jobsworth

The rules are very simple and all we as foreigners need to do is to respect them and obey them.

It could not be simpler. We are very lucky to have found a country like Thailand.

I did this 25 years ago.

I arrived in Bangkok by air with a tourist visa for Thailand and wanted to visit Laos.

I asked for and was granted a transit visa for 7 days, now called a visa on arrival for 30 days.

When I reentered Thailand from Laos I was able to to start my unused tourist visa.

It all depends on the immigration officer on arrival.

Just ask. They can only say no.

How frickin stupid can some people be!!

As stupid as you or I on GBH.

GBH is colourless and tasteless and was clearly in the glass of water.

It gives the victim total trust.

It is often used in date rape.

A friend of mine went shopping in Panthip plaza

and emerged with his new ipod and laptop and other goodies

in a large shopping bag.

He was targeted by a tuk tuk driver who took him to his house.

There he was also given a glass of water and did not remember much more

except that he gambled and lost everything.

He was not a gambling man.

What you describe sounds like a call option.

You purchase the right to buy gold at say $2000 for a period of say 30 days.

If gold rises to say $3000 you can exercise the option to buy at $2000 and sell at $3000.

So you make a profit of $1000 less the cost of the option say $100.

If at the end of your 30 days you have not exercised the option it expires.

So if gold has fallen to $1800 you lose only the cost of the option $100.

A call option is a gamble that the price will rise by more than the cost of the option.

I don't know if the chinese have it but there is also a put option which works the other way.

You think that the price will fall so you buy for say $100 the right to sell gold at $2000 for say 30 days.

If the price falls to $1500 you can exercise your option and sell at $2000 and buy at $1500.

You make a profit of $500 less the cost of the option $100.

That is a simple explanation but then there are house rules

and I don't know how the chinese do it.

It is a sort of legal gambling.

Have you thought about a chop note.

It is very common amongst chinese people.

You give the money to a chinaman in say Thailand.

A chinaman will give the same amount to your supplier in china.

it exists in Singapore.

it gets around all currency restrictions.

it may not be legal and that may be why Kaisikorn did not want to help you.

Re-entry permit

What is the purpose of the reentry permit? For individuals with a one year visa extension, why not let them leave and reenter the country at will without needing to pay for the permit?

Annual extensions in general

Worse than that, while the information is available, it is not made clear

that to exit Thailand with a one year retirement visa

but without a reentry permit will cause the retirement visa to be canceled.

That nearly happened to me and others.

//Summary: Suggestion to add information to the annual extension stamp to indicate necessity of re-entry permit before travelling abroad in order to keep the extension alive.

This is an excellent thread and I am so glad to have found it.

I was staying in Koh Kong in Cambodia on February 22nd 2011

and my non-o visa for Thailand said:-

"This visa must be utilized before 23 February 2011

if passport remains valid."

which I took to mean that I could enter Thailand on February 23rd 2011.

Out of curiosity I telephoned to Lucky Motorcycles in Phnom Penh

who are my experts on visa matters

who said NO that I would not be able to use my visa on February 23rd 2011.

So naturally I made a rush for the border and "utilized my non-o visa".

I then asked the immigration officer this very question with a little Thai and a little English.

He seemed to confirm that it could not be used on February 23rd 2011.

The wording is a little ambiguous especially since it has been translated from the original Thai.

English people do not use the word UTILIZE.

A previous non-o visa stated "ENTER BEFORE DD-mmm-YYYY" which was very clear.

Is that really a US ambassador?

Comes across more as a the leader of a Christian NGO

dealing in human trafficking and child sex tourism

like Hillary Clinton.

But then they are all like that these days.

Obviously chosen as a good diplomat.

i.e someone who will not stir things up come what may.

The USA does some strange things to protect its own interests

which are definitely not in the interests of anyone else.

There will be nothing about jet ski scams or any other scams.

Thailand is already showing leadership in human trafficking ...

Like gang stalking?

I started out watching the Glastonbury festival live on BBC TV.

It was not blocked at first. It was great and good picture quality. Then it was blocked in the usual BBC way.

So I discovered expat shield which is a free VPN connection to England.

It worked sort of but the bandwidth was on 500KB and not my usual 6 or 7 MB so the picture was poor and jerky.

When I uninstalled expat shield I too lost my internet connection.

Having had this experience before I carry a spare download of WINSOCKFIX.

