blackhorse

A couple of questions.  Does anyone know how many foreigners in Thailand are here on a retirement visa?
 
How many British are here on a retirement visa?
 
How many British use the income letter for their retirement visa?
 
Are any of these numbers big enough to generate a response from the British Embassy or Thai Immigration?  If the numbers are too small do they even care?

There's a product called " Storect" which I find better than Kamagra as it is a herbal supplement not chemical and I also find it lasts the same amount of time as Kamagra possibly more.
I usually get 2-3 days out of one capsule.
 
It costs 500 baht for 4 capsules and there's only a few pharmacies that sell it. Put a few friends onto it and they are happy.
 
One is in Soi Diana opposite Areca Lodge and the other one I'll keep quiet about so my supply doesn't run out [emoji41]

If it's true that the British Embassy does just 3000 letters per year, that means that even if ALL the letters were somehow based on fake or false statements that only four percent of British expats would be altering things.  Four percent!  And only if ALL were guilty.  All this trouble caused by what could be considered a rounding error in other circumstances

In that case you need the dishwasher (and also electric oven and washingmachine) to have it's own dedicated wall outlet with it's own breaker in the fusebox.
 
My (own built) western kitchen can use all equipment at the same time...that's the trick of a good kitchen imo.
 
Im our rented condo we also had gas from bottles, but when i bought an electric combi oven the wall outlet started melting with flames on it. Don't use electric ovens in condo's, the wires can't stand it.

I thought they charged money for the letters? 
 
When I pay for letters, I figure this not only covers staff salaries (a few minutes per-letter), but also a portion of my Embassy's overhead-costs.  If anything, a smaller embassy and a big-return on land-sale should mean discounted services for Brits.
 
If it's a matter of losing money, they could simply raise the cost per-letter - ideally providing a full and public accounting of costs as justification.

A cliffhanger if ever there was one ! 
 

 

 

You little tease!  [emoji3]

May be when these old men will leave the country, genuine tourist will start going to the bars just like any other countries. Many people don't like to go to a bar where mostly old people ogling young girls over a bottle of beer. 

Since I have been coming to Pattaya (20 years) I've seen a major shift in old white guys to Asian people.  I eat at Cherry's restaurant frequently and it used to be all old white guys the last time I went it was me and 2 other tables of old white guys and the rest of the place was Asians.  I think this is especially obvious at Central mall and one of my favorite pizza and beer places the Hopf.  The Hopf used to be standing room only old white guys and bar girl dates.  Last time I went it was down to maybe 5%.  Radical change. 

There's a hatch in the wall of a middle eastern joint on corner Soi 5, and Sukh. opposite McD -but its been nearly 2 years- my memory may be all wrong. Anyway its a just a block or so on the same side of  Sukh. Rd. As the delightfully infamous Bier(hall)garten, if that still exists! The shawarmas there were OK. Or else just explore the Arab quarter around Nana Hotel and look at what's on their plates.

Dude had to of seen it when he threw the meat on

The link shows the relative number of tourists by country. Low-season, mid-season, or high-season the number of Asian tourists far outweighs Farang tourists. China alone has 10 times the number of British and American tourists.  Farangs are not as important to the Thai economy as some people would like to think they are.

 

Meanwhile, back on topic...

Kick those dudes out and they would 99% EMPTY.

How about coming to live here for more than 2 weeks and use your eyes where tourist numbers count , not some village dump

Be careful now.
 
Last week I saw a head-turning black woman latish and, as is my wont, said to her in a cheery voice, You ma'am are gorgeous. She was taken aback momentarily but then replied in a perfect New York accent, Thank you, but the tone of voice and look in her eyes indicated that I needed to move on, which I quickly did.
 
Ditto for the guys. So don't make assumptions based on skin color.

Really?

I live in a house.  What are you on about? 

Anyone know if dishwashers here need hot water or is the warm tap water good enough?

I'm in Pattaya atm and every single bar is packed with 60 year olds. Take them away and it would be a ghost town until the rest of the world rocks up next month

Everyone I know uses bottled gas.  Cheap and easy.  Delivered in 10 minutes from a call.  The problem I've found is no low setting on the cooktop.  Difficult to saute cream sauces.  I use a buffer between the gas top and the pan.  I've never seen piped gas anywhere in Thailand.  Has anyone?

Isaan economy collapse?

You just get funnier and funnier.

Those grand Maas and pops would be living off sticky rice with fish sauce

Never ever underestimate the power of the farang

Well, we all have to deal with individual officers, and if they have been told that the embassy letters or similar need to be supported with other documents then we have to comply or get rejected. It is almost irrelevant what the official department policy is in practical terms.

I'm sure I have read on this forum about somebody being asked for more documentation to go along with the statutory declaration, but I guess I could be mistaken. And what do you do - refuse to show it because your stat. dec. should be sufficient? I think you would get very short shrift from Thai immigration!

I think you'll find that any immigration office/officer can ask for whatever documentation they like if they so desire, and I am increasingly convinced that this will start happening. We hear stories all the time where people are asked for another thing that they weren't asked for the previous time. The statutory declaration/affadavit is pretty meaningless but so far has sufficed for immigration, but perhaps for not much longer.

I suspect that either other embassies are properly verifying to the Thais satisfaction, or that the other embassies are still in discussions, or they are calling the Thais bluff by still issuing their versions (US and Oz springs to mind). The full story will likely be revealed over the next few months by what happens when people are making their applications, and my suspicion is that people of all nationalities (other than German at least) will be asked for more documentation than they have in the past, again effectively rendering the embassy letters useless. If my suspicion is correct, that could be why the US have made the statement they have, hoping that the immigration offices won't change how they do things. It's a bit of a gamble but might well prove to be the right one. The BE are possibly being more honest and straightforward.

Why say it if you "... don't know if there is any truth in it"?

Unless you're post-modern, it's pretty hard to beat the Soi 7 Beer Garden! Lotsa friendlies!