keestha

I have only a Thai drivers licence which is valid until 2010, but now I would also like to get an international drivers licence in order to be able to drive in other countries. I remember once having seen the address of an office in Bangkok issueing international drivers licences in this forum, but couldnt find it using the search function. It would be even better though, if I could get an international drivers licence in Phuket, Hadyai, or somewhere else in southern Thailand, because Bangkok is far away from where I live. Can anybody help out? Thanks in advance.

It should not be a problem for you to take a train to Penang, Malaysia, where there is a Thai Consulate. The violence in southern Thailand is restricted to just three provinces, and the train to Penang does not pass through any of these.

Sorry I am straying from the subject a little bit, and yes I could probably find the answers to my questions by using the search function, but could anyone tell me:

1) Would a Thai drivers licence be OK to drive down to Penang, or would one need an (authenticated?) translation or even an international drivers licence?

2) What about additional insurance needed to drive in Malaysia?

Thanks in advance, K.

 I am wondering more about this slightly more subtle aspect.  Like a contractor wanting to walk off a job when I pointed out problems I saw.

That incident I understand very well. You cannot criticize people directly, especially in public, because it makes them "lose face". Guess like many westerners living in Asia I learned this the hard way. How I get around this problem nowadays I will illustrate by giving a few examples

1) For 5 years I ran a restaurant/bar that opened early and closed quite late, so in the morning when the beer delivery truck came, I wasnt there yet, and they had to do business with the lady leading the morning shift. In the beginning it happened that I got mad at her because she bought beer though it was low season and the fridge was still full of beer, but later I learned it was better to say to her: "Oh, you bought beer? Well, tomorrow you dont have to buy beer, we have plenty for a while now". Playing it that way you get the desired effect, and you dont risk her getting angry or quitting because you have made her lose face.

2) Firing staff whose performance was way under line, I always told them that there was too much staff and not enough customers. Even if they realize that the place is in fact understaffed, they will accept it without hard feelings if you sugarcoat the pill this way.

3) Once I rented out a room to a girl, only to realize a few days later I had to get rid of her ASAP: the hallway next to her room was smelling heavily of a substance which might be semi legal in the Netherlands or Canada, but definitely not in Thailand. I discussed the thing with a few trusted Thai people, and ended up telling the girl she had to leave because I was about to renovate the building. I had just renovated 2 months ago so she knew it was nonsense, but still she moved the same day, and kept on greeting me when she saw me in the street afterwards.

Jai Dee,

Have you ever owned a restaurant, are you aware of the fact that running a restaurant is a full time job?

There might be some reputable companies who are willing to run the restaurant for you when you are overseas, but this would mean they would have to put a staff member of theirs on this full time in order to do this properly. Running a restaurant means having to sit on top of it all the time, to prevent cheating by those doing the shopping, the waitresses, the cashier and so on. It is not only about cheating, a manager is also needed to make sure everything functions smoothly and customers are happy. For a restaurant it is very easy to get a bad reputation.

The company you would entrust your restaurant to might be reputable, but it is less easy to be sure about the person they will give the task of running your restaurant. How long has this individual be working for that company? Too many times I saw ads in Thai newspapers stating that Mr xxx is no longer employed by yyy company since (date) and that the company will not be bound by any actions carried out by this individual after (date).

Very scary, to entrust your business to a person completely unknown to you. Why dont you stay at the safe side, and purchase a restaurant in Bangkok once you are ready to settle there?

He could consider renting a cheap shophouse in a somewhat bigger city with very few farang residents such a Suphanburi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Nakon Phanom or wherever, and start a language school.

Because I am not a native speaker my career as an English teacher stopped dead in its tracks about 11 years ago, so I am not really an expert in this field, maybe some of the teachers on the board could shine their lights on the question how realistic this option would be.

It is true that very many farangs are cheated in Thailand by other farangs, usually by their own countrymen. There is a proverb in German: “Beware of storm and wind, and of Germans who reside abroad”, sorry it doesn’t rhyme in English.

The 6 years I resided in one of the major beach resorts, I saw at least 4 farangs suddenly disappear leaving a pile of debts, and quite a few others vanished owing smaller but still substantial amounts of money. Some of these guys were skillfull confidence tricksters who knew how to quickly befriend and than defraud the right type of victim, usually by borrowing money and not paying back.

One thing that I saw happening very often, is that a bar, restaurant or guesthouse owner operates at a loss and runs out of money, and than sells a “partnership” to a compatriot, who is supposed to get his share of the profit then every month, but in reality he gets back bit by bit the money he paid in himself. (Scenarios that are even worse, do occur).

What is also not uncommon is a farang finding a job at a farang run company , than being paid at the end of the month, and at the end of the second month…….but at the end of the third month he is told to wait, his money is on the way, you wouldnt believe how slow these banks are sometimes…. Excuses and excuses, he waits and waits, until he finally quits in desperation at the end of the fourth month, thus having worked 4 months for 2 months salary.