Some programs destroy certain key settings in the registry which are needed by Windows to access the internet.

WINSOCKFIX, (look for the red cross icon), will reset these values to their default.

Google it. Sorry am forbidden to give you a link.

It happened before in unrelated matter and so I got a visit from the techs of TT&T (now 3BB)

who told me to take the computer back to the shop.

When I found out how to fix it I tried to call them to teach them since many people must have this problem, they

did not want to know.

By the way I also run Ubuntu Linux which I could use to download WINSOCKFIX.

But then expat shield only runs on windows.

I get the feeling that expat shield is in some way throttled by Thailand and otherwise would work well.

Keep well away from all arab airlines which stop in the middle east.

They have a zero tolerance policy for drugs.

Remember the poor passenger caught with poppy seeds from a bun

he bought at London Heathrow. He is still in prison.

There are other stories of other checks made on transit passengers, especially Jordanian Airlines.

If possible always travel non stop BKK to LHR and back.

Thai airways will always be the best but they are the most expensive.

I booked Aeroflot BKK to LHR with a stop in Moscow one way for 300 pounds.

Used Travelcenter on the internet despite some bad stories of fraud one year before.

You are protected if using a credit card and all went well.

Some recommend Air India with a stop in Delhi but after some nightmare experiences in the past with Air India

I think best avoided. They are cheap at 300 pounds return and always fully booked.

Since the Aeroflot flight was overbooked I was bumped to Thai Air.

An old aircraft without screens on the backs of the seats

with many empty seats. A very nice journey. Well looked after as only Thais can do. It must have been overpriced.

We got stacked on arrival over the London eye and went round and round and round again.

Never book a return from BKK to LHR. There is little demand and prices are high.

LHR to BKK I recommend EVA airlines who fly to Taiwan with a popular stop in BKK.

The downside is the crowded departure lounge at LHR, is arguably the worst airport in the world.

One way at short notice was 480 pounds. For an extra 50 pounds that becomes a return but only for a 2 week stay.

I was lucky and get bumped again from economy to elite, which has extra leg room.

Flying Ah Don't you just love it.

Pla yay geen pla lek

So what the answer?

Just make a sound like kup like Thais say yes whether you or they have understood or not.

Nobody knows.

Should foreigners pay higher prices?

Vivek Wagle Lonely Planet author

A few years ago, I fronted up to Delhi's Jantar Mantar, a stellar remnant of India's Mughal past. An Indian by birth and ethnicity, I handed over the 'local' entrance fee – about US$0.10 – only for the guard to laugh and demand the much higher 'foreigner' fee (US$2). My protests were brushed aside: I could not produce an Indian passport, and my Hindi was horribly accented. So the foreign price it was. ....

I used to stay in Jaine's Guest House on Janpath.

Fellow guests included the cast of the Hindi movie

"Damera Dam - Hare Krishna - Hare Ram"

There was a big pile of rubble against the outside wall of Jantar Mantar.

We used to climb over the wall and hang out there in the evenings.

I don't remember there being an entry fee even by the main entrance on the other side.

Beautiful to imagine how the night sky must have been before street lighting.

How could you possibly use such astronomical instruments is New Delhi today?

Just flew back from London Heathrow this afternoon and witnessed for the first time sniffer dogs at the entrance to the flight departure lounge at LHR. The woman behind me got 'sniffed out' and admitted to carrying 6,000 pounds worth of I think foreign curency. She was allowed to proceed through into the lounge but then stopped and 'talked' to.

I wonder if the dogs are trained to sniff out banknotes themselves, or is it the fact that most banknotes these days carry traces of narcotics?

I thought they were sniffing for drugs.

"Put your bag on the floor."

Sweet little spaniel goes sniff sniff sniff and then looks up at master.

Fortunately the dog did not sit down.

"Pick up your bag."

Before that "UK BORDER AGENCY" interrogated a Japanese student.

"How much money do you have?"

"4,000 pounds."

"Please walk on", she said to the queue that formed behind the student.

Just another layer of misery to add to the already overcrowded overpriced constricted departure area.

Heathrow Airport is arguably the worst airport on the planet.

Very pleased to read that the entry prices to Ayutthaya

have dropped so much.

25 years ago I hired a taxi from Bangkok for the day to visit Ayutthaya.

All went well until we arrived at the entrance and a grinning

Thai lady emerged from a hut.

