thaibeachlovers

Only asking; has anyone that has arrived at immigration for their 90 day or yearly extension visa during the witching hours before they open, experienced people pushing in the queue, not meaning the agency staff?

well it may be same as at the old one airport , you all ways have the few who try to cut in line . or jump in front who show up late . but its not to bad as far as i know

I've been at Imm. Prom. maybe five or six times at the time they open and pass out the queue numbers and I haven't observed the bad behavior that you saw at the old office. Probably because they have the queues for the various services clearly marked and pass out the queue cards for the less popular services first -- starting with 90 day reports, tourist visas, re-entry permits, etc which clears out all the extraneous bodies and just leaves the people who are competing for the coveted 20 retirement visa queue cards. Then they carefully check passports before they pass out the queue cards to be sure someone really is eligible to apply for a retirement extension on that day.

So, it isn't the mad rush into the door, grabbing a queue card as you entered, like you had at the old office. It's much more orderly, methodical and reasoned. I did witness one situation where someone back in the queue complained loudly that he'd actually arrived earlier but found the gate to Promenada's car park closed, but he deserved to be up front. He was going on and on and finally someone with a low queue number offered to switch queue cards with him. Bravo! It doesn't make any difference if you're No. 2 or No. 9 -- you're all stuck out there until 1:30 or 2 pm to wait for your signed passport to be returned. At least the guy who gave up queue card No. 2 was able to go enjoy a nice breakfast at Rim Ping.

Far as I remember there is no "gate" at Promenada, just the usual barrier on wheels that you can push to one side and go on in.

If you want to stay up to date on GW / CC and what is happening politically Skeptical Science website is an excellent information resource.

Any website that has that prize idiot John Cook as one of its mainstays should be ashamed to put the word 'science' in the title. His attempt to prove a 97% consensus on climate change has rightly been lambasted as one of the most lame and bungling efforts at statistics since Lord Nelson said "I see no ships."

They should stick to cartooning and dressing up in uniforms.

Rick I think your personal attacks on John Cook says more about you than him.

The 'Toon of the Week' are always a bit of a laugh.

Toon.jpg

The 'Quote of the Week' goes to:

Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge

“There’s no longer a possibility that El Niño wimps out at this point. It’s too big to fail,”

I suppose Climate Scientists really need a sense of humour to deal with the unwarranted personal attacks they receive from Climate Deniers.

The EXCELLENT!!! Michael Mann video 'notmyself' posted above, John Cook was the actual interviewer. So he is held in VERY high regard within the scientific community.

You and the cartoonist have no evidence that the "flood" was man made. Floods have been happening for millions of years, and most of the time without any input from mankind. More likely because of overpopulation causing people to build on a flood plain.

You can say that extreme weather is caused by man's input till you are blue in the face, but it doesn't make it true.

Better to be in conflict indefinitely and still existing than to surrender to Islamic Jihadists. DUH!

Is the situation desirable and ideal? Of course not.

Not interested here in predictions 600 years from now. Totally irrelevant.

Looks like it's just you and me, so I'm calling it a night. Cheers.

Is there any possibility the on line appointments will start again? If not, I can see that I'll be paying an extra 3,000 baht as don't want to be qing at 4am.

Your information is very outdated. You saw what happened when Israel left Gaza. Palestinian terrorists took over. Abbas is very, very unpopular among his own people in Judea/Samaria. It is well known that if an election was held today there, Hamas would win in a landslide.

It would be the first to acknowledge that Israel shares SOME of the blame for the lack of peaceful solution in the region. But Israel demonizers are radical EXTREMISTS, they blame Israel (and what they like to call the "Jewish lobby") completely, for everything bad, not only in the immediate region of Israel but often for most every conflict in the greater Middle East region and even the entire world.

They are more than happy to try to guilt Israel into giving up their defenses, when they know quite well, the moment they do that, Israel will be doomed.

Regardless, if Israel, as the dominant power, is not willing to try the two state solution, the Israelis are doomed to be fighting the Palestinians as long as any Palestinians remain in Palestine. How long can they do so? Centuries? Is that any way to live?

