dave111223

I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Mamasan Lek. She puts the slap in old slapper!

apostasy, sodomy and ''witchcraft''.....<deleted>

Just another reason never to go to the middle east

There are only 2 things to buy at an airport... Booze and Cigerettes. (And even thoses are just as cheap outside the airport in Thailand).

And maybe a few shotglasses when you realize you forgot to buy anything for people back home.

Airports are no different any where in the world...they have a captive audience and can charge whatever they like (and do).

If you can't be bothered to walk to one of the billion 7-11s to buy some snacks and drinks for the flight *before* you get the taxi, then you deserve to pay 70baht for a bottle of water.

The condo above mine it owned by the bank, and currently on the market. The unit it in an unbelievely bad condition. Ceiling fall out everywhere, holes in walls, birds nests behind the rotting curtains; in need of total renovation (you get the picture).

The price of the unit is wayyyy too high, so it has been on the market for quite a few years.

Last week someone came to look at it, and apparently left all the windows and balcony doors open, so that when we had a big storm on Friday the rain poured into their condo, leaking through onto our ceiling in several places.

My wife and I walked upstairs and found the front door was also left unlocked, so went in to find a half inch of water sitting on the floor. We started mopping up the water.

We then called the building tech. who came to our room after a few hours to look at the water pouring through the ceiling. And told him "We've been upstairs and there is half inch of water sitting on the floor". At which point, to my surprise, he starts saying "Why have you been upstairs! It's none of our business going up there etc...".

The part that confuses me is that I guarantee if i had left all the doors and windows open and the rain had poured from our condo to downstairs, i would get a phone call saying "You leaked water on our ceiling, we demand you pay us XXXXXX for Michealangalo to come and fix it and then repaint the Sistine chapel on it".

But yet when someone does this to us, we should simply sit back and take it, and then apologize for going to mop up the water?

Or is it simply that a bank owns the unit, so the chances of them actually apologizing or fixing the ceiling are slim to none? And if it was owned by an individual then it would be a different story?

I bought a Samsung from Lotus for about 5,000 THB on promotion. I have been very happy with it.

Clearly the powers that be have realized that there is a lot money to be made from unsuspecting foreigners that aren't familiar with this ruling.

Hardly "unsuspecting" they staple the notice right next to your visa stamp.

I currently live in the states. We have a huge problem with illegal immigrants here. I would never in my life live in another country illegally.

It's a morals and principle thing for me.

How does morality come into it? If i'm born in country X and i want to live in country Y, and "the man" tells me i can't, but i live there anyways; does that make me "immoral"?

Are you making the claim that doing the above is inherently wrong/immoral? And if so please explain why you believe it is inherently wrong.

Simple, it's illegal. You are offending your hosts by breaking their laws as though the don't apply to you. Very common problem with Americans. Don't know if you are or are not American.

I wonder how you are so informed that you know that breaking the laws is a comon problem with Americans. Plus you don't even know if the OP is American. If not, does that shoot a hole in your gross generalization? Two of the more notorious overstayers in recent memory happen to have been Swiss and German. Stick to the topic and keep your prejudices to yourself.

I am British and American.

And my arguement is not that it is legal or illegal; as yes it is illegal.

In fact my point is exactly as you have stated [brianwl] that it is a matter of law, and not a matter of morality. It is not the same thing.

Whereas in your original post you claim the 2 to be the same.

Laws are followed based on moral convictions not to break laws.

By this reasoning anyone who breaks the law is lacking in moral conviction?

So you would also have to accept, for example, that when the law said black people had to sit at the back of bus, then a bus driver allowing a black person to sit at the front would also be lacking in moral conviction?

So a German haboring a Jew during WWII was also lacking in moral conviction?

You may argue "Well these laws were obviously wrong!", but how do you know that they will not look back in 100 years, and say "God those immigration laws were so foolish!"

I currently live in the states. We have a huge problem with illegal immigrants here. I would never in my life live in another country illegally.

It's a morals and principle thing for me.

How does morality come into it? If i'm born in country X and i want to live in country Y, and "the man" tells me i can't, but i live there anyways; does that make me "immoral"?

Are you making the claim that doing the above is inherently wrong/immoral? And if so please explain why you believe it is inherently wrong.

Simple, it's illegal. You are offending your hosts by breaking their laws as though the don't apply to you. Very common problem with Americans. Don't know if you are or are not American.

I wonder how you are so informed that you know that breaking the laws is a comon problem with Americans. Plus you don't even know if the OP is American. If not, does that shoot a hole in your gross generalization? Two of the more notorious overstayers in recent memory happen to have been Swiss and German. Stick to the topic and keep your prejudices to yourself.

I am British and American.

And my arguement is not that it is legal or illegal; as yes it is illegal.

In fact my point is exactly as you have stated [brianwl] that it is a matter of law, and not a matter of morality. It is not the same thing.

Whereas in your original post you claim the 2 to be the same.

I currently live in the states. We have a huge problem with illegal immigrants here. I would never in my life live in another country illegally.

It's a morals and principle thing for me.

How does morality come into it? If i'm born in country X and i want to live in country Y, and "the man" tells me i can't, but i live there anyways; does that make me "immoral"?

Are you making the claim that doing the above is inherently wrong/immoral? And if so please explain why you believe it is inherently wrong.

I fail to see this as "Proof The Bangkok Condo Market Is Still Booming".

However i did see 2 houses with "Sold" signs outside today, so that is proof that the housing market is booming!

If there's enough interest, we could do a "Boobie Watcher Club".

And i'm sure there will be enough

I use Ad-Aware SE Professional with Ad-Watch SE, AVG Antivirus 7.5, CCleaner, and RemoveIT Pro.

