ross163103

What's that saying(?): "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt"

Buy low, sell high! Lots of buying opportunities coming up once the dust settles.

And the problem is(?), don't own a business here so it's awesome, nice change of pace.

Fragile Thai male ego hits the nail on the head! I bet she was the one that broke up with him, if it was the other way around it would've had a different outcome. Loss of face is a BIG problem here.

3M crystalline is awesome for heat rejection.

I've bought four new cars in Thailand and my experience is they do not come down very much at all from sticker price. The most I got off was 30,000 baht on a 1.6 mil car.  Unbelievable how little they will negotiate, must be supply and demand.......very little supply and lots of demand.

As a a full time Pattaya resident..........sound good to me!

95 is pure gasoline, all others are blends with some percentage of alcohol in them. I run 95 in my car only because it doesn't contain alcohol not because of the higher octane rating. Fuels with alcohol in them tend to dry out the rubber parts over time. 

Just so happens; I did scenario #2 with my wife, only difference is we registered our marriage in Thailand with the US embassy. Saying that, I don't think it helped any. We had been together for approx 5 years--married for 2 the first time we tried, she was denied. Second time we tried with the same documents as the first time, she got 6 months. Basically a Thai citizen--whether married to a US citizen or not, needs to show some reason they'll return to Thailand.

Family Mart has reusable bags for 3 baht apiece, not the biggest but cheap and decent.

23 hours ago, geovalin said:

The politically connected Chinese company building the airstrip and port says the facilities are for civilian use.

Yeah right, just like the islands in the south china sea. They were for a "fisherman's rest"; now 8-9 years later nuclear capable bombers have landed on them along with anti-ship and surface to air missles being deployed on them......hmmmm, maybe to protect the fishermen.  

Had the same issues with my wife's kid; put it down to two things, shy and cultural differences. What I've found is most Thai's don't do greetings the same way farangs do, no "Good morning" every day, no "Hello how are you today". None of those little things we do. Plus, based on my experience; not communicating with the kid does have some benefits; they can't ask you for money/motorcycles/I-phones.......sometimes we shouldn't question these blessings.

Just shows the state of things here when a road safety exercise causes injuries/death........what hope do we have on the roads?!

16 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Was it an american who conducted the interview or some local employed staff ?

In my wife's case it was an American both times, female IO first time...denied, male IO second time with same documentation, approved. 

I read comments/complaints on the Thai visa process being vague, at least Thailand tells you what you need, US is a different story; just rumors that you have to show proof or reason a Thai citizen will come back to Thailand. You show up with numerous documents then are denied for a general reason, no specifics........pretty vague compared to Thailand.

My wife had the same exact issue. We had been together for around 8 years, were married and registered our marriage at the US embassy before trying for a visa.

The first time we tried we got a female immigration officer that--in my opinion, had issues with Thai women getting visas. I was with my wife and explained many things.....denied. A year later my wife went by herself with the same paperwork, got a male immigration official, was asked a few questions about where she was going in the US, what I did for work, etc, and got a one year visa. Go figure, exact same paperwork but a different official.

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

ready to take action against any rapid gains, either through intervention or additional steps, Mathee said.

They said they could keep it at 36-1 USD a few years back....didn't happen, not much faith in these people being able to do anything with the baht, it's out of their hands.

12 hours ago, moonseeker said:

However can't understand why he wants to continue this pain 

another 4 years?

Power and ego

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Downstairs at immigration everything was running normally, he told Thai Rath. 

Yeah, running normally.....long queues.

I'm not an airport expert but maybe more security checkpoints/personnel and more immigration counters manned by more immigration officers would help; seems quite simple really.