Andrew Hicks

For an expat leaving Thailand for UK what are the options for shipping a small quantity of personal effects? Say one or two cubic metres.

Implications for customs duties?

Any thoughts on this?

Many thanks.

Every thread deserves a response.

In fact I think he first printing press was imported into Thailand in the reign of King Chulalongkorn.

I have a copy of 'A Woman of Bangkok' by Jack Reynolds publishd fifty years ago.

Can anyone beat that!

Andrew

Why so fearful?

I think its more dangerous on the Thai and Cambodian roads you have to travel until you get to Preah V. than actualy, also now be there!

And I think I am not wrong when I pretend and believe that!

I was once there, some years ago, from the Thai side and liked it, also I did stay on the Thaiside did not walk around inside the temple complex.

I've been to PV from the Thai side perhaps ten times and it's sad that it's now closed.

In Cambodia last week, I was told you can go from there which surprises me as the soldiers have been killing each other and it acts as lightning rod for the current tensions betwee the two countries. The road is very bad but work is being done on it.

The risk of road accidents is almost always much worse than the political risks wherever you go.

Andrew

Andrew this great!! thank you.

One thing, on the car you said between the three of you that you paid $25 per day for the car. Is this $25 each per day or $25 total.

I'm going to do this for sure!!! DO you guys ever go to Martins place (Falang connection) ? If so maybe you give the car hire numbers to Martin to help out others.

Now I cant wait to go!!!!

We paid $125 per day for a very fine 4WD to take the rough road from Chong Jom. No need to pay so much.

We paid a total of $25 a day for a 9 seater mini-van to take us round the temples.

We paid 2,500 baht for a Camry to bring us back two hours from Siem Reap to Ching Sanggam.

Sure we go to 'The Connection'. All the numbers etc can be found on my blog whose address can easily be Googled.

Andrew Hicks

I have been considering going to Siam reap for some time now. Can you advise the cost of the taxi from Osmach to Siam Reap?

You said you used a taxi at the boarder so are taxis always waiting there? Please give us some more info Hotel cost, how was teh hotel good, bad etc. You make a post but vauge.

I have just returned from a 7day trip to Sien Riep. I went via Osmach bloody awful dirt road, we had a car arranged to meet us at the border $125 per day sure it can be done cheaper. I returned via Chonsangam (sp) near phusing, a good paved road all the way, took 2 hours from our Hotel to border, but you would need to be met at the border, nothing much exists here. I stayed at Reaksmey Chanreas Hotel right in the nightlife

, good bars and restaurants in abundance, good Hotel friendly and clean, $15 per night. Taxi back to border cost 2500 baht, I cannot recall name of taxi firm but I can get it if you are interested.

I have just written a blog account of my trip to Angkor with Phusingpete, including how a pickup ran over his toes.

It sets out in detail how to do the whole trip, including all phone contacts etc. The pictures are on my blog but since I think I'll be stoned to death if I mention the blog address here, I'll paste it in below.

ISAAN TO ANGKOR WAT - WHERE, WHY AND HOW!

"I’ve just boldly been to Angkor Wat and I’m amazed because it now takes only two hours by the new road from Thailand’s Si Saket border crossing.

So why did I want to go to Angkor in Cambodia?

Because it’s so close to home here in Surin province, because it’s one of the greatest ancient temple complexes in the world and because it haunts my mind and I just can’t keep away.

The trouble is that it’s been hard to get there as the roads have been so bad. My map shows the main access road from Aranyaprathet/Poipet to Siem Reap as ‘impassable in the wet season’ and I well remember in the dry season of January 2002 bumping along it at walking pace, the old pickup dropping down into the water courses where the bridges were broken and slowly negotiating the deep pot holes and craters. We’d paid extra to be in the cab and not outside in the dust and sun. Trouble was another six people had paid to be in the cab and with the windows jammed closed and with no aircon, it was more than hot!

In my novel, the girl in a travel agents shop in Khao San Road, (Bangkok’s backpacker centre), tells Ben and Emma about taking an open truck from Aranyaprathet to Angkor. “Road no good but very cheap. Twenty people in the back, hot and dirty… nine hours, maybe twelve. Better you fly aeroplane if you care your ass.”

