koolbreez

I wonder why you pick Chiang Mai in Thailand? Also are you aware of the yearly environmental concerns in that area? During about 3 months out of the year Chiang Mai, and the surrounding areas in the North are covered in smoke from forest fires, and the burning off of the fields in Thailand, and the surrounding countries. It is not a minor inconvenience. Planes are grounded it gets so bad.

Have you thought about how difficult it will be for your kids, and wife not being able to speak Thai, and living there? Have you explored medical concerns if something happens? If your wife was Thai that would be a serious reason for this move, but just to save money for the kids to go to a private school leaves much to be desired.

1-Whenever you can get the time off from work.

For all the rest of the questions get a few new guide books, they are packed with the information you are looking for, and need. The Lonely Planet book is very popular.

Not enough time for your trip. Two weeks should be the minimum coming here. For only one week pick just one place, and stay there. Have a real vacation instead of a tiring travel excursion trying to do too much. For any one place on your schedule a week will be more practicle to actually see the sights, and relax. Pick an island, and stay there as that seems to be what you want to do most.

Your schedule gives you no real time to site see, or shop at all. There is nothing wrong with returning to Thailand on other vacations, as most people do after they've been here the first time.

My suggestion is 3 days in Bangkok, then 3 days on an island, with one day of travel getting there. Koh Chang island is only 8 hours from Bangkok by bus, and is great for a relaxing vacation with plenty to do in a short time. Most of my clients decide to spend a week there it is so nice, and inexpensive.

Thailand is hot year round for a first time visitor, the only difference in the months is whether it is raining or not.

Vertigo is very good on the rooftop if it is not raining. Make reservations even on a Wednesday. A little cheaper and also good views is the Bayoke Sky Tower buffet at 79 stories up on Ratchaprarop soi 3, large selection of food, though the sussi is not fantastic, the shrimp and crab are though. After dinner is viewing at 83 floors up, the tallest building in Bangkok. You can be out of there easily by 9pm, but make reservations as it is popular with the 60 floors of hotel guests, and migrant tourists (it is popular with Japanese tourists), then the BTS airport train is 7 blocks away at soi 10 at the Ratchaprarop station (30 minutes or less to the bottom floor in the airport for bt40). You can check her bags at the hotel then it is the fastest ride to the airport with a bt50 tuk tuk ride, or bt40 taxi to the BTS station from dinner, tuk tuk is faster that short distance.

Top of the line is any restaurant at the Oriental, Peninsula, or 4 Seasons hotels, but you might not finish by 9pm. The Vertigo (best romantic), would be cutting it close.

Look like you have NO money and no one will waste good robbery drugs on you. Be cheap, don't flash cash around to impress people, they just think it is foolish, and don't wear jewelry, even your watch. Bangkok is a whole different place than Pattaya, but still be street smart. pickpocketing happens in Bangkok lots more than druggings.

Freelancer Ladyboys are the most common threat at night. Grab your pockets if anyone grabs you, or touches you seductively on the streets. Don't carry a billfold, you don't need it. Billfolds are the biggest targets for pickpockets.

ALL you need on you is the cash you need for the day/night, and a folded up photocopy of your passport. Leave your room key at the hotel desk if you can, no need to chance loosing it. If you have to change money, or get cash from an ATM, then that should be the only thing you do on that trip out of the hotel, return to your room right after to drop off valuables, and extra cash. Don't take chances at all, even in the daytime.

Raja's is very good, but make exactly sure of what you want, and the material you want. If you can find a picture of what you want that is very good to have, even if it is a small picture from a magazine they can copy it. Raja's is one of the old school tailor shops, having started up during the Vietnam war selling to soldiers outside the different air bases, many of whom are still costumers. The kids now run the shops as dad has retired.

One important thing to remember, don't buy the special you see. Be very specific on what you want, the material you want it made from, the number of pockets, inside pockets on the suit jacket, hidden pockets, the cut, double stitched, the lapels, how many buttons, back pockets on the pants, pleats, or not, how much padding in the shoulders, the lining to use, etc. Half lining in the pant is very good to have. They do not assume anything so be exact on what you want, that is why a picture is good to show, and give them. Also get as many fittings as necessary, one will usually do it as the actual tailors are very good, they live, and work on the block behind my apartment.

