Morgan

Try (www.just-dial.com) Pay via your B.T. account. Use the BTweb site to keep track of your bill. Calls to Thai cost around 20p per min.

Morgan

Been married to thai wife for years but would not want to be a Thai citizen you then come under Thai law with no back up from your embassy. O.K. for some people but think residency would suit me best. I think you are free to work if you have residency visa.

Morgan  

Reply to Singa-Traz yes have photo of the house its not much to look at, just a village style home. How do you post pics on this board ?

Morgan.

Had a house built by the wifes family and local labour.

I did go and buy the windows, blocks, sand ,cement,pillars to start the building off. Depends what you mean by Thai style house. Mine has concrete, 4 pillars by 4 pillars 3.5 Meters apart with single block infill. Then for first floor we bought an old teak house,used the timber to have the sixteen pillars in teak to the roof line, solid teak floor,teak cladding to the outside,teak roof supports with green tiles.This works ok for me as i dont like lots of small rooms.The house is free standing just put your partitions where you want them. To self build ? to find and control labour,we had first gang of carpenters walk off site in the middle of the job ,sort out plans,find materials at the right price,delivered to site.ect. very hard i think self build is hard enough in Aus let alone Thai. I spent one whole day in town trying to buy a stepladder never did find one. anyway

Good Luck with the build Morgan.

Our house allways has Thai relatives living in it at the moment mother-in-law (sister-in-law+son at the moment having a bust up with her husband) they live/use the ground floor.When in Thailand wife and i live on first floor. The whole family decends from the village to cook and eat their evening meal on our veranda. Never have to worry about locking doors windows at night or when going to town    

Morgan.

Reading through a few postings i see people discribing problems with condos, riped off on price /service charges. Hard to resell ect. Anybody have experience of this or is it hearsay. I can understand renting to get to know the area. I was hoping to buy a condo at some stage in the future as did think would be nice to have a place to call my own. I did think that buying a condo would be easy with no problems now i am not so sure.

Morgan  

From what ive seen in pattaya long hair tatoos not a problem, as a tourist you can have hair as long as you like. The only place i heard had a problem with long hair was singapore and that was back in the seventys what makes you guys think you need short hair to enter Thailand?

Morgan

As in todays Bangkok Post. Meeting friends for a drink or something to eat, can now mean being made to provide police with a urine test to prove you have not been using drugs. And not taking drugs is no guarantee that you will not be accused of being a user. The story is about a thai rap singer who was the recent victim of a false positive result.But what about tourists expats as when the test is taken if the urine turns purple this is taken as confirmation that the person has been taking methamphetamines, but this is not always the case.Test have shown the incidence of false results could be as high as 40% The result of reaction to hundreds of over the counter and prescription drugs. As the paper said Jooey Boy is just one of of many people similarly victimised but with out the clout to clear their names. Urine tests take two forms (Screening test) usually at the place of entertainment and a second (Confirmation test) at a hospital or Institute of Forensic Medicine. An officer with the Institute of Forensic Medicine said about 1,000 urine samples were sent to the institute each year for confirmation checks and about 50% showed drugs had been used. My point is how many tourists or expats would get the chance to have the second test done before having to sign a confession and being deported or fined.

Morgan

Got my vote to where on Gods green earth can a single man have such a fantastic holiday stop moaning guys enjoy it while you can.

Morgan

Cant see why you think you are offering the girl such a great deal, leave your job go out with me if it works out O.K. If not back to the bar? Is making love part of the deal are you going to pay the going rate to the girl while you find out if you get on. From her point of view your just another punter who came to the bar and paid for sex. So your not going to look very trustworthey in her eyes. All you are offering is a MAYBE and by  the sound of it very little cash no condo/mobilephone/bills payed/shoping trips /or even a one baht gold necklace. I think the girls are just a little smarter than that.   

Morgan

Have a look on this page (www.thai-la.net/car-impt.htm)

Cheers Morgan.    

