RecklessRon

Speaking of the economy:

I have money in Thai banks. That benefits the bank much more than myself.

I don't work or have a business so I have little effect on employment except that which stems from my spending.

Every time I pay a mortgage payment or rent for house, car, motorbike or anything else, whenever I buy a soda or beer or food or clothes a pencil or ANYTHING ... each satang I spend on non-subsidized items contributes positively to the Thai economy.

So, IMHO, as long as the amount of subsidies I receive are less than my total expenditures my presence benefits the Thai economy. (Of course the day all the apts are rented, there are no houses for sale or rent to locals, all the restaurants are fully booked and all the other businesses are too busy to serve me that will change).

OP: You can come to Thailand without applying for a visa. Once here you do not need a police background check to get new visas but... what grounds do you have to be here? You say you want to live here for the long term. The military is currently cracking down hard on illegals and multi-visa-runners. You can't apply for a work permit without the background check and the crackdown aimed at tourists doing multiple visa runs will prevent you from staying here long term as a tourist. They are really going after those who are working here without a permit and those who are on Student visas and aren't really students. You, probably, aren't over 50 so you can't get a retirement visa and you, probably, aren't married to a Thai so you won't get a Marriage visa.

That said if you can figure out how to get around your visa issues you should talk to your probation officer. If you are leaving the country they may decide to waive your reporting requirement (until it expires or you come back to the US) or give you someone here to report to. Otherwise you need to wait out your probation because if you violate it you may have problems renewing you passport when it expires that may include deportation, being barred from entering Thailand again, and jail.

Until recently I'd have said 'buy 3 650,000 baht condos and rent them expecting a total of 12K-15K baht/mth net income'.

Now I'm not so sure the occupancy rate will remain high enough!

FYI: We are talking about a Thai citizen leaving Thailand on a British Passport. That should not be a problem. I suspect you got the wrong immigration officer.

I beleive Thai Law states that you must EXIT AND ENTER on the same passport, which means he should legally be able to leave on his British!

He entered on a Thai passport, now expired.

He is Thai. Thai law does NOT say he must EXIT on the passport he ENTERED on it says

he must ENTER on the passport he EXITED on!

(Foreigners must Exit on the passport they Enter on!)

To sum up:

If Immigration sees him as a British citizen he will have to exit using the passport he entered on.

If Immigration sees him as a Thai citizen he can leave on his British passport whenever he wants but he must return on it, not his Thai passport.

If Immigration sees him as BOTH you'll probably need the Thai passport.

BTW: If I were the OP I'd go to Vientienne by land immediately.

FYI: We are talking about a Thai citizen leaving Thailand on a British Passport. That should not be a problem. I suspect you got the wrong immigration officer.

I beleive Thai Law states that you must EXIT AND ENTER on the same passport, which means he should legally be able to leave on his British!

As for international law see: Articles 9 and 13 http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

IMHO: You must leave on the passport you entered on ONLY if you have a visa of some kind.

FYI: I am Canadian. I was born in Canada. As an adult travelled abroad several times on my Canadian passport then I left Canada for Australia on my British passport, returned to Canada on it and then left on my Canadian passport to Thailand and returned on it and then left on my British passport because my Canadian passport was expired. That's twice I left Canada on a different passport than I entered. I think that is because I was a citizen. Maybe they don't keep track of what passport a citizen returns on with respect to their next leaving - what would be the point? They certainly didn't in my case!

Since the boy is Thai he won't have any visa issues. Just show them his expired Thai passport to show he is not illegally in the county and say you never expect to return so you aren't renewing his passport. As he is travelling with both his parents his age should not be an issue. Therefore he should be able to leave Thailand on his British passport exactly the same way I left Canada on mine. If that is not the case then NO Thai with dual citizenship could EVER leave the country without having a Thai passport which is against the international agreements on the rights of dual-citizens and directly contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clauses on freedom of movement between countries.

That said immigration rules are flexible so you should try another exit point.

I just saw a TV show that looked at the best options for treating jellyfish strings.

They found NO evidence that urine or vinegar helped and there are times when it aggravates the wound.

Their advice was to scrape off all the stingers (they recommend a credit card) and then rince and wash the area with normal soap - treating it as a wound.

You can take an anti-inflammatory with pain killer (they said like paracetamol) if desired.

Also they said to expect scraping the stinger off to hurt!

Update: It was: So You Think You'd Survive S01E03 Avalanches and Jellyfish

free from: http://mightyupload.com/2fku2pwmo051

Good luck with that. I was selling a property in Canada and needed a witness. Nobody was interested. Even my friendly bank manager declined, after checking with head office and being told not to sign. Eventually I put up an ad and got another Canadian to do it for 1,000 Baht (which made it illegal but <deleted>...).

