Asiantravel

22 hours ago, siam2007 said:

since decades south East Asian countries gave each other a very poor exchange rate, as - except for the SG$ - all are considered WEAK currencies that suffer from high volatility.

Since the same number of decades, travelers who do their homework properly always change into US$ when traveling from one South East Asian country to the other and then change it again at their destination. Even if you failed to do so, you nowadays have the chance to get a decent rate at a private money changer. In Bangkok that would have to be the original genuine SUPERRICH and its various copycats, in Kuala Lumpur for example, there are great moneychangers at Midvalley Mall or NU SENTRAL (basement floor) where you get a good rate even for what is considered "Mickey Mouse Money" such as the PHP or IDR. Nowadays, Superrich (the green version, not the orange version) even buys and sells Myanmar Kyat at an acceptable rate (the genuine "orange" Superrich does too but at a poorer rate). That would have been unthinkable still 7 years ago.

Again: Doing your homework before traveling always saves you money, not only when it comes to currency exchange

" Since the same number of decades, travelers who do their homework properly always change into US$ when traveling from one South East Asian country to the other and then change it again at their destination"

Won't help you in Luang Prabang in Laos if you visit the National Museum and try to pay your entrance fee in US dollars. They won't accept it and make you go to the nearby bank to change your American dollars into Kip. That confidence for you

1 hour ago, MaxLee said:

 

He could be charged with defamation.

while the real culprits should be charged with defecation

10 hours ago, jacko45k said:

If you can afford to live in Thailand and not work, go for another Visa type, an Elite perhaps.

because it involves paying a " premium "  which isn't worth it. There is nothing so special about Thailand that it's worth paying upfront to an organisation that has gone broke once before.

for example the coastal resort of Nha Trang in Vietnam in many ways is even much nicer and much less polluted than Pattaya .In fact   I would strongly recommend that anyone on this forum who feel they have reached the end of their Thai tourist Visa's and are forced to make the choice between returning to their home country or buying an Elite visa before doing so should firstly book a brief trip to Nha Trang (or any of the other beautiful coastal resorts in Vietnam) and see what I mean. And after speaking to many expats already living there, they told me Vietnam has no objection to perpetual tourists-no immigration officers saying you have too many tourist visa's in your passport.

yes they expect you to do the Visa runs when the time is up but it's a completely different attitude by the Vietnamese immigration authorities to what people are now encountering in Thailand.

2 hours ago, newnative said:

Yes, money in the bank is liquid and I do have some money in the bank but it only earns me a few dollars a month in interest.  Some people can play the stock market and do well but not me.  I've done better with real estate in the States and here--and, for me, looking for a good condo to buy is a lot more fun than trying to pick a good stock.  But maybe not for everyone.

but at least there is considerably less risk of someone taking your cash in the bank than someone committing property fraud against you and then the courts failing to rectify the situation as exposed in the story that Jonathan Head from the BBC was trying to report to the world before his passport was taken away.

One of the victims was actually a retired real estate appraiser himself from the UK probably never in his wildest dreams expecting such a flawed judicial system when it comes to property matters.

11 minutes ago, Lovethailandelite said:

Can you blame anybody not posting here there experience when the OP has had some of the responses he did, basically calling him a liar and scaremonger? This forum doesn't get anywhere the information it could have because of the way people are treated and attempted to be belittled. Don't think for one nano second that because it's not reported here, it isn't happening.

2 hours ago, Allstars said:

Centara is the first from possibly a long list, as I have personal knowledge of 2 large projects that will follow in the not so distant future.

the domino effect

56 minutes ago, juice777 said:

Also he says he is a long time member but can't fine his log in at the moment for obvious reasons.

and it's laughable to suggest that they just went through three months of foregoing visa fees to lure more tourists here but then they immediately start imposing such unbelievable standards that it all comes down to if you have an  itinerary or hotel booking or

not  if you are allowed into the country

or you can get a dark blue coloured songthaew to go up to Sukhumvit Road and then flag down a white or pale blue coloured  songthaew to  the junction near Bangkok hospital and walk a few metres from Sukhumvit Road to the bus station

45 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Not just condos but houses as well. There are a couple of brand new houses in my village that have never been lived in, in the 8 years I've been here. The owners are asking more than they paid because they seem to think the properties have appreciated, and the houses are slowly deteriorating because of zero maintenance. Can't get my head around that kind of mentality.

because of technology the construction industry is in for a shakeup like it could never have imagined and people will never be able to justify the prices that have paid for property in the past. $10,000 for a house

47 minutes ago, chainarong said:

Embassy's and  Consulates are not even remotely involved with the immigration department , immigration in any country is a separate identity.

on the one hand they go to extraordinary lengths to monitor the whereabouts of foreigners at all times and yet they can't create a common database that would centralise information on everyone for the benefit of all departments involved in the process?

14 minutes ago, trogers said:

Economy theory did not postulate that when supply exceed demand by a large margin, a point would be reached that owners will pay you money to take ownership of their properties...

 

I said bottoming out, but I did not predict a steep climb thereafter...

what if there is no climb at all ?  the Japanese real estate market has been in a bear market for more than 20 years

" p.s. I'm a long time member of TV but can't locate my login details at the moment for obvious reasons  "

OP I'm just curious what is your normal username?

9 hours ago, trogers said:

Probably a 5-6 year wait for the cycle to bottom out...

and what will contribute to world economic conditions being any better in 5 to 6 years  (so that the cycle can bottom out as you say)?

Will productivity be any better, will the global debt be any less, will personal debt be any less, will there be any less jobs lost to robotics and technology, will the already 17,000 vacant units already for sale in Pattaya have been sold by then?

