Ken

Here's a link to the booking page:

http://www.castle-ho...id=54&Itemid=76

Please state "thaivisa weekend package" in your booking to enjoy the package deal!

Finally an answer I can understand. Thanks.

Google Maps directions:-

https://maps.google.....004415&vpsrc=6

So again, it is not clear to me how to "sign up" and how to book and prepay for a room???? Maybe it's just me

It is not clear to me how to "sign up" and how to book and prepay for a room????

If you want the new passport returned to you by mail you have to surrender your current passport as they will cancel it and return it along with your new passport. If you pick up your new passport at the embassy you can retain your current passport as they will cancel it when you go to the embassy to obtain the new one.

I applied for a new passport on the afternoon of 06 June at one of the Pattaya outreach visits. On 13 June I received an email notifying me that my new passport was ready to be picked up at the embassy. Date of issue was 08 June.

-redwood

Redwood is spot on. I renewed my passport at the Khon Kaen outreach program this past June 14. They kept the old passport, which was returned to me with the new passport via EMS about 2 weeks later.

Last year I tried to sign up for Bangkok Bank Internet banking, on the signup form you enter an email address.

It could ONLY be @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com I was staggered to say the least. I asked why.

The reply "Because it's only a real email address if it ends in @yahoo.com or hotmail.com" said the senior girl behind the desk.

Totally unbelieivable, but totally true.

I signed up for internet banking several years ago with Bangkok Bank and using my gmail account. Never heard that they would only accept yahoo or hotmail. When was that? Ok. whoops, you said a year ago.

And I'm still using gmail for it.

Korat. IT Plaza, electronics shop, ground floor.

Your current marriage is legal, as you are not married to two persons. The problem is to proof the divorce, which is not accepted by the ex-wife's amphur, but was accepted by the amphur where you were married in 2004.

Have the ex contact the department of provincial administration for advise, pointing out your second marriage with proof of second marriage being accpeted. www.dopa.go.th

I believe they set the regulations for the registar at the amphurs.

Another option might be to find another amphur that is less strict/has more experience with foreign divorces. That might require being registered on a household registration there.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't perfectly clear, but the amphur where we registered the marriage with the ex wife is the same amphur that accepted the papers to marry the second wife. Go figure.

Stupid question, but have you tried the "tea money" approach at the local amphur? Might be worth a try. Maybe they are just making it impossible for you because they want a bribe.

Actually I don't think it is a stupid question. And no, I didn't try it, but have wondered about it. There was no mention and the conversation was all in Thai with the ex. I am fairly sure the ex would have told me if that option was offered. On the other hand, that may be the next best step, but I am going to leave that up to the ex. She can take all the paper work along with the village head boss and see if she can sort it out on her own without me being any further involved.

My ex Thai wife wants to change her last name back to her maiden name. We were previously married in USA in 1992, We also registered the marriage at the local Amphur. We divorced in 2003 in USA court, she signed the papers here in Thailand and her signature was notoraized by the USA embassy in Bangkok. The papers were then mailed to me and I proceeded with the divorce in USA. I have the original divorce decree with the appropriate court stamps. In 2004 I married another Thai lady and we registered the marriage at the same local Amphur. I provided the applicable Embassy affadavits (free to marry), and these were translated and certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The amphur accepted the documents and marriage certificate was issued.

Now the problem. The local Amphur is not willing to accept just the Affadavit from the embassy with the certification. They are insisting that I must also have the original divorce decree, translated and "certified". However the American embassy does not certify any original document, only provides affadavit and notoray sevice.

I have contacted a local law firm and they are saying:

"I could not imagine how crazy it is to certify your document. I checked on the website of Thai consular.

1) You will have to get document to notarize according to the state your document issues

http://www.nass.org/ Homepage > NPA Section Tab > State Websites Tab > choose a state to get the state Notary Public website

2) The secretary of State needs to certified after the notary public signed.

3) US department of State needs to certified document

4) Thai embassy/consulate needs to legalize document

5) Take this document to legalize at the Thai consular office in Bangkok."

This is more than just crazy, it's beyond the absurd to me. There is no way I'm going to go thru this process just to "help" the ex change her last name. It does beg a few questions though. It might appear that I and the ex are still married and now I have another Thai wife also which wouldn't be legal, or so it would seem.

Not sure what to do at this point other than just forget about it. Let the ex figure out what to do or not do. Anybody have any experience like this, or have any insight as to what to do?

I spoke with Na this morning & she says she has sold the restaurant. It is closed & all her fixtures have been removed. It appears that somebody wanted the location for another business & made her an offer she could not refuse.

She wants to thank all of her customers for coming. She says she loves all her customers very much & loved serving & talking with all of you.

She is undecided on exactly what she will do in the future. For now, she is going to take a break & see where her future leads her. She may open a new place, but only time will tell.

I posted this as she can not remember her password, but I think she will be on here soon to say a few words on her own.

Bummer. I was in Mukdahan a month ago, specifically to look up this restaurant. I hadn't read the last posts of this thread (stupid me). Went about to try and find any other Farang type establishments, with no success. Even the Tuk Tuk drivers in front of the big hotels could not offer any advice. Ended up at a Thai style restaurant along the river and had some fantastic "crispy" (deep fried) duck.

