Braddockrd

I would like to add my thanks also, for those pics.....really good Topic OP.

When you go back...Go from HCM by fast ferry down to Vung Tau for a few days...That place is beside the sea on the mouth of the Mekon and really exceptional scenery within a few miles, just a few miles north of Vung Tau is what used to be a fishing village...the beaches and holiday hotels there are great.

All a matter of taste but Vung Tau is a dump in my opinion. Not worth going there, not even for the line up of girly bars.

I an not surprised about this knowing the disgusting stuff village people can eat...

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/food-gives-you-liver-cancer

Only one country has ever used nuclear weapons. And it isn't Iran.

How many countries has the US attacked - unlawfully on numerous occasions - and how many millions of innocent civilians has it killed to "protect American interests"? By way of contrast, since deposing the brutal Shah inflicted upon them by the West, how many nations has Iran invaded?

How many innocent civilians of other nations have been killed by Iran, which lost an estimated four per cent of its population as a result of years of brutal US/UN sanctions which killed hundreds of thousands of children..

The US has hundreds of military bases in other countries. How many can Iran boast?

Which country has an official strategy, revealed by a retired top US defence chief, of overthrowing the leaderships of seven sovereign nations - including Syria and Iran - over five years?

Iran has every reason to wish to defend itself against the American aggression. But does anyone seriously imagine the Ayatollahs would risk annihilation by producing a nuclear bomb or doing anything to give the US and its bellicose deputy dawg, nuclear-armed Israel (why isn't the US/UN demanding they give up their nuclear weapons?), an excuse to wipe the Muslim nation off the map?

It is high time people both inside and outside the Land of the (increasingly less) Free began to see through the bogus and long-discredited War on Terror brainwashing exercise and woke up to the reality of which nation is truly the biggest danger to world peace. The historical record and recent events in North Africa and the Middle East speak for themselves.

Iran is not the harbinger of global doom, nor is ever likely to be. This distinction belongs to the suited and uniformed psychopaths running the US, the most warlike and destructive superpower in history.

The paranoid republic whose President has the freedom to declare war on any state at his discretion and take out "terrorist" suspects - including US citizens - across the world with drone strikes (which frequently also murder innocent civilians) spends more on its military than the majority of all the other nations put together.

It also employs force with an impunity granted not by the UN, whose strictures relating to aggression against sovereign states it feigns to support but constantly flouts, but by virtue of its overwhelming military superiority. At the same time, the US continues hypocritically to preach peace, restraint and democracy to the rest of us.

Right now, as recent events in the Ukraine show all too clearly, we are living on the edge of an abyss. With the dollar in imminent danger of losing its reserve currency status and civil unrest growing among millions of impoverished, mainly black and Hispanic American citizens, the prospect of the US dragging the West into a major conflict to resolve its ballooning economic and social problems is becoming all too real.

More of us need to stop ingesting the puerile propaganda pumped out by Fox News and wake up to the reality of how US hegemony is dragging us into a third world war.

Only one country has ever used nuclear weapons. And it isn't Iran.....

Really? is this is your argument? how can a country use or not use something they don't have?

and as for your ' how many other nations' point, is Iran Iraq war rings a bell? where by over a million

people, both solders and civilians have been killed?

I can go on an on, the point is that Iran is the arch godfather of terrorism everywhere around the world,

their agenda is to rule and install fear in every nation on earth, they are as far as south America,

Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, just to name a few, their deadly tentacles are everywhere,

You are wrong and Godders is right and if you cannot see that is because you are blind and brainwashed.

Never met a farang who could speak proper thai. Never ever.

The coconuts editors need some English classes

Further investigation is always a good thing

Very well said!!!

I think one of the differences arising is the kind of tourists coming to Thailand. You have now a large growth in trash coming from China and Russia, which tend to antagonize the locals much more.

These results clearly shows the nature of most of the constituency of this select website. Most tourists come for the beaches and that is a statistical fact!!!!

The islands off Trang are the best in Thailand. Hat Yai and Songkhla a dump. ko Lipe at the far south very nice too but touristy

This means that Swiss nationals here in Thailand receiving pensions from Switzerland have 20% more income overnight. Welcome news indeed for me.

and the same is true for me, since I am about to move over for early retirement in few months and my cash funds and the pension money just boosted by that 20% and give me few million Baht for a nicer living place and a even more comfortable life...

Whatever goes up, eventually goes down, so don't spend that 20% foolishly

I am Swiss, we normally do not spend foolishly... for me, it means that my Swiss asset will give me 20% more Baht... that means with the same living expense budget (which I will not change), I will not be bankrupt at the age of 100 but only at the age of 105...

Unless you exchage it all now all you have are paper gains, my Swiss friends...

Too bad for the Cambodians

Malaysia is not easy long term unless you do the second home program, which requires substantial savings invested in the country (albeit with some flexibility). Otherwise no visas are available. Visa runs every 3 months for just a couple days won't keep you in the country for more than a year or so.

