AyG

Can I do a mix of bonds, stocks, real estate, fixed deposits e.g?

Not really. You can invest:

1. In fixed term deposit with a term of one year or greater with a government bank such as Krung Thai.

2. In government bonds. (I seem to recall that these have to be bought directly - not in the secondary market - but can't find where this is stated.)

3. In a combination of 1 and 2.

4. In a single property costing more than 10 million Baht.

5. Or rent a property for 3 years or more with a total rental cost of 10 million Baht. (Not sure how the calculation is done, nor have I heard of anyone going down this route. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean sign a rental contract for 30 years and pay 28,000 Baht/month.)

ผม is only used in a formal context, e.g. news, TV, conversations with officials and people who are not your friends.

Other than that, ฉัน is perfectly acceptable.

Eating Thai food will be a minefield if the allergy is severe. I'd suggest sticking to places that provide popular food such as burgers, pizzas, Japanese - or cooking for oneself. Plenty of choice available, if not particularly healthy.

That is, where the subject and the classifier are the same it's OK to omit the subject.

There are exceptions to this in colloquial speech. For example sometimes instead of ผู้หญิงสองคน you'll hear สองผู้หญิง. But as in so many other areas of Thai, as a non-native speaker it's usually better to err on the side of correctness and use the classifier.

Is this true? สองผู้หญิง occurs in phrases such as รถบ้าน มือที่สองผู้หญิงขับ, but here ผู้หญิง is functioning as an as an adjective. It's a different type of grammatical construction.

It is never acceptable as Thai it is English converted to Thai, but I can't think what that says.

House car hand-second woman drive. Or

House car hand which two women drive.

Is it an advertisement: second hand house car, lady driver. .?

The Bank of Thailand publishes a table of bank interest rates for deposits up to 2 years at http://www.bot.or.th/english/statistics/financialmarkets/interestrate/_layouts/application/interest_rate/IN_Rate.aspx

There's a similar table, but only in Thai, that goes out to 36 months at http://www.thaibond.com/bond_info/bankrate.aspx

That is, where the subject and the classifier are the same it's OK to omit the subject.

There are exceptions to this in colloquial speech. For example sometimes instead of ผู้หญิงสองคน you'll hear สองผู้หญิง. But as in so many other areas of Thai, as a non-native speaker it's usually better to err on the side of correctness and use the classifier.

Is this true? สองผู้หญิง occurs in phrases such as รถบ้าน มือที่สองผู้หญิงขับ, but here ผู้หญิง is functioning as an as an adjective. It's a different type of grammatical construction.

"She holds three master's degrees and three bachelor's degrees." plus "She was completing her doctorate"

That's something like a minimum of 17 years' academic study - or did she just buy them? Still, if you are unusually rich a clutch of dodgy degrees is a good way to deal with the problem.

Minimal welfare system=minimal need for taxes.

Actually, it's more like ..

minimal infrastructure development = minimal need for taxes

minimal police force funding = minimal need for taxes

minimal public education standards = minimal need for taxes

Cheers

Except it's not "minimal infrastructure development". The government is hell-bent on massive infrastructure development funded by shed loads of debt so that they can line their own pockets at the country's expense and to hell with the consequences. This debt will need to be serviced and it's inevitable that tax revenue will have to rise significantly.

And minimal police force funding also = maximal need for bribes

I have gotten short and long term visas at various countries over the years. No one ever asks for the documents used to get the visa and if they try to be smart about it.....Just be strong and say to whomever: I received the visa and you just need to process it..

The OP, being from Bangladesh will probably be under more scrutiny than someone from, say, England or the United States.

And a "you just need to process it" attitude won't help. A visa does not guarantee entry into the country. Entry is always at the discretion of the immigration officer.

I'm not sure it's correct to say that there are nouns without classifiers - though the classifier can be what is traditionally thought of as a traditional classifier, a unit of measurement , or the word itself.

When you say "สองคำ" it's really shorthand for "คำสองคำ". That is, where the subject and the classifier are the same it's OK to omit the subject.

At least, that's how I understand things.

Not essential. But if the immigration officer is suspicious he will want to see evidence relating to your application. If possible, try to get further copies of the documents concerned. Otherwise there's a risk (albeit a small risk) that you might be turned away when you arrive here.

However, don't stress too much. Even without the supporting evidence you should be OK.

Whatever happens, remain polite, respectful and positive - and firm if needs be.

You got the visa. That's the hard part.

Just make sure that you take all the documentation that you used to apply for the visa with you when you come here, have a return ticket home, and answer any questions truthfully and you should be fine.

Any chance of a link? All the instructions that I've seen from googling require (i) a jail-broken 'phone, and (ii) previously backed up blobs. I have neither. I've also read that because it's a 3GS which has a different chip, most downgrading instructions won't work for it.

I know nothing about mobile 'phones. I was perfectly happy with an ancient model that let me enter the 'phone number and press "call". However, a friend, taking pity on me, gave me an iPhone 3GS. A few days ago there was a screen displayed on the 'phone telling me to upgrade to iOS 6.1. I did as I was told.

Now the 'phone is useless. It has a battery life of just a few hours when not even being used.

I've had a friend check that I'm not running any unnecessary things.

From what I can tell from searching the internet, Apple doesn't allow you to downgrade iOS versions. Such a downgrade is only possible if your 'phone is jail-broken and you have copied some "blobs" - whatever they are. My 'phone isn't - I wouldn't even know how to do that.

