QED

Mario and Lopburi may be able to help with this one, but I am pretty sure you could get 7 days from local immigration for 1,900 baht. This would save any overstay stamps in your passport, and you have to pay 1,000 already anyway, so only 900 baht for peace of mind.

Hmmm......... could it be that as a result of the one child policy and preference for males, there is now a big imbalance in the ratio of males:females, making girlfriends not only harder to get, but also giving them a higher social status. Reduction in male dominance with girlfriends who refuse to obey orders could certainly lead to feelings of frustration rage, and impotence (aka blue balls).

I am working in China now, from what I understand the one child policy has been scrapped due to swinging demographics. There is also definitely no shortage of women where I am

Ask 7-11 and you will get the legal answer. They are an international company and they strictly follow Thailand law to the letter. I think the poster wants to know about those shops that do things descretly. Sometimes you can find them, sometimes you can't. In Bangkok there is always a place or 2 that sells with the shades down. I don't know about Pattaya and would like to hear from the locals as well.

Hundreds of bars and shops that will still serve you, just with no music and low lights, potentially from a coffe mug also! If you want a drink during the day just head to a beach out of the city, where you generally would not know there is a booze ban on at all.

I am working in China for another week where they don't have such nonsense, despite being a predominantly Buddhist country. I will miss the 2 days off work though......

I came here to 'retire' at the age of 33. When the money started running out after 3 years of heavy partying, I requalified to work in the oil and gas industry, spending pretty much all that remained of my 'retirement' fund.

6 months searching for jobs globally lead to nothing so I was forced to go back to the UK due to lack of funds. 7 days later I was back here working for a O&G integrity firm, now 3 years later I am a senior manager running my own division of the company, and earning more than I did before I 'retired'. I often compare this to a lottery win and would not recommend it as a career path.

Buggerlugs, lots of b***sh1t on here. This is what I would do.

Apply for a new passport via Hong Kong, they only need a copy of the front page for this. This will take 3-4 weeks unfortunately so you will probably miss the job in Africa (not a great loss to be fair). When your new passport arrives, file a police report for a lost passport (your old one), then take the police report with your copies of visa and front page to immigration and see what they can do.

Normally they will not transfer the visa to a new passport and you have to travel with both the old and the new, but in this case they must be able to give you something (a paper or a note in your new passport)?

Good luck!

Hopefully this will go the way of the rule that you had to show your passport before being sold a SIM card.

In Malaysia, though, they seem to be pretty strict about this (the SIM card rule, that is).

This is a requirement in many countries now. I've had to show my passport and credit card several times. But with burner phones, not a real useful law.

I am in China at the moment, passport and reams of paperwork required to get a sim card, took a whole morning!

@apetley :

Sorry for my ignorance but what's AJ stuff ?

"Inexpensive electrical goods."

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

Inexpensive French electrical goods ?

Btw, Don't you mean AV as in audio visual or am I back in the last century ?

More specifically, what does the "A" stand for and what does the "J" stand for? I'm really not trying to be a wise arse, am just curious as I've never heard of "AJ" stuff.

Just a cheap local brand name.

http://www.ajthai.com/th/about.aspx

Why are we getting off the plane and on to a bus to get to the terminal? Compared to Changi, Hong Kong, Incheon...it's a joke.

You get on a bus when you fly low cost airlines who want to keep fees to a minimum, pretty much like anywhere else.

Err, no, this is common with Thai Airways who are too tight to pay for decent parking spots at their HOME airport. They are probably the most expensive airline flying in and out of Swampy.

I pass through Swampy between 60-80 times a year for work, always with Thai, and have seen the ups and downs over the years. As said it is better than a lot of other international airports.

I have noticed a few delays recently, but nothing too severe. As long as they keep on top of the repairs I don't see an issue apart from the original choice of location and construction (corruption).

I guess those that think they are cute and fluffy have never been in close quarters with them. We work in a gold mine on a remote Indonesian Island which is infested with Macaq (sp?) monkeys several times a year. One of my staff ended up in hospital with several stitches in his leg and a course of rabies shots from a totally unprovoked attack whilst he was minding his own business working.

