metice

I'm looking for an apartment around Sukhumvit soi 49, near to the Racquet Club. My budget is approx 10,000 / month. Any recommendations? Thanks

Does anyone have any information/experience of Sports City on Prachachuen Road? I'm interested in joining but I can't get through on their number and the website is not very comprehensive.

I'd like to know what the membership fees are and the standard of the facilities etc...

Many thanks

Mike

Looking for a Thai national to help for 3 months on a documentary film from May to July. The most important requirement is a good level of spoken English. Must be prepared to work away from home. Will involve some weekend work.

Main duties include;

- Translation of existing footage to English

- Conducting interviews (in Thai). Helping to prepare questions.

- Obtaining release forms

- Liaising and general organising

salary approx 25,000 p/m

Please message me with your CV

I was wondering if the immigration office at Suan Plu will be open on Friday 18th April?

Thanks

Can anyone confirm the dates that Bangkok Immigration office will be closed over the Songkran festival? Thanks

I had a knee operation earlier in the year. I tried the Bkk christian hospital on silom rd but got the impression they were `sizing me up' and pitched their quote accordingly. In the end I settled for St Louis on sathorn rd. Treatment was great and I have no complaints whatsover. The bill was actually 30% cheaper than their quote.

I returned for a course of dental treatment (4 visits) and it was as good as any other dentist I have visited.

I believe that the hospital is a non-profit organisation, hence the reason you don't get ripped off

I currently help out with an AIDS orphanage not far from Bangkok. We are making a feature length documentary about a project that the children are involved with. We are looking for someone who speaks Thai and can help with interview translations etc... Also, it would be great if they could double-up as a boom mic operator (no experience needed). Filming continues until next spring and is mostly at weekends. PM me for more details.

Thanks for all your help. It sounds like the paperwork is the same as for the work permit.

Cheers

Thanks Lite Beer.

I checked the document but it's still not clear. It says I need the following -

- Application form (Is this available to download?)

- Copy of passport/work permit (does this mean every page or just those with the relevant stamps?)

- Copy of the approval for set up the official organization, or copy of the approval for entering the Kingdom issued by the related government sectors/ organization. the certified letter and request for stay issued by the Chief the government sector will be required. (I have no idea what this is)

Thanks again

I have a 3 month non-immigrant O visa which is due to expire on Dec 22nd.I am working as a volunteer and have just obtained my work permit. Could someone please tell me how I go about obtaining a 12 month extension to the visa and what documents I need? I know that for extending a tourist visa you can do it on the last valid day at Suan Plu; can I leave it this late for a 12 month extension on a non-imm O? Also, how much extra does it cost for a multiple entry visa?

Many thanks in advance

I'm heading off to KL to apply for a 3 month non-immigrant B visa. I know they ask for a copy of your passport and I was wondering if it's just the main page and current visa they need or if it's every page of your passport that has a stamp.

When I applied for a non education visa last year they wanted every page copied about 5 times (which ended up taking ages to copy). I just want to make sure I'm prepared.

Many thanks

Baan Gerda is an orphanage for HIV infected children that does an excellent job and provides more than the essential life-saving medication. I have visited their small village and was happy to offer my support. www.baangerda.org

I have a meniscal (cartilage) tear that needs surgery. I'm looking for a hospital in central Bangkok that is less than the Bumrungrad price range. Also, any idea on costs and the price of MRI scans?

I'm annoyed that it's pot luck if you get the tickets - they'll be lots of spotty teenagers who will end up with tickets and never even heard any of their music. You have to wait so long for a decent band to visit Thailand, and then you have no way of getting to see them. I guess it will be hard to bribe the security guys if there is a limited number of places on the boat. It sucks!!

Anyone manage to get hold of tickets for the stereophonics on Saturday? I registered a few weeks ago but haven't heard anything back from them. Any suggestions how I might get hold of one?

A friend just told me that the monk has appeared on tv news channels attemting to defend himself against the newspaper article. Would be interested to know what was said. Anybody see it?

I would be interested to know what Thai people think about this. The monk is well known in this country and many people have supported this project. Do they know what is going on and how the money is spent? And do they really care?

The impression that I get is that merit making is selfishly driven i.e. you donate in order to improve your chances of a better life next time around. It seems that genuinly helping the recipients is not the priority. If this is the case then I wouldn't be surprised if Thais are prepared to 'look the other way' and the place will continue as before.

Any thoughts on this?

