sigmondfreed

What, exactly, are you concerned about?

You said she appears healthy and says she is not hungry, so what is your anxiety about?

What law says 'we must all eat in the morning'?

Let her rule her own eating. You will still be a good parent.

Hello,

Four of us are going to visit Krabi and Hat Yai for about 4 days each.

I am looking for clean, friendly hotels or guest houses preferably in the 500 to 1500 baht range per night. I can and will spend more, however, if the places are worth it.

Recommendations are greatly appreciated regarding hotels and things to do in those areas within my timeframe.

Thanks!

Oh, I am generally familiar with northern Thailand (yes, I know this is in the south of Thailand) so we are not interested in seeing an elephant show or feeding monkeys, or 'first-time Thailand tourist' sorts of stuff.

I had to laugh when I read your reply about the cigarette/viagra hawkers. They drive me nuts, also!

I just returned from Mae Sai yesterday, for a 30 day stamp run across the border, and got to practice my 'frustration tolerance' for a few hours while my Thai friend shopped till she dropped.

Like several other posters have already stated, the Thailand/Myanmar border seems as calm as ever, despite the recent problems in Myanmar. In fact, there were almost no non-asian tourists there (I avoid the f****g word, since it is essentially racist) and getting through immigration was a breeze.

I recommend taking some time to look around Mae Sai, away from the border as it is a nice little town, in my opinion.

Take care!

Rules of the Road - Thai Style

• A vehicle following you no closer than 10 cm is not considered to be tailgating.
  
• If the driver in front of you, especially a truck, flashes his left turn signal a few times, he may be telling you that it is safe to pass. But he may be wrong.
  
• If the driver in front of you, especially a truck, flashes his right turn signal a few times, he may be telling you that it is not safe to pass. And he will usually be right.
  
• If a driver approaching from the opposite direction flashes his headlights it may mean, "police ahead, watch your speed", or "don't pass that car, you fool, I'm coming too fast!" or "I have screwed up big time by trying pass this vehicle so please give me some room by heading for the shoulder."
  
• The largest vehicle has the right of way, except elephants always have the right of way and water buffalos come second.
  
• Expect buses, especially orange ones, to overtake on curves, hills and as you are approaching from the opposite direction.
  
• If you are on a motorcycle, and see an oncoming bus, expect another bus to overtake it; especially if the road has no shoulders.
  
• If you are overtaking a vehicle, expect another driver to decide to overtake you at the same time.
  
• If you are on a motorcycle or bicycle, keep as careful a watch behind as in front of you.
  
• If you have an accident, you will most likely be blamed.
  
• Learn to read the Thai script for Man and Lady for service station restrooms
  

According to Consumer Reports magazine, "The National Review reports that Americans believe organic food is healthier by a 2-1 margin, despite the lack of any evidence supporting this. When you take the exact same strain of a plant and grow it in two different ways, its chemical and genetic makeup remain the same. One may be larger than the other if one growing method was more efficient, but its fundamental makeup and biochemical content is defined by its genes, not by the way it was grown. Consumer Reports found no consistent difference in appearance, flavor, or texture. A blanket statement like "organic cultivation results in a crop with superior nutritional value" has no logical or factual basis."

It would depend on how long you were going out for and how cold you try to keep the room, I would guess.

Can anyone verify that Thai Citizens can enter Mexico upon arrival without a VISA?

My wife and I have been researching this same question for our Thai friend.

According to one source from Quantis, for entering Mexico from the U.S.:

National THAILAND (TH) /Embarkation U.S.A. (US)

Destination MEXICO (MX)

MEXICO (MX)

Passport required.

Visa and Tourist Card/FMT form with consular stamp required.

Visa is valid for up to 90 days after date of issue and good

for 1 entry only.

Visa in expired passport is valid as long as the passenger

also carries a valid passport.

Minors under 14 years of age, travelling alone, should be met

by an adult.

Visitor must hold:

- ticket and documents required for onward/return journey and

- sufficient funds.

