Replogle

Has anyone even seen or bought clad gold marked as 96.5 pure in Thailand?

I'll stick to buying bitcoin.. it's harder to fake and easier to verify authenticity!

To be honest, I am surprised this has only just come up in Thailand. The fake bullion bars in the OP are just the absolute tip of the ice berg. If someone were so inclined they can go online now, call a number in China and order fake bars that would appear to the value of 70 mill baht for 25000 USD, that is a fact. The only common sense defence in any of this is don't buy any bars unless you have access to sophisticated technology to indicate the provenance of a bullion bar or heavy gold piece.

No expensive tests are required. I suggest you read-up. Reports of successfully passing clad as pure to someone who's gained a small bit of basic knowledge are rare.

Use common sense when investing in any asset class, including American currency!

Fake gold is easy to detect. Stick with reputable dealers if you're worried. One-baht gold bars, one ounce gold coins and small jewelry are nearly impossible to fake. Large one kilogram bars may contain tungsten or perhaps alloyed with some other metal (unlikely). Either way, simple tests can reveal the phonies.

It comes down to knowing what you are buying. I often wonder how many people purely rely on "reputable" dealers and do no other checking when they buy bullion. I wonder how many rely on assay certs which can also be faked.

Lehmans, Fanny May and ford were all "great" certified viable financial businesses to many relying on financial advisors in recent years to those that were happy to earn and invest their money but did not understand the functions they were investing in.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Well then in that case then don't invest anything, or anyone with a mouth perhaps.

Use common sense when investing in any asset class, including American currency!

Fake gold is easy to detect. Stick with reputable dealers if you're worried. One-baht gold bars, one ounce gold coins and small jewelry are nearly impossible to fake. Large one kilogram bars may contain tungsten or perhaps alloyed with some other metal (unlikely). Either way, simple tests can reveal the phonies.

Plating tungsten with gold is almost not worth the trouble. Sure, large kilogram bars are easier to fake but the smaller ten, five and one baht golds are next to impossible to counterfeit. Reputable dealers with a visible storefront are common in Thailand.

Come on guys. Nobody has some waste packaging material laying in their way. Most elctronics are packed in EPE foam these days

Head up highway 36 from Suk 7 kilometers. Turn left before the 7-11 (just after the small used truck store). Drive 1.5 kilometers then turn right where you should see a "Peter Pan Resort 1.6 km." sign. About a half of a kilo up the inclined road is a longish concrete shed on the right hand side. They've got everything you need.

I guessing this is all a conspiracy to get more people using a paid visa assistance service.

Oh, the corruption!

We're thinking about moving up there from Pattaya. Would using a Visa Service to renew my extension based on marriage lessen the hassle?

I'd like to have the freedom to port code to microcontrollers with minimal everything i.e. 16K RAM 16K ROM Character LCD, using an 8051, Atmel. Linux is a no go. Sure I'll find what I need soon enough if I dig around a bit.

Thank You!

I like to write a simple Thai-only programming language which incorporates a text editor, compiler and virtual machine, written in ANSI C with a few non-standard calls to the video controller and whatnot. It'll boot as a stand-alone operating system in text mode, with read and writes to the disk uses a FAT12 file system. Nothing fancy, no graphics, just good old-fashioned 0xb800:0000 text mode. Want to use this exact character set. Is it available somewhere?

I recall opening an account with a bank some time ago, whereby the account manager was entering Thai letters on an older computer with a green monochrome CRT, probably running DOS. Can anyone tell me whether these systems are using a modifyed ROM character set where each Thai letter combination is represented by a 8x14 pixel bitmap (address F600:0000)?

Thank you.

So i guess you are saying that the people who died in the uk, bali and spain bombings got what they deserved right? If it wasnt terrorism then they must have been legitimate targets right?

I guess? Interesting fantasy you have there.

And no, terrorism does not exist. It is either a criminal act or it is not. "Terrorism" is a term used to influence behavior and nothing more.

Is there a reason why this is even remotely newsworthy? What are we talkin' about here, $500 million dollars transferred out? Peanuts, when compared to the grand scheme of things. A big whoop-dee-do over nothing.

Underground banking will get aplenty more popular if/when stricter currency controls come into play. What's the point of using an inhibited currency? Not only that, who wouldn't want to recast some of that tong tang into weightlifting equipment, or even into an old front bumper for a '91 Hilux. "Twenty years I've owned that truck and it's still blowing cold!"

The United States and EU are in desperate shape financially. There is no terrorism to speak of; it's an imaginary story being used to conjure up fear and paranoia in order to double-tax and micromanage the lives of gullible citizens. Will identification be required for all simple domestic cash transactions as well? Restricting the flow of capital (even in flight to safety) only serves to lessen its value of said country's currency as well as deepen the unemployment crisis Westerners face. They'll have no choice but to do business with prosperous nations whose banks require little documentation or proof stating origin of funds.

Thailand is flush with money, love and food. Who want's to blow up a building when there's employment, sex and fried rice to be had?! If anything Thailand may be one of the safest modern places to live. And where else can you get a bag of sticky rice for a measly 5 baht? No empty bellies here, anywhere.

Good luck America. Perhaps a few stray dogs and a notch lower on the cleanliness scale is in your future.

Who told you that? If immigration suspect they were telling you that wife did not have to appear when you return in 30(+) days to obtain the actual extension stamp. She must appear each and every extension of stay application for "Thai wife" and sign paperwork (unless you can present current medical certificate of her inability to appear).

