wpcoe

I've been living with a Thai Girl for 5 years. I have no interest in marriage because I do not believe in the concept but we have been living together and I have placed 25,000 baht in her hand on the 1st of each month bar none for 5 years now (no documentation to prove that though). Should I not be permitted to get some kind of support visa?

Although you may not "believe in the concept" of marriage, perhaps you might consider it as a "necessary evil" to be able to stay legally in the country without looking over your shoulder for the immigration police?

You have been here *5 years now* -- have you been doing 60 border runs? If not, what is your current immigration status?

If you are uneasy about the "obligations" of a marriage from a financial standpoint, see a lawyer about getting a pre-nuptial agreement signed.

Wonderful. My friend's 110v gauche Tiffany lamps are fine, but the lamp *I* want to use, I can't.

I'm glad I asked, as I never would have thought about a transformer (AC > DC) being involved.

Does anybody know of a shop that sells 220/240v halogen floor lamps, either Pattaya or Bangkok? All I seem to be shown when I point to the halogen bulb display is outdoor halogen flood lamps. I suppose I *could* use them, but it'd be mighty bright in the living room.

Thanks for the quick feedback. The resources available on this forum astound me sometimes.

You don't mention the police. Where they involved? Did the insurance guy get good photos of the damage to the old Toyota? Not that it should matter, but it might: is your wife Thai?

A friend surprised me when he said he bought some 110v lamps in the U.S. and brought them over here to use without a voltage transformer. He simply uses 220-240v bulbs. Is that safe? I was trying to think of some reason why it WOULDN'T work or be safe, but am not sure. Is the switch and/or wires in a 110v lamp identical to those used in 220v lamps?

I have yet to find a nice floor lamp in Thailand that costs less than B5000. I can find lamps I like in America for a lot less, so it's tempting. e.g. A simple vertical torchiere halogen lamp. They range from about US$15 to US$50. The light from a tungsten bulb seems much closer to natural light than a standard or energy-saving bulb, and these lamps usually have a rheostat dimmer switch. Try to find a tungsten-bulb floor lamp in Thailand.

One shortfall of the baht bus network is that it doesn't cover the entire city. Granted, Beach Road and Second Road have way too many. Ever try to catch a baht bus on Third Road around Pattaya Klang? Ever try to catch a baht bus on Jomtien Soi Watboon or on Thepprasit? It would be nice if they would spread out the network a bit.

After shopping at Carrefour, I don't mind walking to Third Road to catch a baht bus heading for Jomtien, but I sometimes wait a long, long, long time. I don't require it go directly to Jomtien (although that would be nice!), I'd be happy to get one that turns on to Pattaya Tai and then transfer at the intersection of Second Road.

It would also be nice to be able to ascertain a baht bus's route without questioning each driver. e.g. When catching a baht bus on Second Road, it'd be nice to know what route it will take. At Pattaya Klang, will it turn left or right, or continue straight ahead. Will it turn on to Pattaya Nua, left or right, or will it go straight in to Naklua? Some sort of marking on the bus, or a sign on the dashboard, perhaps?

The system could use some tweaking.

I upgraded the 2.5" hard drive in my notebook to a larger size and decided to buy an inexpensive USB enclosure to use the old one as an external drive. I brought the enclosure home, inserted the drive, plugged in the USB cable and couldn't get the drive to run. Took the enclosure back thinking it was defective. I watched the tech test it. One end of the USB cable has *two* plugs, you need to plug BOTH of them in to your host computer. It draws power from two USB ports on the host. There wasn't enough power from a single USB port. Lesson sheepishly learned. (I had wondered about those two USB plugs. )

When a friend was visiting Thailand in October, he asked me to buy him a DTAC SIM card, so I did. While we were waiting for another friend's flight to arrive, we went to the DTAC shop on the arrivals level and asked to buy some air time to "top up" his card and they said they couldn't. ALL they do is SELL SIMs. Nice spacious office with plush furniture and two smartly dressed staff, but all they do is sell SIMs.

Anyway, innoculations are freely available in all Western countries these days so why take the risk and worry?.