Would be nice to have some feedback on how you get on what office you used address telephone number ect, as this question of isaan immigration offices has come up before with as far as i  know no first hand accounts of people having used them for apart from Nong Khai thanks.

Morgan.

Go to (www. phuketimmigration.com)on menu bar which takes time to load, look under  (Entering the kingdom / Northeast.) this will give you the info you require .

Cheers Morgan

Worth a read you never know if your in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reading through put me off even thinking of breaking the law in Thai. Good site for reserch. (www.prisonersabroad.org.uk/publications/Survival_guide_for_prisoners_in_Thailand.pdf )

Morgan                    

I would be interested to know if board members who live in Thailand, or people who have visited Thailand over a number of years think of thailand as a violent society. When renting a property would you take your security into consideration. Also do you build a certen level of security into your lifestyle. Example- Not being alone late at night in certain parts of a city, or not going out alone to get blind drunk. Or on the other hand would you say your security is not something you think about.

P.S This is not an invitation for people who have negitive feelings about Thais or Thailand to go on and on. Its boring and we have heard it all before thanks.

Morgan.

If as you say the land is in a village and if you and your girlfriend split up. You intend to stay living in the house all i can say is good luck. The wife and i have a house just outside a village in Isan.Of the two villages next to it 90% of people in one are related to her father. The other village 90% of people are related to her mother,thats with out friends and people they employ for the rice harvest. The only way i could stay in our house if anything happned to my wife is if the family wanted me to. As for selling i think you would have problems there to. IMHO this idea of a lease will work in Pattaya-Bangkok but not in a Isan village. If the split upsets the family i cant see you lasting a month in the village IMHO. Im not saying dont build the house,just dont put all your  faith in a lease there are other factors to consider.

Cheers Morgan.

We use international money orders (IMO) which as you say cost eight pounds. They are safe the problem is if one gets lost it takes one month plus to get the money back into your account. Because the last I.M.O went missing in the post had to wire the money stright into the Thai bank account, cost (twenty pounds) time around three days for account to be credited. Have been looking at this site (thailand.ikobo.com) The person your sending money to  has a ( ikobo atm card ) which you load via the net but they only use $U.S  so money would have to go from Sterling to $U.S to Thai. Will have to work out the cost it out might be a good way to send money.

Cheers morgan.  

Having problems with mail at the moment with my last I.M.O. going adrift anyone know a good Electronic Transfer company based in uk.

Cheers Morgan.

PS. Before you ask its not for my favourite b/g (unfortunately) ha ha.

Thanks sevinnow must just have been bad luck with our letters will try again.

Cheers Morgan  

The number of Expats that fly out of condos is amazing did he jump or was he pushed. A few weeks ago a woman gave this explanation on the death of her lover he triped and hit his head on the iron i was holding.

Morgan ???

You can look at www.boi.go.th  Business/Work Permits. More experinced members of the board can give you advice on your chances of getting a work permit for this type of job. My understanding is that if a Thai can do the job your applying for you will not get one. But dont let me put you off keep trying.Good luck with your job hunt.

Cheers Morgan

Is anyone having problems with mail getting through to thai we have had two letters go adrift.The wife rang her mother to check if the letters had arrived she said one woman whose husband works in Tiawan went to the post office to post a letter to him the post office would not except the letter also said Thailand were not excepting letters from Tiawan. Due to the sars outbreak. What other countries are on the list. Im a long way from Tiawan in the uk i know but i do remember when the anthrax scare was on we had problems with mail getting through.

Cheers Morgan.

Sad thai wives prepared to commit suicide thats a new one on me never heard of it. There are thousands of thai wives in the uk it seems every time i go to the town center i see another new face with a thai wife. Now there must be some who dont like lifestyle or miss their familes too much and want to go home (again never heard of any)but they just jump on a plane back to thai dont they. One friend of the wife whose husband died around two years ago sold up and with more than enough money to retire went back to thailand she now spends most of the time at friends houses in the uk.

No i dont see lots of sad thai people in the uk but thats just me i could very well be wrong.

Cheers Morgan.