keestha

It is OK giving the wife an ATM card to access the funds, but what happens when the card is retained or needs renewing. She wont be able to draw any more funds

When the bank gets the information that the account holder has passed away, the account will be blocked. Better do it the legal way: make the wife your inheritor (or is she so anyway, according to Thai law?), and before long after formalities have been fulfilled she will be able to use the account.

Talking about food poisoning, please keep in mind that it can be that symptoms start 6 hours or more after eating the wrong food. The couple gets sick after eating in a restaurant, which is of course blamed for it, but in reality it is because of something they took out of their own fridge at midday.

Arriving in Paris at midday, I had lunch in an otherwise empty sidestreet restaurant, and I was stupid enough to order liver. My dinner was lambmeat in a packed Tunisian restaurant. About half of the following night I spent at the toilet in the hotel room, not difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem.

I am contemplating to buy a second hand jeep. I already have a car, and I would need the jeep only for driving very short distances (less then 5 KM), mainly to send guests of my hotel plus their luggage to the busstop, and for picking them up there. So it doesn't have to be in mint condition, and it also doesn't matter if it cannot drive faster then 70 KM per hour or so. But also I don't wanna get hit with heavy repair bills all the time of course.

Does anybody have any idea how much something like this should roughly cost, and where I should go looking for it?

Enquire at the Ampher in Samut Prakan if this person is on any tabbien ban (house registration book). This failing, the closest post office to this address should be able to tell if there ever was such house number, and where.

Intriguing quest, keep us posted.

That's the right question. Why would you need it? Use your passport. Get a Thai DL.

Exactly. You can obtain a Thai drivers licence (small plastic card) legally, and use it as an ID. It is accepted everywhere, like at the bank withdrawing money. Every time I am requested to show my passport, I ask if a drivers licence is also acceptable, and it always is. Only exception would be dealings with government institutions, and maybe hotels if the local police has recently requested them to check foreigner's admitted until stamps.

Fact remains, when a roadside event takes place and perhaps occupy the sidewalk for another 15-20 seats and tables, and we double park the road, it is Thai culture to have Police attention.

Man this is going to be one hell of a get together. Maybe we should get proper ticketing in place, pre mailed out to members and possibly even get approval to close the road around RicknRoll. Hell, by the sounds of it there'll be enough police and security there, they can just take care of it for us. Thanks guys. We'll be inside having another beer

Police attention is possibly not correct wording again. But I have to notify local Police, since we want to reserve parking for those with walking problems, and probably double park as it is a very wide road. Nothing special. An ordinary roadside event

Highly questionable if such measures are appropriate. More likely it will be like a bar owner celebrating his birthday: like an ordinary very busy evening at the bar. Or do you expect hundreds of people? Police might be pissed off when they come as requested, and then see that they came for nothing.

Anyways I am looking forward to reading how the event unfolded, and I will gladly participate if the next party takes place during the low season.

I am staying on one year non imm.B extensions, and for a few years now my work permit has always been extended till january 28, the date it was initially issued. My extension of stay for the last few years has been till june 4.

Thanks Rabbi. But I am wondering if any card reader would be able to read my 12 years old sim card.

As a long time hotel owner, my policy has always been that when people check in at dawn, it means arriving and paying from that calendar date on. But if they arrive after midnight but before dawn, they will have to pay from the previous calendar date on.

Concerning check out time, I always maintained 12 o' clock. You want to rent out the room again to somebody else, and you have to keep the cleaning staff's schedule in mind. But I always allowed people to store luggage after midday, and they are offered the possibility to take a shower before they pick up their luggage and depart.

Question for a just in case type of thing:

Businesslike I would be pretty much f+++d up if I would lose my mobile phone, customers wouldn't be able to reach me. I know you can get a replacement sim when you lose your phone, but this would take some time. Wondering if it would be possible to get a second sim card for the same number anyway? Should mention that my provider is AIS.

Welcome to ThaiVisa

We are in a holiday destination where people do things they wouldnt dare at home. Some drown from it, some drunk drive and die, and some do other things they may regret later.

The Phuket Blues Rock Festival with a few hundred spectators finished last night and had at least 10 Policeoffisers present. The warm up show on Patong Beach at Thursday had a hundred spectators and 2 uniformed Police.

Most venues have security staff. For this ThaiVisa event at RicknRoll we improve security with uniformed Police.

Although I'm fairly sure that new poster is an existing member, very bored and sitting in an internet cafe, I agree with him about the security.

Anybody who believes that this get together needs a police presence, really shouldn't be going. I realise it's probably TV's way of making sure they avoid any incidents that will lead to bad publicity, but still, police presence at a BBQ in a public place?? Madness!!

Yes, madness and ridiculous.

Agreed. My first thought was that mentioning presence of uniformed police was meant jokingly, but if it is not, ridiculous indeed. True, keyboard interactions can get vitriolic at times, but this certainly doesn't mean people who actually come would be likely to become verbally or even physically aggessive when meeting face to face. I cannot come, but if I would come, I would certainly show up without a motorcycle helmet and a first aid kit, and the presence of uniformed police would dampen my mood. Please tell me it was a joke, I wouldn't be the only one who is confused or didn't get it.

