aznyron

Thaivisa Currency Converter (Bookmark it!):

http://www.thaivisa.com/currency-converter.0.html

1 usd = 35.47 t/b as of 8.11 pm i 26 07

now let me tell all of you readers you have to get the rate from Bangkok Bank that the one all thai banks use and it 50 or 100 dollor bill to thai baht they use now for my personal opinion the thai baht is over in flatted it not worth 35.47 it should be around 41 or 42 to 1 usd look at the country tourism way down bombing in BKK stock market colapse coup in goverment matial law through out the country irresponsible adminstration does not know how to govern practice of protectism plus a past Tsunami in the south also unrest between muslims and the goverment now you tell me why we should only get 35.47 to 1 usd they can feed you all the B S they want but I know a scam when I see one here is a sample little more than a year a go 1 million baht = 25000 usd now 1 million baht = 35000 usd there is a net profit of 10.000 usd on every 1 million baht that why it a scam some one like bkk bank is scaming the money market but it will colapse and you all who saved your money in your home country bank will make a killing those of us who do not will just lick there wounds and move on I am no econmist but I am from Brooklyn New York were scams were born I can smell it like cheap french perfume just ride the storm you will profit from it AMEN

I paid 3 months. First month and two months for deposit. I asked my gf when signing and she said it is not normal to pay the last month in advanced like it is in the US. The condo management agreed that it was the norm here too.

Let me ad my two cents if you give 3 months rent 2 months sec/dep you are a fool I give two months one month sec/dep and if they don't accept that I just move on no problem I don't hagle or argue I just tell them that all I will pay and I have my own furn. and I rent apt empty I will not wherehouse some one else furn. this way if some thing breaks it yours you don't have to be over charged for some piece of shi+ I have learned renting is a business you are the buyer if you don't like the terms dont rent from them and make sure you get plenty of water I had that problem after I moved in a place in pattaya on soi katalo the water was shut off during the day they said they had to make repairs but it took over a month and still was not fixed so I moved out and I lived out my sec/ dep and told the land lord if he did not like it tough shi+ don't let these land lord bull shi+ you as for letting some one else find your apt that was foolish of you look for your self my two cents is used up AMEN

Enough is enough : Thaksin

Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed not to re-enter politics, saying "enough is enough."

Speaking publicly for the first time since his ousting, Thaksin told CNN that he would like to return to Thailand as a private citizen.

"After six years in politics, it is time for me to be normal citizens, outside political arena. Enough is enough," Thaksin said during brief interview with CNN from Singapore.

He dismissed suggestion that he was behind the New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok and surrounding areas that resulted in the death of three people.

Thaksin called on the authorities to bring the culprit to justice and expressed sympathy with those who suffered from the bombings.

"I came from election. I came from the people," said Thaksin, described the bombings as "stupid".

--The Nation 2007-01-15

This inability to pronounce the letter R correctly can be

amusing , can't it?

Since I am only a guest in Thailand maybe i should not post this reply but some thing says I should do it P.M Thaksin was democractly elect by the people in my opinion this goverment is illegal and also things were not great under thaksin but they were better than now bombs going off all over thai baht inflatted exports down people in fear sorry the military was wrong to have coup to remove a man who is loved by his people it seems only the ones who were block out from the illegal profits made are the ones complaining and in charge now screwing things up my two cents is more than used up

Ah, the Nana Hotel, what evocative memories it stirs! I stayed there once, one night, and swear that the musty odour of the rooms could be detected before opening the taxi door.

As suggested by others, with your wife in tow, I'd suggest flashing a little more cash and staying at another place, there's plenty to choose from. If you wish to expeience Nana Plaza you can easily get there by sky train or taxi and you won't have to admit to colleagues that you stayed at the N H (snigger, nudge-nudge-wink-wink, know-what-you-mean! ).

My first visit to Thailand in may of 04 I spent in the Holiday Inn in Silom I book through hotels.com and the rooms are excellent and every thing you want is a taxi ride away and maria's rest close by is excellent place to eat specializing in italian food go on the internet and check them out and book on the net you will save some money enjoy your visit to Thailand

I live at the Rama 2 Road in Bangkok, and I can say I see less white guys then I see downtown Korat. Also I have a True 1024/512 and a Samart WoW 2048/512 which both pull top performance.

