OldChinaHam

This Bangkok morning about 6:30, I was having high class buffet after just joining a packed hungry crowd from some place. We were all just enjoying the heck out of our meal and watching the dearth of birds not flit around the landscaping outside. Huge windows made the setting a stage and drew our attention.

Outside strolled a guy with a plate of fruit deciding which table to choose among the empty many. .All of a sudden he begins to bend slightly over, reaches up his free hand, and after compressing one nostril, forcefully exhales a magnificent shower of mucus down around him, its beauty back-lit by the rising morning sun.

I thought, my Hong Kong wife, where ever she is now bless her heart, would have left her breakfast on the floor and departed the room. I was not fazed in the least, fondly remembering my good old days back home on the golf course.

There is no point in wondering where this farmer with his plate of fruit grew up, could have been in any of a number of countries.

My only question is: When you are out on the links, or on the high seas fishing, do you resort to your sleeve, or a better way?

The above information regarding which office to use is CORRECT.

Time spent to change visa was less than 1.5 hours, including wait time. I arrived mid afternoon.

New looking building, friendly staff. I would not want to do this every day but I sort of did enjoy myself.

Special thanks to Maestro, Lopburi and Mario for the good info.

This is one of the few times I have been happy to have someone tell me where to go.

I don't know why my doing this here in Bangkok seemed so easy.

Maybe I'm handsome.

Or maybe it's because I lead a charmed life.

Talk about some very friendly people...

On my way out, a couple looked up saw me, smiled and waved.

This is definitely appropriate word to the wise.

We shall heed thy advice, brother.

Nothing is ever a done deal at immigration,

When one has knobby knees.

Go in peace.

ORANG37?

I don't know him.

Is he the one from Popua New Guinea who is now getting such a hard time with approval of his resident's visa?

TYWAIS::

"//edit - I always return a smile to anyone who smiles at me. There may be a rare occasion where things don't feel quite right though and my smile may be a bit more feeble. What I've seen is in the vast majority of instances if I smile at a Thai they will return one. Probably much less than 50% of foreigners will return one. My guess is they think you want something from them."

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This is definitely very true, no matter whether the farang is in Thailand, in Taiwan, or in China. I also have witnessed this dynamic so many times. There is a simple and true explanation for this. And I believe that I do know what it is after many years of cogitation.

To acknowledge another farang on the street is considered by many to be the height of uncool. The reasoning goes like this: If I smile at another "foreigner" on the street or in passing on the sidewalk, it is as if I am smiling BECAUSE I and he are foreigners, or a certain color, and not something that we would normally do in any big city in our home countries. Therefore, if we consider ourselves, each of us, to be world travelers and men of the world, then we should not act like we are fresh off the boat by smiling at another foreigner just because he is the only white man (or whatever color man) in this sea of Asian people around us.

Perhaps I have not put this very well. But I am fairly sure that this is the dynamic you have noticed. I have seen the same thing for decades, and I now just accept it.

In other words it is thought by these farang: I should be smiling at you NOT BECAUSE your are a foreigner and I am a foreigner, BUT BECAUSE I just feel like smiling.

This, I am fairly sure, is the REAL reason that farang sometimes avert their eyes and do not smile and won't permit eye contact when they see another of their own kind.

It has nothing to do with unfriendliness or with misanthropy. It is just because they don't want to appear uncool, and as if they just arrived in a new land like any old tourist.

As for me though, I am way past caring that I was never cool or uncool. I used to smoke Kools though.

I've already pretty much gone native and I don't care about these saving face behaviors.

Yes, Superb Member.

I read that too!

BUT, so many other people have been giving me conflicting information INCLUDING another immigration office, that I was just about to jump in the lake, if I could possible find one now that I am already so mixed up.

Thanks AGAIN!

Maestro! You are the man!!

You have really taken a great deal of stress out of my evening tonight!!!!!!!!!

This whole visa trip boggles the mind, I kid you not!!!!

Peace Be With You

(The force, as well.)

Thank you, too, Mario, I do appreciate it.

To clarify, are you saying that no matter what I am applying for, then all roads lead to Changwattana Road?

Even though I am CHANGING a visa?

If you or anyone knows the answer to this, I will be very grateful for any further response, as maybe might be others in my boat.

THANKS!!!

Yes, I do understand your point and thank you very much for your reply.

However, in this case I have all the documentation I need to change my visa from Tourist to another type of non immigrant visa.

The only problem is there are two immigration offices in BKK one old one and one new one.

I have been given conflicting information about which one to go to.

I have been told also that only one of the offices has the authority to change the Tourist visa into a non immigrant visa without leaving and reentering Thailand.

I know that someone here on TV has all the facts to answer this simple but confusing question.

AND, A G A I N than you very much Iopburi for you quick and good reply.

B regards

Can anyone advise which immigration office to go to in order to change a TOURIST visa into another type of visa, such as an EDUCATION visa??

It seems that no one knows the answer to this simple question.

Or I have not asked the right people.