I can't see this latest news helping " investor sentiment "

Hundreds Wanting Money Back as Huge Jomtien Project goes Bust

http://pattayaone.news/en/jomtien-project-goes-bust/

11 minutes ago, Lovethailandelite said:

By pass the front desk. Take the end office on your left hand side.

I put my head in there also and it was equally chaotic

38 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

Well it looks like theyve stirred up a right hornet's nest. I guess there are alternative destinations.  Way too interference and getting worse.

I was in Vietnam last week and the week before which 23 years ago when I first went there just after communism ended it was  one of the most paranoid countries on earth then about foreigners visiting. (23 years ago the police even stopped my car and asked the driver why he was  carrying a foreigner!)

today immigration procedures in Vietnam are totally seamless and you don't see any of this  palaver that is going on in Thailand.

2 hours ago, mommysboy said:

I just don't know the rules I must admit.  It just seems to be random.  If I am seeing a pattern, it's that people who are registered with their immigration office at a particular fixed address seem not to be bothered by immigration.

 

Ultimately, it's quite wrong fining the foreigner, because it is the landlord/hotel owner who is responsible for reporting.  But, you know, this is Thailand.

Or deliberately opaque is another way that you could describe it. I had enough of reading thread after thread with one comment contradicting someone else's comment so yesterday I tried to get some definitive answers from the office in Jomtien  but the girl behind the counter wouldn't even give me enough time to finish my question before thrusting some papers  towards me that had no relevance to what I wanted to know before she quickly turned to serve the next 10 people.

Admittedly the place was like a zoo and the use of the word chaos in the OP's  headline is spot on.

18 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I see someone is trying to sell their Golden Tulip condo on bahtsold. The advert is as if the project is going as planned and will be finished in 2017. Some sucker might fall for it who isn't on the ground

if the seller continued to go ahead giving the impression there were no more potential hurdles ahead I think the buyer would be able to subsequently have the contract rescinded on the basis of it being fraudulent misrepresentation

Quote

 

 

Thailand Criminal Code

 

Section 341. Fraud

Whoever dishonestly deceives a person with the assertion of a falsehood or the concealment of the facts which should be revealed, and, by such deception, obtains a property from the person so deceived or a third person, or causes the person so deceived or a third person to execute, revoke or destroy a document of right, is said to commit the offence of cheating and fraud.

 

1 hour ago, Peterw42 said:

At the moment, the OP would possibly get a fine "if" immigration becomes aware a TM30 has not been submitted for this stay. The only way they become aware is if you have business at immigration. The OP mentions that he leaves Thailand often, if he does a TM30 next re-entry he will be legal and they wont levy a fine for any previous stay without a TM30.

 

What I am saying to the OP is stay off the radar for now and do a TM30 next re-entry. Once you re-enter thailand, any previous stay without a TM30, is null and void, no fine.

 

If the OP races down and puts in a TM30, thinking he is doing the right thing, most likely get a fine.

" What I am saying to the OP is stay off the radar for now and do a TM30 next re-entry. Once you re-enter thailand, any previous stay without a TM30, is null and void, no fine."

how can you be sure this is the case?

2 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Surely the hotel reported her as staying there when she arrived?

yes but how do they do it if they cannot do it online? And this is with regards to every guest that arrives daily

1 hour ago, VBF said:

Thanks @ubonjoe  I''m actually staying in an hotel   -  do you think I'll be OK if i take a printed receipt from the hotel as i did before?  Surely they don't expect hotel owners to go to Jomtien for every guest who wants to extend...... do they? AFAIK the hotel (not a small guesthouse) notifies immigration according to the law.

BTW, in case I wasn't clear, this is an SETV that I want to extend to give me a total of less than 90 days this trip to LOS. I arrived Jan 24th and plan to leave before Songkran

" Surely they don't expect hotel owners to go to Jomtien for every guest who wants to extend...... do they?  "

I would be interested to know the answer to this question also (in view of the fact the  online system is not working according to reports on this forum )

9 hours ago, mommysboy said:

It's a frustrating problem, because essentially they can be fining people for something the landlord has failed to do: namely, notify Thai Immigration of the name and address of someone living in their property or staying at their hotel. Only in Thailand!

 

I would like to know if this sounds feasible. If the landlord in Pattaya has failed to notify immigration within 24 hours I still don't believe anyone on a tourist visa should ultimately theoretically get caught with having to pay a hefty  fine in Jomtien upon the extension of their Visa. Because they always have the choice of moving to a different location temporarily for the extension application itself. You're a tourist anyway so that's what you're meant to be doing i.e. moving around  in Thailand so why can't you check into a hotel somewhere else (e.g. Bangkok, Chantaburi  etc )  the night before you intend to apply for the visa extension and just make sure upon your arrival at the hotel that you tell the what you are going to be doing the next morning and insist that they must notify immigration immediately about your arrival at the hotel.

5 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

But how should a landlord always know the exact whereabouts of his tenant?Thats impossible..Then the landlord can be even abroad himself??Seems to me the tenant need to notify himself each time at immi and if he doesnt he gets the fine.

i don't believe that's the way it works. My interpretation (I might be wrong ) is that once you leave your landlords premises his/her responsibility ends temporarily. If I'm staying in Bangkok and I go to Chiang Mai for a couple of weeks, then the owner of my accommodation in Chiang Mai then becomes responsible for reporting my arrival up there and your landlord will only be responsible for going through the same exercise again upon your return.

And regarding your comment that and the notify tenant needs to himself or herself you might remember in the original post it was said they will not accept this. Only the landlord can do this.

I would like to know how the medium-sized hotels are dealing with this. If the online system isn't working, how to the  hotels physically report the arrival of each guest within 24 hours?