xylophone

Since you ask Dr Jack54, I will give you my worst three experiences at Phuket immigration office: – 1). I received a new NZ passport so when the time came to renew my retirement extension I took the old and new passports down to the office, and was told there would be no charge for the new passport. Imagine my surprise when the officer behind the desk asked me for 500 Baht, and my only "fault" (if you want to call it that) was to suggest that I was told it was free and I didn't hand over 500 baht. The officer then turned to his sidekick and spoke something in Thai and smiled and returned to me and said that he wanted copies of every page of my previous bank book, which I didn't have on me. So I had to drive back from Phuket to Patong to pick up the old bank book, which by the way was not relevant to anything, and when I sat in front of this officer again, he then said he wanted copies of every page, so I had to go downstairs and get copies of every page. I then returned and he said he wanted copies of EVERY page of my old passport, even though many of them were blank, so down to the copy shop again to get more copies for him – – of blank pages that is. I eventually was issued with the retirement extension but it took me four visits and two days of hassle to get it. He just wanted to show me who was the boss, so made me jump through hoops as the saying goes. 2). In the days when regular income was accepted by immigration, I had half a pension coming from the UK and half from NZ, +400 K in the bank, so I thought I was okay, and just to make sure that the paperwork was understandable (because the overseas pension funds came in on different days) I had added them all up on a page by page basis, and everything should have been fine as I had the letter from my embassies – – so plain sailing I thought. The officer was grumbling and mumbling as he was flicking through the pages and after a short while he looked up at me slammed his hand on his desk leaned forward into my face and said with a scowl, "next year you put all the money in the bank"! This despite the fact that 65K per month was one of the options available and I had complied with that completely. 3). This happened last year (or perhaps the year before) and I had everything lined up and had been to Bangkok bank to get copies of the bank statement with 800K in it, plus a copy of my normal bank book and a letter from the bank explaining everything, however the bank manager said I would have to wait a week as they had to send to Bangkok to get this report. So a week later I went back and they didn't have it and it was getting perilously close to my retirement extension date, so I came back on the Monday and there it was, and it had been there all the time but had been overlooked. I hurriedly got everything in order and raced down to immigration and tried to explain to the officer what had happened. No luck on that score, because he simply said that I had overstayed three days and was going to be fined 1500 baht for three days overstay, even though I explained to him that the bank was at fault and the money had been in the account all of the time. It didn't make a blind bit of difference as he took my 1500 baht and shooed me away. It shouldn't be difficult and there have been other occasions when I have managed to get through the day at immigration without too much of a problem, apart from the queues and the waiting, and having to come back the next day for my passport, but it is something I dread, and as I am in a position to be able to spend money on an agent and not worry about it, then that's what I will do. For the record, a close friend is going to use an agent again this year even though he has had 800K in the bank for more than 10 years here, because last year he was bringing in money from the UK at a rate of 65K baht per month, and for some reason the overseas transfer didn't occur in one month and although he had the 800K in the bank the immigration officer wouldn't accept his application because of this, so my friend asked him why this was, when he had the 800K in the bank all the time, and the officer lost his temper and ordered him out of the office. So my friend collected his paperwork and went to an agent and that's what he will do again this year. Just to add some icing on the cake a Canadian friend of mine has been down to immigration three times over the past 14 days and as he had just come back into the country he was unsure of what was required, so he handed over his passport and whatever visa he had and they just told him to go away. He enquired as to what he should do and the officer just told him to go away, so he did. He went to the farang at the desk, where the guy actually checks the paperwork to make sure it's in order, and he told him that it was, so he went away and came back a few days later, only to be told to go away again, so he asked why and what he should do, but no answer and he was waved away. His comment to me was that he found it absolutely amazing that Phuket was desperately in need of tourists, yet he and a couple of others who had turned up at immigration were treated like lepers. This is absolutely no way to run an important part of Phuket tourism, and I don't want any more of it, so off to an agent I go when my extension becomes due mid next month.

