Murgatroyd

I strongly suggest that you read a book called "Thailand Fever"... this book is written in both Thai and English, though there may well be a version available in your own language...

The book explains some very crucial differences between western and Thai culture, and some of the misunderstandings that almost inevitably occur in the early stages of a cross cultural relationship. Things that you take for granted as being "just common sense" are often viewed totally differently in the east, and are some of the major pitfalls...

My wife and I live in Bang Bo, not far outside Bangkok. We currently have a Star satellite box top and dish, however the only two channels offered in English are "God" and "Apotolic" both of which are evangelical christian channels... not what you'd call compulsive viewing... there's also a channel called "Starlight TV" which offers some (fairly dreadful) movies in English.

I understand that it is possible to get a package that offers more English speaking channels, possibly including the option to listen to news channels in english. I'd be very greatful if anyone could give me more information about this. I did hear that the True "Platinum" package included more english speaking channels, though I may be misinformed...

@ Murgatroyd...

But isn't sukhumvit road .. one of the longest roads in bangkok...can u plzz be more specific of which part of sukhumvit road... u mean the Siam - Sala Deng area..? or the ekkamai areas.... but thanks a lot .. now i know what to look out for...

I'd try the Sukhumvit road between soi 4 (Nana) and Asoke Sky train station... in the evening...

Best of luck

Murg

You do not have to have a work permit. Providing you have a full O/A visa for twelve months stay, you are entitled to bring in one consignment of household goods free of duty. This consignment must arrive within 6 months of your arrival in Thailand. Amoungst the exceptions to this are electrical items. To qualify for duty free status these must be owned by you for 12 months prior to export from your home country, and only one or each type of electrical goods qualifies for the duty free status... Ie 1 computer, 1 sound system, 1 home cinema system etc... if you wanted to bring in 2 computers, you'd have to pay duty on one of them. Obviously, no items like weapons, drugs, or firearms should be included in such a consignment.

I had my stuff shipped by Simpsons Relocations ltd, and all they required was an itemised list of the contents of each box, and a copy of my passport and Visa. I would also include copies of recipts for any electrical items in the consignment that are over 12 months old, to demonstrate that they qualify for duty free status.

Murg

* Note : Nonresidents entering into the Kingdom with a non-immigrant visa "code O" who wish to retire in Thailand or accompany spouses of Thai residents are not qualified for (1) Thai Residents: Thai residents may import the secondhand/used household effects acquired abroad duty-free if such household effects are accompanied them in the change of residence and they are qualified under the criteria listed below:

Sorry to argue with you Murgatroyd but it is pretty obvious that the issuance of an "O" Visa does not authorize the duty free import of personal effects.

At one time the issuance of a "O-A" Visa would allow you the importation of House Hold Goods but that rule was changed years ago. I personally imported my HHG last year and had the option of paying 80,000THB for a receipt or 40,000 for a non receipt. For obvious reasons I took the cheaper route. It made absolutely no difference to Thai Customs that almost half of what was in my shipment was purchased here in Thailand when I DID HAVE DUTY FREE PRIVILEGES. The amount charged by Thai Customs is determined by the Customs Officer that is assigned to your shipment and is not subject to any appeal.

Well... I guess I must have been lucky then... I imported 17 large boxes full of stuff, including a computer system along with many add ons and peripherals... My gross customs charge was 917 bhat... which I assumed was due to the fact that some perhipherals were duplicates. Lucky old me !

The Tube... AKA the london underground doesn't run on Christmas day... so no go there... no Busses either.

No Mate... no storage lockers at airports in the UK anymore... security risk I'm afraid...

Taxi drivers always expect a tip in the UK... it's kinda part of the deal... and on Xmas day the meters are set to a 50% surcharge...

Even with a favourable Dollar rate, a trip into london would still cost a small fortune. Money that would go a lot further in LOS...

I hate to be so pessamistic, but that's the way of it...

Murg

Hello Hairy,

I really wouldn't bother to leave the airport, unless you want to spend a small fortune on Taxis and go sightseeing. (a round trip into London, sightseeing tour and back to the airport will cost you something between 150.00 GBP and 200.00 GBP. Nothing will be open, except for the occasional fast food joint. Taxis will cost 50% more than the usual extremely high fares. The Pubs will all be shut until the evening, All the shops will be shut. No Busses, No Underground, and hardly any mainline trains running. I used to work in security, doing nightshifts. I used to knock off work at 06.00 AM on christmas day in central London. It would take me three or four hours to get home... I found it impossable to even buy a packet of cigarettes, or a soft drink. It's an absolute wasteland. You will encounter a totally disporportionate number of streetpeople, all of whom will be asking for money "'Cos it's Christmas Guv". Not only that, You'll have to drag all your luggage around with you.

The airport is designed to operate 24/7 365 days a year... and even there, you will find many of the shops shut, and transport in very short supply. If you stay airside, you won't have to go through immigration, or clear your luggage through customs, let alone drag it around with you. It will be boring, but so's any stopover. At least you will be able to get food, and have a drink. If you carry your laptop in your handluggage, you can go online...

