Andrew Hicks

I own a pickup in Thailand registered in my name. It has been sold and registration has to be transferred to the buyer. I now live in UK and do not want to return to Thailand to deal with the paperwork. My wife's cousin has all the signed transfer documents etc but the vehicle registration office is asking for further documentation but we cannot understand what exactly.

The obvious thing would be for me to produce my passport ID to the Thai Embassy in London and sign a transfer in front of them which they would then stamp and certify.

1. Do you know if the London Embassy will do this. (Phoning is impossible and the website only refers to legalising UK documents, not Thai ones.)

2. Will the vehicle registration office accept this without more?

3. Any other experience on how to deal with sale and transfer of a car from outside of Thailand.

Any ideas will be much appreciated. This is driving us nuts!

Thailand obsesses about its tourism industry but the best possible 'tourists' are the ones who settle in Thailand.

Yet very little is done to accommodate them and they are made to jump through futile hoops on the immigration front eg the 90 day reporting procedure which serves no useful purpose. A more sensible requirement would be for residents to notify if their place of residence changes.

Nor will they ever get secure immigration status and are always at the discretion of the authorities. This study points up the significance of this group to the local Isaan economy which is so neglected in government planning.

The report seems to imply that the farang marry an Isaan girl and then invariably take her home which of course is not true. I wonder what is the split between those who stay and those who go.

Andrew Hicks.

The suggestions of a jealous row in a bar between farang and a Thai man and of mafia/police cover up or immunity strongly remind one of the murder in Kanchanaburi in 2004 of British backpackers, Lloyd and Arscott. A decorated policeman had a row with the boyfriend in the bar, followed the couple out and shot them. He was not held on remand but was given bail and not surprisingly he disappeared into Burma.

I hope justice is more quickly achieved in the present case. It is a horrible story.

The point has been made above that it is a loss of face for the Thai police to ask for foreign assistance. As there are many similar murders in Thailand why make a special case of this one by approaching the Americans or Brits?

The answer of course is obvious... that the Brits have a special interest in the case and that they or the Americans as a matter of solidarity towards a close ally will be willing to assist.

It is surely the duty of a police force to marshal all possible resources and loss of face only arises from failing to do so.

I've lived in Thailand for 13 years straight now since the tender age of 23, I've never set foot in Pattaya, or PAtong. I wouldn't want to. While either of these places might not be as bad as the daily barrage of seedy news articles suggests, I still can't imagine what I'd gain from visiting them. Better go somewhere a bit quieter methinks

Never been in Pattaya or Patong nor even Patpong?

Then you can hardly call yourself and expat!

Your problem is that you are trying to swim against the tidal flow of a whole culture. In what I have written about living in Isaan I describe in a light hearted way that the only way to be happy there is to learn to 'go with the flow'.

This is fine except when it comes to raising ones own child whose interests are of paramount importance. Perhaps if they are to spend their life in Thailand it is fair enough to let them be brought up according to their own culture which certainly succeeds in producing the most delightful people. The Thais perhaps even have the work/life balance better calibrated than in the West. Nonetheless it is hard to see one's child being brought up badly.

There were specific things though that I found intolerable, such as diet. I found it totally impossible to protect my child from an inevitable slide towards obesity and diabetes. All the family would ply him with sweets and ice cream on demand and I was seen as the mad despicable farang when I tried to deny them. There was no solution to this, only frustration and tension.

There in fact was only one way. We moved to and have settled in the UK where he is now thriving and will be given much greater opportunities for his future life.

Andrew.

PS This is no criticism of 'my Thai girl' who is well aware of the different ways of bringing a child up and is keen and effective in giving him the necessary structures and disciplines that her own culture lacks.

...he used to be entertaining but has well and truly passed his "use by" date

Slope or slopey was universally used by US soldiers as a derogatory term for Chinese when they were in China supporting the Nationalists against the Japanese invaders. And racist they truly were. The term carried over to the Vietnam war, but I was unaware of it until Clarkson so unfunnily used it.

Incidentally Prbkk, from your photo I suspect you of being Clarkson's brother.

Andrew.