Also I have seen farangs going around selling advertisements in magazines and maps that would never materialize. One of these blokes tried to sell an ad to me, but I declined……The next day he took revenge though by going into my restaurant and ordering a bottle of saengthip, 2 bottles of soda and a bucket of ice, and finally sneaking away without paying.

Nice thread this one, and I reckon we can keep it going for a while if everybody keeps chipping in stories.

A friend of mine who has his own company (or well, 49% of it) and a work permit went to Penang about 10 days ago, before he left he telephoned the Thai Consulate (+6042269484), and was told to bring along the following documents:

1)passport

2)work permit

3) 2 passport pictures

4)ภ.ง.ด.50 + receipt : tax declaration for the previous year

5) ภ.ง.ด.51+receipt: tax declaration which has to be submitted after the first 6 monhs of the current year, of course this one only applies if you go for for your visa after the final date this declaration has to be submitted.

6) ภ.ง.ด.1 +receipts: declaration forms for your salary tax for the whole year up to last month

7) ภ.ง.ด.91 +receipt: declaration form of the balance of your salary tax for the previous year, also this one only applies if you go for your visa after the final date this decalaration has to be submitted.

8) A letter writen by the company confirming that it employs the applicant(besides full name, state nationality and passportnumber) in the function of so and so and that it intends on continuing to do so, and that it vouchsafes for all the costs incurring from the applicant’s sojourn in the Kingdom, including a ticket back to his/her own country if the need would arise.

9) Just to make sure, I would also bring the company book (nangsue laplawng) along.

10) Note this guy's company doesnt make enough turnover to have to pay VAT, possibly if the company is in the VAT system extra documents would be required, but I am not sure about this.

For those living in Southern Thailand it might be good to know that Hatyai World Tour has minibusses running to Penang from different places in the South, from Krabi for instance this will set you back 430 Baht. Their phone number is 075/623139.

  I just want to meet new people and connect

Be so kind and explain why they have to be female. Thanks!

Eddiee   Do you think Immigration will permit people to leave with no problems, but will arrest them if they re-enter ?

In no way I want to help supporting a notion that foreigners leaving Thailand with non legit stamps wont have a problem, anything can happen......

This having said, a friend of mine left Thailand September 26 through the Aranyaprathet/Poipet crossing (Cambodian border) with a bunch of other foreigners, and reentered the Kingdom straight away. He told me everybody was allowed to leave right away, but coming back to Thailand all passports were examined quite thoroughly.

Your wife should at least qualify for a 3 months visitors visa (!so not tourist visa), the requirements for which are at least:

1)You have to submit proof your income in the Netherlands is high enough to also support the Thai visitor.

2) Also you will have to show that your living quarters in the Netherlands are big enough to also accomodate the Thai visitor

3) You will be required to sign a paper stating that you vouchsafe for all the costs incurring from the visitor's stay in the Netherlands

4) Return plane ticket must be shown

5) And probably also travel insurance

The office to deal with in the Netherlands in order to supply your wife with the right documents to show at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok (Wireless Road) is I believe called the "vreemdelingendienst", they have branch offices in Amsterdam, the provincial capitals, and maybe some other sizable cities. Note I have the impression Dutch authorities follow a guideline to be not exactly helpful when somebody is trying to get again another foreigner into the country. In other words, if you  submit your application with the authorities and then just wait, your application will remain at the bottom of the drawer. It can help to contact them frequently and enquire which stage their processing has reached. I believe you can also enquire about this through their website, and it could be a big help English is almost functioning as a second language in the Netherlands.

Note the Netherlands belongs to the Schengen Zone, if your wife has a visa for the Netherlands she can go to the other Schengen Zone countries as well, that is to say Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and possibly even more countries I dont know about.

Good luck battling Dutch bureaucracy!

Lately new threads are being opened continuously, especially in the Thai visas residency and work permits category. This causes threads which are still quite new to be pushed off the page in no time. It happened to me a few times that I posted in some thread and the next day when I wanted to check the thread for reactions I had to use the search function to retrieve the thread, which takes time because in my neck of the woods the internet moves at a snails pace.Also it could easily happen that an interesting thread in which several people have posted is pushed off the page within 24 hours so that I never get to see it.

Technical possibilities are limited of course, but could there possibly be done something about this, for instance by spreading the Thai visas&residency category over 2 pages?

We shouldnt become too paranoid about ladymen though......

Once I hired a waitress who was a bit broad in the shoulders, had smallish breasts and had a voice which voice was kinda deep.

To my dismay, soon afterwards the rumour began to fly around town that Keestha had adopted the dubious practice of employing ladymen. This girl only worked in my place briefly though, after one month she quit because she was getting married, and soon afterwards she became pregnant.

Some of my  fondest memories of Thailand have to do with ladymen, and mind you I am not talking about between the sheets type of memories.

