Golden Triangle

17 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

The Elite visa, cost 500.000 Bt for five years stay in Thailand, 800.000 Bt for ten years, you get nothing in return for it.

Who mentioned retirement visas? Anyway, they are not visas, they are extensions, completely different.

This is what you posted: 

Says nothing about an Elite visa, and uses the figure 800,000 Baht (which is the retirement visa requirement) Please get facts and figures right, saves us befuddled folk getting confused 

And those figures are in Millions not 100's of thousands.

5 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Maybe I've missed something, but the way I see it is you hand over 800.000Bt to Thailand, stay for ten years, all the time contributing to Thailands economy.

After ten years, they say to you "would you like to stay for another ten years, that will be another 800.000Bt please, if not then bye bye".

You really have no clue do you ? IF you have 800,000 baht in the bank every time your retirement visa expires (and it has been in your bank for 3 months at least) then it will be re-newed - subject to the immigration officer being in a good mood or got his leg over the night before, or failing that provable income every month IE: pensions etc of 65,000 Baht. Where do you get this 800,000 baht every 10 years from 

Next to diddley squat down here in the Pattaya area, many grey days but naff all rain, Maprachan lake is getting lower & lower.

One more outrage (Bombing) will put the mockers on their predictions for tourists, except of course the hard core mongers that only come for 2 things, beer & snatch.

So far Pattaya has remained unscathed, how long will the heightened security presence be maintained ? give it another few days and the Army will be back in barracks, the Police will retreat to their cosy offices and it will be business as usual, then a few well placed explosive devices can be planted in places like Central Festival, Walking Street and - excuse the spelling, Soi Buchkow. Now that would have serious repercussions. 

I have said to friends many months or even years ago that Pattaya is one of the jewels in the crown of tourism in Thailand and as such a prime target. Mark my words.  

6 hours ago, manfredtillmann said:

teenagers are selfish and stupid, you don't take them anywhere. the worst travelling companions.

and the places on this planet where you can drink tap water are...?

Try the UK for starters.

I read the 20 pages of the other thread, I don't have the willpower or life left to read what is gonna be a very long thread repeating everything that has already been said 

So will it be the same scenario that we had when all pre-paid sims had to be registered to enable you to continue using it, register by such & such a date or we will turn it off ?

So, the next instruction will be, YOU WILL purchase the new sim, you WILL install it in your phone, we will attach your current number to the new sim (I've had my number for over 10 years) AND we will DISABLE your old sim.

Job's a gooden. 

Wait and see if that ain't right. 

6 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

In a BBC report Jonathan Head described how discussion etc had been banned and many Thais didn't understand the details of the new charter.      A young lady voter was interviewed and in the translation of her words she confirmed she didn't really uderstand so had to ask her family what to do,    her dad said vote No so she did  !

For those of us who may have been used to carrying out our civic duty in our home countries it's an interesting question,  "  would you vote Yes or No to a proposal you didn't really understand or abstain   ?  "

They voted in the UK referendum - Not many people there understood the implications of a No vote but voted anyway - consequence = chaos. 

10 minutes ago, neverdie said:

I love Americans, very entertaining folk.

 

Beautiful country too, I haven't seen all of it, wish I had, but the parts I did see were very special indeed.  Fantastic service country indeed and the folk there always seem to like chatting to an Aussie.

 

Sadly, I feel Americans have been led down a very dark dirty track by their respective governments over the last 30 or 40 years. Such a shame for them.

 

A political overhaul is long overdue.

 

Some of the biggest meals I have ever seen served up, have been in the USA.  Boy do they know how to eat 555555555

Gotta agree with you on that, and do they ever have some great food 

Nothing wrong with Americans at all, I have visited loads of places, from Arizona to Hawaii and plenty more besides. I love the hospitality, geniality and real friendliness that they show to visitors. I was once on an overnight flight from London to Miami, had no plans, nowhere to stay or anything planned, I got into conversation with this old guy next to me, in the end he offered to drive me down towards Little Venice, found a lovely hotel for me and went on his way, how good is that ? Plus I have found that they also love my London accent, I love the Septics to bits 

3 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Not a big deal for me personally, but why do they always hit the weekends with these shenanigans? It messes up ordinary peoples' businesses and eats into folks' leisure time.

Probably because the vast majority of Thais have Sunday off I would have thought, a bit like back home, so more people can get to the voting stations.

I sincerely hope that their sojourn in the remand prison is a short and very ugly stay, and that they all come out feet first wearing wooden overcoats.  

