Hugh Jarse

PS visa agents are for the infirm and wimps.

with the present squalid conditions and poor services that the immgr dept are currently serving up to the alien community

evenstevens,is very proud to be called a wimp

incidently bill 97

1010 posts,...14 kisses..(like it).. uuummm, poor track form

a very lovely afternoon to all

Agree , conditions at that dump of an office should be improved. This would not only benefit the staff there who do a great job by and large, but also the customers who pay good money to stay legal. On another matter the top dog at CNX Immigration will be speaking at Le Meridien Hotel (near Night Bazarre area ) this coming Wednesday at 10.AM Meeting has been set up by The CEC club.

You want to be sure? Get there by 5, 5:30 at the latest.

Yes I only got a few days before the visa expires so I definitely need this to be done before the end of this week.

I'll try your suggestion and will keep you posted.

I have to renew my extension of stay, based on Marriage to a Thai, soon. Would appreciate your feedback ref. the queue I should join.All the on-line bookings are full alas as this method would seem to be most efficient.

There used to be a second hand watch dealer/shop on the ground floor of The World Trade Centre, at Pratunam selling high end watches. Maybe that is an option for you so you can at least get a valuation there before deciding what to do. Alternatively list it somewhere on Thai Visa.

If properly enforced the closure of massage parlours and beer bars will add to the growing number of unemployed in Phuket. Most of these girls will still have to send money back to the village and so I see little alternative for them other than moving into the freelance environment. Higher risk for those girls and for their customers. One massage parlour I go to (no special massage available) has 8 girls...well some are properly described as old ladies. Only one of them has a certificate.

In the US, Australia, Europe the UK and doubtless other parts of the world, some basic certificate of competence is required . Its basic health and safety requirements. Nothing wrong with this surely? If you are practicing massage you need some basic understanding of anatomy and physiology otherwise the untrained can cause serious injuries. Hats off to the junta for this initiative.

I saw a Lamborghini towing a plow near nam phong last week.

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Thats different than i see a ford tractor beeing pulled out of a deep ditch by a flock of waterbuffalos

How do you call a large group of waterbuffalos ?.

I believe that the collective noun is a flotilla!

Best to start looking for an appointment 30 days earlier than your actual renewal date and that gives you a lot of attempts at getting a slot.

My renewal is due September 11th, but I did it on August 13th.

Okay, thanks for this and will keep you all posted.

I am sure dates for 23rd September will be booked, I always wait

till just after midnight ,100 days before the date i require,book it,

check back later same day ,all slots are taken,I don't know if Visa

agents use this method to book all their places or just walk in,if

they do use the web site will explain why the go so quickly.

regards Worgeordie

I tried booking a few days ago for an appt. in mid. to late November to renew my Marriage Visa. All full! Perhaps one/some of the agents who make a living from renewals could enlighten us as to whether they make block bookings.

Last year I tried booking 89 days ahead and also had a similar problem. I checked a week before my expiry and lo and behold there was one slot free, which I gratefully took so as to avoid the bear pit scenario that so often prevails at this dump of an office. The staff deserve better than this too.

I read this report a number of weeks ago ,if it were to happen it would take a number of years to introduce by then there could well be another Government in power and I am sure that it would be challenged in the court of human rights. It would not effect everyone if I understand correctly it would effect those who are in receipt of a government pension retired civil servant, police, fire, military this would mean the government would be clawing money back into there own coffers it would also effect property owners who rent out there property whilst living abroad , if in the other hand you were receiving your OAP pension and that was your only income then it would not effect you , as stated I do not think it will happen for a number of years if at all if it did then I would have to consider moving back to the UK as I pay a substantial amount of tax to the UK HMRC every month.

I hope you are right as those on modest amounts of unearned income would be forced to return and avail themselves of free medical care and other state benefits. Too many returnees would become a burden on government and self defeating, me thinks. The tax grabs in the UK are becoming overburdonsome for many UK residents also. Such is the rotten state of the UK's finances.

Refer to The swimming pool Forum

Don't loose sight of the fact that older age and poor health can creep up on you, once you've gone to the trouble of becoming an expat it's sometimes quite hard to become a resident again and as the rules change over time, re attaining NHS eligibility will become even more difficult. My vote would be, unless you have substantial assets, go the 6 months in and 6 months out route.

HMRC changed the rules last year regarding what constitutes ordinary residence for tax purposes, Google it.

Instead some involved were imprisoned - the Police general sentenced to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of the jewelers family.

but he is out, you know

Anyone interviewed him? A reporter from The NAtion newspaper perhaps.

Thanks for taking the trouble to post this. Most useful and helps when things go wrong and one needs to deal with local "experts". PM me if you can recommend a competent firm or individual to maintain a 16m X 6m salt pool.

