JensenZ

45 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

Your last sentence clarified the YES/NO discussion.  From what you write the stance of CM IO is clear > you can apply there for the 1-year extension of your Non Imm O Visa after the due date has expired and till the end of the Amnesty.  But some other IOs stated when being asked that due to the Amnesty there won't be any fines involved if you let your 1-year extension of stay due date slip.  However, if you did so tShat you would not be able to do it anymore and would have to leave the country (which would force you to apply for a new Visa from scratch again).

So, enquiring at your local IO is recommended in order not to be taken by surprise.

 

Absolutely! Having to leave the country would be a nightmare scenario right now. It's a no-brainer. Get the extension at the usual time and don't take any risks.

On 6/6/2020 at 4:39 PM, Steve Vincent said:

what’s going on with k.f.c ? Had a right argument with staff in ubon ratchathani yesterday before leaving for Bangkok after trying to order the colonels original k.f.c ( photo enclosed ) clearly the recipe has been changed ! Tastes nothing like k.f.c. When asking why the recipe has changed they looked at me like i had 2 heads and when i asked for a refund was basically ignored ! That’s when i told them i wouldn’t be calling back again as they were conning the public,. Looks more like the spicy version ... surely that’s false advertising trading under the k.f.c banner yet it seems there making there own recipe instead of the banners that stats colonels original chicken. If this was the u.k or the states there would be huge consequences - seems only in Thailand they can do what they want when they want ! 

You definitely were given the spicy version, not a new version of the original recipe. 

I found out in Pattaya (asked a branch manager at Terminal 21) that the original recipe will not be sold temporarily until a future date yet to be decided. Probably with the lack of tourists, the demand was too low and they were throwing out too much. You know Thais are addicted to hot and spicy, so it makes economic sense not to cook the original recipe. It helps the original recipe buyers too as due to the low turnover it would probably be too dry as they don't throw it out as they should.

Relax, it should come back, but it could be some time before it does as we need tourists first.

3 hours ago, thequietman said:

I think that you will find it doesn't.  If you have a marriage or retirement extension, you need to renew when it is due. ????

No one wants to find out after they've let their extension lapse. Did you get this information from any authority besides Thaivisa members and Pattaya news? In other words, are you guessing or do you really know.

3 hours ago, MadMac said:

That's not correct, it also includes Extensions of Stay.

They can't make up their mind what they mean. The sign suggests it includes everyone, yet the article feels the need to interpret it differently.

20 hours ago, robblok said:

An sort of escrow company would be nice. An unbias company that would keep the money and would be fair to both sides. Now both sides are afraid to get shafted as there are bad landlords and bad tenants. 

Shafting foreigners is easier than taking candy from a baby, and there's absolutely no recourse. Foreigners typically are heading out of the country (in normal times) when their leases expire and don't have the luxury to wait around. What are they to do? Pay for a hotel for a week until the bond is released? Landlords have the right to hold onto the bond for a period of time after the tenant has vacated. My contract has 5 days for its release.

I must always pay 2 months bond through real estate agents, but I know I'm going to get it back as I only deal with reputable agencies. In fact, I only want to rent through agencies as I prefer to keep the landlord away and deal with a rental manager with whom I have a good relationship and bats for me when I need maintenance done. Stuff gets done a lot faster.

2 months is fair when going through an agent, because the agent's fee is 1 month, but to me, it's worth it because I know when my lease expires I will get the bond back quickly. If you had to break the lease, the landlord only gets to keep 1 month.

Edit: I should have mentioned, I won't lease a property from a Thai landlord.

4 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Ive had police try this on in the past, they get frazzled when I say the court house is open 8.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays and I dont mind spending the night in the lockhouse.

I would have told the police to hang on a second while I called my lawyer. I had no idea the courthouse is open on Saturday. Maybe I had the day wrong and this happened on Saturday night, so it would have meant 2 nights in lockup.

On 6/19/2020 at 8:55 AM, BobBKK said:

Then you'll beat him easily!

Isn't "you" still hiding in his basement. Bring on the debates - they'll be very entertaining.

On 5/10/2020 at 2:55 PM, Surelynot said:

It's a numbers thing I guess............if the vast majority comply you can pick up the odd one or two who don't........with mass disobedience, helmets for instance, they just give up.

It has given Pattaya police a new way to extort money from foreigners. I heard a recent report from a neighbour that his friend was threatened, on Friday night, to spend a weekend in lock up until the courts opened on Monday, for not wearing a mask. He coughed up 7000 baht to stay a free man. It was noted too that many Thai people in the vicinity were not wearing masks.

