grain

A farang friend of mine was in there, he said the worse thing was the noise, they have a couple of TVs, and everyone is shouting 24/7.

Another "Jai Yen" Thai man with a deeply philosophical Buddhist attitude to life.

Forget Flybird too, almost just as bad. There's the noise factor to consider too, many of the Thais living in these places work in the entertainment industry, so they're coming home 1am, 2am, 3am talking loud, slamming doors, playing music. I've known a few guys living in both Flybird and Nirun and they only have negative stories to tell. Cops are always milling around too as there are so many dodgy people in both places.

In Thai culture sin sot is paid by the male husband to the parents of the female bride. Sons of Thai families do not get sin sot. This Thai family asking for 1 million THB for their son is absurd, it is just another cunning attempt to get money from a farang. In this situation, a male marrying another male, if the Thai family believe they qualify for a sin sot for their son, then op's family can equally say they want sin sot for their son. So PeeJayEm tell the Thai family that your family respects Thai traditions and wants 22,701.78 pound sterling sin sot from them.

Yes, I did consider that too, but we'd stay in Georgetown and I'd prefer not to drive there, we'd walk around, the car would just be parked somewhere in Georgetown for 2-3 days.

not flying on a motoring trip Hua Hin - Samui - Songkhla, I just thought it might be nice to leave the car somewhere safe in HatYai and pop down to Penang for a couple of nights. It's not essential, so if it becomes tricky I'll drop the idea.

OK thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

Well I have Googled Robison's carpark but no info come up. So do you know this for a fact, that someone can leave a car in Robinson's carpark for 3-4 days? Do you know what it costs? I did Google airport too, and see that's 100Bt a day, which is OK. However, I did really want someplace in the city center as more convenient to leave car and get the Penang taxi.

Soon I'll be doing a motoring trip of the South, I wouldn't mind going to Penang for a few days, perhaps 3-4 nights, is there a carpark in HatYai city where I could leave my car? I won't be staying the night in HatYai, so there won't be a hotel carpark I can use. After returning from Penang I'll be going directly to Songkhla. In HatYai I'll need a carpark that charges by the day.

Unreal, you arrive at a tourist mecca with a tourist visa, you want to come in and spend your money and they refuse you entry. Imagine running a business along those lines. You walk into a pub and the doorman stops you and asks what you're doing. You reply you want to come in and have dinner and have a few beers. The doorman says you're coming too often, you were in there having dinner and boozing your head off last week, and he knows you were in there eating and drinking a couple of weeks before that.

Agree, I know a few guys who's marriages have broken down but they stay on good friendly terms with their ex wives who help them with the annual visa renewals. Best option here is to keep on with the marriage visa for 3 more years then get on the retirement ext.

Yep, and the Thai D/L won't get you the Thai price at Phi Mai historical park. I tried it and no.

This is the one that prevents me from getting these things. When I asked a few months ago at my local amphur I was told to get married then come back. And that ain't about to happen.

Yeah, well, nobody gives a rat's anymore.

actually to quote Aretha Franklin it's the "Best damn chicken" (in Thailand) I lived in HatYai for several years and that Muslim fried chicken is damn good.

I'm same age as you, I've lived in Thailand a long time and over the years have rode MCs all over the place, but when I got into my 70s I decided it's time to cease. Even a minor accident is bad news for a person in their 70s and could result in spending their remaining years disabled. So it's 4 wheels and 2 feet for me now.

Same story with me at Korat, everything goes fast and smooth. Never had anything even resembling a problem with them.

Do you have the MyGov set up? I had to send CL a bunch of docs a couple of months ago and I sent them as pdfs via the MyGov site. No worries at all.

Would have been smarter to leave some poison baits around late at night when nobody can see anything.

As DrJack54 told you, you'll have to start all over again as you're Retirement ext will have expired. However, I wouldn't be concerned about "the whole process of collecting documents, photocopies etc" because you have to do that every year when you renew. I just renewed mine last week and the amount of docs/photocopies is crazy.

Re beer intake: I'm in my mid-70s, I have some rules for drinking. Never start before 6pm. Don't drink every night, always alternate - 1 night on, next night off. About twice a year I have a whole week off, just to give my body a rest.

I run a music blog, that keeps me occupied.

I keep that money in that account for about 15 years now, all I take out is I scoop off the interest once a year, but the balance never drops below 800K. That money is solely for visa. I see on this forum people talking about scratching around every year trying to get the 400K or 800K together. That would drive me nuts year after year. I leave the amount in the bank.

I've got no idea how long they want to see the money has been in the account for, I keep that 800K in that account year after year, solely for annual visa renewal. So 2 months, 3 months, 12 months, makes no difference to me. I just gave that little slip of paper to the girl at the counter, and accepted what they gave me.

I've been here a long time mate, I've learned to smile and be happy and polite and give them what they ask for, not to start splitting hairs and arguing the toss about immigration laws with them. You only get one chance with Thais, piss them off and you've had it, these people (like officials in every country) can make things very difficult if they want to.