twix38

Anyone??

Someone must have booked a good Taxi service from Pattaya to the airport and one they feel happy to recommend??

I am heading off to the Airport on 7th June and the timing doesn't suit the Bus departure times.

I am looking to get a Taxi. The last time I did this it was an old Taxi that was very slow, noisy and I was praying we would make it.

Does anyone have experience of a good Taxi service with contact number and Name, please?

Thanks

Can't help with it all, but a little advice.

Don't buy in a hurry

ONLY buy a condo that can be owned ina foreigner's name (49% of building) This means the Company scheme is irrelevant and redundant as you will own legally in your own name(s).

Guess this maybe too late from the dates, but good luck

John1012,

Don't commit any more funds than you must, treat life here as simply benefitting from the advantages (cheap, sunshine, girls) and able to leave without loosing too much if one day it should be necessary.

The playing field is so anti-foreigner in all apsects of financial, social, and legal life that to move even 1 nest egg more than necessary from your home countries basket to Thailand is an unnecessary step too far.

Play them at their own game, as the more you either invest or gamble here the poorer you will eventually be in 95% of cases. Be clever.....think to yourself, if I was deported tomorrow could I live comfortably back home and could I accept the financial loss on assets and savings in Thailand? if the answer is always Yes, then you have it about right. I have a small foreign name condo and some savings in Thai Baht. No business and no wish to bring any more Pounds here. It's not easy to take them back or out of the country once bought in (Baht 50k max without a Tor Tor 3).

I would strongly advise anyone to wait and see reality before going head over heels bonkers. At every bend in the road there is a new reality or hoop to jump through. Clever people don't commit to Thailand, they just play here.

There are no areas for free public recreational pursuits that are big enough to allow safe family relaxation, sports playing or sunbathing for a reasonable number of people in total. Just postage size areas with course grass, at best.

just lamenting the fact, but it's off to the beach or a sports hall then!

OK, lovely.

Perhaps what I would like then is what I clearly described in my opening post as my definition of a Park and is what this discussion is actually all about.

My definition of a Park must include at least....a free public playing field where you can relax, play sport etc. This is what is missing here in Pattaya, as other posters have agreed rather than get pedantic and quote one dictionary definition at me that is not in specific discussion.

I don't think there is much public space as I describe available for sports (football, rounders etc), picnics or sunbathing in the created pardise you mention (in fact no open green space at all of any qualifying size). That is what I stated I was looking for and is very typical of the Parks I know in my home country, although they may also include other areas and amenities too, as you suggest. We can go to a number of Parks and play football, Softball, picnic, sunbath.

What is a Park then? Is it a Wood, a Garden, an overgrown bounded area of land? To me these can all be included in the general terms of a Park, but the Park part for me must include an area of bounded well kept green grass field(s) big enough to swing several cats. Otherwise you could more correctly label these areas not as Parks, but truly what they are...Woods, Golf course, Gardens, swimming Lido, forest, circuit training course, running tracks, hills, waste land or if you want to generalise and mislead a bit, any mix of these could be called a Park then!!!!

I have been around this so called Park, I think. A mixture of walking track, jogging and circuit track etc probably with other bits as you say.

Have I missed the wide open green grass, normally called a Park!! where you could lay down and relax, play sport in an open grass area and maybe a shop, playground for kids, etc etc close by????

Please tell me where the Park bit of this area is?

Also, a Park is usually a safe family area and not a junkies/robbers paradise!

It doesn't seem to fit the description of a Park in design, safety or maintenance and unless I have missed it, we still do not simply have a Public Park anywhere in Pattaya.

What? Since when does a park need to have open green grass areas?

Here's one definition of Park: A park is a bounded area of land, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped) state and set aside for some purpose, usually to do with recreation.

Part of this park is landscaped, the other part natural.

Whether you care to accept it or not, this is a Public Park, and every day there are gardners tending it.

