garyinthailand

I'm sure I saw a price of 11000 return for this flight somewhere

Not bad if it saves you getting in and out of Suvarnabhumit

I stay In Phrae and have only been here a year arrived with less than you and my monthly pension is less than yours.I have built a house have a new car.I can live her comfortably on 20,000 a month.

Phrae, or another place off the tourist track would be a lot more doable than Hua Hin, which is now an expensive place. Think about your needs as you age and what could happen if the pound weakens and Thailand gets another big round of inflation. I moved here 9 years ago and estimate my cost of living is easily twice what it was when I got here. I still get by, but don't have nearly the fun I did then.

We're having a special music party (just because) at Ray's Place Restaurant on this Weds, 7 Sept. starting at 4 pm. The early time is so that the pro musicians can come and still make their gig. We've done it before and it works out well.

Ray's is on the corner of Amnuaysin and Sasong Roads. a block south of the downtown night market. You can also get there by:

*From the downtown traffic light, walk or drive towars the train station.

* Take the first right

* Go a FULL block to the next light. Ray's is on the right, behind the green 'box thingy'. See you there

It was a dry run. When we really do have a coup, no one will react.

I'm just glad that one of the world's great musical artists will be able to carry on.

The lynch mob mentality often seen in these pages is disgusting. Humans (yes, including minors) have sex. Get over it.

This isn't Russvisa, it's Thaivisa, so...

So you're saying this is a forum exclusively for bashing Thailand and Thai people?

It certainly appears to be.

True but if they are selling porn made in Eastern Europe or Scandanavia......

If we are talking about products from Europe, why are so many here intent on beating up Thailand?

Where are the posters decrying the immorality of Swedes and Ukrainians? Or lambasting Russia as "the world's sleaze capital"?

But surely there is just One Law

If child porn is displayed in BKK i am sure the authorities will take action

Welcome to the Land of Selective Enforcement.

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"It is thought that around 3 Million Baht's worth of flight tickets have not been booked with various airlines and around 50 more customers are thought to be affected by this."

As noted by other posters, it's unfortunate that the victims apparently were not aware of direct on-line booking via the Internet-- and they probably would have received a lower airfare as well as a valid written confirmation from the airline.

Maybe a word to the wise in the future? Caveat Emptor!

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I have to say it's not always true. Last year I had occasion to travel to US. A travel agency in Bangkok (Mox Travel, if you want to know) offered me a fare on Korean Air that was about 20% lower than any fare I could find on the airline's own site, and equally under any other fare I could find on any airline's (or that of any other agency that I checked) web site. Booked, paid, confirmed, and no problems there and back again. I still think a good agent has value. Not in every case, but worth keeping your mind open.

A friend of mine visited immigration in BKK recently and was told that the length of stay had been changed to 15 days, whether arriving by air or by land?

Is this correct? I know as recently as November arrivals by air got 30 days.

Thanks for any information. I think my friend may have gotten bogus information.

You can enter Thailand twice, as long as the second entry is before the "use before" date written (or printed) on the actual visa stamp/sticker.

Each entry will give you 60 days on entry, on which you can the get a 30 day extension at your local immigration office (for 1,900 Baht).

So basically this type of entry gives you almost 6 months of stay, with one border run halfway.

YOO HOO!!!

So I wonder what happens if I ask for 4 entries......

Following an extended stay in US, I'm about to return to Thailand. My visa having expired, I applied to the LA consulate for a tourist visa. There's a space on the form for "Number of Entries". As far as I knew Tourist Visas were only for a single entry. For a lark, I put the number of entries down on the application as '2'

Sure enough, when my passport came back, the new visa has '2' in the number of entries space. Does anyone know what this means? Can I use it for 2 separate entries of 60 days each? Or does it just mean I can go out and back in within my original 60 days? Or nothing at all?

Does anyone have experience of this? Thanks!

Hi. I'm looking for a roundup of the legal drinking hours in Thailand, particularly which are the 'special' zones and what rules apply.

I'm aware of the difference between official and unofficial practice, but not clear on the current official times in places like Pattaya.

