topfield

Just check Mustafa baht buying rate in Singapore !

I did last week and after all expenses and costs selling back the Sing dollars at Super Rich one could make B16,000 on each million. OK here are my wrists....you can put on the handcuffs, Inspector BOT

You should bear in mind that normally the rate that banks will buy foreign currency notes is a lot worse than the rates they will buy wired money. It might be worse than the onshore rate.

I am also interested to know the results of this.

Sonic you are of course 100 percent right as usual.

HOWEVER I understand from previous postings...although I have not seen written BOT rules....that no baht can be tt'ed out of Thailand.

Can some one not check this out ? Is there really a complete ban/prohibition on tt baht leaving Thailand ?

What about those Thai workers with baht a/c's in Singapore at Bangkok Bank, Cecil St. Are they prohibited from adding to their baht a/c's in Sing ??

As luck would have it I need to be back in the UK next week for a few days and since I have sold my condo here in Thailand and want to repatriate some Baht into GBP this could be an opportunity to make an exchange in the UK - yes, I know about the limits of Thai Baht that can be taken outside Thailand!

Question is though, where do you exchange Baht for GBP in the UK at a rate that is reasonable? Travelex and HSBC UK web sites show a sell rate of 64 Baht per GBP and a buy rate of Baht at 75. If you try to deposit the currency as a credit to a UK bank account in GBP presumably they will use the lower derisory rate? Any helpful feedback is gratefully received.

Don't know about exchange rates. However,iIf you brought in GBP to buy your condo from the UK into Thailand, and have proof of this, you should be able to repatriate all of it. Proof could be a copy of the TT form, the original of which your bank sends to Thai Central Bank when money is transferred from abroad. I've never exercised this privilege, but was told to ask for and retain a TT form when I brought money in some 15 years ago to buy my condo.

Dear Friend

You miss the whole point. If you buy pounds in Thailand you will pay around 69 baht for each pound. If the baht notes are outside Thailand you may only have to pay 65 for a pound !!

Topfield - you dont mention the visa website for rates here :

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_serv...HB&rate=0.0

Is this now not the way to find out ?

Doing the small withdrawl and then looking at the on-line statement can be a bit risky as in the past I have found nationwide to allocate an amount to the withdrawl first, which is more than required - if you use this amount as a basis for the exchange rate calculation is will be below the real rate. Only after a ceratin period of time will the actual rate used be shown and any extra withheld returned to the nationwide account.

Please correct me if i am wrong....

Also Steve2UK, could you please go into a bit more detail on the card withdrawl in branch... Can you mention what you asked for, where it was, if you had any problems, what forms you had to complete, if the rate SCB were going to give you was known before the transaction and anyting else the TV people may find useful... Cheers

Hi Kun Bob,

Nice to see you back again !

Nope...the test withdrawal method is more accurate.

Think about it. The corporate online rate changes just once a day...yet the rate can move substantially during the day.

The 'earmarked' rate changes several times a day...how many times I dont know as one would have to make hourly withdrawals of 200 baht to find out ( plse do so if you've the time and patience)

The earmarked rate is usually astonishingly accurate .

PS

An amazing tip : Even the earmarked rate is an hour or two behind and you can take advantage of that.

One day a few weeks ago, the pound suddenly dropped a couple of cents. I rushed to the ATM , was there in 10 minutes and took out my 20K. Unbelievably I got the earmarked rate even though the pound had dropped substantially.

The lesson : take advantage of the delay and realise it works both ways : this weekend I did not withdraw at an earmarked , later proved accurate rate of 68.07..instead waited until today when I knew the rate would be higher !!

So to sum up if you are a UK non resident and accepted as such by HMRC, the income from offshore investments is non taxable.

Inheritance tax , fixed at 40 percent is a different and far more unsure and complicated matter !

The question posted in EXCEEDINGLY interesting ..especially as if a good rate for baht could be obtained a lot of money can be earned/saved.

Here are my suggestions.

1. Try Bangkok Bank in the City.

2. Try the ten exchange offices in Praed St Paddington. One called Mercury gave a good rate.You can negotiate as they are Indians...no offence meant. Indians are good businessmen !

3. Try the Swiss banks in London...if a large amount they could send the notes to Zuerich for a better rate.

Zuerich, Bahnhofstrasse is the centre foe exotic note dealing in Europe....might even be worth a trip there.

