ClareQuilty

My Honda dealer told me the other day that Honda would not only no longer make any small bikes with a clutch, they would no longer make the click-type clutch found on Waves, Dreams, etc. Everything would be automatic in future. This is very disappointing to those of us who hate automatics. Not to mention all those poor motorbike taxi drivers having to buy autos which will break expensively after 2-3 years.

I rarely get sick in Thailand, and certainly less often than I did back in the States (food is cleaner here than there), but when I do it is almost always due to eating in a 'nicer' restaurant, particularly a farang food place. If you eat what the locals eat, and avoid the places where Thais are just cooking for farangs, you'll have a lot better luck.

By the way I just looked up this thread to find out about erfuzide - just popped my first one after two days diarrhea.. we'll see how it goes!

I recently bought a Yamaha Tiara 120S - a nice old two stroke Sonic-style slightly sporty little bike - for just 4,500 baht. I like it a lot as it is a bit bigger and higher (more comfortable) than the Tenas I usually buy. But, it has developed a problem:

It happened after I got it back from a repair shop - the bike will only excellerate with the choke in the 'on' position. It wasn't like this before - before it required some choke to start but then would run and drive with the choke off, as normal, though it did have a too-high idle. My guess is maybe the mechanic sort of reset the mixture and so forth while he had it (the bike was just in for a new tube to replace one that was leaking, I think the one from the gas tank to the carb or to the autolube or something like that).

I'm not very good with mechanicals, and only speak Thai a bit, so its difficult to discuss this with the mechanic. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions? And by the way, any Tiara owners out there?

I drive - a piece of cr@p - a Mitsu Lancer (Champ) 1.3

Those are great little cars, and I would have gotten one of those if I hadn't ended up with:

1983 Toyota Corolla 1.3L, 5-spd, about 200,000 kilometers, all for 50,000 baht. A neat little car, though obviously it is a toy compared to what I used to always buy for the equivalent $1,500 back home (things like comfortable, powerful old full sized V-8 GM sedans, in perfect condition)

Would love to find a Holden like those mentioned above - Calais I guess they are. I do see two or three of them regularly around Maha Sarakham. I've had many cars back in the US with that GM (Buick) 3.8 liter V6 and its incredibly durable and trouble free. Love the torquey american style pushrod/cast iron engines. That engine and the larger/longer car would make a great highway cruiser.

I drive a Toyota Corolla but I must admit it doesn't seem at all like a 'real car' compared to the big cars from Back Home - kind of an adorable but not very comfortable toy.

By the way today I saw a 1973 Australian Ford Falcon with the old Ford 250 cubic inch inline six and a manual shift. Very well preserved and owned by a local shopkeeper.

I agree - it's not impossible to get a western salary, but it's not too likely, unless you're an international school teacher at a top school.

What? I still believe that the biggest chunk of people making western salaries are international school teachers. There are hundreds and hundreds of them.

You call 60-80K baht per month a "western salary" for their level of qualification?

Sorry, but what is your reference country for this assertion?

Most school teachers in the US make around $2,500-3,500/month. So that's 80,000-112,000. Salaries are just very, very low in the US, so they don't seem all that low to americans living here.

I paid precisely 50,000 for my car - a 25 year old Corolla. Its a great little car, mileage reads 200,000 Km and it runs, drives, and looks great, but it was bought from my GF-at-the-time's middle class family. Without some connections it is hard to get anything decent at that price. However many people would not consider my car 'decent' as it goes only about 90KM/hour. Cold air though.

I would recommend a car like mine, or probably better would be one of the Mitsubishis - I think the Lancer is the main model - from the late 1980s or early 1990s. Or, perhaps a Nissan NV - the little truck-cars. (Personally I would never drive a truck, but I've ridden in many NVs and they're much more carlike than trucklike).

Actually I was just looking at a 27 year old Corolla for 30,000 baht, but it was a bit of a mess - ripped seats, dents here and there, a little rust, a bit of smoke when you rev it, around 330,000 KM. Still driving though.

I have nothing against Tigers, though I must admit they've been a bit rough and crude whenever I've ridden them. But I wouldn't buy any bike new - seems a waste when you can get usable old bikes for ten grand.

I have an old bike that I bought from a Thai fellow for 7,500 baht, which does have a 'book', but of course no other paperwork. I live in Isaan but the 'license plate' of the bike is from Bangkok. Can I update the registration/pay the tax, and keep the little tag with the year on it up to date?

No. A one year extension of stay will get a matching re-entry permit - you do not need to get a new one every 90 days. Only if you were using a multi entry visa with 90 day stay (which is what you wrote) would that be the case.