Are there any Farang establishments in the city anymore?

Actually, it sounds a little bit like the "2pm to 5pm" no alcohol law that is sometimes being enforced everyday across thailand. "Sometimes" being the pivotal word.

You may be right Ken, but if so it's very selective. I was there again yesterday where the procedure was the same, and so decided to check the next beer outlet about 100 metres away. There was no evidence of wrapped beer there, so I still can't figure it out. Not that it matters much - as long as beer's available I don't mind if it's wrapped or nude - it seems to taste the same!

"Sometimes" it will depend on whether the store/vendor is willing to pay the BIB.

Actually, it sounds a little bit like the "2pm to 5pm" no alcohol law that is sometimes being enforced everyday across thailand. "Sometimes" being the pivotal word.

Great that Supernova helped you get it fixed.

Here is a W7 forum with some graphics/driver/directX ideas http://www.sevenforums.com/browsers-mail/150770-cannot-enable-hardware-acceleration-ie9.html

MPSpain

Try disabling add-ons in IE9. This includes accelerators and toolbars.

If that doesn't reduce CPU usage, turn off hardware acceleration (this may seem a bit odd, but just do it). If you have an Intel HD Graphics adapter, read this blog.

Make sure you're not running IE9 64-bit.

OK. I had already tried disabling all add ons but still had problem.

However.....turning off hardware acceleration, the web pages now load fine. I guess my grahics on the motherboard is "obsolete". Oh well.

Thanks for the help, I certainly wouldn't have thought of trying that and googling the problem wasn't coming up with that possible solution either.

I had been thinking about wiping out everything and starting from scratch (reload Windows). Obviously that wouldn't have helped.

Thanks all. I decided to go ahead and see about an updated driver. My graphics driver was dated 2008. Using a scan from Uniblue came up with a driver dated 2009. Using PC Pitstop came up with a driver dated 2010. I went with PC Pitstop and then enabled the GPU hardware rendering instead of software acceleration. Now the pages continue to load fine, so obviously the updated driver "fixed" the problem.

Try disabling add-ons in IE9. This includes accelerators and toolbars.

If that doesn't reduce CPU usage, turn off hardware acceleration (this may seem a bit odd, but just do it). If you have an Intel HD Graphics adapter, read this blog.

Make sure you're not running IE9 64-bit.

OK. I had already tried disabling all add ons but still had problem.

However.....turning off hardware acceleration, the web pages now load fine. I guess my grahics on the motherboard is "obsolete". Oh well.

Thanks for the help, I certainly wouldn't have thought of trying that and googling the problem wasn't coming up with that possible solution either.

I had been thinking about wiping out everything and starting from scratch (reload Windows). Obviously that wouldn't have helped.

You can open the Task Manager when this happens and look to see what process is using the CPU.

You also need to be sure IE9 is allowed in your security programs.

MSPain

Task manager says the big usage is iexplore.

Only "security" I use is Windows firewall and Avira antivirus (free). I did try disabling Avira, but did not help.

I just installed Explorer 9 on Windows 7 Home Premium desktop (legitmate version). As soon as I open explorer the CPU usage jumps to 100 percent and will never open the page. So far I have done the following:

Safe mode with networking. Works ok and opens.

Run malwarebytes: scan, no problem found

Run config and turn off all start ups: Still 100 percent usage and won't open.

Disable all add ons: Still 100 percent usage.

Google Chrome and Firefox browser: No problem and opens pages.

Remove explorer 9 and revert back to explorer 8: No problem and opens pages.

I also have a notebook running Windows 7 home premium and explorer 9. No problem.

Any thoughts?

The latest news is if you have signature authority on a foreign bank account, even if you have no personal interest in the account (i.e. a corporate account), you must include that bank account(s) in your FBAR filing.

The good news is if you have already filed your 2010 return and did not indicate on it that you have a foreign account that needs to be reported, you only need to file a FBAR by June 30, 2011 (which as already passed) that includes those accounts and any accounts that you personally hold even if they never individually or in total went over $10k.

TH

I just took a look at the latest FBAR and it says you do not need to report if the aggregate value of the accounts did not exceed $10,000:

File this form with: U.S. Department of the Treasury, P.O. Box 32621, Detroit, MI 48232-0621

This form should be used to report a financial interest in, signature authority, or other authority over one or more financial accounts in foreign

countries, as required by the Department of the Treasury Regulations 31 CFR 1010.350 (formerly 31 CFR 103.24). No report is required if the aggregate

value of the accounts did not exceed $10,000. See Instructions For Definitions.

Form:

TD F 90-22.1

(Rev. March 2011)

Department of the Treasury

Banks question clarification: I expect to deposit social security and a pension monthly into an American bank and then transfer money, as needed, to Thailand. So I still need that question answered. (What are a couple of stable banks in the Isaan area (cities please) that have American counterparts? (Like HSBC and CitiBank)?

