logpoacher

The CBC report refers to three Canadians being shot, specifically Carly, Leo and Erik. No mention of Dale Henry?

There are also the minibuses from Victory Monument to the old cinema in Huahin, cost THB180 one-way, run from very early in the morning, scarily fast (drivers are apparently paid by how many trips they do).

I agree about the weird disparity between the Thailand I live in and the one the tourists see - I can go from one month to the next without being hassled by tuk-tuk drivers, befriended by helpful middle-aged couples whose brothers own gem stores, etc., and then when friends come to see us and we go to any of the tourist spots, there they all are.

My own favourite, accosted by tuk-tuk driver whilst I was walking from Hualamphong tube station to Yaowarat Road:

T-t D: (Brrm, brrm) Hey you, where you go?

Me: Phom pai Thanon Yaowarat (my thought being that this will give him a clue that I'm not a tourist)

T-t D: (Brrm, brrm) Yaowarat Road closed today!

Me: Aray, na? Raan tuk raan bit wan nii? Jing rue?

T-t D: (Brrm, brrm) Yaowarat Road closed today!

Me: Mai chuea

and so on.

For anyone planning to go, the discount vouchers in the Nation and the Bangkok Post reduce the price from THB80 to THB40, but in the December UBC magazine there's a coupon to get in free on the bottom of page 92!

OK - here's my two penn'orth:

Best Italian pizza to eat in restaurant - Basilico, Suk Soi 33

Best Italian pizza delivered - Pizza Mania (which I think is related to Basilico and has the same menu, Food by Phone will deliver from Basilico, but Pizza Mania is just as good and cheaper. Most of all, in over 100 orders they have never made a mistake, forgotten my order or delivered the pizzas with the topping all slid over to one side)

Best NY pizza - New York Style Pizza on Thong Lor. Disclaimer: I am English so I don't have a clue what NY pizza should be like, but this was delicious and heavy on the toppings. I'm not sure how it would stand up to being delivered, because there is so much topping. In the restaurant you can order slices of different pizzas at 60 baht each, two slices and the delicious cheese garlic bread was more than enough for me at lunch.

Best Italian Restaurant - Bacco on Suk 53 (short walk from Thong Lor BTS), owned by the same guy who owns Basilico, whoever asked about risotto should try here, it was sublime. Also, decent range of wines by the glass. For some reason, the mojitos are better in Basilico than Bacco.

I have no connection with any of these businesses, other than as a satisfied customer.

Excuse me while I go and wipe the drool off my chin...

BigDaddy,

I know this sounds like a silly question, but are you sure that you are not married? Where did you do your church wedding? A church wedding in England gives you a marriage certificate, there is no need for a separate trip to any civil office to register the marriage. Equally, a marriage certificate from any foreign country is valid in Thailand - you do not have to remarry every time you move to a different country. I guess that you might have to get your embassy to translate the certificate into Thai, but it is definitely valid here.

Sorry if this is no help for your particular situation and wish you good luck with your fight.

And ever since I have lived in Thailand I have been stalked by someone with a hammer and a piece of corrugated iron

Me too! Spooky! 5 years he's been following me. Doesn't matter where we go, five minutes after we check in, he starts up. Just got back from Samet and he was there. Maybe it's some sort of union?

My all time favourite card is my Central "The 1 Card" with "Expatriate Privilege 5% Off". We were advised to apply for this card when we were buying quite a lot of housewares in Central, up we went to the top floor and were given a form, my girlfriend started filling it in and then the clerk said something to her in Thai which I just knew I had misunderstood. She looked startled and a couple of questions went back and forth, then she tore up the form and the clerk gave me a new one to fill in. I asked what was going on and was told it didn't matter. My confidence that I had correctly understood the Thai increased and I pressed my girlfriend for a straight answer. With a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, she confirmed that I was entirely correct in thinking that this card is FREE for farang or 50 baht for Thais! I immediately ordered two, in a loud voice.

It does also give 5% off most of your shopping (not the supermarket, not some brands and not anything which is already discounted). Oh, and did I mention it is free for farang but Thais have to pay 50 baht?

You also accumulate points which can be redeemed for discount vouchers and cash coupons, we recently redeemed points for a 50% discount coupon which my girlfriend used to buy several pairs of shoes. The points promotions change quite regularly.

