Estrada

I took me twenty years to get Pattaya to install a central sewage treatment plant. The first 10 years was spent trying to explain to the Thais what pollution is. You have to understand that they had no idea that there was something wrong with the "Nahm Ting or Nahm Seah" flowing down the street into the sea. It had always done it for Generations. The only sewage plant existing was at the old Marina Hotel left behind by the American forces.

Eventually I was able to persuade individual hotels to install proper sewage plants by showing them they could save Bmillions by using the treated water for irrigating their gardens. Previously they were being ripped off by the Thai Mafia, who made them buy tankered water to water the hotel gardens.

Similarly, although I was able to sell Pattaya Council on the idea of a central sewage plant, nothing was done until I suggested that Khamnan Poh should form a Waste Water Treatment Company. As you may know this worked because, Sumit Grade, Khamnan Poh's Company won the Contract and are now operating the plant.

It is no good trying to fight against the Thai system in Koh Sumui, the only way to get things done is to persuade the Local Mafia that they can profit by installing a Centralised Water Treatment Plant. If they think they can make money out of it, it will go ahead.

If you want to fight the system, try Green Peace Thailand.

Incidently, having spent 20 years in the UK trying to stop Companies polluting, 99% of Companies do not care about reducing pollution and only install plants if they have to, or if they can recycle the water and save money.

3 year multiple entry visas to be introduced

BANGKOK (thaivisa.com): -- The Ministry of Foregin Affairs will soon introduce a 3 year multiple entry Non-Immigrant Visa. The validity of visas for business purposes will be extended to three years to attract investors to Thailand.

Deputy Government Spokeman Danuporn Poonakun, told the Bangkok Post that the new multiple-entry non immigrant type B (business visa) would be valid for three years.

He said the new visa is part of a goverment attempt to attract foreign investors to

operate businesses or work in Thailand. The current multiple- entry business visa is valid for one year and cost the equivalent of 5,000 baht.

A source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it will take a few months before the

ministry have finalised the legislation for the new three-year multiple entry business visa, which will cost double the one year fee, or around 10,000 baht

Thai Immigration will grant a 90 days stay in the Kingdom on each entry, and an extended stay could be granted for work permit holders and others up to one year at the time, according to the ministry.

The Thai embassies and consulates abroad will continue to issue the one year visa's as well as the new three year visa.

--thaivisa.com 2005-06-03

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To add to this and also reply to some of the negative comments given by other posters:

1. The three year visa is in fact cheaper since each time of application for a

renewal here loses me 3 days at B15,000/day in Consultancy fees, plus taxi

fares, photographs, photocopies, etc.

2. I have been based in Thailand for 11 years, but for the last 4 years have been

carrying out Consultancy overseas, Bpai Glap, Bpai Glap, Mahk Mahk. The one

year Visa has been a real hassle since I need to come back at a time that is not convenient. This can cost some B40,000 in air fares. Therefore last year, I let my Visa lapse. As you may be aware, if you are married you must have a three year unbroken Visa period prior to application for Resident status, so I would have to start from scratch again. The new three year Multiple entry Visa makes a lot of sense and I will be one of the first to apply.

3. It is possible to get the Visa issued in Bangkok if they like you .

4. I have never been asked for under table money to facilitate a Visa renewal, members who say this may have been using "Visa Experts [Touts]" who may say that undertable money is required, but in fact the money is going in their own pockets.

5. Contrary to most of the stories about how difficult it is for a Thai Woman to get a Visa, my wife has never had a problem. She has been to UK [two years], Romania [three times], Cambodia, and Malaysia [ 5 times]. The Embassies have been very helpful to her on all occasions and has even been invited to the Romanian Independance day Celebrations, and a dinner given by the Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia.