The plus is that if I need to get into the white world, t is only 30 minutes away

I have a question to ask you Richard can you tell me more about samart wow I am interested in getting a desent ISP here so far I found them to be worse than a dial up in my home country at least my dial up in the usa slow but got me on the WWW here in Thai I can not get outside thai. and I am tired of that so any info you can provide this forum I am sure will be welcomed thank you

It seems we are now getting into the area of individual Thai Consulate interpretations of the law. As I mentioned a few posts ago, in the context of an 800k deposit to a Thai bank with a view to retirement in Tahiland, a consulate in Australia advised me they would need to see evidence of a supportable income before issuing me with a multiple entry visa, the first step in this process.

It seems, as with most laws that apply to varying individual circumstances, there's a certain degree of flexibility, perhaps. The abused wife who murders her husband in self-defense, does not get the same penalty as the wife who murders her husband for the insurance payout.

It seems there is a lot of talk here on this subject which has been a thorn in the sides of a few I do not see any thing different except they are now going to enforce the law for a retirement visa you need 800k in a thai bank or 65000 a month income quite simple the rest you all know age etc as for the monthly income you must get a letter from your embassy of proof of income and that applies to every year you renew your visa unless you have the 800k in a thai bank you also must have a bank account in thailand showing the funds coming in I failed to mention if you are using a 65000 baht monthly income what I do is go to my bank (thai) and use my atm card and transfer my funds from my usa account to my thai account twice a month I do not bring in 65k every month I just have to show money coming in and get a letter from the bank when you renew your visa' I also recomend you save your atm reciepts when you withdraw cash from the local atm machines it also shows some proof you are bringing money in to thailand It is also helpful if you bring your thai girl friend or wife with you when you go to immigration office and dress respectful no shorts and tank tops wear a collored shirt show some respect and it would also be nice if you brought in a six pack of cold soda for them if in a small office as for bkk or pattaya I would not do that there

you forgot the backrub

it those back rubs my lady gives me is what keeps me here no american girl or uk female will do it for you amen

Welcome back Amazing Thailand!

Best news in a long time, and its the one word that really sums up the place.

Few policy hiccouchs along the way but hey, Thailand is still amazing, fun and freindly to live in, whatever happens at government level.

Im all in favour and think its a great move. Give credit where its due.

As for me Thailand can do what ever it wants it none of my business i am just a guest here I only wish Thailand would get a real high speed ISP here so I can enjoy my retirement here Just remember one thing you are all guest here and if you do not like what the Goverment does you have a option you can leave as for the poor thai people they can not leave when was the last time a thai can buy a plane ticket to the USA or the UK and get a 30 day visa when they arrive at the airport in USA or the UK so when it comes to being predijudice look to our own countries they are the ones not Thailand or Malaysia or laos & Cambodia just take a deep breath and look in the mirror my two cents is all used up have a nice day salome

I am looking for a good ISP one that gives me the whole WWW not just thailand web sites and I want it to be lightning fast no B/S waiting time I want all my web pages to come up and show not time out or internet expl. can not open this page just buracratic Thai bull/sheet I had satelite in usa (arizona) and it was very good my kids in florida have cable it very good I would be satisfied if I could get the pages I want even when I had dial up 56k in AZ before I got my satelite it was 1000 times beter than ttt & tot adsl so what gives now can any one make a recomendation about there ISP if so please post it do not keep it a secret thank you Ronnie

It seems we are now getting into the area of individual Thai Consulate interpretations of the law. As I mentioned a few posts ago, in the context of an 800k deposit to a Thai bank with a view to retirement in Tahiland, a consulate in Australia advised me they would need to see evidence of a supportable income before issuing me with a multiple entry visa, the first step in this process.

It seems, as with most laws that apply to varying individual circumstances, there's a certain degree of flexibility, perhaps. The abused wife who murders her husband in self-defense, does not get the same penalty as the wife who murders her husband for the insurance payout.