Is it (still) right that besides maybe at the airport you can only get a re-entry permit at your local immigration office? Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread.

Really sorry not to be able to come, no way I can go to Phuket overnight during the high season, due to having a seasonal business in Khao Lak.

Oh well, wouldn't have been the big star of the party anyway I guess. To those who are going, have fun, and I am looking forward to reading the comments afterwards.

Security in Thailand? I have to think of a public meeting in Khao Lak, in 2005 briefly after the tsunami hit. I was waiting in the entry hall for the speeches to begin, and the then prime minister (Thaksin) passed by me at a distance of less than three meters. There was no control whatsoever of people going into the building and what they could be carrying.

Certainly hope this thing will get on the rails, and if business/family circumstances allow I will be there.

Friction between posters should not prevent this from taking place. My experience is that impressions you get of people by exchanging e-mails and forum posts can prove to be fully incorrect once you get to know them in real life. The guy who seems difficult to handle online, can turn out to be a pleasant character when meeting him face to face, and someone who seems nice in cyberspace, might get on your nerves right away when trying to have a conversation with him.

So if this thing materializes, go there with an open mind, and yes, name tags maybe better left out, so that people are not prejudiced socializing with whoever is there.

Don't see the problem, this is a very simple job you can get done at lots of places. Any shop advertising like "copy and fax" outside will be able to do it, and many photo shops and computer maintainance places as well. In my office I have a scanner (bought for a pittance a long time ago), so I would probably do it myself, spreading it out over a week or so because the work is so boring. If in a hurry, I would simply go to one of these places, they're all over Phuket.

End of story, as far as I am concerned.

Would be nice if the meeting could be scheduled to take place after the high season has finished. Quite a few regular posters are likely to be too busy to socialize during the high season. Best of all it would be if the meeting was held at the venue of a member who has a guesthouse/resort/hotel in Phuket,his restaurant could be used and he could offer rooms at a reduced price for those who live far away or who don't want to drive back drunk.

Cannot be stressed enough that when applying for a visa abroad, check about public holidays first, the Thai ones plus the ones of the country where the embassy/consulate is based. Once on a short trip to the Netherlands, I almost messed up due to a combination of Thai and Dutch public holidays. Only the fact that by sheer coincidence I had decided to go to Amsterdam and to the Thai consulate one day earlier than planned, saved me: any other day of my 6 day stay, the consulate would have been closed.

I am also puzzled about this. A non Thai teacher would teach you the wrong pronounciation

As a foreigner, you will always have a heavy accent when speaking Thai. I have been living in Thailand for 19 years, and to foreigners it seems like my Thai is fluent. But I know that for Thais my accent sounds like I am from outer space. The muscles in these people's jaws developed in a different way. When I speak German, which is a foreign language to me, sometimes native speakers think that I am a native speaker too, especially when they are from Austria or Switzerland. But no way if I make a phone call in Thai, the person picking up the phone will think I am a native Thai speaker.

Definitely not taking her anywhere. I am European, and American things like valentines day and thanksgiving day are foreign concepts to me as much as ramadan is.

Valentines day originated in europe and Im pretty sure the USA didn't exist in the middle ages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day

Yeah OK thanks Bill. But I am pretty sure that in the Netherlands, valentines day was completely unknown till the eighties, when the big chain stores started promoting it hoping to make a buck.

Definitely not taking her anywhere. I am European, and American things like valentines day and thanksgiving day are foreign concepts to me as much as ramadan is.

Normally I always take hitchhikers, it's a moral obligation because in days long past I did a lot of hitchhiking myself. But I stopped taking monks, my experience is that they invariably ask for money. No way to tell if they are genuine monks or not, and it goes a bit too far to request to be shown the special ID card every monk is required to carry.

a first clue would be "monks hitchhiking"

You could very well be right. I remember meeting a monk in Ayuthaya during the first week of my stay in Thailand (1992), who told me he had gone on foot through much of northern and central Thailand, also going into Laos and Cambodia. Probably he just initiated a conversation with me to practice his English. He told me it was a problem for him to keep clean and do laundry whilst on the road, but when I offered him to take a shower in the hotel where I was staying, he declined, saying a monk cannot go into a place like a hotel. Needless to say he didn't ask me for money.

I could be wrong, but aren't monks supposed to do all their travelling on foot?

Quoting the OP "Tea money, I know what it is but how broad is its extent within the Thai/Farang business environment? Obviously Lotus aren't paying it. Is it more your street level retail, service type enterprise or does it extend to M.L.Enterprise as well?

Obviously why, can you clarify? Wouldn't surprise me in the least if Lotus also has to grease the wheels a bit in order to get for instance a building permit.

Normally I always take hitchhikers, it's a moral obligation because in days long past I did a lot of hitchhiking myself. But I stopped taking monks, my experience is that they invariably ask for money. No way to tell if they are genuine monks or not, and it goes a bit too far to request to be shown the special ID card every monk is required to carry.

Just be aware that any accommodation in Thailand with the tag "Resort" added to it, bares no resemblence to what you would expect of a resort in most other countries!

Agree if the word "any" is replaced with the word "sometimes". True there are very simple clusters of straw and bamboo huts that bear the name so and so resort, but there are also plenty of resorts that have a standard on a par with resorts in oh let's say Florida or Aruba.