BillyZ

Christina is doing it backwards. But funny, in that bathing suit, I found that I had to watch a second time, just to be sure!

Tamaris is very good. I love her tenkan, well worth emulating.

I don't know...... this crackdown sounds serious. It might last 4 or 5 days.

Hi,

I have a friend (female) who is 20 years old and has 3 years work experience in Administration. She speaks, reads and writes fluent English and has good computer experience. She's currently working on her BA at a weekend university in Chonburi.

She's looking for a job in the Pattaya, Ban Chang, Map Ta Put or Rayong area. She's been knocking on doors and turning in CVs, but it seems the only jobs out there are not paying well (like 7-Eleven wages.)

If anyone is looking or knows someone who is looking for an employee like this, or knows a good web site where she might find work, I'd appreciate it.

Regards,

Billy

The country needs to have a real "save water" campaign.  I can't believe how wasteful people are with water.  I see dishes being washed with water running continuously, twice daily washing down of driveways--instead of sweeping.  Water left on all the time. 

Since this water all has to be pumped, cleaned and delivered, it's a real waste.  Hope people can wake up one day.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BONE DRY IN BAN CHANG, RAYONG

On subject, but in a different part of the country. Five days ago, our city water in Ban Chang (Eastern Star, a bit away from the main part of town) went dry. It's not been on since.

We called the water department and they said that the water would be on again on Wednesday. By Thursday, still no water.

Yesterday (Friday) before we actually went to the water department [sometimes you've just gotta lean on their desk and breathe on them to get an answer] we found out that, gee, there is a water supply problem and the water is only being turned on on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

We went to the office, anyway, because we hadn't received any water on Wednesday and it wasn't running yesterday, either.

The Water Department guy came out to our house and looked around and declared that all of the water pipes were in good condition, nothing broken. Oh, and now they're back to supplying water 7 days a week.

A nearby village IS getting water, but where we are, no one is. I think what's happening is that they've got the taps open all the time (or on specific days), but not at 100%. So the water never gets to us.

Fortunately, we've got access to fairly cheap water (via trucks) and they can come 7 days a week and fill up our 2,000 liter tank. We're also looking at digging a well. Seems we've got a pretty decent water supply only about 5 or 6 meters down.

To add to this. I've got a friend who is in the business of repairing industrial machinery. He told me yesterday that a lot of the main plants in Map Ta Put are contacting him and getting ready to service machinery once they shut down. Many of the plants are planning a major slow down in work or complete shut downs altogether. Nevermind the water diversion projects. It seems they don't have a lot of faith in them.

This may or may not be true. But it was the very same companies in Map Ta Put who highlighted the seriousness of the water shortage last month when they said that they were going to scale back to 60% output. As far as I know, they haven't ramped it back up to 100%. And it's funny, the papers seem to be quiet about it all at the moment....

I'd like to help out on Phi Phi Island, as I've been there many times and have (had?) friends who worked there, as well. If anyone has a contact number(s) for volunteering on Phi Phi, I'd appreciate it. I will fly down and bring with me what I can (clothes, medicine, food, etc). What would be the best way to go? Maybe the Phuket - Phi Phi boats are a good option still? I've never done it from Krabi.

Thanks,

Billy

Thanks for this link. As suspected, my beloved Phi Phi Charlies has been wiped out. Not sure if the manager (Andy) and his staff are dead or alive. As I only ever see them when I go there coupled with the stories about not allowing illegal buildings to return on park lands, it looks like I'll never know. A small tragedy within the bigger picture....

Whilst as we know, the impact on many hotels has been devestating, many many Phuket hotels are going to extraordinary lengths to try and get the message across internationally that they have either not been affected at all or have been only minimally affected - e.g. 1 pool out of operation and / or limited food & beverage facilities. Many of these will be 100% back on line in a matter of days too.

The media would have us believe that there isn't a hotel left standing, which is not the correct message. This link http://www.sawadee.com/tsunami/hotels.htm gives a better idea of what is & what isn't operational.

As tragic and sad as this whole situation is, if tourists stay away for any meaningful length of time, it will only further exacerbate the economic situation in Phuket, put thousands of local jobs at risk and further add to the human suffering.

Surely therefore, tourists wanting to either remain in Phuket for the balance of their holiday or indeed new tourist arrivals, will only help the recovery?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess that bus stop in Chinatown won't be so crowded for the next couple of weeks....

Samet's still alright in a small island (and the usual problems that go with it) kind of way. I've been twice, once about 8 years ago and again about 8 months ago. It really hadn't seemed to change much in that time.

