Andrew Mac

I walked past the THAI BANK in Sydney yesterday and noticed they are charging $20 AUD for transfer to thai bank accounts of over $1000 aud.

They were actually quite busy ,with many young thais lined up ready to transfer money.

You can actually deposit money here but i dont think you can open a thai bank account,im not sure,i will have to pop in when its not so busy.

Thanks for posting this information, but I do have one quick question.

Where exactly is the Thai Bank in Sydney? ;-)

Cheers

Andrew

Hi everyone

Sorry, I haven't had time to read through all the posts, so someone might already have mentioned this ...

But have you tried Silkworm Books?

They are an independent publisher based in Chiang Mai. Their offices are in Sukkasem Road, off Nimmanhaemin Road.

Website: http://www.silkwormbooks.com

They also have an imprint, Mekong Press: http://www.mekongpress.com

They publish a lot of stuff about Thailand and Southeast Asia, and redistribute books from overseas for sale in Thailand. Many of the books I saw mentioned when I flicked through the posts above are indeed published by or sold through them.

Cheers

Andrew Mac

Thanks everyone!

It sounds like we'll be able to send exactly what we want, and get it all back too :-)

Just to make sure, though, I'll mention it when we give them the application, and probably make a polite written request as well.

Cheers

Andrew and Nueng

Thanks for all your help, suggestions, and all the useful advice. We'll obviously be copying and certifying everything we can, but for anything else we think will make useful supporting evidence I think we'll just put it in and see if we get it back. As I mentioned, the most important thing at the moment is getting the visa.

Cheers

Andrew and Nueng

Hi ThaiVisa Experts!

Sorry to bother you, but my wife and I just wanted to get a quick answer to a quick question ...

Some of the supporting documents we are thinking of sending with my wife's application for an Australian Spouse Visa are special and valuable things that we cannot get copied, so we will need to send originals. We would like to know if the embassy in Bangkok will return those things to us or not.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give

Andrew and Nueng

Oh dear ... silly me! I wrote that message too late last night, and obviously wasn't thinking too clearly. I wrote "documents" in one or two places, but that wasn't the best choice of words and is a little misleading. I probably should have used a word like "evidence" instead of "documents". The things we are asking about are not official documents as such, which we can easily get photocopied and certified, but rather a few personal things -- a printed wedding book, for example, as well as a couple of other little items that we can't easily copy or that won't copy well.

Basically, we will have all the copied and certified official documents that we need to supply, but we thought it might help to add a few other little things we have that prove the strength of our relationship. Maybe they're not essential, but we do think they might be worth sending in to support the application. They have a lot of personal value for us, but the visa is more important. If we think these other items will help with the application, we really want to send them even if we may not be able to get them back -- but obviously we will be much happier if we can have them returned.

Also, we doubt they'll be of any use in a few years when the issue of a permanent visa comes up, because they are only really relevant to the years prior to this particular application, not to the years between the issue of temporary and permanent visas. I imagine we probably have to supply further supporting evidence that specifically covers that period.

I hope this makes our question a bit less confusing for people ... but if it still sounds like a stupid question, please just ignore this thread and skip on to the next one ;-)

Sorry, Andrew

Hi ThaiVisa Experts!

Sorry to bother you, but my wife and I just wanted to get a quick answer to a quick question ...

Some of the supporting documents we are thinking of sending with my wife's application for an Australian Spouse Visa are special and valuable things that we cannot get copied, so we will need to send originals. We would like to know if the embassy in Bangkok will return those things to us or not.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give

Andrew and Nueng

The rule is that you have to be in the country of lodgement for the visa to be granted. She can travel back to Oz during the process but it may delay the process.

As she is on the 8503 visa, she cant apply from here. the application I believe can be posted in but she will have to attend the interview and get the police clearance in person. The medicals are also cheaper there.

