bails

My friend rented a motor bike from the Honda shop that faces the fountain round a bout.That was a couple of years ago but I don't think you will have a problem renting from any of the the dealerships.

Sounds good so count me in. Just checked my diary of social events and I am available for golf on any day that suits you.

Yes, King Hotel is in the centre of town,about 50 metres from the fountain roundabout. The hotel fronts the main road but if you drive around to the rear of the building you will see a fruit stall which is next to the entrance for the car park which is for patrons of the hotel. You can park there and walk through the small door at the rear of the hotel and this will take you to reception.

King hotel is very popular with farang. Although i have not stayed there i have only heard good reports about it. The Cancan restaurant is attached to the hotel and i eat there on a regular basis as the food is excellent ( Thai & Western).

There is " Robot Nightclub" about 500 metres from the King hotel. Robot seems popular with the younger generation but i am an old bloke and have not been there. There are numerous karaoke places that are not hard to find.

The road (210) is fine and is a lot less than 100 k,s from Udon to Nong Bua Lamphu.

You might want to have a look at the website of Hifx.com.au. They have real time exchange rates that you can view when you transact. I have used them several times and found their service excellent.

Not sure if we're talking the same route, Loei isn't on 211.

Where is Chaiyaporn?

The road I want to use closely follows the Mekong.

I drove the road about 3 months ago,its a good road but don,t expect miles of divided highway as it is single lane but usually in good condition and quite a scenic drive.

Just a minute.

First, the article states;

Her obesity is caused by a thyroid disorder.

Then;

Deputy Bangkok Governor Dr Malinee Sukavrejworakit said doctors would put her through blood tests to see if she had any metabolic disorder, check her hormone levels and see if she has diabetes, bone and joint condition as well as a mental disorder.

It is most likely an eating disorder made worse by people that enabled her obesity by feeding her large quantities of food. It is an easy route to claim a thyroid disorder. However, if it was, the usual end result is death not long term critical morbid obesity. If it is solely a "thyroid" disorder, she will make the medical journals because in almost all of these cases, it is primarily a mental health issue. The other health issues arise because of the obesity.

The sad part, is that this would never have occurred in Thailand 25 years ago.

Thank you Doctor Geriatric for your expert online diagnosis of a very serious problem <snip>

ALSO, I fail to understand why anyone would restrict themselves to a foriegn bank to Australia when looking at depositing funds within Australia.

The four big banks in Australia (all of which are rated in the top dozen or so banks in the world) ALL have better rates than what some of you have quoted here earlier in the thread.

Then theres quite a few smaller regional banks in Australia that rate rather well financially that beat the rates by these 4 banks (All Australian).

I confess to not being a financial expert but i am 99% sure that if people wish to deposit funds into Australian bank (in Australia) they must be Australian citizens or at least have an Australian address. I am sure somebody will correct me if i am mistaken.

I am surprised that people who are considering buying insurance do not insist that the policy documents are written in English. Aia were trying to sell me a policy and i just explained to them that i wouldn,t be signing anything i could not read or understand. As they wanted my business they were happy to comply and they returned 5 days later with the policy written in english. No problems whatsoever!!!

You might want to have a look at opening a NAB gold visa debit account. The only fee involved is the 150 baht ripoff. No charge for currency conversion and the account pays a higher rate of interest than you would get in a Thai bank account. The monthly fee is $10 but this can be reduced to zero if you deposit $5000 per month into your account. This $5000 does not have to stay in the account i,e, you can shift it somewhere else anytime you want.

I have a Nab gold visa debit account and have found it excellent and certainly think you should consider it.

Ok upset thai wife and sleepless mother in law situation and that is not good for me!

UK Nationwide flex account card, in wife's name, sent to Amnat Charoen.

For over 3 years, wife puts money in everry month, Mother-in-law takes it out.

Last weekend, M-I-L tried to withdraw 15,000 baht....says...trying to withdraw too much....pressed cancel...no cash, no receipt.

Checked account online from UK. Statement shows 15,000 withdrawn on that date.

