old wanderer

I know and like the village people.

Me too. "In The Navy" was a great song.

What are the rules in Thailand regarding shooting someone who is trespassing on your property or invading your house?

I ask this because in Australia the criminals have more rights than the home owner and you basically have to let them take what they want and thank them on their way out. If you shoot someone who is envading your house you have a very lengthy and expensive court trial and possible jail sentence for shooting the "poor, underprivaledged, led-astray, disadvantaged, not his fault that he doesn't want to work" house thief.

With the increase in crime and drugs, maybe a cottage industry will spring up like I found in Bogota in the 70's. Any in home problems were handled personally by your self, and then a call to a number brought a crew early the next morning and in a few hours you would never know anything had taken place in the house. The cost was an ecconomical $50. I found this out after being almost assisnated by a robber I had tied up after show him my best Brue Lee Num Chuck immitation, and called the police to haul away....3 weeks later he came back with some friends.

Well no more Mr. Nice Guy after that.

I really look forward to a peaceful retirement in Thailand, but will prepare for the unexpected.

Ray23

Thanks flro the info. I do like to keep my 'fast" riding for the track. Here in the USA I did 18 track days this year, about 5 days doing the twisties in the SoCal mountains, and only got my wife on my bike once.

The reason for bringing the old dynasore bike (V65 Sabre) it is the only one she will ride on, and I still have to get hit in the back of the helmet (kay kabong elou) for lane splitting a bit agressivly.

Put Puting is OK on social occations, and I better get used to it, as the likelyhood of someone just pulling out on a wide open road in Thailand is close to 100%, and at speed that can certainly wreck your day.

I am considering of going through the hassle of importing my Aprilia Falco and my Honda V 65 Sabre. I may bring them both to Singapore on temporary imports (there is a AAA thing you can get for vehicles which is good in Singapore and Malaysia and sometimes in Thailand. )

What kinds of bikes are on these rides.

Don't forget that TC's always attract a premium due to the risk/settlement advantage, hence having to pay 1-2% on purchase, negating the rate premium...

That only applies if you get charged for your TC....So programs provide them free.

I noted this in the Issan form:

Aviation University in NKP

For the past 10 years I have been teaching everywhere in the world for Boeing. I am about to either transfer to Sinapore (if they let me) or just retire with my Thai wife to Thailand. I love to teach and have both Pilot and Maintence credentials...I have taught classes even at Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways...

I think I would proably qualify as an expert under the rule (Boeing certainly acknowledges that).

While most of this forum limits themselves to English....what about teach very technical subjects like flight training, or aircraft maintenance training?

I intend to keep a close eye on the Issan posting and see what developes....

Now that might be of some intrest to me....

I am the Senior Aircraft Maintenence Training Instructor for Boeing, and have and continue to teach world wide. I am also a Airline Transport Pilot. Since I am about to either transfer to Singapore, or just retire, but I do not want to really stop working (Most people that have been very mentally active just die)

I retired one time when I was 38. Plenty of money, 5000 acre ranch in the mountains, single....what more could I want.....There was nothing to challlenge my mind and I got in trouble....

I really want to keep a watch on this.

Suay you say?

Could this be where the word originated then? suay mak mak (very beautiful)

just a thought, but could explain a lot of things...

Glenbat:

Well the term could fit, but the reallity is around Surin four minority groups (Khmer, Suay, Lao and Yer)

each have a unique language and customs. I have found that they do not mix much and sometimes the villages are only 1 or 2 Km from each other.

While all are required to speak "ONLY" Thai in class when they go to school, once they are home it is back to the native tongue. In my wife's village only my wife and "the crazy woman" speak English, so I am left to struggle with my Thai. When they want to tune me out of the conversation, they switch to Suay.

Since some liked my little story about my wife, the story about the "crazy woman" has alway fasinated me.

She is a very nice person now in her 40's, and speaks with a British accent. Some years ago she showed up in a taxi from Bangkok telling everybody she needed to prepare for her wedding to her farrang. She did not have the money for the taxi, but her boyfriend was comming by train to Si Sa Ket in 2 days and would pay.

