iamanisland

Hey guys Thanks for the help here.

Cant beleave how difficult to get this info. All other countries I can find but belgium??? Not much info at all, I can even read french to a certain point and have a good guess at dutch too but I find nothing.

This is my main concern, the the belgie have somthing else in place. Knowing the belgie quite well they dont exactly follow eu regs or law. Think its only the brits that do the following of eu stuff??

So general consensus is "A" follow up with email to embassy in regard to the equivalent of family permit exercizing my treaty rights

Or "B" apply for schengen long stay was it a "b" visa?? Take her with me and apply at local office? She can get schengen for 6 months correct?? Then apply there?

If it is that easy why are more ppl not doing this?? Or is it a fact most ppl want return to there home country??

Once again thanks all

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Ok imagine a city full of scooters 1000000x more than thailand.

Holding the worlds largest rally in the city, well thats just normal day for vietnam.

Crossing a road looks almost impossible at first and again I mean a lot worse than thailand a lot.

However as I said just be careful and its quite easy. The bicycle is still widely used there and many locals push there bikes to cross the road so just use them for protection. I.e. when you want to cross look for a bicycle rider and cross with them using them as a shield. Remember to give yourself a few extra metres just incase it goes wrong.

Other than that find other locals to cross with. But dont be suprised at the fact when you pick you crossing point you may end up 1/2 km further down the road from where you started from time you reach the otherside.

One thing about taxis (info maybe out of date) there is a little scam I found a few times it works like this,

You flag a taxi tell him where you want to go he sets the meter and theres a set fee for the first part of the journey which is/was 10000 dong. (Like our 35 thb here) you set off drive a few 100 meters then he will stop and say he does not know the way so you have to transfer to another taxi because that taxi knows the way. The other taxi is of course his friend and so you swop and the meter starts again at 10000 dong and so on and so on......

Basicaly a small taxi ride can end up costing a lot of dong at 10000 a taxi.

Good luck

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Ok I will exspand a little on the tunnels.

First mistake was all mine. I thought they were closer too the city than they are. Its quite away to get there.

Other niggles are just the normal stuff you get with any well know "must see" attractions. The taxis the guides and all the other bright ideas people have to get you to part with your money.

But.....

By far the biggest disappointment was the site its self. Was exspecting small small tunnels full of history and interest. Didnt exspect what I saw, enlarged underground spaces with not alot in them to see and to be honest they cound have been dug out last year and you could never tell.

You know theres been so many movies made and books written about these tunnels you kind of think you know what you are going to be seeing before you arrive.

Bit like xian and the terror warriors. Its like arriving at a walt disney theme park. Are all those warriors real?? It seems soo soo staged to me.

If you really just must see tunnels then there are more authentic tunnels in vietnam too see than the ones around hmc.

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You can safely give the Cu Chi tunnels a miss; terrible tourist trap. 

Cant agree more about the tunnels.

If your brave enough then I can recomend just picking a tourist map and walking the city. Yes!!!! I havent gone mad I did say walking in saigon just be careful thats all.

You will find many many things, some of interest and some not.

The post office above sounds a little dull but actually quite unique. The horse racing track as well, who would have thought a communist country would have such a thing? Horse racing = gambling. The train staion is quite unique too with its original SAI-GON sign on to top. Walking you will find many things and indications of its colonial french past. From its buildings to paris style street signs.

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Ok finally manged to get someone to answer at ther belgium embassy. And yes it was a real person as well. But conversation was very short and unhelpful and not really any infomation given.

Just got the answer to write all on an email and we will answer then...

Ok we will do this I guess and see what the answers will be.

The only other thing said by them was that cant apply there at the belgium embassy have to go to the uk embassy???

Really confused now. All info read about eea family permits on uk website is in regard to people wanting to remian in the uk and this is not the case.

Have another question now from reading forums.

Does the eea family permit have to be applied for her in thailand ??

Read a few times now on other boards about applying for std shengen visa to enter her into the country and then just apply for eea part there??

Info reading was not for belgium, only for nederlands, spain and italy.

Is this true and is this a good way to go. If I want to start work in november not much time left to get this sorted.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

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Dont know if this is helpful or not but I will share anyway.

A friend of mine was diagnosed with type 1 way back in 2006 about 3 weeks before he was about to say good bye to the uk and go travel indefinitely. Apartment sold money organised tickets brought etc...

This clearly knocked him for six and alot of extra stress and worry that he did not need at the time. I think I was more worried because I was going with him to travel too.

Anyway we managed to delay the trip for a few more weeks while he under went the show and tell on how to look after himself and live with injections.

