Amras

I've travelled between Melb and CM about 4 times in the last year:

Cheapest to most expensive:

Air aisa is the cheapest IF you get their sales fares. Otherwise they are about the same as the next option.

Jetstar, will get you return from BK about 22k baht per person, on normal fares (maybe a little cheaper if you get the specials which will be about 9k baht one way). Fly air asia from CM to BK for a few k baht. WIll only be at BK for a few hours (about 2).

Singapore air is about the same as Thai air return, you will be looking at around 33k+ baht per person, advantage is both fly from CM without the need for a a sepearte flight to BK and includes food and entertainment (Jetstar does not like air asia).

Sing fly CM-Sing-Melb. Thai fly CM-BK-Melb. (all including transfers).

Qantas are too expensive and have the annoying stop over in Sydney.

I usually fly Jetstar return its the best option (and most economical), unless I'm travel restricted and then have flown either Thai or Singapore air.

Be aware if you fly air asia you have to pick up your bags at KL and re check in (means you must go out and back into customs). The flights are also stupid in that the CM-KL flight arrives at about 12pm. The flight departing to Melb leaves at 1 (which you won't make) or midnight, so you will have a 10hour + wait at KL airport.

Hope this helps. Book Jetstar online yourself. Air asia domestic you can book at the local office in CM.

As above form.

I just got this last week in Chiang Mai and purchased a bike for my gf but in my name, so no issue at all.

My girlfriend did fill out a form stating that I was staying with her though, so not sure if that made a difference. This was not done at the man immigration building but at the back behind the shop (where you get the photos taken).

Note I am not currently in CM and back in Aus. I was on a 30 day visa exempt at the time.

My name was added to my gf's lease though and we had a copy of that.

I have an education visa. 90 days was up on a monday however monday is one of my assigned study days. Immigration is closed sat/sun. I went on tuesday, one day after with a letter from school. They did not care.

In addition, at the end of my all day adventure at chaeng wattana upon receiving my passport I found my change was not given to me. Change was 100 baht; 1900 visa extend + 500 overstay =2400, paid with 2500. The lady that gave me my passport did walk away rather fast.

Very very disheartening to experience this lack of integrity and blatant attempt hoping I would not notice and walk away, after which time it would be too late to say anything. Just for 100 baht makes me not hold these people with much esteem.

Would it not be better to simply charge in advance for 4 extensions on an ED visa instead of giving them more work and causing people that are supposed to be at school to lose an entire day.

I consider myself objective and open minded but my perception of much of the immigration dept rules are designed for self enrichment.

So why not go on a Friday? It's only 3 days before. It is not Immigrations fault/problem that you are busy on Monday when you have to report.

Why do so many people think that rules need to be bent for them.

The law is the law.

So many people get all high and mighty, I bring money into this country blah blah blah. Yes you probably do, but so what. It doesn't mean your entitled to stay. We're visitors and should respect the laws that govern this country. Yes corruption exists and how many people benefit from it and support the existance of corruption! Doing the right thing will mean you don't have to participate in it and maybe this will help Thailand to move away from this path.

How do you feel about those coming from China etc to yoru hoem country (usually Australia, UK and USA) with a TON of money, get into University, stay there etc because they have the cash? Most don't think its right, yet people believe in Thailand everything should be different and they should be granted 'special' privilages because they are injecting money into Australia. What such an elitest attitude.

Same s*** diff smell. Foreigners bring in a lot of money to many countries, through business investment tourism etc. It is not just Thailand. Even Australia has around 4% of income from tourism. 1/25th of our money comes from overseas visitors.

Sure there can be often extenuating circumstances that may result in you overstaying, but half of the posts here act as if that is the norm. If it is, it shouldn't be, it should be the exception and thats the problem. If people were doing the right thing, this wouldn't be an issue. But clearly so many don't and then get ina s*** because Thailand wants to start moving in the right direction. Yes Thailands immigration and Visa laws may be difficult/hard to get for long term. But honestly they aren't any more difficult and time consuming then getting ones/moving to Australia. Thailand has a huge population and needs the infastructure to support it. It can't afford to be 'willy nilly' about immigration policy like it has been. Why do you think so many other countries curb numbers of migrants. Its often about infastructure among other things.

Maybe so many of you have forgotten that there is often more to it than just trying to get money out of foreigners, because you've been out of your home country for so long or you really believe that things are so black and white.

