mattias33

only 2 houses are closer than me and im only 50 metres away ,close the windows put the air on and i dont hear a thing ,apart from the motorbike horns in the morning........

My advice is to either join them or better yet, those 2-3 nights a week go stay somewhere else. Use it as an excuse to have a mini vacation and have fun.

Good idea. To make it cheap and convinient, rent/buy 2 houses. One for the 4-5 nights/week and one for the other 2-3 nights/week. (Are they really that often nowadays?? ).

Or maybe get the authorities to understand that having a 35 decibel loud discotec all night long in a area where quite alot people live is not suitable?

I`ve lived quite close to it before and could not sleep. Was´nt really into joining it either and it did not suit my situation to live some place else every time the party was on, i have full understanding and compassion for the people that live in this area and have a job to do the next day. Shout it down or move it to a better suited area. Soi reaggae for instans.

I live near Bandon hospital Bophut,and am looking for a dentist to do a scrape,clean and polish.Have checked out one place near fisherman village who say they have a special offer on for 1200baht,but i have no idea if this is a reasonable price or not....................any advice,information would be appreciated.

Only been to one dentist in Samui, the one right after tesco (heading bophut), and she was very good. I think the price was around 1200, might even be 1500, for a check,scrape,clean and polish, so it sounds like a reasonable price.

Any updates on this story? Hear all kind of rumors about Paul. Anyone got some facts to share?

Thinking cockroaches are disgusting whereas they are actually a delicacy.

Haggling for a 10 Bt discount on a tshirt although we are all millionaires.

Bargain has nothing to do with money, it´s a sport !

Anyway, typical tourist would like you say spend 30 minuites to get a 10 baht discount on a t-shirt, then sit down and have that 120 baht singha and top it off with a 300 baht tip for "good service".

Falang ba!

But they are a few that live good on our behaviour and won´t complain.

As a sidepoint i can say that my (thai) wife ask me from time to time what i do on the computer and i now showed her the to links about thaiway and falangway and read a few of the complaints for her and she just said "this people not have anything more important to do than to sit around and find thigs and subjects to complain about?". Fact being that probably the thais dont care about "them and us" behaviour at all. But offcourse that does not mean that we can´t have our fun!

I have noticed they have a serious lack of geography knowledge. I have a large world map on my wall and I've brought girls over and asked them to show me where Thailand is. About 50% can and it takes some of them a little bit to find the word Thailand (the map is written in Thai and English) before pointing to it. Asking to point out South America, France or almost anywhere else and they just don't know. It's not their fault, it the Thai education's fault!

I once showed a girl one of the local maps of Samui, she looked at it for a while and then said, "Where's Bangkok?" The girl was new here and from Issan so I guess we have to give her a small break on that one. But still.....

Asking people to point out France on a worldmap you will have a big percentage that would´nt make it in the U.s either.

People that live abroad and people that travels, generally have more geographic knowledge. People that never leave their country could´nt care less. Dont know if i would classify this as typical Thai lack of education though.....

9PM? I thought it was 8, I'm going to be late now, I probably won't get a seat!

Good news suegha, beleive it or not but you will actually be early!

I see. Thanks for all the info

Yes, a creditcard would be nice to have. We have a oneyear old daughter and you never know what can happen.

A little extra can come in handy when something unexpected happens.

Mattias 33:

May I ask what papers the bank required when you applied for the credit card?

I have a non-immigrant visa but no wp at the moment.

Thank you.

I actually did´nt bring any papers at all. Only my passport. But i´ve been a costumer in the bank for 5 years and quite alot money been in that account from time to time, possible it would have been different if i was a new costumer.

I tied the creditcard to the account i´ve had for 5 years. Still have not tried it out but there is supposed to be a 50 000 baht credit. It also have a visa tied to the account wich debit the money i have in the bank. That also did not take anything except the passport to open, and like i said i was a tourist when i opened that one.

Everything i refer to is in the mainoffice of bangkok bank. In bangkok. Dont know how the procedures in samui are. Heard about people being asked for everythig from housepapers,wp,visa and so on.

Non immigrant visa at some banks, work permit at others

This up to the bank and branch.