Non-compliance with entry regulations will result in fines for

carrier vaying from USD 850.- to a maximum of USD 1800.-, and

deportation of passenger to country of origin at carrier's

expense.

Here is the listing for travel directly to Mexico from Thailand:

National THAILAND (TH) /Embarkation THAILAND (TH)

Destination MEXICO (MX)

MEXICO (MX)

Passport required.

Visa and Tourist Card/FMT form with consular stamp required.

Visa is valid for up to 90 days after date of issue and good

for 1 entry only.

Visa in expired passport is valid as long as the passenger

also carries a valid passport.

Minors under 14 years of age, travelling alone, should be met

by an adult.

Visitor must hold:

- ticket and documents required for onward/return journey and

- sufficient funds.

Non-compliance with entry regulations will result in fines for

carrier vaying from USD 850.- to a maximum of USD 1800.-, and

deportation of passenger to country of origin at carrier's

expense.

MEXICO (MX)

Vaccinations not required.

Malaria prophylaxis recommended.

For details run transaction For details, click here .

CHECK TINEWS/N16 - WHEN DEPARTING THE U.S.A.

According to the Mexican embassy in Bangkok <a href="http://www.sre.gob.mx/tailandia/serv_foreing.htm" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.sre.gob.mx/tailandia/serv_foreing.htm" target="_blank">http://www.sre.gob.mx/tailandia/serv_foreing.htm</a></a>

Documents to be submitted with visa application are:

1. Valid Passport

2. Two photographs 1.5x1.5 inches (color)

3. Confirmation letter from the applicant's company stating following details:

3.1 date begins working with the company and present position

3.2 specific purpose of the trip

3.3 the acceptance on the part of the company's responsibility for all expenses of the applicant while in Mexico

Another question I am hoping someone can enlighten me on:

Almost every day, maybe 5 out of 7 days, the power goes out in my housing area between 7 and 8 a.m. It only stays off a few seconds but just long enough to cause everything to shut down. After a brief pause the power returns with an apparant surge that causes the breakers to flip off.

I have thought about the obvious solutions to avoid losing data on the computer such as getting an uninterruptable power supply and I recognize this is only a minor inconvenience. Still, it is a bit annoying and I am curious why it happens, especially with such regularity?

Does anyone else notice this 'Thai electricity phenomenon'?

Hi all,

My wife and I (both farang U.S. citizens) hope to take our female Thai friend back to visit the U.S. with us over the Christmas holidays. We have traveled with our friend many times to many different locations to include Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Cambodia and many places near Thailand.

Each time we were able to eventually get our friend a visa, but always after a great deal of effort and numerous calls and trips to the various consulates (Australia was the hardest followed by Japan).

On our first attempt to get our friend a U.S. visa at the Chiangmai consulate, she was denied. However, at that time her passport was newly issued (empty) and she was without work at that time. She also had the bad luck of being interviewed by an especially arrogant Thai man who obviously was suffering from some painful hemerroidal ailment (likely caused by having something stuck up his a** was my suspicion). Since then she has found stable employment and has many stamps in her passport. She has never worked in a bar and has taken some college classes.

My question is: have you ever used one of the professional visa services that advertise in the local magazines such as CityLife? If so, can you recommend one over another? Did you find the experience helpful or is it just an added expense without much added convenience?

Any seriously intentioned helpful comments are welcomed. Thanks.

Not meaning to sound too much like the shrink that I am, but...

Nobody 'makes you feel...' anything. You are responsible for your emotions. Your mother-in-law has no more power to 'drive you crazy' than anyone else, it is how you interpret what she (or anyone) does that leads to your emotional response.

Most likely, your are sub-vocally saying to yourself, 'they are doing things which are not right (according to my beliefs) and SHOULD BE smart enough to change their views or come around to MY beliefs'.

When you honestly value their opinion as equally valid as your own, then your anger and feeling of frustration will be moderated.

After all, where is the conclusive proof that putting a post-maturnity woman into a hotbox DOESN'T have some beneficial effect? Isn't that your wife's decision to make, after all?

