mcofer

Parking your 2013 Ford Ecosport Thailand's Titanium model in neutral can be done!
'Parking in neutral is NOT possible we're are told on the review websites', yet... I can park in neutral by pushing the ignition button while in neutral to stop the engine.

Note: another local Ecosport owner said I might have to keep my foot on the break to do so (I didn't) or put your foot on the break to move from park to neutral (this didn't work for me with the ignition off).

Happy Mall-Parking all, you should now be able to get to the movies on time.

Another question - if I need to get my extension to stay and my re-entry permit moved from my old passport to my new passport will it be the old immigration office or the new one?

Go to the old office first, unless you live near the new one.

Wait until the end of today by which time it is highly likely someone will have posted the real answer.

Okay, using this forum is like trying to figure out what and where at Chiang Mai immigration. So appropriate for Thailand. Thanks guys!

CONFIRMED today Sept 18th, 2015 at 11:50am at Chiang Mai, Airport Immigration Office - this IS the current location to transfer and move visas and re-entry permits from an old expiring passport into a new passport. And, the from that says Bangkok Immigration on it in two places IS the correct form to use as well . I used Don's link here - http://donslifeinthailand.com/files/Transfer_Visa_To_New_Passport_ChiangMai.pdf - this is correct PDF used to move an old visa and re-entry stamps at Chiang Mai Immigration.

However, my wife only talked to 3 people at immigration and most of us here in this forum know/appreciate/understand that it takes 6 friendly/smiling Thai hosts to assist us grateful visitors with any one task in the LOS. So, take all this information with a grain of salt, as you own experience may vary with the wind and monsoon rains.

Yes, my wife does have the letter from her embassy and we copied EVERY page with a stamp in her old passport with ANY kind of stamp. I learned I need ALL Thai stamps 3 months previously to transfer and move my own visa and permit.

One uniformed person said come back tomorrow (Saturday) at 6:30am. My wife politely groaned and another uniform piped it... it would be okay to show up Monday at 8am.

Other updates: Inspection of the 11:50am Chiang Mai Airport Immigration office had 10 people sitting in chairs waiting and 1 car parking spot available, but we took that.

I think your initial post was spot on...

14 years of Surprises (and possibly recommendations for the newbies) in no particular order...

Gray hair respect...

Don't dye your hair when you retire here! Amazing to see the love and attention and honor poured out to any farang with gray hair. Go into a local market with a white head of hair one day and interact with 1/2 dozen people. Go back a week later with a freshly dyed dark head and do the same. Amazing experience.

Event organization and creativity in the communal mind...

I rarely see a single Thai figure standing with hands on hips issuing commands to organize. Instead everyone sort of mills around doing different things with a smile and light banter and then TADA everything comes together amazingly well done. This drives the farang nuts. How many times do we see an uninitiated farang try to get 'into control'. The Thais just let it be.... farangs are farangs after-all.

Trip to get first driver's license...

I had so many people come help me fill in forms, move around the office, plus smile and laugh with me during my Thai drivers application; it just about brought tears to my eyes. I thought I had return to long-lost family or something. Yes, there was the testing and forms and that red-tape stuff, but the people were brilliant and truly loving.

Saving face...

My farang friend marrying into a Thai family; speaks great Thai, really assimilates well into Thai culture. He calls me one day to share his own 'surprise.' The family runs a small business retails sales shop. There are the mom, pop, a couple of brothers and the sister he married. One day he says a brother taking money out of the register discreetly putting it into his pocket. When he questions his wife about the brother skimming from the family, she says, 'yes, he does and everyone knows about it.' But, no one says anything to anyone to rock the boat.

Surface level nothing connection vs deep opening...

Countless times I've experienced how Thais talk about nothing on-and-on; during a massage, at the local market, meeting each other on the street. It's like everyone has a valley-girl mentality all the time. BUT, occasionally I'll get a Thai alone and they'll tell me everything they've never told another person, about their life, dreams and dramas; it's the download to the stranger on the airplane deal, but I feel revered each time it happens.

The mirror thing...

Walk into any mall where women and men have to be presentable to the public and count how many people are looking into display or pocket mirrors, wow!

6 people to pick-out, check-out n wrap a gift...

