Tod Daniels

As an aside to my previous post;

FWIW: or in idiot thai-engrish 'sa-peak'; for what it's worth. ..

Make SURE you look at the "must be used by" date very CAREFULLY.

For example; a 15 or 20 or 100 entry tourist visa with ONLY a 90 day validity is far less useful that one might imagine (even in your wildest dreams), once you return to the glorious "Land 'O Thais". ..

I spoke with some guys from Pattaya at the Nong Khai border crossing into Lao PDR at 6AM when I was there a couple of weeks ago, and they paid 9900 baht for their 'visa run' which started about 120 minutes earlier than the visa run I took from Bangkok which cost only 6900 (Lao and thai visa included) and to top it off that was with a private room in Lao at a guest house near the embassy as well as a free buffet lunch in Nong Khai on the return to Bangkok.

My advice; take a bus to Bangkok and use a visa service from here as well. .. ...

Sadly there is NO shortage of either; the small thai chili (พริกขี้หนู) for the unenlightened; "prik kee nuu" or "mouse shit pepper" and/or MSG (which is also provided for the equally unenlightened) as (ผงชูรส) "phohng chuu roht"; which translates roughly as "dust that enhances taste". ..

You will find no shortage of either at ANY thai food stand on any soi, in any city, in any province, that you may care to visit in this pissant developing third world country also known as the glorious "Land 'O Thais".

Just so we are clear, it is not that I am disparaging thais; believe me, I tolerate them, because I happen to live in their country, but. .. .. just telling the truth.

Vocabulary is the key, and the more words you can recognize in written form the faster you'll learn to read. I downloaded a file off this forum with the top 1000 thai words in order of frequency, made up my own lists of the most common thai verbs (กริยาปกติ), opposite words (คำตรงข้าม), as well as the ever perilous thai classifier words (ลักษณนาม).

I found once you learn to read it is FAR easier than speaking, as you read silently. Even if in your head you mispronounce the word for rice (ข้าว), at least you know its meaning, and don't confuse it with one of the similar sounding words (ขาว, เขา, คาว, ข่าว, เข้า, เข่า) as they are all written differently.

Good luck, keep at it, best wishes in your endeavor.

I am totally against any corporate religion.

However, in my observations, the mormons here don't seem too hel_l bent on converting people, and most of them I've spoken to just want to do their 2 years and bail back to the US. With that being said, you would be hard pressed to find a group of young foreigners who spoke clearer, more cohesive, and well structured thai than they do. They're always good fun to practice thai with.

The jehovah witnesses here don't seem all too in your face about conversion either. Although I know several thais who have been sucked into its mindlessness. They wear not being budhhist like a badge of honor, which is sad (for them, not me). I routinely see the 'rag' they pass out printed in thai, so they do have a presence here.

To my knowledge the guy that preaches in front of NEP is neither jehovah nor mormon; just your plain garden variety rabid christian. In conversations I've had with him away from that venue; he's actually a pretty nice guy who is just following what he feels is the right thing to do. Can't really fault a person for that, although I feel given the locale of his preaching; sadly his message however sincere is falling upon deaf ears.

My favorite comeback for ANY brand of religious zealot who is bent on converting me from my evil, godless, heathen ways is a line spoken by Morgan Freeman in the 2003 Stephen King movie, Dreamcatcher;

"God is just an imaginary friend for grownups. .."

Mindless chatter removed. .. .. even from 5 yards away you can tell it is not real.

You must have seen a piss poor copy cranked out on an old Xerox machine.

The big grocery store near my apartment had a few of the counterfeit 1000 baht bills which the customer service girls were examining.

Other than the paper feeling slightly different, (but only marginally so) and the serial numbers being the same; the bills were really high quality copies; water marked, foil strips, everything. The only difference was when they held a black light over the fake ones they didn't fluoresce.

The thai counterfeit bills are no where near the quality of the $100 US - Super Notes churned out by North Korea, but the fake 1000 baht ones I've seen would certainly pass as real, even with fairly close scrutiny.