I have been around this so called Park, I think. A mixture of walking track, jogging and circuit track etc probably with other bits as you say.

Have I missed the wide open green grass, normally called a Park!! where you could lay down and relax, play sport in an open grass area and maybe a shop, playground for kids, etc etc close by????

Please tell me where the Park bit of this area is?

Also, a Park is usually a safe family area and not a junkies/robbers paradise!

It doesn't seem to fit the description of a Park in design, safety or maintenance and unless I have missed it, we still do not simply have a Public Park anywhere in Pattaya.

All in all rather a shamefull public provision attitude from City Hall.

The best they have done is provide insufficient and sparse public amenities and then allowed them to fall into disrepair and neglect, when the original provision has been at best only very minimal or even non existent anyway!

What is needed is for some sort of public pressure group for public amenties such as a decent Park, public toilet facilities, good road maintenance and general public recreation facilities.

Nong Nooch hardly counts I am afraid as a private business somewhat outside Pattaya central. To relax there on a regular basis would be rather expensive and it does not meet the fundamentals of public provision for the obvious reasons that it is not.

hee hee

City Hall should hang their heads in shame.

I truly think a quality Park with amenities would be very popular and a great attraction/bonus to Pattaya.

We only need one (of a resonable size) and some politicians with a public spirit.

I don't understand why the City planners have not even included a simple, safe, well maintained Park anywhere! They do have City Planners or someone who thinks further than the next back hander, don't they??

True, the space can always be found for a Golf course or three

Simbo,

I know that spot. Hee hee spot is the word. In relation to a Park it has a subheading of postage stamp and if that's the best we have then it says it all.

Yes, seems a great shame and a real public let down.

Keebone,

If you survive the ordeal let us all know ;-)

I don't understand in this polluted concreate jungle, why sand (beaches) are the only public recreation area. Surely City Hall could be asked to provide at least one decent public park instead of only building sites and construction for more property villages or Condos!!

Maybe King Rama IX Royal Park will be the oasis, but from your description it sounds more like a no-go area.

In my own Country (England), I enjoy going to the Parks from time to time.

There I can play sport and relax etc and enjoy the Green open field(s), the children can play and other possible facilities of Tennis Courts, shop, walking. All away from traffic in a wide open Green public area.

I know here we have beaches to relax (we do have some nice ones in England too), but the experience is a different one. You cannot play sport and one compliments the other, not replaces it. We need a Park too.

Many Parks also have nature trails, walks, lovely Gardens, Woods etc

Often, the choice of the beach or a Park, I would prefer a park where I don't have to sit on a deckchair or get sand everywhere and where I can enjoy the amenities a Public Park offers.

I know there is a jogging area here up by the Lookout point, but are there any Public Parks with Green field(s) in Pattaya? I have not found any in a City this size worthy of being called a Park and available to the public to rest/relax etc??

I take issue with the costs on 2 levels.

1) They are rather high

2) They are not transparent

On 1) I am sometimes amazed at the cost compared to other Hospitals or the general cost of living in Thailand. Clearly foreign focused and foreign priced, so I go elsewhere when I am taken advantage of.

On 2). I had a lung function tests at BP Hospital and aware of high costs, I asked for the full total price. I was given a full breakdown, only because I insisted to know. I confirmed that this was to be the total amount, including any VAT and that nothing more would be added.

As you can guess the doctor's fee, which I think was told to me as 500 Baht, was 500 Baht for the pre test chat and a further 300 Baht (not mentioned at all) for the post test chat. They also forgot to mention the Nursing charge to take my blood pressure and weigh me.

So even when I was told a full and complete figure they managed to add a total of some 600+ Baht extra, followed by being completely ripped off at their pharmacy counter on the cost of my prescribed inhaler(s)!!

This is on top of already more expensive costs than anywhere else in Pattaya.

By the way, the lung function test machine was not working properly on the day I went and the nurses had a problem with it, having to repeat the test 3 times. Personally, I couldn't even trust the data.