Thailand's problems stem from it being a relatively newly formed state, enabled by the penetration of the railways, which has not yet successfully integrated the southern region, the northern Lanna kingdom and the eastward looking Isaan plateau.

Furthermore the revolution of 1932 that was to have abolished feudalism is not yet complete and is still being fought on the streets of Bangkok. It is interesting that such revolutions (cf France, China and even England) often take many years to resolve and are followed by long periods of instability as new power structures establish themselves and vested interests are divested.

Only when these issues are dealt with can the country truly achieve the objectives suggested.

Andrew.

I think that you and your wife, if you choose, can adapt. While you don't mention the age of your children, I think that after eight years in the US, they will be the ones who will face a difficult challenge in adapting. While Thailand is a long distance from the US in miles, a village in Issan is significantly farther in cultural and lifestyle differences. They really are, IMO, two separate, distinct lifestyle and cultural worlds.

As a mid 60s, recently retired married couple, we also have a home in a village in Issan, and we have one grown child who lives in the US. After almost 40 years away from Thailand, we built a house, bought a car etc and now spend six months or so in each country. We just returned from seven months in Thailand and thoroughly enjoy each home, and after returning to the US, are still in awe of life back here, much as we are in awe of life at our Issan home surrounded by extended family members.

Two dynamically different worlds - when considering those differences, plus the potential differences in quality of education and setting the foundation for your children for their lives as adults, I would loose a lot of sleep over this decision.

Just my two cents of course. Peace and good luck.

There is much wisdom in this reply.

For you there is a real issue of cultural isolation and boredom. After a few fascinating years of establishing your home and watching the seasons and the rice harvest rotate the novelty may pall. The ideal if you can afford it is having a foot in both camps as SpokaneAl describes, but the big issue is the children. I have no idea how old they are but how will they be educated? How will they feel and if they in effect become Thai what opportunities for the future are there for them. To be rice farmers? It is hard to get any career for them if you are not mega-rich or well connected in Thai society.

I had the experience of moving to Isaan, in fact to a Surin village close to Sisaket, and staying there for a good number of years with my 'Thai girl'. It may be useful for you to read of my experiences in detail and I have set these out in a book, available on the shelves in Thailand as an ebook. Mentioning this is a serious contribution to this debate and I hope moderators will not forbid me from naming it. I am not selling beer or beans and I hope genuine authors with a relevant point are not banned from the forum.

The book is called, "My Thai Girl and I" and it tells our whole story in the village together, with all the joys and pitfalls, told in a humorous but serious light.

Best wishes with your future wherever it may lead.

Andrew Hicks

Yawn.. up here in Isaan we will just watch it on TV if it happens

Maybe true and that's much what my 'Thai girl' says... that Thai politics has always been like this and it's just more of the same.

Trouble is that the dispute is all about Isaan and the integration of the peoples of the NE and the north into the Thai polity with full emancipation and democratic rights. If things really blow up badly, it's hard not to see disorder in the provinces.

Thais do not enjoy reading.

One theory is that the language is so difficult to read with no spaces between words etc. that it is hard to concentrate on the content!

Only a myopic culture would insist on inventing their own script rather than using the Arabic alphabet like most of the human race.

Japan and China are an exception, their written language is ancient, passa Thai is a pretty new one!

Now if they could just learn to read and speak the English language...

Oops! Sorry!

We have tried that, haven't we?

Surely the great achievement of written Thai is that it accurately records the sounds of the language, including the length of vowels and the tones. In contrast our writing system with its ridiculous spellings is totally chaotic.

And yes, reading novels stimulates the brain, especially mine. (My novel I mean.)

I remember that on this thread there was a long discussion about Jack Reynolds' classic novel of 1956, "A Woman of Bangkok" on which I had to scotch rumours that Monsoon Books had re-issued it.

The news is now that Monsoon have had it back in print for some months and also as an ebook.

I have just re-read it and it is as a portrait of a wallet munching lady of the night sharp and memorable as my first time... the first time I read it, that is.

A period piece that is as on target as the day it was written.

Andrew Hicks

This happens a lot. A couple of times / year.

