Awk

Marriage certificate in Thai is what they want. You will also need signed copies of her house book and ID card. You both should sign copy of marriage certificate. You shouldn't need the 400k the bank for the visa but it would be good to have your bank book with you in case they did want to see it. You can do the extension during the last 30 days of your 90 day entry. You will need the money to be in the bank for 60 days then.

Can the same (for marriage, not retirement) conversion be done with a regular 30-day visa exempt stamp, if turning up with two weeks still left?

Do I understand you correctly that the wife does not need to attend for this?

And does anyone know if it this conversion can also be done at Chiang Mai Imm. offices? If not, is it possible to do in Bangkok even if wife's house book is not for Bangkok?

Thank you.

You are using that T work again which has no translation to Thai

Or translation into English either---what does this post mean in any language?

I kiit, or think, it means the poster is incapable of understanding how to use a simple dictionary.

Normally thought in the latter part of elementary school I believe, for those who stick with the

program long enough.

Immediately after came the Ceasar salad with farm chicken (don't know what other kind there is and they couldn't explain what it meant either).

As I understand Mrs. Awk, this is usually interpreted to be a more or less free-roaming chicken, raised as a naive child might imagine most chickens are raised; on a pretty farm, with an old woman walking between the chickens and throwing them nice food in the sunshine. She is also of the impression that these type of chickens receive less medication and whatever other crap factory chicken are force-feed to stay alive long enough to reach the weight they can be sold at.

How much truth there is in this I do not know, and Mrs. Awk suspects things aren't all that good for the farm-chicken either, but it does taste distinguishly different from the standard factory-produced chicken, with the meat of the farm-chicken being quite a bit tougher/harder and with less fat. Since farm-chicken here is, according to Mrs. Awk, cheaper than factory-chicken (unlike what is the case in my own western country, where farm-chicken costs 3-5 times as much, but is then often marked as "organic" also), Mrs. Awk has been asked to buy farm-chicken whenever she can. We are then both crossing our fingers, hoping there is any truth in the "less medication" story.

We went to pick them up again after about an hour to two. I had no rouble sitting there watching the beer girls, honestly! These two girls are just juniors working with one of my friends. My friend decided to have them live in my house for their safety, so he said. But the truth is probably he wanted to save some money for he had promised to pay everything for the 2 young girls in his office!

Very thoughtful of him. As we all know it is very dangerous for two young pretty girls to stay by themselves anywhere in Chiang Mai. Should your house run out of free rooms, please have your friend consider sending me a PM. Do tell him to make sure to include with the PM a photo or two of the girl who needs a safe place to stay. As I have limited space, I have to give preference to those girl who are prettiest of course, as they would be in the greatest danger.

A few months ago, I and my 2 foreign friends sat outdoor at the Infinity. This was after we decided to give the two young foreign girls to spend more time at the Monkey Club after we tried to pick them up to come back home (mine). We had our own Double Black and ordered some food. No extraordinary charges there for us! Is there an inside at the Infinity? I did see some glass enclosure there though.

Yes, there is a big inside room with the usual Thai-disco setup of tables and people standing/shuffling around their table. If they start to applying such a charge to foreigners only (and to the ones with comprehension problems, that is the point. The charge is for foreigners only. Nobody is complaining about a regular cover-charge for all people), I won't be going there again.

I hope you did not wait in vain.

Went there for the first time last night, and neither saw the sign nor heard anything about it. Presumably something new, as I don't remember ever hearing Infinity was one of those kind of places.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful and helpful replies. I think I'm going to have to spend a half day sometime soon checking out a few different places. If City Gym is indeed still open and I can find it I think that would be ideal - if I do find it I'll be sure to update everyone.

I haven't really spoken to the trainers here about weight training, but due to the language barrier it's hard to speak to them about most things The gym owner though speaks english and has helped me out in my search for a gym; we haven't spoken specifically about how lifting and muay Thai align themselves, but I don't get the impression it's a problem. I think it's pretty well accepted sport science at this point that if you weight train correctly with proper goals then it can only help.

Since I'm already training full time I don't plan to lift more than once a week, not just because it's logistically difficult but also I don't want to burn myself out. I do have a decent strength advantage though, not just over people I train with but most people in general, especially people my size, so I think it would be helpful to at least try to maintain that.

Thanks again for the tips - and keep them coming if there are more on the way. It'll probably be the weekend before I'm able to make a trip to CM to check out any of these places, but as soon as I do I'll post on what I find.

