wolf81

20 hours ago, TexasDude said:

Hey guys,

I am quitting my teaching job in Bangkok and was wondering what I am supposed to do? I have read online that before covid you had 24 hours to leave the country once you quit but obviously I can't just hop across the border into Laos to get my tourist visa. Any idea what I need to do? Does Visa amnesty cover me till Nov 30 and then hopefully keeps extending? Am I able to get a tourist visa while I am in the country? Has anyone had any experience with this during the Pandemic? 

Thanks a bunch guys, I am stressing quite a bit.  

Seems you can get a visa extension in Phuket at the latest on 2 November without needing to leave the country. If I understand this article correctly:

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1189863-phuket-immigration-agrees-to-change-visa-types-issue-extensions/?utm_source=newsletter-20201031-0631&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

10 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Irregularities? Doesn't he mean blatant fraud and criminal activity by the land department and the judiciary that was supposed to be keeping things honest? I would wager that it involves a lot more than just two hills too.

It presumably also involved mountains of brown envelopes.

2 hours ago, Lingba said:

almost 10%...maybe 90%...and its just not candies...so many other foods as well...this is nothing new

Today my GF told me our neighbours use pesticide every day on their cauliflower. Apparently makes them quite a bit of money (today neighbours earned 4000 THB), but they wouldn't eat it themselves.

8 hours ago, webfact said:

He also reportedly admitted that he masturbated while smelling the stolen underwear.

TMI

I don't complain to other people about my girlfriend generally, but there is some stuff that gets to me at times. And since this topic is about complaining, let me do my share for once.

- She often has this rude way of taking things I give to her. Like a forceful grab when I try to give something to her gently. I don't know if it's just a habit of her, but this annoys me.

- She often plans stuff for the weekend and I hear about it on the day of departure. We Dutch people generally like to plan our days, so I prefer to hear a few days in advance what the plans are and then I'm able to mentally prepare myself.

- Shopping (as with most women) can be a bit of a chore. Buying a lot of stuff we don't really need. Stopping at every small shop. Etc...

- Sometimes behaviour that's not very lady-like. 

- I like to work a lot. In part just because I enjoy working and in part because I want to have a good future for all of us. It seems my girlfriend sometimes can't grasp that I need to make sacrifices now in order for us to have a very relaxed life in a few years.  

I'm sure some of my habits annoy my GF as well, so at least it's mutual.

And my GF has good qualities as well: She cooks nice food. Keeps the house clean. Overall takes good care for our daughter. So it's not all bad ????

But ... in the long run, once our daughter has reached 18 years old or so, I will probably want to live separate or at least not fulltime together anymore. I won't be looking for another GF. Instead I will want to have my own time schedule again. And being able to work more, but on my own projects instead of for clients. Basically have a sense of freedom again and minding my own business.

I guess it's true what people say about French and soap.

55 minutes ago, John9 said:

I went to HuaHin for 4 nights just week ago  staying at Centara Grand Beach Resort next to Hilton. Excellent place, nice pools and restaurants in resort. Used to go for long walk on beach direct from resort. Nightly charges paid THB 3200 including breakfast (it is less with out breakfast) but they gave me THB 1000 voucher per night to be spent in their restaurants or spa. Excellent value in my opinion for 5 Star resort and they have fantastic restaurant serving western n thai food.

 

Went out nearby restaurants bars are open but quiet. Small walking street opposite Hilton open but very quiet.

I stayed in Centara Grand Beach resort last year as well. Rented a private pool villa. Best hotel I've ever been in, very beautiful and right next to the beach. My GF and daughter loved it. They also had several restaurants on premise, great for dinner. Breakfast was ok. 

My opinion as someone who still is very basic in Thai.

I feel the language itself is pretty simple. More difficult concepts are often created by mixing words. So I feel you should be quite effective if you learn a quite limited set of words. 

Words don't change based on past, present, future tense, unlike in English, German, Dutch, French ... That itself is great. It seems to put something in past tense people just add "leao" (meaning: already) add the end of the sentence.

The alphabet isn't too difficult to learn. Though it does take a little while to get used to the ordering of vowels and consonants. But after some time reading the language becomes mostly automatic (for me). Though I'm still a quite slow reader I have to admit.

The most difficult aspect is the tones. Saying something in the wrong tone can give people a very puzzled look. For us Westerners some tones might seem very similar, hard for us to spot the difference or to utter a tone correctly. I guess one has to talk a lot with Thai people to practice and better understand tonal differences. 

I live in the Chiang Mai Province. Overall I like it here, but burning season is hell. Our daughter is 3.5 years old and goes to a private school nearby and that seems decent enough for now. At least she learns to communicate in Thai with other students, learns to play together, etc...

