BananaGuy

I'm planning a trip to the Thoen/Mae Wa district (midway between Lampang and Tak) in April - May. Looks like there are few if any AirBNB/hotel or resort places with anything like a lap pool. Anyone know of a 25 metre + farang-accessible pool thereabouts? Maybe a public pool or a school that allows access or maybe there's some accommodation place that i missed that has suitable pool ... All i can see is the water park, which looks like fun but i'm too old for dodging inflatable dolphins ...

Fiancee applied for Tourist (600) to Australia. Application went into 'Initial Approval' status (really quick ... like overnight!) Next, she needs to front up to VFS for the biometrics. Anyone know if there is a time limit for her to do that? Like, does the application lapse if she leaves it too long? After the VFS thing is done, what's a typical wait time for final approval?

Scraping around to find a bit of sympathy here. The factual components of the story seem to be :- (1) Not a ‘motorcycle’ but a ‘scooter’, small-wheeled and even more unstable than an actual motorbike. (2) Downpour (3) Night (4) Chaotic traffic area (5) … and a reasonable assumption … middle-aged Brit on holiday not likely to have any of the riding skills developed by most native Thai or long-term farang residents. (6) Brit on Pattaya holiday? Another reasonable assumption, his blood/alcohol > zero. Add them up and join me in not being surprised. Why bother even posting this? Vain hope that some incoming naive holiday-maker may read this and think 2, 3 or 10 times before electing to drive a scooter in Thailand. If you absolutely MUST experience the delights of scootering here, then load up on your insurance and make sure it’s watertight and you’re fully licensed in your home country and your next-of kin have sufficient funds to visit and repatriate your remains. Then … try it out for an hour or two in small village or island, daytime, no rain and sober and maybe go the whole hog with a bit of protection - helmet, long pants, gloves and closed shoes. If the inevitable near-miss that you WILL have in those idyllic conditions doesn’t scare you silly enough then god (who does not exist) help you because you have a death wish.

If anyone blocks my passage, in a day or two they’ll suffer more than a negative review …

😜A well-aimed post there Spamhead (nice choice of name too).

Great idea … you can start Thursday. We can’t pay you and you’ll need to bring your own lunch, but tabulate the results and post them here after ‘a couple of hours’ and we’ll give you all the up-votes you can eat.

Context In Australia: a lot of the commentary would be about this bit … Ploy told Channel 3 that the Russian woman’s boyfriend tried to seek help from a local politician in the province to evade charges In Thailand: that bit not yet mentioned but a lot of chatter about farangism, wearing shoes indoors and various nationalities bad behaviour leagues.

Language is so important isn’t it? Tourist : Welcome to Thailand ! 🙏 💰 😊 Foreigner : Hello hello, what’s going on here then? 👮‍♀️🦹‍♂️😞

Sloppy reporting, again … How many ‘counterfeit’ notes? One or two notes? He’s probably a victim not a perp. A whole bunch of notes? He’s maybe dishonest and maybe dumb … those FX places check notes like hawks.

Mad bad and dangerous advice. Do not try this at home.

Not true. A (very) smart charger such as Powerex will include refresh and recovery functions that restore near-original capacity to ‘dead’ Li cells. A slow process though - can take 12 hours to complete all cycles on an AA cell. But typically these devices can charge 4 batteries simultaneously.

Rechargeable. Assuming you are talking AA or AAA size … look for Panasonic Eneloop or Eneloop Pro technology (pricy) IKEA-labelled rechargeables are cheaper and reportedly supplied by Panasonic using the same tech … but are lower capacity.

I guess these were all pre-Covid or Photoshopped ... (courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald and Xinhua)

It’s a metaphor … either … Japanese hi-tech transport system or children’s fantasy … take your pick.

Like this … ?

Actually three years and for what it’s worth at least one contributory reason for that relationship failing was the total shutdown of Australia immediately after the visa was granted. But thanks for the response.

Thanks for that, I’m aware of most of what you discuss … have you any source for the ‘12 month’ reference there? That’s feasible if de facto needs to be established but our intention would be to marry and I’m not aware of any waiting period there. Would really like to hear from actual experiences - I realise there have been few during last 3 years but I don’t think these 300 visa conditions have changed much.

