pistonpilot

After 4 months and an unbelievable amount of paperwork, tests, and legwork, I brought my two parrots into Thailand last week. My Senegal and an African Grey.

Nightmare.

Just brought my Parrots over from America.

Siberian Husky

African Grey

Senegal

Russian Blue Cat - American

Black Cat - American

Me and the Mrs. and a baby on the way.

My TOT biz gold is great when it works. Last week it was down for 26 hours. I'm hoping they don't have a similar problem.

But TOT's reliability so far sucks.

At 3:15 Wednesday, my TOT Biz Gold DSL stopped working. I'm posting this using my Hutch Card (my backup).

No rain here so no reason for TOT to stop totting.

The news organizations have made a big deal out of "Martial Law Declared", but declared by whom? Thaksin?

If so, that is moot.

And all this talk about the communications being shut down, but my internet works TOT ADSL Pattaya, and my phone works, and I've still got CNN and Fox News on my Sophon Cable, so what gives?

Where was martial law declared, and who is enforcing it? I have heard nothing about it in Pattaya.

And it is 5AM Bangkok Time as I write this.

I live in the Pattaya area, but would be willing to go to Bangkok if someone could recommend a foot doctor. I'm quite amazed that Bangkok-Pattaya, BNH nor Bumrungrad have such a specialist.

My experience at BNH and Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital with general surgeons are that they are clueless about feet!

Having had major foot surgery I can tell you first hand that you do not want a general surgeon or even a competent bone guy working on your feet.

Olive oil is a good source.

Isn't it wonderful.

The Pope says that Islam is evil and humane.

The moderate Muslims object, but the radical ones react by setting off bombs in Thailand and attacking churches in Palestine.............

Sad to say it rather goes to prove the Pope's point.

The Muslims need to get their act together if they are to be respected.

Time to bring back the crusades and covert the poor bastards.

I think the main issue is medicines for personal use vs for sale or other distribution (this would be the problem cited in the article) - FDA clearance is required and customs duties will apply to import of medicines for other than personal use. In determining whether medicines are for personal use the main thing they will look at is quantity.

In addition, if you are brining in medecines which are control substances in Thailand (mainly narcotics) it is a good idea to have proof of prescription on you. If a large quantity of control substance, make that presecription plus doctor's letter explaining the need.

Of course it is rare to be checked on accompanied baggage but it can happen so best to be prepared.

I have never heard of anyone having a problem over presecription meds for personal use.

My sister will be coming in 3 weeks. I want her to bring me "my" meds with my name on it. Same last name as her - any problem?

The reason it has been labelled a scam is there is no non imm O given on the basis of renting a house.

Non imm O's for over 50's, for marriage, etc..

The fact you found a friendly embassy or consul that bends the rules.. And then criticise others for bending rules shows a lack of logic and sympathy.

I am here also on a non imm O given by a friendly embassy but I unlike you realize that actually I have no right to that visa and having the rug pulled out from under your feet after investing time and effort and money in setting up and building a life based on one set of rules and those goalposts being moved is a concern.

Once again.. For the under 50s, who are not married to a Thai, are not working for a Thai company, have only a 3 million baht option.

Words mean things. The word scam has a meaning. If I presented a request to the Thai Embassy and the Embassy granted my request, how is that a scam?

Don't bandy about the word scam when it doesn't apply. If I tell you I'm going to sell you a broken car, I suppose you will cry "scam" after you pay for it.

Grow up.

Rules? Are there rules in Thailand? Do Embassies follow them, or make their own?

Pilot, the crises you mention are all psychological problems solely based on physical problems. It is a fact, though, that psychological problems without any seemingly physical reason behind, very well can be felt as painful as any problem caused by a physical problem, if not more. What is more, those kind of problems are far more difficult to deal with, because they are less tangible and normally far more complex. Just to mention one example, it is now scientifically proved, that people who live a significantly different lives than their family and fellowmen (e.g. people with dirrerent religions, family values, philosophically or politically understandings and perceptions, etc.) feel exactly the same kind of pain the exactly same place in the brain, as the person who have just broken his leg. Your comments are not just ignorant and callous, they are a result of a very materialistic psyche.

On the other hand, I don't think a psychological crises of any kind can or should be a reason for avoiding doing the paperwork required, in order to stay in a foreign country.

Thank you. Please advise where I can send you a check to cover the therapy you just provided. I feel so much better.

