smileplur

Yeah, I remember it. Despite everything I had read, I remember being nervous as I touched down at the old airport. I collected my luggage, and I tried to find my way to the taxi stand. I recall hearing Thai for the first time. The sound itself was intoxicating. I stepped outside and was hit by a wall of thick, stifling heat and humidity. I dropped my bag and lit a smoke as I tried to figure out just what the hel_l I was thinking.

The taxi ride was strange. It was late and dark. My mind was swimming. I had no reservation, and I was heading to KSR to find a place. The cabbie dropped me off at Burger King, and I paid the fare. I think he got something like a 50 baht tip from me.

I stood there for a while just looking at the freak show in front of me. I was trying to comprehend it all. The smell was strong. It was hot. I walked, but the nothing really seemed any good in terms of a place to stay. I made my way up the stairs of Lek Guesthouse and was horrified by the rooms I saw. That is when I met another guy searching for a room. We eventually made it all the way to the end, and wandered over to Rainbow. The room was terrible, but I was in need of a cold beer. I dropped my bag. That guy did the same, and we set off for beer.

He bought me my first Chang. He told me of his travels. He was just back from Phuket and heading out the following day. When I told him about tipping the taxi, he told me to stop doing that nonsense!

It was during that conversation that I took a look around the bar. I noticed heaps of western guys with absolutely stunning Thai girls. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought that my eyes were playing tricks. Surely, it wasn't going to be that easy. How wrong I was ......

I believe Kuala Lumpur will do the trick for you.

Well, that complicates matters slightly! We will have been in Korea for a year. My wife is heading back a few weeks before me, so I was thinking that I would just fly to KL and pick up a visa when I leave here. I would then pick up a cheap Air Asia flight to Bangkok or meet my wife in the south. I suppose I could have her fly down to KL to meet me and we could travel back overland. Or, transfer the money to my Thai bank account. At least a chunk of it.

How about showing them TCs? That would be another reasonable option. I could present that amount in TCs. I have yet to determine how I will handle my money once leaving Korea given the exchange rate and new fees on foreign cards being used in Thailand.

How much is a little? Does it need to be in a Thai Bank? I have a few options here. I could show my Korean bank book which will reflect a very large sum of KRW. I could transfer that money back to the states and show the printout from online. Or, I could transfer to my bank in Thailand. Do they care about any of this?

Well, dam_n the luck! They don't offer multiple entry Non-Imm 'O' visas in Seoul! For anyone reading this, the fee for a single entry is 80,000 KRW. I need to start looking into the requirements for KL and Vientiane I guess. Sigh.

Thanks. If they say no, I can always fly to KL from Seoul when I leave and hang out for a day or two. The airfare is cheaper anyway! I only started thinking about this now because the tourist visa is free for a limited amount of time. I live far from Seoul, and I need to make a special trip to the embassy which requires planning. However, with the Non-Imm 'O', I will get it when I have a week off in August!

Fair enough! Thanks for the help! Now, time to call up the embassy!

I suppose my confusion is stemming from the work permit part of things. The problem is that I will not have 400,000 in the bank in Thailand for 2 months. My money will be tied up abroad. I will have around 400,000 when I arrive if I transfer this money into my Thai account. However, I will be dipping into it for setup related costs when arriving.

I think I am leaning towards the Multiple Entry 'O' visa if my logic is correct. I don't know when I will begin working. I need a break from work! This will enable me to take a month or two and look around. I could find a job for the new term in October. They can get me a work permit. I can then leave the country for a quick visa run and be granted an additional 3 months upon my return. This will enable me to work for a period of time to demonstrate that my salary is above 40,000 per month. This should enable me to extend on the basis of my marriage. Is that correct?

Please forgive my ignorance and confusion. The situation with visas seems to be changing perpetually, and I am slightly confused as to what would be my best option. I am leaving South Korea at the end of August. I will be heading back to Thailand with my wife. She is Thai. From there, I am uncertain of what I will do. I figure I will do some scuba diving, sit on a beach for a while, and then make a decision regarding what the hel_l I am going to do. It would seem that my options for work include a vast array of different locations including but not limited to: Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, China, Japan, and Vietnam. Because of my uncertainty regarding where I will choose to work next, I haven’t got any idea how long we will actually be in Thailand. I am looking for the easiest, most cost effective way to cover my bases in such a scenario.

Double Entry Tourist Visa

Now, I understand these are being given away for free right now which is what makes this option appealing. My validity would be for 6 months. It would enable me to effectively stay in the country for a healthy 6 months. The disadvantage is that I would need to make a visa run should I remain in Thailand for work purposes. Should I decide to move on to another country, I wouldn’t have wasted money on an unnecessary

Non Immigrant ‘O’ – Single Entry

Well, it is cheaper than the multiple entry! My understanding is that I can extend my ‘O’ visa based on employment should I stay in Thailand. Is this correct? I believe the requirement to extend it based on marriage would require a combined income of 40,000 baht. Is this correct? I was on this visa before, and I needed some additional time. I extended it for one month at immigration before coming to Korea. Is this an option still?

Non Immigrant ‘O’ – Multiple Entry

For whatever reason, people act as if this is the gold of visas. I understand that I can be issued a work permit on this visa. I wouldn’t need to extend it at all. My visa would be separate from my work if I continued to make my visa runs every 3 months. Clearly, the advantage is in owning my own visa. The disadvantage is that it is a bit pricey! Furthermore, visa runs are a serious pain!