I don't have one of those so I guess I have to keep all my money buried under my bungalow. Oh well, their loss.

My private account i opened a few years ago as a tourist in Bangkok bank. I put down a hotel as my adress and told them i never want any mail.

Just recently opened another savings-account as a private person, also without wp. I do have a non immigrant visa but i never show it in banks. No problems. But i always open in the mainoffice in Bangkok. Dont know about samui.

With visa card (50k baht credit i got now, i been a costumer for 5 years dont know if that has anything to do with it).

You need a valid passport offcourse, but nobody ever checked the visa. Still even without the credit it´s better than keeping the money under the bungalow (i also know where you live, poorsucker are welcome to pm me and we have ourselves a night out ).

You can use it also as a paycard in seven and tesco and some restaurants. Get one koohesti, now!

There is going to be a fundraising event at Admiral Lord Nelson in Bangrak to raise money to help with the medical bills that are going to be coming in as her recovery will take months, if not years. It will begin at 4:00 on Friday, Aug. 15th.

Hey Mattias37, maybe this is big enough news for the Samui Express? I'll check with you each time to make sure it's ok. OK? But I doubt you can stay sober long enough to even read the paper's first page.

Thanks for the suggestion but if it was up to me you would have been fired a long time ago, so dont check with me. However if you should check with someone you should do it with the one you write about.

Admiral lord nelson moneyraise. Sounds worth an ad to me. But knowing you right they will only get it if they hand out free food and drinks to you.

it's as interesting as the opening of a new optical shop

Is it really? Does that mean it is big enough news to make it all the way to the amazing samui express?

My nephew is from Sweden and he has a hotel business in Austria. His kids (6,8 and 10) went to an Austra school but they had difficulty when they got back.

Now they study again in Sweden and while they are in Austria for the winter winter season the kids will use school books that he will bring with him and has a Swedish au-pair that will work with the kids. A friend of him also in Austria has been in Africa for two years and was very happy with education via internet. I don't know the details but it seems that kids from Sweden have several options and the internet online education looks like a good solution for your friends. It will keep them in 'the system' which will be benificial when they return.

Putting them in a Thai school can be good for social contacts and for picking up some culture.

Agree with everything in your post khun jean. I printed it and past it on to them. Lets see how they decide to do.

Thx

I just want to add to this to be careful of birth "packages" advertised at Bangkok Samui Hospital. In our case the bill turned out to be way, way over the agreed rate. Granted there were some additional complications with the birth but they never kept us in the loop despite me asking constantly (no one had a clue). It was a major hassle to get a detailed itemized bill and when I finally did the charges were just ridiculous for every tiny service and item they provided (which I might add we didn't ask for mostly).

All in all the service and standard medical treatment is excellent but the way they underhandly pile on riduculous charges and the hopeless administration makes me want to avoid the place.

Have to add that Bangkok samui is very negotiable. Also after you are done you can get the bill down. About a year or so ago i went there and they where going to do 10 (i think) different tests on my blood. I asked for the costs and a nurse showed me a paper wich at the bottom said 3500. We agreed on the price. When i came to the cachier she said "12 500 sir!". I said "no way!". I asked to see the manager or the plce, who came, and i explained to her that the nurse gave me the oppinion it was going to be 3500. Turned out all of the tests where listed on the paper with price after and 3500 was only the bottom one, but the way she had it writen down, plus her speaking and pointing ws missleading me. Anyway, the manager understood after i told her that there is no way to pull this with me. She took the bill from 12500 baht down to 6200 in about 5 minuites talk.

I been in Bangkok hospital in Bangkok. Very proffessional place btw. I asked them how many places they are represented in. He said a few places (dont remember them) but not samui. I told him that they have one in samui aswell. He said "yeah i know, but the one in samui we dont consider a real hospital".

Well, after some experience i´m with him in a way. Still it´s better than nothing off course. They do save some lifes up there every year. For emergensies i will keep using them. But whenever i have the choice to leave the island i will never hersitate. Bangkok or at at lest surath. For sure.

I have always payed 1000 Baht tax every month.

Until now , got married today so I had to pay 20.000 baht in back taxes.

