loloal

It was in Lyon. Second and only choice is the embassy in Paris, but it seems like the directives flow down from Paris to Lyon so I would expect the same answer.

Flying straight to Penang would not be my favorite option because my flight to Bkk is already booked.

So according to your posts so far I understand I'd better fly out after ~29 days, try to get a visa, and if declined go back with another 30 days (+ 30 days extension). Right ?

Is Penang the most obvious destination ? should I stay 2 or 3 nights there or is it ok to just go in/out ?

Hello,

French national, 29 y/o.

Passport history :

1 entry on visa exemption in 2013

5 entries on Tourist Visa in 2014 / 2015 / 2016, 2 to 3 months per stay including Extensions.

Never did a visa run or such thing.

Today I applied for a Tourist Visa at Thai consulate in France.

They declined because I'm out of Thailand since only 1 month, and they require 3 months out of Thailand.

They used to be more indulgent (see this thread) but said the French-Thai relationship is in bad shape, and Thais urge the France based consulate to be more and more strict.

I plan to stay from 28/01 to 26/04 (89 days), and I mostly stay in Samui.

Considering I can't easily postbone my trip, what would be my best option now ?

I'm aware I can get 30 days on arrival, and extend for 30 more days. And that I should produce a flight ticket out of Thailand within the first 30 days so the airline let's me get on board.

Now I'm wondering what's the most secure way to reach 90 days of stay with minimal risk ?

Like is it a better strategy to try to get a tourist Visa from, say, Malaysia, instead of applying for an extension of stay ?

Or rather use the 30 days on arrival + 30 days extension, then do a border run and get another 30 days on arrival ? would this look supsicious ?

I'm a little bit lost here

Never had a problem with it.
I even mix it with water in flight, nobody ever cared.
The package was opened by the way as you can guess.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Electricity back in Lamai just right now. Fingers crossed too !


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

No power at all in Lamai since this morning
Does anyone have electricity elsewhere in the island ?


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

GPS or not I don't know many modern smartphones who have enough battery when you really need it !

I've withdrawn 30k with a krungsri ATM and a French Visa Premier.

After that Visa blocked my card, on the phone they didn't believe I could have withdrawn "so much" until they checked the listing. They say it was a bug and that Visa should block any withdraw over 9000 ฿ whatever the ATM brand is.

My point is it may depend on your bank / card system.

Note that when I called Visa again few days later nobody there was then aware of this supposed 9k฿ limit.

Banks nowadays ... Not easy to get accurate information

27, live 3 months here 3 months in France, and don't belong to any of your 3 categories.

Why didn't you buy two and then come back 2 minutes later and buy another two? 60 baht for two minutes work, worth it!

I almost did but a mix of being late to gym + face loosing risk for the cashier + I was so amused, I let it go

3 days ago I was in a family Mart to buy my daily Pocari Water. I spot a small promotion sign in Thai saying "Promotion, 2 bottles 30 ฿" (Which is the usual price for 1 bottle)

I'm not fluent but I can read basic Thai.

I decide to take 4 of them for 60฿, good deal.

The cashier says "120 ฿, not 60 !"

_ but I see promotion

_ nooo mai mee promotion

I bring the promotion sign to her and read it (in thai) :

_ 2 bottles 30฿

_ but you don't have 2 bottles ! You have 4 bottles !

I went with the mai pen rai attitude, paid 120฿ and was amazed

TiT !

I have a paid HMA VPN membership but like the poster above I always use Hola for Netflix because it works perfectly, and you don't even have those 30 waiting seconds of VPN connection, it's almost instantaneous

Edit : don't know for Apple TV / ps4

People just try to be friendly, we are the strangers here so I guess it's normal to be asked this question. Knowing where one comes from helps to identify the background and potential conversational topics. But if one isn't interested in chatting with anyone, whatever the question he will be bored sure. Looks like a funny life

I really can't see the problem here. If it's the repetition over years, I guess you might be bored to here สวสดี or 'hello' too.