His doctor gave him the all clear however the maximum amount of insulin that he could get precribed was 3 months. Not much good when your plaining on travelling indefinitely. But hey 3 months was 3 months so off we went. Oh he had to buy some special bag like a roll up thing that keeps the insulin cold for days if careful.

During the first 3 months we started the search for insulin and this is what we found...

Starting in india we went to many many pharmacies to ask. All were willing to sell with out any prescription however most just offered a brown glass bottle and disposible syringes!!!! Not quite what he was looking for. When if showed them his brand new shiney injection and dispencing pen there where a lot of strange looks as if he had showed them something from the 24th century, this was not a good sign for the future.

Then we started with the bigger pharmacies in the cities we had more luck there. Same story as above at first but then when he showed the special pen they took it and started to search in books which was followed by phone calls and eventually the answer came. "Yes sir we can get this it will take 2 days to deliver special order" Fantastic we thought then for the bad part the cost. .. approximatley £10 each and this was just for the one he takes at night time once a day. Very very exspensive compared to the uk. So he brought some there and then and started to skip some of the after food injections so he could build up some extra supplies.

We manged to get through the first six months by buying when we could and the same story of the purchases was repeated all over asia including thailand. Pretty much all types are available but quite often has to be ordered in and it will be exspensive.

His solution in the end was to return to the uk and he convinced his nurse and doctor to give 6 months supply which in the end they agreed to do so and that was that. He now survives doing that method buying some, occasionaly skipping some after meal ones and returning to his own doctor around every 8/10 months for another 6 months supply.

The biggest problem however was the test strips that is a big problem. He and I never new that there was such a monoply on somthing so simple. Every manufacturer is different one machine one type of strip and not interchangable as you would think.

Only solution to this problem was to bite the bullet and buy a locally manufacturered machine. Exspensive yes but then no more problems with buying test strips.

Hope the info is of some help.

I remind you that it is from a few years ago and things always change.

But the bottom line is yes insulin is available but at a price and if you wish to keep same type for same dispensing system then it will be very exspensive. But as for the strips there was never a solution other than buying a new tester.

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Seen them in macro before.

Not sure of the quality in regard to air tightness, but my be worth a look if you have a marco close too you.

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Ahhh I under stand the red tape problem.

But there are smaller more ridgid rtw tickets to be had. Ok longer flying sectors it will be for sure and less smaller countries but it is possible to line up all thoses ducks. What just take more planning and a lot more explanation to embassies as to what you were doing

Never read or herd thai national getting visa's with effectively an open air ticket and no diffinate date of return. Thats before we question accommodation job and financial support.

However chin up, I guess as always anything is possible.

Just a sugestion look at the countries she is visa free or exempt and work around that?? It is possible and ypu both could see so much.

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I make my position clear from the start.

I don't like jet ski's and I don't even like water cant swim etc...

However I wish to be educated on this attraction.

Reading and reading on here I get the impression Phuket has a big problem in regard to the service provider. This appears to be nothing new these incidents happen all over the world every year just Google.

My question really is if this industry is so dangerous to our well being and im including money exstortion here too.

Why are people still willing to risk all???

I remember many years ago in Goa same problems I guess that are reported frequently about Phuket. Money extortion scams, injuries and death. After much publicity the only thing that changed Goa was westerns stopped using. Only ppl you see on jet ski was indians.

Has the same not happened in Phuket??

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Well said Goompa cant agree more.

It's a great tragedy that we have to have victims in activities and times that are supposed to be nothing but fun.

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Agree do it do it do it.

Done it 2 and a half times around before every time new and different experiences.

The half time bit was suposed to be overland which it was all the way from uk to Irkutsk but then when there could not resist trans siberian so never made the jump across to alaska and back to uk.

The first time round the world was with booked direct with One World. Price if I remember correct was around £6000 that brought I think 6 flights in 5 zones so north us, south america, asia, oz/nz and europe.

Planed for 1 year in total travel but it ended at being about 8 months. My regrets for the trip was not planning and not reading small print for RTW ticket. Never relised there are restrictions on the ticket. 2 biggest restriction were cant go backwards and once you leave an area the remaining flights for that zone are dead. Which is what happened to me. Rush rush from asia to oz and found I could not return to asia to use remaining flights. Real under sight on my part.

Not sure if the same conditions apply today but my advice is if you book a full rtw ticket ask as many questions as you can before and plan plan plan your flights accordingly.

Exp date for all flights was 12 months from the first flight.

2nd time rtw went it alone independent tickets. Cheaper all in all but far more time consuming always looking in internet cafes for deals on net, trips to airport's for standby and last minutes. Length of time was around 14 months. This option was far less restricted but you do tend to get lazy during your travel if you have limitless time.

