though you were heading towards Den Ha (แด่นห้า) and park on left after about 30 metres. It has a red and yellow striped awning over the front of the shop entrance.

Harnsu,

I tried to locate the shop. My wife told me Thanalai road starts with on the corner a Honda shop, Next to that on Thanalai is another Honda shop and a Suzuki shop. But No red an yellow stripe awning. Can you please give me more details, starting from the old or new clock tower?

JMM

From the new clock tower, head west straight over the first set of lights to go past the Face Bar, go round the right angled bend in the road, and turn right at this set of lights. 100 metres on your right is the bakery supply shop.... about 50 metres before the next set of traffic lights. Good luck.

Dear Harsu:

I know very little about the fascinating world of serpents, however, there's one very strange story I heard recently from a very good Thai friend - and I find this as mystical as hard-to-believe:

A Tokay starts emitting a rather peculiar sound, which is, allegedly, intended to signal to a snake,that all is not well somewhere deep inside the intestinal-tract of said Tokay. The snake, thus attracted, appears in front of the Tokay and the Tokay "opens-up-wide" at which point the snake enters into the mouth of the Tokay and goes down deep inside this Tokay . . . . Inside,the snake finds the part which is causing the Tokay's extreme discomfort and the snake proceeds to eat this "part"; then comes back out of the Tokay's considerable mouth and both go their separate ways.

Apparently; the removed body part, over time, completely regenerates. - Also; if this 'mutually beneficial' event would NOT occur, I am told, then the Tokay would surely die.

I forgot to mention that I, in fact, witnessed this entire 'ritual' right in my back-yard and I was totally 'blown-away' by this totally amazing event.

Have you heard about this phenomena ?

Never seen or heard anything so remarkable! harsu

I have heard about it, never seen it. Another nickname for the tokay is Tab ge (old liver) as I was told that they believe a snake enters the tokays mouth and eats his liver when it gets old and it regrows the liver.

Just reading through this again and seeing if I can find places where my thoughts have changed since it was written. In little ways, I can say "yes, slightly" but overall, it still reflects the way I view the place.

I have trouble reconciling some thoughts, though. I am often reminded that business people here are nonchalant, to say the least, about following up on customer inquiries. My Thai wife replies to every email inquiry she gets about her business. She returns every call, even missed calls and makes follow-up calls as new info comes to light. To me, that is the correct way of doing business and it is the way I have seen it done in other places almost my entire life prior to coming here.

Things are changing in the old country where I come from in that respect and maybe one day, it will be more like it is here, where you can inquire about a service or product and likely be ignored. As I saw that beginning to happen in the old country, I attributed it to younger generation lazy employees initially, but later, I started to run into business owners who did the same thing, especially self-employed contractors. Some of them I knew personally and I knew what they did every day and where they were during the day, namely the coffee shops or bars. Myself and others learned quickly not to call those guys because it would be a waste of our time and efforts. Better to call an unknown and see what if we could get lucky in finding a dependable business man. But inquiries being ignored is what I have found from my first day here and the attitude puzzles me and intrigues me, to the point that I spend a lot of time trying to understand it.

Here, the people aren't in bars or coffee shops, they are sitting in their businesses, apparently awaiting new customers or old. But they don't answer e-mails or return calls. Many times, if you reach said business person on the first call attempt, they put you off and say they will look into your request and get back to you but they don't get back to you. It isn't that the requests are for something unusual; it can be a request to a roofing supplier for roofing materials that he has in stock and delivers. It can be to an electrical contractor for a wiring job. It can be a request to any company about any product or service that they are in business to provide. It isn't that they avoid the English speaker or writers. They do the same thing to my Thai speaking/writing wife and to most of the friends she has. The friends all report and complain about the same behavior. Most people I know report the same behavior, whether they are locals or Farang. And yet, the wife has insurance sales friends, stock-broker friends, who work days, nights,weekends trying to drum up new business, So, I see that some who's success is dependent on self motivation only, are very hard workers and return a response of one kind or another to every inquiry. But the people who work from block and mortar buildings don't seem to care at all. Why is this? Will time alter this, for better or worse?

I recently advised a person on this forum to seek home schooling for a young child that is in need of education and this very thing is why I suggested it. It is an opportunity to take an impressionable young person and to instill in him/her a desire to succeed and to provide the guidance on behaviors that will help that person to succeed. Those things aren't taught successfully in schools here and I suspect they aren't taught at home at all. And I wonder why?

I do know a lot of places lose business with my family because the businesses don't seem to care about a sale. My advice is always, "Okay, forget them and go to another". And we do. And then maybe to another and another. And yet, if you walk into any of those businesses, order your product and present your money, you get the service or product. Why do you have to have a face to face meeting to get anything done? Why do the people list a telephone number, e-mail address or web address if they aren't going to bother doing business through any of them? It is almost as if it is still forty years in the past and they don't have those tools available to increase their sales. They DO have them but yet, they work as if they do not. I wonder what goes through their minds as they decide against utilizing these things. I wonder about it a lot. I wonder about it too much, because I can see NOTHING that makes any sense of it nor can any Thai person add anything that makes sense. The ones I ask are just as stumped as I am. So, are they that stuck in the past or is it something else?

