richard_smith237

My rent at B50,000 has not changed since I moved into my Apt. 4.5 years ago. If my apt wanted to increase the rent on me, I'd be looking for a new place to live.

I think the owners of your apt are being rather cheeky by requesting an increase at all, and again I think they are being very cheeky requesting that you sign a 3 year agreement.

I’m with Falcon on this one. Where is there a sea side resort in Bangkok ?

The mangrove is something l’d like to explore but it’s not really the romantic getaway, sea side resort or stereo typical ‘I took malaria tablets and explored the Serengeti for a few hours on the bed of a landrover with guides and the tranq guns’…

Rather than chastise the last poster we should offer an idea to the Op, but lets be realistic……

There are no costal resorts in Bangkok. The nearest sea side is indeed Pattaya. Otherwise its Bang Saen or the Eastern sea board towards Hua Hin.

If you want sea and clean beaches, you have to travel a little beyond the chaff and locate the wheat. There are some very foxy resorts on Kho Samet but you need to look a little bit deeper than the obvious ‘Thai Visa.com faux pas’ of being brutally naïve and not knowing Bangkok is not a costal area.

I’m sure there are lots of forum members who can help. But to help yourself please give a better idea of what you are looking for.

Given what you have posted so far, I for one would go for one of the nice resorts on Kho Samet.

As I understood it: A person with Dual Nationality has to use the passport specific to domain.

i.e. In Thailand, Thai is the primary nationality and it is Law that he uses that Passport and vice versa for the UK. In any country other than those of dual nationality any passport at preference may be used.

Now that the 15 day regulations are in effect, I find I need a 30 day visa. Is it possible to fly out cheaply and back the same day with no issues? If I go to Laos, will they then take a full page for my passport? What is the best place to do this trip? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I good few years ago I flew with TG to Singapore. I got stamped through immigration and entered Singapore, checked back in and caught the same plane returning to Bangkok. It's cutting it fine with about 1 hr or so between landing and departure, so you might have to pick your flights depending on 'lay over time', but due the the frequency of flights to Singapore the prices are more competitive (I think at the time I paid about B5000), there are more promotions and if you miss your returning flight you will not have long to wait for the following flight. Get it right and its about 5.5 hr turn around BKK to BKK.

Unless the rules have changed, with that you should get your 30 day stamp.

Smoking's a dirty, filthy habit anyway.

He should thank the nice customs agent for improving his health.

Picking your nose is a dirty, filthy habit - Smoking is unhealthy and anti-social..

I smoke by the way - only 1-5 a day though when I drink and only in the evening (although that doesn't excuse it)

For the record, I visited Vientiane a few months back, I purchased 200 cigarettes at duty free which I am by now quite certain are fake. Smoking as little as I do I feel quite a rush when I have a cigarette which is one of the reasons I enjoy it. But I get nothing from the cigarettes I purchased from the Duty free shops near the bridge and as a result I am quite certain they are counterfeit.

I can't really understand why the last 2 topics were closed... I can't see how they were hurtful to anyone and there was some valuable insight to be learned from the less heated and more restrained forum members.

This is a great forum and while I often disagree with many of the comments many posters make, some topics generate a spark and a moderator closes it for what I and many think are rather liberal reasons. Perhaps the topic title may have been worded more delicately.

I for one am very interested to hear the experiences of members who either live in their home countries with the Thai wives or girlfriend as its something I may well do at some point in the future. Perhaps some people can offer advice on how to handle certain situations. Perhaps the background of the partner in question is something to be taken into consideration and something that many of us need not worry about when moving home.

I for one have great respect for women, Western, Thai or otherwise - It would have been interesting to know their opinions on such matters as I have experienced that most Western ladies who meet my girlfriend, either in Thailand or at home have received no negative or derogatory feelings. It would be educational to know with true candor the what western women really think about this and things that cannot be said to a mans face. I believe we may be pleasantly surprised.