6. I see newly married Farangs at Thai Immigration, being interviewed by immigration officials in front of me. They can quite easily see that the love of their life is a bar girl out to get all their money, a house and car and then dump them, and in some cases murder them and claim the pension. Therefore I would suppose that they view giving a one year visa to a Farang who is going to be milked of all his money, as aiding and abetting a crime.

7. Even with the 30 million passengers a year coming through Don Muang every year, a Thai Immigration officer came rushing over to process my entry stamp last week. "How's your family, no one year Visa now?". If you treat Thais with respect and speak the language, they are wonderful people. If you treat them like a Farang they will not respect you and give you lots of hassle.

8. The only nonsense that needs to be addressed is the 90 day reporting, which is a right pain and total waste of time. Why do we need to report where we are staying every 90 days when we have our own house here? You can say it is to monitor terrorist's movements, but they can nip down to Pattani, set off a bomb, and back many times within the 90 days and still be in Bangkok on the 90th day.

9. Although it is a three year visa, you still need a work permit to do business here with a few exceptions.

10. A close friend has had a clothing manufacturing business here for 15 years. He has never bothered with a one year visa, as he travels to Hongkong, Korea and Germany at least once a month on business. He has two Thai children by his Thai partner, although they are not married. The Thai immigration never give him hassles and indeed fall over backwards to help him. They have waved overstay fees and have even told him they will give him 3 month entry Visas if he shows the Birth Certificate of his sons.

On 1 June, the prime minister and three deputies prime minister would be invited to preside over a countdown ceremony for the launch of the campaign, to be held at the Government House, he disclosed.

"When the time comes, each building and household will be urged to switch off at least one light for five minutes simultaneously", said the minister.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on Modernine TV of MCOT Public Company Limited (MCOT) and TV Channel 11 of the government's Public Relations Department (PRD).

Prepare for the national power cut 5 mins after this program then from the power surge on the grid when all the lights in Thailand get switched back on

If they all turned of together (Not that they will) a number of power stations would have to be cut from the grid to prevent overload then 5 mins later switched back in

Do they just make all this s... up and not ask anyone higher than a dodgy back street electrician?

Simon.

Estrada: I was working for PowerGen back in the 60's and can remember when the National grid collapsed blacking out a wide area of the UK. Reason being that everyone was watching the Miss World Contest, and as soon as they crowned the Winner, everyone rushed to the Kitchen to switch on the kettle. Can you imagine suddenly 3 Million 3 kW Electrial kettles switched on at the same time. That is 9,000 Megawatts, or the equivalent of 5 of the largest Power Stations in Europe suddenly requiring to be on stream. As a result of that, Power Plants take account of TV schedules when planning to bring generators on line.

Not sure what your dodgy electrican has told you, but leaving a power plant connected to the grid does not overload it, power is taken up as required preferably by the most efficient plant. When the load is cut, the load will be shared out between the varous power plants on line.

Switching an 18W lamp off is symbolic and unlikely to cause much problem. Good job they have not asked the King to request the whole of Thailand to switch off and then on again, all airconditioners exactly at the same instance in time

Does anyone know why solar power hasn't been exploited to any significant extent in Thailand? Is it because of installation costs, power storage issues, running costs or what?

Estrada: I worked with Shell Oil on the development of solar power in the UK back in the 70's. Answer is that the pay back for the equipment is around 10-20 years, which is the same as the life of the equipment. Therefore it does not pay for itself. However if you are a do it yourselfer and can make a system youself out of scrap materials then you it can be sensible.

Solar Cells are currently being developed at a lower cost and the Israelis are probably the World leaders in Solar Cell Power Plants. However a large land area is required per megawatt produced, and therefore the technology is viable only where land is very cheap or free such as the Desert.

Best option I have seen are mini Gas Turbine Generators which can run on natural gas. These provide power and heat for the house with the excess power being sold to the national grid. Of course there is still Nuclear Power and Thailand has a 2 MW plant on Vipawadi Rangsit rd., but no further development has been planned as far as I know.