(edited for sa-pelling)

Really if we are typing thai/engrish for accuracy; the correct sentence(s) would be

"You sa-tupid girl. You go sa-kool"

The most common thai character for the 's' sound (ส) when coupled with another consonant will almost always have an inherent and voiced 'a' (-ะ) sound built in which cannot be easily unlearned. Examples; สวัสดี (sa-wat-dii), สบาย (sa-bai). It is one of the most hard wired language rules that a thai learns. Often times they are using their language rules to speak engrish, hence the mispronunciation. That is why you hear, 'sa-tupid', 'sa-lowly', 'sa-top', 'sa-kool', 'sa-tamp'.

Sadly we accept second rate 'engrish' (if it can even be rated that highly) every day we coexist with these diminutive, yet ever smiling, people here in the glorious "Land 'O Thais". What I find oxymoronic (more than most aberrant behavioral traits pawned off as thai culture here) is that EVERY thai took english EVERY day they ever attended school, yet I have rarely seen a race of people more reticent about speaking.

The mind wobble that foreigners would have an (in)significant other who's engrish resembles that of a 4th grade drop out Appalachian hillbilly from rural America. The depth of the conversations I overhear often times is so shallow I can't even begin to fathom it. Then again some people don't need deep conversations, and "I go eat, sa-leep now, tired to mut, can and does suffice along with charades, pantomiming and hand gestures.

As an aside;

A friend of mine who peruses the "meet live thai women" dating sites (as opposed to meeting dead thai women which I hear aren't as much fun) called me the other day.

A girl who's screen name was "Bung-rat" had typed on her profile; "I look man who has big herat".

When I asked my friend if he'd contacted her yet, he said he was afraid his he-rat wasn't big enough.

I think several previous posters have hit the proverbial nail on the head;

1) go-go dancers in the US are not by default prostitutes, while ones in the glorious "Land 'O Thais" sadly are..

2) LYING on a visa application; once discovered, is immediate grounds for denial, plain and simple. Lie at your own peril.

3) I have personally witnessed all too many guys trying to get their gold encrusted, tattooed, and pierced (in)significant other's a tourist visa to America. Yet they show up with them at the US embassy looking like they both just walked out of Soi Cowboy. Appearance is everything, cover the tattoo(s), remove the piercing(s), dress like you're actually meeting a representative of the US government (BTW: you are), and act accordingly. Have your ducks in a row, paperwork filled out correctly, and remember NO ONE gets preferential treatment.

The burden rests squarely on the thai applying to show they have adequate 'thais to thailand' to return when the visa is over.

I know more thai whores than I care to count who have received 10 year US tourist visas. They just didn't look like whores when they applied, AND they met the requirements for a visa.

I will agree the 'bar' is exponentially higher allowing thais access into the US, than the nearly non-existent one which allows US citizens access into the glorious "Land 'O Thais", but rightfully so. Unless you failed to notice, with your rose colored glasses and all, there is quite a disparity between the two countries.

Rules are tools, follow them. .. ..

It is good to see that the Thai Consulate in Vientiane has 'streamlined' the procedure with numbered cards, etc. I am sure it's way better than the clusterf*ck it was on the first day they opened the 5th of this month.

Then again as my grandfather used to say; "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while."

I have recently applied for and been granted rare NGO status for the "Sick Thai Buffalo Foundation" (rights reserved). Soon the S.T.B.F. will launch an in depth, full scale, hands on study of both the buffalo population in thailand and the mysterious myriad of maladies which seem to affect it much more so than it's Cambodian, Burmese or Laotian brethren.

Right now we are taking contributions to finance this oh-so costly endeavor. (Good food, First Class hotels, the mandatory Black Toyota Land Cruisers, GPS Tracking systems, along with the ancillary needs of our on the ground research staff are not cheap in Issan).

Thankfully for you; payments can be made in cash; which are preferably in small multi-denomination unmarked US bills (please note; no sequential serial numbers accepted). We also accept direct money transfer and of course the standard online payment companies. If you are interested in getting to the bottom of this peculiar, perhaps even highly contagious, yet difficult to diagnose illness in the domestic thai buffalo population please consider contributing, even though it is not tax deductible.