OK so this is an example of man encroaching on their territory, but they are vicious little things.

There was a bar in Koh Chang (White Sands) a year or so ago that had 2 of these things tied up with swings and balls to play with. After being fed and treated very respectfully by us, one of them grabbed my gf's hair and tried to bite her face before I punched it. Nasty horrible things

If someone comes into your house, takes away your food, your bed and everything else and then tries to kick you out as well, i wonder how vicious you would get

Understand, but this is a big, largely uninhabited island, there is a lot of jungle they could live in away from the noise and the dirt of the mine.

I guess those that think they are cute and fluffy have never been in close quarters with them. We work in a gold mine on a remote Indonesian Island which is infested with Macaq (sp?) monkeys several times a year. One of my staff ended up in hospital with several stitches in his leg and a course of rabies shots from a totally unprovoked attack whilst he was minding his own business working.

OK so this is an example of man encroaching on their territory, but they are vicious little things.

There was a bar in Koh Chang (White Sands) a year or so ago that had 2 of these things tied up with swings and balls to play with. After being fed and treated very respectfully by us, one of them grabbed my gf's hair and tried to bite her face before I punched it. Nasty horrible things

There is a reason why those monkeys were so aggressive - hint, being tied up...

I spent a few weeks in the Phillipines on holiday and they had a tied-up monkey that was v aggressive towards people. As I was staying there a few weeks and felt sorry for him, I spent time sitting close by and feeding it fruit, until gradually sitting with it.

Amazingly, he was then v affectionate to me and spent hours grooming my hair etc...and only became slightly aggressive (although never hurting me) when I moved away.

Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) whilst I was there he bit a relative of the owner and (I'm told...) was let free in the wild.

Sure, I didn't really agree with tying them up before, but this coupled with my other experience has definitely swayed me from the 'oooh aren't they cute' brigade to the 'viscious, thieving b*stards' haters

Tie 'em all up I say

I guess those that think they are cute and fluffy have never been in close quarters with them. We work in a gold mine on a remote Indonesian Island which is infested with Macaq (sp?) monkeys several times a year. One of my staff ended up in hospital with several stitches in his leg and a course of rabies shots from a totally unprovoked attack whilst he was minding his own business working.

OK so this is an example of man encroaching on their territory, but they are vicious little things.

There was a bar in Koh Chang (White Sands) a year or so ago that had 2 of these things tied up with swings and balls to play with. After being fed and treated very respectfully by us, one of them grabbed my gf's hair and tried to bite her face before I punched it. Nasty horrible things

Personally, if I had this option, I would probably get the money in the last month every time and just pay the 6000 baht fine. Because it is very hard to know how how much money you'll really need for three months before.

I just have the 800K on time-deposit here permanently. I never touch it or even think about, except perhaps to move it to an account paying more interest. I suspect that many others do the same. The notion of not actually having to have the full amount permanently on deposit looks to me like just a helpful gesture to less well-off retirees who perhaps don't have 800K available all the time to deposit here.

A really useful thing for immigration to introduce would be some way (any way) to avoid the pain-in-the-backside 90-day reporting. It achieves nothing and wastes a lot of time and paper all round.

You are completely mistaken to believe that the idea of the 800K requirement is to never spend it down during the year. That's absurd, really.

So this liberalization doesn't interest you because you're one of the minority that doesn't touch their account. And yes, I am CERTAIN that most 800K qualifiers DO spend from their accounts. Also some people transfer out the money in order to earn more interest from the money, again, a smart thing to do and totally legitimate. You suggest there is something wrong with SPENDING the money in Thailand. No. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact it is NORMAL and typical. In fact, SOMETIMES when immigration sees an application like yours with untouched money they suspect the applicant may be working in Thailand and may ask to see where exactly the person's living funds ARE coming from. You insult the wealth levels of people who spend from that account. You don't know anything about the wealth levels of such people.

