tomartoh

Looking for a cheap room for a few nights next week, convenient by metro or walking to the Fortune centre. Am i asking for the impossible to be under 700bahts a night with wifi or internet connection... Have'nt stayed in Bangkok for a few years so not up to date on transport links, prices etc... Anyone know what time a day starts for booking as arriving at the unearthly hour of 4am at Mochit bus station. Thanks for any info.

More people die each year from their domesticated dogs than they do from elephants. And horses are not domesticated but trained, yet people still ride them. But let's not miss a chance to bash Thailand and its people, eh?

what a stupid comment

I just photocopied the docs from immigratio and reused them, as per directions from immigration.

Seen what I think is the highest price for a CBR250R today.

On show in Krabi was a red ABS model for 139K bahts. !

The girl did give me a nice smile when she told me and went and told the boss when i told her 115k on the internet but he didnt smile at me.

So I just said no thanks I buy in Bangkok too expensive Krabi

I used a CAT card a few days ago from my mobile and it was 2bahts a min for landlines and 6b for mobiles. You just dial in the string of numbers and they tell you how much credit etc

I go to Cherry Bike after trying a few of the others mentioned and find it to be real good. And the service was excellent, not only did they call me when my bike was ready but it was spotless after they service it, I do wash it after I ride thru the muddy rice fields but it's still has muck in the parts (another of the mentioned shops would not even wipe off the area they were working on and told me they do not clean bikes!) I found in on google, it's on 118 (nawart rd.) right before 3029 intersection of heading from town.

I also have used Cherry Bikes a number of times and found their work well done and a fair price and they are very helpful and will they also discount prices on equipment as well.

IIts easy for parking outside which is why I went in the first instance

There was a Honda display in Tesco Krabi when I went in today.. quite a few Scoopies and one CBR 150i.

I spoke with a girl from Honda in Bkk and asked her about the CBR 250i. She told me out in 2 months and when I queried that , saying but they are out this week in BKK, she said that there was not enough production to go around and that first deliveries would be to Bkk and Phuket, and 'poor' Krabi would have to wait about 2 months. Price about 100k

The 150 was on sale at 78k but maybe included tax etc as they had the finance package at 28k deposit and 36 months at 2,140bahts a month. Looked nicer than the old one and looked bigger in dimensions as well.... I would have thought about buying it, but might as well as wait for the 250 now

Please do not belittle the 7 - 11 staff who must be giving up vast amounts of free time to help the poor downtrodden tourist instead of going about their normal duty of dithering about at the till or the microwabe or overfilling the fridges and playing with his or her blackheads and pimples.

This is an excellent idea by our crime responsive policef orce............. Now they can leave it to 7 - 11 staff to sort out the crimes against tourists and leave themselves more time to get on with the more lucrative work of ripping off, conning, scamming tourist or anyone else they can get their hands on.

.I take it the new 7 - 11 force will have a police type fitted uniform and handcuffs and of course guns and will be issued with tiger 200 motocys.............all this in order to adequately and effectively chase and aprehend the various criminals who latch onto the unsuspecting tourist.

No doubt like most other news items reported in t v this brilliant idea will die the ususal death after 3 days

There is a train that goes close to phuket then you get a mini bus the rest of the way, but it's an sleeper so you won't get to see much scenery.

You can get the 0820 train Bkk to Surat thani, about 8 hours +late arrival time. seats old and squashed and tiring. scenery ok, carriage service ok.

Then a drag at the station getting taxi to the town, then a bus to Phuket another few hours and its late then anyhow so you would have to stay overnight in S T if you want to see the scenery

Easiest is to fly to Phuket then look around, then bus to Krabi and then tour the islands and then fly back to Bkk from Krabi. You will see plenty of scenery this way.

I did the train 2 weeks ago and apart from being cheap if it goes where you want to go, its only other value is to save a nights accomodation when travelling

Some extension stamps indicate the reason for the extension, eg Thai Wife or Retirement. I have never seen an extension for medical reasons and do not know if it also comes with and indication of the reason. You can see here what other extension stamps generally look like:

http://www.thaivisa....extensions-etc/

Note that not all immigration offices use identical text for these stamps.

Thanks for the link to the gallery.

I checked this stamp with the other 30 day extension stamps I've gotten and they look nearly identical but there are slight differences such as the spacing between some of the numbers and on all my 30 day extensions there is a hand written "2.4" at the bottom. This one has "2.25" so not sure if that's some sort of reason code?

