Shah Jahan

and I dont even live in CM

hop on SGA or drive up the mountain for 3 hours to Pai and one look and you will know if you want to live here. (yes we have high speed internet!)

Hmmmm....

My Thai friends refer to Pai as "Pattaya on the Hill"

Cheers

Thats funny aside from the occasional freelancer off the leash or the dirty little places for local thais, there is no prostitution in pai. many have tried, but the police shut down the lady bars before they can even get open.

the sexpats that show up dont last 2 days after they figure out that they arent going to get laid.

the town council is very strict about this. I think the idea is not to become a pattaya.

The difference between CM and BKK is that

CM has one of everything

BKK has 800 of everything

CM is fully civilized and has direct flights to HK,SNG,KL and TPE

life is good and slow.

when I goto BKK I got to take a big deep breath

Never noticed the smoke until this year when it was particaully bad

and I dont even live in CM

hop on SGA or drive up the mountain for 3 hours to Pai and one look and you will know if you want to live here. (yes we have high speed internet!)

unless you are dealing with an enlightened doctor - either allopathic or naturopathic (yes there are good ones in both) then your only hope is to take your health into your own hands. Meaning that you diganose and decide what needs to be done for your own health. if you need pills, then you tell the pharmacist what you need. If you need surgery then you tell the doctor.

its sad looking at local thai people coming out of hospitals with big bags of pills that just destroy their immune system. A relative of my wife has 3 big doctor issued pills she takes everyday and a ointment that she applies for her bad skin.

I hated to recommend that if she got into the sun for a few minutes a day, that may do the trick without loading her body up with steroids or whatever that is just going to cause a chain reaction of sickness.

another case was when my wife was at full term pregnancy, we went it to see the doctor and my wife had a sore throat. The doctor prescribed her a full course of Amoxicillian. good thing this was not our regular doctor and those pills went straight into the garbage. But what about the poor people who actually believe that doctors know what they are doing??????

The problem is that most allopathic doctors are too bull headed and blinded and that most naturopathic doctors are too spacey and unrealistic. One in the middle is what is truly needed.

I booked a BKK-LAX-BKK

leaving early december and coming back early Jan -

I booked it last month and got it for 35k

But to get this price I had to set my return date as Jan 1st.

If I changed my dates in any direction - the price shot to 50k and then to 80k for Premium economy

So its just a matter of booking ahead and playing around with the dates - one day in some random direction can mean a vast difference in pricing.

LAst week BKK-MNL

I used a small roller with a combo lock

The lock was broken when I got my bag in Manilla - Pretty sure it happened in BKK as the bags came out right away in MNL

Nothing missing because nothing to steal.

A great way to deal with THAI bag theifs and bribe seeking customs officals is place a pair of shoes - sole up so it is the first thing they see when they open the bag. Under this you can put some dirty underwhere.

this should convey the message

Btw....when I usally use my weathered shell suitcase with 2 key locks and a combo - i have never had a problem.

A quick summary of all the carriers operating around Thailand

Nok - Fantastic - nice girls - good room - fun ride

Air Asia- Is ok if you get express boarding and get the front row or emergency exit - Cant be bothered to push for a seat. I usally en up flying them the most because they go in and out of Suvampoon and there are always seats to buy and fly

12go - the Crash aside, this airline sucks - no leg room - crappy planes and zombie flight attendants

Bangkok Airways - only did the CNX-BKK route and it was in a very old plane so the route took 40 minutes more than the usall - not impressed at all. very small seats as well. They also leave you in the bus for way too long waiting to load.

THAI - really hit and miss - The cabin staff usally looks like they just had a big gulp of kool-aid and are being operated by remote control - They all speak wind-up robot English - They also need to learn how to pronounce 'PRAWNS' I have refused this many times thinking they were saying ' PORK' - They are the only airline staff that cant figure out that I speak thai just by looking at me - the rest already know at a glance.

Other Carriers

CEBU Pacific - Fantastic new planes happy staff - good prices -Now they just need to get an online booking system that works--

Jetstar - I would sooner swim

Tiger - My only flight with them was pretty uneventful.

Living in the north and with many hill tribe and burmese people, I see the end results of child sex quite often. usually it is a 15 year old girl that gets taken to Bangkok or Chonburi by an older sister or auntie that already works in the Ratchada massage parlours and gets paid the standard rate of 30,000 baht to have her 'innocence opened'

from my reports, the customer is almost always an older well to do thai man, sometimes in uniform. it seems like this sort of thing is more or less acceptable in thai society and this guy that got arrested either took it too far or perhaps made some other political mistakes.

incidentally, after they are 'opened' most of these 15 year old girls goto work in massage parlours in the Chonburi area where it seems to be ok that 15 year old girls are put alone in rooms with older men. later when they are 18, they are allowed to move to the Ratchada sex parlours because there, the ID law is somewhat enforced.

