taxin

Anyone know which airlines go to Manila from Bangkok ?

Upto now I have only found Thai Airways & Cebu Pacific.

Just came across this service from Singapore Post for buying items from US and having shipped to Thailand or Malaysia. Website is :

https://www.vpostasia.com/thailand/index.html

Not sure how good it is cost wise, but benefits appear to be :

* Buy at good US prices in US$ and have shipped to a US address (some retailers provide free shipping)

* Buy from retailers that do not provide international shipping

* Have several items consolidated to benefit from total weight shipping to Thai or Malay address

* Be able to track your US to SEA shipment

I have absolutely 0 experience with this, but with the US$ going down it seems a good idea and with Singapore Post doing it I would imagine it should be fairly reliable.

If anyone has actual experience of this service or of other services providing the same, please do comment. Also would be nice to hear how they fayre proce wise - again no idea here on that one - are they cheap, fair or expensive for the US to SEA leg ?

I personally would not rely on a Singaporean company delivering goods to Thailand, if delivering to Singapore then yes, but not Thailand.

There is another company who do the same thing who are based in Thailand, website is www.mysecurepost.com

Pizza Company on Bangla, cant beat them ! Baked in grease and high in calories, just as they should be !!

yes I'm surprised too

Yes Phuket is wonderful

PLEASE EVERYONE GO THERE

and leave me in my jetski free paradise!

I love jet-skis ! Been living here 5 years and I still love to have a blast ! Best 500 baht you can ever spend !!

You guys need to live a little

yep

that about sums the thai mentality up.

strangley enough though many Thais are also sick of whats becoming of their

environment. My doctor in bangkok after the tsunami said

"maybe the sea was angry".

a beach boy from patong said

"I'm very worried, where is the nature in Patong"

It seems that the tourism industry is controlled by mafia types and is totally unregulated.

After the tsunami they had an ideal opportunity to get back on the right track.

read this

www.cdnn.info/special-report/tsunami/tsunami.html

also remember afterwards they said all deck chairs would be banned

as obviously a deck chair in the face contributed to the high death toll

Also tuk tuks would not be allowed to park on the beach road in patong

as a tuk tuk in the face was equally not a good thing.

However by all reports both are back with avengeance

I mean come on what is wrong with these people that they can't even control this?

Also what about the supposed jetski ban

pathetic

The national catchphrase should be " I am Thai, therefore i build to destroy"

Answer to this is simple.

Just like when you hear about a motorcycle accident and someone dies with no

helmet on, do Thais suddenly start to wear helmets when driving down that

same road ? NO, why ? Because it was a mixture of fate and bad luck that killed

him, not the fact that he was not wearing a helmet !

This is the same logic for the tuk-tuk or deck chair being slammed into someones

face from the effects of a Tsunami, it was just bad luck !

Sure, Thais believe that accidents can be prevented, but bad luck cant. Until you

educate Thais to believe that most accidents are not simply a case of bad luck things

will never change.

Chill out everyone ! There will be no attacks.

Australia do this every year, 2 reasons.

1. Covering there backsides from what happened in Bali (twice) by giving the "I told you so" message in advance. Something they didnt get the chance to do with Bali (1st time round anyway).

2. Aussie traveling season just around the corner, potential billions in lost revenue for the Australian tourism industry. Nothing more than scare tactics to make you spend your money in OZ where you are "safe".

I mean, what has Australia got in terms of tourism ?

Surfers Paradise: Hugely overpriced accommodation, drunken kids, surfboards, skateboards and aggressive doormen.

Bondi Beach: Same as above, even more surf boards, drunken kids and drunken backpackers.

Cronulla Beach: Safety ?..... I rest my case !

Australian Tourism motto says it all. "So where the bloody hel_l are you ? Not in Australia thats for sure !

How can you reconcile the term "Free Market" with Tuk-Tuks, Its a monopoly based on bullying, violence and threats - It has no competition because they beat up Taxi Drivers, Bus Drivers etc... that try and compete.