In the 80's I used to buy up there all the Icelandic kroner available throughout Europe !

NB FYI It is illegal to export more than Bt 50000 in notes (except to a neighbouring country when its 500000)

Now that is surprising...thought with your knowledge you must be a Brit !

Am sure Sonic the other expert is.

Umm, what's the relationship between nationality and knowledge ?

I'm not sure I agree with what some have said about the BoT: ie that it "has not got a clue what they are doing". I tend to agree with LaoPo. The BoT have some experienced and very well educated people. But they do face a serious dilemma. I'm sure they feel a lot of pressure after past mistakes - there must be a real fear of another gaff - the junta must not lose (more) face.

And I do think that things may look very different in a few months when the elections are looming. Postponements, problems with the "new" constitution, more security concerns, an escalation of southern unrest, and then it's not outside the realm of possibilities for there to be a collapse in confidence and a corrsponding collapse in the baht.

"Umm, what's the relationship between nationality and knowledge ?

My remark was made purely because most of my postings on this section of the forum are sterling/uk orientated and that normally would result in little or no response from our US/Ozzie readers who naturally have no interest in such matters. A Brit of course would.

Like the visa section of this forum, nationalities tend to respond to and deal only with matters that concern the nationality of the person posting.

"The BoT have some experienced and very well educated people"

I can add some personal knowledge to that.

I was at the LSE in Houghton St (London) recently and came across a large group of young men speaking Thai.

I entered into conversation with them. They informed me that every year a large group of young BOT staff receive a scholarship to study monetary policy and economics at the LSE at the LSE for a year.

So clearly they receive adequate training at the UK's top educational establishment .

Note..in case you were wondering : No there were no women in the group when I met them but the women may have been elsewhere at the time !

I can supply you with the upgrade by mail order - you will need to wait a few days.

I suggest you buy a NewShine3000 and card writer.

I can supply NS3000 for 2000 baht, a card writer and card for 2000 baht.

So 4000 baht plus postage.

I give full instructions for upgrade so in fture yo can do it yorself

Card writer... card...?

Hmm, so with dynasat you can get encoded transmissions as well? I thought it was just for the "free" channels. The dynasat.com website has a "channel list" that put me off switching from UBC, but if there is more interesting programming that can be picked up then I may be interested.

More info, anyone?

Yes Dyna allowed Dream bouquet but the encryption changes often and dyna is far too slow with upgrades.! If you dont have broadband uk falang offers the next best thing at the cheapest price in Thailand AND the expertise.. Why dont you pm him

Also pm 'meerkat' if you've got broadband. From his posting he's got the best set up in town ! Cant discuss here......its against TV rules !!

So you must have got 70-71 for your pounds Gary, ....right ?

Oops forgot you might not be British ...so 35 for your dollars ???

Ooops you could be an Ozzie.....sorry don't follow the rate fror that.

[ What a pity ones nationality is not given on the TV postings !]

From: USA, born in Ohio.

my best guess is that Gary is either a Maori or a Taiwanese

Now that is surprising...thought with your knowledge you must be a Brit !

Am sure Sonic the other expert is.

The baht higher in June or lower against the dollar than it is now ? Toss a coin !

Honestly...you have a fifty percent chance of getting it right !

Thanks for the offer UK Falang but my dealer is doing it for free.

When you get your Dynasat receiver back and are still having problems as you will certainly will , then please contact UK Falang as he not only has the expertise but his price for the Newshine is rock bottom and you wont find anything cheaper in Thailand.

PS ...I dont know the guy and have never spoken to him.

Certainly correct regarding Dynasat ! However only consider that Baht 4000 offer if you do not have broadband /cannot get it , as there are far better solutions on the market.

Perhaps the gentleman can help with those as clearly he is expert in such systems using a computer , speaks fluent English and his fees could be lower than many sat dealers.

what is dynasat?

See www.dynasat.com

The whole point is that falang can pronounce these proposed spellings such as Suwannapoom and that Thais will understand and recognise them when spoken (by a falang ) with the desired result being : mutual comprehension.!!

If it was intended that Thais recognise them there'd be tone indications as well. 'Sukhothai' stressed and intoned as an English word is barely recognisable to a Thai. (Personal complaint against me.)

