Lee4Life

I've been there a couple of times, the wife and I loved the town, especially the lake and park in the center. As Dilligad said, the main bars and restaurants seemed to be adjacent to the lake.

4 hours ago, taichiplanet said:

i guess eventually there will be no forests to burn, then the problem of smoke haze will be solved.

 

Nah....have you seen how fast stuff grows here during the rainy season?

4 hours ago, mokwit said:

Couple of points: Apparently it is very difficult to pickpocket someone who is moving - be wary of tactics to make you stop. The wallet is immediately thrown to an accomplice and then another so even if you recognise what is going on the one who took your wallet does not have it. Peruvian gangs in London would then immediately post the money stolen back to Peru - very difficult to get access to a post box for retrieval/evidence.

Good advice, one of my pals lost his wallet near Pantip Plaza a while back. He was walking in the middle of a crowded sidewalk and all of the sudden an elderly lady in front of him fell down. When he stopped to avoid stepping on her he was bumped into from behind by two young women, he had not gone but a few steps and realized his wallet was gone but the girls had already vanished into the crowd.

3 hours ago, Aussie999 said:

I do not know about Thailand, but I do not know of any country that gives a tow truck the same rights a emergency vehicles.

In my past life I was a Tow Truck Owner/Driver in the States. There were instances when I was given the o.k. by the Police to "use all speed necessary", there were also laws such as "no commercial vehicles in left lane" that tow trucks were exempt from. But for the most part I had to obey the laws like everyone else, If we were instructed to enter a freeway the wrong direction we had a police escort.

16 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

I know for a fact the Thai family I stay with in a village in Isaan never bother to report my presence.  My friend's brother is the deputy headman and just laughs whenever the topic is raised

I don't think the village headmen are interested, it's pretty much only Immigration Officers who are interested from what I have seen. I'm not sure that it can even be reported to the village officers.

We have to file and the wife and I have a Yellow House Registration Book, we travel quite a bit and I would think that the people at the local immigration office would get tired of us bothering them time after time. But we are here full time and when we have gone in for our 90 day report they have asked about it before.

Our local bicycle path has been severely damaged by big trucks, both from them crossing it by using impromptu driveways and also by them driving down it where barriers are not sufficient. Unfortunately unless there are policemen standing right there all laws here seem to be little more than a suggestion.

On 3/9/2019 at 10:57 PM, CALSinCM said:

My credit union requires that I show up at their office in person.  14,000 miles away - that ain't going to happen. 
It seem US banks are set up in a way to prevent expats from, well, being expats.  I don't see a lot of support out there. 

Not all financial institutions in the U.S. are that way. My bank allows remote wire transfers, the remote wire transfer can be initiated by a phone call in which a prearranged ID and Password are used and then special codes that represent the amount you wish to transfer.

  I know this doesn't help the immediate situation, but is it possible for you to change financial institutions in the U.S. to one which will work better for you? 

It's so nice to hear news about people helping people for a change! Hats off to the officials who went out of their way to solve the problem, way to go!

12 hours ago, Hupaponics said:

I guess he's better taken care of here than in his trailerpark back home... 

Not a cent i sent to the beggars only page. 

             Someday you may need to rely on the grace of others because of unforeseen circumstances. You know so little about this man or what happened.

On 1/31/2019 at 11:03 PM, Christophers200 said:

Rod the Sod  -- Mmm -- The agent was right and you were 'mistaken' There has been no recent change. 

The last two times I applied for and received the certificates of residency I had not been doing 90 day reports either as I had been traveling in and out of the country often, immigration at NongKhai never mentioned the 90 day report rule but just supplied the certificate. That was a couple of years ago though.

22 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Like chickenburgers? US chicken is so contaminated it has to be washed in chlorine before being sold. 

I would like to see the source of your information?

Way too small of a truck for an excavator of that size, seems to be pretty common here. It's good to see that the fellow didn't kill someone though.

UbonJoe's replies are correct, I "stretched" my O-A visa last year by leaving on the date of its expiration and then coming back in on the same day and then buying a multiple re-entry permit so I could leave and re-enter again if I needed to.

       Another time I had tried to do the same thing but I misunderstood the procedure and left and returned on the day my "permission to stay until" date expired, when I came back in the officer explained that I should have left and come back in on the day the visa expired because now he had to stamp me in on a visa exempt entry instead as my O-A visa was done.

I've been here ten plus years and have been checked a few times for my passport....mostly by traffic police. Once I didn't have it and the officer let me know that I should always carry it but let me go, in my local city I have never been checked. In fact one time an officer asked me if I had a driver's license and when I answered "yes" and started to reach for it, he said "that's o.k., I don't need to look at it...you said you have one, go ahead and go".

1 hour ago, Borzandy said:

"Worried by Tourist Injuries" may have I some doubt about the real worry.

I don't doubt it, we were unable to drive our vehicle down the soi near our house during the rainy season because the local government would not concrete it, one of the neighboring property owners bought several loads of red rock dirt to cover the road where it passes their property, another neighbor told me it was because she felt bad for us.

21 hours ago, johnmell said:

Thanks for the replies. My thai wife would be driving. She has a passport, and is the car owner. Has thai driving license, insurance etc. Would be going from Mukdahan to Savannakhet.

Make sure you get Lao insurance or you'll likely get nabbed. You can buy it at Tokyo Ins. on the right just after you pass through the Lao immigration.

Depends on what police officer you are checked by, and you will be checked because the vehicle has Thai plates. I drove our Thai vehicle across the border multiple times and was checked by the police many times before one of them asked me for my Lao Insurance paperwork. I was able to convince the officer to let me go and buy insurance instead of giving me a ticket, my main argument was that there was no signage anywhere at the border crossing advising people they needed Lao Insurance.

      In the old days you could just ask the officer how much and pay them right there, but because of crackdowns on corruption and the fact that you might post it on social media, the Lao officers are likely to impound your paperwork and make you go to the police headquarters to pay the fine to get it back, this makes for a long trip most times. I lived there for a while and found this stuff out the hard way.

       The fact is that the IDP is required, whether or not you can get away without one is questionable.

By the way, Tokyo Insurance right next to Lao immigration at the bridge crossing is your best bet for Lao vehicle Insurance.

10 hours ago, kannot said:

can make  good  men do evil

Good men don't do evil

4 hours ago, balo said:

I told you this for years, but not all of it is as bad as this . 

I stick to bananas and peel of any fruits.  Veggies I buy frozen . 

 

 

 

 

sticking to bananas and peeling fruits will not save you I'm afraid.

When I was living in Laos on business visas Lao Foreign Affairs put somebody else's visa in my passport and then realized their mistake and just stamped it "cancelled" and put the correct one in on the next page, when I looked at my wife's passport it had a visa issued to me in it with the "cancelled" stamp on it too!