chang

I cant believe the amount of advice I've received.

Kop Khun Mak Mai (best I could do without Thai script installed on my non-microsoft computer)

All advice graciously received. I'm very much like the idea of going to school and learning to read/write Thai properly and becoming an interpreter. This was an avenue I'd not even considered. I do appriciate the effort it takes to learn a new language, it will be much tougher than any of my academic qualifications, but hey nothing ventured .......

So many questions and things to do, but only one lifetime to do it. I just hope I don't waste it on maybe and should have.

Well still not entirely sure what to do, guess I will have to............................................

Chang

Wow, that graph shows a huge change in the US dollar to Thai baht.

But lets look at it in real terms. It has been a HUGE change of 2.8 baht to the dollar. (max - min)

So by my estimates you would need to change 11$ before you even noticed a difference of a bowl of noodles on the street.

Or working the otherway (50,000bt seem reasonable monthly living amount)

50,000bt at low point = 1287$

50,000bt at high point = 1200$

Now maybe it becomes quite significant if some of you guys are extremely well off, and changing lots of money, or play the forex. Or

Once again thank you for all your responses and sharing your experience and ideas.

My main problem is living in the UK, i'm really fed up with it. Maybe the problem is the grass is always greener somewhere else. (Well not green very often in Thailand - joke)

I have a Thai GF, she lives in BKK but owns quite a bit of land (paddy fields) and other land which she can build on, I guess this is part of her retirment plan when she leaves BKK. And no, before you laugh and take the #!#$ she isnt a BG, and doesnt have any Buffalo, but I did recenlty buy her dad a cow, on the understanding that if it gets sick well thats tough, its not my cow.

I like the whole Asian culture thing, but after reading through the posts here and elswhere on the forum I am begining think maybe Thailand isnt all its cracked upto be. So maybe my next option is to marry her, bring her to the god awful UK, get her British passport, move somewhere else.

So my next move is probably trawling the ex-pat forums for all the other countries in the world and ask their take on their new home.

Ohh, and before I forget, after reading through my last couple of posts I realise maybe I was a bit harsh on immigrants to the UK, my rant was aimed more at assylum seekers, both legal and illegal.

Chang.

Been to 1 Thai funeral in North East. Very brief description.

Person died

Pronounced dead by doctor/coroner or who ever does it in Thailand

Body left at house for 48hrs for friends and family to pay respects.

Procession out of village to field about 1 mile away.

Buddist monks praying, chanting kneeling

Casket placed onto bonfire/pyre

Casket opened, water poured on body by lots of people 1 at a time and saying their goodbye

Bonfire lit

People hung round for about 1 hr then had massive party

2days later

ashes gathered into pile

load of people root in ashes to find bone, real good luck if you find jaw bone (toddlers to old people) and give to monk

more chanting

ashes formed into person shape on floor with coins placed at joints, even some fun made about how big they should make his manhood

clothes laid onto ashes

more chanting

finish the end every one went home.

Having been to quite a few funerals in the UK i was really supprised by how much of a joyful ocassion it was.

A memory that stays with me even as others fade away.

Well as I'm not going to have to sell my house to move to Thailand I suppose I could give it a try for a year or so, and if it doesnt work out i could always move back to this hole.

Thanks qwertz.

I know taking multiple months holidays is not the same as living there, but i reckon its now or never, or i think i will end up being 70 years old saying "i wish i'd moved to Thailand"

Between the bashers and defenders hopefuly I will get a balanced view.

Ahhh, thanks for clearing that up Ulysses G., I read and re-read my original post but couldnt see what I said wrong.

The only two things I missed about the UK when in Thailand are 1. Speaking and listening to English - My Thai isnt very good but getting better, and rural Thailand doesnt speak much Thai anyway (mostly Suay and Laos)n 2. English Food - as tasty as Thai food is it is still nice to have UK food now and again. First non-Thai food in three weeks was a Big Mac, nearly made me sick when i realised how poor quality it was compared to local produce.

Love the warmth and friendliness of the people. I was treadted like a celebrity in the village. I like the houses on stilts, village floods pretty often so traditional house's still rule.

Only thing i dont like(dont like probably too strong a description) about Thailand is they seem to drink from when they wake up to when they goto sleep.

Maybe will have to rethink moving to Thailand and get her to come and live with me in this poxy second rate country called UK for another 15 years.

My point.

