GarryP

I seem to recall that up until 1972 that was possible.

By the looks of him, his battery has already nearly run out.

This one looks great. I would love to have a pond like that where I could while away the hours whip fishing and watching nature. Must be loads of frogs, snakes, birds and assorted insects I can observe and maybe get a few pictures of there and shady too.

He's taking the <deleted>, surely.

Congrats. I had renewed my annual visa for years at Chaengwattana for many years, but the last extension was done at Chamchuri One Stop Center as I had changed to extend based on employment rather than marriage. Foolishly, I went to Chaeng first thing in the morning to cancel my visa and was kept hanging around until about 2p.m. before being told that I had to cancel my visa at Chamchuri. A mad dash across town by taxi with heavy traffic and I managed to get the very last queue number for that day and get my visa cancelled.

Firstly, I haven't travelled during covid, so I was always able to use the electronic gates. However, since covid, apparently the gates are not in operation and you have to show your passport to an immigration officer. Please see the recent posts from about a week ago on this by other posters (I forget who posted on this). In my case, when checking in the airline staff need to see your passport. They will check for a valid visa if required by the destination country and if you don't have one, they won't check you in. So when travelling to the UK I present both my Thai and UK passports. Once checked in, I put away my UK passport and then go through the electronic gates.

I don't go out of my way to break the law so it really is not a worry to me. In the past 35 years or so I have received two official fines from traffic police and that is it. It is not a matter of being on your best behaviour at all times. I wouldn't over think things. I do not believe for a minute that the authorities are out looking for any excuse to revoke Thai citizenship. If you just get on with life you will be fine. FYI, since I obtained my Thai passport and updated my bank accounts, I have never used my British passport in Thailand, with the sole exception of showing the airline check-in desk staff when traveling to a country that requires Thais to have valid visas, but not UK passport holders.

Revocation never entered my mind when I bought a house. I never even gave it a thought.

I'm only 58 going on 59 and it has already started. Eat well and exercise, but there are some things I just cannot avoid.

The Grace Hotel was in competition with the Thermae for a while in the early 80's until it started catering more to the middle eastern market. A glass of iced tea could last an hour there as you window shopped. Didn't want to get drunk too soon, and earning a pittance at a language school meant you had to budget your nights out. ???? I have nowhere near the experience of Rooster though as I pretty much stopped going to those places when I got married at the ancient age of 25. I can't believe that is 33 years ago.

An extra 4 minutes for me as I stand and complain about the poor grammar of the English language sign. God knows whether the other one is correct or not.

Surely a declaration of intent is not binding. Someone may have an intention to do something but due to changing circumstances, that intention may change. Anyway, as you say, the UK really does not give much weight to such things. As to leaving the country, surely it is the responsibility of the airline check-in people to make sure you have the requisite documents/visas to actually be allowed on their flight (the airline is responsible for repatriation (flying you back) if you do not have a valid visa as you should not have been allowed on the flight in the first place). It is not the responsibility of the Thai authorities to make sure you have a visa for your destination country. That is the responsibility of the immigration authorities in the destination country. Having said that, if for some reason you had absolutely no choice but to select Thai citizenship or citizenship of your home country, I would have no qualms about choosing Thailand. Having lived here for 39 years and visited the UK only 5 times in that period (once repatriated, once for a funeral, once for work and twice for holidays (the latter 2 in the past 5 years), I really don't have a reason not to select Thailand.

What they doin? Dancin? ????????????

Mines 8.

I used to spend the summers, and a few other holidays, with my mum who lived in Sandown Isle of Wight. She took me on a trip to HMS Victory in Pompey at the naval base there. Still remember it clearly. It was the place where I saw a brass monkey for the first and only time in my life. The source of the phrase "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

Prakanong was really quite smooth for me, but then I think they have done quite a few as I have noted many names with addresses in this district announced in the Royal Gazette.

A dream of mine is to make a stitch-and-glue kayak and go out fishing on the dam. I don't think that I have the skills to do it though and sourcing good quality marine ply in Thailand can be a pain apparently. We'll see. I may get bored out of my head and give it a try to keep myself occupied.

I miss fishing. Will definitely get back into it when I retire to your neck of the woods. For me it will probably mostly be in the Lam Pao Dam. Only 16 months away. But the first few months will be overseeing the building of our new home - not supervising as I know very little about construction, but would know when they are cutting corners or not being careful.

In my case the district office got in touch with me via SB when I picked up my papers from SB. They had already set an appointment date without first checking my availability, which was quite strange. In your case, I would go straight to the District Office. Perhaps they may not be able to do anything that day, but you should at least be given a formal appointment date and time.

Great achievement. Now hopefully the government will listen to the opposition (MFP) and give medal winning paralympians the same rewards as given to medal winners in the Olympics.

But in the UK it would be a civil case, whereas in Thailand defamation is a criminal case with penalties including up to 2 years imprisonment. It is for this very reason (including that truth is not a defense against defamation) that defamation charges are used to silence opponents, e.g. the human rights people who reveal information about terrible treatment of workers by certain companies. Defamation charges should be civil only and not prevent people from revealing the truth no matter how distasteful to some. I realize that many other countries' defamation statutes are criminal law based too, but are they weaponized like they are in Thailand?

Rain forecast for all of Thailand for the next 24 hours so there is some hope for you.

Thanks for the quick response.

ubonjoe, could you confirm whether or not health insurance is needed for an annual retirement extension. Asking for a friend. I have read conflicting reports on this but understand that the change has not been enforced yet. However, a few months a friend of my friend was hit up to show insurance at Chaengwattana when he did a retirement extension.