Isn't everyone paying thier own electric usage at the current market-price? And if so...how is the country going to save any money? Maybe loose some in lost tax-revenuy...

Estrada: Nothing to do with this. Problem is with oil fired power stations as these suck in imports. On the other hand Thailand has its own gas. If power can be reduced at peak times, then less oil fired power plants will have to be brought on line to meet demand.EGAT should convert all oil fired Power Plants to Gas to save on imports but this will take time. Also more efficient Power plants can be used at less cost.

Therefore the Country saves and if enough energy is saved, power can be exported to Laos and Vietnam which will also help the trade deficit.

I remember these sorts of measures from back in 1997. Offices turned the lights and air-con off at lunchtime. Given how much the office heated up during the heat of the day while the air-con was off and how long it took to cool it, I never thought there was any saving. Does anyone have any idea of the cost saving (or lack thereof) of turning fluro lights off and then back on?

Estrada: Depends on the size of fluorescent each one may be 18Watts, and 1 kw/hr is around B3 so one fluorescent saves 1/50th of B3/hr.

I'm no expert, but wouldn't an air con turn off for 1 hour at lunch cause the unit to run more and use more energy when you turn it back on?

Estrada: Well I am an expert, and of course you are right, assuming that the air conditioners were sized correctly in the first place. If they were and are set correctly and cut in and out when they reach the set temperature then you are correct. Turning the Air Conditioners off at lunch time would cause the temperature to rise to 34 Degrees C and then when you switch them on again they have to work to lower the temperature back down to 26 Deg C. Thai law is for an office temperature of 26 Deg C, so the Air cons should be switched back on perhaps half and hour prior to the end of lunch time.

In practice most Air conditioning systems are badly designed, badly installed, badly maintained and run continuously as a result. I believe the Thais realise this and for this reason no extra power will be consumed to bring the temperture down to normal.

Better to encourage them to set the thermostats correctly, and not turn them down to 18 Degrees. Thais believe by setting the controller to 18 Degrees it will get colder quicker. This is not correct since the cooling rate is fixed and will cut out when the temperature has been reached.

Making vehicles travel slower in Bangkok is likely to cause more fuel to be used as this results more vehicles being in a given area at one time instead of completing their journey. As a result traffic jams are caused and more energy is wasted due to vehicles being stationary in traffic jams.

Better to encourage better home insulation. I recently modernised my home, increasing the area by 50%, the Air conditioners from 1 to 3, insulated the roof and installed double glassed doors. Afterwards my electricity bills dropped from B5,500.month to B2,500.

Here we go again -- several failures of logic and of English -- but the income question is appalling. What a bloody nerve! I'm going to ignore it and see if they notice, but have the least nuisance-making (for myself) answer ready if necessary.

The old card was atrocious -- tiny print, not enough space, etc  -- so at least this one is clear and well-spaced. However, after god knows how long they must have been preparing this thing, it's still full of errors, mostly on the "non-Thai resident" page.

For a start, what does that phrase mean? Logically, it means a resident who is not Thai, and implies a resident of Thailand who is not Thai. Of course, what  they mean and what it should say is "non-resident of Thailand", or if they really wanted to be clear, "non-Thai national who is not a resident of Thailand".  So simple to get right, if Immigration just employed a competent editor; instead, confusion will reign amongst  most new visitors when they read this, for years to come.

Then you have "Schedule" instead of "Scheduled", no question marks after 

"First trip to Thailand" and "Traveling on a group tour", "Others" instead of "Other" (twice), "Conventions" instead of "convention", and "Exhibitions" instead of "Exhibition". (These are small mistakes, of course, but why the bloody ###### are there any on a form which is going to be used tens of millions of times every year for many years to come? TIT, of course.)

Finally, what does "Next city/Port of disembarkation" mean? "To disembark" is to get off a plane, a boat, etc. Do they mean "next foreign destination" or do they mean "port of departure"? Or what?

