stoffel45

Hi Laura, good to know you are heading Samui way.

You should know that the minimum (provable) income for foreigners is 40,000 baht per month.

I would give more details of the school, the number of the Work Permit they have obtained for you.

Don't forget the type of Visa.

No it is NOT impossible to get the right job, the right visa and a Work Permit.

May I suggest you go to the Visa Forum and the Teacher's Forum.

Both have a LOT of good information and contacts to help improve your stay and keep you out of jail.

Good luck.

Buy a cat.

In "white skinned people" countries a fortune is spent on being "brown" even if it is only for a few weeks.

Here in Belgium we have very expensive salons where one pays a LOT of money to climb into a sort of chrome coffin, which is then closed on the victim, who emerges 30 minutes later, poorer and a sort of orange colour.

Ladies with blonde hair like to be brunette, if they have wavy or curly hair, they want it to be straight.

Africans spend a fortune on products like "Ambi" one of the always carcinogenerous "skin whitening" creams.

Friend, if you lady uses skin whiteners - and if you are fond of her - stop her immediately.

They don't look nearly so nice with skin cancer - though like the salon treatments - it doesn't last long.

But let's see how high up the ladder the police chief is willing to go in his quest to uncover the scale of this crime

I think he'll find it goes all the way up to the very top, side-ways, backards, you name it!

Buying a mirror would be a good start.

Some very unfair - and biased people - may say that Taksin Shinawatra's Police - of course I know, I should write, Thailand's police - but they're not really are they? Yes some people may say that these unbiased upholders of Taksin's Law is cooking up a case.

It's not going to work. The "Men in Black" are a matter of record, the evidence that they were armed with weapons of war, is clearly established.

As usual, Taksin - and his agents in this case - are making things worse for themselves - and though it is of no concern to them - worse for Thailand.

Hey M. Godfoy, when that boil on the top of your shoulders produces a head - lance it.

Thaksin and his clowns learned this too late- but they aren't stupid-- in the cutthroat world of politics and business, yuou don't amass a fortune being thick headed --

Thank you for your post Blaze, most of which I think is accurate.

However, if you look at the history of Thaksin, you find an opportunist who married a very intelligent woman in a very powerful and wealthy Chinese family.

It was that family, who sponsored Thaksin into Government and it was that family who secured, with one other Chinese family, the total rights to every kind of mobile phone import and the broadcast system.

With such a monopoly it was, truly, impossible not to make a huge fortune and amass even more power.

Thaksin, son of a cinema owner operator, was in effect a nobody who was selected by the "in-law Family" to use as a tool in Parliament to further the "Family's" business.

Since 2006, he went off the rails, in love with his own "manufactured" persona. He started to believe that the Shin in Shinawatra Industries was all due to himself.

The deal with the Burmese, where he used 30 billion baht of Thai public purse money (he did tend to get Thaksin money and Thailand's money mixed up when it suited.) to lend to Burma's equally awful corruptocrats - so that they may buy Shin satellite technology.

Of course the family considered him "beyond the pale" when he was found guilty, but also because his handling of the land deal, convicted the daughter of the family for tax fraud.

The association with this reduced in value fugitive criminal, so totally taken with himself - and thus NOT the FAMILY meant that his wife had to distance herself - thus separating the family. Hence - the divorce.

So - no you cannot amass a fortune if you are thick headed - but you certainly can lose other people's fortune if you are thick headed.

First of all - everything is truly never so simple and honest as it appears. No, not even this once.

Secondly, the crowds in the streets, soon to grow to over a million - maybe two is food and drink for the "Let's have another coup" lads.

It is clear that T for Tribulations Taksin found out in the Thai media in pictures - that Thailand would be a VERY dangerous place for his PTP chums to welcome him.

You can bet he took one look at those pics in Bangkok yesterday and called his servants to halt the process - in case it was successful.

Last week in Germany, on a train bound for Switzerland, the German authorities arrested a German and took him into custody.

He was charged with carrying - wait for it - "a large amount of cash in the sum of 9,380 euros."

Following his arrest for this crime, the German police raided the apartment of his Father - and found a trove of art treasures stolen during his Father's time as an art expert for the Nazis.

The point to remember is that the crime was carrying cash.

Lastly, go to your Bank and ask them for a special rate for this amount of euros.

If you cannot do that then take the money as a documentary credit - a sight draft for example.

Much safer and a higher/better rate of exchange than cash.

Of course, and absolutely in character, the Senate has probably been compromised and a deal done.

Let us hope that Ms Shin has enough collective brain cells to work out that this is a 'deep and divisive' issue and could lead to civil war - again.

But then of course, islam is a religion of peace and compassion is it not?

Thailand, Asia and Ferries.

Doesn't work - is grossly unsafe. Is dangerous to be a passenger - but only 99% of the time.

Try the Big Cat Ferry from Samui to Chumpon. Lifejackets (for about a quarter of the passengers) are buried under a huge mound of luggage and of course, there are the usual extra 300 or 400 passengers over the legally allowed limit.

I must say, it takes a little longer and is a bit more expensive but a hell of a lot safer to take one of the poorly maintained speedboats to the islands.

Poor dear, he will need such a lot of money. Good security doesn't come cheap y'know.

When he comes back - yes it is going to happen - there will be an awful lot of people "looking forward" to meeting him.

500 baht fine for a violent, armed attack on a 70 year old for an accidental street bump?.

Utter idiocy!

Possibly, Animatic, he had low friends in high places. The sentence is typically ridiculous.