That time I took her advice and flew from Bangkok into Siem Reap but suddenly everything has changed. The major routes are now in good condition and the 150 kilometres from Aranyprathet/Poipet toSiem Reap for Angkor can be done in under three hours. Another time I went from Trat to Koh Kong in Cambodia, took a boat to Sihanoukville, a bus to Phnom Penh, a boat six hours up the river and to the end of the Great Lake and then a motorbike into Siem Reap. It took five days. Now I’ve just got back to the Surin border in exactly two hours.

For me now living in Surin province in Isaan, there’s no more any need to travel two sides of a triangle five hours westwards to Aranyaprathet and then three hours east again to Siem Reap. These great temples lie directly to the south of us, perhaps only 100 kilometres from the Thai border and now it’s possible to get to them that way. Or is it?

I’ve found it extraordinarily difficult to find out about the roads, but having just gone in a circle, crossing the border from Surin, going anti-clockwise to Angkor and returning to Si Saket, I’ll now tell you what I’ve learned.

The major border crossing across the massive natural barrier of the Dongrak Mountains in southern Isaan has always from Surin’s Chong Jom to O’Smach in Cambodia. Here on the Thai side there’s a huge market and a four lane highway sweeps you smoothly up to the border. As you cross, there’s a glitzy casino and a big resort and it’s all horribly slick and impressive.

After that though as you enter Cambodia, it’s all downhill in more ways than one. The unsealed road plunges down the Dongraks in a series of bumpy hairpins, the dust billowing and the car plunging wildly. It’s hard to think this moonscape of a road can be passable in the wet season, except with four wheel drive. The next 100 kilometres or so is then a reasonable dirt road, before it reaches the Poipet road and you turn left in a dog leg eastwards to Siem Reap.

To promote international friendship and cross border trade, a new route has now been developed from Chong Sanggam in Si Saket province with substantial Thai money being spent on good sealed roads. On Thailand’s Route 24 at Ban Lalom just west of Phusing the big blue signs now show the turn off to Angkok Wat. The road across the border on both sides is so new, it probably doesn’t appear on your map but it is thus well signed from Route 24.

Once in Cambodia the road is direct and fast and coming back and completing our circle we covered the fast road from Siem Reap to the border in exactly two hours. The only problem is that, unlike Chong Jom, the border crossing itself is totally undeveloped, a dusty road through the dry jungle with a few barriers, push carts and portakabins.

Using either entry point, you’ll have to be dropped at the border as leaving your vehicle there would be more than risky. You also ideally need to have booked a Cambodian car to meet you and to take you to Siem Reap, though I’m not sure about mobile phone coverage across the border. (My well-connected friend had booked a car and our 4WD arrived twenty four hours early just in case!)

We were charged 2,500 baht by Keo Sotheara for a comfortable return trip from Siem Reap to Chong Sanggam. He is near Chong Sanggam at Anlong Veng and speaks good English. His card shows (855) 1267-7544 (Cambodia phone) and 086-343-7091 (Thailand phone).

Alternatively Chan Sovan of Siem Reap is on 012-843992 or (855) 92-89-0005 (though another card says 374-374 prefixed either by 011 or 012 or 013 or 090. Confused? So am I!).

We used a nine seater mini-bus to take us round the temples and between the three of us paid US$25 per day for the vehicle. (Dee, our delightful driver was great value too.) See www.angkorguide.asia/phansy and [email protected]. (Email him perhaps and ask him to send a car to Chong Sanggam?) See also www.siemreaptaxidriver.webs.com. Sorry if I’m a bit vague on all this as I didn’t do the phoning for cars.

Alternatively, on crossing the border at Chong Jom, there could be some cars waiting for business or not far away. At Chong Sanggam it would also be possible to get someone to call a car from Anlong Veng (twenty minutes away), or even from Siem Reap. People are always friendly and helpful especially when it opens wallets.

One small thought… returning to Chong Sanggam by car, arrange to stop off at the exquisite small temple of Banteay Srei and also at Kabal Spean to see the ‘River of a Thousand Linggas’ as they are en route and well out of town. (For Banteay Srei, you’ll need to have bought an extra day on your temple access card, available at the main entry to the temple park. It’s US$20 per day, US$40 for three days and US$60 for seven days. It seems you can opt for the days not to be consecutive… six days running could cause total exhaustion.)