Plan on spending over $200US if you want a real good suit, and a nice cashmere overcoat is a smart accessory to top it off with if in a cold climate.

Get a re-entry permit if you plan on getting another marriage extension. As long as your visa extension has not expired when you come back then there will be no problem returning with a re-entry permit and you only need a single entry, even if there was only one day left on the extension. No matter what they write you'll still be allowed to enter.

It could take longer getting a new visa rather than another extension if you let your current extension expire by leaving the country without a re-entry permit, then coming back overland on a tourist exemption stamp would only give you 15 days. No reason to mess your passport up with tourist junk stamps you don't need.

The threat of violence is intended to reduce the crowds. These groups don't resort to violence to bring about change like the red shirts, and the UDD, they use numbers. The last demonstration was reduced by the police setting up checkpoints to stop those from outside of Bangkok from attending, or it would have been quite a bit larger. This time that trick is known so those coming in from out of Bangkok will use different routes so now the threat of violence is being used to reduce the numbers. Allot of political favors are being called in also to distance non-PTP groups from joining.

A demonstration couldn't ask for better free publicity, and the government is falling into place providing it. This demonstration could very easily top 1 million, heck the police alone are providing 50,000, and the government has sparked quite a number of farmers into joining by not paying them yet for their mortgaged rice from last year's crop.

Then there was Thaksin's last interview almost blatantly stating that the red shirts are of no more use to him.

Purchase tour tickets after you get here, not before. You will be charged double, or triple if you book online for tours. It is not like booking your hotel which is cheaper to book online.

The normal routine is to look around the area your hotel is in, and pick the agent with the best price (there are tour agent booths everywhere), your hotel tour desk might have the best price, then book with them the day before you want to go, as all the actual tours are operated by the same company, and all the agents compete with price differences. Each different agent does not represent a different tour operator. All the tours are run by only one company in the area your hotel is in.

The floating market tour is a half day tour so it is common to add another element like the Rose Garden, or the Crocodile farm/show to fill up the rest of the day, and for lunch to be included. The croc show is good with all you'd expect for photos, or the Rose Garden show has a traditional wedding theme, but not real good for pics except for a few of the seats.

Another good tour is the Bridge on the River Kwai, and elephant riding for extra. This tour is an all day tour with train ride to hell fire pass for lunch after playing on the bridge, and touring the museum.

Those two tours are the top ones for day trips, and are cheap for what you get. The Flight of the Gibbon tour is good, but extremely overpriced for what you get. Expect Western pricing for that tour, and Thai pricing for the others.

Once you have your tour receipt the tour mini-van will pick you up at your hotel early in the morning, and stop at different hotels throughout the city picking up customers until the van is full, then depart to the tour location, or stop to combine people into different vans before heading out.

On the return from the tour you will stop at usually a large gem shop for shopping. Do not buy from these places, they are extremely overpriced, and the tour operator gets his commission. If the tour van offers to not stop on the way back then don't.

The improvements do not involve traffic, only the vending areas directly around the monument. Currently all the vending booths, and other structures are being leveled at Victory Point, with all other vending areas around the monument being baracaded off, with demolition to start next week.

The mayor's interpretation of chaos only involved the sellers directly around the monument, and not traffic. The vendors I talked with today expect rents to go up, but have not been told yet, and not all vendors are going to be invited back after the remodel is completed. There were some good sales as vendors were unloading their stock.

As long as you are under $10,000US there won't be a problem. You just need passport, and the cash. There are Western Unions all over Bangkok.

I suspect the ladies were using that ingrained Thai trait of putting on the impression they knew what they were talking about when in fact they did not.

You can not get an ED visa issued inside Thailand. It is not a case of simply changing the extension as they were leading you to believe, it is the issuing of a completely new non-im ED visa, and that can not be done inside Thailand. You can not extend a tourist visa for one year, or even 90 days, and you can not change it to a different class of visa to extend it inside Thailand no matter who, and how much you bribe. They did not provide your friend accurate information in this case.

Being you want to be anonymous buying online I assume you are sending to someone other than yourself, and not to your address. It also questions the legality of what you're trying to buy.

If you know someone on the West coast in the USA have them go to a Safeway grocery store, get you a pre-paid Visa card, and top it up then send it to you. The cost is not cheap, but you will be able to remain anonymous.