1 hour ago, CanInBKK said:

 

She's probably already thought it through and come to the decision that would keep her dignity intact.  Simply being honest here but when has Thai mass media (or even Hollowood) cast a female lead character of her body size except in comedies?

 

It's doubtful she'd be more than the funny sidekick to the lean and fit female star.

Oh I don't know, that rather large lady on Thai channel 3 seems to be doing okay for herself (Sunshine Day I think it's called) I only know cos the Mrs watched it, very bad acting but comedy for the masses, surely you have sen it ? it's hysterical 

Do these drivers actually take a test ? or is it the same as for a normal licence, drive around our safe little track, stop at the signs, look left and right and proceed, thank you sir/madam you passed here is your licence to kill.

Do they have Tachographs ? proper rest periods ? Speed limiters ? No I didn't think so, whatever happened to a previous governments pledge to have limiters and GPS in all passenger carrying vehicles like buses and minibuses ? Oh I know, it went into the file marked B1N (too difficult) 

Many years ago I was a coach driver in the UK and on the Continent, my lessons and test were very intense and to pass the PSV test was considered an example of the highest standards of road craft. I'm afraid that that road craft is sadly lacking in all echelons of Thai society, the basic concept that I can figure out is that my vehicle is (pick whatever you want) Newer than yours, more expensive than yours, is bigger than yours or is faster than yours, so get the <deleted> outta my way.

Why let them home each night. Lock them up, lights out at 8pm. Up at 4am the do the dirty work.

Yes, that should be part of the punishment. And a repeat offence bike crushed, 12 months jail, parents fined 30.000 baht. A third offense, public flogging in the town square with 2 years in jail and the parents get 6 months in jail as well!

Sounds good to me, implement it immediately.

When I took the Mrs to the UK a couple of years back I had to show that I had sufficient funds to pay for any medical costs that she might have incurred during our visit, so yes people should have travel insurance when coming here. The Thai government or our Embassies are not responsible for paying huge hospital bills - travel without insurance at your peril.

I feel sorry for the lady and her family but this is a consequence of the above.

This very subject has made it onto the BBC world news, so it must be true.............................or maybe not, it's the BBC <deleted>.

I have to agree with the few posters who have mentioned Tram/Monorail as an alternative.

Yes, it would take a lot of money and time to implement but a properly designed tram system serving the whole of Pattaya would certainly reduce the need to use private transport. Have out of town tram stations with adequate parking for tour bus's, private vehicles etc Make it 24/7 365, and reasonably priced, Bingo traffic problem solved, limit traffic to deliveries/residents and the like. Sounds like a winner to me.

Of course other opinions are available but it could be a goer.

Health and Safety alive and well in Thailand I see.

Sorry about the erroneous smileys and other symbols in the post above, I don't quite know what happened there.

Whenever my other half goes home I let her take the car, I would rather be at home knowing that she is a safe and steady driver and will come back to me in one piece rather than allow her life, and the lives of her fellow passengers, be put at risk by one of these cowboys. When oh when will the government insist that these vans are (a) fitted with speed limiters & ( trackers, to ensure that they comply with traffic laws and © Tachographs ?

I really do despair at the needless waste of life because these MORONS are allowed to (a) drive tired, ( drive under the influence of drink or drugs © drive too fast (d) ignore all rules of the road (e) have unrealistic journey times set by the bus owners and I have experienced this personally where the owner has called the driver (while we were doing 140 kph) to know why he wasn't at the next pickup point etc etc.

Wild horses will never drag me back into one of those coffins on wheels.

Please, Department of Land Transport get your act together and come down hard on these idiots.

They do have a nice ambience though, despite it being illegal.

Because they are built over the sea?

No, they are built over a sewer that pretends to be the sea

My Retirement visa and 90 day renewal often occur at the same time, so far I've never had any problems, as for going to the Immigration office, I live about 20 minutes from it so no problem, I can understand people that live long distances away would avail themselves of the internet option, saving time and money on fuel.

I know that we shouldn't have to, but, even when trying to cross a one way road either on foot or in the car, I always look both ways, that has got to say something about the standard of driving (or lack of it).

"Calling Bill Gates to the conversation" Maybe he can post something, that would fix the problem. RIP Mr Khazak man, How bad is Thai driving ? Failing to stop at a (any) Red light, speeding, double parking with no consideration to other road users, lack of courtesy to other road users, the "Me First" mentality etc etc etc, please feel free to add your own, Oh, I almost forgot - Me take a driving test, no no no, my brother, uncle, sister, grandfather,grandmother, mother,father, niece or nephew do for me