Plastic Brontosaurus

Far as I know foreign income is not taxable in LOS unless it is imported into the country. Regardless of tax residency status. However money imported, if you're a tax resident, is taxable, if I remember correctly. May want to read up on that to make sure. But it's an interesting system for those of us who have foreign income and keep that income in a foreign account apart from the bit we need to live off in LOS...

Not strictly true

Have a read of this, item one, under "Taxable Person" - the way I read it, but once again I may be wrong, is that only foreign income imported into Thailand is taxable... Any tax lawyers online to add some comment??

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

Far as I know foreign income is not taxable in LOS unless it is imported into the country. Regardless of tax residency status. However money imported, if you're a tax resident, is taxable, if I remember correctly. May want to read up on that to make sure. But it's an interesting system for those of us who have foreign income and keep that income in a foreign account apart from the bit we need to live off in LOS...

Would double check everything in a case like this. Is the purported owner really the owner? Why is he never in Thailand? The process of buying a condo in a foreign name in LOS is complicated enough as it is. Because of this situation, and as many Thais don't like buying used properties (presence of ghosts etc.) would definitely push for a huge discount on the price of what similar condos sell for (like 25-50% off). Because you may still be running unknown risks (even things such as wrong paperwork which might come to light later on etc.). Good luck.

I know only that injectable drugs ar allowed in hospital only, pharmacy can't sale it.

Insulin (Novorapid and others) is available over the counter at normal pharmacies (usually no stock so has to be ordered). That's an injectable, so I guess it depends on what type of injectable it is.

Just make sure you buy from a reputable pharmacy (such as one of the chains: Boots, Watsons, Pharma Choice and similar) or other reliable pharmacy to avoid risk of counterfeit/dummy meds.

You're talking about the proof of residence? Were you well dressed? Sometimes they can have a bad day and just send you away. Happened to me once, came in in old shorts and t-shirt. Next day better dressed and no problem. However if the issue is about obtaining the proof of residence from immigration, perhaps start a new topic about that as it is a different subject - many people need that for other things than buying motorbikes. So you may get better response that way, as people get that all the time, so it would be a major issue if they actually stopped issuing them, which would seem strange to me as it gets them 500 baht a piece for just a slip of paper, it's very profitable for them so does not make sense. I guess you had the letter from your landlord with you? Because you need that to get the paper from immigration - plus 2 photos and 500 baht...

Yes, I had all those docs, in first thing a.m. They never looked at my dress sense though I'm no slob. Well if it was just a whimsical rejection then I have had to pay 2000 Baht extra for proof of residence from UK consulate here in C.M.

Perhaps on the way to the consulate you could drop by at immi again and try again just in case - assuming there's a different person at the desk. I've needed 3 of the documents in January and applied at the middle bit of the counter - not the left or the right sides. Dropped papers in the morning and got the letter at 2pm every time. Good luck!

I have no idea where they get this so called "document to purchase" a motor vehicle, you do need a Yellow House Registration book (tabian baan see leuang),or "Certificate of Residency", from immigration, The dealer should also requires copy of your passport, showing your photo, AND visa pages, note, you can not (legally) buy a vehicle if you only have a Tourist Visa, this was all that was needed, in Phuket, picked up the bike the next day, with red plates, another month, went back to the dealer for the permanent plates and green book.

I guess this varies by location, but in Chiang Mai you can buy a motorbike with a tourist visa, as long as you have your Certificate of Residency from immigration. Usually it is a lot easier if you let the bike dealership take care of the hassle however. I paid them 1000 baht and they got the bike checked out, green book in my name, insurance sorted (cost a bit extra cant remember how much) and tax sticker. With only a tourist visa in my passport.

Yep, that is my status, tourist buying a new scooter. Though they never even looked at passport, they just said they no longer offer this service.

