rick75

I wonder if any business owners have experience with the tea money culture, does someone who has a retail outlet have to pay handouts to the local cops or council, does the exporter who deals with customs etc have to pay a little on the side to grease the wheels, most businesses in Thailand seem to run on very small profit margins, what impact if any do these types of overheads have.

Cheers Rick

My girlfriend had the same stamp, I am of the belief that it is probably a standard thing they do on the first visa granted.

Nothing to worry about.

Bridge a question for you, once a person has had a 3 month visa granted and stayed that time then gone back to there home country, how long do they have to wait to apply to get another visa and are there restrictions on time spent in and out of the country over a 12 month period.

Thanks in advance Rick

Do what a Thai man would do, move out with a new girlfriend and leave Her to pay the bills, or at least threaten Her with it, you sound like you are a broken man without hope, take control.

Dude I hope you are not serious, if you feel the need to move into the shed your relationship is over move on.

Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had instructed his ministry to work out compensation for the small number of members or find other ways to take care of them.

With the cost of a Life in Thailand valued at 50 000bht I hope the other ways to take care of them don't involve lead, or a dive of a 30th floor balcony.

Thanks for that F.C.

Just a question if one was catching the overnight sleeper train, how do you book and pay etc.

I cant see a link on the website or phone number to find out, if you were to roll up at the station a few hours before departure would you have any dramas getting tickets for 4 people. Thanks Rick

Those sort of things seem like what we would be interested in, we will be catching the train up, what is the transport situation like, can you hire a driver and car for the day or can you hire a car, my mate speaks pretty good Thai so getting around of the track won't be a problem. Thanks Rick.

Sorry to revive an old thread, three of us will be up in Surin in another 6 weeks and we are not sure what touristy things we can do to fill in our days apart from the ruins/temples listed above what other things of interest can be found in and around Surin, thanks in advance.

He sounds like Mel's brother, he wasn't ranting racist and anti-semetic things was he?

I just finished watching the series "By any means" , Charlie Bohrman from the series long way round and also long way down did this in the middle of last year they encountered huge resistence when it comes to travelling through this area, would suggest getting a copy and having a look, its a real Mans adventure but plenty of hassles.

Are you sure you need a work permit to act as a volunteer, even in a country like Australia you are permited on a visitor visa to volunteer.

If you are doing it in regional areas you would just pay of the local cops, organise with a local restaraunt or pub in each town to set up on there property they get the benifit of all the punters drinking there you charge a small admission fee for the lookers on and maybe get a cut of the drinks for the night, hey screw you i might do this myself.... lol

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/boxingtent/

You won't find many genuine non fighters who could go 5 x 2 they gas out after 3 x 2

What rules are you thinking of ?

In Australia you have the boxing tents that go around mostly in the bush, they have maybe 6 fighters on staff and you jump in the ring against them, most of these guys can handle themselves and they only go as hard on the amatuer as he is giving, it works well and is a great night out. The prize is $100 for a win but I would say maybe only 1 in 30 amatuers would win if you were lucky.

Maybe something like this might be worth considering.

Tell the landlord that your girlfriends uncle is a cop and becasue you are not happy he has offered to come around and see the landlord and sort things out, tell him you don't want to trouble the uncle to do this, but unless he comes to a sensible compromise that is what will happen.

Best of luck

Those hallogen bulbs you are using are huge users of power and as people have said check for a faulty meter.

I am not anti- weed, I was a regular smoker loved the stuff still occasionaly love the stuff, but for those on here to say there is no links between mental health problems and dope are just plain stupid.

Here is a small extract from an article on the study the link is below if you would like to read more

Posted Wed Jun 4, 2008 11:47am AEST

A new Australian study says long-term, heavy cannabis use causes brain damage that is equivalent to mild-traumatic brain injury or premature ageing.

The research is published today in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study also found that all users are at risk, and the more you smoke, the more your brain shrinks.

Doctors have known for years there is nothing "soft" about the drug cannabis. Professor Jon Currie is the director of addiction medicine at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.

"This is a very exciting study because it proves for the first time what we have been really worried out. That brain problems are real and that people who smoke cannabis over a long term do get problems." he said.

The study conducted at the University of Melbourne took MRI pictures of the brains of 15 men who had smoked more than five joints daily for more than 10 years.

It found the parts of their brains that regulate memory and emotion, the hippocampus and the amygdala, were significantly smaller than those of non-users.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/04/2264668.htm

I am looking at this from both sides of the fence, I smoked on a daily basis for maybe 8 years, gave up because it no longer interested me, the links to schizophrenia are widely known if you don't beleive this you are in dreamland, I am of the beleif that modern hydroponic growing techniques are to blame, most growers don't take the time to flush the system and plants properly with clean water before pulling the plants, the result of this is that the plants still contain all the nasty chemicals from the hydro system.

MJP it’s impossible for someone to give up Hooch unless they want to, it’s not physically addictive but unless you want to give up you never will, Australia has just finished a similar study and that rates of schizophrenia increase something like 4 fold for dope smokers. For a person that used to partake in this, I feel lucky that I had no lasting effects from it.

So the guys only been in thailand for 6 days where did he get the stuff from, I highly doubt he is a dealer, just really stupid.

The Australian Government has just upgraded its advice for Bangkok, they are advising you reconsider your need to travel. They have been emailing out near daily updates for the last week and this is the first time they have upgraded the situation. Not good.

I am not sure how succesful water cannons would be, PAD have control of an Airport if PAD have half a brain between them they have there own water cannons, you know those fire fighing trucks that all airports have.

About thought #2 : In short time notice it will solve some things . The airport will be left alone and everybody will go home . There might be a counteraction by the red community to aim straight to the PAD people moving home . That is however is the short time notice .... long term , fresh elections en PPP will win again . That is the basic fact were i am 100% sure of . So ... where to go from there ... again take over the airport ... stuck in the same situation aren't we ???

If by 3 days from now there is no massive action at the airport then the PM will resign because he wouldn't have enough backing from any force which he needs , but it wouldn't be the solution .

This is what I don't get, sure they are corrupt and far from a perfect government, but they will get voted in again unless the PAD gets there way and takes away the one person one vote system that they have now. On the surface it seems one self serving political party trying to get rid of another self serving party. If PAD had even a little respect for there countrymen they would go home and sort this out another way.

Peaceful protest my Ar*e, they are killing there own people in the long run through Famine etc, I can't see why the PAD sympathisers can't see this.

Yes it makes perfect sense to me.

Cheers

Great Pictures, they seem to be making good progress.

Best of luck with the rest of the build.

^ I was thinking more April fools day