Its not a case of supply and demand, take a look up the beach road - hundreds upon hundreds of Tuk-Tuk drivers unsuccessfully offering their business, this is a case of dramatic oversupply, in a FREE market this would drive the price down until supply and demand are in equilibrium. You obviously know very little about economics and the rest of your post doesn't really make any sense either.

Like learning Thai just to tell a Tuk-Tuk driver no, you still have to answer them every 5 minutes and its not like they don't understand no, I don't see how thats gonna work for a Tourist.

For example I could state that you would not be in a position to complain to the police if someone broke into your house here in Thailand, stole all your clothes, beat you up and killed your dog - YOU have made a FREE PERSONAL CHOICE to live there after all!

I dislike Patong beacuse of the reasons I have stated, hence I don't go often - however this does not mean that I can't voice my opinions on this or any other subject for those that may be unwary.

Is it me or does it always seem impossible for a Phuket thread to not mention the subject of tuk-tuks ?

Afterall, our friend Billy the sex pest didnt complain once about tuk-tuks in his little rant ......

I still prefer Phuket to many other places in Thailand I have visited, I have been coming to Phuket for the last 15 years, and I'll keep on coming.

I'm sure we all agree Phuket is a wonderful place to visit. However, it IS NOT as much fun as it used to be. Sure, if yer after a "wham bang thank you mam" couple of weeks you'll be fine. However for many people that stay long term, it's going downhill. In the same way that Samui is not the peaceful paradise it once was.

Beach chairs 100 baht a pop this year.

Pool in Soi Bangla up to 30 baht.

Tuk tuks.... don't even think about getting in one for less than 100 baht.....

Pattaya all over again. Sad but true.

I stay in Phuket long term and I think the place is far from going downhill ! Actually, I dont think I have ever heard a long termer say that its going downhill. Mostly only hear it from the regular ST visitors who call themselves long termers.

The only way is up for Phuket ! But then again I dont use Tuk-tuks, I dont rent beach chairs and I dont like playing pool on Bangla Road.

As for not as much fun as it used to be.... most things in life are not as good as the 1st time round, and that includes holiday destinations !

I you're fed up with Samui now Phuket could give you the same feeling soon ...

Phuket will never get as bad Samui when it comes to being over-developed. As one poster said Phuket is much bigger than Samui and would take a long time to get to that stage. Also, as Phuket has been around much longer than Samui wouldnt it make sense that Phuket would be over-developed 1st ? Simple logic says so.

Secondly Phuket has overspill areas that will get bigger in line with the growth of Phuket. Just take a look at what Phuket has as its neighbors, Khaolak, Krabi, Phang-Nga, Pi-Pi all growing at a similar pace.

What has Samui got ? 2 tiny islands, one thats only known for its drunken pill taking yobs (sounds like Samui doesnt it) and the other that has absolutely nothing to offer unless your a diver ! And as a diver myself I have to say probably the worse dive site in this part of the world ! Samui does not have a Krabi or a Khaolak, can you imagine Surat Thani being the next Krabi ? I dont think so !

Phuket and its surrounding areas are for me the pride of Thailand. Excellent infrastructure, an international airport, great housing, education, friendly people and most of all, SAFETY !

Although Samui is a not a bad holiday spot (I know worse) it really is only that, on the other hand it has NOTHING to offer the long term expat in terms of a having a permanent home there.

Phuket is and will remain the number 1 spot, with its diversity and ability to cater for just about every taste it simply will not and cannot be beaten !

Anyone had any experience in this area ?

I know all banks are different when it comes to deciding if a farang can open a savings account. Ranging from "difficult" by needing a visa/work permit, to "simple" by merely being in possession of a pulse !

But would they allow you to open an account with a PO box as an address ?

Can I just say one thing?

PATONG IS NOT PHUKET!!

Patong and it's environs is just one very small region of Phuket where the 'kiss me quick' tourists go. Phuket is a large island that many tourists fail to explore.