I have a retirement visa and need to do the 90 day report for the first time. I'll be going into immigration at the CM airport on Monday and I believe I only need my passport, lease agreement and this month's rental receipt. Just in case I'm taking my updated bank book (with over 800,000 for the last 3+ months).

What ARE the current requirements (documents, bank info, etc.) required to show at the 90 day reports?

Any known issues due to the military rule?

I have been told you can get a retirement visa without having 800k in the bank. You just need to talk to the right guys at the immigration. My friend did this for 25k , valid 1 year.

IMHO: 25K is a LOT of money to waste if you have the 800K.

I think to answer your question we need to know if you were born in Thailand, what your ethnicity is and if you have any other citizenship what country it is?

FREE internet translation sites are a great way for two people who don't speak the same language to communicate.

I always translate from English into Thai and then use a second site to translate that Thai back into English. That way I know what I am saying - often translators reverse the meaning by adding or not adding a negative!

I use Babylon (translates in both directions for many languages) and Thai2English (only translates one way but gives a much more detailed word-by-word translation including English and Thai using our alphabet - ie: pom chop poo ying

Try writing some love letters or poetry using Facebook or Skype messages (or email).

I don't know how accurate this is but I got the data from this site (I had to sign up, free). I couldn't copy the format - its in colour and has a few charts.

Cost of Living Comparison Between Chiang Mai and Cebu

You would need around 82,671.95₱ (60,171.02฿) in Cebu to maintain the same standard of life that you can have with 59,000.00฿ in Chiang Mai (assuming you rent in both cities). This calculation uses our Consumer Prices Including Rent Index.
Indices Difference
Consumer Prices in Cebu are 0.55% lower than in Chiang Mai
Consumer Prices Including Rent in Cebu are 1.98% higher than in Chiang Mai
Rent Prices in Cebu are 12.06% higher than in Chiang Mai
Restaurant Prices in Cebu are 5.56% higher than in Chiang Mai
Groceries Prices in Cebu are 2.71% lower than in Chiang Mai
Local Purchasing Power in Cebu is 13.66% lower than in Chiang Mai
Currency: Default Currency Switch to imperial measurement units
Chiang Mai Cebu Difference
Restaurants
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant 40.00 ฿ 87.34 ฿ +118.35 %
Meal for 2, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course 500.00 ฿ 468.78 ฿ -6.24 %
Combo Meal at McDonalds or Similar 150.00 ฿ 87.34 ฿ -41.77 %
Domestic Beer (0.5 liter draught) 60.00 ฿ 32.75 ฿ -45.41 %
Imported Beer (0.33 liter bottle) 90.00 ฿ 65.50 ฿ -27.22 %
Cappuccino (regular) 47.81 ฿ 63.37 ฿ +32.53 %
Coke/Pepsi (0.33 liter bottle) 16.53 ฿ 18.99 ฿ +14.86 %
Water (0.33 liter bottle) 8.19 ฿ 9.79 ฿ +19.60 %

Markets
Milk (regular), (1 liter) 48.00 ฿ 54.39 ฿ +13.31 %
Loaf of Fresh White Bread (500g) 34.62 ฿ 34.69 ฿ +0.20 %
Rice (white), (1kg) 34.00 ฿ 31.54 ฿ -7.24 %
Eggs (12) 51.00 ฿ 53.88 ฿ +5.64 %
Local Cheese (1kg) 337.50 ฿ 289.18 ฿ -14.32 %
Chicken Breasts (Boneless, Skinless), (1kg) 93.60 ฿ 117.54 ฿ +25.58 %
Apples (1kg) 84.86 ฿ 75.03 ฿ -11.58 %
Oranges (1kg) 43.57 ฿ 64.92 ฿ +49.00 %
Tomato (1kg) 31.60 ฿ 23.05 ฿ -27.06 %
Potato (1kg) 36.25 ฿ 46.10 ฿ +27.16 %
Lettuce (1 head) 16.00 ฿ 36.57 ฿ +128.55 %
Water (1.5 liter bottle) 15.00 ฿ 20.02 ฿ +33.44 %
Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) 450.00 ฿ 236.54 ฿ -47.43 %
Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) 42.83 ฿ 31.61 ฿ -26.21 %
Imported Beer (0.33 liter bottle) 85.00 ฿ 63.94 ฿ -24.77 %
Pack of Cigarettes (Marlboro) 90.00 ฿ 32.75 ฿ -63.61 %