And of course you can recommend it to your Thai friends, but do make sure you point out that they will have to pay 50 baht if they want one.

Hi Everyone,

First, thank you to everyone who has expressed sympathy with my predicament - it makes me feel a bit better. Sorry for going quiet, but as you can imagine I'm feeling a bit down at the moment.

To answer some of the points raised:

The purchase did not, as far as I know, involve any tax fiddles! I had to go to the land registry with one of the staff from the company that was selling the condos (they had been managing the whole block as serviced apartments) and hand over my cheque for 3.5M baht to the staff member. The land registry took a copy of it and the receipt issued by the land registry clearly shows this figure. From my OP: "On my receipt from the Land Registry these figures are given as ราคาทุนทรัพย์ 3,500,000 and ราคาประเมิน 2,270,000".

Several people advised trying to have the land registry valuation reassessed. A Thai friend is going to contact the land registry and see if this is possible, but he doubts that it is. It also occurs to me that this might not be a very popular move with my co-owners as presumably it would mean them having to pay more tax if they sold (as I assume that the land registry would revalue all the units in the block, not just mine).

Someone suggested selling the condo and putting the money in the bank, with the proviso that I cleared everything with Immigration beforehand. This might work, but then I would have nowhere to live. Also, as everyone can see, there are many new condos being built, including on a site adjacent to my condo, so I suspect that selling for a profit or even for the price that I paid would not be easy as why would anyone want to buy a 12 year old condo when they could have a brand new one for the same price?

Another suggestion was to apply for Permanent Residency, but as I don't work I think this would be impossible.

"Go higher up, with a smile" - I think I've pretty much done this. I did stay calm and polite and not get angry and kept smiling. I'm not sure how far "up" you can go, but I ended up talking to a lady with her own private office at the far end of Room 101, who was senior to the captain who initially refused to sign off my extension, so I assume she must be at least a major. (It was a yellow shirt day, so they didn't have their name and rank badges on, and I didn't ask her.) She was polite, pleasant and sympathetic and said that she could see that I had "made my life in Thailand", but adamant that she could not give me the extension.

What I have done so far is to scrape together enough money and transfer it to Thailand to get the extension. This is a temporary measure as this money is effectively my next 12 to 15 month's living expenses, so I will not be able to sustain the required balance as I will soon have to start eating it!

My thoughts are that the days of foreigners being able to live long term in Thailand are numbered, unless you have a job or are a very large invester. And remember that if you lose your job, you have seven days to leave the country. The laws are gradually being made stricter and the financial requirements more onerous. On another thread about the retirement visa dependant spouse changes, someone made the point that when you are considering selling up and moving to a foreign country, you want to be sure of permanency and security, providing you obey the rules which I have done. As I feel now, I will always be wondering what new hoop I will have to jump through next year and I cannot relax and enjoy my life. How long before the law is changed to say that foreigners cannot own condos, for example?

I also have the clear feeling that I am not welcome here any more, and it is a rather uncomfortable and unpleasant. I don't understand the reason for this. I am not one of those people who believes that the economy of Thailand will collapse if I go, but I do think that the effects for Thailand of my living here are more positive than negative. I bring in all my living expenses from outside the country and spend them here, with Thai businesses. I am not spending the 6,000 baht per day of TAT's "quality tourist" (or whatever their current target figure is), but over the year I spend considerably more than they do, even if they stay for a month. Additionally, a greater percentage of my expenditure goes to Thais and Thai businesses, not international hotel chains and airlines. The only explanation that seems to fit is xenophobia, because I cannot think of any logical economic reason.

I shall therefore be spending the next year investigating where would be best to move to and then selling my condo for whatever price I can get and moving out of Thailand. I have a friend who is very enthusiastic about Malaysia where he lives, but I'm not going to make any rushed decisions at the moment so all suggestions are welcome. I have ruled out Burma.

If you have been, thank you for listening...

I have just returned from attempting to extend my permission to stay for another year, based on owning a condo worth more than 3M baht. As everyone probably knows, this was abolished for new applicants last year and intially it was stated that existing aliens in this category would also not be given any further extensions. However, after a lot of panic, this was changed and existing users were "grandfathered" in. Subsequently, I extended my permission to stay by one year.

