Pdaz

What I meant was after being legally married to a Brit for a number of years it would be nice if she could get a passport or travel document that made it easier to travel when accompanied by her Brit partner.  Pie in the sky ? Yes. But I can dream. For me the only disadvantage to being married to a Thai partner is the pain of travelling with her Thai passport. If we are in the UK and on a whim decide to go to Italy she can't unless we've sorted a Shengen visa in BKK first.

Same for a raft of other countries, visa free or visa on arrival for Brit but none for Thai..

Yes I know she can gain a UK passport if we go live in the UK but that's unrealistic as I haven't lived there for 30 years and my career is based in Asia.  Oh well. Rant over :)

27 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

It is true, the VFS website makes it very clear that the new scanning procedure doesn't apply to visit visas.



Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Thanks my wife must have missed it.. She had a big flap on yesterday to get it all printed ready for her appointment. 

5 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

I would say say that a paltry 40,000 Baht p.m. financial requirement is a pretty decent concession.

 

Wife and 2 kids in Thailand.... £930 p.m.

 

Wife and 2 kids in UK... more than double that.

No kids, Wife pays our bills. I prefer the retirement extension. Less paperwork.

40k a month isn't a concession it's their estimate of the bare minimum required for a foreigner and family to exist in Thailand.

They are trying to prevent the country being swamped with the Worlds poor and the Thai Govt receiving a big medical bill sometime in the future. Hardly altruistic. Lucky for many the requirement continues to be "grandfathered"

In the UK you could be out of work and recieve up to 28K GBP a year in benefits. A tad more generous I think.

1 hour ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Thanks for the clarification.

Sent from my SM-A500F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Oh. If that's true my missus will be having fun tommorow then :)

Yes, I have no intention of every living there. My wife enjoys a holiday there but has no aspirations to become 'A Brit'

However she is married to one so some sort of concession would be encouraging.. But no.

Guess we have to look at it from the other way around. What concessions do the Thai Govt give us for being married to a Thai ? Basically none. You can apply for an extension to stay every year. But beyond that, no status or guarantees.

We're being treated shi77ily by both Govt's in reality but I guess at least she could gain UK residency eventually if I was willing to live in the UK for a few years... More than I will ever get from the Thai govt I suppose.

Funny how the UK govt seems to bend over backwards to assist migrants, the stateless and the potless. But doesn't make an easier path for the self supporting, qualified and solvent professional.

Got a bit hot then, I misread the title as "BMA promotes carnal tourism"  

5 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Wow, that's new.  I didn't have to do that with the Marriage Visitor visa last year.  What a pain.

 

Yeah me either.. Glad I spotted it. Introduced earlier this year.

Yes, silly as it seems even though she is your legal spouse you have to get a "standard visit visa " along with the rest of the Worlds tourists. No concessions for being a Brit's wife.  From memory its about 4500 baht for 6 Months and 15K for 2 years and 30k for 5 years.

I'm applying for another 2 year one as sometimes I make a trip on short notice.

Be aware that you now have to download and print a barcoded cover sheet for each section of the evidence you provide.

All the evidence has to be on an A4 sheet for easy scanning by the visa staff. So anything smaller than A4 ( like a bankbook) has to be photocopied onto an A4 sheet.

Check it out at http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Thailand/pdf/scanning-process-docs.pdf   if you haven't done so.

My wife is going up to Bangers on Tuesday arvo. Was going to be Monday but that was a "premium" timing and they wanted to charge an extra 3000 baht..... F F S !

Good luck.

26 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

very interesting...looks like malaysian food has got a lot of indian influence...I useta think of it as simply malay food like what ye get in Indonesia (satay, rendang, ikan bakar, etc) but that appears not to be the case...looks delicious...

 

never spent much time in Malaysia except to get a visa in Penang but then I ate either indian food from the restaurants on Chulia St (tandoori, curries. etc) or chinese (noodles, stir fries, etc) from the food hall in the shopping center...misconceptions abound...

 

 

Yes it is really an Indian dish in origin. I was using "Malaysian" in the sense that this comes under the umbrella of coming from Malaysia. Malaysian food covers the three main ethnic groups. Malay, Indian and Chinese. Some of the popular dishes have been adopted and modified by other groups. Chinese Hainan Chicken rice also has a halal Malay version and even Malay Satay can sometimes be found being cooked by the Chinese but using pork.  Intermarriage between the groups has led to some wonderful food.  Peranakan  and Nonya styles ( From marriages between Malays and Chinese ) and also the Portuguese influenced food in Malacca.  

13 minutes ago, InMyShadow said:

Just one more thing , The water temp flowing from the bath tap into the bath directly mixes hot n cold perfect, it only loses hot water pressure when "climbing " up to the shower head. Would this conform what your telling me? sorry Im not that technically minded

If the water is being mixed perfectly at the bath mixer ( good temp, equal mix of hot.cold ) but you are only getting cold or warm from the shower head. Sounds like the showerhead . As the water should already be mixed before it arrives at the showerhead.

