96tehtarp

ChiangMai

Pollution

Saw a news expose on Thai TV About rip tides. One place near Bkk Has a nice beach. The govt puts up signs warning about the dangers and locations of the rips.....the local food sellers tear them down on a regular basis!!!! Like I said this was a Thai tv expose....I watched it with my wife and she could not believe it either.

First I'll say RIP to the unfortunate dead farang, and offer condolences to his family and loved ones.

On riptides: The most beautiful beaches I've ever seen in Thailand have been those near Prachuap Khiri Khan (ประจวบคีรีขันธ). Beautiful beaches and almost no swimmers. This place is renowned for fierce riptides. The scenery can't be beat and there are I've never met a beach vendor when I've been there.

insurrection

Necronomicon

Clinique

Pie

Happiest

Tee

mower

The TAT is not interested in the least imaginable way of increasing tourism to Thailand.

That's not true, did you read how keen they are to get Disneyland to Thailand? Parks like that attract loads of tourists and Thailand doesn't have any serious famous attractions.

But TAT is a club of people who have never been abroad and are not creative. You can't blame them though, they are Thai who can only copy copy and don't know anything about Westerners and quality and also have never been from home longer then 3 days.

You may be correct. I'll spare you the trouble of my leaving another cynical reply.

dancer

Yes a 3 X 30 lease is breaking the law, the maximum period for leases of land in Thailand is 30 years.

If your 30 year lease is duly registered you can lawfully use the land for 30 years. Another option is a usufruct whereby the land is yours to enjoy for the remained of your lifetime.

The TAT is not interested in the least imaginable way of increasing tourism to Thailand.

Embezzlement

Hocus-pocus

Ferris-wheel

Magical

"Why do locals burn trash?"

It's due to a lack of education. Most Thais don't know the value of compost.

Can't really compost metal, plastic.. otherwise agree. .

I live in a village and have for a long time. We are on a river. Before we got streetlights and garbage collection most people threw their trash in the river and sent it to float downstream to Bangkok. Just before dusk it was quite a sight watching all the rubbish from a village of 100k people float downstream.

It's true plastic and metal can't be recycled. Most people sort out their rubbish in piles in the front yard and sell it about once a month. It is unsightly yet practical.

I'd really wish we could have a community composting program, perhaps with green bins, where we could send all the organic waste to be composted together with the leftover rice stalks and sugar cane stalks to be mulched and also composted. The status quo is to burn the rice and sugar cane fields and this is making places in the north like Chiang Mai unlivable with smog.

The compost could be redistributed free for for all the rural people's vegetable gardens. This program would not cost much. I won't waste my breath trying to tell them how things could be done.

For anyone interested in a more comprehensive, and less partisan, account of the events in 2010, the Wikipedia page "2010 Thai Politcal Protests" provides quite a lot of information. It's not perfect, I'm sure, but the authors seem to understand the difference between fact and opinion, a distinction that often gets lost in Internet forums.

I suggest you look at the history of changes made to that page

Good point, That's the key to using Wikipedia. Watch the changes and look at the history.

I am still in BKK for a few days so opening a bank account is possible. However, I'm a little unclear about how the SWIFT process. My bank tells me there is a $35.00 fee for an international wire transfer as well as an up to 4 day delay. Am I missing something about how all of this works?

My experience with SWIFT is three working days. This is about average. I've used Skrill/Moneybookers and it's worked in 24 hours.

My banks in Europe charge me about 10USD per transfer if I do it myself online, plus some hidden fees. 45 dollars seems a bit expensive, however US banks seem to charge more. If you do send SWIFT remember to send US dollars to your Thai baht account and tell your US bank to pay only the outgoing fee. Let your Thai bank charge you the incoming fee at their end. That way you may average less than $45.00.

Another option is to mail a deposit to your Thai bank in the form of a US Dollar cashier's check or draft. Allow a week to ten days for mail delivery, then maybe two weeks for them to clear the cheque.. You can monitor the process by internet banking and or telephone to your branch in Thailand.

So far OP, you seem to be on the right track.

Cravat

OP: It's doable. Whatever network you are on Cirrus, Plus, Interac, there are many... it is definitely doable.

There are two caveats:

1) You will be charged a 150 baht transaction fee for each withdrawal from the Thai end, and possibly additional charges from your end.

2) The exchange rate may be poor.

Neither of these matter if you are sending less than 1000 dollars p/m.

I suggest the next time you come to Thailand you open a Thai bank account with online banking. Fund this account by SWIFT wire transfer from your home country. When you want to buy your girlfriend roses it's just a click away, and the service fee will be a maximum of 25 baht. You will need to pre-register her account for transfer before you leave Thailand as Thai banks want to send a OTP password (One Time Password) to the same Thai mobile phone registered to our account.

A word of wisdom; open your Thai bank account alone without bringing your girlfriend along. Do it all by yourself.

Good Luck.

My thoughts are not with her lipstick, they are with both the man who died in the clinic where she worked and the man she killed in the US with her car. RIP.