MangoKorat

The police must be enjoying all this illegal activity $$$$$

OP, don't forget - entering on a 30 day exempt, the airline will almost certainly want to see that she has an outbound ticket within that 30 day period. You can't just say "oh I know the outbound flight is in 6 weeks time, I intend getting an extension". They won't allow that - the reason being is that the 30 day extension, although I've never know one be refused, is not guaranteed. You'll probably have to book a throw-away for her.

Sorry but as others have said, you are wrong. It is perfectly legal for a foreigner to own the 'bricks amd mortar' of a house without owning the land that the house sits on. However, the foreigner must have ownership documents and their tenure should be registered on the rear of the land's Chanotte to be able to be considered as the legal owner and therefore sell the house. There is no problem with buying this property but if the house has a different owner to the land, both owners will have to agree to the sale and there will be two seperate transactions. If the house owner is not present or does not agree to the sale - there can be a problem. To remain on the land the house owner must have a lease to use the land - however, many leases are not secure and courts often grant possession to the land owner. Leases often contain a 'get out clause'. If on the other hand, the house owner has a properly registered Usufruct agreement on the land. that is secure until he/she dies. On several occasions I've seen people state that Usufructs are not secure. I've looked at 2 cases where the Usufruct was challenged and neither were registered on the Chanotte. The law is the law and a Usufruct is a legally recognised agreement in Thailand. I doubt any court would cancel such an agreement and if it did, a decent lawyer would find it fairly easy to overturn that decision in a higher court.

???? Code for performing a disappearing act on his funds?

I'm wondering how all this information came to light? Could it be that his mobile was accessed? Worrying.

The act of causing damage is criminal. The cost of the damage is civil.

On the contrary, I have every idea what I'm talking about, I won't say 'arguing' - I'll leave it to you to do that. I have simply tried to help you with your original queery because I have exactly the same problem. Before going further, let me correct you on one of your original suggestions - that DTAC Call can't receive SMS. DTAC Call receives both calls and SMS and does both pretty well. Not that it matters as the service is going to be discontinued - so I have no idea why you even mentioned that. Nonetheless, at the moment, DTAC Call does receive SMS - I received 2 yesterday. OK, back to the OP. The issue is that you want to be able to receive text messages from your Thai bank whilst your outside of Thailand.........correct? From your more recent posts it seems that you were wondering if Skype might provide a solution. What I am trying to tell you is that Thai banks, at least the ones I deal with, will only send OTP's and other text messages to a Thai mobile number. Whatsapp is a far more secure system than any SMS but Kasikorn refuse to send messages using that - so I very much doubt that they will send them via Skype. As I said to you in a previous reply - DTAC WIFI calling does work outside Thailand using a Thai SIM, I can send and receive both calls and SMS using it. However, based on my experience yesterday, even that may not be any good. To explain: I conducted a payment transaction on my Kasikorn online Banking application yesterday at 11.58am. The OTP needed to complete the transaction was received at 11.58am via SMS on DTAC Call. However, the OTP was not received over WIFI until 12.37pm - almost 30 minutes later. I don't know how much time is allowed but I do know that OTP's time out after a few minutes so it was lucky that I got the OTP on DTAC Call. Clearly that will not happen after October 3rd when the DTAC Call service ends. If you have a mobile signal where you are, and DTAC have a roaming partner in that country, your Thai SIM should work and receive SMS normally through the mobile network although you will be charged. You will need to check that out and also make sure roaming is turned on, on your Thai SIM. I don't have that option as there is no mobile signal where I live in the UK. I will be in Thailand shortly so I'm going to try and find a solution as I must be able to receive OTP's to complete banking transactions on my Kasikorn account. I use online banking on my laptop, I don't have the Kasikorn App on my phone. I don't know if I still need to receive a OTP if I use the App but I will find out when I'm there. Failing that, AIS have a similar service to DTAC Call - called VOWIFI - or at least they say they do. If that service is still working and will also receive text messages I may change to the AIS network. I question whether or not that service is still working because Thai companies have a habit of leaving websites intact - even after a service ends. If you search for DTAC Call you will find that their webpage advertising it is still there as if the service is available. You only get to know there is something wrong when you try to download the App on Google Play - you can't.

Nope but I wouldn't be seen dead in that outfit - bit like a nylon Man U shirt, shorts and long socks.

The banks, well my bank, will not send an SMS by whatsapp so I doubt they'll accept Skype - comprendi professori?

There is never any excuse for violent behaviour but I have to say that just looking at what he's wearing, tells me all I need to know about his 'sort'.

Well they won't accept whatsapp so I doubt it - even though (at the moment) whatsapp is far more secure than standard network SMS.