It seems there is a lot of talk here on this subject which has been a thorn in the sides of a few I do not see any thing different except they are now going to enforce the law for a retirement visa you need 800k in a thai bank or 65000 a month income quite simple the rest you all know age etc as for the monthly income you must get a letter from your embassy of proof of income and that applies to every year you renew your visa unless you have the 800k in a thai bank you also must have a bank account in thailand showing the funds coming in I failed to mention if you are using a 65000 baht monthly income what I do is go to my bank (thai) and use my atm card and transfer my funds from my usa account to my thai account twice a month I do not bring in 65k every month I just have to show money coming in and get a letter from the bank when you renew your visa' I also recomend you save your atm reciepts when you withdraw cash from the local atm machines it also shows some proof you are bringing money in to thailand It is also helpful if you bring your thai girl friend or wife with you when you go to immigration office and dress respectful no shorts and tank tops wear a collored shirt show some respect and it would also be nice if you brought in a six pack of cold soda for them if in a small office as for bkk or pattaya I would not do that there

don't confuse my reply with the one below about renting a motor bike that not my reply some how they got mixed up mine ends with your neighbor acroos the border usa good luck Ronnie (aznyron)

Rumors of another coup are floating around. That certainly contributes to people being nervous. If there is another coup you can bet it will be bloody one. I also think we will see more bombings. The people who celebrated Thaksin being run out just may have a change of opinion before this all shakes out.

Some people are touting Vietnam. They seem to have forgotten that Vietnam is a communist country where anything can happen any given day. Do they really believe that you have any rights in a communist country?

The bottom line is that I'll stay here as long as it is practical. Cambodia has a long ways to go but I'd rather live there than in Laos or Vietnam.

The last time I look Cambodia was a communist country and I have the movie killing fields which was in cambodia based on a true story after the USA left Vietnam my question is with all the B/S that going on why is it the Thai baht strong ? of course I have my own opinion on it I have a simple answer to some of the concerns here just don't buy real estate just pay rent this way if things go sour you just pack and leave no money invested to lose Why would I pay a million baht for a house I can rent for 8000 a month and the joke is it not in your name may I say any more on that issue If you are buying real estate for your little cutie pie then you deserve what you get and when she take you for every thing don't come crying about how the thai girls ripped you off As for me I invested a few bucks here not much but I can afford to lose it since I am on a Pension from USA that go with me every were I go and no cutie pie can steal it and on another subject Thailand does not need the back packers sleeping on the beach and using the beach as there toilet my 2 cents is all used up until my next post have a nice day

We've got a maid who, like many others, lives in the same building (her hubby is the condo handyman), but doesnt live in with us. She comes three days a week for 3-4 hours, or however long it takes. For that I pay her 4500 a month and give her a month's bonus each New Year. I'll be increasing her salary to 4800 this month.

She's fantastic . .even takes care of the cats if we go away and invariably goes out to buy fresh flowers for place out of her own money.

I am no cheep charlie but these girls work in factory for 5 k a month and work there fannies off for that money now you pay 4500 a month for 3 days a week yes you are spoiling them and no thai could afford to hire them any more or want to hire them I do not use a maid I have a g/f that does my cleaning but if I was to hire one I think 200 baht a day is fair amout of pay plus there lunch and travel expense if any which is lot more than they would make in some sweat shop factory here in udon my landlord pay his night watch man 3500 a month and he get no time off that comes to little bit more than 100 baht a day think about it before you jump and ask what the thai are paying but do not tell them you want to hire one LOL

StrongView: I asked Ji-Net today about a discount/refund as I'm sure not getting my 3000B worth of connectivity this month. Of course the answer was "sorry, no, it's not our fault". This is sort of like paying for a taxi to not go anywhere...

SoMeOnEnUlL, thanks for posting that email. Please post any others they send.

why is it they blam the underwater cable what ever happened to satellite eathquake did not affect that my opinion is there is a block on all transmission leaving thailand correction a slow down on all transmission leaving thailand last year I try out loxinfo satelite system it was terrible now I don't blam the system I blam the installers of the system because I had satelite in the usa and it was very fast and very good if I knew I could get that system here in thailand I would pay for it I want a fast isp not some bull shit adsl which is just a little bit faster than a dial up I also had ttt adsl 1g paying 1000b a month I complained got the engineers over to my house and they said they could not fix it because it was europe fault now this was befor the quake and before Christmas so I cancelled I am net working of my landlord computer he is on tot adsl now the question any one know about cat telcom. they have internet high speeds and expensive but I would like to know if they are getting out with good speed to usa & europe etc my life on the net is out side of thailand I want speed speed and more speed in the usa we have cable which is very fast better than dsl or adsl maybe even better than satelite

I haven't been able to access my Excite email account, it started with the disruption of internet service the other week so I thought it would come back but no luck,

I have emailed the excite.com technical support people and they have answered to check the cookie setting and the clock setting, check this but I don't see how that could affect all the different computers I have used since then (home, office, internet cafe)

this is my primary email address, have used it for over a decade so I really want to resolve this quick.

