mikebike

So where do I go? Do I ask a lady out at a bank, A resturante in the country, or at a coffee shop? I'm prepared to travel to normal non tourist areas. Obviously the bar scene is a mine feild, but are their places that Thais go to for their own fun? Would I be welcome there? Are there events and festivals that bring the "normal" girls out? Is there something I can participate in that might make me friends and get me into groups of quality people. I will not be trying to pick up anyone, I want to get to know them. Any tips can only help.

Ok - quick advise here...

Put the wife-hunt outta your head. Get here; get fluent; get culturalized... Do not stay in CM, Pattaya, Samui, Phuket... Find a non-tourist burg to settle in and see what turns up. Once you have done the above and invested the time, you will find all the events, social situations, which you are looking for.

You most definitely are not going to find what you are looking for by just landing in Thailand and starting your search. You will have to invest time in the country and culture, learn the language, build up a network of Thai friends, filter through the BS... this all takes time, effort and money. What you are looking for is possible but no easier than anywhere else..

You have to admire this guy,how many businesses operate on zero consumables?

Errrrrm.........ask all the girls hanging out at various bars all around the island.

Have you seen them eat? No consumables, yeah right!!! LOL!

...it is time to move on. The issues and problems of Samui have become too much for me, and I am happy to move on. The incessant construction, the traffic, the jaded locals, the lack of law and order, the lack of traffic safety, the ridiculously overpriced food, the road maniacs, will all be left behind, gladly. Will stay in Thailand for sure. But, Samui is not the same island I moved to ten years ago, and it has lost a lot of it's magic, at least for me. As Shakespeare would have said, a plague on the owners and managers of the Ark Bar.

Try Khanom... nice and quite and your only a short hop to Samui!

You can bring anything you like... We brought the contents of a house! If you are vacationing just make sure everything you bring is insured, just like travelling anywhere... no limits mate!

Yes but top quality European beer a few hundred baht cheaper....and shipped a lot further with far more Labour manufacturing costs

First: My work permit was 33K, I don't think you can get one for 3K.

The fee for a one year work permit is 3000 baht. The other 30K baht must of been for a lawyer or agent to do it for you,

Or maybe to form a company so Kit could get a WP....???

To obtain a work permit in this country one has to work.

I recently changed the name on one bike and our car and our P.R.B. lady handled everything, including taking rubbings of the serial numbers and then taking it all to the Land Office herself. Neither vehicle needed to be inspected. The P.R.B. places do this all the time. The commissions are well worth the price since they go to all the hassle of standing in line for you and dealing with the people at the Land Office.

I have changed names on 3 vehicles so I speak from experience.

WOW!! that is some 'special' experience if you can get the LAND OFFICE to deal with motor vehicle transfers!! Most people have to go to Department of Land Transport...

By the way, in future if I was to buy a bike or car privately, I was under the assumption the seller fills out his part of the form, gives me the green book and I hand over the cash. Then I sort it with the transport dept. I see someone else here said the buyer and the seller go together?

What's the normal procedure?

If both people are not attending the Department of Vehicles then one of the standard documents the seller signs is a limited Power of Attorney so that the buyer can complete the sale.

First: My work permit was 33K, I don't think you can get one for 3K.

The fee for a one year work permit is 3000 baht. The other 30K baht must of been for a lawyer or agent to do it for you,

And it is the vows that make a marriage legal, not the paperwork. As a matter of fact, just claiming to be husband and wife is enough to be legally married in the US.

Some analysis on Bernie that posters here might be interested in. I'd be interested in your thoughts:

T

This does happen to be a topic about a situation in the USA. I

Also I'm not sure it's really about the left or the right to show some BASIC RESPECT to your fellow human beings by avoiding using derogatory terms on a public forum.

But it's useful when people do ... it REVEALS where they are coming from. In this case: BIGOTRY.

That is your take on it,if we oppose your views then you can claim bigotry.Now put the boot on the other foot,what do you call it then?

Oppression by the majority.

That horse has already left the barn...sorry, U.S. Southern talk. Those opposed on religious grounds badly mishandled the issue IMHO. Those opposed from the get go should have united in arguing that the institution of marriage was one of the traditional seven sacraments of the Christian Church. Thus government, recognizing the Separation of Church and State, would not be allowed to interfere in purely a religious matter. The government would, in its public interest govern, "civil unions" with all equal rights under law being given.

By demanding government not abide by the Separation of Church and State, the U.S. conservative churches have left the door open for all other religions to demand equal rights. Watch for it as Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist prayers are demanded equally before government meetings, public events. This and the 2016 Presidential Campaigns promise a world of entertainment in the near future!

Anyone else try Popcorn Time for movies and TV shows? Wondering about your experiences with it. Thanks!

In other words, there is no reason why the wife (over age 50) can't have the retirement visa and the husband can be considered the dependent, if the couple only has one 800,000 baht bank account. That way, it's in the wife's name and she will have ready access to it.