A proper transcription of สุวรรณภูมิ would be something like Sùwannáphūm. The Royal Institute's precise transliteration would be something like sŭ̃wă(rr)ṇṇă̂phʻum(i), which is probably beyond most people's fonts. I need a $5 font, Code2000, to display it properly. The difficult bits are putting the tilde and above the breve and the circumflex above the breve, and quite a few fonts lack the modifier letter turned comma, which looks like an opening inverted comma.

"A proper transcription of สุวรรณภูมิ would be something like Sùwannáphūm" ( Richard W }

I'll go for that ....at least it would be mutually comprehensible !

"If you or anyone else has experience of selling Baht for GBP offshore, I will be interested to hear of it"

nice try but if a profitable way existed (to change THB vs. any foreign currency) there wouldn't be any difference between offshore and onshore rate as THB liquidity offshore would jump.

Dont think a few suitcases brought into Mustafa's each day stuffed with baht notes would affect overal baht liquidity in Singapore, do you ? It would effect the smuggler's bank balance rather favourably though !

ป้า = aunt ,

บ้า = crazy

Two distinct, different sounds, but it's true many foreigners pronounce ป as if it were บ.

If you do, "go" becomes "leaf", "aunt" becomes "crazy" etc.

So what's a crazy aunt ? Bah , bar [ black sheep have you any wool ] Correct tone ?

1. Regarding transliteration of applicants names in Thai passports I can inform readers from personal experience going back 20 years that the MFA office that issues Thai passports is extremely reasonable and flexible in this regard and are prepared to allow the applicant a romanised spelling of his/her Thai name of their own chosing. ie where a girls name ends in a clumsy 'ar' they will allow a more feminine 'a' ending .

Soundwise, no Thai words are pronounced with a final /r/ sound. Those that end in ร are either pronounced as /n/, not pronounced at all, or rendered /ra?/ or something along those lines.

Adding 'r's to account for long vowel sounds as in Southern British English is one of the more unfortunate features of transcription systems for universal use (it's fine if it were only Southern English, Aussies and Kiwis (apart from Invercargillians) who were to pronounce it - everyone else, including the vast majority of English native speakers are tempted to mispronounce).

2. Thais love to add a letter 'h' after every 't', 'p' and even 'k' sometimes

It seems that Thai transcription systems do not take account of the fact that 'h' after the 'p' normally results in the 'f 'sound in English and that the 'h' after the 't' sound results in the 'th' sound as in Mrs THatcher.

It doesn't work with English, that's true, but makes reasonable sense if applied systematically to account for the sound difference between ป and พ ภ ผ, which is phonemic in Thai. In that system, ปลา 'fish' is written /plaa/ and พล่า 'meat salad dish' is written /phlaa/. Another way of accounting for the difference is /bplaa/ as opposed to /plaa/. Many people prefer this.

The problem here is that none of these systems are used consistently - not even by one and the same person.

3. The main thrust of my argument is whatever system is used, the main goal must surely be the ability of Thai and non Thai readers and speakers to mutually comprehend each other.

As I have said before, the most intuitive system for this purpose would be an IPA based transcription, as it harks back to the Latin root pronunciations of the letters in the Roman alphabet. This means that if you pronounce the sounds according to Spanish, Italian or Finnish, which have a strong letter-sound correspondence, more people would have reasonable success in getting it right.

The next problem is that Thais work hard to learn the inconsistencies of English, and might find it difficult to accommodate for another way of pronouncing the same letters.

Many thanks for that. A few points if I may please.

1. Re Thai passport names : It is not just the Thai pronounciation involved in the "English"version of the name in the passport but also aesthetic and other matters which fortunately the MFA take into account !

The example given was of a girl's name which they wrote as ending in an 'r' in a first passport but then agreed to change to an 'a' ending as more feminine in a subsequent passport !

More importantly changes are allowed where the Thai name could be a little embarrasing. ie girls name or elements in the name can be changed from porn to pon , rat to rad and piss to pit !!

RE Your final point that Thais might have difficulty in pronouncing the transcribed/transliterated name :

Well of course they might ! The whole point is that falang can pronounce these proposed spellings such as Suwanapoom and that Thais will understand and recognise them when spoken (by a falang ) with the desired result being : mutual comprehension.!!

Certainly correct regarding Dynasat ! However only consider that Baht 4000 offer if you do not have broadband /cannot get it , as there are far better solutions on the market.