My argument is based on having an Education visa and not being able to see immigration on Monday due to precisely that, education. As they have discretionary powers one might reasonably think they could see a valid reason.

USA has many non US students and many are not wealthy. They do not need to report to immigration every 90 days and pay another fee on top of the student visa they already paid for.

My post mentioned nothing about me spending money in Thailand.

I see nothing wrong with non-national students attending university in USA without regard to their national origin. Chinese study and work hard and are successful in every country they go. I see nothing wrong with that nor am I resentful.

Have you any opinions/thoughts on them trying to steal my 100 baht change?? Am I am elitist for wanting my change?

Do you think those of us that don't focus our lives around 10 beers and a go go bar are elitists? (injected for fun)

If the corruption were eliminated, then perhaps the entertainment venues would cease to exist and consequently perhaps the TV forum?

Sorry my entire post wasn't aimed towards you, but in general to many posters here.

I still think your excuse for not going on or before you date is weak. People complain about the discretionary nature of these suppossed new overstatying rules and then (in other cases) complain when discretion is not used.

Honestly I don't get it.

The law/rule is there. It is clear, it is known, there are in 90% of cases no excuse really.

The 100baht was a tip...didn't you know that (bit of a joke). That is a seperate case. I've never had an issue of getting change before and clearly that was an individual who was being dishonest.

Don't break the law, do the right thing, make it fit into YOUR schedule. What's the problem?

I think people will always complain when they feel hard done by, even when its entirely there own fault due to laziness, being unorganised, being arrogant or ignorant. Even ignorance isn't an excuse. It isn't in the 'west', so why should it be in Thailand.

No mention of Law.

No mention of "something bad" preventing travel.

No mention of "demand for immediate service".

Well, the Law once said you had to notify authorities of Jews hiding... Laws are written by humans and sometimes those laws are bad. This particular law is nothing but another method of extracting more money out of farangs. Farangs are not exactly competing with Thais to get jobs or get allowance money out of Thai government. No, you are on your own here, unlike in the West where you will get government money in many cases as foreigner or at least health care.

Thailand would benefit greatly by allowing foreign ownership at least smaller companies and making immigration laws much more clear. Visa runs are totally useless, another method of extracting money out of farangs, in a way another broken window fallacy. For example in Mexico, if you can show 1000 dollars per month income coming abroad, you can stay. Easy and simple. No hassle with this mammoth bureaucracy for the benefit of that same bureaucracy.

". No, you are on your own here, unlike in the West where you will get government money in many cases as foreigner or at least health care."

This is false. If you are a tourist, you don't get any (free) access/benefits from being in a country (in Australia) and I'm sure the US is the same, since public access to health is such a big discussion even now (for those that live there).

Again regardless of the tourist visa status, you wouldn't be entitled to any benefits either and not for a min of 2 years after you get permanent residency. So your arguement is rubbish.

You can still own a proportion of any business in thailand, the reason it is difficult to own the majority share is simple, they don't want to be controlled by overseas influence...

How can that be a bad thing for THAILAND? They want to control their own country and are keeping their own interests controlled.

Hello!

what whould happen,when someone,short before the visa is runing out and the person have to go to hospital?

same then normal overstaying,or how then will be the diffrence in the visa law?

who have the be informed first?

when it should not posible after a acsident or whatevver-?

is a blacklist forever,or can also be removed,after a couple of years?

on internet i read some reports,that planing in the future,a visa for all countrys,like here in eu!

If you are genuinly in hospital you won't have a problem as the hospital will inform immigration.

What is "normal overstaying?" Is that like "normal burglary" or any other "normal" crime?

Thats not actually true.. It 'should be' but routinely immigration simply dont care about hospital letters and declarations that you are an inpatient.. Seen it myself.

I have an education visa. 90 days was up on a monday however monday is one of my assigned study days. Immigration is closed sat/sun. I went on tuesday, one day after with a letter from school. They did not care.

In addition, at the end of my all day adventure at chaeng wattana upon receiving my passport I found my change was not given to me. Change was 100 baht; 1900 visa extend + 500 overstay =2400, paid with 2500. The lady that gave me my passport did walk away rather fast.

Very very disheartening to experience this lack of integrity and blatant attempt hoping I would not notice and walk away, after which time it would be too late to say anything. Just for 100 baht makes me not hold these people with much esteem.