Today, I was not expecting any trouble, but I was refused an extension. I was told that the law has changed and that they no longer consider the price you paid for the condo, but instead look at a price which is assessed by the government. On my receipt from the Land Registry these figures are given as ราคาทุนทรัพย์ 3,500,000 and ราคาประเมิน 2,270,000. Effectively, they now consider that my investment is 730,000 baht too low. If I put this amount in a bank account, they would give me permission to stay (initially they said I would have to put 3M baht in a bank account, but then one of them produced a procedural manual and decided that the investment does not have to be in one unit). They emphasised that this amount would have to stay permanently in the bank, and produced a letter in English to this effect.

I pointed out, and they agreed, that I have had four previous extensions granted on this basis but they stated again that "Immigration has changed the law" (this was said in English, twice).

Needless to say, I do not have a spare 730,000 baht which I can put in a bank and not touch for ever, so I now have 26 days left in Thailand to sort this out.

Has anyone encountered this problem or does anyone have any ideas?

A friend of mine and his Thai wife run a small bungalow resort on a well known Thai island. Their clientele are mostly farang who don't like all the haggling and so he displays a clear price list outside the office. A couple of years ago at Songkran, the island was packed as usual, Thais sleeping on the beach, etc. Late afternoon, a Thai couple from Bangkok roll up and ask if he has any rooms free. "Yes", he says, "we have one left, it's 3,000 baht per night". The Thai guy points out that the price list clearly says 1,500 baht per night. "Ah", says my friend, "that's the farang price..."

For what it's worth, I have never seen a life jacket on any Thai boat. Some do have the sort of buoyancy aids that kayakers or jet skiers wear, but these only work if you are awake, they do not raise the face of an unconscious wearer out of the water like a proper life jacket, so if you get a bang on the head (quite likely during a boat sinking) yuo will probably still drown while unconscious.

A proper life jacket is the sort you see on a cross channel ferry or an aircraft - these will keep your face out of the water even if you are unconscious.

By the way, I'm not complaining - I too come from the crazed nanny state that is England and one of the things I love about Thailand is that you are expected to take responsibilty for yourself and there isn't anyone to sue because there was no warning on the petrol pump that drinking it was dangerous...

Thanks for that - it will apply to us in the future, very useful to know.

Thanks for the quick response. Sadly, there's no way that mechanism can work for us, but it probably explains the "friend of a friend" stories I've heard.

I have heard anecdotally that Thai spouses of UK citizens do not have to pay for UK and Schengen tourist visas, however I can find no reference to this on any of the official web sites. Does anyone have any experience of this? It certainly sounds too good to be true!

We bought two floor standing lamps from Index Living Mall in MBK. They have an uplighter at the top and a reading light on a flexible arm about two thirds of the way up. They look like the sort of thing you'd find in IKEA or somewhere similar. We asked for a set of bulbs as well, but were told that they were currently out of stock. No problem I thought, I'll pick some up next time I go shopping. The uplighter bulbs are standard but the reading lamp takes an R50 spotlight type. A few days later I went shopping - the more cynical among you will have guessed already - R50 bulbs are not sold in Thailand! I went to Emporium, HomePro, Central Chitlom, Big C, Isetan and Siam Paragon. They have huge ranges of bulbs, but not these ones. I then went to the three posh lighting shops on Thong Lor near Soi 19 - one of these places will actually custom make lamps to your own design - they can't get them. Finally, I went to the Index Living Mall on Ekamai and the Big C in the same building - no luck.

My wife then phoned the MBK Index Living Mall and asked when they would be getting the bulbs in stock - after a few minutes waffling they admitted that they have no intention of ever stocking them. She asked for our money back for the lamps - the best they could offer is to give us gift vouchers to the same value. Understandably, however we weren't keen on making any further purchases from their shop.

OK you think - these things must be really hard for them to get hold of, perhaps some obsolete Chinese design or something. But no - on Monday I ordered them from a UK company (First Light Direct) via their web site which was one of the hundreds of results of a Google search, for 76p each plus GBP3.50 postage and packing. They arrived on Saturday. But that would be too much trouble for Index who've already got your money and are still selling the lamps to unwary customers.

Then there was my mother-in-law's fridge which someone managed to break one of the plastic shelves in. Less than a year old and not cheap - the response from the shop to the request to purchase a replacement shelf: "Buy a new fridge".