Transportation
One-way Ticket (Local Transport) 20.00 ฿ 5.82 ฿ -70.89 %
Monthly Pass (Regular Price) 1,800.00 ฿ 291.13 ฿ -83.83 %
Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) 37.00 ฿ 29.11 ฿ -21.32 %
Taxi 1km (Normal Tariff) 10.00 ฿ 8.19 ฿ -18.12 %
Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) 225.00 ฿ 145.57 ฿ -35.30 %
Gasoline (1 liter) 39.44 ฿ 37.51 ฿ -4.91 %
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) 800,000.00 ฿ 764,220.18 ฿ -4.47 %

Utilities (Monthly)
Basic (Electricity, Heating, Water, Garbage) for 85m2 Apartment 2,120.63 ฿ 3,070.51 ฿ +44.79 %
1 min. of Prepaid Mobile Tariff Local (No Discounts or Plans) 1.50 ฿ 4.31 ฿ +187.09 %
Internet (6 Mbps, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) 580.00 ฿ 833.39 ฿ +43.69 %

Sports And Leisure
Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult 900.00 ฿ 1,170.59 ฿ +30.07 %
Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) 83.33 ฿ 97.04 ฿ +16.45 %
Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat 170.00 ฿ 138.29 ฿ -18.65 %

Clothing And Shoes
1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar) 1,685.71 ฿ 2,199.66 ฿ +30.49 %
1 Summer Dress in a Chain Store (Zara, H&M, ...) 1,700.00 ฿ 960.73 ฿ -43.49 %
1 Pair of Nike Shoes 2,525.00 ฿ 2,598.87 ฿ +2.93 %
1 Pair of Men Leather Shoes 1,160.00 ฿ 2,651.38 ฿ +128.57 %

Rent Per Month
Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre 8,828.50 ฿ 12,996.94 ฿ +47.22 %
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre 4,572.36 ฿ 6,084.93 ฿ +33.08 %
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre 21,625.00 ฿ 23,137.31 ฿ +6.99 %
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre 12,750.00 ฿ 11,299.72 ฿ -11.37 %

Buy Apartment Price
Price per Square Meter to Buy Apartment in City Centre 32,499.31 ฿ 47,656.68 ฿ +46.64 %
Price per Square Meter to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre 29,123.96 ฿ 59,563.01 ฿ +104.52 %

Salaries And Financing
Average Monthly Disposable Salary (After Tax) 11,000.00 ฿ 9,685.79 ฿ -11.95 %
Mortgage Interest Rate in Percentages (%), Yearly 6.33 10.50 +65.79 %

Last update August, 2014 August, 2014
Contributors (past 18 months) 75 96
Currency: THB

Cost of Living Index (Current, By City)ChiangMaiCebuNewYork, NYPragueSydneyLondonBerlinBeijingDelhiRio DeJaneiro0306090120

A few thoughts on South and Central America.

I was in Canada deciding where to retire and researched all of South America and a few countries in Central America.

The majority area devotely Christian countries, albeit with a twist.

If you aren't a Christian they can range from partly friendly to dangerously hostile.

Having a belief system, outside of the norm, is barely tollerated in the best of times. For example I like to smoke pot and in many of these countries the penalties are draconian. (and, no, I am not saying you won't find pot there just the penalties and enforcement are prohibitive to the risk)

Also there is a lot more violence and a lot of violence targetting anyone who disagrees or doesn't follow local religion and customs.

"My solution is simple and inexpensive," sirineou

Please explain how buying a laptop is cheaper than buying a tower? Especially with equal RAM, CPU, Hard Drive(s), Graphics and Ports (let alone Power Supply, expansion bays, etc). 

FYI: Cases can be bolted down to a location for the cost of drilling a few (usually 4) holes through the case and the counter. No-head bolts can be fed from underneath and nuts can be tightened on the inside of the case, which you then securely lock. Desktops towers can be locked shut as securely as a door (spend an extra $20 to get a secure case), requiring a crowbar to open or cutting tools. Alternatively the tower can be unplugged and locked in a cupboard, safe or taken elsewhere if the area is THAT unsecure!

And as for PC and Laptop being the same I am old school. PC stands for Personal Computer and it was patented by IBM when they released their first one to market. It was a tower. Most hardware people use the terms PC and Laptop to refer to IBM compatible Towers and Portable Devices regardless of type or manufacturer. However, technically, you are correct. I should have said TOWER everywhere I said PC. I apologize to all readers who were confused - I suspect there were not too many of them.

Lastly I spent over 25 years working over 40 contracts in 6 different countries so don't be a dick about the 'International Computer Consultant' thing - I've earned, and deserve, that title!