Now I have to pay 2000 baht in taxes every moth

there's at least 75% of the whole story missing ...

Have to have 40.000 baht in monthly income to get 1 year extension of stay.

Earlier I stayed on Multiple Non-B Visa with only 30.000 baht in income

You`ll get a multiple non-o visa without showing any money now that your married. 500 ringit (5000 baht) in penang.

Also since your wife now own 50 % of your company anyway, you might consider putting it in her name and you will see the tax go from 1000/month to 1200/year. At least mine did.

You also might consider getting a new adviser.... .

And no, dont ever get the idea from this post that marriage is profitable!!! But no reason not to use the few things that actually can bring you benefits.

Btw, congratulations to you and your wife!

-When you come?

-Afternoon.

Wow, lets make sure our watches are sycronised exactly on the tenth of a second. Just incase we might use them sometime!

Thaitime dont require any watch at all.

Actually one of the first things i fell in love with on my first trip to Thailand from a stressed out lifestyle in Europe was the "i come when i come" -attitude. Hope they not change it too much. Whole country sycronising the clocks sounds a bit extreme even in my European ears!

Catching up with old friends in Sweden at the moment and it turns out one of them is moving to Thailand with his family for a year or so. They are thinking seriously about Samui and of course ask me alot since i been living there some years now. Most of the issues i am a good adviser and can answer the questions but the main issue for these people is the situation for the kids. I already advised them to check out previous links on this forum about schools, hospitals and so on, but im going there in two days for a bbq so it would be nice to have some updates. Since im not on the island at the moment i only hear rumors now and would like your guys oppinions. I know the money interest in the school-buisness is big. So many scams and dirty tricks against eachother to gain students. And hopefully this could be a thread without "parents" who are new users with only one post. Bluewater, and open gates, just seem to be in so much dirty tricks against eachother that i am afraid to actually advise anybody to go to either of them. I did not til recently realize that there is so much money in the school-buisness that it is actually worth all the dirty tricks that goes around.

So, to make this thread slightly different from the other school-threads i would like to have some advise about the Thai schools. The kids are 7 and 10 years and will be in Thailand for one year. Whatever they miss over there they can catch up in summer-school when they come home again and they will be carrying the Swedich schoolbooks for the year to read at home anyway. The trip will give them a bit different experience in life and hopefully a thaischool will give them some different attitudes and perhaps new friends. And there need to be somebody speaking englich on the school offcourse. I know you guys will turn this into advising bluewater or open gates. Maybe its the only options for foreign kids, but it just dont feel right somehow to advise anybody to walk in that teathre, where it seems no limit at al to get the money out of the parents, or am i wrong? This is just about the kids and if there is not good enough alternatives they might aswell move to another destination in Thailand. There minds are not set on Samui yet.

Thankful for your help guys.

So, did this English guy come and inspect the premises, have a chartered independent accountant audit the books, have a lawyer examine the title, etc.? Probably not. Would you do that, and more, in your home country? How many bars make big profits you can take top the bank each month? Or is there something magical about bars in paradise?

My understanding is different and it was told to me by a guy (Peter) who had loaned THB1.2 million Baht to a bar owner (named Paul). Peter was evidently a neighbour or friend that was trying to help out Paul who was havig some "short-term" financial problems. Peter had no intention of owning the bar at all, just lending him the cash. The same sort of due diligence should have been done and the same sort of comments can be made about someone lending money without security etc but the motives were different.

While Peter is certainly feeling bad about this transaction he is feeling slightly better lately as he is learning that he is not the only one that lent money to Paul as the total known debt at this stage is around THB5 million (he has met a few of the otrher creditors waiting outside the bar which is now closed).

(I couldn't think of how to get Mary into the story so will have to do without it)....

"short-term finansial problems" that required to loan 1.2 million baht from a "friend"????

Knowing Paul a bit, not exactly the brag around money spending lifestyle, cheap house and renting his bike from me (dont worry, got it back), i have to wonder how he ever got into that finansial situation. 5 million baht must have taken him some years to spend? Working in the bar almost every day and living cheap. Unless he was into gambling or something?