To get round the temples most visitors use a tuk tuk which is a motorbike towing a covered trailer that seats two in comfort and costs US$10 to 15 per day according to how far you want to go.

Pick up a “Siem Reap Visitors Guide” (‘Canby guide’) in a hotel or restaurant when you arrive. See www.www.canbypublications.com. It’s a remarkably good free guide book with coverage of the history of the Khmer empire and of each temple, as well as the usual comprehensive tourist information on everything you can possibly think of.

As to accommodation, there’s a huge range of choice from US$5 a night. We paid US$15 a night (yes, 500 baht!) for the Reaksmey Chanreas Hotel which is on the right at the bottom end of Sivatha Boulevard, the main drag in town. It had beautifully appointed rooms with fridge and TV, all to a very high standard. There were excellent baguettes and breakfasts and pleasant staff whose aim in life is proving that cleaning rooms and serving the ‘barang’ is the most fun thing you could ever do. Highly recommended! Most of the expensive hotels are stuck out on their own but this one is right between the old market and the tourist night market and all that the town has to offer.

And Siem Reap certainly has a lot to offer. Ten years ago when I was first there, it was a dusty little provincial town trundling with ox carts and amputees, but now it’s a dusty big town with many attractive bars and restaurants and more cotton scarves for sale per acre than anywhere in the world. Something of its innocence has been lost though but that’s ‘progress’’ and at least it has been well done. If only the Thai tourist traps could manage a fraction of the style and good design that seems to be second-nature to the Cambodians.

As for money, my Kasikorn card produced US dollars from an ATM machine in town and I didn’t have to use it too often. Thai baht are widely accepted but when spending either currency you end up with handfulls of Riel as change which at 4,000 to the Dollar is a pain. With three currencies and a pocketful of zeros, it’s exceptionally hard for the numerically challenged such as me.

After some great experiences, on getting back by car to Chong Sanggam, I called Cat and we arranged to meet at our favourite Thai restaurant by the lake. The pickup we hired to take us there from the dust and mess of the border then ran over Peter’s toes as we were loading our stuff into the back, but that was the only disaster in the whole week.

If I now review the best weeks of my life, this one would have to be high on the list. Angkor and all that the ancient Khmers have left behind is truly magnificent.

My next posts on this blog will tell you all about what we did, including seeing the ‘lost temple city’ of Banteay Chmar, wading through the swamp to the temple on the island in the middle of the Lake, photographing a thousand devatas at Angkor and meeting ‘Miss Saigon’ in the Zanzy Bar in Siem Reap. Well some of it anyway!

It was non-stop action and now I really think I need a holiday.

Finally, do please post a Comment with any questions on all this and with additional info (or corrections) that could be helpful, especially for other Isaan resident travellers.

There’s nothing much to do around here in my Surin village, but I’ve just discovered that one of the world’s greatest religious monuments is now only a few hours from home. It wasn’t that easy to find out though.

Andrew Hicks The “Thai Girl” Blog December 2009

Look Mr Dawkins,

It's all about natural selection. The fittest survive by selecting the best stuff in the shop.

Those who are deluded enough to go in and pray to The Lord that he will provide the very best of products are bound to fall by the wayside.

Caveat emptor, I say!

Andrew Hicks

Maybe it is the way you handle it that makes them think they can get away with it.

My advice, and what almost all farang seem to do in this predicament is this. Keep giving her money. She'll eat lots of rice and som tam and get very fat very quickly.

Then she won't be sexy any more. Problem solved.

Or you could divorce her and get an ugly one. Then you'll be happier.

Any other questions?

Andrew Hicks

In Chiang Rai province it usually means a blanket giveaway. Obviously some need it more than others, which doesn't stop everyone turning up hoping for a free blanket. When they run out that's it.

A woman I know once went down and got one for the dog.

Every year huge quantities of blankets are handed out and I often wonder what happened to last years'.

A cynical friend has a theory.

The rural response to the cold is usually to open all doors and windows, rush outside, light a little fire and huddle round it. The blankets are used for lighting the fires!

sabaijai is a mod here on TV and the OP. Send him a PM to alert him to this thread.

done

Thanks. Sabaijai has now contacted me.

Incidentally Dasa second hand bookshop on Sukhumvit (a few minutes walk out of town on the right from BTS Phrom Pong) has a used copy of the DK edition of "A Woman of Bangkok" just come in.