Where I live in Phuket, I can walk on a 8km golden sandy beach (much longer than Patong beach). It's rare to see another westerner on that beach.....

I can safely swim all year round at our local beach, even in the monsoon storms, (due to the offshore coral reef).

My hotel guests can hire motorbikes from the local shops at just 150 baht for 24 hours

We buy fresh fish from the beach - can't get fresher than that

I can walk from here to the airport - no ripoff taxis or tuk-tuks

If you think Patong is like the rest of Phuket, then you are not getting out and about enough!

Simon

Simon, I totally agree with you but people will always see Patong as Phuket and this will never change ! In terms of land mass and how much sand is on the beach of course Patong is a tiny part however, at the end of the day to the tourist eye it comes down to "activity", and Patong is the activity centre of Phuket when it comes to tourism.

Ask all the guests in your hotel how many of them visited Patong, and then ask a load of hotel guests in Patong how many of them visited your beach. I think will know what the result will be.

I, like you work in the tourism industry and get frustrated just the same when people think that Phuket is in Patong ! Yes, believe it or not I have had people ask me this.

Im guessing what you actually meant in your post was "If you think the rest of Phuket is like Patong...". If so you will find as I have that people do not actually think this, if they did then they would be staying there. They just will not go there because the perception is there is nothing to do. We are still and always will be in a world wear "activity" holidays will always out-weigh peace and tranquility.

Fact is, Patong has been in the past marketed very well, whereas the other places havent. Lets face it, how easy is it to market a beach with no people on ?

Thailand stuns drug firms with generic licenses

That decision drew a swift riposte from U.S. drug maker and patent holder Merck & Co Inc. By contrast, AIDS activists applauded Bangkok for taking a bold stance.

-- Reuters 2007-01-25

Maybe a bit off topic but .... this "taking a bold stance" against the US, could it open up further opportunities for Thailand to stick 2 fingers up to the Yanks, and make money from doing so ?

Does anyone else consider Thailand as one of the very few countries that will not be bullied or intimidated by the US ? Although the yanks like to call the Thais there allies

I quite like this military rule

i have lived in Samui for 8 years but i am finally fed up with the place now. it is one big building site you can nearly drive around the whole island on the coast raod and not see the ocean. the roads are awfull and airlink over priced. the place stinks of sewage and is pactically lawless. the traffic here resembles the jams i n the UK very rarly get out of 3rd gear in the car or bike. the island had been destroyed by the developers, i cannot beleive how bad the place is now.

You mean it took you 8 years to find out that Samui is the ###### of Thailand ? Took me 9 months of living there to find out, and I thought that was a long time !

Been in Phuket for the past 3 years, best move I ever made !

It always strikes me as strange that most of these celebrity down on their luck types are usually intelligent people with a background in teaching/Pianist or other such professions in life.. It would seem they hail from some privilaged lifestyle only to end up like this ???..If Genuine Mental Illness is to blame then i am truly sorry for people like this but if its someone who went excessive on Yabba and Alcohol for no better reason than they blew all there chances in life and are now paying the price for their Tantrum then i have little regard for the CHOICE,s they made in life and all i can see is a life wasted that somebody somehwere would of been better deserving off ..Having said that i hope this Lady can someday get her act together and get back on track.

I wonder if you feel the same if it was your sister or your own doughter???

It amazing how many of the posts here are sorry for her condition yet can not avoid some "dirty remarks". the last one about the fishermens and the one above are realy sad. what a sad cunch we are to have on this forum such remarks.

does any one know here name? her true name? or is the "Tramp from chaweng" the best that this forum can do???!!!!

have we no shame??? this is a human in distress!!!

In some of the posts people have said that they are aware that she was a Pianist and is very inteligent. Some posts even remarked that they spoke with her an know some information about her.

has any of the people who spoke with her tried to get her family name and contact her Embassy in Thailand or try and locate her family??

For God sakes can we not use this forum to help a poor woman that is definatly hit rock bottom?? can we not use the combined efforts of all the forum members to try and do something good for this woman??

