silver sea

Every time David Attenborough brushes past a locked car door it opens. Maybe it's because he likes wearing khaki trousers.

The best relationship I ever had was with a broken puppet because there were no strings attached.

I may have a winner here?

Beckham's son turned up to training at Old Trafford this morning, for the youth squad.

A few of the other lads were asking him what number shirt he would be wearing.

He approached the team coach to ask what jersey he should put on.

"Wear four out there Romeo." He replied.

Hey laislica

You had me baffled on that one, mate. I had to scratch my head a bit before the penny dropped.

If I remember rightly, the relevant bit in the balcony scene goes:

Juliet: "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

So I'm going to tweak the punch line in your joke as follows:

Beckham's son turned up to training at Old Trafford this morning, for the youth squad.

A few of the other lads were asking him what number shirt he would be wearing.

He approached the team coach to ask what jersey he should put on.

"O Romeo, Romeo, wear four out there Romeo." He replied.

Hope you don't mind. I'm sure that's what you intended. If so, then you're right: you "may have a winner"! ?

When they dig up old graves in the UK, many coffins have scratch marks inside from people waking up and trying to get out. 1000s of people got buried alive in Victorian times. Probably some still do. It's easy to make mistakes if someone is in a very deep coma.

If anyone's worried, then they could order one of THESE.

My garden just attacked my Hoover and stole its bag! Nature abhors a vacuum.

One friend said to the other: "My wife's an angel."

The other replied: "You're lucky. Mine's still alive.

I started work in a cardboard box factory, but it folded last week. Then I got a job as a postman... well, it's better than walking the streets.

Wanted: road sweeper.

No experience necessary. You just pick it up as you go along

Why does Pattaya have the stutus of " City " ? - I think it is only a town.

Surely, to have the status of " City " there has to be either a Cathederal OR a University within the city boundary limits, and to the best of my knowledge , Pattaya has neither.

I guess that you're making some sort of jokey reference to the UK.

The requirement that a town had to have an Anglican Cathedral in order to become a city ended in 1889. This is when Birmingham was made a city; its Anglican Cathedral dates from 1905. There never was a requirement that there had to be, as an alternative, a university in the town for it to achieve city status. In any event, Birmingham Uni dates from 1900.

If you want further information then click HERE

Thai embassy and consulates do not have computer access to your travel history. Only immigration has it. That is, they could not see what travel you did with a previous passport, etc.

Also, the proper answer when asked how long one stays in Thailand is about the present entry, e.g 60 days. No point in mentioning anything else.

Thank you for the additional information about the computers, which I did not know.

In relation to your "proper answer" point, I just wanted to be as open as possible with him. I have nothing to hide. Of course, I may change my mind, and may indeed do some travelling outside Thailand. My plans keep changing. I understand, however, what you are saying, and will follow your advice the next time I am asked that question.

London RTE did this to my passport last month - no problem at the airport but my OCD was in overdrive for a time !

Thanks for that. Your mentioning OCD reminds me that I have not addressed an earlier, albeit off topic, post:

I would focus less on your promoting an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with the date stamp order and be more concerned it may raise the eye of an immigration officer that you have spent 2/3 of the last 2 years and 9 months in Thailand as a tourist.

Probably not an issue but just saying.

Hello JohnThailandJohn

I am not sure why you would think there would be a problem, although several other TV members have clicked their approval. Presumably, they share your concern.

I can only assume that you are still stuck on the old belief that you can't have back-to-back tourist visas and/or 180 days (6 months) have to elapse between tourist visas.

That particular point has come up loads of times on this Forum over the last few months, and indeed, probably years. Each time, moderators and experienced posters have said time after time that there is no such rule in relation to tourist visas; the August 12th deadline had nothing to do with tourist visas.

Click HERE for a typical thread and note in particular post #3, by ubonjoe, and post #22 by paz.

As far as the RTE in London (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Immigration Bureau, which is a separate government department, are concerned, I am of little interest to them because I am unlikely to be an illegal worker. Although I have had several recent visas, I always fly back to my home country. An illegal worker is unlikely to go to all that trouble and expense. I am very grateful that I have a British passport and not one from Russia, Laos, Vietnam or South Korea, where according to Immigration, most illegal workers are coming from.

Indeed, I am no longer frisked after I have gone through the metal detectors at Samui airport or on my return via Heathrow and Bangkok. I raise my arms and offer myself up, but they just smile and wave me on.

When the RTE considered my most recent application for a triple entry visa, they would have seen from my passport and their computer records that since January 2012, I have also had two previous triple entry visas, a single entry visa and a 30 day visa exempt stamp. Despite that recent history, they accepted my £75 in settlement of their fee, and issued me with a third triple entry visa.

When I arrived at Bangkok, the Immigration official would have had exactly the same information in front of him as the RTE had back in London: my passport and computer records. As it happened, he did actually get additional information, because we had the following conversation:

Him: "How long you stay in Thailand?"

Me: "9 months."

Him: "I can only grant you 60 days."

Me: "OK. At the end of the 60 days, I will go to Immigration Office on Samui to get an extra 30 days. I will then do border runs to the Malaysian border to activate the second and third entries on my visa and will get a 30 day extension on both of them from Samui Immigration."

