Jessy

My Thai wife and I have been the victims of ATM fraud and savings of 120,000 baht have been stolen from our Kasikorn account – in fact, 100,000 was taken in one day via six ATM withdrawals late at night in Chiang Mai on 19^th January. (Actually our card limit is 50,000 baht? So I wonder if the bank day goes from midnight to midnight?)

We can both prove that we were in Pattaya at the time. And when we opened the account at the Kasikorn bank, the bank issued us with only one ATM card that we still have.

The police have informed us that this type of thing is rife. There have been (and possibly still are) several organised criminal groups that use sophisticated 'skimmer' devices and wireless laptops that can cleverly copy the details on the magnetic strip of an ATM card. The groups have been operating in Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

We deposited the money at the bank to keep it safe, and it has been stolen - not from us directly, but via the bank’s ATM, so the ATMs are obviously not completely secure from ‘skimmer’ methods. It is very frustrating and disappointing. The Kasikorn bank have told us they are instructing the Chiang Mai bank to look at the photo images, though I doubt they will show much as I imagine the criminals will have covered their faces. The bank seems reluctant to say anything else of the process, or take any responsibility. Anyway, be warned!

I notice that there was an article in the Phuket Gazette about a couple of similar cases. If anyone has had a similar experience, please make contact.

My wife and I have been the victims of ATM fraud and savings of 120,000 baht have been stolen from our Kasikorn account – in fact, 100,000 was taken in one day via six ATM withdrawals late at night in Chiang Mai on 19^th January. (Actually our card limit is 50,000 baht? So I wonder if the bank day goes from midnight to midnight?)

We can both prove that we were in Pattaya at the time. And when we opened the account at the Kasikorn bank, the bank issued us with only one ATM card that we still have.

The police have informed us that this type of thing is rife. There have been (and possibly still are) several organised criminal groups that use sophisticated 'skimmer' devices and wireless laptops that can cleverly copy the details on the magnetic strip of an ATM card. The groups have been operating in Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

We deposited the money at the bank to keep it safe, and it has been stolen - not from us directly, but via the bank’s ATM, so the ATMs are obviously not completely secure from ‘skimmer’ methods. It is very frustrating and disappointing. The Kasikorn bank have told us they are instructing the Chiang Mai bank to look at the photo images, though I doubt they will show much as I imagine the criminals will have covered their faces. The bank seems reluctant to say anything else of the process, or take any responsibility. Anyway, be warned! If anyone has had a similar experience, please make contact.

I have purchased an old Nissan NV 1.6 for use around Pattaya. I need to purchase a few bits and pieces including a lock for the glove compartment and two headlights (Nissan Service Centre don't have them in stock and too expensive anyway). Is there a shop that is likely to have sell older car parts - as an example, perhaps found in some old boxes that have been lying on the shelves of a car parts shop, that I can rummage through?? Advice appreciated.

Thanks.

I want to take my Thai wife and our nine month baby daughter to the UK to visit my mother for a four week holiday. We intend to stay with my mother and so will apply for a 'family visit' visa. (I work in Thailand as a head-teacher). My wife has a small business in Bangkok but she receives hardly any income. She has documunetation to show she has had the business for more than five years, and the business accounts are solid, but she has no savings and receives hardly any income as everything is in the business. How will this affect her visa application because i heard she needs to show savings in a bank account? Unfortunately, I have little savings myself. Please advise. Thanks.

Thanks all for sharing your expert knowledge and bike experience. The Phantom is probably better suited for someone like me with my height and I am certainly no boy racer, prefering to enjoy the view at lowish to modertate speeds. The Lifan LF250B Chinese bike looks good. I did some checks on internet. Here it is on youtube:

Otherwise there are some good things said but more negative comments such as this: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...03123827AAPbgrQ

I guess we wil have to wait and see how things pan out with the bike - if it takes off in Thailand.

I admit I am a novice when it comes to bikes other than my daily experience of riding step-ups like Honda Waves etc. in Thailand. For some time I have had my heart set on purchasing a Phantom or Boss, and now I also have interest in the Tiger Boxer 250 too. Thing is, I am very tall at about 6ft 2 inch. I have not really read anything about what bikes are more comfortable for a very tall person (other than an excellent thread about the Kawasaki Boss). -Of the three bikes, which is more suitable? I am not into speed. Realiabilty and comfort is far more important to me (as is good all round performance).