Sand filters all work on the same priciple. Apart from imnor changes in design they have used the same principle for decades. Technological advances are usually limited to to the materials used in construction: fibreglass, polyester, thermoplastics, etc for the tanks, and various platsics, usually ABS for the laterals. i'm still running a filter in Europe that is so ancient it has stainless steel laterals. Some very cheap tanks have been known to split, and some brands - even well known ones - of multiport valves tend to wear out quicker than others, and the spider gaskets may not always be easy to obtain. Basically however, sand filters do the job they are designed for.

The choice of filter media is important and so is its maintenance. I've seen filters filled with all sorts of rubbish, but only genuine graded silica sand is guraanteed to provide a reasonably long working life and provide the correct level of filtration.

Zeolite, generally marketed here in Thailand as Zelbrite has excellent filtration properties and various studies claim it to be as good as D.E. In any case, it's my personal choice. D.E. is messy, needs constant attention, while Zelbrite will last for years and will certaily outlast sand by a long time before it comes to the unenviable task of changing your filter media. D.E/.filters are also expensive, and it's my guess that they are destined to goslowly out of fashion.

Crushed glass is also offered as a filter media for use in sand filters. It's more expensive than Zelbrite, but FWIW, I am not aware that it out-performs Zelbrite.

Any idea about how much money this little office makes in a year in visa fees etc!

The Mall builders have seriously overestimated demand in Chiang Mai. If Maya isn't the last new one for a long time I will be very surprised. How many cinemas do we need?

We need at least one more that doesn't feature, predominantly (garbage )Hollywood stuff and shows Fringe movies, European, Australian ,Kiwi , Asian and African made films. Given the multi ethnic make up of Chiang Mai such a cinema would be a roaring success, me thinks.

My daughter needs to renew her Thai passport. We are in Chiang Mai and I understand that the Passport Office here is closed until further notice. Is there an agency /office in Bangkok/Chiang Mai that could do the processing and collection?

Does anyone else here think it's ridiculous how hard it is to get my son his god and Buddha given right to his citizenship ?

Thanks guys for all the help so far.

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Agree its a hassle, but once its done its done. Be patient and dont let the buggers get you down.

Wife, but a more flexible definition than the legalistic one in the West, doesn't imply a legal registration.

Mia noi isn't really translatable, since western culture's closest equivalent is "mistress" while here it can literally mean a secondary (tertiary etc) wife, just not the first/primary one, but often a long-term stable relationship, sometimes part of the extended family where all the wives know each other, sometimes gang up on the pooa.

And when derogatory, mia farang may be aimed at the temporary rented wives, but this usage tends to be more widespread among those on the edges of the game if not the thick of it. Most mainstream Thais don't mean anything derogatory by it at all.

What do Thai's call a minor husband? ( monkey business works both ways!)

I persist as I think it is not true. Maybe you mistook the amphur for the foreign office or you did not complete the registration.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Twiglets Simon!

Olbas throat pastilles, LemSips, Maynards wine gums and sherbet lemon sweets!

The general rule is don't import a bike. To many horror stories. Buy something what is available here with a green book.

Agree, madness importing a bike to Thailand. Best to get one here as relatively cheap.

This man a pretty insane retard it's not question at all.

For the benefit of us simpletons ,living out in the boondocks , can you enlighten us about his background, how he got his wealth etc. his political leanings. Most grateful.

If he had time to get a gun from inside his vehicle, why didn't he just drive away?

You need to understand the background leading up to this tragic event, clearly more info needed.

I say all TV readers should go and hijack all the protest sites and act as peacekeepers to keep any coloured shirts out and defuse the situation. To show that we are taking no sides, we must all wear NO shirt at all. Once they see how many TV members there are who want to keep Thailand a peaceful place for other falangs to come and visit, the Thais will realize their minor political grievances are nothing compared to the risk of losing the tourist crowds and their money forever. How many TV members are there? Must be at least 100,000 strong. If we all act as shirtless peacekeepers, the protestors have no chance and will have to back down. Result: A peaceful Bangkok again, and we the shirtless TV members become worldwide heroes. It's a win-win situation.

If only pigs could fly and we could all live with Alice in Wonderland.

Yes...what happened to him? What happened to...the red bull guy, any of the cases at the special tourist courts, any of those charged with assaulting, stealing. Even the goat cheese shoplifter.We don't know because there is rarely if ever any coverage/reporting of proceedings following arrests

Yesterdays news is wrapping up today's fish and chips.

13 years ago, in Bangkok, a fellow teacher,Thai, was gunned down,at his front door, in front of his wife and children. He had been translating for an American business man who was taking a Thai power broker to court. He had been warned only the day before to lay off but he needed the income.There were 6 witnesses.The case never got to court and I still mourn his death as do his family.

The Red Bull guy, to all accounts, is holed up in a 6 star hotel hotel in Hong Kong,sound familiar ?

Why cant he be extradited back to Thailand and be accountable for his actions? Any lawyers out there?