englishinsiam

In fact your WT Sifu here in Pattaya is a knows Geoff Thompson well and translated his books into German. Your Sifu likes the Geoff Thompson approach too. ;-)

And I am a big fan of Wing Chun too, I like that "Blitz Defense" that GM Kanzspec created for a quick self defense solution. I think Blitz Defense and Krav Maga are very similar. It is all great stuff. Train and enjoy what you do! :-)

Krav Maga is nothing more than strikes, punches, knees, elbows, and come to think of it just about every other martial art is made of strikes, punches, kicks etc etc. There is nothing special about Krav Maga, it is just another way of training for street self defense.

To be honest, it is the "individual" and their combative mindset that will win on the street, not the style of martial art.

I am always interested in positive discussion on self defense, but not in slagging matches etc.

Cheers

Gerry

I know of Geoff Thompson from my Karate days too he was writing for Combat back in 1985 - god I'm old now :-) Blitz Defence is a great read and completely goes into the mindset of the fight. It's all very well learning the moves but unless you get the right mindset and approach and learn what your body is telling you, then you will lose in a fight. And Blitz defence gets into the heart of it. If you can get an English copy then I reccomend you read it.

So you know Ron then? A very unassuming man but for 62 years old very quick and strong. He's just finished translating Sifu's next book and apparently it's a monster of a book I'm hoping to get a copy of it once it's been released. Unless Ron gets one pre release which I think he usually does.

Send me a PM I have an open mind and would be interested to come and see what you guys do there.

The KM I saw before was full of Ego's and I don't like that maybe my judgement was clouded, and I am happy to change my opinion and maybe learn something in to the bargain. Just as long as the times don't clash with WT :-)

Hi all,

Many thanks for the numerous repleis. It has been most interesting following this thread. In case anyones wondering, Ive decided that I think Im going to try the Wing Tsun for a bit and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

Many thanks

R

We look forward to meeting you and getting to know you after I return to Pattaya :-) You will learn a lot and have some great fun with us.

I have told Ron you will be calling him once he's back from Germany

Sigh another day in Badlands Pattaya.

The BIB are still clueless about their jobs.

As far as I'm aware it's not in Thailand yet I just bought one off Ebay a real bargain £350 delivered (we are in UK at the moment).

It knocks socks off my 'old' Galaxy S which my wife now has and loves as a replacement for her Blackberry.

to the OP calls can be made by swiping the touchscreen and making a call in a number of ways including Voice dialling.

A Visa agent can advise you what information you need to provide and can present it in a way the ECO's will find easier to approve.

We did our Translations and English Tests through A1 Visa and at no time did they try to sell us the Visa Service or scare us about going it alone. If you do choose to use an Agency they are who I would suggest you use.

We went alone in the end but I used an index provided here by one of the other members and changed it to our circumstances. We submitted 2 full ring binders of documents plus our wedding photo albums. Maybe we put in too much but I wanted to put in too much rather than not enough.

All they ECO is looking for in a settlement Visa is the following

1 - You have a genuine relationship

2 - You can support your partner financially without recourse to public funds.

3 - You have a place to live that meets the guidelines for space and liveability.

4 - She passes the basic English test at an approved centre.

5 - She has a TB Free Cert from one of the 2 Clinics in Bangkok.

They don't look to refuse applications willy nilly and over 80% are granted first time. I believe many failures are due to poor submission. Take the time to submit your paperwork correctly and as long as you meet the criteria above you have a good chance of being accepted.

Do an index and have some order to the index so the sections they want to check are all together and submit originals where possible. Then pay the high fee and be prepared to wait and wait.

There is a thread here http://www.thaivisa....011/page__st__0 for people waiting for their settlement visa's lots of support from each other.

Good luck

www.voipcheap.com

They have many free destinations incl UK and US landlines.

Calls to Thai Mobiles 1 Euro Cent a minute.

Good quality I have used them for years you can also get an App to use them on your Andoid and possibly iCon phones.

We rent a lovely 2 bed house on Eakmongkol 4 on Soi Khaotalo for 8,000 a month.

They are there we went through an agency name escapes me now but all our later dealings are with our landlady. She even buys us gifts for New year :-)

If the Reds get in the Yellows will protest - If the Yellows get in the Reds will protest.

There will never be true democracy in Thailand as long as Police and officials can buy their way into jobs as what happened with Thaksin.

They will want to protect their tax free bribes and power. I'm not saying Abhisits party is immune they have a reason to keep the Issan farmers down and in their place so they don't have to share the wealth.