I now have an image of Jack Reynolds' grave stone (1913 to 1984) and am hoping to hear from a couple of people who knew him so it's slowly coming together.

One person knows a lot about Reynolds who has posted on a forum as 'Megapoint' and is based in Hong Kong but I cannot discover how to contact him. Anyone know him??!

Andrew

1500bht for something produced by the Bangkok Post? No thanks.

The Post itself is expensive too but this book sounds to be an excellent source about Thailand.

I'll certainly save up or sit on the floor in Asia Books and read it.

Thanks for the alert.

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

I've found more info, but not much. Going through Bangkok Post archives I've come across many articles with his byline from the 60s and 70s and a few old hands at the Post say they remember him. I didn't ask whether 'Jack Reynolds' was a pseudonym, but as no one mentioned it I assume he was known by that name at the Post (speculation). One of the funniest Post stories that I came across was a long April Fools' article. I forget the theme now but it was so cleverly written that many readers at the time were taken in, as the Postbag from the following days made clear.

A year ago I met a Thai woman who says she is the niece of Reynolds' widow, who is still alive or at least she was at that time. She has promised to introduce me but I haven't got round to it yet.

Big thanks for all this, Sabaijai.

He was born Emrys Reynolds Jones and that is the name shown in the records of The Friends Ambulance Unit for whom he worked in China in the war years. Bernard Llewellyn in a travel book of 1958 (the year after AWOB came out) tells how stayed with him in Bangkok and refers to him as Jack Reynolds. So I guess he assumed this name fo all purposes and not as a means to anonymity in his written work.

I now have drafted a short life history of Jack, full of holes, based on what little I can find on the internet and I could email it to you.

Or should I post his story as a new thread on this forum??? It makes for an interesting mystery, still unresolved, as publicly the man totally disappears from view in the eighties.

Finally, could I pester you with a few specfic qestions?

Can you put me in touch with or name any of the Bangkok Post colleagues you mention who knew him?

Can you help me with accessing the Bangkok Post's archives? I have no idea how to do this or how difficult it is, but if you have already done the research... I'm told there is an obituary too.

Would it be appropriate for me to be put in touch with his widow or any of his family?

They might of course find it strange to be approached out of the blue. I am simply intrigued by the man as I knew his close friend Bernard Llewellyn. Bernard had a nice obituary in The Guardian last year but the collective memory is going to forget Jack Reynolds. If I find enough info, I'd like to post a shrot article on Wikipedia.

Andrew Hicks

PS I'm also curious to learn about Sabaijai... perhaps by PM.

There is some more information about Emrys Jones, alias Jack Reynolds, on Andrew Hicks' thaigirl blog.

Not sure if the link is allowed, it is http://www.thaigirl2004.blogspot.com/ mods can delete it if not allowed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Mike

5 years later! Better late than never....

Can the OP tell us if they ever found what they were looking for?

There's no time like the present!

I guess because Jack Reynolds is still a bit of a mystery he's continuing to intrigue people, me included.

After "A Woman of Bangkok" was last published in 1985 in Thailand he disappears from public view. Somebody knows what happened to him and his family and I hope that the article on my blog mentioned above will unearth some information.

Andrew Hicks

you may be a writer mr hicks, but not a businessman. tv is all about the baht. they not really into serving its members too mut, where it will benefit its competitors..........

Thanks Iamsam, you're dead right I'm no businessman. Writing books and a blog is simply my way of taking an interest and pleasure in living in Isaan, the hobby that many have mentioned as being essential.

A final point with apologies if anyone has said this already.

Surely a key factor on livinging a Thai village is age. While it can be sleepily pleasant for an older retiree, it would drive a younger man who needs to get a life completely mad. I've seen a few men in their twenties out here and they simply turn to drink.

Andrew Hicks

PS Iamsam??? Dr Suess?

Thai am I, Siam I am. At least I try to be.

I have received a valuable/rare set of books on World history and whilst the inner pages are in very good order the hardcovers and

binding is terrible on some books and some restoration/replacement of the covers and/or binding is necessary!!!

Does anyone know of "reputable/professional" book restorers?? I would need a top-class job done and know it won't be cheap.

I have been searching on the internet and can't find anyone in Thailand that does this admittedly specialist job. Other countries like

England and America aren't a problem.......but I would hope that surely somewhere in Thailand carries out professional book restortion??

