Oswulf

Very interesting, about three times longer than it needs to be and not Thailand related.

Not Thailand-related, true. But if memory serves me right, it did appear in today's Bangkok Post.

Asavanant is also excellent, and very close to Thong Lor - though for Thailand it's relatively expensive.

www.asavanant.com

For the first time I need to file a personal tax return in Thailand. (Previously my former employer handled this.) I'm almost totally clueless as to what I should do. Can anyone give me some hints?

For the record, I had a little income from a former employer (who's given me some sort of certificate) and some bank account interest. And I live in a town outside Bangkok where noone seems to speak English (and my Thai is still pretty basic).

Oh, and the Revenue Department's website http://www.rd.go.th is really of no help at all - and the downloadable forms are years out of date.

Thanks.

By crown I mean taking a mould then making up a piece in a lab to fix onto the tooth - 2 visits to the dentist.

I had a crown done a couple of months ago. Only one visit to the dentist. Once the tooth was cut down (to remove a couple of cracks), a laser scanner captured a computer image of my tooth stump. A machine then automatically carved the crown. (This took about 30 minutes.) So, after about two hours total I was on my way.

Incidentally, this was at Asavanant, which I would highly recommend if you're in Bangkok.

Please note Nationwide do NOT do Swift/Wire/Telegraphic Transfers abroad so its not a good place to save when permanently living abroad. To quote them 'We are only a Building Society and not a Bank'

This is just plain wrong. I have transferred money from my Nationwide account to my Thai bank accounts using SWIFT on several occasions. Generally Nationwide prefers that you send your SWIFT instruction through the post. However, by prior agreement, they'll also accept faxed instructions.

Thankyou for your input. Were you paying 900baht from Don Muang, which is on an easier trip or Suvarnabhumi, on the other side of town?

The 900 Baht is from Suvarnabhumi - I've done it twice now. From Don Meuang I used to pay 700 Baht. This is probably a bit on the expensive side, but aftera long flight I never feel much like haggling hard.

The minibus from Victory Point to Ayutthaya isn't a great idea - there's no room for luggage.

I've never had a problem simply queueing up for a regular taxi and asking to be taken to Ayutthaya. (You need to make sure that they understand you mean the town, not the street.) The fare is usually about 900 Baht if you bargain a bit.

According to the Asian Tribune, the following email has been doing the rounds:

Dear Khun

Please handle it' secret

My name is Mrs.Noi Taksin Shinawat the wife of former Prime Minister of Thailand, who have just being overthrown on power by the Thailand Military Government. Right now we are on exile currently in London, with my husband. I am contacting you to assist me invest I' have this hug of money in my custody which i want you to invest it' forme without my husband concurrence with a total sum of usd$21,000.000 [twenty one million dollars].

Converted to Thailand currency is total sum of Bht. 840,000.000 [eight hundred and forty million bath]. as a potential industrial machinery investor. please note this deal most be seal between two of us no one will hear about even my husband does not know anything about it' is a secret.

Secondly as a potential of your country, which guarantees us good returns and human security as a result of the source of the fund, I hereby believing that your assistance will be profitable to both of us. I will appreciate your willingness to carry out this transactions the gratification remark I determined as I soon as I hear from you. I have moped out 10%,for your assistance and 5% for expenses that might arise on the process of safeguarding me and the money with out exposing me I wait for your urgent reply. so that I can up-date you with information and feel free to ask if you have any question contact me on my private mail.

yours sincerely

mail:[email protected]

Mrs.Noi Taksin Shinawat.

Could it possibly be true?

Asian Tribune link: http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/3825

Current Investments: $300,000

Return: 8%(80% invested in stocks - 60% US/40% international)

Inflation: 3.1%

A serious medical condition could eat up your entire savings very quickly. You should factor in the cost of good quality medical insurance.

Your investment plan is a little naive. You should probably talk to a professional advisor. Some things to consider:

(1) There have been prolonged periods where equity returns have been less than 8% per annum - and past performance is no guide to future performance

(2) A 100% equity portfolio is unnecessarily risky. Further diversification, including bonds and commercial property would reduce your portfolio volatility.

(3) If you live in Thailand, the USD is not your "home currency". Foreign exchange markets are very volatile, and movements of 30% in one year aren't uncommon. (The Baht itself has appreciated 15% against the USD this year - making people with their income in US Dollars quite a bit poorer.) Why, therefore would you want 60% of your investment in dollars?

Economies periodically undergo periods of much higher inflation than 3.1% - particularly in times of financial crisis. It's happened in many countries with better developed financial systems than here; it may well happen in Thailand some time over the next 35 years.

