Carmine6
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Posts posted by Carmine6
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I'm currently living in Hong Kong and I would like to have my Thai girlfriend come and visit me for several weeks. However, I've heard that the HK immigration are rather strict in allowing Thai girls who are traveling by herself visiting HK because they're afraid that she might be working here. Some people told me that the girl have to prove that she has to have 30000 baht in her bank account and such. I've looked at the HK immigration dept website and saw that a Visa is not required for a Thai passport holders if he/she stays for less than 30 days. Does that apply to a Thai girl?
Anyone had similar experience? Any information would be appreciated.
Took my girlfriend there last Sept. and she had no problems getting through immigration. I gave her a copy of the itinerary (E-ticket), plus she had a lot of Baht with her and a credit card. She didn't need any of it. I was in line behind her in case she didn't get through, but they didn't ask any questions. As far as the agent knew, she was travelling alone, since they didn't ask anything. It was her first country visited so that wasn't a factor either. She's 23 and from Issaan. Dressed fairly conservative from what I recall because of the AC on the plane.
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...Any observer of the US is often surprised to see clearly blue collar or working class types describe themselves as middle class...
I think we're talking different definitions here because I don't see why blue collar or working class can't be middle class. What are the other options? Lower class? Uppper class? Rich? Poor? These latter 2 are the most common.
Dealing with the income side doesn't cover the whole story since taxes are supposedly much lower in the US than in Europe, especially for low incomes. Consumer goods aren't as expensive either - Wal-Mart, nor is food. Plus a side effect of all the consumerism is that people trade up all the time and used furniture, electronics, cars, etc. are all easy to find for great prices. So you can be "middle class" on lower incomes.
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I never understood why there is need for pornographic movies in Patong,Patpong or Pattaya.
Like many things you can hire someone to do the job or can save some money by doing it yourself.
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On a recent VISA run in Nong Kai. It was interesting to see three girls hand over 100bt to the officer at the window. They had jumped in front of me( no surprise..Thai). He told them to place the money in the basket with all the arrival forms. When they did and it landed on top. He was quick to point out to them, no, no place it on the bottom.
Hey it's only 100bt I know. But corruption is absolute in Thailand. No matter where you go or what you do. Someone always has their hand out.
So anyone that says this could not happen in such a pretty country needs to stop facing the ocean and turn around to face Thailand. Thailand is white and pure as a tourist and black as coal to someone living here.
Where I live there's not a lot of corruption, but the trade off is I pay outrageous income taxes and sales taxes. I'm not old enough to make the jump, but I'd trade the bureacracy here for a small bit of corruption there.
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According to the Bangkok Bank website, I can get interest opening an account with them.
So, the new manager was just bullshitting me...
I'll go in and have a 'word' with him once I establish a new account.
Where does it say this? I was thinking of opening an account for convenience, but the no interest turned me off.
I've found where you can get interest on a time deposit, but for a regular savings it says no interest for a non-resident. For regular accounts it keeps mentioning "Bring your passport and work permit along when you want to open a bank account. " There is also mention of a "Certificate of Residence"
Savings Deposit
Interest Rate (%) / Year
Current Deposit
0.00
Savings deposit for :
- Retail Customer
0.75
Savings deposit for :
- Non Resident - Individual
0.00
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I'm not sure if this is relevent to anyone else except UK members who have pensions from or in the UK.
I'm just wondering who here has a final salary pension, you know the ones, your pension will be a percentage of your final salary (Usually to a maximum of 2/3rds).
I have three (Two that I dropped out of but left the fund active) and the one I'm in now.
But such schemes are under threat in the UK and current opinion among finacial advisors suggests that nearly all will have closed within the next five years.
They're under threat in the US too since they're expensive to fund. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which insures these plans, got stuck with a few too many pension funds from bankrupt companies and lots of retirees will get much less than they were promised. Many airline pilots who would have gotten maybe $90,000/yr under the plan are now stuck with the PBGC max of much less than that. Can't remember the figure, but maybe $45,000/yr.
Earned enough credits at my last job to net about $350/month in today's dollars. I'm way more statisfied with that company's and prior employer's 401K plans which I rolled over to a brokerage. Its all my risk if I don't choose good investments, but the flip side is whatever is left goes to my heirs if I die. Plus if I am diagnosed with something fatal tomorrow, I can use it all. My dad had a fantastic pension, but died only a few years into it.
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I have an EX going after me in the States for some old bills. They are hers but I think her lawyer convinced her I can be made to pay them. I don’t know who will win at this point. If she does how easy will it be for her to lien my Thai Bank account from the US?
Legal issues aside, how would she find the account? If she knows where it's at now and the number, I'd imagine you could move the money and there's no way to figure it out.