I know of one Western lady who had been in Thailand for 4 months before her boyfriend ran off with a Thai lady, as a result she hated Thai women, until I pointed out that one of them had probably done her a favor and that her guy was like then he likely to run off with someone back home, I also pointed out that like home there is good and bad in all circles of society, although due to the financial demographic thai women appear more frivolous. By now the lady in question probably has many Thai female friends.

I do feel that some threads get closed quickly in cases where a few spoil it for the many with their childish comments and immature ego's. I'd like to make a recommendation to the Moderators simply ban those people from posting on a certain topic rather than closing the topic itself.

AND - Moderators, while my comments here touch or even cross the forum boundaries I believe that you will receive some valuable insight into the efforts you provide for this forum; for which I'm sure we are all thankful.

1) You can order a dish in Thai other than the most common dishes (:pad thai, sweet n sour, fried rice, etc) Yep.

2) You know why Thai people where yellow shirts on Monday and Light blue on Friday. As I understand it, its to do with the specific day of the week the King and Queen were born. i.e. The King was born on a Monday and Mondays colour is Yellow. The Queen on a Friday and Fridays colour is light blue, Other days are associated with other colours (i.e. Violet for Saturdays is Crown Princess' colour).

3) You've tried the bugs, snake, frogs (or something alike) more than once No Once was enough, what's the point in trying something more if I don't like it?.

4) You have at least 5 CD's of Thai karaoke music. No, I have no Karaoke CD's. I do have a couple of normal Thai Music CD's.

5) You wear Thai gold. Never, The only jewelry I wear is a watch. And I'm not Buddist, so I wont wear a pendant.

6) More than once you were the only farang at a party. Many many times, with friends and girlfriends family, also holidays with groups of couples.

7) You eat more barbequed food here than anywhere you've ever been. Not sure about that one, Possibly, Korean BBQ etc !

8) More than one chilli pepper in your dish does not make you run to the toilet anymore. Yes, I've grown to enjoy spicy food.

9) You've been here during the good old times: 3 big bottles of chang = 100 baht. I never liked Chang, but I remember cheaper beer and cigarettes at 43 Baht per pack.

10) There was a time you've not wore shoes for more than 2 months and went everywhere on slippers. Never, I live in Bangkok and it would seem inappropriate to wear flip-flops in many places.

again it is not too serious, just for fun. just motivate your answer: agree of disagree?

I'd still consider myself an ex-pat. I'm not sure much of the critera above can outline an e-pat. But it does seem to fit someone who has lived here for many years and perhaps assimilated into or adopted a more Thai way of life outside of Bangkok.

When my phone is off (i.e. when I'm on a flight) and someone tries to call me, after landing I'll receive an SMS stating that x tried to call me at x:xx hrs. Additionally x will receive an SMS stating that my number is now available.

Phones can frequently be out of signal range in lifts and underground car parks etc but that is only momentarily. In this case the same messages will be received by both parties.

It might be worth while looking into this service, unfortunately I don't know what its called. Otherwise, other than the standard 'The number is not reachable' type response I'm not sure that there is a way to tell.

We should never be handcuffed by our phones, but in this technological age I would be wondering why a girlfriend / partner is not answering frequently enough for me to worry about this.

Owe 2

the clues in the name..

SchMutzie,

be careful, I too was in BKK on business 4 weeks ago with my owe 2 iPhone, I did pay and set up the bolt on to give me 10 mb free roaming for £17 pm, I was there 8 days and used the phone for 21 mins calls to blighty and perhaps 10 mins to download e mails, ( I was very careful ) came home to a bill for £ 265 for 1 months charge.

I typically use £ 55 pm in the uk.

There is no comeback on these charges.

I suggest you leave the itoy in the uk and take a spare and buy a payg sim over there.

Or better still, go straight to MBK and sell it for 30,000 baht. Also remember that if you get it jail broken over there, you will still be paying your monthly charge to good old owe 2.

Ps a lot of posters talk of scams In thailand, believe me they are nothing compared to what owe 2 can take from you.

