sbaker8688

Your friend in Korat may be a goldmine for information.

I'd like to get this information from farangs, at least initially. What thais consider to be ok places to live, or what thais consider to be ok for transportation, and what farangs generally consider these things to be, are often two different things. For instance, my ex-gf thought nothing of sitting in a van for 15 straight hours packed with other thais, no aircon, driving cross country.

Considering going to Korat for a spell. There's someone who wants me to visit, potentially.

First question, will I be an "alien" there, or are there enough farangs about that I won't be?

Second question, where are some good apartments? I don't like to live like Thais, jammed in these monstrous noisy skyscraper developments. Something reasonably priced with an aircon, a refridge, and decent internet (able to stream a video from youtube with no problem). Also if the staff knows enough english so that I can do things like pay rent and negotiate terms and what not, that would be great. I hate staying at places where I have to call an interpreter to come over to speak with management on something.

Third question, what's the best way to get there from, say, Bangkok? A bus perhaps?

Fourthly, how do you like it there?

Thanks.

Did the stamp you saw look something like this.

I don't remember the stamp, unfortunately. I just remember the visa itself, which did not say "O" or "B" or anything else, just "non-imm." It was strange.

The reason I wanted to see his visa is because I thought it was possible that different visas have different rules about either having to do a border run, or simply go to the immigration office.

At any rate, I will assume he was retired and had some retirement visa in disguise. So I will do the border run. Thanks.

If you want just want another 3 months you will have to leave and secure a tourist visa from a nearby country.

As was said in the movie Coolhand Luke, "what we have here is failure to communicate."

I don't need or want a tourist visa, because I have 6 months left on my non-immigrant O. But you still have to leave every 3 months. Well, my 3 months is up next week, so I need to leave and come back.

Unless I don't. This guy said I don't - he said I just need to go down to the immigration office, fill out some form, and get some 'extension' or whatever he called it. Maybe it really isn't an extension, maybe I'm using the wrong word. Bottom line, instead of leaving the country and coming back on a standard "border run," he said just go to the office, do some crap, and call it a day.

I simply want to know if anyone has heard of that or not, and if it is possible. That's all.

Again, let me repeat. I HAVE 6 MONTHS LEFT ON MY NON-IMM O. So we are talking either doing "standard border run" where I get another 3 months free and clear before having to do it again, or we are talking going to some immigration office and accomplishing the same thing without actually having to do a border run.

He showed it to me - had some kind of non-immigrant visa, but it didn't say 'O' on it. In fact it might not have said anything on it (it was british I believe).

It was a British non-immigrant visa? He showed it to you and you're not sure if it "said" anything?

I'm guessing it was a Thai immigration extension of stay, not a visa and, as others have said,the requirements would depend on the basis for the extension.

Yes it didn't specify the category of the visa (O, B, etc), it just said non-imm. I thought it was strange and showed it to my friend nearby, who also thought it was strange. Then again, we are americans, so we figured visas for british might be done differently.

He isn't married, so that wasn't the basis for his extension. My friend speculated that it was some kind of retirement visa masquerading as a non-imm.

Note that I'm strictly interested in dodging having to go to mae sai for a border run if I can just walk into an immigration office. I say that because a lot of the responses didn't seem to apply to what I want to do. Basically I want some way for an immigration office to just stamp my passport or whatever and give me another 3 months without having to make this big stupid trip. This guy claimed he did it by just going to the immigration office, where as before he always had to make the visa run.

I have a 1 year non-imm O. Normally I do a visa run up to mae sai (currently living in chiangmai), but met a guy who swore to me that I could simply go down to the immigration office and apply for some extension or whatever - says he does it all the time. He was very insistent, and even went and got his passport to "prove" it to me. He showed it to me - had some kind of non-immigrant visa, but it didn't say 'O' on it. In fact it might not have said anything on it (it was british I believe).

So what's the verdict? It's getting close to that time again, so I need to make a decision on what to do soon.

Thanks.

Cardboard box photo is when i just picked him up from outside - you can see some blood from one wound. The others are later after i cleaned him up.

EDIT: well i tried twice to post photos here. if someone can tell me what i did wrong....

When you have time would it be possible to post some photos?

I'll do better than that. Here are some videos:

https://youtu.be/RMA3vDubdKs

https://youtu.be/VWvg7-xSDTo

You know what I'm talking about? I see them in the stores here in Thailand on occasion. Looks sort of like a portable air-conditioner on wheels that you wheel around and put wherever you want. I guess it's some kind of fan/blower mechanism, but you also add water to it, and my guess is the water evaporates and the thing cools.