Siam commercial say cannot check records as UK card.

Nationwide say nothing they can do unless wife fills out transaction dispute form, which she is reluctant to do as they want her to confirm it was her using the card (she has already told them she will be using the card regularly in thailand).

Police in Amnat say only wife can issue complaint. We are not going home until April.

Somrthing very fishy about all this, anyone else experienced anything similar, any advice on way to persue issue in the face of such incalcitrance and obfusctaion?

Someone , somewhere is taking the proverbial and it just can't be that we just take this as a fact of life.

M-I-L has always been told to check ATM looks kosher, have had experience of tampered ATMs before but this seems different and stinks to high heaven. Can you trust what the ATM tells you and do you have any comeback when you've been stolen from?

thanks for listening,

Phee Nick

I am in the process of trying to recover 20000 baht due to a faulty atm.. The atm did not issue the 20000 but my account in Oz was first credited with 20000.I have since learnt that at the end of the the atm does an auto adjustment to the days transactions which resulted in my account being debited for the 20000 that it had been credited.That should have left me all square for the day ,however after the first attempt to withdraw the money we thought we must have done something wrong so we repeated the transaction but again the atm did not issue the 20000 which has left us out of pocket.We immediately reported this to the police and they told us the atm was faulty and that similar incidents had been happening to other people.

It turned out the atm was at fault. Atm operated by Krung Thai and those people who were Krung Thai account holders were issued the money over the counter at the nearest branch.

This did not happen to me as i have an Australian debit card. My bank in Oz is in touch with Krung Thai.

Apparently there is an international banking rule that gives Krung Thai 90 days in which to respond to the request from my Oz bank for the money so they still have about 40 days in which to respond.

In your case i don,t believe Siam bank cannot check the records as Uk card>>> Surely the atm would need to balance at the end of the day. If the Krung Thai atm does an auto adjustment i am sure Scb and every other atm would to.

I wish you luck with this but you will have to follow it up through your bank.

Hi All,

Does anyone know the turn around time for getting a non-Immigrant O in Perth, Australia?

Many thanks,

P.

)

Usually takes 2-3 hours. I leave my passport and documentation with them in the morning then go and have a long lunch and collect the visa in the afternoon.Never had a problem. The other posters are quite correct as the office only opens on tuesday and thursday.

Does anyone know up to date schedules for buses from Bangkok to Loei and back? I have seen 8.30pm and 10pm departures mentioned from Bangkok, are these times still valid? How about schedules from Loei to Bangkok?

Any hotel recommendations in Loei city (500-1000B price range)? I have found these hotels, but most of them lack website and pictures:

A.P. Court Hotel

Thai Udon Hotel,

King's Hotel

Sun Palace

Royal Inn Hotel

Phu Luang Hotel

I can't help you with the bus since we drove there in a rental car. But we found a wonderful hotel, very cheap that was brand new right in the middle of town. I can't remember the name but I will contact my Thai wife in Phuket and get right back to you on this thread with that information. I can tell you that it is right next to the big trafic circle downtown with a fountain in the middle. The lady who runs that hotel brought us fresh bread and pastries every morning even though there was no restaurant there. I think the price was only 300 baht per night and the place was very nice. My email is thaisail at gmail.com if you want to write direct. My wife is from Loei and she really knows everything about it but I am now in San Francisco so I have to wait for her to wake up to contact her in Phuket.

Thanks all for helpful comments! I would like to get contact information for this hotel if possible.

The phone number for this hotel is- 0428618889. I apologise for a mistake in earlier post - I thought it was Apricot hotel which is incorrect- it is the Orchid Hotel,which is next to APN Hotel (but on a different street)

There are 4 hotels all within 200 yards of each other - King hotel,Orchid hotel,APN,hotel and Royal Inn. I might add the Royal Inn looks a bit run down but the others look ok.

Is there really a direct bus to Loei every hour??? I wouldn't have thought there's enough traffic to justify that. Or do you mean a bus to Udon Thani with a connection to Loei?