You're talking about the proof of residence? Were you well dressed? Sometimes they can have a bad day and just send you away. Happened to me once, came in in old shorts and t-shirt. Next day better dressed and no problem. However if the issue is about obtaining the proof of residence from immigration, perhaps start a new topic about that as it is a different subject - many people need that for other things than buying motorbikes. So you may get better response that way, as people get that all the time, so it would be a major issue if they actually stopped issuing them, which would seem strange to me as it gets them 500 baht a piece for just a slip of paper, it's very profitable for them so does not make sense. I guess you had the letter from your landlord with you? Because you need that to get the paper from immigration - plus 2 photos and 500 baht...

I have no idea where they get this so called "document to purchase" a motor vehicle, you do need a Yellow House Registration book (tabian baan see leuang),or "Certificate of Residency", from immigration, The dealer should also requires copy of your passport, showing your photo, AND visa pages, note, you can not (legally) buy a vehicle if you only have a Tourist Visa, this was all that was needed, in Phuket, picked up the bike the next day, with red plates, another month, went back to the dealer for the permanent plates and green book.

I guess this varies by location, but in Chiang Mai you can buy a motorbike with a tourist visa, as long as you have your Certificate of Residency from immigration. Usually it is a lot easier if you let the bike dealership take care of the hassle however. I paid them 1000 baht and they got the bike checked out, green book in my name, insurance sorted (cost a bit extra cant remember how much) and tax sticker. With only a tourist visa in my passport.

To go back to the topic to some degree, I understand that this is worrying for people outside of Asia-Pacific however the THB has not moved significantly compared to the AUD and NZD or other Asian currencies except the JPY. Which is as expected: the EUR is down because the Eurozone have detonated their economy; the USD and JPY are down because they're printing money. The rest of the currencies don't move much. Bottom line: get out of currencies that are being destroyed by their governments, if you can...

In Chiang Mai I needed address verification document from immigration (if you rent you won't have yellow book so you need to get a letter from the landlord that you live there, take to immigration, then pay 500 baht and get address confirmation document). Make sure you get the green book with your name in it (confirm the green book is for the actual bike you're buying). You will also need the compulsory insurance cert, and the label for on the bike which the dealership should be able to arrange (or you can do outside of that). Obviously if you just want a bike and you don't care if it's registered properly you can just buy, get a receipt with the purchase details, chassis number etc. it and drive off... But it would be hard to sell a bike like that.

Will wait for the DVD. Hope it is at least as funny as Ong Bak...

To stop corruption in Indonesia they outsourced/offshored the customs department to a foreign (I think Swiss) company. Perhaps useful certain corruption control measures be outsourced/offshored in Thailand too...

To a degree it will be self-regulating: if they crank up the fares too much, traveler numbers will drop and they won't make enough money... But I guess they will probably try to crank things up as much as they can get away with.

It's nice to raise truckloads of cash without actually saying what it will be used for. Not sure what developing new lines cost, but with this kind of money one would expect they could develop new lines by banking the cash and using the interest alone? Should be realistic to expect well in excess of $100 million in interest per year on this amount, if not significantly more...

If I were you would make sure that you buy anything other than aspirin from a well-known chain pharmacy such as Boots, Watsons, Pharma Choice etc. rather than a no-name local pharmacy, to avoid risk of fake meds... (unless you know the place/owner well and can trust).

Why is Myanmar actually doing this maintenance on their gas rigs right in the middle of the hot season? Perhaps some kind of political motive? Or someone did not get enough banknotes delivered in their regular suitcase shipment?

They could have picked any month of the year but they have to do it in April... Weird. They decrease the supply of gas, but increase the supply of problems (boatloads of ethnic minorities) across their borders. Something tells me the Burmese are trying to make some kind of statement..

This worked in a condo for a loud Thai family neighbor.

I hooked up some speakers to my computer and put them right against electric box conduit that passes sound.

I downloaded a bunch of haunted terror sounds. Screams, squeaky foot steps, chains, moaning, torture and some I am forgetting. I don't play them too loud but after a while they lower the TV and quiet down. I lower my sounds.

I don't want them to really put 2 and 2 together but they have be wondering if the place is haunted.