Oh I see, that explains everything. No you're right, not a scam. You've got a load of other problems, visa should not be one of them. I prefer my visa problems to the probs you have. what a nightmare. And let me tell you something, your tone toward anyone caught up in this visa nitemare is not very understanding or nice. I'm a caring and sympathetc person, I sympathize with you and the quagmire you are caught up in as well as the visa people. I am glad though that you bring to light how much worse a situation can be

Sit Doggie.

Good doggie.

My wife loves me and I love her. She's pregnant. We are thrilled. My first and her first.

Save your sympathy for someone who needs it.

Non O based on a house rental agreement. sounds like a scam to me. I suppose u expect to be able to do this every year. Not a chance

Why a scam?

I had a rental agreement. I got a non-o visa. I asked for it. Got it.

I came. Got married. Wife's pregnant. I'm renting a house.

Next year I'll probably rent a house.

I'll do the 1 year extension in a week.

Again, why a scam?

A crisis this is,

(I have a 12 month visa and will easily be able to renew it when it expires, but that is easy for me to say and do. Just becasue you can achiecve something dosent mean other will)

It seems to me that everyone who bitches about this, says something such as "I don't have the time" or "I'm too busy".

Border running is costly, has to be more costly than doing it properly. Time and the money involve add up. That's the part I don't understand, they say they don't have the time to do it properly but have the time to sit on a bus eating a packed lunch and watching bad movies.

c'mon.

I suspect a lot of people will be washing or losing their passports. Maybe this is a plot hatched by the USA and UK to increase passport issuance.

At 70 dollars per passport (USA) it could amount to a lot of money.

New passport, no stamps.

My friend who does back to back tourist visas for years and is from UK has been warned about 2 months ago. His Tourist Visa(2+1) obtained in Vienchen had a "red stamp" along side visa sticker. It stated something like "Upon exiting Thailand admitance back to Thailand may not be allowed."

I look for this red stamp to be used as a flag for these visa runners. They have no intention of stranding anybody but will warn them. You will then have to get your things in order. I bet this starts on Oct 1st.

It might not be so difficult to thumb through your passport and see how many entrys have been made over the last three months. If you are a tourist then you will have multiple stamps out of the country with some lenght of stay.

I am a tourist and I do travel so I am interested on how they will treat me. If there is too much of a problem then I will just spend my tourist dollars some place else.

LLL

You have to come in Thailand with a non immigrant visa then you go to the immigration to ask for a retirement visa and show that you have 800.000 bath on a thai account bank and show that the money come from your country which have to be bank to bank you can use that account but you need to show next year that you still have 800.000 bath on that account and you need to show your bankbook + a atest from that bank an a medical atest.

Best regards

Albert

Taking travelers checks and cashing them at the bank (at least Bangkok Bank) gets them entered into your account as a foreign transaction.

The code used in my bankbook is the same as the wired code.

Having been married for five years, and having been on the Non Immigrant O, I have preferred to go in and out every three months, rather than leave 400k in a Thai Bank with no interest and a constantly depreciating currency. There will no doubt be those, who don't have the 400k. It would be a big scandal internationally if they start seperating families. Then again they are so dense, that I wouldnt' be surprised it they tried, only the loss of face seems to instill any semblance of common sense, to officialdom!

Depreciating against what currency?

I don't see many airplanes "flying" when they are "parked" in a hanger. Is that another "kind" ? Gee I hate smart assed nit pickers!

There are "parked" airplanes, and airplanes of another type - those that are "flying"

Running out of gas while flying, is a crisis.

"Lazy Ass" Did you not read the part about WORKING!!! I would and have done several times. Some of us lazy asses are to busy working and and raising our children to run off and get visa's. Especially when you have the option to get a tourist visa. Thanks for your insightfull and helpfull coment though.

I'm sorry, let me apologize to you. I see things logically. I engage my brain and I look at problems and find solutions. Sometimes I do a cost analysis to see which is the better solution.

When you make a statement such as "too busy working" and "raising our children", the logic meter in my head goes full tilt.

It doesn't compute.

Maybe you can help me.

It would seem to me that doing a visa run is a complete waste of time, moreso than getting the proper visa in the first place.

Please enlighten me to your way.

More lack of compassion and arrogance concerning the pain of other people who are not you.

Getting a long term visa is not an option for a lot of perfectly fine people.

Many have long term ties to Thailand and many will have to leave the country and often loved ones of their choice.

Not a crisis? Are you serious?

Absolutely serious. I've come in on the 30 day stamp, and I have gotten 60 day tourist visa, and the non-o that I am on now.