Why do people continue to ride elephants?

Sit on the beach instead.

Please forgive the irrelevance, but why is this member allowed to publicise a book as his avatar?

I am the author of the novel, THAI GIRL, and my avatar was a charicature of myself holding a tiny, tiny red book that was not identifiable. I was told I had to remove it and of course complied.

More importantly, accidents with elephants are a recurring theme, eg in Pattaya and Surin, and something surely needs to be done.

Andrew Hicks

Hello Andrew

This is awesome and your enthusiasm for this project is definately catching

By the way - I noted that the National Library in Sigapore has a copy of the Jack Jones book you mentioned called the Utter Shambles, here are some of the details I learned from the SG NL site about it :

The book is part of the Repository Used Book Collection, Location RSEA, Call No 828.99593REY, has a Reference only status which implies it cant be taken off site.

Published by Siam Communications in 1972, Author is Jones, Jack, 1913-1984, 125 pgs

Contains 3 short stories : The last straw.--Out of the strong.--Ring out the old.

I dont have any visits planned to Singapore but hope you find this info interesting as at this rate this particular book could be an even more rare find than 'AWOB !'

Any further notes from anyone out there on this topic would also be welcome !

Cheers - Hongkonger

Thanks for this. Amazing that a copy of 'The Utter Shambles' has surfaced in Singapore. A friend in the US traced several copies in libraries there but was not too impressed when he read it.

I have a copy inscribed by Jack to his old China friend, Bernard Llewellyn, also a published author and a founder of Oxfam's development work. It is dated 1976 and says, "Bernard, Three bits and pieces from a major work that may never get any further. Jack." It didn't!

It was written by Jack in what he called his anecdotage and has lost the zing of his earlier book.

Again, can anyone find any speedway records that refer to him? (See above.)

Andrew

Andrew, did this topic inspire your sub on stick?

To hear your tale, it must be a depressing book.

I just can't be bothered to read (bar)girl-done-me-wrong stories anymore.

I agree about 'bar girl done-me-wrong' books and I never read them.

It's just that Jack Reynolds' "Woman of Bangkok" is often lavished with praise. Being out of print, when at last I found a copy, I found it very intriguing because there's some fine writing and observation in it. It's an amazing period piece well worth reading but as you say hardly uplifting.

Having known Jack's China friend, Bernard Llewellyn, I've become intrigued to know more about Jack's life and what became of him. That's why I wrote a piece about the book and posted it on my blog and as a Readers Submission on Stickman.

The main purpose is to ask if anyone can tell me more about Jack Reynolds. His old friends are out there somewhere and know it all.

Andrew Hicks

The big news is that Jack's widow is still alive and that contact will be made with her.

One more question for you.

Jack Reynolds had a book of stories published in Bangkok in 1972 called, "The Utter Shambles".

There is a copy in the library of Cornell Unversity but none in the major Bangkok libraries and I cannot find one anywhere.

Has anyone got a copy of "The Utter Shambles"?

I have written a life of Jack and hope to publish this as a book together with a selection of his writings and articles. Not a big seller but still great Bangkok nostalgia.

Thanks,

Andrew Hicks

Hello Andrew - This is awesome of course- do you have a date set for publishing or otherwise sharing snippets with like minded enthusiasts - we're interested to know . . .

The Hongkonger

Thanks Hongkonger,

As to the reissue of Jack Reynolds' seminal novel, "A Woman of Bangkok", sadl there are some difficult copyright isues that have to be resolved first.

But I am working hard on reearching more about his life and a biography and/or a book of his collected writings are on the cards. It's a huge amount of work though.

I am trying to trace his father's origins in Llangollen, North Wales and was there a week or two back looking for the cottage at Worlds End that Jack worked from as a walking tour guide in the late thities.

I'm also in touch with his primary school in Buntingford, Hertfordshire where his father was a Congregational minster and I have had photos published in the local paper appealing for info. So far no response.

Most of all I'm intrigued by the work he did from 1946 to 1951 in West China with the Friends Ambulance Unit. These men did heroic work in appalling conditions transporting medical supplies and running clinics in the late war years and as the communists arrived. Jack died in 1981 but I'm in touch with no fewer than five men who were there in Chungking with him. So may survivors from so long ago.