If any one has any details about her true identity please post it so her family can be located and advised of her situation.

or advise her embessy. I am sue that with the aid of the internet we can find her family and advise them.

Please assist in helping this woman..

Sorry guys, wasnt meant to be a cheap joke. Was more of a pop at the disgrace of what they call a police force, which happens to be the worst in Thailand in my opinion. The main reason why I moved away from Samui !

So I will stand by what I said. Corrected of course.

I also think bangkok airs overpriced flights are not helping especially when you compere the cost of flights from Bangkok to Phuket with the low cost carriers.Bring on Ryan air!!!

They are all in Phuket. Thai friend of mine who has had a hotel in Phuket for 13 years says this high season has been his best ever !

You cant get a room at the moment in Patong, 100% occupancy everywhere all the way upto end of Feb. Some hotels booked up 120%.

Exactly as the TAT said 2 years ago following the Tsunami. "Phuket is now officially on the map !"...... and they were right !

When you start noticing topics looping back again on TV

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=3662

- when you get annoyed of constant reminders from other thaivisa members, telling you that a particular subject has been discussed before.

I remember this one, surprised shes still around. Must have been 6 months ago last I seen her, she was hallucinating with a beer bottle in the middle of the road. The drop kick she did with the bottle even Johnny Wilkinson would have been proud of !

The authorities probably have a reason for ignoring her. Maybe they want her to stick around so theres something for the randy fisherman to have a bash at when they swim to shore. Would likely go unknown and not make the news

Face is nothing more than an excuse for Thais to be cowards and liars !

An excuse to cover up there own fear in facing upto life's awkward challenges, in other words.... COWARDS !!!

Instead of sucking up to your Mias and teeraks pretending to "understand" there culture, try educating them instead. Tell them what face actually means, and the REAL reason why there great nation created such utter nonsense !!

Let's see, where to start...

First of all, I was almost run off the beach road yesterday by two cops on a bike. They came within inches of hitting my motorbike.

Second, a samlaw changed lanes and almost ran me off the road... just seconds after the cop incident.

I witnessed countless motorbikes, tuk tuk and other vehicles completely ignoring the new one way system. just like any other law here, if there is no enforcement, it's not really a law.

I'm waiting for the tuk tuk mafia to stage some sort of a protest like they did the last time this one way system was proposed.

The tuk tuks will not protest, only people with limited power protest. Why would they complain about making more money ? Tuk-tuks are already starting to charge 150 baht now to go a few more yards, although they will get there much quicker this is of no relevance.

The most concerning thing is that the tuk-tuks now have 2 sides of the road to pull over instead of only one. This in itself is actually worse than the old style u-turns. Tuk-tuks now use the invisible middle lane created by themselves as a replacement for infamous u-turn.

Simple rule for all, never overtake an empty tuk-tuk on any of the one way roads. I have witnessed probably 2 or 3 occasions where this has almost turned into a serious accident. One motorbike I seen being literally crushed between the tuk-tuk and the curb. As the tuk can no longer do a 180 degree spin in the road to catch up with the unsuspecting tourist, there only option is to quickly swerve to the curb while slamming on the breaks.

One thing which baffles me is the yellow line in the middle which is meant to separate the 2 lanes. What I would like to ask you tourists is this, would you stand in the middle of a 2 lane one way road back home ? No, so why do it here ??

Personally I think the authorities should take down the yellow line in the middle, before someone gets run over !!

I have some questions about a company that is registered initially with 1million baht capital and then later increased to 2.1mil, but never had any cash really contributed by the shareholders.

During the start-up of the business, the director-cum-shareholders lends some money to the company to open the bank account, to buy fixed assets etc...and when the company is able to run and generate its own income, the company re-pays the loan taken from the director-cum-shareholder.

How does this affect the balance sheet of the company? What is ลูกหนี้กรรมการ and ลูกหนี้ค่าหุ้น?

As of Jan 1st 2007, you need to show the paid up capital in order to increase the capital. 25% of this capital must be cash and the government will look at the bank statement, before allowing the company to increase its capital.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

So what should the remaining 75% be made out of ? Can this be offset against assets ?