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. . . Some of the self righteousness and condemnation by those saying the law is the law in this forum seems to be espoused with almost a sadistic gleeful tone . . .
It is easy to be stoic-from-a-distance about a draconian police response to an minor, administrative infraction. After a night in the "monkey house," I wonder how many of the finger wagging, tongue clucking, self-appointed nannies of the immigration cops would continue to be so self-righteous?
Aloha,
Rex
Feel free to come down and throw bananas at me in the cage if it ever happens. As I don't consider this a minor administrative infraction, odds are low. I break laws all the time and when I've been caught, I've never bitched about the response. Luckily I've never been caught for something big. But now that I've grown into my paranoid years, I shy away from big legal risks.
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According to my wife you plant at the start of the rainy season and the ample rainfall during the rainy season gets the cane off to a good start. She says the starter shoots are not that big of a problem. Planting is VERY labor intensive also but she says the herbicides and insecticide are the expensive items.
....
Nice that they're not taking advantage of the higher price for sugar and raising prices for the shoots. Guess labor intensive is relative when the other major crop is rice. I don't think I could do 2 hours of planting either without passing out, and I've backpacked through the desert. Watching someone else plant by machine, I can go for.
The girlfriend's father says he wants me to live there and help with the farm, but luckily my skills are tad more valuable in non-agricultural pursuits. Good luck with the crop.
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Let me say it again:
The issue here is that one is led to believe a few days overstay can be settled with a fine at the point of exit, by Thai immigration officials as well as certain embassies and travel guides. Very few people are aware of the gravity of the offence.
As long as there is no uniform stance amongst the Thai authorities in this regard, it is completely outrageous that anyone gets held up for days in a police cell.
BTW, anon99, there is no 90 days tourist visa, it's 60 days with a possible 30 days extension at an immigration office. Please inform yourself before advising others on legalities.
Everywhere I've seen visas discussed such as travel books and websites, it says you can pay a fine at the airport if you overstay, but don't get caught without a valid visa anywhere else or you could be jailed.
I don't think there are 2 different penalties depending on who catches you. At the airport someone is clearly leaving so holding them in jail pending a deportation hearing is pointless. In other places, the police can't just let someone go and hope they leave the country. This is routinely done in the US and surprisingly very few show for the hearing. Yes, they were on a bus heading for the border, but they were in violation of the law. 2/3 of the folks on the bus planned ahead enough.
If this happened to one of my friends, he'd get no sympathy from me, and probably a good laugh for being that stupid. Wouldn't scare me from going there again, just as this news makes no difference in me, or anyone I know visiting.
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I have an internet shop and get all the time (this month less), orders from Nigeria, Indonesia, sometimes Vietnam, sometimes ex Sovjet countries, Venezuella (but funny enough not Thailand) with stohlen creditcard number.
How do you know the creditcard numbers were stolen ? And how difficult is it for a bonafide internetcafe to detect spyware ?
Seems that the question isn't how easy, but how common is it to check for spyware? I bet some never have. I've sparingly done banking and made reservations at internet shops, but am counting on the odds to not catch up with me. I'll sometimes change passwords before and after a trip just in case, but CC numbers aren't changeable, so more important to be careful with.
Sure the odds are long that you'll have problems, but victims never think it's going to happen to them.
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Can "Skype" only be used sitting next to your PC ?
If you're talking literaly next to the computer, there are wireless bluetooth headsets that you can use with skype on the computer. If you mean you can use one of those phones that will run off off a wireless network somewhere else, I'm not sure they have those for Skype yet.
But Skype's website does have some other wireless options if you check under the "products" tab. One is a VoSKY Call Center which looks like you call it and then it'll connect to a Skype contact. Looks like you have to leave the computer on though.
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Hi thanks for the replies I have just talked to my GF, I would like to go with a 3 bedroom bungalow with 1 bathroom (I will add a second later) 1 large kitchen (whats the differences between thai & european?) and 1 large mainroom, I don't want a carport, I would like a blue tiled roof like the ones you see in Korat, her mum is getting the land filled cost of 8,000 baht for the trucks & soil, she has also told me that it will cost 250 baht a day for each worker (about 10 in total) is this o.k or to much they said it will take about 2 months to finish is this true as I don't want to be paying workers 4 months later down the line, I have a budget of 600,000 will you think I will have any left over to build a wall around the house and maybe a small garden with lawn.
Cheers
Jason
The house my girlfriend's family built is a 3 bedroom, 200 sq meter, (1,800 sq ft) house in Chaiyaphum. It took from late Sept. to the first week of Nov. so about 8 weeks, but note there seemed to be a lot of downtime. For comparison, it is 2 story with a concrete first story and wood second story. The kitchen is on a porch out back so no extensive work required for that. The bathroom is their old outside bathroom and they just re-tiled and repainted it. Bring those inside and who knows how much time it would have added.