Anybody know real facts around this story? Just dont make any sence at all to me......

Claude, i used copper/silver ionisation for quite some time in Florida but would like to emphasize that a shock chlorinisation (twice a month!) was absolute mandatory to avoid yellow and green algae as well as to prevent a built-up of various other bacteria.

The "shock chlorinisation" is also turning the water yellow/green as far as i experienced.

Well, swimmingpools, it´s all science to me anyway and when you manage to get the pool green you get all kind of different advice. I think there is just as many different answers as the people you ask. Everybody have their own oppinion. Experience your own pool and learn how to keep it good and then shut up about it, because whatever you say, you are wrong!

Sorry, i forgot to end the previous post by telling you guys the happy ending of the story. Despite the problems in the beginning my boy is now alive and well and turning 8 months in a week from now.

Good luck to the op however you decide to do.

Last time I went. 1 hour 40 min to Penang with firefly started 16.00. (3500 baht)

Nice dinner and a evening with Carlsberg.

Got back next afternoon.

Nice relaxed trip.

Thats my kind of visarun. Think i will try that the next time!

Anyway, all you other people who seem to be in a real hurry (can´t beleive anybody would ever join a roadtrip with a guy that calls himself schumacher, but thats me, silly guy who prior safety on the trips and value my life perhaps to high), you guys should really try herberts visa-run. Say what you want about good old herbiebut he sure is fast!!!

Hi.

Me and my wife had our first child in december in Samui international Hospital. Everything was ok during the whole pregnensy and as long as no complications are there i can strongly recommend that place. Nice staff, good priced, and clean and nice environment. However, our son was born with a dubbel pnemonia and needed respirator. We (first then) learned that only two hospitals (bangkok samui and goverment in nathon) has pediatritians, even though they all deleiver babies. We also discovered that only one (!!!!) hospital has respirators for babies. So we where sent to the government hospital in nathon. Allthough they are struggeling with poor equipment, old and worn buildings, i have to say the skills among the staff seems a bit higher than the rest of the hospitals, probably because they get to practice the real stuff a bit more than the expensive touristplaces. Anyway, we then got sent to another government hospital in surath, witch i did not at all approve of, 50 people sharing rooms is not what i would call a suitible bacteria free environment for a 2 week old baby with a lung-infection. So i transfered my boy to the nearest private hospital, thaksin hospital in surathani.

I have my own kind of advansed medical history over the last 2 years and quite alot of experience of thai hospitals by now. I would say, if we are having another child or if we get sick i would either aim for bangkok or go to surathani Thaksin hospital. Even the goverment hospital in Bangkok is ok. Bangkok hospital in Bangkok is very good. And Thaksin in surath is the first hospital in the south where i felt like i actually was meathing real doctors and got real answers. And it is not expensive either.

To the op, i guess there are many succesful deleiverys in samui hospitals, but when thing go wrong i dont know, i just dont feel safe. Also my own medical experiences and the things they told me in for instans Bangkok samui hospital (allthough i admit its fansy) have made me wonder how thai doctors are schooled. For instans an "orthopaedist" in Bangkok samui hospital told me on an x_ray 2 months ago, that my blodcirkulation in my hip was dead from alcohol drinking and i should never drink again and needed operation. I now went to a real hospital in sweden and the vascular problems was solved with medication in a week. Besides he told me that alcohol is actually good for bloodcirkulation and would like to know what kind of medical investigations the thai doctor taken part of that the rest of the world didn´t know about.

To sum it up: Thaksin hospital in surathani. Or go to Bangkok. But offcourse thats only one mans oppinion.

, thailand has enough girls well paid, well educated, speaking english very well to fall into the trap of greedy girls.

i must admit finding such girls in samui is pretty hard , but in bangkok it's very easy,

As I have read on this forum and been told by a Thai, educated Thai girls with good jobs aren't interested in farang men. The exception is if you get them over 30 and still single. At that point a farang is better than being an old maid.