Then I'd just go to the old 700 year centre in the city, just next to the Chang Puak bus station. For training once a week, this gym is perfectly adequate imo and it is possible to walk there from the market. Barbells are very non-standard (and short), and so are the plates, but you are not doing olympic weight lifting, just lifting weight, and for that it's good enough. Has a squat rack, has a floor for deadlifts, and is where I lifted the occasional weights when I was in your shoes 10 years ago.

Oh, and I btw looked a little closer at the barbell at Fitness Thailand today. Yes, it does bend, at 110 kg (and possibly less).

I would personally recommend either Powerhouse or Harris but both places are pretty packed at peak hours.

Fitness Thailand otherwise is pretty good as well but I just cannot stand the location and parking.

Second time I see somebody complaining about parking. When is the parking house full? I bought a one month membership at FT to try (just finished the one month),

and have never experienced any parking problems.

The other day I visited Harris Gym, thinking I'll try that too for month, but this gym is too small. Even in the morning, it was half full. It seems like a decent hotel gym (though I guess it's not affiliated with the hotel) and has the required squat rack, but the weight room is a small fraction the size of FT, even though a lot of the equipment in FT is out of order. Forgot to notice if the plates were standard size or not. The FT plates unfortunately are not. Even the barbell is not the standard weight. :-( Bending? Never loaded more than 110kg of plates on the barbells there myself, but not noticed any bending. Guess I still have some kg to go.

A long time since I was last at City gym, but somebody else here recently indicated it was still open. Don't remember if the plates there were standard, but I remember thinking this is the best gym in CM at the time (except that there was no women there, and it's out in the nowhere), so would guess both the plates and barbells were of the standard size. Think you will have a hard, or expensive, time going regularly to this gym without your own transportation though.

Gym at centara would be the closest I think. Walking distance from Warorot market. Never been there myself. A long walk away would be the old 700 year stadium, where there is also a 400m running track. Cost there is 20b per time (possibly half price if you buy a membership, if they still sell that), and is very basic. Good enough for many people though, and I've used it myself for months at a time.

Sorry short changing is short changing.. Doesnt matter if its 5b or 500 its the principle..

That said I have eaten there 10's of times and every time was given my change.. If I didnt I would ask for it.. Not a big deal but thats the way it is. It would also effect (reduce) my tipping and or desire to go there frankly, even if it was 10b. I would want to ask for something thats mine.. However its never happened to me.

It has never happened to me either, and I have also eaten at Gekko Garden plenty of times. Both the owner, who I have barely exchanged a handful of words with over the year, and the waitresses, have always seemed friendly enough.

That said I see no reason to doubt the OP. Hopefully other customers noticed the same and after a few of them told the owner, the problem was resolved.

If I was the owner, I'd be more happy for some of my regular customers telling me about the problem, rather than the problem causing me to lose customers before I could find the problem myself.

I think the problem about Thai beef taste & texture for me anyway stems from the fact I am from the USA.

Where we have very good beef. Eating at places like Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company etc. can perhaps spoil you

Yes, I imagine it might. Coming from a country where most of the beef comes from dairy cows, and is quality-wise similar to Thai beef, I can not claim to have been spoiled on beef myself, so perhaps I should have disqualified myself from this discussion. ;-)

I find Sante Fe to be excellent value for money, especially when compared to Sizzler whom they seem to open nearby where ever possible. I also do not enjoy Thai beef but the pork and chicken is excellent and SF does a good job of quality in this respect.

Opinions obviously differ, and that is good. I've eaten at Sizzler probably over a hundred times, while I have little inclination to eat at Santa Fe again. Perhaps you are not too fond of vegetables? I usually have one of the beef steaks at Sizzler (possibly imported? I think the menu says that, but I can't remember for sure at the moment. The beef is fair enough, but certainly nothing special), which is somewhat pricy imo, especially since the quality of whatever import they seem to use is not significantly better than some of the Thai beef imo. Since I am also fond of vegetables and salads, which are included with virtually anything you order, I can't complain about the total price however. If you order one of the cheaper options (fried chicken/port/fish/etc.), the value for money is very good imo.

Been a few years since I last ate at Santa Fe though, so perhaps I'll try them again one of these days, based on your glowing recommendation. ;-)

Santa Fe at Airport us usually very good but I would never order Thai beef steak anywhere! I know imported costs more but it is the only steak worth eating.

