rogercw

"People in pick-up trucks have done a pretty good job at showing how ineffective the US military machine is in Iran and Afghanistan for the last few years so I wouldn't be making judgments based on the mode of transport the Cambodians might use. That of course comes after a rag-tag group of people in pyjamas and flip-flops chased the same military machine out of Vietnam."

I understand you feel America is the evil empire but please get your history right. The people in pyjamas and flip-flops did not chase America out of Vietnam. The American Congress did that. The Viet Cong (people in pyjamas and flip-flops) were pretty much not the major problem. The regulars units of the North Vietnam army were. The corruption of the South Vietnam government was a huge problem. The famous scene on the roof of the American embassy occurred two years after American combat forces left Vietnam, after the American Congress stopped funds promised to Vietnam, and when North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon.

When all is said and done Vietnam was a defeat in a battle in the Cold War but America won the war. America is still here, still the number one military power in the world, and Communism and the Soviet Union are in the trashcan of history. We have won the war in Iraq. Maybe at a higher cost than victory was worth but we have won. Obama , although I personally oppose him in general, is moving more troops into Afganistan so the result there is still unknown.

In the meantime Europe year by year becomes less relevant in world affairs and continues its decline.

"Nobody tried to put off Pete at the Beer Garden, he came on here and stated his intentions he's has done a wonderful job, not everyone fails."

Pete did have just a tiny little bit of experience in Thailand and Thai bars before the Beer Garden.

If OP is over 50 and has some savings he could put about 550,000 baht in a Thai bank and get an extension of stay for retirement.

Been here three years and my answer to the original question is "no".

1,000 AUS dollars would be a little tight but it could be done on 23,000 baht. I lived in a Pattaya condo for about 15,000 a month and spent about another 15,000 baht for 30,000 total. Now have a girl and spend about 50,000 a month. My girl's sister has a 3,000 a month room with no AC. Live in something like that or a little better and watch your money and you could get by for 15,000 or so. This would leave you 5,000 to 8,000 left over for whatever. Not a great lifestyle but 1,000 dollars a month in Australia is not great either.

I second the reccomendation to come to Thailand for a few weeks, see what living here would be like, and then make up your mind.

American culture and language is gradually coming to dominate the English-speaking world and English is gradually coming to dominate or filter into the rest of the worlds languages. Even the French have failed in their attempts to hold back the tide. The Thais answer the phone "hello" and sing happy birthday in English. You-all may hate us Americans but we are the future. So says the village idiot, so it shall be.

I guess I am missing out on something. I have been living in Pattaya for three years now. Except for trips to Immigration I have never spoken to any policemen or other government employees. I have never had a confrontation with any Thais, including baht bus drivers. I am often stupid drunk and wandering around in the wee hours and have never even felt threatened. I have no large sum of money and as far as I know I have never met an "influential person". I am almost 70 years old and moderately fat so no one is afraid of me.

I need help. How can I change my life so I am like some of you big boys?

The cart is a good idea but use it to sell Thai brooms and feather dusters. Pushing it around for ten or twelve hours a day will help keep her weight down. She would never sell the lucky lottery numbers to anyone. She would use them herself. Let her keep a third of the huge profits and use the rest for beer for you. Take her phone away so she does not waste time in idle conversation. Recruit more girls, buy more carts, and start a new empire. Great idea and I can see you being famous some day.

I use Burda tailors on South Pattaya Road. If you stand at the entrance to the Friendship supermarket and look Burda tailors is across South Pattaya Road and a little to your left.

Went back this afternoon and saw I gave the food court a bum-rap. The big signs are all in Thai but on the counters they have small menus in English.

Went with my TG on Friday night. Random thoughts. Saw zero signs in English in the food court. Did not take an official count but the restruants seemed to be almost 50 percent Japanese. The supermarket with "80,000 items" was OK but I doubt there actually were over 10,000 different items. The prices in the shops we looked into were beyond ridiculous. Older falangs with young Thai girls were less than one percent of the customers. Over-all appearance of the mall was super-great. Ten more movie screens. When we have gone to movies we seldom see 20 customers at a showing, usually less than ten. Where are the customers for ten more screens going to come from? This place may or may not make it but as the newest and most modern mall it will really hurt Carfour, Tesco, and BigC.

When you get to Jomtien Immigration office stop at the copy shop to its left. Tell the man in the shop that you are getting an extension for retirement and give him all your papers. He will copy everything that needs copied and put it all together for you in the sequence that Immigration likes. The charge is about 150 or 200 baht. As stated above the main things needed are embassy letter, bank letter, bankbook, rent receipt for address verification, the Immigration extension of stay form, and a photo (the copy shop will make it for you if you don't have one). If you have any questions there is now an English-speaking falang behind a counter inside the Immigration door who will give you basic help.

If you are missing anything the man in the copy shop should notice and tell you he needs it to assemble the package.

I filed my American income tax by mail. The stamp was 29 baht and it got there in ten days.

Comfortable foreigner.

I lost my cards once. Looked up the Bank of America contact phone number on the internet and called them. They sent me a new checking card by FedEx. I had it in my hand in Pattaya in about 36 hours. My Mastercard from AT&T didn't take much longer and came via DHL. I never let the cash in my condo drop below the vicinity of 20,000 baht.