Every hour from Mochit until 9 or 10 pm. Does not go to udonthani. Bus is usually near full and picks up and drops off passengers at many villages along the way,hence the 9 hour average time.

Does anyone know up to date schedules for buses from Bangkok to Loei and back? I have seen 8.30pm and 10pm departures mentioned from Bangkok, are these times still valid? How about schedules from Loei to Bangkok?

Any hotel recommendations in Loei city (500-1000B price range)? I have found these hotels, but most of them lack website and pictures:

A.P. Court Hotel

Thai Udon Hotel,

King's Hotel

Sun Palace

Royal Inn Hotel

Phu Luang Hotel

I can't help you with the bus since we drove there in a rental car. But we found a wonderful hotel, very cheap that was brand new right in the middle of town. I can't remember the name but I will contact my Thai wife in Phuket and get right back to you on this thread with that information. I can tell you that it is right next to the big trafic circle downtown with a fountain in the middle. The lady who runs that hotel brought us fresh bread and pastries every morning even though there was no restaurant there. I think the price was only 300 baht per night and the place was very nice. My email is thaisail at gmail.com if you want to write direct. My wife is from Loei and she really knows everything about it but I am now in San Francisco so I have to wait for her to wake up to contact her in Phuket.

Thanks all for helpful comments! I would like to get contact information for this hotel if possible.

OK. I am going into Loei on tuesday so i will get the telephone number from the hotel for you and will post on tuesday evening. By the way you will need to get a tuk-tuk from Loei bus station into the town. Its about 1.5 km

Does anyone know up to date schedules for buses from Bangkok to Loei and back? I have seen 8.30pm and 10pm departures mentioned from Bangkok, are these times still valid? How about schedules from Loei to Bangkok?

Any hotel recommendations in Loei city (500-1000B price range)? I have found these hotels, but most of them lack website and pictures:

A.P. Court Hotel

Thai Udon Hotel,

King's Hotel

Sun Palace

Royal Inn Hotel

Phu Luang Hotel

I can't help you with the bus since we drove there in a rental car. But we found a wonderful hotel, very cheap that was brand new right in the middle of town. I can't remember the name but I will contact my Thai wife in Phuket and get right back to you on this thread with that information. I can tell you that it is right next to the big trafic circle downtown with a fountain in the middle. The lady who runs that hotel brought us fresh bread and pastries every morning even though there was no restaurant there. I think the price was only 300 baht per night and the place was very nice. My email is thaisail at gmail.com if you want to write direct. My wife is from Loei and she really knows everything about it but I am now in San Francisco so I have to wait for her to wake up to contact her in Phuket.

I think you are referring to the Apricot Hotel,i have never stayed there but it does look fairly new.

Does anyone know up to date schedules for buses from Bangkok to Loei and back? I have seen 8.30pm and 10pm departures mentioned from Bangkok, are these times still valid? How about schedules from Loei to Bangkok?

Any hotel recommendations in Loei city (500-1000B price range)? I have found these hotels, but most of them lack website and pictures:

A.P. Court Hotel

Thai Udon Hotel,

King's Hotel

Sun Palace

Royal Inn Hotel

Phu Luang Hotel

King Hotel is ok and centrally located and have good restaurant for western and Thai food.

Anyone experiencing problems or difficulties, delays or have little or no knowledge of how the visa application process works (or doesn't) please feel free to post questions.

I can only tell you what I (and my Thai fiancé) have experienced so far.

Pity there is not a 'one stop shop' website to explain many of the procedures, and pitfalls ( and how to avoid them) without having to search hundreds of websites/forums.

Maybe there is a such website - comprehensive yet specific - to the various visas/countries ?

There are more questions than answers.

Knowing where to find the answers is the hardest part. WE are still searching for answers but at least we have some knowledge we are willing to share...

It may be of some help and save some people a lot of pain,time, effort and money...

For immigration and or visa information regarding Australia i would have thought the Dept. of Immigration website -www.immi.gov.au would provide all the necessary information.

