Freddy42OZ

It was Nov 2023. https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/2023/11/05/russian-driver-crashes-with-a-motorbike-killing-2-foreigners-in-phuket/

I've neverr been sick enough to have got ten.

It's not difficult to just stay in for a week or two.

No, he is just a guest on that channel episode.

I doubt I'll ever go to Koh Phangan. It's too inconvenient to get to the islands.

I live in Bangkok. I've been to Pattaya a few times (of course) but it's really a sh*thole and seeing as I'm not likely to make any good friends there, I see no point. I don't know about you, but I go out with friends and the goal is to meet new people and hopefully make even more friends. I have a GF so I'm not interested in other girls, although it's nice to make friends with girls. I like Sing Sing when they have a house DJ playing. I don't mind if a place plays a bit off hip hop, but I only like dancing to House tracks.

I have an American friend who has lived in Bangkok with his Filipina wife for over 20 years (with their half American/ half filipina child). He's currently going through the Permanent Residency process. What would be so unusual about that?

Would you bother to even read such a sign? If I did, the shop would immediately lost my business. Plenty of places you can just walk in without taking off your shoes.

I'm almost 20 years older than 37 and still love going to clubs and dancing all night to good house music. I am not a fan of hip-hop though so anywhere that plays that I won't go.

I have been to a Wat (a few actually) and did take my shoes off, however I was not wearing nice shoes that were a bit of a hassle to take on/off. I am a staunch atheist who thinks all religion is nonsense and that anyone believing in any of it is an idiot. So I've only ever been to wats because I had to go with someone else (visiting friends etc). I take my shoes off to enter someone's house if they ask for it. But I don't automatically.

Exactly! The kick was not in the groin it was to her shin. It wasn't a hard kick with steel toe-capped boots, it was a woman wearing crocs kicking at another women that wouldn't have endanger the woman's baby or the woman in any way. If she had kicked me I probably wouldn't have even noticed. Thankfully the court saw sense and realised it was a waste of their time. Also this "She accepted Alena’s apology but insisted on letting the police handle the case to avoid a recurrence of such incidents." Does this stupid woman think that because she makes a fuss, it's going to mean all foreigners living here and coming here will hear the story about someone being fined for wearing shoes in her shop and that is going mean she never faces a similar situation?!

If you read all the reports it turns out she 'kicked' the Thai woman in the shin. But there was no clear indication of how much force she used, but I would bet it was very little. Anyway, she's been fined 500 baht and given a short suspended sentence, which is reasonable I guess although I really think the whole incident is petty and stupid. The Thai woman should have just let the Russian buy something and leave. The whole take your shoes off to enter a shop is nonsense. I wear skateboard shoes (like Vans) that I can't just slip on and off, I need to set down and undo the laces to remove them, and then sit down to put them back on. Not everyone wear flip flops or slip off/slip on shoes.

How is Tinder a rip off? Millions of people use it very successfully. It's also free.

What was so strange about my post? Of course Thai immigration set the rules. That doesn't mean some of the rules aren't nonsensical and very unfair. How would you feel if you had farang kids who had been born here or lived here since they were babies, hence only ever knowing Thailand as their home and then at 18 they were unable to remain living with you in Thailand? Or are you one of those weird people who doesn't think they should support their kids for as long as possible? As far as farang husbands being dependents of their farang wives, I was unaware this was possible given children over 18 can't be dependents. Seems utterly illogical to me that your children don't have the same family rights as a spouse. It's immediate family, if one of them has a visa then the others should all be allowed to be here as part of the family. Why are you bringing up husbands on retirement extensions? or wives needing to enter on Non-O's? Not everyone that comes here is an old fogey. The OP is not old enough for a retirement extension, his wife is the one getting the Non-B and a work permit. He needs a visa that allows him to come here and stay with his non-Thai wife.

You must be a dinosaur if you think my language makes me sound 16. I may be 56 but I still feel and look much younger and my interests are the same as younger people's. I think old things are pretty crap and newer things are usually far better. Anyway, I've redacted it a bit but here is my HK ID Card. Born in 1967 HK ID card first issued in August 1973 I'm still a Permanent HK Resident.