A similar thing happened to me recently with an iPhone and AIS (Thai) contract. My bill showed GPRS-MMS usage totalling more than 12 hrs and B3000 out of 24 hrs. I had not used my iPhone, but had simply turned it on. For whatever reasons while in a neighboring country my iPhone automatically connected to GPRS. AIS have agreed to look into this and have said that they will not charge me until they have identified clear usage which they can measure in the volume of data traffic (i.e. KB downloaded and sent).

To the Op. Using GPRS / EDGE over here on a roaming contract will be prohibitively costly, certainly more than 6 months of remaining O2 minimal contract with no usage.

I have observed that when traveling overseas for more than a few weeks its far more cost effective to use a second phone and purchase a local sim with pre-paid credit and use the home based roaming contact as a back up for emergencies. You could even swap the UK O2 sim into the backup phone and use a cracked iPhone with a local sim and use GPRS-EDGE. This has worked many many times without issue with the exception of the occurrence mentioned above. Had I stayed longer than 24 hrs my charge could have been significantly more give this error.

I know of no one who has been able to successfully transfer minutes onto another countries network. I know of no one who has looked into postponing a contract until their return, but it could be worth checking into.

Run a search for Bangkok Young Professionals. I know friends who were a similar age when they first arrived, they quickly developed acquaintances at first and then friends. I guess it's sometimes difficult without a wingman but I think its a good start for people planning to stay a while.

Other alternatives are joining a football team (IF you play football that is).

Good luck.

I put it in the same pot as S&P, McDonnalds, Pizzahut etc… It’s convenience food and fills a gap when out shopping, I see it as nothing more than that.

It is healthier than many of the other options and I don’t hate it like some, it’s rarely my first choice but sometimes it makes a suitable change…

Mobi…. I like you, as a respected member of this forum, from your crash to ‘I am falling apart’ you have always given a very balanced view, however if I was to listen to your advice I would quit drinking forever.

But…. I like being drunk, I find alcohol to be a liberating social lubricant.

Mobi, based on many of your posts I suggest that many people would enjoy your company with or without alcohol.

However, IF we were to meet at a BBQ, I would want a beer – that doesn’t make me an alcoholic. If there were no beer at the BBQ I would enjoy it a lot less. If you offered me a non-alcohol beer I would feel that I ‘need’ an alcohol beer. Does that make me an alcoholic?

I’m interested in the answer because I believe that it’s possible that I could be regardless of how well behaved I am when I’ve had a drink.

Then again, without any outside influence, I drink at home, or spend a few days without having any alcoholic drinks. So… Where is the limit exactly? Is that what you are asking Op?

From my point of view, OP…no, you just enjoy a few beers.

If your drinking is within a financially acceptable limit and there is no detrimental effect to anyone else or your heath how could it possibly be an issue?

With all due respect - What is the age difference ?

You mentioned that she is 32 years old with a 13 year old child from a previous marriage which ended tragically.

How old are you ?

The reason I ask this is that while many people will not agree, I have observed that most successful relationships anywhere (including between Westerners and Thai's) is where the couple is of a similar age and of a similar socioeconomic background (of course there area always exceptions).

I believe a relationship is subject to a higher risk of failure in the majority of cases when the man is much younger or significantly older than the lady in question.

You mentioned that the girl is well educated and the family are not poor, so this might indicate that there are no financial reasons for Her and her families attraction to you as a potential husband other than offering companionship - but the apparent rush to tie you down appears to indicate otherwise and something appears very amiss. Certainly no sin-sod should be requested from a lady who has been married and has a child.

Good luck, don't allow yourself to get pressured into anything too soon. You will be respected for being strong and your behavior and response now lays the foundation for your future as a couple and as a member of their family.

Wear your wellies if you are not ready to father children.

In the UK we get the Airport Limo Service within a 100 mile radius. I live +/- 90 miles from the airport and not on a convenient link so this service is excellent, instead of a taxi which could cost more than £100 I get an S Class Merc, a 7 Series BMW or the New Jag.

I've used Etihad the last 5 times over the last 2 years and can't fault them.