My question is... do these things work okay? Are they worth it? In an effort to save electric I've been doing with just a fan lately, but it has been so nightmarishly hot that it just isn't working, and I can't sleep or do anything else. If one of these things placed next to me would cool me off significantly better than just a fan, I'd consider buying one.

Anyone have any experience with one of these things?

I found a baby kitten outside being attacked by an adult cat. I shooed the adult cat away and picked up the kitten. It is literally only 1 or 2 days old - eyes and ears aren't open yet. It has around 3 bite wounds or so and they were bleeding. I bought alcohol, cotton swabs, and another kind of antiseptic and cleaned his wounds with that the best I could.

Besides that, main problem is eating. I bought some whole milk at the store and I have a syringe. I've tried giving him some milk many times with the syringe but he won't take it - seems most of it is spit up or falls out of his mouth and goes on the outside, and maybe he coughs on the rest. I'm not sure how much is getting down him, but my guess is very little. Of course I know he really needs a special formula, but this is just a stopgap measure until I get him to a vet, as I don't know how long he's gone without eating.

Anyway, I need a vet. I'll just throw some nice-to-haves at yhou. Of course the vet must be decent, not some kind of quack. I'd like english-speaking. I'd like something nearby the Night Bazaar area. I'd like something easy to find and get to. Finally, I'm limited on transportation and what not - I'd like someone who has stuff like milk formula there to sell so I don't have to run all over God's green earth in the heat and traffic with a sick (dying) baby cat tucked under my arm trying to get formula or medicine or whatever else.

Thanks for any help you can give, and hopefully you'll respond soon.

If anyone can give me the best directions they can for leaving chiangmai, and upon arriving, finding this Namthong Phrae Hotel, I'd really appreaciate it

Thanks for the feedback. I live in Chiangmai. I would consider the bus except the bus stations here are not farang-friendly by any means from what I've seen. Will probably go for a car.

Never been, must travel there later this week (from Chiangmai). Didn't see a "Phrae" subforum so I figured this was the best place to post.

I guess I have 2 questions.

1) What are some good options for traveling there from CM? I was thinking about renting a car. It is more expensive than a bus, of course, but I have no idea how much "in the boonies" Phrae is, whether there is good english spoken, etc. I'd hate to get there and then try to ask for a taxi to a hotel and them not understand me. Or worse, just ignore the farang because they don't speak english well. By the way... does the train go there?

2) What are some good hotel options? I don't need the Ritz-Carlton, just some place clean, with an AC, and low noise level. Internet would be a nice plus, but I'm not expecting it or anything.

Do enough farangs travel there so that a farang isn't seen as an "alien" so to speak? I just have no idea about the place.

Thanks.

Hello, I am an American in USA. Would like advice on the best way to transfer money to my SCB account.

I have some money in NZD in a bank account in USA. If I just ask for cash to take to Thailand they will convert to USD first, taking a skim off the top of course. My question is whether it is probably better to attempt to transfer NZD if possible, avoiding conversion to USD first. How do I make sure SCB doesn't do something weird like convert to dollars first, then to Thai baht (upon receipt of my NZD)? Does anyone know how this works?

Finally, if you think it will pretty much work out close to the same either way, let me know, as my preference would be to carry USD to Thailand on my person.

Thanks.

I can do this in my country, but have no idea if this is possible in Thailand or not.

I'd like to rent a car in BKK, drive it to CM, and drop off or leave it there. In other words, I don't want to have to return it back down to BKK. Are there rental companies that allow for this? If so, can you recommend?

(Even better is if the company can deliver to me in BKK, and/or pick it up from me in CM)

Thanks.

If I get this corrected, and if I leave just before my visa expires, and then come back (again just before it expires), I should get a new 3 months which would carry me over past when my visa expires, is that correct?

So it is recommended to deal with the same immigration dept. (Chiangmai airport) that committed the error, instead of going to Survanahbhumi (can't spell that word) or another place? Any particular reason?

Thanks.

Thanks for all the help. I was under the impression that a couple of days was no big deal, but months would earn you a stay in jail or prison or whatever. Still, 20K baht is something that will hurt.

To answer questions - yes I had a perfectly valid visa when I entered. My visa doesn't expire until November sometime. It is a 1 year non-immigrant O visa.

Someone asked what I put as the visa number on the arrival card. Naturally, I assume that I put my visa number. Unless I got it wrong somehow (I will check).

Again, thanks for all the advice. I suppose I will try to have this corrected. But I don't have high hopes that I won't get slapped with a fine regardless (still - much better than jail).

THE BACKGROUND:

I have been living here for years on non-immigrant o visas. I always get the 12 month variety, which means I have to leave the country every 3 months, get a stamp on my passport, and then I come back. It's the same routine for years: stay 3 months, book a flight to [insert nearby country name here], fly back, stay 3 more months, rinse, repeat.

