tom in bangkok

I carry a backpack with a couple of old plastic bags inside. In other countries the stores sell reusable bags made from some kind of tough fabric.

Only thing I'm worried about is having to pay for the plastic bags for my loo bins.

3 minutes ago, Pravda said:

Let me guess. C Ekkamai

Nah, but maybe they're here to plunder the airbnbs in this building.

Cheers guys. I'll just chill and I suppose show them my passport and such if they come knocking.

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

what is a TPN card

Thai Payment Network. If your card uses TPN it'll have the logo co-branded on the card:

It means that a debit transaction will be processed through their network that's wholly based in Thailand, appeasing Bank of Thailand. If you want to use the card online, the merchant has to be using a payment gateway that is based here, otherwise you won't be able to use it.

Spotted this on one of my basil leaves this morning and it looks like an ant with huge antennae and it appears to have 6 legs, but not sure. Does anyone know what it is and if it's harmful to my plants (or me)?

I was looking up Thai ants but couldn't find any that were as red as this one or with those big antennae. How would it even make it up so high in my condo anyway?

If you get hired at a larger firm (generally the only ones willing to hire foreigners as far as I could see) they will sort it out for you since most of the documents needed comes from the actual company. I don't think it matters if you're already in Thailand when you're applying -- most of the interviews I did were on Skype anyway.

The documents can be found online. I used this as a guide when applying: https://www.thaiembassy.com/thailand/work-permit-rules.php

The real annoyance comes when you apply for your 1 year non-b extension. Christ, there was a huge stack of paperwork required for that.

Oh, and you can also go through a company like Iglu to make the visa+work permit process much easier, but I think the cut they take from your income is too high.

There are a lot of replies that insinuate that I think that the maid would be a "lesser" human than I. I'll set the record straight and say that I think live-in maids is a strange concept to me and that I still feel uncomfortable about it -- especially given the tiny room they are to live in.

I've spoken with a lot of Thai people about how they treat their 'maids' and if they treat them like... people. All I get is just a puzzled expression with a "what do you mean....?" and the same response when I ask if they eat with them.

I'm fairly ignorant to the whole culture here regarding live-in maids but I've taken onboard what many of you have said, so thanks for that.

Thanks Charlie. Just looking at that list makes me feel like it would take one person almost a whole day to complete. We'll see how it goes with our live-in, so I suppose it's good news if she's done a good job and has time to kill at the end of the day.

I like to tell my boyfriend that cleaning our condo will "only take an hour if we work together" but it always takes longer and our once-monthly cleaner takes a good 4 hours to do it herself. He tells me to clean the bathroom in exchange for him cleaning the rest of the condo. He hasn't yet realized that the bathroom is the easiest to clean.

Is anyone able to chime-in on eating with the maid or just generally treating her almost like family? (even though she lives in a tiny room)

21 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

you know the saying about Devil and idle hands, I would sit and ensure you compile a list of duties/tasks, some daily and repetitive others twice weekly and so on. Have structure and a proper routine or it may come off the rails.

What kind of tasks? Digging a hole to get to Brazil ????? I can't think of anything that would take up a lot of time as far as daily/repetitive tasks go except for polishing door handles and light switches after every use.

21 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Dont blur the lines from being an employee.

Do you reckon the occasional/frequent shared dinner would blur the line too much?

23 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Personally there is no way I would give a credit card to a maid, but thats your choice.

Receipts for purchases and a supplementary card for her should sort this out I think. Worst case there's always the chargeback option if abused?

10 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

You may wish to consider hiring a private driver, and have a maid clean your place once or twice per week. 

This is what I suggested, but my partner said he knew of a few maids who can live-in and drive a bit for about 12k/month, so he talked me into the idea.

I still think it's weird having someone live in a small box of a room though.

I will soon be moving into a house in Bangkok (from a condo) and my partner and I found that it would be a bit cheaper to hire a house-keeper/maid (who can also drive our car) to live with us than it would cost us to take a taxi/grab to the train station twice a day (four trips total).

The house has a very small bedroom with ensuite for a maid (seems too small for someone to live in IMO) so we'd be able to accommodate her, but I'm wondering what she will do all day? We aren't moving into a medieval castle that takes days to clean... just a 4br house with some land for a good garden. If she cleaned it top-to-bottom every day, I'd imagine she would still have at least two-thirds of the day with nothing to do.

I don't like driving here so we'd give her our car keys and a credit card to go grocery shopping with while we're working, so aside from this and the pick-up/drop-off at the MRT station, I really don't think she'll have much to do after sweeping up day-old dust. I don't want her to cook most nights because it's something I really like doing myself. One can only have so much Thai food, right?

So... what would she do when there's nothing to do? Wouldn't she get bored and lonely?

What are your thoughts if you have a maid?

PS: I'd like to have the maid eat dinner with us often. Maybe she'll enjoy it and maybe she'll let me teach her something about western food -- hopeful or reasonable?

TLDR; what will my maid do when everything's done already?

In case it's helpful to someone, I've been told that banks (+ their branches) will be operating as usual on 4th and 5th.

I've been in Thailand for about 18 or so months but a lot of the visa threads don't seem to apply to me (thankfully, as it seems). I'm curious as to the distribution of expats here as I scarcely see a non-b thread or news relating to changes to non-b requirements.

Sorry, I should have added that I'm on non-b visa with 1yr extension and multi entry. Skipping 90 day reports like I described is possible on any extension.

I leave the country every time my 90 day report is coming up since driving to CW takes about 2 hours with traffic. The bonus of exiting LOS instead of 90-day report is that I get to see other parts of SEA for an affordable weekend every few months. This is on an extension with multi-entry, mind you.

If you've got a 12 month extension, I'd suggest just doing what I do but take your spouse.

@ubonjoe I believe that after cancelling, you will also be issued a 7 day visa to leave the country. Is that correct?

Thanks guys. I parked outside gate 1 on the road, a fair amount of parking at 10.30 am.

If anyone's leaving in December/early January and needs a re-entry permit, better do it ASAP. People who arrived at 9am for re-entry ended up getting their passports back at 3.30pm, as opposed to getting it back before lunch a month or two ago. The queue went up to 600 today :s

I'm heading to Chaengwattana immigration to apply for a re-entry permit this week but I can't find any reliable information about parking on-site. Has anyone visited recently and can shed some light on the parking situation?

From memory there was some median-strip parking spaces as well as an underground car park. Will I be able to get a park if I arrive an hour or so before lunch time?

Thanks guys.