There are two visa offices in Bangkok, but which office can change a visa?

Thank you for your HELP!!!!

Nice shades.

"To paraphrase Samuel Johnson: When you have no feelings for you're own Country and people,you are tired of life?"

This IS a good question. The answer is that when we are immersed in our home country's culture, we tend not to be super critical of the group in which we exist. We are not able to see things from a second perspective, such as from a second country, and therefore are unable to bear witness to many of the strange behaviors that are considered normal where we originally hail from. If our countrymen could share some of our experiences with us in our new surroundings, then they would also see things from this point of view.

Still, I find it helpful to just completely go native and let the chips fall where they may.

The shape of the eyeball changes with age, hence the change in vision as the days march inexorably by.

Why don't you just use your two fingers to keep pressure on your eyeballs until they get to the correct shape, and things come into focus, when you need to see, that is what I do.

And also, why is it funny?

This is a serious question for my grad thesis on male bonding and ways in which forum humor can be influenced by the real world environment outside the virtual forum, i.e how humor changes over time as the local environment changes.

This TV forum is already pretty funny now.

But how funny was it last year, 3 years ago, and before that?

"****I know, I know......Title is incorrect. Either "Who are WE......or Who am I....." Not sure how to change the title****** "

I think you may be thinking of the walrus song:

.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying.

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, coo coo ca-choo

Mister City Policeman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row.
See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run.
I'm crying, I'm crying.
I'm crying, I'm crying.

I am not sure about your post, but I do like those shades.

If this is a serious question, then I am sure that anyone who has been here for awhile does not bash their own countrymen any more than he did before he left his country.

To qualify that, if say a certain individual has been outside his country for a very long time, and said country continued to deteriorate vastly beyond what aforementioned expat expected, then it is only reasonable that this "person" might criticize his homeland, and the people in his homeland, more than he did before he left that country.

Does that make sense?

.

Yes, I knew what they looked like.

But does that pair come with magnets fabricated with Rare Earths from China?

This may be a dumb question, no doubt. But why not go directly to the source in China and contract with some travel companies there. This way you might have much more control over what sort of clientele were invited in. If you had repeat tour groups coming in from China, then 2 or more guesthouses could cooperate to provide more rooms. I have no idea, but this might be one way to keep a guesthouse filled, by providing services through one or more reputable travel companies in China. No doubt this has already been tried.

I've seen them in banks. Maybe you could rob a bank.

Or, isn't the magnet just used to hold the glasses together?

So if you can't find an actual pair, then you could buy a regular design and break them in half.

And then you could reattach them with a hook when you wanted to use them.

That's what I do when I can't find something I need when I'm not near a major city.

Very sorry, but good effort.

I am afraid the above is still just this side of flippant.

Thank you for that. Reading through it is almost as exciting as repeating the landing. It was even more fun in a Typhoon and the airport did remain open during most weather. Then, if I recall correctly, it became the discretion of the pilot to say yes or no, I will land in HK or I will fly out and land in some other country. But I did land in some very fierce storms. When I was younger, the more the turbulence the better we liked it. Plenty of free drinks too, as usual.

Thank you very much Jose for continuing to think of me.

That place you link looks pretty gloomy though.

Maybe you should send me an invitation from Faber's social secretary as VIBE first recommended.

I also don't want to go barging in and get torn to shreds by a few of those vicious dogs someone else mentioned.

In fact, you know, maybe we could book this place you link above as some OTHER sort of tour.

Now I'm thinking something like one of those tours that Albert Finney took on his way wondering up that Volcano in Mexico, in "Under The Volcano".

The one Malcolm Lowry wrote about. He went up that Volcano, but he never came down.

That was yeoman's detective work no doubt!

I have not met anyone yet who does not have great memories about that iconic airport, and many were sorry to see it go.

Actually, I think if you will agree, the flights did not come in to land from the Peak, which is in Hong Kong. But you are right that they did come in over a peak of the nearby hills there, and then there was almost not enough distance to lose enough altitude, which caused the pilots to drop the plane like a sack of potatoes onto the runway. Always a thrill.

The China Airlines accidents were legend. I remember one time when they had to blow the tail off the China Airlines 747 half-submerged at the end of the runway to quickly get the airport up and running again. Those CA pilots thought they were hot stuff.

Great that you, too, are lucky enough to remember those days of KaiTak, and also Hong Kong.

Sometimes you write something and you just don't realize that the way it was written did not reflect what you intended to write.

I definitely did not mean to make light of psychiatric care facilities or the need for them. What I meant is that very often participating in cultural activities and the arts provides many benefits. We all realize that western art and music was not intended for the west alone. The passion today for great western music seems strongest now among the Asian youth in many countries. There is no reason why the youth of Chiang Mai, or anyone, should not enjoy exposure to great western music too just because they do not happen to reside in a different hemisphere.

Although, you might wish to steer clear of the Wagner.(No. Just joking again.)

So, my apologies for my remark about hospitals. (Not that I expect that anyone actually read it in the first place, of course.)