"one fact remains,In an unsecured location, such  as the OP described, where the computer could be stolen, a laptop  is the simplest solution"

That is NOT a fact in anyone's mind but your own.

'In an unsecured location, such  as the OP described, where the computer could be stolen, a laptop  is the' easier of the two choices to steal.

A properly secured PC is much safer than a laptop.

99% of businesses use PCs for multiple reasons. Security being one of them.

FYI: I am a retired International Computer Consultant. My last few contracts included working for Dairy Farm, Asia, in Hong Kong as a Data Consultant specializing in data security. I wrote their disaster recovery plan. Also Data Administrator for the Credit Reference Association of Australia before that and, after that, Project Manager for the Japanese translation of OS/390 for IBM (their flagship operating system for mainframe computers).

IMHO: There is no debate on this issue amongst those who have the knowledge to debate it. PCs are THE only logical choice unless there is a requirement to access data from more than 3 locations. Even then, most times, the main location will be a PC. It is more reliable, cheaper, more powerful, the input devices are more accurate and its components can be replaced and upgraded as needed.

All said in the subject of ergonomics between a laptop and a PC might be true, but one fact remains,In an unsecured location, such  as the OP described, where the computer could be stolen, a laptop  is the simplest solution. One must remember that the computer if lost not only would cost money, but it would cost in the loss of a lot of propitiatory information contained in it's hard drive.

555 - How is a laptop more secure than a bolted down tower? Plus when replacing the hardware the tower is half the price for twice the power! (and the software is identical to replace or lose, unless you factor in how easy it is to lose the laptop and how often you will need to reload).

Typically PC's are twice the power for half the price of Laptops. Laptops have serious longevity issues as screens crack. As well as breaking, the keyboards and pointing devices often cause mistakes - a cost to businesses that personal users accept. Plus you cannot really upgrade a laptop - only replace them. In business you can expect to replace keyboards and mice regularly and to upgrade your PCs every 3-4 years buying new cases every other upgrade. If you buy a decent monitor it will last for 8 - 12 years. Laptops will last 1-3 years. So adding up all the costs every single major company uses destop PCs for all staff that do not REQUIRE laptops. People who need to access data while traveling, like sales, need laptops. Those working from home need a home desktop.

8,500 Rent - nice 40 sq. m condo

1,500 Water and electricity (average)

12,000 Food (avg 400 per day - includes take away, goceries, toiletries and cleaning supplies)

3,000 Motorbike rental (I bought one so I don't pay this now)

500 Motorbike maintenance and gas (I enjoy just driving around the back roads looking at the scenery)

8,000 Entertainment (I go out once a week or so)

750 Internet (avg over 6 months - all my tv, movie, doc, cartoon, etc needs are met by the net so I don't have cable)

250 Accident insurance

350 Health insurance

500 Clothing allowance

500 Visa (Retirement - check in every 3 months - reapply annually)

150 Cell phone

---------------------------------------

36,000 Monthly Budget (actually 33,000 without the motorcycle rental or about 1,100 baht per day).

I watch my spending and if I am spending too much I cut my entertainment budget by riding my bike and watching TV instead of going to a bar or dancing. I also cut back on the price of restaurants. I live near Nong Hoi market and can easily eat well for 100Baht (2 meals) or have noodle soup for 30 baht as a meal. So when I overspend I eat less expensively and stay home more, swimming in the pool, watching TV, surfing the net and going out on my bike, driving around aimlessly, to avoid 'cabin fever'!

FYI: My lease on my condo runs through mid-November. Then I'll move to a house - I'm looking around 5,000 B per month which will drop my costs to below 1,000 baht a day (even after I get a dog)!

If I forgot a category please let me know! (I don't buy sex and only drink socially - almost never at home alone).

Yes, you get get a Work Permit on an O visa.

There's a list of jobs prohibited to foreigners her http://www.thaivisa.com/330-0.html, what is your profession?

That list cannot be correct. I know people working in several of those jobs legally - especially falang lawyers, which this list prohibits.

Just so I am clear - they are saying that more water will not disrupt the water supply, am I correct?

IMHO: They are saying there will be enough water to get through until the rainy season brings more. That might, or might not, be true.

Canada, 56, male, happy-enjoy, closed minds

Thais love being out at night and who can blame them, the weather is much cooler. It will be interesting to see how strictly this will be enforced...

As an aside, I have not seen one soldier on patrol in Chiang Mai. Just my personal experience...

Well I live here and soldiers are everywhere if you bother to look. All major intersections have several armed soldiers standing, inconspicuously, at the side of the road.