Thanks to those who responded to my last thread (number of Phantoms and Bosses on the road)

I have noticed a large increase in the number of Honday Phantoms in the streets of Thailand, especially in Bangkok. I thought that of the two small choppers, the Kawasaki Boss was meant to be a better overall bike in terms of performance and engineering, yet, there seems to be a stark decrease in the number of Bosses on the road?? Even if there is not much difference between the two...Why is this??

Appreciate the advice so far. 'Elsewhere' means Chiang Mai. The charity head office is based in Bnagkok as is my documenation at the BKK immigration. The other thing is that the possible job opening is 'possible' and at this stage, until I know for certain, I have not told the charity Foundation. Not sure of their reaction. Yes, I do have a work permit for the voluntary owrk and the non-O visa.

I am working voluntarily for a charity organisation and i have a non-immigrant 'O' visa. Actually, I am now on extensions with this visa and the latest extension is about to expire in June (which the charity will presumably extend again). I have now been offered a paid job eslewhere in Thailand. So, when I tell the charity organsiation they will cancel my non-imm O visa, and what do I do? Will I have to get a new non-imm B visa by leaving the country and coming back in again. Can this be done after one has already just had a non-imm 'o' visa, albeit on extensions? Thanks for advice.

Thaihome has offered no constructive argument whatsoever; All he/she has come up with is a few snide personal comments such as trying to suggest what British paper I subscribe to. In doing so he has exposed the fact that he is not well-read (explained later), and we can assume that if he is not well-read then he is not well inforfmed about what is going on, and thus unable or incapable of adding a contribution to this thread. For you knowledge, Thaihome, almost all of the British papers, though they recognise that the Thaksin regime was corrupt, they too understand that there is no evidence to suggest the next regime won't also be corrrupt. This is because it is the Thai system that is inherently corrupt and needs to be changed - and its not a case of simply swapping one corrupt party for another. With regards to the papers: The Guardian tends to be more left wing, while the Telegraph is more right wing. In sticking up for the rural Thais, as I was doing in my post, and by attacking the Bangkok elite and PAD (yes I am generalising terribly I know), most people would assume that I am more likely to be a Guardian reader. Yet Thaihome has suggested I read the Telegraph?? Very odd!! Yes, I do have many friends in Bangkok (our Head office is there (though I am more acquainted with the provinces). Most of my Bangkok frends are not particulalrly bothered about what's going on, but those who are PAD supporters are only able to say Thaksin was corrupt and not good. They are not able to elaborate on that, yet absurdly they admit that corrupton is part of the system in general, and some are dear friends of mine. I invite Thaihome to explain what he means by "grass roots PAD", and also to explain what he thinks will change for the benefit of the majority of the population if they get their way?

It's always been assumed that there isn't a viable alternative to Thailand. Up until recent years it has been the case that Thailand is the only jewel in asia's crown as a place to visit for a holdays or to seriuously try to live as an expat. This was changing before the trouibles began. Now I believe it will be a permanent change. Thailand has had its day.

Even before all the troubles began (and I am going back a few years before the last military coup), other countries were slowly beginning to emerge as possible alternatives to Thailand. In the last two years particulary, there has been huge investment in Cambodia and Vietnam, who can now boast of high quality holiday resorts. The development plans for those countries are continuous and accelerating. Malaysia is also a highly attractive holiday destination, especially somewhere like Langwani with its fantastic and unspoilt beaches. These places are now being sold to customers first in British high street travel agents, before Thailand. No credible travel company will encourage holiday makers to go to Thailand, because many of their insurance policies are tied in with their holiday packages, or other insurance companies. In fact, as far as I am aware this has actually become policy with some high street travel companies. They try to sell other asian country resorts first, and then have to explain the risks of visiting Thailand (All tied in with insurance and risk).

