luisparis

And for our office rental we were asked three month deposit. Fairly sure our famously tough owner would lock us out if we don't pay the last months, so I wonder if we will be able to get anything back when downgrading to a smaller office in a few months.

Agord, I had a big smile reading about your senior position and the 15000 baht rent as well, perhaps you should think deeper before insulting other forum members on professionnal or financial issue next time. Besides 120 000tbh/month doesn't even get you a large penthouse in Bangkok. I pay that amount including utilities and can't say the serviced apartment is impressive ( yet I'm quite glad I didn't go for the more expensive penthouse I had initially been negociating because business in BKK has been a disaster since November and I didn't spend much time over there )

Besides a few years back rented a couple of smaller apartments in BKK and had no issue whatsoever to get back the deposit. Not paying the last month seems to be also OK in our serviced apartment although I doubt we will see much of the second month security deposit as the management is quoting ridiculously high prices for appliances and furnitures and we did some damage.

Crobiker,

BSJ must have been taking the piss...

Many of the question asked, lack the details to give a well thought out answer which is based on experience, which was succesful. What would you expect from some of our fun inclined posters. The secretary may have experience dealing with wealthy families or may be astute enough to realize the relationship has gone south or she may dislike you, so she gives advice which if followed will p.ss the wealthy family off royally and they will put out a contract on you. Without knowing many variables it is hard to be a Dear Abby wantabe.

Ouch!! I knew that card wasn't welcome... anyway did call a thai friend knowing the family who will also find an excuse the avoid the wedding and he reckons 2000TBh is more than enough, more or less what people in my position routinely give in this kind of wedding involving minor suppliers' family. Will try to get some more input before giving the enveloppe. I was involved once in a wedding in China with a relatively well off family as one of the victims and it was all cash and gold, including a lot of thin enveloppes, with closer family members using bank transfer. Sure beats the olive oil bottles and lousy coffee machine we got from my spanish relatives

OK thanks, how would you formulate the apology ? What kind of money you would slip in the enveloppe ? The parents are worth a few million USD but our relationship hasn't gone very well lately, and I'm not much inclined in warming it too much. First slipped 5k in the enveloppe burt secretary reckons 2 is enough.

Hi

I've received an invitation to the wedding of a supplier's family member upcountry but doubt I will go. Yet my thai secretary reckons I should slip a couple of thousand baht in the enveloppe we received with the invitation and have someone hand it over to them during the ceremony. Does it seem like the polite way to do?

Cheers

Luis

Why would you either attempt or want to cool the entire volume of air? Cold air falls, and hot air rises. Cooling the air far above your head does not seem to be an especially intelligent thing to do.

Glyph,

Do you think we have separate aircon units for the lower and higher parts of the room?

what does "6m high under ceiling in the living room" mean?

It means the ceiling is very high (equivalent of two stories in this building) and the volume to cool is proportionnaly important. Will double check at least once the numbers on the meter at least once though, but it''s not such an easy matter as the meter seems locked outside

Besides I know we are overcharged by the serviced apartment management for electricity, it really looks like the norm here. Has anyone managed tp pay directly his bill to the power supplier when the serviced apartment/condo rules are different ? I pay 7bht per unit for the office BTW...

Received our second electricity bill today, over 21 k... that's 21% of our rent, pretty steep. Wonder if we should expect that much at 6TBH per unit , for a 200sqm apartment including balconies, 6m high under ceiling in the living room,aircon switched on full time with temperatures set between 23 to 25, and sometimes less in the baby's room. More than I expected anyway, will encourage me even more to head back to Sathorn in an all inclusive serviced apartment deal...

Any more branches of The Oriental dry cleaner, except Emporium and Central Chidlom ?

Need to double check but i seems at the hotel itself (convenient for me) the prices are double than in the downtown branches.

"Think you're definately right about emotion talk, after living in los i probably lost a good part of that vocabulary would be way better to speak to him in french. Sadly my girlfriend refuses to learn french so i will have to do it all on my own'

Petite chevre,

Interesting thread, same here, kid from ethnically diverse origin ( each of the 4 grandparents of our daughter had a different mother tongue - none of it thai so moving to BKK, a country with a language foreign to all of us didn't help) and we are also confused. I thought also about speaking english to our daughter, as we don't use the language at home except a bit with the nanny and we're definetely looking at an english speaking education, but I also found it would keep more distance than necessary with the child. Considering the language diffference already keeps a gap in communication with the chinese mother (we speak french, but that's a secondary language to her which might become even more secondary now that we've moved to thailand), I would rather avoid some unnecessary distance with our daughter, especially that back home our family only gets along with latin languages. Yet I don't know about your personal situation, especially if you are canadian and not french, you might speak *really* fluently. I wouldnt worry too much about accent , there are so many accents around there is hardly a "right" one - I mean if you are quebecois you should know (I'm from southern France though, and my accent is hardly more discreete)

Good luck with your boy

Luis

Thanks again,we will definetely go and have a chat with them.

Hi Luis,

I don't know any school in your area, but there is a kind of nursery on Yenakat (behind Sathorn) :

http://www.centre-acacia.com/home.html

One of the founders is a native Chinese/English speaker from Singapore and she is very fluent in French too (she teaches French at Garden school). The nursery starts with 18 months children and they are thinking of adding some chinese activities to their programm.

Thanks a lot. I hadn't heard of that school yet and they do offer flexible enrolment options. Will definetely go and check the school. Would you know if there are mostly french kids going there and how many of them teachers take care at the same time?

you wont have a problem - my wife regularly travels with my son. She is Asian with an Asian passport and her own name, he is British with UK passport and my name - never been asked a question - i think you would be surprised how many people live like this.