Immigrants to UK generally fetch nothing, and are welcomed with opened arms. From what I've seen on Thai TV, they dont like f.......

Got bored and cant be bothered any more on this.

Guesthouse.

Very sorry for any offence caused, it was not my intention to offend.

I feel a foreigner in my own country, I dont have a problem with imigrants in general if they are bringing something to the country. Far to many come to this country claiming to be skilled, then end up putting lives at risk because they aren't.

With the UK being a soft touch with all sorts of benifits available it has become a haven to scroungers from many parts of the world with no intention of working ever as the state will support them. The goverment seems to bend over backwards to assist immigrants get everything in this country, but when you are born and bred here you have to fight to and nail to try and get anything.

I live in Wales, where most of the road signs are written in English, not Welsh. On top of that there are now Polish road signs appearing, still no Welsh ones though.

There have been numerous cases of immigrants crying rape/torture/persecution in their own country, moving to the UK, commiting horrific crimes (2 that spring to mind are a child rapist and a convicted terrorist) and due to the rediculous way that Europe operatres we are powerless to send them back to their own country in case they are persecuted.

To me it is no supprise the BNP is starting to become more popular.

If this make me racist, then i'm a racist. But my criticism is aimed at the goverment not the imigrant for taking full advantage of a dumb govenment opening the doors to all.

Again sorry for any offence caused, it is not said to be malicious or mischevious. Many people in the UK would be affraid to openly say what I have said for fear of the PC police.

edit****

This is only to try and get the feel of people to see if it is really worth the hassel anymore of moving to thailand. I would be able to have and income of £650/month from investements now, and a civil service pension of around £700/month in 15 years time so retirement is possible,so I would only need a little job (with work visa) to stop me getting to bored.

Big thanks to all who took the time for sensible replies.

Reading back over my original post, and from reading replies I guess the info I gave was a bit sparse.

In past 5 years I have stayed in Thailand for 6 months total (1month per visit) last 2 years recovering from cancer so unable to travel.

While I dont disagree with the "... Visa requirements, which are extremely clear...." comment, are they actually attainable as there seem to be loads of horror/problem stories. Maybe they are attainable if you are extremely rich. On the whole they seem to be designed to actually try and stop people moving to Thailand by placing huge hurdles in the way. I know I will be corrected if i'm wrong but i beleive a huge part of the Thai economy is tourism, be it short term, or long term "Visa run" types. (according to the CIA world fact book if i've read it right)

I didnt realise there had been big swings in the baht, for the last few years it seem to have been between 65 and 75bt to the pound, maybe i havnt been paying close enough attention.

I am confused by the "If you dont love it post", I said "I loved it", just not really keen on jumping through all the hoops, I am usually very stubborn and will cut my nose of to spite my face. But this attitude changes when dealing with Thai people.

I work as an Aircraft maintenance technician(civillian) for RAF (radio, radio, instuments etc) so would probably be lookng for the same sort of work. Will have to post jobs section for help and advice as i've been looking for about 4 months now and cant even find out where aircraft maitenance is carried out in Thailand. I am on a low income £25, and if I wanted to purchase a house now in the UK I couldnt even get on the property ladder.

I have become very dis-illusioned with the UK and would give up my British citizenship in a heart beat, and in my opinion it is turning into a third world country, we let immigrants in unchecked then when they commit crimes we are almost powerless to deport them, the government do nothing but lie, the police tackle minor crime at the expense of major crime to boost statistics, i cant see me doctor without a 7 day in advance booking, I havnt got a dentist - no NHS in my area (rant over, as the blood is starting to boil) If i'm going to live in a third world country I might as well live in one that doesnt pretend its anything else.

Yes I know Thailand has many of the above problems also, but it has the quality of life that I could never hope to achieve living in Wales. The people are warmer and more friendly, wealth is relative. I know I could never earn the same money in Thailand as the UK or europe, but again quality of live cant be bought.

I bank with the Halifax and used to use them to send money over. All I needed was bank name, bank address, her name, her account.

But now I just go to the post office and use "MoneyGram" its a much easier method(I find) to send money over. Its pretty instant and there are loads of places where she can collect from. Contact the postoffice or web site for more details. It also worked out cheaper than Halifax.

I have been reading through lots of post regarding "new" visa regulations, and marraige requirements - abiltiy to prove income etc.

