Lifelover

How does this compare to day 3 of last year?

Sadly, it probably doesn't 'matter' what the answer is to your question, except to a statistician perhaps, because that's all it is: a statistic. Same, same every year and nothing is likely to change people's behaviour over the Songkran holiday whether the figure is 20%, or even 100% higher than last year. Everyone is aware of the danger on the roads at Songkran and while some take precautions, many simply don't care. It seems that the fun is worth the risk.

I don't believe that the culprit is just alcohol either. Ignorance and over-exuberance are equally to blame. Take for example the case of a pick-up full of people racing along a two lane main highway at 100km passing a motorbike with three kids on it traveling same direction at 60km. The pick-up occupants hurl several buckets of water at the motorbike riders who are caught unaware, wobble and come to a dead halt in the middle of the lane. The car traveling behind the motorbike on this occasion (yesterday) happened to be me and I could hardly see out of the windscreen because of the water that had just been thrown at my car too by the passing pick up. I very nearly slammed into the back of the bike, but luckily I was at a sufficient distance behind to swerve and avoid them. Several people could have died just then. It was 9.00am and I doubt that anyone 'involved' had been drinking. Repeat this scenario a thousand times a day all over Thailand and the odds of a less satisfactory conclusion build up...

Very, very sad for all who are injured. I just don't see anything changing.

The coup prevented Thaksin's plan to build the first casino in Thailand. Gordon Brown prevented his plan to build one in Manchester. He seems to be fixated on this idea. He's been back in Thailand only a few days and now we hear this. Any connection I wonder?

The rumour was that all those five star hotels being built in Chiang Mai had received heads up that the first mega casino was going to built there. Now we'll see.

Congratulations Donna. A heartwarming story. Unfair employers (in any country) deserve to be exposed, at the very least, but it takes guts on the part of the employee to see it through. You've sure got guts Donna.

Can you please name the hotel on the forum for all to see? If you are still uncomfortable with that, please PM me.

Thanks.

The answers depend on why you left your home country and particularly whether you did so willingly or not.

If you left of your own volition, you probably chose Thailand as your new home because of the advantages living here had to offer at the time. How much you like living here now will be determined largely by the extent to which those expectations have been fulfilled. And if they have, then the longer you stay here, the more of a distance you will find being built up (psychologically and probably materially too) between your life here and your former existence. Those aspects of life back home that irked you then will seem doubly irksome if you return ‘home’ for a visit. There will come a time when you couldn’t care less about what happens back home, or much about the people you left behind and the fact is that those people you left behind won’t care much about you either!

If you came here because your employer sent you, or if you left your home country because you ‘had to’ because of some situation there, you may well still have strong roots embedded there that need to be watered occasionally, so visiting will be a welcome relief … and you may even yearn to go back permanently.

After I moved to live in Thailand, entirely by choice, there was a period of about three years when contacts with family and friends remained strong and the visits ‘home’ were a pleasure, albeit increasingly brief and focused. What I believe expats often find is that the folks back home harbour some resentment about our newfound life. They feel that we have ‘left them’ and nobody likes being left out. They resent us for making that choice and in some cases are also envious that we had the guts and good fortune to do what they would have liked to have done themselves (although they rarely admit it)! I found this was manifested clearly by my own family back home not appearing to take any interest in what I had to tell them about life in Thailand. As time went by, I became totally bored with the mundane and petty details of their lives too until eventually I stopped visiting. We no longer had anything in common and even blood wears thin over time and distance. Haven’t been back for seven years now and don’t miss anything at all. I do love it when people visit me here though and I pull out all the stops for them to give them a warm welcome and a great time.

Seems to be MUCH confusion out there.

The onshore rate is 'artificially' maintained by the BOT and there is considerable pressure from Thai exporters to keep it that way. Anyone changing money in Thailand, or transferring money to Thailand will get these onshore rates.

The offshore rate is the 'real' rate of exchange in the international currency market. Anyone exchanging THB outside Thailand will get these rates.

In both cases there is a buy/sell commission imposed by the broker/bank that conducts the exchange.

Hence the offshore mid price of USD/THB right now is 30.75. You may be quoted 30.50/31.00 depending whether you are selling or buying USD, for example. The rate will differ depending on how much you exchange and with what institution. Exactly the same applies within Thailand, but the mid price will be about 10% different.

I lifted the following fuller explanation from another forum.

