jayceenik

The day before going to Immigration for the one-year visa extension I make a withdrawal and then ask the bank for the letter.

Like that the bankbook is updated with the withdrawal.

Nevertheless I've been asked twice at CW to trot down to my bank's branch in the basement and deposit 100 baht to "update" latest latest my bank book...

And then, of course, I have to trot to the photocopy shop and get my bankbook's last photocopy page updated too...

Much ado for nothing but it's their game and it gives me some walking exercise...

When you order one of these fake IDs the seller will ask you what info you want on the card, write it down on his notebook and then you come back later to get your personalized fake.

Some years back there was, again, one of these Thai style trouble and for some reason the foreign Press was not particularly welcome in BKK. By chance it was the time an innocent Japanese girl got herself a KSR Press Card with her real passport number on it. And it was the time the Police raided KSR to ferret out foreign "agitators". They got that girl's passport number from the seller's book and went to arrest her in her guesthouse. Poor girl was in hot water for a bout of time trying to persuade the Uniforms that she was just a simple tourist and didn't intend to sneak into any politico gatherings...

You can get any fake on KSR. I even remember an impressive looking Harvard MBA certificate ready to accept any name.

For fun I once got myself a Press Card and a Student Card but eventually disposed of them.

In this age of globe-trotting terrorists it's better not to have any fake ID of any sort on one's person.

(though the travel advantages of a fake Student ID could be explained to suspicious Law Enforcement in Europe)

Thanks to ubonjoe and TallGuyJohninBKK for the info.

Major Hollywood is a bit of a distance but nevertheless easy to get to.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

My extension visa is due for renewal only in October but I'm afraid the 'Monk" will still be blocking CW so I want to prepare myself for the obligatory change of venue.

I just googled this Major Hollywood place.

360/14 Moo 7 Soi Suksawat, Rat Burana Rd., Rat Burana, Rat Burana, Bangkok 10140

Looks like a long taxi ride in perspective !!

Is Immigration in the same building as the Major cinema ?

Seattle (SEA) a few years back.

Profiled as usual for bag check by Customs (single guy coming on EVA flight from BKK-TPE with only cabin bag).

Inspecting Customs female officer asked purpose of visit.

Just vacation, camping and hiking in the Cascades.

Wow ! that's nice ! I love to do that myself.

Took opportunity of this friendly contact to ask her what was so wrong with me that I was always selected for bag check at PDX and SEA.

That's really bad, Sorry, Just open your bag and I'll make like I'm checking it because 'they' are observing us from the mezzanine...

But then there were all the 'other' unpleasant times like, after bag check, I was taken to a small stuffy room where two guys who had appeared from nowhere during bag check frisked me (missed my zipper pouch belt LOL) and had me lean over while watching my behind to see if any suppository drug capsule would pop out.

Almost missed my connecting flight that time. Ba****ds !

I don't understand the OP post...

The pensioner had the (loaned) 800k in the bank and got his visa extension.

Visa renewable in 9 months.

Immigration doesn't know the 800k was returned to son-in-law.

Has a (small) pension to live on.

Why was he declared bankrupt by a Thai Court ?

A business gone bad ?

The best $100 I spent was to get Global Entry. I filled out a questionnaire on the US customs website, scheduled an interview near the Atlanta airport. Now I just go to a kiosk in US (valid also if traveling to Australia) get a ticket from the ATM-like machine, wave it a the customs officer and I'm on my way. As I am pre-screened and background-checked, I have never been hassled..

I think this Global Entry E-prescreening is indeed a very good idea to lighten the long Customs lines on arrival.

But only if it was free or near-free.

Having to pay the not-unsubstantial $100 makes cynical me sees that as an extortion scam : You pay us or we'll harass you and even confiscate your laptop and camera on arrival to our Land of the Free ...

But, then, maybe I've read too many stories about the Sicilian Mafia and their protection rackets

http://globalentry.gov/about.html

In a way I lived in two very distant and different places for eleven years in a row when I was leaving Thailand's hot season behind and went off camping/hiking four months at a time in the US Pacific Northwest.

