hilly

My Missus just got a UK visitor visa for later this month and had lost a previous passport from 1989 when she was working in China for 5 years. We simply showed the UK Embassy proof of her being in China for the period which was her China ID card and employee work employment contract which luckily she still had.

I was thinking about using an agent for this her first ever UK vsa and the agent said that losing a passport might be frowned on but it was not. Give as much detail as you can on the old passport would be my advice.

Depends what area you want to fish but there are some bargains in Pattaya. You need to be very careful with second hand engines and local boats made of laminated plywood that might have been heavily repaired.

To be honest I would not go far off shore in a 17 footer. Remember there is no emergency channel or effective coastguard.

Is this for all of Thailand or just for Bangkok please? I have a manufacturing company (UPVC windows) not in Bangkok and that is the reason for the question.

For BANGKOK only.

Thanks for clearing that one up and amending the OP. We just had our factory foreman call the office and tell us that staff were saying they should be on holiday now. Grrrrrrrrrr

Is this for all of Thailand or just for Bangkok please? I have a manufacturing company (UPVC windows) not in Bangkok and that is the reason for the question.

I have been running 7 for about 8 weeks now. It is a genuine pre reliase copy running on a brand new very high spec quad core desktop.

I have never has so many problems with windows. Many things like Firefox, IE dont like it yet and crash regularly. Many hardware items don't have drivers yet and the older items I have like scanner and cam wont work at all. Microsofts answer to this is to buy a new one. Grrr

It will take while before it is top shelf and will keep persevering.

Thaksin said he did not want this rally to go ahead and I guess he withdrew his financial support so no great surprise. He must be pinning all his last hopes on the petition and does not want to risk rocking that boat.

Whilst I agree with most of the above reasons I feel it runs deeper than this.

There seems to be no coordination between the various agencies in Thailand who all have their own agenda.

Take the cleaning of the streets to eradicate the flu virus which has been all over the news lately. A total an utter waste of time and money (the virus cant live outside it's host anyway I understand) that brings a nice bit of publicity to the tourists attention. Who thought of this numbskull idea? This was laughed about on a UK TV show a night or so ago I am told.BTW two days ago they cleaned Walking Street in Pattaya for the same reason.

The there is the mini war in the South that most tourists wont understand is not even in a tourist area anyway. Lots more overseas publicity to scare the toursist off. The list of publicity gags that the agencies instigate here is endless.

Until Thailand gets it's various agencies all working for the common good then Thailand is going to continue to take publicity hits that will damage the tourist industry IMHO.

Maybe he had just had a liquid lunch and was feeling feisty when he made this statement. The word nominee is somewhat important IMHO.

IMHO also is was all hot air but one wonders if his seniors are going to be very thrilled with his outburst? Lets hope the Thai newspapers get stuck into this one and he is made to eat some humble pie.

Next might be the statement saying that he has been missinterpreted.

A friend went alst night and said it was good. It is 200 yards from where I live and even I did not know they had started the shows. Unbelievably bad promotion.

As far as I can make out the problem is that Customs dont have a duty payable amount on cigs or booze.

The law states it is illegal to import more than the allowance so if you get stopped you have a big chance you will get them confiscated or even worse find yourself in their customs office in Bangkok for hours before paying the heavy fine.

Also the new aiprort is alive with cameras and I assume that someone is sitting in an office watching most things that go on nowadays so it just aint worth it.

The canners are in use sometimes as well so if you dont get seen you might get caught anyway and if the camera watchers see you then the scanning is likely to come next and you will get caught. Things like opening your suitcase at the belts to put you duty free in the suitcase has a high probabilty of being seen.

I am planning to replace and upgrade some standard aluminium sliding windows in my house to some mixture of fixed and casement PVC windows. Some windows will be single pane and other double-pane. Does anyone have any good or bad experiences with particular brands or installation companies in Pattaya? I will get quotes from ARC, Euro PVC, and PVC Thailand.

Thanks in advance for any information.

Maybe to late now but if not then feel free to PM me. Your PM system does not seem to be accepting messages though.

My son is the owner of Europvc Windows Pattaya.

Regards

I am on retirement visa (not married to a Thai) and at todays rate of 51 to the UKP compared to last years rate at 63 I will need another £3000 to ensure I have the correct amount 3 months before the visa is due to renew. OK for me and I can afford it but how many wil have to really scrape to get this together?

Thailand is getting more expensive for many living here with no drops in prices and poor exchange rates compared to past years. Interest rates that many are relying on for income falling heavily around the world with many losing big sums of money as the stock markets colapsed also. It is a lose, lose ,lose situation for a huge number of ex-pats living here and I cant see it getting any better unless the Baht starts to decline.

Now we see the chosen cheaper method of living here without long term visas increase in price 2 fold by doubling border run numbers and those guys with lower incomes or resources must in general be the ones that are going to be most affected. I am afraid that living here for some just got a whole lot tougher and maybe for some they will have to leave.

I too agree whole heartedly that those living here and working without work permits illegally may well be the target of this so if correct then they are spoiling it for the guys who live here without working but do so on their own declining limited resources. It might also encourage the good guys to go and get Non Im visas so they can reduce the border run numbers and save some of their hard earned.

