oneday

I have to wonder how they found out. It's such a closely guarded secret what goes on there. Wow, Pattaya police are good!

...and no mention of the fourth floor where pirated music, games and software are sold.

"As per details provided by the Thai Foreign Ministry, neither country will issue a "multiple-entry" visa."

Doesn't sound very flexible. The details make it sound like it is only for a tourist visa which is fine, but you still have to pay fees in both countries. Sounds as if it only slightly resembles a "Schengen-style tourist visa". Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Schengen visa allow you to go back and forth between countries for the valid period of the visa and not have to pay fees each time you enter a country.

Take note Thailand. See what opportunities and rights are afforded a person not born in the US.

Well let's see...9 slots available...3 companies can bid up to a max of 3 slots...seems like there never was room for another bidder anyway. Worked out perfectly for whoever is getting the kickback and the 3 big gorillas.

I haven't read all the replies here, but I'll put in my two-cents or is it pence.

I live a very comfortable life in Pattaya on 65,000 baht a month. That has been my average over the last 8 months in my detailed expense tracking and that accounts for EVERYTHING, including car insurance, health insurance for me, cable TV, internet, electric, water, a car we rarely use and two motorbikes. We live in a rented townhouse for 15,000 a month.

If I were to move back to a 5000 baht a month room, not go out at night, buy all our food at a grocery store and give my girl no money (she does have her own job) then I could probably live on 45,000 baht/mo comfortably.

The verdict: you would be living on a very fine edge and spending any of your hard earned savings to set your lady up in a business would scare the hell out of me unless you have a guarranteed business plan for success.

Stay away NASA until this country grows up.

First off, great videos. As far as I'm concerned from a simple viewer's viewpoint, they looked very professional.

Now down to reality. I couldn't always hear what you were saying and the English accent probably tripped me up a little so if you covered any of the below items...my apologizes.

When you came to Thailand with your dog that must not have been easy. You must have had to get some kind of export permit or paperwork to take her out of England and certainly import papers to bring her into Thailand. I've looked into bringing our dog back to the US and it's a huge pain in the butt.

When you got the car, I'm not sure why you went all the way to Bangkok for a used car when there are 1000's in Chiang Mai. Also, there was nothing about about getting a Thai drivers license, though it's not necessary if you have an international license along with your national license from England. However, in one year the international will expire and then you must have a Thai license unless you go back to England and renew the international. Also no mention of the ins and outs of transferring the cars BLUE book into your name. I'm betting you never got a BLUE book. Also no mention of getting insurance. If you get in an accident and severely injure someone or even kill them then you will wish you had insurance.

I've lived here three years and have had to deal with all of these issues.

Good luck and as I said, great videos...very enjoyable.

Why a joke ? ...what is being praised is the infrastructure and facilities put in place by the pros that bring in MICE visitors...

Yes it is a complete joke. I will admit one thing…someone really does know how to bring all types of events to this town. It seems there is an event every other weekend. For instance we just had a “Music Festival” and it brought the entire road system infrastructure (haha) to a complete halt.

Some idiot came up with the idea to turn major streets into one-way streets to the point that it caused people to stay on the road 5 times longer just to figure out how to get to where they were going. This city is a living hell when events come to town and even worse when that idiot jumps up and decides to close down Pattaya Tai to be one-way probably because Beach Road has been closed.

My friend was trying to go back to his hotel and must have tried 3-4 different ways to get there only to find out every single way was blocked. He had to end up running a blockade on Soi 8 because it only had 3 useless police instead of the 8 useless bodies that were on Soi 7. Are you telling me they couldn’t block all the side sois at a point much closer to Beach Raod instead of right at 2^nd road…come on.

The city holds all these events, IMO, to bring in money so they can spend millions and millions of baht on useless projects like high-tech crosswalks that very few people use and even fewer drivers pay attention to or the old standby...to line official’s pockets with tea money or both.

There are better solutions out there, but the idiots in this town are incapable of an original thought that actually works. One solution is to actually enforce traffic laws I believe must be on the books, but are completely ignored such as double-parking on major thoroughfares or worse yet on streets barely wide enough for two small cars… thanks goodness for the motorbike.

…and on and on and on…

...If you would have offered money, the police would have done something. Otherwise, like you said, nothing in it for them. Until the police are reformed, no changes in carnage on the roads.