As far as the 'clean' beaches that I've been hearing about recently...yeah, the first main beach (I can't remember the name) was fairly clean the day we got there last time. But during the next two days, MOUNTAINS of garbage floated in on the tide. I mean it was so bad that it just surrounded you in the water. Wood, plastic bags, string & rope and who knows what else?!

This might have just been a freak tide during the weekend that I was there. And it looked like it was all (mostly?) trash from elsewhere. But on both of the mornings after, no one was out cleaning the stuff up off of the beach. They just waited for the tide to come back in and take it back out. Giving me the impression that it didn't travel far everyday...

It may be trashed in some places (or at some times of the day) like Phi Phi Island. But if you can look past that, I've found that these Islands are still very relaxing and usually fun to visit.

Did I do the right thing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You did the right thing. Hold your ground and don't give in. Pay 500 baht for an abortion, maybe. But don't pay 30,000 for her dowry. If worse comes to worse, they don't get married, she has the baby anyway and you save your money. If they cop an attitude because you didn't help out, that's their issue.

While is not too hard to find a woman to wait on you hand and foot, which is what I gather some of these guys in the article are looking for, I've found that the women from Isaan (my wife of 5 years and best friend of 9 years included) just tend to be more practical and reasonable in daily life.

For better or worse, I've also found that many of the Isaan girls tend to have the same sort of childish and (sometimes) sick sense of humor that I have, which makes for good fun. At the same time, there is a sense of values and morals which is lacking in a lot of the women (and men, me included) in western society.

To me, the Isaan culture is the heart of Thai society. The values and traditions in that region are celebrated in many of the other provinces (probably because so many of the people have migrated out of Isaan). At the same time, the "black" people of Isaan are looked down on by the light skinned northerners and Bangkokians. So with this in mind, I don't really worry too much that at some level I am, and always will be, looked down upon in much the same way. I will always be 'farang' (a somewhat derogatory term, for sure).

And if you’ve ever been in a small Isaan village for even a couple of days, you know how laid back, simple and peaceful life can be there. It never really hits me until I come back to the city.

It sounds like the local land office screwed up my ta bien ban, even with a letter from the Immgration and all. It's cool, I'll get it changed to a better looking blue soon enough.

"and then running down Vanessa, 23, and finishing her off with bullets to her neck and chest in September."

It seems to me like this was a little more than a spontaneous shooting over being hit a few times by the guy. A case of cold-blooded murder, if ever there was one. Seems shocking and surprising, but remember Duang Chalerm (sp?) a few years ago and then his acquittal this year....TIT

From what I'm told, and for the time being, Americans can keep two passports. Apparently, there are a few other nationalities that have this privilage, too, Swedes amongst them. If it came down to it, I'd keep the American citizenship, only so that I could vote for Bush after he amends the constitution allowing him to run for a third term....

Kidding, kidding....

I will share my experience here. I applied last year, starting the process around September 2003 and turning in the application around Christmas time. I paid BIG BUCKS to use the services of a company which is VERY well connected, so my experience is probably not indicative of what you may expect if you’re doing it on your own.

My first year's non-Imm B visa was sponsored by Unocal. The 2nd and 3rd year was sponsored by Chevron. But between the two, I had to let #1 expire, leave the country for a day and then get #2. But since only the sponsorship was different, I was working for the same (service) company and since the break was only due to procedural requirements, they accepted this as 3 consecutive years (again, it may depend on who's asking if this is OK when talking to Immigration...)

For what it’s worth, I think that they DO allow a bit of leeway when considering the 3 year rule. What they will not allow is you having 2 or 3 different jobs (and visas/WPs) in 3 years. If you’re with the same company for the last 3 years, I think you’ll have a pretty good shot.

My application started off based on my 3 years with the visa/WP. But then they decided to base it on my (nearly) 5 year marriage to my Thai wife (I think it’s gotta be 5 years, and not a recent marriage), who isn't in a "questionable" profession. So that cut the price from 194,000 baht to 97,000 baht. I think there are basically 5 ways you can qualify, but only the Thai relation-based visa will get you the 97,000 baht price.

While waiting for my interview in March 2004, I met a Thai guy out in the hallway at Suan Plu, near room 301. We were chatting and I was going to give him a hard time for blowing smoke my way. But I thought, ######, if this was a bar, I wouldn't think twice about the smoke. We got to talking, he asked if I was going for PR, and I said yes. He asked why I wanted it, after all, it's a lot of effort to go through. I gave the usual "people, food, jai dee attitude" etc. He pointed to the room and said, "They like to hear that you like the culture and customs of Thailand, don't forget to say that." He then put out his cigarette and said that he had to get back inside.