The Sunday Times featured a lengthy article on the well-known AIDS-hospice temple (Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu) in Lopburi. Excerts are below: The full article is on their website

Is the temple of Buddha's footprints the temple of doom?

Andrew Marshall

It's a Buddhist temple that cares for dying Aids patients. It's also a hugely successful money-making operation, attracting thousands of tourists with its displays of mummified corpses. So where does all that money go?

Thai monks generally prefer audiences to interviews. So, one Sunday morning, I join dozens of tourists at the temple kneeling before Alongkot in a room crowded with Buddha statues. (The ward is a stone's throw away.) Many people clutch photos or amulets of him to sign or bless. His words are sometimes lost in the crash of donation boxes being emptied in the room.

Alongkot says the temple has tried and failed to recruit medical staff. "Thai doctors prefer to work at private hospitals. Even the government ones don't have enough medical staff." It still seems inexplicable that, in a prospering country of 65m, there is not a single Thai doctor for hire.

Yet the temple hardly seems in dire financial straits. Pradit Yingyong, the temple's PR officer, says the abbot plans to build a sports centre (cost: the equivalent of £1.6m) and carve a meditation path through the hill above the temple (£8m).

"There's lots of money coming in," says Bassano. "But how it's distributed, who benefits, who gets what – I have no idea." Why, he asks, build the Aids Human Body Part Museum – a room in which hands, feet, hearts, kidneys and other organs are kept in perspiring jars of formaldehyde – when the temple has no ambulance? "And the neglect of the kids… Not just the kids, but the adult patients as well."

The last doctor to work here was a Belgian volunteer named Paul Yves Wery, who left in 2004. He wrote a parting account of his years at the temple, describing it as unsanitary, ill-equipped and mismanaged. Wery calls the staff "slaves" and the tourists "cannibals"; the abbot is an ambiguous figure who runs "what has become a death factory [like] a small family enterprise". After Wery's book was published, all foreign volunteers except Bassano were asked to leave.

It is hard to ask a celebrated monk about money without seeming to accuse him of dishonesty. But then this is one reason why the finances of Thai temples are traditionally so opaque and donations so easy to misappropriate. ("Half for the temple, half for the temple committee," goes an old Thai song.) It costs 4m to 5m baht (£64,000 to £80,000) a month to run the temple, excluding the second project, says Alongkot, and the temple receives "the same" in donations. The finances are not made public. "It's not our duty to make a public declaration," he insists, "but we have a good [accounting] system." Alongkot suggests I ask at the secretary's office to learn how much is spent on the temple. I am then shuttled between four offices before being given a print-out with a totally different figure from the abbot's. Pradit gives me another figure, a committee member yet another. Nobody can explain how the second project, which includes the orphanage, is funded, never mind the sports centre or meditation path.

When Alongkot took in his first HIV sufferers, it was an act of compassion before its time. Sixteen years later – with hundreds of thousands of Thais visiting, and the temple's coffers spilling over – the patients seem overlooked, even as their very public plight keeps the money rolling in.

Does anyone know the quietest time to visit suan plu immigration office in Bangkok. The last couple of visits have been horrendously busy.

I'm currently here on an Education visa. Is it possible to apply for a work permit or do I have to leave the country and get a different type? Thanks

I currently have an education visa that needs to be extended next month. I have been doing alot of voluntary work for a registered Thai organisation and they are prepared to sponsor me to obtain a voluntary visa. I understand the process and requirements are the same as a normal work permit. Do you know if it's possible to change my current 'ed' visa to a non-imm O visa, or do I have to go to somewhere like Vientiane and obtain it?

Thanks for the reply. Can you just confirm; even though the date I'm meant to report is 23rd March, I could go 2 days later (when my visa actually needs renewing) and I won't be penalised?

When I last renewed my education visa they put a note in my passport saying that I had to report back within 90 days (23rd March). Inconveniently, my visa has to be extended on the 25th March. Is it possible for me to report back earlier than this, say next week?

We just bought a semi-pro camera last week after alot of searching around. Originally, we were going to buy the GL2 but couldn't find it anywhere in Bangkok. After searching for comparable cameras we found that the Panasonic AG-DVX 102BEN had better reviews and recomendations (this is the same camera as the DVX 100B, but solely for the Asian market). We bought it from 'Deung' in Lad Phrao - they only sell semi-pro/pro equipment and were very helpful. PM me if you need some more information!

Not sure if I've got the names correct. The one from Ekkamai uses the big bus while the On Nut service is only minivans and has the European owner