mstevens

1 minute ago, jenny2017 said:

She won't jump, believe me. And if she does, she's left your apartment.

 

   Don't believe all the stories. 

Sadly, I can't agree.  Plenty of Thai women have committed suicide or self-harmed when a relationship has gone bad.  And plenty of them have done as this lady has threatened to do and leapt to their death....no shortage of news articles about this phenomenon.  Very sad that this happens and incredibly stressful for anyone (trapped?) in such a relationship.

It's not healthy to follow someone in the way you did, even if it would seem that she was lying to you.  The relationship was still in the early days: you've been together a very short time (and maybe the two of you were not actually a couple in her mind).  Frankly, as a 50-year-old who has 20 years in the region you should know that her actions show that she was not serious about you.  Look at someone's actions, don't listen to their words!

Walk away.  That is the only "option".

13 hours ago, malcoml said:

Insurance or not I'm more interested in how 18 stitches can cost a total of 300,000 baht.

The original post says that he was hospitalised for a period.  Bangkok Hospital is a private hospital i.e. a business to make money.  It's widely known that private hospitals in Thailand are no bargain.  Hang out in the Health & Medicine sub forum and you'll see that 300K hospital bills can run up VERY quickly!

The travel insurance that I get automatically with my credit card clearly states that the policy is limited to 90 days travel outside my home country.  Perfectly fair and reasonable and if I travel for longer I have to pay a supplementary cost.  This is common in travel insurance policies and while it's no doubt disappointing for the Norwegian who will have to pay for the treatment out of his own pocket, this is not a scam as this sort of thing is clearly written in to the policy.  Too many people don't take the time to familiarise themselves with insurance policies which these days, at least in my part of the world, are written in easy to understand English which even a school kid could grasp.

On 4/29/2018 at 12:03 AM, snowgard said:

The customs & the police!!! They have the right to check your mobile phone, notebook, tablet, external harddisk for every legal/unlegal stuff (pictures, software, ...).

In some countries, yes, but not all.  Here in New Zealand, for example, Customs cannot compel you to hand over passwords for your devices.

Hate to say it but when I read of these new rental regulations coming in to force I immediately thought that the easiest way for landlords to recover their "losses" would be to increase rents.  I have two friends who have reported this happening already and doubtless there are many, many more.

12 hours ago, Jdiddy said:

There better still be plenty of non-fat and ugly PAYG material at reasonable prices when i retire there in 25 years

I wouldn't count on it.  25 years is a hell of a long time and the world really is changing.

Just put it in an envelope and send it as if it's a letter.  No need to put a Customs declaration on the envelope.

Don't assume the claims that the email was sent by the Frenchman.  It is my opinion that the email is from one of the many Russian scammers operating in Thailand.  It may be that the email was sent by Frenchie, but I have my doubts.  Using the Frenchman's name is a ruse to scare the target - and it may well work as anyone Googling the Frenchman's name will see that he said Frenchman has some association with the Pattaya police.

The suggested payment methods are not traceable.  Bitcoin, forget it.  And in the case of the local Thai bank account, it could be one of the many set up by a scammer paying a small amount of money to a Thai national to set up a bank account in the Thai person's name.  The Thai then cedes control of the account by handing over the passbook and ATM card.  Every time money is extorted by the scammers and deposited in to that account it is immediately withdrawn by someone at an ATM machine, most likely wearing a hat / dark glasses / disguise so they cannot be identified by the images the camera in the ATM machine takes of them.

As the email appears to have been sent from Gmail, it cannot be traced using traditional IP address locators.

There are a lot of Russian scammers in Thailand operating like this.  Their MO is to identify foreigners with an online presence in Thailand who may not be legal in terms of work permit, taxes etc.  They contact them and make various claims.  These can range from claiming their reputation has been damaged - they will often say they are the person in a photo on a website / in a Youtube video which has been published without permission and their reputation has been damaged / they have lost their job / their wife saw them in a bar setting and has left with their children etc.  These scammers do their homework about the person they are targeting and sometimes provide that person's address and if it is not known publicly (such as someone with a YouTube channel running it with an assumed name), they address the person with their real name.  Typically they ask for 100,000 - 200,000 baht, but in the case of those who appear successful, they ask for more.

This smells of Russian scammers.  It could be the Frenchman and if it is, I wonder if he is mixed up with the Russians too.

5 hours ago, Khun Ed said:

Thanks. I spent 2 weeks in manilla before applying for a visa. I wonder if that helps? Elite is $10000 for 5 years right? The Savannakhet option I guess would get me 1 month as it's overland.