I personally think that the low esteem many have of the BP Hospital due to their high charges has spilled over into people's willingness to crucify them from the get go.

It is unequivical that Money is paramount for the BP and my personal experience for tests was not good as the lung function machine didn't work very well and the cost had additional items and 2 seperate Doctors fees that made the total some 15% to 20% more expensive than the total I had been given as a final figure, before I agreed to the tests and whole procedure. I have never been back and now go to the Memorial Hospital.

So, BP Hospital has many detractors whose views are coloured before a comment is even formulated imho. That may have given the BP Hospital an unfair disadvantage in the instance.

The BP Hospital should however note the depth of feeling about high costs and hidden or undisclosed additions made to bills.

"There is a basic flaw in your premise. It has never been illegal to establish a company in Thailand with different classes of shares (and different voting rights). As long as Thai shareholders hold a majority of capital shares in a company on a bone fide basis (i.e., not holding such shares on a nominee basis for foreign shareholders), then such company is a "Thai" company. Indeed, if such circumstances were illegal, it would not be necessary to amend the law (as currently being pursued by this military-installed cabinet)."

With regard to the above quote from trajan. There is no flaw as I did not go into the reasons for the illegality of owning land in a company name. You are right, but in the instance I am referring to, predominantely it is universally and well known that the Thais do NOT hold the majority of shares on a bone fide basis. It is nearly always the case that the funds came from the foreign purchaser (of course) to buy the property and makes the transaction illegal when investigated.

Come on, this is so well known and the method used and which we are discussing that it hardly needs me to spell it out when talking about this exact set of circumstances when I am describing a typical house (and land) purchase by a foreigner through a company scheme. The scheme is set up for that purpose only and not to run a multi million pound business or anything like it!!!!!!!

So, quite obviously an illegal action in those circumstances and known to be so. Hence my view and conclusions apply exactly as before. Caveat Emptor

visit visa being a simple tourist visa? i.e. visit and tourist visa is the same thing, just for me to be sure?

Many thanks Scouse and that's what we will do.

Thanks Scouser,

I think we are counted out for this one then.

I am leaning towards a tourist visa. We have already had a settlement visa, but did not marry. We are still not married, but I would like to apply for another visa for my gf to visit Engalnd for about 6 weeks.

She has a job here in Thailand and could get a letter from her employer confirming the job and that it would be kept open for her to retur to after 6 weeks in England.

What would be our best and mosr successfull visa to apply for and what conditions or facts must we meet or be carefull of.

Many thansks

tim77,

Bottom line, no matter how many agencies or government bodies condoned or allowed the practice to own land via a company scheme, it was always illegal and against the obvious spirit of the law.

So, on first finding out about this anomaly to buy land in Thailand as a foreigner (i.e you cannot), it will have been very obvious that you cannot legally do it. It is simply illegal to own land and unless you want to be party to a fudge around and great risk, you should not try it through a company scheme either.

Therefore my friend, you get what you deserve if at a later date the repercussions of your actions come back to bite you, no matter how many other people also did it or agencies promoted it. You cannot claim ignorance (not a defence anyway). You clearly knew what you were doing and why you eeded to do it. The fact that is was tollerated for years is no justification for it either. These arguments are simply childish in any court of law.

Therefore, it may sicken you, but it is equally clear that anyone buying a house on land through a company scheme had to do it this way in order to circumvent the law and any idiot could foresee that sometime in the future the law may well be properly enforced in a 3rd world country where laws and corruption walk hand in hand.

I realise you do not personally own land in this way, but the above is my view in principle for many that do and to take issue with your point. I would never over invest in Thailand or risk large sums of money on schemes that are dubious right from the start, even against existing law, let alone the way Thais generally stitch up, cheat foreigners and amend laws when able.

I also find it sticks in the throat that a Thai can own property in my country the same as you or I. One point is that it is if they can afford to and in Thailand the ristrictions are to stop foreigners further pricing out the local Thais and property prices going sky high from foreign investment. If I were a Thai I would agree with limits on foreign property land investment 100%.

