Trembly

28 minutes ago, vogie said:

You know these Yamahas are built in Indonesia, it's a Yamaha 310 I'm replacing.

Oh dear . . . what's the problem with yours?

I did come across the fact they're made in Indonesia as went further with my research, but by many accounts they are - and I paraphrase - well built for the money.

I'm beginning to lean more towards the Epiphone PRO-1 now in any case.

I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and go into Khon Kaen or Bangkok to cop a feel before I buy. 
 

I'm thinking of ordering a Yamaha F310 from Lazada for around ฿4,000. 

I would of course prefer to examine a guitar in person before I buy it but I don't live near any big music shops and I trust Yamaha's quality control enough to give it a punt.

Yamaha guitars also hold their value incredibly well in Thailand, even the pawn shops know about them apparently.

This is one for the Juvenile & Family Court. 

If you are working legally and your visas are in order you have the right to use the public defender for free (they are all volunteers, so it's the luck of the draw). I don't know what your Thai is like though, so you may need a reliable interpreter.

Another strategy would be to identify whether she has broken any criminal laws in the way that she treats you or the children, enough that the police will be obliged to charge her and pass the matter on to the public prosecutor. That way you don't have to spend any money on lawyers but you will also have no control over how the public prosecutor deals with her.

Thai judges absolutely DO have the authority to place restraining orders on people and they regularly do just that. In fact, Thai judges can order people to do or not do just about anything without having to consider legal precedent if they don't want to, because all court orders are in the name of His Majesty the King. 

Stop forking about and do it properly mate. The police WILL do everything it takes to comply with a court order and they will not ask you for money because they are in serious trouble if they defy a judge. 

Sorry to hear of your friend's inconvenience. There's nothing to be done now that they've made the decision to deport.

It's worth bearing in mind that immigration officers the world over have absolute discretion to deny or admit entrance to their country regardless of whether you have the correct visa or not. They are trained to weigh you up on the spot and if something doesn't look right to them, even if they just got out bed on the wrong side that day, they have the lawful authority to stop you and order the airline to take you back. 

I guess the moral of this story is don't take anything for granted when travelling to Taiwan on a Thai passport; minimise the reasons for the immigration officer to assume that you're just another Thai scofflaw looking to work in the black economy.

 

26 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

I know!  That's what my post was about!

I know! I agree! 

31 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

...or it is for those who do not have the nouse,  or just can't be bothered to do it while they're still at school for a few weeks each year and then get exemption from conscription. 

 

Bear in mind also that many recruits are not conscripts, many choose the Armed Forces as a career for the very reason that they come from disadvantaged families and want to do better for themselves and their families.

This.

There is a free and above board way to avoid conscription, but it requires you to stay in school until at least M.6. There are a surprising amount of kids and parents who simply don't put 1 and 1 together while they have the chance to do cadets in school and end up fretting over the lottery afterwards. It's so easy, even the girls sometimes elect to do it just for something different from girl guides. 

If you have a ปวช. "paw-waw-chaw" (associate degree equivalent) or above you can also shorten your draft to 6 months.

The military in Thailand is, as in many other countries, a great leveller and there are many who rose from very ordinary or even humble backgrounds to become political kingpins and powerbrokers via the military. One such example is Plaek Phibulsongkhram, Thailand's very own fascist military dictator, who was the son of a Chinese immigrant father and a durian-farming mother. 

By the way, MAVNI is suspended but you can still enlist as a greencard holder without US citizenship.

You will need US citizenship for a commission, however.  

 

Thai military conscription exists to fulfil a statutory requirement for all able-bodied Thai males to have at least basic military training in readiness for national emergencies. 

The statutes therefore exempt any Thai male who has completed basic training in a foreign military force that is recognised by the Ministry of Defence. 

The USAF most definitely fits under this category.

Just turn up with your  USAF service record to get your Thai exemption papers whenever you are ready.  

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22 hours ago, tifino said:

 

wearing medals, yes okay

 

- but is he retired from Service? seeing as he's a politician now

 

Even ex-service, if you are now a civvie, you can't don a current uniform, which he's apparently still doing so

As PM he is a technically still a servant of HM in HM's Government, hence the white dress uniforms and khaki "No. 2" uniforms that he and his cabinet sometimes wear. 

The Royal Thai Government regards all permanent members, armed or civilian, as "Kharachagan" which translates into "Royal Servant / In Royal Government Service" and is used as a blanket term for anyone who is a fully fledged member of the civil service or armed services. As far as uniform regulations are concerned he just did a branch transfer and so is entitled to wear his army decorations on his civil service uniform, as are his military ministers.

Here you go . . . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders,_decorations,_and_medals_of_Thailand

Left breast, top to bottom : 

• Army Para wings Master Jumper (not to be confused with the standard practice-jump-from-the-tower-into-the-sandpit wings that everyone gets from their time in the cadets). 