From a business perspective, even for huge companies with massive turnovers - when businesses set up in another country, they are not necessairly interested in who is in power, or even if the govenernemt is corrupt or not; what they look for is stability. That stability has to be both political and economic. And stability must be there for the medium and longterm. Such stability does not exist in Thailand. Do you know the huge Amata Nakhon Industral estates like at Chonburi - which hosts over 300 international companies? Well, 100 of these companies have recently pulled out of Thailand - some have gone to Vietnam, China and Cambodia, others have pulled out of asia altogether. They have lost confidence, and they are dscovering alternatives with more foreseeable stability and less bureacracy. (In addition, Cambodia is now encouraging foreigners to buy both land and property by allowing them to be 100% owners.)

The present troubles, which began several years ago, have put a final nail in the coffin for Thailand. At the time of the last military coup there was talk that some comanies were prepared to stay in the hope that the elections, when they came, would bring stability. That hasn't happened. The opposite has happened. Those companies will now access other options. People who simply love Thailand or people with family ties may want to continue to visit or live in Thailand; fair enough, but people who are truely concerned about their busiensses will be stupid not to research the viable alternatives that are becoming more popular and more stable in Asia.

The PAD have convinced themselves (via the PAD propoganda ring leaders) that the present governemnt is corrupt, a pupet of Thaksin, also corupt and, in the word of one protestor inteviewed on TV, "we don't like corruption, so corrupt governemnt must be kicked out". They also say the rural Thais in the provinces (65% of the population) are uneducated and can't see this. I have never heard such arrogant, hypocritical, racist and uneducated comments in my life. If these represent the genuine thought processes of the majority of the PAD - who believe they are better people - then there is not much hope for Thailand, sadly.

It should not be a question of individual people's corruption, or a party's corruption, but a question of the corruption inherent throughout the entire governemnt and civil service system. It is the system that is corrupt. By ousting the governemnt, all that will happen is that one corrupt party is replaced by another corrupt party. It is corruption in society and the system that should be tackled. One of the PAD ring leaders (who I won't mentioned by name) but he is about seventy and a ex primeminsiter many years ago. He was involved in corrupt dealings involving China and supplying the Thai airforce with deals worth milllions of baht under the table. It was corruption on a masssive scale, yet here is the same man now stirring up hatred and instilling thoughts in the PAD members. No mention of his own corruption when he was in power. And the absurdity is that these very people in the PAD claim the majority of the Thai population are uneducated, and can't see corruption.

I have lived in the provinces and the population are not just a bunch of rice farmers. Far from it, there are a whole mixture of people and some are very educated and informed. There are some excellent universities in many of the provincial areas. The reality is that Bangkok Thais look down on rural Thais (the majority of teh population) from where many of the mass of workers are brought to be exploited as cheap lablour in factories. Many of the Bnagkok fat cats are spoilt, lazy, uneducated, and just sit back to collect in the money. Of course they don't want that to change that. When things are going well they are fine and happy, but as soon as they sense a threat to the status quo that suits them, they result to immature and nasty tactics, without any regard whatsoever for anybody else but themselves.

I am in the provinces and sometimes in Bangkok, but I know Pattaya well and I know about the taxi meter scams. But my experience of being outside Pattaya is that the majority of taxi drivers (metered) run an excellent service and the taxi drivers themselves can't stand the mafias that give them a bad name, because it is bad for business and they are often victims themselves. (Of course there are always a few bad apples that try it on). So it is not only foreigners who suffer at the hands of a taxi meter mafia, it is Thai people and Thai taxi drivers too.

But I have to agree with Jingthing. Most people (Thai and foreign) want to see positive change and development in Thailand; certainly, anything that benefits a country can only be a good thing. In any country there is good and bad, but if people ignore negative aspects - like the taxi scam - or try to justify it, then the status quo will go on. And taxi mafias will continue to enjoy scamming and the rest of us suffer.

So when NotNew2You says: And I quote him: "The writer appears to be someone staying in Pattaya for some time (as opposed to a tourist) and as such, should know by now that these "meter" taxis are in fact, not metered. He should also know that the next driver, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th, are in no position or inclination to undercut their fellow taxi driver and that it was silly to even ask. If the writer is a genuine tourist and unawares of these Thai ways of doing things, then he is forgiven for not knowing."