One option is that she can go and lodge the application, get the checks done and do the interview which is usually 2-3 weeks after lodgement, you dont have to be there with her. She can then come back and wait for about two months and go back. Or she can stay for the whole process and you go through a few months of separation.

Hi Graham. Thanks for the advice. I think we'll wait to see if we can arrange for an interim Visitor Visa. It probably sounds a bit soppy, but in over two years we've only once spent any more than a few days apart ... and that was only for a week, and only because we didn't have enough time to arrange her visa when I had to come back for my sister's funeral. Neither of us are at all keen on the idea of a few months' separation, and we'll do whatever we must in order to avoid it :-}

It's strange, though, and slightly annoying, that things can get so complicated for an established, committed and legitimately married couple, when others ... well, actually, no, I won't go into that at this stage ...

Hi everyone, I hope you're all happy and healthy, and don't mind helping me out with the answer to a quick question I have ...

My wife and I married when I was living and working in Thailand, and she came with me on a visit to Australia in May on a tourist visa. There were a few reasons why we didn't apply for a spouse visa, none of which are at all nefarious and probably not worth going into here. Since coming here, however, we have changed our minds about returning to Thailand and decided to apply for a spouse visa in order to stay and look after my parents (who are both in their eighties and suffering failing health).

My wife's visa has an 8503 "No Further Stay" condition attached, so we will need to have the application processed in Thailand. The problem with that, however, is that waiting in Thailand will mean that my parents may well be left for quite some time without our support. A consultant from the Immigration Advice and Rights Centre in Sydney advised us that it is possible to post the visa application to the Embassy in Bangkok and return to Thailand when required to collect the visa, but an operator from the Immigration Department was of the opinion that we had to be in Thailand when the form was lodged.

I am currently writing to the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, to get their advice on how we might best manage the process in the circumstances, but I thought that I would also ask here just in case someone had been in a similar position and knew what was involved.

So, any takers? Does anyone know if it is indeed possible to lodge the application while overseas?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give.

Cheers, Andrew

Hi BlueScouse and Soju, and thanks for the information.

It's a pity the direct flight don't operate anymore -- but that's the way things go sometimes, isn't it? I think I will look into the option of flying to Udon Thani and then finding my way to Khon Kaen.

Actually, the pity is that I should have made this trip a few months ago ... because the friend I would like to visit used to live in Udon Thani, but moved to Khon Kaen in July!

Still, with any luck it will be an interesting trip from UT to KK.

Thanks again for all your help.

Regards

Andrew

Hi everyone

Sorry to bother you, but someone told me once that it is possible to fly directly to Khon Kaen from Chiang Mai, but unfortunately I am no longer able to contact that person, and I can't find anything by searching the web.

So can anyone advise whether this flight is available or not? If so, what airline, etc ... and if not is there any other option that might be a suitable alternative -- for example, flying to another city somewhere close by and getting to KK from there in a reasonably short time.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give!

Cheers

Andrew Mac

Hi Salween

You're right, of course. The font in the custom dialog is limited in size, and the text input area is very small. There may be other alternatives that would work--for instance, there used to be a few plug-ins that provided alternatives to the standard FileMaker input dialog. If one of those plug-ins has the expanded feature set you're after it might be worth looking into, but I'm afraid I've never used any of them and have no idea if they would be any better for your purposes than the standard FileMaker implementation.

One other option you have, though, is simply to prepare the text in another document (like TextEdit, for instance, since it seems you're also on a Mac) ... and then just paste it into FileMaker. That used to work for me before I set up the custom dialog thingy, and has the advantage that it will let you prepare the text at whatever font and size you choose. That formatting, though, might be carried with the text when you paste it into your FileMaker database. If that happened, though, I guess you could have a FileMaker script that removed the formatting you didn't want. I guess you could also run it through one of those clipboard editors that can remove the formatting from text in the clipboard. And I seem to remember that there is, somewhere, a little utility that adds a "Paste as Plain Text" command to the Edit menu in applications (but I can't remember what it was called, or if it worked with all applications).

