babylonbrothers

When I lived in Bangkok it was just off Prachanivet, Lad Yao, Bang Ken and the pavements were excellent in a very well kept area so it's not all bad!

That is an excellent suggestion about getting the Bank Update letter DURING the Immigration lunch hour as The BKK branch at Central Shopping in Chiang Rai does not open until 11 am. I tried to get away with doing it the day before when recently renewing my Marriage Visa but they made me do it again on the day I applied; ergo waste of money and time! I shall do as you did next time!

I lived in Rio for a year in the early eighties. Even then Copacabana Beach was poor. The sand was infested with tiny bugs which would bite you if you weren't sitting on a towel. The sea is also treacherous for swimmers; helicopters would sweep the ocean's edge to pull out people in trouble!

US pronunciation of English is odd. They turn 'premier' into a 2 syllable word and they can't say 'mirror' to save their lives! The one that gets me and you hear it all the time because the cops use it, is they try to sound the silent 'H' in the middle of the word 'vehicle', and consequently it comes out all mangled up! These are only a few!

A huge increase in cost of air travel plus a weak UK economy must be a factor. My sister was planning to come here but expense became a problem so she is going to Croatia instead: cheap flights help the decision. Thailand can help itself by getting rid of these restrictions on alcohol sales at certain times and certain days. Also, by removing some of the Immigration red tape and form-filling. For Retirees who don't get increases on their pensions from UK other countries such as The Philippines which does allow the increases, become more attractive.

One wonders what the entry fee may have been to the clients?

You'll need a small digital aerial which can be bought at Amorn. In Chiang Mai the transmitting aerials are on the upper side of Doi Suthep which is where you point your aerial. The signal is normally good providing you don't have any trees immediately in the way!

If the Bard wants to be pedantic he should at least get his facts straight. The 'who' and 'that' that you talk about are called relative pronouns and according to Michael Swan, either is fine; eg. 'There's the man who/that sold me my bike.' Secondly, having 'rewritten' the original he completely lost the sense of the statement, which is that 'would have' is wrongly written as 'would of' because in its contracted form it sounds the same as 'would have'. This is great fun, thanks! ps. Michael Swan is the absolute guru regarding English grammar and usage!