If anyone remembers the song "Delta Dawn" about a lady that dressed up and went down to the train station everyday waiting for her lover to arrive....could have been about the "crazy lady". Nobody came, and after 5 days her family borrowed some money to pay the taxi driver.

Well she sort of went off the deep end, turned inside herself, and would wear the same cloths for several weeks, sort of oblivious to how she looked. Talked a lot to her self. Worked farming and got super dark. Would just sit down by a tree and cry for hours. This all happened about 10 years before I went to the village with my wife. She was better by then, but when we showed up, it set her off again. At first she struggled to remember how to speak English, and I joked a lot with her, and made her my official interperter....

She went to Pattiya, a month after we left to visit a friend that had married a farang, and tried to "steel" him. She got sent back home. Now each time we visit she is medicated and does not come out of the house. Even when we had our big wedding with a gazillion watts comming from a 10' high pile of speakers, the marching band escorting me to my wife's family home, 11 chanting monks, and a regular 3 day drunken party, she never set foot ouside her home and there are only 18 houses in the whole village and she lives across the street. When I ask about her her mother just says she is sleeping right now. Better you not bother her.

If I every ran across the farrang that did this, I would proably kick his butt and cut his achiles tendon so he would remember each step he took in life after that what is action did, how much it cost what I think was a pretty nice person.

I am thai woman and isaan woman. Why you say woman isaan not pretty?

Maybe you are not so handsome. if you can't be nice, go home

Right On Nok89...

I too am married to an Issan woman she is 'Suay" (That is one of those minor ethnic groups in Thailand). We have been married for 10 years and are moving back from the USA to Thailand next year. Talk about an uncut diamond....Her family thought it was more important for her to take care of the younger sibling than go to school, she left home at 15 to work as a maid, at 21 decided that it was a dead end career and went back to her village and borrowed 75000 baht (at 10%/month intrest) and started a sewing company. (paid it all back in 6 months) I met her when she tried to translate my order in a resturant as my Thai is only understood by myself at times.

She had no intrest in men, and except for the mahdoo (fortune teller) I would have never had a chance.

It took a village meeting to lay down the terms of her comming to the USA to marry. We still laugh about it, but it was:

1. I agree not to sell her

2. I agree to give her a return ticket

3. Find where they have som thum in the USA

4. Can come home each year.

and a few other restrictions.

She spoke almost no English, but was fluent in Thai, Lao, and Suay. She went to school each day while I worked, did home work 2 or 3 hours a night, and in 6 months had taught herself how to type (in English) on a computer, and was prtty good at English. She bought herself a car before she knew how to drive, and could not remember which was left or right, but she does fine now.

I had a sick mother that was in her late 80's. She was bed ridden, and my wife never thought twice about taking care of her. A lot of stuff I know I would not have wanted or like to do.

Without her I would still think that being rich is still having money in your pocket the night before payday. Now I have my home in SoCal almost paid for. We own property in the mountains above Saraburi, and in Issan, and will build a home in the mountains and buy one other near the city.

After 6 years we went to her Village outside of Surin and had a BIG Issan wedding. I even wore my Jo Koh Bahn. Brought a tremedous amount of prestige to her family. (Besides I really do like mah loomb music. )

I think the biggest thing the the Farang has to learn is to respect the values and customs of thier wife. The amount of happiness it gives them will be repaid many times over.

So are Issan women the "BEST"....well I don't know them all but mine sure is.

For me at least this is really scarry.....I have a major payment of 2 million baht due in April. All my holding are in USA dollars....I go into this deal when the baht was 10% higher than now....a 10% devaluation of my money is bad, but 20% is really ugly. I have my final payment due in July.

Anybody have a crystal ball?????

Boy I watch these threads go on an on.......What part of 90 days in 6 months do you not understand. Rules change, and I'm sure they will change again....