PS I just found the pop up blocker and it was set to block already. Any other way to block all the ads?

I agree it used to be very slow. I had a crappy old 2005 year Toshiba laptop with little RAM and TV was horrendous. In Thailand, where I hop onto the internet using their computers at the cafes it was also slow. Here at work I have an HP Elite laptop and no issues at all. Click and go. At home I have a similar newer HP laptop and no issues. At home I run AVIRA as my anti virus real time protection and AdBLocker on Firefox. That's about it. I disable popups too. I don't think internet bandwidth is a big issue, unless you are using some very poor service

Are all the ads on TV pop ups? How can I disable them?

I am using a 1 year old HP laptop and have no problem with any other sites, so not the ISP.

It would be better for everyone involved to stop deluding themselves and others.

There will never be Peace between "Palestinians" and Israelis in this region. There is no Peace process. There is no "Road to Peace".

In 2,500 years it didn't grow under the olives or date palms. It has nothing to grow from.

Any solution must be found outside of square box.

Of course there is a road to peace. It is the two state solution and an end to occupation.

Interesting.

So how does that work now that the terrorist organization Hamas not only controls Gaza but is massively more popular than the "moderate" faction led by Abbas in Judea/Samaria?

In case you forgot Hamas is openly against ever accepting any state of Israel with any borders and is openly genocidal towards Jewish people in general.

Dawa-Hamas.jpg

It would not be necessary to include Gaza in the two state solution. Israel leaves the occupied territories to be led by Abbas's faction. If they attack Israel, they would be punished. You obviously know that Gaza is not currently occupied.

The problem is that Israel does not want to give back enough land to allow a viable west bank state to succeed. Probably why they are not serious about that path to peace.

I don't need to review any scientific reports to believe in C C/ G W as I do believe in C C/ G W and I have seen the evidence with my own eyes, so I don't know what you are going on about.

What has not been proven is if it is caused by humans.

So again what science do you rely on that shows GW is not anthropogenic?

I am assuming:

CC/GW = GW / CC (Global Warming leading to Climate Change)

Climate Change does not drive Global Warming. Increased CO₂ drives Global Warming which in turn drives Climate Change which in turn drives Extreme Weather Events.

Increased CO₂ drives Global Warming which in turn drives Climate Change which in turn drives Extreme Weather Events.

NOT PROVEN. increased CO2 may be a RESULT of G W not a causation.

As for extreme weather events, they have happened with the same severity and as often in the past, before ^CO2 levels.

Some extra background to my case:

the Judgement also said that we should be charged for illegally trying to get around the restrictions on foreigners owning land.

The logic of this last point was due to us subscribing collectively for 49% of the company shares. These shares were be held for the duration of the lease ( and any extension), and to be returned once the lease expired. The lease structure was prepared by a Thai law firm, which is on the list of lawyers recommended by a number of Embassies, today. It was approved by each investor's personal law firm, in 2004. It has been used by 100's if not 1000's of apartment units sold, on Phuket alone. At Appeal, the Thai business man added an extra charge, that we had tried to defraud him. The irony of this part is he is a very successful business man, selling product to major non- Thai developers on Phuket. At the time of writing, there are apartments listed for resale, with similar lease paperwork registered in place. I have asked several developers and Property agencies if, what they are selling is legal . The answer is 'no problem'.

Now that our Judgement has been public, since early 2014, a number of law firms are reversing their long- standing advice. STILL, a number of law firms continue to say that there is nothing wrong our paperwork, except "maybe you should use a different set up for protecting your lease renewal option". so, legal advice in some cases is good for today - but you had better not go to court and have it reviewed by a Judge, as he may rule that you have nothing.