The ribbons on his left breast are mostly commemorative gongs for special occasions and honourable orders bestowed by the Royal family, but a couple of medals for bravery stand out : 
 

• The "Protector of Freedom" medal (stripey red with a flame burst) is a medal for the campaign against the armed communist insurgency.
• The black one with the sceptre going across horizontally is for gallantry in action. 

I can't make out the emblem on little black miniature ammo pouch insignia, but it is probably from a Guards regiment. 

Right breast top to bottom : 

• Miniature of Army Staff College badge.
• Queen's Tiger badge (ostensibly a military skills arduous course similar to the ranger course but with the implication of fealty to the Queen in particular).
• Army Ranger badge (modelled on the US Army Rangers course).

It's probably a bit late for the OP now but I'll mention this for the benefit of others who may follow :

For the total fees that a Thai wife / girlfriend ends up paying at Ramkhamhaeng you may as well pay for her to get proper English language tuition to pass the IELTS exam at grade 6.5 or above so that she can study through the Open University or the University of London International Programme. The BA in Philosophy from the latter institution is costs around THB 200,000 all in, for example. 

All pay as you go, 100% distance learning so no faffing about with uniforms, registration, lectures etc. 

If all she's after is a degree certificate however, she can do a 100% distance learning degree from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) which are very cheap and get the job done. STOU is fully accredited, so an accounting or law grads from STOU are fully eligible to take their respective professional licensing exams in Thailand.

13 hours ago, Jonmarleesco said:

There seems no agreement on whether or not this is correct, from those who should, presumably, know.

The sasdi was on the right track, but was thin on details. 

Photos aren't enough ("did you get that on camera Staff?"), you need actual service records and a letter of confirmation signed by the commanding officer of your unit.

13 hours ago, Jonmarleesco said:

'He attends military training every saturday morning so will be exempt from conscription.' If you mean the army cadet force, I wouldn't assume that. My youngest son is coming up to his third year, and having first understood this to be the case, isn't so sure now; this exacerbated by his having received conflicting information from a variety of sources.

Thai Army cadets (Ror Dor) is indeed one legal way of being exempt from conscription at 18. As stated previously, the legal requirement is for all able bodied males to go through basic military training and the army cadets is a recognised way of doing that. 

That's why it's so popular; go outdoors and play soldiers for one day a week in the last few years of high school and chin off ever having to register for draft. Easy decision for many. 

On 1/13/2017 at 11:56 PM, PoorSucker said:

1. If he goes university he's exempt from the draft.

2. If he's nor registered in a Thai house book he will never be drafted.

3. As he can not speak Thai they don't want him.

4. If he is selected for the draft, donate 5000 baht and he will not be drafted.

If he goes to university he can apply for deferment until graduation, at which point he will be eligible to voluntarily enlist via the graduate short-service engagement scheme; since it is voluntary enlistment he will be able to choose between army, navy and air force and it will only be for 6 months.

Regarding language, if they think they can find a use for him they'll take him. If he can understand basic orders they'll take him. As long as he doesn't punch anyone or do anything stupid like spark up a cigarette in front of the Directing Staff they will leave him alone and he will probably get a lot of friendly sympathy for not being able to speak much Thai. 

Conscripts - and the 6 month boys - tend to be given bone jobs because the career soldiers want to keep them out of the way. Unofficially there is a "promising soldier" stream for the conscripts who might be offered an extension of contract and a "damage-control" stream where the NCOs have their work cut out for them robustly mummying the naughty conscripts who don't want to be there and don't give a fork, so if he makes life easy for the NCOs they will go easy on him. 

1 hour ago, MahasarakhamMitch said:

Graham- We are in a near identical situation and are slightly nervous about conscription. My son has done army cadets since he was 14 and we were told by the local amphur in Maha Sarakham that if he has lots of pictures of him in his platoon and has a letter from the Army then he would not need to join the Thai army. I'm not convinced by this advice but we live in hope. If the worst happens I will have to make a donation to the "Generals pension fund"

Mitch, Graham,

I am a bilingual loog-krueng who has been through this rigmarole and my advice is this : 

One surefire and above board way for your sons to avoid Thai military conscription is for your sons to pass out of basic military training in the west because the Thai legal requirement is that all able bodied men must pass through military training. Thai MOD regs state explicitly that successful completion of basic military training in a foreign military course that is recognised by Thai MOD is grounds for exemption. UK military training most definitely fits into that category as the UK MOD and Thai MOD have long standing links with serving Thai officers regularly sent through the pipeline at Sandhurst, Dartmouth and Cranwell just to be up to date with how the British make baby officers. 