Hi Everyone,

Just curious about in what circumstances people have been required to produce their passports?

I have lived here for 4 years and been asked once. That was during the APEC clampdown when the immigration police descended in force on Ekamai Soi 23 which has three blocks of cheap flats mostly rented by foreigners (westerners and Africans). I always carry a photocopy, and this was accepted without any problem. Other than that, I have never been asked even when reporting crimes to a police station (twice). Even hotels, which are supposed to check your ID, never seem to. I don't carry my passport because of the potential vast amount of hassle if I lost it and because I suspect it would disintegrate within six months.

Also, I have been told that a Thai driving licence is valid ID. Anyone know if this is true? I always leave a Thai driving licence as a deposit when renting cars or bikes and it has always been accepted.

N.B. That last statement looks a little strange, I should explain that I have a car licence and a motorcycle licence and I leave the non-applicable one as the deposit!

I think BigJimmy has hit the nail on the head here! You didn't buy the draft from VFS, so they didn't make any money.

This is the first year that my wife has applied for a tourist visa at VFS as opposed as directly to the embassy. She went in there with the usual set of documents, and then phoned me to say all sorts of additional stuff was needed, but not to worry, VFS would generously allow me to fax it to their office at only 35 baht per sheet! That is presumably a profit of approximately 34.5 baht for them. They also charged 2 baht for photocopying her ID card, which was never previously required - after all, she has her passport with her which can only be obtained by having an ID card.

She then queued up again and was told that the documentation was still insufficient. At this point I gave up, made copies at home of everything they wanted and went down there myself. Obviously having realised that no more money was to be extracted from us, they finally accepted the application, on condition that my wife signed a form saying that they had advised her that the documentation she was submitting was inadequate and had insisted on submitting the application against thier advice and that she wouldn't get her money back if the visa was not granted.

So, a perfectly normal routine event (we go to the UK every year for a month) has now been transformed into an extremely stressful experience, we the worry that we may have wasted money on air tickets and so on. An improvement I thought was that you can monitor your application on their web-site. We then checked the web-site for a couple of days, until the application status changed to "your passport has returned from the embassy" - but they don't tell you if you have been given a visa or not, just that you can come and collect your passport. They won't tell you even if you ring up. Happily, she was granted the visa just as usual, so I don't think anything has changed at the embassy.

For information for anyone interested, here are lists of the documents that the embassy required us to submit in previous years and that VFS required this year:

Embassy:

Passport, application form, cash, two photos (obv!)

Copy of passport

Proof of employment, currently my wife has gone back to university so this actually comprises a copy of her last set of exam results and a copy of her registration form for the next term, but usually this would be a letter from her employer

Letter from me stating that I will be responsible for her expenses and giving details of where we will be staying

Copy of my bank statements to substantiate the above

Copy of picture page of my passport and of the page showing my latest year's visa extension

Copy of return air ticket

VFS:

All of the above plus:

Copy of every used page of my passport

Add to the application form details of how much I intend to spend on my wife's expenses during our stay

Copy of ID card

Copy of her house registration paper, note that this is her mother's house, not her address in Bangkok because she's never bothered to change it, so it adds no proof to any of the information in her application

Proof that we live together! Four previous visa applications with the same sponsor from the same address and no other applications ever are not sufficient. When asked what form this should take, the VFS clerk would only say "as much as possible" - this was at the stage when he thuoght I was going to fax it to them at 35 baht per sheet. When my wife pressed him, he suggested utility bills and photographs, although what sort of photograph proves that you live together, I hate to think. I submitted one utility bill from four years ago and one from today in my name and the same in her name.

My sympathies to the families of the two women and may they rest in peace.

I haven't the faintest idea what happened, but (come on! you knew there was going to be a "but" didn't you?) I often used to sit in a deckchair by the sea in the early hours of the morning on Huahin beach and on a couple of occasions was extremely startled when a Thai man appeared suddenly from the shadows at the back of the beach to demand that I pay for the privilege. The man (not always the same one!) always reeked of alcohol and was obviously, if not staggeringly, drunk. On closer inspection, he usually had one or two friends lurking in the shadows. My response, being a non-aggressive sort of person (or "coward"), was always to get out of the chair and continue my stroll along the beach, without paying. Although I never experienced anything worse than him shouting after me as I left, I always had the impression that violence was just under the surface, and I have long since stopped walking on the beach at night.

