Fibbernacci

The most annoying part about Songkran is not all the cherubic little Thai kids turning into litte devils as they squirt on of those guns straight down your ear canal with a big toothy,or toothless grin.
It's when you've avoided getting soaked all day just for some big,fat Swedish bird in her 50s to get you at a traffic light on your scooter with a dopey grin,you just feel like punching them!

"Sonkran is basically where the Thai chuck freezing cold water at each other" That's what it has turned into and foreigners have promulgated it into the water chucking melee that it is ! BUt, Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends, neighbors, and monks. The songkran festival is counted as a new life. Where I live there is very little "water chucking". The children will shoot you with a water pistol but only if you let them. The elders are honored in the village when the monks come and they sit and are gently cleansed by others with water, no freezing cold ice water.

So you don't have 'Sonkran'[sic] in your village then?

Just get one of the big buses from the bus station,I'm pretty sure all the ones going to Udon Thani and Khon Kaen stop in Lampang and Lamphun anyway,it's not even that far away.

Do you have a hotel,maybe they will have it,it will be on True Sports?Unfortunately all the bars will be closed by then,it's a 2:45am kick off I believe.

Funnily enough last offshore job involved a lot of Phillipino lads and you couldn't have asked for a nicer bunch of guys. Still in touch now and once they found out I lived in cm they tried to win me over to PI.

But even they were realistic in the security threat present, especially down south I think they said.

My little Canadian pal has also relocated to Cebu in PI and is trying to get me over but again I just can't really get that enthused with the place to be honest. I don't know why.

One of the prettiest ladies I have met here in cm when I first got here was a 100% phillipino girl raised in UK. Truly stunning. Less stunning was the Brit boyfriend bullshi##ing about being a stock market trader. 2 questions found him out and she looked slightly mortified at the prospect of having been taking it in the beef sandwich for the last two months from the mail boy!

Sorry really got lost in the moment and rambled on there.

Reading up still on combo now. The hardest bit will be leaving friends behind and the safety of knowing my way around here.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 6A using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

You've obviously never heard of Bohol,Bantayan,Malapascua,Camotes,Cabilao?All neighbouring islands to Cebu and The Philippines have beaches which make Thailand's look like the dirty,overcrowded,full of hustlers dumps that most of them are!

Plus the guys are actually worth talking to,unlike Thailand!

Are we talking cut or no cut,you haven't specified?

Koreans really aren't the nicest of people I'm afraid,Cebu in the Philippines is full of them and the locals absolutely hate them,for there boorish behaviour and manners!

I got bored reading after a while. It just keeps repeating the same thing over and over. I'll try again later but I don't think I'd put much faith in it to be honest. I must admit Cyprus is a bit of a surprise but then there's a lot of foreign money in their banks which are in a bad way. It's not the same in the UK which isn't in the Euro like Cyprus. The banks are much stronger and the government would be unlikely to risk a run on them which is why they've bailed them out and put safeguards in to protect customers deposits up to a certain amount (£85,000 I think). You just have to be careful if you have more than that that you spread it around.

You've hit the nail on the head here and this is why it does seem like scaremongering,the UK is 100% in charge of its capital controls and can raise or lower interest rates,plus begin Quantitive Easing or printing money whenever it chooses unlike anyone else tied into the Euro.The Italians have already threatened the ECB with cranking up their mint and printing their own Euros if the ECB didn't bail it out!

To my mind the UK banks must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of capital flight out of all Eurozone banks after the Great Cyprus Bank Robbery,if it's happened there then you can bet it's the template to be rolled out next over Greece,Italy,Spain,Portugal et al!The size of Cyprus is irrelevant,it's just about the ECB testing the waters.

Okay -- this is a serious question... Not being experienced in International Finance.. Can one open a bank account in Singapore or Hong Kong without being there in person? I ask this because my sister wants a more secure location for her money but would not be able to physically travel there due to her health status.

You can have an agent do it for you.

You can also open a company or buy a shelf company in both places and use that to hold your investments might be handy if in a "married situation"

My sister would definitely have to go the 'agent' route as she is not likely to travel (health). Also - while she is a professed Liberal - she is xenophobic (yeah I know!!!) - Oh - and it is my 'sister' - she is the one with big money - not me. She is also an older widow. I just wish to help her have a safer place for her money. How does one go about getting a trustworthy agent to open such an account?

http://www.chuilaiandcocpa.com/

I personally know people who have opened up corporate accounts with this guy and he is probably the cheapest and fastest guy around.If you fly over to Hong Kong he can open you an HSBC corporate account on the same day!

I'm surprised the American twist to this discussion hasn't come in yet so I'll chime in.Their options are severely limited, as many many financial institutions in international "safe havens" refuse to take money from US citizens anymore due to enforcement of "anti-terrorism money laundering" regulations that are in fact designed to ensure tax compliance.That leaves many Americans only the the less trustworthy jurisdictions like Panama. . .

Panama is one for the top international banking centres in the world,with some of the safest and most secure offshore tax protection vehicles in the world,have you ever been there?

Most of the world's biggest banks are there,your ignorance of the facts is quite breathtaking!