HauptmannUK

An English-style roast chicken dinner with Paxo stuffing and Yorkshire pudding. My wife loves rhubarb - so apple and rhubarb pie and rhubarb crumble.

That's effectively what I did. In the UK we have visited swingers' clubs and when in Thailand we often take a girl together. My wife is not lesbian and doesn't like to be touched by other women but she does have an interest in other women's bodies and touching them. She also gets very aroused by watching me have sex with another woman. We've been together nearly 13 years and so far its worked out OK.

He says 'a Bangkok university'. Could be one of many. Possibly a course taught in English. 'Retreated' - probably means 'dropped out'. NK = Nong Khai ?

Not a great fan of 7-11 food but their 'Chef Cares' food range is surprisingly good. The Masala sauce in the Chicken Tikka Masala is very tasty. They've also started selling a Khao Soi. Its not bad at all. Few years ago their fish burger was pretty good, with a thick piece of pollock fish in it. They seem to have cheapened it out though, I tried one recently and there was only a small amount of fish and a lot of 'breadcrumb' coating.

There may well be more to this. Possibly some sort of erotic asphyxiation that went too far - she panicked (potential accusation of murder) and ran.

Free Trade Agreement with China was a stupid move. There is nothing made in Thailand (apart from food products) that can't be made cheaper in China. They have huge economy of scale and the coming protectionist measures in the West will lead to massive 'dumping' into Thailand.

Please PM me. I'll need the name of the bar and a picture of your fiance. I'll check her out. I only ask for reimbursement of her charges for whatever service she offers.

Some years ago I had the misfortune to have to work in Russia for an extended period. It was a big project with Unilever and UK government involvement (me). I did an intensive course in Russian so can speak it to a conversational level (its not an easy language). I met some amazing Russians and worked with one guy who is probably the most intelligent and talent person I've ever met. However I have to say that the overwhelming majority of Russians that I met were deeply unpleasant. There are very few social graces in Russia. It remains a brutal society where 'might is right'. Road rage and aggressive driving is off the scale. If you can understand some Russian its bizarre to hear old ladies in the street swearing and using incredibly vulgar language. Every neighbourhood and apartment block has its own thugs and 'mini mafia' who mug, rob and extort money. Its generally accepted that anyone with significant wealth came by it illegally. Its a deeply unpleasant place to be. Do not imagine that Russians in Thailand don't support Putin and the war. Putin enjoys very strong support and most Russians are very patriotic. Generally the more affluent younger Russians, of the sort who are coming to Thailand, are not being sent to the front line. Putin is not stupid - the footsoldiers are drawn from poorer areas in the east. I've spoken to some older Russians who live in Jomtien and they were all very pro-Putin. I also had a chat with three young Russian guys who were drinking at Bali Hai. They were happy to be outside Russia but pro-war. Some of you may have seen the guy who rides around on a motorbike with a Russian flag attached and a speaker blasting out military songs...

Sounds like a rather similar situation to that which my friend has found himself in. Two kids. Thai family making his life a misery. He is a very smart and highly qualified individual who is trapped in Thailand because the family keep an iron grip on the kids. Don't overlook the fact that if you become too troublesome you may wind up dead.

I was married to my English wife for over 20 years. She was (and still is) a lovely woman and a great mother. Work pulled us apart. I was working overseas and also trying to run the family car dealership in parallel. She had a very demanding professional job. After divorce I was working in Thailand for months at a time and had a string of 'office girls' as girlfriends. I found them very superficial - mostly interested in shopping... I met my second (Thai) wife when queuing in a 7-11. She didn't speak a word of English (I speak Thai). She was rather shabbily dressed and I assumed she was a typical rural Isaan girl. We got on well and spent a lot of time together but was over a year before the truth started to come out - I found bank books in her name will several million baht on deposit. Quite a surprise. Later, when visiting her family in Udon, I was driving on a rural road when a motorcycle pulled alongside us and three shots were fired at our car. At this point I realised there was more to my wife and her family than met the eye.. Its been quite a journey since then.. Anyway, we have now been together about 12 years. She has a UK passport. Partner in a successful hotel/restaurant in the UK and owns several small businesses and property in Thailand. She still 'dresses down' and seldom wears jewellery.

Some years ago I had the misfortune to have to work in Russia for an extended period. It was a very unpleasant experience. By comparison Russian drivers make the Thais seem as calm and orderly as the Swiss. Road rage is off the scale. Many times I saw drivers get out of their cars and fight and even ramming one car into another.

