mgjackson69

It is not a tradition. It is a scam on foreigners.

If that is case, then explain why Thai men pay a sinsod

Circumstances vary. I gave my Thai GF 600 K to build her house. To me, it's money well spent because it's her dream. She has never asked me for money for any of her relatives.

Perhaps the OP should use a different perspective. That is, what can he afford to walk away from if things go pear-shaped. If Sin Sod is a necessary component of the marriage, what is reasonable?

Due to the cultural differences, one may end up with a pearl or a lemon. Hard to tell.

I totally agree with you but..............when it goes pear- shaped not if !!!!!!!

"If" is correct

To start with, in Thailand it is not "dowry"...it is "sinsod".

A dowry is paid by the parents of the bride to the groom for taking her off their hands.

Sinsod is paid to the bride's family (read: mother) for raising such a good daughter for you to marry.

There are varying opinions as to whether this should be paid or not. I think it needs to be determined on a case by case basis.

As others have stated, much of it is about putting on a show for the village. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence where the bride's family has returned the sinsod to the newly married couple the day after the wedding.

In my case, my wife had been married previously and had a child from that marriage. By the traditional rules, I was not obligated to pay any sinsod, and I did not do so. Had I tried, my mother-in-law would not have accepted.

A few years before my wife and I met, she had bought a house and was making payments on it. When we married, I paid off the mortgage and made it clear that was in place of a sinsod. My wife and her family all said that was perfectly acceptable.

So we started out with each of us paying approximately 1/2 of the purchase price of the house. My wife also brought some land into the marriage; I have since bought roughly an equal amount of additional farmland (yes, I know that I do not own that land, so save your comments).

I am happy with the way things have turned out...your results may vary.

One sees very few non-commercial trailers of any kind in Thailand.

I consider that a positive...imagine the traffic nightmares with a bunch of towed trailers thrown into the mix.

Is the real name not a caravan?

Sorry SB, you beat me to it.

Only to our Aussie friends, and (perhaps? I am not sure) Brits.

In USA they are called campers, travel trailers, or mobile homes.

WHAT IS YELLING ? TYPING IN CAPITAL , get a life!

Typing in uppercase has forever been considered as "yelling" in online forums, chat rooms, etc.

And is considered rude.

thank you for the information i shall reframe from using capital letters to satisfy the offence and rudeness my typing has given you !

only one complaint, ( 1 ) out of all the members ? writing in the capital text was my way of showing the disgust in the fiscal policy and keeping it short and succinct,

I never said I was offended, I was answering your question "WHAT IS YELLING ?"

As far as disgust with fiscal policy...yep...that seems to translate to nearly any government one is involved with.

WHAT IS YELLING ? TYPING IN CAPITAL , get a life!

Typing in uppercase has forever been considered as "yelling" in online forums, chat rooms, etc.

And is considered rude.

What's a 'lebo bloke?'

Hazard a guess.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Australians

Oh I see. It's a racist term?

Nationality is not "race"

So, I have been here 10 years legally and I miscalculate my dates and I am stopped and arrested a few days over. Automatic 5 year ban. Wow a bit harsh but TIT.

just got my yearly retirement visa renewed and I had to sign a statement saying the above! plain and simple, you overstay, you pay!

I suspect that you received a new extension of stay based on retirement, *not* "retirement visa renewed".

As far as signing the statement regarding overstay and penalties, if I recall correctly that has been the case for my past 2 or 3 extensions.

I suspect that those who are here on extensions of stay are a very small percentage of the overstayers.

It would be interesting to see statistics on which group overstayers fall into:

- Visa exempt

- Visa or visa on arrival

- Extension of stay

I see two objections that a Thai wife/girlfriend would have to a 'tiny house':

1) It is not of a large size to impress the others in the village

2) It is something different...and we know how Thais tend to avoid 'different'

Good about time.

How is it good?

Do overstayers impact on your lifestyle?

I am not sure about "lifestyle", but people flaunting the immigration rules brings attention to all who fall under those rules.