Would it not be better to simply charge in advance for 4 extensions on an ED visa instead of giving them more work and causing people that are supposed to be at school to lose an entire day.

I consider myself objective and open minded but my perception of much of the immigration dept rules are designed for self enrichment.

So why not go on a Friday? It's only 3 days before. It is not Immigrations fault/problem that you are busy on Monday when you have to report.

Why do so many people think that rules need to be bent for them.

The law is the law.

So many people get all high and mighty, I bring money into this country blah blah blah. Yes you probably do, but so what. It doesn't mean your entitled to stay. We're visitors and should respect the laws that govern this country. Yes corruption exists and how many people benefit from it and support the existance of corruption! Doing the right thing will mean you don't have to participate in it and maybe this will help Thailand to move away from this path.

How do you feel about those coming from China etc to yoru hoem country (usually Australia, UK and USA) with a TON of money, get into University, stay there etc because they have the cash? Most don't think its right, yet people believe in Thailand everything should be different and they should be granted 'special' privilages because they are injecting money into Australia. What such an elitest attitude.

Same s*** diff smell. Foreigners bring in a lot of money to many countries, through business investment tourism etc. It is not just Thailand. Even Australia has around 4% of income from tourism. 1/25th of our money comes from overseas visitors.

Sure there can be often extenuating circumstances that may result in you overstaying, but half of the posts here act as if that is the norm. If it is, it shouldn't be, it should be the exception and thats the problem. If people were doing the right thing, this wouldn't be an issue. But clearly so many don't and then get ina s*** because Thailand wants to start moving in the right direction. Yes Thailands immigration and Visa laws may be difficult/hard to get for long term. But honestly they aren't any more difficult and time consuming then getting ones/moving to Australia. Thailand has a huge population and needs the infastructure to support it. It can't afford to be 'willy nilly' about immigration policy like it has been. Why do you think so many other countries curb numbers of migrants. Its often about infastructure among other things.

Maybe so many of you have forgotten that there is often more to it than just trying to get money out of foreigners, because you've been out of your home country for so long or you really believe that things are so black and white.

Would this not make the overstayers decide to stay even longer instead of actually leaving. If you had an overstayer that was planning to leave and go home, what incentive does he/she have to leave now? Amazing how people react to these things. People act as if Thailand is the only place on earth that has people overstay their visa. Lets see this for what it is...BS! Could you imagine if the UK or USA jailed an illegal immigrant as he was trying to LEAVE with the fine money in hand. A society is judged on how they treat the poor and incarcerated.

Here is an extract from another forum regarding visa overstayers in Australia:

There are over 750,000 Visa Overstayers in Oz as we speak - and coming at the rate of 50,000 per year!!!! They outnumber boat people by 10-1!!! The majority of them are from the USA and UK.

It seems to me that Australia practices a form of racism here by Jailing the people that arrive via people smugglers in Immigration detention centers (conditions are significantly better than those in Thailand) But for all the computer linking and technology they do not go after the visa overstayers, a lot of whom work and pay no taxes.

Thailand has every right to set its own visa conditions and enforce them as they see fit. I wonder how many of the foreigners on overstay in Thailand would consider overstaying their visa in China?

Australia needs to get on this cashcow & quick, maybe help them pay their little deficit off a bit quicker

The figures are a bit hmm exaggerated. From the Department of Immigration Website.

Fact Sheet 86 – Overstayers and Other Unlawful Non-citizens

Who are overstayers?

"......In the 2007-08 financial year, it was estimated that around 14 000 people overstayed their visa. This compares with around 4.5 million temporary entrants over the same period or an overstayer rate of less than half a per cent. People who become overstayers arrive in Australia on a variety of temporary visas, but mainly visitor visas including electronic travel authorities.

Many people who are recorded as overstayers are simply extending their stay in Australia by a few days or weeks, and leave of their own accord within a short period. Others overstay for a longer period, for example out of a desire to live and work in Australia.

....An estimate of the number of overstayers in the Australian community is calculated every six months. Since June 2004, this estimate has remained below 50 000 against a total Australian population of around 21 million."

You can't possible be trying to tell me their official figures/calculations are so wrong that they still calculate them at around 50,00 compared to your posted 750,000.

SImply the owner thought you were being picky.