I normaly fly thai ,Melbourne bkk but having a look at the fares on Jet star there half the price of thai , they are non stop and ok no meals and a bit less in the way of comfort ( tv ,screens on the back of seats ) but for a 9 hour flight i dont care . has anyone else flown with jetstar ?

cheers.

I have flown Jetstar four times with a stopover in Singapore each time.Never had a problem with them but don,t expect any frills as they are a budget airline.I have booked with them to fly to Oz again in December as i have been happy with them so far.

I don't have children but was daydreaming that if I did, it might be cool to hire maids or babysitters that could teach the kid several languages so when he/she grows up, they'd already have a career or at least useful skill set up for them. What is the maximum number of languages a child can pick up? One site I found said 4... but does that mean like the kid would be fluent even without schooling, whereupon in school he could learn more? Also, I was wondering which languages are the most useful in today's world business environment- my guess is English (of course), Mandarin, Arabic, and Japanese or maybe Hindi (though can't most Indians speak English?).

I have friends that live in Beijing.They have a 4 year old who is fluent in 3 languages,English,Thai and Mandarin.I am always amazed by this little girl and she is continually expanding her vocabulary in all three languages.We only see them about twice a year and the progress this girl is making is astounding.

After seeing this girl i could not think of a limit as to the number of languages a child might be able to learn

Let me see, Australian Defence Secrets ........everyone knows them already, they go something like 'bend over to uncle sam and take a good rodgering' then send out good Australias to get killed at the hands of various incompetent US Presidents. Wheres the secret in that?

Its plainly evident that the words Military, Intelligence and secrets dont go together.

The ladyboy would of been better off stealing homer simpson brain

!00% correct,I could not agree more!! The defence secrets probably amount to the gourmet menu for official functions!!

Oh no....I'm just about to try to get my gf into Australia for a 2 week visit.....

How hard IS it ? Luckily she is a teacher in a government school, but she doesn't have any money in the bank.

I am going to give her some to put in.....( I trust her 100%).

Anyone have some advice for me regarding OZ ?

It certainly is hard to get a female a tourist visa for Oz.Tourist visas are valid for 3 months and she will need to show that she has sufficient funds for that length of time even if only planning a 2 week visit.

I would suggest she take out travel/health insurance for her stay in Oz.

Also suggest you write her a letter of guarantee covering all her expenses,eg.accommodation,flight tickets,and any other expenses you think may occur.

She must also be able to show she has good reasons for wanting to return to Thailand,be it family,job or whatever.

Oz immigration seem to make it really tough to get a visa which makes me wonder how all the Thai prostitutes get in to Oz.There seems to be a plethora of them yet it is really difficult to get a visa for wife or girlfriend.

Good luck

I would be interested to know if they have a definition of "volunteer" in Thailand, especially as it relates to situations such as this.

I've done a fair amount of volunteer work, but I've always been careful not to an integral part of the planning or implementing. If there is an English Camp and a foreigner comes by and spends time with the kids, talks to them, but doesn't direct any activities etc., would they be legally considered a 'volunteer'.

I've had guests come to speak to my classes. They weren't paid, they didn't do any administrative work and had no responsibility for the class. They simply talked about their home country or their profession etc. Are they volunteers? (In these cases, all were friends/relatives--not strangers).

Most schools, especially some of the more rural ones can use all the help they can get and I am just wondering how far one can go without running afoul of the law.

I have been thinking exactly the same thing Scott.It would seem to me to be a bit harsh if the volunteer was charged etc and deported for "working" in these circumstances when he/she is only trying to help the kids.However the law is the law and i don,t think i will risk volunteering in the future.

Thanks to those who replied and clarified the matter for me.

From time to time a number of schools in my area hold an english camp over a period of 2 days.Usually about 50 kids are involved and the camp is held at the most centrally located school.I am always asked to attend and help out as there are very few other native english speakers in the district.It is something i really enjoy doing but as i do not have a work permit, would i be breaking the law by attending these camps?

If someone did have a work permit and helped out at an english camp would they be breaking the law by attending the english camp if it was held at a location different from where their work permit permits them to work?

I would appreciate your opinions.