mosan

I win the lottery on the 1st and 3rd of every month! Been like that for a solid 25 years on the 1st day of each month, and a solid 6 years on the 3rd day of every month...

The news story was written Saturday...

I don't know about Lop Buri, but back in '72 -'74 I was stationed in both Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani and had friends at NKP, U-Tapao and Korat and even out in the boonies 72 Kilometers away from the bases where most of our girlfriends really came from, there were bars for Thais We crashed the party and drank with them. Among us were White guys, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and one Asian American. We work traveled to the other bases and partied together and I don't remember too many Thais being head over heels with White, Black, Brown, or Yellow Airmen because we had at least one of each in the group. Heck even back then, even though most Thais in the Northeast were very brown, they still had very light and very dark skin people. Must have been very different with the Army...I'm just sayin'

After reading this entire thread, I feel a lot better about myself. I thought it was just me being scorned and feared. Now I know many people harbor these horrible thoughts and attitudes. There are many on here who I feared previously, have turned out to sound like decent people. Sadly, I'll probably never meet them or have a real conversation with them due to the overall state of affairs here. I'm still talkative and outgoing, but from now on, I'm just going to keep to myself...

I've always known I was a fish out of water, but then that's true wherever I've lived, especially not being a "Farang"...though I am a foreigner. It's even worse now that I know being talkative and outgoing is a no-no!

I'll just add that not all of us are viewed as equals by those who work at immigrations. I have two very close associates (one quite wealthy) that will attest to that statement. As for me, I'll have to admit, I have not had one single problem in 20 years.

You lost me @ubonjoe. My extension remains valid until expiration. An extension based on Marriage may offer the same, but I don't need a Thai wife to extend and the advantage of needing less money in the bank doesn't affect me either. However, doing the extra steps/photos/paperwork/ and extra visit to immigrations after 30 days does affect me...

Just to be clear, did you do your extension based on Retirement or Marriage to a Thai? It makes a difference. I extended a few days ago and the IO specifically advised me to go for Marriage as a reason of extension so as to dodge the 400/40 k insurance requirement. And yes, I'm on an O-A, but prefer Retirement as it's less hassle...particularly if your significant other passes away...

You should look into Dee Money for sending money out of Thailand...could have saved you at least 1300 Baht...I may be off a little but close enough.

I hate to break this to you but, this has been around for a few years now. Nobody cares how much money is in your account as long as the bank letter shows your monthly deposits. All the other documentation is only necessary if Immigrations asks for it. In my case they never do. I show my Thai bank statement and accompanying letter and that's it...