Can someone offer advice

thanks a bunch here what you do go to internet operations then go to privacy and lower your privacy scale then restart your pc now for the bad news get another email client excite is loaded with spyware get your self hotmail or yahoo account they are free

Yes LivinLOS, that's exactly how I see it. I spend quite a bit, but that gets me a lot more for my money. In Pattaya I can eat out with my girl in nice restaurants once or twice a day no problems...she's no good cooking and I hate cooking myself.

BarryZ, the reason why I live in Pattaya is because I have access to all the foreign food and shops that come with the territory. Sure, I could live a spartan existence elsewhere (even here actually), but my attitude is that, as you said before, I want to live better here than at home and I had already set high standards back there.

Exactly right.. I am a sucker when I shop (ohh feta stuffed olives.. Hmmm nice salami.. Etc) and find its cheaper to eat Thai pre cooked than letting me in a shop.. I also live in a 'tourist' area because I want to have the ability to get things I consider necessities, good quality unground coffee beans and a broadband connection are not going to be easy to get in Nakon Nowhere.

Secondly as terrible as it sounds I like to discuss things and shoot the breeze and quite simply finding Thais with a political opinion or much worldview isnt easy.. I dont want to watch rice growing.

As for those who live an entire months budget on 10k etc.. I simply cant fathom it.. I went out on a bike cruise yesterday, bumped into some buds, had a few unexpected drinks, those turned into sundowners, drinks were purchased for some companions.. and looking at the wallet today looks like I spent someones months budget yesterday !! The plan is that the same buds will come by for a BBQ this afternoon, so out to get some king prawn and good steaks, they will bring the wine.. Looks like another half a months budget this afternoon !!

Now I am not writing that to seem like a boast, unfortunately whenever money is discussed if you mention that you spend a lot it is perceived as boasting.. Thats not my intent at all. However imported beef costs the same (or more if tax and transport is considered) worldwide.. Coffee beans have a fixed price.. As does so many things. Sure I can exist on rice and noodles (I do 90% of the time) but thats not much of a barbie is it ??

We're going to try out Brazil sometime later this year. Get this: In Brazil I get a free 90 days stamp on arrival, renewable in country for a further 90 days. My Filipino girl gets a 180 day stamp free (no shit!).

And I read that very easy to get PR and route to citizenship, along with right to own your home.. Lots of red carpet treatment... Good climate.. Interested to know how it works for you..

I am on retired visa I do not drink or smoke so spending money on food that I like is no problem my problem is finding it if your a drinking man 1000 baht a day is what you will spend minium plus the lady drinks LOL so you will need a budget of about 100k a month minium I do go to a bar to chat with friends I spent around 500 baht some times less and I drink a couple of sodas so to me that is little expensive but I do not do it often and I have some very wealthy friends and they are conservative with there spending also because it becomes habit forming example my G/F lived on 5k a month before she met me now she spends almost that much in a week LOL but I guess when you get to be a senior citizen you will slow down if your still breathing LOL amen

of course the easiest thing now is to point finger at Thaksin ....

Actually the easiest thing would be to point the finger at external terrorists making a point after Saddam's execution or the southern separatists. Howeevr, the evidence doesnt point at them. In fact it seems to rule them out. That does kind of leave Mr. T and/or some of his supporters in a bit of a spot. I am sure some conspiracy theorists will be on hand to try and alleviate this unfortunate position in which he or his find themselves.

As I read most of the post and i do not agree with most because many are jumping to quick to convict let all take a deep breath and let the experts do there job and when the report come out and if it flaky and suspious then we can spek on it as a New Yorker who city was torn apart by 9-11 and now we have our country divided over the 9-11 findings let not see that happen here

Who Ever they are, what ever their twisted motive... They WIN if we let them control us through fear... They WIN if we let them stop us from celebrating the new year. It's not easy, and it's certainly scary, but we can't let them gain control.