Well done, Immigration, once more Thailand shows how to cock up the simplest of bureaucratic forms.  Look out for two decades of confusion and hold-ups at immigration  as even native speakers of English mess up their forms, let alone those with a less than competent grasp of English, which means most visitors to Thailand.

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Well quite an amazing tirade! I assume you are not a native English Speaker and certainly must still be in nappies. Next Port of Disembarkation has been on immigration forms since the 1930's, and is good old fashioned correct terminology.

There is nothing wrong with Conventions or Exhibitions, many visit more than one so the question is still technically correct., as is others. I am sure I do not have just one OTHER accomodation, I'm going to travel around and stay in a number of OTHERS not OTHER.

Before writing this tirade of unwarranted abuse, complaining that they are asking for your salary on the rear of the form, perhaps you would be better to put the same energy into checking your bloody ###### facts. The reason they ask for your income on the rear is that under the new immigration ruling you are supposed to prove that you are arriving with sufficient funds for your stay. Foreign Embassies here are fed up with backpackers and chancers coming to Thailand with hardly any money, spending it all and then trying to get a handout from the Embassy. Some foreigners have even been begging on the street.

The new Regulation states that you have to carry around B40,000 when you arrive and not in the form of credit cards either. It seems that the Immigration department have been kind to us and if you enter an income figure which indicates that you are likely to be able to support yourself then they will not shake you down. If you do not fill the form in, then you are could be asked to show enough cash instead.

When will you return?

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I should have been staying with my family at Kamala Bay Phuket on 26th December when the Tsunami struck. However, I had Libyan visa problems so I was not able to get my Christmas leave. I worked on the Kamala Beach Resort a few years ago so I was hoping to stay there, and see a few friends.

Fortunately I was not able to get leave at that time so I am still here.

However, I shall definitely be going there next month to support the local people by spending my vacation there.

Why do you need a letter from your embassy?  I am on my third yearly retirement visa and have never had to have a letter from the us embassy.

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The letter from the UK Embassy, at least in my case, was to verify my address in Thailand and confirm that I was in receipt of a pension. However, the letter is dated 2000 and copies suffice for all subsequent extension applications. There is no need to obtain a new letter every year (or that is my understanding).

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Actually you do have to, but then again there is T.I.T.

I love Thais

Geoff Carter

I am looking for aid work in Aceh. Wondering if anyone might have any sort of connections that might assist me. i've poked about on the internet and sent off what I could as well as exausting my own connections - waiting on replies.

I had lived and traveled in Indonesia and speak Indonesian somewhat well although its a bit rusty.

Many thanks

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go to the Development jobs web sites;

www. devjobs.info/index.html

www.developmentgateway.org

www.dev-zone.org/jobs/

www.internationaljobs.org

Geoff Carter

In reply to Boris

My point is to bring to attention the apparent problem brought up by an injured rather then winging Pom, who had lost everything and was obviously in a state of shock. I know Ambassador David Fall, his wife and several of his staff on a personal basis. Indeed we have even been into the bowels of the earth together. This is not meant in any way to disparage their work in Phuket, but it is obvious that the UK is not helping him enough in sending extra Consular officials to deal with the crisis. The British Embassy has had to close its Consular services in Bangkok as there are not enough staff to cope with the situation in Phuket, and the normal Consular needs of the British Subjects whose Passports are running out, or have been lost elsewhere in Thailand. Clearly, as this is the case, they are overstretched.

The point is that if it is true that British Subjects that have been injured, lost everything and are traumatised by the disaster should be assisted by the British Government.

My friend in Florida, was contacted by the State Department on Tuesday Night 28th as he is close to Jeb Bush Governor of Florida. He contacted me as I have lived in Thailand 10 years, a Rotarian, and I also an Expert on the Water and Waste Treatment. I have also previously studied the entire Water supply system in Phuket for the Privatisation project. Unfortunately I am currently in Libya working on the Great Man-Made River Project so that I was unable to come. Actually being Christmas I was due to stay at Kamala Bay Beach resort with my family, but due to our Libyan Visa problem, I could not take Christmas leave so I was lucky not to be there when the Tsunami hit.