Actually, the cheapest Elite card is more like $16,000+....and if used right can be good for 6 years.

5 hours ago, xylophone said:

Have you tried the NZ Mainland Vintage cheddar...........IMO very good.

Excellent cheese indeed.  Is it currently available in supermarkets in Bangkok?  It's been out of stock here in New Zealand since late last year and will not be available again until next month.

9 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Yes, exactly five per day.

But it's even more so.

On mornings without cereal, I just eat all five.

On mornings with cereal, I eat one and then four go into the bowl.

I agree it's "suspiciously" something. 

But  I could be much worse. Imagine if I felt the need to count the exact number of PUMPKIN seeds I was eating daily!?! Uh oh. Hadn't thought of that before. What's a lucky number? 

Are you addicted to almonds and pumpkin seeds, or are you eating them for the health benefits (as I do).

When I read your original post and saw that you ate almonds and pumpkin seeds daily, I questioned the use of the word "addicted".  These two foods are both excellent for you....but be honest here, if they didn't have superior health benefits, or worse, were actually bad for you, would you eat them?  I wouldn't.  Both almonds and pumpkin seeds have what I'd call something of a neutral taste and aren't sweet, moorish or even particularly tasty.  I eat them purely for the health benefits and I wonder if that might be the case with you too?

Now on the topic of addictive foods, for me it is chocolate.  If there's chocolate in the house I will eat it.  Ditto ice-cream.  I struggle to exercise self-control with chocolate or good ice-cream.

It works like a charm in Bangkok and some of the discounts are tremendous.

Some taxi drivers in Bangkok are great, but plenty are terrible.  What I like is the widespread publicity this incident has received which hopefully will cause other taxi drivers to reconsider pulling these stunts, especially those who refuse fares and / or refuse to turn on the meter.

If you are willing to go to the Police Headquarters at Rama 1 Road in Bangkok (almost beside the Siam BTS station), you can get it all done yourself, get the fingerprints done, pay the fee and they will send the police clearance certificate to you in the post a week or so later.

Make an appointment with Dr John, an American counsellor / therapist who can be contacted at http://www.bangkok-counseling.com/

10 hours ago, Keithsbd said:

Appreciate the comments but everyone is moving away from my original question about getting back in if change name. Ive had all the lectures and info about new passport arrival dates, length of overstays and bans etc. Thats happened.  I cant change that.

I don't know if you will get a definitive answer on whether changing your name and returning to Thailand with a new name and passport will work or not.  But what I do imagine is that even if that did work that in time....might be a few years, or more be many more years.....eventually Thai Immigration will have systems in place that will detect the change of name (possibly from biometric data) that show you entered the country within the ban period under a changed name.  And if that does happen then it's certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that such action could see you blacklisted from ever returning.  And while a ten year ban sounds bad, being blacklisted forever would be much worse.

Having a Thai wife in Thailand makes this a very difficult situation for you and I agree with the posters who have said that the best option might be to get your wife to your country.  That way everything would be legal and you would not be forever looking over your shoulder - because if you do return to Thailand with a new name / passport then I imagine that you're going to be looking over your shoulder until at least the ten year period lapses, if not forever - and that sure is no way to live / enjoy life.

11 hours ago, jenny2017 said:

They're using facial scanners.

They use cameras - yes - but is this connected to facial scanning software?  Is there any evidence to confirm that?  So while Thai Immigration would have an archive of photos of you from each time you have entered and exited the country, I don't believe that they are operating software that scans your features, links this to various databases and confirms (or otherwise) your identity.

17 hours ago, PerkinsCuthbert said:

Get a Mac, you won't regret it. More expensive but pays for itself in longevity, durability and reliability. After fifteen years of going round in circles with Microsoft the last four, problem-free years with Mac have been a dream. Treat yourself. 

Had EXACTLY the same experience and agree 1000%!

12 hours ago, chrisinth said:

Seems a lot of people don't realize that overstay was not a huge issue before the latest rules. One could even say it was encouraged through the lax enforcement of the immigration rules. Pay your 20,000 baht fine to clear your overstay, leave the country and return the next day used to be the SOP for many here.

What you say is absolutely true, but can you not see how Immigration (in any country) may look at one's past record when evaluating whether they are a travel risk or not?  People who overstayed for a long time knowing they could pay 20,000 baht when exiting the country and return almost immediately should have considered that they broke the law, that 20,000 baht is a large fine by Thailand standards i.e. it is a serious issue and most importantly, that this will always be on their Thailand immigration record - and they therefore should have considered that IT COULD BECOME A PROBLEM FOR THEM IN THE FUTURE.