I've not used the Service in Bangkok, but I imagine it to be very similar - E Class Mercedes I believe.

This is a great touch to the Etihad Service and makes them highly competitive, add this to the 180 degree flat beds and very competitive pricing and choosing Etihad to fly with is somewhat of a no-brainer for me.

The only downside is the change over in Abu Dhabi - usually 2-2.5 hrs, but as there are no direct flights from Bangkok to my nearest city with an airport then changing planes somewhere is inevitable.

Hi all , thanks for the advice and comments. Sorry for taking so long with an update on this issue but yes i am in big s#!t now with this guy. He is out of the hospital and medically OK, I decided not to pay the money yesterday and go to court as it came out that the so called family that were demanding the money wer'nt even actually family and secondly after getting some feedback from Thais in my area Pattaya (Hat Yai) the meen was a known trouble maker and drunk. I went to the police station this morning and send I was not going to pay the man and want to lay a charge against him for trspassing and threatning my family. The police said I could not make a charge because I was in the wrong and that I wanted to kill the man and not just chase him off my property.

Will advise soon

The Police may well be dealing with this in the time honored manner in which they deal with most events like this. Which is to take the easiest option. You have more money, therefor you pay compensation of some sort.

The risk now though appears to be that the police are involved and this could blow out of proportion.

Have you seen copies of the medical bills ? You could re-visit the Police station and say that as you don't believe you are in the wrong you do not wish you pay compensation, but you would like to help the police with their situation you will pay for the mans medical bills.

Have you received any advice from a Lawyer ? how much trouble could you be in, in the worst case scenario ? Additionally, pleading guilty to something like this in order to face a lesser charge could result in you becoming persona non grata next time you re-enter the Kingdom. It might be easier to just make it go away...

Bottle of whiskey and B5000 (on top of medical bills) might work...

Face and Zenze are good suggestions. Phillipe and Harvey are often just that little bit too quiet and the customer get too little privacy.

A teppanyaki restaurant such as Tsunami at the JW Marriot could also be fun. I wouldn't go as far and say it's romantic but the food is fantastic, and its very memorable and enjoyable.

If the Airport was further out, i.e. about an hour, like KL or HK then the rail link would be more useful. But like Singapore, it's just not far enough to justify the hopping around with luggage. It's far easier to take a taxi door-door for the +/-30 minute trip. The rail link seems to offer no time or cost savings when compared to a normal taxi.

It's also a lot easier in a taxi to take the expressway and circumnavigate any congestion hot-spots. Also, the area of the terminal station near Asoke is already a congestion hot-spot itself.

The link could be beneficial at times of extreme congestion such as Friday evenings, but that is the only time I could see it being of any use and only if you were willing to lug your baggage around on the BTS and subway.

It really depends on your tastes... some of the hotel restaurants are a little touristy for my tastes, particularly the ones with a good view....

Once in a while I like to take my girlfriend to L'Opera, an Italian restaurant on Sukhumvit 39 (deep into the Soi on the left hand side).

In my opinion is has one of the most romantic settings, a good wine list, dim lighting and great food.

http://www.taasty.com/thailand/lopera

Oh dear - Thats the funniest post I've read in a long time...

Do you have a photo of the kittens mother to show him ?

Thats good news.. I never understood the logic of phasing that system out.

Re-introduction might help alleviate some of the traffic at the toll booths... I hope they develop the current system.

I've had this phone number for more than 4 years. One of the first things I did was to ensure that there no extras; sms' etc... Then recently, the sms' started up, it became very annoying with sms' at obnoxious times (i.e. 5am etc) waking me up, one of the most annoying was a news network (turning my phone on silent is not an option)...

... I called the AIS centre and had all the messages stopped. 95% of them have, and now I only get about 1-2 sms' per week. One of the things I have been very careful about is that I give my number out to friends only and never to shop assistants, or anything possibly related to marketing.

In my case - Calling the AIS centre worked.

I have had the Nuvi 200 for about a year. Purchased from MBK at about 9600 B (I think).