Now, I should state that I am leaning strongly towards staying in Thailand for a while. I really miss it there, and being in Korea has been quite boring for my wife. I feel like I have had the life sucked out of me. This hagwon business can really drain you! It would be nice to settle down in Bangkok for a while.

If you had these options, which would choose and why? Thanks for the feedback!

sign me and the wife up

Wait, im lost... what the hel_l is "TT" anyway?

TT = Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum

Yes, girlx is cool in my book. I also know her from TT.

It is updated daily, but it doesn't have what you are after ... sorry it couldn't help more!

Hotels Combined will give you the following in excel:

hotelId Unique id for each hotel. (Integer)

hotelFileName Redirection url to view hotel details/rates. http://www.hotelscombined.com/Hotel/[hotelFileName].htm?a_aid=[your affiliate id]

hotelName Unique hotel name

rating Star rating

location Location/Suburb/Area within the city.

cityId Unique id for the city

cityFileName Redirection url for city page. http://www.hotelscombined.com/City/[cityFileName].htm?a_aid=[your affiliate id]

cityName Name of the city

stateId Unique id for the state (Optional)

stateFileName Redirection url for the state page. http://www.hotelscombined.com/State/[stateFileName].htm?a_aid=[your affiliate id] (Optional)

stateName Name of the state (Optional)

countryCode Two letter unique country code

countryFileName Redirection url for the country page. http://www.hotelscombined.com/Country/[countryFileName].htm?a_aid=[your affiliate id]

countryName Name of the country

imageId The hotel's default image. The format is http://www.hotelscombined.com/HotelImages/[first3numbersOfImageId]/[imageId].jpg e.g. For the imageId '123456' the URL will be http://www.hotelscombined.com/HotelImages/123/123456.jpg and for the thumbnail the URL will be http://www.hotelscombined.com/HotelThumbs/123/123456.jpg

sellers The number of websites that sell this hotel

address The hotel's address

minRate The average low rate

currencyCode The currency code for the 'minRate' column

I told you that affiliate programs like Agoda will have an entire list available for download. I have one or two around somewhere.

I have a pretty comprehensive list that was obtained through an affiliate program I am with. Many of them have such lists. Sign up and download.

If you know anything about linguistics, it isn't that difficult to figure out at all. The 'h' may have been added to denote some aspect of the pronunciation. Aspiration of the consonant comes immediately to mind. If you want to explore /g/ and /k/ then you should just understand what and allophone is. We have allophones in English, so it only makes sense that Thai would too. For example:

bets - the sound at the end noted by the orthographic s is in fact the sound

begs - here we have another situation ... the sound is in fact [z]

Why the [z] where there is an s? Well, it deals with rules of assimilation. The preceding sound is a [g]. This sound is voiced, so we automatically change the sound to match the voiced quality for ease of articulation. There are many such examples.

If you were to devise another script for English, how would you represent this? For Thai, aspiration (among other things) makes a difference for meaning. Thus, the transliteration is quite difficult.

I doubt it. In fact, I'm quite sure you will still get the Cambodian visa affixed in your passport, taking up one page.

--

Maestro

I believe otherwise. You will only get a stamp and bypass the visa portion. Your visa is issued online.

Well, it used to be. It is no longer a backpacker destination. Instead, it is now filled with mostly long time expats on weekends.

I think TV should contribute something to the beverage bill. What do you guys think about that?

Post #7: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=2155030

I will go anywhere except Wong's. Been living here 30 years & never heard of it.

Open the fridge & help yourself to a beer isn't gonna get it for me. Plus - who goes drinking on Rama 4? Unless you are at Satorn & the CBD.

Well, open up a Lonely Planet. I think it is listed there. Google should drum a few things up from days that have gone by. Soi Sribamphen used to be a bit like what Khao San is today. It was the backpacker area of Bangkok in the old days. There are still a few guesthouses around and nice little Italian joint. It is quite close to the Malaysia Hotel. It is a lively little place with pictures all over the wall. The original Wong has passed away, but his brother now runs the joint. He is working on a website now, but it isn't complete yet. It is up to you if you decide not to check it out for yourself one day. I find Gulliver's to be ordinary and boring. However, Wong's is unique. It reminds me of a dive bar in Soho, NYC.

Koh Kong is also problematic in this regard.

Thanks for your reply. My father is living here in Thailand so I am visiting him and my siblings. As I am now staying in Thailand till November meaning I have 2 months or so. So I can extend my current permit by 30 days or exit the country, my queston is how strict are they in the amount of days you stay as I heard they are starting to get strict?

What you want to do is extend your visa by 30 days, THEN exit the country.

They are only strict on how many days you spend on visa exempt stamps, and restrict that to 90 days in any 6 month period. Any time spent on proper visas (which you currently have) or extensions does not count towards your 90 days.

Thanks.. I wasn't sure if they counted the days also on a proper visa... one last question, we are planning a trip to Laos, I will have to extend my current tourist visa before then, will I be able to apply for another 60 tourist visa at the thai embassy in Laos??

Your visa will no longer be valid if you leave Thailand for Laos unless you get a reentry permit. It depends on your situation. You can get another tourist visa in Vientiane.

It's actually cheaper, as in the 3 years or so I have been here they have always demanded 1,000 baht, but $25 is about 850.

I've never heard of this before, would be interested to hear from someone who's tried it. What's the procedure when you get to Cambo?

I have gotten my visa rather easily at Poipet for $20. However, I think the e-visa means that you simply skip that first booth on the right you would normally go to. You should go directly to where they stamp your passport. The last time I was there, they had a special window on the right to give them your documents.

I wonder if Jack Golf will still handle the stamping for you with an e-visa.