If you honestly don't think you are valued, then leave and test that hypothesis. If you are not valued, then nobody will try to get you to return, and if that happens, do you want to stay in that sort of situation?

If you are valued, then your absence can likely stimuate discussion as to why you left. This gives you an opportunity to express your views with your wife (and, perhaps, her family).

Regarding your 1 year old niece...why didn't YOU stop her from breaking stuff? If you witnessed it about to occur and did nothing, aren't you equally to blaime?

Please understand, I am not trying to be rude. Rather, I am trying to offer constructive advise on a means of 'doing something' within a multi-cultural framework which does not require you to disown your own behavioral responsibility.

Take care and good luck!

I raised rabbits for profit as part of our family farm business several years ago and can only offer this...rabbits do not do well in extreme heat.

I would suspect that this could require some attention due to the climate here.

Just a thought.

When I was researching this question to take our Thai friend with us on vacation here is the list from the various embassy's websites I was able to access. I have not included the asian countries as almost all of them (except Cambodia) allow Thai citizens to enter without a pre-arranged visa.

Anguilla – No visa required

Bermuda – No visa required

Brazil – Visa on arrival

Brunai – 14 days allowed on arrival

Ecuador – Visa on arrival

Haiti – No visa required

South Korea – No visa required

Maldives – No visa required

Nicaraqua – No visa required

Peru – No visa required

Sri Lanka – No visa required

I can only pass this information along and cannot personally vouch that it is true by experience, as we have not traveled to these locations yet. Information was obtained about 3 months ago.

Hope this helps.

I know this is not very important, but, does anyone know the Thai name for the grey bird with a black tuft of feathers on it's chest that has a VERY loud, VERY early morning call that (seriously) sounds sort of like an orangutang??

Kind of a long Whooooo, oooh, oooh, oooh, sound? (I swear it reminds me of monkeys).

Maybe a better comparison might be 'physical assaults'? I'm just thinking not many crimes actually result in death.

What do you think?

Ja-eah (something like peek-a-boo, I'm told) frequently said to babies.

(Pom) mai rou (I don't know) - I use the A LOT.

Thank you very much for that URL...I have been searching for just such a critter!

Sorry about the title but I am trying to keep it Thai related, what I really mean that forums generally can bring out the worst in people. Most threads end up in a clash of egos with nobody listening to anyone else. I know because I am probably one of the worst offenders . I often leave this or other forums feeling bad about insulting others or feeling slighted. I sometimes wonder what the point of it all is?

Don't get me wrong. There are some fantastic threads with great info but when your busy defending your own post it can be difficult to see the value in others. Is this just me?

I imagine that almost everyone here likes Thailand and can feel very protective of this. We all have unique experiences in the land of LOS and it is easy to dismiss the experiences of others.

What ya think? Are these forums just an excuse to verbally assault as many people as possible and attempt to be the 'big man' on campus?

BTW, I apologise to anyone I have previously insulted in the heat of a debate here.

Garro, I think, sometimes, one of the downsides to any chat forum is we don't have access to the non-verbal cues that we have when listening and seeing a speaker face-to-face. We rely very much on small, non-verbal signals which tell us when a speaker is being serious, or joking, or asking an embedded question, etc.

That's my theory...part of it, anyway!

Thanks for your original posting...it helps to know there are fellow frustrated learners out there and that I am not the only one who feels 'Thai-language challanged'.

I agree with many of the comments made and wanted to add my own experiences/frustrations/justifications.

I have visited Thailand for over ten years now and been here steadily for almost three years now while my farang wife attends a local university (taught in English...she doesn't speak Thai either).

At first I was gungh-ho to learn another language. I had had moderate success at learning some Russian and a good start on Spanish, so I did not think I was a language problem-learner...until I tried Thai!

I started with an Intensive Thai course...and soon was the worst student in the class. I struggled to the end, but managed to finish and learned alot (for me). My suspicion was correct that I was a poor student when my teacher (ashan??--I think that's right) said to me, "Oh, Kuhn Kit, I'm so sorry you are baddest student of class. My apology"...so it wasn't just my perception.