I think that the lesson learned is, no matter how careful you are with investing your money, in property, here in Thailland, no matter how good the advice you obtain from a law firm and a property agency, the advice may be useless, in hindsight. Because the system of regulations are not reliable. As Bill Barnett described it, you are safe if you buy from a major developer. The problem, is that, on Phuket, the major developers account for at most, 25% of the units sold. The 75% are subject to the laws of the jungle. And, although I love the country and would never leave, I and you are second class citizens. Excuse the length of these 2 posts. I hope there is some guidance i

maybe you should use a different set up for protecting your lease renewal option

In other words, you should use a different device for circumventing Thai law.

no matter how careful you are with investing your money, in property, here in Thailland

Had you invested in your own country and use the proceedings to live in LOS, you'd be sitting pretty now.

no matter how good the advice you obtain from a law firm and a property agency, the advice may be useless, in hindsight.

Of course it is.

The 75% are subject to the laws of the jungle.

"Due diligence" would have told you that.

I and you are second class citizens

Unless you have qualified for a Thai passport you are NOT a Thai citizen, and yes, all farangs are "second class" in LOS. How many zillions of times has it been said on these pages that our money is welcome in LOS, but us less so?

The lesson I learned in LOS over many, many years is never, never, never "invest" any money in LOS that I can't afford to lose.

I have posted this under another forum. I thought I would share it here, too.

My case has been reported, but only to the extent of the Judgements by the Phuket lower court and Appeal Court. If it is of any interest, we arey a retired western couple. We invested 4 million baht in a 30 year lease of an apartment, as we had retired here and wanted income to supplement our pensions. Under the contracts, the developer wax not allowed to borrow against nor to sell the property. He illegally sold the rights to all 12 apartments, with 30 registered year leases ( and their renewal options) to a Phuket businessman, for 15 million baht. The business man claimed that

- he did not visit the property, to notice that there were 12 occupied apartments,

- when he handed over the money to the developer at the Land Office, neither he nor his lawyer did "due diligence" by checking with the Registry Officer to see that there were 11 leases registered, against the buildings,

- when doing this transaction, neither he nor his lawyer noted that there was 1 additional lease application for registration, posted on the public notice board at the Land Office. All of this despite that his loan agreement referred to land, 2 buildings and a swimming pool.

The Court Judgement had nothing to do with the Pleading which we filed.

The Pleading was for the Court to rule under the Consumer Protection Act ( that the developer and the lender acted against our interests, by the developer transferring the property to the Thai lender.).

The Judgement said, in plain English, " this is not a lease. it is legally structured like a condo and the plans look like those of a condo. So it must be a condo. Under the Condo laws, you must buy the condo, not lease it. You did not buy it, or if you did, you did not register it as a purchase of a condo property. So your purchase is invalid. And - your lease is invalid. "

Oh dear, I do not know whether to sympathise or scorn you.

"due diligence"

Obviously you did not do any yourself, or you would have known that your scheme was illegal under Thai law- never trust a Thai lawyer in such things- find out for yourself.

We invested 4 million baht

You could have lived the life of Riley on that for 30 years, without "investing" it in a dodgy scam.

The rule which you obviously did not learn on arrival in Thailand was that to make a small fortune you must start with a large one.

So what scientific evidence do you base that on? Or is that just a political ideological point of view? What scientific evidence on GW / CC do you disagree with? Where is that scientific evidence flawed? You do agree on the scientific evidence that Climates have changed in the past. Post ONE link to a peer reviewed scientific Paper / Research / Article that supports your view that the current GW and resulting CC is simply natural variability? Post ONE peer reviewed scientific Paper / Research / Article that explains the current rise in Global Temperatures and what is causing it. It is easy to make statements a totally different thing to present scientific evidence that demonstrates your opinion has merit.

?????? This thread and others like it are about non man made C C vs man made C C. If you believe the scientific evidence that climate change is occurring, but have no view on whether it is man made or not, you agree with me. If you believe it is man made why not admit it?

Either way, there is no rational plan to change/ reverse C C and you have not pointed to any evidence that there is.

There can be a million scientists agree that C C is man made, but without a plan to reverse/ stop it, they are just blowing hot air.

So what scientific evidence do you base your view that the current GW / CC is not man made?

I am assuming:

'non man made CC' = Natural Variability Global Warming resulting in Climate Change

'man made CC' = Anthropogenic Global Warming resulting in Climate Change.