You asked for something without pork and then complained when you got something with beef. Even I would have thought what the hel_l. You never mentiond anything about lack of beef. You can't assume someone will understand your special needs or what you are implying. You said you can't eat PORK, not BEEF.

You said you were unfamilar with the area but you have been visiting Thailand for 10 years. Where have you been going for the last 10 years?

Sorry but too many contradictions to this story....and I feel its been exaggerated somewhat. Even the police in Australia may not attend especially if the situation has been defused and is over.

Some chef's what not, owners etc may over react, but like so many others have said...be specific, ask questions if it's something that really affects you and then you won't have misuderstandings in the future.

I don't think allergies are as prevalent in a lot of easter countries, compared to those in the west. We ensure our children grow up in a as sterile situation as possible for fear of them getting ill. The problem with this is during your younger years is when your body adapts, get's used to environmental 'allergens', including pollens, nuts etc etc. This is why Asthma, nut allergies etc is on the increase, because we aren't exposed to these things when we are yougn anymore. So i doubt as many ppl have issues with nut allergies in Thailand as in the US or Australia (and hence aren't catered for).

That guy def has mental disorder of sexual preference, fetish. He really sickens me. As for the mother, I do feel really sorry for those who are poor, but...... sell her own daughter???? A kid??? Have no idea how people like that can live with themselves..... really hope people like that deserve to be punished & I'm sure they will, Gotta belive in Karma, it might come late, but it arrives eventually!

sorry i must be mistaken. I read that he gave the mother some money. Now the mother wants to take cival action. how does that work ? sell your kid. the have the person arrested after the kid has been assaulted.

i am not sure what sickens me more. the mother or the rapist. or both ???

Agree- the mother is a criminal... I am sure lawyers touted their services to make it click that she will benefit in court by HER actions. Now how the court treats this supposed mother will be very interesting. As she did in fact sell her 8 yo daughter.

Let's face it- if she never offerred her daughter for $20 then this ONE incident would not have happened. Obviously he (If guilty) like others he would have found other means to satisfy himself illegally.

Karma looks to have come a bit late for many...

Poor or not, there are morals that spread around the world and chidren SHOULD not be subjected to any act that takes away from their youth. Last month, while waiting at a red light in a taxi at the corner of Silom and Sathorn, a young girl (8-10 years old) weaved about cars trying to sell merit flowers. An older lady knocked on my taxi door window and regardless of the taxi drivers demands not to communicate, I did. She suggested that I could take that child for 500 Bht. She didn't say for what, but I closed the window knowing what she meant, This scene happens everywhere and there is no policing to prevent it. To fix this problem, law officials need to remove the attempt to stop the action.

I wonder how long you could go hungry for before your morals change? It's easy to say morals should always exist, but morals are fine when your feed, clothed and sheltered. Peoples morals change dramatically when your survival is not guranteed. Morals don't spread, morals form an integral part of society and are a 'learned' thing. The fact is children working in thailand is an accepted part of their society, same as China etc etc. In Western culture we have decided it is not (different issue to child prostitution). Neither is right or wrong, its just what THAT society has decided to follow.

In one way or another we are all condoning child labour, why do you think the clothes we wear are so cheap? Want hand made clothes, made in the US or AUS. You can get it, but pay 3-4 times if not more the price. Our morals are also dictated by money. We don't want to spend a lot, so we can just forget our morals when it serves us right (or when it's not right in front of us).

Children working in Thailand is a different discussion and should not be mixed in with children being sold for sex.

Unfortunately this exploitation of Thai women by foreigners is not uncommon. I am a foreigner living in the country and I, and at least 4 other foreigners, know that someone here (call him "X") has been drugging and raping young Thai women for years. Can we stop it? No. Will any of the girls report this to the police? No.

What is stopping you from reporting this insider information that you have on the foreigner to the police?

Agreed. If you don't report it, your simply allowing it to happen and thus are an accessory to it.

There will always be people like this Frenchman about, which doesn't forgive him, but what sickens me the most is the Thai mother, to do this to your own children for a few Baht is worse than criminal. Whatever his sentence is, hers should be twice as bad and her children should be offered for adoption to childless people in the West, not anywhere in SEA!

Thai values, money, money, money, makes me want to throw up! Inhuman rubbish.

Maybe I get banned again for telling the truthg about our hosts, how may times have I heard such sickening stories?