A couple years ago I got the rabies vaccination from the Bumrungrad shot clinic. The doctor said that even with the vaccination, if I were exposed to rabies I would still need to submit to treatement. Apparently the vaccination only eases the severity of the symptoms but doesn't prevent the infection.

dagnabbit! There is an edit button on the above post, but not on other posts I made earlier today. Is it at "limited time offer" we have to make edits?

I wasn't sure where to post his, but since it may relate to the forum enhancements I'll post it here:

What happened to the "edit" button on posts? I wanted to edit one of my posts, but can't see how to do it now...

skippy, how much RAM do you have in that notebook? Hopefully a minimum of 512MB? Any less than that could slow the system down, especially if video memory is "shared RAM" as it is on many machines.

As far as *where* to buy it, ie Thailand or USA, consider that if you buy it here it will probably have a Thai keyboard, Thai operating system and perhaps some Thai apps. That might be better for your Thai friend.

Unless, of course, she's not fairly computer literate and will be relying on YOU for tech support, in which case you might want the software all in English, so that you're not relying on her non-technical understanding to translate what the Thai error messages say.

I went through that latter agony when trying to help some older Japanese ladies troubleshoot problems they would have on their machines running Windows/J. They were totally fluent in English, but the technical terms used in Windows error messages, for example, were beyond their ability to accurately translate.

I think the shares were always Thaksin's, just registered under different people. He just incured some tax liabilities while shifting them from one pocket to another.

Unless he got them for free originally, then wouldn't he and/or Ample Rich must have registered a significant capital loss when selling them to the kids at B1?

Out for my daily exercise, I noticed a yellow sign announcing the construction of "VIEWTALAY MARINA BEACH CONDO" (viewtalay was one word), a 30+ story building. As you are heading south from Pattaya on Jomtien Beach Road, it is shortly before the intersection with Soi Chiyapruek.

Is this by the same developer as VT1, 2, 3 ... 7? I believe there is a "View Talay Marina" development down by the Ambassador hotel, but this is much closer to Pattaya.

I tried googling the name, but no hits. Is this VT4, the "missing link" in the VT numbering system?

Day in, day out, my condo building in Jomtien trucks in water. Often that water is not only dirty brown, but smelly! I put a water filter on the inlet of my washing machine (you can buy them at the Samsung Service Center just in front of Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital) and sometimes I have to remove it for cleaning after EVERY WASH LOAD because the black "sand" clogs it. Ditto for the little screen filter in the bathroom sink faucet. Sometimes it clogs up daily.

I once made the mistake of washing a white mattress pad at the wrong time: it now has permanent brown stains (from the water). When I went to add fabric softener to the rinse cycle I was disgusted to see the water was dark brown. I couldn't even bleach out the stains later when the water was cleaner.

I use a counter top water filter (charcoal and ceramic) at the kitchen sink to wash dishes with. I also brush my teeth there. But, to take a shower, I cringe thinking that that water is getting into my eyes and occasionally my mouth. YUCK!

A couple times I observed water tanking trucks with their hoses down in a roadside "pond" by the storm water filtration plant on Soi Wat Boon. That water is stagnant and FILTHY.

The building engineer says there is a municipal water feed but it never provides enough water, so they have to truck the water in.

Here's a thought, especially for those who are deducing that since everybody in their party dined at the same place and/or ate the same thing that they got food poisoning there:

It could still be something other than food poisoning, such as dysenterey, which can be spread via contact with fecal matter. A person who doesn't wash their hands after using the toilet, for example, could have traces of the matter on their hands and transfer it to every doorknob, escalator hand rail, coin, baht bus hand rail, tongs at the salad bar, whatever that they touch. All of you in the party could have made contact with, say, a door knob or baht bus chrome pole or some other item, or even just one of you could have made such contact and then subsequently spread it to other members in your party. Theoretically speaking, of course.

I'm NOT saying you all didn't get food poisoning at, e.g. Sizzler's, but you could have contracted something else in some other way.

Back to the deal with the Thaksin's kids, I'm confused. As I understand it, the current brouhaha is over the transaction where Ample Rich sold Shin Corp shares to the Thaksin progeny for B1/share, and then the kids sold those B1 shares for market price to Temasek. And it has now been determined that the (very!) short-term capital gains the kids realized were taxable income.