He won't have a problem as he does have a return ticket, even though it is so long out. All he has to do if they question him is say he is going to other countries by bus, and at his age they won't bother him. A friend did that saying he was going to Vietnam by bus to visit where he'd been during the war, and was advised to get his visa for the rest of his trip in Bangkok. The people that are of concern are younger people they view as not having much money. It is unfortunate that they profile like this, but it is a reality.

Leave the country immediately without a reentry permit. That will cancel your visa, and if the University informed immigration of your resignation then they will charge you overstay if it is on their computor. If they haven't yet then no fine. Come back in on a tourist visa you picked up at a Thai embassy/consulate, and all is done. You can get 2 tourist visas at the embassy in Vientaine in Laos.

Going to a language school and getting an ED visa will cost you around bt24500-bt30000 for the acredited/registered school to get the paperwork you need to get the visa, and you have to go to school for them to give you the paperwork you need to extend the visa every 90 days. It is a one year visa, and you'll have to leave the country to get it originally, but it has to be extended every 90 days, not just reporting address every 90 days. Because of so much exploitation, and abuse of the ED visa you now HAVE to go to school to get your extension paperwork every 90 days, and if you don't the visa extension expires at the end of 90 days because you will not have the paperwork from the school to extend it.

It is cheaper to just do visa runs for tourist visas for the time you want to travel around.

Ummmm, if there was chaos there, and there is not, none of his proposals would mitigate what he perceives as chaos. More cameras does not do anything, rebuilding the restrooms does not do anything. Building more police booths does not do anything, and might even make problems by slowing traffic down, as more lights would do. There is really no place to put more lights.

How does the building of verticle gardens bring order to chaos? That is a new one. If he truly wanted to do something substantial there, he would widen the sidewalks so the street vendors had more room to expand operations.

What a bunch of bull cocky.

He needs a completely different visa. As a management trainee he is working, and not going to school. That is why his extention was refused, and there is no overstay on the visa. Overstay=expired.

Get him the correct visa, and work permit (even if he is working for no money, or volunteering he needs a work permt) if he is working for you, and not an ED visa. Your company needs to meet all the government requirements for him to even work for you, and get the correct visa, and work permit. He can not legally work on an ED visa, and a management trainee is working. You can not get around what is legal by thinking he is in school working for you as a management trainee. Are you a registered school?

Forget the consulate in Portland, use the consulate in Los angeles. No ticket requirement, and they will issue 3 visas. Just send the application, passport, 2 passport photos, and copy of the details page of your passport, Money order ($40 for each visa), along with a self-addressed stamped envelope for them to return your passport (stamps, not metered postage). They are very nice if you happen to have to call them, and they get your passport back to you in a very reasonable timeframe.

I used this consulate for 8 years, twice a year, before I moved to Thailand, and never had a problem. Expect your passport back within 10 days. I used USPS priority mail for the return envelope, not express mail as they recommend, and never had a problem.

http://www.thaiconsu...rvice_visa.aspx# Go to this FAQ --> Tourist Visa Requirements for US passport holders

There is enough here without getting into Norton Ghost.

Right click in the tool bar, and click Start Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, and scroll down to Vuze.exe. Click on it to highlight it, then click End Process. This will make sure the program is actually closed, and not running in the background. At this point you can delete the file in Windows Explorer.

What price range for the room rental? Without that detail it is hard to help. Motorbike rentals should run around bt3000 for the month each. Check the classifieds here for the motorbike rental.

As it is a civil case, it can take years, if an attorney will take it for the low money involved, and they will not take the case on contingency. He will have to pay them upfront if they take the case. Did he take good pictures of the damage, before the landlord had a chance to tamper with the floor?

Sunbelt Asia might be able to help, or at the very least steer you in the right direction. I doubt very seriously if an attorney will advise pursuing it unless his intention is just to prove his point.

It might be better if he knows the local policemen, and offers them half the money if they can retrieve the deposit. Most police are prejudice against Indians, and that could be in his favor in getting money back at the least expense.

Why didn't you get 2 tourist visas? Watch the AirAsia sales, and you can cut the flight cost in half with some pre-planning. Nice report, even though you didn't go to the consulate yourself.

No insurance covers pre-existing conditions. If the person has paid into Thai social security for over a year, and paid his taxes he might qualify for social security medical though. Still not exactly clear on how it all works, but I do know foreigners that pay in are eligible.