DP25

Regards the Visa if you have the right amount of monies and requirements all is easy.

A trip once a year to the office how simple can that be.

If you're not married or not retirement age it's not so easy.

By far the biggest drawback to living in Thailand is the weather. The weather here is god awful. I know for those of you from dreary rain soaked European islands and frozen northern tundra it is an improvement, but for someone from California it is horrible here.

Of the issues listed in the poll, the visa rules are the biggest drawback. Traffic safety is a concern as well. But the weather is the by far the worst thing for me.

You must be pretty thin-skinned to let a handful of giggling girls get to you.

Why are so many farangs so concerned about what the locals think of them?

It destroys that fantasy that has been built up in their head by the bar girls. Especially when the gigglings is done by young shop girls, when the the bar girls have been telling them for years how smart and attractive they are.

When traveling I book 2 side by side seats. All the room a person could want

And when the bus starts getting crowded (standing room only), you're still able to hoard that extra seat?

Actually yes. And its not hoarding, its a paid assigned seat. Done it many times in particular from BKK to Korat. And you get a discount. Learned the trick a long time ago,

I know it's not hoarding, but how do you handle the (usually Thai) person standing next to your empty seat?

What are you talking about? These aren't city buses. There are no people standing in the aisle. They sell one ticket for every seat, when there are no more seats they stop selling tickets. Most buses do not even sell out and there are empty seats.

Because it makes it a whole lot easier for Thais to understand you. Do you think fluent or near fluent English speakers massacre the language for fun?

I don't think it makes it easier for them to understand. The guys that talk like this usually have a really small vocabulary in Thai, consisting entirely of really basic words the person they are talking to already knows in English. If it was a difficult word I could understand, but it never is. These guys are using really simple Thai words, chawp, kin, pai, etc, and the bar girl they're talking to usually knows all these words in English already.

It depends on the bus. Sometimes the back seats can recline and sometimes they do not. In a VIP bus the seats should recline, I took a VIP bus with Green Bus last week and I had the back seat and it did recline. It was also next to the fire exit so I got extra leg room and it was very comfortable.

If they want to achieve a high standard of English instruction they need to screen out annoying accents ... something considered vitally important by school inspectors in England.

That would mean 99% of Thai teachers would have to be fired.

As Maestro posted a visa's vanity is in months not days. A tourist 2 entry tourist visa from Laos is valid for 3 months from the date of issue.

Regardless of what the website says, the validity of my last double entry tourist visa from Vientienne was exactly 92 days. As was the case with Gilo's.

The validity of the OP's was exactly 90 days.

I just checked my own and with an issue date of 25th March and enter before date 24 June using the above and including entry and issuing date is 92 days so perhaps some consulates do provide that extra allowance. This was from Vientiane.

I checked the double entry tourist visa I got in Vientiane last year

It is also 92 days.

Very reasonable of them.

It's still a stupid rule. A stupid thing that is easily knowable does not become less stupid.

Why is it a stupid rule?

I don't think any visa issued would be good for infinity for entry to any country. They all have to expire at some time.

'Some time' doesn't mean the visa must expire exactly 90 days after its issued. They could add a few days so that so that this type of situation isn't so common.

I think you misunderstood, she is trying to charge you $20,000

Best bet is the single-entry TR which gives you breathing space. If you need a double-entry TR visa, then that's best obtained back in the UK so have that in your year planner.

A double entry tourist visa is best obtained in Laos. Absolutely no reason to go back to the UK, he will have no problem getting a double entry in Laos.

They should be arresting the farang as well, for molesting the woman and assaulting her boyfriend.

The guy deserved the beating

Buy them online using Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/

Or if you want to buy a box at a store these two have good selectrions of games. Everything is original not copied

http://www.i27games.com/

https://www.zest.co.th/

I saw a bunch for sale at Makro a few days ago. No idea how well they work in this climate

I can only assume its in retaliation for thailand own good manner book aimed at chinese

This was from the Thai government. These were rules posted by the Thai Embassy in Japan. It is not from the Japanese.

Why would Japan do something in retaliation on behalf of the Chinese anyway? That doesn't make any sense

Germany has a lot of character.

Actually, messy or not, Udon Thani, like every other Thai city of similar size look the same as each other and are completely lacking character. If you want character and are in Udon Thani, the nearest place which actually exhibits some character is Vientiane, the Lao capital located some 70km north of Udon.

Have to disagree, Nong Khai has character, the pier,Tha Sadet market, the promenade along the Mekhong, the restaurants and the friendly atmosphere of a small town on a river all make it a pleasant place to be in my view. Plus there's the bizarre temple 4 kilometres outside town with statues of dogs wearing sunglasses, sexually aroused and riding Vespa scooters.