I have often wondered if this reluctance,( when you work in a corporation/government dept. in many societies) - to respond to the electronic or impersonal request is simply because the person can. If you are working for money only, in a job in which you have no vested interest or owe no allegience to, it is very easy to become so disenchanted that the ability to ignore requests from potential customers or enquirers can become a hit back against the job that you have to endure.

Instead of looking at what you do and thinking 'I don't really want to be here, but I need to eat, so I might as well do a good job, because that way I feel good about myself and can take pride in what I do, boring/tedious though it is', I have seen many people take pride in being rude, spending their time at work looking for ways to avoid it, taking pleasure at scoring points against the business that enables them to pay their bills.

The only way to ensure appropriate responses to electronic or phone enquiries in a lot of big corporations is to monitor them.

It doesn't explain why there is so little response here though from the small business which is often family owned. The only thing I can think of is that it is not a personal enquiry. You aren't meeting face to face, you cannot judge whether you want to do business with this person. For a modern business that wants to make a profit, this is not a sustainable attitude.

But how many small businesses really seem to want more than a 'tick -over' profit, to be in business but not want to do anything other than open up in the morning, sit around all day, sell to a few customers, have a chat , then go home. There seem to be a large number like this. Perhaps not the owners of the businesses - but certainly many staff seem to have this attitude.The exceptions are the ones we have to seek out and use, in any country.

We may also have to consider that some businesses may feel that it is very easy to deny or alter a verbal agreement, but promising something on paper - even electronically - may just be a step too far. Society expects you to provide a remote means of getting in touch with your business - but you don't have to like it or use it. Short-sighted, infuriating when you're waiting for a response, but - in the long run- bad for them.

So if I am pist, it is a cobra and if sober it's a harmless green tree snake. Cool

Whether the one who perceives it is sober or not, the snake continues to be a golden tree snake. Alcohol fumes do not cause it to transmogrify. (I don't think).

They are really beautiful snakes, saw an amazingly aggressive battle the other day under a monsoon bridge between a large Tokay and one of these. it was declared a draw, though the snake did go away with noticeable jaw marks on it's side.

Well. Despite some nervousness , the PL weather angel held true . The rain was a non factor and in fact kept the temperature pleasant and it was just fine. Pretty much the core group (14?) this time and the first time no newbies, Great food as usual and great fellowship. Several voted to return next month to the same park. I give it a thumbs up for sure.

Our vote too - certainly for the doubtful weather months. Can't beat sitting beside the Nam Kok watching it flow by. Nicely kept park and plenty of space to spread out, go for a walk etc. If someone remembers the boules next time, we could have a game too. Thanks again to the organisers and 'finders'.

A kidde is The device to get whipped cream. E.g. Svenssons and Buds use them in their icecream store. I used to have one in Holland and sometimes miss it when baking cakes etc.

I don't know that what I've seen is exactly the same - certainly not that manufacturer, but there are whipped cream canisters dispensers (rechargeable by little gas canisters) in a local bakery supply shop last time I looked. This is a great small shop for sourcing all sorts of baking equipment - and it sells lots of flours etc at about half the cost of Big C. Butter is also about 10B cheaper there. Nice people too.

I don't think there is an 'obvious' name outside the shop but it is easily identifiable.

It is on the left hand side of the Thanalai road. Go past the Suriwan(?) tea trading shop -as though you were heading towards Den Ha (แด่นห้า) and park on left after about 30 metres. It has a red and yellow striped awning over the front of the shop entrance.

As Scorpio says, most definately do need to the 90 day reporting, but the good news is that you can just post up the required paperwork and photocopies needed to Mae Sai. Make sure you do it with a few days to 'spare' and send the letter recorded delivery so that you have a record you've sent it up. Usually get your stamped form back within the week.

Thanks to Jingthing and others.

It appears Jingthing's best solution for me would be to get a Non-Imm. "O" in the States before coming, to be sure to have the surest usable vehicle for going back to using Retirement Extensions. This way if my surgery causes me to go past my current Retirement Extension expiration of Oct 31st, I will have what I need to apply again without "converting".

I have this question: Since I never reported in to Thai Immigration every 90 days while on Non-Imm. "O" for 7 years, and assume it is not required as I always understood, does one have to report in every 90 days if on a Retirement Extension?? (I have not done so on the RE I am on now).

Here seems to me to be a pretty good guide and attempt at presenting the convoluted, ever changing process of getting a one year "Retirement Extension", with the caveat that in Thailand nothing in the Visa process is consistent for long, and largely depends on the individual Imm. officer's interpretation and mood of the day. I would like your comments Jingthing (and any others), of this site: http://www.wpcoe.com/visa/ if you have time, before I recommend it to others.

Thanks to all.

Your link seems to be spot on BUT how did you get the idea that you were not required to do a 90 day report with a Non Imm O. That is WRONG. Hope that is not discovered.

Best dentist on the planet - Dr. Wanpaya.

Works days Sriburin Hospital, evening and weekends she has a clinic Ban Du.

Good English and very nice caring lady. Sorted my pegs out like none other.

I've had mixed experiences at the General Hospital Clinic.

I haven't looked as yet, but is Dr. Wanpaya's clinic on the Chiang Rai Google Map?

If it's the dental practice I think Lannaman means (and we agree -very good service) then to find it get on superhighway heading north from CR town, go past the airport turning. Pass BanDu market on your left and the footbridge over the road. Do a u -turn at the next possible point and it is on the left in a parade of shops about 50 metres before you reach the footbridge again.