But i'm ok with TVF being as any other public forums a place where you can share your hate and discuss it with other haters [emoji120]

Can you recommand a good lawyer in Samui, for family related matters ?

3. If they don't want to pronounce the ร at the end of these words, why don't they at least write the ร์ at the end of these words? Thais didn't invent the metric system. These are both borrowed words from a foreign language. Why can't Thais spell these words correctly?

I'd answer your #3 question with the #3 rule from Royal Institute's "Rules for Transcribing English Words (into Thai)" :

3. Some transcribed words have been used (by Thais) for so long that they are considered Thai words and are already included in the Royal Institute Dictionary of the Thai Language. These transcribed forms should continue to be utilized. Such words include the Thai words for “chocolate,” “shirt,” and “gas.”

I guess this is the reason for words like "metre" too, assuming it's been used for a long time too.

เมตร is from french word mètre

มิเตอร์ is from english word meter and I assume its usage is newer, so it respects this #3 rule

Why don't Thais want to pronounce the letter 'R'?

Why don't you want to speak perfect spoken Thai ?

It's clearly not about wanting, it's about training.

Producing sounds you've never pronounced in your whole life isn't something you'll instantly do just because you want it.

You have to build a whole new muscular memory. Just because ร looks like an 'r' at the beginning of a syllabe, doesn't mean Thais are able to pronounce it at the end of the syllabe. The muscle aren't trained to do that.

I guess the obvious opposite exemple is, assuming you're an english speaker, you easily pronounce an 'ng' sound at the end of an '_ing' word, but you have to concentrate to hardly pronounce it at the beginning of a syllabe.

1. Why do they insist on changing the ร sound at the end of words to the n sound?

Why do english speakers insist on pronouncing though through thought thorough so differently, while for me french speaker they look so similar ?

Every language as its own characteristics, and in the case of Thai to me all those subtle little things make the charm of the language.

Reminds me of an ex Thai Gf.

My post will look very caricatural but is actually scarily accurate about some girls from any nationality. I wish none of you gets in such a nightmare.

Common points with your story :

Feeding me : cute until I realized she wouldn't stop even if I ask nicely.

Sign of attempt to control me and sign of brain stuck in the childhood time feeding her doll.

Asking me to do sport : well that's a good and friendly advice in any normal situation. But if the aim is to have a sexier man, wonder if you would ask a girl in a first date to get breast surgery.

Stop smoking : again, good advice.

But when we talked on the Internet, she knew I was a smoker. So her plan was simply to make me stop smoking, and that plan existed before we even met. Do you personally often plan to change lifestyle of people you have not met yet ?

This 3 little things are either nothing, either big signs of disrespect of what others people are, and natural tendency to control other people to make them do anything. Like a doll.

The other combined thing that rings my bell is the, 35 y/o but student and living on family's money thing. Not really a sign of an accomplished adult who has mentally left childhood.

I have one question ; beside attempting to get control of your eating / sporting / smoking lifestyle in just a few hours, did she take the time to listen, appreciate, understand what you shared about YOU, showing empathy, positive observations ...

OR

Did she easily criticizes anything about you and about what you said (in a way you might think she's just teasing), and eventually always lead back the conversation topic to HER ?

If you answer #2 please be very careful. If not, enjoy this caring girl.

There's a thin limit between taking care of others and actually totally controlling them.

With people with narcissistic disorders, it can take years to realize you're being manipulated.

I stopped with this ex Thai gf the day she threatened me with a knife.

Everything started with a situation very similar to OP so I couldn't not share my warnings

I wish I got such advices before so I would recommend everyone to google about narcissistic disorders - might avoid problems, and not only regarding romantic relationships ; applies to work, friends ... A few percent of the population they say.

I'd like to add I'm not being paranoid. All the things I listed, alone, are totally normal things. It's the combination of all of this things that may start to raise warnings.

I actually hope that I'm off topic and that The OP girl is a good girl.

The problem is not the nicotine but every other stuff you can find in a cigarette.

Buy some middle/high end electronic cigarette. Life changer!!

Went to the consulate today.

