Lee4Life

Enduro Bikes are considered dirt bikes here, but I understand the haha....how many of the vehicles really should be on the roads here?

A small minority in this case was six individuals running around with a huge knife. You don't think that if the same thing happened to an elderly Thai man it would hit the press? It's good to know about these things so others can be cautious and keep an eye open.

Just a heads up, we crossed from NongKhai last week and after getting our 40$ visa on arrival we were exiting the border and the officer who inspects the paperwork upon exiting asked where our receipt for the "Tax for Entering the Country" was (Pah-Si Kao Muang Kao Patit). When I said that we didn't have to pay an entry fee because we paid 40$ for our visa on arrival, he said, "not any more, there's a new tax for entering the country" and directed us to go to a machine nearby where we had to pay 40 baht each and then show the final officer the receipt.

Doesn't "youth" include minors? Doesn't sound legal.

Sorry...but your imagination is overly active. I have lived here eighteen years and eat only local foods, but have to fend off the soi dogs regularly on my walks. I see the locals that ride bicycles have sticks mounted to their bikes because of the dogs, on my walks I can tell there are mean dogs in the houses ahead of me when I see sticks laying along side of the street that the locals use when they walk by the houses the mean dogs are at. Are you going to tell me that the local farmers and villagers in the rural community I live in are being attacked by dogs because they don't eat Thai food?

Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful replies. The wife and I crossed the bridge at NongKhai for a day in Laos on the last day our O/A visa was valid, when we came back in we presented proof of insurance for one more year, and were stamped in for an additional year. We then purchased re-entry permits for the next year also. So we are good to go for another year. We ran into a couple of issues that were sorted out, the first was that the health insurance for our original O/A retirement visas was still valid for one more day and then we also had a new policy that began the next day and extended for one year. When I presented the I/O the two health insurance certificates she said there may be a problem because there were two certificates, but thankfully she called her supervisor and they gave it the go ahead. Then the officer at the re-entry permit counter at the bridge said they could not issue us re-entry permits for one year, only for one day if we were exiting the country. This in spite of the fact that we had purchased one year multiple entry permits there twice before. So we went to the local immigration office and bought the multiple re-entry permits there. So all worked out well in the end.

Nice article to read when I've just eaten a bunch of them, never seen them up here in NongKhai before, and here they were at the super popular Sunday night market, cheap and tasty, no wonder.

I perform a lot of physical labor around our place, and am often repairing equipment or vehicles. I always make sure I am presentable when I go on errands to buy parts or supplies. Back home nobody cares all that much, people just think to themselves, "looks like he's been working on something", but people here take care in their appearance. One day I ran to buy fuel without cleaning up and changing clothes, and three Thai school girls were just parking their motorbike at the pumps. When the driver saw me she wrinkled her nose and said in Thai, "he's so dirty!" As far as smelling like something goes, I have never heard of the locals saying foreigners smell like wet dogs, I have heard it said that they smell like butter...and that certainly wasn't meant as a compliment. In their own language and customs calling someone a dog, or dog face is extremely offensive.

All of that money won't stay in Thailand, unless they are able to manufacture all of the parts needed to assemble trains, such as axles, brakes, engines, and so forth. But I get your point, You seem to be straying from the point of the article as far as your comment about women goes, the reason for train transportation is to get from point A to point B. You take "admiring the scenery" along the way a bit far.

I have had a yellow book here in NongKhai for around twelve years, we had to use a Thai speaker to obtain it and it cost about 7,000 baht as CFCol stated. I will say that it is currently less helpful than I thought it would be. I used it previously to do our TM30's at immigration, now they refuse to accept it, they said the reporting has to be done by a Thai property owner with a blue book. Maybe others can point out where the yellow book has been useful? Is it more useful in areas foreigners are more common?

All points well taken, you guys are great! we have just renewed our insurance and have certificates that show coverage beginning as soon as our current insurance ends, And we will be sure to buy re-entry permits for a full year before we even leave the border, lest we forget.

Using our previous Non-O O/A visa we were stamped in for one more year on the last day our visa was valid, the I/O did not ask for proof that we had renewed our insurance even though we had it. I would say it just depends on the I/O, or maybe point of entry?

The visa is still valid, but only for another month after our entry the day before yesterday. The I/O was questioned by my wife about why we weren't given sixty days, the answer was that the 60 day rule is not in effect yet. We have been staying in Thailand nine months out of every year for eighteen years now. The I/O at the local office our niece took our documents to yesterday told her that they don't see Non O O/A visas much at all anymore because most people who were using them before are now using other visas that allow 90 days at a time and are allowed to be extended twice. She said it requires 800,000 baht in the bank. I'm not sure what they were talking about. If it matters my wife and I are both US citizens, the wife is not Thai.

The entry stamp in our passport obtained at the airport when we first arrived using the e-visa approval letter and insurance documents has the words, "Non-O/A" and "e-Visa" written on it. Sorry if that was confusing. The document you are referring to as "a printed copy of your e-visa" must be the "notice of e-visa approval" that we used on our initial entry I would guess. I haven't seen a document that says that it is the actual e-visa. I guess I get confused by all of the different terms, After being here for eighteen years the whole e-visa deal is hard for me to get used to, getting old I guess.

not contradictory... I didn't list a date our visas expired, or were good until. I simply stated that they were valid when we entered at the airport, and that the local Immigration office advised us to exit across to Laos the final day of the visas and then return the same day, and if we showed insurance coverage for the next year we would be stamped in for one year. why do you need a "valid until date"? The visas were valid for thirty more days when we entered at Savarnabhumi the day before yesterday.