chatette

Gross misuse of state resources and tying up courts with political retribution instead of legitimate legal cases.

Great thread, and I've read it from the start.

Totally agree with the suggestions that you give yourself a more structured, time-zoned stay here. 6mths - 7 now is just a long vacation. It's really not long enough for any opportunities to emerge, whether a business or lifestyle (ie your lack of friends). Give yourselves at least a few years to try to make a go of it, if you're serious about it. Rome wasn't built in a day (sorry, that's so cheesey).

Get a job. You mentioned you've worked as a teacher. Do it. You will meet people and will stop feeling so isolated. Engaging with people outside of you family - immediate and extended - will really make a difference.

Apply for citizenship. It is easy for women who've produced a Thai (your son) and there is absolutely no downside other than the waiting. Your husband may have an issue with the military service requirement since he was likely out of the country, but it's not a game changer. There are solutions.

Do not worry about schooling. Your son will do well whereever he goes to school if he is happy, engaged and capable. I dare say a private Thai language school may offer a better and safer education than many govt. schools in London and other UK cities.

Don't worry so much about money. It will come. You are both quite young and qualified. Your husband is at least bilingual; that's worth a lot in itself. You can learn Thai, too. It's not rocket science.

Thailand can be great and it can be horrible, just like anywhere. Most of the greatness and horribleness is in our heads. It's your state of mind that will make or break you.

I really don't buy into any of the posts that have banged away, so to speak, about the uniqueness of Thai men's sexual behavior. They are people, men, husbands, fathers, parents. I have not found anything at all odd (although I have told him otherwise at times) about the behavior of my, erhm - Thai- husband of ~ 16 yrs. His 'Thainess' has absolutely nothing to do with anything, other than he's happy, and we've lived all over the world and have a now 14yr-old gorgeous daughter who seems to doing great guns on the education front.

Frankly, I think the notion that Thai men are some weird sexual predators probably speaks more of individuals' personal horror shows than any peculiar race. I see some rather predatory males prowling Sukhmuvit Soi 3 at ~ 6:15am when I'm enroute to work, and none of them appear to be Thai, although one shd not judge by appearances.

Give Thailand a go. The weather at least is much, much nicer :-)

Can I get some clarification, by having given birth to a thai citizen & being married to a thai citizen (coming up 10 years) I can apply for my own citizenship after 1 year of continuous non o visas??

Do I or my husband still need to make 3 years of income tax payments or is it one year?

Many thanks in advance for clarifying this for me.

Boo, When I applied for citizenship all that was relevant was that I'd produced a Thai and was married to one. I left the country after application, was called for an interview while abroad, told them I'd contact them when I got back, and got citizenship within a year of returning. I had independently, prior to applying, got PR and had ~ a decade of continuous B visa and tax history. I did, however, let the PR lapse while abroad, and returned, of course, on a new cat B visa. No one asked for husband's tax history. The only thing that seems to be cast in stone to give a fast track for foreign women married to Thais is our contribution to the population. I never sang.

You don't have to change your name, you only have to give up original citizenship if that country requires it.

I've got it and I changed nothing, gave up nothing.

Super handy being able to walk thru immigration, get loans easily, not being tied to a visa or work permit, etc ad infinitum.

Foreign women married to Thais don't need PR status or to be fluent in Thai if they have children with Thai nationality.

The cost is very minimal, but processing can take several years but there's no downside to applying or getting unless you have to give up a citizenship that is more valuable to you.

Get details and apply at the special branch office mentioned by the OP

I created a limited liability co. more than a decade ago, used it for about a year and then closed it.

I discovered today that the co. name is being used by what appears to be a Pattaya-based tour company.

How can I check that I or any of my original directors are not linked to this business in any way?

A letter to a person affiliated with the company was sent by a Thai-based bank to my home address, which is were I originally had the company registered,

I'm a bit worried there may be something fraudulent going on.

Thanks for your help.

Soak the veg in potassium permanganate -condy's crystals for 10 min: http://tinyurl.com/75d3lxg

Bangkok police chief Pol LtGeneral Winai Thongsong encouraged women to avoid dressing scantily or participating in provocative moves

I expect he'd also say it was the woman's fault if she weren't dressed in whatever way he considers not to be scanty if she were rapped or molested. Philistine.

