JayClay

Don't go then

Not as far as I'm aware. It would have been a very useful option for me last year. Good luck to you, anyway. I know from experience it's not fun to be in need of money in the now, when you know you have the funds coming in the future ????.

In your home country, I would imagine. You're not going to be able to raise that money here. If it was possible everybody would be doing it.

Ghosts have never been described as a different species as far as I know. Maybe you're thinking of aliens?

I've seen one and I still don't believe in them. The mind is imperfect. It can mis-interpret what is presented to us. It can even flat-out make things up. I don't doubt there are people who think they've seen a ghost or spirit. But they haven't.

It is hardly abnormal to "go over the answers" after completing a test, of any description and at any level. As has been mentioned in this thread a couple of times, the machines used to give you this information without even having to ask.

I wouldn't personally run away from Thailand in the hope that you'll find logical and rational people where you end up. All around the world people will look to "the unknown" in order to explain things they don't understand. It's certainly more noticeable here in Asia... People just don't talk about it as much in the west. I don't know if this particular story was made up or not. The pointless gloat about having money ready to invest aside, the actual topic in hand is one we all have to deal with on a daily basis and warrents discussion.

Thinking about this.... To be honest there's probably actually more justification for someone who's doing well in life to believe that spirits exist. Their constant praying and pandering to these spirits appears to have worked for them. What I find difficult to understand is when you meet an unfortunate lady in her 50s who's been working the bar her whole life, has three children by three different absent fathers, has no money to her name and very littlw prospect of things ever improving.... And she still hasn't worked out that all these rituals don't seem to have helped her.

How long have you been living here, Bob? In all the time I've been living here I've only met 2 Thais who don't believe in ghosts. The second one I only met last week. I'd have been more likely to be stunned if he hadn't believed in ghosts. It's embedded into the culture. There isn't even, as far as I can tell, a commonly-understood simple function in the Thai language to say that you don't believe in ghosts. The question on the subject is "are you scared of ghosts?". If you try to say that you don't believe that they even exist you will just get confused faces. Much easier just to use the phrase "I'm not scared of ghosts".

To summarize.... Odd people don't notice odd people. You didn't notice odd people back then? Hmm... ????????

I lived in England for the majority of my life, and I don't recall a single occasion where somebody "boosted" about winning the war*. This is possibly the most ridiculous justification for bigotry I've ever heard. And I don't believe for one minute it's the genuine basis of your dislike for the Brits. *please don't post a bunch of links pointing to Brits boasting about winning the war. I'm sure there are instances of it here and there. But if you're regularly coming into contact with such people, maybe you should review the type of places you hang around.

When I did the computer test, going back many years now, you were shown which questions you got wrong after the test along with the "correct" answer. Is that no longer the case?

I understand exactly how it works. You can stop harassing me now. Thanks.

Some might view that sentence as somewhat ironic...

Why do you feel the need to keep quoting me and updating me on your progress?

There are 20 cars in a formula 1 race. The safety car only comes out when the speed needs to be controlled due to an incident.

But I was responding to somebody claiming that there are alternative options, for anybody who wants to stay here, for just 1,900bt per year! I never said that there should be options, I simply corrected somebody who said that there are options. We're done here.

No offense taken. The argument I'm making is clearly too complex for you to understand. I'll try and put it into bullet points for you. If you still don't get it, you're on your own... Somebody says "the Elite visa is stupid. Who would pay for such a visa when there's easier/cheaper options out there?" For some people there aren't easier/cheaper options out there therefore the visa does make sense. That's it. I'm not complaining about the visa options availabile to unmarried (without kids....) people under the age of 50. I'm simply saying that for that given demographic the Elita visa does make sense. That's it. It's a really, really simple point. Stunningly so.

I'm sure it has...

I am not going to drop 5 million baht on a visa. I have never suggested that I would. 1 million for 20 years would have be reasonable if I had had access to that sort of money. At 5 million, obviously it's no longer reasonable. My views on this aren't hard to find. My very first post on this thread states my position clearly. As for your suggestion of getting married... Do you honestly think that would cost less than 5 million baht over 20 years??

I'm not having any visa problems. All I'm saying is that "elite visa is useless for anybody because they have other cheaper options" is an ignorant statement because the fact is there is a group of people for whom there aren't realistic cheaper options. It's amazing that some people can't grasp this simple concept. Bizarre.

Definitely more expensive than an Elita visa!!!

This is not true

I think I'll just quote you in response to this....

Yes I know that. But I shall continue to ask the question every time somebody writes something as stupid as "this visa is worthless because you can get the same for 1,900bt/year". I will be sure to include the fact that I have no children next to to prevent you having to waste your data...