Consider other people instead of it being all about you. Like I said in the OP, we hear problems with this quite often from long term retirees who just have totally innocent issues like mechanical money transfer delays for 1000 reasons and/or unexpected major expenses during the seasoning period.

Your 90 day suggestion is NOT new. It has been suggested many many times over the years. It is totally off topic to this thread which actually IS about a suggestion that is totally new.

Sorry was it not you proposing a law change to suit your own personal circumstances. Sure, lets change the law because Jingthing messed up the dates on his money transfer

What registrar registers .coms for $ 5-7? Cheapest I've seen lately is $9.99

Godaddy used to, but just checked and .com's are 'from' $12.99

Besides the EPIC fail on the Burma/Myanmar thing, you also spelt tourist wrong (burmaturist.com)

Also I would imagine they will get their own suffix, like Malaysia (.co.my) and Indonesia (.co.id) etc. Here we have .co.th but it is not widely used, in those countries all websites have the country suffix.

Come on tell us, how much?

Agree with Lopburi it was stamped wrongly, a friend had similar a few years ago. They are only interested in your entry stamp and permitted to stay date, it won't be a problem at all.

Lets start another Sin Sod thread

As the OP is not living here, his wife is probably making enough money from the local 'service industry' not to have to bother him for a few baht. She also owns his house......

Sorry OP, just generalising

Nice generalisation.

I have a few houses and the one in Thailand is about the cost of a recent carport I put up in OZ (not really a concern to me)

I think we are back to the same old majority of posters on this site that have been bitten badly by bargirls (in more ways than one)

I quite like getting bitten by bargirls, and I will challenge anyone who says they don't

More generalisations OP, never been ripped off in the near 7 years I have been here. Not married or in any serious relationship, just better at playing the game than they think they are.

If you are so loaded as you claim to be, do you not feel a little bit guilty giving her 2k a month to take care of the house and kid?

More great advice, thanks all, especially to 7by7 and Crossy for the useful links.

Has anyone actually done this via HK whilst living in Thailand? Just concerned with the remote link, and some junior clerk picking it up and processing as a renewal whilst I am travelling, thereby cancelling my existing passport and leaving me in deep sh1t.

If you supply the correct paperwork they will know what it is for. I would also put it in a file with a big note on the front that it is for a second passport.

You're probably right, too long in Thailand I think has made me a bit sceptical. Like the idea of a big folder with notes all over it

What about fees, renewal or new passport?

More great advice, thanks all, especially to 7by7 and Crossy for the useful links.

Has anyone actually done this via HK whilst living in Thailand? Just concerned with the remote link, and some junior clerk picking it up and processing as a renewal whilst I am travelling, thereby cancelling my existing passport and leaving me in deep sh1t.

Thanks guys, sounds easy. I just need a 4 week period when I am not travelling to see if they can cope with the request, or actually cancel my passport mid-transit

ING and Prudential are two of the better ones.

My views:

- Most places in the world it makes sense to separate the concepts of investment and insurance. Combined policies are usually bundled together for commission and fees purposes, which make it less transparent to analyse both components, and to the benefit of the providers not the buyers.

- With that in mind a term insurance (if you need insurance) and separate investment, generally make more sense than a whole of life policy where they combine the two. Additionally it makes sense to pick the best investment house and the best insurance house. Rarely do companies excel at both, and even if they do, rarely is it synergised for your benefit. Fund management houses generally attract better fund managers than insurers, as that is their core business so they pay more to attract the best.

- Ask yourself why you want life insurance anyway if you have no wife and no dependents.