I really wouldn't leave the airport... (And it will probably be cold and raining.)

If you walk down sukhumvit road you will spot the weapon stalls... covered in knives, throwing stars, handcuffs etc... the same stalls sell a bewildering variety of shock items... I wouldn't exactly call them tazers... and I suspect that the voltage is a bit low to call themreal stun guns. You'll hear the loud crackling buzzing sound they make as the stallholders demonstrate them to tourists. The same stalls sell pepper spray. I don't think you'll find genuine mace though...

I don't believe that you'll attract any untoward attention... but wearing black will be very hot during the day, and attract mosquitos at night... it's also a color (?) that Thai's associate with death and mourning... but what the hel_l... black is always the new black...

I'd agree with the posters who suggest asking the ladyboys where they shop for footwear... you simply won't find regular shops selling womens shoes in that size.

You'll find the skytrain to be fast, air conditioned and safe... I used to live in London UK, and I'd say the skytrain is a dam_n sight safer than the london underground... of course there are always pickpockets and people who will pick up an unwatched bag in half a second... but that's a hazard in any big city these days...

Best of luck, and enjoy your visit.

You do not have to have a work permit. Providing you have a full O/A visa for twelve months stay, you are entitled to bring in one consignment of household goods free of duty. This consignment must arrive within 6 months of your arrival in Thailand. Amoungst the exceptions to this are electrical items. To qualify for duty free status these must be owned by you for 12 months prior to export from your home country, and only one or each type of electrical goods qualifies for the duty free status... Ie 1 computer, 1 sound system, 1 home cinema system etc... if you wanted to bring in 2 computers, you'd have to pay duty on one of them. Obviously, no items like weapons, drugs, or firearms should be included in such a consignment.

I had my stuff shipped by Simpsons Relocations ltd, and all they required was an itemised list of the contents of each box, and a copy of my passport and Visa. I would also include copies of recipts for any electrical items in the consignment that are over 12 months old, to demonstrate that they qualify for duty free status.

Murg

I bought and downloaded the Acronis disk director suite... it did the job for me just fine...

The resize partition commands in vista remain greyed out... I assume that eventually some update will fix the problem... but don't hold your breath.

No, I didn't win the costume prize... even after doing a four hour make-up job.... they gave the prize to a Thai girl in a traditional costume holding a palm leaf... I wasn't best pleased...

we went down to nana for a cheaper drink !

But it was a good night, and my wife and I enjoyed ourselves... it was nice to meet some board members there.

Murg

Pay the debt... you cannot get that much interest on any legal investment... If someone promises you that level of interest... you're gonna loose the lot...

Have a nice day !

"Whatever happened to Faye Wraye ?" The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Westly : "Get used to disappointment"

Inigo : "Hello : My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father : Prepare to die !" Count : "Stop saying that !"

"You've been mostly dead all day"

Inigo : "You seem a decent fellow : I hate to kill you"

Westly : "You seem a decent fellow : I hate to die"

Westley: "Give us the gate key."

Yellin: "I have no gate key."

Inigo Montoya: "Fezzik, tear his arms off."

Yellin: "Oh, you mean this gate key."

Westley: "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours."

Buttercup : "You mock my pain"

Westly : "Life is pain, Highness, Anyone who says differently is selling something"

All From : The Princess Bride

- William Golding

Eyegor : "Walk this way"

Young Frankienstein

I understand that there's 10,000 bhat in the prize fund at the Witch's Tavern...

Not sure how that will be split... but I aim to mount a serious challange for first place

Murg

Thanks MiG16,

Much appreciated

and well moderated

Murg

I'd like to thank everyone for their kind messages.

I would wish everyone embarking on matrimony or a relationship every happiness.

Thanks again,

Murg

With all the doom and gloom about, I thought it might be appropriate to post something lighter and more up-beat.

As some of you may know, I moved over to Thailand back in April, to live with and marry my beloved.

We had the civil wedding at the local office a few weeks ago, and tomorrow we are having a party to celebrate our wedding. My beautiful wife suprised me this week when she informed me that we would have a short "Bridal" at the party...

This turns out to be an official Thai Wedding!

So my best suit is ironed, and Her dress is hired... (Beautiful)

I must admit that I didn't think that the marriage registration at the local office was much of a wedding... so I'm very pleased that this actual wedding is taking place... (Typical bridegroom... last to know !)

For those of you who don't know the history, I was introduced to my wife last year... She has never worked in the hospitality industry and was, at the time, working shifts in the local washing machine factory. She's 38, and I'm 51. She has a beautiful 6 year old daughter, who is a bright little lass, and cute as a button. My wife to be and I conversed by text for a few months before we first met last August. Subsequently, I went out for Christmas, and stayed for four weeks with her. I then went home, and started preparing for a permanant move to Thailand in April. I obtained a full O/A multiple entry long stay (retirement) visa from the Thai embassy in London, gave notice on my job and flat, and packed up the possessions that I couldn't live without... (Principally books). These were shipped out to Thailand, and on the 8th of April I arrived to start my new life.