The IPCC has indepth strategies and modelling to address GW / CC. If you want to know why not simply look it up? IPCC AR5

The IPCC has indepth strategies and modelling to address GW / CC.

I don't need to look them up to know that they are not being implemented. That is because nothing worthwhile is being done. That's right- ZERO is being done that would actually make a difference. In the time it took to read this probably several hundred new cars were sold worldwide, no air holidays have been cancelled because of pollution and not a single influential person has muttered anything about population control.

you need to work only 10 years on farangland to be able to retire in Thailand.

let s see

you make 50000 a year, 10 years 500k$

save 250k

invest these 250k at 5 or 6% give you 12500 a year.

around 400k bahts a year.

33k bahts a month.

yes, all you need is to work around 10years to retire in Thailand.

I never understand why people wait to be 65.

40% tax on 50k a year. 10% SS (or NI payments) Then local tax, property tax .... etc.

Living expenses would use most of the rest.

No sex for ten years ?? Most get a wife or gf that costs plenty.

Lucky to get 3% return on investments.

So in your fantasy world easy, for everyone else impossible.

well have you heard about working women.? yes they exist too. I don't pay for a girlfriend.

have you heard about tax free countries or low tax countries.

nobody forced you to stay in a nanny state.

Saudi was tax free, but I spent most of what I earned getting out of the place to somewhere I could have some fun ( LOS ). The penalties for having a G F in Saudi were such that I didn't.

you need to work only 10 years on farangland to be able to retire in Thailand.

let s see

you make 50000 a year, 10 years 500k$

save 250k

invest these 250k at 5 or 6% give you 12500 a year.

around 400k bahts a year.

33k bahts a month.

yes, all you need is to work around 10years to retire in Thailand.

I never understand why people wait to be 65.

and if you can live with less than 33k, you can reinvest it, compound interest a few years, you will finish at 50'000 bahts per month which is in my point of view good enough for one person.

if you work 20 years and retire at 45 or 50, you can easily explode the 100k bahts a month.

it s all about saving and investing for a few years

So for 10 years you never had holidays in Thailand. Why would you want to live in Thailand when you know nothing about it?

I say you never came to Thailand on holidays because if you had, you wouldn't have 250k to invest ( or you had incredibly boring holidays in which you stayed in your hotel room and never had any "fun" ). LOS is not a cheap place to holiday in if you want to have a "good" time, LOL.

I probably spent 50% of my disposable income on holidays in LOS over 10 years and don't regret a single satang ( well a few regrets but not too many ). In fact, my holidays were the reason I worked.

Who is saying 'the change is now in the hands of humans'

YOU.

You have been telling us G W is caused by humans, ergo the change is caused by humans, ergo the change is in the hands of humans.

I haven't been telling anyone anything. Canuk made that statement.

You said in # 176

As someone who accepts !the scientific evidence! of GW / CC I would hope the silence is absolutely deafening on this absurd suggestion.

Are you now trying to tell me that you don't believe that it is caused by humans when all your posts imply that it is?

Your killing me tbl. Here I am not 'telling' you or anyone anything other than my firmly held view and what precisely that view is based on. In the case of GW / CC it is based on actual peer reviewed scientific evidence and scientific evidence that I have actually read.

If I was to make the statement: Man made Global Warming leading to Climate Change is a fact, full stop, end of story I would expect to be challenged. What do you base that statement on?

You will notice throughout this ENTIRE thread the posters who reject GW / CC, such as yourself, NEVER refer to the science of GW / CC. They stick rigidly to political and ideological statements that do not have any scientific research that agrees with that political ideology. Fact is when you look at the science it shows the exact opposite of the statements they make.

If you want to truly and honestly debate GW / CC you MUST!!! debate the peer reviewed science because without it there is no GW / CC and that requires a person to actually read and have a basic understanding of the science on GW / CC.

I promise you until I pressured Canuk he had never come anywhere near the actual science on GW / CC. He is just parroting what he has read on Climate Denier blogsites, Right Wing Conservative 'Institutions and 'Foundations' funded by the Fossil Fuel Industry, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. None of which have the remotest connection to the peer reviewed scientific evidence on GW / CC.