But there is nothing written about a reason and it came with a legitimate looking receipt of the 1,900 payment from the immigration office. I think I'm ok but just wanted to be sure as this is the first time I've gotten an extension like this.

I had a visa extension for medical reasons a few years back. The doctor treating me gave me a letter for a further 42 days of treatment. and visa was duly extended by immigration.

...I read that some of the parties involved in this fiasco are taking CMU to court. Here's a question that can't be answered, but every potential student should consider: If the court case(s) do not go to CMU's liking, will they pull a repeat performance and cancel this new language program and the student's Ed visas?

Civil court cases in Thailand take around 2 - 3 years to reach the investigation stage and then a further few months to announce a verdict. Before this there are numerous court dates to submit evidence. Dates are also set for compromise meetings between the plaintiff and the defendant. The court wants a compromise agreement as the investigation stage of any case is time consuming. At this stage the defendant may offer a settlement acceptable to the plaintiff so end of case. The plaintiff has to deposit 2.5% of the amount he or she is claiming plus pay a court fee before the case can proceed. Lawyers cost from 20 - 50K baht for a civil case. It's rare that legal costs are awarded to the winner of the case. If the loser of the first court decides to appeal to the appeal court, add another 3 - 4 years and another lawyer fee to the procedure. If the loser of the appeals court decides to appeal to the supreme court, add a further 4 - 5 years and another lawyer fee to the procedure. If you win the supreme court verdict, the loser often hides his assets and you get nothing.

If you want to nail someone in Thailand and force them to pay compensation, the most effective way is criminal law. Buy a good translation of Thai criminal law, match it to your complaint, go to Phuping Police station (closest to CMU so the one that will deal with criminal complaints). Get an investigation started by the police which will involve the defendant being interviewed at the police station and more than likely the defendant will rush to find a compromise.

Civil law has no teeth, whereas the punishments for breaking criminal law for fraud include prison. That scares the life out of people.

For anyone thinking of using Thai law, remove your emotions from the case and be patient.

The emotional and name-calling responses on this thread may be cathartic to certain people but they are completely pointless as well. For these people my advice is stop crying in the corner and go and do something if you want someone held accountable for events at CMU.

For what it is worth in my own experience of the Thai legal system having been involved in a number of court cases. Civil cases do not necessarily have to take a number of years and can be dealt with quickly. I agree that if you can interest the police in a taking up criminal action then that is a good way to go Punishments can be draconian compared to the Uk so not a decision to take lightly. Emergency hearings can be applied for whereby paying 25,000 bahts got me a court hearing in 2 days. I have also used the court of appeal in Bangkok when dissatisfied with a court decision and actions. An appeal has to be dealt with in 30 days and there are further steps can be taken if still dissatisfied. In my case a compromise was reached between me and the courts. It is not impossible for a foreigner to win against Thais in court but you need to be on solid ground., However, you need a really good lawyer who is working for you and not the person you are taking legal procedures against, which can happen

The lawyers have lower standards of ethics and dont compare to the UK. You have to be prepared for various skullduggery bearing in mind it is also who you know and what your connections are and their standing in society. Reading the newspapers of the last week will tell you a lot about Thai legal shenanigans. You wont get too far from reading a book about Thai law you need the expertise of the practitioner.

Taking on a Thai Institution and winning might well be very difficult as in the case of Cmu . I think to take on Cmu would cost a lot of time,. money and aggravation with little, if any reward at the end of the day..

Taking legal actions in Thailand can also be be very risky and on occasions its better to walk away from a situation and live to fight another day and that also applies to the Thais as well.

It would be nice if people who were responsible for the present situation would be held accountable for their actions but who believes that to be likely. Its uncalled for to say that people are crying in the corner without doing anything as it is truly difficult to do much without some good clear direction .. I cannot afford to take on Cmu so will not be going to Phuping police station, but anyone who does go needs to first make sure of their legal status in Thailand

quoted by electracm

" In 6 -7 years of reading TV, I'd never been tempted to post until this scandal broke, but was intending to keep doing so. The unnecessary comment from whoever that 'I would fade away once the CMU thread faded ' What the implication of that comment was I'm not sure,. However, it was a wake-up call for me that TV in its present form is a closed club, mainly male by the looks of it, and that I have far better things to do. So, to whoever posted that, right now you're absolutely right .

Consider me faded. Permanently."

To electracm.................If what you say is true then you should reconsider that statement and continue posting

You don't have to agree with the way tv is run or its policies or the posts or the people who make them.

