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I've searched the forum and the net in an attempt to find some useful directions to this hospital. I hope this is the right place to ask for the best way to get there from the centre of town on a low budget and a dislocated shoulder with torn ligaments...is it far from bts/mrt? thanx a lot in advance for your advice. i need to be there tomorrow morning before 7 and I have no idea of its location on the map.

Chula hospital is at Silom MRT and BTS Sala Daeng. A one or two minute walk from either.

Hello,

Would appreciate if anyone can tell me if you need to have a valid visa to rent? I am currently on a tourist visa but hope to study/work here for a while (Bkk)

Thanks.

One apartment complex (in Thonburi) turned me down a few years ago because I was on a 30 day visa exempt stamp. The condo I live in now photocopied my passport but wasn't concerned at all about my visa status (no visa, just a 30 day visa exempt stamp also). Out of the nearly 100 condo's I have seen over the years, only one raised an issue with my visa status.

A few years back I was in the process of renting a condo and while they were flipping through the visa pages they noticed I was on a tourist visa and refused to rent to me saying they had trouble with the police earlier with foreigners overstaying their tourist visas. This was out in Pinklao. My current condo checked the visa to make sure I wasn't here illegally but they haven't asked for updates.

A more likely cause is that someone thinks you did them wrong in the past. It's not uncommon for friends of a Thai or even people hired for a few hundred baht to do someone harm even months or years after the initial altercation.

About the law being applied unevenly to foreigners and locals, in actuality that is very true. Tourists can be preyed upon with ease because they don't realize their rights and have communication issues. KSR and the other tourist areas are particularly bad with scams of all sorts.

A few years back a gang of about 10+ guys descended on one hapless local and were beating him. I tried to break it up and had them turn on me but when they realized I was just trying to break up the "fight" they would punch around me while I was sheltering the guy with my body as much as I could. I didn't know the guy at all but I did exchange a couple sentences with him in the bar a few hours back and thought I should do what I could to help him. I'm sure in some way they were affected by the fact a farang was involved in the situation. After a few minutes they let the guy go and he hopped onto a motorbike and sped off. If I acted aggressively and not defensively I'm sure I would have been in trouble. I had a few scratches but nothing serious and one of the guys even helped me find my glasses (which luckily weren't broken). There must have been hundreds of people watching but nobody did anything. Later I asked people what it was about and everyone said they didn't see anything.

Every clerk and every branch has a different policy it seems. I went to 3 branches before (on the same day nonetheless) and one said I need a letter from my embassy while another said work permit while the last branch just opened the account.

A month ago I saw two Chinese monks begging in the tourist area of Kuala Lumpur. They ignored the locals and just approached farang.

So I'm thinking about visiting my gf for a month next year and while there, I'd like to take a Thai language course. I read a lot about the schools in BKK in this thread, but I only have one month. What school has the best (in your opinion) one month well round course for a newbie (I won't be able to take another course until the following year) I'd like to learn writing, pronunciation, reading and speaking....but then again, am I being unrealistic?

The best one month course is at Chula. 100 hours in 1 month. But the course is pricy (25000 baht) and you're expected not to miss any days. You will learn to read and write from the beginning.

I would also recommend the one month course at Unity or Piammitr. You won't learn to read/write but you will learn to speak/listen so you can function in Bangkok to some extent. Piammitr is 5500 baht for 60 hours. Unity Thai Language is 7000 baht for 80 hours (morning class) or 6000 baht for 60 hours (afternoon class).

If I were you I would just take a course at Piammitr or Unity because unless you plan to continue at Chula until completion (1 year program), the 25000 baht won't be well spent.

I've emailed Piammitr a few times through their website and gotten no response - i was wondering if I can qualify for ed visa while studying there?

Studying at Piammitr does qualify you for an ed visa. They said the longest ed visa is 8 months and you would have to pay 8 months of tuition *(8 x 5500 + 8 x 200 (book) = 45600 baht) up front as well as pay a 2000 baht administration fee to Piammitr for preparing the documents.

You would then apply for a visa out of the country (forgot how much the visa fee is at a neighboring consulate, maybe 2000 baht?) as well as pay for "extensions of stay" at immigration every 3 months (1900 baht every 3 months).

you may be using a different version of google than i am.

i googled korean language schools bangkok.

bangkok university international college, second google page, 5th from the top, came up,sorry you wasted an hour, must be tough with a slow internet connection, dial up modem.

Google results aren't the same for everyone. Fifth from the top, 2nd page, for me isn't BUIC.

Do you have anything to add to the topic besides telling me I can go google it? 95% of posts on here can be replied to by sending the person off to google. It's a discussion board. After searching through the archives on here and finding nothing about Korean classes and finding nothing particularly useful on google, I decided to post on here.

Stick the google up your arse.

yes.

try googling, korean language schools bangkok.

Thanks for the primo advice.

Googled for an hour, nothing came up.

Anyone know if there are any Korean classes in Bangkok?

The best place to get China visas is in Hong Kong. I've lived in China previously and the only problem I faced in Hong Kong was once they gave me a double entry visa instead of a multi entry tourist visa.

I was never asked for any hotel or flight information. It was actually quite simple -- just pay the fee and give them the photographs and you're all set.

From what I heard, even in Hong Kong now it's very difficult to get visas if you're white. Some have been turned down for no reason while others have been given ridiculous requirements to fulfill. It's not an American issue. I've heard that for the French it was much more difficult.

I'm not even sure if there's a concrete policy in place now. One friend was told he had to apply in his home country and another was allowed to apply conditional he fulfilled all the requirements (including tickets, hotel info, etc.)

They're afraid of protests at the Olympics and they're trying to screen out the "undesirables".