Nautilus05

Can you write Thai? If so, go to http://google.co.th/, and search away for whatever city / province you want!

Has anyone else noticed a drastic improvement over the quality of tap water in (North) Thailand? Not sure when this happened, but must have been sometime in the past 6 months. Previously whenever I was stuck drinking tap water, I'd have to plug my nose, and gulp it down. These days though it tastes great, and almost as good as bottled water. No after taste, or anything.

Has anyone else noticed the same?

Only if you are from a country that cannot get the extension. If you are from a western country you should have no problem.

Alright, thanks. Don't like being on this tourist VISA, and really need to get my stuff straightened out, and onto a proper B VISA. After being here for 4 years, I think it's pretty obvious I'm not a tourist, so always feel like I'm doing something wrong, which technically, I am. Working on getting 'er solved though!

Does anyone know, are the 30 day extensions always approved? Or are there cases where they're declined?

Could you possibly find something more petulant to bitch about?

Your appetizer came at the same time as your main course? Really, that's what you decided was worth bitching about???

For your next computer / tablet, try this -- http://preyproject.com/

Lots of things:

• In general, cops leave you alone here. If you see one driving behind you, you don't freak out, get all uptight, and wonder what you're doing wrong (you know this happens in the West!)
  
• People around here still get to know their neighbors, and become friends with them. In the West, almost nobody does anymore.
  
• Respect is still something to be of valued in society. This is especially great because the kids are much better behaved here. Go to a mall just after school in Thailand, then do the same in West. Quite a bit different.
  
• Thanks to its Buddhist society, karma plays a good sized role in people's day-to-day decisions. They're actively looking to be a good person every day.
  
• The non-judgmental nature of Thais. As long as you're a decent guy, good hygiene, and have common respect for your fellow human, most people are going to like you. Versus the West where everyone judges you over every single minute detail.
  
• The non-confrontational nature of Thais. It's very difficult to get yourself into an altercation here, and if you do, you most likely did something to deserve it.
  
• Cheaper living, especially rent. Here I can get a 3bdrm house + office, large yard, veranda, and private pool for cheaper than I can get a 1 / 2 bdrm condo out West.

I don't know, there's lots more, but I'll leave it there.

None of the Thai guys I know on the estate I live in are getting anywhere near 40k a month.

The combined wage of most Thai families I know is 24-28k a month.

Generally the wife seems to have a better education (degree) and wage (14k) than the man (10k).

This is in a middle class, Thai only, estate just outside CM, bank staff, office workers, teachers, nurses, police, etc.

Another really odd happening

When the men get paid, end of month, they are expected to bring their wage packet home, unopened, and hand it to their wife. She will then open the wage packet, count the money and hand the guy 200-400bht for him to spend. She keeps the rest to pay household bills.

Nowhere close to a middle class income.

Yeah, I have to agree. I have no idea what my neighbors make, as it's rude to ask, but I'm quite confident it's higher than 28k/month. And they're just typical middle class as well. There's no way they could afford their lifestyles on 28k/month though.

Thais think that "sexpats" are just normal men with normal desires that are willing to pay for them.

And if you mean "sexpat" as described in the OP, most Thais would find that sort of person - one whose sole purpose to he here is open and unashamed mongering at all hours - quite distasteful.

Au contraire. Most of them would not even notice that such people exist unless they read about them on websites oriented towards foreigners like Thai Visa.

Trust me, pretty near everyone in every small village in Thailand has heard all about Pattaya. To say the contrary would be the same as an American not knowing about Las Vegas, or Compton, or West Hollywood, or whatever.

My wife's familly are what you would call middle class ,i doubt if they give any of these a seconds thought ,although i am sometimes shocked by the way the younger ones treat people who "serve" them, not badly on purpose but without thought. does that make sense?

Yeah, I've noticed that. There's not many "kaawp kun"'s going out to the servers. Or if you've just finished a big BBQ feast, and are finishing your drinks, there's no nonchalantly tidying up / stacking the plates a bit to help the server out, who's running around like a chicken with their head cut off.

EDIT: To clarify, the server I see running around like crazy -- I have nothing but respect for him / her. When I said "poor Thais" in the OP, I didn't mean it literally. I meant that lazy, incompetent subset with no ambition to do anything other than drink Lao Khao.

To me it seems like the one with problems with the 3 mentioned groups is the OP.

