grain

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.

If you're planning a trip (holiday?) to HatYai you shouldn't let something like the Muslim food deter you, as Stocky pointed out there's heaps of excellent food to be had in HatYai. The general Thai food is very good, some of the best Isarn food I've ever had was in HatYai, lots of Chinese and Western options. But there's not a lot to see or do there other than shopping and nightlife. Songkhla used to be recommended more for farang visitors but I was last there a few months ago and it's no longer to my liking, though the scenery is still very nice.

I lived for several years in HatYai, and Songkhla, they don't refer to Malaysian food, it's Muslim food, and there are a lot of Muslim gaeng shops. These are the ones that the visiting Muslim Malaysians prefer to eat at. In general the food in HatYai is pretty good, but the Muslim food is not so good. As you mentioned the Muslim fried chicken is very popular, there are also some good murtabah shops about, Muslim tapioca pudding is good too, but none of this Muslim food in HatYai is as good as you'll find in Malaysia, S'Pore or Indonesia.

OK thanks a lot, you've been very helpful. I'll need 2 so I reckon I'll go ahead and order these, 100gb a month each will be sufficient, and 100mbps speed beats those other sims @ 15 or 30 mbps.

Thanks for those links, I just checked them out and also saw this one.

Yes good point about 100GB a month, I've been thinking the same thing. I download a lot of music every day, plus I was hotspotting my smart TV to my phone, so I was using well over 100gb a month, but we have 3BB now and I'm sure 100gb a month for my phone will be adequate.

OK thanks for that info, you just pointed out a flaw in my plan, which is the reason for this thread.

Good info, thanks.

I don't know anything about My by NT, we live out in the rice fields of Korat, my DTAC and my wife's AIS work very well out here. Would My by NT be the same coverage? I did check and as far as I can tell my Redmi Note 10 smartphone and my wife's Redmi Note 7 are OK with B28.

Yes, that's why I'm asking here. Last year my 12 month unlimited data 30 mbps DTAC sim cost around 1600Bt, I just looked yesterday and it's now 2890 Bt. So I thought I'd ask around and see if anyone else knew a better deal. I always buy 2, one for me and one for my wife, so if I can save a couple thousand baht it'll be good.