3 people before me didn't bring all the required files and were refused. Tensed atmosphere. Bad words spoken.

I seat with my perfectly complete and sorted files.

After a 30 seconds hesitation, staring at my last departure stamp and obviously aware of the 3 month delay not yet reached, the consul looks at me and asks "you are going there for what ?" _ "to practice the language. It's my hobby"

I got a "Bon voyage Monsieur" and my precious Visa.

I might have been lucky and other French people reading this thread should consider the possibility of being less lucky ! Please post your experiences about it

Hi

I, as a UE company, am about to buy services from a Thai company (no physical product exchanged ; I'll give them Web access to some of my excel sheets, they sort out and clean data from it and send the cleaned files back, wich saves me a load of time)

Is the Thai company supposed to include VAT on the invoice ?

Thanks

edit : I guess the anwser was all over Google.

Section 80/1 Zero rate shall be used in value added tax calculation for the following businesses:

1. export of goods which is not exempt from value added tax under Section 81(3);
2. provision of services performed in Thailand and used in a foreign country in accordance with the type, rule, procedure and condition prescribed by the Director- 2 General, provision of services performed in Thailand and used in a foreign country shall include provision of services performed in Thailand for the production of goods in Customs free zone for the purpose of exportation and the provision of services performed in such zone for the production of goods for the export purpose;

http://www.thailandlawonline.com/revenue-code/value-added-tax-vat-law#IV

I don't know in Thailand but in France a broken iPhone can be sold on the net in minutes. Lot of DIYers willing to buy, fix and sell again.

Could be a way to pass the buck

We French mostly suck at languages, ok. But hey, blame schools, not people. Schools in France in my experience focus on grammar and not enough on actually listening, speaking the language.

Many French can't speak a word of English but could correct some TV members using "there" instead of "their", etc.

That amazes me

In my opinion most French people actually skilled in English learned on their own (nowadays having access to downloading TV series is a big help) and while traveling (not everyone has that luck)

And if you expect every French people to speak to you in English, should we except everybody to talk in French to us in your home country ?

A quite recent study expects French to become the most spoken language in the next decades. I already hear you laughing but you should take account of the impressive demographics moves to come in Africa (did the study say). I actually really don't care about it, please don't see any pride or patriotism in it. Just curious !

Cheers

Thanks

I double checked and this is indeed the first time this clause appears in the documents I got from the consulate (previous documents were 5 months ago). Doesn't mean it's new, but could mean its being enforced more than previously.

I will stay in Samui so now my plan would be :

_ reach Samui 30 april (30 days exemption)

_ go to Kuala Lumpur on 22 may (6000 baht with Bkk Airways)

_ back to Samui the next day (30 days exemption, again)

_ ask for a ~20 days extension at samui immigration, and back to France on 10 July

Looks correct ? any better idea ?

Is it OK to stay just 1 day / 1 night in KL or should I stay like 2 or 3 days ?

Could Bkk Airways deny to let me fly from KL to Samui since my outgoing ticket to France will be more than 30 days after ? (I guess they technically could but should I actually worry about it too ?)

Hi,

I was in LoS december/january/february with tourist visa + 30 days extension.

Got the tourist visa at consulate in France (Lyon)

Going back to Thailand 29 April to 10 July, so I send the usual email to get the latest official forms from the consulate, for tourist visa request.

I notice this scary sentence in the middle of the email from the consulate : (in French) " the tourist visa can be delivered only after expiry of a 3 month delay out of Thailand ".

Geez, did I miss something or is it a new condition ?

Is it only in France ? Is it enforced ?

Thanks

Not sure that helps but here's my experience :

1 year ago, android phone : I had Line with french SIM. When I landed in Thailand and put Thai SIM, I had to re create a line account and lost my contacts.

This year, with iPhone : switching from french SIM to Thai SIM doesn't make any difference.

Guess : on iPhone they rely on apple's authentification and not on the SIM.

If this is to some email service, many limit around 10MB. You can use Google Docs or WeTransfer (all free) as a workaround

Or

Split your file in smaller part with Winrar by example