Agree 100%...this is the only topic worth discussing, otherwise it's all just a bunch of talk. If the national police can not be held accountable from the top down, if no elected politician can hold them accountable then what's the point of any of this. It always has been and it always will be this way. Thai people, mostly those in positions to extort money, namely government employees, care much more about money than life itself.

I was pretty sure I recently read where some guy had to pay 800 baht for the express service at Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I think he saw a sign that said 200 baht normal and double for express, but for some reason his final bill was 800 baht. He also had trouble finding the right building as we all know taxi drivers don't know crap about their own town. So if I were offered a reasonable fee by the translation service to register the document at MFA I'd take it.

I had a similar problem today in reaching www.tsp.gov in the U.S. Never had a problem before in reaching this site...and wasn't having any problems in reaching any other web sites I tried today. I'm on TOT and have my primary DNS set to a TOT DNS and my backup to one of the Google DNS.'s I changed by primary DNS also to a GoogleDNS but it didn't help. Cleared my cache; didn't help. Closed/reopened the browser; didn't help. Turned the laptop off and on; didn't help. Used the the DownForeverOneOrJustME web site and it said it was just me with the problem. So, I then turned my ADSL modem off for about 15 seconds; turned it back on and I can now reach the tsp.gov web site.

I have not been able to reach the "www.tsp.gov" website for about a week also. Turning off my modem did nothing. My GF's computer can not reach the website. I use Firefox and tried to get access with IE and still no good. I've searched the internet for anything that may have happened recently, but find nothing. One thing seems to be clear...the browser is not resolving the website name so something may be wrong with whatever DNS server my browser/service provider is connecting to. I also tried using the raw IP address to access the site and I get the same result..."waiting", then "the connection was reset" from Firefox.

If for a non-oa visa from a consulate they accept bank statements.

I'm not ready to apply now, but In a few years it'll be for a non oa visa. However, all of my banking is done online. I don't get bank statements and haven't for about five years.

You may not get one mailed to you, but I would be extremely surprised if you can not print one. I also no longer receive statements for more than 5 years. I believe institutions are required to provide one when asked for one.

Both my bank and Mutual Fund allow me to print one on-line. It's as official as any you would get in the mail.

In Los Angeles the Thai consulate requires a statement that has been notarized or a letter from your bank stating proof of ownership.

I just opened a Savings account at Bangkok Bank on 2nd road in Pattaya in October so what I am saying is fact and not guess work. I did this on a tourist visa.

All Bangkok Bank wanted was a Residency Certificate. I got this from Immigration in Jomtien on Soi 5. The hardest part of all this was getting a contract written up and signed by the guy I was renting my room from with his CONTACT details (address and phone number or essentially my contact details as to where I live). Once I had this, a copy of the contract, a copy of my passport, a couple passport pictures, a copy of the entry stamp and departure card in my passport plus 200 baht I got the Residency Certificate.

I went back to Bangkok Bank with this and I had my savings account with ATM card in about 15 minutes. NOTE: They will not give you access to on-line banking unless you have a one year visa.

I have heard that Kasikorn Bank does not require anything and that is hear-say, not fact.

Like Dave111223 said, China Airlines based on price. They always fly through Taipei as the only stopover. The last trip the layover was 1 hour (which is really cutting it) going back to LA.

www.china-airlines.com

I have used them for all my four trips over the last year and a half and they always come up the cheapest. Booking directly on their website will save you a few more dollars than over the best price you can find anywhere else.

Don't know anything at all about saving through an agent as I never use them anymore.

This happended in February this year so it is current.

I recently read an account where a board member of a Pattaya board washed his passport and had to get a new one just before he had to make a VISA run. So he went to the BE in Bangkok and regardless of how little time he had left to make his VISA run he had to wait the required time, so he had to pay for a 7 day extension at immigration which was still a few days short of what he needed. Immigration would not give him a new Multi-entry NON-O.

Anyway, the photos he brought were not good enough so there was a place close to the embassy where he got the right photos so you might want to go to the embassy without photos and ask them for a recommendation. I assume someone at the embassy told him where to go for his photos.

The end of the story goes like this. All toll it cost him around 14,000+ baht for passport, immigration, photos, taxis and other stuff for his mistake. When he did the visa run he was into about a 5 day overstay, but showed both his passports and a copy of the original mult-entry NON-O at the border and they cleared him for another 90 days after paying for the overstay. His next 90 days is not due until May so I am still waiting to see if he has problems on that VISA run.