Sadly the brainwashed on both sides won't allow for a peaceful outcome.

Personally I keep out of it but my financial side says to me Reds get in as the Baht will plummet in value. I get paid in Sterling and if the Reds get in then we can look forward to 70+ Baht to the £ again.

Thats good for my family even if we don't agree with their brand of 'politics'

And there is a big cheap market there for filling up on your hookey clothes and fake phones.

We've been twice :-)

Any postage of prescription drugs is illegal and if the postal service find them they will seize them.

Same if you post back tobacco products thats also illegal.

Similar things have happened to 3 of my Thai ladyfriends

1 - Met a guy on a website they swapped email for 2 years no cam t cam though. And he sent regular photo's to her.

She got an email from a bona fida UK Courier with an invoice for 35,000 Customs for a wedding present for her parents to show he was serious about her.

She sent the money then obviously heard no more. I contacted the Courier Company when she told me and the person had used a schill email puporting to be from them.

2 - Nigerian guy (surprise Surprise) did the typical Nigerian scam. Luckily she told me just after she'd emailed her bank details. I told her to go into her bank immediately to change her account details. She did just as a request for 25,000 came from abroad and it was stopped.

The Nigerian got nasty and sent her an e-ticket showing he was flying to Bangkok to kill her. I told her the ticket was fake but she was scared all the time.

3 - Another friend met a guy on holiday from France. They got very close then after he went to France he sent her a ticket to go. Luckily her Visa was refused.

I contacted him via email asking to buy a Vietmanese girl and he said he had 4 of differing ages. I don't need to say anymore about her possible fate.

There is pure evil out there and it comes from all sides.

No reason why the Thai officials walked out of the World Heritage Convention, but then I suppose they had their reasons. Do we locals really have to put up with the artillery shelling yet again ? Maybe the government will recompense me and my family if we re-locate ? Some chance, we are all cannon fodder here. Very disappointing.....

What this nonsense is really all about and Thaksin's next plunder:

http://www.clc-asia....-gas-resources/

Yup. If he wins, the temple conflict will mysteriously disappear, and they will move on to the serious business of plundering those billions between them

Could not agree more, it'll put the fight against corruption back another 20 years if he buys power (sorry I mean wins power).

Depends where you are as to quality.

We are in Pattaya and have True 10 Meg DL 1Meg UPload and pay about 1200 a month.

On the whole it's pretty good but they do have a tendancy to drop connection and seem to drop Sundays for maintenance.

I think we have net about 95% of the time so on the whole it's not too bad, Bearing in mind we are in Thailand.

With that you get a passcode to use True Wifi on your mobile when out and about.

What version of Android are you using? And what phone is it?

A lot of Droids have the unlock code on the phone and Rooting it and unlocking it can be done via an App.

Post the details here and I'll see if I can find the info for your model and Android version.

We had 2 Epsoms that clogged up quickly but now Have the Canon Pixma

We have inktanks cost about 3K for the printer with the inkanks we have printed hundreds and hundreds of pages and photos with the ink before replacing recently. 100 Baht a bottle (400 Baht total)

Cheapest printer I've ever used. Don't look at Ebay in Thailand go to one of your nearest Tukcoms and buy there with the Ink Tanks already added.

Love it thanks for posting

I agree with Krav Maga being just thuggery

How much Krav Maga training have you done to come to the conclusion that " I agree with Krav Maga being just thuggery " ?

I've been to seminars in Spain and UK and have friends/associates that train in it.

Well done storeman

When we arrived in Heathrow we went straight through the special needs channel as my wife is pregnant.

No queues no questions just joking with the Border Agency guy about his shift dragging.

We expected something but I think as we went together and my name is on her Visa then thats fine.

Can someone still on the list please update it so people can see a quick reference to waiting times.

I have just seen this thread we train in Wing Tsun in Pattaya if anyone is interested PM me.

I have just sent a message to Conguero

Congrats guys on the new acceptances. Now that Lingyai has his Visa can someone still waiting take over the list as per the general helpfull spirit of this forum.

Mrs English likes England but it's a little cold for her. We are looking forward to returning to Thailand around the end of September with new Baby English

Just tried the online Video and was surprised how easy this seems.

I have signed up for the free trial looks like I might be joining for the full course.

Geez, you got turned down for a tourist visa with 80k in your account? That easily enough to cover taking care of someone for the 2 year settlement visa. Was it just the one page of your statement you showed them or was it money coming in and out over a period of time?

