1BADDAT

On 12/30/2017 at 7:18 PM, Ulysses G. said:

 

Rents are something like 10 times the cost in Thailand and restaurants in the USA are more expensive too. If you cook at home in America, you can save money for Western food, but not eating out. Transportation is much more expensive unless you own a car. It depends on how you live, but I could live in Thailand for a fraction of what I spend in USA and have a better lifestyle too. I live the "farang lifestyle" in Thailand, but don't always buy imports and Western food. I try to adapt to where I live.

I am struggling to see how rent could be 10 times more expensive.  My GF used to live in a 5k baht ($150) a month apartment that was one room and a tiny bathroom with no air con and no kitchen.  I can not think of one place in USA that would be the same conditions and cost 50k Baht a month ($1,500).  My condo I rented was 50k baht ($1500) a month for a 1200 sq ft 2 bedroom luxury condo on the beach.  There is no way that this condo would cost 500,000 THB ($15,000) a month, even in Hawaii.

1 hour ago, pauleddy said:

The non-fruity genuine Rolling is a nice drop, and is 666b in Villa. On the next shelf is fruit-mixed Rolling at 289b. Until you study the labels closely, you can easily get confused. Both labels are blue and have the same design.

This is Thailand. The label is not going to change to be easier to read. Just look at the price.  No real wine is gonna be 299 baht.  A real wine is going to be 500 baht+

41 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

Better to put wine bottles,  on the Duty Free "to-buy-list", when entering Thailand!!....And naturally, drink with moderation!

Unless you bring in the wine from another country, the "duty free" wine at the airport is not very good value.  The rules for duty free make little sense.  1 liter of alcohol regardless of alcohol %.  The liquor at least is manufactured in 1 liter bottles to maximize the amount.  I don't think I have ever seen wine in 1L bottles for duty free import.

"foot finger" is a classic one

She called the carry on bag a "buggy".  Still trying to figure this one out.  Maybe luggage and bag combined somehow.

I saw an archived thread, but didn't see anything recent.  Now that my Fiance and I are in USA I am learning a whole other set of funny saying for things here.  The latest was when she asked me to "destroy the food" in the sink (turn on the garbage disposal)

15 hours ago, CrashTestDummy said:

Anyone?

DHL is the preferred carrier for my company from US to Asia but I would get a quote to confirm pricing first.  I had a bad experience with the Thai post.  I would not worry about packaging things in front of anyone.  No one really cares what you export out of a country as long as it is not illegal.  And the taxes you pay coming in the US will be nothing or something reasonable.  I am sure you can do a search to find out what the taxes will be.

22 minutes ago, observer90210 said:

seems quite harsh ... has US immigration become so harsh since Trump or has it always been so restrictive and hassling?

All the best on those formalities.

Nothing to do with Trump.  My fiance got the same treatment 18 months ago.  The only thing that affected my fiances K1 application (after she was denied tourist visa 2x) was that many many people were applying before trump got elected. This caused an increased wait time in the que. They anticipated that they would not be able to get in after.

I'm not saying what I think a tourist is, my opinion is irrelevant.  The only person's opinion that matters is the person deciding the outcome of the claim, and my post runs parallel with their likely thought process.
 
I didn't say anything about them going inside the room, numerous posts in the thread already confirmed you can't take anybody inside with you.  My understanding was you could wait inside in a waiting room, if that's not correct then I still wouldn't turn up with a foreign face, in case the guy is sipping tea looking out of the window.
 
You shouldn't have to lie, you're right.  But this is a government/organisation that is refusing to let you travel from one piece of land to another piece of land, in the name of bureaucracy.  Who has the moral high ground here, really?  You do whatever it takes to beat the system.
 
The rest of your post is basically just backing up what I and everybody else here is saying, that being economical with the truth usually works, and being honest often doesn't work.