That's not fair, they've banned the farmers from burning sugar cane straw in Chiang Mai...................haven't they? ????

Right that's one and one that I have to admit that I know little about or his time in power - at the time of his rise to power I wasn't really interested in Thai politics and when he was deposed I was fighting a serious illness so Thai politics were far from the front of my mind. I really should know more about him - seeing as he's a British Northerner like myself. I do remember liking the man - and rather foolishly thinking that he might bring about real democracy in Thailand. He supported the poor and promoted equality if I remember rightly. His government was not without accusations of corruption and that lead to several members of his government resigning if I remember correctly. However, the man himself appears to be clean - given that he was born into a true democracy and educated in the same country, maybe his lack of criminal activity is not too difficult to understand? So why was he deposed, why did his party lose so many votes when they appeared to be on the side of the people. Getting rid of someone is fairly easy if they've been up to nefarious activity is not too difficult but its not the only way. The question has to be asked, why did someone who appeared to be very much on the side of the people, lose so many votes? Well, that in itself is not really in the interests of the generals and probably more importantly, he went after the army in launching an investigation into their crackdown on protestors - according to Wikipedia. As I say, I know very little about the man or his government but again, he was one who promoted the rights of the people - not something the military are fans of - they can't be allowed to have real democracy can they? There is more than one way to skin a cat - judging by his policies, I would have thought he would have stayed in power far longer. Perhaps some 'engineering' took place? I don't know but you've given me a new hobby - find out what happened to Abhisit and how his party seems to have failed so spectacularly at the end.

A combination of things that could probably be levelled against any Thai government before and since Thaksin was PM. The military let the people believe the country is democratic (or that's the plan) and allow things to go along, let parties fight, hold elections, take up government bla bla bla - and provided their and the elite's trough is not under threat, they let them get on with it. To greatly assist them in that matter they relied on the people's love of a certain person - someone who despite the many differences across all groups, helped maintain a 'gel' that held the country together. However, they were fully aware of the frailty of that person and the fact that his probable successor was not held in the same esteem. As Thaksin's popularity grew, he became a major threat to the trough. At the time he was said to be gaining such popularity, a popularity that was spreading well outside his stronghold of Isaan, that he may end up being more popular than the 'successor' I mentioned earlier. And that is precisley why he, his party and his family had to be dealt with. In this latest chapter of the army's fight to maintain control, they have actually used that popularity to maintain the status quo. Quite a smart move as it turns out. Crimes, prosecutions, wrong doings........since when have they meant anything amongst Thai 'high society? How many have been prosecuted and sentenced for this or that heinous crime and how many of them have actually gone to prison and stayed there? That goes on right down the line - i.e. police chiefs that get 'moved into a non active position' rather than prosecuted for their crimes. The defendents in many of these cases have every right to cry 'political motivation' because that's exactly what goes on. That is not to say they are not guilty but in many cases, others carry out exactly the same 'crimes' and never see the inside of a coutroom. If you doubt what I claim - take a look at what's happened to Move Forward and their previous incarnation over the last few years. They were never going to be allowed to gain power - they represented the biggest threat to the trough that there has ever been. If they had been allowed into power, Thailand might have actually started to become 'democratic' - and the elite just can't let that happen. As I said before, I am not a Thaksin fan, he bought votes and he encouraged poor people to get into debt - to name but a few faults, I actuallu despised the man. However, his major crime, no matter what the military may disguise it as, was to become way too popular and threaten the trough.

Can I just ask you - and I'm not trying to be clever here, do you really not know why the military turned on Thaksin?

Sideshows. They care about nothing other than honey. Learn about how many redshirts have 'disappeared' in the last few years. A few were found a couple of years back, at the bottom of a river covered in some strange stuff that looked like concrete - and who's been on point since 2014? They are all the same but one group has much bigger guns - you don't really think all the political nonsense that's gone on matters do you?

Name one Thai PM/government for that matter that hasn't either been 'proven' to be criminals or been accused of the same in the last 20 years or so.

Corrupt people? In Thailand? Seriously, have you not followed what's been going on since Thaksin won the election? Before than even? Have you not watched the 'joker' series that's gone on with different actors for years? You of all people have been around long enough to know how things work in Thailand. Its a bit like a beehive - with lots of worker bees and one Queen in the middle of the hive. The people have always been allowed to 'play' at democracy but as soon the hive was threatend, the potential attackers were overwhelmed. Do what you want children but play nicely or you'll have to be punished. The elite and the generals have absolutely no respect for the Thai people. Its not difficult and its nowhere near as complicated as they make out - the reason the country has been in a state of constant political turmoil for decades is the elite's compulsion with controling the hive.

