wornoutcowboy

My Lao passport holding partner will be heading to Laos to see his family.  He will be flying into BKK and hopes to travel to Vientiane via Nong Khai via the bridge.  Is that even possible now.  Is the Friendship bridge open for Lao Citizens.  Are there any special requirements.

Also is it possible to buy a bus ticket online?

thanks

Oh, sorry.  that should be 63000 baht a month which by local standards is very high.  I have friends in Bangkok who make much, much less.  Some of us have a knack for spending very little while others spend too much.  I tend to be the one who doesn't spend.

Thanks again guys.

Thanks for the information guys.  I was off on a campong trip hence the delay in this reply.   I had no idea agents were a thing so may contact one.  Does anyone have a good one they can recommend?

I will be keeping my Medicare knowing I will not be in Thailand for the long term.

I will be returning to my old apartment in Bangkok which is now 14,000 baht and have no fears about living on 63000 Baht a year.

Once again thanks for the replies and let me know of an agent to contact.

Isn't the exact amount required 65000 Baht a month?

I lived in Thailand many years back and want to return for retirement.   I would like to qualify for the retirement visa using the 65000 Baht monthly income.   I may be short by about 2000 Baht depending on the exchange rate.  Here is the question. Ii am on Social Security.  When I calculate my retirement I am about 140 dollars over the amount needed if i don't include the Medicare deduction..  This is before Medicare is taken out.  Will the Thai immigration look at  at the actual amount of my pension before or after the Medicare deduction?

Thanks

In the olden days people would just go back to their home countries and change their names and apply for a new passport and then return to Thailand.  I am not sure if that is still an option.

The best thing I did was found a support group online for quitters.  It sure kept me quit.  Quitting was without a doubt the hardest thing I ever did.  I had thought I was going to have a few bad days until the nicotine cleared but instead continued to have cravings well into the first year.   My advice would be to find you some great new quit buddies.

I quit seven years ago and even used this forum to get a bit of support.  It was very, very hard.  in fact the hardest thing I ever have done. I love being a nonsmoker but do now weight 23 kilos more than when I stopped.  I changed my nickname from Smokey to Jumbo.

It must be a very slow day for news. Damn, dull story.

I am confused by the rules. I am bi so I am not gay or straight. Can I still ask a question? If so why is it gay men seem more handsome than straight men?

The usage of the word faggot is very, very derogatory. You are clearly very homophobic and I will find it rather amusing when "the little faggot" shows up and demands more money. You deserve to be extorted. Rot in pieces!

I have a very heavy British friend living in Bangkok who complains that he is discriminated in the gay world for being fat. The funny thing about this is he once told me he didn't enjoy sex with fat people either. I suspect that is true for most of us. So, why would anyone want to have sex with a chubby when the chubby doesn't even want to have sex with another fat person? I know there are chubby chasers out there and if I were fat I would seek out these guys.

Who really knows if Thailand will have it soon or not? I really wasn't expecting it in parts of the USA and now we have it. I am presently doing the paperwork to take my partner back and get married.

For the real cheapskate at heart you can clear Lao immigration and take the local bus number 14. All newly donated by the loving Japanese Air con even. You walk out of immigration and head to the right. 6,000 Kip(about 25 Baht) and it will take you to the morning market. A great way to avoid the pushy jumbo drivers.

Oh, Lao visas are better paid in US dollars. 35 bucks for Americans. one dollar extra during overtime.

The best place for N.Americans to retire is CUBA. Opening up this year. Check it out,so close to home,and cheap.

And there is nothing really cheap about the place. About 3 times the price of Mexico.

I spend half the year in Latin America and the other half in SE Asia and can say there are advantages to both places.

I am presently in Mexico and do love the place and don't buy the fears about the violence. If you stay away from drugs you are pretty safe.

Really, the big advantage to me about SE Asia is the fact that I can get around in English while in Latin America I cannot. I do try my hardest at langauge learning and in fact have studied Spanish for about 45 years and still suck at it.

In SE Asia there is no real expectation that I will know the local langauge. I did pick up some Thai over the years but probably sound like a 5 year old to the locals.

No place is perfect but in the end for me it all comes down to places I can afford. At times I really think i would like to be living in Paris but just don't have the cash for it.

Just a note on community.

When I first came to Thailand back in the dark ages there was no cable TV nor internet.

In many ways I was forced out into the world where now I can pretty much just stay in all day and night.

I once had a group of friends who would meet up for board games and card games and a nice chat. We are all at home now reading thaivisa.com instead.

It is true in The West too. It seems people have disappeared into themselves. Me included.

Fly free Ronnie!

And to think I was on the forum a few days ago asking about swimming pools in Ubon. I flew in yesterday in the morning and all I have seen in Ubon is the rain. At this rate I may just put on my swim suit and head for the street. I will save a lot of money that way on swimming pool entrance fees.

Thanks you guys. That should get me started. That is what I like about Thai Visa. I will never have to buy another guide book.

Greetings:

I will be in Ubon starting Tuesday and am looking for a place to swim laps. Is there any pools available for the serious swimmer. I am willing to try the hotel pools as well but I don't want to spend a bundle for a day rate.

Thanks.