Anybody know? Thanks

I have a travel guide that goes on at some length about the inadvisability of swimming at Pattaya Beach because of sewage pollution. Haven't been able to find anything else confirming or denying that.

Does anyone have information? Is the water really so ppor one should not go in? Thanks!

Can somebody tell me if the old DJ Station had a name change to 'Soi 2'? That's what it looks like on the web site. Thanks

I was working in Thailand in a Hotel , at the management level. And when i applied for my visa they asked for a copy of diplomas and such. The highest education diploma i had was high school and that was good enough.

That's encouraging. Now if I had only finished high school!

All the lists of docs for Work Permit application cite a copy of your degree plus a transcript. I have no degree. Not that I'm completely uneducated. I just have a problem finishing things.

So what does anyone know? Is the lack of a bonafide BA a complete deal-breaker? Is there a way around this, such as a mail-order (online) degree? Being friends with the King's childhood playmates?

Greatly appreciate any input, suggestion, experiences, etc.

Believe you are on one year extension of stay and you want to change the reason for your extension of stay. Believe you can probably do that with a visit to immigration with the paperwork for the new extension of stay but it does not seem you have such paperwork. Don't believe you can do anything, anywhere until you get some paperwork in order, but don't know the specifics.

Thanks, L3. I guess the paperwork would be the company's papers and invitation letter. Am I wrong?

I've been in Thailand 4 years now on a retirement visa (so easy and convenient). However, now I'm involved in starting a business with a Thai partner. I need to change my visa to 'B' and apply for a work permit (with the assorted foo-fa that goes with that).

Does anyone have experience with this procedure? Some of my Thai advisors have told me I can do it in Bangkok, but I've understood it's done at a Thai Embassy outside the country. Also, I'm not quite clear whether I have to have the registration docs and letter from my company (still coming into existence) bein order to make the change.

Greatly appreciate anyone's experiences or concrete knowledge about this. Cheers!

Only thing I know is a website that's been referenced here a couple of times, it has some simple stories, you could probably download them, it's at

www.auntiedahtestsite.com

Thanks. I couldn't resolve that address, though. Could you double-check it?

Does anyone know of audio versions of popular books in Thai, on the line of talking books and books-on-tape in the West?

I'm particularly interested in children's books and popular pot-boilers translated from English, such as Harry Potter.

Thanks!

I'm coming to Bangkok from Hua Hin next week. I want to get some CDs that seem to be unusual here, though of Asian style, including Dengue Fever from LA (2 recent albums), Cambodia Rocks series, and Thai A-Go-Go vols 1-3.

Anybody know a shop that would stock this kind of thing?

Thanks

There was a letter from a reader in The Nation today, saying that he'd been refused to buy a mobile phone because he's on a retirement visa. Says the company (AIS, I believe) told him he had to have a work permit.

Anybody know anything about this?

I think you could do a few snap shot analyses which would provide some quick answers... TAT does a large survey each year ongoing by nationality, which measures spending by nationality and duration of stay.

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Thanks, Steve. Combining TAT's figures for overall tourism revenue (circa $11 billion US) with CIA Factbook's figure for Thai GDP ($525 billion US), tourism represents around 2% of the Thai economy. Close enough for jazz.

I'm still lacking any figures for non-tourist foreign residents (I'll happily combine non-farang and farang for my purpose). Does anyone know of an estimate or actual number for year-round and seasonal residents? More directly economic data would be even better

Thanks. This is helpful.

I've tried a few searches based on Samran's recommendation. So far, what I get is a lot more technical than I can make use of (and I haven't seen specific references to expat input yet, either).

The particular reason I'm doing this is exactly to counter the belief, which I find held by way too many farang, that we're doing the Thais some huge favor by coming to live in their country.

The corollary to this belief is that farang are hence entitled to be disparaging of our hosts among ourselves, and rudely inconsiderate of them to their faces.

Appreciate the thoughts and references. Please keep it coming. I'm still hoping to come up with a few numbers to use as conversation stoppers.