Capealava

If you want to go there it will be packed with 100% Russian tourists. I went there yesterday with my Thai wife. Did not see one non-Russian person anywhere -except of course Thai people who worked there. Probably over 200. Left and went the other Navy beach.

I am a USA citizen my wife is Thai. We have been invited to England in Jan 2013. Wife has only 1 trip outside Thailand and that was to Malaysia.

Meeting up with a Friend from USA who's mother lives near London (Richmond). Friend’s mother has offered to sponsor my wife for visa (house. food, transportation, etc. Staying about 10 days. Any advice on the process or getting her a visa. Thank you for any response.

Tailspin likes to get personal. Comment not appreciated. Are you a amateur psychiatrist. A lame reply.

Visiting Koh Larn on Sunday I was greeted by a large Russian flag that dated back to i's Communist era. It is common knowledge that Russians are coming to Thailand as tourists in ever expanding numbers and that Pattaya is usually their first Thailand experience before moving outward to other provinces. ( Phuket, Koh Chang, Koh Samiu etc)

The use of the red star and sickle was discontinued in 1991 at the fall of the Communist USSR (Soviet Union)

In several countries in Eastern Europe, there are laws that define the hammer and sickle as the symbol of a "totalitarian and criminal ideology", and the public display of the hammer and sickle and other communist symbols such as the red star is considered a criminal offence. Hungary,^[3]Lithuania^[4] have banned the symbol along with other communist symbols.

Of course you see the flags of many nationalities flying on the Beaches of Thailand. Norway , England, Sweden , Germany, etc, and off course the American Flag is popular for use in Bikinis, t-shirts, and shorts. These flags are shown in the spirit of “Fun” and are not making a claim.

I have to admit this flag flying on the beach of Koh Larn disturbed me. I felt a bit threatened by this flag. It is not the Flag of Russian now. Both the flag and the Russian National anthem was changed in 1991. The hammer and sickle has a threatening aspect to it. The creation of ‘Russian areas” such as Jomtien and Pratunmak areas, Hotels such as the Ambassador known to be virtually "Russian only” have increasingly isolated the Russian Tourists form tourists of other countries and in many ways from Thai culture in general.

I am sure the massive increase of international tourists from Russian will eat away at this isolationism and we will see a new more informed worldly Russian Tourist gradually appear on the world stage.

A existing unit

Sorry. I moved it to Real estate forum

I just go the official government certificate concerning my newly purchased Condo. The Condo was listed as 50.4 sq meters and is stated as such in the contract of sale. The Government certificate states 48.26 Sq meters. I paid 30357 baht per sq meter. Is the Condo company (developer) libel for approximately 60,000 baht cash return? If so do I need a lawyer?

Thank you.

It looks like Super Rich is the place to go. I will be in BKK for 2 days. It is strange --using Aeon ATM (minus the 150 baht Thai Bank charge in Thailand) gives consistently .2--.3 higher rates than the banks. Thought I would bring some cash this time-should have just left in my USA bank and drew in out at Aeon Atms.

I am bringing $6000 USA dollars in $100 dollar bills into Thailand. I was looking at the Bank exchange rates for July 20th $5-$20 is 31.77 and $50-$100 is 31.27.

I do not understand the rate discrepancy. Can someone enlighten me. Does the 5-20 and 50-100 mean the bill size. If so Why the lower exchange rate for $100 bills.??

Are there better place to exchange the money I am bringing in that a Thai bank??

Thanks for any reply

I am returning to USA soon and will return wilth a 1 year multi-entry immigrant ) visa based on marriage to a Thai. When I return I will have 3 months with an extension remaining on a 3 entry tourist visa. Can I use the tourist visa’s remaining 3 month and then begin the immigrant O visa. Of course I am assuming I cannot, but just checking the possiblitly here.possibility

I have a 3 entry tourist visa. The visa expires July 30th. I plan on returning to the USA July 15th and returning July 26th. This will be my last entry as I have used 2 already. I am assuming that i will be given another 2 months stay at the airport upon arrival since my visa does not expire until July 30th. Also I should be able to extend this 2 months to 3 months with another 30 day extension at immigration. Is all this correct?

Also is the Thai consulate in Kuala Lumpur still handing out 1 yr multi entry immigrant 0 visas based on marriage to a Thai with 100,000 baht in the bank. Thank you for any help here.

Thank you

Can one extend their Tourist visa a couple of weeks before the 60 days or do you have to wait until just before it expires??