Once in while I play them faintly at night.

I was worried they might try to make a lot more noise to drive the spirits away.

So far it's working and highly entertaining

A variant of this and equally entertaining would be to try and record bedroom sounds of the neighbors with a sensitive microphone and play them back into the street through a 500-watt sound system at maximum volume.

Friends of mine actually did this, as their neighbors had a particularly loud (and frequent) sex life which was clearly audible through their walls a couple of times a day, and which they were fed up with. It was a delicate situation to discuss it, but once the sounds were played back out the window the noise stopped permanently.

Vague story. Looks like yet another mental health patient on the run.

If you're passing thru Bangkok on the way out, it may be useful to change the $ at Superrich which, far as I have always found, has the most competitive exchange rates in LOS.

If the guy takes care of his gf and her family (at least her parents) with some luck they will take care of him later on. However if there's complications that require medical intervention (expensive operations etc.) and there's no money then he will be out of luck. Thailand is not a Western-style nanny state.

If it's likely there's not going to be enough money to take care of medical and care eventualities in future, it may be best best to research options of return to country of origin in due course. Assuming there are better options available there...

<snip> And might be able to get a flight that gets me to Vientiane in time to make it to consulate the first day? <snip>

One problem with flying direct to VTE rather than UTH is that the flights usually cost triple or more the cost of flying to UTH (on Nok, Nok Mini, Air Asia or any other)... Another problem is that as far as I know, there's no flights at all that arrive VTE before around 11:00am... Flights to UTH arrive about two hours earlier there, but even then it will take around two hours all up from UTH to the Thai Embassy in VTE.

Have done the Vientiane way a few times, coming from Chiang Mai you can fly Nok Mini direct to Udon Thani, and take the minivan to the border right from the airport for 200 baht (downstairs at the "Limousine" desk). They drop you at Thai border control, you "check out" then take the bus across the bridge to the Lao border control.

Lao voa cost depends on country, my passport is NZ and last time (early January) I paid USD 30. Taxi to Vientiane costs 300 baht, they approach you at Lao immigration and help with suitcases etc. There's also a bus apparently but never took it. At the Thai Embassy in Vientiane you can show up real early and be ahead of the crowd but have to wait in the queue for an hour or two. However then there's usually a bunch of Burmese/Cambodians etc. they arrive later but run to the counter when the gate opens so unless you want to run too you're probably still gonna be number 20 or so.

Next time will try Savannakhet, the casino there does a decent deal and gets the visa done for you (you give them your passport and the paperwork and they stand in the queue for you etc.). There's at least one long thread on TV about this process.

OK here's one link. There's several more, all it takes is something called Google...

http://chiangmai.thaivisa.com/all-about-driving-in-chiang-mai/

The list of documents in this web page is more or less correct:

- proof of residence (which you can get from immigration in Chiang Mai for 500 baht with a letter from your landlord; or you can get it from your consulate or embassy but in most cases that would be more hassle)

- doctors cert (couple hundred baht or so, essentially walk-in walk-out at most hospitals or doctors offices. They ask a few questions and five minutes later you have the piece of paper.

- passport with valid visa (any visa including tourist).

- work permit that is mentioned in the article is not required, at least not when I went there and I got it on a tourist visa.

- Bring your country of origin license as you don't have to sit tests for the parts that are covered by it far as I know (like if you have a car license you can get a car license without the tests, but for the motorbike license, if you don't have that, you need to sit the tests).

- Photo is not required because they take it onsite.

This is the procedure in Chiang Mai. Every location is different, however if you try this in rural locations you will most likely not be able to get a DL with a tourist visa.

Good luck

In CM you can get the license with a tourist visa. But you need to have proof of address (normally a letter from your landlord, which you take to immigration to get the document which costs 500 baht). There's some other requirements which I don't remember but there's several sites which list the requirements just google it. You don't need a photo as they take it onsite. It took me half a day, about six months ago. Good service, English forms, no trouble.