They already won they got the New Year celebration cancelled they killed a few people and injured many and they were not caught now people are going to walk in fear like what happened in new York on 9-11 they even got Seacon Square to close this will hurt tourism which is already hurting and with the coup as well as the 2005 tsunami in the South as well as the violence in the South and with the thai baht over inflatted so few crooks can make a fast killing how is Thailand going to recover after all that B/S and now we are back to martial law in BKK if I did not live here I would not come here for vacation and I am sure many people think on the same lines as I do there are many beautiful beaches around the world and with there currentcy not inflatted may I say more. A personal note to BKK Bank stop playing with the thai baht your hurting the country more than the terrorist are

Internet recovery continues slowly

CAT capacity restored to 50%

Millions of frustrated Internet users across Asia have slowly regained access to overseas websites, three days after an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan snapped several vital undersea cables.

Connections remained slow in Malaysia and Thailand, where communications authority CAT Telecom said capacity had only been restored to 50 per cent.

"Thailand is still lucky compared to other countries where Internet connections have totally collapsed," a CAT official said.

Telecoms operators across the region re-routed Internet links to circumvent the ruptured lines off the southern part of the island, as engineers donned diving suits to assess the damage and begin repairs.

"Everything is improving now," said a spokesman for PCCW, Hong Kong's largest fixed-line operator.

"All international call and roaming services have gone back to normal, including to Taiwan, although some websites are still congested," he said.

Hong Kong's telecommunications authority said five maintenance ships had been dispatched to repair six fiber-optic cables, which handle about 90 per cent of telecommunications capacity in the area.

"Overall there has been some improvement in access to the Internet today. However, most users will continue to experience slow access," it said in a statement.

It added some ships arrived at the scene Thursday, but the weather had obstructed survey and assessment work.

"Initial surveys indicated that damage to the submarine cables was substantial," it said.

The authority said it may take longer to repair the cables than the original estimate of five to seven days.

Taiwan's largest phone company, Chunghwa Telecom, has commissioned three more ships to assist the repair effort. The cables ruptured following Tuesday's 7.1-magnitude earthquake, which killed two people on the island.

An official from Chunghwa said voice traffic to the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia remained relatively weak, but was improving.

Internet users frustrated by their inability to log onto e-mail accounts, news websites and online banking services -- conveniences that have become part of modern life -- found access across the region Friday improved, but still patchy.

Southeast Asia's largest telecom operator, Singapore Telecommunications, said it had established a "command centre" to restore full service as quickly as possible.

"Internet access to all websites has been normalised for emailing, browsing and online transactions," it said in a statement. "Access to services such as gaming and video downloading, which require higher bandwidth, may experience some delays."

The company said SingTel BlackBerry service had been fully restored.

"As part of our cable traffic redirection effort, traffic to the US is being re-routed via Europe or Australia, as well as using other channels such as satellite links and landlines," it said.

In South Korea, Hong Seong-Yong, an official at the communications ministry, said: "Recovery work is moving ahead quickly, with nearly all financial institutions, including foreign banks, back to normal overnight."

The Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency characterised the week's web difficulties as "cyber-chaos", with a source at China Netcom saying progress on restoring service had been slow.

China Netcom said two boats had been sent out to start repairing the damaged lines and three others would soon depart, the China Daily reported.

Indonesia's telecoms authority said it could take up to a month to restore Internet capacity, which had fallen to just 17 per cent following Tuesday's quake.

"This incident is a major problem for us," director general of post and telecommunications Basuki Yusuf Iskandar was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

Analysts said it was too early to estimate the total financial losses caused by the week's Internet mayhem. Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom put preliminary losses at 150 million Taiwan dollars (4.6 million US).

"They are the hardest hit, I would say," noted Sachin Mittal with DBS Vickers Securities in Singapore. "Probably all the (other) telcos will be less than Chunghwa."

