Presnock

Americans come in every shape color nationality - only the American Indian can claim to be original, the rest of us are immigrant stained.

totally depends on what one like's to eat in my opinion...but I did not find a lot of the local "traditional" foods likeable to my taste. A lot depends on where one settles down as each island is a country unto itself. That is why there are hundreds of spoken Tagalog-based dialects as no islander wanted to study that of their neighbor so when the US received the islands from the losing Spanish, the first thing that the US sent to the PI was 500 English teachers. Though that too is now Tagalogized by those who feel superior as Asians are wont, they love to mix all the various languages in each sentence spoken. I still miss some things about the PI though, a really neat country.

Yeah, sorta like this forum - I am sure you believe all that you read here because you can easily tell that there are a lot of really smart people here!

If you have any concerns about the ltr, just email or call the BOI office in Bangkok and they speak English well and can answer any of your questions while those of us that have already received our visas, we did so, sometimes years apart and some changes may have occured. Just saying, like everything else put out on this forum, it could be rumor, fact or fake so when it could affect one, it is best to check with the official office. Good luck, good travels.

The stamps indicate approval for 10 yes ten years with the date ten years from the stamp in to the date of expiration 10 years in the future but with a 5-year "renewal" probably to insure one can still abide by the requirements of the initial approval of said visa. yes and if you check the elite visas, one is good for 25 years even - and yeah at each 5-year visa of that type the price LEAPS up for each too.

for those that say the weather can't change quickly - look at the mastadons or dinosaurs that are found intact with green weeds they were eating still green in their stomachs and they are buried in the permafrost so it appears that at least at that particular time the freezing was like "flash" freezing in an instant. just saying as none of mankind today knows what will happen with the world in the future either short or long time. be smart, be safe be happy.

I recall recently someone talking about living in Dumaguete - he talked about the difficulty of getting emergency travel out ward...I delete the forum notes daily so don' rememeber all the particulars.

very easy as Cebu is the capitol of the central PI and plenty of flights going there. sometimes the airports shown on a map is not really a commerical airport with scheduled flights to that particular island. One needs to know how to get to emergency location from some of the islands as it might be necessary depending on one's age.

well Expats seem to like the immigration system in the PI better than that here - tax too maybe, there is an expat forum - google "expat forum Philippines"

Sometimes, one has to charter a flight to get to certain island cities too as they don't have a commercial airport.

Baguio especially great in the mountains. Angeles a lot like Pattaya some of the islands have an airport some don't so to get to some cities, one might have to take a flight to a port that has ferry boats to that island.

Yeah, check out the Expat Forum for the Philippines - lots of pro and anti about locations and usually tell why so one can hopefully feel the same about certain lifestyles. Me, I loved the PI almost as much as I loved Thailand as I was preparing to retire. Only the active volcanoes, strong earthquakes, typhoons, food made me choose Thailand - I spoke Tagalog and Spanish too while I was in the PI so travelled around a lot on dive trips - too much fun for sure. One dive mate A photographer for National Geographic said that they pay her to photograph sealife in the Red Sea and she pays her way to come take pictures of the sea life in the Philippines. At 140 feet deep at night, I the water was so clear that I can recall seeing the moon clearly while sitting on the bottom.

I lived in the PI for 6 years 86-89 and 91-94. Totally loved it as I am a certified SCUBA open water diver. The PI is over 7000 island, water is crystal clear as drinking water and there is a lot of sea life and reefs available plus lots of WWII sunken ships to dive on. Golf is readily available throughout. I also am a member of the PI expat forum and actually, the comments (complaints) sound much like those on this forum. There are those that like Dumaguete and those that do not for the same reason. Lack of facilities and remoteness. But just like Thailand, expats have moved there due to the cheaper life, some for the beauty of the females, English more widespread and immigration easier than here. Though not all are happy. Local foods sometimes leave expats wary. But like they all say, immigration is much easier than here. Land ownership too is like here - though some swear they own land but there are many stories of expats buying property in the boonies only to have the local that sold the property kick the expat out after housing is developed though not a whole lot of stories as most are savvy now to the scams. Suggest you contact some expats there and get their feelings.philippine at "Philippines Expats Forum - Living inthe Philippines" Good luck - the grass is not always greener. 20 storms (Typhoons a year many with flooding), active volcanoes, big earthquakes, heat waves too.