Although his English was fairly limited, it was clear that he had understood what I had said. He then smiled, stamped up my passport and waved me through. Barely more than 5 minutes in all. I have nothing to hide, and want to be as helpful as possible, which is why I was concerned that my latest visa label had been stuck on to the wrong page.

I appreciate that some of you feel that I am not really a tourist, and should be on a long stay visa instead. There have been numerous threads arguing about whether someone like myself is a frequent visitor or a long term resident. Both sides have very strong views, and I do not propose to rerun the arguments here.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what any of us think; what matters is the attitude of the officials at the RTE in London and at Immigration. Officials from both are satisfied that I am a genuine tourist; that I have applied for the right visa; and as a consequence have accepted my money to settle their fee and have allowed me back into the country.

So stop being so anal retentive about tourist visas (you see, I can use psychobabble to be rude about somebody too). Just saying.

Imagine having been persuaded by a radical cleric to blow yourself (and others) into eternity. You then wake up in Paradise and look around expectantly. If your 72 virgins turned out to be this lot pictured below, wouldn't you feel that you had just fallen for the "Worst Joke Ever"?

The photograph is not as clear as I had hoped, but the signs over the stall are saying:

"Fresh Coconut Water £4".

£4 is about 204 THB.

Tesco Lotus in Lamai is selling similar coconuts for 24THB.

By coincidence, on my flight from Heathrow last Tuesday, I was siting next to a young Thai woman. She had just spent the last 12 months working her socks off doing her Masters Degree at Imperial College, London. On one of her rare days out, she had been walking down Oxford Street with her Thai friends and they had spotted the same stall. One of her friends claimed that the coconuts were from her family farm back in Thailand.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Very helpful and reassuring. Apologies for my delay in replying.

As you may have guessed, I am not an experienced traveller. I have only really been travelling since January 2012. My trips have all been to Thailand: a 30 day visa exempt stamp; a single entry visa; two triple entry visas; an overstay stamp (one day).

Entry and exit at airport, the overstay, visits to Samui Immigration to get 30 day extensions, and the Out/In at the border posts had together produced something like 35 stamps and visa labels. They were all, more or less, in consecutive order and had been squeezed into the first 11 pages of my passport. Each time, I had handed over my passport closed, rather than open, so each time, the official had made their own decision where to place the stamp. Thanks to them, it was easy to follow my travel history.

It was therefore a bit disconcerting to find my third triple entry visa label had been stuck into page 28 and not, as I had expected, on page 12. I did not know if this was significant or whether I should have it rectified. It is great, therefore, to have a forum like this where I can post a query and more experienced travellers can quickly post their responses. Very reassuring. Thank you.

I am A British subject.

My passport was issued in Septyember 2011; it is valid for 10 years; it expires in September 2021.

It has 41 pages.

The visas and Immigration Bureau stamps in the passport relate only to my visits to Thailand.

The first 11 pages in my passport are full. From those 11 pages it is easy to follow in the correct order: the history of my entries into Thailand; my border runs from Samui to Khuan Don on the Malaisian border to activate the second and third entries on my triple entry visas; my leaving Thailand on flights back to the UK.

Since January 2012:

One 30 day visa exempt stamp (3 weeks stay)

One single entry visa (stayed 3 months)

Two triple entry visas (stayed 9 months ech time)

Last Wednesday, I went to the the Royal Thai Embassy (RTE) in London. I applied for my another triple entry visa (my third). I left my passport with them. i paid the fee and they told me to come back the next day i.e. yesterday, Thursday 25th September.

i turned up the next day, as requested at the RTE. I handed over my receipt. She pulled out my passport, and haned it to me open at the relevant page showing that my triple visa had been granted as requested.

i went outside, checked the details, which were all correct. It was a sticky label with typed rather than handwritten details. I put the passport in my bag and went off to enjoy London, which is always a real pleasure to visit.

As I was travelling home, in an idle moment, I pulled out my passport for a further look at the visa.

As I say, the first 11 pages are full, and the stamps run in consecutive order. I opened it at page 12 .... and saw it was blank! Where was the visa? For a split second I admit that I thought it had become unstuck and had slipped out. I flicked through my passport and finally found it on page 28 of the passport. That means there are 16 blank pages between my last set of stamps and my latest visa.

May be this a common problem? Should I go back to the RTE and ask them to cancel the label and print a fresh label in order to stick it on page 12? I can go there on Monday, but I fly to Thailand on Tuesday.

I am worried that over the remaining lifetime of the passport my various visas and Immigration stamps will now be littered all over the place and it will eventually be difficult for Immigration officials to follow easily the historuy of my visits.

Deep sea divers with chicken pox: do they really come up to scratch?

What happened to Larry? ....... Anybody

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/758711-the-funeral-of-larry-arranged-for-wednesday/#entry8360470

Thanks Rooo for the link, but that only gives information about the funeral.

There is also this LINK, but that only tells us that he was from New York, ran a popular steak house in Fisherman's Village, and was, by all accounts, a decent, all round bloke ... Interesting though it is, none of this answers EveryDayTheSame's question: "What happened to Larry?"

How old was he? Did he die of natural causes? Had he been ill for some time? Does he have family? etc etc.

I witnessed an accident on my way home: a lorry for a wig company, jackknifed and turned on its side. There were wigs everywhere,....police are still combing the area!

I was taking some paperbacks to a charity shop last week and as I passed a greengrocers, the owner asked if I'd like to swap some for anything in his shop. That was a turnip for the books.