It seems fairly obvious that a tourist visa has nothing to do with partners or families of partners.  So you shouldn't turn up with your partner, nor should they be mentioned, either in the application or in the interview, and the applicant should be prepared to (confidently) answer the inevitable questions like "do you have a boyfriend".  If it were me, I would get the applicant to turn up with a Thai person or alone.  No foreign faces.
 
The applicant should have a detailed day-by-day itinerary of the places they want to go, because this is what a real tourist would have.  They should have a basic understanding of how to get there (how are they travelling, if bus, where is the bus station, how many hours to travel to the destination etc).
 
If possible the applicant should find a (real) friend of the same gender, age and nationality to plan to visit the country with, I feel the application is much more likely to be a success if two friends are travelling together, as that's typical of how Thais (particularly female Thais) would travel.  Whether or not that friend does ever visit the country once the visa is granted is irrelevant.
 
In this thread the only '2 minute interviews' have been the ones that have mentioned a US partner, it's too late for those guys, but anybody else reading this should be very careful not to make the same mistakes in the application, which is easy enough because you're lying on your bed filling in a form, there's no pressure.  The interview itself is harder because the question will be asked directly, face to face.  Practice asking and answering the questions that the interviewer is likely to ask.

She shouldn't have said anything about you.  
However, if you are working in Thailand and have a work permit then that changes everything.
She needs to prove to them she will return, as soon as they hear boyfriend they expect her not to return.
If you show you are living and working in Thailand and get a letter from your employer showing you need to return
then you should re-apply.
  

What nationality are you? I'm British and would like one day to take my Laotian wife and British son for a 2 week holiday in California. Sounds tricky.

I wanted to take my girlfriend with me for a two week holiday to California, she was also refused within 2 minutes. It made no difference that we had had holidays in the UK and Australia they point blank refused any of her paperwork and only wanted to know about me such as why I had chosen to live in Thailand and a couple of other similar questions she wasn't prepared for.

On 4/26/2017 at 7:45 PM, Richard-BKK said:

 

The Kawasaki Ninja 650 is for years the best value for money motorcycle around the world, the new 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS can stand-up to the performance of any in the same class and road handling has also improved by a major leap... This all by still being one of the lowest costing machines available in Thailand...

 

Is the new 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS perfect, no - but it damn gets close - and surely not the new and the old are anything I would call a "shitty bike" which is clearly a comment from somebody who maybe never even touched the KAwasaki Ninja 650 or its naked brother the ER6n and the new Z650.....

Kawasaki makes great bikes, but the ninja 650 is pretty low on my list of bikes in Thailand.  It felt like really heavy and  less nimble than a ninja 300 or CBR500.

The power is good, but the low end grunt isnt ideal for riding in Thailand with slick roads.  And the radiator fan used to blow straight on your legs in traffic.  Not sure if that got fixed.

Ultimately i would prefer the cbr500 (which i bought) or the best IMO is the CB650.

11 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Takes forever- LOL.

 

Used to take over 4 hours. 2 hours isn't bad.

Maybe for you

On 6/3/2017 at 9:51 PM, fforest1 said:

Do you guys think a high speed train from Bangkok to Pattaya

will cost 120 Baht?....The same as it cost to take a bus now....

 

 

Bangkok is 174km from Pattaya.....

Lets go with a average of 18 cents cost per km for the high speed train to Pattaya...

At 18 cents per km it would cost 31 dollars and 32 cents or close

to 1,000 baht to take the high speed train from Bangkok to

Pattaya....

http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2009/09/08/getting-the-price-right-how-much-should-high-speed-fares-cost/

BKK is 150 km from pattaya according to google maps.  Suvarnabhumi is 122 km away from pattaya and that is where it is supposed to start.  So you theoretical calculations seem to be off.  

Of course it is not going to cost 120 baht for the ticket.  Why would the price be the same as a 20 year old death trap of a bus that takes forever?  I know I am not the norm but I would gladly pay 1000 baht to get to suvarnabhumi in less than an hour (just a guess)and not have to worry about parking.