Your AppleScript idea also sounds interesting, but I've never used it, so I don't know how you'd go about getting things to work. But I've always wanted to learn a bit about AppleScript, so if you give it a go please let me know if you get the results you wanted!

The best solution, though, is the one that I think we both realise has the least probability of ever occurring: that is, for FileMaker just to fix the thing so that it works as it should!

Sorry I can't be of much more help than that.

Regards, Andrew

PS: I forgot to mention that no, I haven't used 8.5 yet. I am thinking about moving up soon, though.

** There is a copy of this reply in the other forum as well **

Hi Salween

I'm afraid it's a documented limitation that has been around since FileMaker first began to offer Unicode input (in version 7, if I remember correctly). There are certain characters that FileMaker just won't accept. There is a support document that lists the relevant Unicode code points, but I don't happen to have the link with me. The page is useless anyway, because all it says is that it can't be done. I have often sent feedback asking for the issue to be fixed, but nothing has ever come of it, and I am running out of hope that it ever will.

I don't actually believe the suggestion made in the computer forum about using TypeThaiX 0.96b is actually a solution, but it might work if you use the TTX (non-Unicode) keyboard. But of course you would then need to use a non-Unicode font as well, which I personally would rather not do. But you might like to try it.

HOWEVER ...

You *can* type Thai text into a pop-up custom dialog box (at least, I can on my Mac). So the workaround I use is to have a script that records what field you are currently in, then pops up a custom message asking you to insert the Thai text.

Type whatever you want ... click OK ... and bingo, your text will be there in Thai!

I have a keyboard shortcut assigned to the script as well, so that all I need to do is do is type Command-T (Control-T for Windows) and type away.

It's certainly not perfect, but it works for me. If you want further details about the script itself, please just ask. I'd be happy to share -- as long as you let me know if you make any improvements to it!

Cheers, Andrew

Hi Salween

I'm afraid it's a documented limitation that has been around since FileMaker first began to offer Unicode input (in version 7, if I remember correctly). There are certain characters that FileMaker just won't accept. There is a support document that lists the relevant Unicode code points, but I don't happen to have the link with me. The page is useless anyway, because all it says is that it can't be done. I have often sent feedback asking for the issue to be fixed, but nothing has ever come of it, and I am running out of hope that it ever will.

I don't actually believe the suggestion about using TypeThaiX 0.96b is actually a solution, but it might work if you use the TTX (non-Unicode) keyboard. But of course you would then need to use a non-Unicode font as well, which I personally would rather not do. But you might like to try it.

HOWEVER ...

You *can* type Thai text into a pop-up custom dialog box (at least, I can on my Mac). So the workaround I use is to have a script that records what field you are currently in, then pops up a custom message asking you to insert the Thai text.

Type whatever you want ... click OK ... and bingo, your text will be there in Thai!

I have a keyboard shortcut assigned to the script as well, so that all I need to do is do is type Command-T (Control-T for Windows) and type away.

It's certainly not perfect, but it works for me. If you want further details about the script itself, please just ask. I'd be happy to share -- as long as you let me know if you make any improvements to it!

Cheers, Andrew

Hi everyone

Please forgive the dumb question that follows. I *did* have a search through the forum, but either I'm just plain stupid or not many people have asked before. So here goes ...

My hair is particularly fine and thin, even by farang standards, and (not being a hairdresser myself) I'm not really sure whether I should be OK going to any local hairdresser, or if I really be looking for a hairdresser who has some experience with "farang hair". It seems to me that Asian people generally have quite thick, healthy hair, and I imagine that cutting thicker hair may well have a completely different set of requirements to thin (and ... um, to be honest ... also thin-ning) hair like mine.

I guess it would be good to find someone who understands English fairly well too, so I have a reasonably good chance of getting them to understand how I'd like to get my hair cut. Back in Australia, I used to go to the same hairdresser almost all the time, and they basically new what I wanted without asking. I didn't really have to tell them much at all.