I am returning to Pattaya after 10 years from Phuket to stay for a year for personal and business decision. I am looking for a long term rental and am hoping for information on Condo complexes that have become overwhelmed with Russians or "Russiafied" As a personal preference I hope to avoid that ‘crowd” This post is not meant to be offending-just looking for info

Thanks

I have searched Thaivisa and found many topics about transferring money from USA banks to Thai Banks.

However, I wish to to transfer funds in this case “FROM" Kasikorn Bank to a USA Bank?

Any experience or advice concerning transferring funds from Kasikorn to a USA bank would be appreciated.

Has anyone used "International Funds Transfer via K-Cyber Banking” http://www.kasikornb...anferMoney.aspx

Thank you all

Hello, I am not expecting a obvious solution concerning getting Health insurance In Thailand.

I have been coming to Thailand for 10 years but now will be staying full time as a retiree.

I am 65 yrs old and have a pre-exisitng condition.

Any hope for obtaining Expat health insurance in Thailand.

Any advice is appreciated

Hello,

I am thinking of buying a home in Pattaya next year. Most likely East Pattaya, but looking all over. With the rise of home burglaries and other types theft against farangs in Phuket and Pattaya I am concerned about that. Should one feel safe concerning the stuff one keeps in their house. I know some villages have security and some are gated, but that rarely stops a determined thieve. Can one purchase Home theft insurance in Thailand? Insurance or not any home invasion would be traumatic. Would like to know what I am getting into concerning this when buying a home. Any advise I receive will be appreciated

Partly just adaptation to a foreign culture, the struggle to understand, and the like. It's mostly not intended to be mean-spirited I think. Most of us understand that if Thais were to come and live in the West they would have tons to gripe about too- and would need to vent.

I complain about Thailand but choose to live here because it is better than any alternatives I've seen. It's not a black/white thing- no culture is hell and no place is heaven. Thailand is, in the end, just a great place with a lot of problems. But it's got fewer problems that affect me directly than my home country and is a great alternative.

After ten years here - I think your answer is the most reasonable. Thailand and Thai culture leaves a lot to be desired, but in the end we chose to be here each for our own particular reasons. There is a whole world out there and here we are. After years of living here the dreamy nature of Thailand wears off and you begin to see more clearly. Expats in general may be somewhat addicted the adversity of living without a culture. It is obvious we can never be part of Thai culture yet we left our own behind.

Thailand has many beautiful destinations. However,carelessness and lack of mature driving skills Kill and injury so many people. Thai’s are possibly the worst drivers in the World after China. They are raised in a culture that does not promote following the rules, their police force is unskilled and do not enforces the rules. I have lived in Thai;and for 10 years and I have NEVER seen a car pulled over for a traffic infraction. Traffic laws are constantly broken, from drunk driving to not stopping at a stop sign. When I am a passenger in a car driven by a Thai I never feel comfortable and I try to avoid being in that situation.

In Phuket you get run over by cars, speedboats, jet ski’s and Tuk Tuks. In Bangkok it is everyman for himself. The police do nothing but collect their bribes. I was paid 2000 baht once at a toll station because I was told I had gone over the speed limit, actually I was under the speed limit. He said he had me on Radar. There is know radar there.. I told him I would not pay him and he said ok. We will impound your vehicle and then you will have to make your way to the station across town on foot. I paid of course.

What ever happened to that underage unlicensed girl who killed 8-9 people by forcing a van over the toll way bridge. Her wealthy parent paid everyone off and that is the last we heard of it.

I am in the process of applying for a non-immigrant ) multiple entry visa from the Portland Thai Consulate in USA. 2 years ago I received this visa no problem for visiting friends. This Consulate could be considered friendly. However it looks as if Thailand may have tightened this up a bit. So I am looking forward a bit.

If this visa is not given to me I will be applying for tourist visa multiple entry. I plan to marry next year 2012 and if I have this visa I am wondering what the process is to obtain a non-immigrant 0 visa (which I know is necessary to apply for a marriage extension) while in Thailand.

I will meet the 40,000 baht per mont requirement for the marriage extension.

Doesn't seem to be affecting Pattaya. I was there recently and the place is packed with Iranian men ,Russian couples and thousands of old single European men sitting at tables looking at Isan girls.