6 minutes ago, BsBs said:

 

Too young to think about financial stuff but looking for stability ? So finally the only real reason to leave is that you fear the future ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I realized that i wouldn't have financial stability there unless things changed. The reason i left was that I didn't see a good future for me there at that time.  How many people do you think move to Thailand to build wealth?  I think most go there to take advantage of the cost differences once they have already accumulated wealth.  Obviously there are exceptions.

My reason for leaving was simple.  My contract expired after 2.5 years.  It was a really good contract and part of the terms were 
I had to return to work within the same company where i was before.   

I could have found another job, but I really didn't want to do that because most certainly it would have been a lower paying position. I made great money but managed to spend pretty much all of that money.  I really enjoyed the lifestyle I had and downgrading from that would have been tough.   On top of that I would still have to pay US taxes regardless (which my current company paid for)

One of the biggest things that made me leave is that I didn't want to get used to the lifestyle that I had.  I lived lavishly and did not save money.  I enjoyed it 100% and wouldn't change any of those decisions.  I was 37 and too young to rely on building financial wealth over there.  A lot easier to make money here in my field and also through real estate or retirement portfolio or whatever. 

I still have the option to move there whenever I want.  I am not sure if I will move there permanently in the near or distant future.  I do know that as bad as some people bash the US, I have WAY more options here and very few roadblocks.  If I could be guaranteed that stability and availability in Thailand, I would have probably never left.

9 hours ago, whoareyou said:

 

Links? Put up or move on

No wonder your scared shirtless. If your going to spread conspiracy theories then you better be damned sure you can back them up!!!
 

 

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/02/23/bbc-journalist-faces-five-years-jail-for-thailand-reporting/

pretty much sums up everything anotheruser said

18 hours ago, Ace of Pop said:

Perhaps if you had lost someone due to Heavy Tints and big headed puppies driving with arrogance,a less nonsensical reply would be understandable


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The more times I read this, the more i have no idea what you are trying to say.  But maybe that was your intention.

7 hours ago, Denim said:

 

They say Cambodia is like Thailand used to be ?

 

Sorry.......that bus left 10 years ago.

 

If you don't like modern Thailand just go and live in the Boonies.

 

If you go to Cambodia and decide to live where there are lots of expats you will soon see that rose tinted glasses only work when you wear them.

Cambodia is far behind Thailand in its development.  You can live in Phnom Penh and feel like you are in a third world country (because you are!)  Living in the boonies and living in a major city that is not developed is not an accurate comparison.  I went on many trips to Cambodia for the weekend and I really liked it.  I liked it because it was crazier than Thailand.  But for the same reason's I probably wouldn't want to live there.  I stayed at a half a dozen hotels there and could never find a really good one.  That kinda says something considering I have stayed at 6 different hotels from one chain all in BKK and they were all good.   Cambodia and Thailand are bordering each other but miles apart.  Depending on what the OP wants this may be a good or bad thing.

17 hours ago, Ace of Pop said:

Why do Folks bother to defend the stuff We know you love for its cosmetic,just grow some balls and admit it.


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I am not defending anything and I don't even have window tint on my car.    I am just applying logic.  Simple logic.  Something that is very difficult for some posters to follow.  Much better to just spout off nonsense about balls to prove a point. 

On 3/26/2017 at 8:23 PM, Wilsonandson said:

Just out of interest has anyone met any Thai celebrities or famous people whilst living out here? Or anyone famous on holiday in Thailand?

 

As for me, only a couple of Thai soap opera stars that my wife pointed out once at my local shopping mall.

 

As for famous holidaymakers none, though many had claimed they were famous.

I was at Doi Suthep in CM and apparently a superstar was there.  I didn't know who he was, but my fiance did.  She didn't want to bother him and I certainly didn't care.  Maybe it was because it was a temple, but the Thais didn't really bother him.

So to answer your question...no...haha