I'm in the Nimmanhaemin Road area, by the way, and something close by would be perfect, as I'm here for at least a year and I'd like to find someone I can get to easily whenever I need a cut!

Thanks in advance for any advice any of you might like to give :-)

I would say Hanuman or Praapai manee. Though Hanuman is based on the Indian character, I think he (and praapaimanee) have more appeal to the Thai male character as for being a revered เจ้าชู้. What do you think?

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Actually, in Valmiki's famous Sanskrit version of the Ramayana (usually regarded as the standard reference work), Hanuman is completely chaste! Powerful, yes; loyal, yes; morally and ethically sound, yes; absolutely essential to Rama's success, yes ... but never one to chase after women, and certainly nothing at all like the Thai Ramakien portrays him.

Hi Chiang Mai experts

I'll be working in the Nimmanhemin Road area for a year or so, starting in mid-January, and if you don't mind I'd like to ask a few quick questions about accommodation in that area. I'll be working in Sukkasem Road, which I've been led to believe is somewhere between Nimmanhemin Sois 2 and 4, but I've never actually been in that part of town, and I'm not sure what the area is like.

To begin with, I should point out that I don't need any really big or luxurious -- just something comfortable, and reasonably priced. I think I will probably need a two-bedroom place, though: one room for myself, and another to double as a study and guest room (I'll be getting a few visitors while I'm here). I've also got to admit that a small living area would be nice as well

By looking through posts made on this forum I've been able to identify a few possible apartments -- PT Place, Baan Thai, Huay Kaew Residence, for example -- but are there any other options that might be worth considering? For example, do you think there might be a chance to get a small house or "townhouse" (that's what we them in Australia; not sure about Thailand)?

If there is the possibility of renting a townhouse, what do you think the general rents might be? And is security something I need to think carefully about?

Also, I'm not sure whether to book long-term accommodation in advance, or go for a short stay in a convenient guest house while looking around for something suitable. The advantages of booking in advance, I guess, are that something is at least booked, but is there more to be said for looking around first? Also, is it cheaper to book in advance, or in person? If you can get better rates in person, then I think I'd definitely prefer to look around first ...

That's about all for now, although other questions or issues may come up if and when any of you might be able to help me out with any suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give.

Isaan ladies by any chance - my ex used to refer to her mother as 'ii kàe' - not in her presence though.

I may be wrong, but from a Central Thai standpoint it sounds pretty rude - the same rules dont apply in Isaan though.

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Full marks, khun Meadish!

Yes, I understand they were Isaan women.

And in fact, I did ask them about their usage of ây kɛ̀ɛ, and they said it was OK when you were married, or good friends. They also told me that it's OK for them to call each other ii kɛ̀ɛ ... so I just filed it away in my memory.

Neither are terms that I think I'll be using myself, though

NB: Edited to correct the placement of diacritics above the correct letter, but it didn't seem to work. For me at least they are still appearing incorrectly. If the forum technocrats ever think about switching the encoding to Unicode, well ... I'm sure I wouldn't be the only happy user

Hi everyone! :-)

Not exactly on topic, I know, but recently I was quite amused to hear some Thai women referring to their (farang) husbands as "ai kaee" ( ไอ้แก่ I think ... I guess it's the same as Western women referring to their "old man"). I don't think they knew that I could understand a fair bit of what they were saying, however ;-)

The only places I can think of would be the Chiang Mai Disabled Center http://disabled.infothai.com/center.htm

or

the Raintree Resource Center,

3 Charoen Muang Rd., P.O. Box 18, Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand; Tel. 66-53-262660; [email protected].

Good luck 

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Thanks Ajarn, both of your suggestions sound like good places to start :-)

Hi everyone

I'll be working in Chiang Mai next year, and I'm hoping that my brother will be coming to visit a few times during the year.