What about live and let live !

Yeah, true enough. I do usually go by that. Just in a xxxxxx mood today, so don't mind me.

I'm curious, which group do middle / higher class Thais look down on more? On one hand you have the sexpat who can be seen at 11am at their favorite girlie bar putting down a big bottle of Chang while wearing their wife beater. Then there's the backpacker who believes 400/night for a hotel is quite expensive, and for whatever reason believe proper hygiene is a difficult task to accomplish. Then you have this subset of the Thai population that, not to be rude, but are simply useless. No common respect or decency, selfish, no work ethic, no desire to learn or contribute to society, etc.

I know the majority of Thais hold contempt for all three groups, but I'm just curious, which group do you think wins out? Tough call!

New details: she's Ukrainian, not Russian. She had double tourist visa. When she did border run to open a 2nd entry, they stamped passport with a red stamp and gave 2 weeks to leave the country.

I'm curious, why was your friend not allowed to use the second entry on her tourist VISA? Did she actually have a second entry available that wasn't yet expired? Or was it already maybe expired, hence why she was only stamped in for 15 days?

And for anyone else, any reports of immigration refusing to honor the second entry of a TR visa, and stamping in for 15 days instead? Doing my best to get setup properly here, and hopefully generate several good paying Thai jobs at 30k+/month, but I need a bit more time, and am going to need to use that second entry. And I got that TR visa after a 3 year overstay, so if immigration is going to give anyone a hassle, I'm a likely candidate.

I'm debating whether or not to setup an (IT) office in Chiang Mai, and before deciding would like to fully understand the skill level available here. For example, maybe contact a professor at the Comp Sci department at the university, see if I can sit in on his class, and maybe even give a quick speech. Either that, or the conventional route of advertising for employment, and interviewing / testing.

Would that be considered "work" though? If so, how do I get around that? I can't get a work permit until I setup an office, and don't want to setup an office until I know what skill level is available.

You could do like one of my (Thai) neighbors. When frustrated, get really drunk, then go outside and start kicking garbage around in the street, while waving a broom in the air and cursing to yourself. He seems to think it helps the situation at least.

Of course, but same as 99.5% chance you (as in anyone reading this) can't pronounce Thai properly. Both languages have various sounds that doesn't exist in the other.

For example, ask a Thai to say "relax", and there's a good chance you'll get "relack" out of them. Or "chef" will turn into "chet", etc.

Same goes for us and various Thai words though. We can't pronounce them properly at all.

Grab your crotch, and gyrate your hips a couple times. That should give them the message to not bother you.

haha... I'm sorry, but how ironic. Some guy who's cheating on his girl is asking how loyal the Thai security guards and maintenance guys are going to be.

lol

I can't tell you how little I care about what some expats in Laos think about me. They're welcome to think whatever they would like, and if they want to pre-judge me because I chose Thailand instead of Laos as a home, then that says much more about them than anything.

But if you must know, more than likely many of them are unsatisfied with their lives for one reason or another. This allows them to think to themselves, "well, my life might suck, but at least I'm not one of those Thai expats". If you're happy and content with your life, you're generally not going to be looking down on total strangers for ridiculous reasons.

Then you know if you goto places like Cambodia or Burma, you'll be constantly hearing people complain that they can't get a proper English breakfast, or there's no good pizza shops in town, or it takes the utility company too long to turn the electric back on after a storm, or people don't speak enough English, and so on...

There's just no winning with some people.

Get ahold of the UK govt. I'm sure it's similar to Canada, and they do offer urgent services in cases such as this. Or at the very least, they'll be able to provide you with a temporary travel document, or something to confirm your citizenship.

Looks like they're going to get a tad more expensive come July too: http://passport.gc.ca/publications/consultations/index.aspx?lang=eng

If applying outside of Canada, $190 for a 5 year, and $260 for a 10 year. It'll probably be a good 8000 baht with the 48 pages. Passport expires next April, so have to renew sometime at the end of this year.

Ohhh, they changed it? You can do a simplified renewal outside of Canada now (eg. in Bangkok)? Before years ago, simplified renewal was only applicable if you were applying inside Canada.

Also, were you offered a 10 year passport? They're supposed to be available starting March 2013, so this month I guess.

EDIT: Nevermind, I guess the 10 year passports won't be available until July 2013 now. http://passport.gc.ca/eppt/about.aspx?lang=eng