Always, always, always a gift purchases and wrapped at the mall takes EXACTLY 6 people to manifest!! How the Thai's LOVE gifts and giving. Sweet!!

3 people for directions...

Always, always, always ask 3 people for directions and then take YOUR best guess. Never depend on road signs to get you to a location unless you already know where you are going.

DANGER: First 3 days in country for newbies...

These are the danger days. Do not get on a motorbike until day 4. Sunburn, holes in the sidewalk, motorcycle leg burn, etc etc

Cold water hair and skin care...

Yes, every hair salon and every barber everywhere has cold water. Get a facial, cold water. Then, go get a cold water shave, argh. Even got a 'dry' shave one time with NO water. Gotta be a 'Thai' thing.

City/street/utility Organization without planning/oversight/western/colonial input...

Enough said!

Sauces and add-ons...

If any food or dish comes with a sauce, that sauce is MADE to go with that dish. Don't bother without it. Super hard on the farang who can't eat the spice or stand the smell of the fish sauce burning in the kitchen or fermented shrimp paste etc etc

Filter coffee revolution...

14 years ago ONE place for filter coffee in Chiang Mai. Now, one Nimma intersection has 9 coffee shops. Oh yeah! Goodbye Nescafe.

Uneducation...

How a college degree can mean so little. Ouch!

Creation...

Ingenuity, design sense, beauty. Some really cool stuff happening in Thailand temples, markets, clothing, accessories. It's overwhelming seeing it all in one place here sometimes, so it's not until you leave the country and see a Thai silk hanging (or hill-tribe weave/fabric) in a western home does it really pop-out and spread it's beauty/creativity.

Eastern mind...

Congeniality, respect, go-with-the-flow, organized-chaos. I'm told it take 25 years for the westerner to 'get' it.

Row Businesses...

Open a business that is the exactly same right next to your competition. Then, have a row of the same businesses over time. At first a stupid idea, but on second look can turn out to be clever. A row of hardware stores makes more sense to me than a row of coffee shops and spas.

Business openings...

For sure the highest number of business openings are done in the low season in Chiang Mai. So very weird. How many business can be opened with so much initial investment and no cash for marketing or capital for the long haul low season? This too is very hard to watch year after year. And, when the same-same place opens in the same-same spot that wasn't successful before. Ouch!

Thai's eating salads, juices and whole-foods...

It's really starting to happen. Once the healthy food in city was the heavy oiled, over-cook veggie, tofu/mushroom laced vegetarian spots around the city. But, when hydroponics/organics started to happen and a couple of salad places opened up, Thai's become the main clientele. A VERY big surprise. We even see brown rice at Thai restaurants some times.

The beauty of Thai women...

I travel around Southeast Asia a lot. When I come home after a month away and go shopping I still get caught with my jaw dropping, even after so many years. I'm not sure why western men have this programmed into their brains or why god/buddha/nature/reality made us this way.

Okay that's 20 listing for 14 years. I think you get the idea. I tried to keep it balanced between the good/the bad/the ugly.

If you would like to go the prevention route... there's a product to attract mossies out there, trap them and dump them (sorry I don't know what it's called). I saw 3 in a huge garden (they work inside as well) doing the job in real life; I'd love to introduce my local kindergarden that I see spraying-n-fogging every 2 weeks; poor kids. Check out Mobile:

EEG Biofeedback Assessments, analysis, brain training, NFB protocol creation and customization, neurofeeback equipment and software, teaching for self and home-based training, are all available in Chiang Mai, Thailand at (contact poster for website details -- moderator) .

Our brain should be our master, not the other way around. Brain Training is great for meditation and is a true example of spirituality and technology coming together as one. Having a home base NFB unit in your home is like living with your own private meditation ajran in your house - Buddha in a Box!

Contact Marc for more information through the website.

Walked into Chiang Mai Laser Services on the Sankampang road a few days back. Glenn (USA fellow who speaks a cool Bangkok TV Thai like no expat you've ever heard) is a laser engraving, cutting, etching and marking aficionado. He's got a few million baht in machinery to do his laser services on metal, wood, plastic, steel, rubber, paper and whatever you can stick under a laser beam. He showed me samples of a photograph etched into steel, a smiling face cut into a pearl, rose wood cut into gothic images to go on a custom made guitar, mother of pearl etched with tropical paradise names, and a 400+ EUR sea snake covered iphone4 cover etched with a major designer logo.

