chatette

Sorry Boca, I agree totally with LaReina on this. Certainly, however, your salary increase shd be back-dated from whenever it was approved and it seems a bit dodgy if that's not happening.

There's no Thai law that requires her to give up her Thai citizenship. Don't know about Canada.

Hope she likes it, and now we all have a great list. There's quite a few there that I'm not familiar with.

My faves in Thailand, where you do need something lightish because of the heat, so eau de toillette is better than parfum:

Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden

Flower by Kenzo

Sunflowers

Chanel 5

Oscar de la Renta

I can personally recommend Nonthaburi Equestrian Sports Club as my daughter rides there. They're having a summer program during weekdays right now if your child is on holiday. Would be a good try out opportunity before signing up. Carol runs the office. All the contact details are on the Web site, linked above. They have some riding gear, too.

Hi Charis, You don't say where you're located. If in Bangkok, I can recommend Neokids, which has several venues in the city. Here's the Web link http://www.neokids.co.th/tiki-custom_home.php It's in Thai. Shd you not read the language, phone numbers are in the bottom left corner: 1st: All Seasons Place (on Wireless), 2nd: Chaengwattana, 3rd: Prasanmit.

Personally, I prefer daycare to at-home nannies as your child is much less likely to be left in a wet nappy, in the corner, etc., while the TV is given more attention. If you do go that option, tho, the cost is likely to be up to about 15k thb a month, depending on the person's experience, work period.

I can recommend Kid's Home for such a service: http://www.thaikidshome.com/ They also operate nurseries, although I haven't used them for that.

Also, I just remembered, some hospitals offer nursery services for babies up to six months. Not very long, but maybe long enough for you to find something that works for you. I presume you have to go back to work.

All good above, altho we had to go to the district office the hospital was located in to get the birth registration certificate ourselves. This may, of course, differ from hospital to hospital. Our daughter was born at Phra Mongkut Klao, the military hospital near Victory Monument, and birth registered at the Rajavithee district office. If you do have to register yourselves, be sure to check the document very carefully. They had to redo our daughter's three times before they got it right....

Mahidol Dental Hospital, part of the Mahidol University, is the most reliable option for cost and standard. It takes longer to get an appointment, tho, because many people already know this. See http://www.dt.mahidol.ac.th/eng/hospital/specialclinic.html . A short walk from the Victory Monument skytrain stop. Contact details on the Web site.

I presume you'll be getting a second opinion before proceeding with such a radical course. I would recommend contacting Mahidol Dental Hospital http://www.dt.mahidol.ac.th/eng/hospital/serv_clinics.html to arrange this. The location is 6 Yothi Road, Rachathevee , Bangkok 10400, nearby Victory Monument skytrain and accessible from Rama VI Rd. The hospital is part of the Mahidol University, so there is no commercial interest on the part of the dentists to make money from your mouth. Many of the dentists are professors and also have their own private practices.

If you prefer somewhere more commercial and are in a hurry, I can suggest http://www.bangkokdentalcenter.com/ , which caters to foreign visitors wanting extensive and fast treatment.

Children born to parents who both have PR qualify for Thai citizenship, and it them to whom Section 17 would seem to refer. If any one of the child's parents is Thai, they automatically qualify for citizenship that can only be revoked if the child when an adult chooses to. It can not be stripped. Thailand allows dual citizenship, as has been stated many times elsewhere in this forum.

Samran is absolutely correct to say the onshore rate is more reflective of the true value of the baht per dollar than the offshore rate, which is largely illiquid. Anyone using Bloomberg can see that it actually posts both rates, using THB for the offshore and THBO for the onshore. The gap reflects supply and demand. The onshore rate reflects demand generated by exporters and other exchanging dollars for baht, and importers baht for dollars. You can see that imports have shrunk substantially over the past 12 months or more due to shrinking domestic demand that's linked to the ongoing political divisions, while the dollar has also declined relative to the baht, mostly because of the US housing/economic slowdown. Conversely, exports rose to a record last month. Current account data, due next week, will probably show a widening surplus, putting further upward pressure on the baht. The four cuts in Thai rates this year have limited onshore baht gains this year after the currency surged something like 16 percent last year. Those gains are what prompted the central bank to impose the capital controls last December that created the dual rates. The controls imposed a penalty on foreign investors bringing currency into the country, and triggered the 16 percent slide in the stock market that prompted the reversal for equity funds the same day the measures were imposed. Pridiyathorn resigned as Finance Minister the very day in February that the central bank governor told foreign bankers over their post-dinner coffee that those currency controls that he lauded, and probably designed, would be abandoned for investors hedging foreign fund inflows to avoid profiting from baht gains. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Currency traders can certainly arbitrage on the gap between the onshore and the offshore rates. But for normal people bringing in funds for personal use, the best option is to wire their money to their bank account to benefit from the onshore rate or, for smaller amounts, convert their cash at the bank rate here or use their Visa to withdraw funds at the ATM.