I live in Pattaya but of course am willing to travel anywhere within Thailand,though would think that Bangkok would be the most likely

place to have such a service!!!

Thanks a lot.

There is a excellent antiquarian bookshop in Amarin Plaza just by Chidlom Skytrain. Run by a very well informed Australian, I am sure he would advise you and know the answer.

Sorry that I don't immediately have his details but Googling would surely find him.

The other similar shop is Orchid Books in Thaniya Paza on Silom and though he is mainly new books, again he might be able to help.

Andrew Hicks

PS A previous post quoted his blog so I hope I can too. They are very relevant to this excellent thread.

Apples and oranges dear AH. Do you not see the difference between responding to a request for village pictures, in a topic you are already participating in, to blatantly trying to sell books?

From one village farang to another.

Thanks for your excellent blog which I have read and enjoyed for some time.

This has been an excellent thread on a topic of huge importance to expats in Thailand and it has produced a lot of ideas.

There are many blogs and books about living in Thai villages and I'm glad that you were allowed to mention your blog address here. Deleting your URL from your post would be futile anyway as thaivisa members can easily find it on Google.

Perhaps someone (not me!) should start a parallel thread listing blogs that deal with living in rural Thailand. Next time I see George I'll suggest to him that this is exactly what thaivisa should be doing, even though it involves listing 'rival' URLs.

Blogs are surely of direct interest to thaivisa members.

Andrew Hicks

Thanks for the replies to my question ( sorry OP ). However, if that is indeed the way it is, perhaps we might need to move to my own country a lot sooner than I intended. Pity, as I was looking forward to doing some gardening.

I'd agree the comments that you cannot keep to yourself in the village. Most importantly you have taken on an obligation to care for your extended family in every respect (even if you're not aware of that!) and your wife as the bridge between you and them will suffer awful tensions if you do not deliver. Many relationships break up for this reason.

I've been there.. and am still working on it!

<spam removed- Maestro>

Our vegetables always die by the way!

Best wishes,

Andrew Hicks

PS A previous post quoted his blog so I hope I can too. They are very relevant to this excellent thread.

I had to get some fingerprints at Police HQ in BKK last Monday. Very positive experience - very friendly, and super organised. Was in and out in less than 30 min's.

Yes, in fact we had to get police reports from there and I agree. They were extremely good and were obviously concerned to give us good service. I filled out their feedback form and gave them top marks.

Thai bureaucray at its best can be excellent!

Andrew

OP (and others with village llife): have you read Andrew Hicks' book "My Thai Girl and I"? That might answer some questions and add a different perspective. Not sure how things have worked out for him though.

Totally agree with all who suggest the importance of a hobby or set of hobbies to pass the time and expand the social network.

Best of luck.

TN

[This is the penalty for rushing to answer the OP and then afterwards to scan down the other replies!]

Thanks TaoNow for mentioning "My Thai Girl and I"!

The theme of the book is upbeat and that you have to go with the flow and not swim against the current (ie the puyai bahns tannoy at five in the morning, the fact that nothing works and the unreasonable expectations of your Thai family). However, it does try to express the frustrations of living in the village, I hope not too negatively but drawing our the humour of the Isaan expat predicament.

Some of the posts above mention getting a hobby (macrame, origami for example?) but mine has been writing about the Thai countryside, both in the book and on my Blogspot which is really a continuation of the story of my 'Thai girl' and me.

On the last page of the book I ask myself if I'm going to get a bit bored living in the village now the book's finished, and yes, I think the novelty's ust about wearing off!

Cat and I have just been in the village for two months and so I'm writing this from our comfortable studio apartment on soi 97 in Bangkok!

Choke dee to all expat farang villagers eveywhere!

Andrew Hicks.

I'm beginning to think the handwriting is on the wall. We've been in a rural village near Sao Kaeo for about two months and I'm not sure I can adapt.

The most difficult is the early morning noise starting at 6am or earlier (like blasting one hour public announcements, music, ceremonial flute music/chanting, food vendors, you name it) which prevents me from getting a decent sleep and puts me right off in a lousy mood each day. This morning some nearby farmer is burning something and I can't sit outside because of the smoke. Man oh Man.