Where did those shares in Ample Rich come from in the first place, and at what price were they purchased by Ample Rich? Seems like SOMEBODY took a capital loss to have Ample Rich be able to sell them at B1. Some part of this puzzle is eluding me.

mojaco: I noticed from your "location" that it looked like you lived in Thailand already, so I clicked to read your profile. There I noticed that in a post on 7/27/2006 you said:

I just returned from renewing my retirement visa at Suan Plu in Bangkok. My wife (USA citizen) and myself (USA citizen) have been doing this for 8 years now.

So, now that we know you both already have had retirement visas for quite some time, were you asking if your wife (or you) can/should change from an extension for reason of retirement to a retiree's dependent extension ?

Do both of your visas expire within three months of the other? If not, could you put B800,000 in an account for one person three months in advance, and then move the money to the other person's account three months in advance of their renewal?

Depending on what country you will be in (UK, Canada, Australia, USA, etc), you might be able to just apply for a new O-A visa there instead of extending the current one. A multiple-entry O-A overseas costs about the same as an extension issued in Thailand with a multiple reentry permit.

There are pros/cons to either method. O-A requries criminal record check and medical statement, but can be extended up to almost two years if you re-enter Thailand the day before it expires, can be obtained via mail, and you can leave your money overseas. Extension of current visa in Thailand doesn't require criminal record or medical check, but you need to have money transferred into Thaliand and/or visit your embassy and pay for a letter of income verification.

It's always nice to have options.

Most of the Thai nationals will receive up to $7,500 as part of the deal, according to Chancee Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, which reported the alleged abuse.

If true, that is absolutely appalling! What they endured is almost beyond a price tag, but $7,500 is surely inadequate. And, "up to $7,500"???

Perhaps in some convoluted way, listing on the SET would be akin to "alcohol advertising"? You know: list on the (stock) market, display in the (super) market? It would make about as much sense as that prominent government official who said open source software was a bad thing.

The requirement is 65k per month - there is no annual requirement unless used with bank deposit:

I have often pondered the mathematics of that. 800,000 divided by 12 = 66,666. Why did they come out with $65,000?

My 2 favorite newspapers on the planet are the Post & Nation! .. so I will require a news stand within walking distance .. or perhaps daily delivery.

Another option is "PressReader". For $9.95/month you can read daily issues of either the Nation or Bangkok Post, or, for $19.90 you can read them both daily. You can download them to your computer to read at your leisure, or you can read them actively online. These are the FULL print edition, not just highlighted articles you find on the newpaper web sites. Since you like them so much, why not give it a try now while you are in the US where you have no other option.

I break out in a sweat every time I see how many hits my web page is getting.

Can someone please state with certainty whether the 30-day visa waiver stamps are still able to be converted to Non-Immigrant O visas for the purpose of extending for retirement? I have that big old yellow disclaimer box on that page, and would be delighted to remove it.

I'm still fuzzy on the three-months-in-the-bank requirement for the retirement extension. I keep getting further confused with the differences between retirement vs marriage extensions. Is there any clear rule regarding when the funds need to be in the bank for three months and when they don't? Or, are we mererly in an undeclared grace period of transition where sometimes the three month period is ignored, but at some future unspecified date it will be a non-ignorable hard-and-fast rule?

I obtained my first retirement visa last January and it's expiring on Jan 13, 2007. I've been in the States for the past few months on personal business. I have a re-entry permit and am returning to the Kingdom on Jan 3. So I'll be applying for an extension of my retirement visa.

Since you are in the US now, how about getting a new O-A visa there? I believe the cost for a multiple-entry O-A is $125, about the same as an extension in Thailand (B1900) plus the multiple re-entry permit (B3800).

The documentation is slightly different: you'll need criminal record check and medical check. You can verify with the particular consulate (or the embassy) for their particular needs. See http://www.thaiembdc.org/directry/direc_e.htm for a complete list of consulates in the US.

To balance the extra paper work, some benefits are you can keep your money in the US accounts, and if you don't make frequent trips from Thailand you can stretch one O-A visa to almost two years: re-enter Thailand the day before the visa expires and you get a one-year permit to stay from that date. You also save a trip to the US Embassy in BKK and the accompanying B1200 fee, and can do the process via mail.