I really love Thailand but it looks like there are so many hoops to jump through now I was wondering if people thought it was still worth the hassle.

A friend of mine had a shop then a bar and is now seriously thinking of leaving Thailand.

So should I give up on Thailand and try moving to a more ferrang friendly country. Maybe Laos or Vietnam??

Chang.

PS

If you going to flame dont even bother posting.

Thank you very big to all the replies

As the only mode of transport I will have is a 125cc dirt bike, guessing I will have to get the bus into Sisaket and get a taxi from there onwards.

Looking forward to meeting you all and being able to speak English to someone (beats watching the BBC world service to hear English)

Chang (Mark)

Hello,

If things go according to plan I should be in Sisaket (Rasisali) for 3 months, for Songkran onwards. Staying with my gf and her family.

I really need to meet some English speaking women or men for some conversation and drinks/food. This is not a cheap pick-up attempt but last time I was there I got quite depressed not having anyone to speak English to. The only person I spoke to last visit was my girlfriend, her English is limited, but good enough to have a converstion with, and my Thai is awful.

So where can I meet English speakers?

PS

By the way I am from the UK, 35 years old, and can be as childish or mature as circumstance dictates, but most of all I love to have fun.

Hello everyone,

To the Mods, I hope this is posted in the right place. Sooooo sorry for wasting people time with what will be a simple answer for someone. I have looked at various sites/info and am a little confused.

I need some advice with which Visa to obtain. I wanted just to Visa runs so that I could travel a little bit to Cambodia and Laos, the the airline has told me that it wont take me without a valid Visa for the amount of time I wish to stay in the Kingdom.

I (UK citizen) plan to travel to Thailand to celebrate Songkran with my Thai friends that live in Thailand.

I wish to stay in the kingdom for a period of 90 days.

1. What visa(s) do I require.

2. As time is now running out can I go to the The Royal Thai Consulate in Liverpool (I live in North Wales) to apply for a Visa in person, or do I have to travel to Royal Thai Embassy London.

I intend to spend most of my time in the Sisaket province. I would like to volunteer some of my time to the school to help teaching English, in the village where I will be staying, as a thank you to the local people for the way they look after me.

Would I need to apply for a special Visa to do this, because if it means I have to mess around doing this then I wont volunteer my free time to help out in a deprived area of the province.

I hope that you can help,

Chang

PS

Anyone from the UK in the Sisaket province near Rasi Sali

Get the malware removed at one of the posts pinned at the top of this forum.

EDIT:

As you add more program, more of them want to start when booting up. So your slow boot time might not be an indication of bad, rather you might just have loads of legitimate programs wanting to start up straight away. Many of these programs can be removed from auto start, and you can start them as and when required.

I have noticed OP's asking for advice in removing this and that trojan, and how do I get rid of this and that adware.

Here are two free sites offering free malware removal, and general computer help.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

http://www.spywareinfo.com/

I have been trained at both these sites, so I can tell you that the training you receive before you are allowed to post fixes is quite tough.

You should only receive advice from an expert, but sometimes non experts post answers, but these are removed as soon as the site MODS see them.

You will only ever be asked to download free software to help fix your problem. And advice when your computer is clear on how to stay clear. The language used will be as simple as you require, so if you dont understand anything it will be explained again step by step. You will also be told if you have any anti spyware software that is considered to be rouge.

You will need to register with them, its a similar sort of process to register here.

Both sites are US based, but have members from all around the world. The advice you get probably will not be instant, as there are more Op's with problems than volunteers that fix them.

AVG, AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic and Avast are good FREE antivirus.

Never install more than one antivirus scanner on your system! Several together can give problems and decrease the reliability of it seriously!

Well while I'm at it.

ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall and Kerio Personal Firewall are good free firewalls. Never install more than one firewall on your system!

Anti malware links (these are all free and what I have intalled on my PC)

Ad-Aware SE, Ad-Aware tutorial

Spybot S&D, Spybot S&D tutorial

Spyware blaster, SpywareBlaster tutorial

Spyware guard, Spyware Guard tutorial

Personally I think firefox is excellent.

I have used it for ages with no problems. Unlike IE, ff (firefox) is a tabbed broweser.

If when you are running it your press "ctrl 'and' t" a new blank page will open.

Also check that you are running the latest version of ff, it should be 1.06. To do this click help, then about, a little popup screen will come up telling you what version it is.