He gave me so many ideas for using a laser I decided to come up with an idea for a laser etched, wooden tea coaster for my export tea business here in CM. When I mention that to him, he emailed me later and asked for my graphics and logo so he could do mock-up work himself. That's a service level of dedication we can only hope to find in Northern Thailand.

Address: 11/9 Moo 3 Chiang Mai-Sankampang Road (Between Baan Celadon and Cal-Tex Station). Website: www.cmlaserservice.com. Phone: 053-339-393. Mobile: 081-882-7390.

Well I looked around here for what 'three month soak period' is referring to and I'm still guessing. We successfully (sort of) applied for our visa 1 month early last year 2008 in Chiang Mai, but our visa date stayed the same.

Here's our story and question:

Last year in Chiang Mai my wife and I (both farang) applied for our 3rd or 4th year retirement visa renewal. Chiang Mai's air quality drops at end of Feb when burning starts and our visa was due on Mar 19. So, we went into immigration on 30+1 days early trying to get our visa date moved to Feb so we can leave to the south (or even leave the country) and breathe for a couple months each year.

My wife is of retirement age and I'm her dependent. We had money left in our joint BKK bank account, but still transferred in a full 800,000bt like the previous years. We had been told (not by immigration) that immigration looks at bank books to see 3 months of activity (withdrawals I assumed) prior to visa renewals. I assumed this was to make sure you don't put 800,000bt in the bank transfer it back out of the country (we did do that successfully one year) or let it just sit there, while you make an under-the-table income on the side by living off of Thailand.

We were told we can apply for our visa within 30 days of it's expiration date. So, we went in one day before that to see if all procedures where the same from the previous year. They window person assured us nothing was changed, scanned our documents and told us to return the next day.

We went to the hospital and got our checkups (we once did 4 checkup's in one year clearing a past visa issue, so everyone knows us there). Then, we went to the bank and got our letter and bank book updated. I spent the evening going over all the forms, dotting i's and crossing t's.

BUT... we've learned a valuable lesson... NEVER turn in a completed application form into Chiang Mai's immigration office. You must ALWAYS make some mistakes so the officer's there can correct you and you can show humility. So, last year, my wife signed my form and I signed her's.

We went to immigration the next day and were told, "You didn't need to get hospital checkups." Strange?! The day before the window person (now gone from the office) had said all was the same from the previous year. We got through the first couple of rounds of checks. They caught the reversed signature's and we were sent away to fix things up and played our 'humility' card.

Then, we got to our final person, and he let us know that we had a problem. Our bank account was a joint account. If one person was the retiree and the other a dependent, only the retiree name should be on the bank account. If both persons, retiree and dependant, are on the bank account we would need to show 800,000bt x 2 for our visas. This was obviously a clear change in procedure, our account was 7 years old and we'd used it for every visa to-date. Now, I'm wondering... We've already brought in our money, we have to wire it out (not easy we know from experience), set up a new account in only my wife's name, then wire it back in.

So, we start with a new humility cards, "Oh, we didn't know things had changed." The officer said, "There's no change, it's always been like this." Fortunately, my father was a police officer and my wife's father a general, we know NOT to correct our immigration office. We returned to our bank to see if they could be of some assistance. They too know us very well and were kind enough to write our bank letter, with only my wife's name confirming the incoming 800,000bt transfer. We return to the immigration office, but the officer would not except the letter without a matching bank book.

At that time, I happened to have with me a week-old article from the Chiang Mai Mail (our local English paper) confirming that local immigration officers had started interpreting some of the immigration laws differently than in the past. The paper said no other immigration offices where doing this. I pulled it out of my pocket and before the whole thing was even completely unfolded, the office turned a few shades of red and said, "This is the law, and it hasn't changed. One person only on the bank account or you have to show 1,600,000bt in the account."

So, I quickly back-peddled, my wife jumped in and we told him a sob story... we really needed to get our visa. We had a trip planned and time was important. How could we possibly wait to transfer the money out of the country and them bring it back in again under a new account. Then, Buddha stepped in, and our bank teller called to see how things where going. I handed my phone to the officer. The officer smiled and said, "Oh! You don't have to do that. Just open a new account in your wife's name and transfer the money into there." Whew, we knew if we had done this at the bank, he would have told us it wouldn't fly. Now, we'd made him part of the solution for our problem. We also had the other Thai from the bank helping him save face. We humbled ourselves and thanked him profusely for understanding our situation and being so helpful."