I like the mountain area, but I do miss the beaches at times.

Anyways ... due to the burning, at some point we'll have to move. And at this moment I'm considering Hua Hin. Probably decent air there, from what I've seen some decent affordable schools teaching English curriculum. If my daughter would pass through a school like that, she has more opportunities I believe, she can consider studying in Europe once she's 18 for example. 

But my GF does have a nice 3 rai farm here that she enjoys working on. Our house is pretty ok considering the cost (~40.000 EUR or so). People in our village are friendly. The hilly snake road between Chiang Mai and Chaiprakan is always a joy to drive. Overall it's pretty good. I certainly prefer life here over living in The Netherlands.

To me it seems a really bad idea to buy a condo if you don't have any more for a bit of downpayment to be honest. Sounds like if sh*t hits the fan, you'd be in big trouble. Or do you have some pension and plan to pay the mortgage with your pension? I guess in that case you have some security in terms of income.

The only mortgage in Thailand that I found was MBK guarantee, but they require a 50% downpayment and it seems the costs are really high. Not very attractive. Seems to me this company has virtually no risk and can basically print money with those terms. 

https://mbkg.co.th/en

They do claim to be very easy in accepting people though. Don't need work permits and such. 

Quote

Yuthasak expects the schemes to be implemented next year, adding that they will inject about Bt20 billion in extra foreign investment if the TAT can sell 1,000 elite cards under the programme.

Sure, and I'm sure they'd be able to inject an extra Bt100 billion in extra foreign investment if the TAT can sell 5,000 elite cards under the programme.

But did these guys even do some market research? Do they have some very clean indications that they'd be able to sell an extra 1,000 elite cards under the programme? Or are they just pulling numbers from where the sun don't shine and hope for the best? 

5 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

the government is so clueless. what they should be doing is setting the price at one million baht for a condo and a free elite visa for 5 years. then the glut of condos, especially at the low end would be cleared overnight and the Thai real estate market will recover faster. 

 

 

 

 

I believe you didn't think this through. Do you realise how many dirty farangs would come to Thailand if condos could be bought so cheaply?

12 minutes ago, DogNo1 said:

Be careful to get a card with no foreign exchange fee and then always pay in Baht.  Otherwise either the dollar exchange rate or foreign exchange fees will cost you a lot.

I paid mine using TransferWise. TransferWise doesn't cheat with exchange fees like most banks. 

Yesterday a Dutch expat told me the cheapest Thai Elite visa will go up in price by 100.000 THB next year. I can't confirm it myself, but if true and you're considering to buy a Thai Elite visa, might need to buy one in the next 2.5 months unless one wants to spend an extra 100.000 THB.

Another option to consider is buying a condo from a big brand developer, ideally a developer that still manages / maintains the condo. I believe Sansiri does this at least for some of the condos they've build and you can find some info here.

I guess the maintenance fee would be higher when making use of such a service, but perhaps less worries is worth it.

Other big brand developers in Thailand are Asian Property Group (AP) and Land & Houses. 

I never had any issues with my Credit Cards (MasterCard + American Express) in Thailand. Or any other countries for that matter.

My cards to have some kind of extra check, a pincode that needs to be entered for the payment to succeed. Also, when doing internet purchases a password is required as well.

I guess that makes it hard (perhaps close to impossible) to copy your card and use it?

7 hours ago, ChrisKC said:

While we are on divorce topic, I have a question for all you men out there.

During my 5 or 6 years of seeking a new partner, I have met more than 20 women, had 2 serious relationships and hundreds and hundreds of associations on the Internet.

Of ALL those women claiming divorce, not a single one was that the man divorced the woman - I know, I asked many of them - without pushing this too far!

 

So from a a woman's perspective, she is the victim, from a man's perspective, in the majority of cases I read about and knowing a few, HE is the victim.

 

Who is to "blame"? Only one answer - depends which of the two you are hearing the story from, but probably both!

 

My question is; What do you think of my observations?

I do believe woman have hypergamous tendencies, which basically means that if a woman sees an opportunity to marry up, she might be tempted to take advantage of this opportunity. By the way I also believe this is just human nature and people can sometimes do things that go against their nature. I.e.; men have been programmed to try to have sex with as many woman as possible (irregardless of status, as long as the woman looks good), but many men stay with one lady their whole life. 