No, I'm defending the Russian the same as I'd defend a Brit or an Aussie etc Because I know that these new reports are so full of inaccuracies and lack of info, and that Thais over exaggerate like crazy. Touch a Thai with your foot and they'll say you kicked them. Give them a tiny tap with your hand and it will be you punched them. I would even defend some of the really low class brits that I see here. Even though I think those people are lower than low I'd still give them the benefit of the doubt in a story like this (unless there was a video showing them doing whatever they were accused of). As farangs we should be very careful about Thais starting to think they can have us thrown out of the country, just because of some minor argument or confrontation.

Thanks for that clarification Brian. Like I've been saying, the poor reporting and the typical overreaction by the Thai woman made it sound like the Russian gave her a full blown hard kick in the groin, I doubt she kicked her very hard at all.

I don't find most Thai women even slightly appealing. My GF is Russian. She's a younger and better looking than the one in this story, although the one in this story is also hot. Just my GF is hotter 🙂

This is not true. The spouse of someone with a work permit and one-year extension of stay can get a visa and extension of stay to live with their spouse. I stand corrected. Seems strange that an adult spouse can be a dependant yet an adult child cannot. Aren't someone's children more likely to need to be dependants, than a spouse?

I've lived in Asia for 50 years of my 56 years, 15 in Bangkok and been coming here regularly since I was about 13 years old. I think I understand Asia, its people and customs etc better than most.

Yes, but the level of the kick is relevant. I could punch you on the arm but the punch might not hurt you, or I could punch you and maybe it really does hurt you. Saying I punched your arm does not tell anyone how much pain I caused, it only tells people my fist touched your arm. My point is the wording doesn't tell the full story. And why does everyone on here immediately assume it was a serious kick or that the Thai woman isn't blowing a little kick all out of proportion. After all she has accepted the apology but still want to press charges, possibly causing the Russian woman and her partner far more significant harm.

Hi Keiran, Unfortunately as foreigners there is no benefit to being married to another foreigner when it comes to visas. A dependent has to be under 18, which means that even your kids get kicked out of the country once they turn 18, unless they can secure a job that give them a work permit (or they marry a Thai). I'm afraid you are going to have real problems, unless you are over 50 which I'm sure you are not. Your wife will have no issue as she's going to have a work permit and a visa (plus annual extensions for the duration of her employment), but you may really struggle to find a job here and you won't be able to stay here on Tourist visas for the whole time. Your options are :- 1) education visas to learn Thai which if you actually learn would get you 1 and maybe 2 years here (you would not be allowed to work, but could easily work online if that is something your skills would allow), you could then get an education visa to learn Muay Thai for a year or more (maybe 2 max), again if this is something you'd like to do or be capable of doing. 2) the Thai elite 5 year visa, which is quite pricey at 900,000 THB for 5 years https://thailand-elite.com/membership/gold/ you also can't work on this visa, so you might need to find ways to make money online. 3) Rent a place in Ho Chi Minh where a job for you might be easier (not saying it would be) then you visit Thailand as a tourist the max amount you can, always using a proper visa not being a cheapskate and using visa exempt. And your wife visits you in HCM for other periods of time. You'd be apart but if you took it in turns to go to each others locale it could work quite well. Especially as your wife will get lengthy school holidays. This option would also give you a base in Asia from which you could keep trying to find a job in Thailand. Hope that helps Also I should add that there are new tax regulations that will mean all income transferred in from overseas will be taxable, unless you can show you paid tax in your home country (and there is a tax arrangement in place with your home country and Thailand). This is going to make bringing funds in that you've earned online tricky as you will have to be very creative to avoid the theft (I mean tax) of your money!!

I've only seen one report saying it was in the groin. All recent reports say it was her leg. Although as usual the reporting on things here is so imprecise we never get the actual facts. They don't even define or explain what sort of kick it was - a frustrated little kick or a full blown leg sweep. My money is on a her being frustrated and the kick not being that serious or hard. But of course Thais love to exaggerate and blow things totally out of proportion.

I can see no reason why you would have any issue. It's now 2024 and you've not been here for a while. Enjoy your next trip!

If a policeman tells you to do something you do it. You don't question his authority. This is the problem with some people these days, they have no respect for the law or for authority. To suggest that they needed to defend themselves is absolute nonsense, there is no way the cop would have shot them. So either they have watched too many movies where police fire willy nilly at people or they are pathologically guilty and so afraid of the police that they think they should be shot at.