Who knows when this malady may strike a buffalo near you, perhaps even one you know intimately.

Call now operators are standing by (they are NOT sitting, but standing) and they are anxiously awaiting your call.

The number is easy to remember; 1-SAVE-A-THAI-KWAI

Here's the information on renew by mail for Hawaiian Driver's Licenses.

http://hawaii.gov/dot/highways/hwy-v/hidlrqmt.pdf

Not being particularly interested in the minutia, I scanned it briefly, and it says you have a YEAR after it expires to renew it. I am not familiar with the different classes of licenses but you might be able to renew it by mail using a Hawaiin address.

A thai driver's license is not that tough to acquire, and is far more tedious and time consuming than difficult. Due to my location when I applied for a thai driver's license I had to go to Sukhumvit Soi 99. As my license from the US hadn't expired I didn't need to take either a driving test or a written one, just a series of moronic aptitude tests that even the thai who had cataracts so bad his wife led him to the testing area passed.

They test depth perception with a shoe box and two dowel rods; one that is operated via remote control, color blindness by pointing to red, yellow and green circles, reaction time by having you press a gas pedal and then the brake before the speed gets to the red zone on a video game like dealy, and then peripheral vision by having you look into a set of goggles which show lights at the edges. It's a no brainer and even if you can't speak thai, the instructors mime it out, and there are enough people taking the test at one time to figure it out.

You get a one year license initially and after it expires you renew it for 5 years. Unless I am mistaken, you must possess a valid thai drivers license first, to get the thai international one they offer at Mo Chit.

Sadly when I was back in the Unite States I could not rent a car with my old style thai driver's license as it looked like a cheap copy that you could buy on KhaoSan Road, and neither rental company I tried in the US would accept it. That being said, the new style "smart card" license actually looks real, and is printed in both thai and english.

Good luck

Tipping is a western concept imported to the glorious "Land 'O Thais" and embraced wholeheartedly by the ever smiling, yet diminutive inhabitants here.

I rarely ever tip in thailand, (not restaurants, taxis, nothing) as I feel the workers in most foreign frequented areas have good jobs at a fairly decent thai wage, (given they probably didn't finish 6th grade). In my opinion; they can always go back to Nakhon Nowhere and pull frickin' rice.

Sadly, I think most first worlder's tip WAY too much here and now expecting a tip (even for less than marginal service) has become an integral part of the mindless thai psyche. I have been asked by thai workers more than once; "you gib tip me?"

To each their own. Tip away if you feel the need. .. .. Thankfully, I don't feel the need ever.

You see it is things like this incident with what is clearly a poorly made 'copy' tennis shoe (or 'runner' to you people of that persuasion) which makes me wear shoes like this EVERY time I fly internationally.

As other posters have mentioned, possibly the "sacrificial lamb" so the majority of the shipment can get thru. It is a well known fact that almost all of the yaa-baa sold in thailand comes from burma, yet only about a shipment a month is 'intercepted' by the oh-so astute border police north of Chiang Mai.

All joking aside; a pretty stupid stunt for a 19 y/o to pull, but one that will hopefully give him ample opportunity to contemplate the error in his ways.

I'm going on over 4 years here, and have traveled quite a fair share throughout this tiny, pissant, developing third world country. ONCE I spent two hours in Pattaya. It was more than enough for this lifetime, and maybe the next one too! If I never spent another second there, I'd not miss it in the slightest.

I think one would be hard pressed indeed to pick a place that is more "un-thai" than that area even if you looked very hard. Believe me I am NO fan of the glorious "Land 'O Thais" or it's ever smiling, yet diminutive natives, but the place is just about as horrid an area that you can find in thailand and maybe S/E Asia altogether.

That the place holds such an attraction is literally amazing. I didn't realize there were so many people wading in the shallow end of the gene pool until I went there. The sheer numbers of foreigners who had splayed toed, gold encrusted, tattooed and body pierced (in)significant others walking behind them (also known as their "thai-in-tow") was just staggering.

While I am loathe to agree with "TheDon" about anything; I think a snap kick to the head is in order..

The price quoted by the Lao Embassy in Bangkok's website shows a wide disparity of the price for the magical 30 day visa into the wonderful "Land 'O Lao".