Eva Air to SEA and a Hertz Camry rental in Seattle for the duration.

I loved those lengthy vacations but always enjoyed the return flight back to BKK !!

Rather cheap - only the flight and the car rental. Food and gas low cost in the US at that time.

After those eleven years I switched to vacationing two months at a time in France five years in a row.

Turkish Airlines to BRU. Europcar rental. Camping/hiking.

Now I just stay here and enjoy my TGF's company ...

BTW, I retired in LOS very early !!

Did you car camp the entire four months? Cool way to stay mobile. I was surprised how cheap car rentals have gotten in the USA. I rented a Kia Rio for about $460.00 a month. Covered my own insurance though to keep the cost down. The thing got over 35 mpg so fuel cost was low.

Yes, except for a couple nights at the Youth Hostel in Seattle on arrival I camped the entire trip in National Forests and BLM land mostly in Oregon and NoCal with some extended trips to Mt, Wy, Id, Ut, Co and even the Canadian Rockies.

I was getting a good Hertz rental rate through my Singapore Citibank account ('Corporate overseas').

As for my camping equipment (I even had a mountain bike for many years) well, I was 'caching' it on departure LOL Not permitted in the NF but it was just a small white crime really !! I didn't take anything back to LOS and it might still be hidden in the Gifford-Pinchot NF in Wa near the Columbia River for all I know !!

In a way I lived in two very distant and different places for eleven years in a row when I was leaving Thailand's hot season behind and went off camping/hiking four months at a time in the US Pacific Northwest.

Eva Air to SEA and a Hertz Camry rental in Seattle for the duration.

I loved those lengthy vacations but always enjoyed the return flight back to BKK !!

Rather cheap - only the flight and the car rental. Food and gas low cost in the US at that time.

After those eleven years I switched to vacationing two months at a time in France five years in a row.

Turkish Airlines to BRU. Europcar rental. Camping/hiking.

Now I just stay here and enjoy my TGF's company ...

BTW, I retired in LOS very early !!

I spent 18 years working in SE Asia (Vietnam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea) so it was natural for me to retire (early !!) in LOS where I had spent many happy vacations. And I had learned to speak adequate Thai too !!

(I'm Belgian but have lived outside Europe since my early twenties)

But if I retired today I'd not retire here. I'd go to Ecuador or Argentina (I speak Spanish).

A few years back I indeed considered sharing my retirement years between BKK/Pattaya (I rent an apt in both places) and Ecuador with a view of making a permanent move there if I liked it better than LOS.

Inertia got the better of me but now I think I made a mistake not to try the move at the time. Too senior now !!

Portugal would seem to be a possible future place for my twilight years.

But then I have a money-minded 26yo TGF who seems to have planned to take care of me in my last years.

So I think I'll stay here !!

I have to re-extend my visa in mid-november.

I hope by then the other guy (the monk) will have liberated the Govt Center at ChaengWattana and I can go to Immigration ...

I don't know my way to the replacement sites (I do the 90-days in Jomtien but my file is in BKK)..

And if she won't tell you something so basic as who she is affiliated with, wonder what else she ain't telling you? Just sayin'.

Of course !!

If her political opinions are "her business" then it means there isn't much intimacy between the two !!

Just tell her that Yingluck is 'good' and Suthep is 'bad' (or vv).

That's what I did with my TGF and got to know her side when she started praising Suthep and denigrating Yingluck.

Before that she was claiming to have no side. I'm 'Thailand' she'd say ...

I smell a "False Flag" vandalism.

In other words a stir the pot and get Japan's and indeed the world's attention again on this Anne Frank and on anti-Semitism.

Yes, I'm being cynical

Flames welcome

Who is paying for the fire extinguishers ?

Thanks Richcor,

I have windows 7 with 233gb on Disk C and about the same on Disk D.

I believe you can move the dividing bar between the disk,this probably wouldn't make

a difference with speed but would make things simpler.