I have found that it takes a while to locate satellites and usually I am 10 mins into my journey before it can navigate.

My car is parked underground, so its out of satellite communication while parked.

Has anyone else has this issue? Is it normal? Does anyone know of any fix whereby it can locate the satellites more quickly?

Someone I know ;-)… Will Marry in the near future.

The girl is from a rather wealthy background, Father a wealthy businessman with an honorary position as adviser to someone high up in the government (I’m not sure exactly what this means, but it means he has some level of influence which ever government is in power).

Sin Sod is expected to be 1 MB – Will the western son in law get it back, it’s completely unknown.

My ‘friend’ has many Thai friends one of whom has father in government. This friends father will be the ‘Senior Thai’ who will vouch for him and be present when my friend asks his girlfriends father for her hand in Marriage.

Does my Friend care about the 1MB – Of course he does, but he can easily afford it and understands that its is part of the culture here and something all of his Thai friends have paid, only some have got it all back, some only half.

The Parents in Law would pay for the engagement party. Groom pays for the wedding - From which a significant profit is expected. Regardless of Sin-sod no one will be out of pocket.

In this case, everything is about show and face and the game has to be played.

Everyone out there on the roads are idiots who can do anything at any time, that includes you. The best way to drive is to treat everyone like an idiot, including me, and assume nothing…. After that there is a lot of luck.

Many of the issues that safer and defensive driving practices in the West have eradicated are not possible here. We have to adapt to the local conditions and unfortunately to get anywhere we have to become more assertive, pushy and break many of our rules.

I am a bit of an a$shole when I drive here and I hate it, but I have to be. Giving way to someone here can add 5-10mins to a 20min journey. It's not like back home, here, if I give way to one car to turn right in front of me I have to let 20 or more though, people will even drive 50m the wrong way down the road just to make that turn at which point a 20 minute grid-lock ensues and I’m stuck. These days I only give way if I can see that its only one or a couple of cars and even then I get caught out. It does get annoying when you do the right thing and then lots of other people take advantage.

I lost 15mins the other day on a 30min journey (it lasted 45mins) by stopping on amber at lights. I was stationary at the light for 15mins (no exaggeration, I timed it). Had I jumped the amber light I would have saved a lot of time, I’ll continue through on amber in future. At home the amber light to me means Stop if its safe to do so.

In response to this specific topic: If I drive into someone’s rear I’ll automatically accept blame. Unless they swerved in front on me at the last minute (as per the lorry u-turning situation), in that case I would argue the case.

Motorbikes are not the switched on careful drivers they are in the west in fact neither are a lot of the cars. On a number of occasions I’ve crested a klong bridge only to be met by traffic. The motorbike travelling behind who saw no reason to slow down as there was no traffic before the bridge (even though there is a junction 70m after it) slides past on his backside after his emergency braking has failed him. I've seen this a few times, its almost predictable at that location, I’ve not yet been hit by a motorbike – It will happen, it’s just a matter of time.

If the time comes a Class Action Law suit will be filed with whomever wishes be included.

Not me though (I was referring with regards to the extent of my resources)

I think it would be better to be ready to act than starting to enquire about how to go about it when it is too late

I still think that some of the members (obviously not you) should get in touch with each other if something is considered abusive

Noone knows what tomorrow is made of, but when when its cloudy out there, plan ahead and bring an umbrella along.

Please don't quote me out of context. There is enough misleading information on this subject without adding to my comments as if you are quoting me directly.

If it ever got to the point of being necessary a Class Action Law suit will be filed with whomever wishes to be included. (I will be part of that group when I deem it necessary).

Any such action might be completely unnecessary. The last flare-up regarding Thai Elite was the erroneous reporting that the government were shutting down the program when in fact they were evaluating the programs business ethics and ensuring protection for the members in the way of compensation if the program was to fail. That topic went quiet due to lack of information otherwise.

What is happening now is a result of the ongoing audit. The outcome as yet unknown will take a couple of months. I may well be wrong, but preparing for a class action law suit at this stage may be letting the foot off the clutch a little early....