You don't think that's standard practice with any Thai government then?

Of course they were. Thaksin had far too much support, the generals were shaking in their boots that someone might actually remove them from the trough.

Don't, he's unlikely to spend anymore time in prison. I suspect that he was promised he wouldn't spend any time at all but got a bit of a shock when he was sent down - kicked off, spat his dummy out and threatened to call off the PM deal. So the hospital plan was hatched. I don't think Prayuth actually intended him to go to prison - they were just trying to work out which scenario would be least likely to lead to riots. At least this way, Prayuth can claim it was nothing do do with him and we all know that people cannot criticise the person credited with making this decision can they? Otherwise they will go to prison and not get any clemency whatsoever.

A little surprised I didn't hear this on AN first: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66679570 Sad to say, the country is not just totally corrupt, its rotten to the core. Would this happen to your average Somchai?

Maybe not but I'd do a lot of thinking before you put it on the record by seeing a doctor - you could have problems with insurance in the future. Regarding depression in general - I used to be a bit like your brother/workmates. I didn't believe in depression and regarded people who said they were depressed as malingerers (I still do to a certain extent with those that use it as an excuse to claim benefits in the UK). However, a few years ago, following multiple serious personal upheavals and then a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis - it hit me and I now accept that it is very real. I stopped going out, quit my job, didn't want to do anything, didn't open my mail - in fact I struggled to do anything and only shopped when I was completely out of food. With huge reluctance, I was persuaded to see my doctor by friends and family. My doc wanted me to see a shrink and recommended anti-depressant drugs which I said I would consider. OK, you state that yours is depression without a reason but maybe my way of tackling it will work for you, it did for me. I woke up one morning, about a week after I saw the doctor and just thought - "I'm not going to let this beat me, I'm stronger than that. I thought about my illness - my oncologist said she was going for a cure but warned me that the teatment only had a small chance of success and I was pretty far gone. I asked her for an off record honest bet to which she replied - 2 - 4 years, meaning I probably had 2 to 4 years left to live. F..... it, if I've only got 2-4 years left, am I going to waste that time sitting with my head in my hands thinking about all my woes? I certainly was not! Its not easy, you have to make yourself do everything - I decided that doing everything by the clock was best for me. I got up at the same time every day, excercised, went back to work, ate, slept and even relaxed - all by the clock. every day. I still didn't want to do anything, I just made myself do it. I put all negative thoughts out of my head and refused to associate with negative people. I can't be 100% sure but I think the excercise did the most good. I started seeing the results almost immediately which gave me the impetous to carry on and just a few months later I was back to my old self. Depression will never enter my life again - because I won't let it. As it happens my cancer treatment worked far better than expected and stunned my onclogist (now 8 years and counting). I'll probably never be completely out of the woods but at the moment I have no problems. I've talked to several people about this - mostly healthcare professionals and they all say that although there is no clinical evidence, they believe that in many cases, a positive mindset contributes to curing cancer. I think it also works for depression As for anti-depressants - not for me, they may work for some but I regard them as a crutch and I prefer walking without one. They can also be highy addictive. Give it some thought, kick yourself up the a r se and do as people have told you - snap out of it! To quote an old cliche: 'This is real life, you only get one chance at it, there are no rehearsals'. It worked for me, it may work for you but you've really got to make yourself do it - even when you really don't want to. Can you afford to waste one more day with your head in your hands?

I've noticed some easing in flight prices but nowhere near enough to persuade me to return to my previous travel patterns. Comparative flight prices I've paid: Manchester - Bangkok economy return September 2019 (pre covid) £459) on Etihad. Manchester - Bangkok economy return September 2023 £657 on Qatar (The above with sensible total durations) That's almost exactly a 45% increase (Etihad and Qatar's prices are usually very similar). I was planning my usual July/August flight but decided against that as prices were around £1500. Yes, that's school holiday time when the airlines always try to extract as much as possible from parents trapped by their kids holiday times but I've never seen it that expensive. As I've pointed out in other threads a family of 4 looking to travel to Thailand would have been faced with a £6000 bill for the flights alone - pretty sure most parents took their kids elsewhere. Fuel prices are up what? Around 20%? No justification for these rip offs at all - most of us lost money during covid in one way or another and we've just had to swallow that. I can't put up my fees by 45% to cover my losses. It was worse last year though when I had to pay £1677 in August - had my reasons to travel at that time otherwise no way I would have accepted that price.

Love most Thai food but sloppy rice soup just doesn't do it for me at breakfast time. Whether I'm in the UK or Thailand, same thing every day for as long as I can remember - Bacon, Egg, Beans, Tomato and Toast. Of course, rinsed down with tea - Yorkshire tea!