keestha

PS 2 Bungalows at Rath Uthit Road, Tel. 076342207. Rooms with aircon, safe, TV, hot shower, and they have a big swimming pool and an OK restaurant. It is centrally located, but not noisy. In April (low season) I think it will cost around 700 Baht.

Thanks for the mass of interesting replies, everybody.

There is not such a clear defintion of the word backpacker, pity that too many people seem to associate it with the unkempt smelly drug taking haggling over a 15 Baht motorcycle taxi ride variety.

Though I operate a tourist business which is geared towards the middle and lower end of the market, I hardly see anybody of that kind.

But maybe that would be different if I would be doing the same thing in a place like Pai or Koh Phangan.

Often I have been wondering why many people on this board seem to dislike backpackers, recently it surfaced in threads concerning the visa free entry through the land border being brought back to just 15 days.

Sometimes I think they must be those holding jobs with fat expat salaries, who never had to struggle to stay afloat financially and who don't know what it is to be penny pinching. The same people who complain the entrance to their soi is cluttered with vendors and foodstalls emitting unpleasant odours. But maybe I am wrong.

So why do you dislike backpackers? Do you resent their scruffy appearance, which most of them in fact have not? Does it irritate you when they are in front of you in the 7/11? Those of you who live in Bangkok won't be often going to the Khao San Road area anyway. Or does it bug you that in the beerbars the ladies give a lot of attention to the handsome young man backpacker whilst neglecting you old pot bellied geezer though you have a fat wallet to spend on ladydrinks and so on?

Or maybe it is just that many farang Thailand residents seem to want to have Thailand to themselves, complaining there are too many farangs around wherever they go.

Scams always amuse me. Lately all of a sudden I get this one quite frequently:

Mystery Shopping Providers Association is giving you a chance to get paid for shopping and dinning out. It offers a history of results providing services including - professional shopping services - which can increase your customer loyalty, improve your competitive positioning and increase your employee productivity. Mystery Shopper have assisted many multisite retail and service industry companies in motivating their employees to improve service performance, resulting in elevated gross sales, reduced overhead and increased profits. By combining your specific objectives, our field experience gathering customer service data through surveys, unannounced service evaluations, (Mystery Shopping), and "real-time" reporting solutions. We are currently recruiting people in your area to help evaluate some company and retail outlets which will be made known to you when you are our staff fully. Examples of details you would be reporting to us are: 1)Smartness of the attendant2)How long it took to get services3)Customer service professionalism your Identity would be kept confidential (Mystery shopper) you would be paid $400 for every duty you carry out, and bonus on your transportation allowance. FULL NAME:.....................CONTACT ADDRESS:...............CITY:..............STATE:............ZIP-CODE:..............TELEPHONE NUMBER:.....................MOBILE NUMBER:............OCCUPATION:.......................EMAIL:.................. NB: Your contact detail will be used in sending you a check payment that will consist of your $400 payment and the funds for the evaluation/shopping, so make sure you provide us with a valid data. We care and We share. We will be expecting to hear from youMystery Shoppershoppersguild@(rest of emailaddress removed, K.)

Probably they pay you with a stolen check, and then cancel the deal and ask for repayment by Western Union before your bank has discovered that something is not in order with the check.

There are many groups of fundamentalist Christians active in Thailand, spreading the word.

After the 2004 tsunami stroke, a lot of these groups came to Khao Lak, saying they came to help, but their real purpose was to convert the tsunami survivors to their brand of Christianity. They operated under names like "The mercy foundation" and "Operation blessing". A lot of churches were built. On the website of USA based "Step Ahead", which offered low cost courses to learn English, I read: "Teaching offers an open door to evangelisation".

A lot of fake conversions took place: many people pretended to convert to X brand of Christianity just to receive cash donations or things like water tanks.

The people staffing these churches, foundations and so on were mainly Americans, with a sprinkling of Japanese and Koreans.

Having had the same business for 8 years, for a long time it had been a very easy formality to extend my work permit, once I had the new visa extension or entry stamp. In the beginning they still asked for salaray tax forms and receipts, and for receipts for the compulsory staff health insurance. But the last 5 years or so, I only had to show my new extension or entry stamp.

Not so last time though, last December when I came with a fresh 90 days entry stamp. I was told that now work permits are renewed only for 1 year periods (yes, old news, but it took a long time before it got through to the labour office here in Nakhon Nowhere), and that I had to show all the licences my business needs to operate legally, besides of course salary tax ( ภ.ง.ค. 1 and 91, plus receipts) and staff health insurance forms and receipts.

My business is a hotel-restaurant, so what I needed was a hotel permit (or a government issued letter that it is being processed), licences to sell Thai and imported alcoholic beverages, licence to sell cigarettes, and a licence to sell food.

My work permit was to expire in two days, but the officer handling my application said I could also come at a later date once I had my paperwork in order, and she put a small red stamp on my application form, saying I could use this in lieu of a work permit provisionally. It took almost a month to get the licence to sell food, which the local Orbortoh (Tambon administration) only started issuing since recently.

Today I submitted the necessary paperwork, and I was relieved to get the desired one year stamp in the blue work permit book. It was not such a nice feeling to be very visibly working for one month whilst holding a work permit which was technically expired.

Consider checking out Khao Lak, it has developed into a rather upmarket beach resort.

My business, which depends almost exclusively on tourists, had a big dip from December 8 till December 20. The airport situation might have contributed to this, but usually the number of tourists is going down temporarily anyway halfway December: those who want to celebrate Christmas&New Year at home have left, and those who wish to celebrate it here haven't arrived yet.

