Mansell

You could also get married…..a big decision……maybe an agent is better.

The officer was asking for letters from SS in the Philippines……they don’t do that. So I figured Bulls*#% baffles brains…..so I printed out my emails back and forwards to SS in the Philippines….she perused them at length and accepted them…..I think she had no idea what she was looking at, but it satisfied her demand for more stuff. Got the extension……now I can relax for a year, and then it all starts again. I don’t understand the Thai thinking…..they are trying to encourage tourists to come and spend money….but we are here and I would guess on average spend a million baht a year each, some more etc. Surely anybody with a functioning brain would make it as easy as possible for us to stay here. We are guaranteed to keep spending rain or shine, Covid or no Covid, winter and summer. Captive money so to speak. If anybody in the government had initiative they would create a committee and invite Embassies and expats to sit in on the committee, and then do a brain storm to figure how to make the system work better for everybody. Find out why tourists are attracted to Thailand, and what would make it better for them on all levels. Take all the best suggestions and implement them and advertise the changes across the target countries. Just a thought.

Maybe Ubon Joe can answer this for me. Pattaya Immigration keep asking me for a US Embassy letter……I pointed out that stopped two years ago. I have an email from SS Philippines showing my SS income for the last year….the Immigration woman officer says she wants more pages…..pages of what I cannot understand. The other day she refused to talk to me as she was quote, too busy. My wife pointed out that her English wasn’t very good to explain this to me….officer responded, she didn’t care. Does anybody have any idea what this person wants? My extension runs out 31st October. If I cannot get this resolved today I am looking at what my options are for leaving the country and starting over completely again…..though I don’t know how that works for a marriage visa etc. Another strange thing about Immigration here is the list of requirements for the extension, it isn’t in English. Which I think is odd considering most of the farang are English speakers. Korat was a dream compared to Pattaya.

I do the 40,000 baht month method for marriage extension….the woman there said I should do the 400,000 bank method. Somewhat annoying hearing this nonsense from her. I will return with more bank info soon. Having this process every year to me is like having Damocles sword hanging over me with a thread thickness determined by the whim of an Immigration persons mood that day.

If you look at this world and our lives, do you ask yourself what is the point? For those who think there is nothing after death, ask yourself about the world and life. There is a point to everything here…..you just don’t understand what it is right now. Dying is stepping through a door into another dimension. When you make that step you will have some form of enlightenment depending in how evolved you have become over your many lifetimes. If you step through with the belief that there is nothing after death, then your enlightenment will be minimal…..and that is perfect. You will spend a hundred years or more in another realm before you incarnate again. We as humans fear death to some degree, but mainly for a long drawn out painful death……but that is a cleansing for that person before they move forward. There is a point to it all. The trick in many ways is to just enjoy the process as you move forward and evolve. Enjoy the journey, and see you on the other side……it is so close to us that it is in reach, but just out of reach.

My two have been out since the end of February……online doesn’t work for the 10 year old as he has some ADD which doesn’t work well for computers, though he has no problems with video games. Strang how that works. I think open the schools and see how well it works……if it all goes badly just close again. One wonders about this generation’s education standard when they start working.

Ah. So that is the intention……good to know. At one unnamed office the head of the office wanted 15,000 baht for easy process……my wife said just do it for an easier life……I pleaded poverty and the woman settled for 10,000 baht…..it still stuck in my craw though.

I went to Jomtien Immigration today for a marriage extension. The woman asked for a letter from the embassy……these were stopped more than two years ago. She then said I should have 400,000 baht in my account…..I pointed out I was doing the 40,000 a month. The list I got a month ago from Immigration in English for extension was different to her list in Thai. She told me to go away and get all the things on her list. I asked if she had it in English….No, she said. I asked at front desk where they gave me my original English list….of course I had everything on my list…..No, we don’t have. This is probably the largest group of farang outside of Bangkok, and they don’t have the requirements in English…..that just boggles my mind. Every year with these people at immigration is a complete <deleted> shoot. At least in Korat they had the list in English. It is like Pattaya is in the dark ages. I wish this country could get their act together on so many levels. Initiative and looking past the end of their nose’s would be a good start.

I’ve lived in a few countries, and they are all what you make of them. I think Spike Milligan sums it up pretty well.

I don’t believe anybody mentioned that most Thai food is fried…..this isn’t good for your heart at all. Most of the Thai food I pass on here. Had a really good duck curry in Phuket, and went up to Chiang Mai and asked for it there, response was, we don’t eat duck here. So that was the end of that. I much prefer Indian food, (family is now eating this) and Mexican food….spent decades living in S. California. But in Mexico their food is not like American Mexican food. I found a lot of Mexican food in America heavy etc, until I found crab enchiladas…..the best. And of course Margaritas and Tequila Sunrise’s. With the best quality Tequila there is no hangover.