The half time and most resent atempt at rtw was 2010 overland. Far the best experience and the most fun but hard work. Total time 7 months cost was around £4000. Pre planning for the european train tickets was around 6 months to get the cheapest tickets.

So as yo see 3 more examples many different ways. But if you have the opertunity then go go go . I recommend it see the world.

Best of luck.

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Tesco honesty at last!

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Well " if " all the infomation given is factual in regard to phase of the flight in question then I have Zero sympaphy for these people. Absolutly zero.

Private hospital my arse they should be sued for possible en dangerment to the flight and which could resulted in en dangerment if other law abiding passengers.

Seat belt light is there for a reason and the cabin staff are there for your safty and not just to make ppl feel comfortable serve drinks and food.

I do feel that some people should not be allowed to fly anywhere at all ever. But unfortunately we have the likes of ryanscare, sleezy jet and oh the great malaysian master piece "Now everyone can fly" ??? To thank for this.

My solution is that everytime ppl go to book flight tickets there should be an aptitude test asking basic questions about flight safty and personal conduct on flights. One wrong answer and no flying for them.

Why were ppl in the toilet during decent?? Also if the injuries to the cabin staff are due to trying to get passenger seated then they should sue there <deleted> too.

Dont get me wrong I dont have a lot of time for money motivated airlines but it is about time airlines took action on these stupid selfish individuals risking there own lives and the life of other passengers around them.

Imagine stupid person no seat belt then bang sudden loss of altitude person goes up in the air and lands on the little old lady sitting 35b breaks her neck and kills her out right. Who is to blame then???

Just a question.

However I just state now that we are sometimes not aware of the full facts of the incident and should wait for the full report to come in a few months time and if it turns out that this is one of those in the cruse and encountered un exspected clear air turbulence then I allready appoliges for linking my rant to that incident.

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Ah very very intersting thank you for that info.

Never knew that was possible.

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Possibly a new contender and the thread is only 14 hours old

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?/topic/664641-Travel-Warning-from-UK#entry6772084

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Nice and totaly agree.

Just add lucky that the airline permit name changes even if it is at a charge. Most do not anymore when you read the small print that we always seem to ignore and discard untill we have a problem.

Even years ago in the days of paper carbon copy airtickets thete use to be a charge for re issue. Think the sum was around £15 back then so 1000 thb not bad I guess at least you have the option.

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Your most welcome. If you still feel uncomfortable then just bring small and big. But you will be fine. Pic is only attached to you application and not digitized in to visa so its ok. Well with tge exception to fulk blown panaramic poster size pictures. Other thing you can do with the 2x2 pics is trim them down if you feel happier.

If you do go to the home pro place the guy speaks english and tell him its for visa and show or tell him the size you want.

Take the pictures and go for a coffee he will shout you over when they are done.

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Tricky one you have here....

Ok the serrious stuff first. IATA regulation for all member airlines stipulate that the name person on the ticket should match the travell document that will identify that person. There are exspetion like hyfinated surnames etc and exceptions in regard to miss spelling where a letter may be wrong but the bottom line is the it is at the discretion of the airline and it is there responsibility tio check all documents before issue of boarding card. Btw for info this topic is for tickets to passports. Not boarding cards. Airlines can choose what they want on your boarding card. Shortened initials abreviated etc........

But unfortunatly although airlune responsibility you can always be stopped by immigration at there will even if it is a domestic flight. You may convince them you are one of the same or you may not.. thats the gamble. But as I stated before its the airlines responsibility. But net result is you wont fly if you cant convince then you are the same person.

So your choices are try as you are and you maybe fine, or pay the 1000thb and change your name.

It would be fine if Nick was spelt Nich!!

Good luck but rember if you chance it and its a return ticket then you will have ti go through with this 2 x.

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I was just passing home pro so just went in there. The guy is still there just in a small unit by there side of the coffee shop.

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Does not matter for you really just need to be a recent picture within last 3 months say and on a plain background and thats it.

Here in bkk I find normally 2 sizes on offer small small and big big. Never seem to find euro standard 4.5 x 3.5 and yet nearly all visa applications normally say 4.5cm x 3.5 cm.

But here is the answer as to why it does not matter too much on exact size as long as it is close.

When a picture is digitized on to a document like a passport then the size becomes important not so much the outside dimentions as long as it is close to the required but the dimentions of your face in respect to the size of the picture.

Thats important for the process. So as for the US they confirm that a picture of your face on 2x2" will give the desired results.

If you ever take a look at new passports you will see that the size of your picture is no longer the same. Blah blah......

