dhream

Maybe someone should do a poll. Say you meet a girl in a shop, you date her for a while and eventually live with her or marry her. A year into the relationship she reveals that for six months she worked in a bar when she was young to pay for her mums operation or something like that.

What are you going to do? Divorce her because she was a bargirl or because she didn't fully disclose.

Answer that question honestly and you will know what your relationship to your partner is. No need to disclose it here but just ask yourself.

The point I think the OP makes in his question is KNOWINGLY marry a sex worker.

To take your hypothesis to an absurd conclusion, If I pay for dinner and drinks on a date, then we have a one-night stand, is it prostitution? Or was she just having her needs met too?

This whole thread is loaded with absurdity and hypocrisy borne of mostly religious value-judgements about female sexuality.

Setting aside the true criminality of underage and coerced prostitution, enough prostitutes have come forward in recent times to declare they are their own persons, and see no reason to not get paid for what they'd be giving away anyway.

Long may they prosper! And as soon as the world in general, stops being so screwed-up about screwing, the healthier, mentally and physically (less untreated disease) society will become, and the less women will fall prey to the cockroaches who exploit its murky legal status everywhere.

No adult has any valid moral right to dictate how other consenting adults behave in private. And yet there are legions of these condescending rule-setters poking their blue noses into our bedrooms from Bangkok to Bangor. Well, the puritan age is long over, do try to keep up!

Why would you come to 'monger central and then get married anyway? Talk about half-baked.

The late lad-mag tycoon Felix Denis famously said, "If it floats, flies, or fornicates -rent it, it's ALWAYS cheaper in the end".

Given these facts, 'stupidity' would be a contributing factor in a significant number of cases, why do you ask, two dogs?

The broadcaster you can trust... to make infantile, offensively descriptive, spelling and grammar errors. 'mongoloid'? 'annal'?

As to the DNA technology confusion, well, things here are like that all the time, "yes we have the garlic prawns", then after a visit to the kitchen, "no we don't".

I just always choose two mains now (one is the back-up) to avoid the inevitable let down. Maybe the lab is like that too?

Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This post is headed by an Honorary Consul

Address

Australian Consulate,

236 Chiangmai-Doi Saket Road,

Amphur Sansai,

Chiang Mai 50210

Thailand

Telephone

+66 53 492 480

Fax

+66 53 492 426

Number dialled plays the recorded message "Not in Service" has done for a while.

No email. And who has a fax machine these days?

So how to book an appointment unless you just 'rock up'?

I have never had need to speak to the Aus Hon Consul Michael Walther, I believe, but the number I was given was 053 492480

Whether you call the number with or without the country code +66 and/or local '0' prefix, it is a non-working number. But thanks for his full name. :-)

I'm not a pensioner but live on oz term deposit interest. I transfer some over to my bank here when needed. Not the required 65K a month but I've got a few hundred thousand baht in a thai bank too. In combination they top the 800k requirement.

Thanks for your replies and all the best to you.

Makes no difference what you do or have. You must be able to prove 800,000 baht in the bank or guaranteed income of 65,000 baht a month. Or a combination of the two. They will need to see a guarantee of the money coming in. Not a past record.

^^^^^^ N/J ...as usual wrong again.....seeing its around midnite, when u have posted,guess tiredness has crept in ,long day on the board u know

ned, been through the same process as u are about to undertake, my super agent due to her dilengience and expertise in visa matters at the ????dept

managed to secure my ret visa with out any funds in my bangkok bank a/c whats so ever, and fully legal and accepted at the ?????? dept

for personal reasons i cannot post the loopholes if one likes to call them that ,but again all legal and above board

cobber my super agent(who is a thai/aussie ) is located in the nimminhedin area,and for a fee of around 5000 baht approx,she absoulately takes great care of you,and most importantly she expertly dots the eyes and crosses the tees for you, if you feel u need her service ,just p.m. me,and i will happily supply them to u...,again good luck cobber

a very nice morning to all

Surely you mean THB 50,000 ?

THB 5000 seems a little too good to be true for any agent, much less one with a with a Nimmanhaemin address.

To save me a trip, could any kind countryman tell me if Passport applications are lodged directly in BKK or does one hand it to the Counsul here in CNX for onward dispatch?