Hi All I've posted elsewhere ... but here exploring options beyond a tourist visa for Thai girlfriend to visit/live in Australia. I'm aware that an Australian 'Prospective Marriage (Subclass 300)' is as dear as poison and there is an approx 12-month wait and reams of paperwork, but it's the effect on my age pension that's the unknown ... ... at what point does the Australian age pension get reduced to the 'partnered' rate (ie effectively halved)? Is it when the application is submitted? when granted? on arrival? when married? some other point in time? Sharing of any experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks for that. I sense the pain of that $15k 'investment' rightly lingers ... agree with you 100% about Oz attitude to inbound visitors ... still very 1950's and difficult not to compare/contrast with the reverse situation - as an Oz citizen i can show up on arrival in Thailand with a toothbrush and swan around indefinitely. I have a slim hope the huge Oz backlog in visa processing, new government here and a collapsed Oz inbound tourist industry may produce another fluked success for me. Hopefully, DFAT are automating a lot of their processing these days. As an ex-IT guy, i have faith their systems misfire frequently and may yet spit out a 'Computer says 'Yes'' result.

thanks Will for that (gloomy) assessment ... i believe you helped me with advice back in 2019/20 too ... yes, i maintain an optimistic face but likely you're correct. i have seen Thailand before - she has not seen Oz ... better for us to use scarce resources to get her here first ... but meeting her in Thailand is our Plan 'B. Nevermind. I'm happy to 'invest' a small amount in an application - just looking here for recommendations that will give it the best shot.

Thanks. Far as I can make out, the B10k + B20k outfits do not even include ‘extras’ such as translation … their fees seem to go 100% to them. B30k cheap? All relative I guess … but regardless of whether I can afford it or not, I’m naturally reluctant to pay the price of a return Scoot airfare for a visa that’s got a base price of about B4k … … hope there’s some middle ground here!

After a three-year cross-Covid, mostly remote and now failed relationship, i embark on the journey again to help new Thai gf acquire her first Oz tourist visa. Neither of us are great candidates, practically no history together, me not super-rich but able to pay for her trip and support her financially ... but she has no regular job, no property in Thai etc etc. I'm familiar with the Oz IMMI process and, as shared here, fluked a three-year visa for GF #1 in early 2020. She ended up allowing it to lapse (grrr!). This time though, i'm in Oz and new gf is in Thailand (Phetchaburi) so i can't assist directly - a Thai-based agent seems to be the best option. She has (randomly) found one in Buriram - one-person business by the look of it - advertising a service for B7,000 - which sounds suspiciously low to me. I've e-trawled the usual suspects - Siam-Legal etc - which offer deals for B10,000 upfront and B20,000 on success - which sounds suspiciously high to me. Anyone got current recommendations for an agent? Phetchaburi would of course be ideal but more desirable features would be :- (a) ability to massage her application (b) talk her through the biometric and document-gathering stuff (c) hopefully some pay-by-results component - we can't afford multiple bites at the cherry. Positive responses* welcome either here or via DM * but please, no 'Walking ATM'-style comments

If you have a brand new vehicle then your first line of defence needs to be an (expensive) paint protection product … a physical film applied to scratch prone areas usually nose and sills. ’Ceramic’ products are basically glorified waxes. If your paint is new or near-new they’ll improve appearance a little and make washing easier. Big ‘but ’ … no product will compensate for existing scratches, swirls, chips or sun damage … if the vehicle has been out of the showroom more than a month or two you’d be wasting money on any of these products …. … money probably better saved for a re-spray or a (much cheaper) cut-and-polish job.

… ‘true causes …’ What a (typically) weasel trick … implying in two short words that the Thai government is so wise as to accept Lavrov’s fairy tales as true. There’s a popular phrase ‘Don’t <deleted> in my pocket and call it a cute brown kitten’ … probably doesn’t translate well into Thai or Russian. Sad of course that Thai government lies on it’s back and allows Lavrov to give these little belly-rubs but pleasing to see so many comments pointing out the absurdity of the situation. Only massive pushback against this misdirection will move governments. I don’t read or speak Thai so no way of knowing if there is any pushback from Thai people … but here in Oz at least, the government and people have moved on to react with near derision when Putin glove puppets try this stuff. China too. A recent interview on ABC 7:30 Report had Chinese Australian ambassador both deriding massive UN Xinjiang report as ‘totally fake’ and in next breath admitting he had not read it. Putin, Xi ? Grow up or preferably, move on. Your Bart Simpson-level material doesn’t work any more.

Maybe you need to sharpen up your question ? Like … do you plan to drive your car back ???? ?