According to Kyodo, it was an Antonov 24 chartered plane that left Siem Reap Airport at 10 a.m. carrying 22 people, including 13 South Koreans and three Czech passengers, and six crew members, of whom one was Russian and five Cambodian

I pay about 300,000 baht a year for my child's primary school education and don't begrudge one satang of it. I'm sure, though, one's experience depends entirely on the particular school, to a certain extent, the class teacher, as well as personal expectations. Coming from Brussels, we chose the only school able to offer language continuity, even tho we parents don't speak that language. In the event, the only similarity in curricula was the language, which meant a struggle to catch up this past school year. The school administration and the teacher were exemplary in helping our child achieve that without her feeling like she was lagging behind in the catch up.

I have friends who put their children into a Thai school ( famous, royalty-linked) when returning after long stints abroad because aren't able to afford international school rates, and the children, while literate, have suffered dreadfully simply because of the difference in teaching methodology and the inflexibility of the school/teachers to help the children adjust. Others, sending children to a different Thai school (known only to take girls, with Christian affiliation) have experienced much more flexibility in helping the children settle in.

I really don't think it's so much that you get what you pay for as selecting a school that meets the criteria you need. We were lucky that the only school in town that teaches in the language of our choice happens to be extremely good. It's much more difficult if you're choosing English or Thai as the options are so much wider. It's a shame we can't name schools here as it would be useful for parents to gauge the experience of others.

Melanie, Serene, Anusha are among names that work well in Thailand and elsewhere. Jay, Jun, Don and Jed work well for boys.

There's a shop on the first floor of the CMC Tower (main building) at All Seasons Place on Wireless (same compound as Conrad Hotel) that has smart casual shoes of that size. I got 41s there the other day. I also got a nice pair of sandals and crocs in the sports shoe section of Robinson at Rachada. Central also has larger sizes in particular brands at most branches. I've also bought Ferragamos and Echo brand shoes in Bangkok. You just need to look around.

Hi, I've just completed recruiting a domestic help and ended up taking a woman recommended by our office maid, who I first asked. I also tried out a woman from Kids Home who was very good, too. The Web site is here: http://www.thaikidshome.com/ Prices are reasonable and the management is very professional. I knew of them because they used to put ads in the Bambi magazine years ago when I was a member. I'd look at them ahead of any of the individual pitches above.

The last time I went to a temple, someone unzipped my bag and stole my wallet during the few seconds I took my hand off it to wai phra. It was a popular and very crowded temple in Ayutthya that we'd taken my MIL to on a religious day and i was well aware of the risk of pickpockets, so it's not like i wasn't paying attention.

My MIL commented, without a hint of irony, that you have to be careful of thieves in a temple. So, to avoid the risk of my belongings being purloined again, I haven't been back to any temples since. The threat of shoe thieves is a welcome reinforcement to justify my decade-long boycott.

A couple of points on questions above: Foreign women who are the mother of a Thai child do not need to have permanent residencey before applying for Thai citizenship. We were actually advised by immigration when I was applying for PR not to bother and to go straight for citizenship. In the event, I took PR, applied for citizenship, let the PR lapse while abroad, yet my citizenship application is still under consideration and, hopefully, will be concluded within a month or so.

Re the Thai language interview at the special branch: mine was several years ago but was a very, very straight forward general question and answer about where, when I met my husband, how long I've been in Thailand, what work I do. I've never been asked any questions about Thai history, altho I did actually prepare for them. I've also never been asked to demonstrate literacy skills, altho I could do that, too, if asked. Nor was I ever asked to sing any anthems, altho that wldn't have been a problem either after hasty rehersing.

As I've mentioned in other postings above, the qualifying criteria for men and women is different.