I'm not applying for a renewal, but I have reason to believe my recently issued new passport has sustained damage to the microchip page. The regulations allow a damaged electronic passport to be replaced free of charge (but only if the chip is damaged, physical damage replacement costs are still down to the holder).

Thanks.

It's a business - builder supplies, concrete pavers, statues, fountains etc. I don't know the name of the business, but if anyone else does I'm sure they'll post it here, or perhaps someone is going there for a Stat Dec or something over the next few days, or even just driving past if you live out that way.

I have an email address for it but I don't know if he wants it spread around - probably OK, but unless I knew that for certain, I can't bring myself to pass it on to anyone. He really is a lovely man, and very generous with his time too.

So the Consulate is housed within a business premises?

Not an actual separate Australian Consulate?

If so, it's good to know they are being frugal, but hard to believe!

Governments usually love swinging their big diplomatic dicks, with extravagant palaces in toney neighbourhoods, at our expense, of course.

Some of the Embassies of tinpot countries I've seen in London, and other capitals in my time, beggar belief, and probably half the country they represent.

Do I have an issue with Government profligacy in general? Perhaps... :-)

When you use the combination of money in the Thai bank and interest coming from an account overseas must that interest be paid monthly or can it be paid once a year?

It is not just 'interest' it is income from any source. It must be at least THB 65,000 per MONTH. Think of it as a paycheck, which is what it is. You pay yourself to live here. If you have this sort of money anyway, then to my mind, flashing the A$30K for three months of the year (then removing all but what you need to live on on a month to month basis) is the way to go. The income route means tedious and expensive visits to Consulates.

Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This post is headed by an Honorary Consul

Address

Australian Consulate,

236 Chiangmai-Doi Saket Road,

Amphur Sansai,

Chiang Mai 50210

Thailand

Telephone

+66 53 492 480

Fax

+66 53 492 426

Number dialled plays the recorded message "Not in Service" has done for a while.

No email. And who has a fax machine these days?

So how to book an appointment unless you just 'rock up'?

my appiontment with micheal was through my super agent,

now the cry will be

god damn those greedy agents.saloon passages ,bribes, etc etc

my motto to them is very simple

if u cant beat them..join them

and P.M. sent

Thank you evenstevens,

I never begrudge fair fees paid toward a good cause, and any cause that furthers my cause, is a good cause.

The term 'money coming in, not past records' worries me a little. When we finally get around to applying for the retirement extension, we are going to be relying on previous tax returns to prove income rather than deposit 800,000 baht into the bank, partly because Thai banks don't always pay up quickly when employees are proven to have stolen money from your account, and because the return we would get on that is a fraction of what we can muster in Aus. Although our rent and utilities total more than half the 65,000 baht a month, we probably only spend 7 or 8 months if that in-country; we go to Aus for 4 or 5 or 6 weeks every year and UK visiting family for maybe 2 months - that's not counting holidays in between, and when here we don't live terribly extravagantly. This year we have transferred a lot of money over because we moved out of serviced apartments into a condo and made some improvements - not strictly necessary, everything was beautiful (as it should be in our rent bracket), just not really to my personal taste - but that's money we won't have to spend/transfer every year.

I'm hoping that this isn't going to be a problem for us. We're genuine, and have more income than is required, but it's in the form for rents, dividends and capital gains on selling the shares (blue chip only so no gambling or risk to our capial) after the dividends have paid out. It's not guaranteed as such or a regular monthly amount. In the dividend seasons we make a lot, now it's finished for blue chips until November when the banks start recording. Even the rents aren't guaranteed to be a regular amount, we're at the bottom of the market so no problem in always being fully tenanted, but repairs, maintenance, rates, body corporate fees etc are paid as they arrive, not spread out in equal payments each month.

I really hope we won't have a problem, although I'm now doubting what I've written, because we certainly can't be the only self-funded retiree's with self-managed super funds here (which we can't start drawing on until we're 55, 65 if we want to have it tax free, which we will do).

Reassurances needed to a jittery person.

Don't worry, if what you say is true, you really have no worries. Many here will envy your multiple income sources. But if you really are super conservative, then get out of shares (even blue chips) and buy physical gold, which is at a record low right now. Gold is being manipulated by desperate and powerful entities, but it can't last forever, remember all the talk of 'kicking the can down the road'? it's still happening, it never went away, the media just found other stuff to hand-wring over. I'll leave it at that lest I sound like a tinfoil hat wearer.

