doctormann

Moving to Pattaya from UK in October and will need to buy a computer system (PC, printer, scanner) to maintain my Window on the World.

Any advice on where to shop for IT products in Pattaya? I've seen somewhere that Tesco Lotus or Big C are OK - are their prices competitive / cheaper than specialist outlets? What about after sales support?

Also will need International Internet Access - any thoughts on a good reliable ISP. Probably only need a dial-up package. What would be the typical monthly cost for unlimited access?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Rainman

Non-BG certainly not out of the question. Where do you find one, short of hanging around department stores? I don't speak Thai apart from a few stock phrases (this will be remedied - know a good language school in Pattaya?) so the BG route is an easier option, although probably not the best one.

Yes, I never had any doubt that she was a hooker but the TGF experience was very good until ...

I guess you'll have heard all this before but I just want to know where I went wrong - if I went wrong.

I met this beautiful girl in a Pattaya bar, where she was a dancer. This was back in summer 2003. We seemed to get on quite well so I bar fined her, took her out for a meal, and then back to my hotel. I paid her an appropriate amount of money the next morning and we arranged to meet back at her bar that night. Apart from the bar fines I never paid her any more money and she never asked me for any. I did buy her little presents but nothing more than a few hundred Baht. We had a great week together but then I had to come back to the UK. I gave her some more money then - again not very much - and that was that. She seemed upset to say goodbye.

So, I'm back in the UK and I can't get this girl out of my mind. We start to correspond by email over the next few weeks and I start to think that it would be good to see her again. She never asked for money - no sick buffalos etc. - and the tone of the emails was always very affectionate. I send her little gifts for Christmas and Valentine's day - I get a lovely card off her, complete with photo. I start to think that a proper holiday with this girl would a great idea - she agrees.

So, now its April 2004 and I fly out to Thailand again. I meet the girl in Pattaya - not in the bar this time. She says to me that she doesn't want me to pay bar for her so she has taken a holiday. We spend a couple of days in Pattaya, meeting some of her Thai girl friends, then we fly off to Samui for two weeks. We had a great time and she seemed so happy. We started to talk about setting up home together and having a long term relationship. Back in Pattaya we go looking at houses and I visit her room a couple of times. She has my photo on display.

I say to her that I have to go back to UK to sort out my affairs but I will be back in September / October with a long stay visa. I suggest we live together for a few months and if all goes well we think about permanent relationship. She seems happy with this. We part at Don Muang and I put her in a taxi back to Pattaya. I give her some money as she has not been earning while on holiday.

Now I'm back in UK sorting things out, including jumping bureaucratic hoops for long stay visa. Keep corresponding by email - she says she's not working, living off money that I gave her. Right, visa gets sorted, plane ticket booked and I say to her that I will definitely be out to Thailand early October. I say to her to look for somewhere for us to live.

Now it all starts to go wrong. First I get an email saying that she is having a nose job 'to be more beautiful'. Now, this is not that expensive in Thailand but I did not think that she had that sort of money. She has the nose job - will send photo of new nose when swelling gone down, she says. Then I get another email - she is going to Europe for three months to see her 'cousin' but will be back in Pattaya early October. I'm getting a bit suspicious now. Then I hear zilch for a month.

Now comes the crunch - she is staying in Europe with her new BF. She is very happy and is going to marry him and have baby. We correspond by email again but there is no moving her - its a done deal. Gets worse - she is now pregnant so it's definitely a done deal. I'm out of the picture and feeling absolutely devastated.

I suppose that I should know better - after all she was thirty years my junior but, and I know you've heard it before, she really did seem different. The only thing that seems untypical of this affair is that she never really asked for money or anything else. She certainly didn't try to rip me off in any way. She did have the nose job, by the way, I have the photo.

Anyway, I'm still coming back to Thailand and we'll see if I can mess up again with a different TGF. Getting a TGF isn't a problem but getting the right one certainly will be.

Anyone had a similar experience?

Re. prison record and O-A visa.

Surely, any convictions that you had 20 years ago will have 'expired' by now, in which case they shouldn't appear on your record. I guess that you'll have to wait and see what is on the disclosure document when you get it. Thai Embassy might give you some guidance on what is acceptable if anything shows up.

Astral

I know about getting an 'O' visa from Hull but there was a problem with this as, if you are not applying on a business basis, e.g. you have an invite from a Thai company or are going to work for Thai branch of a UK company, you seem to need a guarantor. I don't think that anyone would have been willing to do this for me so I couldn't use this route. It's a bit like asking for a blank, signed cheque. If you know differently then I'm sure that we'd all like to here it as it would certainly be cheaper to do as you suggest.

This might be of some help to anyone trying to get an O-A long stay Thai visa while still in the UK. I just managed to do this so I know some of the answers now.

Firstly, don't bother with the Consulate in Hull. They don't issue this type of visa and the info. that I got from them was not the same as from the Thai Embassy in London. They admitted that their info. was probably out of date.

Secondly, when contacting the Thai Embassy in London, don't get sidetracked onto their automated visa info, line. This is expensive and contains no relevant info. for O-A visas. Just stay on the line and, eventually, you will get the operator. Ask for extension 118 (only seems to work after 14:00hrs). With luck you may get someone that speaks passable english.

To get the relevant application forms you have to write to the Embassy in London (address on their website). You will get back a standard application form (3 copies) and an additional form for O-A. You will also get a list of requirements and some of these are less than obvious. It took a few phone calls to sort out some of these.

You need a current passport with plenty of time left on it - no surprise there.

You have to be over 50 years old - OK no problem, for me at least.

You have to have a clean criminal record - your county police force can provide this for £10 but it takes a month to process.

You have to provide a medical certificate showing that you don't have leprosy or elephantiasis or syphillis (stage 3). Apparently having HIV is OK!! Your GP can provide the certificate (for a fee I expect).

You need a current bank statement that proves that you have an income of 800,000 Baht equivalent per year. The Embassy says that this is about £14,000 so they seem to be using a different exchange rate to the current rate (~70Baht to the GBP).

There is also the question of 'savings'. The additional O-A application form specifically asks how much saving you have and in which bank. It is still not clear to me if this is an either / or situation with the income requirement. I covered both bases and gave them a current account and deposit account statement.

It was not clear, at the start, whether UK bank accounts were acceptable - yes they are, although I beliieve that ultimately Thai accounts are needed once you are resident. I'll sort this out when I go out in October.

All the documents, except the application forms, do need to be certified by a notary public. These seem to be like hen's teeth. I found one in the end - charged £60 for 20 minutes work. Impressive wax seals though!

All documents must be less than 3 months old.

You will need to state when you intend to enter Thailand (date / flight number / entry port). This means booking a flight before you get the visa so make sure that you get it right.

You will need a 'reference person' in Thailand. This can be anyone - I used a real estate person.

One last tip. You cannot submit applications by post. This doesn't mean that you need to go to London twice (processing takes 2 -3 days) as using a visa agent is perfectly acceptable (although it took a couple of phone calls before this was clarified). I used an outfit called Thames Consular (they have a web site) and they were very good. Passport was back within a week, complete with O-A visa stamp.

Now, all I have to do is make sure that Immigration at Don Muang gives me the year that I'm supposed to get.

Good luck to anyone trying this route. It should work and you won't have to leave the country every 90 days. Still have to report though.