Charoen Krung used to be called New Road for the reasons stated by qualtrough. It also used to have trams running along it. Imagine that! You can find pics in recent pictorial history books in stores like Asia Books. Naratiwat is also known as Tanon Dat Mai (new cut road), as are the eastern ends of Rama 9 and Petchburi, even tho the latter was cut many decades ago.

Hi, Firstly a woman from the interior ministry read out our profile from a file then the main interviewer asked a few questions, specifically if I could keep my original citizenship, how long I've been in Thailand, what work I do, why I went abroad for 4 yrs, what nationality my child has, what type of visa I have. That was about it. Less than 5 mins.

Tomorrow's decision poses a great opportunity for the `third hands' to run amok, using discontent with the court decision to mask themselves as regular protestors from either side. These are precisely the tactics that led to the bloody massacre of May '92.

It was not the clash between Suchinda and Chamlong supporters that sparked the bloodshed, it was the arsonists allegedly affiliated with another political figure stirring up violence and conflict.

I had been quite sanguine about the prospect of violence tomorrow until I heard from someone out on the street gathering opinion every day that she has stocked up on food. That concern was escalated this evening with an 8:30 p.m. call from a school that issued homework today that it will close tomorrow on security concerns.

And of course, there's the denials of a coup on the state tv as Surayud flies back from Prateet Jin.

They may have changed the procedure. Female and male acquaintances did their singing at the police station; same male acquaintance who was among interviewees this morning. Another female freind who had her interview earlier this year and now has the ID card had a room full of officials with microphones, like you, but didn't have to sing. Our experience was a bit like I'd imagine speed dating to be. Two kitchen-sized tables each with six chairs and we sat elbow to elbow for a brief chat before the 'yindee duay' was declared by the interviewer. Would have been very odd had anyone burst into song. It seemed to me they were more intent on confirming peoples' bonafides than judging their singing skills.

Did the Interior Ministry interview this morning, along with about 100 other people. Was very professionally organized with each couple being interviewed by one main interviewer supported by an IM person providing confirming background detail and 3 other govt. officials taking notes. Involved about 5 minutes of very basic questions about our circumstances. Not at all intimidating and very friendly. No singing, for me at least, altho some people behind me were still preparing when we were done. The main interviewer, who seemed director-general level, congratulated me at the end and the IM support person said the IM Minister would sign the order authorizing my citizenship and that will be that. So apart from years of waiting, that's that.

As a by the by, the woman waiting next to me ahead of our interview had her application in for 8 yrs and an acquaintance I knew who happened to be there today put his in last year. Taking out the gap between mine being lodged and me being out of the country, I waited 2 yrs. No explanation for the difference in wait time other than the suggestion that this govt. is trying to clear a backlog built up by the previous admin. So much for anti-foreign sentiment.

Hi, the Bambi nannies are the most expensive, not necessarily the best, and if you look on the site now, there's more demand than supply. I am going to interview two prospective maid/nannies tomorrow at kidshome. I've known of the company for many years, never used them before as my helper has been great, as she still is but can't work the hours I need her for now. Check the Website; you can find by googling kidshome bangkok. The terms of employment look ok to me and, as I say, the company's been around for quite a while. They're not super cheap but, hey, it's yr kids, right. They're plain precious.

it's impossible to proceed outside of the country, with the exception of people exercising Thai birthright to gain nationality (ie: one or other parent is Thai). I was out of the country for four years after submitting my application and it ground to a halt. I could have flown back for the IM interview three years ago and it may have continued along, but I chose not to, just as I chose not to fly back to extend PR. The initial part of the screening also involves national security clearance, which of course couldn't be done outside of the country.

I share the frustration of some of the other posters lamenting that the process is exceptionally tedious compared with many Western countries. My husband, for example, qualifies for my original citizenship by virtue of being married to me. Friends and colleagues have qualified for UK, Australian and Belgian citizenship simply by living in each of the countries for a period of time. Ironically, i could have qualified for citizenship of the country I went to for 4 years (back here 11 months ago) had I stayed 1 more year. But Thailand is what it is, and this is where I live whether I like its processes or not.

At least the bureaucrats here are friendly and helpful, which is a lot more than I can say for my experiences with their counterparts in the U.K. and Belgium, where they are just plain rude and obstructive.