And ordering Thai beef rare or medium rare is a complete no-no so if it came med rare it should have gone back for a few more minutes.

Their chicken/pork/seafood/pasta is usually good.

Yes & really we do know better but for some reason thought we would give it a try.

My wife is lucky & lost hers as soon as we got home.

I on the other hand have never in my life had that ability

Will hopefully feel better tomorrow & try to remember from now on

what we already knew. Thai beef is a no go

Ate at Santa Fe in Hua Hin a couple of times, and found the value for money poor in general. But can't agree with your opinion about Thai beef. Sure, it's not Australian/NZ beef, but I eat it, usually cooked at home, medium rare, at least once a week, and have never had any problems. I'd bet my money on the problem being not the beef, but the handling of the beef at Santa Fe.

In addition, what might work, but which sometimes the people renting out don't necessarily suggest themselves, is to offer more than they want, if you see a place you like. If they want to rent out for a minimum of 6 months at 10,000 per month, they might also be happy to rent out for two months at 15,000 a month instead.

If that is your pict then I want go on the record to say your smoking hot!!!

I'm not aware of kettlebells for sale in CM but a few places in BKK and Phuket sell and ship them.

Not exactly cheap though.

Check this thread for websites

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/444920-where-to-buy-kettlebells-weights-in-chiang-mai/

"...I want to go on the record to say your smoking hot!!!"

Gawd Almighty...what a way to greet this lovely girl! Crude, rude, and semi-literate.

No wonder there are so few Thais on the forum.

Then after that loutish come-on you provide her with some useful information.

TITV.

Hmm, yeah, but unlike your reply, his post at least contained some information related to the poster's question, which can not be said for your own post.

Not seen kettlebells in any gym here myself unfortunately, so can not offer any information. Would assume the OP is aware her/his requirements are quite unusual, and not something one would expect to find in any random city.

Chiang Mai Orchid - this used to be the place to be seen 10 years ago; lots of youngish well-educated farang hunters. The facilities are terrible now but only 8K.

Never mind the facilities. Are the youngish women still there? (And not the same women that were youngish 10 years ago. ;-)

Here's a pic as promised. Another good thing is the a/c works well so I hope in hot season it will be a nice refuge. Also the pool was nice, a bit chlorinated for my liking, but at 30 mt long great for laps.

Are there 50 meter pools, also, in the Chiang Mai area? It is so nice when you can swim and do 50% less turning around.

There are two that I know of. One at the "new" 700 year centre outside of the city, and another one at a posh (?) hotel, also far outside the city. I can't remember the name of the hotel any longer, possibly out on the Mae Rim road, but perhaps some other member here can?

While I too like 50m pools, they are both too far away for me to bother going there, though I'm considering trying the hotel pool again, as my previously regular 25m pool have unfortunately reduced their closing time from 21:00 to 20:00.

Slightly amusing, this hotel has/had two locations in Chiang Mai. On inside the city, and another one far out in the wilderness. I remember going to it with a tuk-tuk my first time in CM, being pleasantly surprised by the low fare the tuk-tuk driver quoted me after I showed him the hotel on my map.

After some initial confusion, the staff at the hotel made me understand the hotel had two locations, and that I wanted the other one and that it was "far away, very expensive to go".

Being a young man traveling on a limited budget, I was not sure what "very expensive" meant.

A friendly off-duty policeman (or so he claimed) hanging around nearby and apparently noticing me entering the hotel and then leaving, with me studying the map and perhaps looking confused regarding what to do now was quite helpful however. He explained to me that, yes, it was indeed far away, and it would be best if I took a bus. He could even drive me to the bus station if I wanted.

Unlike what one might now think, he did not then proceed to drug and rob me. Instead he drove me to some place (I had no idea where at that time) on his motorbike. He then stopped one of those yellow/white/whatever buses that drive down the same road all the time, explained to the driver where I wanted to go, and asked him to let me know when I should get off. The cop then told me it should cost me 10B, or something like that, before he went on his way. Presumably to continue beating up his wife and extort other people.

Only place I've seen it is at the old 700 year stadium in the city, and that was only once. There is a room next to the very old and cheap gym under the stadium seating, which I have only seen open one time, and that was when there was a group of people training olympic weightlifting. I suspect it's not used much, but it could also be that they only open it for a few hours every day when the group comes to train.