Therefore I would recommend that you get your kids to join the reserves of any colour and stick through it until they pass out of basic training at the very least. Then they can come to Thailand and present their service history and discharge papers to the local sasdi (recruiting sergeant) who will then give them the appropriate exemption papers and close their files.

I know someone who has done this with ACF papers . . . but I would do the AR / RNR / RMR / RAuxAF just to be on the safe side . . .  after all, you can quit the UK reserves at any time with no minimum service requirement so long as you haven't been mobilised for ops, and you can't be mobilised while undergoing full time education. Speaking of education, the UAS / URNU / OTC are all organisations that are designed around university student life that can potentially tick the military training box for your sons.   

Good luck.

5 hours ago, siam2007 said:

 

 

I doubt this as it has been sold to alibaba by Rocket internet which is 100% a German company. One more reason not to order from them any longer, and if u have no other choice, only use the "cash on delivery" option

 

.

My source is one of the execs who worked on the hand-over to Alibaba. 

6 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

 

I thought the Samwer brother's were born in Germany.

My apologies, I stand corrected on the founders. The senior management are definitely Italian though. 

On 9/8/2016 at 7:31 AM, ezzra said:

 

Lazada is another Thai brain run outfit, where you order something and you're not allowed

to open the box, look at the item or god forbid test it before you accept delivery, like buying a cat in a bag,

so for me, as cheap as they're, they're not consumer's conscious company, as they're

there to cover their assess only.......

The founders and senior management are Italian. 

Both 7-Eleven (Thailand) and True are owned by CP Group.

If you can't take or relay orders in Thai then you probably won't be much use in a translator / interpreter / liaison role either. 

One way to legally qualify for an exemption from military service in Thailand is to present evidence that you have completed military training in a foreign military whether it be regular or reserves. So, let's say you have UK passport; all you would have to do is to join the reserves in any shade of blue or green, pass out of basic training (which can take anywhere from months to more than a year, since it is part time) and then put in your notice before you get mobilised. I don't know how it works in the reserves of other countries but in the UK you can leave the reserves at any time providing that your number hasn't been called for an op tour. You will probably receive far superior training too. 

I have a Thai friend who grew up in Switzerland, has a Swiss passport and barely speaks any Thai. He just completed his Swiss conscription so as soon as he gets his discharge papers he can take it to the amphoe to get his chit that says he is an able-bodied male who has already fulfilled his duty of undergoing military training and therefore does not need to be conscripted.  

Or you can try your luck with enlistment and just treat it as an opportunity to make friends and learn some Thai!

The RTAF is the service that uses the most English by dint of being in aviation (not that guarding gates, saluting cars or scrubbing hangars requires any particular foreign language skills). They also have the prettiest nurses, in my experience. 

On 11/1/2016 at 11:32 AM, Jonmarleesco said:

Given literacy levels in LoS, that's rich, though I doubt the military would see it that way.

How is that rich, given that Thailand's literacy rate is close to 97%?

It boils down to the interplay between Thai customs and the people who order stuff in Thailand, which I'm guessing is mostly expats.

Back in the early days of Amazon they would send anything to Thailand without a fuss but Thai customs started applying the standard extortionate Thai tax rates and instructed the post office to withhold delivery until payment by the buyer. 

It's actually pretty straightforward to sort out; you go to the post office, pay up and off you go with your package. However, this seems to be a bit too much for a lot of people who then went and left a lot of bad feedback on Amazon.

Amazon knows that it's not their fault, they know that customs is customs in any country, but they were sick and tired of people kicking up a shitstorm on their site so they just pulled the plug on deliveries to Thailand altogether for most product categories. They still send books though. 

iHerb and some other retailers have taken a different tack; they give you the option to use registered post such as DHL, FedEx et al which will guarantee that your shipment will be declared and taxed at customs . . . or you can take your chances with standard post which is far too numerous for customs to check other than by random sample.

I've only ever had to go to the post office a few times out of the 20 odd orders I've made with iHerb so far.

There are LINE groups, Facebook groups and proper job websites aplenty. Some sites are bilingual, others only in Thai. They all do a fairly brisk trade in both job seekers and employers judging by the turnover rate of the postings. 

There are entire website ecosystems dedicated to doing what it takes to secure coveted jobs such as those as pilots, air hostesses, architects etc and of course the most coveted of them all, the civil service job (which includes teachers) which is viewed by many as a job for life that is nigh on impossible to be sacked from. 

I won't list them here because if you know how to use Google in English you know how to use it in Thai. 

The job hunting avenues are all there in much the same way as they are in the west, but what holds many fresh school / university leavers back is their lack of imagination and / or guidance from people who should know better. 

What's her field / expertise?

Is she able to join a professional network or association, such as those for accountants or translators?