TheSiemReaper

I've never been asked for proof of funds on entry to Thailand. Just put your girl's address on the arrival card at immigration - that should be enough.

1. 60 including the date of the stamp

2. As many as you want?

Not everyone uses the monthly income method (I don't) and even for those who do, not all Embassies will email it.

Tropo - how does Cambodian visa become 30,450 baht? It is much less than that. $290*2 = about 21,000 baht.

You do not need work permit if you are not working in Cambodia.

The one year extension includes unlimited entries.

Cambodia visa is still more expensive than Thai visa if only cost and not time is considered, though. Takes substantially less time to get. So a lot depends on whether you have more time than money.

I have been informed (by another member) that work permits are being enforced for business visa holders. If I don't need those, then I can trim $300 from my original estimate and pay about 20,000 baht as you mentioned... which would be a nice saving,

They are being enforced and they can be bought from a travel agent - Lucky Lucky in Phnom Penh.

Does anyone have any info about how a married foreign couple could stay long term? Would we both need to get the Business Visas for $285 each, or do they have another arrangement for married couples? My wife is Filipino, I'm Australian.

Right now we live in Thailand on retirement extensions.

2 x Business Visas and 2 x Work Permits (which are now being enforced). There are no family arrangements and no retirement specific options.

That's $35 (plus possibly a very small bribe) each on landing for a month, than $290 each for the 1 year extension (multi-entry and can be extended in country forever) and $150 each for the work permit.

There is no 90 day reporting. There is no requirement to leave Cambodia.You will not have to do a health check - but you will pay for it as part of your $150 for the work permit.

You must buy the ordinary (business) visa from Cambodian immigration on arrival in Cambodia. DO NOT try and buy it in Thailand or at the border from a tout. If you do - you will end up with a tourist visa which can only be extended for a single month and then you will have to do a border run.

I think the Chiang Mai food scene is slightly overrated. As a huge foodie I have literally tried hundreds of restaurants in Chiang Mai over the last 2 years, I don't have a proper kitchen. I eat out almost daily, lunch and dinner and leave mildly disappointed most of the time. Only a handful of restaurants are actually worth the money, I find.

There's a couple of issues. The quality of ingredients is often lacking. When's the last time you had a tasty shrimp or prawn in this town? I had a few Spanish gambas during my last trip to Europe and it brought tears to my eyes. I had forgotten what they taste like.

Then there's leadership. Most restaurants lack it. In most restaurants the staff don't give a damn. When's the last time you've been to a restaurant where there's a clearly visible manager/owner leading things? A 18-year old with her face glued to her phone more likely.

I also think, and this was raised by LivingLOS in a previous post, that most of the food outlets are cost-driven. Food needs to be produced on the cheap and the dishes suffer from it. Why make a stock with actual bones when you can use a powder? Nobody notices, or so they think (and they're probably right).

Then there's the speed that food needs to be produced. Restaurants in Thailand have your food ready QUICKLY right? This is actually quite handy and convenient, but never conducive to a quality dish. Some food/dishes require TIME, of which there is none.

My two cents...

I think there are some fabulous "fine dining" experiences here but there aren't a lot of them. By and large you get what you pay for - so anyone expecting an amazing meal for 150 Baht is going to be disappointed; having said that there are a lot of expats here who would never pay more than that for a meal and after doing so for long enough - they begin to swear that it is buying an amazing meal, habit and contrast play a key part in what people find amazing.

Quality ingredients are here too but at a significant price premium and not usually at the markets.

As for management - I'm going to have to disagree on this, the places where I eat most often management is generally omni-present and service is excellent. I'd also disagree on food production time... unless the staff are just ****ing about, I'm going to assume that the long waits for food are because they're cooking it.

I find the rooftop bars at Maya a bit pretentious. Trying to be something they are not. Read: fancy.

I recall ordering a bunch of cocktails at one of the places and the waiter INSISTING I go to the bar and see the bar guy make them. That was clearly the concept and they weren't able to deviate from it.

I've never had that experience at all and I've drunk in all the bars there... might have been when they first opened or something.

Local beers at Maya are around 80-100 Baht a bottle. No more than any other Western oriented pub in town and not much more than 7-11... Spirits (which are served in generous measures - much more so than in most bars in town) run about 150 Baht including mixer and ice. Bottles of spirits may also be purchased at roughly the same as they can be in any other bar in town.

I like the rooftop at Maya - almost no farang there and a wealth of young, beautiful locals chilling out and enjoying the view. It particularly helps that there's a smoking area so you don't have to go down 6 flights of escalators to go outside for a smoke.