Thanks Thai-Spy,

Very helpfull.

Does anyone know a good Thai lawyer or where she goes to start the process of going to the Thai courts to allow the boy to become the owner of his father's interest in the company and hence owner of the Condo via a guardian?

I will direct her to the Italian's bank, as you suggest, but think she will have done this and either there is no cash left or he just bought in cash from Italy using ATM's from Italian Bank account. I don't know

Thanks

If the Italian man is named as the father on his son's birth certificate, then absent any other claims (such as from the Italian wife, any Italian children or another Thai child) the Thai courts should recognize the son as the Italian's sole heir. Thus the boy becomes the owner of his father's interest in the company (presumably a Thai company), although because of his age he cannot exercise his voting rights or other rights and a guardian must be appointed.

The opposite is true of any assets which are held in Italy. The Italian wife will probably claim those unless the son's representative files with a court there. The existence of an Italian will would further complicate things.

In general, it's probably more trouble than it's worth to try to get the condo out of the company name and into the son's name. To do so would likely either involve the fees of wrapping up the company (which as a juristic person does not die simply because the natural person owning it does) or selling the condo to the son which would incur tax liabilities.

To meet the immediate cash crisis the Thai wife may want to contact an officer at the Thai banks where the Italian held his accounts. She should ask them what documentation they require to recognize the son as the Italian's heir and gain legal control of those accounts. It may prove to be as simple as presenting the son's birth certificate (again assuming the Italian is named as the father) and a translated copy of the Italian death certificate.

I am told their is a visa thatr can be applied for (unmarried partner visa) on the basis of a long term relationship where both parties have lived together for 2 years.

Does anyone have more information about the rules and requirements on this visa?

Specifically, how you prove the 2 year living together and does this need to be continuous or can it be a cumulative 2 years over a longer period?

Is it the best option bearing in mind that my gf has been to England once already on a settlement visa, although we did not get married and she returned to Thailand within the 6 months granted? We have been together for 4 years and spend about 18 months of it together in total in both Thailand, and including the 6 months in England.

Many thanks

I would like to help a Thai lady whose Italian husband has died unexpectedly whilst on a return visit to Italy.

The Condo is in a company name and was only in the dead Italian man's control. There is no Thai will and the Thai lady is not legally married to the Italian man. The Italian man is still legally married to his Italian wife who is in Italy, although they have seperated years ago and his Thai relationship is known to his Italian wife and she actually sent a copy of the death cert to the Thai lady, so there is some contact.

The Thai lady and the Italian have a son together here in Thailand who is about 6 years old and all assets are in the dead Italian man's name/company name.

The Thai lady wishes simply to get the Condo put into their sons name and I gather the italian legal wife would not object, but how?

At the moment, as the Italian man's death was unexpected, she is very short of money and all assets were in the Italian man's name.

So, how can the Thai lady arrange to start the legal process of getting their Condo into their son's name? What does she have to do and what legal steps and paperwork do they need to obtain?

Can anyone suggest a good Pattaya lawyer, offer any general advice or specifically what the proceess might be for this Thai lady?

The Thai lady had a serious and long relationship with the Italian man and they have a son. She now has no income, no money and no assets after such a dreadfull and unexpected death.

She is really in a state and in grief. Please help me to help her. Thank you

Thanks

My point would be that I get NOD 32 loaded from Tuk.com for free and it updates off the internet and so is technically always up to date. I expect therefore that as you say "Nod32 is by far the best AV out there". Then if I get it installed when I buy, I am best to have this one only? Sorry I did not make this clear before.

So, NOD 32 antivirus, Windows defender and Sunbelt Kerio firewall instead of the default Windows Firewall would be a good and complete set?

I take it Windows defender is instead of something like Ad-aware or could I have both?