We went back to our bank. Our teller, her assistant and the bank manager came over. They did all the work and were completely embarrassed at what we were going through. They waved the fees for our letters, opened an account in my wife's name (fixed deposit, with interest) and transferred the money from our joint account into the new account.

We returned to immigration, and the officer told us there was no time to process our application. It was 5 minutes until 4pm and the office closes at 4:30pm. Now, we were really in a jam. If we left the office and returned the next day, this guy may not even show up and the whole thing would start over again. We refused to take back our passports and application and told him to please keep them and we would return the next day. He said he couldn't do that. We pleaded, at least keep the paperwork, we'll take our passports but don't want to lose our line in the queue (blah, blah). He miraculously agreed to do that and luckily on our return the next day, the paperwork was all cleared and ready to go. We got in in less than an hour.

What to do now? We've got the 800,000bt in a fixed account with my wife's name. We haven't touched it. We've been using our older joint account only because it has our ATM cards and all our over-seas accounts are connected to it by Repeating Wire Transfers. We're 3 months away from having to apply for our retirement visa renewal again.

We know that going to ask immigration means nothing because everything changes moment to moment there.

Do we need to show some kind of activity on my wife's 800,000bt account?

Will we have to transfer in another 800,000bt into that account?

Last year I promised I'd share all that happened to us on this forum, so others can benefit. We're hoping someone has some of their own experiences that can help us out. TIT, Yay!! Kop

Post#3 came in while I was composing this. THANKS!!

Well I'll be shocked and amazed.

For 72 hours I've been sweating all these issues and 2 minutes after posting my message, up pops your response.

May Buddha and all sentient beings watch over and bless you for your wonderful tamboon presented in this forum today!

We'll share our experience on our return from Penang so others may benefit.

Background:

My wife and I are one of those lucky couples that gave the whole Chiang Mai immigration staff (7 or 10 anyway) a great big laugh by attempting to apply for a Re-Entry permit at the airport on return from abroad. Of course, we have now lost our visa for retirement and must start the process over again.

My wife is Russian (54 years) and I'm her USA (dependant) husband.

We have our next year set of funds in the bank & marriage document (with last year's affidavit from the USA Consulate in Chiang Mai). We also have all our copies of last years documents and useless visa stamps in our passports.

The Chiangmai Immigration office says go outside the country and apply for a 3 month non-immigrant visa, come back and start over.

Questions (that the Chiang Mai immigration office will not answer):

Where to go? After consultations with as many resources as we can find we've decided to try Penang, Malaysia. Has anyone been there and applied for this 3-month non-immigrant visa with proof of intention for retirement documents?

We are both living abroad for some time (8 yrs) and do not have 'proof of no criminal record' documents. They were not requested at Chiang Mai Immigration the last time we applied. After reading the 5 page forum on these visa's I'm totally confused about an non-imm O and OA. We originally converted non-imm B's.

Chiang Mai Immigration said:

Bank Document: lasts 2 weeks.

Medical Document: lasts 4 weeks.

Marriage Affidavit: Can use last years. (But, last year they said we'd need to get a new one every year.)

Pension Document: we have none, but our friend was asked to update every year.

Not-a-criminal Document: never requested or asked for.

(we know all the above means little and is case-by-case in the long run)

In Penang:

Should we expect to get Medical Documents there or bring them from CM?

Is there a specific non-imm visa we ask for so that we don't need to show the not-a-criminal documents?

Does any one have experience applying for such a non-imm visa in Penang?

Follow-up Info for others:

We don't care which non-imm we get or whether it's multi-entry or not. We know once we get back here we can play the CM Immigration Comedy Store routine and they'll help us. Last year they processed our visa after only 3 attempts and about 3 hours sitting around and watching 3 people check every single line item letter-by-letter. We saved more that US$500 by not using a lawyer and would like to encourage EVERYONE not to use lawyers that charges so much. I feel $50 to $100 per visa should MORE than cover their services.