What message does this give? It's as if NOTNEW2YOU is saying the writer is to blame not the taxi scammers. The writer has been here a long time and his only mitigating circumstances would be if he's a tourist, so he should know better. In other words, the taxi scam is justified. And NOTNEW2You is saying the 3rd, 4th and 5th drivers are have a right to scam people if their fellow taxi drivers are scamming too, and we should accept it....It's difficult to read it any other way.

I know it's very difficult for any individual to change negative things that affect us, and taxi scams are a real pain. But If someone had the guts to give a voice to such things that affect us all, they should be supported and congratulated. The fact is, the taxi meter scam is a fact. It exists. People should speak out.

Sommaz, thanks for a bit of support. Cheers mate. Basil B, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I can only assume you haven't been following the thread or maybe you have but you simply can't undrstand it. Your ludicrous assumptions are wholly wrong. Please don't get wound up, but can I suggest you read over the last few posts again please. The only part of it I will bother to comment on is the part when you talked about my friend travelling half way round the world for three or four days at a time. This is the only part of your post that is corrrect. Yes, he has done this a few times, and yes, I think it is madness, not to mention the huge expense, and when you consider that it takes a day to get here and a day to travel back. But he is my friend and I will support him, even if he is deceiving his English wife (notice I said English).

That's a good question Jangot. I have no idea and to be honest it's not my problem. One of these days his luck will run out. He was very lucky on his last trip because, apparently, after he returned to his house in the UK he noticed part of a Thai bar leaflet promoting a Happy Hour stuck to the bottom of his shoe. He spotted it before his wife did.

Thank you to Cuban. Several people are barking up the wrong tree. The thread is becoming farcical and amusing. It's amazing how people are so quick to jump to conclusions and start moralizing and pointing the finger and become almost threatening - when they don't know all the facts. Perhaps it was my mistake for the way I started off the thread. Anyway, as I mentioned to Peace Blondie earlier, and now to The Philosopher, this post has got nothing to do with bar girls. Just because your minds jumped to this assumption, does not mean everybody else's minds does also. Incidentally, I am just wondering, if I had just written to another poster in the same tone and manner that The Philospher has just written about my post, asking the thread to be terminated etc, would the moderator find it acceptable? Getting back to the thread, okay, I cannot defend my friend's antics, after all he is deceiving his wife. I am not going to try to defend this. And I will not say whether I approve or disaprove myself, but he is a good friend and I will try my best to help him with the phone situation whatever. I live in Thailand, but I don't live in Pattaya so I may not even be there when he arrives, though to be honest, if I get time off, I will try to travel to meet him for a night out as he has promised me a few beers. So whats all this about bargirls ?? My friend keeps popping over here to enjoy a few nights on the town with his Thai girlfriend who he is obssessed by and has been supporting for several months. She works in a hotel. Maybe he is stupid and it is madness, but we all make mistakes. It's up to him what he does. Yes, he is deceiving his English wife and some people will voice their disapproval, but people shouldn't immediately start making false allegations and hidden threats when they don't know all the facts. Back to the original purpose of the post, thanks again to the people who posted constructve advice about how to cover caller ID from Thailand so it's not seen in the UK.

Peace Blondie, this thread has not got anything to do with bar girls whatsoever; I don't know why you made that association?? The post is about cheating. And the purpose of the post was to find out if someone knows a way of hiding caller Id when phoning the UK. The only person who has mentioned 'bar girls' in this entire thread is yourself in your last reply. The historical interpretation you gave of a hypocrite is interesting - what actors say on stage but do off stage etc, but, a hypocrite is also someone who moralizes about something to other people and then does the opposite of what they say themselves. I am sure most people who replied to my post are NOT hypocrites, but I suspect some are. It was a dig at them.

For those people who offered a constructive response, regardless of whether they approved or not, thanks for that. To the others I say, "Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone." I suspect that are a lot of hypcrites in and around Pattaya. Fair enough. But to The Philosopher I say, I wouldn't dream of having an English wife as I find western women wholly unattractive. I expected some people to disappaprove and feel they had to reply to this thread by moralizing and voicing their feelings, and perhaps with just cause, but your response was by far the most immature.