I think you may be confusing ATM withdrawal limits with limits on other transactions. ATM withdrawal limits are typically set between 50 and 100k Baht per day, there are no limits on passbook/over the counter withdrawals or on any other types of transactions.

Would that this were true. Bangkok Bank limits my activity to 50K a day out of the account. So if, like today, I spend 30K online... I can then only withdraw 20K from the ATM. Which is annoying to say the least - particularly as the first time it happened I had no clue that this was the case and I metaphorically messed my trousers at the ATM when it said; "No money for you" when I had more than enough money according to my internet banking.

Or... you could go to Vientiane - to the Thai embassy (early in the morning) - pay 1900 baht for a 60 day tourist visa... but you will have to stay overnight to pick it up (the next afternoon).

Your best bet is do a CELTA here in Thailand before you look for work. They're pretty cheap here and once you're done; you're a graduate with the required paperwork - which means you can look for jobs at any school.

But is it socially acceptable for middle class Cambodian to have a foreigner boyfriend ?

did not see a middle ground dating scene when i was there, only freelancers.

did not see any places at all that looked like normal people hookup/meeting spots, only dirty bars.

good luck in your search

That's because you have no idea what to look for. Good Khmer girls don't go to bars and nightclubs. You meet good Khmer girls everywhere - working in shops, on buses, working in offices, etc. If you're looking for a "hook up" spot in Asia - you're going to find prostitutes; if you're looking for a partner rather than a quick bang - you're going to find them absolutely everywhere you look. Cambodia is yet to have its "summer of love" and casual sex isn't a thing there (yet).

Completely acceptable as long as it's handled in line with social expectations. The Khmer only really have major issues with the Vietnamese (shocking when you realize that 1 in 6 people in Cambodia is ethnically Vietnamese) - everyone else is fine.

Seen it twice now. awesome movie.

Guess youre a fan of moronic movies for the braindead? Sad to say youre not alone, seems to be the way Hollywood is headed !! Movie theatres the world over filled to capacity by "run shoot kill then run shoot kill again" type of movies these days?! Perhaps one more reason why people in a number of countries think its OK to pull a gun and kill people?

I must have missed the dedicated art house offerings at our major cinemas here - probably because they don't actually show them.

I enjoyed Deadpool - it was action packed, funny and artfully delivered for what it was. This does not prevent me from enjoying other movies with different values and styles.

It wasn't at all brain dead - it was one of the most self-aware movies I've ever seen with a great habit of breaking the 4th wall. You may not have enjoyed it (because it had "cussing" in it) but it doesn't make it any less of a movie because of that. It is the highest grossing Marvel movie in the US now, and quite possibly will go on to be the highest grossing R rated movie in the US ever.

The difference being that if the shopkeeper in New Zealand uses blue ink or if he goes hot air ballooning with a rooster he isn't surrounded by 100 government authorities armed with assault rifles. See how that's not the same as what happened here?

From what I understand, there was only one or two assault rifles, but about a hundred police officers.

And rifles are only a problem when people fire them.

Carrying one does no one any harm. Unless you're frightened to death, that is...

Number of people killed in the UK this year by assault rifles = 0

Number of people killed in the US this year by assault rifles = hundreds

Want to know the difference? In the UK you're not allowed to carry an assault rifle.

It is reasonably safe to say that every time you hand out a gun - you exponentially increase the chances of that gun being used. It is impossible to use a gun that you do not have.

In addition the more guns you hand out, the greater certainty that you are handing them out to an idiot who will actually use them. Which is why we have lovely videos of American police shooting unarmed people in the back, through their car doors, and indeed of little boys playing with water pistols.

This blind faith in authority is a bit disturbing. The world is a better place when both criminals and coppers are unarmed. It is easy to see that this is true - you just compare the level of gun deaths when people don't have guns to when they do.

Very useful. Thank you.

This has to be a troll post.

It is possible to divorce someone on the grounds of abandonment - which is what appears to be the case here.

As to how much? You'll need to ask a Thai lawyer. You may find that she has to wait 3 years (or some other period) before she can divorce for abandonment too.

Weight is the not the issue, protection of ones most valuable travelling document is for me the critical part.

Ignorance of the law certainly is no excuse, however any and all laws should be enacted based on sound principle and purpose, free from ambiguity or obscurity and able to be readily observed by a general populace as a matter of course.

Glad I didn't pick up half a dozen packs of calligraphic Japanese pictorial playing cards before reaching Thailand as gifts ultimately for friends back here in NZ.