-- Agencies 2006-12-30

Hello can any one give me cat website I would like to check there internet connection to see what they offer thank you Ronnie

I am on a retirement visa my income exceeds the 65k rule now if I marry my G/F all I need is 40k a month income to get a year visa

Even better, you do not have to remit 40k per month to Thailand, only what you need to live. What immigration wants to see is evidence of monthly income, earned by you, your wife, or both together. If you change your application for annual extension from “retirement” to “live with Thai wife” based on your foreign-earned income, you need an affidavit certified by your embassy. The embassy and probably also Immigration may also want to see the supporting documents for the income.

The drawback is that for every application you have to bring your wife along to the immigration office, more paperwork may be required, and the approval is not immediate. You get a 30-day under consideration stamp, perhaps even more than once, until final approval is given.

If you prefer, seeing that you are earning over 65k per month, you can continue the retirement extension but change from 800k in the bank to 65k monthly income.

--

Maestro

Maestro is significantly more aware of the rules than I am or ever will be, however are there not 2 other drawbacks for consideration when deciding whether to switch to the "so called Marriage Visa" from a Retirement Visa

1) should the world fall apart and the marriage end in divorce or death of the spouse (sorry to raise a negative point) then the "Marriage" Visa will no longer be applicable and a person would need to switch again to the Retirement Visa in order to stay in Thailand

2) If the Immigration Bureau increases the minimum thresholds etc. during the time a person holds a "marriage Visa" then when he/she re-applies for the Retirement Visa after a divorce or death of a spouse won't that person be subject to the latest minimum thresholds and not protected by any grandfathering rules and thresholds that Thailand (at present) respects for renewals.

Maybe Maestro can confirm or correct my knowledge

Kind regards, Dave

Dave you made some interesting points I was just curois about the idea of switching now on a differnent note if my G/F should die before me i would not stay in Thailand any more since she is the only reason why I am still here after the baht playing games with our money I wanted to escape then but I would not leave my g/f behind and going back to the usa would be differcult for me getting her a visa another avenue I know nothing about and I am not going to be a street corner lawyer thinking that if I marry her they have to give her a visa thank you for all your feed back Ronnie

Please don't all jump on me from a great height, but yesterday a friend from BKK called and told me that a UK lawyer from one of the major frim there and who is connected to the British Club had stated in some publication that retirees only need 400,000 to extend their visas if they are married to a Thai. This is not a marriage visa, this is a retirement visa, but with a Thai wife.

For me, his is deja vu, as it was about 12 months ago that I too tried to renew on this basis and got myself into all kinds of Sh..t.

Has anyone else heard of this new wrinkle to the rules - or is it just a load of crap?

RULE 1 Rarely trust a lawyer ( and in this case, never trust his wrong advice )

if you were of retierment age with a thai wife, would you not be able to get a spousal visa, thus only needing 400000 in the bank?

I have a question I am on a retirement visa my income exceeds the 65k rule now if I marry my G/F all I need is 40k a month income to get a year visa the 400k no longer applies if that is true I think it makes things a lot easier for us because it would make thing simple for me once a month a transfer 40k thai baht in to my thai bank account and I am done with all the b/s paper work of saving my atm reciepts and depositing my income in thai bank and having to get letter from bank some times I ask myself is this worth all the b/s thank you Ronnie

We do have the standard filter on it. Didn't make a difference with or without.

Our main problem is a few km of streetlights that come on about 5:55 pm every evening, they are on the same poles as the phone lines and right at phone line level. I guess our signal is just not strong enough to beat the street lights.

How much would a remote cabinet run? Ie if we could get enough neighbors willing to sign up for DSL they might go for it. Just have to see how many neighbors it would take!

Now if only you tech neks could get a job with TOT or TTT and maybe we could get a decent adsl service I just dump mine I was payinf for 1gig and was just getting above 56k dial up going out side the country inside thai it was OK but I need to reach the WWW not just Thai web sites I tried satelite last year either they installed wrong because it sucked or that the way it is in Thailand I was told 2 years ago the Thailand was going to be internet savy in 2 years that means installing fibe optic lines so far I have not seen dilly ship any one out there have any advice I am all ears

Vespa.."How do You Hang a Nail"??

I know they hung some monkeys in Hartlypool a long time ago..

I know they once hung a monkey in Hartlepool before, i have never heard of Hartlypool though.

That´s right, mate.......we once hung a monkey for pretending to be a French spy...the bastard....... and Hartlepool (Hert-er-pol = Stag in the pool........see our city emblem) is now the in-place to live (even though I left 33 years ago, because I couldn´t stand the place..... )...........and...returning to the topic..... ..we nail all savverners who mock our football team.......