I've obtained hundreds of pages of documents from the Friends Library archives both in London and Philadelphia consisting of reports Jack wrote back to HQ and his creative writing for the Friends Newsletter. He was captured by bandits and beaten with the flat of a sword. He rolled a truck and survived this and a serious attack of scrub typhus that killed other men. It's better than any novel and there's so much of it.

It's all amazing stuff and it tells me so much about this extraordinary time and a very remarkable man.

After China Jack settled in Bangkok, working for Unicef and then for the UN in many other developing countries, interspersed with journalism and editing work back hme in Bangkok. He left a lot of published writings behind but it is all lost and forgotten. I'm now trying to find it all.

In Thailand his work was in the back of beyond bringing basic medecine to the villages. His diaries give a picture of life in Isaan at that time and one of his stories is how when his jeep broke a spring somewhere out in Sisaket he stumbled upon a woman dying in childbirth and used his medical skills to save her life while al the men glowered.

Collecting all this stuff together with photo images could make a wonderful book.

There are just so many leads to follow up though. For example, one I despair of is his UN eployment records. Where are they and how to crack them? I've failed so far.

There's another one that should be easier. In the late thirties Jack was something of a speedway ace in England, riding for the Leabridge and Clapton teams. (His folks lived in Walthamstow, north London.)

Jack claims in a Bangkok Post article that an item in Speedway News (late thirties) by Arthur Westwood described him, Jack, as the only speedway rider whose father was a parson and who had had a poem published in "The Listener".

Fascinating! So can anyone find any speedway records that refer to Jack or suggest how I might find them? Or eve trace the Speedway News article. The internet has failed me so far.

Incidentally, "Jack Reynolds" is a pseudonym. His real name was Emrys Reynolds Jones and he went by the name of 'Jack' Jones.

So the hunt is on! Can anyone do better finding him on biker internet sites than I did?

I do hope so!

Andrew Hicks

you guys have now got the rest of us local lit freaks drooling...any chance of an ISBN number to order the last edition from a catalog from the likes of Asia Books, etc.?

Hello tutsiwarrior ! Were you ever able to get the book via Asia Books - just curious - what was your experience?

'A Sort of Beauty', later called 'A Woman of Bangkok' by 'Jack Reynolds' has been out of print since the eighties so it is not available in Asia Books or any other book shop. Second hand copies do not often appear but can be found on the internet. Which is very sad as it's a remarkable period piece which still paints a very contemporary picture of Thailand.

I am busy discovering the life of its author who was an unusual man and had an extraordinary life. A published poet and a speedway rider in England, he did many years humanitarian relief work in China with the Friends Ambulance Unit. He then settled in Bangkok working for Unicef and raised a family of seven children. He kept writing but never had another big seller and died in 1984.

I have so much material on him that a book of extracts from his various works and a biography ought to result. I'll be very sad if they don't but there's already lots about him on my blog.

Andrew Hicks

change engine oil and filter, auto-oil if more than 30k km since lst time

5 tyres storage pressure 45 psi

disconnect or remove ECU, or just one of the realys behind glove box to immobilise car

take out floormats

leave a small gap on windows to let moisture escape

rat poisen in engine bay, top of fuel tank, and inside car

no harm, just dusty

run the car a few days when returning, then replace engine oil/filter and brake fluid. brake fluids boiling point reduces to 160 C in only 2 years

OP'S RESPONSE

Thanks for advice from everyone.

I'm a little puzzled about this idea on immobilisation. ECU? Relays? Arai na?

And I've no idea what the air escape valves are or how to find them.

Andrww

Andrew, did this topic inspire your sub on stick?

To hear your tale, it must be a depressing book.

I just can't be bothered to read (bar)girl-done-me-wrong stories anymore.

I agree about 'bar girl done-me-wrong' books and I never read them.

It's just that Jack Reynolds' "Woman of Bangkok" is often lavished with praise. Being out of print, when at last I found a copy, I found it very intriguing because there's some fine writing and observation in it. It's an amazing period piece well worth reading but as you say hardly uplifting.