So those could be grounds for a divorce. Perhaps a lady found a man with a higher status which can provide benefits that are of interest to woman (e.g.: better life for her children, more disposable income to buy stuff like shoes and bags, etc...). Perhaps a man found a younger lady that he got more attracted to. However keep in mind that for most men it's harder to attract a beautiful young lady as compared for a lady to find a men. There's been experiments on Tinder that indicate that most woman "fight" for maybe the top 20% of men and the rest are ignored. Men are open to meeting a larger group of woman. More info here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/tinder-man-swipes-right-200-000-women-little-success-a7168056.html

Of course there could be many other reasons for people to divorce: substance abuse, physical abuse, financial issues, religious incapabilities, family issues, etc...

I can't give you the answer, but I have 1 serious question.

Why do you want to get married? Do you need the marriage visa? (If you're over 50 years old the retirement visa is probably easier). Or do you want to make sure that if you die, your future wife can inherit everything or something? 

4 hours ago, dyertribe said:

last time I looked at the water in Pattaya, there was raw sewerage floating past.  Hopefully Jomtien will miss out on that "beauty".

Last time I swam in the sea near Jomtien, around March this year, I encountered a floating condom and lots of other filth. For a clean beach you need to go to the military beach near Bangsaray. 

2 hours ago, Caldera said:

What I would like to see are some Smart Visa key figures. Based on what I've read about this "scheme", I suspect that it hasn't been very successful, so I would really like to know how many smart visas have been issued so far and what their distribution across types, industries and companies is.

I'm not sure exactly in what topic, but the numbers were posted elsewhere in these forums. IIRC it was around 50 smart visas granted in total or something. So indeed it's not a very successful program.

Initially I thought the smart visa could be interesting for me, but when I read the requirements I got tired just thinking about the whole application process. 

What Thailand really should work on is a digital nomad visa. Some European countries already grant such a visa (e.g. Estonia) and other European countries will likely follow suit soon (e.g. Croatia). Many digital nomads like to stay and work from Thailand. It's time Thailand makes this legal without jumping through many complicated hoops. 

I kinda wonder why Pattaya isn't recommended more in this post. I believe the air should be relatively clean all year round right? As long as not driving in city center, staying close to the beach (e.g. Jomtien area). Of course, in the city center will all traffic it can be pretty bad.

Another advantage of Hua Hin and Pattaya compared to Phuket, would be less risk of tidal waves. I've been once to Hua Hin and I liked it there (though I guess it's not really a party town, so if you're into that, not a good place to be). Hua Hin to me seemed cleaner, better organised. I did remember seeing more wide pavements like in European style which certainly is nice for walking around town. The city just seemed cleaner overal compared to Pattaya. And from my experience it's also really small still, so pretty easy to get around.

What I don't like about Hua Hin is it's distance to the airport compared to Pattaya. 

In the future I plan to buy a condo here and there's one project in Pattaya that I really like, that I believe has good build quality and fits my other requirements.

Are there any decent options of condos to buy in Hua Hin, any recommendations? What I'll be looking for is a condo that can fit a small family of 3 people. 2 bedrooms, maybe 100 m2 and not a crazy high price. Also I want a big swimming pool. Preferably a "boring" style swimming pool for daily exercise.

13 hours ago, Susco said:

Thanks for your suggestion, but once you have uses a Senseo, you don't want anything else any more.

 

The comfort and convenience you have from that is unmatchable.

 

So I will place an order with Take-5 coffee, as Peetje suggested, and if the coffee tastes good that will be my go to.

 

I considered the pods from Boncafe, but at 14 Baht a pod, way overpriced in my opinion.

I respectfully disagree on "not wanting anything else anymore". I used to have a Senseo before back when I lived in The Netherlands and used it for many years, not so much for taste (I generally found the taste acceptable, not great), more out of convenience. 

Here in Thailand in our home I use an Ascaso espresso machine that my girlfriend bought second hand for 8000 THB. Previously I bought my coffee beans in a nearby coffee shop (Doi Wiang Café), though recently I've found some very nice beans in the local Makro which I'll probably buy from now on (Zolito High Mountain). I also have an electrical grinder at home to grind the beans according to my taste. Also, I love cappuccinos and the Ascaso machine has a steam wand for frothing the milk, so for me it's the best option. To me this machine using my choice of beans and grinded to my preference provides a vastly superior taste.

I do agree the Senseo delivers on convenience by the way. The main reasons I used a Senseo in The Netherlands were: 

- The machine was pretty cheap (40 EUR or so).

- It's very quick to make a cup of coffee in the morning, just before heading out to work. 

Here in Thailand I am not in a hurry however (I work from home), so for me the espresso machine is the best option. My Moka pot is mainly used in emergencies when electricity is cut off (I can still make coffee then using our gas stove and the Moka pot).

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