My justification was that I struggle with a physical defecit which precludes me from being able to handwrite, or type with any speed (so no note taking, which sucked) along which my problem makes my prononciation difficult to understand due to muscular coordination hardships. I tried the recorder routine only to get several hours of what sounds like a poor copy of Charlie Brown's teacher over the loudspeaker interrupted by the occassional loud belch or paper shuffle...so recording didn't help much.

Afterward, my wife and I hired an in-home tutor (due to my physical difficulty ambulating, as well) along with some other Thai-wanna-be speakers which was a mistake because the language sessions usually degenerated (or is it evolved?) into swapping English prononciation for Thai's. Let's just say the signal to noise ratio was unsatisfactory for my needs.

So what has worked for me? Well, three years later, I'm still struggling. For a period I gave up completely and went back to playing Texas Hold'em on Yahoo, then, returned to studying on my own, practicing what I can hear and understand from my Thai friends, none of whom seemed eager to really teach me much. When I asked my closest Thai friend why this might be she surprised me by her answer that, according to her, some native speakers actually are hesitant to teach Thai because, in her words, having a farang who understands what is being said around them takes away Thais' abilities to 'gossip them' (her words, not mine). Similarly to what I was told happens with some older Japanese whoe are uncomfortable with a gai-jin speaking fluent Japanese...it just seems too strange for their world-view.

Lastly, what has really helped me the most is going back through the 'Thai for the Beginner' type books and, with the assistance of my dictionary and voice-typing program, translate word-for-word what is being said in Thai. Maybe I am too literal of a person, but it only confused me more to read that 'Khun Tanaka bpen kon arrai' was translated as 'What nationality is Mrs. Tanaka?' when, actually, you are literally saying, 'honorific (m/f) (last-name) Tanaka is nationality what'.

For me, knowing the meaning and order of the words is less confusing. One instructor strongly advised against this, saying I should learn the phrases as a group, but that just doesn't work for me. Doing this helped me with the memorization of which Thai words for which English words, but now I struggle trying to figure out if or remember if the word for snack is a seperate, unique thai word or something like 'little meal' or 'small eating' or some such combo.

So now, I have 'relaxed into it', as advised and practice phrases I keep saying over and over to myself until I get a chance to insert them into some aspect of conversation. Now, I figure the worst that can happen is I become so old that I lose words due to senility faster than I can learn them, and, if that is the case, mai bpen rai! (or as I translate it, 'don't worry, be happy').

Hey Mall - I still want your share of ribs at the BBQ if that's alright !

Anyway, check out the shop in Panthip Plaza right next to the elevator and food court on the top floor. They have all types of connection endings, along with mics and headsets. If they don't have a usb end one - which I think they already do/...- they will have the necessary equip to tag onto the end to convert it to usb and make it plug-inable for you and your home set up.

Prices are decent too.

Cheers

By any chance are you running XP on an HP platform? I had the very same problem using Skype and IBM via voice on an HP Pavilion a1254l obtained at Central Department Store. I kept getting an error saying there was a problem with the sound card. On one of the help nets I was advised to use a USB mike/headset combo which I obtained at Pantip Plaza...unfotunately, it didn't fix the problem.

So, I hope you are not using the same brand of computer, but, if by some chance you are, I just wanted to share my experience.

Also, does anyone know of a possible fix for this error? I have obtained all the latest software/driver updates and still can connect and get the 'problem with soundcard' error.

Thanks!

As an all-around good place which serves Italian, Mexican, American and Thai dishes with pleasant consistency I recommend Art Cafe. It is just outside the moat on the three-way corner opposite the brick plaza next to Thaipai gate.

Great cheesecake, too.

We have a lot of children clothes and shoes, which are now too small for our 7 years old daughter. There are a lot of toys, too.

We would like to donate them for children in need. Has anybody an idea how to make it?