Well, the "money-factor" gets a bit smaller with education offcourse, even though you would need a hel_l of an education in Thailand to become rich. And the girls with previous experience in being beaten up by their thai men also go for the farangs. Education has little to do with the choise of partner as i see it. I always liked asian girls more than european girls, am i low on education then? Or how do we qualify a western man in this "love proves my status" - game?

interesting thing, i know a lot of people around samui and i like to speak to people (in thai language) when i'm going out(no matter what gender or sexual orientation) and i never met a girl that is working honestly during the day.

i don't say this doesn't exist as i know it does, you have exeptions like everywhere and for every purposes.

the "respectable" girls that i know mainly working in bkk airways, hospital or pharmacy do sometime go to the greenmango but to enjoy, their salary covering very well their expenses(around 30k/month for the two last professions)

And to the post nrj did i can surprisingly tell you that i have met a girl in reggae pub that was working for bkk airways and she was more than willing and infact puching to go with me. Also when i was a month in Bangkok hospital in Bkk i got several suggestions. Most of them are probably not aloud to mention here so i won´t.

And as a matter of fact, come to think of it i wonder if not even the pharmasy girls are a bit over the top flirty to me sometimes....

All kidding aside, i admit that there off course is a money factor in the farang-thai couple, but still we have to keep the eyes open for other "normal" reasons. Some people are just more interessted in people from other places, i myself was never particulary interrested in Swedich girls, forigners had a lot bigger mystery around them. They are different. And also the fact that the average westerner, at least in the age 30-50, is brought up with treating women with respect, dont beat your wife, et. Something that the "average" thai man (at least according to alot of thai women i know) is not brought up with. Or even the least bit familiar with from what i hear.

And the topic itself is as usual the "i met this girl, what do you guys think, is she a prostitute?". Imo all the op:s in these topics answer their own questions already by opening the threads.....

The whole reason for people making suggestions on how to get the taxis to stop scamming tourists, is the lame police. Allthough koohesti´s idea seems great, i have to say that the real problem is the police. Laws are simply being ignored. Taxi-meter is the law of Thailand and it works fine everywhere else. Just as helmet when you drive a bike or smoke-ban indoors or any other law that is not enforced in samui. I dont see why we should come up with new laws and ideas, when the real problem infact is that the police are busy with other things than to see laws being enforced and tourists being safe.

Shout down the thai lottery and tv-system for some weeks might bring the police back to work?

This thread is becoming very interresting and it is off course a very important subject for many people. Nothing is more important than your own child and education is a big concern of every parent.

I for one appreciate the two salespersons from the schools, bluewater and open gates, it was nice that some facts got cleared up and presented the right way. Allthough a spoke-person of a company is always good with the words and i would prefer to hear reviews from parents instead of spokes-persons of the schools. It´s an important enough subject to maybe make a pinned thread about. Voting thread or review thread or wathever.....

Anyway, i for one keep on reading this thread. Thanks for any contributions, very interresting so far!

From nyidanmark.dk (published by the Danish Immigration services):

How long can you stay?

A visa allows you to stay a maximum of 90 days per 6 months in Denmark.

A visa normally grants you the right to stay in the entire Schengen region. The Schengen countries are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

If you are a citizen of a country with no visa requirement to enter Denmark, you can also stay in the Schengen region for a maximum of 90 days per 6 months.

The six-month period is calculated from the date of first entry into the Schengen region.

Both the entire day of the date of entry and the entire day of the date of exit are included in the number of days you have stayed in the Schengen region - regardless of the time of day the entry or exit took place.

It sound pretty clear to me that arriving on June 6th you would be on overstay if leaving September 5th.

Sophon

Yes, i am also afraid that it will be an overstay. Have to call them tomorrow and ask what that means over here. I´ll come back with the answer in case anyone is in a similar situation. Thanks.

They have them in stock but donot know about spare parts, you should ask them but english is limited and they donot reply to emails sent in english.

Thanks alot for the info whitesand. I´m going to call them when i come back to Thailand. Do you know if they have them in the shop to look at and testdrive, or do they only import what they already sold?

And one more question for you. How about the spareparts, do you know if they also sell these? Thanks for all the help.

Ok, thanks. I´m gonna pay them a visit in september when i come back. I might bring a thai with me then to clear up things.

Thanks alot.