I do use the term 'Climate Denier' because to not accept GW / CC you must deny an avalanche of scientific evidence to arrive at that conclusion.

I don't need to review any scientific reports to believe in C C/ G W as I do believe in C C/ G W and I have seen the evidence with my own eyes, so I don't know what you are going on about.

What has not been proven is if it is caused by humans.

Apologies in advance if this has been asked and answered.

What is Marsha Blackburn's credentials to instruct people to diregard the Pope on climate change?

The evidence is in, from hundreds of the world's top scientists after studying thousnds of pages of evidence. Climate change is real and man made climate change is real.

All this nonsense from some has already been considered and a dtermination made. Throw your toys out of the pram as much as you like. Its done, decided, verdict given. Tough.

Still waiting for a solution to the done science that C C is man made. Could it be that there are none?

Indeed, I, a non believer have suggested more solutions than the pro side. In fact, the silence from the pro side on solutions is deafening.

It would be better for everyone involved to stop deluding themselves and others.

There will never be Peace between "Palestinians" and Israelis in this region. There is no Peace process. There is no "Road to Peace".

In 2,500 years it didn't grow under the olives or date palms. It has nothing to grow from.

Any solution must be found outside of square box.

Of course there is a road to peace. It is the two state solution and an end to occupation.

I could Google Global warming, copy and paste graphs and articles that support my position and the opposing side could do the same but what would this accomplish?

I ;listen to and read various news media outlets, but if really want to know what is going on in the world, I listen to financial news, their only agenda is the bottom line, and nonsense does not fly.

If you really want to know if GW is occurring , Google " insurance global Warming" and see what the insurance industries take is on the subject

they are the once who will bare a lot of the cost and they have done the research necessary.

There is no doubt that climate change IS occurring, and the temperature IS rising ( has varied for millions of years and is absolutely normal to expect changes ) but there is nothing to prove beyond self interest and political grandstanding that it is caused by humans or that there is anything humans can do to stop/ reverse it.

So what scientific evidence do you base that on? Or is that just a political ideological point of view? What scientific evidence on GW / CC do you disagree with? Where is that scientific evidence flawed? You do agree on the scientific evidence that Climates have changed in the past. Post ONE link to a peer reviewed scientific Paper / Research / Article that supports your view that the current GW and resulting CC is simply natural variability? Post ONE peer reviewed scientific Paper / Research / Article that explains the current rise in Global Temperatures and what is causing it. It is easy to make statements a totally different thing to present scientific evidence that demonstrates your opinion has merit.

?????? This thread and others like it are about non man made C C vs man made C C. If you believe the scientific evidence that climate change is occurring, but have no view on whether it is man made or not, you agree with me. If you believe it is man made why not admit it?

Either way, there is no rational plan to change/ reverse C C and you have not pointed to any evidence that there is.

There can be a million scientists agree that C C is man made, but without a plan to reverse/ stop it, they are just blowing hot air.

Armed Israelis, who want to live, confronted by youths with nothing to live for, armed with knives and stones. Something of David and Goliath in this story, and we know who won that one!

And, the Israelis have been oppressing the Palestinians everyday for about the last 30 years or more. Would you accept it if you had been born Palestinian?

NO ONE has ever been "born Palestinian".

There is and never was a nation called Palestine. There never was a people called "Palestinians" until terrorists under the leadership of Yasser Arafat hijacked that name in the 1960's.

Cheers.

Mmmkay...so following that line of thought, it is not possible for any group of people existing today to declare themselves a nation or express a desire to become an independent state, unless they have a previous entry in recorded history. Less clear is who sets the closing of the lists date, and who can appeal existing members of the Nation Club. The English probably had the same notion back when them pesky colonists started to get ideas...

People do not need a certificate from the Ministry of History in order to define themselves as a distinct group. Boundaries of countries are not set in stone. They can also call themselves whatever they like, or whatever fits. Who did the Palestinians "hijack" the name from? (cue inane pseudo lecture on the ancient history of Palestine). Call them Umpa Lumpas if it makes things easier - does Israel oppress the Umpa Lumpas, then?