It wasn't until an hour later that I found out that he is THE man who OKs applications! What he was talking about when he said "they" is the committee who views your interview, which is recorded. When doing the interview (on tape) it's good to speak polite Thai, even if you're not strong in the language.

Also, make sure you are familiar with formal names for the Royal Thai family and for the government. You will need to know this for the interview and especially for the 10 question, multiple choice test. There are 10 different tests, and on each test, there are 10 questions. You will get any ONE of these tests and you won’t know ahead of time what the questions are (unless you know someone…..). If you know about the government a bit (who the Prime Minister is) and the Royal Family (which reign the current king is in), then you should do OK. Some other questions are as basic as what color is not in the Thai flag, what is an airplane (in Thai), etc.

It's important to be relaxed at the interview. Just be yourself, have fun, don't talk in monotone and don't be afraid to joke with the interviewer. Show that you're not a stick in the mud. They like animation and personality in people. But be polite, as well. Use 'krup' often when talking. And if you tend to speak a lot of Isaan Thai, as I'm used to with my wife, try to use "central Thai" during the interview. Again, the interview is part verbal (taped) and part multiple choice.

Another thing that weighs heavily in your favor if you’re going for a family-based PR is having Thai kids, of your own or properly adopted. For me, I had a vasectomy 5 years ago and no kids. And that kind of freaked them out. It was kind of freaky how freaked out they were about it. Weird. I had it done at Bangkok Nursing Home in 1999. That hospital was fine for me to get my physical at. But when I gave them the records of the operation and the note from the doctor from BNH, they said it wasn’t good enough. I had to have it from a government hospital.

Well, this is one example of going through a lot of hoops. I tried to get the ONE doctor (not the one who did the operation) who works at BNH and a government hospital (Sirikit, across from Lumpini) to sign a form saying that he could vouch for the operation. Of course he didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have, either. After going around and around over this (and it looking for a while like it was going to be a deal breaker), I finally gave a sample at the Sirikit hospital in Sattahip (near where I work). They wrote up something along the lines of “based on the hospital records and on what we’ve analyzed in the sample, we can say that Mr Z has had a vasectomy.” What a MAJOR hassle. But that’s the type of stuff you can expect.

Like I said, I had a service helping me out with this. And I would not have gotten the PR without them. Partially because they know exactly who to talk to to resolve issues, what to say and how to get around problems. Also, my Thai isn’t up to the level that it needed to be to get all of this done AND I’m not living in Bangkok. This cost me several hundred thousand baht, but it was well worth it and if you’re not sure about your eligibility, then I would recommend going with a service. If you’d like to know the one I went with, send me a private message. They won’t take your application if they can’t get you the visa. No visa, no charge. But if you’re Thai is up to speed and you have a solid application, you’re probably best doing it on your own.

My permit was issued last month. My red book was issued a week later and a week after that, I got my house book (which is yellow, Bobcat said I should have a blue one, which I’ll look into). So now I’m “half Thai” and have less than 5 years to go to get my Thai passport.

Good luck and be VERY nice to strange men in the hallway outside of room 301!!!

I'm a bit confused on that one. How do you use your SIM card with your Air Card? Not that I'm looking to do that, but it might be helpful for someone else some other time...

Just incase anyone is interested, I purchased a Sierra Air card that works on any GSM sim card

I run mine from an orange pay as you go, it is not the most cost effective however it is conveinient as you are able to change the sim to get the best sevice depending on your location.

I use mine on Koh Samet where Orange it head and shoulders above the rest, card was 16k baht

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What I'll probably need to do is take the notebook with the card up to their shop in Chonburi city, as they do not have technical support in Pattaya. This card/antennae has had this problem from day one, out of the box. That would actually be the easy fix, even though I would have to take a day off from work. What I fear, as Richard has mentioned, is that this is due more to (a lack of) network support in the areas where I need it the most. I'll let you know what comes out of it.

A few months ago, I shelled out 18,000 baht for an Air Card. I was assured by a few of my friends here in Rayong that it was awesome and the answer to the problem of getting connected away from the metropolis.

After a few weeks of getting the right forms together (half of that time was spent getting the Hutch people to tell me what all I needed) I finally got set up on the 500 mb/month package.

Right away, getting connected was not easy. At (from) the Sattahip Port where I work, I have to drive 4 kilometers to get one bar of reception. Where we're building our new house, in Eastern Star, not far from Ban Chang, no bars of reception and it's a good kilometer to town before I get anything.