Through the information on Thaivisa Tsunami Forum which is giving the real situation in the Phuket area, and my own experience, I was able to brief the US Government on the immediate needs for Thailand. Their idea was to rush in bottled water etc. But thanks to your readers input I was able to persuade them that the immediate needs in Thailand was logistics and special assistance, such as boats, divers, helicopters, planes, and cash to help rebuild peoples lives.

I also gave them your web site so that George Bush can be updated on the real situation, and not by the BBC, CNN or the Thai Government.

So thanks to Thai visa and all the readers who have contributed to this Forum, you will be surprised who is reading it.

Geoff Carter

C.P. Bangkok Srinakarin Rotary Club

I saw on a TV interview at UK Airport, that British Tourists returning home were complaining that whilst thay had lost all their money an possesions, they were given no financial aid by the British Embassy. They also pointed out that other Governments had paid all the expenses and Air fares to get their Countrymen home.

The standing orders for the Consulate Section are that only a B500 discretionary payment can be made [read the small print], and after that you are on your own.

In normal times this would be the case if you were robbed, fell down a hole, lost your Airticket, spent all your money, nothing to do with them.

However, this is a traumatic disaster on a scale never seen in Thailand previously.

As I understand that funds are supposed to have been put aside by the Thai Government and the British Government to assist Tourist who are left without access to funds so why is this happening? As it is they do not seem to be getting even their B500 discretionary payment.

Geoff Carter

There is absolutely no reason why her daughter should not have a one year Thai visa entered in her Passport. My wife is Thai and her daughter was born in England and has a British Passport. We entered Thailand when she was only 1 year old, and since then has not had to leave Thailand at all to renew her visa. As far as Thai immigration are concerned they will help the Thai Mother, and the children "BELONG" to the Mother not the Father. So if the Thai Mother does a runner with the kids, hard luck, TRT [Thai Rak Thai].

We renew her British Passport every 5 years and extend her visa every 12 months. When she is 18 she can decide if she wants to become Thai and have a Thai passport.

I cannot think why on earth she would need to do a Visa run every 3 months, unless the Thai Mother has relinquished her Thai Citizenship.

Thai immigration are very helpful, she should go and see them. There is no need to go out and come in again on a different Visa at all. Go to immigration with Birth Certificate, proving she is her Mother, and Italian Passport. They will probably issue a Visa on the spot. The Italian Passport should be vaild for 12 months minimum.

I love Thailand don't you?

Supageoff

This is Thailand [TIT], if the school takes you there, the Thais will fix it in their normal Thai way. The only time to worry is if you don't reprot it and then get caught. Even then the maximum fine is B20,000. A friend of mine overstayed 8 years and paid B45,000 to be smuggle out through immigration using British Airways Pass, then sold his "Story" to the Express Newspaper. Of course we were all laughing including Thai immigration as he paid more than double the maximum fine.

Not sure about your Work Permit Transfer and Visa Extension. Sounds a bit dodgy to me, unless you are with the some Company. If you are not, then this is probably the problem. The work permit is for the Compnay you work for, and must be held within the place you normally work. It also follows the Visa. It follows then that if you have a valid WP then you must have a valid Visa.

Anyway, no problem.

I love Thailand don't you.

Geoff

Due to a WP transfer in May my school was sure I did not need to contact Immi but now that they have on my final threat of leaving they have found out that I have overstayed since May and they are taking me tomorrow to pay the fine - am I likely to get detained or not - I still have avalid WP and visa extension and contract. Ive been reproting etc so its not as if I have been trying to scam anybody.

Any ideas? Should I run off in the night or face them tomrrow?

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