Hospitals: Do any Isaan hospitals routinely treat people for heart attacks or strokes or do they simply stabilize the person and ship them off to Bangkok or some other location? Anyone had any first-hand experiences with either one of these conditions?

Thanks for any information...

I heard that Bangkok bank in BKK is the only Thai bank that has a USA bank routing number that you can easy transfer funds I believe theres a Citibank in BKK as well Bangkok bank has branchs all over even Vientiane

Reason for edit...miss read post.

I opened up a account at Bangkok Bank , Got A debit Card. Had tryed 3 times and was told no.

I wanted Bangkok bank as they have a office in New Your and money transfer would not be internationl. Is local cost less to tranfer. Any way I had my local banker In the US sent them a wire as I was a long time client, They told me they never got it. So i pulled a copy out of my pocket , gave it to them , they asked it they could keep the copy and opened the account for me ,Debit card and all, The card has a 10 year from now date on it,

Are you sure that a transfer from Bangkok Bank's NY branch to Thailand is charged as a local transfer? I have heard that BBL's international branches are more expensive than other banks to transfer money to Thailand. Is there some fee chart on the internet I couldn't find?

Bangkok Bank

Fees

1.Bangkok Bank in New York charges the following fees for funds transfers initiated via the US ACH system:

Transferred Amount Fee

Less than USD 50.00 Free

USD 51.00 - 100.00 USD 3.00

USD 100.01 - 2,000.00 USD 5.00

USD 2,000.01 - 50,000.00 USD 10.00

USD 50,000.01 or more USD 20.00

2.Bangkok Bank in Thailand also charges a fee of 0.25% of the amount in the Baht currency (minimum of THB 200; maximum of THB 500) when the funds are deposited into the recipient's Bangkok Bank account in Thailand.

Got "brave" and wiped out grub. Could no longer dual boot, but boot into Windows ok. Put in the rescaltux CD and used it to reload the Grub. Quite easy to do and now have the dual boot back again. Thanks again keeniau96.

To the suggestions of using virtualbox. Maybe I'll give that a try also. Thanks.

RKASA (and tomuchrice). Thanks for your ideas. Like I said, I'm quite new to Linux and I'm now using MINT 11. When I boot the DVD with MINT 11 and try the terminal commands, first it doesn't find grub, but gives me the option to "The program grub is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install grub. OK, so I went ahead and installed grub. Now at the grub prompt I type in find /boot/grub/stage1 and hit enter. The response back is "error 15 file not found". So not sure what to do from here.

I have downloaded rescatux as per keeniau96 post (thanks keeniau96). I created the CD and it looks like this will do what I need. I went thru the motions and all seemed to work, but Grub wasn't corrupted at this point either. Maybe I'll go ahead and wipe grub out myself and try the rescatux again.

Last week's $100 transfer from ING to my Thailand BKK account has now been deposited. The amount deposited was 2724.55 Baht. So from Bangkok Banks web page listing the fee schedule, BKK New York would have charged me $3 and BKK Thailand would have charged me 200 Baht. Using the exchange rate of 30.16 as posted on Thaivisa today, the amount deposited works out to be just about right on the money.

Having said that, this was only a test run for me, and I would never "normally" transfer such a small amount. Thus it does appear to me that using the ING to BKK method as previously described by RichinThailand, while not totally "free", is a cost effective method for transferring funds from USA and the cost is considerably less than the SWIFT method that I have previously used.

use a live linux cd and run the re do master boot record. It will write a menu and install a fresh boot loader - it is also a way to recover it. A good cd version of rescue type live cd or most any you can install from should do it. disclaimer I have not done anything with win7 but don't recall hearing it is any different then xp in this regard.

Everyone, thanks for the replys. As a note, I am pretty new to Linux. RKASA, I'm interested in just exactly how to do the "re do master boot record" from the live cd. Thanks.

I've done some "googleing", but haven't been able to come up with any good (easy) answer. I would like to be able to "save" the Grub boot info for times when I manage to wipe it out. I'm looking for a way to save it and then be able to "easily" load it back if I have accidently lost it in my "playing". Recently I had a need to reload a Windows Image that I had made using Acronis True Image. When I did this, it wrote over the boot file and would no longer dual boot. Would only boot into Windows. The only way I could boot back in to Mint, was to reload Mint from scratch. Anybody have some information on this?

Ken - This subject was bugging me so I did some digging, it seems that there is now an international payments service involving the US Fed and the ACH system and it's called, not surprisingly, FEDGLOBAL or FEDACH, see the link below. http://www.frbservices.org/help/fedach_international.html. On that basis you were entirely correct, apologies.

Chiang mai: Thanks for your post. Actually, it's not that I was "entirely correct", but I think the way I worded the post, it could have been read that I thought the ACH was going to BKK in Thailand, though that is not what I meant or thought. To me it was obvious that the ACH was going to New York (otherwise why would I need to use their routing number when I made my transfer). Now exactly how they move the money from New York to Bangkok, I'm not sure, but apparently they do charge a "small handling fee" as noted in my post above. Maybe they use the FEDACH method that you found out about???

At any rate, the ING method seems to work quite well....and it will save me some money.