khunPer

Oh, they look really Lanna! I see, one of them has a ladder, one has none. In the ghost houses I see on the rice fields, they always have a letter. Are they for spirits that can't fly? They – the two spirit houses – are for two different kind of spirits. The one with the ladder is for the garden-spirits Chao Thi or spirits of the land – they seems to need a ladder to climb up into their home – while the one post house is for the ancestor's spirits or spirits of the house, or the house guards Phra Phum, which apparently seems to be more ether-beings and able to fly into the home. In rice fields it Phi Na you needs to make happy. That spirit is guardian of fields and rice paddy, and also needs a ladder. It is (extremely) important, always to ask the spirits for permission. There are 8 further ghosts/spirits besides the ones for garden and house and fields. They are the guards for gates and stairs, why you never must step on the doorstep to a Thai house; guardians of animals; guardians of storehouses and barns yards; guardian of forrest/woods; guardian of mountains; guardian of fruit plantagens; guardian of water; and guardians of military defence installations. Old spirit houses cannot just be disposed, they needs to placed in a wood. Where I live we have a road called Ghost Road, where the old outdated spirit houses ends... You might also see a tree with lots of coloured bands and often women's dress and shoes, they are for phi nang Ta-khian / younger sister Ta-khian-ghost. She is the keeper of the merawan wood, called ta-khian in Thai, a wood that has excellent properties for building the characteristic Long-tail boats. If you cut down the tree and use it for something other than boat building, for example to build a house, nang Ta-Khian will take cruel revenge, death may be the result... Larger companies, on the other hand, have a shrine to Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of the Hindu god deva Brahma, who is generally believed to protect against danger and bring prosperity in business... Spirits seem to prefer red drinks – especially Red Est or Red Fanta – for which there is not one good explanation. A newspaper (I cannot mention due to Forum-rules) wrote in an article that the red drinks may be due to kuman thong, which is marked as a figure of a little boy, or nang kwak, the beckoning younger girl. Child ghosts are said to like red drinks, just like other children. But it could also be because the red sweet drink is sweet enough to have enough energy for wishes to be fulfilled. The article added that there are many possibilities, and also mentions blood, that devotees probably don't want to cut themselves every day to please these beings, so instead they started offering them bottles of red potion - to trick them... So, I always store Red Fanta in my house...

I was also asked about religion and why I wanted to live/stay in Thailand. It seems to vary a lot between the provinces, others have posted that they more-or-less got their Yellow House Book with only an approved translation of their passport.

I just follow the local traditions and what my lovely girlfriend decide to give of alms for the monks; it's her money. I also attend service in a temple – when needed – and politely try to follow the custom. I was mainly the one that insisted on a pair of spirit houses next to my house. Both because it's custom, but also because I like them – I chose a pair of wood houses from Chiang Mai – and just in case, if there are spirits living on the land or from any ancestors, I might also be prevented from being haunted by angry poltergeists inside my own house. Just got my ghost's houses replaced – I hope the ether beings will be happy now – as the former set was worn out after almost 14 years heavy use, helped by the local weather gods...

To my experience and knowledge – I'm also extending stay based on retirement... 1) You can do it up to 45 days before expiry date of your present stay, but you need to check with the local immigration office, some don't accepts more than 30 days before. 2) You shall apply for extension of stay at the immigration office where you live (i.e. your registered address). 3) Retirement extension is simple, you don't need an agent, just follow the local immigration office's rules (they are little different from office to office). 4) You don't need agent; however, for service with paperwork a few thousand baht would be a fair price. 5) You can go alone, you don't need a translator at the major locations with foreigners, they often have a list in English with requirements; all forms are in both English and Thai language.

Yes, to my knowledge you need to be registered in a house book to get a Thai ID-card. The interview is probably needed if you have not been registered in a house book before and lived abroad; just like when a foreigner applies for being registered in a yellow house book.

Yes.

Link HERE – it's fusion jazz; I'm the original producer and publisher. Same theme use HERE (YouTube) in a more contemporary remix/new-work, one of several. More HERE of recent re-releases on vinyl and contemporary remixes/new-works.

Isn't that what I just said: "double albums"... PS: I just got one of tracks I've produced re-released on a 45RPM compilation double-album vinyl.

It's depending of where you live. Some has reported here – in ASEAN NOW forums – that it's an easy process, for others it has been complicated. In my own case it was almost like applying for permanent residency; apart from not been paying income tax from work in Thailand; I was allowed a translator (my lovely girlfriend) for the interview; and I should not sing the national hymn (the tessa ban-staff shall be happy that I did not sing).

No, the flat disc was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887, and further completed by Peter Goldmark to the LP-vinyl disc in 1948. Frequencies over 16kHz are not interesting, as you hardly can hear them, one non-existing musical octave more is 16-32kHz. In the lacquer cutting process the treble limiter would normally be set at 15kHz. 44kHz 16-bit linear digital sound goes up to 20kHz, which is just 1/4 of an octave over 16kHz, where you might be lucky to find some key rattling sound; which was our usual HF-test in recording studios. And you still need microphones to record acoustic sound – and overtones – but also microphones has a limit in frequency range. The best studio microphones, for example the Neumann U87 or Røde NT1, don't snap anything higher the 20kHz. Many microphones are in the range up 15kHz, which is enough in most cases...