Some of you may not approve of this, but for others I would appreciate your advice. My friend has suddemly announced he is coming from the UK to Pattaya for a few nights on the town - he's coming for only three days. Seems like madness to me but there you are. Anyway, his English wife thinks he will be away on business in Europe, and he has promised he will phone her every day. I told him to tell her that he won't be able to call everyday, but he's adamant that he must.

Obviously when he calls her he does not want caller ID to be shown, and he has asked if there is a way round this. I have experimented phoning the UK with my Samsung phone (which has a caller ID withhold option) using DTAC, but it does not seem to withhold +66 part of number. I don't know if One-to-Call network is different?? Last time he popped over here fo four days, he used one of the call box internet phones that are dotted around Pattaya. But it was a disaster because in the middle of the call to his English wife (who thought he was in Scotland), a couple of Thai girls started having a loud argument in the background, which she heard and it required some explaining on his part that he was in a Parisian China town. A stupid situation if you ask me, but what can you do...

Anyway, does anyone know how he can phone her in the UK knowing there is no risk whatsoever of +66 being shown. Thanks.

Thanks for all your opinions and thoughts - those that replied to the post. A few things to think about - what you all said too. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

The global power shift from the West to the East is no longer just a matter of debate confined to journals and newspaper columns - it is a reality that is going to have a huge impact on our daily lives in the future. It will affect choice of language learning, especially in Asia, though it may not be for a few more years yet.

To put into perspective what China has achieved in just two decades: it has transformed from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe's third-largest economy, and it is only the beginning. According to Goldman Sachs, the bank, they reckon that by 2050, China and India would have overtaken the U.S. to be the world's first and second biggest economies.

Some of you mention ‘growth’ and GDP. This only accounts for the size of the cake; what is going to be more important is the ‘slice’ of the cake and who will have the biggest slice. That will be dictated by two factors: access to cheap labor AND access to oil.

Up until the last decade the West has had the advantage in being ‘capital intensive’ whereas Asian countries have been ‘labour intensive’. But as Asian countries have been gaining, buying and developing technology of their own on a massive scale, the West’s advantage is rapidly diminishing in the production of goods. Access to cheap labour, both skilled and unskilled, is now the essential ingredient. China and India has it in abundance: specifically a very low-cost labor force capable of relatively high quality production at a fraction of the price required for the same labour in the US, Europe or Japan. China runs a trade surplus largely because it can produce the same things as the rest of the world but much more efficiently. This is already a major problem for the West, and it is only just the beginning.

Access to energy is going to be the other major factor in who gets the biggest slice of the cake. China and America are both huge importers of oil though they have some of their own. China is spending 35 times as much on crude oil as it did eight years ago. Goodness knows what will happen here?

Even if we talk about GDP and growth rates, we should be cautious. What we are measuring (and for whom those growth rates are interpreted) is not perceived the same in the West as it is in the East. It is the millionaire and three tramps scenario. When we talk about GDP and growth in the west, we use it as an indicator of development, so in the West we ask questions like: What is happening to education? What is happening to inequality? What is happening to poverty? What is happening to standard of living? How is the wealth distributed etc? This doesn’t happen in China (or other Asian countries like Thailand for that matter) because the mentality towards those things is different. A cheap labour force is needed and therefore maintained, so the effects on poverty, inequality, exploitation and the environment don’t have the same significance. Chinese “efficiency” is at least partly explained by its refusal to count costs correctly – environmental costs, social costs, and labor exploitation is permitted and even encouraged by political constraints on the ability of workers to organise and protect their interests – the same as in Thailand. Of course, all this puts the west at an unfair disadvantage, but only in the Wests eyes.

It is a strange thought to think that if only one quarter of the Chinese population develops and becomes wealthy leaving the rest rural and relatively poor (as in Thailand), well that is still the same number of people as the entire population of America.