At my current house, I get intermittent reception downstairs, sometimes no reception. Upstairs, I can connect most of the time with decent download/upload rates. If it wasn’t for the upstairs reception, I would have already had cancelled my contract with Hutch/CAT.

To top it all off, I was in Pattaya a few weeks ago, about 200 meters away from the CAT building on the south road (with a direct line of sight to the big radio tower they have there, if it is what they use for the Air Card transmissions) and I had ZERO bars of reception on my 'Watcher'. And this is pretty much in the middle of Pattaya. NO reception. And no-to-poor reception for the Patpong area (most of the 5 times I've been up to Bkk since I got the card).

When I call the Hutch people, I'm always talking to a 'technician' who has very little knowledge with computers. I'm always put on hold so she/he can ask someone else and even after 15, 20 minutes I'm not given any helpful advice as to what the problem might be or when there might be a stronger signal in this area.

(One problem I also had was a conflict with the drivers. What I figured out [on my own] was that when I took out the other PCMCIA card (Smart Media adapter) the driver problems went away. So that was one problem sorted out.)

When I signed up, I was assured that there was "complete coverage" from Saraburi to Trat to Hua Hin, and everywhere in between. Well, sadly, that's just not the case. And it should be noted that in 99% of the areas I can't get reception with my Air Card, my AIS phone has 5 bars of reception, even (literally) at the end of the road at Chuksamet Port in Sattahip.

I can’t imagine that the Hutch mobile phones work this poorly. This Air Card is supposed to act just like a mobile phone (you’re given your own phone number when you sign up for the package), only with a laptop. But after this experience, I don’t think I could ever buy one of their phones!

So if you're thinking of getting this service, take consider my plight and don’t take the sales pitch as gospel. If you know someone with an Air Card, definitely have them come over to where you will be using yours and see what the reception is like. Even if you can connect, quite often you will loose the connection AND/OR the transfer rate will be very poor. So give it a good test.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying into the program (especially with the Air Cards at 18,000 baht!) without doing this first.

My (Thai) sister-in-law did that in the states and then got her wallet stolen. Of course, all of the money ($2,000) was taken out by the time they got to the bank the next day...

It will be interesting to see if any of these military guys who are close to the guy in the UK start dying for some reason. Taksin could flippantly remark that it was either bird/pig/dog/human flu or that they were drug dealers and dealt with accordingly.....

I've just been told last night that she's now in jail for pornography. Meanwhile, titty and sex shows are in full swing 7 nights a weeks all over Bangkok, "protected" by the same police who've jailed Nong Natt....

This Nong Natt video, the one with her and the Japanese guy in the hotel room, is pretty hot. I've seen one other one for sale called I Am Ann or something like that. I'm not sure if it's quite as explicit as the latest one (said to be filmed 2 years ago when she was 19 years old.) But after seeing this newest release, I would love to see more of her. She's really hot and a great 'actress'.

Lets hope this is not the case, but the WHO has been concerned about this for a long time.

Of course it's OK, no problem. Khun Taksin has reassured us and he'd never lie about something like this, especially if the public was at risk. The virus, if it IS in pigs now, will not jump to humans, because he doesn't want it to. And we can take that to the bank!

And, if for some reason the virus does mutate and become a human virus, then it will all be the fault of the WHO, WTO and those pesky NGOs. Besides, if you DO die from the mutated avian flu, rest assured, that your family might receive some money, after your local politician takes his handling fee out....

Jeeezzzz, this is the same flight I'm about to book for next month! Well, hopefully this is out of UAL's system and it won't happen on the 16th...

The price for a PR visa is around 95,000 baht if you're married to a Thai. If you're not married to a Thai, it's around 195,000 baht. If you have children, your chance of getting a PR visa is much better. A main factor they look at is the 3 consecutive years of work permits / non-imm B visas.

This year, there were not so many applicants, probably because of the increased rate (4 fold). Also, it's worth noting that only 100 applications are accepted from each country. That might not matter if you're from Mali (yes, EVERY country gets a quota of 100). But if you're from the UK, continent or the US, you will need to be in the top 100 best apps.

One other thing to consider, though it's probably not the case here, is allergic reactions to shell fish. My (American) friend has this problem. It's something like an iodine build up. If he bites into lobster or shrimp (except for frozen small shrimp), his throat immediately swells up constricting his wind pipe. It just hit him one night at dinner and he's not been able to eat most shell fish since.

My Thai wife has a slight reaction to too much shell fish, either at one sitting or over a period of days. She gets a rash on the palms of her hands and then up her arms. VERY itchy. The best thing to do if you get the symptoms is to stop eating shell fish all together.