If you want to stay for 6 months, get a non-immigrant visa. Even than you will have to make a border run at 90 days. If you are here on a retirement visa, or another type of O visa, and have a 1 year extension, then you can just mail in your 90 day report without leaving.

-SNIP-

I feel naked with only my helmet and leather jacket....

Not too surprising with no trousers

So that is the problem ehh??

I am always amazed at the ignorance of people riding without helmets. Here in the USA I have 18 days on the race track with my bikes this year,and even when I go out on a street bike, I feel naked with only my helmet and leather jacket....Course I do ride a 1000cc Aprilia croch rocket on the street, not the 100cc machines on Thailand.

I have seen way too many people go down and suffer through months of re-hab getting thenselve back to some semblence of normal. I have been in the emergency room as they were getting gravel scrubbed out of the road rash...not pretty. I went down earlier this year (on the track) at just over 200 kph, and was riding my back up bike 30 minutes later....(thanks to Good gear).

I will be moving to Thailand soon and have been really strugling about gear and temp/humidity there as well as the totally brain dead way autos and trucks ignore bikes.

Merry Christmas to you and your gang Martin. Sorry it is so long between visits. Should be back in Thailand and Surin in April.

Colombo:

Your statement is really shocking too me:

I had never been attacked before and was shocked. I had a knee jerk reaction and attacked him back with one swift blow and I walked away. Was I wrong to do this?

+

I have wandered through over 100 countries over the past 40 years, looking for my adventures and pleasures, and have been attacked more times than I can remember.....Did you do wrong??? Yes.....

If you have to engage a person do so in a manner so that it will never happen again...(i.e. kick his butt so bad that he will never try something like that again). A single blow and a half glass of beer is hardly convincing.

JMHO of course,,,,,but works for me. Better to have then whisper behind your back "dont screw with that old farlang" then have the same person try again.

My wife comes from a small village 30Km outside of Surin, everybody speaks Thai and Lao, 70% speak Khmer, but 100% also speak Kui.....(or Suay as the Thais call it). I can do Ok in Thai and Lao, but when they want to tune me out off they go in Kui....They also have some people in Cambodia that speak this language.

My wife told me that when ever they spoke Kui in school the teacher would fine them 1 baht.

Very Intresting.........The attitudes here.....almost like those folks in jail who's code of "honor" prohibits one another for pointing out those that break the rules.

I agree with LBD.....he runs a ligit buisness. We can all see those farangs that have flaunted the visa rules of Thailand and have resulted in more restrictions for everyone.

Since I am do not work in Thailand, and have no desire to do so, but do hope to enjoy my end days with my wife there, it would take very little of a person flaunting his lawlesness for me to take action to terminate it. I care little if "everyone" is my friend.

Dear Friends,

I have an Interesting Question that I ahd never thought of, nor

ever heard anyone mention. Yes, I have Retirement Visa, with the

mandatory 800,000 Baht in the bank. It is in a "savings account" that

does not bear Interest, because we are Farang "of course".

I don't use that money to live here, a Friend asked me,

CAN I STILL GET A RETIREMENT VISA IF I HAVE 800,OOO IN A CD

THAT BEARS 4% RETURN.

What a Great Question.

Anyone have an answer.

Also, young or old it is not neccessary to put anybody down,

we are all Foreigners living here and we have to deal with the

"ever changing rules" whether we like it or not.

Just a comment. If you can't go back to your native country and get a

real visa, not the 30 day kind, how can you possibly afford to live in Thailand?

I don't know of any country in the world where you can just go there

and cross the border indefinitely. Why is it whenever they catch some

Farang doing something wrong/breaking the law, whatever, the MAJORITY

are here on 30 day Visas. I rest my case.

Well you are almost right, but here in the USA we have about 12 million illegal Mexicans living here with no passports or visa, and getting all the asundy welfare benifits.....but as you state in "most countries"

This is reason number 3 I am moving to Thailand. Just fed up with the invasion.

I have been carefully reading all these post as they affect me as well.

1. Go to the Thai consulate in Canada and apply for a O visa, (But you need your marrage cert and a copy of you husbands ID or Passport).