Up until now many people have only become aware of China’s domestic home development, but what is less known is its expansion overseas. This is due to its abundance of money accumulated as a result of the continuous trade surplus with the rest of the world. For example, as was written in the Independent newspaper in the UK, “This year (2008), China's state-controlled banks have begun spending some of its $1.33trn (£670bn) in foreign currency reserves on London and American financial markets. Chinese banks have been acquiring stakes in such blue chip stocks such as Barclays in UK and the US private equity firms like Blackstone. American finance houses have said that the label ‘Made in China’ will soon be replaced by one reading ‘Owned by China’”.

Just for the record, some of you may be intersted to know that a couple of years ago, Nanjing Automotive, a Chinese company, snapped up MG Rover. And recently, an Indian company, Tata, bought up what was the cream of British manufacturing - Jaguar and Land Rover.

Europeans and Americans have, for half a century, been unchallenged as the global colonisers, but last month the Economist dubbed the Chinese "The New Colonists". The West has long seen Africa as its backyard, but Western diplomats now worry that not just Africa, but South America, too, is being lost to China. Canadian authorities were recently alarmed to find the Chinese exploring the Arctic Ocean, in a bid to get a share of the minerals beneath the thawing icecap. In eastern Siberia, Russians say that China is by default taking over their empty land.

I hope you guys are right, because then our positions in Thailand will be secure for a bit longer. But a decade or two is huge amount of time in terms of world economics. It just seems to me that has world economics shifts, eventually Chinese will become the second language of choice that Thais want to learn. It will be in demand, it will become fashionable – regardless of how easy it is to learn compared to English. (Maybe not in European countries and China itself, but certainly in other smaller Asian countries). We will wait and see.

The Italian-Thai Development Public Company had a high level economic and business debate in Bangkok recently. It was about future economic trade and business investment in Thailand. There are strong implications for English language demand in all Asian countries, except China.

Up until now now most investment in Thailand has primarily come from the West: America and Europe, and of course, Japan. The conclusion of the debate was: the assumption that future trade and investment will come from the west no longer holds. Future investment is going to come less and less from the West; it is going to come more and more from China. In the next decade or so China is going to develop into the next great world super power. (Indeed, America and the rest of the world is only just waking up to that fact.) Not only is China going to become a dominant world economic force, it will dominate Asian markets. The implication for China's satellite asian coutries, like Thailand, is that they are going to be swallowed up under the huge economic umbrella of China. And, Manadarin is going to become the second language of choice for these satellite countries, not English.

In fact, there was an article about this very subject in the Bangkok Post last week. Did you see it? (You may be able to read it on the internet). Burapha University has now started running a Mandarin and Chinese studies course. The Head of Studies there said that already more and more Thai students are choosing to study Mandarin Chinese over English as a second language. The emergence of Chinese language schools and Chinese language teachers is going to be become a future trend in countries like Thailand.

The consequences for English language teachers and English language schools is that in Thailand there will only be a limited demand, so they will start to disappear. The only positive and possible comforting thought for English language teachers is that they will be hugely in demand in China, as it will be the chosen second language there. But who wants to move to China when, for example, the weather is so cold and wet, and when one is already settled here? What are your thoughts on this?

Just out of interest, does anyone know where blood tests can be done - other than the main hospitals. Are there any known clinics? If so, where?

Before you start, you need to get your normal base blood hormone levels measured: testosterone, oestrogen, and FSH. Once done, check on internet and find out if they are in normal range. It may be that your testosterone levels are at the lower end of the normal range, or just outside it. In which case try the treatment. But if your blood hormone levels are already well within normal normal range, don't bother. You are wasting your money and, medically, it could cause some serious medical problems, whatever anyone else may tell you.

If you decide to go ahead, after about three months, have your blood hormone levels measured again. You should find that the testosterone levels have gone up - but also the oestrogen. Ther FSH level should do go down. It is very important to regularly measure hormone blood levels, if you are going to start hormone treatment to ensure they stay within range. They will do it for you at Pattaya International hospital, or Bumrunggrad in Bangkok.

The problem is that there is an aromatising enzyme that converts testosterone to oestrogen, and in some men it is more prominent. You could start developing some female characteristics. It will also speed up balding, unless yo are taking proscar, and there are other possible problems.

If it is well controlled, it's worth trying.