If you are going to stay long enough for it to be worth your while, I guess you could bring somebody who speaks both Thai and English with you to the gym under the stadium and ask the guy manning the reception there. Since it's right next to where I saw the olympic lifters, he would at least know if they actually are training there, and it was not just a one-off occurrence as I suspect.

Other than that, I have never seen anyone doing olympic lifting anywhere in CM, except when the world championship was here some years back of course. That was held at the new 700 stadium btw, and I suspect there is a better chance of finding it there, but too far away for me to frequent it.

Wow, this is crazy! I never in a million years expected 6 pages of replies.

I don't even know how to reply to each one of them, but I'll try in the next few hours to address at least a few of them.

The retirement visa option is out of question for me, as I'm in my mid-30's.

I never had any issues with Immigration in my last 4 extensions. What shocked me the most is that he refused to return my passport until after I signed the document that I would have 400,000 in the bank account on my next extension - and his supervisor was there when he did that, so she must have known about it. And also when he suggested to my wife that she should find another husband who had 400,000 in the bank if I didn't have enough. I wish I had a tape recording of that moment.

I'm beginning to get the picture now

Mid 30's and receiving TH80,000 pm from a trust fund and only TB260,000 in the bank

I have never found Thai Immigration Officers hard to deal with as long as you are decently presented, show respect, wei and bow slightly and ask them to help you.

If you treat them like subordinates and inferior to you they will take that as an insult - you should give them face - make them feel important.

Demanding to speak with his superior was the kiss of death - the ultimate insult - what did you expect after that ?

Draw your own conclusions as to why this particular Officer reacted in this manner TV people - I have

Also when the Immigration Officer suggested to your wife that she should find a husband with TB400,000 in the bank did he speak English or Thai ?

Presumably he spoke in Thai since they are both Thais - do you speak Thai well enough to understand what he said ?

I doubt it ! So how can you be sure exactly what he said ? and if he did that's the ultimate Thai to Thai put down !

You must have really pissed him off

I only asked to speak to his supervisor AFTER he said that he could not extend my visa. It was the very last option I had, not the first thing I said after I sat down.

I've been in Thailand for almost 9 years, 4 of them being married. I can understand Thai almost perfectly and speak it quite well, too. I know everything about Thai customs.

He spoke in Thai almost the entire time and he was well aware that I understood every word. He basically said that there is no law that allows for monthly income from overseas unless I had a work permit. And then told my wife in Thai that I should put 400,000 in the bank account or that she should look for another husband.

He was also well aware that I understood it. I didn't need a translation.

Please don't blame me. Remember I've had extensions for the past 4 years without any problems, ever.

My sympathies. I think you would do best to ignore idiot-replies like the above. There is little need to pay attention to a headless rooster running around; better to just keep out of the way and let them die out.

While I never experienced problems like yours, where the official is obviously wrong, the increased difficulties in going the

income-from-abroad route made me eventually switch to just keeping the 400,000 in the bank.

Initially, just the extravagantly costly embassy letter was accepted, which contrary to what some clown in this thread claimed, for most requires considerable supporting documentation, rather than just a statement. Then I suddenly also needed a confirmation from the overseas employer for which I was working on a rotational basis, and by now it would perhaps be something else too.

I'm not so comfortable with keeping money in the bank here, given one appear to have effectively no security against someone stealing it, bank employees included, and believe my money could be better vested elsewhere, but you never know what kind of things the IM employee will ask for here. At least the money-in-the-bank route seems to limit the amount of surprises somewhat, and there is less of a chance of having to get some official looking document from the overseas HR department in the middle of a long summer holiday.

80000 per month and you cannot save 3 months to get 400000 in the bank ? your life must cost a lot !

Thats an irelevant remark. The rules state 400,000k in a bank account or 40k per month. The problem seems to be the interviewing officer not understanding the regs. or envious of the applicant, or both.

Yep, and folk should read the story before posting daft stuff.

Then thaivisa would be virtually devoid of posts.

I got 11.45 today. Why pay 1000 when you can pay almost half?

Because one is an idiot? Or because one is not actually paying half for the same thing?

This topic would be much better suited in the generic Internet forum, as it is not specific to CM, and

the OP would likely get better replies there.