My girlfriend supervised every day, and for a Thai girl she's a fireball, so that may have kept them on schedule. They also were scheduled to start another house right after, and I believe they also had a fixed labor fee with a good portion of it on completion.
200 sq meter, (1,800 sq ft)
Ok, approx. 167 sq meters as I estimated it in feet from tiles and ceiling tiles. I had mentally roughed into the sq. meter calc but never went back to check the actual conversion. Didn't realize it was almost 11 sq ft to a sq meter.
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Thanks for the help so far guys.
My parents are retired and they live in the house. They also do not have any money to pay off my third of the house.
Can they really affect the house or force its sale as all of the loans are unsecured?
Obviously if they will make life difficult for my parents then I will not go, just hope that the situation can improve here soon in that case, but its so depressing in this country.
P
Bare minimum, if the banks have your parent's phone number, they'll be facing a lot of calls looking for you. Letters would come too, but are obviously not as annoying. (Unless UK laws are much more restrictive on collection efforts, which I doubt.)
Check with some local credit counseling service on what the banks can do in terms of the house. The debt won't affect the house, but a legal judgement or legal action might. As I mentioned before, in the US a lien could be placed on the house for a judgement. There could be something even easier in the UK, or it could be entirely impossible. At least find this out before you pack your luggage.
For small balances and credit cards, legal action is very rare as it's not worth the time and effort. However, the 17,000 bank loan is big enough that they might do something if you just take off.
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Wikipedia says this:
"Sugarcane cultivation requires a tropical or subtropical climate, with a minimum of 600 mm (24 in) of annual moisture... In prime growing regions, such as Hawaii, sugarcane can produce 20 kg for each square metre exposed to the sun."
If you timed the planting right the first year it sounds like you'd be fine. Dry season is probably tough on the plants, but if you're harvesting then anyway, their water needs would be pretty low. As for timing, I was wondering this myself. Brazil is the #1 exporter and is supposedly trying to immunize itself from oil prices through ethanol. That's a pretty big economy, so I'd think they'll stay the course even if oil drops. 50km to transport cane? Try thousands of km to get Brazilian sugar to the US and the economics for keeping it there are pretty good.
Guess the starter shoots are probably worth a lot more this year though. That might be the only crappy part. But if you can plant once and harvest 3 or 4 times, not a bad deal. If prices crash, set up a still and sell to the local gas station, or and flavor for local consumption.
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Having some time to kill while the girlfriend looked through DVDs, I actually walked into one of these fully willing to sign up for a couple new shirts. Out came their samples, and while they looked nice overall, one highlight was double stiching around the edge of the collar. I'm not sure if this is normal in Europe, but in the US this detail is normally found on polyester shirts from Sears or Kmart. At least that's where I recall seeing this.
Got the hard sell to stay in the store, but just ended up leaving mid sentence after they wouldn't take no for an answer. Normally I throw social graces aside and ignore these guys completely as I walk by. Feels weird to just ignore people saying hi, but I'm pretty sure they don't go home and cry if I do that. Have never been grabbed or impeded by any.
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Based on prior discussions, I'm going to be in the minority, but I'd keep a lot of that in the US.
Don't you pay tax on interest in the US? Why not open an account at somewhere like HSBC or StanChart here in HK? You don't need to be a resident, HK is a USD clearing centre (so you can clear USD cheques as easily as in the US) and they offer excellent spot rate spreads - certainly a lot tighter than the UK for instance.
If it's in a 401K rollover or other tax defered account, there's no tax until the money is taken out. Plus interest on certain government bonds isn't taxable in a regular account. The personal exemption and standard deduction for federal tax purposes totals $16,400 for a married couple so that can be withdrawn tax free from a 401K or rollover, or that much interest earned. The next $14,600 would be taxed at 10% so not bad.
A lump sum withdrawal however would likely push into the 28% to 35% tax brackets. Quite a hit just to move it. But for money already in regular accounts, it wouldn't hurt to put it somewhere tax free.
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I dont know where to stay in Bangkok, either sukhumvit or Patpong.
If I stay in a hotel like Bel-Air Princess on Sukhumvit, how far is it to Patpong market?
Also what is Patpong like for partying?
Is Sukhumvit better area to stay?
Sukhumvit is definitely a better area to stay as it's a really long street with a lot of normal places to go to. Patpong is right off the Skytrain and can't be more than 20-30 minute ride from the Bel-Aire Princess. Or your friendly Sukhumvit tuk-tuk driver will gladly take you there to a place where he gets a kick back.
Tried going there once just to check it out and got so sick of the touts grabbing me for "sex DVD" and everything else that I left. Guess I have some kind of look or something because there were single guys right in front of me they didn't bother with.