Yes, it seems to be confirmed. A friend of mine's employee went to KL and only came back with a 3 month visa. So it does seem like non-Imm B's are shut off everywhere in Asia.

I am interested in hearing about the HK situation! Was this before October 1st, or after? I don't trust any data from before that time, since so much has changed. But if there is any confirmation on HK, then I would love to go there for a few days vacation and a visa.

As to why I need a non-Imm B?? I need it to keep my work permit. Taxin has is completely correct, the 1 year extension of stay is just too much of a hassle. I could do it, but I really don't want to have any fake Thai employees on my books. I am trying to stay perfectly, 100% legal (even my company is 100% - no nominee shareholders).

The visa was issued prior to Oct 1 however, im not that convinced that this "October 1" thing is really anything more than the recent clamp down on border hops.

I know that in September they were offering 12 month Non B visas to people who did not have a WP, which in itself is very rare in South East Asia as normally the 1st one is 3 months.

1 year extensions ? 30 day "under consideration" stamps.... extending your WP every 30 days while "under consideration"..... worrying when your 90 day reporting is due..... re entry permits..... the list goes on !

I am on a 1 year extension through employment, but I will not be renewing it !

Following situation:

Friend of mine wants to have his own business and went to a lawyer(which is actually a visa-run company; some Phuket residence can guess which company I'm talking about) and the gave him this advise:

He can apply for a partnership Ltd. and he will get easily a 1year visa and a work permit. They've told him he does'nt have to hire any staff and no needs to pay any taxes(what means no heath ins. or social security for them).

For the registration of the partnership Ltd. he can use his house(which is in his wife's name) and his new car(600k).

For me it's a bit smelly or am I wrong?

Gerd

How does having a car make a difference when applying for a business ?

The 1 year extension will need to be passed by Hatyai, NOT Phuket Imm. Hatyai will not issue the extension unless he can show social security receipts for the 4 Thais required for the WP.

Your friend should stay well away, and tell tem to stick with running an overstay bus!!

Hello Everyone,

I have not been following the boards too much because I thought I did not have a problem. Now I do.

They were giving 1 year Non-Imm B's in KL until last week. Some new law or something got passed, and now I can't seem to get a visa in Asia. I have a work permit, and already have a 1 year Non-Imm B. I have a proper business, with everything set up correctly.

Where do I go to get a Non-Imm B in Asia? Can I get one in Asia? Or am I now forced to go back to the US every year to get one? I even called my Embassy - no sympathy there. I can't understand how they are not supporting their citizens abroad, but that is a topic for another post.

If anyone knows where I can get a 1 year Non-Imm (again, I have all the documents and my work permit), please let me know.

Cheers!

Go to HK, they will give you a 12 month Non B (or at least they were a couple months ago). Other option is Australia, you can pick up cheap flights now if you dont mind a stop over.

Forget the 1 year extension of stay based on employment, its a huge hassle, particularly if you do occasional business outside of Thailand. Then you get left high and dry by immigration when they tell you its refused, normally the day before your current visa entry permit/WP expires !!

12 month Non B and a border hop every 90 days, its the only way !

They've tried this before (check out the old worn arrows painted on the roads already).

The tuk-tuk drivers protested and that was that.

Yup, yet another law to ignore. If it ain't convenient, it ain't gonna happen.

This is after all, a mob rules society to some degree... innit?

Apart from no longer being able to do those deadly u-turns when they spot a tourist, I cant see how the tuk-tuks will complain.

In fact they will have more room to litter the place as all the motorbikes will be parked in the main Jungcylon car park !

Well, people have been saying Patong is fast becoming the Pattaya of the South ! Well it works over there so why not here. Baht bus would be GREAT but somehow dont think so.

This will sure have a lot to do with Jungcylon. Only 1 direction in from Rath-u-Thid, with the North direction (from Kata/karon) to be catered for via the new road being built.