grain

Same with me, thank God. We go to Australia early March, return to Thailand early June.

The worst we ever had was a few years ago and we had been in Australia for 3 months and just arrived back in Thailand, we got a taxi from BKK to our village in Korat and the old lady directly across the road from us must have passed away while we were sitting in the taxi. By the time we reached home it was like the "Guns & Roses" road crew were busy erecting the scaffolding and setting up the speaker bins on the opposite side of the road directly facing us. It started every day at 5:30am and went to about midnight. It was terrible. But in hindsight I was bloody daft for remaining, I should have tossed some stuff into my car and headed down to Pattaya for a week, which is exactly what I'll do next time.

It's a face thing, the louder the noise, the bigger the sound system, the more money you have and the bigger your face. It's often to the point of absurdity. Right bang smack in the middle of the covid pandemic in Thailand a lady up the road from us had her son become a monk and she went the whole 9-yards with the massive sound system blocking the road. My wife went to the party, she told me everyone wore masks, but due to the deafening volume everyone had to lean in close together to hear what each other was saying, and of course this was at a time when everyone was supposed to be social distancing.

That's the first thing they think of, I reckon before they even notify the local authorities of the death they have phoned the sound system company to come around and erect the scaffolding and set up like a rock concert.

Thank you, lots of good ideas here.

Not in Thailand, the apartment is in Perth, my wife and I will be going to Perth next month and I'll be doing renovations while there. Ideally I'll get a painter to repaint the property but if the cost is too high we'll have to do it ourselves. Interior only, no exterior painting at all. Lounge and bedroom ceilings are OK, but bathroom ceiling is a bit flakey in parts and will need rubbing back and repainting. I understand I'll need mould-proof paint for the bathroom. The lounge walls are brick in some parts and plastered in the rest. Last time the place was painted was 10 years ago. Can we just repaint the walls right off or do they have to be prepared in some way first. As the unit is smallish everyone say paint white but I find white a bit uninteresting. Also everyone say use flat matte paint but I kinda prefer gloss, I think the gloss painted walls are better when wiping off stains. We'll also need to paint skirting, doors, frames. If white walls then white doors too, but I think the skirtings would look good painted in a dark contrasting color. Both of us have done a pit of painting before but not a lot, so I welcome any tips, pointers, pitfalls to look out for.

Your village sounds like our village. It's a great at night unless someone dies, gets married, or becomes a monk. Then like you I'm looking at getting out for a week.

Take the bus CM to NK, put the bike in the bus luggage area, or on the roof if a 3rd class bus. I have no idea if there will be any difficulty taking the bike across the border, but there may well be, it is a vehicle after all. Perhaps you should do a Google search for a cycling club in SEA and ask there.

I'm considering keeping my time spent in Thailand to just under 180 days in future tax years. When exactly does the Thai tax year begin and end? What are the exact dates?

Could well be a load of BS too, pretty well every drug smuggler who gets busted at an airport has a cock & bull story about someone put the gear into their bags and they had no knowledge and have been set up. Going to HK to pray at temples sounds like even more BS.

Not quite correct Chris. Lao (as with the other former French colonies, Cambodia & Vietnam) has very good coffee and a thriving coffee growing industry. Lao does have it's own TV stations, you can even get them when you are in NE Thailand. Alcohol and bargirls are not banned at all. Beer Lao is excellent and readily available all over the country, there are also numerous other beers available, and local Lao Lao is available everywhere. There isn't the huge bargirl scene like Thailand but a scaled down version does exist. In past years it was illegal for foreigners to have relations out of wedlock with local girls but those restrictions have vanished now. Personally I far prefer Thailand to Lao, but I do like going to Vientiane every year or so just for a change.

That was your mistake. I've told my Thai wife if ever I'm unconscious never never never take me to one of those Bangkok hospitals, take me to the nearest government hospital.

More than likely this is to connect up with the China - Vientiane railway to get Chinese products by rail to Thailand, Malaysia and S'Pore.

I went with my TGF to our local amphur a few months ago, was told to go get legally married then come back and ask again. So I've given up on ever having one.

andych: best thing you can do for yourself is move on and forget about all these plans you are considering. If you persist your life is going to become very complicated by dealing with both Thai and British government laws and regulations and lengthy procedures. And you're going to put yourself into a situation of continual financial drain. At the present time it's very early days, don't progress any further with this, if you do, the deeper you get the more tangled up your life will become and the more difficult it will be to extract yourself at a later date. If you want to save yourself a lot of stress, complications, headaches and expense move on now. However, if you must continue with this relationship then your best course of action is to take an early retirement, come live in Thailand, live together with your girlfriend (no need at all to get legally married at this early stage) and see how it goes. I wish you all the best.

I agree, seems all the foreigners are pussies these days. Or they turn into pussies fast after arriving in Thailand. Where are all the hard cases these days? I grew up in England, Scotland and Australia. Back in the 1960s you had to be very careful, there were all these hard cases about who could put the heid on you and bust your face open, then kick the living daylights out of you. I've seen men fighting in outback Aussie pubs that were battering each other faces with bare fists until they were swollen and bruised but they kept on hammering into each other.

If you find that place please tell me. Air quality where I am (rural Pakthong Chai, Korat) is terrible at the moment. Farmers are burning off their rice and cane fields after the recent harvests, due to the cool season all the locals are lighting fires, burning trash, making charcoal. I have a constant dust/ash taste in my mouth and my eyes feel itchy. Normally I miss this terrible time of year as I head down to Australia for Xmas/NYE/Summer but this time didn't make it. I'm going to make sure next Dec/Jan/Feb I'm well away.

The filthy animals are getting seats on planes now, just imagine having to sit next to a big dog scratching its fleas and licking its dcik for 15 hours.

Can't do it now because he's already complained about it, so the owner will know who did it and report him, he could well then end up in very serious trouble. If any neighbors animals are ruining your lifestyle don't complain just deal with it, extreme prejudice.

Yep, the statistics are mind boggling. Globally dog attacks on humans outnumber all other animal & reptile bites/attacks combined. Likewise deaths, either directly from dog attacks, or from infections/rabies following attacks. Worse are dog attacks on children as the injuries are to face and neck, whereas adults generally get bites to their legs. However, the global statistics don't show the real figures. They are gathered from official reports by doctors, hospitals, police, local authorities. Many dog attacks, particularly in 3rd world countries, don't get reported as locals sort it out themselves. In countries like Thailand the dog owners generally pay a couple thousand baht to the victim and the incident goes unreported.

Dog situation all over Thailand is out of hand, not just strays but houses that have 3,4,5 dogs that come charging out when someone walks past the house. There is a huge need for catching and culling these filthy pests but I can't see it coming anytime soon.

Correct, I don't post much here now, many times recently I've typed a response to something and gone to hit the submit button, then thought no, just cancel it, because some nasty person is going to twist my words around and use them to have a cheap shot at me, and I can do without that. I'm on several different internet forums and this one is the nastiest for sure. However, there is important information posted here regularly so that's the sole reason I stick around.

Yes it's law, in most cases the foreigner (a tourist) doesn't have a NOK in Thailand so the hospital wants the embassy to come and take the body away. In the case of the foreigner being legally married to a Thai and having a NOK to take care of the funeral, it's still law to notify the foreign embassy.

Foreigner deaths in Thailand are always reported to the embassy, this is a requirement when foreigners receive pensions, so the gov is notified and the pension terminated. If they also have contact numbers and addresses for NOK then they will notify.

Maybe he thought he could get it done here for 30Bt.