I would be curious to know what response the police prosecutor would get from a Judge at provincial court on Monday morning, having arrested a foreigner for not wearing a mask. It would be a massive overreach of power and a waste of court time. Certainly the comment that many Thai people were not wearing a mask would be a reasonable defence in court. I doubt the police officer would have taken this to court had the foreigner objected strongly to paying the "fine".

There's nothing shocking about this story, but it would be advised for foreigners to always wear a mask when leaving the house.

On 6/23/2020 at 5:53 AM, tribalfusion001 said:

I can see why this statue needs to be removed, white man on a horse and below an Arican and a native American.

Instead of whining about what happened before, the statues can be seen as an accolade to how society has advanced.

Since everyone seems to be complaining about history, let's ask the black protestors if they'd like to return to their ancestral homes in Ghana, Ivory Coast, NIgeria and Cameroon (among others). In those countries black lives don't matter at all as many are slaughtered by their own people in the most horrific ways. If I compare present day West Africa to present day USA, I know where I'd rather be. Just the fact that all these people have time and resources to enable them to waste all this time protesting all day and night shows just how good things are. They don't have to slave away trying to make a living - it's all comes on a plate in the form of government handouts.

While we're at it, we should also ask the white protestors if they'd like to return to Europe. Even the whites all over Europe in most countries went through incredibly barbarous times to arrive at the present. 

Once they have torn down every statue, they can burn down all public libraries and remove all record of history lest someone take offense to something that happened in the past.  

Dwayne Johnson... it's time for a Bond that looks like he can handle the action.

On 6/8/2020 at 4:43 PM, PhotoJohn said:

Hands Reaching Up

It should at least get a prize for the creepiest photo.

On 6/15/2020 at 4:20 PM, from the home of CC said:

in the west you would be charged with committing a crime facilitating corruption, I believe in time it will be the same here..

Here we go again - virtue signallers weighing in again on this much debated topic.

There's no risk. You know why? It's because the visas are facilitated by senior immigration officials. They want people to use agents and people who do are merely using a service that is available.

12 hours ago, Leaver said:

No, I am sure they came to Thailand thinking they had enough of a buffer to get see them through to their end, and in the past, it did.

 

Now, the cost of living in Thailand has surpassed the buffer of many retirees, and there's nothing any business here can do about it. 

 

There's no money to be made from the majority of expat retirees anymore. 

Since when do expats have fixed incomes? Pensions and investment income are not frozen.

When the expat arrived in Thailand will heavily influence their current financial position.

Before the 1997 Asian financial crisis the exchange rate was lower than it is now. USDTHB was around 25 baht. The GBPUSD has come back down to pre-1997 levels. The EURTHB is still above pre-1997 rates.

Most expats arrived when the exchange rates were at historical highs. This is bad planning. A lot of UK expats came here when the rate was double the pre-1997 exchange rate. 

You can check the 25 years historical exchange rates against the THB here:

https://tradingeconomics.com/audthb:cur

12 hours ago, Leaver said:

There's a big difference between opening up, and remaining open. 

 

Even owners with deep pockets, and who are already substantially committed financially, would balk at at high rents and at least 12 months of loses, just to try to see off the competition.  

As I already said, it depends on the deals these bars can make with their landlords. Obviously if rent was/is zero over the close down period, followed by a period of reduced rent, the prospect of re-opening increases. It's in the hands of the landlords. The landlords don't have much to lose by working with these businesses, as without them, their prospect of rental income is zero in the foreseeable future.

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Staff who showed him the CCTV footage reckoned this was not a professional thief, they probably thought the packages contained something more valuable. 

Why wouldn't he think it was pork? He might have been very hungry.

And this body shaming bs is ridiculous. If he wasn't fat, would it have been OK?

16 minutes ago, JohnBarleycorn said:

It might seem funny to you if you were to suddenly begin producing milk, out of the blue.

Well, at least I'd have free milk for my coffee.

This might have been funny if it wasn't possible for men to lactate, but they can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_lactation#:~:text=Human male lactation,not occur under normal conditions.&text=Spontaneous production of milk not,occur in males and females.

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

5 hours ago, bendejo said:

Wrong. 

Kaepernick explained this back when he started it.

 

https://www.si.com/nfl/2016/08/29/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-protest-49ers

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/veteran-kaepernick-take-a-knee-anthem/

 

 

 

Outside of the US nobody knows or cares who the guy with the strange hair is.

And it's irrelevant here. Bending the knee for BLM is not related to the national anthem or love of country (or not).

On 5/26/2020 at 9:55 AM, Ohyesuare said:

Who are widely known as big spenders 

Collectively they are a big spender, which is all that counts.