But overall I still have 50% more than last year, although my business exists since 2001.(One would rather expect to make a business a big leap in the second year or so). But this might deviate strongly from the general trend, since the beach resort town Khao Lak is rapidly up and coming. My place is a low budget bungalow resort, but I know the more upmarket places, especially those depending on package tourists, have been far more heavily affected by political turmoil in Thailand and by the global financial meltdown.

People might be interested Dave, why don't you put a link to your website on your profile, assuming you have a website?

Thanks for taking the time to write. This visa may happen or not even happen. Just getting feedback now. This plan is Western thinking by this government on how the government can make the money rather than the border runs required. Plus its green friendly,less gas being wasted going back and forth to the border.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Sunbelt,

You are doing a lot of talking, but you don't clarify what your information is based on.

For the second time, I am asking can you give us a source please?

If you choose not to answer again, it will not exactly improve your credibility.

The Thai government has just announced a 115 billion stimulus package to help the economy.

The government needs to look at ways to help pay for this.

If money that “ Long term tourists” was giving to visa run companies or the expenses they had of flying to another country for a visa, instead went into the coffers of the Thai government. Then this is one small way that is being explored to help pay for the stimulus package.www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

Being explored by whom? Sunbelt please say if the government is seriously considering yes or no to put such a measure in place. If it is yes, give a source.

Be aware that your post could easily give birth to a rumour, especially because people are taking your word for gospel.

In Phuket town: Bangkok Phuket Hospital, and the International Hospital at the bypass road which is far less costly but has the same quality of medical care.

If you are working in Thailand and have the compulsory health insurance, you can be treated for free (or for a token amount) at the Watchira Hospital in Phuket town. The Watchira has medical specialists in all fields, but they are very young, and work there only for a few years before moving on to a better paid job at a private hospital. Besides that the Wachira is very crowded.

Casinos everywhere at spitting distance from the Thai border. Thai authorities pass by a lot of tax revenue this way, but of course there are also other factors they have to weigh in.

Highly intriguing. I guess you are looking for information at other places also. Please let us know the outcome when you finished your research, and........tell us how it went after actually completing this trip.

This revives memories of my overland days (70s, 80s). Good luck!

It is always a good idea to allow bars to stay open longer, ideally they should be allowed to operate around the clock if they wish so.

In the Netherlands, it is up to the municipality to decide at what time bars have to close, if they want to put a closing time in place at all.

In cities where a closing time is enforced, drinkers all of a sudden find themselves on the street at 1AM or so, and they create noise and sometimes disturbances. In cities without a closing time, for those not ready to call it a day (night?) yet there is always another place to go to.

I remember feeling sorry for the few police officers around at 2AM in Soi Cowboy, Bangkok, when the street suddely filled up with noisy not satisfied yet revellers.

Cost of the boat to Andaman club is 850 Baht now. The last time I booked a room in The Andaman Club it was 3100 Baht. Maybe this is peak season price, I remember booking people in there for 2000+ Baht not so long ago. If you show the boat ticket you get a 150 Baht discount on the room price.

Worse stuff happens, such as: tourist booking a 600 Baht transfer to Hua Hin at a Khao San Road travel agency, and then , after waiting quite a while,being brought by a minivan full up with other tourists to the busstation, and being given a ticket for the 120 Baht public bus.

Air Asia does Kuala Lumpur-London return for a little over 30.000 Baht.

Let's assume that you can pass the Thai Language test

What the rules are and how they are applied are two different things.

I used to know a British guy who acquired Thai Nationality though he can hardly speak a word of Thai. He is a respected scientist though, who has been working at a Thai university for a long time.

An a gogo bar owner who speaks Thai fluently would have chances which are considerably less good.

For PR and citizenship, it plays a role if you contribute positively to Thai society or not.

Whilst in the process of studying, i plan to set my own business up which has little cost to do and which i have the capital for. I think this will take about 2 months to do

You might consider telling us what type of business you have in mind. The reactions that you will unquestionably get, might contain some valuable snippets of information.

When I moved from Bangkok to Hua Hin in 1994, I decided to give all the 25 and 50 satang coins I had saved to a beggar. Now of course there is never a beggar around when you need one, I had to walk a long way before I finally spotted one. I thought he would be pleasantly surprised to be handed a bag with a few kilos of coins, but at first he was reluctant to accept my generous donation. At the time I didn't know most beggars are working for begging agencies, who probably turn up their noses for these small coins.

Right now, running a tourist business, I always save up a couple of thousand 1 Baht pieces during the high season. When I go to my wife's Isaan hometown, shops there are happy to exchange them for banknotes. Up there, there is a shortage of 1 baht coins, you occasionally get candy as change instead of 1 Baht coins.

Khao Lak: Till December 8 quite busy, and then all of a sudden very few people around, it looked like low season. In my resort hardly any walk in guests turned up, though being the least expensive place close to the beach it has a very strong selling point. Since December 20 it is quite busy again, but I am prepared to plunge into the abyss again after January 10 or so.

Sorry, filed it in the dustbin a few days ago. But I know they have been distributing copies in restaurants and so on in the target area.

Saw a new magazine for Koh Lanta, Krabi and Khao Lak, called "the Trader". It is free, and the content is mainly advertisements and classified ads. Most of the ads concern Koh Lanta, so I guess that is where it originates from.

Strange anyway to lump Khao Lak in with Krabi, whilst leaving out Phuket: Khao Lak is far closer to Phuket than to Krabi. Also, Krabi is far closer to Phuket than to Khao Lak.

Personally, I think it's a good thing. 15 days is long enough to have these people around.

Quite a few of the 1 million+ Thai people who depend on tourism for a living might disagree.

Assuming you mean "backpackers" with "these people", well my backpacking days are long over, but still I don't feel that I am in any way superior to them just because I climbed up the social ladder a little bit when decennia passed by since I ditched my backpack.