Well these people are the given: Older men retired hanging out (nothing wrong with that_ Russians well-- I just read that only 1.5 % of Russians have the means to travel internationally ( the lucky few related to the oil industry. Still winter in Russia who wouldn’t leave. As for the Pious Iranian Muslims escaping from their Mullahs well no comment.

From Russia with riches - and rudeness

Move over loud Americans and towel-brandishing Germans - now there’s a new tourist annoying British holidaymakers, says Max Davidson.

Image 1 of 3

Every generation of British holidaymakers has its bête noire, its least favourite fellow tourist, and this summer it's the Russians Photo: Getty

By Max Davidson5:49PM BST 20 Aug 2008

First it was Brad from Illinois, with his 20-stone wife, trying to do Europe in a week. Then it was Fritz from Munich, hogging the sunlounger. Then it was Shane from Brisbane, with the accent you could cut with a knife. Every generation of British holidaymakers has its bête noire, its least favourite fellow tourist. And there is no doubt who is filling the bill this summer — Ivan from Moscow, the hotel guest from hell.

See that guy with a gold bracelet propping up the bar, with a blonde on each arm? That’s Ivan. See the guy at the corner table, puffing clouds of smoke while snapping instructions into his mobile phone? That’s Ivan’s mate, Nikolai. See the guy with bulging biceps squiring the blowsy redhead in the see-through shirt? That’s Ivan’s mate Nikolai’s minder, Boris. And, yes, that is a gun in his armpit, just above the tiger tattoo.

Ivan and his entourage seem to be everywhere, from the Aegean to the Canary Islands, and if you go by the anecdotal evidence, they are making more enemies than friends.

When it came to behaving badly abroad, the gold medals used to go to British lager louts, trashing places like Benidorm and Faliraki. We are still a force to be reckoned with — the number of British holidaymakers arrested is up 15 per cent on last year — but we have been knocked off the podium by the Russians.

RELATED ARTICLES

'Russians don’t get the idea of discretion, do they?’ 20 Aug 2008

Russians are 'ugliest tourists' 08 Aug 2008

“The place was crawling with them,” says a friend who has just returned from a week in a five-star hotel in Antalya in Turkey. “Men in hideously tight Speedo trunks, women who looked about 16 and dressed like prostitutes... They were loud, aggressive, smoked incessantly, filled the place with their fumes. As for booze, they outdid the Brits at their own game: got drunk faster, and were more aggressive afterwards.”

I had a similar experience at a Greek beach resort. There was an isolated cove with the words “QUIET BEACH” posted in five different languages. Which accent reverberated across the sand as the rest of us tried to read? You guessed. And who ostentatiously ordered the most expensive bottles of champagne on the wine-list to wash down their lunch? Got it in one.

Partly, of course, we are envious, the way we used to be envious of American tourists when the dollar ruled. For heaven’s sake, we think to ourselves, as the rouble billionaires flash their wads, it is only 20 years ago that these guys were queuing barefoot for bread in the snow.

But there is more to it than envy. There is a clash of cultures: different social attitudes to everything from smoking to mobile phone use and appropriate skirt lengths. It is a toxic combination - and the way modern package tourism works, with 50 Russians suddenly pitching up at the same hotel as 50 Brits or Germans, only makes it more so. National differences get magnified; mutual resentment festers.

Among many “Old Europe” hoteliers, there is a perception, fair or not, that Russians in large numbers are bad news. In 2007, in the upmarket Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel, it was decided to impose a 10 per cent “quota” on Russians: they were felt to lower the tone and put off other guests.

Even the mighty Roman Abramovich is not immune to the backlash against his countrymen. Earlier this month, the multi-billionaire Chelsea owner was refused a table at a restaurant on the Tuscany coast. He was told — and how one envies the man who did the telling — to come back tomorrow as the restaurant was fully booked. “From north to south,” said La Stampa, the Turin daily, “a rebellion is growing against those who show off their wealth and power.”

All over the Mediterranean, there are frictions. Some of them are comically trivial. Non-Russians, for example, are baffled by the way Russians like to reserve seats for evening entertainment by placing pebbles or apples on the chairs — shades of the infamous German towels. But some of them go deeper.

“It is as much a question of decibels as anything else,” says a friend with bad memories of disturbed nights on a holiday on the Croatian coast last summer. “There were only about a dozen Russians in the hotel, but they made enough noise for 50. They didn’t seem to have any conception that other people might want a more low-key kind of holiday. When I tried to complain, that only made things worse.”