Vinyl sales are up and vinyl is the present trend, numerous of old albums are re-released, some even a double albums with 45RPM instead of 33RPM.

The missing full story link to PBS is HERE.

Different sites have different measuring stations, which will gives different results depending on placement and wind... Source link HERE. Source link HERE. You can search on Google for a site that reports from a station nearby where you live.

It's an international air quality site and it's working – you can check the historical hourly readings (time is UTC/GMT) or monthly readings day by day – there is normally not that much difference on the air quality in Samui. It's mainly when wind carries haze from Malaysian fires up to here that the air quality get's bad... The ASEAN-site HERE is however, not working.

This HERE (AirQuality.com) is the normally used for Thailand...

Ask the local immigration office – not all offices follow the official regulations – it's better to just do it online than being refused extension of stay until you have made a new TM30 registration, and return in the queue line with same-day bank statements.

It's correct that you don't need to re-register TM30 within the valid stay-period. The clause says in English translation... “2.2: After the householder, owner or possessor of the premises of the hotel has reported, as defined in Article 2.1, the same alien has left the premises and returned for another stay within the valid period, the householder, owner or possessor of the premises of the hotel does not need to make another report; The alien as defined in paragraph 1 shall include those who hold multiple-entry visas who leave and return to the Kingdom within the specified period of the visa, and those with reentry permits.” Previously, immigration offices in Thailand required a new TM30 report within 24 hours every time a person left and reentered the country. This change eliminates that requirement. However, some immigration offices might still want a TM30 when one leaves the country, or just leaving the province – the office where I live do – so either check with the local immigration office or just register a new TM30. The valid stay period is the length of stay stamped in your passport from entry or extension of stay. As I understand it, you need to register a TM30 again when you get a new extension of stay.

I've tried a cheap, not brand name water pump; I cannot remember the name. It was close to half price of a brand name water pump, but it didn't even last half the lifetime of a brand name pump – it went to the eternal water pump fields shortly after the one year warranty period ended. My reasonably priced brand name water pumps have in average lasted about 7 years.

I'm not a fan, I just follow their demands – it makes a life much more easy. About "make their life, and ours, simpler" we have the pinned thread about Samui Immigration. It seems like each province have slightly different local regulations, so a database/website would be one for each province, or even one for each immigration office. That's why the pinned thread, which started as a retirement extension advise, but includes numerous other things about Samui Immigration, is so useful. Some of us pops by a few days before and get the list and attached documents. Therefore it's useful when a member updates with new requirements, like when you found out that a photo in front of the house is needed and thankfully shared that information together with the latest list of needed documentation... Re. 90-days address report, these ar the comments/posts about that on the first page of the pinned thread....

Yes – to @KhaoNiaw – your TM30 needs to be registered in the new data-system that opened September last year (if I remember the month right).

The pinned thread is quite general about extension of stay and 90-days address report – I don't mention "retirement extension" – and you can find many answers there. If you ask at immigration, you will get a paper with what documents to bring, it's not that difficult. If you follow the pinned thread about Samui Immigration, you can also find document lists updated answers there. Unfortunately, a lot of the people in the queue line are not ASEAN NOW-members, and many just extend a 30-days tourist-stay with another 30 days, but stand in the same queue as expats. Something change at Samui Immigration office almost every year, with the staff trying to make the procedure more smooth. Recently the document check has been moved downstairs with two windows. Before it was a single desk in the upstairs office. There are more and more people coming to extend stay – and some for 90-days address report – at the immigration office, and the immigration staff seems to try to handle it. There is a sign inside the immigration office with contact for any immigration experience – we are not allowed to snap photos inside the office – that sign is likely also a gateway for suggestions. When I renewed my extension of stay in October, there was large posters downstairs about using the e-Extension option, which probably can be used to know both paperwork and make things go smoother...

Normally the banks are very kind; branch manager was probably either new on Samui – I had not seen her before – and following head office rules, or she just had a bad day... I luckily wisely have several plastic cards from two different Thai banks, plus my foreign cards...

If you follow the pinned thread here... –you will know exactly what papers to bring and what's happening of new amazing demands this year in Samui Immigration. To Moderator: Please close this thread and let discussion continue in the pinned immigration-thread.

It has taken about a week for several years now, to get one's passport back with a new extension of stay-stamp. Many banks seems only to be able to print up to six month statement. You can order a full 12-month period from the bank's head office in your local branch, it takes about a week to arrive in the branch. Together with a local statement print you can show a 12-month period by the time apply for extension of stay; remember to get your bank book updates same day as you apply for extension of stay (new rule for Samui Immigration).

TM30 is a good suggestion...