Having known Jack's China friend, Bernard Llewellyn, I've become intrigued to know more about Jack's life and what became of him. That's why I wrote a piece about the book and posted it on my blog and as a Readers Submission on Stickman.

The main purpose is to ask if anyone can tell me more about Jack Reynolds. His old friends are out there somewhere and know it all.

Andrew Hicks

The big news is that Jack's widow is still alive and that contact will be made with her.

One more question for you.

Jack Reynolds had a book of stories published in Bangkok in 1972 called, "The Utter Shambles".

There is a copy in the library of Cornell Unversity but none in the major Bangkok libraries and I cannot find one anywhere.

Has anyone got a copy of "The Utter Shambles"?

I have written a life of Jack and hope to publish this as a book together with a selection of his writings and articles. Not a big seller but still great Bangkok nostalgia.

Thanks,

Andrew Hicks

Laying up a modern Toyota pick up for a long period of time.

Disconnect battery and stand on blocks, but are there any other recommendations?

Also can you suggest any way to immobilise the vehicle? (Can no longer remove the rotor arm in the distributor!)

Would the car suffer harm from a lay up of say one year?

Many thanks,

Andrew

Did you get the paperwork in order when you brought in the money? Basically a bit of paper from the bank saying the money you brought in was to buy a house. This allows you to then remove it later... can only take out what you bring in.

Then there is always the option of doing a Taksin and removing via suitcase

In a world where exchange controls are a thing of the past (except perhaps in small banana republics that simply do not have the foreign currency to exchange for outward remittance), what is the regulatory rationale and basis for prohibiting the remitance of funds that lawfuly belong to the bank account owner?

Thailand is a modern nation with an open economy which makes all this bureaucracy very surprising.

Andrew

While I think that observation is not without merit, they do operate with the Thai police and offenders are arrested and prosecuted. In the end it is the courts who offer protection. They are not vigilantes in the sense that they take the law in their own hands and they are open to prosecution themselves if they step out of line.

The objectives are of immense importance but that does not necessary justify the methods.

It is very surprising if a government authorises non-nationals with guns implementing social policy without work permits or regulation.

Apart from the fact that it is hard to apprehend traffickers on a beach on the Thai/Lao border, Laos being a land locked country, I am not sure that this is the best approach to the problem. A more neutral role would be rehabilitating trafficked children who have been found by the lawful authorites.

These particular individuals may be beyond reproach but what happens when they use their guns on somebody, whether traffickers or not?

Andrew

Six months ago I found a rare out of print copy of Jack Reynolds' novel, "A Woman of Bangkok" at Gecko Books in Chiang Mai, the genre setting 'bar girl disembowelled my wallet' story, written all of fifty years ago.

Since then I've become fixated on learning more about Jack and I've discovered enough to write a book about his extraordinary life.

The one huge gap though is that I have not made contact with any of his seven children and I would love to share with them what I have learned about him.

Somebody out there knows them and I need you to help find them for me. They tend to be artists and musicians and you can find more and pictures of them on my blog. (Steven has exhibited sculptures in Chiang Mai and Singapore but I have had no response from the galleries.)

Reynolds was an author's pseudonym and their surname most probably is Muthikul Jones. They are David, Philip, Steven, Ben, Frank and a daughter, Chandra Meagan who had a son called Mark in 1983. They were brought up in Bangkok and went to school in Soi Ruam Rudee.

Bangkok's a big city but there can't be too many Thais called Jones!

So where are they now??!!

Many thanks,

Andrew Hicks.

There's an unaccompanied baggage centre at the airport now, might check that out for comparison.

Ship is cheaper than airfreight but it will be consolidated cargo.

If cost is a consideration then given the expense in UK it will probably be cheaper for you to collect it from customs youself at arrival.

Thanks for this. Cost is of course a consideration but I guess that if I can handle a small consignment myself and avoid the handing cost of shipping, this will narrow the extra cost of air cargo. Gets there quicker too.

Can anyone recommend who one woud get a shipping quote from? Recommendations do help.

Thanks again