maxbus1

Well, in the states, right now the hot news is that of a 20 and 25 year old went into an "ACORN" branch with a hidden camera and asked about getting government paid help with buying a house to host their "Prostitution biz, complete with underage girls from south america". The managers of the offices (they went to four offices throughout the states), wanted to help them, no one threw them out. Then the videos got posted on the internet, and now the company ACORN is under total fire, it has been getting millions of government money.... The people that broke the story, no charges.... The crooked government is finally cutting off funding to this company, they have no choice, the country now sees the corruption,, well, we saw it before, but now "they" have to do something about it. ITS ON THE INTERNET!

Ahhhhhh, America, you can compare it to finally putting on clean socks and shoes after wearing flip flops for three months in thailand.

Here is the site, if you were wondering... biggovernment . com

wow, and do they think it will do them more good for tourism than harm by sending the production company to jail? How about using that energy and the courts to I don't know maybe arrest the scammers, put a stop to the tuk-tuk crap, arrest any cop on the take....

WOW is all I can really say.

I going to be in Thailand mid April the thai girl friend wants to go to an island for one week but the last thing I want to do is to be on an island full of drunk yobs and backpakers who have not washed for last week I want somewhere peaceful , a clean beach , good thai food , cold beer and at a decent price I am asking for to much .

'highlander76'.

I resent your referring to backpackers in such a way.

My thoughts are you have a, snobbish attitude.

I have been backpacking for 50 years.

Only BAD backpack places I have been to, were in USA, 10 years ago.

Backpackers in the main seem to be mostly students, young execs out for fun, people on their gap year .

The ambiance of a backpackers accommodation, far outweighs that most hotels.

Such a diverse number of people from most anywhere, makes for more interesting chats and convos etc.

The cleanliness of backpackers beats a lot of resort accommodations, where you have snooty staff and management.

Go try a backpackers sometime. ask me for info if you wish, somehow, I do not think you will respond positively.

Cheers, enjoy ya stay in L.O.S.

Uh, I guess I'll take this one, (I got nothing to lose...)

well, backpackers don't shower much, haul around only one single pack, head for only the cheapest parts of the island where there will be lodging for less than 1000 baht. I wouldn't take a room for less the 1800 baht, and those rooms were still not nice enough, with drunks bring loud down the hall, and the staggering ba@@TARDs moving back and forth all hours of the nite, PLUS if they had DVD rentals, then they would crank their movies ALL hours of the nite, and no one to tell their A@@es to shut up. Trust me, I've yelled out my room, to them, but nothing, oh got to mention the ants in the bathrooms and the rock hard beds. Nuff said. You get what you pay for. Never forget that. The nicer hotel on a certain island actually means something.. Go there. don't be tight...

Thanks!

I checked the small writing on my appliances, and zipped to the store for the correct unit. Thanks for your help.

Thread closed.

I knew this was coming, but I never found out what type of plug converter to bring with me to Thailand for my laptop and camera and shaver stuff I'm bringing on my extended trip to Thailand.

Basicly, I have only a few days to pick one of these up. I'm concerned mostly about the laptop, and any surges it may incounter.

Do I need a simple prong adaptor, OR do I need a device that REDUCES the voltage, and then a prong adaptor?

Can someone suggest a certain model number of your basic device that will work on the everyday basis for my vacation, and staying with the wife's family?

I found something online and its called "TA-50A Transformer". Is this what will work?"

Thanks so much, max.

p.s. would a radio shack have one of these?

I think positive comments are just as useful - the points about immigration queues and taxis are all valuable for people like me coming over soon

I agree. A refreshing positive thread for TV. Helpful, and factual. There are always weird, bad things that may happen to someone, but after reading about all of them at once in a sitdown at TV, it really puts a dark spot on LOS. Thank you poster, I'll be going through the airport in two weeks, and I hope to have a decent time also. No need for me to hear about all the bad thigs that may happen there, I've already read most of the other threads

Cheers.

