RandG

I wonder what happened to the blimp of Trumps's mate Sadiq Khan although, thinking about it, the blimp will be about as useless as he is. 

The restaurant on top of the Kantary is excellent. Would imagine they will be doing  a Christmas Dinner.

On 11/30/2020 at 7:45 AM, SAFETY FIRST said:

I was riding my PCX down soi buakhao the other day, stuck behind a slow-moving baht bus, as I waited slowly riding I heard one of those annoying loud scooters behind so I passed the baht bus swiftly pulling over to the left to allow the Thai rider to pass. To my amazement, it was middle aged, bald, westerner riding his blinged-up Aerox with his family (wife and child) onboard, none wearing a helmet...... you'd reckon he'd be riding in a safe manner with his family as pillion. I had to laugh as he passed as I thought it was one of the funniest/silliest things I've seen for quite some time.
Seriously, this was not a funny sight, why is it that there seems to be so many middle-aged western guys not wearing helmets, sadly many elderly/geriatric men are also not wearing helmets. 
We see the Thais not wearing helmets, the Thais have not had the education we westerners have been given, I can only assume all of those westerners not wearing helmets have no education. 

Without continuous and consistent enforcement, all the driving education in the world will not help.

Both the wife and I use dual SIM phones, with UK and Thai SIM's. Works fine. For landline, we have both UK and German (wife is German) VoIP landline numbers, so if anyone rings us on our UK or German landline numbers it just rings simultaneously in our condo in Thailand and our house in the UK. They have no need to know where we are, although it can occasionally lead to unintended late night calls. Works fine for family, friends and banks etc. Also means we are making local calls when we are calling to the UK or Germany from Thailand. Have used this set up for years and would not change it. 

We also have soft VoIP clients on our mobiles, so if we are traveling in other countries around the world as long as we have half way decent WiFi we can also make outgoing calls via our UK or German numbers.

No expensive monthly subscriptions; we just top up the VoIP numbers occasionally. In the UK we use Draytel, and in Germany Sipgate. Both numbers are local (i.e. the town where we live in the UK, and the town in Germany where my in-laws live),

11 hours ago, ezzra said:

Until and when a vaccine will be found there are no other safe ways to contain the virus and stam the pandemic, if there was, every other country in the world would have done it already... so do what many others governments did, pay and support people and business to sit home... 

But unfortunately that is only sustainable for a relatively short period of time. 

Sounds similar to when SwissAir failed and became Swiss, and Sabena became Brussels Airlines. 

6 hours ago, bbi1 said:

How are you able to get 2 valid passports from your country? What country? Surely when you get a new passport the old is invalid.

Certainly you can get two valid passports in the UK and I believe Germany (wife was offered it)  if you can justify it,  for example letter from your employer to say you travel regularly,  and your passport is forever being sent away to get visas.  I looked into it,  but did not bother in the end as I have dual nationality and just renewed my passport for my 2nd country and used that. 

Wife and I have done a few annual retirement extensions in Phuket.  Always been processed quickly and without issue. 

2 years ago,  we stayed at the Kantary hotel in Korat. Had a couple of excellent meals on the roof top restaurant with a decent atmosphere. Very attentive staff.  Excellent food and service, and not particularly expensive. The restaurant is enclosed,  but there is a little open area for a pre/post dinner drink. Would definitely go again if we were in Korat again. 

20 hours ago, Mr Smithy said:

I may be wrong but I do not believe this SE O visa is now issued  - You will only have the choice of a SE or ME tourist visa

My wife and I picked ours up this week,  so they are clearly still being issued. 

Pretty certain that the reason given by the British Embassy was not cost cuts,  but the fact that they could not actually prove that the income was there,  and there were enough scams going on with supposed property income. 

Will also depend on whether it is a Consulate,  or Honorary Consulate. 

Why not just get a one year multi-entry in Canberra based on retirement? We did it in London with no problems. Police report, health form, UK Bank statement with equiv. 800,000 in a UK bank. Subsequent years (2nd year we did it based on re-entry stamp), one year extension in Thailand; my wife based on 800K in Thai Bank for 3 months, and in my case, income certificate from British Embassy. So far, has all been pretty painless. Good luck.

My German wife and I (British/Canadian) are retired and are in Phuket, and there are several other couples in our condominium complex. In a couple of cases, the wife and children stay here full time with the children being at school, and the working husband does a month on, month off, returning home or elsewhere, to work in the oil industry, or in 2 cases I am aware of, to keep the family business at home running.

48 minutes ago, moe666 said:

You could have a hard time checking into a hotel without your passport. In Kanchanaburi two hotels there demanded my passport as immigration makes rounds of the hotel checking records.

Have never had an issue checking in to a hotel with Thai driving license. In the last year we have used hotels in Chiang Mai,  Bangkok and Korat. Small independent hotels as well as larger chains.  Never even a raised eyebrow. 

2 hours ago, flyingdoc said:

A passport is required to match up with an eticket, regardless of whether you are going on a domestic or international flight!

Although my wife and I have our passports with us,  we always check in for domestic flughtacwith our Thai driving licences. Never an issue 

We did everything in colour for Phuket. No issues.

On ‎03‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 5:49 PM, RandG said:

Thanks UbonJoe

 

We finally did our extension last week, having just returned to Thailand / Phuket in time. It was a bit busy at the queue for the address registration, although even then only took perhaps 15 minutes. At the room where we had to go for the retirement extension, an officer standing outside checked our paperwork (British with letter from the embassy to verify income) and German (with letter from a Thai Bank to confirm the THB 800,000) and gave us a number (only 2 in front of us). Quickly went in, another officer went through all the paperwork in detail, stamped our passports and took our money. Someone else took our photographs and gave us a receipt. Next day we went back to collect our passports (in and out in 2 minutes). All very painless. Thanks for everyone's input.

We also went back a day or two later and got our multi re-entry stamp. Really friendly officer. Whole process took 10-15 minutes. 

We have found that a good time to go is about 12:45, while it is closed for lunch. There are perhaps 10 people waiting for address registration/90 day reports/re-entry stamps etc. By 13:00 when the doors open, the queue is quite long again, but we are near the front. For example, we were the first to go to the re-entry stamp desk.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Pretty certain it is 6 weeks in Phuket.

Are you you need an extension? If you are still on your original visa issued outside of Thailand, you should be able to get a multiple re-entry stamp giving you the best part of another year. 

Last year we got all the paperwork together that we thought we needed for an extension, trotted along to immigration and were told we did not need it; just the re-entry certificate.

12 hours ago, markaoffy said:

Having a valid visa issued by a Thai consulate and then being rejected by Thai immigration sums up the madness


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Most countries advise that a visa issued by one of their consulates does not guarantee entry into a country. It is always at the discretion of the immigration officer at the point of entry. It is not just a Thai thing.

52 minutes ago, Archcan said:

The checklist above is correct.  I successfully extended my retirement Visa this AM.  The only thing missing in the list was a waiver form that the Immigration guy handed me on arrival.  He told me not to bother copying it because it will be different next year.  I think I recall them saying the same thing last year. LOL.

 

Yes, still the same process that asks you to bring a photo and then takes a picture of you.

Thanks for the confirmation Archan. What is the waiver form for?