I don't care he'll care much for what the Thai people, who reap the benefits of tourism, care. Especially when the real cost is so small

I have not read all of the posts in this trove of knowledge, but the answer is clear and easy: as long as you don't have any particular expectations, do nothing. You don't even have to worry about your hospital bills. Tough but that is what it is. No one can come after your wife in AU for hospital or incineration bills. They may sue her in Thailand but they have no standing in AU courts and comity will not extend to this kind of situation. Enjoy your last days as much as you can my friend.

I think you need to watch your back if you are trying to recover joint assets with a Thai GF...some farangs lose more than a few assets...they lose their axx...

You betcha. Especially when you are dealing with prostitutes and the scum that sorround them, as I am sure most of these folks are

On the little information the OP has everyone has to speculate as to the details. But going on how many stories go.

He's not married, no 50% rule. Only what he can prove is outright his.

But if he bought the land it would be in her name & no court in Thailand can award him that land, it's hers.

The house, dubious, but I doubt he has a lease agreement with her for the land the house sits on. Can ask him to leave at any point.

Car in her name, gift, it's hers.

Big ticket items wrapped up I doubt there will be pics of him breaking open bottles of champagne in the middle of the road with his big screen TV & bed.

No law protects a fool & his money.

But all speculation on details.

Thai law states that in the event of divorce everything "obtained" during the marriage is to be split 50/50. BUT "obtained" does not mean "purchased."

"Obtained" means acquired in the sense of "obtained through the fruits of labor or effort." It definitely does not automatically mean everything you purchased during your marriage.

For example, let's say you have 100,000 in the bank before you get married. After marriage, you use that 100,000 to purchase property (land included). In the event of divorce, under Thai law, the purchased property is your individual property - - not marital property which needs to be divided 50/50. That property belongs 100% to you.

However, let's say you owned a business prior to marriage. Under Thai law, all of the income for that business which was received during the marriage would be considered marital property. The same is true if you own financial assets which generate interest income and capital gains. The financial assets are considered your personal property, but the interest income and capital gains received during the marriage would be considered marital property and would be subject to a 50/50 division in the event of divorce. The only way someone can protect themselves from this would be to enter into a pre-nuptial agreement before the marriage.

Regarding land purchased in violation of Thailand's land law, the current law (based on a Thailand Supreme court decision) states that a foreigner who purchases land in violation of land law does not forfeit his interest in that real property. Because land law provides a mechanism for correcting a violation of land law violation (forced sale by the Land office), the foreigner's interests in the land can be protected. Under former Thai law, the courts previously ruled that because a foreigner's interest in land violated land law and was therefore illegal, those illegal interests were unenforceable under the law. THIS IS NO LONGER THE CASE. A person who lied to the land office about whose assets were used to purchase the land might be subject to prosecution for lying to the government official, but that doesn't mean that they automatically forfeit their rights to the land.

To understand Thai marital property law, you have to understand that there are actually two definitions. One definition defines what is "marital property" and the second definition defines what is "individual property". You have to understand BOTH definitions to understand how Thai marital property law works. You need to read carefully how "individual property" is defined. This is the key to understanding how the law works.

Many people (including a shocking number of Thai lawyers) only read the first definition of what constitutes marital property. They see the word "obtains" and erroneously assume that "obtains" means anything purchased during the marriage. This is completely incorrect, and you can see this for yourself by reading the definition of individual property in the marital property section of the Thai civil code.

Think about it. If "obtained" meant everything "purchased" during the marriage, this would encourage people to marry, quickly purchase property and then divorce in order to reap a windfall by being able to immediately able to claim a 50% financial interest of everything purchased. This would be totally destabilizing to families (especially children) and would be terribly damaging to society.

Thai marital property law provides no such incentive for people to marry in order to obtain this type of financial windfall, and in my opinion is quite equitable and fair to both parties.

You are completely off topic dude. This guy ain't married!

I am married to a Thai and have been for 3 years now.

I made sure I lived here for 2 years before marrying her, just to make sure I knew all about her, and even though I have the money in my UK bank, I have never brought more than a few hundred thousand baht here at any one time. I have my own Thai bank account and the money is in there. She has an ATM card, but if she were to dump me and systematically attempt to empty the account, i would have the card cancelled and the most she could get is 20K.

I have also bought the house on a 30 year mortgage even though I can buy it outright, I feel safer on a mortgage, as well as the car I have got it over 7 year loan...

So if she dumped me, she is welcome to the house and car and all the future payments that go along with it.

Those who buy houses and cars outright are playing a dangerous game.

I totally trust my wife, but nobody knows what is in the future.

Here is a wise man. One of the few

555 the joke of the day? Why not international center of culture?

That is fantastic news for the rest!

That saved a lot of money to both countries. A good example to follow