I wont bore you anymore with the details.

So back to the visa, as a picture will not be included on your L visa the size is no longer so important to be exact. If its was to be included on your visa tgen the size would matter.

Just a question when you ask for your pictures to be taken do you ask for visa picture or passport picture??? Normally if ask for passport picture you end up with small small pics like the thai ones.

Hope this is of some help.

Just a mention I normally get my pics done in a small place in the home pro place near bts phelon chit on the suk road at intersection and there I get 4.5 by 3.5 cm ish..............

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She doesn't want to be exposed to THB or RM, but doesn't mind being exposed to EURO. Out of the frying pan and into the fire comes to mind. I shifted all my money out of the EURO. Way to scary to have my money in Euros in a Eurozone bank. Just look what happened in Cyprus. I bet they're all glad they converted their cash to Euros.  

Euro is fine fairly stable well as stable as any other currency is right now and like all stand alone currencies prone to fluctuations.

The euro is here too stay and will not be allowed to collapse. When the euro first entered remember the rate was around 1.89 euro to the sterling. After a few years it settled down to a happy 1.40 to 1.50. After 2008 it lost ground agian and nearly went almost 1 to 1 with the pound. Now it sits quite happy at around 1.20. Where it hurt ppl was those mainly who changed what is there life saving to euro at a time of 1.50 now at a rate of 1.20 ppl have lost if you try to convert back to sterling.

How many times in resent history have we heard buy usd its nearly 2 usd to the pound. Or everyone must go to the US on holiday just because its 2 to 1?????

And yet a few months later when the rate is back down to 1.50 avg no one mentions it anymore.

As for cyprus...

Well I wish I was living there at the time when they changed currency. Intro offer of 1.86 euro to the cyp pound!!!!! And intro rate was for the first 18 months. Many ppl made a good deal from this. I know a few expats there dealing in money exchanges for ppl. At the time if I remember think normal rate was around 1.34 to the sterling at that time.

I earnt money in chf many years ago when the rate was arouns 2 to 1 to the euro. I choose to leave it there in the bank now in the last few years I made quite a bit of money just on the exchange rates alone.

The euro is fine if you are earning euro and spending euro. Most problems seem to be coming from ppl who wish to mix sterling with euro and have done in the past. Biggest problems for brit expats still on insisting in dealing in sterling when the pound is quite a week currency for now.

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Not really. I tend to disagree there. The protection of that money is not for the currency slide/fluctuation but for the protection of the access to that money.

Malaysia has now become a very high risk and when it comes it will come hard and when the banks start restricting the amount of cash you can remove from your account there i would rather not have an account there.

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Ok. Thank you for that Info. In process of contacting embassy here in bkk.

Will post results for info as and when I get them.

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Ok. Thanks for the advice. I think her main concern is the exposure to the myr and thb. As for access dont think she is to bothered about accessing that money in any great hurry. It just you know thai ppl and there money. 1% change in any rate and they think they will lose money so panic panic.

The main concern of hers is that it is a Malaysian bank account that she has no direct access to without making a trip to kl. I forget the name of that bank for now but its a small local malay bank.

I think she should move it to somewhere more accessible even if it is another bank in Malaysia.

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Im tired now sleepy sleep.....

56 posts of drivel which I hold my hands up too that I participated in. However enough is enough.

Wake up children, everywhere in the world is dangerous and I mean everywhere including thailand. Sorry thai ppl but thats fact.

But let me tell you one thing about the world. You can find trouble danger in every country and it will affect you if you choose to put yourself in that danger.

If you try not to go there and use your mind then on the whole you will be fine.

Im not going to exspand on this anymore unless ppl want me too?????

And before someone asks for experience.......... im 41 years old and i think im quite well travelled although i always think theres room for more. And I mean travelled not transit through, i have travelled around 79 countries in the world and im still here to tell the tell so to speak.

Now for all those world wide travellers there is around 246 recognised countries in the world depending on which list you want to read and I have been travelling for nearly 25 years and i have till not seen half of the world???? Just think on that ..........

Thailand is no more dangerous than some other countries in the world I promise you that.

Try arriving on the overnight train from bam to quetta now thats spine tingling when police insist on escorting you all the time your there. That dangerous you dont get that on the suk road.

If ppl need to see my ex passport visas or my flickr account for proof then I will willing supply to anyone.

So lets close this stupid thread and stop the my penis is bigger than yours contest. My penis is quite large.

So for the uneducated thailand is no more dangerous than any other country in the world and death in all is just one step away just one wrong turn anywhere not just here.

Btw I choose to stay in thailand because I actualy like it here.

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