I'm furious that Apple has ruined a perfectly good, quite expensive (at least by my standards) 'phone.

Is there anything I can do?

One solution might be to convert the .hlp files to .chm or other format that you can read. Searching Google for "~convert hlp" (without quotes) brings up a few conversion program you could try.

Which old help format are you talking about? Is it WinHelp (.hlp)? Or Microsoft Compiled Help (.chm)?

Perhaps keep an eye on http://www.soidog.org/en/adoptions/dogs-available-for-adoption/large-dogs/?

Look for someone with training and preferrably board certif in a western country. That will not only assure a high level of competence (it is no mean feat to get that if you are a non native speaker) but also excellent English and usually an understanding of the expectations of western patients re explanations and involvement in decision making.

Yet the Thai powers-that-be make it virtually impossible for foreign doctors to practise here - even though such doctors will also have a high level of competence and will often (a) be better at communicating with the patient English (or Japanese, or other native tongue), and ( have less of a high-handed approach - not liking to be asked questions, or providing explanations of diagnosis, or offering treatment options.

If Thailand is serious about becoming a hub of medical tourism it really needs to reconsider its attitude to foreign doctors and drop its protectionist measures.

Surely Florida is the gayest state: it does look like a semi-erect penis.

Sites determine your location based upon your ip address. They then serve up the site in the language they associate with that location. (This is also how sites like the BBC stop you watching their programmes from outside the UK.)

If you connect via a proxy in your home country you'll get served the language the site thinks is appropriate for your country since it'll see the proxy's ip address - not yours.

Oh, how timely:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/619541-tot-server-crash-wipes-out-thailands-internet/

Don't come to Thailand if you depend upon a fast or reliable Internet connection.

Personally, my connection was out for a few hours around lunchtime. This is something that happens to me a couple of times or so a month so not a particular surprise. The "out time" is longer, however, if someone has stolen the copper telephone cables in your area, or a telegraph pole has been hit by a truck or by lightning - all of which have happened to me in the last couple of years.

One easy way to invest in Vietnam is with VinaCapital's Vietnam Opportunities Fund. It's a closed-end fund (investment trust) which trades on the London Stock Exchange.

Home page at http://www.vinacapital.com/index.php?l1=85&l2=92&l3=93&l4=108

Be aware, though, that it can be a very volatile. Over the last 12 months it's up 49%. The year before it was down 30%. Before that, up 41%, up 72%, down 76%. A real roller-coaster ride.

(Performance figures from http://www.trustnet.com/Factsheets/Factsheet.aspx?fundCode=I1F61&univ=T.)

FWIW, here's the ping from a Bangkok suburb, TOT Internet

PING 202.1.7.3 (202.1.7.3) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=1 ttl=50 time=177 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=2 ttl=50 time=511 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=3 ttl=50 time=178 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=4 ttl=50 time=295 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=5 ttl=50 time=178 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=6 ttl=50 time=182 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=7 ttl=50 time=182 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=8 ttl=50 time=274 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=9 ttl=50 time=182 ms

64 bytes from 202.1.7.3: icmp_req=10 ttl=50 time=449 ms

and the traceroute

traceroute to 202.1.7.3 (202.1.7.3), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets

1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 9.082 ms 9.426 ms 9.739 ms

2 node-vlt.pool-125-25.dynamic.totbb.net (125.25.160.1) 36.847 ms 39.440 ms 42.049 ms

3 172.17.40.65 (172.17.40.65) 44.783 ms 45.014 ms 47.109 ms

4 ten-9-1.cwt-core-01.totisp.net (203.113.24.233) 50.707 ms 53.938 ms 54.296 ms

5 ten3-3.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net (203.114.118.138) 56.406 ms 58.739 ms ten-1-4.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net (203.114.118.178) 61.469 ms

6 bun-eth-2.cwt-core-01.totiig.net (180.180.255.73) 78.464 ms 45.799 ms bun-eth-4.cwt-core-01.totiig.net (180.180.255.81) 42.763 ms

7 ten-gi-0-1-0-5.knl-core-01.totiig.net (180.180.255.46) 45.728 ms 46.195 ms ten-gi-0-7-0-3.knl-core-01.totiig.net (180.180.255.50) 48.535 ms

8 po-0-1-1.jp.pop.totiig.net (180.180.255.238) 150.392 ms 153.360 ms 152.721 ms

9 as2687.ix.jpix.ad.jp (210.171.224.103) 156.703 ms 158.937 ms 161.542 ms

10 165.87.76.202 (165.87.76.202) 206.398 ms 208.882 ms 211.479 ms

11 32.114.129.106 (32.114.129.106) 203.221 ms 205.568 ms 205.653 ms

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Whisky's male, ex-street dog, 27 kg, just under 2 years old, fully vaccinated. And I'm going away for 8 days.

He blogs at http://apostcardfromthailand.wordpress.com/category/whisky/

A couple of years ago there was a posting here about a dog boarding kennel outside Bangkok (Pattaya or possibly Hua Hin) which had enormous grounds and provided a service to pick up dogs from Bangkok and return them. Western-owned. It looked very good. However, I now can't find any details of the place. Does anyone know what it's called (assuming it's still running) or have a web address? Sorry I can't be more precise.

(In the past I've left my dog with the local vet for a night or two, but am now going away for longer and want somewhere better for my Whisky.)