NathanV23

Nat,

Yes I think in Oz and other places where it is a legalized, monitored, relatively safe and controlled industry, its a completley different story. But in places like the US and Thailand, where it is unregulated, it is a far different game. The difference I think is that for the most part, in the US you would have many options before putting yourself in such a position. Where on the other hand, in LOS, there are many many girls in the industry who do not want to be there, but almost do not have a choice. This isn't all of them. Some have money and want more. But many of them come from very poor sitautions with little hope. In that respect, I think everyone should cut them a little slack.

Even if it within the law, the risk is that your employer finds out how you got the degree and isn't impressed. They may view it as deception or fraud and you may end up with legal problems anyway. If you have to find a way to stay 6 months, I would go for the delaying tactic. The Thais seem to be great at it in my experience.

When they ask for the degree, tell them that you have contacted your university back home and you are waiting for a reply. (This is a big university. They don't just answer the phone and say 'yes sir, the copy of your degree will be sent today) A few weeks later you can say that you haven't received a reply yet and you can show how much this is bothering you that your old school isn't helping.

A few weeks later, tell them that you've fianlly been able to contact the univeristy and they will send it out in 2 to 3 weeks. Its a process which takes time.

Then you've got the mail, which also takes time.

A few weeks later when it still hasn't come, remember that things get lost in the mail.

You'll have to start all over again.

If your employer is patient then you might just make it 3 or 4 months.

In reference to no. 3 above, assuming you had broadband on this end, how exactly would you set up the computer in America so that it could be controlled by your computer here?

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea. You would need a safe place to leave your computer of course. Somewhere that didn't mind you tying up bandwidth also. But it is a good idea. If only I had broadband. 256k is available. Any idea what kind of download times we're talking for an hour of TV via 256k?

Thanks for the ideas. Number 3 looks like you could basiclaly call up TV on demand. Maybe just delayed a few hours. Unfortuantely I'm up North and can only dream about broadband. I'll see if any of my firends would be interested in recording DVD's/Videos. Someone in the US should set it up as a service for farangs missing their sports and other TV. Might get into all kinds of regualtions, but I bet their would be a market for it. And for those in BKK with broadband, they could just download the program from their supplier. So the only expense for the supplier would be the time spent monitoring requests for programs and then the time spent sending them.

If you're not familiar already, UBC, the main provider here has less than comprehensive sports coverage and most of the shows on Discovery Channel, History Channel etc. are from 2 or 3 years ago.

Its kind of funny that by satellite we can get 150 channels of programming from around the world, excluding what we really want to see. Thanks for the ideas.

One more thing, if you're living somewhere where a dialect is spoken most of the time (not Central Thai), then it makes everything twice as hard. The language you are studying in your book and listening to on CD's is not the same language you hear when you walk out the door.

Usually people will switch to Central Thai when they speak to you directly unless you are really out in the boonies in which case, you more or less have to learn two langauages (which I never managed).

I was first here as an exchange student when I was 15 for a year. Lived with a Thai family and went to all Thai high school in a small village in the South. Since then, I've been in Thailand for another 3 years or so, mostly only with Thais. I still am not fluent, but I do okay. I can't follow a Thai movie on TV, but I can run my business and talk to friends on the phone just fine. Also, lately I can follow the subtitles on HBO, Cinemax etc.

One thing is for sure though, it wasn't easy. Even after the first year of basically being immersed in the langauge, people couldn't understand my accent and there was still many simple phrases I didn't know or simply couldn't pronounce. But slowly you get the hang of it and add vocabulary. Maybe in another 3 years I might be fluent, but still to speak politics and economics etc. you need to seriously study.

Answer this question. Would you ever have considered marrying a prostitute in your own country?

If the answer is no, (and most guys that marry Thai Bars Girls would answer no), then how come you married a Thai prostitute?

I'd appreciate it if someone could point out how to copy a quote from a previous post!

At the risk of having many people angrily disagree with me, I'm going to propose that generally speaking if a woman finds herself selling her body in one of the wealthiest countries of the world, she differs from the average Thai prostitute and in this respect, the question is irrelevant.

As many posts point out again and again, mosts of the bar girls come from the North East and do not have money, education and therefore opportunity. (Okay MAYBE they could be a waitress for 3,000 baht a month, but what about sending money home to the family?) They are put in a very difficult position and God knows the Thai governemnt isn't stepping in to help.

In contrast, for a woman to end up selling herself in a country like the US or England just to survive, chances are she has a serious drug/alcohol problem or has simply hit rock bottom. Again, generalising here, there would have been a number of options given to her by the society/government/economic reality of her country which would have acted as a net to catch her before the choice of prostitution. If they all fell through, then its almost difficult having sympathy. (i realise that many may have been abused etc., but I'm pointing out what I believe to be a general trend)

Now what are the options that the girl in Issan has?

Not that all Thai prostitutes have only one choice or that all American/English prostitutes have hit rock bottom, but I do think that in general, there is a noticable difference. Now good luck finding out the real reason why she is doing what she is doing, but still something to consider.

Just read that Thaksin and Co. have decided to ban access to more websites from Thailand. For all of you that believe that you should be able to look at what you want, you can get around this pretty easily. Go to www.surfola.com. There's a program called proxy redirector 1.0. You can download it and try it for free and I think it costs around $30 per 6 months.

Anyway, say you want to access website X, but it has been banned in Thailand. You go to surfola.com and log into your account. From there, you surf the web through them. To the ISP providers here, no matter how many websites you visit, it looks like you're visiting surfola.com the entire time. If and when surfola.com itself is banned, they put up redirector sites which aren't blocked and get you to their page.

No, I don't work for them, I just came across it the other day and think it may be of much use here as the government continues deciding what is best for you. On any sites where cookies or java must be enabled, it doesn't seem to work, but it is still a very useful tool. I hear its becoming more and more popular in countries like China an Iran. Enjoy!

At the risk of receiving cynical responses about another farang naively throwing away his money in Thailand, I will post the following. A year ago I agreed to buy 9 rai of land in Chiang Rai from a Thai friend. At the time, I was aware that the land did not have a chanote. However, I was told that within a year or so, they could get the relevant officials to come to the land and issue a chanote. At this point I paid a deposit of 320,000 Baht and signed contracts stating that I would pay given sums of money over the next three years, at which point I would be the owner of the land. (Rather, my girlfriend -no I didn't meet her in bar- would be the owner of the land).

Within a few months, I was contacted by the Seller and told that they could not arrange to get the chanote and they would have to pay me back. Eight months later, I still have received nothing. I am still in contact with the Seller who says they are doing what they can, but they simply don't have the money now and don't know what to do. I know that they do have a couple other plots of land with a chanote, but are unable to take loans out on it due to the fact that they already have a number of other loans which are still in repayment. The banks will not extend further credit until the current loans are paid off.

So, do I have any leagal recourse? Is there anything I can do to get atleast a portion of my money back? If I have no legal recourse and I am simply out of luck in that respect, I am open to any other non-violent suggestions. Thanks!

I am currently in Thailand on a tourist visa. (American Passport). I want to get a Non-Immigrant Visa multiple entry so I will only have to do 3 Visa Runs a year instead of one every month. After reading quite a bit, technically it doesn't seem that I would qualify for this visa as I am really just a touist. So I have two questions:

1. How strict is the letter from a Thai business requirement? ie. I am interested in the exporting business. Can I make a case that I am here for business, speaking with such and such company, (who writes the letter)?

2. If so, can this be done in Thailand or do I need to leave the country and apply?

Any other advice on how to go from a tourist visa to a non-imm visa would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!