He's really lovely, but he has Downs Syndrome, and I'd like to know if anyone knows of any centres in Chiang Mai where he might be able to go and spend a few hours every now and then while I'm at work. Of course, he'd be really happy just to stay home and watch DVDs all day ;-) ... but it would be really good if there was a place he could sometimes go to get some extra fun and games, plus a bit of extra social contact.

Actually, it doesn't even have to be a centre. A (formal or informal) club or social group might also be a good alternative, as long as they have responsible support and supervision.

Language isn't a real problem. He doesn't have great English skills anyway, and he's very good at communicating non-verbally!

So ... any ideas about where I might go to find anything like this? If I can get a few options before I leave, I can make sure that the rest of the family won't be worried about him coming over.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions people may have :-)

These are the tax rates given in response to my post the other day:

Taxable Income Tax Rate (%) Tax Amount Accumulated Tax

0 - 100,000 Exempt

100,001 - 500,000 ...... 10 %......... 40,000....... 40,000

500,001 - 1,000,000......20.............100,000......140,000

1,000,001 - 4,000,000.....30.............900,000.....1,040,000

4,000,001 and over..........37

Now, I'm not an accountant, but my understanding is that the rate on a yearly income of 3 million baht is therefore 140,000 (being accumulated tax up to the first million) plus 30% of the remaining 2 million ... giving a grand total of 740,000 baht.

You might like to double-check my calculations, or consult an expert, but that's my understanding at least. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, because I certainly don't want to mislead you!!

Hi sin_bkk

Just last week I asked a question about tax, in this thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49630

So in addition to the other post here, there might be a bit of useful information in that thread, too. One important thing is that the tax rates in the ThaiVisa page mentioned above are apparently out of date; see the thread above for the current rates.

Hope this is of some help

By the way, it looks like I got one of the most experienced TV people too! I see that you're number 3 on the list of all-time posters, and actually a clear number 1 if you ignore administrators and moderators. Well done!

Keep an eye on that BambinA though: she's catching up fast!

The onward travel is a requirement for 30 day entry without visa (to obtain the 30 day stamp) so you do not have to have onward travel with a visa in your passport.  Very strange that your travel agency could not answer that question for you; but perhaps they want your money first?

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Thanks for the fast advice! I'm glad the situation is as I thought it should be :-)

As for the travel agent ... well, let's just say I wish I'd got one of the other consultants! The one I ended up with didn't seem in a really good mood, and didn't give me the impression that they were at all interested in helping me. I started by asking prices, but as I mentioned above, I wasn't really sure of the date or where I'd be leaving from ... it was only at the end I asked about the visa stuff, and I think by then they might have decided I wasn't worth the effort

That's when I thought to myself: why not just ask on ThaiVisa, where everyone is the complete opposite, full of valuable information and happy to help! ;-)

Thanks again

Hello again, ThaiVisa experts! :-)

Sorry for another ignorant question, but I'd like to ask for your advice. I will be starting a job in Chiang Mai in January. The initial contract is for one year, but may be extended. I'm pretty comfortable with all the information I've been able to gather from this forum about visas, work permits, extensions, visa runs and the like.

But ...

What I'm not really sure about is the ticket I'll be able to come in on. I've heard some people say that there is a possibility of the airline refusing passage if you don't have a return ticket or proof of onward travel from the country, but does this still apply when arriving with a Non-Immigrant B visa?

Irrespective of whether I agree with airline policy or not, I can understand the concern with regard to tourists coming in on a "thirty days on arrival" visas -- but if I'm here to work for at least a year (and as I said, perhaps longer), and have all the relevant documentation and visas, then surely I won't need anything more than just a one-way ticket, will I?

Or will I?

I asked a travel agent today, but they couldn't give me an answer. I haven't yet decided what airline I'll use, or the exact date I'll be flying out, so I'd like to get your opinions before going any further with this. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I'll be coming from Australia, from either Sydney or Darwin.

Thanks in advance for any advice you kind people may be able to give! :-)