2. The Visa is valid for 3 months. (This simply means you must arrive in Thailand within 3 months of the issuance.)

3. Do a border run every 90 days as the O visa is good for 1 year. (You will need the multiple entry type O I believe).

4. Next year do the same thing if you do not have 40k/mo income between the 2 of you. If you can show 40K baht/mo income just get it extended.

On the issuance of a O visa based on a spouce there is no requirement for money, only on the renewal.

That is how I understand the rules.

Back in the late 70's I bought a 5000 acre ranch. I had a fellow come out to drill some 6" stock wells for me. Well I ended up trading a 5th wheel trailer for his Cable Tool well drilling rig. (He had bought it and hated the work).

With this cable tool rig I was able to drill several 18" 900' well down through quite a bit of lava rock. My best well pumped 3500 gal/min. with a 200 HP electric motor.....

Doing these small holes like you are talking about I would drill with my smallest bit (8") and take a saw and slice cuts just the width of the cirlular saw blade around the bottom 15' or so of the 6"PVC pipe that I would glue. Most of the house hold and stock well I drilled were about 100'. I would then drop about 1 cu/yd of pea gravel around the outside of the casing, drop in a bag of cement to seal off the ground water and fill the rest with dirt. with a cement cap.

I could pull my rig over in the evening and raise the boom, back in the morning and drill the well, set the casing and be home the next night.....easy $1000. I really wish it was no so insanly expensive to bring equiptment too Thailand, as I still have about 10 tones of tools sitting on a friends ranch that I never go around to selling.

My wife and I will be moving to Thailand in a few years and we have 38 rai up in the mountains above Sara Buri. While we do have some irrigations water available, it would be nice to have a good producing well.

Thanks for all the input....I was not aware of the TV difference (and I love my 60" TV).

I am going to talk with a shipper and see if I can include a bunch of stuff as "hobby tools". I have a portable welder, was on the race track with my motorcyles, and have way too many tools for anything. (I like to do most all my own work). See if this will fly under the exemptions.

What I am finding is I have too much "stuff"

2 cars

1 Jeep

1 Diesel Pick Up

5 Motorcycles

Metal Milling Machine

I could proably fill up 2 40' containers with "stuff"

10 years ago I moved from a 5000 acre ranch (where space was never a problem) to the city, and stuffed a house and garage. Something has too go. The problem is I always by the "best" and I know what this stuff costs.....and somehow my nature just does not want to let it go for pennies.

I have 3 pack saddles for my mules (who are now gone) but they cost $650 ea. Plus the ropes, panyards, rain cov ers....all this for my elk camp that I will never use again. Hope I can find somebody that appreciates quality. (My guns are almost like children to me, each with stories and good memories, hard to sell your children).

I am committed to moving so guess it is like when you find you have cancer....get it cut off, and enjoy your life afterwards....

And in answer to a question....yes I have a Thai wife for the past 10 years.

The Pu-Yi-Ban in my wife's village was also a bit of a troublemaker, but being he held the position I treated him with all sorts of "respect"...or so it would seem to those watching.

After being married for 7 years, my wife's family always asked when we would finally get married (Thai style). We I decided to do it. On the day before the wedding I had a big party with lots of drinks, and food for about 200 people. The Pu-Yi-Ban was there. I bought him a fancy jacket to wear at the wedding, and I played a little drinking game with him, and he finally passed out. I pulled him over next to the pig pen and took a picture of him "sleeping with the pigs". Somebody?? gave a copy to his wife. Now he just says.....You BIG problem for me....I not drink with you any more.

He really stays away when I am in the village.

As for the reporting....Here in the USA for years if you were an alien you were supposed to go to the post office and report your current address to the INS every Janurary. Thailand having such a law is not unusual....a lot of countries do the the same.

It is there country and you are thier guest, so just comply.

When you see a traffic cop in any country he is not spying on every driver passing him by, just looking for ones breaking the rules. The Pu-Yi-Ban is doing the same thing.