Nong Khai is OK, but Vientiane still has far more character. And there's nothing you can find in Nong Khai you can't find anywhere else in Thailand. Mega Home is about the only thing you'd have to otherwise go to Rangsit or Mae Sot for, as there's only 3 stores in the whole of Thailand so far but otherwise, for everything else Vientiane has it. Real French food at bargain basement prices (like a 22,000 LAK lunch special or only 87 Baht!! for incredibly wholesome and authentic French cuisine), real Vietnamese and Chinese food, and the Buddha Park along the Mekong, 25km outside of Vientiane city is similar to the one you describe in Nong Khai. Add to that French colonial architecture and old world charm...Nong Khai is simply a place to pass through on your way to/from Laos.

Vientiane has 'character', which is great for a vacation, but I certainly would rather live in Nong Khai. Everything in Vientiane is overpriced except bread, beer, and booze. And apparently French food if you're in to that (where is this 22k place, all the french food I saw was like 3 times that) but basic necessities, street food, and small Lao/Thai restaurants are seriously over priced. Public transportation is bad and the tuk tuks are impossible to deal with. Shopping is overpriced and bad.

I'm sure rich expats never notice but I feel bad for poor Lao people cause basic stuff is expensive compared to Thailand and they have much lower wages. Nothing special in Nong Khai but it is cheap, comfortable, and pleasant.

The restriction has been midnight for years

She then told me ( the other officers already went home) that she wouldn't pay a lot of money to get her kids educated by some kids who aren't qualified to be teachers.

She pays a lot of money to Thai 'teachers' who can barely have a simple conversation in English. At least the foreign kid can speak the language. Most Thai teachers are 'qualified' to teach but can not even speak the language they are supposedly qualified in.

I don't think it's fair to all the others who always go the legal way, nor do I think it's fair that a 20, or 21 year old, without a degree and no teaching experience gets at least twice as much as a Filipino teacher with a real Thai teachers' license, having a degree in education, plus many years of experience teaching in Thailand.

Filipino teachers get shafted in Thailand, but that isn't the farang kid's fault. No reason to screw him over too, as well children who might miss out on their only chance to practice speaking English with someone who can actually speak the language. The 'trainers' should be getting less money and be working someplace where there are no farang teachers, but in a country with just about the worst English in the world, where even the teachers can not speak the language, it is misguided to kick them out as it's only hurting the students who will end up with no farang teacher at all, and hence no teacher that can speak English.

I really struggle to act like a 5 year old now I am 53.

Sounds like you're doing it pretty well to me.

Have you considered talking to people, rather than just throwing a strop when they don't do as you expect them to?

That's the dumbing down part. Not expecting people to do what they are meant too. But !

Yeah I have thought about talking to people. But when I shout out 'SERVICE' still nothing happened. What do you suggest ? taking the staff for a burger and chips ?

They don't speak English. They don't have the slightest clue what that word means. They just see some strange farang yellling incomprehensibly in the middle of the store. Since you can't speak Thai try politely going up to a staff member, speaking calming and pointing to what you need. They will go get someone.

I wonder weather mr. air chief transportation minister general, has ever seen the "bridge on the river Kwai" and visited the museum. The whole project is a disgrace and an insult to all those who died there and for their families who still come there to pay their respect.

I hope the international community who is quite aware of the history and makes a fist. This simply cannot happen.

Why is the existing railway with some repairs not sufficient? Kanchanabury is on the map because of the 2nd WW. and the tourists visiting there. I am sure potential tourists to Kanchanabury will protest the project.

I just cannot believe the insentivity of Janthong and the Japanese.

Shame on both of you.

The Thais aren't allowed to build a train to one of their own provinces, and to their neighboring country, because the Japanese did something bad 70 years? That is ridiculous. The reason the Japanese wanted to build that line is because it is an important route between Thailand and Burma. There currently is no line between Thailand and Burma and the Thai side to Kanchanaburi is old and decrepit. There is a memorial and cemetery, that is plenty sufficient, the entire province and country doesn't have to suffer because of what happaned in the 1940s.

No, far more S.E.Asians died than farangs, on the project.

Yet this isn't taught in Thai schools ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Railway

So much for co-prosperity !

The SE Asians that died were Burmese and Malays, so the Thais aren't too interested in that either. A small number of Thais worked on the railroad towards the beginning, but the Japanese weren't allowed to enslave them so they quit as the conditions were difficult. The Japanese then imported about 200,000 slaves from Burma and Malaysia, as well as 60,000 allied POWs. It happened on Thai territory but it is blamed on the Japanese and didn't directly involve many Thais, so it is basically ignored and forgotten today.