Initially, 37 years ago and my following sporadic dozen visits to the Kingdom leading up to last December, I had never been made aware of this policy/law, to me that spells obscurity.

Presumably there are a lot more people like yourself who have been made and are aware of the requirement, but likewise I am sure I cannot be the only person who was never been actively informed from the many travelling resources that I have used.

It is worth noting that "ignorance of the law is no defense" pretty much everywhere in the world.

Well actually, according to the CityNow article the people "detained" were law-abiding. The raid was within legal open hours.

This is something for law-abiding people to worry about.

Zoe has a history of violence , drugs and prostitution and under age drinkers .

The Police were just doing checks to make sure nothing illegal was going on .

Everyone there was required to show their I.D.

People in Thailand are required to carry I.D with them at all times .

The Police are quite lenient , they will not prosecute you for not having I.D.

They just ask you to get your I.D and once they ve seen it, you are free to go .

Why would law abiding people be worried about this ?

You're like a broken record... by Aqua.

No-one wants to be detained by Thai coppers at any time of the day. No-one wants to be forced to pee in a cup or to be surrounded by guys with guns.

The whole "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" assumes that everyone around you will behave rationally. Given that this is a place where booze is consumed - this is not guaranteed. Thais like guns. If somebody had pulled a gun during that little raid... the police would have opened up on all the people in there. What a lovely way to end the day eh?

I'm amazed at how many expats can't be bothered to go into a bank regularly to get a supply of small bills. Instead, they expect the market vendors and small merchants they patronize to be able to supply change when the produce a 1000 baht note, straight out of the ATM machine for payment of a small item like a meal for one for a bit of produce at the market. Come on people, many of those ATM machines are located right outside banks -- you know, stores where you can go to exchange 1000 baht notes for smaller notes without having to buy anything.

But, no I guess the expats, many of whom that I know to be retired are just too busy and expect the Thai shopkeeper to perform this service for them, so they can complain when they're short-changed when giving a 1000 baht note for a 60 baht purchase.

I see we're going for a defence of insanity now...

I've been here a few months now and never had trouble getting change or keeping it in my wallet for that matter. Not sure why anyone needs to go anywhere to get change unless the only amount you spend is 20 Baht in every visit. If I pay a market vendor with 1,000 Baht - they simply shout for change to another stall if they don't have it themselves. Heck, I was on Doi Suthep yesterday and an old lady and her cart had no problems issuing change. I do occasionally round off the bill with a tuk-tuk driver or songthaew driver but I don't think I'll lose any sleep over the occasional 10 Baht here or there... though maybe someone should implement a phone line for that too.

I've never been short changed here either. My mental arithmetic's good enough that I can usually calculate what I owe faster than the shopkeeper can with their calculator or till and working out change is no harder.

No-one gets arrested for not having their passport?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/896524-chiang-mai-100-armed-police-arrest-foreigners-for-not-carrying-passports/

Lol.

For the tl:dr brigade... you have two choices - carry or don't carry your passport.

If you choose the latter option; you may be "detained" (which will feel like being arrested) until such a point as someone else produces your passport for you. If you are single and either a tourist or new to town - this may take quite a long time to achieve. Even if you have chums in town; it may take a while to achieve because no offence to my friends - I'm not getting up at 2 a.m. to go to the cop shop because they spent the night in Zoe in Yellow...

Thus you either have to carry your passport or be prepared to surrender a chunk of your life to having "an experience" in a Thai jail cell. As TiT; "It's up to you."

We now seem to be in the same dilemma about having to carry passports. It seems in both CM and Pattaya people were taken away for not carrying passports. After the debacle in BKK last time which ended with a senior police officer saying you did not need to carry passport on your person, it seems these actions are again contradicting this. Maybe someone at one of the embassies would like to get into action and extract some definitive information from the relevant authority.

Definitively - people can and do get arrested for not carrying passports. Thus, carrying your passport is probably the only way to 100% guarantee this not happening to you. It doesn't matter what someone in Bangkok says - it matters what happens on the ground. Nocturnal raids on bars have being going on in Thailand for years, as have the arrests for not having a passport and indeed the "pee in a cup" nonsense. I'd suggest that anyone resisting arrest and waving that newspaper article as a cutting is likely to find out just how hard a Thai copper's baton (oo er missus) is when it's battered over their head.

Stop spreading false information .

People do not get arrested for not carrying their passport around and no one has ever been hit by a police batton for not having their passport on them .

If the Police want to see your passport, they will accompany you back to your room for you to show it to them, you will only be arrested if you cannot or will not show them your passport.