I hope somebody can help me with this. I have lived here for 3 years with the correct visa but my sister is coming over in December from UK and travelling on to Singapore in January. The problem she has is she arrives in Thailand on 3rd December and has a flight ticket out of Singapore on 15th January. While she is here in Thailand she wants to go to Cambodia but I am worried she will get either not be allowed into Thailand or get stuck in Cambodia as she doesn't have travel docs leaving Thailand. As she is a travelling student she wants to be legal but the cheapest way possible.

Thanks for your time.

She needs either an outbound ticket within 30 days of arrival or a tourist visa. Without one or the other her airline is likely to deny her boarding.

This is correct. New rules are being enforced. A tourist visa will be required to enter thailand for longer than 30 days without a documented flight out of there. Get the tourist visa in her own country first.

Sister wants to get by on the cheap: Yes, a tourist visa is cheap. $30 in the U.S. .. so , 15 pounds in the UK?

Basicly the cost of a decent sandwich?

Ok so ,,, was planning on coming to bkk on vacation for the next two months with my long time girlfriend, who is thai,,,,, from nyc, her father wants me to move to thailand for a year to get to know the family, culture ect. So im hurring to get all set up for the move any insights that i may need to take into consideration that you guys dealt with when moving to thailand,, is spending 1000 usd a month realistic for a nice 1 bedroom apt,

Jeez,, uh, marry her before making any life changes? And $1200 a month for total bills should be just fine. It's great to meet the family, but keep your career in mind. If you can afford a year for a girlfriend, then cool, have fun! Also, if the family is hosting you, you shouldn't be required to front $1000 a month for room and board. If you are thinking of marriage, thats good, but truly consider where the marriage needs to take place for visa reasons. And look into which visa you need for your trip. Have a blast, but plan in depth. I'll be there in less than 3 weeks into major family action, I'm sweatin', but I'm sure they'll be ok. Watch your cash, watch the cons, and watch the pickpockets. Look out for monster atm/visa charges, shop around for the best exchange rates, big bills and travellers checks get the best exchanges. Put no valuables in your luggage.

Above all, ignore the doomsayers, have a great time!

Oh..just one other question.

How long did it take to get your visa, from the day you sent it off to the day you got it back..For usa people.

Thanks all.

"They" say, about 10 days..? If at all possible, try to walk into the office and have it done. Takes about five minutes to stamp it. You will have the chance to get firm answers to any other questions you may have as well. Also, you can get the heads up on any new rules that are going into effect.

Good luck.

On the website for the USA Consulate it says the tourist visa begins when it is issued.

This causes a problem for my pre-paid airline ticket to return

Is this actually enforced, or, will they flex to my ticket ? (stupid question)

hey, you have up to 90 days from getting the tourist visa to actually fly to thailand. There, you will have 60 days. If you leave LOS before the 60 days, the Tourist visa goes away, but each of your re-entries will give you 30 days. You can get up to 3 30 day entrances. (A total of 5 months)I got my Tourist visa today. This information is accurate. I even suggested to the nice woman at the office to check out thaivisa and give advice from time to time, as the rules have changed.

What are the dates of your prepaid round trip tix?

PS, yes, things are enforced.

My dates are Feb. 4th to May 3rd

Hi,

I advise a "sitdown" with someone at one of the thai offices and discuss this thoroughly. You will get factual answers. Please do not rely on thaivisa up until the last minute. It works well as a guide though.

You may want to consider getting a Non-imm. "O" visa. The application is a bit longer, and it requires some info of where you will be staying, but I don't think that will be much of a problem for you. But don't get a job without a work permit. Your visa may have to change as well in order to work.

Choke dee kop.

On the website for the USA Consulate it says the tourist visa begins when it is issued.

This causes a problem for my pre-paid airline ticket to return

Is this actually enforced, or, will they flex to my ticket ? (stupid question)

hey, you have up to 90 days from getting the tourist visa to actually fly to thailand. There, you will have 60 days. If you leave LOS before the 60 days, the Tourist visa goes away, but each of your re-entries will give you 30 days. You can get up to 3 30 day entrances. (A total of 5 months)I got my Tourist visa today. This information is accurate. I even suggested to the nice woman at the office to check out thaivisa and give advice from time to time, as the rules have changed.

What are the dates of your prepaid round trip tix?

PS, yes, things are enforced.

http://www.thai-or.com/

wow,, even in my town.. lopburi3 you are awesome~!