I suppose I should be grateful that I never got stabbed to death and subsequently featured on Thai Visa as undoubtedly being an ungrateful rent boy who had attempted to defraud his pimp.

I am not a teacher, but I have a couple of points to raise:

1/ All the farang teachers I know here in Thailand do have batchelor's degrees; however, in the UK the normal length of a batchelor's degree course is three years, not four. Even though my degree course was termed a "four year, thick sandwich" (!), which translates as two years at university, one year in industry and then a final year at university, I only have transcripts for the three years at university. No one I know, apart from opticians, dentists and doctors, has a four year batchelor's degree from a UK university.

2/ When I was at school (ordinary state school) in England (insert your own jokes here about writing on slates, looking forward to the invention of the wheel, etc.), as part of our foreign language studies we had what were called "language assistants" who were nationals of the relevant country, not qualified teachers, to help us with our conversation. They were usually students on a gap year. It is with deep shame that I report that they were treated by us much as farang teachers are treated here! If ever the regular teacher was not present, the classroom would be chaos, very little teaching (or learning) was done. Perhaps Thailand should consider creating this class of teaching assistant who must be a native speaker but is not required to have a degree or to teach detailed grammar and assists the Thai teacher by demonstrating proper pronunciation, taking part in role playing exercises, etc. Obviously, they should still have a police check. This post would suit the many retired folks who don't want a full time job, but would be quite happy to spend a day or two a week helping at their local school. The gentleman who posted earlier about repeatedly being asked to teach English could easily do this, as could I, even though we are not trained teachers. The Thai teacher would be the resource for questions about grammar and so on. In my extremely limited experience, Thai teachers do not have a problem with this, as I have been asked by several teachers in government schools to provide this sort of support. I did do it a couple of times, and enjoyed myself, until it was pointed out to me that even such unpaid, volunteer work requires a work permit and that anyone who didn't like me, my wife, any member of my wife's family, the teacher or the school could report me and cause me and the school a great deal of trouble.

I have never managed to complete a booking on their web site, I've always ended up phoning them and paying the surcharge. One time, they even debited my card when I attempted to make the booking, but the booking was not made. It took more than six months to get the money back, iniitially they just denied that they had debited my card. I had to get statement printouts and I don't think I would ever have got my money back if my wife hadn't taken over the negotiation process - eventually she asked them for the address at which legal papers should be served against them and that did the trick.

Never had any problems with the actual flying, and they are cheap.

I am hoping that there are some knowledgable experts out there who can answer a few questions I have arising from this thread:

1/ Every time I buy earthed electrical equipment in Thailand, it comes with a round plug that has two round pins (live and neutral) and a hole for the earth. I have never seen a plug like this in the UK. It suggests that the matching wall socket should have two holes and a protruding earth pin, but I have never seen a socket like this in the UK or here in Thailand where the plugs are sold. The sockets in my condo have three round holes and what I eventually did was to buy some three pin plugs that fit these sockets, cut the supplied plugs off my equipment and wire the new plugs on. Is this OK?

2/ The comments in this thread now have me worried that the earth holes in my sockets may not actually be earthed. Is there a way I can check this (without dying). I have a multimeter and some rubber shoes (and a brother-in-law that no-one really likes).

Thank you.

ITV News just said it's "dton bai" which I understand to mean sometime between about 1300h and 1600h. I take absolutely no responsibility for this being wrong! I think I'll aim to get there about 1200h.

Any advice on where to go to see it? I've never been to the new airport before. Would I be better off somewhere nearby or actually in the terminal?

"Group of men forcefully demolish stalls in Chatuchak market"

As opposed to the other way of demolishing things?

Sorry for any confusion, these are the tracking spreadsheets which are the second pinned thread in this forum (Thai visas, residency and work permits), the thread is called "Tracking Of Extension Of Stay Applications".

The links in this thread automatically download the three spreadsheets I mention from immigration.go.th.

I can't post the question in the pinned thread because it is closed.

This is the link if I have copied it correctly:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=84993

And my logs are hidden in a lake up country, I just hope all this flooding hasn't washed them away.