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Hi, just returned form Thailand and having trouble sending a text message from Canada. Tried several different ways, but doesn't seem to work. (+66,drop "0" and number) or (01166 and number) The message seems to get sent but not received! Any suggestions, thanks.
If you've checked with the carrier and it is possible, it could also be the Thai system or maybe just that it's international. I get maybe 1 in 3 SMS my girlfriend sends me with an AIS one-2-call sim. Sending from Cingular US, a much higher percentage make it to her, but not all.
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I, in fact, put a post on TV on this topic about 1 year ago and got the same sort of replies. I had some cleared land with heaps of piles of felled trees just ripe for cutting up to make TARN (charcoal). I went through quite a few shops in Ubon, Khemarat, Amnat and Mukdahan and got the same answers, being that they dont sell them because you need a permit etc.
In the village next to us there is a licenced timber miller with this huge chainsaw. I just get him to come around every now and then and cut up some stuff for a nominal fee. (not too much) He tells me that he pays a "fee" to the police of 2000 baht per month.
I also heard of a guy up north in Udon Thani or somewhere like that who used a electric chainsaw with a long long extension cord to cut some timber. I can imagine the loss of power with the extension cord. Nevertheless even the electric chainsaws are no good for big timber.
Good luck
Do the electric ones have different permit requirements? I can see why they don't want a lot of chain saws floating around, but the electric ones seem a bit less useful as weapons.
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how much I take will depend on NOT having any tax liability
How are you going to do that? There'll always be a Federal tax liability, unless you're in one of those new Roth 401(k)s. You can avoid State taxes, however, if you move to Thailand and relinquish your state residency.
Since it's regular income, the progressive tax code should take care of that. I'm assuming the 10% penatly doesn't come into play, but either way it argues for leaving a lot of it there and taking slowly over time.
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Nope - took a trip to Singapore with my gf. Air Asia barely asked for identification.
Wonder if a solo Thai paying cash for a ticket would skate as well.
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Ah that's a good question... as there's a difference between Amex issued cards and bank issued Amex cards.
Same same, just another branding.
no, there is a difference.
if your amex card is not connected directly to a checking account with some bank or brokerage account, then, you would be getting "cash advances" when you use the amex card to withdraw money. thus, you would be charged "cash advance fees" which can be high.
on the other hand, if your amex card is connected directly to a bank or brokerage checking account, then, it is effectively also functioning as an atm card. when you use the amex card, money is taken directly from the checking account immediately to pay for whatever you purchased.
that is how my amex card works.
the brokerage I use is fidelity. www.fidelity.com
check it out.
I have a Fidelity AE too... Is there any fee from the Thailand bank (Any suggestion of which Bank to use) on your statement and how is the exchange rate?
Hmm, I have Fidelity too, but use the Visa Debit card for withdrawals, and the AMEX for charges. I thought the AMEX withdrawals would count as cash advances on that card since the balance is paid monthly, not directly out of the balance. But I'm not sure I read the terms on ATM withdrawals for the AMEX.
On the VISA Debit, the exchange rate is pretty good, and as far as I can tell, 100% of the current foreign exchange rate. Here are the withdrawals I just had:
Per xe.com Actual Rate % of prior day
1/29/2006 38.907
1/30/2006 39.123 38.861 99.88%
1/31/2005 38.907
2/1/2006 39.104 38.906 100.00%
2/2/2006 39.38 39.003 99.74%
2/5/2006 39.41
2/6/2006 39.439 39.337 99.81%
(Sorry, this thing cuts out extra spaces so it's all run together.)
When I checked last Nov., the rates tended to be above 100%. I think 3 above and 2 below or something like that, but overall closer to 100%. I haven't pulled my ATM receipts to figure out which day these actually were. Could be a 30 baht or something ATM charge in here though and I wouldn't know. I used Bangkok Bank exclusively and a whole lot of different banks last time. Might account for the slight difference in exchange rate.
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If you book on Air Asia, the "Travel Requirements" has this:
4.6 Cash/Credit Card
Thailand
The Thai Immigration requires all Thai citizens leaving Thailand to have a minimum of THB 20,000 or a credit card with them, failing which the check-in counter will not issue a boarding pass.
Not sure if this is because they are usually dealing with budget Thai travelers, but this is the only place I've seen this.
Well, you learn something new each day.
It's the first I've heard of such a thing, though. Has it ever been enforced?
Scouse.
I imagine it's antiquated. Guess the question is does Air Asia enforce it?
Rain?
in General Topics
Posted
Rare yes, but maybe will help out with the drought in some areas up north. BKK Hist Avg shows a 1.1 inch average for Feb. in the last 108 years, but a max of 7.6 inches (19 cm).