We lived together for six blissfull months, and I have thouroughly enjoyed being a husband and father again.

So Tomorrow's the day... I can't really believe how lucky I am... Wish Me Luck!

A very happy Murgatroyd

Time to bump this thread I think... Anymore volunteers to come to the Witch's tavern in Fancy dress on Halloween?

I shall be bringing my wife... Undead Captain Barbossa, and Calypso...

1 2 3 ARRRRRRRGH!

Murg

It starts... this is just the tip of the iceburg... and not just for Iceland. Once the runs begin, no financial institution anywher will be 100% safe or secure.

Guarantees (from anyone, banks, insurers, or governments) wont be worth the paper they're written on soon...

I am a retiree... that's what worries me... at home, when the crunch comes, I'd just go back to work again... 12 night hour shifts... 10 on 2 off, for as many years as it took to build another nest egg, or until it killed me...

The stock market underpins all pensions, public and private.

If you can't depend on pensions, or interest payments from banks, and you can't work... it doesn't leave many options...

If I have to go home, and go back to work again, so be it... but If I'm also sending money over here to support my new family, I will never be able to save enough to rebuild my re-retirement here... and I won't be alone in this... I think the same situation may affect many of us.

After the last world war, we worked to rebuild our countries, our finances, and our lifestyles... we all worked very hard, for many years.

After the housing market crash of the early ninety's we did the same... when negative equity and failing businesses wiped out our capital, we went back to work to rebuild.

Here in Thailand my visa prohibits me from working.

Thus my ability to look after my family is not the same as it would be at home... This is what worries me.

You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house...right next to yours. And in the Kennedy house, and Mrs. Macklin's house, and a hundred others. Why, you're lending them the money to build, and then, they're going to pay it back to you as best they can. Now what are you going to do? Foreclose on them?...Now wait...now listen...now listen to me. I beg of you not to do this thing.

The banking system has been a flim flam for years... as are all other "Financial Services"... City types are amoungst the highest paid earners in the world... and they produce nothing... they dont manufacture anything, they don't grow anything, all they have ever done is to move other peoples money around, and take a slice of everything that has ever passed through their hands... It's always been a shell game... as long as everyone had confidence in the system, it continued to work, and provide massive incomes for as big a collection of parasites as can be seen outside of a dead water buffalo.

Now the confidence is gone, and depositors will soon try and get their "Safe and guaranteed" money back... they can't. It's not there... it never has been.

Many of us ex-pats will be ruined, as a large proportion of us depend on interest payments and private pensions for our retirement incomes.

I fear for my new family...

Logic (?) would dictate that a similar situation will soon prevail along Beach road, and possibly even Walking street...

Either these closure orders will be applied rigourously, or increased demands for local cash based unnoficial taxation will follow soon.

Experience would suggest that after a short period of the former, the latter will come into effect.

However, it's undeniable that a lot of money has been sunk into some very large luxury hotels and shopping complexes in the center of Pattaya, and big money talks very loudly in Thailand. The owners of these large concerns have been agitating for a change of image in central Pattaya so as to attract more "Straight Family based tourism".

This deplorable situation may be designed to force many bars who are currently struggling with a very dry season to the brink of bankruptcy. Watch out for some very parsimonious offers being made for failing businesses soon by well connected local entrepreneurs

I shipped 17 boxes of personal possessions from the UK to Thailand in April this year... I used the UK company Simpsons Removal and Storage ltd. ( based in Dartford, Kent ). They arrived on time at my address in North london, took my pre packed boxes, (Though they do supply boxes and pack your stuff for you if you need that done), and delivered them to my Thailand address about eleven weeks later. The consignment included a desktop computer and peripherals, Books, a collection of miniature figures, glassware and other items. Everything arrived intact, the computer booted up happily first try, none of the glasses were broken, and nothing was missing from the consignment. At the Thailand end, the customs clearance and delivery was handled by a company called United re-locations Ltd, (0849178899)and their customs fixer negotiated a low duty fee for the computer peripherals that came to about 900 baht. That was the only duty that I had to pay, as I entered Thailand on a full O/A non immigrant visa, and therefore all my household goods were exempt from duty, with the exception of any electrical goods after the first Item, (Which I designated as the computer itself). Books don't carry any import duty in Thailand.

I paid for insurance, and had no need to make a claim. I was very happy with the service, my quote from Simpsons was accurate and actual, even though I had to revise the number of boxes to be sent several times. The quote was based on giving the dimensions and weight of the bozes... no complex volumetric computations involved. The service was arranged at the last minute, and had there been any delays it could have proved disasterous. In the event, there were none.

I wouldn't hesitate to reccomend Simpsons to anyone contemplating shipping goods to Thailand. They can be contacted on www.simpsons-uk.com or 44(0)1322386969

Murg