BIGJIMMY

I'm a Brit living in Thailand. The wife has a UK visit visa and we head back to the UK every summer, my parents own an apartment in Tenerife and we (for the last two years) have had a holiday there, we get the wifes visa from the Spanish Embassy in Bangkok, we have an ongoing visa folder which I update each time a new visa is applied for and we submit that along with a copy of the deeds of the Spanish apartment, a letter of invitaion from my Mum for us to stay there, holiday insurance for the whole time we're there (via an agent in town, BUPA about 1200 baht for a week), then the actual plane tickets once she gets the visa, we've done this twice for Spain without issue and once for Portugal, we'll be doing it again next month, we're going to be applying for a 30 day multiple entry as after Tenerife we're heading to Italy and France and as Spain is our first destination thats the country the visa has to be apllied for, I hope it isn't a problem this time.

Best of luck to you.

Jimmy

Will look into Halifax when i'm back in the UK, like I say i've neer been charged by the recieving bank before weather I sent the money from Nationwide or Barclays.

Thanks

Thanks peeps, it all makes sense what is being said but like I said before the Spanish Embassy were very specific on dates, if I apply for a 3 month multiple entry Schegen visa for Spain but show the flight tickets for a week in and out of Spain then would that work, will that issue that, also is it possible for a 1 month multiple visa or does it have to be 3??

Thanks

Jimmy

Hi, around mid January I sent 2000 sterling from my Nationwide account to my Bank of Ayudha account, I was charged 25 quid on the UK side to send it, all was well. This month I had an 18 quid charge leave my Nationwide account, it was listed as an ATM withdrawal, not having made one I called them and they said the 18 pound was a charge for the money sent a month earlier from the Thai bank, they had charged me 18 pounds to recieve the money in Thailand, now I send money over every couple of months in exactly the same was and have never been charged by the Thai bank before, the UK bank said that it's common from Aisa to do that.

Has anyone else had this and more to the point - whats the reason, so it cost me 25 + 18 to send 2000 pounds over??

Thanks

Jimmy

Thanks folks for all the replies. Our main and first destination will be Tenerife, we have no problem getting a visa for Spain as the Mrs has had a few in the past, we get the visa from the Spanish Embassy in Bangers, my only concern is the fact that after Tenerife I wanted to play it by ear regarding our destinations, I have friends in Italy and France and wanted to just 'go with the flow' and our experience of obtaining a visa from the Spanish Embassy was very strict with the dates, ie if we went for one week the visa would literally be for 7 days, if I submit an application for a multi entry Schegen starting with Spain then Italy and France but not to precise on the dates - I can only imagine that it will get refused, I hope that makes sense and doesn't sound too naive, i'm only talking about another 2 weeks after our trip to Tenerife, would I still need to provide dates, hotels, tickets etc as thats where i'm going to struggle.

I'm a UK citizen and we'll be in Kent only a stones throw from Dover so I wanted to head into France for a day trip or even Euro Disney as well, would they let the Mrs in with a Spanish Schegen visa do you think??

Thanks again in advance.

Jimmy

Hi, if we get a Spanish Schegen Visa for the wife, travel to Spain but then return to the UK but then fly to Italy from the UK, will there be any problems entering Italy, the wife has had seveal Schegen visas before for Spain but we only ever went to Spain, this time i'd like to go to France and Italy but using the Schegen visa obtained from the Spainish Embassy, is this possible?

Thanks

Jimmy

try friendship, i have even seen Haywards in Central shopping

Thanks for that, will pop in Friendship on the morrow. When you say Central Shopping, do you mean the new large central mall on Beach road??

Jimmy

I want to buy some nice crispy, crunchy small silverskin onions, the only ones that I have seen in Foodland, Carrfour etc are small and soft, does anyone know where I can buy some, does anyone make thier own and sell them etc??

My stash from the UK is dangerusly low!!

Thanks in advance

Jimmy

and it's STILL better than living in the UK!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

BigJimmy

Thanks.

