writeshack

Clean them all up I say!

There's a few more shady characters that need to be eradicated from the area.

Pattaya was great before the farang takeover!!!!!!!!!!

20-30 years ago?

Just as an aside. I was on Pattaya beach the day the first hotel, a three story affair, was opened in December 1970. Just a handful of people gathered on a windy day in front of the building for a ribbon cutting ceremony, some phooyai I'd guess now -- and me and the wife and the kid watching from nearby. And yes, it was a great place then. A wide sandy beach fringed by trees at the end of a village road and hardly a soul - or another building - in sight.

I asked my wife this question just last month, and she said wait till it has expired and then you have three months to renew it. But then she's from Isan and has never done anything on time in her entire life. She let her last licence lapse for eight years before renewing a few years ago - and was a bit put out when she had to sit the test again.

There is a window of 7 days either side of the date.

Personally I would go early.

Actually it's six days. The day your 90 days falls due is counted as day 1.

Aaooahq,

You're spot on. We must also have been talking to the same Pol Lt Col recently. Samui and Phuket, forget it. I received a couple of PMs from people asking to be put in touch with the lawyer I mentioned. I'm sure he'd be happy to take your money guys, but once you've completed the acceptance process he can't help you any more. I would just be raising your hopes for no good purpose, and depleting your wallets. I'm told you need someone of the rank of general to help speed things up these days, even a Mom doesn't seem to be good enough. I'd guess really good contacts in the interior minister's Bhumjaithai Party could help, but they are all too busy with their silly games to even consider doing the jobs they are elected and paid to do. And foreigners seeking PR are way down the bottom of the list. It really is dishonest and rude to make people pay the money, jump through all those hoops, suffer all that indignity, and then just ignore them. So instead of a year-long non-immigrant visa you now have a 6 months visa and still have to report every 90 days. TIT If I hear any good news I'll be letting everyone know immediately, including the lawyer's phone number if he can really help.

aaoaahq,

I think most of the committee's recommendations are procedural. Ways of speeding up the process and issuing of the residence book after an applicant is approved. But if you're applying for PR don't get your hopes up. Slow though the Thai bureaucracy may be, if you jump through all the right hoops and sign all the right forms, they do their job well. The years-long delay is caused by politicians. I can't help but wonder just why Mr Chavarat chose to sign just those eight routine forms. I suspect some 'influence' was involved. TIT.

Just for the record. One of the proposals put to the committee was that people with PR should not need a re-entry visa to travel abroad and return. I don't know what was in the final report.

The information came from a Thai lawyer who is very much involved in efforts to streamline the laws relating to immigration and residency issues. Sorry, I can't name him. The committee involved has made submissions to the prime minister, but little seems to be happening

I was informed today that the esteemed interior minister has approved five applications for permanent residence from 2006 and three from 2007. The hundreds of other applications which have already been approved over the years by the strict immigration vetting committee and forwarded for formal signing are still gathering dust, even though the applicants have satisfied the entire, demanding process. I guess playing politics is more important. TIT

The Mental Health Department issues this sort of press release evey month. They have a good PR section and have to justify their budget. Some are picked up by the press and some are not. It's almost time for the annual 'students think about suicide' warnings.

Does anybody know the route the Red Shirts will take? I am only thinking about my commute from On-nutt to Central World for work.

Any updates would be welcome.

Take the skytrain. they won't bother you.

So what's new. That's what prosecutors do. Why the news flash?

I stopped at a crossing in Bangkok yesterday and a young couple started to cross the road, then an idiot driver came from behind and accelerated onto the wrong side of the road and passed me. He (and it was a he) was immediately followed by motorcycles passing on both sides at speed. The couple on the pedestrian crossing were so lucky, they missed death by only 2 or 3 inches, it was that close. It bothers me greatly, because if I had not stopped they would not have been placed in such peril. One more step and they would have been dead or very seriously hurt. And yet, I did the right thing. I think.

Ok the thread is running down, but let's get back to the basic issue -- if you want to stay here for an extended period you should make to effort to learn at least basic Thai. It's not that difficult to please these officials. You just need to show that you're willing to try, to make an effort learn and especially speak Thai. You don't have to be fluent, just make an effort, show some respect. I've found the response is always positive.

And of course...the boys in brown will see to it that his stock of cars are well looked after and safe whilst he sorts out his tax affairs

I read it that his car showroom was in Hungary so the Hungarian BiB are looking after his assets and probably giving them a run around the forests.

Anyway, as I understand tax evasion is not a crime, tax fraud is. We all evade tax by claiming various get outs.

Tax avoidance is not a crime, it's simply using provisions in the law to avoid paying unnecessary tax; tax evasion is a crime.

Thanks xerostar, I'd just about given up, that's why I posted. I'll be down in Bangkok in a few days and I'll follow it up from there.

Does anyone know where I can buy some star pickets - or t-posts, y-posts, waratahs, whatever you may call them? Preferably pre-drilled and coated or dipped. Hopefully in the Buri Ram or Bangkok area. I don't need that many and it's not worth importing them. They're much easier to put in than concrete posts. There's lengths of steel rather like a u-post I've seen here, uncut and undrilled, but it's not really the right stuff for outdoors.

Are you serious. You really can't find egg-laying hens in Buri Ram?

For 90 days reporting it's better to report within a maximum six days after the due date, not seven as stated above. They count the day your 90 days falls due as day one. Reporting on day seven cost me 2,000 baht.

I dont think the Phahon Yothin one-stop-visa-shop is limited to people with BOI privileges. The BOI office is next door on the same floor(16th), but the visa-stop is operated jointly by Immigration and the Labour Department. Hence the name - one-stop-visa-shop. It used to be in Suthisarn, near the MRT station, but moved a few years ago. I've been getting my work permit renewed there for many years, and I don't have BOI privileges. It does re-entry, too. But doesn't do permanent residence.

You can still go to the one-stop-shop for most services, surely. It's only a short walk from the MRT Pahon Yothin train station.

Martin, we've never met but I've been around Thailand a long time and I've heard a lot about you. Always thought I'd like to say hello in person some day. I still intend to, so do your bit, mate, and get well.

I am I alone in thinking the Bangkok Post website has improved out of sight? I'm far from a fan, but it's become more readable. It doesn't have the latest crime stories, and doesn't have any scoops, but it's informative and newsworthy. And everything in the Post is available, if you can just figure out how to navigate your way through it.

My wife rents out some of her rice fields for share cropping. She gets paid an agreed number of bags of unmilled rice per rai per harvest and both sides are happy with the deal. The fact we are married doesn't mean I have taken over her land. She wouldn't allow that anyway. The foreigners scooping up farmland are the Chinese and Indian money lenders, especially in the areas on the edge of expanding towns. And they then hold the land until they can build a housing estate.

I have a bad knee and find it difficult climbing those extremely steep steps to a pedestrian bridge, and elderly people find it totally impossible. But I've also been hit by a car while jay walking. It hurts, a lot, and hospitals are very expensive. Police should first police the zebra crossings and make drivers give way to pedestrians using them.

That story seems to have been corrected Tourism plunges 22 per cent

BangkokPost.com

The tourism industry has suffered its deepest slump in many decades with the number of visitors expected to be down 22 per cent on last year, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand chairman Kongkit Hiranyakij. It was the biggest plunge in tourism growth in 49 years, he said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/14...ges-22-per-cent

Surely a relevant point is: He was in a room in a hotel which secures its guests' privacy. No matter what he wanted to do in private, why hide in a darkened wardrobe when your room is totally private? Who put him in the wardrobe, and why?