I use AVG antivirus also, i still can't believe such a quality antivirus is totally free!

My XP is fake, i just turned off the updates...i know; i'm a rebel without a cause

He can get a type-O visa before he comes.

Before i came here i got a type-O visa. I put "visiting friends" as reason. Doing this cuts out a couple of steps.

So here were the steps i took:

- Applied for 3 month Type-O visa at home

- Came to Thailand got married

- Extended 3 month Type-O visa for 1 year

I did not need to leave the country.

Try to use the 400,000 first, then if this is problem use the 40,000k per month.

Because if you switch to using the 40,000k per month now you will have to use that from now on.

And for obviously reasons it is better to continue to have both options in the future.

They *should* accept your fixed account this year, but may warn you that *next* year you will need to show some cash movement. So then just move the money to a regular savings account, go to the bank each week and deposit 1,500 and take out 1,000 or something like this.

hey dave,you sound like the man i need to ask! did you have to bring proof of income or employment or is that just the first time? is the money in the bank enough? does it have to be in a joint account or can it just be in your wifes name? i am about to get an "O" but i worry that when it is time to renew in a year that i will be looking for another job and unemployed. from what you just said they didnt ask for proof of income or employment

Sounds like you are just applying for the first time? If so then different rules apply, so my advise will not be much help.

If this is not your first time then here's the answers:

- No i did not bring any proof of income

- Bank account is in my name (not joint account), i've heard that if you have a joint account then you require twice the money, and cannot use bank in wife's name.

- Be sure to bring confirmation letter from the bank, that you do have an account and that you do have the require money in it.

My account is at TMB, and the confirmation letter doesn't even state the exact amount in the account just says that i have an amount of "6 figures", but they have accepted this letter both times.

- Obviously bring your passbook, last time they also required a recent ATM receipt, but this time they did not.

They accepted my application about 2 weeks ago with the 400K only in the bank for a couple of days. Wasn't much of a problem but they did make me and the missus sign a statement that we understood the money had to be in the acount for three months if we wanted to use the 400K rule next year.

Yes my wife had to sign something like this. Which i think is quite reasonable, so that you can't plead ignorance next year

There is a language school in Bangkok that claim that farangs who do not hold University Degrees can join their "Thai Culture Course" which will give the farang the ability to get an Education Visa for purpose of study. The education visa is good for 1 year and a farang can have this sort of visa for up to 3 years while studying this course.

The school goes on to claim that with the education visa the farang student is allowed to legally work 20 hours / week without a work permit, to support themselves.

They claim to be one of the few schools in Thailand that is licensed to offer this course.

The Language school mentions they also have several schools that they recruit for.

Does Thai law allow for farangs students to work part time (teaching) in Thailand without a work permit?

Firstly i studied here for 6 months, but the education visa was only good for 3 months (you have to get it renewed every 3 months).

So already they are misleading you.

Secondly there were about 50+ foreign students, and i did not hear any mention of being able to work without a work permit based on your student visa.

I figured since there as been a few posts recently about people have problems with visas i'd post my positive story.

I went into Suan Plu today to get the 1 year marriage visa renewed. I was a bit nervous as i'd only had the 400k in the bank for about 3 weeks (not 3 months).

The process seemed to go pretty smoothly without any problems. The officer did say that next year i should make sure i have the money in the bank 3 months prior, but that it was not a problem this time.

An interesting side note was that i brought my condo house papers along to show that we had bought a condo (just to show that we are in a good financial situation). The officer said that this wasn't necessary (which i already knew), and what's more that "foreigners cannot buy condos anymore" so i should not show people this paper??? Is there any truth to this?

Thank you for the excellent responses. From the replies it appears there 2 ways of doing this planting a cutting and planting a seed.

Come the right time I will try a couple of each method and see what happens.

It’s gratifying to know I’m not the only “tree grower” around.

Dave 111223 Why would I do it the easy way when the hard way is more interesting and challenging, besides any money not spent goes towards the beer fund.

Thanks All

D.D.

You could probably buy a spouted one for like 20baht. (So not much extra money for the beer fund)

I bought a coconut that had a little spout coming out for 20baht, and i have enjoyed watching it grow; despite the fact that i cheated and didn't do it the hard way

Go to the garden center and buy one that has already started to sprout

When i give money it is only people i know, who need help.

Here it is not that hard to find someone right in your neighborhood who could use a helping hand.

I never liked the idea of just giving to some charity where the money goes to some person you've never met.

I used to livee in a few service appartments that offered free weekly cleaning. And once a week was definately enough.

Just make sure you have a big stack of dirty dishes in the sink so that you get your moneys worth.

600 baht does seem pretty steep even if it took a whole day. And when it takes only acouple hours then it is really quite expensive.

I mean think about it, if it takes 2 hours then the maid could get down 4 condos in an 8 hour day. Thats 2400 a day.

Say she works 300 days a year thats 720,000 per year (over $20,000 a year). And come on! Do you really think the going rate for maid in Thailand is $20,000 a year!

you must be in bad shape. in usa they give credit card to dead people...........only joking.

I have actually heard stories of dead people, pets, etc.. being issued cards in the US

To the OP, if you only want the card for booking hotels and order online (and don't actually need the "Credit") why don't you just get a bank account that provides you with a visa or mastercard debit card?

Here's some suggestions:

1) Talk to the father, tell him that your wife is now your responsibility, not his, and he should refrain from using any forceful disappline with her. (No need to mention the past beating)

2) Don't allow your wife to visit her family without you also going.

3) Next time instead of sending your wife back home, offer to fly the parents to the UK.

The guy is probably an abusive SOB anyways, and nothing you can do will be likely to change that.

I think it is a great idea Sunshine. I recommend you proceed as planned immediately!