Any options in and out of here whilst BKK & DMK is shut? Which airlines use it? Or is the airport closed also? I'm stuck in Jakarta trying to get to Bangkok.

You could fly to KL, then take an Air Asia flight to Phuket. From there you can go to U-Tapao on Bangkok Air - only 2-3 hours from Bangkok by road. I did this trip yesterday (28th)!

Just booked tickets for friend for tomorrow to get him home from Manila. Here is the route and Malasia Air both sectors.

MNL to KL leaves around 15.30

Overnight KL

KL to U-Tapou 12.25 arrives 13.35

Cost for economy was 28K Baht though one way only. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

No mention of the incident in any online media so far. I am constantly checking the news feeds.

I live next door and my massage lady arrived just after 12. She was shaking as she told me about it but she said there was an explosion and around 50 were dead or trapped. Apparently many survivors ran onto the beach where she was at the time and most were Cambodian and Burmese workers she said. I can see the area from here as a condo blocks my view but amazingly the condo under construction at the rear of this one (same company) is still full steam ahead in construction.

According to Nation News Phuket and Krabi have all flights supended now until further notice plus this.

THAI labour union calls for its members to take leave

By The Nation

Thai International Airways' Labour Union has called for its members to take leave immediately to protest the police's use of forces against anti-government protesters on Friday.

Union's president Jamsri Sukchoterat said that the union voiced disagreement with police's use of forces against the unarmed protesters who just exercised their rights to demonstrate.

"The union then calls for 15,000 members to take immediate leave to protest the government's move. If the violence against the protesters continues, we call for all 25,000 THAI members to stop working," she said.

So what did happen. It seems that the flight to Bkk arrived on the 22nd but then went tech and did not return.

Just checked on departures and arrivals for today at Bangkok and no sign of Transglobals Saturday flight.

I down and several more to go. The Thai courts are to be commended.

HSBC Bangkok has not been mentioned yet. I have a Visa CC with them based on my Premier UK account status.

I also have an account at SCB and recently the branch manager has offered to approve a card for me. I dont have a work permit but he said that was not a problem. Lived here on retirement visa for several years.

Seeing that you are relatively new here, Hilly, I should have added that when Lopburi gives information on visas and extensions you can be sure that it is correct and does not need confirmation by others. Knowing this is the reason why other members do not normally pipe in after Lopburi has answered a query.

--

Maestro

Thanks and been here on Thaivisa a few years and living in LOS many more years so I know how things change. I do appreciate the advices and will let you know how it goes which no doubt will be exactly as advised.

Lopburi has given you the information you asked for. What more do you need?

--

Maestro

OK. If you are sure then I will run with that and thanks.

Judging from the number of replies this is not an easy one.

Actually you did not mention any re-entry permit or dates - what you said, and I missed, is "I do have a multiple entry visa so can come and go as I want." So you were talking about a re-entry permit. Was it transferred into your new passport? Be very sure before you travel.

Yes it is there thanks.

You must obtain a re-entry permit prior to travel. That date will be July 15, as are your newly transferred stamps; and that date will be entered into your passport when you return. You should plan to renew shortly after your return.

FYI: you do not have an OA visa. You have a one year extension of stay from Immigration.

Thanks and a good start.

As I said above I have a Multi Entry Stamp also issued on the 28th June 2007 and it says it is valid until the 15th July 2008 so dont see why I need a re-entry permit????

I thought I knew the answer but I might well not. Here is the scenario and thanks.

I got my first retirement visa on 7th August 2006 and they back dated the start date to coincide with my previous Non Im 0 Visa that expired on 15th July 07.

Therefore my first retirement visa was valid to 15th July 2007.

Then I renewed it on 28th June 07 and they forward dated the allowed to stay date until 15th July 08 yet again.

I just got a new Brit passport yesterday because my old one was full so trying to keep lilly white I popped up to immigration Jomtien at 8.30 am this morning to get them to transfer my stamps over as I am leaving for 10 days in Vietnam on the 15th June.

No problems at all this morning at immigration and my girl went there this afternoon to pick up my passport. The stamps had been transfered with the allowed to stay date still 15th July 08 so all if fine to this point.

However the immigration guy asked my girl why I was not renewing my retirement visa now instead of bothering with stamps being transfered. Basically the reason was lack of time as my passport has just now gone to the Vietnamese embassy for my visa but I have just had a nasty thought.

When I arrive back from Vietnam it will be Friday 27th June in the evening. If they take the expiry date as 28th June (the date I renewed last year) then I might not be able to get anything other than a visitor visa and mess up my retirement status which would not be good. I do have a multiple entry visa so can come and go as I want.

Hopefully someone here will say that I will get stamped back into Thailand with a permitted to stay until date of 15th July 2008 and still have a couple of weeks left to renew my 1 year OA visa again. What are your thoughts guys please?

Well it has started early. One Pattaya agogo owner I know of had to send 13 girls out for free food last night after being told that his raid would be happening in 30 minutes. They were all pretty happy when they came back later though.lol