3 months statements but what they told us was we didn't submit enough proof of a relationship.

We were a bit green then :-)

This time we took in 2 suitcases of paperwork with over 2,000 photo's and 500 pages of facebook and MSN

I thought if the ECO's want bedtime reading we'll provide it

But if we are in Thailand we can't officially work....

So how can they tax us if we can't work here?

I would happily pay Thai tax it's a darned sight less than UK tax.

Sorry guys I have not been on the forum for a few days.

And have just checked back here, interesting to see your view points on various arts including WT.

Just to re-iterate I am 40 years old and started my Martial Arts training at 14. I first started Goju-Ryu Karate Okinawan not Japanese Goju. And I obtained a 2nd Kyu in that discipline.

I then moved onto Tae-Kwon do as I moved home and didn't find a Goju school nearby. In my time I have moved home many times always learning an art nearby. In such I have learnt/studied and watched many if not most of the major disciplines. Including the fabled Ninjustu (Bujinkan Dojo) for a short while.

In all my training I have found WT the most street effective I have DVD's of groundwork in WT if you don't think we don't go to ground then thats a dangerous misconception if you come across a capable WT guy my ground game isn't very good at the moment as I am still learning however there are some very good guys out there.

Back to Chi Sao (Sticking Hands) we actually refer to it as rolling hands in WT as we roll from a <deleted> sao and a tan sao to a bong sao and back again. The idea is you keep contact with your training partner gradually speeding up and then trying to attack the other in numerous ways. You have to stop the attack by means of feeling as the eyes can be fooled touch can't be fooled in the same way. This takes many many man hours of training to achieve as you are changing your bodies reactions to react to touch rather than sight. Again I am no expert but I am getting a very good feeling and understanding of this and am now starting to react unconsciously and since I have been in England have sparred with my Brother in Law and Nephew both MMA/Jiu Jitsu guys my brother in Law is 6ft 7 and is considered one of the handiest guys in his town. He has tried grabs, locks, throws, punches and can't believe how quick I react to all of them. Now if he was a charging angry bull I don't know if my reactions would be quick enough yet but I know in time they would be.

I like to train as realistic as is reasonably safe because I know people wont give me a second chance in the street.

I agree with Krav Maga being just thuggery we always look at the Legal aspect of our actions in WT too. And we learn how to control and not destroy someone who is just sillily drunk or needs ejecting without breaking bones. However that is always a judgement call based on the situation and how confident you might be in controlling the situation without getting hurt yourself.

Judo Aikido and Jiu Jitsu are also very good in that regard. Someone said about a few blocks would suffice..... Errrm no that is suicide to think you can do that, while your standing there blocking the guy is building up confidence and adrenaline and every time you block you are in a new fight. You are keeping to his distance, get in close and control him immediately don't stand there trading punches or blocks as then the fittest or the bravest man will win.

I just read elsewhere that even if you do have a job/income in Thailand that job would become redundant when you leave for the UK, so no further income until you get another job in the UK. This just compounds what I feel. So what use would showing them previous pay slips be when no more monies will come from that income stream anyway. You could do this if the sponsor is in the UK of course, but many sponsors live here in Thailand and will leave their jobs behind.

I wouldn't worry too much, I trade Forex and have over £300K on trade with FXPro. When I applied for my Visa I submitted my Natwest Bank statements, my emails from FXPro confirming withdrawals for 12 months and a 3 month history of my trading activity. Then finally an excerpt from a Website showing my Forex activity is untaxable.

We got our Visa no problem. At the time my Natwest account showed about £500 in it as I was waiting for a withdrawal to hit it.

Incidentally last year we applied for a Tourist Visa I showed £80K in my Natwest account but no proof of earning and we were turned down.

As long as you cover where your earnings/savings come from then you should be okay. But you should mention any tax liabilities in them.

Anyway good luck with your applications.

Pretty much every drunk in the bar "feels safe" and thinks he can kick all the other guys asses. That's kind of the problem, there's no particular lack of self confidence going around once the liquor starts flowing.

englishinsiam merely said he felt safe in bars in pattaya,he never mentioned being drunk......im also english and feel safe too,and i dont drink.......

Thank you Parker - People like KMBKK seem to make assumptions that aren't there. hence my close in the Debate on the arts with him.

The reference is on the receipt Stabbo from memory it is APET/Date of submission/Number make sure you put the / in same as the receipt and no spaces.