Canada is the highest at 1690 baht, while Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan all pay 1600

Here's a list of the countries and what they pay in thai baht off the Lao Embassy's website for a visa;

Albania 800

Armenia 800

Azerbaijan 800

Austria 1,400

Africa 1,200

Afghanistan 1,600

Australia 1,200

Bulgaria 800

Belarus 800

Belgium 1,400

Bhutan 1,200

Brunei 600

Cuba 800

Czech Republic 800

Canada 1,680

Central America 1,200

Cambodia 800

China 600

Denmark 1,400

D.P.R. of Korea 800

Estonia 800

France 1,200

Germany 1,200

Georgia 800

Greece 1,400

Hungary 800

Hong Kong 1,000

Ireland 1,400

India 1,600

Italy 1,400

Indonesia 400

Israel 1,200

Japan 1,000

Kyrgystan 800

Kazakhstan 800

Latvia 800

Lithuania 800

Luxembourg 1,400

Mongolia 800

Middle East 1,200

Malaysia 300

Myanmar 720

Macao 1,000

Norway 1,400

Netherlands 1,400

Nepal 1,600

New Zealand 1,200

Poland 800

Portugal 1,400

Pakistan 1,600

Philippines 1,200

Russia 800

Romania 800

R. Korea 1.200

Slovakia 800

Sweden 1,240

Spain 1,400

Switzerland 1,400

South America 1,200

Sri Lanka 1,600

Singapore 400

Taiwan 1,000

Turkmenistan 800

Tajikistan 800

Turkey 1,400

Thailand 600

Ukraine 800

United Kingdom 1,400

U.S.A 1,400

Vietnam 1,000

Yugoslavia 800

I don't know what the price at the border is, but I am sure it's close to what they charge at the Lao Embassy in Bangkok. Getting that visa BEFORE you make a run up there is a time saving move queue wise for the lines at the border during peak times. From my experience they process the visas awfully sa-lowly when there are more than 5 people in line.

The 1400 baht to get into the "Land 'O Lao" sounds correct if you're from one of the countries they charge that price for, but I don't know why you paid 1000 baht on the Lao side entering thailand, as you stated you received a "15 day visa exempt" stamp which is free.

I have flown Air Asia more times than I care to count; traveling to almost every destination A/A flies in this small insignificant developing third world country. Strange that in all that time I NEVER EVER had a problem, never had someone even remotely speak rude to me, or had a confrontation with any A/A staff.

Once you realize they have NO real gate at Suvarnabhumi, and get on the shuttle bus LAST you can get as good a seat as the people who pay for 'express boarding'. Their overweight baggage charge is one of the lowest in the region. Try lugging an overweight bag on Bangkok Air and get back with me on the fee you pay per kilo over the allowable weight.

It is a budget carrier, and does NOT market itself as a premier flagship government operated airline, like the illustrious thai airways pretends to. Nor does it own any airport it flies into giving it a stranglehold on the price it charges. They are consistently the lowest cost carrier for S/E Asia, and most certainly any destination they fly to inside thailand for domestic flights (even more so if you play their sales, and are flexible with dates).

I suggest everyone complaining, please, use nok, bangkok air or thai airways, as it seems the consensus is they provide superior service.

I guess the well given advice for people to actually "read" the fine print is lost on most of the astute and oh-so learned T/V forum readers who fall into the "whining" category.

Oh the injustice of it all; It is enough to make the mind wobble....

There is a thai language school called Sani Thai Language School located in a guest house/hotel next to the Surasak BTS station (one station from Saphan Taksin BTS station).

http://www.sanithaiteach.com/

In my spare time I scrutinize the various thai language schools in Bangkok to see what they're up to, how they teach thai, and what kind of material they are using.

Sani-Thai was just one of the 25 odd schools I have visited; taken the free lesson, and scoped out.

BTW: I have abso-tively, posi-lutely NO affiliation with the school and am providing the information based on your requirements.