I asked a well to do thai business acquittance about this once and he said that it is quite normal and that these are poor girls from the north and the only way they have to help their families. Unfortunately, most of the money never filters down to the family and rather gets spent on cell phones, makeup, clothes etc......

See also Visa Denials.

That pretty much summarizes it. there is really no standard for acceptance/denial expect for whether they are sure that your girl wont do a runner. If it is clear that you can handle your business- then there should be no problem for your lady.

I am 30 - my wife is 20 we have been married for 8 months and have a baby

she has no formal education and no profession and no income (she is hill tribe with Thai ID)

everything she has I support her

She was awarded a US tourist visa no problem

They just want to see that you can take care of yourself and your wife and that there is good reason for her to return. I am sure the falang baby squirming in her arms during the interview didnt hurt either

I think they turn down cases where it is obvious a girl is taking a falang for a ride to get to US/get a payday.

Bring pictures and make sure to remind her not to lie or fib. Thais have a tendecny to tell non-truths even if the truth is ok. Like for example - where did you meet. Maybe you met at the park - but she says you met at the restaurant. Or when did you meet. they will want an exact answer. If you have known each other for 4 years and your wife says 5 years then there is a problem. How long have you been married? Make sure to tell them the offical legal wedding date - not the village ceremony date.

I know the thais dont mean harm in answering like this, but they just dont have the same concept of truth as Westerners.

They will cross check stories to find stupid fibs and disqualify based on this.

Good Luck!

Just to make sure the full storey is told, where you living in Thailand at the time your wife got the tourist visa. Did you have a work permit?

TH

Yes I am in Thailand and have been so for the past 5 years. the first 3 years on tourist visas the last 2 years on business visas. No work permit - no work in thailand - -

she showed her bank book which had about 50k - I didnt show any of my books.

I still hear that once in a blue moon - usually i take it as a sign that I am in a place or with people that I have no business mingling (ie..if you go to the monkey cage - expect to get shit thrown at you)

they will get a level 3 stonewall icy death smile and no more communication from I.

I am 30 - my wife is 20 we have been married for 8 months and have a baby

she has no formal education and no profession and no income (she is hill tribe with Thai ID)

everything she has I support her

She was awarded a US tourist visa no problem

They just want to see that you can take care of yourself and your wife and that there is good reason for her to return. I am sure the falang baby squirming in her arms during the interview didnt hurt either

I think they turn down cases where it is obvious a girl is taking a falang for a ride to get to US/get a payday.

Bring pictures and make sure to remind her not to lie or fib. Thais have a tendecny to tell non-truths even if the truth is ok. Like for example - where did you meet. Maybe you met at the park - but she says you met at the restaurant. Or when did you meet. they will want an exact answer. If you have known each other for 4 years and your wife says 5 years then there is a problem. How long have you been married? Make sure to tell them the offical legal wedding date - not the village ceremony date.

I know the thais dont mean harm in answering like this, but they just dont have the same concept of truth as Westerners.

They will cross check stories to find stupid fibs and disqualify based on this.

Good Luck!

--

My family sends over baby clothes all the time and the baby clothes from the US are always a better quality than the stuff from the market.

One question - Was it sent by Fed-Ex because if it was then there is your answer - Fed-Ex in Thailand is more corrupt than the police force. they pay a wholesale clearance rate to the government and then try to make it up/profit off of whatever they can assess to dumb falang.

If it was by Fed-Ex then you may have to negotiate - the best would be to politely tell them to please return the clothes to sender - they will most likely start negotiating then and you can probably get away with as little as 500 baht just to save their face for the trouble.

If it was by the postal service - then just do the same - Once you start to complain they quickly come down in pricing. Worst case have the clothes sent back and reposted - usually the US mail AIR 10-14 days gets through with no trouble or fees. Oh and try to keep your declaration value under $50. In that case they usually just ignore it

Leave it on the desk in your room plugged in

Hotel thieves are usually internal and they usually wont go for something that big and obvious

I would recommend you stop trying to deal with things over the phone.