The great thing about Western Union from a scammer's point of view is that once they have your money, there's absolutely no way you can get it back. Even Ebay advises against using Western Union. To echo others here: it's a scam.

meaning that the Tai languages are more genetically related, rather distantly I should add, to Indonesian

I'm curious. What do you mean by Indonesian? Is this Bahasa Indonesia (which I thought was simply a version of Bahasa Malaysia, with the spelling tidied up a bit)? Or is it one of the other languages used in Indonesia, such as Javanese?

and what about "CHECK BIN" which seems to be a combination of the US word "check" and the British word "bill" both meaning the same thing....and by coincidence comes in a "bin".

Actually, "check" here means "inspect", as in the British English "check the bill".

There's an excellent (if a little challenging) paper by Doug Cooper about how Thais tell letters apart. You can find the links on the old thread at:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...c=46220&hl=

I suggest you check out http://www.lyclondon.com/ It should help to get you started with finding new friends in London.

Not true, and hearing this old myth rehashed on similar threads gets a bit tedious. I had a Thai-issued card stolen a couple of months ago. It was used and i simply notified the bank (HSBC in this case) and they reimbursed the charges within a few days.

Of course, HSBC is not a Thai bank, it's a British one, so things are a little different. And, to be very precise, there are one or two Thai bank cards that provide a level of protection - but they are Platinum cards aimed at the very wealthy.

I will be staying in Ayutthaya, for the next 6 months, any farang watering holes? beer bars, resturants?

Thanks Ray

The Khao San Road of Ayutthaya is near the Ayotthaya Hotel. Tony's Place and the Moon Cafe are the most popular bars, but there are a few others in the same strip.

Steve's Place a.k.a. MM Swimming Pool is a guest house with a bar where many older expats hang out.

There's a German beer bar close to AY Disco to the east of town, near the Grand Hotel.

As for restaurants, there are dozens, ranging from simple open air places to air-con establishments in the better hotels such as the Krung Si River and the Riverside. There are also a load of (pretty boring) places at Ayutthaya Park (the same mall as Tesco-Lotus), with Japanese, pizza, fast food and Thai places.

Personally, I think only a fool would get a credit card from a Thai bank. Unlike in the west, there is no protection against misuse of the card in Thailand. If you lose your card and somebody uses it, you have to pay. If someone steals your card and uses it, you have to pay. If somone uses a card number generator and uses your card number to buy through the Internet, you have to pay.

It's safer to stick to cash.

I have a three entry tourist visa. My understanding is, that I may stay 60 days, each entry, and also extend an additional 30 days, on each entry. I assume that I do this at an immigration office, Where is the nearest office, I am staying in Ayutthaya?

Thanks Ray

Bangkok

We (couple and teenaged son) will be in Bangkok for the month of November for medical care for husband. Our son will train daily at the Bangkok Fight Club near BTS Asoke. Any recommendations for a serviced apartment around there would be greatly appreciated. We have budgeted $1000-$1500 for accomodation, but we don't know how realistic that figure might be. Is there a recommended way to book serviced apartments? Should we contact the management and request a special rate?

Also, I've noticed that some hotels have "Club" floors that provide complimentary food and drink and internet connections (can't remember which hotels, however (!!)). I'm wondering if this type of accomodation is a better value.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Close to Asoke (well, a 12 minute walk - less by motorcycle taxi) is House By The Pond. It's clean, comfortable and the staff speak pretty good English. Good value with more character than most similar places.

AUA publishes a pair of books - one for reading, the other for writing. They're very thorough. The reading book is particularly good because it has a large section on reading handwritten Thai - something I haven't seen in any other book.

You can pick the books up from AUA's Rajadamri branch (shop closed 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.) for 250 Baht each, if memory serves me right.

I then opened word again typed a/ and nothing happened - stayed as a/.

I think you missed a critical paragraph in the instructions:

Then, when you’ve finished typing, select Tools  Macro  Macros, then select ipaize and Run. This will convert all your typed symbols to the corresponding IPA character.

In other words, my macro doesn't change the symbols as you type - you type first, and then, when you're finished, you run the macro to convert all the IPA characters.

Hope this helps.

So, if I want to catch the airport bus from Sukhumit to the airport, which side of the road do I need? The odd numbered sois, or the even? Thanks.

For typing in Microsoft Word, I've written a macro that changes, for example, a/ into á. It also handles the IPA characters usually used for Thai such as ŋ. The attached file includes a copy of the macro, installation instructions and a list of the keystrokes for each accented letter and IPA symbol.

IPA_Macro.doc

Minimum spec. at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823627/

You're way over that, so shouldn't have any problems.

Technically, you will be resident for tax purposes and should fill in a tax return stating that you have no income here in Thailand.

Whilst it's unlikely that you'll have and immediate problems if you don't actually submit a return, if longer term you plan to retire here you may want to comply with the requirement to avoid problems later on.