Also, you only need the THB 800,000 in the three month preceding your application, then you can remove that which you won't use to a safer haven. Finally, if you have what you say you have, then temporarily, or even permanently, losing your THB 8000,000 by theft or other misfortune, is not a death knell. Many new cars in Australia cost about the same, or significantly more, so it's hardly a kings ransom to an Aussie.

As for your outgoings, why not set aside an 'average' amount each month to hedge for and minimise the 'ragged' outgoings, this may need topping up now and then, but it will help you budget with much less uncertainty, and the unspent money can roll over to take care of future expense peaks.

having said all that and given you free financial advice! Mate, if you need 'reassurance' with your nest egg, as claimed, then I suggest only good strong drugs will calm your imaginary jitters.

If all you want is reassurances about 'flash money' for immigration, well, I've already suggested how to handle that. Forget the 'combo-income' route, as by going that route, the Consulate will gouge you annually for a miserable one page affidavit, its all just an inter-governmental revenue-raising scam.

Australian Consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This post is headed by an Honorary Consul

Address

Australian Consulate,

236 Chiangmai-Doi Saket Road,

Amphur Sansai,

Chiang Mai 50210

Thailand

Telephone

+66 53 492 480

Fax

+66 53 492 426

Number dialled plays the recorded message "Not in Service" has done for a while.

No email. And who has a fax machine these days?

So how to book an appointment unless you just 'rock up'?

How do I go about getting a visa for Hong Kong for my Laotian girlfriend? Can she get a tourist visa on arrival or does she need to apply in Bangkok, presumably at the Chinese Embassy?

http://www.immd.gov.hk/en/services/hk-visas/visit-transit/visit-visa-entry-permit.html#part1

I'll be collecting my beer from you later.

Heard the horror stories about Chinese Embassy staff everywhere, including Sydney.

Seen them behave like yobbos toward people laying flowers for Tiananmen Sq victims outside their hi-so London hideaway on the BBC.

Went to Chiang Mai Consulate prepared for the worst, and was blown away!

Clean, calm, cool (I shuddered to contemplate the impending sweaty Chaos at CNX Immigration to get my re-entry permit).

I was at the counter as soon as I'd filled out my application.

A very personable young lady took my form, swiftly checked it, smiled returned my bank statement copy unread "We won't need this".

I left them my passport, flight, and hotel details, no insurance. I'm retired BTW.

Asked me to return in a week.

Went back as instructed, got a smiling welcome, paid my (laughably cheap compared to Australia) fee and handed my passport with a smiling, 'Enjoy your stay in China!'

I was stunned!

D.

PS: To earlier poster, i have not seen an airline red carbon 'ticket' in years! Everyone accepts internet print outs, as bonafide travel documents, some airlines just read your phone screen at check-in.

Why would you go to the expense of buying a visa with no airline ticket anyway? Visa is valid for 3 months after issue so you're thinking does not compute for me. Also, it's a good way to risk getting turned down if you encounter one of the many 'duty <deleted>' on shift.

Agree with Cuban. I rent rackspace at a couple of locations, and run them as dedicated VPN endpoints. Cheaper than using a VPN service provider, you get dedicated IP addresses, use any choice of port ID, and OpenVPN is the software behind most of the commercial offerings and comes free. Absolutely rock solid and fool-proof, as far as I can tell.

I think this is trolling. 