So you had planned to break those rules at some point, and now you're mad because someone caused the authorities to institute harsher penalties?

Never undetstand this irrational circular logic. Snitch mentality in my book.

Learn to mind your own business, keep your own house in order, and live a happy life.

I do not understand how your logic process takes "brings attention" to "he is planning to break the rules".

Increased scrutiny is a nuisance, regardless of whether one is breaking the rules or not.

The OP not being observant enough to notice the size/volume/weight difference of the package does not make this a "scam".

If you follow the "local pricing model", you should price it at what you paid.

I am not sure about the used market, but at the new level, there does not seem to be so much bargaining for price; more bargaining for what "extras" are included.

As a starting point, you might look at some other 2014 vehicles for sale and figure out the percent of discount vs the new purchase price. That would give you a ballpark starting point anyway.

So, I have been here 10 years legally and I miscalculate my dates and I am stopped and arrested a few days over. Automatic 5 year ban. Wow a bit harsh but TIT.

so time to take your calculations seriously

Anyone who has been here 10 years legally would surely know how to manage the process and calculations.

I would submit that if the OP's "friend" was operating so close to the wire monetarily that a currency fluctuation caused his balance to be 2000 THB under the required amount, som naam naa on him.

Well for it to be a crime in the eyes of the court they have to be caught in the act .....so he would have to do the act with all of them.....

You better go back to school and update that armchair law degree.

Solicitation is a crime...that requires only the offer of sex for money.

The OP answered his own question: In his case it cost 16000 THB.

Funny....I was in Congo-Kinshasa a few years ago, and booked a flight at the airline's city office.

The *only* way I could pay was in cash.

Interesting...I read the San Bernardino service center re-opened yesterday and to protect it, they placed guards (with guns no less) at the entrances...not people holding up copies of the New York Times editorial. I wonder why?

The ones with the guns don't read much if at all. Never very good at it actually.

Legal or illegal gunslingers alike.

What are you basing that factoid on?

This gun owner is college educated and has worked in the telecommunications field as a software engineer for 26 years.

You suppose I cannot read?

What does 'A well regulated militia' mean?

What does *the people* mean, in the context of the US Constitution?

Time and time again the US Supreme Court has upheld that *the people* refers to individual rights. Why should the Second Amendment be any different?

"militia" in the context of the times the Founding Fathers lived in was nothing to do with "The National Guard"....the militia is the citizenry.

Let the gun-grabbers gut the Second Amendment...then see how long it takes them to get to the rest of the Bill of Rights.

I just saw this reported on NHK (Japanese) tv which said the same thing but added that the targets were BOTH Russian and western tourists. I don't think anyone is particularly surprised by this.

Personally, I have little confidence that these terrorist forces can be well contained here. So how are we supposed to react to this?

Here in Pattaya, pretty much the entire city is a soft target. But some potential targets are more obvious than others. How about a step up in actual security measures rather than the lame "security theater" of entry scanners on some doors at Central Pattaya Beach Mall?

Why react (publicly) at all? That just lends an air of legitimacy to Da'esh.

in chiang mai you always had to bring your wife, i guess it was always the law just not being enforeced at other locations. 5 marrige visa renewnals.photo with family and wife present at all ,otherwise go home no visa

Yet another example of why things need to be named properly.

In Chiang Mai you are not renewing a visa, you are getting an Extension of Stay based on marriage.

so err.... do I have to take wife to Savannakhet next time?

Thanks

No

There is no requirement that your wife be with you.

Probably an agent giving info for doing an extension at immigration not a visa from the consulate.

But UJ,

wasn't that already always the case, that your wife had to be present when doing an extension of stay (based on marriage) at immigration ? Or was it just that if you let an agent handle it, the wife didn't have to present and they stopped that now ?

Extension in LOS YES, Sav NO....

To clarify, you cannot do an Extension of Stay in Savannakhet

There is good reason to believe that sex education only makes the problem worse. Sometimes teenage pregnancy rises after sex education.

Some facts/stats to back up this "good reason"?

Since when is ignorance the better way to go?