I will stress that I do have the 800K in the bank and it will stay there, just in case, so I'm not doing anything illegal, just getting some help to get past the immigration Nazis, and as @Misty has said, it's not surprising given the hard time I've had with those guys in the past, despite everything being in order. I'm 75 this year and I just don't want a hard time at immigration so the 15,000 baht will be well spent IMO.

Quick follow-up to my post zzzzz, as I have managed to locate a few Visa agents via Google, so your expertise/advice/info may not be needed – – but if you were considering sending it to me, thank you all the same.

I am in Phuket zzzzz, Patong actually, and if you have the name of an agent who would charge 10,000 baht, then perhaps you would be kind enough to send it me via a PM? If not then no big problems, however a 5000 baht saving would go a little way towards my next wine purchase!!!

Slightly off topic, so mods can feel free to post this elsewhere, but as regards the use of an agent, for the first time in my 15/16 years here I'm going to use one. I have the 800K in the bank and indeed it has been there untouched for a number of years, but I just don't want the hassle of dealing with the immigration people as I've had three instances where everything was in order, but they made life difficult for me. So I will take all of my bank statements, passport and necessary docs along to an agent and pay 15,000 baht and they can do it all for me – – it means I will be hassle free, have saved myself two roundtrips to the immigration office and not have a couple of sleepless nights, and for me it's worth 15,000 baht.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person IMO.

Actually goats don't need a lot of looking after, and the meat when slow cooked can be good......and of course there's goats milk! Many farmers and "smallholders" in NZ use goats to keep the grass and weeds down. Good luck with whatever you settle on.

Unfortunately scams like this are happening all over the world with Ponzi schemes, crypto currencies and whatever else one cares to name, so one could suppose that greed and gullibility (perhaps stupidity) are pretty well universal!

Thieves – – they stole its handbag and belt, as well as shoes. Whatever next!

Goats or sheep??

Puzzled by that statement.....can you explain it?

I like Guy Pearce so I thought I would download this and watch it, even though it only has an IMDb rating of about 5. Well the movie itself had so many plot holes in it that it was occasionally hard to follow, and I have still got no idea how a couple of the people actually fit into the story itself, but I did watch it through till the end and just put it down to, "not one of Guy Pearce's better movies".

Many of us will know when spring is upon us, the dawning of the new season, when we see the buds on the trees and early spring flowers begin to open up, and there are signs of a "dawning" here in Patong. About two weeks ago I saw the first signs of the property spruikers, dressed in their white shirts and dark blue/black trousers, gathering in a bar along Nanai, which seems to have been traditionally a place where they do gather. Only a few of them, but there they were and I wondered if the property market was beginning to open up again? Then just three days ago I saw a French guy who previously managed about four property booths in and around Jungceylon and I hadn't seen him for the duration of Covid, so thought that he must have come back here for a specific reason....... Then the final proof, if you wish, that the property market is starting to swing back into action (slowly but probably surely) was when I saw one of the motorbike "people chasers" who pull up alongside of unsuspecting pedestrians and ask them to take part in a prize draw with a scratch ticket, which is always a "winner" no matter what. And to claim that prize they have to turn up to a presentation on property ownership and investment (promising returns of between 10 and 15% per annum) and listen to what the presenter says, and then they are free to get their prize and go – – yeah right! What they don't know is that the pressure is really put on the customer in order to get them to sign a document, even if it's to give over their credit card details for a deposit, and that pressure is relentless, and some folks actually buckle under it and do sign up, and it's not surprising when you consider that some of these spruikers are only paid on commission and they are ruthless, and are bullies in most cases. So perhaps this activity heralds the beginning of the awakening/dawning of Patong.......we will see. Having said that the whole area of property investment here, as conducted by these cowboys, reeks of dishonesty and pressure and the "scratch ticket" ruse, where everyone is a winner, is downright dishonest.