Does anyone have have any idea on how to do this.I would search widows seven forum but I don't know the terminology I'm looking for

I've been using the EaseUS partition master free version with success on several computers :

http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

In Pattaya I once sent a TGF to EasyLearn on Soi BuaKhao.

One on one, no fixed schedule, 2-hour sessions, with a Thai lady married to an American and who had lived in the US for a time.

Sixty hours for 12,000b. They had exercise books too for home work after class. Not bad and cheap enough.

I'd like to send my present TrueLove there but the place seems to be closed.

It's right next to the Tesco Express/BlueRahtree (and ex-Rehab GoGo) bar complex near Action Street.

More times than not, I experience the same treatment when returning to the US via Los Angeles. I get really annoyed by it since I have someone outside waiting to meet me and they will not allow you to use a cell phone to call them. The last time, I was delayed 2 hours waiting my turn to be searched and interrogated. My brother was driving around and around LAX wondering <deleted>. Fortunately, I called him when I landed, and before getting to immigration, to let him know I made it to the airport.

Usually its just "welcome home sir" or the agent may ask what I'm doing in thailand and I answer honestly that I live there. A couple have mentioned their own trips to thailand or comment that it's a place they want to visit. Then they mark my customs form and I'm invariably waived on out of the arrivals hall and into the main terminal and back into America

Question: Which one is clean shaven, nice haircut, and neatly dressed? And which one is unkempt, has body piercings, and a tattoo of Che Guevara? Ok, time's up.

Much more efficient to be able to narrow the population for random screenings. Profiling? Indeed. We don't have the resources these days to wear the blindfolds the ACLU prefers.

Jeez !! Now I understand why I raise suspicions and am always inspected when I go to the US of A.

Never thought that my unkempt appearance was reason for being profiled by ICE!!

Thanks for the tip, mate! Made me think! From now on I'll make a point to take my piercings out, get a nice haircut, hide my commie tattoos and dress nice before going through US border controls.

I learned something new today !

I was detained in detroit a few years back too. I had three copy rolexes, copy software and various med (xanax and cialis). They went through all my electronics and took some of it to another room for deeper inspection i guess. When going through my wallet they asked about my ccw and started asking about weapons.

At the end they told me to pack all of it up. Gave me a brochure on illegal counterfiet items and a comment card surveying their job performance. Really not a big deal maybe an extra 20-30 minutes but they were polite and respectful....

"they were polite and respectful"

I think no reasonable traveler objects to border searches. It's all about protecting the country from bad people and bad things. What is objectionable is how it's done. Being treated like a vulgar perp even before anything illegal has been found on/with us is wrong. We expect the authorities to be rough with a gun wielding thug on the street but not with somebody who shows up at the border because he/she is travelling for business, pleasure, family, ...

So much lol, and fail. This doesn't just happen to Americans. This doesn't just happen to "single males travelling from a certain place". It doesn't just happen to certain people because of their hairstyle.

At the end of a 4 year posting to Germany, Canada Customs sent agents to our base to inspect everything everyone was shipping "home". Married, single, male, female, didn't matter. They literally sat there and went through every magazine page by page, and every movie (on F/F - back in the days of VHS tapes). They brought in the dogs. They took stuff apart. They were looking for any and everything that was illegal to bring into Canada. I wasn't even allowed to bring back a special (Canadian) edition of Playboy, that had been bought in Canada, even after I showed the customs agent the info proving it had come from Canada.

That was back in the mid-80's.

I've been travelling internationally (personally and professionally) since the early 90s. Many trips to/from Thailand (as a single male). For the last 10(+) years I've been working in an ME country and living in Thailand. Once every couple of years I have to return to Canada for one reason or another.

With passports full of stamps/visas from Thailand, Cambodia, UAE, Philippines, Egypt, Afghanistan, Turkey and India, how many times have I been stopped/questioned/searched when arriving ? Zero.

I've actually been searched more often when leaving Canada, including having my phone/laptop swabbed and tested for traces of explosives.

Then again. I try to look presentable whenever I travel and rarely have more than a couple of drinks (if any - tend to dehydrate too much when flying). I have nothing to hide and maybe my mannerisms show that.