The message is from an honorary consul, not a foreign ministry official.

Would check on this with the embassy.

In any event, it's about time Thailand looked at a more equitable arrangement. India's PIO status would seem applicable.

Is there a law that says there's a curfew for under-18s in Thailand??????

If the campaign were to rid the place of corruption (and the mafia that breed in it) there'd be more wealth, fewer homeless people and more resources to provide for those (few) who legitimately are forced to beg or are homeless.

Nothing like a bit of window dressing to spruce the place up, just like the big wall built around Klong Tuay slum to (appropriately) shroud it from the illustrious attending the 1991 WB/IMF meeting.

How exactly is this abusing their rights? Where's the tax evasion if they qualify? Sounds like vested interests trying to plug a legitimate import option. Great way to help cover the school fees if you can afford the upfront for the car, actually.

Oh yes. Thailand ALWAYS honors international court orders.

I just cleverly broke the pyrex pot for my Braun machine b4 making coffee. Anyone know where to get? I'm in Ratchadapisek area.

Ministry of Silly Thoughts would be more appropriate name.

Of course the travel industry as a vested interest is asking for visa fees to be waived, but let's hope the government doesn't fall for it again.

The visa applications still have to be lodged and processed. Who pays for that?? Taxpayers. I'd rather the tourists pay their visa fee and the proceeds pay for the processing, rather than being subsidized by government funds that could be spent on something more worthwhile, like healthcare, schools and infrastructure.

If people can afford to come to Thailand, they can afford to pay the pretty reasonable fees for tourist visas.

One word: Stupid.

You can buy 30 cc bottles for 10 baht at most pharmacies, altho it doesn't say what strength. I use it as a mouthwash once a week: about 1:4 mix with water, don't swish or you will froth at the mouth! Have a tongue scraper at hand and finish with a water rinse as the taste isn't great. I was advised to do this several years ago by my Belgian dentist (who didn't advise me to invest in Brazilian bonds) on the premise that it's more effective in cleaning the mouth than Listerine or other commercial rinses.

You're not traveling to malarial areas so there's no issue there. Dengue fever shd be more of your concern, as its common in urban areas during the monsoon season. Still, you should be taking normal precautions to avoid your baby - and yourselves - from being bitten by mosquitos or any other bugs. A google search will quickly show up what those very simple measures are.

Tap water in most, if not all, urban areas is potable, so the prospects of a six month old or anyone else getting sick from water they injest in the shower is exceedingly unlikely. Give your baby a bath if you're still concerned, and you really are worrying unduly. You may have to deter people from touching your child, not only for the potential to convey viruses but also for the inappropriate intrusion.

Do some googling and go to Bangkok Mothers & Babies International Web site and your concerns should ease enough for you to enjoy your trip. Bon voyage!

Hi Simon, Great to hear your plans to give your GF's niece a family. There truly won't be significant costs in adding her to your life, although you'll want to be sure she has health care cover beyond universal care. I'm not sure whether the social security scheme could cover her under your GF's name, assuming she becomes the legal guardian.

As for all the other comments on being able to afford this and that, life changes. Salaries tend to go up instead of down, unless you lose your job, and that's another matter altogether.

Good luck.

BAMBI is indeed a good source of leads for `nannies,' some of whom are reputedly very good. I've had live-in, live-out nannies and used day care, and settled with the latter.

The advantages of a live-in nanny are obvious: you have someone available all the time, or at least most of the time. The disadvantages of a live-in or -out nanny are many, however, if you have a less than dedicated person.

I shifted my work to home when my daughter was born and had a live-out `nanny,' whom I knew and who was referred. When I came home one day and found my baby sitting in a soaking (cloth) nappy that had obviously been wet several times over, the `nanny' told me she was having trouble juggling home duties and baby care. I got a separate live-out nanny, leaving the first one to home duties. The pair of them, 11 years ago, cost me about 12,000 baht a month. You'd be looking at 16k-20k baht a month for two now, I'd reckon.

A few days later I came out of my office to find the nanny and the maid chatting over lunch while my baby had rolled into a corner. I paid the nanny off at the end of the day and, the next day, took my daughter to a day-care in the housing estate, which I'd previously reconnoitered.