I do have the same question:

I will enter Thailand in December, and have a return-ticket 44 days later.

I know, the best is to to get a tourist-visa before. But I don´t want to know, what is the best.

(f.e.: how much money do I need for my holidays? Answer :best is , to have unlimited source of money.)

I just want to know, what I need !!! Not more ! I could say:

What do I need, to have the probability of 0.9999 of going outside the airport in Bkk, without a visa and being allowed to enter the airplane , when I start in Europe.

Some say: You need a visa, some say, you just need a flight-ticket, some say, you just need a bus-ticket !

I asked at my local Thai Honorary Consulate: Answer: I do need a ticket outside the country . Do the emigration in Bkk have the same oppinion ? What will the airline employees say, when I will check in ? Does one hand knows, what the other will do ??????????????????????

You need to get a visa before going. There is a very, very small chance that you could do it without a visa, but would you want to risk your trip on that very small chance?

You will probably not be able to check in without a return ticket withing 30 days, or a visa. They may not notice and allow you to check in, but the chances are pretty small.

You may or may not be asked about it at immigration in BKK. The odds are better that you could get through customs in BKK without the return ticket or visa. They do not appear to check every person. I can not tell you the odds though. Maybe you get an agent that checks everyone, or you get one that never checks. Can't really say. You have to ask you self, do you feel lucky?

As or bus tickets out of Thailand, it seems to me that those only work at border crossing and not all of them.

Crap... I am flying to bkk in 30 days for 54 days. I thought I was only going to be required to get another 30 day extension.. All the info gathering I've been doing hasn't told me about this.

I can't believe I won't even be let onto a plane, or allowed into the country? Ok, so I get a 90 tourist visa. No problem, it'll be one of the milloin things I will have to handle I guess.

One big question though. I'm in the USA, uh,,, where do I get my tourist visa? And can this be done in thirty days?

Sorry for the silly question, max.

p.s. Thanks for the info on this thread people.

I'm about to sell my computer.

I want to delete copies of personal correspondence, bank details ms-money filee etc.

How can I delete them so that they cannot be recovered by any new owner minded to do so?

How much is your complete piece of mind worth? What would you pay to stop ID theft the day after you discover your bank account was overdrawn?

Just take out your hard drive and find another one and reload your windows and sell it.

If your old hard drive is still sitting on your kitchen table the day after you sell your pc, you will know FOR SURE nothing bad will happen. This is one thing that you CAN control. Be safe. I've had bank problems in the past. ID theft dosen't always happen quickly, it may take a year or two.

It's up to you.

i was cheated for the last payment when i worked with a farang in a dive shop in Kata,Phuket and somehow he got away with it.He's been doing this for a long time and to many people, if you say his name people in diving business will know him well.

The thing is i know he's cheating the revenue department with a lot of black money. I got evidence in my hands it shows about 3 million baht black money in it. If the revenue department found out,what's gonna happen

i said by a farang,because i'm thai

Something fishy here. A Thai employee isn't going to have access to the figures, unless you're the accountant. And if they did wouldn't stiff the Thai employee for a paltry sum of money. What does he owe you 5000 baht? 10000?

Local government have been scrutinizing the farang owned dive businesses. If you indeed have evidence take it to the tax office.

Well, there were so many things I'd like to say about a thai being "taken" by a falang, but.. think of every tourist that has been truly overcharged, and even constantly stopped by corrupt police, and government offices who work in the grey areas of charging for services... But then I re-read your Post, what proper english you have typed for working at a dive shop?

Let's focus our energies on a legitamate thread.

Yup, troll.. (who called that first?)

Forgot to ask....you provide all that wonderful gear, but what about groupies? As a true artist, I perform so much better when there's a bunch of girls screaming in front of the stage...

Sounds like fun. I'll swing by when I get there. I been hoping to find places to jam when in LOS. I'm a lefty, so I'd have to shop for my geetar before hand... I can follow along most any basic stuff.. I hear theres a great bar owned by a musician on Koh Chang that invites players as well.

Monty, please P.M. me for the location of your place at your convinence.

thanks.

Artificial intelligence is just what it says: artificial.