If you have a one year extension of stay and expect to travel get a re-entry permit - if you expect to travel more than 3 times get a multi re-entry permit. Either type will have the same expiration date as your extension of stay.

The interesting point here is that you seem to be saying that one could get a re-entry permit (single or mutiple), way back at the beginning of one's 'extension of stay' period (which presumably begins at the end of the 90 day original non-immigrant B ), which would be good for the entire year!

I had always understood that I needed to get a 're entry permit' immediately before leaving. If what you way is the case, then perhaps the absurd requirement to get the thing in Mukdahan is not so onerous, as one already has to face the onerous requirement of going to the bloody place for the extension of stay. One could just get the re-entry permit at the same time, if that lady who runs the place would allow it.

1. Yes a multi entry visa allows unlimited entry/exit whild valid - but only for up to 90 days at a time.

2. Yes you can obtain a single or multi re-entry permit - but it will only keep your current 90 day stay alive. It will have the same date on it as your last entry stamp.

3. Both those things exist but they are not normally used together as it only keeps your current stay alive - for a one year extension of stay it is viable - for shorter stays you would have to get a new one every 90 days or less.

I see! So basically if one wants to have the option of leaving the country on short notice (say for work), and retain his one year extension of stay, he must do his penance every 90 days in the hinterland office to get a new 'multiple-entry re-entry permit'. I see. dam_n how I would like to avoid to go to Mukdahan all the time, but such is our lot. Teach just a little, travel back and forth to Mukdahan a great deal!

Thank you very much for your kind explanations lopburi3.

1. A re-entry permit is obtained from immigration inside Thailand to allow you to travel and return when on an extension of stay. It is not something you get from a Consulate. It is not a visa.

2. A multi entry non immigrant B visa only allows a 90 day stay - so yes you have to leave every 90 days or less.

Thanks.. I'm am aware of what is a visa and what is a re-entry permit and where they are acquired. But are you saying that the muliple-entry non-immigrant B visa allows one to leave without the onorous process of constantly going to the hinterland office to get a re-entry permit?

Also, are you saying that one can get a 'single entry Non-immigrant B visa' from the Embassy in Vientiane, and then later on get a 'multiple entry re-entry permit' later from immigration office (in whatever isolated spot one is forced to go, which is in my case Mukdahan), thus being allowed to leave the country more than once without returning to said hinterland immigration office?

It seems to me that there may be two ways to avoid the necessity of the trip to Mukdahan every time one wishes to leave via Savanaphum airport - either a multiple-entry non-immigrant B visa, or a multiple entry re-entry permit. Do both these things exist?

Absolutely. The ideal time to get your multiple re-entry permit is each year when you extend your permission to stay.

Two questions regarding this 'multiple entry':

First, isn't it a 'multiple-entry visa', rather than a 'permit'? Every time I have asked to get a multiple-entry Non-immigrant B at the Vientiane Thai embassy, they've always refused, saying they would only give out the single-entry.

Secondly, even if you do manage to get one of these multiple entry Non-immigrant B's, does that mean you have to leave the country every 90 days, or is 'reporting' still an option.

Surely there must be numerous occasions where we may need to travel out at short notice and to complete a journey of in some cases hundreds of kilometres back to your new office is I would say totally unreasonable.

It certainly is unreasonable, but such is the price we pay for.. well you know.

I have to visit home next month, and the 'office' where I am required to do my penance is, as you describe, hundreds of kilometers away - and what's worse, in the opposite direction from civilization (bangkok/pattaya). So I would never go there in a million years but for this requirement.

So anyway, since my teaching visa runs out a month after I get back I am not going to bother to travel all that way to get a re-entry permit, but rather just get some Tourist Visas from the consulate by mail while I'm at home, and then get a new working visa sometime after I get back. (normally the schools screw up visa renewals so badly one's original working visa expires and one has to go to Lao and get a whole new one anyway). I guess that's the key in this country - always plan for the worst.

...Yesterday, my wife and I stumbled upon a new Muslim food restaurant that opened very recently in Mahasarakham.

I just espied that place for the first time today myself, cbuddha, and asked the man 'ahan alai' - he told me Indian'! I didn't try it, but will next time, though your review was rather mixed. Have you tried in the Indian in Roi-Et yet? We'll have to go soon..

By the way this is my first post.. hello to all on the Maha Sarakham thread. I joined specifically because friends of mine including cbuddha and another guy recommended this thread. I'd enjoy getting together sometime in the next few weeks if you all do so.

As an aside - anyone know of 1) any furnished houses or large furnished apartments in the downtown? Budget maybe 3-4K/month. and 2) anyone know of any very cheap but servicable (but properly licenced) old motorbikes for sale in Sarakham?