2 June 2000 in Norfolk, Virginia a burglar with a large knife broke into my place and WAITED for me to come home. If I did not have a gun I probably would have been killed. Fortunately for me I had a 38 revolver and shot him twice in the chest. The police told me that I did a good deed, the man was a creer criminal who had messed up a lot of people in the past.

The old saying sounds simplistic but it is true never the less. You may only need a gun once in your life but if you do you need it awfully bad.

Check out favorite sites on internet, cycle thru the forums, play a little poker, watch a little TV news, go to Carfour every 3 or 4 days, read books from the second hand shop, go to my regular bar downstairs, and upon occasion go out and drink a little before bar-fining a 20 year old sweetie.

It's a dirty job but someone has to do it to keep the Thai economy going.

Some good points by prior posters and some not so good.

Use reasonable police work to get rid of undesirable ex-pats. Sounds good but unless the corruption level of the police is reduced the only ones removed from the country will be those who do not pay off.

Keeping the tourist / expat goups you have and adding more upscale ones is a solid goal. Deciding to flush out the low income ones you have and assuming they will be replaced with the same number of high income falangs. Good if it works but will it work?

The dollar is definetly going down now but will it keep going down forever? Some currency speculators are betting one way and some the other way.

I do not have an income of 300,000 baht a month like a couple of posters seem to have. I know a few who do and a lot who don't. Does this mean I should not be allowed to live in Thailand? Personally I don't need a big house with a staff of four plus 3 cars to be comfortable, although possesion of such would be nice. I remember years ago Donald Trump was having troubles and his banks put him on an allowance of 500,000 DOLLARS a month. He probably felt deprived until he got the restrictions off. If Paris Hilton had to live on a million baht a month she might kill herself. My pension is about 70,000 baht and I spend about 50,000 of it. I make no trouble for Thailand and there sure are a whole lot of people like me here. Do the rif raff like me have to leave to make room for our betters?

There seems to be a large snob attitude on the board as to Pattaya. I live here because it is close to Bangkok but living expenses are a lot cheaper. Few of the expats living here are in the bars 7 days a week getting drunk and making fools of themselves. Two week tourists yes, but there are a lot of places in Europe where they do the same thing.

I like it here. If Thailand ever decides I should go give me six hours to pack up and I can be at the airport heading for somewhere that does want me.

I am one of those despicable Bush backers from America. It's not on my Sophon Cable but I saw a few minutes of it in a bar a few days ago. The little coverage I saw seemed less left-wing to me than that of the BBC. Give them points for being smart enough to figure out that wild conspiracy stuff will not tend to move English and American public opinion their way or build an audience. Choosing which stories to cover and which ones to ignore might be a better idea from their point of view. I have zero Arabic capability but from what I understand their Arabic programs are pretty far out.

i heard recently a farang got caught with a bottle of thai whisky. Now that is really desperate! But at least he would have only had to pay 180 baht to get off

I am not sure of the store but I think it was Big C on Second Road in Pattaya a few months ago. It was on Pattaya People TV at the time. I remember because it seemed so stupid he would take the chance for cheap stuff. If you are going to steal why not go for the gusto? As usual there was no follow-up to tell us what happened to him.

"Is it not standard operating practice in Thailand that one of these things is done? "

There is no such thing as standard operating practice in Thailand.

Are you sure you want to hire staff again after your experience? Can't be much difference than using taxis, can it?

no taxis available. hate to act as a driver myself and hate to work as a gardener. so what are my choices?

I don't know anything about gardeners but I see regular sedan taxis with a meter and airconditioning all over town. I would assume that if you got the cell phone number of a couple of them getting one would not be a big problem. If the one you call can't come he would normally call a buddy taxi driver to come get you. If they go to Bangkok for 800 baht how expensive can they be?

PS The only times I have used one is back and forth to Bangkok so maybe there is a problem with local service. TIT

Avoid family problems. Move.

I opened an account in July at the Bangkok Bank branch on Second Road inj Pattaya with just a passport and 5,000 baht. They accepted a hotel address with no problem, since I had only been in Thailand for two days. I suggest that you try a different branch of Bangkok Bank or try a different bank. Sooner or later you will hit a winner.

Aloha from Maui,

I am helping a disabled friend (American) move to Thailand. She can't type very well thus I'm doing the internet inquiries for her.

She will be 50 years old in January and is not married to a Thai and has no intention to work in Thailand. Here are a few questions:

1) Before commiting to a retirment visa, she wants to try out living in Thailand full time for a year. Is a 60 day tourist visa (with 30 day extension) the best way for her to do this trial year in terms of visas? Are 90 day visa renewal intervals as long as she can get without getting the retirement visa?

2) The retirement visa requires 800,000 baht in a Thai bank, or 65,000 baht per month income, or a combination of both. For the sake of example, say she has 44,000 baht in monthly income. How do I figure the "combination of both" part. Do I subtract 44,000 from 65,000 yielding 21,000. And then to figure out how much needs to be deposited in a Thai bank do I multiply 21,000 baht by 12 to get 252,000 baht?

3) What do they count as income? Is it only pensions or social security? Or does it include investment income from things like mutual funds and rental income from real estate holdings?

Thanks for your help!

John

You multiply the monthly income of 44,000 baht by 12 , getting an annual income of 528,000 baht. Subtract this from 800,000 and the result is a required bank account balance of 272,000 baht. They normally would not count investment income.