- That said. Taking out a combined insurance and investment policy is better than not saving and investing at all. So may be suitable for lazy people with not much idea. The tax benefit can be useful. What is also useful is to compare the cost/fees charged for insurance with the tax benefit gained. You'd be hoping the tax gain outweighs the fees. If the fees are not easy to work out compared to a pure investment that's not a good sign. The costs to you are not just the commision, and ongoing charges, but also cost of insurance. Many companies don't nicely split it out

- Don't take out investments just for the tax. Choose good investments with the tax element viewed as a bonus. A tax benefit is a one off for each premium. A good investment can (arguably should be able to) last a lifetime

- Generally life insurance rates in Thailand are expensive compared to the West. It can easily cost 2,3 x more for every say $100k of insurance. On the other hand be careful getting from your home country just because it's cheaper, as you'll find some have exclusions if you are not living in there, but living in Thailand.

- If you haven't already done so, look at Long Term Equity Funds (LTFs), if you're working. The tax rate benefits are similar, but the allowance is higher than for insurance at up to 500k a year, on which you can get up to 37%

BTW For those policies like whole of life policies which pay out on either death or age 80. Think who exactly is going to benefit. Realistically when you're dead it's no good to you, and 80 you may not be far off. So think hard who that other person might/could be in the future if any. While it sounds a good idea, and you may like the idea of a pot of money at a certain time, think realistically how many people actually start splashing out on luxuries, world tours combined with an extravagant lifestyle at age 80. Those luxuries are nice earlier in life when you are still young enough to enjoy them. I'm not saying p*** all your money away when you're young. Just common sense like you are more likely to be active at 50 or 60 than 80 - a very common and overlooked fact by people that by these policies and like the idea - so why tie yourself up to 80 with such inflexibility?. People generally spend more money in their active 60's than in their 80's

All that said, the policies can make sense in some situations...

On the whole good advice, however I would argue that a whole of life (WOL) policy would not pay out at age 80, it will do as the name suggests and cover you for the whole of your life, and only pay out on death.

For something to pay out at a specific age then it must be set up for a specific term, and would then be an endowment.

Nope, no registration required as biometric info is already recorded in Thai passports.

Cool, thanks for the info

Not sure if this is the right forum, seemed most appropriate, feel free to move if not.

Hi all, hoping someone has experience of this, I have searched the forum with no result. There is also absolutely no information on either the direct.gov or fco websites.

I travel a lot for work, and recently am having problems getting visas for other countries whilst travelling so much. I have just had to postpone a trip to China as I need a Chinese (work) visa, Indonesian (work) visa, and renew my extension of stay and WP in Thailand, all in the next 2 weeks!

I know that for people in my situation it is possible to have 2 passports, so one can be in visa process whilst you are travelling on the other one. This is further complicated by the fact that I live in Thailand so have to go through the fco in Hong Kong rather than UK (I thought they were moving this back to the UK a while ago?)

Anyway just looking for a bit of advice from anyone with experience on the requirements and process to do this, seems impossible to talk to anyone at either IPS or FCO.

Thanks for any input!

Just as long as we have the same great ribs we had at the last party - mouthwatering !

I think the purveyor of said ribs is no longer with us, rest his soul. You are more than welcome to volunteer though

I remember years ago when there was a TV party at Fairtex, with BBQ etc. A private venue like that for me would be better than bar trawling, but there was probably 150-200 people there. This is looking more like 10-20 people so maybe not viable.

Beer Garden and Blues Factory? TV Friday nights out revisited?

ABU has rights for terrestrial and ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) for cable/satellite?

http://www.sportbusi...2-olympic-games

Under the deals, the ABU has acquired the free-to-air television and radio rights within the region and ESS has acquired non-standard television rights including cable and satellite television platforms. In addition, both organisations will have certain simultaneous unaltered retransmission rights on other media platforms.

Agree, this article makes no sense at all. I read it three times and still cannot fathom it out - headache now

True magazine had the olympics on the front cover and said it would be on about 5 channels I think, Truesports 3,4,5, ESPN, TS Extra2 etc, etc. - <deleted>?

After the Euro's I am sure they will not let this happen again

I agree, it is difficult to plough through.

But I think I've got it.

The people who pay for the Gold and Plat packages shouldn't have a problem, but the people who just have the basic packages may do if they block the terrestrial channels being transferred to the satellite stream.

Makes sense, you must have got my half full cup this morning