I'm that guy you see ahead of you in the line that breezes through the metal detector/scanner because he has already removed ALL metallic objects and put them in his carry-on or screening tray beforehand.

I'm the guy that whizzes through Immigration because my passport/paperwork is in order and ready to go when I get to the counter, I am polite and don't reek of booze/puke/body odour or act suspicious (or belligerent) towards the Immigration officer.

Actually, you won't see me ahead of you, because I'm usually through and gone so smoothly, hardly anyone ever notices. You usually only notice the people that are inconveniencing you. Whether it's people ahead of you causing delays, or people "singling" you out for some reason for additional "screening".

Funny how it's usually "someone else" that is the main cause of most people's problems...........

(note: It seems that in the last 10 years, I've only done 38 round trips and gone through 80 sets of Customs/Immigration in 8 different countries, so I may not have the experience that some other members here have with these matters.)

So, you imply that because you are properly dressed and have the noble mien of a landed gentry gentleman you have never experienced trouble going through any Customs and Immigration and it's us, the riffraff, hoi polloi, dirty, unshaven, dressed in tattered clothes, unkempt, half drunk trailer park crowds who experience, rightly so, the close attention of border officials ...

Two years back I crossed from Canada to USA by car somewhere around Cornwall for a short ride into the USA.

When I handed over my European passport to the guy at the booth (whatever his function/title might be) my passport got confiscated and I was ordered to enter their building. There I was treated as a terrorist, a police officer took office against a wall not taking his eyes off me for a split second whilst I had to deal with a lady immigration officer at her desk, the police officer was ready to shoot his gun on any false move I would make. After 15 minutes he was relieved and replaced by a similar looking female agent. The whole process took 30 minutes. Freindlyness was not part of the game. Needless to say I have no plans on returning visiting the USA.

Same thing happened to me once. I rented a car at Seattle for a brief vacation in Oregon and one day took a short foray in Canada. On the way back to the US the border officer at the booth got extremely irritated to see that I had a Belgian passport (I had a proper US visa, though) and asked question after question in the most rudest way. Obviously didn't approve of a Belgian to come and sully his beautiful country... Ordered me to park. Told me they were going to inspect my car but without me around. OK but I must have angered them by saying that if not present I'd take my money pouch out first. They agreed but the "inspection" lasted a verrry long time - and I had only a small airline cabin bag in the car !! Punishment for my nationality and the fact that I didn't trust them with my $$$ - LOL

Inspected by a young lady Customs who smiled in a friendly way at me when they finally let me go. The other was a shabbily dressed totally hostile guy I took to be a DEA who got very upset at me because, bored at this time consuming "inspection", I went up once to see <deleted> they were doing over at my car.

In a way it was funny to have seen the American border guard near to temper tantrum at my EU nationality

It's going out of fashion these days but when I was young most shops and stores in Wallonia and France had signs "Entrée Libre", ie free entrance !! Seemed strange to foreigners that it was suggested that there could ever be a fee for entering a shop (there never was, it was just a come-in gimmick).

I went there in 2011 with my then TGF. No entrance fee for farangs at the time.

It's just a small market. Absolutely nothing of interest for a foreign tourist other than small shops.

Indeed my GF was happy to buy T-shirts, clothes for her kid and some special Thai food for her mother.

She enjoyed the high wire slide too.

We also sat down for a meal in a pleasant little place along the water but failed to get half the food we had ordered. Enjoyed a "Thai Starbucks" coffee too.

I'd certainly not go back since now they charge the milch cow farang for the privilege of shopping there. Ridiculous and rather insulting IMO.

If you're a farang tourist and like local color it's much more enjoyable to visit one of the numerous Thai markets around Pataya. Thepprasit on WE. NaKlua. BuaKao. No fees there.

Thanks for the info moonseeker.

Have you tried cleaning the battery contacts ?

Happened to me once with my HP laptop.

The battery had become "invisible" to the laptop battery checker and could no longer be used and recharged. The laptop would only work plugged in to the mains.

I cleaned the contacts and all was good and no problem since.