THE PROBLEM:

The last time I had to leave was around 22 July. I flew to Malaysia from BKK, stayed in the airport overnight, then flew to Chiangmai because I wanted to stay there a while. I entered in Chiangmai, got my passport stamped, stayed a month there, then headed down to Bangkok where I am now. Well, it's now October, which is around the time to start planning another trip. So I grab my passport today to figure out the last day I can be in Thailand before I must leave. Then I discovered THEY ONLY STAMPED ME FOR A MONTH when I flew into Chiangmai back in July. I had no idea. I am now 2 months or so overstayed.

I am always stamped for 3 months. I have never been stamped for less than 3 months. I have never heard of being stamped for only a month if you qualify for being stamped for 3 months. Call me crazy, dumb, whatever, but after being up all night in a Malaysia airport and after arriving at 6am in Chiangmai and standing in a long line with people waiting behind me to get their passport stamped, and with bags in my hand and a backback and laptop computer slung over my shoulders, I just didn't find the time to stand there and scrutinize my passport when the officer stamped it and shoved it to me. I grabbed it with whatever free hand I had, slipped it into my pocket, and walked away. Then I forgot about it.

My main questions above anything else are "how much trouble am I in?" and "what the hell do I do now?" If it makes any difference, I have no criminal record anywhere, whether it is Thailand or my home country of the USA. Also, I have no previous immigration violations. Something tells me I am in a lot of trouble, so the last thing I want to do (unless someone tells me otherwise) is just walk into a Thai immigration office and throw them my passport and ask them to sort this out. Some options I thought of were 1) go get an immigration lawyer (if they exist here) or 2) walk into the American embassy and ask for assistance. But I have no idea what help I qualify for, or what help I can get.

So, 1) Does anyone know how much trouble I'm in? 2) Does anyone know what I should do? 3) Does anyone have any experience with this, i.e. it happened to them, or it happened to a friend, and if so, what did you (or the friend) do? 4) Does anyone know the law in regards to this? Yadda yadda.

Anyone know why I would have just been stamped for 1 month? Was it just a mistake by the immigration officer? Or is it just totally up to their discretion how long they want to give you, even if you can be stamped for 3 months?

Thanks.

I need to ship something to Chiangmai, largish box between 20kg-25kg. I need the location and directions to a place that will ship for me.

I am located near BTS Ratchatevi.

My first priority is convenience, meaning how easy is it to get to, does the place speak english, are there gonna be long lines, will they help me box and pack it, etc?

My second priority is cost.

This does not need to be speed delivery or air mail, it can be slow.

Any answer is fine as long as it meets the first priority (I will accept government post office, UPS, etc).

Thanks for any help.

Wow, I arrived and went to about 10 places today (many in Lat Phrao area). Most places were 100% full (about 80%). Of the few that weren't, they were very expensive, and wanted 6 month minimums. Again, Lat Phrao, not some place off of Asok.

Man, Bangkok is more of a pain in the ass than I remember. Anyway, I'm totally dropping the month-to-month requirement. If I can find a 3 month contract I'll be happy.

I'll try some of these places recommended here tomorrow I guess, and see what happens.

<<Although to be frank, if you can only afford 7,000 baht a month...>>

Actually I can afford whatever I want, I just consider it a waste.

I guess Bangkok is just more difficult in general, and a lot more expensive than Chiangmai where I usually stay. I stay at an "expensive" condo in CM (I'm in it right now), with 2 beds, aircon, hot shower, refrig, tv, and balcony for 5000B/month and it's month to month to boot. I guess this kind of living doesn't exist so much in Bangkok :-( But if someone thinks of something, do let me know - thanks.

Yes this type of living is available, you are looking in the wrong area.

Try in the Lat Prao area close to the underground, dont restrict yourself to places like On Nut or you will pay a premium.

Petchaburi rd is another area you may consider.

Ah, I didn't restrict myself at all - Lat Phrao or another place is fine. In fact I stayed at Lat Phrao before, it was a fine place but not month to month.

<<Although to be frank, if you can only afford 7,000 baht a month...>>

Actually I can afford whatever I want, I just consider it a waste.

I guess Bangkok is just more difficult in general, and a lot more expensive than Chiangmai where I usually stay. I stay at an "expensive" condo in CM (I'm in it right now), with 2 beds, aircon, hot shower, refrig, tv, and balcony for 5000B/month and it's month to month to boot. I guess this kind of living doesn't exist so much in Bangkok :-( But if someone thinks of something, do let me know - thanks.