In the interests of international harmony, it is fair to say that not all Britons have had bad experiences of Russians on holiday: indeed, it has been said that it is our snobbery, not their rudeness, that is the problem.

“Some of them do make an easy target,” says travel writer Claire Wrathall, who spent time in Russia as a student. “I am thinking of the ones who turn up in the bar wearing silver trainers or an absurd amount of bling. But if you take the trouble to get to know them, particularly the ones travelling on their own rather than in a tour group, they are remarkably sophisticated, the reverse of narrow-minded. Russians tend to be much better at languages than the British and they have a healthy respect for British traditions and culture.”

Hope springs eternal, of course, and when one sees names like Andrei Petrovich or Natalia Godunova in a hotel register in Greece or Italy, one entertains fantasies about meeting characters straight out of Tolstoy or Chekhov: gentle, intelligent, humane; the proud representatives of a great culture.

But why are so many of those fantasies dashed by the sound of a drunken shriek and someone falling off their barstool?

Russian tourists" is a phrase that makes many shudder. Rightfully or not, but Russians earned a reputation of rude alcoholics who like to splurge but have no knowledge of basic etiquette. A German citizen who requested his money back after his vacation was “ruined” by Russians in Turkey added more fuel to the fire.

A funny but sad incident was made public the other day. A German tourist came back from his vacation in Turkey and filed a claim in a court demanding a part of his money back.

The tourist paid 589 Euros for all-inclusive vacation widely popular among Russians and was placed in a hotel filled with Russians by 80%. These Russians caused the tourist much frustration. He said that they ruined his vacation by being “rude” and “unbearable.” The Dusseldorf judge was not convinced and declined the claim.

It is not so much about this particular unlucky German, but about the fact that for many the phrase “Russian tourists” sounds like something horrible and extremely indecent. Everyone knows that certain travel agencies sell special packages for resorts with no Russians present. Not that many know that the buyers of these packages are mainly Russians. It turns out Russians are ashamed of themselves.

Of course, we can say that the bad fame of “always drunk Russians” is a gross exaggeration. Yet, from time to time Russians show themselves in not so favorable light. A good example is a recent video published on-line showing a Russian female in Turkey or Egypt causing an ugly scandal over slow service. While this nice looking lady was cursing a bartender, the crowd was happy to encourage her.

Share

Print version

Font Size

Send to friend

Last year an opinion poll was conducted among Europeans where the participants said the Russian tourists did a lot of harm to others. Russians frustrate other tourists when they bring beach chairs to their rooms to guarantee they have them next day or pack food into their bags at buffets.

They behave extremely rude, speak loudly, and are generally unpleasant. Additionally, they flash their money trying to demonstrate to everyone how wealthy they are.

Interestingly enough, the last characteristic is appreciated in the Crimea. Local hotel owners say that while Russians drink and damage everything, they pay for this damage in full. “When Russians are having fun they want everyone around to have fun. Waiters get ridiculously large tips. Usually after too much food and alcohol Russians fight. Normally it is not only people who suffer but hotel assets as well. Furniture, TVs and glass get crashed. Next morning guests move to another room, pay for the damages and continue their vacation,” local hotel owners said.

Ksenia Obraztsova

Pravda.Ru

This another 'Hysteria" posts. One assumes that it will be harder to obtain a 'Tourist Visa". It will not be. When you come to Thailand you need a airplane ticket and and are u going to sleep on the beach?? For those you will come here the " transporter" or grow wings, just give them any flight number or any address in Thailand. Do you think they have the resources to check every ""tourist visa"

This post makes no sense.

As far as obtaining a new tourist visa's from Laos or other adjoining countries, crossing the border and returning on foot or bus or car, that is not addressed.

This is troll post.

Any experience or advise concerning moving US dollars to Thai baht. I have been in and out of Thailand for 9 years, but now I am here permanently.

Since iI live here now it may make sense to move my dollars here. About $100,000 US. With the dollars weakness and the state of USA economy. (Actually it is worldwide currency problem.) I do not trust the Euro or the pound either. Stock Market is driving me crazy.

I am not a financial wizard. I just worked hard for a small pot at retirement. Cannot do much about my pension that will always be in US dollars.

The Thai baht seems more stable and of course I do live here now. Any feedback is welcome concerning Thai baht and Thai banks ect ect

Buying gold or sliver seems a bit to much. Cashing it in when I need money probably is not that easy or quick. Just rambling on here.

Thanks for any feedback