The forums ae composed of those people who feel that they have something to say on whatever the thread happens to be. There is a lot of crap and pure bs, but there is also a huge amount of useful and interesting information. Its all there for free. It just takes time to sift through.

The current thread as been most useful and a worthwhile read for many people. So there may be people posting with axes to grind, but that is life and in no way detracts from the value of the numerous posts and the information therein

So please keep on posting as all opinions are of some value

CMU seem to be just wanting to find any way to wash their hands of everything rather than taking some responsibility for what happened. The courses ran for a pretty long period, so its not like the courses were suddenly taking place without them knowing. To just say that its nothing to do with them, so goodbye, is unprofessional. Im shocked at CMU's attitude towards students in this.

I'm not shocked at all. Not taking responsibility is the Thai way, sweep everything under the carpet. This thread is a valuable resource on what can happen to farangs in Thailand, a "must read" for newcomers to LOS.

And you could add a ''must read'' for oldtimers as well

Amongst the problem we farangs have in Thailand is we just don't go with the Thai mentality. We may think we understand Thai people and their culture and ways and manners and behaviour, but we are just not with it at all. We don't understand how they really view us, although we laughingly say that they see us as walking ATM's. for which there is some element of truth. When Cmu cancelled the foreigner programs it is unlikely that they put any real thought into the consequences, about the inconvenience or hardship or loss of money or anything else that might arise from the sudden closure. Having got themselves a reason to call the cancellations, and you can make your own guess as to what that is, their thinking would be along the lines of, '' its ok, its easy for the farangs to get new visas or go to another school or somewhere else or can leave and go home, no problem, they have the money so it doesn't matter ,its ok................''

When living in this country one has to take the good things and balance them with the bad happenings. Most of the Thais are nice people and can be very helpful............. but don't cross them because they can also be very dangerous,

Anyhow this thread is about latest developments at Cmu's courses. For what it is worth, sooner or later, I predict that the latest development will be that Cmu will commence Thai language courses for foreigners................ again, but without the farangs taking a piece of the pie.

Dont mean to go off topic but...wanted to mention that I have had many Polar's & while they are good

the Garmins are way better

They just have better reception & accuracy IMO

Add to that the soft strap & the added computer software/training center if you choose to use it.... & it is just so much better.

Perhaps you may also find the added features useful if your using it for exercise

Garmin is a GPS with a HR feature Polar dedicated HRMs and are by far the best HRM money can buy, in my humble opinion of course. I have several of them. Robinson used to sell Polar at an outrageous price, but now sell some cheap/crappy brand. I am selling a used Polar F11 if your interested.

I remember I sent pm to you a couple of weeks ago as you had advertised some time previously, asking if you had sold it, but no response from you.

A visa will normally have a 90 day validity. Only if the visa is a non immigrant multi entry would it be valid for one year.

Thanks everyone. It is the time I have between picking up the paperwork from the school here in Thailand and then going to the consulate in K L that i am really interested in at this time. How long is allowed before the paperwork becomes out of date?

I have scoured Chiang Mai looking for heart rate monitors and the only one I have found is on a small stall selling watches on the ground floor of the Carrefour Supermart on the superhighway. It was a Casio, but as it did not appear to download to a computer I didn't buy it..

What I understand about the change of course from Cmu to another private school. The change has to be approved by the Min of Ed and there was insufficient time for this to happen in order for immigration to process the visa extensions, unless applied for at some time before the 30th September. The immigration dept in Chiang Mai just stuck by the rules. Correct me if I am wrong, although i dont doubt that before this all blew up and many people went to immigration offices to enquir or complain etc., they might have processed some visa extensions or changeovers.

The end result of this might also mean that immigration will monitor the language schools and or students who obtain the ed visa as part of the course, but I cannot see any reason to think that Ed visa will become ''toxic'', after all the immigration dept. appeared to be satisfied with their investigation in to the running of the courses at Cmu and one presumes must be satisfied elsewhere, otherwise there would have been an immediate ''crackdown'' ..........

I would like to add at this time that i think the ''dumping" of 300+ students, volunteers and Thai culture officianados was an appalling, typical , Thai style kneejerk reaction to a problem carried out in a most insensitive and uncaring manner. I cannot believe the main focus was on the few who may have not attended classes and being as where we are, I have to think that there must be other reasons. The figure of speech " the love of money is the root of all evil" certainly come to mind

For what it is worth I did complete the Cmu TEFL course, albeit with some difficulty as the pace was a little faster than i am used to these days, and found it to be very acceptable, and feel it could be useful to those new to teaching. So if the new UNI tefl course is the same same set up, then they know what they are doing. In all the years of living in Thailand, the Cmu Thai lang. course was the first one to stimulate me to take an interest in the language . So for that I am thankful

When I receive the paperwork from the language school to take to consulate for an Ed visa. How long is the paperwork good for. Do I have to go within a certain time frame in order to activate the visa?.