I'm not associated with any organization, but I donate all sorts of things (food, clothing, etc.) to a very small hill tribe village outside of Omkoy near the Burma border. If you live in Chiang Mai and you'd like me to include your donations, let me know and we'll find a way to meet. I donate things on an average of about once a month, depending on if the roads are passible or not.

Nope, NEEEEEEEEEEEEVER AGAIN...had one and spent all my time keeping it clean and algae-free....now I live in a house where the housing association can have the headaches.

I think this post is a great idea. Speaking as one of the Thai-Language-Challanged, I appreciate your effort.

A couple questions about Thai that has intrigued me...First question, I was able to learn Russian, Spanish and some Japanese quite easily, but for some reason can't seem to get Thai...I can't seem to hear (or reproduce, apparantly) the tones. I really have tried. I took an intensive Thai class, had a private instructor, practiced whenever possible, still can't be understood.

Second, is it just me or do Thai's NOT use tones in their pronunciation of words when they are singing? Every English-speaing Thai person I have asked says, "I don't know". I certainly can't hear the tones apart from the musical one....is it just me?

Sincerely curious.

I was working in Japan for the past five years and started taking vacations to Thailand. What attracted me initially was the friendliness of the people, which, even compaired to the politeness of the Japanese, was refreshing. In the States, I became sickened by the general lack of understanding of other's points of views and the perpetual use of violence as a means of solving problems. While living in the relatively 'nice' city of San Antonio, Texas, you could still expect to be 'flipped off' at least once per day in traffic, shouted at by various street scum selling everything from crack to their sisters favors while walking down the sidewalk (if you're that brave/foolhardy), or hussled in some 'money is God' scam sham. All of these 'freedoms' took place in a self-rightous, ignorant, chest-thumping, conservatively-created, religiously-supported atmosphere of intolerance and promotion of violence.

After about ten trips here on vacation it dawned on me that it made more sense to live here and visit Japan! In Japan I paid $1,790 per month for a two room apartment, plus $160/month for electricity, $40 each for gas and basic phone (plus 2 yen per minute extra charge for local calls and no internet options) and $5.50 per gallon for gasoline. Here I pay $490 for a mansion with housekeeper, driver and cook. When my wife bought a dog, which technically violated the lease rules, whereupon learning of the dog, my Thai landlord replied, 'Oh, no problem, Thai's love puppies!'...In another country I would have at least lost my deposit, if not been taken to court.

It's true that here in Thailand I do have to put up with an insane traffic system, my neighbor's bi-weekly flaming garbage pyre and never-ending legislative confusion regarding visa rules. True, I am called 'farang' as a rule by non-educated and educated Thais alike versus being called by my proper name, which is always a minor irritant, but, all-in-all, I don't have to fear being killed in my sleep by some drug-crazed adolescent trying to make gang rank. Also, I like the 'it is best left alone' attitude here regarding one's private life which, in the U.S. seems to be the favorite topic of most television talk shows. Regarding the traffic, I can use the prolific public transport without being subjected to someone's rap-pumping ghetto blaster screaming 'I wanna hump yo a** Bi***', or some other mind-dulling 'musical' crap. As bad as that gets here in Thailand is in some shopping malls and yearly endurances of Acadame Fantasia.

Ironically, while once voicing my disagreement with American 'virtues' of living in a Christian society (where freedom of religion is fine so long as you are a certain type of Georgia-spawned reborn-Bubba) I was told to 'love it or leave it', so, here I am!

I smell troll.

What is this 45 day visa that is mentioned???????????

How could a consulate dream up a visa that does not exist.

In adition anyone studying for an Masters degree should at least be able to read.

Why do some people always seem to have to get nasty in these forums? Your rudeness in implying the writer 'can't read' is simply unnecessry and non-value added. What was she supposed to read? Where? I thought the purpose of this forum was to aid the writers. In reviewing the posts it would seem that confusion is the defacto rule of Thai legislation. If you know of such a valuable source that the writer should have read, why not post it and be helpful instead of being negative and insulting?