And, what does it have to do with the OP?

Under NeverSure's logic, South Sudan could never have come into existence.

One crew member on my boat was a guy who could seduce women so easy . But the best story he had was when he seduced his mothers best friend when he was 13. When his mother found out she was very angry with him for violating her best friend.Never made it to court or the news.

In my prep school ( under 13 years old ) there was a pupil that was renowned for having sex with the female kitchen staff. Never went to court for that either.

Right now, TV is working perfectly for me. I suspect that when I was logged on last night was when a lot of people were using it. Therefore, IMO, TV just doesn't have the capacity to handle the number of people using it at peak times.

Notwithstanding all the off topic conversation about Obama's successes/failures, permit me to take a little look at why Murdoch might be correct in his assessment.

1. Obama is of mixed heritage with a black father and white mother.

2. His black father deserted him when he was an infant and Obama had only a fleeting relationship with him until his father's death.

3. His parents divorced when Barack was only two years old and his mother married one Lolo Soetoro of Indonesia.

4. Obama lived in Hawaii with his mother and maternal grand-parents from birth until 1967 when he moved to Indonesia, where he lived and went to school for the next four years before returning to Hawaii.

5. Obama remained in Hawaii with his grand-parents until his graduation from a private high school in 1979, which he attended on a scholarship.

6. Obama left Hawaii in 1979 when he moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College, where his records remain sealed to this date.

7. Obama then attended Columbia in NYC where he obtained a Bachelors degree in 1983. His records remain sealed at Columbia to this date.

8. Obama worked as a community organizer for several organizations in both NYC and Chicago for the next five years.

9. Obama then entered Harvard Law in 1988 where he obtained a JD. Records are sealed there as well.

10. After graduation from Harvard he returned to Chicago and fell under the wing of Valerie Jarrett, and the rest is history.

Now somebody please tell me where Obama went through a tumultuous childhood fraught with being a minority having to ride in the back of the bus that could even begin to make him feel discriminated against because of his skin color.

He has led a sheltered life with free spending helping hands throughout.

He doesn't have a clue what real life is like, much less being a black man in real life. Give it some thought.

PS: An earlier poster tried to give Obama credit for the TARP program. TARP was passed by Congress and signed into law by George Bush in 2008. All Obama did was join 73 other Senators and vote "Aye" on the bill. Since this was the only known financial adventure the US government actually ran at a profit, he doesn't get credit for the whole thing simply by voting to approve the legislation.

Spoken like a true old white man. You have not one iota of understanding of what it means to grow up and live as a minority in an environment that is structured to favour a stereotyped gender, race, religion and sexual orientation.

You merely wish to diminish Obama's life experience because of his miscegenation. This discredited concept is the very core of racism. It is disgraceful and reeks of the plantation mentality.

You make it sound as though Obama grew up in a black slum in an American city on the mainland. In fact he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia brought up by middle class white people. How then did he live as a minority in an environment that is structured to favour a stereotyped gender, race?

Streetfood!!!! I take it you mean baht, not the $ that you have used for your budget. Makes a vast difference.

Food: $

Yes...I don't have the baht symbol.....

Then write baht. We aren't psychic and don't know you meant baht when using the $ symbol.

Must be a slow day for someone to worry about nonsense. Have a good day and don't let your shorts ride up so far up your crack next time.

Great response. Exactly what I'd expect from someone that doesn't understand the difference between baht and $.

I could Google Global warming, copy and paste graphs and articles that support my position and the opposing side could do the same but what would this accomplish?

I ;listen to and read various news media outlets, but if really want to know what is going on in the world, I listen to financial news, their only agenda is the bottom line, and nonsense does not fly.

If you really want to know if GW is occurring , Google " insurance global Warming" and see what the insurance industries take is on the subject

they are the once who will bare a lot of the cost and they have done the research necessary.

There is no doubt that climate change IS occurring, and the temperature IS rising ( has varied for millions of years and is absolutely normal to expect changes ) but there is nothing to prove beyond self interest and political grandstanding that it is caused by humans or that there is anything humans can do to stop/ reverse it.