The wife won't be happy to hear this, especially since her family also lives here in the village (an additional difficulty), but I am thinking life in a quiet, clean high-rise in Jomtien or Pattaya may be a necessity for me. I also really miss the western food and English speaking businesses but that is a different matter.

Has anybody successfully adapted to village life like this? I need to hear a success story.

I live in a remote village in Surin forty minutes from the nearest cheese (at Big C).

It's been so intolerable that I've been forced to write a book about it. And currently a blog.

All is there revealed.

You just have to go with the flow!

Andrew Hicks

Hey!

Are we allowed to mention our writings without getting banned?

I have a blog about living in a village in Isaan and a book even but I thought this was unmentionable on this forum.

I'd like to read yours though.

Andrew Hicks

Today we went to the Thai Passport office at Bangna Trat armed with wads of documents to get two new passports, one of them potentially quite difficult for varous reasons.

It was little over a half an hour before we walked out again clutching receipts for passports to be collected in two working days after perhaps the most pleasant bureaucratic experience of my whole long and complicated life.

There were no queues and everything was clean, cool and calm. There were no glum officers lurking darkly behind glass screens but instead we sat comfortably at the desk of a delightful woman who saw her role as to make things as pleasant as possible and to do whatever she could for us. She took great care to produce a pleasant photo and there was even a rail of smart jackets to be borrowed for the picture.

All the documents were quickly scanned into the system and there were no demands for photocopies of everything to be clipped together and stored away in useless paper mountains. It was a superb and efficient administrative machine and I really hand it to whoever has been responsible for this considerable achievement.

Forums are places for grumbling but today I'd like to express my thanks to the individuals who received us and did their job so well.

Thinking of my own British bureaucrats, I wish life was always like this.

Andrew Hicks

PS Has anyone any similar bouquet for any particular office in Thailand?

Often they do not read through the application file as i did not prepare this i have no idea of what you included.

Re apply bringing your concerns to the ECO that he may have missed several facts.

Good luck

When my girlfriend's visit visa application was refused on similar grounds that they doubted our relationship (despite 100 pages of emails etc) I wrote in complaining and explaining some so called 'inconsistencies' referred to in the reasons for refusal. Because there was no right of appeal they are very reluctant to do anything to overturn a decision and they told me to immediately reapply.

We immediately submitted an identical application and the visa was granted on the spot. (In those days you saw an ECO at the window at the Embassy and he made an immediate decision.)

On the other hand I know of other cases where a second application dealing comprehensively with the reasons for refusal of the first one have been refused out of hand on spurious grounds.

The present long delays are unacceptable. What's going on there?

A British Citizen is automatically treated as settled in the UK as soon as he arrives in the UK. 'Settled' only means that the person has no restriction on his remaining in the UK.

I don't disagree with that, bearing in mind that "settled" covers people with ILR as well as Right of Abode.

The OP is trying to infer some meaning from the Rules relating to LTE as a spouse to suggest that the Rules are hard to understand and that there is no provision for the spouse of a Brit. Cit. when they have been previously living together abroad and are relocating to the UK, which is nonsense.

Thank you for suggesting that my query is nonsense.

If you actually read Rule 281 you will see that it clearly says that the prior requirement for an applicant applying for a settlement visa is that 'the applicant is married to a person present and settled in the UK".

My Thai wife cannot therefore apply because I am settled in Thailand and not [at the time of the application] settled and present in UK.

Nor am I on 'the same occasion being admitted for settlement'. Foreigers are 'admitted for settlement', not Brits.

The answer suggested on another post that I produce some evidence that I will be settled and present is probably correct but it doesn't fit the clear wording of the Rule. Thanks for this courteous advice.

Andrew

My husband had never been outside of Thailand when we applied for his settlement visa. There is no requirement to go on a tourist visa first. As long as they can meet the requirements, accommodation, proof of relationship, show what they will be living off etc then there should be no problem

A further point is that a visit visa would probably be refused under these circumstances.

If the wife and child are settled in UK, then an ECO may say that the visa applicant has a substantial incentive to overstay the 6 month visit visa.

This happened to friends. Her visit visa was twice refused even though they gave clear evidence that they were both intending to return together to Thailand within six months so that he could do his usual winter diving work.

Clearly a wrong decision, but you would face the same hurdle.

Settlement visa it is and good luck with it!

Andrew