1. No details, other than obviously bamboozling laypersons with pseudo-tech hubris.
2. Missing information, a lot of it. As it has been presented, this is simply too good to be true, whether you are web savvy or not. (For korkenzieher bulk data purposes it is possibly cheaper, but not for ours!)
3. Unlike korkenzieher, let me back up my 'mouth' and show you a snippet from a 'cheap' rackspace user I found by googling 'Is VPN cheaper than Rackspace?' QUOTE: Back in Feb 2009 we started out with a 256MB Slicehost instance for only $20 per month. By the end of August we had a 2GB Slicehost instance and an 8GB Rackspace Cloud instance, costing $130 and $345 respectively. We also had a 256MB Rackspace Cloud instance for a VPN we used to access the servers through at $10 per month. The total expenditure was therefore $485 per month. UNQUOTE.
4. So I googled 'rent cheap rackspace'.... QUOTE:   With Urack, you can lease one U in a colocation environment for $75 per month. You can set up your own dedicated server or we can set up the server for you for an additional charge. You can even ship your server (insured, of course) to us for setup. If you set up your own, we will only charge you for our time in the data center while opening the rack.
   If you previously thought that leasing 1U was impossible, think again.
5.  Apart from the above making him look like a condescending liar, this is the province of tech pros, not a few expats who want to watch a bit of TV.
6. Also there was no openly shared follow up, unless he has PM'd those who have already asked him for more details.
7. based on the above, i'm calling it attention seeking BS!

I will apologise to you publicly on this thread, 'mate' IF you can respond to all of the the above criticisms in public, and in doing so, back up your 'cheap' claims as well! We don't need tech trolls like you adding half-truths at best, and absolute crap at worst to a not particularly easy topic for most people to dive into.

Hi Tomtomtom69,

I'm curious, how did this resolve?

I'm sorry no one helped you with your OP, but it is a little specialized as requests here go.

I myself am trying to track down how to get hold of similar (Thai Govt) documents, online, but a cursory search in English has been of little use.

My interest is I require these for timber (manufactured) exports.

I know an agent would easily handle it, but is there a website with images of what the forms look like, preferably English language versions? I want to use an image of the forms on a website, so i would much appreciate it if you have learned anything new about this, and how did it all pan out for you anyway?

Thanks, d.

For those that may not realise..... If you have a cable setup with WETV, then you could use this to install CTH. I mention it because some people have WETV free in their condo. If you go to the WETV/CTH office in Chiang Mai they will install a small box that utilises the WETV cable to install CTH. No dishes or extra cables.

What's the damage in additional setup and ongoing joe?

And to anyone else who's following the thread over the weekend, that UK TV link I was posiing on is https://www.thaiexpat.tv/ (thaiexpat tv) in case the link is removed by mods. You get a free trial, and it has 9000 'likes' on FB. Incidentally, you can buy 'likes' but FB frown upon it, and a big company are unlikely to take the risk of being caught and lose their account, FB is a major marketing channel for any company nowadays.

I can't remember how much it cost to install, but it wasn't much. As far as I know, my package is 599b a month for a basic package. I only use it for news and sport and I get all premier league games but not sure what movies, entertainment channels there are. If you call them they speak good English and their office is in town, near Chang Puak gate. They have a website but best to search for WETV Chiang Mai.

Just to clarify, i was referring to the CTH add-on, we alteady get WeTV on cable, do you have the CTH add on? Is that the cost for the cable and the CTH box in a bundle? or just WeTV, thanks.

For those that may not realise..... If you have a cable setup with WETV, then you could use this to install CTH. I mention it because some people have WETV free in their condo. If you go to the WETV/CTH office in Chiang Mai they will install a small box that utilises the WETV cable to install CTH. No dishes or extra cables.

Out of interest, any idea what the damage is in additional setup and ongoing joe?

And to anyone else who's been following the thread over the weekend, that UK TV link I posted about is https://www.thaiexpat.tv/ (thaiexpat tv) in case the link is removed by mods. You get a free trial, and it has 9000 'likes' on FB.

I would give it a whirl, but my tirak would not be giving up the WeTV and I don't see the point of paying for two subscriptions especially when I'm happy enough with the Euro channels there at the moment, anyway, I only watch it because it's there. After I left Aus, and went to portugal for a while, I gave up TV altogether, got everything I needed online.

I still get Aus TV through WETV. In Chiang Mai CTH is in partnership with WETV so they share the same office and staff. It's in the old city not far from Chiang Puak gate.

I understand our Liberal friends, who are anything but liberal, or particularly friendly, are set (pardon the pun) to axe Australia Network, given as they'd prefer to 'engage' the Asia pacific region by way of their new fighter jets Tony supersize-ordered.

They are no great fans of the truly liberal ABC or SBS either.