Caught up with a friend of mine at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant and had a main course of schnitzel, accompanied by a few glasses of red wine, and enjoyed both. Earlier on the place was absolutely full, so it's good to see this new place pulling in the customers, as it is a great location and serves great food at reasonable prices, and it's just what Patong needed, IMO. Trying to cut the length of my posts down I will skip through a few things in bullet point fashion: – – As before, Bangla Road was crowded. – The road itself was busy but the bars didn't seem to be that busy, neither did the live music bars, and indeed Red Hot was only about 30% full. – Went to Suzie Wong's for the first time in an age and that was packed, and for me it's good fun, as a friend and I have known a couple of the girls for some time now, although it's best not to go overboard on the drinks for the girls, but they will always ask for them and if you have the willpower of a tame rabbit, then your pockets will soon be emptied. – Soi Sea Dragon was not as crowded as on my previous visit, but at least it's picking up from what it was a few months ago. – Red Hot, as already mentioned, was not that busy so the atmosphere wasn't as good as it has been in the past, however I was fortunate enough to be able to get a table next to a few Aussies who were part of JetStar (airline) crew who were here for about three days due to some unforeseen circumstances, and they were good company. I was offered a few drinks by a couple in the crowd, including one Indian guy, who looked as if he was fairly wealthy, who was adamant that I had to have a drink because he enjoyed my singing so much (no he's not tone deaf), so I weakened and threw down another tequila. The rain put a dampener on the late evening (pun intended) however Bangla still remains the place to be for the nightlife and crowds, with the beach road providing plenty of choice as regards restaurants, even if the areas a little further out from Bangla are still suffering from lack of customers/tourists.

A good mate of mine had the Rover 3500 and we drove to many pubs and parties it, and I thought it was a great car at the time. Very spacious and well laid out internally, and it was quiet and drove very well, as well as being good-looking, IMO.

I'm not sure how much store one should put on the contents of that link, especially when the author/writer describes syphilis as a virus, when it is in fact a bacteria.

Summed up my thoughts too Rimmer, so will do the same!

Trawling back through the movies in the BBC iPlayer I came across, "Blazing Saddles" which is a movie I remember seeing eons ago, and just about the only things that I do remember about it were the farting scene round the campfire, and the black sheriff, so I thought I'd have another look at it. Well I was surprised as I never realised that the movie was rife with racism (the N word for black folk spoken quite often in the movie) Chinese referred to as "chinks" and parodies of Germans, Nazis, Jews and gays and probably more that I can't remember now......however it didn't shock me because it was from an era when we accepted all of that stuff and really paid no heed to it. Whether that was right or wrong I don't know, but what I do know is that movie could never certainly be made now, so I'm glad I watched it again, faults and all!

I had a course of HA injections back in New Zealand when I had some and cartilage and bone fragments removed from my elbow, and I still wanted to play tennis, and the surgeon said at the time it was perhaps a little experimental for my condition, but it wasn't that expensive so I went ahead and had a small course of injections over a few weeks. Well there was no pain and I was delighted with the result, so perhaps worth a try in your case?

I downloaded the first three episodes of the "Lord of the Rings" prequel, "The Power of the Rings" and have so far gotten through the first two episodes, but I may add that I was tempted to bail out halfway through the second episode, because I just didn't find it interesting – – has anyone else experienced this??

The orange clown clearly isn't right in the head.

Some chuckles to brighten up your day, some were actual advertisements in newspapers:- WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE. Worn once by mistake. Call Stephanie. FOR SALE BY OWNER Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes. Excellent condition, £200 or best offer. No longer needed, got married, wife knows everything. COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED. Also 1 gay bull for sale. TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him? LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.

That's no yolk, I can tell you, and it cracked me up all white, and lucky she wasn't beaten to a pulp and whisked away. No doubt she can hatch another story in order to feather her nest.

As in the past, with things like this, none of that matters as long as somebody along the chain gets part of the "skimming" which always goes on, after all TIT.

The other posters here give a fairly good indication of how Patong is faring right now, and I also post quite regularly on a thread here called: Patong – the Wake, so you might want to look at that and see if you can pick up some info.