An ex-Hartlepudlian

You got some pretty good advice now for my 2 cents there is a product called tapcon screws they screw in to block and brick but you must drill a hole for them they will sell you the correct carbide bit for drilling the screw you choose now take the gentleman advice and buy your self a hammer drill which does both drill and hammers they are about 2000 baht for a cheap handy man model or get your self a good one for around 4000 baht also you can use the plastic plugs there are many options out there you just have to inquire bring your Tg/f with you

So they will keep 30% right off the top and those of us who have it coming in as a service will also have to pay another 30% in taxes so it will be a combined amount of 60% if I understand this right. So that means for every 40,000 Baht you earn you will only get 16,000 Baht then pay your own expenses you will have enough to buy a Pepsi.

Yea Thailand is much better under the new ruling party. I think there jealousy of Thaksin needs to stop already when will there undirected anger subside.

Stop panicking this does not apply to farlong living in thailand it to slow down the speculators buying thai baht just go to your bank transfer your funds to your thai bank acount and every thing is normal this is good news now you will get the fair market for your brit pound or USD I was panicking last week now I am happy I might get to see 40 to 1 again (USD) if you want my opinion I think the scam is now ready to spring they will dump all the USD & Brit pounds back on the market to buy back the thai baht and get 40 or maybe more for 1 usd that is 12 1/2% winfall profit in just 8 months if your smart just transfer enough to pay your bills and few coin to spend on frilouis things like (_i_) and maybe by march we will be getting 50 to 1 usd LOL I keep dreaming hope it comes true

This topic is obviously of extreme importance to a great many as evidenced by 250 people coming out of the woodwork and viewing the topic right now. I've been making my 30 day runs for 15 years consecutively and my plans are to continue doing so right into this thing. I will not be intimidated

Get stuck in there mate...show them that you mean business.

Just a idea for those who do 30 day border runs I went to Malaysia more than a year ago for a non im/o visa and getting off the plane they gave me 90 days so why not use them in malaysia and do a Singapore run after 90 and then return to Thailand that will give you your 6 months away from Thai. with the thai baht over valued maybe you would be better off going to malaysia were the ringit is stable If I did not have a investment here I would look in to Malaysia for living there it was very clean and it looked very nice to me and people spoke english which is a + for me since I do not speak thai.

Phuket tourism soars 87% from 2005

BANGKOK: -- About 4.7 million tourists are projected to visit the southern resort of Phuket in 2006, a jump of 87 per cent from last year, according to a report issued by Kasikorn Research Center.

Tourism in Phuket plummeted after the tsunami devastated southern coastal provinces, including Phuket, on Boxing Day of 2004 but began to recover since the beginning of this year due to several positive factors, the report said.

These factors included increased confidence on safety measures for tourists, close cooperation between the public and private sectors on reviving tourism spots and improving services in Phuket, and regular activities organized on the island.

Of the 4.7 million tourists visiting Phuket in 2006, about 70 per cent are foreign tourists, up 150 per cent from last year, while the remainder are local tourists which are projected to rise 18 per cent this year, the report said.

This year's revenue from tourism in Phuket is estimated at Bt62 billion, a jump of 120 per cent from 2005, of which about 82 per cent of the total comes from spending by foreign tourists.

In a bid to make Phuket the gateway to the Andaman Sea in 2007, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has mapped strategies on developing tourism on the island as well as areas along the Andaman Sea. Private tourism operators will also adapt their business strategies to coordinate with the government's policy.

Tourism recovery in Phuket is expected to continue to 2007 with sustainable growth projected at 11 per cent or 5.2 million people visiting the island while tourism revenue is estimated to further rise to Bt74 billion, the report added.

--TNA 2006-12-10

they expect that much because the thai baht is inflatted way over valued I can't wait until it comes crumbling down when you will get 50 or 60 baht to one USD and it will happen they tell you it the speculators driving the baht up that is a big B/S lie it BKK bank that proping up the thai baht when Thailand can't export no more and they have to pay the imports with the usd or brit pound because they wont trust the thai baht any more you will see it crumbling down the old saying what go up must come down and i am not transferring any more than I have to I rest my case