The entry fee was 20 Baht for the Thai driver and 20 Baht for my Thai lady

and 50 Baht for the taxi and then wait for it even more smiling

200 Baht for the falung, me.

I suggested that I would wait outside while the other 2 went inside.

They respectfully declined my offer.

The driver turned the taxi around and we went back to Bangkok.

Never having visited Ayutthaya now it may be possible.

English Chinese food is not the same as Chinese Chinese food.

English Chinese food is from Hong Kong.

My favourites include:-

Sweet and Sour Pork.

Pancake roll (crispy case containing mung bean shoots).

Boiled Rice.

Prawn Crackers.

Soya sauce.

Omelette (very hard and flavoured with spices).

Chicken dish with mushrooms.

All are included in a typical Chinese takeaway meal in the UK.

Yum Yum.

They are now asking for "residency permit for Thailand." They originally told me a rental agreement would be ok bu that was before the new form dated 9/3/2011.

So buying a cheap condo, thereby getting you a 'certificate of residence,' may be a lot wiser and, in the long run, possibly cheaper than marrying.

A residency permit for Thailand is very different from a certificate of residence.

The former is restricted to only 100 per year and entitles the holder to remain in Thailand without a visa.

The latter is something you apply for when you buy a car or apply for a Thai drivers license.

There is some confusion. I have emailed the consulate to request clarification.

They state on the latest download Abb that they require a residency permit for Thailand

but I think that they mean a certificate of residence.

Volunteer work

Evidence required: Suitable letter from recognised charity.

Volunteer as a spy with World Vision.

They will even pay your air fare.

Maybe the Pope and the Catholic Church is behind this.

Maybe the NGO's and the fundamentalist Christians are behind this.

I have heard that there may be another associated problem in all this.

The Vietnamese are crossing into Cambodia where they can get a better exchange rate using VISA cards.

VISA has retaliated by restricting the number of VISA withdrawals per person per week.

This can affect foreign tourists in Cambodia.

These are the kind of trafficking and sex-slavery cases that I encourage the police and NGO's to focus all their resources to stamp out. Not to be confused with those working in bars or go go places of their own free will.

Agreed.

How does one persuade an NGO where to focus its resources?

The money is all in setting up foreigners as pedophiles.

That makes the international headlines.

This does not and so has a low priority.

I always read these articles with a little bit of a jaundiced eye.  NGO's are not immune from using statistics to assist them in getting funds.  In the case of the on-line chat, the first thing is to determine if there was a direct link between them going missing and chatting on-line.  I am not trying to minimize the seriousness, but the idea of meeting a stranger anywhere, anytime needs to be stressed.  

Right on brother

What depths will they not plumb.

The problem with caning or the threat of it is that it induces fear in young children.

From this threat of fear comes violence, the very thing that it is 'meant' to prevent.

Fear does not reduce violence. It only creates violence.

If as a teacher you cannot command respect go away and do something else.

Pupils will obey their teachers if they respect them otherwise not.

The unruly pupil is only doing what the others would like to do but does not dare to do.

The unruly pupil is the brave one.

Physical violence against children has long been abolished in western societies

and quite rightly so.

I am here on the last 90 day entry, on a multi entry 'o' visa, which i used on the day before the use before date, I enquired could I have used it the next day and was told yes it would be fine, but is it worth taking the risk?

It is no risk. It is no problem.

Interestingly some of the junior staff at immigration have a problem with this one and have to ask a more senior staff who know.

They all get the same answer that it is ok to enter on the last day of a non o visa and still be given 90 days.

As the consulate who gave you the non o will tell you the visa is effectively for 15 months.

As a motorist in the UK and a pedestrian in Thailand,

I notice a large number of differences.

I would suggest that Thailand has police patrol cars

looking for bad driving.

That would cut down the accident rate.

Not just gangs of traffic police stopping motorcyclists for no helmet.

Motor cycles drive at speed every which way without fear of repercussions.

Car drivers drive at the highest speed possible.

Especially dangerous is the tactic of not slowing down when a hazard is spotted

but rather speeding up and sounding the horn to clear the road ahead.

When crossing the road a pedestrian moves from across the slow lane to across the fast lane

where drivers speed up to cut off the pedestrian and sound the horn.

Meanwhile a motor cycle can be overtaking in the other direction

heading straight for the oncoming cars in the fast lane.

There don't seem to be any effective driving lessons, driving schools or driving tests.

They are really needed to cut down the accident rates.