They must not be that hard to get because the last time I was at Suan Plu Immigrations in Bangkok it looked like a mormon convention in Salt Lake City Utah. There were easily 50-75 mormons standing around to extend their visas. Conversely there were also a LOT of monks getting their visa extended as well, so it is done, by quite a few people routinely.

That visa shouldn't be hard to get from the US or UK thai consulate. However, changing the status of your current visa, or converting a 30-day visa exempt stamp into a Non-Immigrant Type O for religious purposes might be tricky and need some documentation from what ever religious organization you're affiliated with.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

This is the link to Movie Seer Thailand;

http://www.movieseer.com/Index.asp?Channel=2

It shows all the films at the major cinemas, gives show times, addresses, and contact numbers. It is fairly accurate most of the time.

At the Nong Khai border crossing on Monday morning at 6:00AM it was soo cold you could see your breath in the air. I even took a picture of it with my mobile phone to prove it. It was the BEST weather I've felt in this oven hot country in more than 4 years, abso-tively, posi-lutely beautiful, (then again I hate the heat)

The people from the Philippines on the visa trip were bundled in blankets and stocking hats, freezing nearly to death.

What is truly sad is that many hundreds of thais die from exposure in weather I wouldn't even begin to consider cold.

While Bangkok can in no way be considered at all cold no matter how you skew it; it is noticeably cooler, and I haven't run the air-con in several months now, just fans.

I submitted a report of a visa run I did Monday to the new thai consulate on this thread;

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Vientiane-La...75#entry2453768

Here's another update about the new Thai Consulate in Vientiane.

The architect obviously NEVER spent a second in the old consulate to see the short comings of its lay out, and thus the new building is as much of a clusterfuc_k as the old one was. The layout is piss poor, the flow to maximize thru-put and efficient processing of applications is nonexistent, and the total lack of any foresight in the planning other than to build two "pretty" buildings is classic thai logic; appearance is everything. There are a bunch of useless chairs and awning which just plain wastes space, and not a single person would jump out of the queue to sit in them even if the chairs were in the shade (which they are not until well into the afternoon). They did have a copy machine near where you turn in your passport and application so that was a plus, albeit a small one.

I took a visa service which left Bangkok at 8:30PM and arrived at the border at 6:00AM the following morning. The "shepherd" (our 'tour guide') got us outta thailand, across the bridge and into Lao pretty smoothly, although we had several people on long overstays which slowed our group down a bit crossing over.

We got to the consulate at 9:00AM and it was near chaos. There were nearly 550 people in line (I walked the line and did a rough count). MANY people had left thailand before new year's eve but couldn't get processed, so they were stuck in Lao over new years, and that is why I think the line was so long. The shepherd of our visa run service said usually there are about 200-300 in line and she's there 4 days a week with the company she works for.

After standing in the baking (but thankfully winter) sun to wait to turn in your passport, application, and supporting documents, (a lengthy process made even more so by people being unprepared, as far as photos, copies, even the correct form, etc), you were directed to another building which was straight out of a bad nitemare. No rhyme or reason, no number system, no logic AT ALL was to be seen in either the way things were processed or the way people were called.

Once they had collected enough passports and applications to fill a "wash tub" they took it to the room where people were waiting to pay. They then called people's name's (thai style), with a p/a system which sounded like a bad karaoke machine. There were about 10 times the number of people waiting to pay than there were chairs, (which was an improvement over the old consulate where the chairs to people were at a ration of 1 to 100) and people were jammed into every nook and cranny of the building. Sadly if they had just told people to re-queue in their original order, after turning in their passports and applications, the line would have flowed very smoothly, except for the fact that sometimes when they brought in a 'wash tub' of passports they reversed them when they started calling names, so people further back in the original queue were called before people who had turned in their passports earlier.

I am willing to let some of the half-assed, poorly executed thai wisdom slide as it was the first day of the new building. Unfortunately that being said, it is just as bad as the old building, no rhyme, no reason, no forethought in its design.

The next day, I went with our 'shepherd' got to see if her "secret squirrel" contact in the consulate would really get us our passports BEFORE they started handing them out to the mass of humanity waiting for theirs. Low and behold, she came out with our passports just as the first person was exiting with his, so she did have a contact on the inside.

