Kalasin Jo

Where in Kalasin City can I get this update done? How quickly, at what cost? Although we married in Bangkok I believe any Amphur can do this. I hope to apply for non O extension at Kalasin IO in next few days. Thanks to anyone who knows and posts an answer. And any other helpful info too.

About right

Same happened to me many decades ago. I was only wearing a dressing gown, nothing underneath. My then wife did not hear me hammering on the door ( she claimed). Had to hammer on neighbours door. I was in my late twenties then, neighbour probably in her sixties. She opened up, took pity and let me through to her back garden where I vaulted over the party fence tackle swinging ! Not a word from the neighbour then or ever.

So many say, yet I had an absolute charmer a few weeks ago. Very friendly, very polite.

I live in Kalasin province and my car licensing is done in Kalasin city. They certainly do a test after a certain age, I think on the 8th anniversary of the licence. The testing centre is just a little way beyond the drive through licensing office. It's pretty basic, cost 200 baht and didn't take long the last time I did this. Have a younger car now.

Not so in my case. Twice this year. The Embassy in Paris. The online application did ask for proof I was French resident as I submitted a British passport. No problem as I have a residency card for France. At some point it asked for a flight number. I hadn't actually booked hen I made each application so I put in one that I thought I might book with KLM from Amsterdam. No evidence of that as a booking was required. Various other things were required as I was applying for a 90 day non O by marriage, including recent bank statement ( French bank) showing I think about at least €7,000 in it and an invitation letter from wife which on the second occasion was deemed unacceptable, although it was much the same as the first. Fortunately they emailed me rather than rejecting. But by then time was running out as they had sat on the application for over 2 weeks during which I had booked a flight. Then told the letter must be on A4 size, typed, expressly inviting me to stay with her at "full address" for " X number of days" and her phone number ( given anyway as part of the application form), signed and dated. Several exchanges of emails later and after I'd suggested they call my wife who simply couldn't comprehend all this ( oh, we don't do that) a superior agreed to let it pass but I was told to get it right next time.

If in your name you can run away with it!

Thanks for all your helpful comments even if some went on to speculate as to my wife's motives and those of her friend. As usual a Thai urban myth perpetuated and applied to inexperienced foreigners, whatever the motivation behind it. I fell for it the first time 10 years ago and that car was put in wife's name. That created serious discord with her family, not her, when I wanted to sell that car and return with wife to Europe in August 2020 during the Covid lockdowns and severe travel restrictions, thinking back then I/we might never return. It is as I thought ( I've learned alot!). So, armed with the necessary residence certificate from Immigration I bought a car yesterday to be registered in my name. As to that myth, and being kind to Thais who believe it, it may be that it stems from the very high Thai import customs duty applied to all imported foreign built cars, rather than on foreign built foreigners!

It's not exclusive to Thailand. My Dad met, divorced my mother, then married a 21 year old English girl at the age of around 53. I was 12 years old then. Not easy to accept. There was no such thing as fault free divorce back then even though my mother was amenable. He had to be caught in the act of adultery on camera. He arranged it all. Provided handsomely financially for my mother and paid everything for my sister and I until we reached the age of 21 or in work if younger. He then spent the rest of his life with our young stepmother and our half brother. She loved him dearly and cared for him right up to his death at the age of 92. After they married she never worked again. My father provided everything and left her comfortably off. My mother never remarried but did have a series of lovers but her true love seemed to be for her dogs. She died still single at the age of 93. My stepmother died at the age of 70, like my father, in the house they lived in together all those years. I never liked my stepmother but I did respect how she cared for my father.

Great piece Rooster. Wish Thailand would take note. Unlikely.

Well at Kalasin IO I asked about this just 3 weeks ago on registering my return here. Yes the friendly fellow said it is required and you can get it at the Kalasin District Office

Indeed. Riding in the back of a flatbed pick up truck often packed, is a national habit amongst the poorer elements of Thai society, so a very large proportion of the population, as well as to get the workers to their place of work or as part of their work. Is this illegal? If it is it's another law both unknown and unenforceable here.

