varange

Thriving schools with ED Visas and Visa Assist places, are obviously operating together with the authorities otherwise they'd be out of business.

Do you have any proof of this or is it just a nasty speculation?

Certainly looks that why and I expect Thai visa will be over run with these types of posts in the near future.

Now that the border runs are coming to an end, these so-called schools are going to try and cash in on what some may describe as a crisis, rather than a blessing as I do.

As what happened in the UK some years and is probably still happening there today, I have no doubts that some dodgy outfits will be set up specially designed to obtain education visas for the road runners that will soon not be able to stay here by other means.

Hopefully the Thai authorities will also come to realise this and place more scrutiny on these schools and their students.

Yes, I agree. I was hoping to get a discussion going about schools, which ones are good, which not. And the technicalities of getting to and from Vientiane. Sadly it brings the maggots out of the woodwork and now it has become a free-for-all about Laos. Dang.

I assume that Ed Visas will gain new popularity with all the hoo-haw about border runs.

I just went through the exercise myself last week and am happy to share some knowledge:

• You're looking at paying about B20k for a year's tuition. Typically you get 160 lessons for this, and most of all, you'll learn to speak Thai or speak it better, whichever the case may be. Do it! The school I go to has great teachers, a fun environment, and Thai is a lovely language to learn.
• The school will do the paperwork for you. It's quite a process for them getting all the documents ready for your visa application. This should be included in the price.
• You then need to get to Vientiane to the Thai Embassy there. Either fly there or take the overnight bus. I took the bus: it was comfortable and luxurious as ever. I bought the ticket at Bus Station No2 in CM for 646 Baht each way.
• The bus will take you to Udon Thani where you will arrive early in the morning. There you get a minibus to take you to the border (50 Baht - don't get scammed into paying 300 Baht)
• You'll go through the Thai border post, then catch a horrible old bus for 20 Baht to the Lao border, then marvel at the Hammer and Sickle flag on the flagposts, and then stand in queues until you get into Lao. Here again take some vehicle to the Thai Embassy (go there right away as you need to get a queue number). No more than 60 Baht this time.
• There are a few hotels around the embassy. A good one will cost 800 Baht. Less salubrious surroundings will cost 500 Baht.
• You will now note that when the planet gets an enema, Vientiane is the place the pipe is inserted. Expensive, dirty, horrible tuk-tuks, ripoff artists as tuk-tuk drivers. The good news is you'll have a whole new appreciation for Thailand after two days of Lao
• So you hand in your paperwork at the embassy, wait overnight, pick up your visa the next day, and head back to paradise.

If anyone here needs some assistance or advise about the whole exercise and about Language Schools, feel free to contact me.

<deleted>

Interesting article too. I had no idea.

Yep. This here is ridiculous. I'll look somewhere else.

I'm a newbie to CM and have just figured out why I don't like to hang out with other westerners, especially those with an English speaking background.

OP, wife is an ER nurse, she tells me that every day they admit about 10 to 15 from motorcycle accidents.

And this is a small community hospital.

Not surprized with what you saw in Surat Thani.

I thought Thais are the only nationality that can write SMS on the mobile phone will driving a motorbike

Last week i saw a girl sitting at the back of a motorcy, driving faster then 90 inbetween the cars in the traffic jam. The girl sat with her skirt/high heels 2 legs at one side, she was sms-ing and hold a big bag in the other hand. She didn't hold herself to the bike or driver at all! No helmet of course.

Amazing Thailand.

Wonderful place, where there is no nanny state and we are free to break our legs as we please.

I'd love to make contact with other options traders to communicate about trading, opportunities, and just shoot the breeze.

If such a group already exists, or if you're interested in creating a group, pls contact me.

Here's an interesting video to watch: http://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows/future-stars/episodes/140102_future_stars

LOL

Sent from my ASP-4300W using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I don't know how long you've been together Steve but this is normal Thai behavior. They want something, get it "sold" to them, so they buy it. Whether they (or you) can afford it or not is immaterial. They won't want to loose face and say "no thanks" as we would.

You gave her the mechanism to spend - so she will and won't understand why you're angry.

Also, I'm pretty sure if you look at the credit card sales slip it will have the words "non refundable" on it. Your gf certainly won't want to try and cancel it as she'll loose face if anyone finds out.

Good luck mate.

Exactly. Well said. Time for the Farang to grow up I reckon.

Buyer beware!

One of the lovely things about Thailand is that you need to behave like an adult here, and take responsibility for your actions.

No "cooling off", "refund", none of that. No Big Brother to "protect" you.

Love it.

If your clients are in the US shouldn't your server be there too?

Renting a VPS in the US is inexpensive and they have great bandwidth. Scaling the cost is easy as your business grows.

Amazon, Google, etc come to mind.

Hosting one's own server is so .... passe.

Mr Walen.

Could you point me to a curriculum for the Beginner Thai course please?

One thing I would be interested in are the Lesson Plans (or the curriculum) for the Thai classes at Walen. Could someone point me to that please?

First of all thanks for 1 or 2 school names. I am here in thailand to study thai but i dont have such a big budget thats why i wanted to ask you here which one is the cheapest school. I found now a school which offers me for 1 year 19500 baht with 180 lesson.The visa fee every 3 month is not included but they will go with the school group together to the embassy every 3 month.

Thats the cheapest what i found and i will register there the next days.

Thanks again

Bye

Please share - which school is that?

In CM?