The day-care had about 15 children from babies to pre-nursery schoolers and four carers. My daughter continued to go there each day until we moved abroad when she was 4 1/2. While I continued to work from home, I rode my bike there intermittently to breast feed her until she no longer needed day feeds. Later, when I returned to working out of the office, I'd drop her off enroute - in her pajamas - and she would be bathed and breakfasted there. When she began nursery school, the mini bus collected her and dropped her off there. She had her own cot (later mattress) her own carer and an enormous number of friends. The facility was child safe, they had book reading, game times and she was even taught to read herself. They had birthday parties for her and others. We still have the lovely collage of photos they gave us for her first birthday, taken over several months. When I had to work late or had evening events, on weekdays or weekends, I'd just arrange for her to stay longer and would collect her on the way in, paying a little extra.

Another advantage was that the district health authorities used the day care center for vaccination programs, so all we had to do was send her book with her and that was taken care of, too.

The negative side of this is that she wld also catch a cold from the others, or they would catch it from her, altho being breastfed she was pretty resilient. And then there was the time when the entire nursery broke out in chicken pox (the flip side of which was a heap of parents taking their non-nursery kids to childcare to catch it so they could be done with it and the fact that it didn't break our routines as there was no need for her to stay home with an infectious illness as they were all infected!)

When we returned from abroad when she was 8 1/2, the place came to the fore again during the long international school break. After completing a 3 wk summer program, we had no childcare -- so back she went, the only big kid among a sea of babies. But was she bored? No way. They assigned one of the carers to teach her Thai, which she'd all but forgotten how to speak, and the program included reading a writing. By the time school resumed in Sept., she was completely fluent AND literate. Quite amazing.

I was always a little leery of sending her to childcare before I tried it. But it really was the best for us in the end. The cost, which was definately not the main reason we chose the place, was incredible, too. 3,000 baht a month from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., 80 baht overtime from 8-10 p.m. and 100 baht from 10 p.m. to midnight. That included everything: bed, bath, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks and, amazingly, LAUNDRY. That was the price when she was last there three years ago and I imagine the cost has gone up since then. Various other childcare places I've used in the city (ie not in a housing estate) are much more expensive and far less flexible with the hours. But places like the one we have such fond memories of may exist if you plan to stay in a low-income Thai-style housing estate nearby whichever school you plan to intern in. This particular one is a few kilometers from RIS, and the rents are extremely low, too, at around 4k baht a month for 2-3 br/a/c townhouse.

This is from U.S. CDC Web site on steps to prevent getting flu. Face masks will never stop you from getting the flu, unless they are the antigerm warfare type.

I haven't seen any of those worn by the masked, helmetless motorcycle-riding families and others keeping safe with their little disposable paper masks that they keep pulling up and down over their mouths and noses....

In areas with confirmed human cases of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection, the risk for infection can be reduced through a combination of actions. No single action will provide complete protection, but an approach combining the following steps can help decrease the likelihood of transmission. These recommended actions are:

Wash hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand cleaner when soap and water are not available.

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

People who are sick with an influenza-like illness (ILI) (fever plus at least cough or sore throat and possibly other symptoms like runny nose, body aches, headaches, chills, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea) should stay home and minimize contact with others, including avoiding travel, for 7 days after their symptoms begin or until they have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.

Avoid close contact (i.e. being within about 6 feet) with persons with ILI.

In addition, influenza antiviral medications are an important tool for the treatment and prevention of influenza, including novel H1N1. Also see Guidance on the use of antiviral medications.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/masks.htm

utterly absurd mask mania. i wonder who is making all the money from the useless masks, which are more likely to be a vector with all the face touching involved. Washing hands would be more effective.

I should add that we're in Bangkok and can deliver her with hutch within the vicinity (until the car is sold, that is, when it will become more tricky). For some reason, I can't edit my original post.///

We are moving abroad soon and need to find a home for our gorgeous, snuggly bunny, Possum, who can't come with us. Possum is a 2 1/2 year-old, long-haired female who loves a snuggle and a hop around. She lives in a large hutch on our enclosed veranda and uses a litter box when she hops about the apartment. She is a lovely pet. My daughter loves her dearly and is quite desperate that we find her a good home. Please PM me for photos or any other questions about Possum. Thank you.