I have never tried 3BB premier myself, but from what I have gathered from others on that forum,

the "premier" service is less likely to be throttled by 3BB (wheras the ordinary connections apparently

are, reducing their speed considerably at peak use times) and you are thus more likely to get what you pay

for. So if you pay for 3Mb, chances are you will get that all or most of the time. The rest, on e.g. the

ordinary 10Mb plan, will get anything from virtually zero Mb to 10Mb, depending on how congested the

network is, both in ones local area and further in to 3BB's network.

Possibly 3BB also tags the "premier" traffic as higher priority thus reducing the chance of packets getting dropped and stalling one's transfers, and perhaps reducing latency slightly too, though I have not seen anyone claim that. That might be because no one has attempted to test it, of course.

That's taking a lot on faith. Does 3BB actually say that for the higher price that they will give you a more consistent speed or prioritize your traffic, or do they just charge more and people assume that they must be getting something for that extra money?

I have not talked with any tech people at 3BB, and the people 3BB sales people obviously wouldn't know, but the sales people say something along the lines of what you are saying.

Obviously this is a rather limited niche, consisting of people or companies who prefer to pay more for 3Mb than others pay for 10Mb, provided their 3Mb of traffic are given special considerations. If I recall correctly, on the general Internet forum there was somebody who was using his 3Mb to handle 10 simultaneous voice-IP lines, and needed the more consistent bandwidth for that.

I doubt this is some vaporware feature 3BB is selling, as the people who opt for such a plan would probably on

average be quite a bit more technically competent than the average 10Mb cheapest-plan-I-can-get user. If it was not working at all, they'd probably notice, and some of these people would probably be Thaivisa users also.

I'm not in the group of people who need 3Mb consistently, and are more happy to get 5-10Mb most of the time, and if things slow down to 0.1Mb now and then, that sucks, but never getting more than 3Mb would suck more.

Thnks for reply

-My wife's daughter took a two year course to become a nurse's aid.

= In Thai?

There ra 2 types of nurse diploma. One of them (as far as i know) is 2-3 years learning, other - 4. But some people get simple medicine knowledge from 3-6 month courses. Problem is that I dont know what kind of job I get after those. Massage not interesting for me. And I'd like to stay in Thai for couple years.

AwK, did ur friend get nurse job with this half-year education?

It looks like if I wanna good nursing education I need to study 4 years. But I don't know is this job good for me. I had only 2 days first aid courses and they were just theoretical.

Best option for me is to find what kind of job do I get from short nurse education and decide worth it is or not. If I'll like to learn more I allways can study on univercity faculty for 4 years.

I think the kind of job you get is, as the description indicates, being an aid to the proper nurse. Assisting her with tasks she finds beneath her or "too icky". You will not get any nurse job, as those require a nurse degree.

I think my friend had some short part-time jobs, helping take care of some elderly people, or similar, before moving from Thailand. I got the impression she was, for some reason, somewhat surprised to find herself at the very bottom of the totem pole, taking orders from people who took orders from doctors.

I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but is the case that you are not fluent in Thai and are considering getting a Thai nurse aide degree in English, so that you can afterwards get a nurse aide job in Thailand, competing for

the job with thousands of native Thai people who are fluent in Thai and would pose no work permit problems for the employer? If that is indeed the case, I can only wonder,

If on the other hand your plan is to attend a course where most of your classmates will be young girls who you hope will be very curious about your farangness, and will be more than average interested in getting to know you in both this way and that way, it might be a viable plan. Worst case, you will get some basic medial knowledge.

I got 11.45 today. Why pay 1000 when you can pay almost half?

Because one is an idiot? Or because one is not actually paying half for the same thing?

This topic would be much better suited in the generic Internet forum, as it is not specific to CM, and

the OP would likely get better replies there.

I have never tried 3BB premier myself, but from what I have gathered from others on that forum,

the "premier" service is less likely to be throttled by 3BB (wheras the ordinary connections apparently

are, reducing their speed considerably at peak use times) and you are thus more likely to get what you pay

for. So if you pay for 3Mb, chances are you will get that all or most of the time. The rest, on e.g. the

ordinary 10Mb plan, will get anything from virtually zero Mb to 10Mb, depending on how congested the

network is, both in ones local area and further in to 3BB's network.

Possibly 3BB also tags the "premier" traffic as higher priority thus reducing the chance of packets getting dropped and stalling one's transfers, and perhaps reducing latency slightly too, though I have not seen anyone claim that. That might be because no one has attempted to test it, of course.