Thanks. I'm aware!!

Thanks.

I've just gone to the trouble of obtaining a certificate of residence so I can buy a used car. My wife now says that a friend has told her it is best to buy the car and register it in her name because foreigners have to pay much higher taxes. Not clear whether she means on the purchase, on the annual road tax, on the insurance premium or all of these. I have found nothing to suggest this is true. Can anyone clarify? Thanks in advance

Most people anywhere are not happy unless moaning about something

It's not really the western way either ...and it goes back a long way.... remember the Access credit card ad? ' take the waiting out of wanting '. It's common in the west to have multiple maxed out cards and when that route is exhausted the loan sharks are waiting for you there too.

This is sad and sorry stuff. It will probably be my turn in the not too distant future. I am so sorry to hear of your friend's condition and of others too. Is there no compassion in Thailand? There should be. I guess it does no harm to ask your local Immigration.

On my recent flight in from Paris I was given a TM 6 to fill in and did so, although I'd read they had been recently dispensed with. Sure enough the IO at Suvarnabhumi handed it back to me. Not needed she said, just your passport and, if you have one, visa. I might add how different to my exit from Thailand in August 2020 on a repatriation flight and entry to Thailand at the beginning of February this year after over a year away, a nightmare of paperwork, and tests, vaccination certificate, full PPE staff at Suvarnabhumi, and beyond and 5 days sequestered in a quarantine hotel!

Not so in my Isaan village and surrounds. More and more are dispensing with the mask, including market traders. I'd say it's about 50/50 now. I go masked to the markets. It feels very different to when I was last here Feb to May when the fear was still palpable. I've recently returned from France where mask wearing is a thing of the past, despite very high and climbing infection rates. On my flight here, Air France, I was required to wear a mask throughout but no one checked my vaccination status anywhere, which is actually now 4 Pfizer jabs the latest on 1 July. As far as I know I've been lucky enough not to catch the virus, or indeed any other infection in the last 2 plus years, even after a recent trip to the UK from France when no one on the flights, even the cabin crew, at the UK border ( well to be fair one or two in the border queue were) or in the UK were wearing masks. My Thai family appear not to have caught it and only 2 of them have had 2 jabs. My family in the UK are all fully vaccinated, yet all have had it at some time. I really don't know what to make of it now!

40 million baht. They are joking again.

But Thais aleays know best don't they. Until this happens and they clearly don't. It just couldn't happen in Europe, even back then. Oh wait... Grenfell Tower London.

Why should we, that is foreigners living in Thailand pay any taxes at all then? We are, even as long stayers on the perpetual annual renewal of permission to stay, clearly viewed as temporary residents at best, or tourists staying for a year, even with our Thai families. It's true I don't pay tax in Thailand on my pension but I do pay "withholding tax" on my Thai bank deposits, maintained almost solely for the purpose of the financial requirements for that annual permission to stay...for which I am also charged along with any re entry permits I may need. Plus soon the charge for coming in to Thailand. TIT some may say, and generally I go along with that, but I do not like the blatant dual charging on top, especially when the multiple is so much more than my Thai family pay. Which other countries do this? Certainly not in Europe. And with a growing " middle class" in Thailand who can afford to pay more than a token admission charge and the poorest Thais uninterested in such places the justification is threadbare imho.

Has this been gazetted yet, making it official? What will be the insurance requirements to enter Thailand from 1 July then?

Neither the RT Embassy Paris website nor the guide " Do I need a visa and which type if I do" on the e-visa application website itself list medical insurance of any type (nor therefore the amount of financial cover) for a non O 90 day family visit visa, which is why I was pulled up short. So I've decided I will upload a polite note pointing this out and undertaking to buy a minimum of US$ 10,000 before I travel if as is currently required for the Thailand Pass. If the TP is confirmed as ending on 1 July as trailed, then who knows what will be wanted then but surely not more than the current 10 k US$ coverage to enter. I'll update as my application progresses.