The onshore/offshore dichotomy exists as a result of capital controls introduced by the BoT to reduce speculative inflows intending to profit from an appreciation in the baht. These controls put an effective 10% tax on large inward speculative remittances and introduced a ban on certain inter-bank transactions between onshore and offshore institutions. This leads to an artificially stronger baht in the offshore market. See post #119 here for further details on this:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...2702&st=115

For people wanting to send money to Thailand by bank transfer (sometimes called a "wire transfer" or a "swift transfer" or a "telegraphic transfer"), in order to get the onshore rate, the money must be sent in foreign currency and converted "onshore". The best way to do that is to specify the "correspondent bank" details to the sending bank. The "correspondent bank" is an intermediary bank that sits between the sending bank and the receiving bank and the details comprise of 1. the bank name & address, 2. swift code and 3. the receiving bank's account number with the correspondent bank; and the details will be available from the receiving bank if you ask. If you don't specify the correspondent bank details, or if you are vague about whether you are sending baht or foreign currency, then the sending bank could easily convert it at the offshore rate (since they are located offshore from thailand) and send the baht to thailand. It is normal banking practice in the UK to do this.

Another way to get the onshore rate is obviously to bring physical cash into thailand and exchange it there.

Yet another way is to take advantage of certain banks that offer free overseas ATM transactions AND also give the onshore rate. Nationwide in the UK is currently one such bank that does so.

I don't know! someone tell me if I lost money or not! I'm near a heart attack!

I could buy a brand new laptop with that money

Obviously if you changed USD to THB today, you would have got more baht than you would have done yesterday.

If you really lost as much as $2,000 on the recent small move, you must have brought in a very large amount. I sympathise with you.

The Baht is back to nearly 34 to the US Dollar

Baht slow and steady weaking

BANGKOK: -- The Thai Baht opened at 33.93 THB/US dollar on Thursday morning and at 4PM Bangkok time it was noted at 33.86, according to Bangkok Bank.

The offshore rates are shown here: http://baht.thaivisa.com

-- Thaivisa.com 2007-08-09

Actually those are NOT the offshore rates, but the local rates. At 4.00pm today the offshore USD/THB mid rate was 30.75, for example, up from 30.00 24 hours earlier. This follows an entire week last week with no movement in the USD/THB price offshore (which is unusual). The offshore rates set the scene for the onshore ones. The BOT will not maintain a differential beyond a certain percentage. Watch how offshore trading goes to get a handle on likely future movements.

There is an easy way out of this. And that is to keep your pension money in your home country and transfer the equivalent of 800,000 baht when necessary to Thailand each year. To do this you clearly need an initial 800,000 to live for the first year. But if you are living hand to mouth every month, this option is not available.

This is indeed the easy way, and fine if the three month rule is not applied on renewals. The Immigration Officer in Chiang Mai informed my lawyer this month that there was NO requirement to have the 800K in the Thai bank three months prior to renewal (it is required on the first time application only he said).

However if the 3-month rule is applied it is potentially very costly for anyone like me who actively invests his pension and other savings offshore and earns high interest on it. The three month rule would mean transfer of a minimum of 1 million baht (800K plus money to live on for 3 months). That is 1 mio at x% a month loss of interest for three months. In my case at least 50,000 baht in lost interest to comply with this rule.

That would make a retirement extension a very expensive proposition.

The requirement for holders of retirement visa's to have 800,000 baht on deposit three months before renewal date has been in place since at least April of this year. I renewed my retirement visa in May and was asked to sign a form at that time stating the 900k would need to be on deposit three months prior to renewal in 2008.

Which Immigration Office was that?

It is difficult to answer your question because in Chiang Mai the rules will be interpreted differently by different officers. That has been my experience.

For example I presented my bank account and letter from the bank showing around 1,500,000 baht (over 1m for at least six months). The officer told me he could not accept that as it was a current account! He asked for a copy of my savings account "The rule book says you must have money in a savings account". I explained that I'd had a current account for over ten years at that bank and had never opened a savings account. He told me to go and open one and come back. Rules is rules!

Ridiculous? Yes of course it is. To add insult to injury when I returned hours later with my brand new savings account book I got a different officer. When the story was explained, that officer said that the current account would have been fine.

Conclusion? If I were you I'd go to Immigration in person and ask politely for a ruling from the most senior officer available. Be sure to take their name. Then follow that advice and if on the day you get another officer who contradicts the former advice, you can at least call the more senior officer to adjudicate.