Come on guys....So what Naomi Campbell's skin is lighter. So what that in Africa particularly a "paler" complexion gets a better lobola (bride price) for a girl and where black is really not beautiful.

It matters little that Thai girls spend billions on "skin whiteners" to make her look more - well - white.

The pharmacy and supermarket shelves groan with the weight of carcinogenous skin whiteners.

Meanwhile in pasty faced Europe a fortune is spent on skin darkeners. Women and even some types of men go to "sun lounges" where they enter a stainless steel coffin structure and are "Baked" brown with all sorts of cancer encouraging spectra.

I want to be brown. I want to be white. I want straight hair. I want mine curly.

When I was a kid I used to watch the Af ladies spend, literally hours, combing the kinks out of their hair with hot combs, to get it "Straight". My sisters spent hours with all manner of "curling" things.

Seems too few of us are happy with the way we look. Or we were happy until "Did you see that advert..?"

Look on the bright side. If the Free and Compensate Taksin Amnesty Bill becomes Law, then the Chinese hero of the illiterates and misleds will rejoice.

Bad for the other 80% of Thais?

Well pretty bad, but when the great convict returns - he will be "in reach".

Which IS a cheering thought.

Sizzlers, Fuji, Food Court, Swensens, Auntie Anne's, KFC, the Brazilian resto in front, and others whose name I forget, but another 4 or 5.

Never had a problem, tummy wise. Only been good experiences. Well maybe the Lebanese Restaurant could be left out - not because of any "reaction" but just because the food was poorly cooked.

Anyone remember when Banharn Silpa Acha (aka Banharnburi) made a fortune in building Police stations when he was PM?

I exist in Belgium, that dreary, damp, place between motorways, which is full of miserable, grim, yes grim, Belgians.

Now is that xenophobic or just a very accurate observation. My wife is Belgian but spent most of her life in South Africa, Thailand and the UK so she is totally - atypical.

Are Belgians xenophobic. The further they get from Belgium the less xenophobic they seem to become.

Here in the corrupt heart of the EU, where more than 50% of the population is on benefit the country is divided into 3 regions.

The German speaking Belgians are the smallest group, tend to mind their own business, work hard and are a real benefit.

The French speaking Belgians used to be the richest and are now the poorest with the highest unemployment in the "country". They call themselves Wallons or Walloons. Others call them.....now now.

The Dutch speaking 60% of the population live in Flanders. These are pretty rough folk in the main, look it and sound it.

I live in Flanders - so clearly I must have done something very bad in a past life. We take care of my wife's elderly mother and when she shuffles off her 87 year old mortal coil......

Xenophobia.

Listening to the Flemish, they actively loathe, hate and detest the Wah-loonies - oh and the French AND - one must not leave out the Dutch (the other real Dutch from Holland) who have a special place reserved for them in the hatred of Flemish hearts.

On Belgian TV - anything and I mean anything, which hurts, harms, embarrasses, excoriates the Americans is always top news. No matter if it is true - if it is anti-Yankee - wonderful.

Next on the hate list - (or is it jealousy) after the Wallons, French, the Dutch, the Americans come the English.

After all of them comes anyone with a dark skin so the literally hordes of very militant muslims who scare the hell out of the Belgians, the Africans from the French speaking parts of that continent and of course the Chinese.

Are they xenophobic? As a non-xenophobe (what?) I would say yes.

But the Flemish will tell me that they are the most welcoming and friendly race in the World. We are famous for it they will say.

Me? I am not so sure.

Yes, there is no doubt that the Phuket Forum is helpful.

The Where to find it questions and answers helps. The assistance with the Labyrinthine qualities of Phuket Immigration offices.

In general it says, "beware of visiting Phuket - it is dangerous, violent place."

Good luck to your lady friend.

I am not so optimistic about her chances of gaining employment. I take the point about the Philippinos but they do speak English.

The muslim thing will not help in Thailand, so she has to understand that in advance.

A silly Headline but a good article.

OK we ALL know the BAD side of Pattaya.

I have a friend there. He is always carping and moaning. No we cannot sit outside - are you mad? These bloody Thai drivers - they shouldn't be allowed to drive! All these motorcycles - they're like bloody cockroaches.

My Bangkok post hasn't come for two days. My internet service provider is so bloody awful.

And I asked, "Then Geoff why don't you just bugger off back to the UK!"

Are you mad? It's way too expensive, bloody wet and cold, the drivers are rude, public civil servants are indifferent.....etc etc.

So having never heard it from him and pretty fed up with his bellyaching I asked "So what IS good about living in Pattaya?"

The "good list" just goes on and on.

Graham and Felicity, I know them very well. Helluva nice couple and real "Can Do" folks.

They're right - you don't need the Walking Street thing in your life - leave the idiots and perverts to it, they help to pay the taxes, fund the crime families' expenses and keep the Russian mafia identified.

Pattaya's got really First Class/ World Class Restaurants, great Shopping !!! If you know where to go there are some nice beaches. If you have visitors there's lots for them to do. Though the ladyboys are a pest and the motorcycle "lifters" are a growing menace, it is still massively safer than any town in the UK or indeed Europe.

Within the next two years property prices will fall like stones so plenty of opportunity for buyers.

Pattaya is great.

I wonder how many of you can remember a Thai Prime Minister, wearing rubber boots, being carried, above the water and gently put down - so that the attendant photo and video team, could capture the moment when he visited a flooded family in their flooded shack.

His name was Chavalit Yongchaiut.

After Chavalit, a great Taksin supporter, things went from bad to worse.