Someone who comes in on a 30 day stamp, buys a property, and then relies on the laws never to change, is a chump.

I got my O visa with no hassle from Washington. I showed them my rental agreement for a house for one year and got it returned to me, with visa, in 5 days.

What's the problem? Multiple entry, and you're in for over a year.

Have you not got better things to do then antagonise people who are trying to work through a crisis

Crisis? Very melodramatic. A crisis is when you find out you have cancer.

Or

No gas in your flying airplane.

Getting a legal visa is not a crisis. Stop being a baby about it and do the right thing.

I read this in The Nation:

Read what I made red:

80 held at border with explosive substance

Authorities in eastern Sa Kaew province yesterday detained more than 80 Cambodian Muslims for illegally transporting medicines and potentially explosive material into the country.

The 80, which included 51 women, were arrested at the Aranyaprathet immigration checkpoint, which links to Cambodia's Poi Pet. The group was en route to the deep South.

Officials confiscated a number of medicines, mostly antibiotics hidden in bags, and two kilograms of saltpetre (potassium nitrate) belonging to Yos Sakolhet, 24, from Khampong Cham.

Carrying medicine into the Kingdom without permission is against the law and saltpetre is an explosive substance, Lt-Colonel Kittiphan Kalpak, deputy commander of the Burapha Armed Forces 12th Task Force, who led the arrest team, said.

Authorities at the border have noticed an increase in the number of Cambodian Muslims travelling to the deep South with unclear purpose, he said.

Yos told officials that he was taking the saltpetre to a Khmer man in the South but declined to reveal the exact purpose for the delivery.

Saltpetre could be used as an explosive substance and also for fermenting fish or meat to preserve protein.

However, it is not abnormal for Cambodian Muslims to travel to the South, where the vast majority are Malay Muslims, as they go there for Islamic education and to seek jobs in Pattani port, the second-largest fishing port in the Kingdom.

Thousands Cambodian Muslims are currently in the region.

Security officials look at the movement of groups of people to the South with suspicion as they are struggling to contain violence that has rocked the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathaiwat since the beginning of 2004.

More than 1,700 people have died over the past 32 months.

Yesterday, a group of workers at a construction company narrowly escaped a shooting and an explosion in Narathiwat's Joh I Rong district.

The workers of the Son company informed the district police they escaped from the shooting at about 11.30am.

Police rushed to the scene, where they found spent ammunition shells. While they were inspecting the area an explosive device went off some five metres away.

Police believe the bomb was meant to hurt them but failed as it was not powerful enough.

The Nation

Sa Kaew

--------------------------------

Whose permission? Am I to believe that carrying my own meds from the USA to Thailand is illegal?

It'll be against the law to chew gum next! I am offshore working outside of Thailand going home (Thailand) 6th of Oct. I have 3 30 day chops in my passport already. A wife and 3 kids waiting for me to come home. All my documents for applying for a visa are at my home in LOS. This is going to be real convenient. What a load of ****!!! Maybe I'll just pack up the wifey and kids and go back to Falangland. I wish they would have done this in the springtime.

I'm ready to beam you up and out. You have a THAI wife and kids? If that is so, then why didn't you just do the 1 year extension to a proper non-immigrant visa for supporting your wife and kids?

If you are outside the country, get off your lazy ass and visit a Thai Embassy to get the proper visa.

Jesus.

"Lazy Ass" Did you not read the part about WORKING!!! I would and have done several times. Some of us lazy asses are to busy working and and raising our children to run off and get visa's. Especially when you have the option to get a tourist visa. Thanks for your insightfull and helpfull coment though.

Heard of mail? Fedex? No excuse - go visit an embassy or send your passport to one.

It'll be against the law to chew gum next! I am offshore working outside of Thailand going home (Thailand) 6th of Oct. I have 3 30 day chops in my passport already. A wife and 3 kids waiting for me to come home. All my documents for applying for a visa are at my home in LOS. This is going to be real convenient. What a load of ****!!! Maybe I'll just pack up the wifey and kids and go back to Falangland. I wish they would have done this in the springtime.

I'm ready to beam you up and out. You have a THAI wife and kids? If that is so, then why didn't you just do the 1 year extension to a proper non-immigrant visa for supporting your wife and kids?

If you are outside the country, get off your lazy ass and visit a Thai Embassy to get the proper visa.

Jesus.

With 5 pages of posts, I'm surprised no one yet has put forth the question of why now. I'm betting that this is a response to the idiot Karr of Jon Bonet Ramsey fame.

Anyone disagree?