I have been looking through a lot of boards to see about using my USA appliances and "stuff" when we move to Thailand.

I have a houseful of upscale stuff. I have looked at comprable stuff in Thailand and like mine more. I am building a home, and I do not want the expences or upkeep of running my own electrical generator.

I figure I can get my with 2KW - 3 Kw of power. Is there a solid state converter available? I have thought of a motor/generator set, but again will lead to high electric bills.

I lived on a boat for 3 years, and on a ranch generating my own electricity for 10 years, and am an electrical engineer, so not naive about this subject, but why re-invent the wheel if someone has a good solution.

Well, very interesting.

I wonder what affect this will have on people transferring say $100K into their account to buy a condo??

Do they have to wait a year to use the money?? Regards, BD

BD

This exactly my problem today. I bought some land (i.e. my wife) and we plan to build a home on it later this year. I also put a deposit on 38 rai of land near by. I need to have 2,000,000b in April and another 1,000,000b in May. and finally 3,000,000b in July for these projects.

I was panniced enough with the strengh of the baht in the past few months. Sould the baht go to 38 GREAT for me, as long as I can get my money in. Right now I am planning on just deposits in Singapore, and then taking $1,000 traveler checks to Thailand and making a day of cashing them at the bank unless I can get the land owner to accept them....(don't think so as it is an old Thai lady, and the Contractor has screwed up every time I have given him dollars).

Ordianrily I would just take the cash, but these amounts would be a bit hard to replace should something happen at this point in my life.

Another thing I have considered is to go to Bangkok Bank in Los Angeles and see if I can make a baht exchange and a deposit from that bank to mine directly. ?? I will talk to them Thursday when I am in Los Angeles.

QUOTE:

'The BOT, therefore, decided to implement an unremunerated reserve requirement on short-term capital inflows. Financial institutions are required to withhold 30 percent of foreign currencies bought or exchanged against the Thai baht, except those related to trades in goods and services, or repatriation of investments abroad by residents. The details of the measure and related operational procedures are summarized as follows'

I was about to transfer the equivalent of 2million baht to cover the cost of a refurbishment, would they withold 30%, what I don't understand is the 'except those related to trades in goods and services' Is the use of my money in this instance to purchase a service. They started demolishing the interior of my condo today, there is no way I can transfer another 600,000 baht and leave it sitting in a Thai bank for a year earning minimal interest.

Would appreciate any knowledgable answers to my question, Thanks

I have exactly the same problem. I need to have 5,000,000 baht in the country by April. Since there is no currency import ceiling anymore. I think I will go to Singapore do a Dollar/baht exchange, and fly to BKK.

Still a bunch of currency to carry, unless I can get travelers checks in baht denomination in Singaprore.

Thanks for all the info....

I am over 60 so no 401k penalty.....but I earn over $100k/yr and my wife earns about zip.

I have talked over the tax situation in Singapore, and looks like I can avoid some by:

A. Having my residence here in Thailand, and comming home most weekends.

B. I do a lot of international travel working, so that amount is also excluded.

( I was told I was liable only for income tax in Singapore on moneys I made while actually in Singapore).

Also I can tele-comute some days.

There was an intesting article on the Drudge Report this evening on the ever increasing number of people giving up USA citizenship because of the taxes. The article focused on a US citizen living and working in Geneva for the past 16 years, and had dual citizenship. They actually had to shop around to find an embassy for an appointment as a lot of countries USA embassies were booked up for 3 months. The article pointed out how the USA was the only country that taxed its citizens throughout the world, and also the recent change in the IRs rules that eliminated a lot of the deductions and how income was taxed which you alluded to earlier in the post.

I can see my taxes will need a profesional to prepare next year. (At least I am getting out of the stock market so no more 20 page stock trade reports to do.)

I do have the option of working as a consultant for Boeing, which would give me better deductions, but less benifits.

I have not asked anyone yet, because I do not think I can, but I have $400,000 long term loss carry over that I have only been able to use $3000/yr of. Can this be used to offset the gains in my 401K??