JohnB1945

Why don't we give it a rest! In my opinion leaving was a huge mistake, and a hard brexit will be catastrophic. But I hope I'm wrong. 

Whats done is done. Give it six months and then see who was right.

Why not ask the schoolkids, not the general population?. Nobody has the right to tell someone else what to wear, whether its the hijab or school uniform. After all I am sure a majority of people would support the proposition that "General Prayuth should wear a Tutu whenever he appears in Public", but I am sure he would not!

Generally I have little sympathy for people taken in my obvious cons! As the Tichbourne Claimant said "Surely men with plenty money and no brains were made for men with plenty brains and no money"

I'll bet its totally non smoking and you have to go to one of the filthy smoking rooms! Thai used to have a very pleasant smoking lounge for business class, then the stopped the smoking!

Who pays the salaries? Customers or the health nazis?

Just submitted and the system seemed at accept it  just fine. Last two 90 day reports done on line with no issues. 

I very frequently drive up from Chonburi to Khao Yai, and I usually do by starting off aiming for Nakhon Nayok, and then through Ban Na and join the Saraburi to Korat road about 10 km east of Saraburi, near the cement factory. 

On the Ban Na to Saraburi Road at the Ban Na end  (The 3222 Road?) there are several places where people seem to be growing quite large trees, like the one in your photo, often in old truck tyres around the roots, and I quite often get stuck behind trucks carrying these trees on their load bed. So I suppose these trees are for sale, as they are not growing them for fun!

Don't know if this helps. 

Got my Thai License in Pak Chong, very helpful and Professional. Gave me both car and M/C (two licenses). Made me watch the video on first license (one year) but not on the renewal (five+ years). My Thai wife was also getting the same, which probably helped. 

Both were born in UK

"All well and good (maybe)... This was 17 years ago, but we were told if we wanted our son to also have Thai citizenship his first name had to be Thai (yes my wife is Thai). ". 

I don't think that this is correct. My two children have Thai passports as well as UK, and they both have western first names. My son has a Thai middle name, all my daughters names are western. 

Has anyone any idea of when non-Pattaya residents will be allowed to go into the city? I work in Chonburi, but not in Pattaya; but I go into Pattaya at weekends to buy Farang Food and, especially, pipe tobacco!

I use Korat Immigration and I have had no issues with them at all. I agree that they are generally polite and helpful.

Yes, I got tested long since by 23&me and then sent genome to myAncestry. I thought 23&me was totally believable, but MyAncestry less so. They found Greek, no English (which would surprise my maternal grandparents who were both as English as Yorkshire Pudding). But 23&me and MyAncestry both got Scotland right. So if taken with a large spoon of salt it is of mild interest. I did make contact with my second cousin in USA who I had lost contact with in the 1960s. Thousands of 3rd to distant cousins with both 23&me and My Ancestry, but life is too short to track these down (even if they are "real" which I doubt). 

Further to this: we live about 15 km from Khao Yai National Park, and I see that there are White Crested Laughing Thrushes in the park (according to their website). So if we can catch it we could take it there; but a big "if" as it is not that tame.  

Thanks for the reply! 

Does anyone know what this bird is? It appeared in our garden a few weeks ago, and spends its time 50:50 in our garden and our neighbours? I have looked in "Birds of Thailand" and cannot see anything similar. It is fairly tame - you can go within half a metre of it. It seems to eat insects in the grass, an occasional bite of banana, and cooked rice. It was quite noisy at first but has calmed down now. I am worried that our cats get it - there have been near misses already. 

I am wondering if it is an escaped caged bird, not indigenous to Thailand. 

This talks about stay extension based on retirement. Does the same apply to stay extensions based on accompany spouse visa?

John

On the Banking issue I opened an account at Bangkok Bank in Pak Chong (Lotus Tesco). At first they wouldn't do it, and I showed them an email from their Head Office saying it was fine, so then they made it a joint account with my Thai wife without telling me. Immigration refused to accept a joint account, but decently gave me an extension to sort it out. I then went 50 metres to K Bank who opened a account without any bother, straight away, and I transferred my money. I wrote to Bangkok Bank complaining, and after a long wait I got a dishonest letter that totally misrepresented the situation.  So it all depends on the competence of the individual bank manger!

So I guess the moral is try another bank and steer clear of Bangkok Bank, especially Lotus Tesco, Pak Chong!