The Pig and Whistle is always a winner - next door to Rosie's on Soi 7!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Hi, just a query, a had a friend who recently had a motorbike accident, long story short is that whilst pulling out of a junction turning left when the light had just turned green he was hit from behind by a Thai man on a motorbike who had jumped the red light and wasn't looking ahead but was looking to his right to avoid the oncoming traffic, he jumped the red light, drove around other green light drivers then failed to see my friend, he hit his exhaust pipe with his bike, both bikes went down, my friend had scrapped legs but was otherwise okay, his bike only dented, the Thai man suffered more, he had a broken collar bone, lost half a finger and his (very old) bike was written off, as soon as it happened there were a few 'onlookers' claiming it was my friends fault, the police turned up etc and a few days later it cost my friend a total of 45,000 baht to the man and police.

My question is: my friend has insurance for theft and 3rd party, I asked him why he didn't call the insurance company first but he thought it would be a waste of time and really only got the insurance to cover the theft of the bike - if he had called the insurance company - would the outcome have turned out different, as in the insurance rep would be in his corner etc??

Thanks in advance.

Jimmy

Right, New Years resolution - again, this year is to sort out our insurance issues, we (me and the wife) live in Pattaya, we need to sort out house insurance including theft, damage etc, we have two motorbikes and I need health insurance, the wifey has it already though her bank, is it possible to get all of this from one place for one price as a sort of multiple deal?

Thanks in advance.

Jimmy

Every Backpacker I ever saw was carrying a Lonely Planet guide firmly in his/her grubby hand.

It clearly states all that they want to know about Pattaya and what kind of "Tourist" frequents the place. Hence the lack of backpackers.

If it was a deserted beach where you could light up "bongs'", camp fires and play bongos and sing CoombaiYah and house of the rising sun ALL BLEEDING NIGHT....

Pattaya would be full of Backpacker Hostels in a blink of an eye......but its not. Thank Buddha...

My personal opinion of Lonely Planet ....if it says its a great place to go...avoid it like the plague....if it says avoid it like the plague ...I book a ticket and head straight there....why - No chance of running into scruffy dreadlocked unwashed gap year drop out creeps who avoid showers and soap .......

But I am sure they are not all like that....just the ones I happen to see...........

Whow, alot of into there. The one I brought was from the top floor of TukCom (if I have remembered correctly), the big computer store there, I can't remember the name.

Good luck.

Jimmy

I brought a WD 1000GB hard drive or a terrabyte even from Tuk Com for 3600 about 5 weeks ago, bang on!!

Jimmy

Ha ha, brilliant - and it's STILL better than living in the UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We brought off plan from a gated commutiny estate in Pattaya, we're been in the place over a year now and all is well, we had a few teething problems in the beginning but no problems from the developers to repair/make good a few things and all is hunky dory, I look forward to the day when the whole estate is sold (about 14 plots left) so we the residents can form a residents committee etc but in the mean-time we're happy with everything. The estate has various styles of houses as its been built in stages so it isn't one of these places where every house is the same and within touching distance of next door, we're in Soi Siam Country in Pattaya.

Bigjimmy

See ya!!

Nice.

Hey hey, its back, thanks very much Supernova.

Jimmy

Thanks for that but having just followed your instructions I see the box is already ticked for 'thumbnails instead of icons' I unticked it and then ticked it again and it's still the same - no preview window!

Jimmy

Hi, no it's not that there are missing items from the taskbar, there are all still there, volume, internet etc, what I mean is if I have 3 internet pages open, so at the moment i'm on TV and I have mail and facebook on other pages, if I move the cursor over the tab on the taskbar which says mail, it used to bring up a little preview window of that page, I haven't added any software etc but as 2 days ago the little preview pane doesn't appear.

Thanks

Hi folks, I have Windows Vista and for some reason I have lost the little preview window that shows up if the cursor goes over any of the tabs that are on the bottom of the screen, if you have more than 1 internet page open or a DVD etc, I hope that makes sense. I have tried looking in the help section and all of that and can't find the information.

Any help as to why and how I can get it back much appreciated.

Thanks

Bigjimmy

Nielf, do you mean as in Thorley Taverns??