I have lived at times in Thailand from 1972 and VN 66-68 and yeah the summers were hot and the rainy season were very wet. I also lived in the PI 6 years and their summer was pretty warm too even though they had sea breezes just about all the time. Lately there have been a lot of weather station reports about the extended hot times in many locations. Most of the reports state that the EL NINO phenomenom causes the trade winds to blow from the east to the west and La NIna from the west to the east which affects the hot or cool too. In addition, I watched a German report on their hot/dry season which they attribute to the gobal heating/slowing of the jet stream. Besides slowing, they said that the jet stream is pausing for several days in certain spots - that means the a high pressure system (hot dry) period might be in place for several days or a low pressure (cooler and rain) could remain in one spot for several days of rains (possibly flooding that area). In any case, this year the droughts have worsened too with many rivers, lakes, dams, waterfalls, reservoirs have totally dried up affecting water levels for cities, islands, farms etc. The extended 40 degree for over a week or more has reportedly been recorded for the first time and as mentioned by someone else, the nighttime temperatures haven't gone down much so the higher temperatures appear earlier and ealier each day and last longer in the afternoon/evening. This most "weather experts" are harbinger of the future weather patterns. In addition, last week the local weather official on the TNN morning news at 6/7/8 o'clock times indicated that the rainy season should begin here during the last 2 weeks of this month. However, this morning's show the same official said that the rainy season would now probably begin during the first two weeks of next month and that for the first two months or so the rains will probably be light and from August till the end possbily a couple of rain storms plus more nomal rainy days. Thank whoever invented the a/c.

jcates29 - ou did not say if you had gone to the embassy/consulate and had your passport stamped yet - The BOI instructions normally say that once you receive the visa approval letter, you have 60 days to obtain that visa in your passport of you will have to redo the application I believe. Definitely need to contact the BOI office soonest and find out what you need to do immediately...just saying.

last week, the weather bureau exec mentioned on the local morning news that they expected the rainy season to start near the end of this month. This morning that same exec indicated that they rainy season may not start until the first or second week of NEXT month, and that the first couple of months the rains may be lighter (than what I don't know)but then from August on to the end of the season there might even be a couple of strong storms.

The response was a BOI explanation of the yearly report and included in the first sentence that one was to do the TM.30 at the BOI immigration office or I guess who ever is doing the report pluse the other requirements. Yes I think that 99.9% of the forum users don't have a very good opinion of the TM30 reporting and I am included in that too but since I will go my yearly report at the BOI office, they have their own immigration office there and they so far took good care of us without any problems. The requirement of the BOI was to report one's current local address with the other documentation and that was also how it was explained to me when I received the stamps in March of this year. But, I only pass on MY experience in these issues since I am only responsible for myself and no one else. take care, enjoy the heat!

Actua Actally, since I am a foreigner commenting on local Asians, I just thought it was a more complete answer to add those other nationalities that I have also spent time around just as a comparison.

Have lived in the PI, VN, Japan, Myanmar, Indonesia plus some time in Laos too and basically all were about the same - they treated me like I treated them with a smile, plus EU countries, a couple in Africa and he coldest I guess were the French since I was unable to speak "PERFECT" French. Madrid folks were cold but outside of there the Spanish were very friendly. Italians were great. Maltese too were very friendly as were the Portuguese people.

if you check out the response of SHA 22 BKK, where there is included the info in the BOI website about this subject - includes reporting to the BOI immigration the tm.30 info plu plus plus.

for @jcates29 contact info for Board of Investment Thailand is ltr(at)boi.go.th tel: +66(0)22091109 +66(0) 22091110 As I mentioned b4 - goodluck

I have an LTR and found the Board of Investment to be very helpful. I suggest you should contact the BOI and ask them by when you should use your LTR. They have a website and also have phone numbers there available. Just remember their hours are almost 12 hours depending on where you are in the US so you will have to contact them during their normal daytime working hours, not lunch time either and be aware of any Thai official holidays when you want to contact them. Good luck

that is correct based on what others have also noted and one from the website of the BOI. Good luck, take care, stay safe. BE HAPPY.

Well it is only once a year so even if it is like a "90-day report" is only has to be done once a year versus many times if one remains in country all year. This visa is just another visa so what is the problem? I am happier with this visa than the retirement O and in the 10 year period, the cost is actually cheaper for me. No one is forcing anyone to get any particular visa except the Thai immigration and meeting certain requirements to enter and stay in Thailand.

Agree 2011 was horrible - one of the klongs used to speed up flood waters moving out of BKK was right next to daughter's school and not too far from our townhouse so we evacuated to Kanchanaburi for several months. Fortunately the school and our abode did not flood. It definitely was a living nightmare at times and wouldn't want to repeat that. The year following that, we moved out of BKK to CM. Now, guess we will have to plan on evacuating out of CM during the "burning season". Can hardly wait this year for the rains.