The problem that you are going to have though is with IE closing itself down, then you may not be able to keep your PC uptodate with windows updates, as this cant be done with ff. (not strictly true there is a site somewhere that allows you to do it, but its not an official microsoft site)

Firefox is on the whole a much safer browser than IE, as it doesnt allow BHO's, and has a popup blocker built in.

There are load of extras you can download for it from the firefox homepage.

EDIT:

Sorry forgot to say:

I sometimes have 2 or 3 firefox screen opens, each one with 4 or 5 tabs. So you shouldnt have a problem.

With my firefox i cant use the chat room here, but thats just because i havnt download the required plugin.

are these services cheaper than using Skype Out ??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IP telephone is better to call from anywhere, not only from the UK

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rat...y=GBP#listing-T

Euro is always used for maintaining your account balance and billing. Rates in other currencies are made available for your convenience only, and may fluctuate from day to day.

Thailand - Mobile  GBP 0.073 inc vat.

So, no Sykpeout is not cheaper.

It is a bad idea to have 2 firewalls running at the same time. Xp has one built in. So I would suggest you disable Xp firewall and just use zone alarm.

Does anybody use "cheapest calls" access number 0844 861 51 51 to call thailand.

Everytime i try and use it it is constantly engaged. emailed them and they said there was no problem.

just this minute tried again, guess what, engaged again. i have never been able to use this service. anybody else had problems??

Now that i know that the death penalty can be applied for killing someone while drink driving i will never do it again.

i dont drink and drive at home in the UK, where you might get off with a 2 year ban.

Very supprissed people still drink drive in thailand.

Before anyone harps on about knowing the law, dont.

More old news Tuesday, 12 August, 2003

But highlights the dangers of hidding under trees.

Lightning strike kills cows

Sixteen cattle, including several in calf, have been killed in a lightning strike.The 15 cows and a bull died from heart attacks when the tree they were sheltering under on their farm on the outskirts of Wrexham was hit by the bolt.The shocking discovery was made by farmer Maldwyn Williams, 81, as he checked Trevor Hall Farm in Ruabon on Sunday."We haven't got over it yet. It was such a shock to see him," said his wife Eluned.

The pedigree Blonde d'Aquitaine cows cost thousands of pounds and Mrs Williams said the killed bull was priceless.They're like pets to us, we think a lot about the cattle

Eluned Williams"The bull was turning good stock out. It was really lovely," she said.

"They're like pets to us - we think a lot about the cattle."We are insured but you don't get the actual price back," she added.The remainder of the herd was saved from the freak accident as they were sheltering elsewhere.

The Blonde d'Aquitaine is a French cattle breed that has been established in the UK for over 25 years.Mr and Mrs Williams have farmed the land in Ruabon for more than 50 years.The couple said they are unsure about what they will do now as they are still trying to come to terms with the accident.

Having read a few posts over the last couple of weeks, it seems drink driving is the topic of the moment.

Seen an asian (maybe japaneese)in bangkok pull up to a hotel so drunk the porters had to help him in and then park his car!!!!!

While staying on samui i have seen many ferrang (and thai) so drunk that they couldnt walk, but then get on their moped and drive home or to the next bar.

I have some friends on samui and they have taken the "mai pen rai" attitude to drink driving. I also have some female friends (bar girls) and was really worried for their safety and asked them not to go with customers who were extremely drunk. Alas one of them died on a motor bike with a d.d. The next day the bar was closed, but following that the girls still went on motor bikes with very drunk people.

I stayed in Issan, got really drunk and pushed the motorbike about 2kms home, the girlfriend thought I was crazy because the police never come to the village, I couldnt get her to understand that I wastn scared of the police, but very scared of falling off and getting hurt.

Much to my shame I started to ride the motorbike when very drunk due to pressure from the local thai's. The only speed they know is not moving and high speed, drunk or sober. But in my defence (flimsy excuses) in Issan there are no taxis, the road i was travelling along was straight, and only drove it just fast enough(1st gear) to keep the road lit, because it doenst half take it out off you pushing a dirt bike for 2km's.

This is my confession and was just wondering how common d.d. really is. (read on a site somewhere 80% of all accidents in thailand are drink related)

Sorry to disagree with firefoxx, you can access your hotmail accounts using firefox, I know, this is the only browser I use and have never had any problems.

I have used hotmail for about 5 years with no problems. Guess I must be lucky.