The best course would be to goto Korat and let the wife and childs grandmother sit down together and understand each other

If you maid knows how to speak more English that the price, then she will already be overpriced

depends on what you need the maid to do - there are lots of part time maids available on Loi Kroh road

You will really get the best value by hiring by the month - pay her 3k a month to come on a set scheldue - doing it by the day/hour then you will lose out.

You have to ask for the 10 year multiple entry - If you ask, there is usually no problem, but if you dont ask.......

very risky business

works great until you piss off/dont pay enough to the wrong cop.......

I seem to remember a story from pattaya a few months ago with the local falang-payoff guy getting busted big by the very cops he was feeding

better to be invisible

We would like to visit a not to touristy location and stay for a month or two. Its just me and my 8 year old daughter so I have to make sure she is safe and accomidated. Im thinking of a town in the north east part of the country. Any suggestions?

the north-east is kinda hot and dusty and not much to see

the north is a nicer place to visit- nice small cities are chaing mai and smaller is chaing rai

mae hon song is kinda quiet and nice to hide out in -

pai is good - and can quite touristy at winter time, but it still holds its charm

all these places have tourists, but not like you will see in BKK, phuket etc.....

can you post a picture here of your girlfriend so we can properly evaluate.....

What a bunch of bullshit

where I live in the north it is completely commonplace for a 15 hill tribe year old girl to be sent to Chonburi and have her virginity sold to a dirty old thai man for 30,000 baht and then she will work in one of the massage palors, jacking guys off for 500 baht a pop and sometimes boom-booming for more-

this is until she is 17-18 and ready for the bright lights of BKK at which point she will goto work at one of the palours along ratchada

the only pimps involved in the process are the girls older sister and aunties who will sell her off her virginity and keep part of the cut to buy a new cell phone

if thai authorities are so concerned about prostitution, then perhaps they should take a drive down to chonburi and the areas around and close down all the 500 baht jack off palours staffed by 15 year old girls.

----

edit

to the thai authorities credit, last year a dirty Japanese man did come to our village and try to lure a 15 year old girl away with him - we ran him out of town - unfortunately a few months later the girl was taken by her sister to sell her pussy in chonburi - the japanese was just trying to beat them to the punch - going directly to the source

I have had talks with 'Bangkok Elite' about this issue and they justify it saying that the hill tribe girls have no opportunity nor money for their families and they have to do that to support them so it is OK because they are hill tribe - the reality is that girl selling her pussy for 3 months will show up back home with a new cellphone, some cheap clothes, tacky makeup and about 1-2k baht for her parents - they actually save more money farming rice and living in the village

really no hope here

If your wife wont cook for you - that is what girlfriends are for

if you get the smell on you - she will suddenly become much more interested in 'your needs'

There seems to be a woman in charge now who lines all the taxi drivers up in an orderly line and makes sure that there is no corruption

it seems that word of the fixed taxi fares from the desk got out and they sent int a school mistresses to clean it up

I came in at 6 am today and counted 8 touts that tried to get me before i made it to the new taxi desk - before any could get a word out, i just raised my index finger to my lips and said 'shhhh' these included cute little girls in yellow dresses standing inside the baggage recovery area who were approaching travelers as they waited for their bags.

must be quite unnerving for the new visitor -

so now they just have to shoot all the touts and the airport will be on its way to recovery -

the problem probably is that the private car mafia probably paid and is paying huge bribes to the Individual who has the power to remove them.

first i use one of the booking sites to find the hotels

or i look at a consolidated booking site like Hotels Combined to compare prices across the booking sites

Then I goto the website of the hotel in question and see if they have any special rates - and if so book direct

then I try to call the hotel and book

if that fails then I will book online

Hello everyone. Does anyone happen to know the cost of applying for an F (Business) Visa for China?

The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok is closed until next Monday and there's no list of fees on any of their websites.

Any information would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

I was at the Chinese embassy in BKK a few month ago with my colleague

he had a letter from Chinese company and got a 6 month ' F' multiple entry business visa

I forgot to get my letter and instead handed them my business card and asked nicely in Thai

they issued me a 6 month 'L' type tourist multiple entry visa

Effectively it is the same thing because it is multiple entries for 6 months

(I asked them for a 1 year and they told me no 1 year on US Passport)

I have a US passport and if I remember correctly the cost was 4250 Baht and this was the same price for whatever type of visa you got

I think the US passport price was much higher than other country prices (1-2k baht more)

any decent travel agent can get you the visa

i got a Vietnam visa from a travel agent in the mountains near chaing mai (Pai)

if they can do it from pai then they can do it from chaing mai

they even offered me different costs for different lengths and entries