This prevents the nightmares I've seen where the husband has the 800,000 baht bank account, dies, the wife can't access the money immediately, has no way to justify her own visa, yet is told she has to go to Laos and arrange for a new visa. All she can go is get a tourist visa, come back and wrestle with the bank trying to get the Final Will situation straighten out in time to get ahold of the funds, only to return to Laos and apply for an non-imm O visa, etc, etc on the path toward a retirement extension. Makes no sense if the husband is significantly older and less healthy than the wife. Why even open the account in his name? What were they thinking of?

I may be missing something, but I don't see how your 'solution' insulates the husband from having exactly the same issues as the wife if he is the dependant and she passes away... Same same, no?

My wife and I are in this situation. Our bank accounts are joint, in our home country (we use an affidavit for income, we do not keep 800,000 in the bank here) so cash flow would not stop no matter which of us passes. Also if either of us passes its a quick cremation here then back home for interment and commiseration with family and friends. The worst case scenario is a 7 to 10 day overstay and 3,500 to 5,000 baht overstay fine on the way out. Then the surviving spouse can decide, surrounded by loved ones, what they want to do next. Seems simple enough and works for us...

"Debate line-up illustrates power of Fox News in GOP campaign" should read

"Fox News reflects that degree of discontent in the majority of American Viewers" ...as evidenced by its supreme rank in the news ratings. Therefore, those who oppose the emerging socialist-progressive state are more apt to have a fair hearing on this issues in the Fox News lineup and subsequently reach more disaffected voters."

should read: as evidenced by its supreme rank in the news ratings for white men 68 and older.... what an awesome demographic!!!!

Not an unfair comment but is it complete? I mean, are we being frank with the data? There is little doubt older people watch Fox News. The Atlantic asserts 50% of viewers are basically old, like you suggest. Yet when one considers the available census graph for lately 2010 its apparent something else is taking place. There is simply not enough old people to account for the market share. Only a complete picture emerges when one looks at the low ratings of other competitors. The market share of competitors either reflects low information voters who run on emotion and don't need news, or a tuning out of their bias- as opposed to tuning in to Fox bias. I believe it is a combination.

I am not a statistician but I realize, as Fox admits, its entertainment. The amount of people "older" in relation to Fox's market share reflect something else is going on. Entertainment or news, it does not matter. Its called entertainment but watched as news, indicted as news, but the viewers marginalized as being entertained only. Regardless, its success model is because it fills a niche vacated by previous network news. It resounds with its viewers.

The US is irrevocably fractured and this Balkanization is actually being intentionally cultivated so reconciliation can never take place. This is not a phase, this is a defining time. There will be no healing only widening of the cultural gap. This alone proves my point. Fox news is successful because a majority of Americans feel the changes to the country are not necessarily wrong but unnecessarily divisive and nihilist.

Lazada - C.O.D. so no risk. http://www.lazada.co.th/oem-laptop-desk-blue-1396319.html

"Debate line-up illustrates power of Fox News in GOP campaign" should read

"Fox News reflects that degree of discontent in the majority of American Viewers" ...as evidenced by its supreme rank in the news ratings. Therefore, those who oppose the emerging socialist-progressive state are more apt to have a fair hearing on this issues in the Fox News lineup and subsequently reach more disaffected voters."

I think this should be required reading for a lot of TVF members.

Even just the strap-line would suffice!

"Even die-hard supporters of the government must acknowledge that Thailand hasn't done enough."

And the last paragraph in the OP Is an absolute gem.

I would suggest they also require some reading on the TPP and why the US Trafficking in Persons Report was delayed 6 weeks and how Malaysia magically changed from Tier 3 to Tier 2 to facilitate the trade deal. Shows how arbitrary this Report is and how your position on it can change NOT by how you deal with trafficking in persons but by where you need to be for US foreign policy to work.

What would you propose the US do about the mental health problem?

I am struggling to understand

Dear Struggling:

The US is looking for a way to legally give him the boot. The issue is; he did not mention it on his application for citizenship. Concealing that fact is a violation and one can indeed have one's citizenship revoked for concealing ones past history.

You do not necessarily require a non immigrant B visa. You can get a tourist visa back home and convert when everything is ready here.

Wait a minute... This means that, at that particular time, he was working FOR the US and allied forces AGAINST the evil USSR in the Afghani conflict. In fact, a little research shows, he and the groups he was working with were FUNDED by the NATO alliance and the CIA. I am struggling to understand... would it have been better if he was working for the USSR against the US?

2nd

I blame "everybody"? no, only one, the AOT who ordered me, to use that unsuited parking space with signs and verbal orders.

3rd

No error in judgement, it was not foreseeable, sure not from a driver of a some hours before rented motorbike, that to use that ramp could have that mishap.

"Ordered" may not be the term you are looking for. In your original post you said, "I asked security, they advised"...

In your own judgement it was an 'unsuited parking space" which you chose to use despite its unsuitability and your own inexperience on that motorcycle because otherwise you "would have been the only one parking not upstairs".

You could have easily chosen to listen to your own misgivings regarding the suitability of the parking and just parked where you felt was suitable. As you know from being here for so long, airport staff would assume an expensive, brand new, big-bike belonged to a V.I.P. and you could have parked anywhere with impunity.