As a newbie to Thailand once I went to a discotheque, and not being in the mood for socializing or dancing , I just sat alone with my drink somewhere in a corner, observing the people. Soon my attention was drawn by a group of three amazingly beautiful women, who were having an extremely animated discussion, making exaggerated gestures.  Only very slowly it started dawning upon me that they werent real women, their appearance and their behaviour were just too exaggeratedly feminine.

On another occasion I was sitting in a Koh Samui bar chatting with a waitress, when all of a sudden a tourist came in with a lady who was so strikingly beautiful that I couldnt help observing her continuously, once they had settled down not far from me. Only after a while I started realizing that this lady was looking just too perfect to be true, also she was checking her hair and so on every 2 minutes in a small mirror she kept in her handbag. When she went to the toilet I used the occasion to ask the waitress I was chatting with if this lady maybe was a katoey......and yes, she was.

Quite a few times when I had visitors from Europe, I had fun pointing out real cuties to them, and then telling them afterwards they had been looking at (ex)men. Sometimes the ladymen are looking so perfectly feminine though, and also their behaviour seems so natural, that I am sure that up to the present day, after 11 years in Thailand, that occasionally still I cannot tell them fom born women.

. As soon as I was off the train, I got approached by a dozen or so touts telling me about minibus service to Penang. I

followed one just out of curiosity to see how much they are

overcharging us farang these days. At the office the guy took me to (the one farthest to the left side across from the train station) told me it would cost 500 baht one way. I laughed in the guy's face and walked away to another office where I saw no touts leading farangs to.

The woman there told me 350 baht, and I purchased a seat. Meanwhile 3 touts from the first place had followed me and started mouthing off to me in Thai, not realizing that I am pretty fluent in Thai. When I politely told them to "go to ####" in Thai, they left.

Exactly this type of arrogant behaviour, laughing in the face of a tout or somebody else who tries to overcharge, doesnt help to make us farangs popular in Thailand.

They tried to grossly overcharge me countless times, but every time I was aware of this, I just said mai au kap (I dont wont it), and walked away. Maybe that's why I was never followed or badmouthed by angry touts or other vendors when I politely declined their offers. Sometimes walking away I heard them saying in Thai somehing in the sense of " that guy knows the story",bur never anything unpleasant.

Most important is to be aware that you as a farang were fortunate enough to be born in a rich country, whilst the tout was born in a poor country, and lacking a social security system he has to make a living somehow. Who knows, if Thailand would be rich and your country would be poor,  maybe you would be stalking Thai tourists at a railway station in your country:)

Only very few countries (if any) would allow foreigners to reside permanently on an endless sequence of tourist visas or visa free entry stamps. Take India for instance (and they need your hard currency much more than Thailand does), which gives 6 months tourist visas which can be extended for another 3 months, at the end of which you really have to leave.

Possibly Thai authorities might consider scrapping the minimum age (50) requirement for retiree visas, which would mean any foreigner who has sufficiant financial means and/or sufficiant regular income coming from abroad and who also meets the additional requirements would be allowed to reside (semi) permanently in Thailand.

If a man in Thailand on an Immigrant Visa went to a law firm and his lawyer offered to look after his exit/entry visas for him by shipping his passport out to a Thai embassy in a foreign country and back and if the lawyer assured his client that there was nothing to worry about would you still consider this man to be naïve and guilty for having engaged the lawyer for that purpose?

Would still consider him slightly naive yes. One has to be aware you cannot expect lawyers, medical doctors or whatever other professionals in developing countries to be as capable as and having the same high moral standards as their counterparts in fully developed countries.

Sure, a lawyer in Canada or Germany would (probably) never do anything illegal, but would you expect the same of a lawyer in Paraguay, Nigeria or Thailand?

Once a Bangkok lawyer told me that many of these so called lawyers advertising in the English language press arent even lawyers, but simply middlemen assisting foreigners with matters like company formations and work permits.

Quite a few farangs and other foreigners got cheated out of substantial amounts of money because they put their trust in the wrong law firm.

En 184,

Not all advice given through these newsgroups is good, dont be led on the false track. Even if you would get hold of a business visa, working as a salesman for a company that cannot give you a work permit would still be illegal. In case you would establish a company yourself and subcontract work from the company where you actually work, you still wouldnt be given a work permit because of the screening that takes place before a work permit application is approved.

Dont want to sound bitchy, and sure also I think these naive people should be treated leniently, but........

Quoting taxexile "it really is not right to prosecute people for using a service that to a foriegner seems legit"

Seems legit? Most passports contain a text stating that the passport holder is only allowed to surrender the passport to competent authorities, which means foreign immigration officials or consular officials handling visas, and obviously not Uncle Noi's travel agency in the Khao San Road. Also according to the law of the country that issued the passport it is most likely strictly spoken illegal if the passport crosses a border unaccompanied by the person on whose name it is registered.

But sure, it cannot be denied that for a long time there has been plenty of room for confusion, when not only travel agencies but also lawyers offices and even some immigration officials have been playing along with this game. Many people will have naively believed that what they did was legit, and they should be let go with a warning.