When I was in Aussie I considered SBS to be one of the best TV channels on the planet. Sexy, or othwise absorbing arty foriegn movies (with yellow subtitles that you can actually read against any background) cutting edge comedy years before the channel 7, 9 & 10 numpties were brave or bright enough to see it's popularity. World news that was about the world, and not a surfing cattledog down Cronulla way, Free world cup with all the match analysis and other host country related trimmings, ditto tour de france, and Eurovision (say what you like its a hoot of a night). But I digress nostalgically and give away my chardonnay-sipping preledictions.

So whatever side of the political fence you are on, thank the mad monk when your Aussie channel dissapears off WeTV, or anywhere else you're currently getting it, at some point soon. Unless there is a sh!tstorm of protest back home or across the region (unlikely) as we Aussies don't give a flying fox if its not a cost or loss thats directly mortgage-related.

ditto as above...

Deleted by post author, wrong thread, apologies!

Maybe people do not know. I tend to stick to the channels that I watch every day instead of channel surfing. Thanks for filling us in and thanks to WETV for more entertainment and a fine service for a reasonable price.

Haven't had much chance to watch the telly lately but switched on WeTV last night and it seems 17,18,19 movies have gone. There's now a movie channel somewhere down near 7 0r 8 approx. I think that's it for movies. Universal (the law & order thingy) is on 25 and the syfy one on 26. Choice of watching seems to get more desperate but at least it still has the Aussie soap operas!

Today, WETV Chiang Mai has been off TWICE. Is currently OFF at 2.30pm, what is going on?? the audi and video quality of late has been pretty bad with FREQUENT Audi Drop-outs and frequent "Line Flashes" over the screen. We called them out a couple of weeks ago and they claimed they were "fixing the problem"...wel what has happened, Perhaps "WETV" means "WORST EVER TV." While I'm at it, why since the put Aljazeera Back On, after many complaints did they decide to stick it on Channel 42.... away from all the other "English Language" News Chennels? The news is about the only thing worth watching on WETV as all the other channels, aside from those in Thai Language are full of REPEATS and MORE REPEATS of shows....."WETV=WORSTEVER TV."

I almost forgot the reason I came to this thread was that I was in the mood for a little idiot box downtime this morning, and NONE of the channels are available, I get static across the board. Yup, "57 channels and nothing on" as the rock song goes, sure enough. So I wanted to ask, is this normal/common/frequent in non prime viewing hours? My friends UKTV options are looking tempting! My next subscription falls due soon, this thread is full of stories of channel 'musical chairs' game playing too, lift your game WeTV!

I'm new around these parts as a resident and my Thai g/f is a subscriber to WETV, by chance I was having a beer with a long-term expat around my age and not too computer savvy, he asked me to have a look at his new notebook running Windows 8 (well there's the problem right there -using Win 8) anyway, as his apartment was virually next door, we shambled in and had a look, it seems that the aparrently reputable computer shop has installed a pirate version of the Win 8 software, and it's bad enough when you buy it from Redmond for heavens sake!

But anyway, the point of the story (apart from avoid win 8) is that I learned that he was using his notebook, via an HDMI cable to his big flatscreen TV, to access and watch the entire UK suite of digital TV channels.

If you have been away from the UK for a while, you may be interested to hear that the whole country is now digitized, and you get at least 15 channels (or more IIRC) free-to-air including countless radio staions on/through your TV speakers as well.

Anyway I was pretty surprised, given that even in the UK you need a digital set-top box or a TV with UK region-appropriate digital reciever built in, to get the channels. Aparrently how it works is that some BKK outfit re-broadcast the signal under licence, they charge a fee not much more than the B1000 per 3 months WeTV offer currently.

I did not pay too much attention to the details, or whether Thai channels or other EU/US/AU channels are also offered, but if you are an expat, and this idea appeals, then do a bit of Googling.

My computer-handicapped mate found them online so it can't be that hard. I would imagine they'd be likely to offer other 'western' TV packages, so worth a search if you are form elsewhere in the world as well.

Back to WeTV, I sure miss the sectarian political rant channels the Army recently canned. How am I going to get through the long lonely nights now?

Went one way with Norwegian air, £288 to Manchester

I used them Gatwick to Faro (Portugal) did the job, but that was far enough thanks!

BKK to MAN on a 737 must have been living hell! What drugs did you take?