He tied him up because he thought he might regain consciousness and attack him again. He threw the gun in the pond so it wasn’t available to the guy. Remember around five years ago in Phuket where a sixty plus guy was taking some pictures of some guards outside a nightclub……one of the young guards attacked him, and the older guy pulled a knife and killed him. It was ruled self defense and he went free. If the facts are as told, then this guy should go free, accidentally killing someone attempting to rob you at gunpoint is a no brainer. But this is Thailand. Maybe just end up paying the robbers family. In the USA. A lawyer would try and twist it round to benefit the thief’s family. A guy in Santa Monica was on the roof of a school looking to break in and steal whatever. He stepped on a skylight that had been painted black and fell through and was paralyzed. His lawyer got him over a million because the skylight was black…..go figure!

The only reason the word ‘allegedly’ is used these days because in America they are sue crazy, and this is why it became fashionable. If you were caught by the police over a body holding the knife dripping the victims blood, the news would say allegedly. Otherwise if it wasn’t proven in court multi million dollar law suits.

I leased a Leaf in California. Also had a few Prius’s for comparison. I owned a few of the Prius….very good car. The limited range was an issue on the Leaf, but only had to get a charge once to get home….not bad in three years. I don’t think I would buy a Leaf, I would lease it, mainly because new technologies and batteries are arriving all the time. Also Prius are being used as taxis in many cities in the US and are getting huge mileage….that is a big reference point. Never seen a Leaf taxi.

Glad they got the guy. Disgusting human attacking a defenseless woman. Cut his nuts off…..good solution, won’t be attacking anybody else.

Got my second in BKK and was returning to Pattaya. I fell asleep in the car, and slept most of the next day….77 years. Of course wife was driving. But was playing tennis in three days and riding my bicycle.

Probably British Royal family doing some night hunting for grouse with a pistol. “Oh dash it, missed the bloody blighter.”

For the guy who took umbrage of somebody avoiding going into the army and not earning his whatever in your eyes. What a bunch of <deleted>…..military service should be voluntary and not forced, especially when the richies can buy their kid out of it….nothing equitable in that…..as usually the poor and uneducated end up going and being probably brutalized by the ignorant. I did my time voluntarily in the British military……it was somewhat laughable as boy seamen we got paid more than the National Service guys in their last years. Did it make me a better citizen….No. Country and Queen and waving flags in my book is jingoistic utter rubbish foisted on the proletariat by the brainwashing system that’s been around for hundreds of years. John Lennon had it right when he wrote “Imagine.”

Sorry to hear about your losing your wife….you are pretty young, so I’m guessing she was also. Light to you and your daughter and the immigration process with ease and grace.

I had a similar experience, but my farang friend was from Hawaii and he looks like a Thai. He was standing next to his wife so she paid for them both at the Thai price, and I paid at the farang price. It’s actually a form of racism based on skin colour.

This is my first time extending here in Jomtien and I’ve never heard of this…..so how does this work?

Change is nonstop in this world, and prices rise and rise. When I left England in 1972 I paid 5 pounds a week for an apartment in Cheltenham…..a good Indian meal was around ten shillings……beer was cheap and I drank Watney’s Brown Ale. I worked for a guy and drove him around in an Aston Martin and a Range Rover and was paid 45 pounds a week…..I think that was twice as much as the national average, and had an expense account. When I went back to England many years later and asked for a Watneys the guy in the pub looked at me blankly. Life back then was fun and cheap. But like everything it all changes and not necessarily for the better. I can list many countries I’ve been to that are very different now, and not so much fun…..mainly because of all the people now in the world…..1960 there were around 3 billion people, now over 7 billion. Makes a big difference on many levels, and there isn’t anything we can do about it all.

I would suggest getting to the airport with plenty of time to deal with immigration people….he doesn’t want to miss his flight. And have the Covid test he needs with him.

This is to stop the farang buying all the choice places. Example: In Nicaragua you can buy property everywhere except land by the sea. Makes sense if you think about it. In a very short time here all the good stuff would be farang owned…..not great for Thai people.

I lived at at a very nice beach Ao Yon on Phuket. Water very clean and nice and warm. I would swim for half an hour morning and evening. Would meet with friends and just float in the water chatting. Now live near Pattaya….after recent rains here the sea was brown. With no tourists it still doesn’t look very nice. Hour and a half south of here are some wonderful beaches. Was on Koh Samui for three weeks, and I thought the beach wasn’t nice and the water much colder than Phuket…..not my cup of tea that island.

Because to many Thais we farang all look the same…..so they wouldn’t know it was you, it could be any farang.