Yes ,train from Bkk., to K.L. is a good way to go. You change trains at Butterworth.No Malaysian trains run to Hat Yai 2nd. class sleeper from Bkk. is good. Do you really have to go to K.L.? Cannot get Ed. visa from the Consulate in Penang? I like Penang, particularly "Little India", very good food.

At the time of applying to do this course and subsequent pqperwork raised by the school I never thought of Penang. So as the Min. of Ed have now got the application and it says Kuala Lumphur for consulate, then it looks like I am stuck with KL. It is taking long enough as it is without reapplying.

I have to get a new Ed visa from Kuala Lumphur and have decided to cut costs and go by train.

Has anyone done this trip. I am hoping to arrive and go to consulate and then pick up visa next day and return to Thailand.

Is there any problems with going by train as apposed to flying. Do I need a return rail ticket to show on entry to Malysia?

Can anyone recommend a cheap and convenient hotel for consulate?

Thanks

Thanks for some interesting comments. Indeed that which is relevant to some may be trivia to others. For sure.

When I posed the original questions about petrol consumption of automatics I did'nt have any particular reason other than interest, Although I am not a motocy taxi driver I will do some considerable mileage. I have had 6 bikes in Thailand [all second hand from dealers] but I have never had an auto. My previous experience is of stopping at filling stations and buying 100baht at a time as being the easiest option. So in general I dont really caretoo much how many bahts/ km/litre, I just fill up. but I am interested at this time.

I do look through tv ads but at the end of the day it is more convenient to buy from a local dealer, The paperwork is done and it has some sort of warranty and if nothing else he will pick up the bike if it breaks down in the locality. A local Suzuki dealer has a selection of new and second hand and I am in the process of deciding which to buy. As there are a number of Skydrives all under 10k km in good cosmetic condition, I just decided that they must be ex rental bikes. I will get the g/f to speak to them and find out as the staff are non english speakers as well as being bored and tired with sitting on their <deleted> all day and unable to take much interest in dealing with customers effectively. The g/f says that they are shy of farangs. ..... lol. Maybe that's irrelevant..

I could decide to buy new but they don't have the latest Hayate with fuel injection and I want something soon. But then if I am going to spend 52k bahts on a new scooter, then perhaps I would like more a new CBR150i for 76k........................... but thats another story

I am thinking of buying second hand, either a Suzuki Skydrive with fuel injection or a Suzuki Hayate with carb. Both 125cc engines.

I have never had an auto scooter before and in general hear bad reports on fuel economy, but i don't know how poor.

the open highway?

Has anyone any experience of buying a low mileage ex rental scooter. Do they get thrashed and poorly maintained, is that the norm?

Thanks for any advice.

What are you, some sort of "do-gooder or something? Next you'll be saying that pulling out into traffic without looking or filling up your car with LPG while smoking a cigarette is dangerous! Don't you realise that "real men" don't need to think about that!

Couldn't agree more, the OP needs to get a life. Doing what he did and then coming on here to tell everyone.............that is sad.

I cannot imagine anyone with a modicum of brain cells trying to tell a Thai what or how to do, unless they just arrived in this country and don't know any better.

So you have a problem with someone who's aware of a crime being committed reporting it to the proper authorities?

And many ferengs wonder why they have such a bad reputation in Thailand!

Appreciate the non-snarky comments. Your help and advice are very nice. I l love it when people must tell others how great and wonderful they are at others expense. However; the person in question about reporting a crime did not seem to care about the crime for the last 6 years. Once again, looking for an answer about if immigration will investigate and how many ex-bf/gf's are reported for working illegally. And advice for what to do if/when immigration has been contacted. Thank you.

If she makes a complaint to immigration they will investigate for sure, thats the way they work, . what they will then do will be another matter, depending on the circumstances. In my case they did nothing except sympathise with me and told me that my problems with ex gf were not there problems. I do know that in the case of many guys running there own bars they give warnings not to go behind the bar and/or handle cash or they are in trouble next time. I would think the police could be more of a problem and they also will respond to an easy crime case.

Its a difficult one to call........

Actually, most of them are pleasant and do not bother anybody. I say, let them stay!

Maybe because we are beyond redemption.