Perhaps the gentleman can help with those as clearly he is expert in such systems using a computer , speaks fluent English and his fees could be lower than many sat dealers.

So can anyone help with the Thai for British Isles / Channel Isles / Isle of Man ?

Not only are they not part of the UK , the inhabitants there resent their islands being called part of the UK !!

NB this is not JUST hypothetical/academic....I tried to send a packet with DHL and was unable to get the staff there to understand. Ended up after 10 minutes by having to say just 'Douglas' which they seemed to know !!

If what one needs is to be able to listen to Thai and make out the words, the solution came arrived a few years back with the proliferation of music videos thich have the English (romanised) words highlighted as each sound of the words of the lyrics is sung.

So there you are....watch some Thai karaoke videos ....and read the sounds in English /Roman script !

It helped me no end to make out what Thais are saying !!

A brilliant and learned exposition from RichardW who quite possibly is a visiting professor of phonetics at Chulalongkorn University. Clearly one that requires considerable thought and I definitly will get back to the posting when I 've had time to fully digest.

In the meanwhile I can add a few remarks as a layman and non expert on the subject.

1. Regarding transliteration of applicants names in Thai passports I can inform readers from personal experience going back 20 years that the MFA office that issues Thai passports is extremely reasonable and flexible in this regard and are prepared to allow the applicant a romanised spelling of his/her Thai name of their own chosing. ie where a girls name ends in a clumsy 'ar' they will allow a more feminine 'a' ending .

2. Thais love to add a letter 'h' after every 't', 'p' and even 'k' sometimes

It seems that Thai transcription systems do not take account of the fact that 'h' after the 'p' normally results in the 'f 'sound in English and that the 'h' after the 't' sound results in the 'th' sound as in Mrs THatcher.

3. The main thrust of my argument is whatever system is used, the main goal must surely be the ability of Thai and non Thai readers and speakers to mutually comprehend each other.

The major source of transliterated names for foreigners comes from the Bkk Post/Nation and I feel these papers are doing a great disservice by using a transliterated name which, when spoken to a Thai, will result in total non comprehension and the shrugging of shoulders.

Even the alteration of one consonant is enough to raise a complete barrier of comprehension when talking to Thai people. ie saying Sondee instead ot Sontee will leave the Thai completely non plussed.

Surely there are enough cultural differences and barriers between falang and Thais out there without artificially creating yet more and the 'official ' transliterated spelling of the new airport is in my opinion nothing less than disastrous in this respect.

Bingo Eureka ...you are right RichardW.

It seems the problems we have stem from the following publicaton as the system it advocates amazingly does not romanise words as pronounced in Thai !!

Words/names of Sanskrit or Pali origin are romanised to reflect the original words !

It is from a paper in the Journal of the Siam Society entitled :

The Romanisation of Siamese Words [ 1912 ] by King Vajiravut known also as Rama V1

So now we know why the new airport is romanised in a way that, if spoken by a falang, no Thai could or would possibly know what the speaker was refering to .

So now we know why the ex Finance Minister had his name romanised as Devakula [to rhyme with Dracula] so that when so pronounced by a falang no Thai could possibly know who was being refered to .

The phonetic romanisation is the entirely different Tevakun

Is it not time that a truly phonetic transliteration system was permitted and the old above system dumped ?

OK folks...how about Jersey, Guernsey & IOM.

I often send letters there for offshore banking.

What does one write in Thai as they are NOT part of the UK nor of Great Britain .

Is there a known Thai word for British Isles or even Channel Isles ?

My satellite dealer in Phayao informed me of the latest Dynasat upgrade (368 or something like that).

He said he was sending my receiver to Bangkok for a chip upgrade. Anyone else had this upgrade and know hardware details on the upgrade?

Your sat dealer wrong my friend...he has been overtaken by events. ....ring Dynasat yourself if you have any doubts...........www.dynasat.com

Talking of course about the Dream bouquet

Are all you English speakers agreed to say and write Paree, France?

Now we are really going off topic. Americans say mos-cow as in the animal , Brits say mos-co. Even Bangkok is pronounced differently by Americans and Brits ..Baan-kak v Ban-kok !

Will try to find that posting a year or two back by a gentleman who refered to King Chulalongkorn's book on transliteration of Thai language and will revert back.