Good luck

<From now on, the immigration officer will need to see proof that the 800,000 baht has been there for three months prior to the visa being issued. This is to stop the practice of moving money into a bank account, and promptly out again, once the visa is granted. >

This rule makes no sense and will create difficulties for all retirees concerned if they only have 800,000 baht or thereabouts available each year. If the desire is to prevent people from borrowing the money just for a few days and then withdrawing it again (which some people have been doing), Immigration should check the applicant's account at a period of three months (or one month would probably do) AFTER the issuing of the Visa. Then if all or most of the money is withdrawn without reasonable explanation the Visa could be withdrawn.

The proposal as it stands means that the amount required annually has effectively been increased to c. 1,000,000. That assumes that the person spends 200,000 baht each quarter. So bring in 1 mill three months before application so that you'll have the required 800K at the time of the application.

Spot on Happy Jack!

I was about to write something along those lines this morning, but you have put it very well indeed.

Forum readers should pay attention to what you have said as it is certainly pertinent in this case.

In particular the proponents of ozone in medical treatment have been hounded by the US FDA, despite overwhelming evidence in other coountries to its efficacy. I have been told by journalists and doctors that they have received life threats (from drug companies) NOT to publish research in the US. So much for a country of free speech! The FDA does not have a history of fair play, to say the very least. When the drug companies perceive a threat to their income from a very low cost and effective medicine, they close ranks and the FDA intervenes. It is that simple.

Now I don't know what Dr Sartori was doing exactly in Chiang Mai or why some patients died and I canot comment on the story that has been published and flashed on Thai TV. Although he is known as 'Dr Ozone' it apears he may have been using chelation therapy. Or maybe both. Either way he is an expert in both fields and I doubt very much that the journalists are qualified to write on the subject, other than to sensationalise it.

He is Austrian, not Aussie...

I was shocked to read this. I have never met Sartori but have read his books and studied his techniques. He is an eminent physician, very well qualified. I am not at all surprised at the fees he was charging and that people travelled half way round the world to be treated by him. There is a long catalogue of achievements - real ones - to his credit.

That said, I've heard nothing of him for the past 10 years. If these stories are to be believed then he may have gone off the rails (it happens with geniuses). The methods described in the articles bear no resemblance to his usual and well documented techniques.

As always with these stories, there is probably more going on than is being reported. My sincere condolensces to those who died at his hands.

I'm right with you twix38. I've lived in Thailand many years now and have seen it all (as many of us on this forum have). Sometimes the duped guy deserves all that he gets in my opinion, because so many treat their spouses (GF or wife) with total disrespect and yet expect an angel waiting at home for them. But others are simply naieve and big hearted and well meaning and yet are treated with total disrespect by their girl. It is really sad to see that happen.

Having a meaningful relationship with a Thai woman requires respect on both sides. It also requires a great deal of tolerance and empathy, but alas few couples have that. And while huge age gaps can and do work on occasion, the bigger the gap, the more respect, tolerance and empathy is required - and sometimes impossible to achieve.

Another lowlife in Pattaya bites the dust. I don't mean the girl.

What a tragedy that the leaders of the demonstrations are so politically inept. Sadly also, it is some indication of what a shambles a new government under their power or influence would become.

The fact is that Thaksin was democratically elected by a landslide. I dislike Thaksin and his practices and I'd love to see a viable Opposition systematically develop the case against him, go into the countryside and make that case plain to the voters who elected him last time and then go to the polls on 2 April to see how well they fared. Chances are in that scenario that Thaksin would still win but with very much reduced numbers. He would no longer be able to claim a 'mandate' to push through his own agenda, the Opposition would have some chance to influence daily political life and in the next elections would have a good chance of winning (if they had done a good job).

I was full of praise for Sondhi when he first stood up to Thaksin publicly. The first serious contender that he has had, or certainly the first to have caught the eye of the public. That is what democracy is all about. Once he had shown the way, others became emboldened and came out of the woodwork to join this opposition and it quickly became a Movement. Everything was just great up to that point. Unfortunately the leaders of that Movement seem to have taken leave of their senses and instead of rallying to the cause of democracy, they have dragged the Movement down a road that is essentially undemocratic and at best politically naieve.

Murder comes to an island idyll

BY ANDREW DRUMMOND AND SOPHIE KIRKHAM

Katherine Horton was killed after taking a stroll on a beach in Thailand

3 January 2006

A BRITISH student was murdered after she went for a stroll along a tropical beach in Thailand to make a mobile phone call.