Our group raced to the border, she got us across flawlessly, never stopped at either side, just breezed thru. Stopped in Nong Khai for a buffet, then raced back to Bangkok. All in all a long trip, leaving Bangkok at 8:30PM Sunday, and arriving back here at 11:30PM Tuesday nite.

Most people I spoke to in line had never heard of either the Thai Visa Forum, or evidently the internet either as they were dumb as a box of rocks about marking X2 next to the tourist visa box, for double entry, having a copy of the fron page of their passport, or even having two photos. It was sad really, as the same thing is exhibited at Suan Plu Immigrations here in Bangkok, just a plain lack of research or just plain stupidity, I don't know which.

Here are some photos of the people waiting in line to receive their passports on Tuesday afternoon, which I snapped while I was walking around. You can see the covered chair waiting area in one pic and to the very right the two windows where you turn your passports in. The other pic is the door leading into the room where you receive your passport/visa.

There are the same drink sellers outside selling Pepsi, Fanta, Beer Lao, etc like before, as well as Laotians who have the correct forms which they will sell to you. (and yes the touts are still there selling "same day" service illegally)

They still lock you out in the morning until the gates open and then again lock the gate at 12:00 until 1:00 to get ready to let in the people from the previous day at that time to pick up their passports.

I got my 90 day single entry Non-Immigrant Type O visa based on retirement even though I don't turn 50 until next month, but at least I can convert it to a year stay at Suan Plu after that.

Sorry if I sound critical, I am, and even just a tiny bit of design work could have made that a much better working system for both the thais employed there and the foreigners who use the consulate.

Any questions, P/M me. .. ..

(edited for most of the spelling mistakes, lol)

From everything I've read; this "new" rule has not been in effect for 90 days yet. Which means; regardless of what is written, no one has actually seen first hand how thai immigration officials at the borders will interpret the rule.

I believe it would behoove someone to err on the side of caution and NOT be the first foreigner to test whether the 90 day in 180 day "old rule" about visa exempt stamps is enforced or not. Then again some of you live on the edge as far as risk/benefits; so let the forum know how it works out for you. ..

I am waiting with bated breath to actually find out IF they just issue stamps endlessly as long as you exit and reenter via a land border every 14-15 days.

It bodes ill towards the people living here on the former "free-2-stay-30-day" visa-exempt stamps now known as the "free-2-stay-15-day" ones.

I see the foreign color coordinated shirt/snazzy matching rubber bracelet wearing "wanna-b-thai" faction came out of the woodwork to weigh in with their sheep-like sock puppet mentality on this topic. (Ever so quick to point the finger at what you perceive to be "rude" behavior in others aren't we boyz?)

I accept the thais have idiosyncratic behavior hard-wired into their psyche. I tolerate it without ever buying into it. I am SO sick of the we-b-thai faction throwing words around like "culture", "tradition" and "respect", acting like foreigners who live here AND pay their own way are somehow compelled to exhibit the rampant mindlessness which goes on in the name of "thai culture" (certainly an oxymoronic set of words, if there ever was one).

In the cinema I am politely requested to stand, for the king's song, so I do. Seeing as movies here have assigned seats; I concur getting there 30 minutes late bypasses the commercials, previews, etc.

Granted the national anthem which plays at 8 & 6 is a catchy little ditty. However, I don't stop what I am doing when it plays no matter where I am and I rarely EVER see thais doing it either.

Let me ask; as a foreigner do you blatantly pick your nose in public, examine the removed material with intent interest and then show it to your friends? Why not? Isn't that a "quaint thai tradition" as well?

I have NEVER ever given anyone a thai wai believing "wais are for thais". I usually take my shoes off AFTER entering my house, and not being buddhist have never entered or wanted to enter a thai temple. I do see the 'parade' of monks every morning on my soi, but have never wai'd them. I acknowledge them with a nod, seeing as I've seen them for over 4 years now, but that's about as far as it goes.

Many of the things I see here; I routinely write off as a "thai thing", and am ever thankful I'm NOT thai. Feel free to disagree; but remember, that in and of itself doesn't invalidate my perceptions, my reality, or my actions.