And if she doesn't appear, what then, hand over his children to immigration and leave the country?

Regardless of what the study suggests, rich or poor, there are a few bad apples in every bunch. The ratio of good to bad in any sociological group may never be known given the multitude of external factors left out in the sample.

Personally, I'd rather live next door to rich folks who pretend to be down-'n'-out.

Does this KR2 annual renewal thing apply to Pattaya immigration as well? We were married in Surin, so would this mean my wife and son an I need to drive all the way back to Isaan to get a new one at the local government office!?

If you married the previous 10 years you will be in the computer and you can get a fresh one at any Amphur.

Fair enough. Thank you for the prompt reply.

Does this KR2 annual renewal thing apply to Pattaya immigration as well? We were married in Surin, so would this mean my wife and son an I need to drive all the way back to Isaan to get a new one at the local government office!?

Should point out that if you are checked for any reason before you get to the airport you will be arrested and detained.

Not a good situation to put minors in.

If you have the money and a booked flight you can fix it up and apply for a visa extension at immigration.

Exactly what position would minors be in after the arrest? Would they be placed into foster care, detained separately or left with the parent(s)?

Does anyone know if the Nissan Micra is available in Thailand? My wife and I saw a light brownish one on Sukumvit in Pattaya, but after searching I couldn't find a Nissan dealer with these particular vehicles listed.

Thailand is known for sex tourism, poor education, poor labor force, few skilled workers

corruption, lax legal system, so why would other countries want to ease the flow of

Thais to their country?

I think the author of this article just got rejected for a visa to travel, and is now just ranting

As an American citizen I feel compelled to express my gratitude towards US Immigration. Protecting the US population from all those beautiful prostitutes, eager to swarm-in to satisfy recluse would-be American terrorists, shall go a long way towards making the States a safer place to live. I mean, think of all the competition American hookers and chubby American porno stars would have if Thai Nationals were to be given visa-free travel status in the US. Let's not forget that many Thais are skilled rural laborers, too. Hell! They'd be taking all that work away from the illegal Hispanics immigrants.

So all bar girls are bad then and dirty and you shouldnt marry one ?? What about the girls that go to clubs everywekend in your country and get banged off a different guy everyweek? Id marry a Thai girl on the spot rather than marry a nagging, old, selfish farang lady any day

I think you might find that the same guys who are married to bar girls might not be able to 'get' the girls who go to clubs every weekend in their country. And those who didn't marry bar girls also apply similar attitudes to keeping away from the sluts in their home country too.. They wouldn't marry them either !

The majority of girls who go to clubs in my country (United States) can barely cook. I mean, let's face it Fellas, Thai women, especially bar girls, know how to feed and care for a family. American (and British) women tend to be independent and upwardly mobile, boring, not interested in child rearing. Then there's the attractiveness issue. Yeah, sure, some American women are cute, but the majority are just too dam_n butt ugly! Woof Woof! No thank you. Bye bye. Thai women are works of art, figuratively speaking of course. I mean, who the Hell wants to wake up next to someone that looks like a man in the morning? My Wife's face is so gosh darn kissable.

A non-smoking, non-alcholoc tattoo-less bar girl makes for an absolutely perfect wife. Help take care of her aging parents, who worked their asses off choppin' rice for next to nothing, and she'll love you for life.

Once you managed to get there why didnt you just pay and put yourself legal again?.....

Technically once you pay the overstay fine, you're still overstaying the moment you walk out.

gold is more expensive now...but still a good investment...i think gold will go up more and more...so investors i reccomend buy 100 bath in gold and wait for a few months up to a year and then sell it whit a big profit.

Possibly good advice unless it's just another bubble like the one which burst in early 1980 when gold hit a record $850/ounce. After reaching those dizzy heights it then plummeted down and remained steady in the $300-$400 range for many years. A lot of people lost their arce in that gold price plummet (no, me not included...I wasn't into gold except the baht chain around my neck). What goes up will eventually come down....sometimes slowly and other times quickly. Gold has had a couple of sharp drops and rises over the last month or so; could that be because of the dizzy heights, traders getting nervous, possibly the bubble getting ready to pop, or just some flushing out as gold gets ready to go higher? Wish I knew the answer....each person has to make the guess on which way gold will go in the near and mid term. I'll say it again, What goes up will eventually come down....sometimes slowly and other times quickly.

I agree with you completely! US Treasuries are so way overvalued that it's amazing they've held up for so long. Given a sharp rise in interest rates shall no doubt let off a bit of steam, thereby giving both savers and fixed-income earners some relief.

The current laws are "tourist" laws....the Thais dont want foriegners in Thailand permanently.

Unless I see changes to ownership rights of property and businesses they can talk to eternity because nothing will change until that happens.

I'm curious to know if Thais wish to own Foreign Public Debt permanently. As an American fathering children here, who constantly feels uneasy about domestic laws pertaining to me, it only makes sense that the reduction of my self-worth in Thailand is matched only by the value of Thailand's US treasuries holdings. Deporting 30% of their value in dollar terms shall do just nicely, thank you.

At one point in our lives my wife and I though we were all hi-so and whatnot, drivin' around in our fancy 2007 Camry and sipping our fancy lattes, until we both had a close call with someone driving a lifted beat-up old pick-up truck. Nowadays we drive "Big Old Big Butt Bessie" (a Mitsubishi Fuzo with no load), a tank in comparison to what's out there today.