Only you can say why you keep spreading your false scare mongering

You mean the 30 people in Pattaya arrested for not having their passports were making it up? I don't think so.

You can believe what you want to believe. I know several people who have done a night in the cells in Bangkok for not having a passport on them. The UK government says; "carry your passport."

You should stop spreading false information. A newspaper cutting may make you feel self-righteously accurate but reality contradicts that article and if in doubt - sane people go with reality. Now stop trolling.

I disagree with the above. People malign Poipet without knowing anything about it. They don't even leave the dirty, seedy main road,

and form an opinion from the touts and lowlives they encounter during half hour they spend there. Poipet is actually a Cambodian city that has a lot of potential and badly needs this

malicious talk to stop. If you want to see Cambodia as it was 20 years ago, Poipet is the place to go. On the other hand there's nothiing interesting on the Thai side.

Poipet is so much more interesting. There are a few guesthouses on the main road, check Wikitravel for a list.

Poipet is without a doubt the most awful dump in Cambodia. There's nothing redeeming about that town whatsoever. Nothing. All of Cambodia needs your money; why waste it on the worst of it? I am a huge fan of Cambodia and encourage people to visit out of the way places all the time but when it comes to Poipet I encourage them to avoid it or at least get the hell out of it as fast as possible.

We now seem to be in the same dilemma about having to carry passports. It seems in both CM and Pattaya people were taken away for not carrying passports. After the debacle in BKK last time which ended with a senior police officer saying you did not need to carry passport on your person, it seems these actions are again contradicting this. Maybe someone at one of the embassies would like to get into action and extract some definitive information from the relevant authority.

Definitively - people can and do get arrested for not carrying passports. Thus, carrying your passport is probably the only way to 100% guarantee this not happening to you. It doesn't matter what someone in Bangkok says - it matters what happens on the ground. Nocturnal raids on bars have being going on in Thailand for years, as have the arrests for not having a passport and indeed the "pee in a cup" nonsense. I'd suggest that anyone resisting arrest and waving that newspaper article as a cutting is likely to find out just how hard a Thai copper's baton (oo er missus) is when it's battered over their head.

When your A farang it's business as usual.Get use to it or do what I do.I go to A bank and get 3000-6000 baht at A time of small baht.Then I usually take 2000-4000 baht with me where ever I go.Then I give the correct change.

So, in order to avoid being caught without a twenty baht bill, your suggestion is that I should change somewhere between three and six thousand baht in larger bills into somewhere between 150 and 300 twenty baht bills, and that I should then carry somewhere between 100 and 200 of those where ever I go in order to protect myself from the "business as usual"?

Thanks for the tip, I have to admit that's never occurred to me!

This forum is full of people living in fear of being diddled out of small change, who go to extreme lengths to ensure that they are never taken for a fool, whilst at the time making themselves look stupid and petty to everyone around them. The fact that someone is so concerned of allegedly being short-changed 30 baht that he feels compelled to write a scam-alert post only serves to prove my point. The choice of words says a lot about the sense of paranoia so many expats have. Nigerians don't scam people out of 30 baht. Confidence tricksters don't connive ways to deprive you of small change. Being short-changed by 30 baht is just that. It's not a scam, it's petty theft. But since these guys are so entrenched in their paranoia those are the words they choose. 30 baht scam. That's funny.

As expected, no shortage of paranoid replies. "When your (sic) A farang it's business as usual". "This scam is everywhere now".

The daftest reply was "Why did you give him 50 baht in the first place?". Is 50 baht such a high denomination that he finds it so incredible that people carry them around or is it that he always has the correct money in order to prevent this ever happening? The obsession so many people here have over small change is fascinating, and the lengths they will go to, like making sure they always have small change is hilarious. If this wasn't TVCM, nobody would believe this stuff. Keep 'em coming.

To the OP - A complaints procedure at the airport!? If there is, and you plan on going along could you please let me know, I'd like to be in on that one.

I couldn't agree more. Soon we'll have a post about the "pavement scammer" where someone dropped a 10 Baht coin on Ratvithi Road and it rolled down a drain. The impoverished expat will be demanding where to call so they can mobilize a full team to search the sewers for it. The other expats will demand to know why someone was carrying a 10 Baht coin when they could have broken it down into Satang to safeguard against loss and theft. Finally, there will be a handy tip on sellotaping the Satang to the insoles in your shoes so that they can't fall out of your pockets by accident.

Better to write the occasional dollar off than to spend your life dwelling in ever increasing stupidity trying to protect it.