Katherine Horton, 21, a psychology student from Cardiff, was travelling with a friend from Reading University and had been on the resort island of Koh Samui for only a few days.

It is thought that Miss Horton was attacked after leaving her friend and walking alone along the white sand beach to chat in private, possibly to her mother in Cardiff, on Sunday evening.

Her body was found the next morning in shallow water off Lamai beach by jetski operators. Local news reports said that she had been raped.

Speaking from Thornhill, Cardiff, her mother, Elizabeth, said yesterday that her daughter had already called home once to wish her family a happy new year: “That was the last we heard of her. She sounded so happy out there.”

Miss Horton was with Ruth Adams, also 21, on a two-week backpacking holiday. They met up with friends, one of whom rang Miss Horton’s parents yesterday to break the news. The pair had flown out on December 27 and were staying at the £10-a-night New Hut Bungalow resort on New Year’s Eve. Staff said they had seen the two women together on Sunday night outside their bungalow, and had found out that Miss Horton had been killed only when police arrived.

Miss Adams, who is said to be inconsolable, was last night still helping the authorities. She told police that they had been sitting on the beach in front of the bungalows at 9pm when Miss Horton received a call from her family on her mobile. She then strolled along the beach as she spoke to her relatives while Miss Adams returned to their bungalow and fell asleep. It was not until the next morning that she realised Miss Horton was missing.

Her body was found a short while later. One witness said there were signs of severe injuries to her head and shoulder. Local television footage showed her body slumped on the beach wearing a dark green T-shirt. She appeared to have bruising on her left shoulder.

“I can’t believe she’s gone. It just doesn’t seem real, it doesn’t seem possible,” her mother said last night. “They were really looking forward to [the holiday] and were very excited. But nobody seems to be able to tell me how she has died or what has happened to her. I just want to know what happened to my little girl. They were just going to travel around backpacking before coming home to carry on with their studies. She was such a lovely girl.”

Miss Horton, who had been due home on January 10, had two older brothers.

Her father, Richard, who also lives in Cardiff, was said to be devastated.

Koh Samui is popular with backpackers, families and budget travellers, and is known for its nightlife and beach parties, often held under a full moon. In recent years there have been reports of rise in crime in the southeastern Thai island, with the appearance of local gangs. Women travellers have complained of being harassed.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office says it had received reports of sex attacks on men and women and advises: “Female travellers in particular should maintain a high state of personal awareness in Thailand.”

I'm stunned by this. Of course it will send the wrong message.

Good work. One small win against a rising tide of trafficking.

I can only assume that the perps were desperate individuals.

I love that spelling error! KAOTYS. The word is katoeys, but I think that kaotys is much more descriptive. Kind of like "chaotic boys" or even "chaotic Thais".

I wonder if this happened in the soi next to soi6...

As BM pointed out its far to busy around this soi for it to have gone unseen..

The biggest problem i have  when im riding the moto is when im coming back around the smaller soi (beside soi6) and getting groped by the kaotys..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whether they are 'backpackers' or not is not an issue. Whether they are qualified to teach English (or any subject) certainly is.

Fact is (and everybody knows it) that practically any semi-literate native English speaker can land a job at most educational establishments. It is bad for the reputation of that establishment but much more seriously, it is a crying shame for the students who inevitably receive poor tuition.

Regarding hotel buffets, Rydges.Amora buffet is so-so and the Chillis restaurant where it is served is charmless. It is either packed out with Thai conferences or empty most of the time. Beware also of overpricing and add-on taxes. I ate there recently with my wife and had the buffet and two small bottles of water. Total 600 baht:

Buffet lunch 200x2 = 400

Water 55x2 = 110 (!)

Service = 51

Tax = 39

The best hotel buffet in my opinion is La Gritta at the Amari Rincome. Lovely decor and table settings, great selection of salads, main courses (Thai and Italian/European) and terrific desserts. Excellent service too.

Re: burgers, I hadn't ventured near a burger restaurant for maybe 10 years and then someone tipped me off about Mike's and took me there and I (reluctantly) gave it a try. I had a really good burger with fries and a great chilli. Have been back many times since! I can't believe there are other places in town that could possibly do it better, but thanks for the suggestions and I'll try one day (within the next 10 years hopefully)

Great contribution Kat. Thanks.