Programs can do data-based calculations, but that is not intelligence: it's science.

Science will get you to the moon, but it can't tell you what to do once you're there. And it will never help you in any way to describe to average people what you saw and experienced.

Language translation, even of dry bureaucratic documents, is not science: it is fine art.

No one should ever confuse the two.

Good translation is poetry. Great translation is great poetry.

But bad translation can barely even aspire to be excruciatingly horrible poetry.

And there are very few things more ugly, and embarrassing, than horrible poetry...

Yup, you guys are correct. I will not be using a pc for providing a document in thai.

I found sites before online, but nothing that was pastable to MS Word.

The wife has to turn in a translated marriage cert to get a name change on her passport in BKK, I TOLD her not to change her name, but she did it anyway. Now, lots of problems......

Thanks all for the help.

I've found before online a site that you can type in english and it will translate to thai. A Uni student created this for a project, but I cannot find it anymore. My wife needs to translate a document into thai, and print it in MS Word for the thai consulate. I don't know where to begin, but I'm sure that my Windows software cannot be updated with the official language upgrade. I'm only looking for a simple download to get this done. ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. max.

just carry around the wedding certificate.

my wife travelled for a year under her married name while her passport retained her maiden name. Present at check in. Sorted.

There is no problem here.

My wife has been traveling from the U.S. to Bangkok and back every year for about thirty years, sometimes twice a year, and she has never encountered a problem flying with her American green card name on those roundtrip journeys on NWA.

Sometimes the NWA folks want to see the Thai passport. She shows it, they smile, and off we go.

Thanks to everyone that replied with your insight. Tickets purchased. Everytime I ask somone at United, they give me a different answer. Basicly they just don't know what the BKK Customs will do in the situation. We're going with the maiden name on the ticket, and bringing documentation.

Wow, 54 days in LOS, what to do...

Many Rivers to cross. - UB40

The Cross- Prince

Cross town traffic... Jimi Hendrix!

Devil Woman................Cliff Richard

"American Woman" Cream.

the picture was taken by the emmigration officer in the suvarnapoom airport - and only three days after the interpol image was plastered all over the world the thai official lets the guy into the country. Well spotted, officer

Yeah, better pics of this guy were used on national news today. They wouldn't release his name though.

Put this guy away...

They got his passport number too. The news just said he molested 12 children.

"Disarm pedophiles".

A taco with hard tortilla shell.

Yup, other than a decent esspresso, I will be missing good mexican food, especially breakfast burritos...

Good for you though, authentic corn tortillas are hard to find. Enjoy them well.

I suppose so PB.

Can i please emphasise that i would not be taking a dig at this man in ANY way if he was not teaching English. The world is full of bizarre characters, and thats great, but I DO take certain things seriously, such as being qualified (not just academically) in important roles.

I would not want an no-experienced un-qualified builder to build my home or a self-proclaimed psychiatrist messing with my emotions.

I take education seriously. I think people deserve good teachers.

Im sorry if my ideals seem harsh.

(I also, as stressed, fully accept that my grammar etc etc is not up to par. However, i feel that it has no baring on my comment, nor reflect my level of education or ability to communicate my point.)

Eek, you are doing just fine, and your true concern is notable. It is good of you to show the concern that children aren't possibly being taught as well as they should. Especially since the parents are being charged a bit more for that farang teacher's services. Maybe this is a little push for you to realize that you DO possess the best qualities to be an english teacher there. Caring. If your heart is into everything that you bring into the classroom and in everything that you speak, your students and their parents will see this and have real respect for you. Your teaching peers will see your passion also. Sometimes it is not the professional knowlege that guides someone as much as it is the passion of one's heart. You have written that you do possess good education, and the ability to cross over from one field to another and possibly succeed in the places where you have noted much failure by others. One thing I have learned very recently, there are no walls, only timeframes between accomplishments. You may never feel you are ready to teach, but to teach others is also to learn from them.

Nation Riders - Too Short

Riders on the storm.. doors.

Taking it to the Top............Chris De Burgh

"In the flat field".. by BAUHAUS.

Great song.....!

I always try to throw this in while I'm DJing a cool crowd.

(early 80's goth. UK band.)