Why are you here then if you feel like you are surrounded by 'inhuman rubbish'? It's extremely unfair and unjust to label 'thai people' in such a way. Let alone saying that she is more to blame than him. Are you serious? Sounds like you have something against Thai people. BOTH ARE TO BLAME.

You also seem to forget that the entire 1st world country values money just as much as thai people, it's a means to possesion, consumerism and having status by having objects. How are we (from europe, oz, the us etc) any different than thais? The difference is we actually have the money to buy things, but still many people live outside their means, to obtain status. It's human nature.

Many people in their 'moral' discussions seem to forget that Thailand is a emerging country (not 3rd world, but developing).

We generally have a much higher education level which teaches us the moral lessons of life (either directly or indirectly) and have parents who are also educated and pass these on to us. Education is the key to many things, and the fact remains that may thai people are under educated.

I in no way condone what was done by either the person perpetrating the act, nor the mother if she did in fact allow him to do things for money, however your assuming the same moral values exist (as in the Western world) in a country so diverse in both education standard and wealth/poverty.

As much as we can say we can imagine how it would be like to live on the poverty line (or barely scrape by), we really truly can't, unless you have faced daily uncertainty about food, housing, water. Just the same as the story about the girl working in a bar to support her father for cancer treatment, only to have stopped it later without her family or friends lookign down on her. Do you think the same would be thought in the western world in any situation? I doubt it. They would always be looked down upon.

The reality is, if there wasn't a customer, their wouldn't be seller. The farang who comes from an educated, highly moral society should know better. If this happens with Thai and Thai, its a completely different story/arguement as its entirely apart of their society only. But in this story that isn't the case.

You can't have a stab at Thai people andforget that one party 'should' know better, if in fact you say 'our' morals are so much more developed than those of Thais. Clearly people from all over the world have the abilitty to lack 'moral' judgement. Some of this could result to physiological dysfucntion, but also education has to play a part in a moralistic society. This has been shown numerous times throughout 'white' history.

Again, I feel sorry for the girl, because she is really the one who gets the 'shytty end of the stick' in this situation, regardless of what happens to him or the mother. She is scared for life and that can never be taken back.

Thank you for these answers, scary and otherwise. Very scary, in fact !

Just to momentarily lighten the topic, I have to tell you that I called into my local pharmacy to ask where we might purchase distilled water.

I was offered a bottle of Water Irrigate (Sterile water for Irrigation ) manufactured and bottled by General Hospital Products Public Co. and

described as containing "100% water for injection". The bilingual label went on to state in very large bold red letters 'Not For Injection".

Go figure ??!!

Now back to the other scary stuff ... I'm beginning to get more scared about my innards rather than those of the microwave !

Please continue and thanks for the info so far.

Cheers.

My first post. Wow. But honestly I wouldn't generally be worried about ozonation in water. It's been used for around a century now to disinfect drinking water and is really an alternative for Chlorination that doesn't have the disadvantages of chlorine, ie taste smell etc. The half life of Ozone is only around 20minutes, so by the time it is used for treating drinking water and bottled, nearly all of the ozone would have degraded and any residual will degrade before you end up drinking it.

There is a big difference bewteen reverse osmosis and ozonation. Reverse osmosis removes impurities from the water, ie metallic ions etc but can leave microorganisms in the water. Ozonation kills bacteria and microorganisms but doesn't remove impurities. Ideally you want water thats gone through both (which I would assume is what happens with water in Thailand). There would be some type of disinfection of the water before bottling, whether that is Ozonation, UV treatment or chlorination. Water here (in Aus, is bottled after reverse osmosis and I beleive UV treatment (or Ozonation some might still be doing) as they manufacturer needs to ensure it is safe for drinking).

The only issue with Ozonation is if the water containes bromide, which would convert the bromide to Bromate which is carcinogenic. I still think that I would pefer to drink water which has undergone reverse osmosis and ozonation then that which has undergone no disinfection. If there are any microorganisms in the water, ie Thailand tap water which is not disinfected, this can and will result in you getting sick pretty quickly.

Here in Australia, most Water treatment plants use UV disnfection and chlorination (extremely low levels to keep the water having anti-microbial properties) to produce what is called A class water (this you could drink with no issues whatso ever). I think most are moving away from Ozonation to UV disnfection due to the bromate issue, but its a matter of whats available and whats in your best interest.

Sorry for the large amount of information, its just something I have come across through my job.