I await the details with great interest because so far this DTV seems a bit too good to be true and potentially wide open to abuse. For a long time I used 1-year ME Non-O 'Thai Family' 90-day entry visa. IIRC that cost about ฿6k and I had to show ฿400k equivalent (London). It was withdrawn (again) about a year ago - only SE available now. In comparison this DTV would be an absolute bargain. Also the range of permitted activities is quite large and it would be dead easy to fake some income from an overseas entity. I think the devil will be in the detail.......

Clearly not educated enough to understand that the definition of murder is *intentional* killing. In this particular case the Welshman is not guilty of murder but manslaughter. He did not intend to kill the Russian but 'acted in the moment' due to circumstances that caused him to be emotionally disturbed. If the Russian had fallen slightly differently he'd have probably been able to get up and walk away. Anyway, according to UK media reports the Welsh guy came to Thailand just six months ago 'to start a new life'. Seems he has a rather unsavoury past back in Merthyr Tydfil...

As far as I am concerned 'cash is king'. In most countries it is now difficult to deposit substantial amounts of cash without getting interrogated by the bank. In the UK/EU they start wanting a paper trail for deposits greater than €10000. Depositing multiple amounts of cash can also trigger a SAR (suspicious activity report) and lead to account closure. I bring cash into Thailand and change to THB over a week or two at SR, Damini and various branches of TT. Thai banks seem less concerned about large deposits (I've deposited ฿3M in one transaction without a problem). I try to avoid any kind of electronic payments/transfers, but its getting more difficult.

The husband of one of my wife's friends took it. A big fellow about 55 years old. Definitely obese. Anyway he couldn't tolerate it. Played hell with his digestive system (stomach pains/cramps, nausea/vomiting etc). I think he gave up after 6-8 weeks.

I thought the Indians walk on the road?

I think he means Took Le Dee restaurant at Foodland in T21.

I don't think anyone was 'denied their right to vote'. Voters in the UK have to show photo ID at the polling station. There is quite a long list of acceptable forms of ID including driving licence, passport, various types of travel passes, disability badge, defence ID (MoD 90) etc. The 'Veteran's ID' card is a new thing, introduced only a few months ago and not yet added to the list. The government have said they will update the list ASAP. Bit of a 'storm in a teacup'.

I'm not defending the £38k income threshold but many countries do require immigrants to have an income well above the national average or median. For example in Spain a long term visa for non-EU nationals requires a minimum income of something like €30k plus health insurance. Thailand of course requires ฿800k for retirement visa, which is a lot more than the average Thai lives on. Immigrants to the UK do not pay 150% of healthcare costs, they pay the NHS Surcharge when they apply for their visa (immigrants working in healthcare are exempted). Once they get ILR there is nothing more to pay.

I'm not yet of state pension age and a 'frozen' state pension is unlikely to affect me much in future (I probably won't relocate permanently to Thailand and I have a high passive income from part-ownership of a family business). Notwithstanding my own circumstances I do think that the freezing of pensions for pensioners who have paid the required NI contributions is one of the most unfair, unethical and immoral policies of successive British governments. The freezing of pensions is made all the worse by the provision of Pension Credit. Pension Credit is essentially a non-contributory UK state pension to which the entire global population above retirement age may claim, if they can show residence in the UK. Late last year I assisted an elderly Asian lady claim Pension Credit. She is not a UK citizen but by some fairly convoluted means became UK resident a couple of years ago. She has never worked or paid NI. On account of her almost nonexistent English I did a Pension Credit application for her. She was successful and now receives c.£800/month plus Housing Benefit, free dental and optical care etc. I would guess her benefits amount to in the region of £1600/month. She lives in a rented room in a shared house. Not a great lifestyle but tolerable. She's a very pleasant lady and I don't begrudge her the Pension Credit, but if does highlight the unfairness of policy when expats who were given no choice but to contribute to their state pension over many decades are deprived of a substantial portion of its value based on some archaic and whimsical policy.

Not sure if you have a particular UK private school in mind but my experience of 'private schools' is that there can be quite an element of selection (I attended boarding school many many years ago and my three children - now late 20's early 30's attended private day school). Many schools are over-subscribed and there are likely to be entrance tests and admission criteria relating to previous schooling.

Cost of car insurance for a few months cover for a non-resident foreign national with non-UK licence will be astronomical - if you can even get a quote. Cheaper to rent a car with included insurance and/or use taxis, depending on distances to be travelled.

Wanting to be German? Clearly has serious mental issues...

Well he started it. And in the video of the incident he certainly doesn't come over as a particularly pleasant character. Something odd about his whole background - a security guard in Switzerland then comes to Thailand and is renting elephants for his elephant sanctuary and living in a ฿1M /month villa? More holes in that story than in a piece of Swiss cheese!

The wife and I were planning a trip to Phuket later this year but seeing all the violence and crime kicking off down there I think we'd better stay in the relative peace and tranquility of Pattaya.