Well, slap me stupid!

I live in Vientiane and just sat down at the Internet cafe and once again made a series of airline reservations. An event I seem to be doing a lot of being I did get caught up in the BKK airport closure.

After making all the reservations I decided to check ThaiVisa in regards to information regarding getting a refund from Thai International and then I saw the new 15 day rule in regards to the VOA.

Now, I am fine with that really. I do believe the Thais have their own country and they can do what they want with it. My issue is there was no warning at all. I crossed the Friendship bridge by international bus and arrived in Udorn Thani the day after the airport closed. I had no idea it was closed. I guess I really need to pay more attention to things but then again I was hardly expecting a bunch of old ladies oddly wearing these funny yellow shirts and waving these strange yellow plastic hands to sit down on the floor of what is suppose to be a main hub of international travel and all appear to be having a picnic. A picnic which disrupted so many things for so many people. I had to cancel my travel plans and headed back to Laos. Oh and there was no mention of the airport closing at the bridge either and I guess it wouldn't be realistic of me to expect to be told by my tuk tuk driver who drove me from the Udorn bus station to the airport to tell me. He did happen to mention it upon arrival at the Udorn airport and therefore was able to get a round trip fare out of me.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. When I crossed the bridge the day after the big picnic started at the BKK airport there were no signs up warning of the new rule. This was about 10 days ago. The old sign was up saying tourist were allowed 90 days in a 180 day period. Also I was at the Thai embassy here in Vientiane attempting to help an elderly couple from Australia stranded due to the airport closure and I didn't see any notices there either. I just checked the TAT site also and there is no news there.

Now why is it I have to depend on a website ran by expats in Thailand to get any information about Thailand?

So, as it stands I have a flight tomorrow to Pakse in Southern Laos and then had planned to cross over to Ubon to catch the Air Asia flight to Bangkok after a few days I have another ticket from BKK to Krabi and on to KL later. I had planned to have the dream 3 week beach holiday and I was counting on a 30 day VOA being there has been no notice anywhere it seems and the Thai immigration seemed to pull the new rule out of a hat or something. Really, I wouldn't have minded at all of going to the embassy here in VTE and getting a visa if I had known I would need one for what will be a 28 stay in Thailand.

Well, at least I bought travel insurance this time on the Air Asia flights. Something I didn't do when I had set this trip up before and I may be out of pocket on all the flights. The jury is still out on that.

So, I have a flight tomorrow and I have no time to get a Thai tourist visa and there isn't a consulate in Pakse. I am not sure if this will be grounds to get a refund on Air Asia tickets.

It seems there are a huge amount of real tourist and I include myself in that group being I don't live in Thailand who are getting screwed left and right recently. Due to the recent situation and with so many real tourist whose plans got aborted couldn't the Thai immigration have given us all a little warning about this new rule? Am I being unreasonable or something?

Anyway, I will fire off a complaint letter to TAT and see if that goes anywhere and perhaps you other real tourist on the board could do the same. The TAT site now is all about balloons and birthdays and they don't seem to be doing a great job at keeping us tourist informed. So, all you real tourist out there do me a favor and fire off a letter of complaint to the TAT at www.tourismthailand.org and maybe we can get at least a 30 day grace period before the rule is enforced.

Okay, so slap me stupid for not checking on the ThaiVisa site before booking all of these flights.

And thanks Thaivisa for being the only real source of information out there. Really, all I want is to go to the beach for a while. Is Thailand open to tourism or not?

Oh, they seem to travel. One came into my hotel today in Pattaya while I was eating breakfast. I have never seen a Thai monk actually move from table to table before with a bowl out. He was dressed in the regular orange robe but it was tied in a different way than the usual monks in Thailand. Very pushy as well. I was very tempted to pour my coffee over him. He didn't speak Thai, Lao or English so no idea where he is from.

Now before anyone yells I did do my research on this but came up with two different schedules for Bell Travel to the airport.

Does anyone know the departure times from Pattaya to the airport and also does Bell have pick up service in Pattaya. A working phone number as well as an email address would help too. Thanks in advance.

This may have been better posted in the Thailand travel section but I was hoping the expats in Esarn might have better and more recent information. Has anyone used public transportation from Sien Reap to Surin recently? Is there any guest houses organizing shared taxis or vans from Siem Reap to Surin? Also, are the Thais requiring an onward ticket out at the Osmach crossing? Thanks.

I did do a search on this one but have found no recent information.

Here is the thing. I am presently in Phnom Penh and hope to overland to Battambang to see a friend. From there I was hoping to cross over to Thailand at the Poipet-Aranya border and from there bus it to Nong Khai and cross over into Laos. With those travel plans there seems to be no way I can even consider buying an airline ticket being I would either need to backtrack to Phnom Penh to fly or head down to Bangkok to fly to Vientiane. I was hoping not to do either.

Does anyone have any tips for me in regards to supplying an onward airline ticket at the border? What are other people doing? Are slightly bogus bus tickets availabe in Poipet which show a return to Cambodia from Thailand?

Now I have no plans to scam the Thai immigration but seem to be in a odd situation of really having no airline flights to schedule. Geography is playing an intersting role in my case. Thanks in advance for any information you may have.