chowny77

I remember one time I was having my BP done and another nurse started talking to the one pumping up my arm collar. She was so engrossed in the conversation she just kept pumping away until I had to tell her to stop. I thought I was going to lose my arm from lack of circulation.

Just what they need..........some <deleted> flowers. Hospital bills paid for and compensation in the way of cash would be better. Plus seeing the thugs behind bars for about 5 years. TIT

Have things changed at the consulate and you can do it again in one day or am I reading things wrong?

Sometimes you can not make up some of these stories of complete stupidity. Only in the land of Darwinism.

I must admit that from around 7pm to 9pm we had some really heavy wind with great big drops of rain. Luckily our electric held out and there seems to be no damage, just lots of fallen leaves from our neighbours trees. This is in Uttaradit city, I did hear that it worse further out from the city. One good thing from it though is the temperature has dipped.

I am kind of lucky as my wife has worked in the west. When she is usually pissed off at me I know right away and vise-versa. The thing that does pisses me off is when she holds her anger back against other Thai's, especially because I am the one she then vents at after. I will show anyone respect even more so to the elderly regardless of race. If I am going shopping, as I open the door and someone is coming in behind me I will keep the door open, but many times I have had the door closed on me in reverse.

I live in Uttaradit and I am sure it must be close to beating the previous record. I had to ride my scooter yesterday at around 12pm and I could feel my skin beginning to burn, luckily I did not have far to go. I am definitely going home next year during this time so I miss Songkran and the heat. 11 years living in just this town and this has 100% been the hottest I remember.

Very lucky!

I caught the guy just before he was going to go for lunch as the website had the wrong times. He went all the way back up to his office and processed my documents, after 10 minutes he returned with my passport stamped and my change. I told him to keep it as he had done me a big favour. Top man. RIP. I hope he enjoyed his lunch on me that day

Jesus wept. The main roads at the moment have enough accidents, now they want the tour bus driving monkeys going down countryside roads that most likely have not been serviced since they were put in 30 yrs ago. I see Songkran did not fulfill it's cull numbers so they need to find a new way to lower the population. Go for it, why the F$&k not!

Haha its not just the drinks. Ask any thai n they will say th3 food needs to be tasty! Over oily, overy spicy over salty. A balance taste is needed. I have had real good thai food that is very well balanced, but sadly alot of street food is not. If u go to a thai night market where locals buy food from. Its always alot of oily fried food. Also the small coffee stalls add alot of sugar in the iced coffees n teas nam daang soda as well. Water h20 is the best

Sorry khap we have no water!

If you are happy with the increase from 4500 to 5000 for the next 3 years, I would suggest that for the other 3 years agree to no more than another 500 baht increase. If as you stated, are planning to do some re-painting, putting in an A/C unit, you have increased the value of the property, so they should not expect ( but most likely will ) you too pay a 1000 baht hike in rent. As others had said as well it is upto you, give it another 3 years and maybe you will want to move.

I sent a birthday card home last Wednesday morning and it was received today in the afternoon in the UK. So pretty much 7 days. I have had a package lost before but that was during the political marches in BKK in Feb of 2014.

UKJASE - Thanks for the PDF file. I am teaching tourism at a vocational college and will show this to my students to see what their reaction is like, especially when it refers to Thailand.

There is still time as most schools will not start until the 16th of May. Some teachers will quit within the first few days or weeks of the new semester, so keep plugging away if you really do want to find a job. Hopefully you have enough cash and time on your visa to see you though until you do find a job.

I have never been asked to show my passport when sending mail, EMS or otherwise outside of Thailand............strange

Bloody foreign bee's!!!!

Living in Udon and being married to a Thai I find the marriage extension thing just way too many hoops to jump through. Can't speak for others experiences but I find it easier just to go to Savannakhet every year for a multiple entry visa. Even then obviously I need to show the wife's housebook , ID, my passport and they always ask for the original of our marriage certificate and Savannakhet is renown for being "easy". If I,wanted to get the extension of stay, after I get my single entry I need to show my letter of residence or housebook, all the above Id's again my bank book with the appropriate seasoned amount in it, then all the other hoops to be jumped through. Pictures of me and the wife in the bedroom (not joking), outside, in front of the house, provide a hand drawn map, then the police come round and only then you can start the joy of the 90 day reporting process and if you want to leave you get to pay for your re-entry permits as well. <deleted> all that for a laugh. So it's either a dodgy farang who has somehow managed to get a visa, bank book, passport etc etc all in a fake name or its someone in immigration who is making a fortune just providing bodgy names and these so mystery fake named falang just don't exist at all. Hmmmm I wonder which could it be???

I think the same as you. It is too much hassle to go through the process of getting all the documents that they require, year after year even though your situation has not changed. i.e. wife, house, money or location, it is total retardation. So I now go to Savannakhet as it is less of a ball ache apart that for me I have to travel across country. I try to make a mini-holiday out of the whole experience and enjoy it.

From what I have read, it seems clear that an Immigration officer was on the take and letting people get extensions even though they were not showing or giving genuine documents. I would not be surprised that this hullabaloo was started when another Immigration officer wanted a spice of the money and was told to <deleted>, so they reported it.

I got my new UK passport just over a year ago and I did not need to have a witness signature. For proof of address here in Thailand I used my yellow house book but supposedly any utility bill with your name and address will do. Also you can have someone else pick up the new passport from Trendy if you do not fancy the trip to BKK. You will have to go there to apply in person but you can write a letter with a proxy's full name stating that you give them permission to collect on your behalf. They can then forward it to you by EMS mail.

I refuse to use buses to travel anywhere. I will take a train as I am more likely to survive as they are not the fastest form of transport here. If I use a mini-bus it is through a very close family friend and he knows to take it easy. Luckily I do not have to travel much as I am usually busy.

If it was me, I would make sure to keep all the receipts and when I return back make photo copies. I would then talk to the HR department and see if they would at least refund the basic, such as visa stamps and that they will cover the WP payments. If they refuse I would walk and look for a different school. Years ago when I worked at one school before the director got too greedy, they would pay for travel, one nights accommodation, a meal, visa and the WP. Sad how things have changed!

This is a laugh!! What next? How education should be done? How to drive safely? and the best one yet is how to make business transactions transparent.

I want a storm and heavy rain here... still not rained at all!

Same here in Uttaradit city. So much for these storms.

The Royal Thai Army and Police should do what we GI's did in Udorn and Ramason Station 40+ years ago. Once a month as needed we went on a dawn patrol with M-16's duce-and-a-half trucks and plenty of ammo and bagged about 20 or 30 of them. Took them down to the pepper-grinder and burned them. Never a dog problem at Ramason or Udorn back then.

I did hear of this being a routine thing uptil about 15 yrs ago. I heard that someone VERY, VERY high up said that this had to stop. Shame they could not stop their own son from shooting a pooch owned by said person because he was annoyed about something.