Can confirm it's no problem, our daughter has passed several times immigration checkpoints in France, Thailand, Hong kong and China with her mother or even her grandparents who neither hold the same name nor even the same nationality and no question was ever asked. A little scary if you ask me.

Hi,

I must say that we are a bit confused about educational and linguistic orientations for our daughter, who has a chinese mother who favours cantonese and hakka although she uses mandarine with our daughter and I'm french, speaking french to her. Our nanny is burmese and speaks english. Missus and myself converse in french.

We are looking for a mostly english speaking education for miss Junior but would like her to be able to speak fluently also mandarine and french.

Our daughter is only 10 month old but we are already looking to socialise her. In Paris as soon as they can walk you can send kids part time to upmarket private schools where teachers will work on the intelectual development of 5 to 8 kids at a time. A friend is sending her daughter in such a school twice a week. Do they have such schools in BKK for very young kids, and do they offer part time deals as i don't really want to fork out 3 times 50000TBH a month for a 1year old education , and we'd like to use perhaps two or three schools wich use different languages ?

Besides are there multilingual options around, using at least 2 of the 3 languages above? Please leave thai out of the equation, it's aready diverse enough at the moment.

Besides we live around Saphan Taksin so options near our apartment would be favoured.

Thanks for specific advice or just experiences to share on the topic, they will be most welcome.

Cheers

Luis

Ok, we did pick up today 2 visas 3 month single entry Non Im , a O for the young daughter and a B for myself. Didn't push for the wife's as our documents were far from foolproof - no WP3 nor translation in thai or english of all our family documents.

They never asked for a WP3, but did require the copy of the thai citizen who signed the invitation letter. Glad there is a business center next floor of the Garden Hotel where the consulate is located to receive a fax, because 5mns later they didn't take anymore applications.

Pearl,

the lady taking the aplications told me they're only issuing single entry visas in Guangzhou, be it for non Im or tourist, possible as we've had 3 relatives this year getting those and they were all single entry.

This consulate is not particularu easy either with their visa delivery, staff there gave a very hard time to our nephew for a non Imm Ed, last of it is telling is e ticket he had already paid for wasn't acceptable as it wasn't a paper ticket. We needed a faxw from the travel agent to sort that one out.

Consulate stops taking applications around 11.20 and the visa collection time is only 4.30 to 5pm. Not most flexible.

If anyone in this area has a few days spare it's much easier to use a specialised agent, they can make the process easier.

BTW, can I apply for a non im O for my daughter as well?

I've been informed they issue 1 year multiple entry visas in Guangzhou. In your cover letter/sponsor letter, you can put in there that you will need a 1 year multiple entry visa. If they say no, they can give you 3 months. If they say yes, then great. There's no harm in asking for 1 year multiple entry.. if they don't issue, they will always give you 3 months.

Thanks Pearl, we have prepared a letter asking for a y visa, as well as another one asking for a 3month. Will let you know how the consulate reacts. year would be great.

Thanks for the info. Called our lawyer and she reckons as a french citizen I should get the 3month single entry . If you guys are right, I will push her for the WP upon coming back and will apply for the Non iI in Paris end of this month. How long does it take for the WP3? should the lawyer take care of it?

Just found a link about the WP3. In case it's really necessary, what would be the difference if I apply for a non im B in the aim to come to thailand for business ( probably easy to get the right documents as i already own a company in france and trade with several thai companiest but than I'm applying from China...). Would like to make sure about which documents to show and which visa to apply at at the consulate as I'd rather move on with the WP before heading back to france in couple of weeks)

You must apply for WP before you go.

The receipt WP3 for applying for WP must be present.

You mean for a year visa or also for a 3month non im ? It seems I've read many times that the non immigrant visa was a prerequisite for the WP application !?!

Hi

after quite a lengthy process we have received company and VAT registration and I'm about to fly to Guangzhou Besides enjoying Southern China for a few days, I plan to apply for the Non Im B and our lawyer said she would arrange the whole process until the work permit once I get back to LOS with the Non Im. I will be staying about 8 days in Thailand when i come back, before heading back to europe for 2 weeks.

I thought what I had to apply was a 3months single entry and we could work out the reentries and extensions in BKK but read the invitation letter model; on this website for non im B, and it is about 1 year multiple entry.

What visa should I actually apply for?

Besides my wife, a chinese citizen, still has one entry valid on her tourist visa but no longer our infant daughter. Can I apply already for a kind of dependant for our daughter or is better to aim for another tourist visa ? Likely shall we also aply for my wife at the same time or is it better to wait for my WP to be over ? I happened to send one of our nephew in the same Guangzhou consulate for a non imm Ed and dealings haven't been very easy although he obtained his visa after several visits there.

Thanks for your input

Luis

Actually Miss Luis is very happy with Sumaa language school, but we've just moved Riverside so it's no longer convenient to go to YMCA after the office. Any school worth knowing on higher silom/sathorn/Charoen khrung ?

thanks for the replies, I really didn't feel comfortable enough to give with this owner any money upfront and we signed for another apartment ready to move in. Not quite as stunning but a decent solution on a 6 months contract only, as I was both fed up with looking for a new apartment and staying in our former place.

I actualy had the owner scrap the addendum, lower penalties to 1.5% per month after late payments later than what I saw in other contracts, top the rent increase after the first year to 10% (to which owner objected until today). We changed a few more clauses as well, actually changed so many clauses I suspect owner is not very happy with the deal and this coupled with the very agressive style of the initial draft I wouldn't be surprised if things get sour or delayed after we hand over the deposit. Found another place we like as well with a more reasonnable initial contract and might go and sign there later this week if the owner insists on getting a deposit before handing the keys.