Is the showerhead or shower hose clogged ? can you remove the showerhead and see what the water flow/temp is like at the end of the shower hose. If it is the same flow/temp as what comes out of the bath mixer - The the shower head is your problem..

Another thought.. I'm guess you have to select which way the water goes using the bath mixer.. Either "down" to the bath or "up" to the shower.. Maybe it is the diverter valve in the mixer unit that is faulty - clogged or only opening partially. 

17 minutes ago, johng said:

On the other hand it might be criminal negligence on the part of the construction company.
The drivers have enough to contend with allready (almost sensory overload) avoiding all the other traffic,pedestrians,soi dogs,hanging wires ,advertising signs.

When soi Buakhow was concreted a few years ago they left all the drain holes open and unmarked..I almost drove into one at the south Pattaya road end..foolish of me to think that a road (although under construction)
open for public use would be safe to actually use !

In this case the road has been dug up for Months. It's daylight, the holes are along the side and not easily accessible.

The driver has either tried to park and not noticed the holes or tried to take a short cut and not noticed the holes.

Maybe, if there was no warning signage/lighting and an unsuitable cover had been used to top the hole  and it collaped under the weight of the car I could accept it as negligence. But to me this is just a simple case of the driver not seeing the hazard - They were negligent and not paying attention. Surely just the fact that there are major roadworks and other holes visible there. Should make any driver proceed with caution ? 

6 minutes ago, InMyShadow said:

Would it be better to buy a wall mounted heater next to the shower head rather than under the sink? strangely enough when the plumber installed it I had exactly the same problem and he said buy a large shower head and that fixed it so I could control the temp all the way.But the money Im wasting on shower heads now (2) I could have put towards a new heater (condo)

A wall mounted heater could improve your shower but there are downsides.

First you need to check the output of your current unit. How many watts is it rated at ?  If it is only a 3000-4000 watt unit you could buy a larger 6000-8000 watt under sink unit. If it is already a 6000 watt unit the only benefit of getting a new wall mounted one would be the shorter pipe run from the unit to the shower head - shorter pipe means less flow restriction.  There is a chance that your old unit is 'furred up" inside. Just like electric kettles hard water deposits build up and reduce the heaters efficiency over time. So replacing it may be the answer, especially if you were happy with it's performance a few years back.

Wine is healthy. They should reduce tax on wine to zero %

It's to do with flow rate. They aren't equal. The cold water exits your pump ( or the main supply ) at a given pressure and flow. it it split into two pipes. One goes to your heater, one directly to the shower mixer.  To effectively heat the water the heater has to reduce the incoming flow ( slowing the water's passage down enables effective heat transfer from the coils ) this means that there is less water arriving at your mixer from the "hot" pipe.

Only solution is to buy a more powerful heater that doesn't restrict the flow so much - even flow at both sides of the mixer. Or install a central water heater or solar. 

This is a common problem with heat at point heaters in Thailand. Nothing to do with the shower head.

And precisely the reason I have a solar heater and 3/4" supply pipes.

Away from home at the moment. But luckily the cook here isn't so bad. Great Malaysian roti canai, with chicken curry for lunch.

Great with a nice bottle of dry cider !

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

I think this will be known as the "Trump effect", and we will see more.

 

God help us all...

Most actors and celebs seem to me more from the liberal left

Driving without due care and attention 

Triumph Street Triple

Yes, there's no way they will be forced to work 36 hours a week..

3 hours ago, lespaulTV said:

Anyone think there are too many baht bus?

When you see five of them cruising along with only one punter in the back.... Or parked five in a row outside central.

Far too many.. 

2 hours ago, lonewolf99 said:

the problems is there are too many cars on the roads...if it was just Baht busses and motorbikes life would be so much simpler....They should have park and ride sites set up North South and East of the town and have the Baht busses start and stop all ther runs there....and then how about self driving electric baht busses - how would that work ?????

 Alternatively, halve the amount of bahtbuses and ban coaches from central Pattaya. Prevent motorcycle rental places from parking dozens of bikes on the public road. The stop all the double parking and enforce traffic laws. 

Do away with the stupid "coned" off areas in front of shopping centers and all the taxi trash that parks there.

If you want to walk or take public transport "up to you" but I rather like my car thanks..

Another quality tourist here for the temples, food, sand and sun...

Confiscate and crush on second offence. Introduce parking meters and employ hundreds of traffic wardens on an incentive driven wage package.. Sick of the roads being monopolized by the greedy, selfish taxi and bus driving mafia.

Well done the Army.. Keep hounding them.