Anything else or other suggestions always welcome

Thanks very much cdnvic

Neither Nod32 ($39) or Kaspersky ($49) are free. Both have 30 day free trials at full functionality.

The best free antivirus so far as consistantly top marks in detection of malware is Avera Antivir.

It actually beats many of the more expensive Antiviruses in detection capabilities. There is a paid version which has more features, but so far as updates and ability to protect you from viruses it is not crippled.

Avast has a few more features than Antivir, and is more customizable, but it doesn't quite match Antivir's detection abilities.

DO NOT install nod32 and Antivir together, as two antivirus programs running at once will actually fight each other.

You want to install Antivir, Windows Defender, and whatever firewall you decide you like.

To go a bit further.

Does Nod 32 still provide full ongoing and updated on-line protection without loss of functionality? Many free options loose stuff after time, usually 1 month?

I was told a couple of times by different people in Tuk.com that Kespersky 6.0 was the best free antivirus. Is this simply not true and is Nod 32 really better? Just confused as it goes against what the so called experts told me at Tuk.com??

What's the verdict on Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall? Comodo was suggested, but what's wrong with Kerio or what makes Comodo free option better, please?

So, it sounds like I want to instal Nod 32 Antivirus, Kerio or Comodo firewall along with Antivir. Is that a good and sensible combination and is that enough on its own to provide at least an acceptable level of security and safety or would you recommend a different set of software or something extra?

Many thanks

I am about to buy a Laptop.

What is the best free Antivirus and firewall?

Antivirus: NOD 32, Kespersky 6.0, other?? One that updates from the internet only, please.

Firewall: I have Sunbelt Kerio, although after 30 days it reverts to free version, which I assume protects sufficiently? or another like Comodo, other?

Any suggestions, as above and please say why it is better than either Kespersky or Sunbelt Kerio (the 2 I believe are best at the moment)??

Many thanks

Well Twix38,

As nobody seems interested or knowledgable today, I would agree.

Kespersky and Sunbelt Kerio. LOL

Well done!

I am about to buy a Laptop.

What is the best free Antivirus and firewall?

Antivirus: NOD 32, Kespersky 6.0, other?? One that updates from the internet only, please.

Firewall: I have Sunbelt Kerio, although after 30 days it reverts to free version, which I assume protects sufficiently? or another like Comodo, other?

Any suggestions, as above and please say why it is better than either Kespersky or Sunbelt Kerio (the 2 I believe are best at the moment)??

Many thanks

I would agree with the view that we do not need to assimilate and there is little point to do so.

As Foreigners we are rarely respected, apart from our ability to pay. We are afforded little benefit or protection and frequently where the opportunity presents itself we are either robbed or endure some form of corruption or double pricing.

There is no worldly worthwhile reason for learning Thai or Thai culture on an international scale and within Thailand those (most) that live in major centres do not need it.

Initially Thailand pleases, but when the real story comes through after a prolonged stay and realisation of the facts, well. Thailand should be seen for the only benefits it offers foreigners. Good weather, cheap prices and the girls. If it were not for these facts then there would be many less tourists as the down sides become all to obvious. Corruption (personal and business), robbery, gun crime, unfair treatment, being seen as a walking wallet, double pricing, absolutley no rights as a foreign alien, rule changing or enforcing at a whim, etc.

No, we know what a foreigner's purpose is for a Thai all too often, and so we should accept the package (the good and bad), but not bother to assimilate as well. There is no need in tourists spots and absolutely no point and no benefit. If, as in the UK and elsewhere, things were more equal and benefits fair, then it may be different.

Over time it is found to be clear that the more you give a Thai the more it's taken for granted and the more they want and expect.

As to the original post. I agree.

With power comes responsility. We have no power as we are really 2nd or 3rd class citizens to be milked all to often. Therefore we have no responsibility to assimliate. We should respect and live in harmony with morals, but that is where our duty on our permitted and changable visa entry stay, ends.......apart from paying for everything ;-)